The pagan roots of Easter

Any one that wants to can see the origin, its everywhere in history...
"The Cult of the Sun in the Christian Era
The roots of many modern religious traditions can be traced to ancient Babylon. The old Babylonian sun-god was named Shamash. In Roman times he was known by his Persian name, Mithra. The cult of Mithra grew in prominence in the Roman Empire around the time of Christ. Author Samuel Dill observed, “Of all the oriental religions which attracted the devotion of the West in the last three centuries of the Empire, that of Mithra was the most powerful” (Roman Society,p. 585). Scholars have noted how closely the story of the god Mithra seems to resemble the story of Jesus. Consider a few examples: Mithra was to be a “king and a shepherd” like Christ. He was to give life and healing to the sick and even raise the dead. He would loose the bonds of the captives, and put an end to wickedness and destroy His enemies (Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 71–72).

Mithraism had many apparent similarities with Christianity. And yet, at its base, it was sun worship—which God calls an abomination! How could this be? The answer is that there is a great deceiver, Satan the Devil, who “works in the sons of disobedience” and “deceives the whole world” (Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9). His masterstroke has been to create a counterfeit Christianity that would have many apparent similarities with God’s true religion, yet would be marked by paganism (for more information on this topic, request a copy of our free booklet, Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity).

Preposterous? Ask yourself: what is the best way for a con artist to deceive unsuspecting victims—by making his product look drastically different from the real article, or by creating something that in many ways looks almost like the real thing? That is exactly what Satan the Devil has done by attempting to blur the line between pagan worship and true Christianity.

Mithra was a “god of light” and was worshiped by showing reverence to the source of light—the sun. Jesus Christ called Himself “the light of the world” (John 8:12). He said, “He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (ibid.). Jesus Christ was “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). Yet Jesus did not teach His disciples to worship Him by honoring the sun!

Some try to justify a blending of sun worship and the true religion, saying Christ was prophesied to be the “Sun of Righteousness” arising “with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). But true worshipers of God recognize that the “light” of Christ is spiritual truth. The “darkness” of which Christ spoke is spiritual error and deception.

So, is your religion “marked” by obedience to God’s instructions to worship the Creator, not the creation? Or is it still holding on to the ancient traditions that God called “abominable” millennia ago?

“Christian” Sun Worship?
Many professing Christians simply assume that their tradition of worshiping on Sunday comes from the Bible. Yet the Bible clearly commands the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, not the first day of the week! Daniel foretold that a heretical religious power would “persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law” (Daniel 7:25). Shockingly, that is exactly what happened during the early years of the New Testament Church, when leaders transferred their Sabbath observance to Sunday.

Scholars—even the most respected Sunday-keeping ones—admit that the New Testament does not endorse a Sunday “Sabbath”—“We fail to find the slightest trace of a law or apostolic edict instituting the observance of the ‘day of the Lord;’ nor is there in the Scriptures an intimation of a substitution of this for the Jewish Sabbath” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, “Sunday,” p. 1050). No scriptural or apostolic authority commanded the New Testament Church to change its day of worship to Sunday!

But if Scripture does not command Sunday worship, why is it the practice of hundreds of millions of professing Christians today? Could it be that the worship of the “venerable day of the sun” was slipped into the traditions of unsuspecting people by a great deceiver?

Authors George Barna and Frank Viola, in the book Pagan Christianity, point out perceptively that popular Christianity is filled with many unbiblical elements. They note that Sunday-keeping came about as a result of a compromise between Mithraism and Christianity sought by the pagan emperor, Constantine. The authors report that “it was Constantine, in 321ad that decreed Sunday would be a day of rest—a legal holiday. It appears that Constantine’s intention in doing this was to honor the god Mithras, the Unconquered Sun… Further demonstrating Constantine’s affinity with sun worship, excavations of St. Peter’s in Rome uncovered a mosaic of Christ as the Unconquered Sun” (pp. 18–19). So, if you keep Sunday, on whose authority do you observe it? A politically savvy Roman emperor?

H.G. Wells, in his Outline of History, noted that “from the [Mithraic cult] it would seem the Christians adopted Sun-day as their chief day of worship instead of the Jewish Sabbath” (p. 543). Unger’s Bible Dictionary reports: “Sunday is the first day of the week, adopted by the first Christians from the Roman calendar (Lat. Dies Solis, Day of the Sun), because it was dedicated to the worship of the sun” (“Sunday,” p. 1050).

Some assume that John was describing the “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10 as Sunday. In fact, however, this is a reference to the visions he saw of the coming Day of the Lord—the prophetic year before Christ’s return. Remember, the Sabbath-keeping Jesus Christ said plainly that He was “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), which meant the seventh day, not the first!

Other Marks of Mithraism
It is not just Sunday worship that mainstream Christianity borrowed from Mithraism. Other traditions were absorbed as well. Have you ever wondered where the date for Christmas, December 25, came from? Is there any proof that it was the birth date of Christ? Absolutely not! Jesus Christ was not born in December, because shepherds were not keeping their flocks in the field in the dead of winter (Clarke’s Commentary, Volume V, p. 370). But December 25 was a very important day to pagans, as the birthday of Mithra: “The 25th of December… was held at the Natalis invicti solis, ‘The birth-day of the unconquered Sun’” (The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop, p. 98).

Think! If you and your family observe Christmas, what god are you worshipping? Certainly not Jesus Christ! How can God have anything to do with a festival held in honor of the birth of a pagan sun-god?

Easter sunrise service is also one of the hallmarks of the mainstream Christian calendar. Certainly many sincere professing Christians seek to honor Jesus Christ by observing it. But did Christ really rise at sunrise? The Scriptural record shows that the women came to His tomb Sunday morning when it was still dark, yet He had already risen (John 20:1)!

So, where did the custom of praying toward the east come from? Consider what the historian F.A. Regan has to say: “A suitable, single example of the pagan influence [of professing Christianity] may be had from an investigation of the Christian custom of turning toward the East, the land of the rising sun, while offering their prayers…” (From Sabbath to Sunday, Dr. Samuele Bachiocchi, p. 256). Clearly, the marks of ancient sun-worship can be found all over the traditions that developed in mainstream Christianity!

Scripture shows the Apostle Paul having the disciples gather together to bring an offering on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). But there is no sign of this gathering as a day of worship. Search the Scripture and you will not find a weekly Sabbath observance on a Sunday. Others justify their Sunday-keeping by pointing to the account of Paul talking with the disciples “on the first day of the week” in Acts 20:7–12. But a careful reading will reveal that this was not a worship service—it was a meeting with the disciples before he departed on a trip.

The book of Acts gives us one of the clearest scriptural references to Christians keeping the seventh-day Sabbath in apostolic times. Paul preached to the Jewish believers on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath (Acts 13:14). But many rejected him, so he turned to the Gentiles, who begged him to teach them as well “the following Sabbath”—which he did (vv. 42–44)! This is a clear indication that even among the Gentiles the Apostle Paul did not neglect the Sabbath; in fact, he worshiped and taught on the seventh-day Sabbath, supporting its observance!"...The Mysterious Mark of the Beast

 

You have to decide in your heart and mind if it is one of the Commandments written with the finger of God in the tablets of stone and the Holy Spirit in the fleshy tables of the heart.

 

It is the same Law, just written in our hearts.

Jeremiah 31:33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Hebrews 8:10
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel 36:26
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

 

Gods Law is part of His character, and apply as long as He exists. So its either all or none.

 

I guess you didn't know. The Sabbath was made by the Creator for man at Creation when there was no Israel or Jew.

 

When we get to heaven, are we going to be segregated by Baptist, Lutherans, Adventist...of course not. We will all be brothers and sisters of the faithful, who love the Lord, and have fought the good fight...

2 Timothy 4:7-9 King James Version (KJV)

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
9 Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: