Is Easter Pagan?

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   hookedhuntressposted 12 years ago

   Many say that the origins of Easter are pagan and therefore Christians should not celebrate it.
   
   I am curious as to how others feel about this and what their opinions are.

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      Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes it is very much a pagan festival. Easter comes from Ishtar, some Babylonian goddess tart or something, and Easter eggs are symbols of her birth into Earth. Though I'm sure that someone here can gives us the full story.
      
      Christians probably should be celebrating Passover instead, because Jesus is that sacrificial lamb whose blood was shed for humanity. Just my humble opinion.

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         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Passover is a Jewish holiday isn't it?  Celebrating the "escape" of Jews from Egypt?
         
         I don't think Christianity has any holidays or celebrations they haven't lifted from some other religion.  It worked, too - by celebrating an important  holiday or celebration of the heathen they were able to gather a lot more followers.  Swords might have helped, too....

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            Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes it is a Jewish holiday, but the Church was Jewish until the Roman Church decided paganism was more conducive to wealth and influence, whereupon all Jewishness was purged from the Church. Yes swords, hot pokers, racks, and burning stakes worked wonders too.
            
            The passover lamb was sacrificed and it's blood daubed on the door posts of the Hebrews' homes so that the angel of death might passover. This festival is a pattern of Christ whose blood covering causes death to pass over us now.

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               hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I believe that people who accept Christ's sacrifice as the Lamb of God are already observing His Passover.
                 Passover was a shadow of what was to come - which is accomplished to the fullest in Christ Jesus.

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                  vector7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Nice.
                  
                  It's like you steal my thoughts and post them for me.
                  
                  I could get very, very used to this. lol
                  
                  

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      Bible Studiesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It has pagan origins like everyone else said. I don't like how the pagan intertwined into Christianity. Let alone trying to explain why there are chocolate bunnies on Easter, how a rabbit can lay an egg, and what does any of this do with Jesus. Pagan origins explains all the Easter traditions that does not deal with Jesus without problems, or very little problems.
      
      There is another problem I have telling kids about the Easter Bunny, Santa, and yes even the tooth faerie.
      
      When they are older:
      Mom, you mean there is no Santa, Easter Bunny or Tooth Faerie?
      That is right they are not real. They are myth.
      Mom, why did you tell me about them?
      Um
      Mom, if you lied about them, then what about Jesus? How do I know he is real? How do I know you are telling the truth about Jesus?
      
      How do I know Jesus is real?

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      DoubleScorpionposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The name Easter can be connected to a few different Pagan goddess...Typically symbolized by the rabbit (as this is the form the Goddess takes, depending on which pagan group you talk with), The eggs are a symbol of fertilization...Easter is a celebration of spring and rebirth of the land.
      
      Easter or Passover falls on the First Sunday after the First Full moon of Spring. Known as the Pink Moon, Paschal Moon, Fish Moon and a variety of other names...

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      The Markerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think celebrating Easter is NOT celebrated by all Christians, it just depend in places. The church did not say we should have Easter bunny and eggs.
      
      I think people just connected the word Easter with Passover, common to many people.

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   Jonathan Jancoposted 12 years ago

   Easter is very much pagan which is why it is always on the calender shortly after the Spring Equinox. The word Easter comes from an old German/Saxon word (I believe the word is oestern) for sunrise, which many say is why the feast is celebrated on Sunday. There is also an old Saxon word Oestra, which was a fertility goddess. It also is the German root of the English word estrus, which means 'in heat'.
   
   Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a consort, Attis, who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. Attis was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25.
   
   http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm

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   hookedhuntressposted 12 years ago

   Disappearinghead you said we should be "celebrating Passover instead".
   
   There is actually a reference to Easter in the King James Bible and it meant Passover.
   
   Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

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      Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes Jesus was sacrificed for us at Passover. Odd that Easter should be in the bible though.

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         DoubleScorpionposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Easter is only in a few select versions of the KJV bible...All the other bibles use the word Passover.

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   Jonathan Jancoposted 12 years ago

   I'm sure it was a Greek or Aramaic word that the Jamesean Bible scholars translated as Easter.

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      hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Jonathan Janco,
      
      The word was "pascha",Easter [from the Strong's G3957]
      
      Of Chaldee origin (compare [H6453]); the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival or the special sacrifices connected with it)
      KJV Usage: Easter, Passover.

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         DoubleScorpionposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         My version of Strongs says this:
         
         
         
         pascha: the Passover, the Passover supper or lamb
         Original Word: πάσχα, τό
         Part of Speech: Aramaic Transliterated Word (Indeclinable)
         Transliteration: pascha
         Phonetic Spelling: (pas'-khah)
         Short Definition: the feast of Passover, the Passover lamb
         Definition: the feast of Passover, the Passover lamb.
         
         Maybe different versions?

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            hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It is still the same word,wouldn't you say?
            
            pascha
            
            Passover
            
            The KJV has it  as Easter G3957
            
            I am sure people read it and think it means the Easter as we know it today but it doesn't

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               DoubleScorpionposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes it means Passover...I would have to agree with an earlier poster...As Christian types, I would go with the word "Passover" for this season instead of the pagan based word of "Easter'...Passover is a better description of what a Christian would be observing this time of year.
               
               

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                  hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree with you DoubleScorpion.
                  
                  I actually do like the word Passover better myself.
                  
                  

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   Dim Flaxenwickposted 12 years ago

   Easter is totally pagan.  You won´t any refference in the bible to celebrations with easter eggs, chocolate bunnies elc.  Eggs, Rabbits ....all signs of fertility in the pagan world.  They celebrate the spring.. new life after the winter.
   The only celebration Jesus asked his followers to keep was the night of his being arrested, which was the Jewish passover.

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      hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Dim,
      
      I am a Christian that does not actually celebrate Easter but I must admit I do enjoy chocolate..even shaped like a bunny.
      
      

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         Greekgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It's a symbol from a different culture that means the same thing: the celebration of life and joy and innocence and resurrection and rebirth, with the quiet acknowledgement (don't tell the children!) that innocent lambs and bunnies sometimes die to help us live. In the old days, people were much more aware of cycles of life and death and the fact that we depend on other creatures' lives to live. (It was hard to be vegan back then.)
         
         Different culture, but the messages aren't really that incompatible. It depends on how much you want to reject native traditions from Europe in other to pick out a particular strand of Christianity... Which honestly wasn't settled on until hundreds and hundreds of years after Christ, and nearly all the rituals and traditions and holiday celebrations of Christianity developed later.
         
         The earliest Christian frescoes (which I have seen and studied) use very Easterish imagery, showing Christ as a beardless youth carrying lambs, surrounded by flowers and fruits and grain and young animals. A certain amount of imagery picked up from the Orphic cults and the resurrection cults of Dionysos no doubt.
         
         Cultures all over the northern hemisphere have rebirth-and-resurrection related religious traditions. It's that time of year.
         
         I've always had trouble drawing hard and fast distinctions between different European and Near Eastern religious traditions, knowing how much they say the same things and keep borrowing imagery, symbols, holidays and ritual elements from one another.
         
         I find it all vaguely reassuring, like a shared language... Until of course we get to fighting about whose bits are whose, and which ones are Evil.
         
         I can't see evil in an egg, for all that it's just a symbol invented by humans to express something we can't entirely put into words. But in one who would see an egg (or Easter bunny) as evil, I have my doubts.

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            hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Greekgeek,I really like what you said here,
            
            "I find it all vaguely reassuring, like a shared language... Until of course we get to fighting about whose bits are whose, and which ones are Evil.
            
            I can't see evil in an egg, for all that it's just a symbol invented by humans to express something we can't entirely put into words. But in one who would see an egg (or Easter bunny) as evil, I have my doubts."
            
            I just can't see anyone facing eternal damnation for coloring eggs or eating marshmallow  peeps.

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               vector7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               
               
               That would be one tough cookie to swallow.. Or peep..
               
               

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         ackman1465posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         ... and yellow marshmallows in the shape of bunnies... a la "Peeps"????

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            hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes.
            
            
            
            
            Not peeps as in people.lol

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   Kenneth Rayposted 12 years ago

   Christianians over the last few centuries have successfully converted pagan festival traditions into Christian holidays.  This was so successful that most people don't know the original bunny and egg connection to paganism.  Ditto for Christmas.

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   hookedhuntressposted 12 years ago

   The thing is, our lives are full of paganism, yet God sees through that and into the heart. Are eggs pagan? bunnies? Everything on earth is used in other religions to worship their gods so we should not have trees, flowers, etc near us when we celebrate the Lord?

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      Brenda Durhamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Some churches call Easter "Resurrection Day" just to make it clear that it's all about Jesus's rising from the dead.  But it doesn't matter if they call it Easter.
      I grew up knowing the meaning of Easter as a specific time of celebrating Jesus.  I also knew we should remember His sacrifice and resurrection EVERY day.  There are very few if any days that I don't consciously recall those facts.   It's the greatest thing I can think of to celebrate----the RISEN SAVIOR, Amen and Hallelujah!
      
      We had Easter egg hunts way back then, too, when I was a kid, even at Church.  All of us kids knew it was for fun, an activity on a child's scale of fun.  I thought of it as a kind of surpise, like the surprise the people had when they went to the Tomb and found out that Jesus had risen!  We used real eggs and hunted them--surprise!  Or we used plastic eggs and hunted them to find the surprise inside them---candy, coins, or paper with Bible verses on them.    Since we knew the Truth about Jesus, there was nothing wrong with having fun hunting eggs.
      \
      Pagan?  Pshaw.  Whatever.   Perhaps the pagans are just jealous that Christians can have fun hunting eggs!  haha Who knows?   And especially that we celebrate Jesus!
      
      At any rate----Woohoo!  My Savior is ALIVE!  He ROSE from the dead!  Praise God!
      
      
      By the way, at Church dinners where my husband and I went a few years ago, the Pastor's wife always cheerily renamed "devilled eggs" as "angelic eggs".   I thought it was cute and funny.  But I'm not superstitious at all, so it didn't bother me to call them devilled eggs or to hear them called that.  It's just a term for referring to how they're prepared.
      People can be way too superstitious about a lot of things.  I don't let anyone deter me from celebrating Easter in honor of Jesus, nor do I let them make me feel bad about liking to eat devilled eggs!  haha

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         hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Brenda,well said!
         I could not agree more.

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         vector7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         And all God's children said..
         
         AMEN!
         
         

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      Eric Newlandposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This is a variation on my question, which ought to be the obvious one: Who cares? Christianity borrowed some pagan traditions, but not their intent. We don't worship some Germanic pagan goddess or whatever jus because we put LED lights on a pine tree. We don't become followers of Ishtar or whatever just because we dip eggs in food coloring. All we become is blue and reeking of vinegar, and just as God-fearing as the day before.
      
      And Easter's date has everything to do with its proximity to Passover, because the Last Supper began the chain of events leading to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. And it falls on a Sunday because of this thing you might have heard of called the Sabbath, which is probably totally pagan, right?

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         Disappearingheadposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         So why not do Passover instead? Roast lamb and unleavened bread, and the youngest child recites the story of Jesus sacrifice? This is the Church's inheritance, not Easter eggs and bunnie rabbits.

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         Mark Knowlesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You Kristians don't know where your majikal rites come from? And you don't care? No - I guess that makes sense.
         
         Easter's date has everything to do with Spring. You know - death and rebirth. Spring being when everything comes back to life after being dead during Winter. Eggs hatching, bunnies being born. You know - Spring.
         
         Do ya fear god just as much now you know it is all based on celebrating the seasons?
         
         Sun day has nothing to do with the Pagan worship of the Sun? It is now something to do with Jewish majik? Odd - I would have thought the word Sun would have been a dead giveaway. Perhaps they are right after all - and religion does rot your brain?

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            vector7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Just so happens it's when Christ rose so I'm celebrating Christ..
            
            I don't care about your little eggs, or seasonal 'happiness'..
            
            Religion made your brain, as it's connected to God..
            
            "Denial.. denial.. DENIAL!"
            
            Yeah.. I heard you the last 300 times.
            
            

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   Brenda Durhamposted 12 years ago

   Have a Blessed Easter, hookedhuntress and vector7!
   And everyone else too!

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      hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Brenda. Have a  blessed Easter!
      
      He is RISEN!!
      
      Mat 28:6  He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
      
      Mar 16:6  And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
      
      1Co 15:4  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

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         Brenda Durhamposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Amen!
         
         Wouldn't it have been awesome to have been there and literally witnessed the fact that He had risen?!  I got good chills when you posted those verses!
         
         And even better would've been to have literally seen Him after He rose, like so many people did after that!
         
         Yet I often ponder whether I would've been one of the Believers then, or if I would've believed the rumor that the Roman soldiers perpetuated.....
         
         I dunno.  All I know is that I'm glad I now Believe!

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            hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Brenda, I often ponder that to.
            
            I wonder if I would have been like Thomas.
            
            Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
            28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
            
            All I know is that I am glad i believe now too!

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      vector7posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Happy Easter Brenda!!
      
      Happy Easter hookedhuntress!!
      
      Happy Easter nay-sayers!!!
      
      

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         hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Happy Easter Vector7!
         
         To God be the glory forever and ever!
         
         "Happy Easter nay-sayers" That's funny.
         
         
         What isn't funny though is one day every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but by then it will be to late for the nay-sayers!!

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   prettydarkhorseposted 12 years ago

   The way that we celebrate Easter now is a combination of Paganism and Christian teachings.

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    sandieganlizposted 12 years ago

    All these R Pagan! (History) & speaking in generalities

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    Easter is absolutely pagan....
    
    What's worse is that this "holiday" shows how bad at math people are.
    
    Let's see....Jesus is supposed to be buried for three days and three nights, but somehow he dies on a Friday afternoon and rises on Sunday morning?
    
    How many people can't count?
    
    Millions, evidently.
    
    As for the King James Version using the term "Easter".....so what?  How many people had already altered these "documents" by the time the King James version was released?
    
    Brain drain is all this stuff is....hokus pokus designed to keep people more trained on a afterlife myth than their own lives here on Earth.
    
    What a waste of time, money, and life this stuff is.

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       hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       mikelong,
       
       Nowhere does Jesus say he will be "buried for three days and three nights"...Nor does Jesus say he will even be dead for 3 days and 3 nights...nor does Jesus say he will be in the tomb or grave for 3 days and 3 nights..these are all falsehoods...misrepresentations of what the bible actually says.
       
       You have the right to your own opinion though.

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    Actually, you are wrong.
    
    Jesus himself refers to tearing down "this house" and in three days building it back up again (he is not talking about the physical temple, but his body).
    
    A main point of the Jonah story is also to mirror Jesus' three days and three nights in the tomb.
    
    http://bible.cc/matthew/27-63.htm
    
    "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." John 2:19..and keep reading to the end of the chapter.  Remember, from the book of Genesis....evening and morning are counted as one day.  Afternoon Friday to afternoon Saturday is one day.....to afternoon Sunday is two days...  That means Jesus would have had to rise on Monday afternoon. 
    
    "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".
    
                            Matthew 12.39-40
    Acts 10:37-40
    
    "37 That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;
    
    38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
    
    39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
    
    40 Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;"
    
    
    One, two, three.....and Friday to Sunday this is not. If you wish to start a line of argument into how Jews of that period interpreted "days and nights", then there are also a lot of other translation/interpretation issues that we can discuss that will shatter what most consider Christianity. 
    
    
    Again, people don't know how to add, and people selectively choose what they want to believe in order to make a falsehood (Easter) a reality. It's even worse how few "Christians" know their own "book".
    
    I call this "brain damage".

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       hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       mikelong,
       
       You have not shown where I am wrong as you said.
       
       Where does Jesus say he will be "buried for three days and three nights"(as you said)?
       
       Where does Jesus say he will be in the tomb or grave for 3 days and 3 nights?
       
       Where does Jesus say he will even be dead for 3 days and 3 nights?
       
       Where am I wrong? Exactly?
       
       You said I was wrong in my reply to you but in all your reply back you have not shown WHERE I was wrong??
       
       
       
       You contradicted yourself here,
       "Remember, from the book of Genesis....evening and morning are counted as one day.  Afternoon Friday to afternoon Saturday is one day"
       
       So is the day from morning to "afternoon" as you say?or is it evening to morning as God said in Genesis?
       
       Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day...
       
       Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
       Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
       
       I have already stated before that I do not celebrate Easter ,as it were(nor do I have anything against someone who does)...So why would I try to make it a "reality", as you stated?

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       Eric Newlandposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Where, exactly, is it written that the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is meant to mimic exactly the time that Jesus was in the tomb?
       
       And thanks again for reminding me how much better it is to be Christian than to be full of hate.

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          hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Eric,
          
          That is another excellent question.
          
          "Where, exactly, is it written that the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is meant to mimic exactly the time that Jesus was in the tomb?"
          
          Nice!

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             Eric Newlandposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             It's sort of an unspoken assumption, but I did some searching and there just doesn't seem to be any intention of a direct tie to the length of time. Jesus probably was buried for three full days and three full nights. We happen to celebrate his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection two days later. Okay.
             
             Speaking from a Catholic standpoint, the shorter length of time may be because during the Paschal Triduum, until the moment Easter begins, no Mass services take place anywhere in the world; it's the only time during the liturgical year that this happens. I can see the the desire not to have that period last any longer than necessary.
             
             And these days, Lent technically ends at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. Two days is now a day and a half. And I don't think anyone believes Jesus rose from the dead at sunset. The length of time between the feasts of the crucifixion and resurrection is simply not meant to be literal. No more than the date, which because of how it's determined can swing by over a month from year to year.

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          mikelongposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          It isn't hate that I express.
          
          Not at all.
          
          If is a sense of wonderment. I don't know how people do it.
          
          I don't hate Christians at all, nor do I hate the "religious."
          
          Many within these groups, however, do hate non-Christians....and even other Christians.
          
          You pose a false idea. "Christianity" is not synonymous with "love" or "loving". Fallacy through and through.
          
          I have seen it with my own eyes. History has documented far more. Don't blind yourself.
          
          
          I stated my claim. I backed it up with Books, Chapters, and Verses.
          
          This is not a time for hate...but perhaps reflection on what "reality" actually is....

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             Eric Newlandposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Then it's also not a good time to label an entire group as "brain damaged."

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                mikelongposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Brain damaged does not express hate.
                
                
                It expresses an observation that I find very troubling.
                
                I cannot understand why people believe something that doesn't 1) make sense or 2) add up.

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    I see you disregarded every verse I cited.
    
    Where does it say that? 
    
    I have cited book, chapter, verse....but you are saying what?
    
    
    
    To everyone else:
    
    
    I have noticed a few patterns amongst the religious.
    
    1) There are many who carry on religion in terms of familial/cultural tradition. My father's grandparents were Armenian-Gregorian. Armenians living in their Ottoman-occupied homelands still had a protected form of self-governance. This was through the hierarchy of the Gregorian Church. Some guy named Gregory, unmentioned in the Bible, arrives carrying his version of Christianity, and the pagan Armenians become "the first Christian nation on Earth"...or so the beliefs go.
    
    If you know any Armenians, talk to them about their history, see how much they know. It is all very interesting and highly unappreciated by the world.
    
    With that said...
    
    Their church was the only nation they had left. While second-class citizens, Sharia rule (coupled with Turkic/Ottoman specific customs/beliefs...for not all Sharia is interpreted in the same way..another debunked myth) in the Ottoman Empire gave an quasi-official and protected status to the Armenian Orthodox Church, as well as Greek Orthodox, Jewish sects, Copts, and later Roman Orthodox, European Protestantism and American Evangelicals.
    
    Look into the Anderson, Indiana "Missionary" work through the 19th and 20th centuries. We can then have some very interesting and serious discussions.
    
    But that is a tangent..
    
    Going back to the Armenian Church, for example, their religion was/is their nationality. I don't believe in it, and there are some Armenians who may not see me as a "true Armenian" because of this. There was, and perhaps still is, animosity between Armenian Orthodox and the "Western Churches" (for they all, aside from Russia, west of Armenia), and a Gregorian going into another faith was almost akin to treason.
    
    For people like this, their belief is their identity, and it transcends whatever literal or actual meanings that the texts read.
    
    2) There are those who pick and choose what verses/books/testaments they wish to follow, and the rest don't really matter. Whether looking at the sabbath Saturday/Sunday debate/conflict, timing of Christmas/relevance of Christmas/following of Christmas at all debate/conflict, contention over "what is Jesus and who he was" and numerous other contentious issues, there is no consensus on what "Christianity" actually is or what it means.
    
    The more I see that they don't know anything. But they all are looking for one thing......your eternal allegiance...and you will have to pay for this membership. They tend to also want to squash out whatever competing beliefs exist...whether "pagan" or even Christian.
    
    3) I have spoken to Catholics of diverse ages, and when we discuss specific aspects of the Bible...when I go chapter and verse I get the same response about how they don't actually read the Bible and that their beliefs (at this point I will say personal beliefs because I have not met with every Catholic or the majority of Catholics per se) don't involve them. Their connection is though other means. This isn't only an aspect I have found amongst Catholics. I have mingled amongst Pentacostals, Lutherans, Baptists and several (at this point forgotten) sects (not to look for faith, mind you, but to accompany someone or show support to speakers I know).
    
    4) There are those who have just made some stuff up out of thin air. I won't begin to discuss these groups.
    
    And there are several others that I suppose I may discuss later. 
    
    Live for today. I know we all need to have something to believe in, whether it is a form of deity, spirituality, self, or what have you. Even atheists believe in something...in life in the "here and now".
    
    With all of this said, I still say that what is commonly referred to as "Easter" is nothing more than pagan mythology/already existing beliefs with Christian identity superimposed over it.
    
    Either you believe it, or you don't. I cited my sources. The only response is to deny them altogether. But when you deny them, you deny the entire thing.

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       hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       mikelong,
       
       
       You stated I was wrong and then never stated where I was wrong.
       
       I read all of your post more than once and I think it more proves that what I said was right because nowhere did it say Jesus
       would be dead for 3days and nights or in the tomb/grave for 3 days and nights just as I said.
       You said I was wrong so the burden of proving that statement falls on you.
       
       
       I am not exactly sure as to why you are talking about the Armenians there does not seem to be a correlation to the topic at hand.
       
       You said,
       "But they all are looking for one thing......your eternal allegiance"
       
       I would hope and pray that ones eternal allegiance would be to Jesus Christ.
       
       
       You have said a lot and as I said before you have a right to your opinion.
       
       
       Christianity is made of many diverse people with many differing beliefs,some sound,some not so sound. I am not one to lump them all together as you, but take each on an individual basis.
       I think someone being sealed by the Holy Spirit and someone just claiming to be a Christian are very different things and it is not always easy to know which is which until you get to know them a little.

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".
    
                            Matthew 12.39-40

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    "Eric,
    
    That is another excellent question.
    
    "Where, exactly, is it written that the time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is meant to mimic exactly the time that Jesus was in the tomb?"
    
    Nice!"
    
    1) There is no actual "knowing" of when Jesus was actually nailed to the cross and "stood up". The Bible contradicts itself. If we say the crucifixion began at 9am, 9 hours in he was still alive. It would be after 6pm when he died.
    
    There was a rush to get him down for several reasons....Sabbath was coming...but this was not the Friday evening, but the Passover Sabbath...
    
    He would have risen on Saturday morning...on the seventh day..following the same "seventh day" pattern established in the Garden of Eden.
    
    Nowhere did God say "worship on Sunday", "stop celebrating the feasts (the feasts going back to the Old (often forgotten..except in segments) Testament.
    
    Three days.....three nights.... Count as was counted in Genesis...during "the Creation"...and see what day you fall on when you start Friday evening...
    
    Pagan mythology given "Christian" clothes.......and many diverse accessories that you can buy!

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    Eric Newland wrote:
    
    Then it's also not a good time to label an entire group as "brain damaged."
    
    
    I will answer this further....
    
    Those who do not have a religion are often treated as though they have "damage"...
    
    Do not deny this... I have seen it myself, and felt it (during my time as a Christian...whatever exactly that word might mean...for it is different to everyone and every group).

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    I repeat....and you can read it with your own eyes....on presuming you have a Bible handy... I do, and I am not a Christian...
    
    "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth".
    
                            Matthew 12.39-40
    
    
    Was Jonah outside the "whale" when he was counted three days and three nights in the "belly of the whale?"
    
    What does "heart of the Earth" mean, in this regard...being that they are given for comparison?
    
    
    There is a definite connection to "being inside" something, and the common imagery of Jonah in the whale's belly is something cavernous.
    
    When I say "their allegiance", I am talking about the earthly, humans who are going to preach to you and pass the collection plate.
    
    They want you to be in their particular pew....and not someone elses.
    
    Your words show that you presume something of me (a lack of experience) that is quite the opposite.
    
    Reality trumps the imagined ideal...which does not exist.

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    Druid Dudeposted 12 years ago

    There is something wrong with Easter. Here is what was said in the bible: As Jonah was in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son Of Man be in the bowels of the earth....three days and three nights.
           Tradition tells us that Jesus died Friday afternoon, that he was taken down, washed and wrapped, and placed in the tomb before sunset, and that he rose on Sunday. No way can three days and three nights occur in that space of time.

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    mikelongposted 12 years ago

    This is what's wrong with Easter...
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z6LJUMUj7k
    
    These can be like slaps in the face....

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       hookedhuntressposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Mike,
       If you are meaning commercialism,I can agree with that.

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    prettydarkhorseposted 12 years ago

    We should always remember that celebrating Easter is part of the culture (ways people conduct life and what is important to them) in the Christian populations. Even among the Christian world, they celebrate it differently.
    
    About culture, we are influenced by past culture and the past characteristics of that culture is influenced by the current mode of materialism. Culture is not static (it is dynamic and continuously evolving) and it can also be written and unwritten. The way Easter is celebrated now will be slightly different from the way it will be celebrated in the future.
    
    In that regard, I can see that Paganism influenced its celebration. So it is my opinion that it is really a combination of Christian teachings and Paganism.
    
    And a way that we can make the children happy is ok with me.

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    Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

    Here's my contribution to Easter....
    
    
    
    "We've run out of eggs, you'll have to have an Easter sperm"

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    Gary Holdawayposted 11 years ago

    A now famous letter written by pope gregory explains how the Christians should invent holidays and saints days around the pagan feast days. I don't think that means Christians shouldn't celebrate these holidays,  they are now a part of Christianity.
    
    Yes, Christianity is built around paganism, but what isn't? It was an earlier tradition, how do you escape that? It's only natural. Christianity can be a wonderful faith that is fulfilling to its subscribers, why should it matter where their holidays come from.

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