"Easter (Sunday): Where It Came From"
(Printed many years ago by Southern Publishing Association)
An old man is speaking:
“The children had gathered around the huge, open fireplace. The lights were turned out and the shooting flames of the great wood fire lit their faces. Farther back, in a huge rocker, sat the Wise Man. In the daytime a very prosaic figure known as grandpa. On the special nights, when the children were allowed to ‘stay up,’ the fire light played on what seemed like the very soul of the old man, his face, and he became a mystic form, infinitely removed and yet very close to them. They called him the Wise Man then.
“This Easter night the children begged for the story of Easter. They did not understand the first part of what he told, but afterward they understood nearly all of it.
"Here is what they learned:
“Sunday was held sacred centuries before Sinai. December 25 was highly honored; the time of Easter was religiously observed; and Lent was a time for healing— all thousands of years before the coming of the Babe to Bethlehem!”
“After the Flood, the Garden of Eden was no longer on the earth. You remember the Lord had placed angels with flaming swords at its gates. As the people came to the gates to worship God, their faces were toward the west, for the gates were on the east side of the Garden. When Eden was taken up to God’s dwelling place, and no one knows just when that was, Satan had so confused some that they worshiped the things that God had made instead of God himself. The next brightest thing men saw was the sun, and they began to worship it. God at creation had given them the Sabbath, to remind them every week that He had made everything, but Satan has always tried to make men forget the Sabbath, so they would forget the true God.
“One of Noah’s great grandsons was called Nimrod. Nimrod was a great leader, and was the first empire builder. His wife, history says, was named Semiramis, and she was a very great queen. Satan was working to counterfeit God’s plan of salvation; and, when Nimrod died, the people said he was a god. Semiramis told them that he was indeed the sun god, and that his spirit was still living, dwelling, in the sun.
“In order that the people should love her as queen as long as she lived, Semiramis told them that hers was the spirit of the moon; and, when she died, she would dwell in the moon as Nimrod already dwelt in the sun.
“Satan was laying the foundation for every system of falsehood and error the world has ever known. The sun god, under different names, was worshiped in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as conquering nations were conquered by the religion of their captives.
“Every year when the cold season began, the people believed their sun god was leaving them. They came to learn that his lowest dip on the horizon, about December 21, was followed by his gradual return, until in midsummer he was directly overhead at noonday. It was on the 25th of December that they noticed, each year, the coming back, a little, of their god. This day they called the birthday of the sun. It was this belief in the annual journey of their god that Elijah alluded to in his conflict with the priests of Baal, the Syro-Phoenician sun god [1 Kings 18:19-40].
“After the death of Nimrod, Semiramis never married again—indeed how could the queen of heaven marry an ordinary man? But some years later she gave birth to a son. His name was Tammuz, and he was born on the 25th day of December! There was wild rejoicing in the nation over which Semiramis was queen. She told the people that the spirit of the sun, her husband Nimrod, was the father of Tammuz, and thus through her sin, Satan persuaded the people of the counterfeit birth of Jesus; for Jesus was really born of a virgin.
“Tammuz was hailed as the Son of the Sun, and the first letter of his name became in time the symbol of sun worship. Human sacrifices to the sun god were offered on this initial letter, made of wood, known as the cross. His birthday, December 25, was honored more and more, and the first day of the week was called the Sun’s day, or Sunday. The people forgot God’s Sabbath, and honored the day of the sun. To honor Semiramis they set aside a time in honor of the moon. This was the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or the twenty-first of March. The first Sunday after this full moon was indeed a gala day.
“While yet a young man, Tammuz, a hunter like his supposed father, was killed by a wild boar. What weeping there was in the kingdom! And the forty days before the time of the celebration for the moon were set apart as days of weeping for Tammuz. “God’s people were constantly being tempted to follow this religion instead of that of the Bible. Often Satan succeeded in his purpose. In the eighth chapter of Ezekiel we read of the women’s weeping for Tammuz and the people’s turning their backs on the temple of God and worshiping the sun toward the east. They also worshiped the moon goddess, making cakes to the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 7:18-19). These were round cakes on which had been cut a cross.
“The great distinguishing mark of the heathen was Sunday and the mark of God’s people was the Sabbath (Ezekiel 20:12-20]. Side by side through the centuries were God’s people worshiping Him, obeying His commandments, keeping His Sabbath; and the heathen were worshiping the sun, keeping Sunday, offering their children in the fire as a sacrifice to the sun, or crucifying their human victims to turn away his supposed anger.
“One writer in a noted periodical says that ‘Sunday was the wild, solar holiday of all pagan times.’ It was on this day that the worst features of sun worship were practiced. Too often Israel did these things too, but God constantly sent them messages to obey Him.
“Finally Christ, the Son of God, was born. The exact day of His birth no one knows, but it was probably in October. He was just thirty-three and a half years old when He was crucified, in April, at the time of the Passover. How Jesus loved His people! He loved them so much that He was willing to suffer abuse and mocking, scourging and death. Remember that Tammuz was exalted by Satan to be the great rival of Jesus, and the symbol of the cross was the sign of sun worship. Through all the years it had seemed that the sun god was greater than the true God, for Israel alone followed God, but often even Israel followed the sun god.
“Oh yes, Jesus loved His people! He came into a world that had forgotten Him, its Creator, suffered every insult at its hands, and finally died upon the symbol of sun worship, ‘even,’ says Paul, ‘the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8).
“What rejoicing then by the demons! The Son of God, delivered by His own people and crucified by the sun-worshiping Romans on the symbol of sun worship! Oh the condescending Jesus! How He must have loved His peopIe!”
“The old man’s face softened, and the children saw tears in his eyes. After a time he went on. His eyes were shining now.
“But God honored that sacrifice! On the third day after His crucifixion, the first day for sun worship, while the spirits of demons were in the wildest orgy of celebration over their victory; for, through many men, Satan’s angels all rejoiced in the victory of false worship on that very day set aside and honored by the name of the sun— God raised His Son from the grave a conqueror! As after Creation He had rested, so after redemption He rested in the tomb on His Sabbath; and now, on the day of the sun, He was raised, eternal victor over the sun worship and all false systems of worship. That was why God raised Him on Sunday. Once more the Sabbath is God’s sign between Him and His people. His disciples kept it while they lived.
“But Satan was not yet through with the world. First, he persecuted God’s people, and then he tempted them again. The heathen were still keeping Sunday; and, as the Christians were scattered throughout the world, Satan whispered in the ears of God’s people that they should try to gain favor by being more like the heathen. Was not Christ born toward the end of the year? The exact date was uncertain. Why not call it the same date as the birth of Tammuz? So December 25 became Christmas.
“Again, Christ was crucified and resurrected in the spring, near the time of the moon festival. Why not have the same time as the heathen (Sunday), and even do as they did, but call it in honor of Christ’s resurrection. The cakes to the queen of heaven became the hot cross buns. The forty days of ‘weeping for Tammuz’ became Lent; and at the close of Lent came Easter Sunday, a counterfeit masterpiece.”
“The voice was silent for a time. The old man’s face darkened as he seemed to see, in the embers of the fire, a sinister event against which he would cry out. Suddenly there rang out in the stillness the trumpet-like tones that had called to the men on the battlefield, when as a drummer boy, he had snatched up the colors where a dying bearer had fallen, and rallied a regiment that had nearly broken.
Oh the cowards! The cowards! They allowed the flag of God, His holy Sabbath, to trail in the dust. They trampled it under their feet; they exalted the sun’s day; they broke the command of God, and all in the name of the One who had given His life to save His people from that very thing!
Oh, how Jesus in heaven must have wept when His so-called followers, to gain influence, set up the mark of rebellion against heaven— Sunday. And how He must weep today when people profess to honor His resurrection by trampling on His day and honoring the flag of the defeated foe. God forgive our nation if she ever passes a law to do that, if she ever passes a national Sunday law.”
“ ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11-12
“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin.
‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.’ 2 Corinthians 6:17.
“God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently. If they faithfully follow the teachings of His Word, this distinction will exist; it cannot be otherwise. The warnings given to the Hebrews against assimilating with the heathen were not more direct or explicit than are those forbidding Christians to conform to the spirit and customs of the ungodly.”
—Patriarchs and Prophets, 457-458
“The children had gathered around the huge, open fireplace. The lights were turned out and the shooting flames of the great wood fire lit their faces. Farther back, in a huge rocker, sat the Wise Man. In the daytime a very prosaic figure known as grandpa. On the special nights, when the children were allowed to ‘stay up,’ the fire light played on what seemed like the very soul of the old man, his face, and he became a mystic form, infinitely removed and yet very close to them. They called him the Wise Man then.
“This Easter night the children begged for the story of Easter. They did not understand the first part of what he told, but afterward they understood nearly all of it.
"Here is what they learned:
“Sunday was held sacred centuries before Sinai. December 25 was highly honored; the time of Easter was religiously observed; and Lent was a time for healing— all thousands of years before the coming of the Babe to Bethlehem!”
“After the Flood, the Garden of Eden was no longer on the earth. You remember the Lord had placed angels with flaming swords at its gates. As the people came to the gates to worship God, their faces were toward the west, for the gates were on the east side of the Garden. When Eden was taken up to God’s dwelling place, and no one knows just when that was, Satan had so confused some that they worshiped the things that God had made instead of God himself. The next brightest thing men saw was the sun, and they began to worship it. God at creation had given them the Sabbath, to remind them every week that He had made everything, but Satan has always tried to make men forget the Sabbath, so they would forget the true God.
“One of Noah’s great grandsons was called Nimrod. Nimrod was a great leader, and was the first empire builder. His wife, history says, was named Semiramis, and she was a very great queen. Satan was working to counterfeit God’s plan of salvation; and, when Nimrod died, the people said he was a god. Semiramis told them that he was indeed the sun god, and that his spirit was still living, dwelling, in the sun.
“In order that the people should love her as queen as long as she lived, Semiramis told them that hers was the spirit of the moon; and, when she died, she would dwell in the moon as Nimrod already dwelt in the sun.
“Satan was laying the foundation for every system of falsehood and error the world has ever known. The sun god, under different names, was worshiped in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as conquering nations were conquered by the religion of their captives.
“Every year when the cold season began, the people believed their sun god was leaving them. They came to learn that his lowest dip on the horizon, about December 21, was followed by his gradual return, until in midsummer he was directly overhead at noonday. It was on the 25th of December that they noticed, each year, the coming back, a little, of their god. This day they called the birthday of the sun. It was this belief in the annual journey of their god that Elijah alluded to in his conflict with the priests of Baal, the Syro-Phoenician sun god [1 Kings 18:19-40].
“After the death of Nimrod, Semiramis never married again—indeed how could the queen of heaven marry an ordinary man? But some years later she gave birth to a son. His name was Tammuz, and he was born on the 25th day of December! There was wild rejoicing in the nation over which Semiramis was queen. She told the people that the spirit of the sun, her husband Nimrod, was the father of Tammuz, and thus through her sin, Satan persuaded the people of the counterfeit birth of Jesus; for Jesus was really born of a virgin.
“Tammuz was hailed as the Son of the Sun, and the first letter of his name became in time the symbol of sun worship. Human sacrifices to the sun god were offered on this initial letter, made of wood, known as the cross. His birthday, December 25, was honored more and more, and the first day of the week was called the Sun’s day, or Sunday. The people forgot God’s Sabbath, and honored the day of the sun. To honor Semiramis they set aside a time in honor of the moon. This was the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or the twenty-first of March. The first Sunday after this full moon was indeed a gala day.
“While yet a young man, Tammuz, a hunter like his supposed father, was killed by a wild boar. What weeping there was in the kingdom! And the forty days before the time of the celebration for the moon were set apart as days of weeping for Tammuz. “God’s people were constantly being tempted to follow this religion instead of that of the Bible. Often Satan succeeded in his purpose. In the eighth chapter of Ezekiel we read of the women’s weeping for Tammuz and the people’s turning their backs on the temple of God and worshiping the sun toward the east. They also worshiped the moon goddess, making cakes to the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 7:18-19). These were round cakes on which had been cut a cross.
“The great distinguishing mark of the heathen was Sunday and the mark of God’s people was the Sabbath (Ezekiel 20:12-20]. Side by side through the centuries were God’s people worshiping Him, obeying His commandments, keeping His Sabbath; and the heathen were worshiping the sun, keeping Sunday, offering their children in the fire as a sacrifice to the sun, or crucifying their human victims to turn away his supposed anger.
“One writer in a noted periodical says that ‘Sunday was the wild, solar holiday of all pagan times.’ It was on this day that the worst features of sun worship were practiced. Too often Israel did these things too, but God constantly sent them messages to obey Him.
“Finally Christ, the Son of God, was born. The exact day of His birth no one knows, but it was probably in October. He was just thirty-three and a half years old when He was crucified, in April, at the time of the Passover. How Jesus loved His people! He loved them so much that He was willing to suffer abuse and mocking, scourging and death. Remember that Tammuz was exalted by Satan to be the great rival of Jesus, and the symbol of the cross was the sign of sun worship. Through all the years it had seemed that the sun god was greater than the true God, for Israel alone followed God, but often even Israel followed the sun god.
“Oh yes, Jesus loved His people! He came into a world that had forgotten Him, its Creator, suffered every insult at its hands, and finally died upon the symbol of sun worship, ‘even,’ says Paul, ‘the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8).
“What rejoicing then by the demons! The Son of God, delivered by His own people and crucified by the sun-worshiping Romans on the symbol of sun worship! Oh the condescending Jesus! How He must have loved His peopIe!”
“The old man’s face softened, and the children saw tears in his eyes. After a time he went on. His eyes were shining now.
“But God honored that sacrifice! On the third day after His crucifixion, the first day for sun worship, while the spirits of demons were in the wildest orgy of celebration over their victory; for, through many men, Satan’s angels all rejoiced in the victory of false worship on that very day set aside and honored by the name of the sun— God raised His Son from the grave a conqueror! As after Creation He had rested, so after redemption He rested in the tomb on His Sabbath; and now, on the day of the sun, He was raised, eternal victor over the sun worship and all false systems of worship. That was why God raised Him on Sunday. Once more the Sabbath is God’s sign between Him and His people. His disciples kept it while they lived.
“But Satan was not yet through with the world. First, he persecuted God’s people, and then he tempted them again. The heathen were still keeping Sunday; and, as the Christians were scattered throughout the world, Satan whispered in the ears of God’s people that they should try to gain favor by being more like the heathen. Was not Christ born toward the end of the year? The exact date was uncertain. Why not call it the same date as the birth of Tammuz? So December 25 became Christmas.
“Again, Christ was crucified and resurrected in the spring, near the time of the moon festival. Why not have the same time as the heathen (Sunday), and even do as they did, but call it in honor of Christ’s resurrection. The cakes to the queen of heaven became the hot cross buns. The forty days of ‘weeping for Tammuz’ became Lent; and at the close of Lent came Easter Sunday, a counterfeit masterpiece.”
“The voice was silent for a time. The old man’s face darkened as he seemed to see, in the embers of the fire, a sinister event against which he would cry out. Suddenly there rang out in the stillness the trumpet-like tones that had called to the men on the battlefield, when as a drummer boy, he had snatched up the colors where a dying bearer had fallen, and rallied a regiment that had nearly broken.
Oh the cowards! The cowards! They allowed the flag of God, His holy Sabbath, to trail in the dust. They trampled it under their feet; they exalted the sun’s day; they broke the command of God, and all in the name of the One who had given His life to save His people from that very thing!
Oh, how Jesus in heaven must have wept when His so-called followers, to gain influence, set up the mark of rebellion against heaven— Sunday. And how He must weep today when people profess to honor His resurrection by trampling on His day and honoring the flag of the defeated foe. God forgive our nation if she ever passes a law to do that, if she ever passes a national Sunday law.”
“ ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11-12
“It was by associating with idolaters and joining in their festivities that the Hebrews were led to transgress God’s law and bring His judgments upon the nation. So now it is by leading the followers of Christ to associate with the ungodly and unite in their amusements that Satan is most successful in alluring them into sin.
‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean.’ 2 Corinthians 6:17.
“God requires of His people now as great a distinction from the world, in customs, habits, and principles, as He required of Israel anciently. If they faithfully follow the teachings of His Word, this distinction will exist; it cannot be otherwise. The warnings given to the Hebrews against assimilating with the heathen were not more direct or explicit than are those forbidding Christians to conform to the spirit and customs of the ungodly.”
—Patriarchs and Prophets, 457-458
"Easter equinox" Google search yields: "Easter generally falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. The 2021 equinox was March 20, marking an unofficial beginning of spring for the Northern Hemisphere and autumn for the Southern Hemisphere."
Hence Easter Sunday date changes from year to year. For example, Easter Sunday calendar date was April 12 for year 2020, April 4 for year 2021, April 17 for year 2022, April 9 for year 2023, and so on. For year 2023, the vernal equinox is on the month of March (the 20th of March), the next full moon is on April 6th, and the next beginning of the weekly time or 1st day (Sunday) of the next weekly cycle is called Easter (i.e., on the 9th day of the month of April, year 2023.
The Bible says:
Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Galatians 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Galatians 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the (ceremonial) law,
do ye not hear the (moral) law?
Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh (by works, such as
- doing abolished ceremonial laws,
- worship on man's Sunday tradition, and
- other ways of salvation by works);
but he of the freewoman was by promise (by faith, such as
- obeying God's moral law (Exodus 32:16, Luke 10:27-28),
- worship on His day (John 4:23), and
- with true love
(Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 30:6; Leviticus 19:18, Psalm 119:165, Proverbs 8:17, Amos 5:15, Micah 6:8, Matthew 7:12, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27-28, Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, 1 John 5:2-3).
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai (where they rebelled against God's law, Exodus 32:7-9) which gendereth to bondage (result of disobedience), which is Agar.
Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia (where they made graven image of calf, Acts 7:41 and other disobediences, Exodus 32), and answereth (corresponds) to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free (obedience to God's moral law is liberty (James 1:25, 2:12) in Christ), and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (disobedience or by works not by true faith, Matthew 15:9).
Galatians 5:5,6 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Galatians 5:14, 18 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ... if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law (disobedience puts one under the law, guilty, and condemned).
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (result of obedience with true faith and love).
Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 30:6; Leviticus 19:18, Psalm 119:165, Proverbs 8:17, Amos 5:15, Micah 6:8, Matthew 7:12, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27-28, Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, 1 John 5:2-3
Hence Easter Sunday date changes from year to year. For example, Easter Sunday calendar date was April 12 for year 2020, April 4 for year 2021, April 17 for year 2022, April 9 for year 2023, and so on. For year 2023, the vernal equinox is on the month of March (the 20th of March), the next full moon is on April 6th, and the next beginning of the weekly time or 1st day (Sunday) of the next weekly cycle is called Easter (i.e., on the 9th day of the month of April, year 2023.
The Bible says:
Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Galatians 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Galatians 4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Galatians 4:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Galatians 4:16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the (ceremonial) law,
do ye not hear the (moral) law?
Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Galatians 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh (by works, such as
- doing abolished ceremonial laws,
- worship on man's Sunday tradition, and
- other ways of salvation by works);
but he of the freewoman was by promise (by faith, such as
- obeying God's moral law (Exodus 32:16, Luke 10:27-28),
- worship on His day (John 4:23), and
- with true love
(Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 30:6; Leviticus 19:18, Psalm 119:165, Proverbs 8:17, Amos 5:15, Micah 6:8, Matthew 7:12, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27-28, Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, 1 John 5:2-3).
Galatians 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai (where they rebelled against God's law, Exodus 32:7-9) which gendereth to bondage (result of disobedience), which is Agar.
Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia (where they made graven image of calf, Acts 7:41 and other disobediences, Exodus 32), and answereth (corresponds) to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free (obedience to God's moral law is liberty (James 1:25, 2:12) in Christ), and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage (disobedience or by works not by true faith, Matthew 15:9).
Galatians 5:5,6 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Galatians 5:14, 18 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ... if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law (disobedience puts one under the law, guilty, and condemned).
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (result of obedience with true faith and love).
Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 30:6; Leviticus 19:18, Psalm 119:165, Proverbs 8:17, Amos 5:15, Micah 6:8, Matthew 7:12, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:27-28, Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8, 1 John 5:2-3
