In
part I of this series, we investigated Passover and how that ties in with the Lord’s Supper. We saw how Jesus changed the Passover and we saw it is not the Passover of the Old Covenant. Jesus made all things new (II COR. 5: 17).
In this installment, we will investigate how the Lord’s Supper ties in with Easter, and we will answer not a few questions that I hope clear things up about Easter and its supposedly pagan origins.
What was Easter originally called?
When Jesus and the Apostles ate the Last Supper early on the 14th, with all new symbols that were a remembrance of Him, this broke the remembrance away from the Passover Seder which is held early on the 15th with old symbols that were a remembrance of the Exodus. The name Passover remained. Easter is an English word; and not by any means the original name of the feast. Passover is an English word too; anyone who wants to make a huge deal about calling something by a different name should remember that the name of the celebration isn’t Passover. In Hebrew and Aramaic the name is Pesach. In Greek and Latin the name is Pascha.
When the New Testament was being formed, the name of the Last Supper was “Pascha.” Pascha is used 29 times in the New Testament. When the KJV translates Acts 12: 4 into Easter, the original word is Pascha. When the Quartodecimans and the church in Rome argued over timing, they argued over one and the same feast, which was Pascha. When we read the ancient histories, particularly by Eusebius who wrote about the infamous Council of Nicea, the word he used was Pascha. This is the name that was used for hundreds of years before English even became a language or the word Easter was ever uttered. To this very day the name of the Easter celebration throughout most of Christendom is Pascha (or some very similar derivitive), as it always had been. The Catholic Encyclopedia lists a great number of the Paschal names:
"The Greek term for Easter, pascha, has nothing in common with the verb paschein, "to suffer," although by the later symbolic writers it was connected with it; it is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew pesach (transitus, passover). The Greeks called Easter the pascha anastasimon; Good Friday the pascha staurosimon. The respective terms used by the Latins are Pascha resurrectionis and Pascha crucifixionis. In the Roman and Monastic Breviaries the feast bears the title Dominica Resurrectionis; in the Mozarabic Breviary, In Lætatione Diei Pasch Resurrectionis; in the Ambrosian Breviary, In Die Sancto Paschæ. The Romance languages have adopted the Hebrew-Greek term: Latin, Pascha; Italian, Pasqua; Spanish, Pascua; French, Pâques. Also some Celtic and Teutonic nations use it: Scottish, Pask; Dutch, Paschen; The correct word in Dutch is actually Pasen Danish, Paaske; Swedish, Pask; even in the German provinces of the Lower Rhine the people call the feast Paisken not Ostern. The word is, principally in Spain and Italy, identified with the word "solemnity" and extended to other feasts, e.g. Sp., Pascua florida, Palm Sunday; Pascua de Pentecostes, Pentecost; Pascua de la Natividad, Christmas; Pascua de Epifania, Epiphany. In some parts of France also First Communion is called Pâques, whatever time of the year administered."
-Holweck, Frederick. "Easter." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 19 Apr. 2010
.
It was traditional even in the Apostle’s day to fast before Passover. (Technically, this is a holdover from an ancient Hebrew tradition where the first-born male would fast before Passover.) The eastern Christians followed the example of a Paschal fast ending on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan. The westerners followed the example of a Paschal fast ending on the Lord’s Day after the 14th. The Europeans eventually found tracking the 14th of Nissan to be prohibitively disruptive, and didn’t fancy binding the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection to the calendar and calculations of the Jews who rejected Christ. All they wanted was a static date for Pascha and an answer on when to end the fast. That is the entire debate. No one ever doubted when Jesus ate the Last Supper and was crucified, nor did anyone ever doubt the time of His resurrection. From late in the first century, after the destruction of the temple, the western churches observed the Last Supper on the Sunday after the 14th of Nisan; the eastern churches on the 14th itself.
Eusebius (who was there), clearly and without equivocation, shows us that the celebration people argued over is none other than the Last Supper, which is Passover. Eusebius says there was a:
“diversity of judgment in regard to the time for celebrating one and the same feast”.
-Eusebius,
Life of Constantine, book III, chapter V, in section “Of the Disagreement Respecting the Celebration of Easter”.
So, it was one and the same Feast! While HWA would invent an argument over paganism, Eusebius, who was there, says no such thing. The timing arguments appear to me, after much reading and re-reading, to be more focused on when to end the Paschal fast (the same fast that has become Lent). The arguing was
not over any pagan roots of Easter.
So, Easter is Pascha.
What about the name “Easter”?
It is unfortunate that certain Germanic languages and English have changed the name of the festival, and certain people have latched onto that name in order to build a false case against it.
Easter is an English word. It is most likely taken from the Old English word “Eastre.” All scholars are not agreed about the etymology (when are all scholars ever in agreement). English is a Germanic language, after all. And the English word Eastre seems to come from the German word “Eostramonath.”
So, what is that?
HWA would make a great deal over the idea that “Eostre” is the name of a pagan goddess. The only source we have for the “Eostre was a pagan goddess” theory are the writings of a Catholic Benedictine monk named Bede (also called “the Venerable Bede”) in his work “
De Temporum Ratione” (“The Reckoning of Time”) which he wrote in the early 700’s AD. So, for all people who think Catholics are unreliable liars, your condemnation rests on Catholic writings. Keep that in mind.
Bede was a historian and was attempting to determine the history of the English and Germanic peoples.
Here is exactly what he wrote, translated into English of course:
"Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."
When we actually read Bede’s own writings as opposed to taking HWA on blind faith, we learn that Eostremonath is the old High German name for the month of April. Bede goes on to say that by his day any customs relating to Eostre had died out and the Paschal Month alone was celebrated. And that’s really all he says about it.
I must make it abundantly clear that this particular spelling is Bede’s alone, as there was no official spelling, and the word is Germanic but Bede wrote in Latin. To be completely accurate, there was no official spelling of the English, either, since the first English dictionary wasn’t written until 1604.
Do we have any corroborating evidence about the month? Yes.
We know that Charlemagne, scourge of the German pagans, officially named the month of April “Ostarmanoth” around the year 800. (Any Encyclopedia or a thousand other sources will have info on this. See the WikiPedia article on the
Julian Calendar under the section “Month names” for example.) That name remained until the 15th century, while unofficially the name was used even until the 20th century (and might even still be used to this day by some people.) So Bede, spelling aside, is completely accurate on the name of the month. It’s the name of the goddess that we doubt here.
The Germanic week days were named after gods and goddesses (Wednesday = Woden’s Day. Thursday = Thor’s Day. And so forth.) This is completely undeniable, and we know of the gods that the days were named after. The months, on the other hand, were not named after gods and goddesses. They were named after meteorological or environmental events. When we look in the old German, we find no certain parallel for any goddess named Eostre.
The name of the month comes from the name of the goddess, according to Bede, who has no corroborating proof. So it’s the month that was named after the goddess, not the Paschal feast. The Paschal feast is renamed after the month, not the goddess. So, even if Bede were right, the goddess still bears
no direct influence on Easter. Thus, to the detriment of all who love to condemn a billion+ Christians, the timing bears far more on the name than any goddess does.
Who is Ostara?
Some people argue that Eostre is another name for a Germanic fertility goddess called Ostara (among other names). However, there is far more speculation than fact in this claim.
A little known truth is that this “Eostre = Ostara” claim actually originates with Jakob Grimm, of the Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. Don’t let that fool you, the Grimm brothers were highly intelligent, well read, and thoroughly credentialed scholars.
Jakob Grimm wrote a book on German mythology which was first published in 1835 under the title “Deutsche Mythologie” (“
Teutonic Mythology”) in which he investigated the origins of Eostre. The section on Ostara appears in Volume I, in chapter XIII section 7 which is titled “Hruoda (Hrede). Ostara (Eastre)”. Most of the information about Ostara comes in two paragraphs.
That's it. Two paragraphs.
Though I fear it will needlessly lengthen this study, I will print every word that Jacob Grimm has written here for you to read in order that you may see how speculative it is for yourself:
"On the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon historian [Bede] tells us the names of two beings, whom he expressly calls ancient goddesses of his people, but of whose existence not a trace is left among other Germans. ... The two goddesses, whom Beda [Bede] (de temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly, without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and Eastre, March taking its Saxon name from the first, and April from the second... It would be uncritical to saddle this father of the church, who everywhere keeps heathenism at a distance, and tells us less of it than he knows, with the invention of these goddesses."
-Grimm.[emphasis mine]
Alternate link:
http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/013_10.php
"We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and Ostarmanoth is found as early as Eginhart [an abbot who worked as a Secretary for Charlemagne]. The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of [Old High German] remains the name ostara; it is found mostly in the plural, because two days were kept at Easter. This Ostara, like the [Anglo Saxon] Eastre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries. All the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical 'pascha'; even Uliphilas writes paska, not austro, though he must have known the word; the Norse tongue also has imported its paskir, Swedish pask, Danish paaske. The [Old High German] adverb ostar expresses movement toward the rising sun [this info taken from Gylfaginning which is the first section of a 13th century Icelandic prose book called Edda or Prose Edda – you will note the 13th century is far later than 700 AD], likewise the Old Norse austr, and probably an [Anglo Saxon] eastor and Gothic austr. In Latin the identical auster has been pushed round to the noonday quarter, the South. In the Edda a male being, a spirit of light, bears the name of austri, so a female one might have been called Austra; the High German and Saxon tribes seem on the contrary to have formed only an Ostara, Eastre (fem.), not Ostaro, Easra (masc.). And that may be the reason why the Norsemen said paskir and not austrur; they had never worshipped a goddess austra, or her cultus was already extinct.
"Ostara, Eastre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection-day of the christian's God. Bonfires were lighted at Easter, and according to a popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps, he dances for joy. Water drawn on Easter morning is like that at Christmas, holy and healing; here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the roch and mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess."
-Grimm. [emphasis mine]
Alternate link:
http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/013_11.php
And there you have it. This is a “Eostre = Ostara” proposal by Jacob Grimm, not a hard fact. He even admits that he is speculating about something Bede gave no detail about, and “of whose existence not a trace is left among other Germans.”
That doesn’t stop most people from constructing elaborate scenarios from this information, however, and with that they boldly condemn billions.
And still other, far more determined, people claim that if we go back far enough Ostara derives from Ishtar/Ashtoreth. There is no solid evidence for this whatsoever. All claims of this nature are purely speculative (even so, they are taught as fact.) If we can’t find proof for Eostre as a goddess let alone this Ostara, how on earth can we possibly have the proof that links her to Ishtar? The words sound alike, and that’s enough. But this appears to me to be what we call “
false cognates.” They are not related. It doesn’t help that these claims probably come from Alexander Hyslop, who we all know was wholly unreliable. Certainly Jacob Grimm never intended his work to be so grossly misused.
This theoretical goddess bears no more influence on the name of Easter than Saturn’s Day has on the seventh-day Sabbath. Calling the Sabbath “Saturday” doesn’t make anyone any more a pagan than calling Pascha “Easter.” For all of the people who make such a huge fuss over something so simple as a name, don’t they know “Pentecost” is Helenistic Greek word, and the real name of the day is Sukkot? Using this same line of thinking with which they condemn a billion+ Christians, aren’t they also a pagan for keeping Pentecost? The Hellenistic Greeks were pagans! (I hope you understand I'm being facetious.)
HWA was well known for playing word games. He once claimed Mussolini was called “Il Duce” because “duce” is the Anglo-Saxon word for “demon.” When in reality, it is the Latin word for “commander,” and from this same word we get the English word “Duke.”
I used to play the same word games myself... until I stopped being afraid of the truth.
For anyone wanting more information about this, we recommend you read the following three links on the subject. They are quite informative:
Where did Easter come from?
The Origin Easter - Pagan or Christian? (see p.2)
Is Easter a Pagan Festival?
From the evidence we have, we can be confident that the word Easter comes from the name of the month in which it fell, not from the name of a goddess. Eaosturmonath was likely shortened in the translation, as is common with long names, and eventually we get the English word Easter.
Ancient pagan holiday?
HWA taught that there was a dispute in the earliest years about whether to keep Passover or whether to adopt a pagan holiday. This is patently false!
Regardless of what happened in Germany hundreds of years afterwards, Pascha is most definitely not derived from a pagan holiday. No pagan holiday was involved in any sense. The issue was about the calendar and following after Judaism, not paganism, but all parties involved were observing Pascha. Not only is Herbert Armstrong’s claim untrue, but it is baseless. There are no reliable facts behind this claim whatsoever.
The idea of rabbits and eggs, although they are often found as fertility symbols in ancient religions, didn’t factor in to Pascha for almost a thousand years after Jesus died - after the Paschal festival had reached Germany, and after the Germanic peoples began successfully spreading out to the west. But all of this doesn’t deter the ones who are blindly determined to condemn Easter and all who celebrate it. They take something that happened a thousand years after the fact, move it back in time to the first century, and blame the Catholics, and all Christians besides themselves, for all forms of things they are entirely innocent of.
We now must turn and fend off some claims that get dangerously close to blasphemy. Some of the true zealots hate the actual history of Easter so much that they would undermine the Deity of Christ in order to smear Easter. In a stellar example of “post hoc ergo propter hoc” (after this therefore because of this) there are many people who claim Easter (and even Christ Himself) is simply a hold-over from the worship of the ancient gods Mithra and Attis.
According to Edwin M. Yamauchi, PhD. who holds a doctorate in Mediterranean Studies from Brandeis University, taught at Miami University in Ohio for 35+ years, wrote over 17 books including the 578-page "Persia and the Bible", and in 1978 delivered a paper to the Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies (I only list this info to show that the guy knows his Mithra), there is a very high probability that HWA is flat wrong on his pagan origin of Easter. HWA always attributed Easter to pagan gods, but let’s hear from an actual historian.
About Mithra:
“…even though Mithras was a Persian god who was attested as early as the fourteenth century BC, we have almost no evidence of Mithraism in the sense of a mystery religion in the West until very late – too late to have influenced the beginnings of Christianity.”
-Edwin Yamauchi. P. 168
Strobel, Lee.
The Case for the Real Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987.
"Western Mithraism didn't exist until the mid-second century [AD]... too late to have influenced the development of first-century Christianity."
-Edwin Yamauchi. P.169
Ibid.
About Attis:
“… [Pierre] Lambrechts has demonstrated that the supposed ‘resurrection’ of Attis doesn’t appear until after AD 150 – more than a century after Jesus.”
-Edwin Yamauchi. P.177
Ibid.
And about Adonis:
“Pierre Lambrechts has shown that there are no indications of a resurrection in the early information we have about Adonis. While there are four texts that speak of his resurrection, they date from the second to the fourth century AD – long after Jesus.”
--Edwin Yamauchi. P.177
Ibid.
And about the common origin of all gods and goddesses which HWA often preached:
“Yes, there was a widespread view that there was a general, common mystery religion, but upon a closer examination of the sources, nobody believes that any longer.”
“These were quite different beliefs. In fact, by the mid-twentieth century, scholars had established that the sources used in these writings were far from satisfactory and the parallels were much too superficial.”
-Edwin Yamauchi. P.167
Ibid.
The fallacious claim by HWA is that since we see bunnies and eggs in the Easter decorations, then all of Easter must be pagan. That simply isn’t true. The fallacy is that Mithra and Attis are older than Easter, therefore Easter must come from them. This is what we call the “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy; or “after this therefore because of this.” Nothing could be farther from the truth! Easter comes from Pascha, not paganism. And it would appear that paganism was far busier adopting Christian precepts in the decades after Christ than Christianity was busy adopting pagan precepts.
Regarding the bunnies and eggs, these were incorporated sometime around 1,000 A.D. They do not in any way indicate that Easter is pagan. If they offend, leave them out. If they're sin to you, they're sin to you. They are nothing to the overall celebration of Jesus the Christ.
I would very much like to point out that in Christianity these things are not objects of worship. They are not idols. No one bows before them, or prays to them, or considers them important to their faith or the worship of God in any way. No one sees them as fertility symbols. In fact, Armstrong had to spend a great deal of time and effort convincing people that these were fertility symbols in order to condemn them. They are fun traditions for kids, and that’s all they are. To condemn a billion+ people over them seems a bit silly to me now that I have a better understanding of what Easter is.
In Armstrongism there is a terrible fear of anything not found in the Old Testament. Well, as I have already pointed out, Hanukkah is not in the Old Testament, yet there Jesus is keeping it. I think this fear we had drove us to put an improper weight on the verses that speak against idolatry, but we gave little weight to the verses that speak against condemnation. Knowing what I know now, I feel that is very sad.
Let us now investigate further some specific details about Easter’s timing.
Timing of Easter
The Gentile church in Europe was of the opinion that Jewish reckoning of time, which could place the festival on any day of the week, was disruptive. The Jews used a lunar calendar, days began at sundown, and relied on calculations and the decisions of the Jewish leadership to determine years, seasons, months, and days - many of which were determined by sight. The Romans used a solar calendar, days began at midnight, and had no such reliance on a priesthood or ties to a certain geographical area. All they wanted was a fixed and reliable date. So, even though the Church in Asia claimed they received their traditions from the Apostles, who kept the 14th of Nisan Passover as well as the Lord's Day on Sunday (REV. 1: 10), there is no clear command in the New Testament on when to observe Pascha. It was pure tradition. So the debate went on, and eventually the western opinion won out.
Try to keep in mind that the Apostles were Jewish converts living mainly during the time before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. They didn’t have the calendar issues like the Gentiles did.
Also keep in mind that Jesus Himself changed the timing of Pascha. The Lord’s Supper is Passover, but it is not the Old Covenant Passover, and the timing is not according to law. Unfortunately that is how Armstrongists view it. I feel this is the true root of the issue here. The two Covenants
cannot be blended together. And the New Covenant
cannot be interpreted through the lens of the Old, rather it is the other way around.
Some claim Easter is a celebration of the Spring equinox, but this is false. Easter is not on the Spring equinox; just like Christmas is not on the Winter equinox. It can’t quite be a celebration of the equinox if it isn’t on the equinox. Generally speaking, the 14th of Nisan is often closer to the Spring equinox than Easter is.
The timing was not intended to celebrate the beginning of Spring, but the equinox was a reliable recurring guide for timing.
The rule since the 325 AD is: “Easter is observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox.” And that was chosen because the 14th of Nisan was impossible to determine with accuracy, yet it would keep the date near the 14th of Nisan. You see, most people are blissfully unaware that, anciently, Passover was always on a full moon after the vernal equinox. Find that date, go up one Sunday and voila: Easter! Even if the Jews completely lost their ability to determine time, Easter would always be near the time when Jesus died.
There is nothing inherently wrong with using the equinox for timing. Indeed, that is precisely what God intended for it (GEN. 1: 14).
Some may ask, "If that's true, then why isn't Passover always near Easter?" It was anciently, but not anymore. In the fourth century, a few decades after the date for Easter was set, the Jews under Rabi Hilel II changed the way they calculate Passover. This was in response to Roman pressure that the Sanhedrin was not allowed to meet to determine the calendar properly. They now use a mathematical model to determine the calendar, and by extension the holy days which rely on the calendar.
Unfortunately, if you rely on the modern Jews to provide the Hebrew calendar, you're still not observing the Holy Days as Jesus did. (I'm not knocking the Jews. They did what they had to do. I'm addressing people who judge and condemn others over timing that they themselves get wrong.)
Some claim the Easter sunrise service is derived from the ancient pagan practice of welcoming the sun on the morning of the spring equinox, but this is false. We have
ancient Christian documents as well as a Roman
record from Pliny the Younger, showing Christians held sunrise services precisely because that is what they received from the Apostles and read in the Gospels about the timing of Jesus’ resurrection.
But if timing is so crucial to salvation, as Armstrongism teaches, let’s spend a minute on that and see if they get timing right.
We saw in the first part of this series that HWA’s timing of Passover is wrong, there is a bitter ongoing dispute over the correct timing of Passover if it is the 14th or the 15th, and the Night to Be Much Observed is more or less a made-up thing. So their timing isn’t any better than anyone else’s.
But did you know that for 40 years Herbert Armstrong (supposedly an Apostle taught directly by God) taught Pentecost falls on Monday. According to this reasoning, everyone who lived and died observing the wrong date/time were terrible sinners awaiting condemnation.
RedFox of Living Armstrongism, in the post “
What Was WCG Before 1970 Like?” adds this:
“Around 1948-9 a controversy erupted in RCG. It has been described as traumatic. Anyone who disagreed with HWA's Monday Pentecost was cast out of the church, only to learn 25 years later that they were right.”
In Armstrongism, to be cast out of the church means eternal death. One cannot overstate the gravity of convicting people of an offense worthy of eternal death… only to completely about face. In 1974, Pentecost was changed to Sunday. Incidentally, this change in dating caused a huge split in the church and prompted Raymond Cole to establish the Church of God the Eternal. To this day they observe Pentecost on Monday, citing as authority HWA’s claims that God revealed the truth to him at the beginning. Both cannot be right.
Timing issues appear in other areas as well. The Church of the Great God calculates Pentecost differently in years when the First Day of Unleavened Bread falls on a weekly Sabbath. Hidden in this Pentecost conflict is a debate on when the Wave Sheaf offering occurred (LEV. 23: 11-15), and thus a dispute over the timing of Jesus' resurrection.
So why all of this confusion over such a “plain truth” as timing? If it’s so vital for salvation, why can’t even the people who say they are doing it right seem to get it right?
It’s because timing isn’t as important as they say! What matters is Jesus.
(I COR. 11: 25) …This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
And what matters is what’s in your heart.
(I COR. 11: 27-31) 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
What would you suppose is in the heart of a person who would condemn another person over the timing of something which they themselves get wrong? My guess is it’s probably not the stuff that is pleasing to Christ. Good thing there’s still time to change the heart!
Easter or Passover?
This really is the original question, isn’t it? This is the question that got the ball rolling early in the second century AD. Here we are today still asking it. I wonder if it’s worth the trouble for me to review it.
Frankly, it’s up to your faith and your relationship with God.
If your faith prefers to keep Passover with a church like the COG7 who invites all baptized Christians to their Lord’s Supper on the 14th of Nisan, then God bless you and I pray your observance is Spirit-filled and enriching. The Apostles did it, so there’s nothing wrong with it.
If your faith prefers to follow the western Gentile tradition and attend an Easter Sunday service – with or without rabbits and eggs – then God bless you and I pray your observance is Spirit-filled and enriching. The early Gentiles did it, Polycarp and Anicetus lived side-by-side through it, that’s how Christians have done it for 1,900 years, so there’s nothing wrong with it.
Just remember Jesus the Christ, and keep Him in your heart to purify it. Condemnation is not an option – towards yourself or others.
I’ve been told, "You can't refute the fact that the Bible does not teach the observance of Christmas and Easter."
Oh, but I can!
Jesus’ birth is very much in the Bible. Whether we call it “Christmas” or not, and regardless of what day was eventually settled on for the festival, the birth of Christ is very real, and besides His death and resurrection there has been no other day in the history of mankind that compares to the day on which He was born. Does the Bible command that we celebrate it? No. But it doesn’t say not to. (That’s for another study.)
But Pascha, on the other hand, it does teach. If we can get past these childish disputes over names and timing, we would see this plainly.
The Bible doesn't teach the observance of Thanksgiving for that matter. The Bible doesn't teach the observance of Hanukkah either - yet there Jesus is keeping it (JON. 10: 22). So what are we to say? Seems to me like these arguments are grasping at straws.
I’ve been told, “I only want to do what Jesus did.”
Then you can't refute the fact that Jesus kept Hanukkah (and the other Jewish festivals like Purim). So why don't you do those? This argument falls apart when we find the people who put such a high value on only doing what Jesus did are not actually doing what Jesus did.
Need I remind anyone that Jesus changed the timing of Pascha? Why then are a billion+ Christians, who fully trust in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, condemned as pagans for doing what Jesus Himself did?
I’ll bet “doing what Jesus did” suddenly became a lot less important for some people who claim that’s all they want to do.
Summary
Easter is Pascha. Pascha is Easter.
Easter is an English word that comes from the High German name for the month of April, Eostremonath. It does
not come from the name of a goddess.
Easter is
not pagan in origin, but began as a matter of desiring a reliable, set timing for the Lord’s Supper and the fast that went with it that doesn’t rely on the Jews to determine the timing.
Bunnies and eggs were introduced after 1,000 A.D. They don’t even factor in. Even if they were pagan fertility symbols, we have no idea if that is what they were to the Germans whose traditions we’ve inherited. They could have been innocent spring symbols. Armstrongists shouldn’t condemn seasonal symbols. A great many times I have seen cornucopias and other harmless items set out on tables as a symbol of harvest. The Bible is full of symbols. The bread and the wine are symbols. There is nothing inherently wrong with symbols.
So, whichever way your faith in God leads you to worship Him, I pray He purifies your heart and blesses you. I pray He leads to see that condemnation isn’t proper. Who would demand the law, yet ignore the many commands against condemnation? And I pray He leads you to further study on this topic, and a deeper understanding of the New Covenant in His blood.
