The One, True Story
March 25, 2013
My friend Dana is on a roll. Not even two weeks after writing her wonderful article, The Wine Kitchen, she submitted this article about her struggle with the word Easter. So enjoy my new Housewife Theologian guest blogger, Dana Tuttle, once more!:
Ah, Easter…bunnies, chocolate, jelly beans, and eggs. I have wonderful childhood memories of Easter, and I share those same traditions with my children. I am a sucker for a holiday and this crazy theme mom is currently planning a spring tea party for the kids in our neighborhood.
The word Easter just doesn’t sit right with me, though. Each year that I am confronted with it, I find myself looking into its meaning. I was aware of some Christians who refrain from using the term and strictly call it Resurrection Day. But really, that can still have several meanings. The season of spring in itself contains a theme of resurrection. Flowers bloom from trees that were barren and the brown grass begins to turn green as the sun warms the earth. Also, in ancient pagan legends there are several themes of deities being resurrected. Are we really changing the meaning by calling it Resurrection Day?
Curious, I began to do some research on the word Easter. What does it mean? How did it become part of our culture? I knew that it has its roots in a pagan fertility goddess, but who was this gal that was stealing the show? I found that the information on the internet and the “rabbit trails” were overwhelming. She is a legend after all, and it was hard to pinpoint an exact document that spoke of her. This goddess and her story has branched off and spread into almost every civilization in the world!
I narrowed my search to the legend of Semiramis, the queen of Babylon and Assyria. Legend has it that she deified herself, her husband, and her son. In some stories she even marries her son as her resurrected husband. As the myth is told in some cultures, her son was conceived supernaturally and was resurrected after death. It sounds so similar to the story of Christ. How is it that our own redemptive story sounds similar to a pagan legend from centuries before Christ’s birth? It is because the one, true story rings throughout history. It’s the story that has been on the hearts of all mankind from the beginning. We know that we are created beings and an intelligent designer created us. We are aware of our mortality and we know that we are sinful. As civilizations have proved over and over, we are aware that we need a Savior.
I have never been one to have faith in faith. I want my faith in facts. I want what I believe to be based on historical events. I have a great respect for Christians like Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel ,who are both lawyers who set out to disprove Christianity by putting it on trial. Both of these educated men converted to Christianity based on the overwhelming historical evidence. We can also be assured of the authenticity of Scripture based on archeological findings. I love how Hank Hanegraaff compiled all this information for us in his book, “Has God Spoken?” For me, these are the kinds of books I need. Show me where it is true. I am an apologist at heart and I love having historical backup.
Having a love for history and the truth, I began to unpack the mystery of this goddess. Ishtar is the goddess of fertility in the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. This is most likely who queen Semiramis was deified into. Eostre is the goddess in German pagan culture. Not surprisingly, the English called her Eastre. As so, she infiltrated greatly into European culture. The scriptures refer to her as the fertility goddess, Asharoth. Scripture is not quiet about her. She is mentioned in Judges 2:11-13, 1 Samuel 7:3-4, 1 Kings 11:1-8, and Revelation chapters 17 and 18.
My concern is for my children. I want them to know history, truth, and culture. I want them to know the one true story, the story of good and evil, the story of redemption. Whether they are confronted with Semiramis and her son, or the Harry Potter series, I want them to recognize the strands of truth that are woven throughout culture.
I am thankful for C.S. Lewis, a professor of Greek Mythology who converted to Christianity. With him, we have both sides of the coin. In his book, God in the Dock, he says “The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or a Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical person crucified under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact, it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle.”
We read in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 where Paul says concerning idols, “…we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth-as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’--yet for there is one God, the Father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” With the confidence of Scripture and the freedom that my Savior Jesus Christ provided on the cross, my children will wake up Easter morning to a basket of goodies. And then I will tell them the one, true story.
Ah, Easter…bunnies, chocolate, jelly beans, and eggs. I have wonderful childhood memories of Easter, and I share those same traditions with my children. I am a sucker for a holiday and this crazy theme mom is currently planning a spring tea party for the kids in our neighborhood.
The word Easter just doesn’t sit right with me, though. Each year that I am confronted with it, I find myself looking into its meaning. I was aware of some Christians who refrain from using the term and strictly call it Resurrection Day. But really, that can still have several meanings. The season of spring in itself contains a theme of resurrection. Flowers bloom from trees that were barren and the brown grass begins to turn green as the sun warms the earth. Also, in ancient pagan legends there are several themes of deities being resurrected. Are we really changing the meaning by calling it Resurrection Day?
Curious, I began to do some research on the word Easter. What does it mean? How did it become part of our culture? I knew that it has its roots in a pagan fertility goddess, but who was this gal that was stealing the show? I found that the information on the internet and the “rabbit trails” were overwhelming. She is a legend after all, and it was hard to pinpoint an exact document that spoke of her. This goddess and her story has branched off and spread into almost every civilization in the world!
I narrowed my search to the legend of Semiramis, the queen of Babylon and Assyria. Legend has it that she deified herself, her husband, and her son. In some stories she even marries her son as her resurrected husband. As the myth is told in some cultures, her son was conceived supernaturally and was resurrected after death. It sounds so similar to the story of Christ. How is it that our own redemptive story sounds similar to a pagan legend from centuries before Christ’s birth? It is because the one, true story rings throughout history. It’s the story that has been on the hearts of all mankind from the beginning. We know that we are created beings and an intelligent designer created us. We are aware of our mortality and we know that we are sinful. As civilizations have proved over and over, we are aware that we need a Savior.
I have never been one to have faith in faith. I want my faith in facts. I want what I believe to be based on historical events. I have a great respect for Christians like Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel ,who are both lawyers who set out to disprove Christianity by putting it on trial. Both of these educated men converted to Christianity based on the overwhelming historical evidence. We can also be assured of the authenticity of Scripture based on archeological findings. I love how Hank Hanegraaff compiled all this information for us in his book, “Has God Spoken?” For me, these are the kinds of books I need. Show me where it is true. I am an apologist at heart and I love having historical backup.
Having a love for history and the truth, I began to unpack the mystery of this goddess. Ishtar is the goddess of fertility in the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. This is most likely who queen Semiramis was deified into. Eostre is the goddess in German pagan culture. Not surprisingly, the English called her Eastre. As so, she infiltrated greatly into European culture. The scriptures refer to her as the fertility goddess, Asharoth. Scripture is not quiet about her. She is mentioned in Judges 2:11-13, 1 Samuel 7:3-4, 1 Kings 11:1-8, and Revelation chapters 17 and 18.
My concern is for my children. I want them to know history, truth, and culture. I want them to know the one true story, the story of good and evil, the story of redemption. Whether they are confronted with Semiramis and her son, or the Harry Potter series, I want them to recognize the strands of truth that are woven throughout culture.
I am thankful for C.S. Lewis, a professor of Greek Mythology who converted to Christianity. With him, we have both sides of the coin. In his book, God in the Dock, he says “The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or a Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical person crucified under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact, it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle.”
We read in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 where Paul says concerning idols, “…we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one. For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth-as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’--yet for there is one God, the Father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” With the confidence of Scripture and the freedom that my Savior Jesus Christ provided on the cross, my children will wake up Easter morning to a basket of goodies. And then I will tell them the one, true story.
