Posted on 04/06/2012 9:32:25 PM PDT by Colofornian
The Christian World just recently celebrated Easter. But as a general rule, it seems to me that Easter Sunday is NOT properly observed -at least in the ward's I have belonged to.
I remember vividly an Easter Sunday (15 years ago) wherein the sacrament meeting was a missionary farewell--no particular emphasis on Easter, Christ's Atonement of Resurrection.
I went to Sunday School--the instructor simply taught the next lesson in the manual--no emphasis whatsoever on Easter related topics.
I went to Priesthood Meeting--same story in my Elder's Quorum. Finally, after going from classroom to classroom I discovered that the Priest's quorum of having a lesson on Easter.
This last Easter, the sacrament meeting program was very much Easter centered with the choir singing an Easter Cantata (by Gerald Lund and His wife--very nice!). However, the congregational hymns (3) WERE NOT from the Easter hymns in the hymn book.
The Sunday School class I attended had an Easter Centered Lesson, but that is only because I taught it! (Gospel Essentials).
What is the deal? It seems to me that this is the one Sunday on which we could deviate from the lesson manual just enough to focus on the central doctrine of our Church and Christianity!
I recently voiced this opinion in Correlation Meeting and received a lecture from our Relief Society President that it would be completely inappropriate to deviate from the lesson schedule!
What has been your experience?
Is there some church policy that I am not aware of that prohibits us from having a special lesson on Easter?
Are Church instructors so mindless that they can't do anything but blindly follow the manual?
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Excerpt) Read more at pacumenispages.yuku.com ...
Water and white bread were not served at the Last Supper.
I love that graphic.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%209:22&version=ESVUK
“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Indeed. As Paul the apostle wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%202:8-9&version=ESVUK
How He died is important. The cross gave a logo to the Logos. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen put it; "By itself, the cross is an absurdity. It is the vertical symbol of life contradicted by the horizontal symbol of death. It is absurd until you superimpose Jesus on it." It is so simple, yet tells the entire story. Jesus didn't die peacefully in His sleep or suddenly to the executioners ax. He died the most gruesome and slow death the exceedingly cruel Roman Empire could imagine.
Crucifixion was a state sponsored terrorism tactic used to manage conquered peoples. So severe was it that it was prohibited as a punishment for Roman citizens. In the first century it was not some imaginary horror or symbolic concept, it was very real in every corner of the Roman Empire. It was so abhorrent that it was not directly discussed in Roman society and the early Christians rarely discussed it for several hundred years.
It was in its extremity that the glory of God's triumph was reflected. The Church, in an unprecedented propaganda coup, usurped the symbol of Rome's absolute power to condemn, punish and kill, and converted it into its own triumphant symbol of love, forgiveness and life.
Embracing the cross was, as one theology professor stated, giving the finger to Rome and the Emperor to the extent that it was largely prohibited. It was kept alive through graffiti and in hidden Churches until the Emperor Constantine saw the symbol in the sky and embraced it.
Nicely stated.
teppe wrote:
“unlike yourself that believe that Christ ditched his ressurected body once he left the earth”
I see from this that you don’t know Christian theology. Actually, having read your post, I see that you don’t know much at all. But don’t tell yourself that. You won’t believe you. And you, as I can see from your post, are always right ... always.
Oh, by the way, “ressurection” is spelled: resurrection.
great vid!
lds does not celebrate Easter they just observe.
place marker
Indeed. Lutheran Satire has quite a few clever ones. Here’s one on Mormon Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GONVQJxnll4
This is NOT saying "the same as doing it".
Logic?
There were PLENTY of them!
The council merely focused what had been commonly accepted into a precise definition. It did not CREATE the definition.
Yes.
Christians are those who believe that Jesus is God, the second person (hypostasis) of the Trinity and consubstantial with the God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
The Pagan Origins of the name “Easter”: The name “Easter” originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the “Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos.” 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: “eastre.” Similar Goddesses were known by other names in ancient cultures around the Mediterranean, & celebrated in the springtime. Aphrodite, named Cytherea (Lady of Cythera)
Ashtoreth from ancient Israel;
Astarte from ancient Greece;
Demeter from Mycenae;
Hathor from ancient Egypt;
Ishtar from Assyria;
Kali, from India; and
Ostara a Norse Goddess of fertility.
I prefer Resurrection Sunday, no bunnies no eggs, Only Jesus
Agreed. How do non-Trinitarians explain the following passage:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2028&version=ESVUK
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.