Easter Is A Tradition Of Man, Plain And Simple.

[Bruce S]

[quote]There is no doubt that Messiah is the first-fruits of mankind to Father. It is however doubtful that the Catholic Church intended Easter as a type of first-fruits celebration. History tells us that the Catholic Church invented Easter as a kind of Christian replacement for the various pagan fertility festivals of the period; and these were the very same folks who had been attempting to distance themselves from so-called "Judaizing" Christians who kept the feasts of Yahweh well into the forth century and even beyond. Rome wanted a replacement for Passover week, not a re-branded observation of it. To this day, Easter will never be celebrated on the same week as Passover as per the Catholic Church.

Now as far as the whole "intent of the heart" thing goes, the Bible is replete with -- nay, chalked full of -- the sins of those who thought they were honoring Yahweh but refused to abide His Commandments. Cain had the best of intentions in offering the best of his harvest, but alas, we all know how Yahweh responded to him.

Remember, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." And He also told the Pharisees that they had let go of the commands of God to observe their own traditions. Easter is a tradition of man, plain and simple. Man can try to insert God into a holiday all he wants; but the pertinent question is, has God inserted Himself into it? That is the difference between a common holiday and true Holy Day.

Faithfully,

SolaScriptura [/quote]

Interesting post from another board, so, anyone want to chime in on this idea?

[jrndveritatis]

[quote]Man can try to insert God into a holiday all he wants; but the pertinent question is, has God inserted Himself into it? That is the difference between a common holiday and true Holy Day.
[/quote]

By that definition, when would there ever be a Holy Day? Every Holy Day has been sanctioned by the Church. Also there is the small problem of Jesus Christ (i.e. God) telling Peter that what he binds on earth will be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.

[Bruce S]

[quote]Also there is the small problem of Jesus Christ (i.e. God) telling Peter that what he binds on earth will be bound in heaven and what he looses on earth will be loosed in heaven.
[/quote]

That verse applies to sin, not to MANDATED feast days by God.

[theculturewarrior]

Doesn't our "pagan" Catholic holiday coincide with passover? So I guess the Jews are pagans?

[Norseman82]

[quote name='theculturewarrior' date='Apr 6 2004, 07:00 AM'] Doesn't our "pagan" Catholic holiday coincide with passover? So I guess the Jews are pagans? [/quote]
Yeah, that's what I thought, too...that Easter was based on the Sunday after Passover.

[willguy]

Jesus rose on the Sunday after Passover. We celebrate Jesus' ressurection on the Sunday after Passover(Easter). Doesn't really sound like man had to "insert God" all that much.

[theculturewarrior]

Bruce,

I am glad you are holding Catholics responsible for the celebration of Easter, but Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and the Assyrians of the East just [i]might[/i] disagree that this is a holiday that Catholics [i]invented[/i].

If this holiday doesn't belong to the faith of the apostles, why does every Church that has apostolic succession celebrate it? (It's not just Catholics).

[Hananiah]

[quote]For instance, let's look at Judges 11:39-40: "From thence came a fashion in Israel, and a custom has been kept: That, from year to year, the daughters of Israel assemble together, and lament the daughter of Jephte the Galaadite, for four days." Ah! There we go. A custom was kept; there was no commandment or other sort of mandate from God that this was to be done; nor is there any indication in the entire Scriptures that keeping this custom was wrong, evil, or that God was displeased with it. Not at all. So this is a first example disproving the anti-Catholic.

But there's more--much more. Esther 9:19: "But those Jews that dwelt in towns not walled and in villages, appointed the fourteenth day of the month Adar for banquets and gladness, so as to rejoice on that day, and send one another portions of their banquets and meats." Again, God never told the Jews to do this. They simply did it. Gifts were exchanged, we are told, and there was festivity. Again, we have no reason to believe this was wrong or God was displeased with that.

John 10:22-23 tells us: "And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch." Now, this Feast of the Dedication, now called Hanukkah, was not commanded within Old Testament law. Instead, it was determined by Judas Maccabeus and the rest of Israel. Scripture testifies to this:

1 Maccabees 4:59
And Judas, and his brethren, and all the church of Israel decreed, that the day of the dedication of the altar should be kept in its season from year to year for eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu, with joy and gladness.



2 Maccabees 10:5-8
Now upon the same day that the temple had been polluted by the strangers on the very same day it was cleansed again; to wit, on the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu. And they kept eight days with joy, after the manner of the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long before they had kept the feast of the tabernacles when they were in the mountains, and in dens like wild beasts. Therefore they now carried boughs and green branches and palms, for him that had given them good success in cleansing his place. And they ordained by a common statute, and decree, that all the nation of the Jews should keep those days every year.


WOW! This is some powerful testimony against the anti-Christmas anti-Catholic. There are two things of greatest importance here: (1) the Feast of the Dedication is kept by our Lord Himself and mentioned in the New Testament, yet its origin is only mentioned in two books which most Protestants, incl. SDAs, do not believe to be inspired--so much for Sola Scriptura; (2) the Feast of the Dedication was instituted without a divine command, simply by Israel as a whole, led by the great Judas Maccabeus.[/quote]
[url="http://www.cathinsight.com/apologetics/adventism/christmas.htm"]http://www.cathinsight.com/apologetics/adv...m/christmas.htm[/url]

[Thy Geekdom Come]

There is biblical support of the practice of Christianizing pagan holidays.

[quote]Cain had the best of intentions in offering the best of his harvest, but alas, we all know how Yahweh responded to him.[/quote]

Cain wasn't punished for his sacrifice, he was punished for murder. He certainly didn't have good intentions in that.

[quote]Remember, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." And He also told the Pharisees that they had let go of the commands of God to observe their own traditions. Easter is a tradition of man, plain and simple. Man can try to insert God into a holiday all he wants; but the pertinent question is, has God inserted Himself into it? That is the difference between a common holiday and true Holy Day.[/quote]

But the celebration of Easter doesn't work against God, as the law of Korban did. This isn't even close to being the same scenario.

[Jake Huether]

If you've noticed how Bruce is posting such topics. I really don't think his intent is to learn anything from it. He just wants to get us riled up.

Good job Bruce!

I will have no part in any more of Bruce's posts.

[the lumberjack]

[quote name='Raphael' date='Apr 6 2004, 12:23 PM'] Cain wasn't punished for his sacrifice, he was punished for murder. He certainly didn't have good intentions in that. [/quote]
umm...what?

and why did Cain murder?

Jealousy and anger...over what?

the fact that God did not approve of his offering as he did of Abel's.

God did not approve of Cain's offering.

[Brother Adam]

none-the-less, he was punished for murder.

[Theoketos]

[quote name='the lumberjack' date='Apr 6 2004, 12:41 PM']

God did not approve of Cain's offering. [/quote]
If you look closely it was not Cain's offering but his intention. That is Cain did not give his best of the Ground...

[M.SIGGA]

My Protestant friends have tried to get over this (what Bruce posted) by changing the name "Easter Sunday" to "Resurection Sunday." I personally don't care to change it that much, but I think I'll start to say it because it does have a nice ring to it, plus it places the emphasis on Our Savior instead of bunnies and chocolate eggs!

[Donna]

Well, I can't think of anything more common sense than to celebrate as grandly as possible the day Our Lord rose from the dead.

Bruce, I seek understanding here. When I was hostile toward Jesus, I nevertheless had no real problem with the Church "mandating" holy days (hol-i-day). They were the heirs of such things.

What is the problem? If you really think the Church has not Jesus' sanction to do this, you can fly away to a sect and be done with it.