Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest

    For an ad free experience on Online Baptist, Please login or register for free

What is Easter ??


Recommended Posts

  • Members

If we were to ask the first hundred people we meet on the street this question....

What is Easter?

....wonder what the responses would be?

If we were to ask the same question of a hundred people, chosen at random, from church congregations, wonder what the responses would be?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Here is my answer to the question:

Easter is a pagan holiday that no true Christian should ever celebrate.


Is there not liberty for Christians to celebrate (family gathering and eating) the resurrection morning?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Here is my answer to the question:

Easter is a pagan holiday that no true Christian should ever celebrate.


Want to talk pagan? The days of the week are pagan names of gods, and so are the mionths of the year, will you quit using them too? The Lord looks on the heart, at motives, not at mans foolish traditions. I celebrate Christmas and easter, as the most important holidays we have, and would encourage those who love thw Lord, and what His means to us, to do the same. It is not "happy holiday", but "Happy Easter"!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members



Want to talk pagan? The days of the week are pagan names of gods, and so are the mionths of the year, will you quit using them too? The Lord looks on the heart, at motives, not at mans foolish traditions. I celebrate Christmas and easter, as the most important holidays we have, and would encourage those who love thw Lord, and what His means to us, to do the same. It is not "happy holiday", but "Happy Easter"!

A large church in the area takes the same stance with Halloween.
Link to comment
Share on other sites




Is there not liberty for Christians to celebrate (family gathering and eating) the resurrection morning?


I have family who will celebrate Easter with (1) maybe Sunday service...if they wake up in time (2) a family gathering (3) an egg hunt.

I use the time to witness to them as the Lord leads me. Sometimes the opportunity is only to pray for the family meal. I could easily make them angry and never have another opportunity to witness again. So, yes there is liberty within the bounds of Christ.

Edit to add: I don't stay for the entire day...I have Sunday evening service to attend. Another witness for faithfulness. Edited by 1Tim115
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I don't think going on an Easter egg hunt or giving your kid a basket of candy is celebrating a pagan holiday. Nobody is worshipping Woden when they do that. I just don't believe that the Lord is concerned about these things. What may concern him are the hypocrites who only attend church on Easter to play religion. At the judgement seat I think this will be brought into consideration. Not whether you took your kids on an Easter egg hunt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Easter was originally a pagan holiday in the name of the goddess of spring, Astarte. It was "Christianized" by the Roman Catholic Church and adapted to the remembrance of Christ's resurrection. Christians observe Easter on the Sunday immediately after the first full moon that occurs on or after March 21st. Sunrise services are adaptations of the ancient worship of the sun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I cannot fathom why any Christian would not want to celebrate Easter. It is my favorite holiday of the year.

You don't have to call it easter....call it REssurection Sunday or whatever. However, it is a day in history that God chose to raise Jesus from the dead, symbolic of our spiritual death and ressurection in Christ. It is a holiday that is distinctly Christian. Unlike Christmas, which is a day that was picked to celebrate the birth of Christ (my second favorite holiday), we know Christ was raised. Threfore, Christians celebrate this on Easter. Call it what you want to, but this is distinctly Christian. Jesus commanded us to remember this at the Passover feast he had with his disciples as he instituted the ordinance of Communion.

The Passover of course, is celebrated to remember God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt. This is more than a remembrance of the historical event, it is a rememberance of spiritual significance. Slavery represents our sin and evil inclinations. Egypt (our evil inclinatins and sin) is what enslaves us. God poured out his judgment on Egypt as he will judge our sin. However, God provided a Passover Lamb to appease God and pass his people over from judgment. The Passover Lamb is symbolic of God speaking to us and providing a way to deliver us from the sin that enslaves us. Ummmm.....does any of this sound familiar? This year, I have concluded, that I should begin celebrating Passover as well (after a long discusion with a Jewish friend). The symbolism is amazing, and Jesus celebrated teh Passover feast, so shouldn't I as well? It is a time of self reflection to determine my struggles and what enslaves me...similar to Lent, which is a good exercise as well. We can then reflect on the sacrifice that is necessary....a Lamb in the old testimate...and THE Lamb in the New Testament. Tomorrow, as there are Good Friday services, we reflect on the death of Christ and the despair. We are all dead spiritually and have no hope on our own. Then when Easter arrives on Sunday, we realize that we do have hope....in the empty tomb and ressurection of Jesus! AMAZING!!!! Christ is alive and that gives us hope. He can deliver us from death and from what enslaves us.

Yes, "Easter" per se has pagan roots. However, perhaps God chose the time of year for the death and ressurection to occur. Spring is a time when we recognize new life, fertility, etc. It is a time when what appeared dead in the Winter brings forth new life. The physical and spiritual realm, I believe are connected. Physical is representative of spiritual. So, when the earth brings forth new life (created by God)...even the Pagans recognized this and created what is called Easter. The two days coincide......is this a coincidence? I do not believe so. You see, Christ symbolizes hope and new life. Christ causes what is dead to blossom in new life. The physical represents the spiritual. God created the physical, and has created Easter to be a cosmic window in time in which he sent Christ to die and be burried and rise again. This coincides perfectly with the Feast of the Passover....again no coincidence. The Passover was a time to reflect on historical delvierence from slavery, but also to reflect on our spiritual slavery and God delivering us from that into life.

So, that is my not so short answer about what Easter is.

EDIT: Just to clarrify....I do not condone celebrating pagan holidays. My point is that Spring is a time to celebrate new life and bringing life from what appears to be dead in God's Creation. God chose this time to send his Son to die and raise from the dead to connect the spiritual with the physical. It is no coincidence. The pagans recognized new life coming from God's creation and created "Easter," so if anthing, they took a Christian/Jewish holiday and put their own meaning on it. My point is that Easter, or Ressurection Sunday, and Passover are Christian, by their very nature.

Edited by kindofblue1977
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

EDIT: Just to clarrify....I do not condone celebrating pagan holidays. My point is that Spring is a time to celebrate new life and bringing life from what appears to be dead in God's Creation. God chose this time to send his Son to die and raise from the dead to connect the spiritual with the physical. It is no coincidence. The pagans recognized new life coming from God's creation and created "Easter," so if anthing, they took a Christian/Jewish holiday and put their own meaning on it. My point is that Easter, or Ressurection Sunday, and Passover are Christian, by their very nature.
Edited by kindofblue1977, Today, 04:36 PM.


That is exactly what the pagans celebrate, it is the fertility rites of Astarte/Diana.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...