by Charles Halff
Is Easter a pagan
or a Christian holiday? Where did Easter, Lent, and Good Friday originate?
Do Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, and hot cross buns have any connection with
Christ's resurrection! Was our Lord crucified on Wednesday or on Friday!
These are some of the questions that I want to try to answer in this brief
study.
I realize that many people have a very sentimental attachment to Easter. It's hard to break from tradition. So, I ask you to study this subject with me as open-mindedly as you possibly can. The Apostle Paul complimented the Berean Christians and said,
"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, to see whether those things were so." Acts 17:11
Let's be like the Bereans. Let's search the Scriptures. I don't want you to take my word for anything. I don't want you to believe a thing just because I'm preaching it. The Bereans didn't take Paul's word for what he was preaching. They checked up on what Paul said by the Scriptures. They looked into the Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures. That's all they had. And as they searched the Scriptures, they saw that what Paul was preaching was the truth. And so, beloved, let's take the Word of God above everything else and then we can't go wrong. I'll stand on the Word of God even when this old world is on fire.
THE SIGN OF JONAH
Now, the first fallacy in connection with Easter is that Christ supposedly died on a Friday. May I say, beloved, that Jesus did not die on Good Friday, bad Friday, or any other Friday. The truth of the whole matter is that the Lord Jesus died on a Wednesday. Let's turn to Matthew 12:40 and notice Christ's own prophecy pertaining to His death burial and resurrection:
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly (or as it reads in the Hebrew-- in the sea monster's belly), so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
There is no clearer truth in all the world than Jesus' own specific prophecy of His death, burial, and resurrection. Eleven different times the Bible mentions that our Lord would be dead “three days,” and He gave us this one specific type setting forth the exact length of time that not only would His flesh be in the grave, but His Soul and Spirit would be in the flames of Hades. He said that just as Jonah was ‘three days and three nights” in the belly of the fish, that He also would spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”—Hades—paying our sin debt. Peter preaching in Jerusalem also testified to this fact:
Acts 2:24,31 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power….he [David] looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.”
Now listen, beloved. If Jesus was crucified on Friday afternoon and was raised on Sunday morning as is commonly believed and taught, then His Word failed. He said that He would be dead “three days and three nights,” and you can't figure more than two nights from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning to save your life.
Now, some of you are probably saying, "What difference does it make whether our Lord was crucified on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or any other day?" Well, beloved, it makes all the difference in the world. The Bible teaches that Jesus spent “three days and three nights” in the “heart of the earth”. And it is necessary that we believe the Bible if we are Christians. We may not understand all of the Bible, but God expects us to believe it all because it is His Word. And we're to study all of the Bible, not just sections or portions or passages that we particularly like.
Beloved, Jesus fulfilled the type of Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. That's what the Scripture says in Jonah 1:17. Jesus became the anti type of Jonah. Sometimes people say, "Didn't the Jews count part of a day as a whole day or part of a night as a whole night?" Let me say this, beloved. Whenever you have the expression "day and night" mentioned together in the Hebrew Scriptures, it always means a full day and a full night. I can give you several Scriptures along that line. For instance, if you will turn to Esther 4:16; I Samuel 30:12-13 and, of course, Jonah 1:17, you will find the expression "three days and three nights." And in every instance it means full days and full nights--not part of a day and part of a night. You know, Jesus defined what a day is. If you will turn to John 11:9, you will find that our Lord said: "Are there not twelve hours in a day?" Well if there are 12 hours in a day, then there are 12 hours in a night. And so three days and three nights would have to be 72 hours. Anything shorter than 72 hours would not fulfill the type of Jonah or the words of our blessed Lord.
THE RESURRECTION WAS NOT ON SUNDAY
Another fallacy connected with Easter is that Christ supposedly arose on Sunday morning. The truth of the matter is that our Lord arose from the dead late on Saturday afternoon. Let me give you the Scripture:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. And so she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them. "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb. And the two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first, and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Simon Peter therefore also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there, and the face cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb entered then also, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, and that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. John 20: 1-10
Now, please take note of two things. First, the tomb was already EMPTY when Mary Magdalene, alone, came to it. Second, Peter and John then visited the tomb also very late on Saturday just as Sunday was beginning. If we carefully consider each of the four Gospel accounts, one fact stands out beyond any question. When Mary Magdalene FIRST came to the tomb, Jesus was ALREADY GONE!
Here we have the secret of the whole matter. Now, if Jesus rose from the dead just as Sunday was beginning, and the prophecy of Matthew 12:40 said that Christ had to be in the heart of the earth “three days and three nights,” then it is perfectly obvious that our Lord was crucified on Wednesday and His body had to be placed in the tomb before 6 P.M. on that day. Then His body remained in the tomb through Thursday (night and day), Friday (night and day), and Saturday (night and day), and was raised from the dead just as (Jewish) Sunday was beginning, or what we now would call Saturday evening about 6 o’clock. This fulfilled the prophecy of Matthew 12:40. Now, remember that the Jewish day always began at sundown, at about 6 P.M. Our day begins at midnight, but the Jewish day began at sunset. In Leviticus 23:32 the Lord said:
"From evening until evening you shall keep your Sabbath."
Please keep in mind that Mary made two visits to the tomb. John records the first visit of Mary on Saturday evening, at the close of the Sabbath, with Peter and John soon arriving at the tomb just a little later after Mary had informed them of what had happened. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the second visit of the women with Mary the next morning, early Sunday morning, at sunrise. It is then they see the angels.
WHEN WAS CHRIST CRUCIFIED?
Next, we find that Christ did not die on Friday, but on Wednesday. We have already found that the resurrection took place late Saturday just as the new Jewish week was beginning. Well, if we go back three days and three nights, the length of time that our Lord was in the grave, we come to Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday is the only day on which our Lord could have been crucified. No other day will fit the known facts.
Now let us see exactly when Christ was crucified. According to John 19:31, our Lord was crucified on the Day of Preparation, that is, the preparation of the Jewish Passover. Notice,
"The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for the Sabbath day was a high day) besought Pilate that their legs would be broken, and that they might be taken away."
The Passover always began on the l4th day of the Jewish month of Nisan (Leviticus 23:6), and the day following or the l5th, was always a High Day Sabbath. This was not the weekly 7th day Sabbath, but the annual Passover Sabbath. Please notice,
“On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of the unleavened bread unto the Lord; Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. In the first day (the fifteenth) you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no secular work therein.” Leviticus 23:5-7
Thus it is fixed that this 15th day was ALWAYS a Sabbath regardless of the day of the week. This is the High Day Sabbath mentioned in John 19:31. Now the Scripture makes it plain that Christ was crucified on the day preceding this High Day Sabbath. This was called the PREPARATION DAY. Here it is in a "nutshell." Jesus ate the Passover in the first hours of Wednesday the l4th--just after 6 P.M. (We would call this Tuesday night.) Then He went to the Garden was arrested, tried, and the next day, crucified, still Wednesday the l4th. He was crucified on the same day in which He ate the Passover. Jesus, therefore, as the Lamb of God, died for our sins on the l4th day of the Jewish month of Nisan (which corresponds with our April.) This had to be on a Wednesday, if we go back three days and three nights from Saturday evening, the time when our Lord came out of the tomb.
WHAT TIME DID CHRIST DIE?
Christ died around three in the afternoon. Notice the following:
"And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit’: and having said this, He gave up His Spirit.” Luke 23:44, 46
When it says the ninth hour, it means the ninth hour since the break of day, or, in other words, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, what a sacrifice! According to Mark 15:23, He was sacrificed at 9 o'clock in the morning and died for our sins at 3 o'clock that Wednesday afternoon and was buried that very same day.
EASTER NOT IN THE BIBLE
Easter is a fallacy because it is not in the Bible. The word "Easter" occurs only one time in the Bible, in Acts 12:4, and even there the correct translation of the word (Gr. pasca) should be "passover." You might as well go ahead and have holy beads, holy bells, and holy water as to have Easter. Now, you know that none of these things are commanded in the Word of God. Now, beloved, if you are a Christian you should go by the Bible. God's people are supposed to be "Bible people." In II Timothy 9:19 we read that the Word of God thoroughly furnishes us unto all good works, so if God had intended for us to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, He would have put it in His Word. God tells us in His Word how we are supposed to worship, how we are supposed to give money for His cause, how we are to celebrate the Lord's Supper; but, when it comes to observing Easter, you won't find that in the Word of God.
EASTER IS A PAGAN HOLIDAY
Easter is a fallacy
because every reputable encyclopedia states that our modern day Easter
customs come from paganism. Webster's New International Dictionary, first
edition, states that the name "Easter" comes from the Anglo-Saxon “Eastre”,
the name of "a goddess of light or spring, in honor of whom a festival
was celebrated in April." Catholic authorities agree. Easter can
be traced back to the days of the Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans,
who lived thousands of years before Christ. These pagan nations kept
a spring festival in honor of the goddess Astarte, or Ishtar, the goddess
of spring and rebirth. The historian, Alexander Hislop, in his The Two
Babylons, states plainly that “Easter" is not a Christian name. It
bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else
than Ishtar."
MODERN EASTER CUSTOMS
Easter is a fallacy because it is filled with pagan practices. Now, I know that some of you might say, "We are celebrating the resurrection of Christ." All right, let me ask you a question, “What do Easter eggs, bunny rabbits, and hot cross buns have to do with the resurrection of the Son of God?” They don't have even the slightest connection. Easter (Ishtar) was a mythological character of the Babylonian religion that was in existence thousands of years before Christ. She was supposed to be the goddess of spring; she was supposed to have rabbits that laid eggs. Now, the eggs symbolized a new life and the colored eggs signified a wish for a bright new year ahead. Both the rabbit and the egg are pagan symbols of sex and fertility. The origin of modern "hot cross buns" is sufficiently explained in Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17-19:
"The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger."
Surely God's anger is still being provoked when Christians take up these heathen customs in connection with the resurrection of His beloved Son.
EASTER SUNRISE SERVICES
What about Easter sunrise services? Did you know that this is revealed in the Bible as the most abominable kind of idolatry in the sight of God? Listen:
Ezekiel 8:15-18 And He said to me, "Do you see son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these." Then He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. And He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose. "Therefore, I indeed shall deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor shall I spare; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet I shall not listen to them."
Here you have God condemning Israel for taking part in "sunrise services," and yet multiplied thousands of people will get up early on Easter morning to watch the sun come up over the horizon at some Easter sunrise service thinking that they are celebrating the resurrection of Christ. Why, God calls this the most abominable of all worship! The pagans believed that on Easter morning the sun danced for joy, and when you attend an Easter sunrise service, do you realize you are actually perpetuating the worship of an old pagan goddess?
WHAT ABOUT LENT?
Sometimes people ask me what I think about Lent, fasting, and other such customs that go along with Easter. Let's read I Timothy 4:1-5:
"But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, {men} who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer."
The prophecies of God's Word always come true. Here it says that in the last days some would forbid marriage, and some would forbid the eating of meat. We are living in that day now. Even many of the so-called Christians are observing Lent abstaining from meat on certain days. They have given heed to "seducing spirits" and have not followed the Bible.
There is much misunderstanding about fasting, but there need not be. When Jesus and His disciples fasted, they did so because they were so consumed with spiritual things that they were not concerned with eating. But the Pharisees fasted because they thought there was some merit in it. I'm afraid that is the reason most people fast today. They feel they are helping to earn their salvation. Yet the Scriptures tell us we cannot merit God's favor by works, but only through faith in the finished work of Christ. The Lord Jesus tells us how to fast:
Matthew 6:16-18 "Moreover when you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto their Father which is in secret; and your Father which seeth in secret, shalt reward thee openly."
Many people who fast today want to make a big show of it. They brag about the great sacrifice they are making. But God says that our fasting should be done in secret, and then He will reward us openly.
OBSERVING DAYS FORBIDDEN
I am opposed to Easter, Lent, and Good Friday because God's Word absolutely forbids the observing of any holy days in this dispensation of grace. Listen,
Galatians 4:10-11 ”You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
That sounds like the observance of Easter, doesn't it? Here the Apostle Paul absolutely forbids the observing of days, months, and seasons (for spiritual reasons). God is not pleased with people who became concerned about Him only once a year and live like the devil the rest of the time. The outward form means nothing unless Jesus (through the Holy Spirit) has made you a new creature. And what people need today is not social reform, not just a religion, not the observance of days, but they need Jesus the Savior.
DO PAGAN CUSTOMS AND DOCTRINES STINK?
Those who work in packing houses where hogs and chickens are picked and packed, do not smell those foul odors at all. Their sense of smell is deadened. So it is with Christians in a pagan world. From childhood we have never known that most of our religious customs were strictly pagan. When you discover the truth about these holidays it becomes quite shocking, and then you begin to realize how our customs really stink in the sight of God. Some will say, "We can't help it if we were born into a pagan world. We can't help it if we were reared and steeped in pagan doctrines and customs." Yes you can! Jesus said:
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:52
There is only one righteous thing that you can do with these pagan holidays and that is to repudiate them and have no part in them. The glorious bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a blessed, indisputable fact, but the celebration of Easter is a wicked, ungodly thing, founded on error and paganism. I'm am glad that I can preach to you a Christ who lives all year around. There are no special holy days for the child of God. If you are a Christian, every one of your days should be holy unto the Lord. When we're saved, we should serve the Lord 365 days a year. God doesn't want you to remember the resurrection of His Son at just one season of the year-- He wants you to remember that glorious resurrection every single day of your life. And when you worship your Creator and Savior, you must do it on His terms. Jesus commanded us in John 4:24:
“God is
spirit, and those who worship Him
must
worship in spirit and truth.”
The late Charles Halff was the
director of The Christian Jew Foundation,
P.O. Box 345, San Antonio,
TX 78292. This article has been edited for the use of:
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