EASTER: Why Shouldn’t We
Celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection? How can someone be Christian and not celebrate Jesus’ resurrection? This is a common question facing followers of Jesus Christ who do not observe Easter—one that certainly deserves an answer.
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by Tom Robinson
aster is one of the world’s most popular religious holidays, with hundreds of millions celebrating it every year. For most the celebration is meant to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet there are a number of Christians who see problems with that and refuse to participate in the tradition. But what’s so wrong with Easter? How can it be that Christians would not celebrate Christ’s resurrection? Let’s consider some problems with the Easter tradition.
Easter’s origins long predated Christianity
To begin with, Easter is not rooted in biblical Christianity but in ancient pagan religious practices that existed far earlier. Customs involving rabbits, colored eggs, hot-cross buns and sunrise services come from ancient fertility rites of spring in honor of ancient gods and goddesses. The name Easter, associated with dawn in the east, refers to an ancient goddess of the dawn—Eostre in Old English or Ostara in German. And this apparently ultimately derives from the Babylonian Ishtar, elsewhere known as Astarte and Ashtaroth, the queen of heaven, whose worship is directly condemned in the Bible (see “The Resurrection Connection” on page 23). In fact, the worship of any false god is condemned in the Bible—as is using practices derived from pagan religion to worship the true God. God does not accept such worship even if meant to honor Him. Notice His clear instruction in Deuteronomy 12:29-32: “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods . . . Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it” (emphasis added throughout). The timing is all wrong
Well, it might then be argued, why not strip the day of the pagan stuff and use it only to honor Christ’s resurrection? Yet we must understand that the very timing of the observance comes from false religion. It is not biblical. In Romance languages—those that derive from Latin like
Italian and Spanish—the holiday is not called by the pagan name Easter but by the name of a biblical festival, Passover. Yet this holiday is not the authentic biblical Passover. That day on which the Israelites had offered lambs since the Exodus of Egypt prefigured the offering of Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). And it was on the true Passover day that Jesus was crucified. A close look at the Gospel accounts shows that in that time the Jewish people had come to call the Passover and the entire seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread that immediately follows (Leviticus 23:4-8) by the name “Passover” also—referring to the whole early spring festival period. And as Jesus was in the grave for three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), He was resurrected during the Feast of Unleavened Bread or “Passover week.” This enabled a laterinvented resurrection festival during that week to be called “Passover.” But it was not really the Passover of the Bible. In fact the name of Easter in Latin languages is sometimes given as “Passover of the Resurrection” to distinguish it from the actual Passover day on which Christ died. Yet, again, this is all a complete misnomer—especially since the date of the Easter holiday does not depend on the biblical dates of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the Hebrew calendar. Rather, Easter was set to fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox (with some divergence in interpreting this between eastern and western Christendom). This only sometimes aligns with the biblical dates for the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. These are just not the same observance—not by theme nor by the actual day celebrated. Another problem with the timing here is that Jesus was not even resurrected on Sunday—the supposed basis for weekly Sunday worship and annual Easter Sunday observance. The Good Friday–Easter Sunday time frame is wrong. It can be conclusively proven from the Bible that Jesus died and was buried on Wednesday and left His tomb three days and three nights later (see Matthew 12:40 and look up “three days and three nights” on our website at BTmagazine.org). His resurrection was actually on Saturday, on the weekly Sabbath. So if we were to celebrate the day on which Jesus rose from death, that day would be the seventh-day Sabbath (observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset each week). Of course we should be doing that anyway, since observing the Sabbath is commanded in the Ten Commandments, regardless of what day Jesus was resurrected on. (Weekly Sunday worship also originated in pagan religion—“Sun day” B Tm a g a z i n e . o r g
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March-April 2020
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