Easter, Not Ishtar Is Resurrection!

Easter, Not Ishtar Is Resurrection!                          By Kelly Durant

Romans 10:9-10 New King James Version (NKJV)

9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

2. Very few of you here would remember the song I am about to refer to as it was recorded in 1969 by Peggy Lee. It was a strange sort of song that kind of set the tone for the dissatisfied emerging hippie generation at the time. It was a time when intelligent seekers wanted answers to the hard questions in life. I think we all still want answers. These are a few questions:

Why was I born here? Why do we need wars to kill each other? Where did I and the universe come from? (The scientific explanation of a big bang and primordial soup just makes no sense) What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of destruction? What is the purpose of death? Will anyone ever love me in this life, or is it all for nothing? Reflect on these lyrics:

I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire
I'll never forget the look on my father's face as he gathered me up
in his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement
I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames
And when it was all over I said to myself, is that all there is to a fire

Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

3. Here in the song she is reflecting on her childhood when her house burnt down. I am sure she thought the world had come to an end! All of us when we go through something terrible feel this way, sad, depressed, and just wanting comfort in anything out there to mask the pain.

Well… but please don’t go to booze for comfort as she suggests! Or any addictive substances!

This song came to me reflecting on current events, for certain people the burning of the Notre Dame Church in Paris must make some feel like a piece of their world is lost! But here is the reality, the entire world is on the runaway train headed to its own burning destruction! Jesus warned us of it and all we can do is obey God to get ourselves ready for what comes after this life! The Bible has all the answers, if only we will accept, believe, and profess it!

In the end we cannot stop destructions, it is the evil in this world that brings it on. Evil exists in those who know not God! Christianity is under persecution. The Chinese government has been burning down dozens of churches this year (as every year) and few read about it and even few less care about it! There are over 50 countries that kill or enslave hundreds of Christians every month! Here is our hope, evil men can burn churches (by accident or on purpose) but they can never burn our souls! God gave us freewill to choose our destiny. Let all icons and symbols fade, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit will still remain to reign in our souls forever! His kingdom will be one that no fire or anything of any kind can destroy!

Acts 7:48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says”. All temples are man’s creations, dead and decaying; God lives in living souls.

4. Now, let’s think about the disciples after Jesus was crucified as a common criminal. Symbolically, that was their house that burnt down! That must have seemed like the end of the world to them! They had invested all they had following this amazing ‘Son of God’ and experienced His miracles, seen elated happy faces after a healing, even seen Lazarus resurrect and come out of the grave, but still in their minds Jesus died as an ordinary man on a cross. How disorienting, devastating, and unfair!

Here is what we can deduct from how God does things, He never leaves us without faith, hope, and love! We may feel shattered and undone in our dark hours (as Jesus went through a terrible one on the cross) but God will always win! Satan always throws discouragement and despair at us, but he will not win despite his temporary power that seems to be great. 

Satan’s ultimate power over people is death. But he is so evil he is not happy with the death of our bodies, to mock and spite God who originally created humans to live forever, Satan wants the fiery destruction of our souls! God wants our souls with Him in heaven but if we commit horrific acts as the fallen angels did (murders, rapes, cannibalism, etc.), and remain unrepentant, not accepting Jesus as Lord, then we are choosing against God’s saving will and He will do nothing about it. Jesus first loved by offering himself as a sacrifice but you have love Jesus back and radically change to save your soul!

5. Easter is so important because it reminds the entire world that Jesus conquered death! He came out of the grave! He broke the curse! He resurrected Himself and He can resurrect whomever He chooses. Our souls would have been destined to remain in a parallel universe prison but His resurrection power saves us from that second death punishment. The death of the body is nothing, but too few believe in meeting God on the other side! People who have died a few minutes or done certain drugs and seen the other side usually are the ones who repent and proclaim Jesus as Lord! Heaven and hell are very real!

Science will confirm that all universal matter is just here, that it was neither created nor can it be destroyed, only transformed. But science will not affirm that your consciousness or soul will remain somewhere forever. That is hypocritical and illogical! And every Easter it must pass through the minds of billions of people the idea that the soul can have a transformation, a rebirth, and a resurrection. Our souls will keep existing somewhere and we choose where! It’s only by Jesus we can get rescued though!

The reality is our souls after death will continue to exist in another dimension we are unfamiliar with, and that will be either in heaven or hell. Some scientists now believe that 10 or 11 other dimensions exist, so they of all people should be the first to reject Darwinism and atheism and be the first to want salvation for the coming relocation of their souls out of their bodies! Death is inescapable, but it is just a death of the body if you accept, believe and profess Jesus. 

6. When I was young living in the era of ‘the generation gap’ it was considered a virtue to have an open mind. An open mind implied that one would debate the mysteries of science and religion and consider all possibilities of everything. Today, however, logical debate is replaced with preprogramed progressive emotional Pavlovian responses! The so called intelligent and educated elites are now nothing but debased fools, degenerate, and observably stupid!

I use to listen to adulterous pot smoking folks justify why they were atheists, and I would also listen to Hindu yoga friends explain how we are all just energy striving to connect to the One (God)  through the many entities out there such as through Krishna, Kali, or Budha.  However, being too open is not Biblical. 1 Timothy 6:20 “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:”

There was a Jesus ‘revolution movement back about 1969 because of this openness and Jesus will prevail in many hearts if given a chance! But since Satan has his people in power everywhere and now more than ever we observe today most colleges are the most prejudiced closed minded institutions on earth! It is up to Christians to educate others on how to save their souls! If you are a Christian, then speak up so others have a chance! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

7.  The verses of Romans 10:9-10 make it clear that first we must believe in Jesus and if we do then we will profess that belief in Him to others. Do you tell others that you believe in Him? It really is amazing how accepting Jesus is so regenerative and invigorating, accepting the reality that He is eternal and He will make our souls eternal. You and I can be resurrected to be with Him in heaven, but it comes by belief and acting on that belief! 

After I decided that Jesus was Lord of my life, I was ecstatic, electric, and full of the Holy Spirit! All I wanted to do was talk about Jesus! My college friends thought I had gone crazy, and it was like being crazy in love. If you love Jesus for real, if you really are saved, the words of your mouth will just naturally overflow as proof of it! Ask yourself, do I talk about Jesus?

The conclusion, looking back, I was so opened minded, so full of the world’s influence that my spirit was like in a desert and surrounded by pagan gods. I was dying and thirsty, and Jesus words satisfied my thirst for answers and a hope for the future. I am sharing my testimony because Easter is real to me and it is real to a few billion believers around the world as well! 

8. Acts 24:15 “And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” I hope this Easter you tell your friends how wonderful Jesus is! I hope you are talking about Him as your salvation depends on you confessing it! Romans 10:9,10. There is power in the name of Jesus! We want to rise up to life when we leave this flesh shell behind! See Mark 8:36-38, never be ashamed of Jesus!

So many evil people are out there trying to sabotage the resurrection message of Jesus! My wife and I do not care very much for the Easter bunny and the eggs because they have roots in the worship of fertility pagan goddesses. Some people mock Easter to say we are making up a fairy tale about Jesus because many gods, such as Osiris, the phoenix, and Ishtar proclaimed rebirth and regeneration. Jesus is totally different! All the disciples died as martyrs proclaiming the truth that Jesus came back in a supernatural renewed body! You don’t die for a liar or a fraud, one gives their life for the authentic and true! Satan’s false religions pale in comparison! 

I think we should be wise to not mix fairy tale characters with something as important as the resurrection! I know kids like to have fun and we should celebrate  but I think that doing egg hunts should be discouraged as that and the bunny distract away from the amazing fact that Jesus walked out of the tomb! Later in years kids may think, well, you lied to me that bunnies lay chocolate eggs, so you must be lying to me that Jesus came back from the dead as well!

9. There are so many things that confuse our minds, and many things we really should fix about our language and culture. For example, has it ever occurred to you that for a worship day, Sunday should be spelled Sonday? The Romans worshipped the sun and that is how we got stuck with that spelling but with  our Christian Gregorian calendar, it should have been adjusted to ‘Son’ worship centuries ago. And the Sabbath is replaced with Saturn-day?!

And Easter? I prefer we call it Resurrection Day, or Pascha, because Easter is the English parallel of the word Ishtar, who was a Sumerian goddess of spring fertility celebrations. How did this word, Easter, associated with goddess worship which includes sex, war, and fertility remain in our vocabulary? It as well is left over from Roman times as they worshipped similar goddesses.

Research history and you will find that the ancient Christian church often accommodated pagan worship within the faith in order to appease the locals who were stuck in a their polytheist  cultural rut. And today we still have heretical doctrines that women should be worshipped as divine goddesses, when we all know that only God (and Jesus) are to be the only object we should have as divine worship. Or we have androgynous idols, another abomination to God! 

10 So in conclusion, all things will pass but Jesus never! Our world is a hell for so many innocent people but God never intended for it to be this way! Evil people have the power, and only when Jesus returns will there be a final war and judgment upon all the souls throughout time. 

And for the believer, for those that ‘believed in their heart’, for those that ‘confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus’, for those that believed that ‘God raised Him from the dead’, for them will be an eternal salvation and glorious kingdom where nothing will hurt nor destroy.

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Are you righteous? You will be if you are obeying Jesus commands! Do you love God and your neighbor as yourself, and are you preaching with your mouth the gospel to every creature? I want to see you resurrect and reign with Jesus forever and ever! Let’s thank Him for the gift of eternal life! Matthew 10:28. Prayer…