Easter: Is It What You Think It Is?

Bonnets, baskets, eggs, new clothes and attending a church service sums up the Western world's approach to Easter. The season also makes a big monetary difference, especially in purchases of clothing, food, candy, flowers, people eating in restaurants and even in collections at church!

Bonnets, baskets, eggs, new clothes and attending a church service sums up the Western world's approach to Easter. The season also makes a big monetary difference, especially in purchases of clothing, food, candy, flowers, people eating in restaurants and even in collections at church!

The National Retail Federation estimates that approximately 80 percent of Americans will celebrate the holiday this year. Shoppers will spend an average of $135, for a total of $14.37 billion!

The average shopper spends $26 for a new outfit; $38 for food for the Easter meal; $19 for candy; $21 for gifts; $10 for flowers; $8 for decorations (figures rounded up).

Ninety million chocolate bunnies are produced in the U.S. every year. Americans also buy over 700 million Marshmallow Peeps and another 4.2 million in the shape of bunnies and other creatures. And they consume 16 billion jellybeans at Easter.

Even with declining church membership, the Christian "flock" still flocks to church on Easter. Church of England statistics for 2002 show that 1.5 million people attended services on Easter. Pollster George Barna writes of Americans: "Every year, many previously unchurched people return to a church for one or more Easter season services".

That translates into income for churches. Christianity Today reported that evangelical church income in the U.S. for 2000 was $2.66 trillion. The North American Mission Board's 2007 Budget projects that it will take in 46 percent of its annual income through Easter offerings.

Some readers will say, That's a coarse way of looking at this Christian festival. Actually, it's a truthful way, because the holiday isn't Christian. Shocking? Consider:

• Eggs have long symbolized fertility and new life; they were used in the pagan spring festivals of Egypt, Persia and Rome.
• Rabbits symbolized the same; they were incorporated into Easter in Germany, brought to the U.S. from there by immigrants, who may have been the first to make chocolate bunnies.
• Easter cards stem from Victorian England, where a stationer added a greeting to a drawing of a rabbit.
• The name Easter comes from Eostre , an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring (and bears an unmistakable likeness to the Ishtar of Babylon and Assyria, whose name was pronounced "Easter").

But now it's Christian, isn't it?

The Roman Council of Nicea officially set Sunday as a day to celebrate Christ's resurrection in A.D. 325. Throughout the following centuries, as missionaries sought to convert various pagans throughout Europe, they adopted local pagan spring festivals customs (hence the connection with the pagan concepts mentioned above). They reasoned that some elements of the pagan festivals paralleled the resurrection of Christ.

How so? The pagans often celebrated the rebirth of life in spring, attributing it to their various gods.

Can you do that? I mean, does God permit religious leaders to perform nip/tuck surgery on biblical teachings just to make them more acceptable to non Christians? Doesn't that mean that those particular non Christians actually aren't converting to Christianity? Even if such a contradictory line of thinking should be adopted, how could anyone legitimately relate pagan fertility celebrations to Christ's resurrection?

A typical comeback from church leaders will be, "Regardless of its negative trappings, Easter Sunday is the celebration of Christ's resurrection!"

Ah, therein is the clincher! Even that is not true!

Jesus wasn't resurrected on Sunday morning! Here are the indisputable facts from the Gospels:

• Jesus was crucified at midday and died at about 3 P.M. (Matthew 27:25-50 [25] Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
  [26] Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
  [27] Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
  [28] And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
  [29] And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
  [30] And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
  [31] And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
  [32] And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.
  [33] And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
  [34] They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
  [35] And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
  [36] And sitting down they watched him there;
  [37] And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
  [38] Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.
  [39] And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
  [40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
  [41] Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
  [42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
  [43] He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
  [44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.
  [45] Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
  [46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
  [47] Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.
  [48] And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
  [49] The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
  [50] Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
  
  See All...).
• Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus hurried to bury Him before sunset that day (John 19:38-42 [38] And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
  [39] And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
  [40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
  [41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
  [42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
  
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• Jesus took great pain to foretell that He would be in the grave three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
  See All..., Mark 8:31And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
  See All..., John 2:19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
  See All...).

A cloud of confusion swirls about that last point, as people attempt to force a Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection into the Bible. You know the rationale: He supposedly meant parts of three days and three nights.

Read what He said. Read also when those who conspired to murder Him feared His disciples would claim He returned to life: "After three days" (Matthew 27:62-64 [62] Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
[63] Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
[64] Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

See All...). The precision of all references makes no sense if His resurrection could have happened anytime between 36-72 hours. It could only be a full 72 hours.

Moreover, Jesus rested His full credibility on this fact (Matthew 12:39-40 [39] But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
[40] For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

See All...).

To know when the resurrection took place, you have to know when the crucifixion occurred. The Bible shows that the latter happened midweek, on what is today called Wednesday; the resurrection was three days and three nights later, shortly before sunset on the seventh day.

Read the details. Just request or download our free, informative booklet: Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep?