I have taken a day off of covering Pilgrim's Progress to discuss something that has been on my mind. As I write this, Resurrection Sunday is nearing. A local church is going to have a huge helicopter egg drop. This is my take.
As we near Resurrection Sunday, we hear about 50,000 egg drops from helicopters. Some of these churches will have face paintings, games, and the Easter Bunny. Some of the eggs hold tickets that can be redeemed for an iPad, Nintendo Wii, American Girl Doll, bikes, and televisions. Some churches have the Easter Bunny appear around town the week before in a church t-shirt.
It is well known that Resurrection Sunday and Christmas are the two largest church attended Sundays on the calendar, so why have churches turned to this extreme project? One word, competition. Churches are in competition with each other. If a church is having a 5,000 egg hunt, another has to have a 10,000 egg hunt, and the most daring will have an egg drop.
As a child we had Easter egg hunts around the yard, but never was it associated with the church. The church was when we heard why we were in church, it was Resurrection Sunday! Christ has risen! He has risen indeed! Easter and the Christian church had no association.
The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. Of Baeda, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, and writer of 'Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation' by which Of Baeda earned the title 'Father of English History', first asserted in his book 'De Ratione Temporum' that Easter was named after Eostre or 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." Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."
Do you know how the date of Easter is selected each year? Easter is to occur on the first Sunday following the full moon after the first day of the Spring Equinox . All of the Solstices and Equinoxes are extremely important to pagans.
If you say,"I don't worship this Goddess". That is fine, but the eggs and bunny are quite clear. They are symbols of fertility. So we have now welcomed the Easter Bunny to church. Who is next; the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, or Jesus? You see where this can lead?
"The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates." Deuteronomy 12:28-31
Think I'm full of it? Check out this Wiccan site. http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostarathespringequinox/p/OstaraAltar.htm
very interesting. I wonder how many Christians know where the word easter came from? What is the day and month of Resurrection? We have always clearly celebrated it as Resurrection Day, so we have not sinned, but knowing the truth now, I want to celebrate it on the proper day (your opinion?)
ReplyDeleteJesus was crucified the morning before Passover.
ReplyDeleteAt the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God. He is called the Lamb again in Revelation. He is our Passover lamb. We are freed from bondage to sin, because Jesus died for us. Death will pass over us because of His resurrection.
The festival of the Passover has been celebrated by Jews for thousands of years. It is the retelling of the great story of how God redeemed the Jewish nation from enslavement in Egypt. The celebration itself was given to the Jews while they were still in Egypt. The original celebration centered around the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed and its blood put over the doorposts as a sign of faith, so that the Lord passed over the houses of the Jews during the last plague poured out on the Egyptians - the killing of every firstborn. The New Testament says that Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb. The Passover lamb was to be a "male without defect," which is the same description given to Jesus.7 In addition, when the lamb was roasted and eaten, none of its bones were to be broken.8 This fact was also prophesized for the Messiah, whose bones were not to be broken. It was customary during crucifixion to break the leg bones of the person after a few hours in order to hasten their death. The only way a person could breathe when hanging on a cross was to push up with his legs, which was very exhausting. By breaking the legs, death followed soon by asphyxiation. However, in the case of Jesus, they broke the legs of the other two men, but did not break His, since He was already dead.
Therefore I believe we need to celebrate the Resurrection on a Sunday during Passover.
Passover in 2012 will start on Saturday, the 7th of April and will continue for 7 days until Friday, the 13th of April. So it would be April 8th in this year.