The name of the holiday known as "Easter" in English comes from the pagan god Ishtar who according to ancient myth had a
child with Baal (the ancient Canaanite god mentioned in Scripture) named
Tammuz. The name Esther in the Old Testament was a form of Ishtar (her
Jewish name Hadassah was changed
by the Persians). Rituals at Spring time took place in societies celebrating this
religious cult of Tammuz and Ishtar and they employed symbols of eggs and Rabbits. This
celebration had been commemorated by different religions for thousands
of years, as the ancient Canaanites myths became integrated with other
religious myths and cults.
During the latter part of the Roman Empire, Christians tried to "christianize" this pagan holiday by what
is known in Christianity as the holiday commemorating the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ on the Cross and His resurrection from the grave.
Nevertheless, the symbolism and ideologies associated with its pagan
origins have survived even to the present day, especially in America
where it abounds. What is truly tragic is how even churches use these
symbols and rituals to draw in a crowd on "Easter" Sunday.
The
irony is that the cult around Baal, Ishtar, and Tammuz was mainly about
obsession with, glorifying, and deifying sexuality/fertility, which we
see widespread in our culture. Cultic prostitution was widely associated
with this cult, as individuals would
become primarily sex commodities, and now America is a huge influence
and hub of sexual trafficking (especially Houston). Not to mention the
occurrence of child sacrifices and sexual orgies, and the abortion
machine and escalation of sexual addiction and sexually-related psychological disorders
in America. On a side note, this occult put the highest delight of human
beings in sexuality, and advertising, media, entertainment industries (movies, video games, etc.), and tabloids have utilized
these desires to shape our society. The more sexual triggers in our
environment, the increased demand of mediums of gratification including
pornography (many are not those who sell their bodies of their own "free" will but are
themselves sex trafficking victims forced into the global industry),
prostitution, and sex trafficking, which turns human beings into merely
carnal commodities to be bought and sold, with purely materialistic
value.
Christianity
gave rise to the dignity and intrinsic (non-material) value of human
persons, as well as the ethical value, delightful superiority, sanctity, psychological health, and joy of life-time monogamous sexuality (especially for a healthy family structure rooted in sacrificial and unconditional love), yet these facts are so often ignored in a post-Christian world. It
teaches that a human being is infinitely worth more than their sexual
appeal that is dependent on
physical factors that decrease with time and the good "luck" of having a
"good" sexual appeal by societies standards or the money/ availability
to get there. Hence, how many feel ugly and inadequate based on how they
look and the psychological ramifications that leave deep life-time
scars. We just want to be loved, yet what has the price of love become
in a sex-crazed society merely determining desirability in outward
appearance? Moreover, the rise of lust driven self-love has given rise
to a self-gratifying populace that ignores the tragic suffering brought
about by a sex crazed society. We in America do not know what love is nor true healthy-sexuality
just as the ancient Canaanites.
Love is not rooted in sexual potency or
expertise, or else we should look at the animal kingdom for such carnal
love. Love as the true teaching of Christ is self-emptying oneself for
another (self-sacrifice), laying down one's life for another. Love is
found where those give of themselves freely treating the inner scars of
these innumerable victims of insatiable lust, which includes millions of
young girls and boys (many between 12-16 years old) sold with a value purely tied to sexual appetites
of a sex-crazed culture. What this holiday signifies is not self-love
that our society idolizes and uses to make money off people, but
self-sacrificing love dedicated to the notion that every soul has
intrinsic eternal value before the Maker of all things who gave Himself
completely on the Cross to show a world what true love is not based on
outward appearance and sexuality but the self-emptying devotion to
another that is unconditional. This love meets a young person who has
become a victim of a world that told her she must be sexy to be loved
and satisfy the lusts of others to be loved, as merely an object to
satisfy self-"love" of others. This love meets a young person who has
bought into the lie that true inner rest and delight is found in sexual
fulfillment, but who have now become an self-loothing sex addict.
I
dare you world who knows so much about "love" to embrace a campaign
against the lies of a consumeristic society that materializes human
worth and love that in the end makes us all victims of ourselves, our
own low self-value. We know consumeristic self-gratifying
love that is never satisfied, but we do not know the love that is the
essence of what the Creator who took on flesh did for undeserving
humanity. This love tells the victims of a sex-hyped society that they
were created to be princes and princesses in a Never-ending Kingdom of
self-emptying joy, no matter their past mistakes, how they look, but
simply because a King came down from His throne to adopt them at the
cost of Himself dying as the purchasing price. He came to buy humanity
back from the machine of insatiable self-"love".
From a Christian perspective it is a Satanic machine run by demonic powers, whether in the context of ancient Canaan or present day America. This invisible power that energizes such societal machines as hyper-sexuality is dead-set on deceptively perverting humanity by the inner working of temptations by visible triggers or habituation. These temptations are rooted in illusions of reality, such as what truly befits human existence. Consider the temptation to see sexual pleasure as the highest end of human life or sexuality as highest measure of attraction or individual value. This view contrasts with altruistically serving less-fortunate, value of wisdom, and character development, spirituality, and the intimacy of the God-relationship. This temptations leads people away from the original intentions of the Creator to a better land where the "grass seems to be greener". In truth, He made us to eternally remain His co-working neighbors and family of self-emptying love as royal citizens in a Kingdom of Agape-Justice with souls set ablaze with sacrificial compassion.
For Further Reading See Ezekiel Chapter 16 (One of my personal favorite OT passages).
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