NAMES MATTER (WHY WE SHOULD STOP CALLING EASTER…EASTER)

As we come upon the season of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I’m compelled to share what He placed in my heart years ago…my annual reminder.

John 4:24 proclaims that God is a spirit and we are commanded to worship Him in Spirit and Truth….Spirit and Truth.

God also commanded in Joshua 23:7 that we are not to make mention of or swear by the names of pagan gods, particularly those that were worshiped by the people who surrounded Israel.

Joshua 23: (NKJV)

⁷and lest you go among these nations, these who remain among you. You shall not MAKE MENTION OF THE NAME of their gods, nor cause anyone to swear by them; you shall not serve them nor bow down to them,

Some of those names were Baal and Ashtoreth (Judges 2:12-15). One of Israel’s greatest sins was when they “did evil in the eyes of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and Asherahs”(Judges 3:7).

Well here we are in the 21st Century and the enemy knows you love the Lord and he can’t get you to reject Him for an idol, but he did cleverly find a way to defile our worship and get us to commit blasphemy every time we refer to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, Jesus Christ.

In fact, if you ask why do we call the celebration of our Lord, Easter, many Christians will admit they don’t know or have never even thought about it.

The name Easter is derived from the name of an Anglo-Saxon/Norse goddess named Ostre or Eostre. This is the same ‘goddess’ that God forbade Israel to mention her name. The name is different in different cultures…Astarte, Ishtar, wife of Baal, Ashoreth, Aphrodite, Easter.

Even though the names are different, in all of these cultures ‘she’ was worshiped as a fertility goddess.

What were some of the symbols of her worship?

Yes, you already know…eggs, and rabbits.

What better way for Satan to convince well-meaning Christians to disobey God by convincing them that they are depriving their children of some joy to keep these symbols alive for thousands of years.

The name Easter has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. It doesn’t even remotely make sense, but you can’t get well-meaning Christians to stop using it because it’s so ingrained in the way we think (head) and the way we do things (hands) (Revelations 13:16). Remember that God warned us through the apostle John that the spirit of the antichrist was already here and working (1 John 4:3, 2 Thessalonians 2:7).

Revelation 13:16(NKJV)

¹⁶He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,

But some may say it doesn’t matter what you call the celebration of His resurrection as long as you know the meaning…

Think of all of the names God changed in the bible. Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Paul etc…

If names don’t matter then why won’t most men take their wife’s maiden name when they marry?

If names don’t matter what man would allow his wife to keep her ex-husbands last name?

If names don’t matter, then why is it important for us to be called by our name correctly?

Don’t you prefer being called by your own name?

Mary and Joseph were commanded to name Mary’s son Jesus, Yeshua, because He will save his people from their sins (Jesus, Joshua, Yeshua all mean Savior, God Saves or God, Yahweh is salvation, but that is a different discussion).

Names matter!

Using the name of another goddess to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and convincing Christians to defile his worship with symbols of her worship is blasphemy, and it is in direct rebellion to what God commanded us NOT to do (Joshua 23:7).

In fact, when you think about it, calling it EASTER Sunday is no different from calling it, Mohammed Sunday or Buddha Sunday.

Let me be clear.

I think it’s a wonderful thing to celebrate His death, burial and resurrection, but we must do it in Spirit and Truth.

Call it Resurrection Day, Resurrection Celebration, Jesus Lives Day you don’t even HAVE to celebrate it at all…but please let’s STOP calling it Easter.

Because names matter to us, and they matter to God.

Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

BE BLESSTIFIED!