Easter: the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection?

Tomorrow is easter, and millions will get together to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Rather than just coming out and saying easter is pagan, I thought I would provide historical context to how it came about, and scripture talking about it. This will be a long post but I hope you stick with me, because at the end I will have something to say. Lets start with scripture.

Deuteronomy 12: 30-32

30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

31 Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

(Remember verse 32 for later in the post)

As the children of Israel were on their way to the promise land, they had to conquer other gentile nations, all of which were pagan worshipping. God told them repeatedly to conquer them and keep not their idols or their ways of worship. 

“easter” goes back to (get ready to be shocked) ancient babylon. It was a fertility festival to celebrate the conception (not birth) of Tammuz to the mother Semiramice. It was celebrated on the first Sunday, after the first full moon of the spring equinox, (remember that). It was a time of sex, drunkenness, and worship. Semiramice was of course, NImrods mother/wife, and when he died, Semiramice calmed she became pregnant by the spirit of Nimrod. Tammuz was then born, said to be nimrod reincarnated, on Dec 25th (thats where christmas comes from). Tammuz was later killed by a wild boar and through the tears of Semiramice he was resurrected. 

Out of that brief breakdown, comes all of the symbolism we have today in easter.

Semiramice- claimed to have come to earth in an egg from the moon, landed in the Euphrates river. There is where the Moon goddess comes from.

Eggs and rabbit- because it was a fertility festivle and rabbits were considered a symbol of fertility because, well…rabbits are very fertile. The egg (easter egg) was the other symbol of fertility.

Easter Ham, Lent, no easting meat, Tammuz (tau) Cross- Tammuz was killed by the wild boar. So Semiramice declared 40 days of mourning to be held prior to easter festival (Lent), in which no meat would be eaten. During that time worshippers would mourn and make the Tammuz (tau) cross sign over their hearts (catholics still do this and cross on forehead with ashes). When it was over, a pig would be eaten (easter ham).

Painted Eggs- during the festival babies would be sacrificed by priests, (babies that were concieved the festival a year prior), and their blood would be consumed, and eggs would be painted in the blood of the sacrificed babies.

Hot Cross Buns- yes….the bread with a cross on it. Cakes with a cross on it would be baked in honor of semiramice by the wives. Jeremiah 7: 17-19

 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? (and Jeremiah 44″ 19-29, Judges 10:6, and 1 Kings 11: 5-6)

So…how did it become a “christian” celebration. Afterall, the early church fathers celebrated passover. There is not one mention from an Apostle to celebrate easter. And we know that Jesus was killed during the time of passover. Leviticus 23: 4-6 tells us specifically when to celebrate passover,  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s passover. But looking at calenders through time, sometimes easter happens almost a month BEFORE passover. So why would you celebrate the resurrection of the Lord and Savior, a month before he was even killed, much less resurrected? 

The Romans were a pagan culture, blatantly and historically. But, with the spread of Christianity, came the conversions to Christ, and the refusal to uphold pagan traditions. This directly attributed to the near collapse of the roman empire. So Constantine, to try and stop it and bring unity, “converted” to christianity and declared it the official religion of Rome. But there was still a growing problem between the early church fathers who celebrated passover on the appointed time, and church leaders who wanted to celebrate it on a Sunday. Eventually the Council of Nicene was held to get everyone on the same page, and it was declared among it, that Easter would be celebrated on….the first sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox…just like the conception of tammuz. The catholic church declared that anyone who would celebrate the passover on the 14th, as per Leviticus, would be excluded from the church (per 1909 Catholic Encyclopidia). Not only did the catholic church not care about making the celebration more inline with Jesus’ actuall resurrection, they were insistent on keeping it on the pagan festival date, and if you didn’t play along, you got kicked out. 

This bring me back to Deuteronomy 12:32,  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

Now I know, just like with Christmas, people will say, “Well God knows what is in my heart”. No….what you are saying is, you are too weak to stop taking part in a pagan festival because everyone around you expects you to do it, and it may require some tough decisions. 

Leviticus 18: 2-4

4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God.

5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

You are also saying, “God…I know you told me how to celebrate you, but I think I can do it better by adding this”.

Mark 7:13

13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Christians were made to stand out from things of this world, Jesus told us that. The path is narrow, and it will be lonely sometimes, because EVERYONE wants to be a part of this world. You cannot be a lover of this world, and a lover of Jesus.

I have said this before to you guys. I am not questioning your faith. I am not condemning you for taking part in these customs, I did them too. I am trying to show you the pagan roots, and how they are not changed. If you are a believer, then you are trying to work towards salvation. Search the scripture, pray. Jesus flipped tables in the temple for way less than these rituals. If he walked up in the middle of your church, and it was decked out with this pagan garbage, do you not think he would have a few words for you? You can not take something evil, and rebrand it to make it good. Think of it like this. If you went to church tomorrow, and a giant cross was on the property, wrapped up in cloth, you can smell the flammable liquid, you would question. But the preacher says, we are going to burn a cross on this day each year to symbolize the fire of Jesus’ love and the wrath he will bring. Would you buy that? Would you go along with it? It is the same concept  as everything I wrote above.

dead (or not) | jasonette

Word Count: +1.9k

summary: marinette thought jason was dead.

a/n: the fact that i wrote this because i saw a prompt on pinterest. thank you for 109 followers!

ao3|wattpad|masterlist|prompts

part 2

Marinette didn’t know how she ended up like this.

In fact, she couldn’t believe she even endedup like this and was stillalive. Clearly, having Tikki’s luck was extremely helpful.

She straightened her back to an almost painful angle as she heard her ‘leader’s’ icy voice echo through the room.

“Marinette,” Talia Al Ghul greeted her, and silently, Marinette took her appointed place next to the woman.

Ra’s Al Ghul seated himself next to Talia, leaning back in his chair.

Slowly, all the other members of the League of the Assassins filtered into the room as Talia and Ra’s watched on impassively.

Without giving a single thought away, Marinette wondered what today’s meeting was about.

Generally, Talia told her everything (as her right-hand woman, so to say) and needless to say, Marinette took advantage of it to prepare herself.

However, for this particular meeting, Talia hadn’t breathed a single word to Marinette. In fact, Marinette wasn’t even aware it was to happen today until a low-ranking member informed her of it.

Blank mask faltering for a milli-second, Marinette panicked and wondered if she had blown her cover somehow and this meeting was to discuss her fate.

“Welcome, honoured members of the League of the Assassins,” Talia said smoothly, oblivious to Marinette’s panic. “Apologies for calling this unexpected and unplanned meeting; something urgent has to be communicated.”

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief; she hadn’t blown her cover - this was a completely unplanned meeting.

Thank the kwamis.

“Recently,” Ra’s leaned forward now, adding his own contribution. “A few assassins found the body of a certain individual you may recognize the name of…Jason Todd.”

There was no physical reaction of any of the trained assassins, but Marinette, with her slightlyenhanced hearing, could hear several heartbeats picking up; in excitement or fear, she couldn’t tell.

“Ra’s and I plan to resurrect him with the use of the Lazarus Pits, a magical creation I am sure you have heard of.” Talia continued.

Thistime there was a reaction. Several of the assassins straightened even further with a jerk, while others looked at Talia, aghast.

“You cannot be serious!” One assassin cried out.

He was quickly shut up with a frosty glare from Marinette. She needed to know more about this.

From all she had learnt about the vigilantes of Gotham, she knew that Jason Todd had been one of the Robins, killed by the infamous, insane Joker. Batman had, apparently, taken his death hard, being crueller and crueller with the criminals until the thirdRobin came along; Timothy Drake.

Not that the league knew she had that knowledge.

The saying that knowledge was power rang especially true in the situations that Marinette often found herself in, particularly with Talia.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Talia shot the assassin who interrupted a particularly evil glare. “As I was saying, we plan to resurrect him in the Lazarus Pits, as per the wish of my father, and keep him under our care.”

Ah, Marinette thought, so that was the point of all this.

Keeping someone under the league’s care essentially meant converting them into one of their own.

In any other situation, Marinette would have said the same had happened to her, except for the fact that it hadn’t.

She was in the League of Assassins of her own free volition and her own agenda.

All of a sudden, all the assassins were agreeing, nodding in time.

Marinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

All was forgotten when the league got a new assassin…not like the Lazarus Pits could cause permanent mental damage to those who took even a single dip in it.

◇─◇──◇─◇

Marinette coughed as she shielded her eyes from the bright, toxic green colours of the Lazarus Pits.

As Talia’s right-hand woman, it was a given that she would accompany Talia and Ra’s as they resurrected Jason.

The Lazarus Pits glowed starkly against the pitch darkness of the underground cave they were in.

Talia, somehow, seemed unperturbed by it. “Move to the banks of the Pits!” she ordered, loudly, and the assassins carrying Jason’s corpse immediately hurried there.

Marinette took some more time, sensitive to the dust and heavilywishing she could wear her miraculous right now. At least it provided some extra protection against all this toxicity.

As she arrived at the banks of the Pits, Marinette saw that they had already begun to take out Jason’s body from the bag they had brought him in.

When she saw the state he was in, Marinette felt the urge to puke. What kind of sickowould do this to anyone?

Talia hadn’t even spared the body a glance, instead, analysing the waters of the Pits.

If she leaned any further, she was going to fall right in, Marinette thought with a healthy amount of malice.

Once they had the body out, one of the assassins turned to Talia.

Already excited at the prospect of getting another assassin, Talia gleefully said, “Dip it in.”

Talia didn’t even see Jason Todd as a real person.

◇─◇──◇─◇

Fast-forwarding to a few months later, you would find Marinette and Jason sparring in a room in the League of Assassins.

Marinette gave Jason a triumphant grin as she bested him once again. “Nice try, Todd. Fix your stance. Remember, you can’t give your opponent-”

“-A single advantage,” interrupted Jason with an exasperated grin. “I know, it’s not the first time you’ve told me.”

The day Jason was brought back to life went off without a hitch, as Talia often liked to brag to Marinette.

Almost immediately after he was well in terms of physical health, Jason was handed over to Marinette, she being one of the best assassins at the League of the Assassins.

At first, it was awkward with Jason not willing to trust Marinette (why would he?) and Marinette just generally being very awkward around him.

Eventually though, Marinette came to the realization that she needed to tell Jasons something about herself if she was going to get him to trust her.

So she told him she wasn’t like everyone around here.

Something in her tone must have convinced him, though, because the next day, he was seemed to be more willing to trust her.

That was how they ended up at the present moment.

“Come on, Todd.” Marinette shot him an indulgent grin. “Let’s take a water break.”

Jason sat up, giving her a handsome grin that did notmake Marinette’s heart beat faster at all. “Whatever you say.”

As they sat side-by-side on the chilly floor, Marinette felt her skin heat up as Jason’s muscled arms brushed against her own.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, catching their breaths.

“Why do you stay here if you’re not like them?”

Marinette froze. She knew Jason had been wanting to ask this for some time, but she didn’t know whether she should tell him the real reason.

Opting to deflect, she gave him a smirk. “Thinking, are we?”

Rolling her eyes at her poor attempt, Jason didn’t seem to want to budge. “Come on Marinette. Answer the question.”

Marinette waited for a few seconds, hoping that he would take it back and just leave it alone.

When he didn’t she sighed, slouching against the wall. “I have my reasons.”

Jason persisted, though. “What areyour reasons? If they even exist, you know.”

Marinette’s head shot up, hurt and anger dominant in her eyes. “What is thatsupposed to mean?”

Jason didn’t even seem to care that he pissed her off. “Do you know the number of people you’ve killed for Talia? Why would you do that?”

If Marinette knew what would happen next, maybe she would have answered, but at that point, she was just too angry to form a proper, justifiable answer.

Standing up, Marinette leaned down until she was nose-to-nose with Jason.

“Like I said before,” she breathed. “I have my reasons.”

Turning her back on him, she didn’t notice the crestfallen expression on his face as he looked at his watch and then the vent above.

The next day he was gone.

The league never found his body.

◇─◇──◇─◇

Exactly five months and six days later, Marinette was planning her escape from the League of the Assassins.

She had spent yearsplanning her escape and knew her whole plan by heart.

It was simple really; there were only three steps.

The first was to steal the powerful miraculous the league had in their clutches. Marinette could check that off the list, having used several precautions to make sure the league never found out that the 'miraculous’ they now had wasn’t real.

After that, she had to figure out a way to make it seemlike she was dead so that none of the assassins were on the lookout for her. After 'dying’ she was going to escape in the chaos.

The final step was probably the hardest. It was moving to Gotham because Marinette had heard that there were a lotof lost miraculous there.

Like she said before, it was simple.

Gathering all of her importantbelongings, Marinette dumped them all in a corner of the room. Placing the charred body she had stolen from the morgue (don’t even ask), Marinette pulled out a matchbox.

Her eyes glowed as she lit the match on fire, and dropped it casually on the bed.

It lit up immediately, flames sparking and spreading all over the room. Dumping the body on the side of the room, Marinette gathered her belongings and climbed up to the vent in her room.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell.

◇─◇──◇─◇

Five months and twenty-six days later, Marinette had a steady job at Wayne Enterprises, which was being the entire family’s professional designer.

It suited her well, and Marinette could say she definitely enjoyed it.

That was, until she ran into an old acquaintance of hers. Specifically, someone she thought was dead.

To be exact, Jason Todd.

◇─◇──◇─◇

It was a regular day for Marinette.

Until, Mr. Wayne told her she was going to meet the entire Wayne family, suddenly deciding to get a new wardrobe from her.

Completely flabbergasted, Marinette couldn’t find it in herself to refuse, especially with the price Mr. Wayne offered.

She had just finished with Mr. Grayson’s measurements and told him to call the next person in.

That was when he walked in.

He looked a bit older (obviously) but he was just as handsome as ever, and some of the light that was absent in his eyes before, was shining now.

Marinette, who was drinking a sip of water as he walked in, choked on her drink, coughing madly.

Immediately, he launched himself towards her, rubbing her back.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, and all Marinette could register was that he even soundedthe same.

“Holy shit,” Marinette swore. “Jason? Is that you?”

His head snapped back and suddenly Marinette was staring into his familiar blue eyes.

“Marinette?” he gasped, taking a few steps back.

◇─◇──◇─◇

“How are you alive?” Marinette sputtered, unable to believe that this was theJason Todd. How did she not know this?

Completely ignoring her question, Jason asked her one of his own. “What are you doing here?”

“Answer me, first.” Marinette shot him a dangerous glare; something she had perfected in her years at the League of Assassins.

“It’s a long story,” Jason said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Marinette scoffed. “You conned me into thinking you were dead for eleven months. I have time.”