Easter

Easter Sunday

Every year Hundreds of millions of folks around the world celebrate what is without doubt the most important day of the year in Christendom: Easter. World church attendance on Easter Sunday usually increases two or three fold. I would imagine that this Sunday will be no exception.

Why does church attendance go up so precipitously on this day? For Roman Catholics the answer is easy: Catholic doctrine declares this day, among others, as a “holy day of obligation”¹ for its adherents. In fact, it is the most important day of obligation in the entire year. The Catechism describes it thus:

“Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the “Feast of feasts,” the “Solemnity of solemnities,” just as the Eucharist is the “Sacrament of sacraments” (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter “the Great Sunday” and the Eastern Churches call Holy Week “the Great Week.” The mystery of the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful energy our old time, until all is subjected to him.”²

The celebration of this day was officially established in AD 325 by the Council of Nicaea:

“At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of the different methods of calculating the 14th day of the month of Nisan, the date of Easter in the Western and Eastern Churches is not always the same. For this reason, the Churches are currently seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord’s Resurrection on a common date.”³

An obligation is defined by Webster as this: “The binding power of a vow, promise, oath or contract, or of law, civil, political or moral, independent of a promise; that which constitutes legal or moral duty, and which renders a person liable to coercion and punishment for neglecting it.”⁴

So here we have at least one answer as to why churches are so packed on Easter Sunday with folks one never sees there at any other time of the year: the fear of some sort of divine retribution/punishment.

Once a belief is planted in the mind of an individual at an early age, it dies very hard, and, indeed, one which has been placed in the collective conscience of billions of people over the last seventeen centuries, dies even harder.

And what about Protestants? The celebration of Easter doesn’t seem to be any less fervent among them than it is with Catholics. Although participation is not held out as an obligation in Protestant systems, the idea nevertheless seems to have carried over anyway, as millions who never darken the door of a church building at any other time of the year, will pack the pews this Sunday.

What is the truth about this so-called “holy” day? Is there any Biblical substantiation for its practice, and, if so, are all Christians required to participate in its celebration? Will one “slip” in his/her standing with God if he/she doesn’t participate? Let’s be like the Bereans,⁵ and look into the Scriptures to see what this celebration really is, and whether or not it has God’s blessing.

In the New Testament the word “Easter” occurs one time, in the 12th chapter of Acts:

1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. (Acts 12:1-4) (my emphasis)

This word Easter is translated from–in both the TR⁶ and the Nestles⁷–the Greek, “pascha.” It (“pascha” is actually a transliteration of the Hebrew word “pecach“-Strong’s #6453) shows up 27 more times in the NT, but in all these cases it is translated “Passover.”⁸ Why? Why did the King James translators render it Easter here in Acts 12? Why didn’t they render it Passover, as it is rendered everywhere else?

For the answer, look at the chronology of events in the above passages. In verse three, in the parenthesis, notice it says that they were in “the days of unleavened bread.” If we go back into the Old Testament to the institution of the Passover by Moses as “an ordinance forever” (Exodus 12: 14) for Israel, we find that the seven days of unleavened bread followed the Passover. So, if the particular period of time they were in there in Acts 12 was the days of unleavened bread, then Passover was “past.” Verse 4 makes it clear that Easter wasn’t. It was a future event, not yet come. Therefore Passover and Easter cannot be the same thing, as the above quote from the Catechism says they are. In other words, according to Scripture, Easter cannot be the “Christian Passover.”

If this is the case, what then is Easter?

“What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte (Greek), one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country (England). That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar.”⁹

“Ishtar” ¹⁰ was held up as the mother goddess of fertility, who—according to the myth—resurrects her lover/husband/son Tammuz from the underworld at the advent of the spring equinox. The rabbit (the “Easter” bunny), (( https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ancient-origins-of-the-easter-bunny-180979915/)) and the egg (“Easter” egg hunts) are all a part of this annual fertility ritual, which was obviously an integral part of Roman paganism. Thus Easter, rather than a Christian day of observance (or even an observance under the Mosaic Law), is a pagan religious holiday whose origin dates back to the Babylonian Empire.

“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”

Some of you will, no doubt, say that it doesn’t matter what we call the celebration so long as in our “hearts” we’re worshiping Jesus. That’s probably what the Galatian Christians believed when, after having accepted Christ’s sacrifice as payment for their sins, they returned to observing the Jewish religious ordinances. Paul said to them concerning this:

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?(Gal 3:1-5)
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. (Gal 4:9-11)

If this appears to be a rebuke for observing ordinances (like Passover), it is exactly that. Later, in his letter to the Ephesians, he settles the issue of ordinal observation when he says:

“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
‘ That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; ‘ (Eph 2:11-15)

He then confirms this in the letter to the Colossians:

“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; (Col 2:10-14)

Do these passages not say that the ordinances have been abolished? Blotted out? Paul, in these statements, puts the coupe de gras to all religious ritual/observance. Just as decisively as Moses commanded Israel to keep the Passover as an ordinance forever, Paul commands the body of Christ to cease from observing it, and all the rest of Israel’s obligations under the law. Indeed, there cannot be any obligations under grace, for:

“… if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. (Rom 11:6)

Works (observance of the law) and grace, according to this passage, are mutually exclusive, which makes the phrase “Christian Passover” an oxymoron.

Some might say, “If we are no longer to engage in the practice of religion, with what does this leave us?” In his first letter to the Corinthians, where some religious practices were still ordained, the Apostle said:

“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. “(1 Cor 13:8-13)

What now abides is, 1. faith: “the faith of Christ.” (Gal. 2:16)¹², which we, the body of Christ, now live and walk by (Gal. 2:21; 2 Cor. 5:7)¹³; 2. hope: “the hope of glory;” the “glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ” to take us to heaven (Col. 1:26,27; Titus 2:13; 1 Thess. 4:16-17)¹⁴; and 3. charity: “the love of Christ,” displayed in His willingness to suffer and die for us on the cross, that we might live and reign with him forever; a love that “constrains us” to live for Him (2 Cor. 5:14,15)¹⁵

Conclusion

If you, Christian friend, celebrate Easter every year,  ask yourself this question: Why am I participating in something  that  God, according to the Bible, does not ordain or condone?   Moreover, consider that if you choose to participate in it, by this action, you are, in effect, agreeing with and giving it your stamp of approval.

If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, consider what the following passages of Scripture say concerning the practice of man-made religious observances, traditions and ceremonies:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  (Rom 12:1-2)

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”    (Col 2:8)

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor 6:20)

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing….” (2 Cor 6:17)

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh……”   (Gal 5:13)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”(Gal 5:1)

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” ( 2 Tim 2:4)

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.” (Col 3:23-25)

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible

Post Script

May I ask you, friend, are you saved? Have you ever trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation? Scripture says that Christ’s righteousness and forgiveness is available to “all, and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22). It says Christ, who “knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). It also says that those “who receive not the love of the truth—that Christ died for their sins, and was raised again for their justification—shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord; and from the glory of his power” (1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Thess. 1:9; 2:10). If you haven’t done it, trust Christ today and assure that when you pass from this world you will be going up, not down. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved…and sealed unto the day of redemption” (Romans 10:13; Eph. 4:30)

Notes