Another Holiday and Another Fruitless
Tirade About Christian Gnosticism
When I first entered nursing, long time ago now, I realized that facts do not change behavior, belief changes behavior and this includes this less than celebrated holy day known as Easter, Resurrection Sunday or simply ignored. There are many varied and contradictory articles about the origin of this holiday and its possible pagan roots {Easter is not named after Ishtar, and Other Truths I have to tell you and How Passover became Easter}. But, the clear truth of the issue is that Christians just do not care.
Over the years I have talked consistently with pastors, deacons, Christians of various denominations and spiritual maturity levels and even the religious lost. They all have the same consistent reason for keeping Easter as Easter: consistency. It is what Christians have always done. No one will understand or accept any changes. And, well, you get the idea; leave it alone and go away if you will not conform to traditions.
The blatant efforts to Christianize Easter
Illustrate how little believers care about truth
On the day of His death Christ told Pilate, “…I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (Jo 18:37). This under reported and appreciated statement is the core character value that separates Christ from the world and thus should separate those who claim to be of Christ from the world also. But, just as Pilate asked, “What is truth?” so do many who claim to walk in the Light. Christ came to witness to the world carrying the message He was given by the Father. He never varied and He never compromised; not even at the end. Yet, many who are called Christians today readily throw truth under the bus in order to live at peace with the world, something Christ did not do or He would never have been murdered!
This willingness to compromise the truth began early in church history as described in the above article, How Passover Became Easter. Clearly the false elements that had entered into the churches was based on hatred, hatred of the Jews. This is diametrically opposed to Christ Who is the Essence of Love (1Jo 4:7-8). The church politic wanted to repudiate everything Jewish. Thus, the Roman Church developed its own methodology for determining Easter separating it from its proper moorings in the Passover {Pesach}. Once stripped of its proper relationship to the Old Testament and Jewish festival system this holy day lost its true meaning. This was Step One. Once something is stripped of its true meaning it can be assigned a new meaning to accomplish different goals.
While there is little doubt that the Roman Church, and all the churches that grew out of it {which was nearly all of them}, needed to retain the resurrection of Christ {what is the point if there is no resurrection}, they did not want to be tied to biblical truth. The truth has one major problem: it is truth! Truth divides. Truth does not compromise, Truth does not enjoin itself to the majority. Truth is Light and those who are of the darkness {lost} hate and reject the Light; i.e., truth. John spoke of this in his Opening Hymn to his gospel, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him” (Jo 1:9-14). Thus, to grow the churches needed to attract new members, quickly. Truth does not easily attract others to itself; in fact, one must be called of the Father to hear and accept the truth. There must be another way, and there was.
Since all peoples had a common origin post diluvial, Babel, it is not unexpected that all peoples would have similar religious entities to replace the truth passed down from both Noah and Shem who lived until the time of Abraham. These views of Nimrod’s god-man religion were distorted over time as the various groups developed their own culture differentiating themselves from each other. But, all cultures had similar stories showing the man had some understanding of the truth even after the Cataclysm {Flood}. God is born, dies and reborn is an ancient motif as Lucifer sought to inoculate man against the coming of the Son of God. Thus, the Roman Church had a ready made audience to spread their version of the Gospel. It is clear that the holidays found ready acceptance among the lost cultures of the world with some heavy persuasion. The Roman Church and later the Protestant churches readily converted by the sword displaying their rejection of the true methods of the Scripture. They gained many adherents at the expense of truth. This method repudiated the truth of Christ for as John wrote, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1Jo 4:18).
These churches who had the truth, rejected the truth and still reject the truth today demonstrate that they have no faith in the Gospel unless it is mixed with the methodologies of the world which ALWAYS involve error. Over the centuries this has resulted in the erosion of the Gospel message and nowhere is that more evident than with this holy day. This day is ignored in non-Christian cultures, as to be expected. In our time it is quickly being considered the least of all the “Christian” holidays. It is a time of relaxation, pagan games and various forms of frivolity. Little attention is paid to the momentous importance of this time. Son of God took on human flesh, preached His truth of the New Covenant, died to pay the penalty for sin and was approved by the Father as evidenced by His resurrection! All previous history focused forward to this point and all subsequent history builds from this point. Yet, those who call themselves Christians are content to celebrate it on the wrong day and usually for the wrong reasons.
Christ died on Passover as the innocent Lamb of God and raised on Feast of First Fruits as a picture of the first yield of the sinless harvest soon to come. Yet, this is lost to majority of Christians because, like their ancestors, they reject the truth that Christianity is not a new faith but an extension of the old faith changed by the Son of God Himself. We are not to be under the Law but neither are we to be divorced from the heritage just for the convenience of the lost world who will never accept the Gospel unless called directly by God (Ac 15). If we continue to embrace compromise with the world how then can we expect them to hear a message that claims to be different, claims to be the truth? Instead, churches today use the world’s methodology and confusion of the truth to sweep in as many as possible in order to force them to hear the Gospel. Yes the message gets out but it is hated and that hatred gets turned back onto Christians. Thus, many suffer today for the abuses of the truth in times long gone.
Christ did not rise to thunderous applause
He rose to quietness of truth and light
Churches today follow the role model of Laodicea (Re 3:14-22). Thinking itself wise it was actually blind to the truth of its condition. Lost in the labyrinth of its own confused worldview it was in danger of happily going into eternal destruction followed by a great many adherents. If we are of the Light and the Truth then we should be embracing the truth with gladness rather than making excuses why we need to continuing practicing the lies of the past. Christ embraced the Truth to His own death and our own salvation. Those who are His can do no less lest we find ourselves cast away on that day!