What is the origin of the customs and traditions associated with Christmas, Easter, and April Fool’s Day?
[convertplayer id=”pMFS5f9v2″ width=”700″ height=”525″]
BABEL, “FALSE GODS”
Turn to Genesis 11 and we’ll touch on some things from our last lesson – things related to the Tower of Babel. Some of the customs and traditions that are still with us today have been with us so long we don’t even know where they originated. For example, everyone is familiar with the Easter egg hunts that we have on Easter, and the Easter bunny; Santa Claus at Christmas and the Christmas tree; and every one of these things got its start at the Tower of Babel! As pagan worship was instituted in conjunction with the Tower of Babel, the first thing Semiramis started was the idea that her son, Tamar, was a son of god. We are coming full circle today! The more you understand Genesis the more you can understand what is taking place today. They weren’t satisfied with just the male god figure, so they introduced female “goddesses,” which became the very core of the mythologies of ancient Rome, Egypt, Greece and Babylon. And it didn’t stop there!
Along with the worship of the female goddesses such as Venus and Diana, came the fertility rites – sexuality. As a part of the pagan worship, the ancient temples such as the one of Ephesus dedicated to Diana and those of other goddesses, were nothing but glorified houses of prostitution done in the name of religion. This all went hand-in-hand with pagan worship. And in the fertility rites, they went back to nature. As one approaches the spring equinox, March 21 and 22, there is new life coming up all around, and that new life speaks of fertility. So when they put all this together, they formed their fertility rites around the worship-center of the spring equinox. Again, Satan was becoming the great counterfeiter because whether he had foreknowledge of what he was doing or not, also associated with the spring equinox would be our celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.
Of course our Easter is timed according to the Passover of Israel as given in the Old Testament, and all of the Israeli feasts and time keeping was based on the moon’s phases – either the new moon or the full moon. So way back at the Tower of Babel, they instituted the fertility rites in association with the spring equinox, and thereby we have the rabbit and eggs associated with our Easter, supposedly indicative of new life. But remember, it’s pagan in its origin.
It’s the same way with our customs at Christmas which is close to the first day of winter – the winter solstice of December 21 and 22. Again the ancient pagans instituted the worship of the evergreen tree because it, alone was still showing signs of life when everything else looked dead. The ancient Europeans actually began worshipping the evergreen tree and had the custom of the burning of the “Yule log” – all coming out of this pagan system associated with the Tower of Babel. Back in the early days, during the first, second and third centuries a lot of these pagan people were coming into the “church.” However they came into the church without having a genuine Salvation experience, and merely came to enjoy the worship service. So it wasn’t long before they began introducing some of their pagan practices into the church and the church accommodated them, so here we are some 1900 years later and we take these things for granted. I want you to know where they come from, for they have no place in our present day church.
I’m not telling people to throw away the Christmas tree (we have one), or to spoil Christmas and tell your kids that there’s no such thing as Santa Claus, (maybe I should!), but I’ll tell you this, anytime I see a Santa Claus going down the aisle of a church I won’t go back there, because Santa Claus does not belong in a local church. He is a symbol of paganism, a symbol of the commercial world, and we should never mix it in with Christianity. Now, as I said before, I’m not telling people to take away the fun of Santa Claus as long as they don’t associate it with the birth of Christ. Also, I don’t think that Christ was born on or around December 25. We know that He wasn’t born in the winter time because the shepherds don’t stay out in the fields in Judea in December – it’s too cold! (Again, I just pass this out in speculation, because I can’t prove it from Scripture), but I personally think that April 1 would really more likely be the time of His birth.
I read one theory – and that’s all it is, because nobody really knows when He was born – and that person speculated that Jesus was born in September, and the December 25th date was more likely the time of His conception. This would bring His birthday into September … And he may be right. The reason that I think April 1 would be the more likely date is that I believe Adam was created and brought on the scene on April 1st. God stipulated to Israel that April was to be the first month of the year, so everything in Israel’s calendar back in biblical times began with April 1st. I think that Christ was probably resurrected on an April 1st, also. Like I said, I can’t prove any of this, but I think there are a lot of things associated in God’s time table with the first day of the month of the biblical year – the month of April.
In addition, to kind of put the frosting on the cake, I think that Satan adulterated that day, April 1, with what we now call “April Fool’s Day,” or “All Fool’s Day,” which again came out of the occult practices and not from Scripture.