Historical and archeological evidence reveal that the resurrection of the sun god was being celebrated by numerous societies hundreds of years before the Lord’s Messiah walked the earth among men. As it is today, the holiday was a time in which two deities were honored: the sun god and his mother. Such ancient nations as Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome annually paid homage to their respective fertility goddess while honoring her son. Each society had its own particular name for each of its mother and son deities. Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words states: “The term “Easter” is not of Christian origin. It is a form of the word ‘Astarte’–one of the Chaldean (Babylonian) goddesses known as the ‘Queen of Heaven.'” The publication further notes that the festival of Pasch (Heb.–Passover) had continued to be celebrated long after the deaths of the original apostles. Other historians agree with Vine’s findings that the New Covenant Church observed Passover from the time of her founding in 31 A.D. until well into the 4th century.

The Encyclopedia Britannica states: “A final decision as to whether and when to observe Easter or Passover was one of several reasons Roman Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The decision of the council was unanimous: Easter was to be kept instead of Passover, and was to be kept on Sunday” (in order to honor the sun god). A large percentage of the people living within the Roman Empire were sun worshipers. The Roman Government had forced everyone within the empire to be “saved” and to “join” the Catholic Church on threat of persecution that often ended in death. The church changed the Lord’s Sabbath to Sunday in order to appease the numerous sun worshiping “converts.” The emperor’s decree involved the Roman Government’s power over the people within its realm. In order to coordinate the Easter celebration with the government’s new sabbath the apostate (Catholic) church officially changed the Sabbath from Saturday, the 7th day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week in 354 A.D. at the Council at Laodicea.

By the mid-300’s what was called “Christianity” was basically a Catholic (“universal”) institution. By then God’s people made up only a small percentage of church membership. Their numbers were decreasing steadily due to government-backed persecution directed by the church’s hierarchy. Very little of God’s gospel had survived the church’s change from Bible-based theology to Catholic dogma. What remained of God’s Truth was rapidly being phased out as the church continued to embrace the doctrines and practices of her new “converts.” The Introduction to this website lists a number of such beliefs and customs that both Catholics and Protestants put forth as “Bible Truths.”

The Catholic Church’s changing of the Sabbath that God created, blessed and sanctified (Gen. 2:3) from the 7th day of the week to the 1st day of the week, along with her substitution of Easter for His Passover (1 Cor. 5:7) brought about a dramatic split within the church community. Those who remained true to the Lord soon became a hated, persecuted minority within the Roman Empire and the church system it served. Revelation 17:1-5 depicts this church-state union as a woman riding a beast. The Book, written about the end times which began in 31 A.D. (Acts 2:17) depicts a woman riding (controlling) a wild beast. The woman holds a cup containing “the blood of the saints” who would be killed by the apostate church and her servants. The woman symbolizes the Catholic church. Her daughters represent the cults of Protestantism.

Over time the differences between true and false Christians created an ever increasing division between the two diametrically opposed versions of God’s gospel. Eventually, all-out war was declared by the Catholics toward those who opposed her pagan theology. To save their lives the Lord’s saints were forced to flee from their persecutors. For 1260 years the church-directed Roman government waged a deadly war against God’s “little flock” who fled to the mountainous areas of Western Europe in search of safety. Both secular and church history record that over time the counterfeit church forced those who chose to remain within her to embrace a number of heathen beliefs and to perform certain prescribed rituals designed to appease the gods represented by her parishioners. Such Satanic observances as Easter, the Sunday sabbath, Christmas, Halloween and St. Valentine’s Day continue to be venerated by the false church (Catholicism/Protestantism) to this day. L.J.