The four Gospels make it clear that Jesus was crucified in conjunction with the Jewish Passover (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-15; John 18:28,39; 19:14). The four Gospels also make it clear that Jesus was raised from the dead three days later, on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1,19). Biblically speaking, then, Christ’s resurrection should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover meal. However, this is not the case. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. This method of determining the date of Easter often results in Easter being before Passover and/or displaced far from Passover. Easter can potentially be observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
The Bible does not instruct Christians to set aside a day to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. At the same time, the resurrection is most assuredly worth celebrating (1 Corinthians chapter 15). Celebration of Christ’s resurrection, then, is a matter of Christian freedom. Christians are free to celebrate the day of Christ’s resurrection and are free to refrain from celebrating. Since it is a matter of Christian freedom and not a biblical command, it would seem that there is also freedom as to precisely when the celebration of Christ’s resurrection is observed. Just as with Christmas, the exact date is not important. It is the fact that Christ was resurrected that is important. Christians are free to follow the traditional dating system for Easter, thereby observing Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. At the same time, the lack of conjunction with Passover and the questionable (at best) motives for the method of scheduling Easter make it highly doubtful that Christ’s resurrection is being celebrated according to the biblical calendar.
For my part, my issue with Easter is the word itself. Easter. This does need some explanation as it is a derivation of the name of a pagan goddess called Ishtar. This particular goddess was worshipped by various groups. Ishtar was in fact the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte. She was a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus". Mostly she was associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the "town of the sacred courtesans"; and she herself was the "courtesan of the gods". Not a very wholesome association for Christians, really. However, along with Christmas, we inherited these feasts or holydays (holy days). The ancient Catholic Church ‘converted’ these popular holydays to the Christian calendar and so they became part of the traditional Church calendar.
Should this worry us? Not necessarily. However, I do feel quite strongly that their origin ought to be common knowledge. That way we are not necessarily confused when all sorts of non Christian customs get mixed up in the things we do on these occasions. The egg, for example was and is still very much a symbol of fertility. Hence new birth, however, not the Biblical new birth of Christianity, but the cyclical new birth of the seasons, also often associated with reincarnation a totally non Christian belief system. The Bible teaches resurrection, something much more exciting then re incarnation. In Biblical resurrection we remain the same person, renewed and reborn into a much improved physical body. In reincarnation there is, at best, only a faint and fragmented memory of the past. In pure and early Buddhism, for example, reincarnation had no reflection of a past life at all. Later, the ‘science’ of reincarnation become very sophisticated and involved streams of ‘particles’ that have some very complicated relationships to the past lives of the life form reincarnated.
I have always liked to connect the Apostle Paul’s words with these sorts of things,
‘But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.’ Philippians 1: 18
As a result, many Christians simply exploit the opportunity these holydays give to preach the gospel as enthusiastically as possible and thereby ‘preach Christ’ and encourage all men everywhere to be saved. This we should do and that is the purpose of this article. The most important thing in the world is to know that you have eternal life. Eternal life is in Christ. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour and surrender your life to Him asking Him to forgive you for anything and everything you have done that is in any way contrary to His will and plan for your life, you will receive the gift of eternal life. From that point on you can know that you will live forever. Further, when this body goes into the grave and dies, your inner being, the real ‘you’ will consciously and with full awareness, go into the presence of the Lord and will one day be resurrected from the grave and all your constituent elements will be reunited back into a physical body that will be immortal. That is the promise of the Bible. That is the promise of the death and resurrection of Christ that we celebrate during the holyday we call Easter.
If you’ve never made certain of eternal life, do it now by praying that prayer sincerely and He will keep his promise to you and give you the gift of eternal life.
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