Is Easter Pagan?

[Vic]

While we have another thread about easter and passover in the Messianic section, http://www.seekgod.ca/forum/showthread.p...215&page=5

lets hit this question directly here.

Is Easter a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted as their own, as many are accusing, or is it a special time for declaring the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

What does easter mean?

[Mary]

(04-01-2010 09:20 PM)Vic Wrote:  While we have another thread about easter and passover in the Messianic section, http://www.seekgod.ca/forum/showthread.p...215&page=5

lets hit this question directly here.

Is Easter a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted as their own, as many are accusing, or is it a special time for declaring the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

What does easter mean?

Just some thoughts:
The Creation speaks of the Creator, and God has shown us in His creation, through the seasons, and the change of Winter into Spring, that resurrection a) occurs; b) is redemptive; c) covers sins and recovers life and thus is forgiving.
Mankind often misses the point, and in laziness and foolishness, worships the created instead of the Creator. All sorts of convoluted behaviour results in order that people have some sense of power from the creation and over the creation. This causes a feeling of being in relationship with the created, and they become more and more caught up in developing this relationship, failing to realise that it is one-sided and made up of "imaginings".
Thus we have the pagan: - Easter, and the myths of bunnies and eggs, of fertility and new life.
But God wants us to know more than what the creation shows, He wants us to know him individually, and have a personal relationship with Him. But mankind turned away from God, and went into the captivity of worshipping the created. God used His chosen people, Israel, to demonstrate His redemption, to bring people out of this captivity. The actuality and the symbolism of the Passover made this clear, but today, many are stuck in the desert, going over the events of the Passover, but not accepting that the sacrificial Lamb has Risen and is alive.
So, we have the Passover.
But for those of us, Blessed to have found Him, and recognize that He died for each of us, and rose again, this is a wonderful time share our remembrance, to go over the old old story, which is new every morning. Call it Easter, or Passover, or what you will. In my heart, it is the people of the world reaching out to know something I know, something He has told us in His creation, in his relationship with His chosen people and in His Word: That God is real, that He sent his son Jesus, to die for us and resurrect to give us eternal life with Him.

[peteraugusts]

The word "Easter" resembles the name of a couple of ancient "gods" but until about 1980 almost nobody in the modern world knew or cared. Whether the spelling or pronunciation of the word came from one of these is irrelevant to me. If it was discovered that there was an ancient deity who was called something like "Church" or "Bible" I would not suddenly cease to use the word... that is silly. And so is refusing to accept "Easter" because it might have derived from a pagan source

[YYZ Skinhead]

After attending an Ostara spring equinox celebration while I was a Pagan (with a sunrise service, coloring eggs and the Easter rabbit), it's impossible for me not to think of it as a Pagan holiday. I even did a burnt sacrifice of a werewolf sketch I had drawn.

Nowadays I consider Easter a pretext for me to watch "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" and to eat a lot of chocolate. It's a non-holiday like any other day as far as I am concerned.

[Rose of Shushan]

YYZ I understand where you're coming from but the thing is Passover also tended to coiincide with the Spring Equinox.And the beginning of the year according to Mosaic Law was also around the time of the equinox.
As Christians what generally happens is that we place the focus on the events that happened during the time of Passover 2000 years ago.We do not give any credit to any false gods whatsover during this time.
Just because easter eggs have crept into the celebrations of some,does not mean that we are buying into the myths and legends connected with eggs in the past.In same way that we cannot say that jews by including an egg on the seder plate are also honouring the egg thing in any way.I used to get easter eggs as a child,and fertility rites,pagan gods and all that stuff never crossed my mind.Was just a tradition and you knew that Easter Sunday you got to eat your eggs.There was no detraction from focusing on the events that happened to our Saviour.
Mary I agreed a lot with what you wrote.Whatever we call this time,it is a time to remember the events that went on.To focus on a word,Easter is unfortunate.In greek its called the Pascha.In spanish its la Pascua...all connected to pesach or its english translation Passover.The thing is while it is Passover it is Passover with a difference.The fulfilment of what the Sinai Passover pointed to.He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.The emphasis now is on that awesome fulfilment and the events surrounding it.
And as Christians we do not ignore what happened during the first Passover either.Its just that emphasis is placed on focusing more on Jesus fulfilment of what the sinai Passover was pointing to.

[Dee]

(04-01-2010 09:20 PM)Vic Wrote:  While we have another thread about easter and passover in the Messianic section, http://www.seekgod.ca/forum/showthread.p...215&page=5

lets hit this question directly here.

Is Easter a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted as their own, as many are accusing, or is it a special time for declaring the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

What does easter mean?

Could it not be both?
Just some thoughts-- The Israelites were in trouble for mixing 'strange fire' and other gods/ images/ in with what God told them to keep to His rules. What could be the "strange fire" in our time? Is everything OK to do just because "in my heart" I don't believe it is now what it was 100 or 1000 yrs ago? Is that trusting in my own understanding (therefore wrong?) Could the Israelites get away with saying that when they made the golden calf? Are we different than them, are there different expectations on us in the New Covenant? Do I have "weak faith" because I may think it IS still demonic/ pagan when it may mean nothing? It would be easier to answer if I knew what exactly was expected of me by the Almighty Creator of the Universe and everything in it. 1 Cor. chapter 10- I am studying it now.

1 Corinthians 11:26 (NET) "For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes." This is "Passover" - remembering His death. But the Word also says:
Philippians 3:10 (NET) "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,..." This gives me peace, just the simplicity of these words from Him. Isn't the other stuff from "man"?

[sheep wrecked]

(06-23-2010 04:42 PM)Dee Wrote:  

(04-01-2010 09:20 PM)Vic Wrote:  While we have another thread about easter and passover in the Messianic section, http://www.seekgod.ca/forum/showthread.p...215&page=5

lets hit this question directly here.

Is Easter a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted as their own, as many are accusing, or is it a special time for declaring the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

What does easter mean?

Could it not be both?
Just some thoughts-- The Israelites were in trouble for mixing 'strange fire' and other gods/ images/ in with what God told them to keep to His rules. What could be the "strange fire" in our time? Is everything OK to do just because "in my heart" I don't believe it is now what it was 100 or 1000 yrs ago? Is that trusting in my own understanding (therefore wrong?) Could the Israelites get away with saying that when they made the golden calf? Are we different than them, are there different expectations on us in the New Covenant? Do I have "weak faith" because I may think it IS still demonic/ pagan when it may mean nothing? It would be easier to answer if I knew what exactly was expected of me by the Almighty Creator of the Universe and everything in it. 1 Cor. chapter 10- I am studying it now.

1 Corinthians 11:26 (NET) "For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes." This is "Passover" - remembering His death. But the Word also says:
Philippians 3:10 (NET) "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,..." This gives me peace, just the simplicity of these words from Him. Isn't the other stuff from "man"?

For me, when I review what Israel did, they used pagan things to worship pagan gods. Or their hearts were not right with the Lord.

Traditions and customs at Easter are something people do to celebrate as their culture treats it. I think it's a strawman to get people to feel guilty about stuff that matters little. The actuality is worship and thankfulness for what Jesus did on the cross and His resurrection. What people do does not affect the sacrifice or the relationship with Christ. If a person is one with Christ, the things of this world are just that.

The thing is, our lives are full of paganism, yet God sees through that and into the heart. Are eggs pagan? bunnies? Everything on earth is used in other religions to worship their gods so we should not have trees, flowers, etc near us when we celebrate the Lord?

[grafted]

(06-23-2010 04:58 PM)sheep wrecked Wrote:  

(06-23-2010 04:42 PM)Dee Wrote:  

(04-01-2010 09:20 PM)Vic Wrote:  While we have another thread about easter and passover in the Messianic section, http://www.seekgod.ca/forum/showthread.p...215&page=5

lets hit this question directly here.

Is Easter a pagan holiday that Christians have adopted as their own, as many are accusing, or is it a special time for declaring the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

What does easter mean?

Could it not be both?
Just some thoughts-- The Israelites were in trouble for mixing 'strange fire' and other gods/ images/ in with what God told them to keep to His rules. What could be the "strange fire" in our time? Is everything OK to do just because "in my heart" I don't believe it is now what it was 100 or 1000 yrs ago? Is that trusting in my own understanding (therefore wrong?) Could the Israelites get away with saying that when they made the golden calf? Are we different than them, are there different expectations on us in the New Covenant? Do I have "weak faith" because I may think it IS still demonic/ pagan when it may mean nothing? It would be easier to answer if I knew what exactly was expected of me by the Almighty Creator of the Universe and everything in it. 1 Cor. chapter 10- I am studying it now.

1 Corinthians 11:26 (NET) "For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes." This is "Passover" - remembering His death. But the Word also says:
Philippians 3:10 (NET) "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,..." This gives me peace, just the simplicity of these words from Him. Isn't the other stuff from "man"?

For me, when I review what Israel did, they used pagan things to worship pagan gods. Or their hearts were not right with the Lord.

Traditions and customs at Easter are something people do to celebrate as their culture treats it. I think it's a strawman to get people to feel guilty about stuff that matters little. The actuality is worship and thankfulness for what Jesus did on the cross and His resurrection. What people do does not affect the sacrifice or the relationship with Christ. If a person is one with Christ, the things of this world are just that.

The thing is, our lives are full of paganism, yet God sees through that and into the heart. Are eggs pagan? bunnies? Everything on earth is used in other religions to worship their gods so we should not have trees, flowers, etc near us when we celebrate the Lord?

Didn't he specify how to remember him though?

[sheep wrecked]

(06-26-2010 04:45 PM)grafted Wrote:  Didn't he specify how to remember him though?

Are you asking in reference to Easter?

[grafted]

(06-26-2010 10:33 PM)sheep wrecked Wrote:  

(06-26-2010 04:45 PM)grafted Wrote:  Didn't he specify how to remember him though?

Are you asking in reference to Easter?

Yes