EASTER OR RESURRECTION DAY?

     

Easter was originally a pagan festival. The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a festival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eastre Or Ostara (from which we derive the name "Easter"). When the second-century Christians encountered the tribes of the north with their pagan celebrations, they attempted to convert them to Christianity but continued to celebrate pagan feasts and festivals, but in an effort to "Christianize" the festival.  Unfortunately they met with limited success and in truth some of the pagan practices and teachings infiltrated the church. 

Even so, Easter somehow managed to retain the fertility symbols and the Easter Basket. (I always wondered what the Easter Basket had to do with Christ's resurrection. Didn't you?) Eastre, goddess of fertility, has managed to infiltrate our society with the well known "Rabbit Test" (do they still call it that?) to find out if a woman is pregnant. So now each year in the Spring we see the Easter candy, baskets and rabbits permeate our society.  One can hardly go into a store this time of year without seeing such trappings of ancient paganism packaged for commercial or financial gain. 

Let me say this…I do not believe in or put faith in Easter.  But I do believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!  Do not fall prey to the trap that our world has set to get you to think that Easter and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead are one and the same.  A rabbit and decorated eggs may be part of the Easter celebrations as they have been since instituted in paganistic practices in ancient times but they have nothing to do with Jesus Christ.  In fact, nowhere in the Bible will you find that we are instructed to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus as a special day once a year at a certain time

 

Now I would remind you, brothers,^[a] of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. ³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

 

                                                                       -1 Corinthians 15:1-8

 

Let me say that for the Christian every day is resurrection day and not simply one day in the year!  Collectively in our worship every Sunday is resurrection day!

I could take several weeks reviewing with you the various evidences for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Evidences from…

ü Jesus’ own testimony  & predictions before his death.

ü Jesus’ own followers.

ü Enemies who tried to silence the teaching of the resurrection.

ü Historical sources outside of the Scriptures.

ü Individuals such as Paul and others.

ü Groups that saw Jesus personally.

ü The scene at the tomb, which by the way was not empty.  There was something very important in the tomb to give strong evidence for the resurrection.

ü The transformation that took place in the disciples.

Not because of the insufficiency of evidence but in spite of its magnitude do men today still reject the resurrection of Jesus. How do we explain the change from Saturday to Sunday worship without the resurrection?  The majority of the first Christians were of Jewish background and had been fanatically attached to their Sabbath.  It took something extremely significant to change this habit; it took the resurrection to do it!  By the way, Sunday is not the Sabbath!   No where in the new Testament does it refer to the first day of the week as the Sabbath. 

The disciples of Jesus spent the rest of their lives proclaiming the message of the resurrection, as cowards transformed into men of courage. They were willing to face arrest, imprisonment, beatings, being stoned, and even death.  Not one of them ever denied the Lord or recanted his belief that the Lord had risen.

 

¹² Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵ We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in Christ we have hope^[a] in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
²⁰ But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

                                                                     1 Corinthians 15:12-22

It is my desire to strive to be a Christian as shown in the New Testament and to strive to help the Lord's Church be the way He desired.  Like many of you I grew up in a culture that made Easter and Resurrection Day to be one and the same.   I do not like using the term "Easter" to refer to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave but from time to time I even find myself slipping up and saying the term.  It can be very difficult to change after years of the  customs and traditions one has grown up bomdarding you with ways to pollute the intent of God's Church.  I encourage you all to make the effort to transform and renew your minds to be people who strive after the Scriptures for living the Christian life. 

 

 

 

The Origin & Development of Our Modern Christmas

                         
In the early part of the 4^th Century A.D. the Emperor Constantine established Christianity as the state religion or the Roman Empire and the persecution of Christians came to an end.  From that point forward Christianity increasingly gained political influence and its hierarchy was formed in a pattern much like that of the political system of the Roman Empire.  Regarding the celebration of Christmas as a holiday it was not observed by followers of Christ for the better part of two hundred years after the time Jesus lived on earth.  In the writings of some of the early church fathers in the first three centuries of the existence of the church they did not want this sacred occasion put on a par with pagan carnivals.  One church official, Origen, especially declared against such a practice, asserting that it was sinful to keep Christ’s birthday “as though He were a King Pharaoh.”  Many church leaders denounced the intermingling of pagan with Christian elements in the celebration of Christmas.  Church leaders warned against excessive indulgence of feasting, dancing, and dressing in grotesque costumes.

Although in the early centuries of the Christian era the exact date of the nativity was not known, by the third century some had been observing the event on these varying dates:  January 6, February 2, March 25, April 19, May 20 and November 17.  (During this period of time there were five different calendar systems of reckoning time.)  At the request of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Julius I (Bishop of Rome from 337 – 352 A.D.) made an investigation into the matter of the date.  In 350 A.D., December 25 was set as the most probable time.  The Feast of the Nativity was first observed on this day at Rome, perhaps in 353 A.D.; and from then on the custom spread throughout the empire. About a century later near 440 A.D. the Bishop at Jerusalem also accepted this ruling, as did most of the other Christians, except the Armenians, who still observe Christmas on January 6.  Although many authorities did not agree then and many still do not agree today that December 25 was the correct date—the world will no doubt continue to celebrate on this date.

It is interesting to note that different sources have suggested reasons why the early Church officials selected this date.  Many of the Roman soldiers were adherents to Mithraism, a religion that for a time was a strong rival to Christianity in the empire.  Its most important feast day, (Birth of the Unconquered Sun), occurred on December 25.  The Church authorities may have set the date of Christ’s birth to correspond to celebrations already in practice through earlier pagan beliefs.  Perhaps they thought it wise to give a sacred meaning to pagan observances, rather than antagonize new converts by doing away completely with old customs.

But attempts to combine pagan and Christian events led to difficulties and the pollution of the church by pagan practices.  When the Church found it impossible through repeated bans to abolish all the pagan customs, it “Christianized” them and incorporated them into the Christian observance of Christmas.  This explains the use of greenery (like trees), candles and other lights for decorating the home.  In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merry-makinig and the exchange of gifts.  December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Persian mystery god Mithras also known as the “Sun of Righteousness”.  On the Roman New Year (January 1) houses were decorated with greenery and lights.   Gifts were also given to children and the poor.  Although at first Christians were expected to observe Christmas as a religious holiday exclusively, gradually secular, even pagan elements, such as those listed above and practiced today, were added.

So, the question for us today is:  Will we celebrate Christmas as Christians or as Pagans?  If Christ is left out of Christmas then it is simply a pagan festival.  Nowhere in the New Testament does it instruct us to celebrate the birth of Jesus as some special holiday observance.  The same could be said of Easter too (another term from pagan history).  The only observances we are instructed to do are worship on the Lord’s Day, baptism and communion. 

So was the observance of the birth of Christ as some special holiday to be remembered each year spawned from the nativity in Bethlehem or from the politicized Church of the 4^th Century A.D. combating Pagan religious celebrations and striving to “Christianize” them?   Something to think about for this Christmas season.  In a real sense every day for the Christian is a celebration of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.   Don’t limit your praise and celebration to just one day a year.