I can imagine that your first reaction to this title is, “Oh this is an article addressing the religious, and condemning the commercial aspect of “Easter”. Well, you may be surprised, because what I intend to do here in a very brief way is state what the Bible teaching on the subject is and what New Testament Christians believe and practice.
In the first place the word “Easter” does not even appear in the Greek New Testament. The King James translators “translated” the Greek for passover into the English word easter ( Acts 12:4). In many good Bible dictionaries the word easter cannot be found. The reason being it is not a valid Bible subject. Note what is listed in the “Handy Dictionary of the Bible” edited by Merrill C. Tenney- “Easter (passover), rendered Easter in Acts 12:4 KJV, but should be Passover, as in ASV.” But where did these men get this from? According to Bede, the name Easter is derived from the pagan spring festival of the Anglo Saxon goddess Eostre, and many folk customs associated with Easter (for example, Easter eggs) are of pagan origin. Easter Day is currently determined as the first Sunday after the full moon on or after March 21.
The religious significance assigned to this day is that of the resurrection of Jesus. As Tenney writes of Easter, “The day on which the church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” When Mr. Tenney speaks of the church he speaks of Catholicism specifically and what he and religious world calls Christendom.
What does the Bible say about all this? In Acts 12, the apostle Peter knew nothing about a so-called Easter. If you will note the context of the Acts 12:1-4, king Herod has killed James the brother of John and is seeking to please the Jews (verse 3) “he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.” (Acts 12:3 NJKV). The Jews knew nothing of an Easter, they knew about the Passover. Luke is stating that Herod intended to arrest Peter and bring him before the Jews after their Passover was finished.
The Bible teaches Christians to commemorate and remember the death of Jesus every first day of the week. This is done when we partake of the Lord’s Supper as He has commanded Christians to (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:23-29). The resurrection of Jesus is important to the church, because without the resurrection of Jesus there would be no church (Mt. 16:18, Rom. 1:4; Eph. 2:20). But no where in the New Testament has God authorized the church to set aside one day a year to worship the resurrection of Jesus! Whatever we do in religion must be done by the authority of Christ (Col.3:17), and there is no authority from Jesus to celebrate Easter!
Therefore, true Christians will not get themselves all wrapped up in the doctrines and commandments of men. True Christians will weekly remember the death our Lord accomplished on the cross for our salvation. True Christians are those who have been raised with Christ in water immersion (Rom 6:1-4) for the forgiveness of their past sins and now live looking forward to His return in the clouds and taking them away to heaven.
Churches of Christ do not involve themselves with the denominational hoopla of what is called “Easter Sunday”.
0 Comments