The Hypocrisy of Easter Celebrations

ConstitutionallySpeaking ^ | April 23, 2011 | Linda Melin

[TruthConquers]

” the early Christians did a lot of taking existing words and changing their meaning - or didn’t you know that either?”

LOL. Did you know that Jesus himself did that with the word “hypocrite?”

It was used originally as a term for an actor, who wore a mask. Jesus used it as a word to describe the Pharisees, who are famous for pretending to be something they are not, behind their mask.

Christians have been using the words around them to help tell the Christian story since Christ himself.

[Mad Dawg]

Because by keeping the name, you keep the essence of its original definition alive.

How does that work? Is it the sound, the letters, or in some other way?

[RaceBannon]

Some GRTEAT points made here in this!

Christians should be celebrating the Jewish festivals and Holy Days, instead, it is where we got our religion from, and according to Christian theology, they ALL point to Christ and the foundation of our faith!

[patlin]

Easter is the religious celebration for pagans to a pagan goddess. The Christian theocracy takes the Passover, gives it the name of the pagan holiday & then continues to condone the pagan customs along side the celebration of the Resurrection. If their true efforts were to promote Christianity, they would have made extra efforts to differentiate the pagan holiday from that of the Christian one. Instead, they encompassed the two. All for the sake of body count, not for a membership of true believers.

As long as man is alive in the flesh, there will be pagan celebrations, because at our core, we are all born pagan sinners. However, if Christianity is to continue to exist, it MUST separate itself from these pagan religious customs wholly & completely. What is done outside the church is one thing, what is done within the church is another. They chose the name Easter to represent the sunrise/dawn, when in fact, Christ rose the night before. When the Lord God had commanded us NOT to worship any name but His. The religious leaders dropped “Baptism into” from “the Risen Christ”. When they did that, they clouded the meaning of the event and thus paganism during this holy time continues to cloud the true meaning & significance it has to Christianity according to the Gospel.

[patlin]

I refer you to Commandments 1 & 2

[patlin]

The interesting thing is that the Gospel tells us that only 1/3 of God’s chosen Jewish people will even enter His Kingdom. That all will come, but few will enter. Hmmmm

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“I refer you to Commandments 1 & 2”

In other words you’ll still recognize the pagan named days of the week and celebrate birthdays (which is also from pagans), and, if you’re married, you’ll still keep your wedding ring (which is also from pagans).

Hypocrisy is all yours.

[CynicalBear]

The historian Edward Gibbon records that the Apostolic church "united the law of Moses with the teachings of Jesus Christ" (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 15). The early church fled from Jerusalem when the Romans destroyed the city in 70AD. After languishing for over 60 years in Pella, "a considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law" which the church had observed for over a century (ibid.). This was done not to obey God, but to gain admission to the new Roman colony that Hadrian established at Jerusalem, which forbade admission to Jews (or to those whose religious practices would make them appear Jewish). Gibbon indicates that a major part of the early Jerusalem church compromised their beliefs in order to cement their union with the emerging universal Christian church (ibid.).

This sentiment against anything that appeared to be Jewish continued to build throughout the first several centuries of the New Testament church era. Under the influence of the Apostle John, the churches in Asia Minor continued to observe the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, while churches in the western part of the Roman Empire began to observe Easter.

We read of an encounter (in 159AD) between Polycarp (the Bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of John) and Anicetus (the Bishop of Rome), in which Polycarp argued successfully against dropping the Passover observance on the 14th of Nisan in favor of Easter. However, about 40 years later, Victor, the bishop of Rome, excommunicated Polycrates, a leader of the church in Asia Minor (and a disciple of Polycarp) for refusing to go along with Easter observance—which was becoming the accepted custom in Christendom. At the time of Polycrates (about 200AD), the churches in Asia Minor were the only ones still keeping the Passover on the 14th of Nisan instead of Easter. They did so because they were taught to do this by the Apostle John, who had been trained by Jesus Christ. This debate over keeping Passover on the 14th of Nisan or observing Easter is called the Quartodecimian controversy. It was finally settled by the Roman Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD when it was decreed that the Christian world would keep Easter and "that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews" (Encyclopædia Britannica 11th ed., Easter). However, remnants of the Apostolic Church that kept the Holy Days continued to exist on the fringes of the Roman Empire—but these Christians, though faithful to Apostolic Christianity, were branded as heretics.

The lesson of history is that a church council, presided over by a sun-worshipping Roman emperor who was converted to nominal Christianity on his deathbed, simply overruled the Scripture and disregarded the clear example and teachings of Jesus Christ and the historical record of the Apostles.

[patlin]

Thank you, I will. I will spend the 1st part of the day in reflection, then I will prepare a lovely meal for my husband who returns tomorrow from a long week on the road transporting the fresh bounties that stock the gocery shelves that nourish our flesh.

[Terabitten]

So I guess you have different names for the days of the week and the months of the year as well, because they all ‘honor’ pagan gods.

Wodin’s Day, Thor’s Day, Freya’s Day, Janus, Mars, Maia, Juno.... better change all the names, STAT!

[patlin]

Thank You!

[patlin]

In my youth, when we recited the Nicene Creed, we recited..

I believe in one Holy Apostolic Church

Then after time they church leaders changed it to...

one Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church

Now they recite...

one Holy Catholic Church

I don't remember finding the Catholic Church named in the Gospel?

[patlin]

Please tell me what is religious about the name of a day of the week or for that matter the name of a month? When did each & every calendar day become a religious event/celebration & please cite Gospel teaching for your answer.

[MHGinTN]

Wise words, brother lizard. My concern is that too few parents are instilling in their little ones the reason we celebrate this occasion, so the little ones become acculturated to secular celebration and that replaces the true celebratory purpose for Christians. How many times have you heard from some parent, “Oh, I leave religious things for when my children are old enought to decide for themselves” ... of course selling their little seeking souls to the god of secular rot.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Please tell me what is religious about the name of a day of the week or for that matter the name of a month?”

Please tell me where I ever claimed “the name of a day of the week or for that matter the name of a month” was religious?

You keep making things up. Again, do you believe making dishonest claims is sinful?

“When did each & every calendar day become a religious event/celebration & please cite Gospel teaching for your answer.”

When did I ever claim “each & every calendar day” became a religious event/celebration” and why would I have to “cite Gospel teaching” to defend something I never said?

Again, you keep making things up. Do you believe making dishonest claims is sinful? The answer seems obvious but at least I actually ask you questions about what you ACTUALLY do and say rather than make things up and falsely ascribe them to you.

[vladimir998]

Earlier you wrote:

“News to me since I spent much of my youth sitting in the pews of a Catholic church.”

Now you make this utterly bizarre and erroneous claim (about the Catholic Church?):

“Now they recite...one Holy Catholic Church”

No. It has always been the same: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. It has never, ever changed.

[RaceBannon]

G3957 πάσχα (paskha) - the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it); Etymology: of Chaldee origin (compare H6453); KJV: Easter, Passover

[patlin]

I said I spent much of my youth sitting in a Catholic church pew, I did NOT say I was a member of that church. You see, as a child I spent 2 weekends out of the month babysitting for my Uncle & Aunt while they worked Sat evenings. And since they didn't get back until late, I spent the night & thus sat in their church pew in the next morning. My parents were married in the basement chapel of the Catholic church because my father would not convert over to Catholicism. But Catholicism still remains a large part of my external life because a large part of my family are still practicing members of the Catholic faith. These family members, some of whom I am very close to, are some of the most hypocritical people I know.

No. It has always been the same: One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic. It has never, ever changed

In the early versions (pre 1900) versions of the Lutheran Book of Service it uses "Christian" church which they took from the works of Luther.

So what you are citing is that which you know of the church YOU attend, not that of every denomination. I attended a Wesley Methodist church on the Sundays that I wasn't sitting in the catholic pews and I never recited the I believed in one holy catholic church in that church ever. That didn't happen until I married a Lutheran where they married the Catholic to the Apostolic church & now they have dropped the Apostolic all together.

[CynicalBear]

>>I don't remember finding the Catholic Church named in the Gospel?<<

The word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective (katholikos), meaning "universal”

It was first used to describe the Christian Church in the early 2nd century to emphasize its universal scope.

The “catholic” church meaning the universal church of believers is different from the “Roman Catholic Church”.

[patlin]

OK, let me spell this out for one who likes to use strawman arguments instead of speaking directly to the questions raised in the article.

Easter is the name for a religious event. Sunday is the name of a calendar day, so for your argument to have any weight of religious legal meaning, you have to make the argument that each day of the week & each month of the calendar year are religious events in their own right. Easter falls on a Sunday, but we don't celebrate Sunday as a religious holiday do we? That is where you fail miserably in your strawman argument.

Calendars are based on the rising & setting of the sun & moon. There is nothing religious about that. It just is as Good intended. No religion necessary in it. They merely are marks of time for easier historical reference.