• Would Jesus Celebrate...

    From Spiffwiggler@VERT/NEXXUS1 to All on Monday, March 03, 2008 11:26:00
    Would Jesus Christ Celebrate Easter?

    For millions of people Easter Sunday is the
    most important religious holiday of the year.
    But if Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee
    today, would He observe Easter?
    by Jerold Aust


    Each spring the excitement of Easter fills the air.
    Many churches prepare special Easter programs about
    the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At home
    mothers color eggs, and parents hide the brightly
    colored symbols of Easter around the house and lawn
    so that, come Easter morning, their children can
    excitedly hunt for them.

    Stuffed Easter bunnies and chocolate rabbits are seen
    everywhere in the weeks leading up to this major religious
    observance. Then there are the Easter sunrise services, where
    churchgoers gather to hear about Jesus' resurrection and honor
    that miraculous event by watching the sun come up in the east.

    But what do colored eggs and the Easter Bunny have to do with
    Jesus Christ's resurrection? How did these seemingly irreligious
    symbols come to be associated with that event?

    Can we find any historical or biblical record of Jesus or His
    disciples observing Easter or teaching parents and children to
    dye eggs and display bunnies on this holiday? Did Jesus or His
    apostles instruct any of His followers to meet to honor His
    resurrection at sunrise on Easter Sunday—or at any other time,
    for that matter?

    If Easter was not sanctioned by Jesus or instituted by His
    apostles, then where did Easter come from? In other words,
    if Jesus were living among us as a flesh-and-blood human being,
    would He celebrate Easter or encourage others to do so?

    Answers to these questions are readily available. Some may take
    a little research, but they become clear when we look into
    history and the Bible.

    The apostles' record on Easter

    As surprising as this may sound, nowhere in the New Testament
    can you find any reference to Easter. In the King James Version
    of the Bible (in Acts 12:4) you do find the word Easter, but it
    is a blatantly erroneous mistranslation that has been corrected
    in virtually every other Bible translation.

    The original Greek word there is pascha, correctly translated as
    "Passover" in virtually every modern version of the Bible everywhere
    it appears in the Scriptures. It refers to the biblical Passover
    originally instituted when God freed the Israelites from slavery
    in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-14).

    The original apostles, from the inception of the New Testament
    Church to near the end of the first century, when the apostle
    John died, left absolutely no record of observing Easter or
    teaching others to do so. From Jesus to John, not one of the
    apostles gave even the slightest hint of celebrating or
    advocating the observance of what we know today as Easter Sunday.

    However, that doesn't mean the early Church did not hold to
    specific religious observances. The apostle Paul, some 25
    years after Jesus' death and resurrection, plainly told
    members of the church at Corinth that they should continue
    to observe the Passover as Christ commanded.

    Paul wrote: "For I received from the Lord that which I also
    delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in
    which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks,
    He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is
    broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same
    manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup
    is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you
    drink it, in remembrance of Me.'

    "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
    proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever
    eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an
    unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of
    the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:23-27).

    Paul was concerned that the Church members in Corinth
    observe the Passover in the right way, with reverence
    and proper comprehension of its meaning.

    The writings of Paul and of Luke, his traveling companion
    and author of the book of Acts, regularly mention keeping
    the weekly Sabbath day and the biblical festivals listed
    in Leviticus 23. But Easter is conspicuously absent
    (1 Corinthians 5:6-8; 16:8; Acts 2:1-4; 13:42, 44;
    17:1-3; 18:4; 20:6, 16).

    Since Easter wasn't introduced by Jesus or the apostles,
    where did it come from, and how did it come to be such
    an accepted part of traditional Christianity?

    The origin of Easter

    It's not that difficult to trace the surprising origins
    of Easter and what it really represents. Many scholarly
    works show that Easter is a pre-Christian religious
    holiday, one that was created and developed long before
    Jesus' time and carried forward to the modern era
    through such empires as Babylon, Persia, Greece
    and finally Rome.

    Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New
    Testament Words notes: "The term 'Easter' is not of
    Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one
    of the titles of the Chaldean [Babylonian] goddess,
    the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover]
    held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a
    continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch
    the pagan festival of 'Easter' was quite distinct and
    was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as
    part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to
    Christianity" (W.E. Vine, 1985, "Easter").

    Alexander Hislop, in his book The Two Babylons (1959),
    explores the origins of Easter. He discovered that a
    form of Easter was kept in many nations, not
    necessarily only those that professed Christianity:
    "What means the term Easter itself? . . . It bears
    its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is
    nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis,
    the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the
    people of Nineveh, was . . . Ishtar" (p. 103).

    Easter and the practices associated with it can be
    traced back to various pagan rituals. Hislop explains
    that "the forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly
    borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess"
    (p. 104). In Egypt a similar 40-day period of abstinence
    "was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris,
    the great mediatorial god" (p. 105).

    A pre-Christian spring festival

    How, then, did 40 days' abstinence come to be associated
    with a resurrection? Hislop continues: "Among the pagans
    this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary
    to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death
    and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by
    alternate weeping and rejoicing" (p. 105).

    Tammuz was a chief Babylonian deity and husband of the
    goddess Ishtar. Worship of Tammuz was so widespread in
    ancient times that it even spread into Jerusalem.
    In Ezekiel 8:12-18 God describes that worship and calls
    it an abomination—something repugnant and disgusting to Him.

    The Babylonians held a great festival every spring to
    celebrate Tammuz's death and supposed resurrection many
    centuries before Christ walked the earth (see "The
    Resurrection Connection" on page 18). Hislop
    comprehensively documents evidence showing that
    Easter's origins precede the modern Christian holiday by
    more than 2,000 years!

    Hislop cites the fifth-century writings of Cassianus, a
    Catholic monk of Marseilles, France, on the subject of
    Easter's being a pagan custom rather than a New Testament
    observance. "It ought to be known," the monk stated,
    "that the observance of the forty days [i.e., the
    observance of Lent] had no existence, so long as the
    perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate"
    (p. 104).

    Sir James Frazer describes Easter ceremonies entering
    into the established church: "When we reflect how often
    the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of
    the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise
    that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was
    grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen
    Adonis [the Greek name for Tammuz], which . . . was celebrated
    in Syria at the same season" (The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 345).

    Why eggs and rabbits?

    What about other customs associated with Easter? One Catholic
    writer explains how eggs and rabbits came to be connected with
    Easter. You will quickly notice an absence of any link or
    reference to the Holy Bible when it comes to these rituals:

    "The egg has become a popular Easter symbol. Creation myths of
    many ancient peoples center in a cosmogenic egg from which the
    universe is born. In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged
    decorated eggs at the spring equinox, the beginning of their
    New Year.

    "These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming
    forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people
    of ancient times. Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition,
    and the Easter egg became a religious symbol. It represented the
    tomb from which Jesus came forth to new life" (Greg Dues, Catholic
    Customs and Traditions, 1992, p. 101; emphasis added throughout).

    Like eggs, rabbits came to be linked with Easter because they were
    potent symbols associated with ancient fertility rites. "Little
    children are usually told that the Easter eggs are brought by the
    Easter Bunny. Rabbits are part of pre-Christian fertility symbolism
    because of their reputation to reproduce rapidly. The Easter Bunny
    has never had a religious meaning" (p. 102).

    Honest Bible scholars freely admit that Jesus never sanctioned this pre-Christian holiday, nor did His apostles. In the centuries to
    follow among those who called themselves Christian, Easter eventually supplanted the Passover, the biblical ceremony Jesus and the apostle
    Paul told Christians to observe.

    This came to a head with the Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea—almost three centuries after Jesus was killed and rose again.

    Says The Encyclopaedia Britannica: "A final settlement of the dispute
    [over whether and when to observe Easter or Passover] was one among
    the other reasons which led Constantine to summon the council of
    Nicaea in 325 . . . The decision of the council was unanimous that
    Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout
    the world, and 'that none should hereafter follow the blindness of
    the Jews'" (11th edition, pp. 828-829, "Easter").

    Constantine 's decision was a fateful turning point for Christianity.
    Those who remained faithful to the instruction of Jesus and the
    apostles would be outcasts, a small and persecuted minority
    (John 15:18-20). A vastly different set of beliefs and practices—recycled
    from ancient pre-Christian religions but dressed in a Christian
    cloak—would take hold among the majority.

    What would Jesus do?

    Since Easter (with all the pagan symbols that have come with it) was
    adopted by the Catholic Church centuries after Christ's ascension,
    should Christians observe this holiday and encourage others to do so?

    To answer that question, let's go back to the title of this article,
    "Would Jesus Christ Celebrate Easter?"

    He certainly could have told us to. So could the apostles, whose
    teaching and doctrine are preserved for us in the book of Acts and
    the epistles written by Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John. But nowhere
    do we find a hint of support for Easter or anything remotely resembling
    it. What we do find, as pointed out earlier, is clear instruction from
    Jesus and Paul to keep the Passover and other biblical—and truly Christian—observances.

    Holy Scripture does not support this pre-Christian holiday and,
    in fact, condemns such celebrations. Because Scripture condemns
    pagan practices and the worship of false gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32),
    we know that God the Father and Jesus His Son have no interest in Easter
    and do not approve of it.

    Jesus, in fact, is diametrically opposed to religious rituals that
    supposedly honor Him but in reality are rooted in the worship of
    false gods. He makes clear the difference between pleasing God and
    pleasing men: "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
    And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of
    men . . . All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition'" (Mark 7:6-9).

    Easter is a tradition of men, not a commandment of God. But it's more
    than that. It is a pagan tradition of men that, like other traditions
    involved in the worship of false gods, is abhorrent to the true God.
    Jesus and His apostles would never sanction its observance because it
    mingles paganism with supposedly Christian symbolism and ritual. It is
    rooted in ancient pre-Christian fertility rites that have nothing to do
    with Jesus.

    In reality, most of the trappings associated with Easter reveal that
    the holiday is actually a fraud pawned off on unsuspecting and well-intentioned people. God wants us to worship in spirit and truth
    (John 4:23-24), not to recycle ancient customs used to worship other gods.

    Even the timing of the events used to justify celebrating Jesus' resurrection on a Sunday morning—that He was crucified on the afternoon of Good Friday and resurrected before dawn on Sunday morning—are demonstrably false, as an examination of the Scriptures shows.

    For those who want concrete proof that He was indeed the Messiah and Savior
    of mankind, Jesus made a promise: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39-40).

    Try as some might, there is no way to calculate three days and three nights from
    late Friday afternoon to Sunday morning before daylight. At most, this amounts to barely more than a day and a half. Either Jesus was mistaken, or those who say
    He was crucified on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday are mistaken. You can't
    have it both ways.

    Jesus' instructions remain consistent

    If Jesus walked the dusty roads of Galilee today, would He celebrate Easter? Certainly not. But He would be consistent because He does not change (Hebrews 13:8).
    For instance, He would keep the annual Passover in the same manner as He instructed
    His followers to keep it (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:15-17). And Jesus would
    observe the Days of Unleavened Bread in the way He inspired Paul to instruct early
    Christians (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

    Anyone who wants to be right with God, who wants to be a true disciple of Christ,
    the Master Teacher, will carefully examine his beliefs and practices to see whether
    they agree with the Bible. Such a person will not try to honor God with ancient

    idolatrous practices, violating His explicit commands
    (Deuteronomy 12:29-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 7:1). Easter, as we have seen, is

    filled with idolatrous trappings.

    Simply claiming that something is Christian or is done to honor God doesn't make
    it acceptable to God. Easter doesn't represent a resurrected Jesus Christ. Rather—difficult as it may be to admit—it merely continues the practices pagans

    followed thousands of years ago to honor their nonexistent gods. If we are to escape the calamities prophesied to come on those who place the ways of this world ahead of God, then we must repent of following traditions that dishonor Him (Revelation 18:1-5).

    God wants us to honor and obey Him according to His instructions in His Word. Then He can use us to represent His holy Son, our Savior and the Messiah, who will
    return to the earth. No greater calling can be extended to human beings. May you
    have the heart to seek understanding and God's perfect will! GN

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