The Meaning of Easter
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Meaning of Easter

As Christmas is celebrating Jesus' birth, Easter is celebrating Jesus' victory over death and mankind's hope for eternal life.

The highlights behind the Easter story include Jesus' execution, His burial and, most importantly, His rising from death.

The account of Jesus' rising from death was recorded in the most authoritative historical records, the Gospel books: Three days after His death, a few women first found His tomb empty. Then Jesus appeared in front of these women and His disciples, talking and eating with them. Out of doubts still, one disciple did not believe Jesus was alive again until he actually touched Jesus' fatal wounds.  In the following forty days, hundreds of people witnessed this Jesus who had returned from death until He ascended to Heaven.

Before His death, Jesus had promised eternal life to those who followed Him. If the story ended at His death, Jesus would have been no more than a religious figure with a finite life span. But the fact the Jesus rose from death demonstrated He has the power over death, and only through Him can people have hope for eternal life.  Jesus said,  "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

  • To learn more about Jesus' death and rising, click here.
  • For a brief summary of Jesus' life, click here.
  • For a clear and concise introductory course on Jesus, click here.


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Okay enough!

Paganism and the celebration of "Easter" are related - neither has anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is historically accurate.

There are several religions that celebrated the rebirth of a specific deity which is similar to the idea of resurrection but not related. This is historically accurate.

It is correct that the word "Easter" is not found in the books of the bible - the resurrection of Jesus is.

That does not in any way mean that the celebration of the resurrection of Christ has anything to do with a pagan religion. The fact is words change their meaning over time. What a word meant when it was created may have little to do with what it means now. (think about the word "gay" as a modern example)

The word Easter is likely derived from "Eastre" an Anglo-Saxon word and/or a reference to a span of time on the Germanic calendar "Eostur-monath" describing a month of days. Historians point out that a the worship of neo-goddess Eostre in Anglo-Saxon paganism as having died out long before the writing of any know history - in other words it is prehistoric. The word is derived from a long lineage of change beginning from Christians using Semitic languages, Roman, Greek and Spanish until we got the word which describes an event like rebirth.

Let's just say we renamed Easter "Rebirth" - that would be a good description for the event right? So to the word "Easter" is descriptive of rebirth. Get the idea. Rising from the dead is related to the word Easter so it was adopted to describe the resurrection of Christ and has nothing to do with pagan rituals. Easter like rebirth, rising from the dead, and resurrection all represent similar ideas and when the holy day was named the most common word describing it was Easter - that is how it works - we use the best word available to us at the time of invention.

Were we as a culture to take out every word from our language that has pagan origins we would lose all the days of the week, the names of the stars, and a wealth of history and mythology. For better or worse words are pervasive and their means change over time. If you eat hamburger are you actually eating ham? If you pick a bunch of things was it actually six? Words change over time.

Some might believe that by denouncing Easter and Christmas they do some service to God or man -by this effort on their part to make the names Easter and Christmas pagan they bring judgment on those celebrating what the days represent. Yes it is true Jesus never said "celebrate my birthday and resurrection" - and Yes it is equally true Jesus never said anyone was dammed if they did so. You just cant have it both ways. Those who celebrate do well and those who do not do well - it just does not matter because Jesus was silent about it. Remember Jesus never said invent jet aircraft, invent antibiotics or learn how deep the ocean is but he also did not say don't do those things.

Christians during the reformation sought to take back certain pagan holidays by celebrating those special events in a Christ like way. In my opinion where well meaning modern zealots go wrong is in trying to condemn their brothers and sisters in Christ for loving the resurrection and the beauty of the saviors birth. I say just don't celebrate the days and keep silent because of what Jesus did say.

Jesus did say "Don't judge, so that you won't be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.
"Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." Matthew 7:1-6

I know from experience that those well meaning strong voices denouncing all things in harsh ways will continue this quest in their zeal, but I hope those gentle souls wanting good information will read past it, recognize the controversy as being healthy and worthy of discussion and the value of those with strong voices - the human experience is richer for their voices and those voices should be heard - then you get to make your own choice.

Thoughts?


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By: Victor Emmanuel
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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What is the meaning of the "bunny" in the Easter Day?



By: hoornaz jafariyeh
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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maening of Easter
I belive there is nothing wrong with celebrating Easter. With out holidays & traditions humanity would not exist. Just be informed, and know what exactly it is your celebrating. Don't live life by others action..refure to the Bible and go back and judge those people for Choosing what ever it is they choose. Who are you to JUDGE????Not GOD so don't wory about it. DO NOT JUDGE AND YOU WILL NOT BE JUDGED.



By: Leslie Lopez
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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What testament is the story about Easter under ?



By: Elizabeth Jones
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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There is no such thing as the word easter found in the bible, The jewish people celebrated passover, The passover was when God told the hebrew people to eat unleavan bread for 3 days, and to kill a lamb cook it and it it on passover night, they were instucted by God to use the blood to cover there doorpost with this blood of the lamb. fro a covering, unto them becuase GOD was going to send the spirit of death upon the fiest born child. When the spiritof death was sent to every house and the house that was not covered by this blood the spirit of death enterd in and killed every malr first bornchild. read this in the book of exodus.Do not be decieved by such pagan days just like christmas if it is not in the word of God flee because many false prophets have come into the world .Why would you want a false teacher teaching you, you have been warned, JESUS NEVER SAID TO CELEBRATE EASTER . so if its not in the word of God than why do such things? Yes we should celebrate jesus but with thanksgiving unto him only not to no eater bunny, last iread my bible the easter bunny didnt die for me on the cross nor did they spit on his face, and he sur didnt carryt aht heavy cross to calvary,so who ARE YOU WORSHIPPING ? bE CARE FUL FOR MANY FALSE PROPHETS HAVE GONE AND ARE IN THE WORLD TODAY ASK GOD FOR TRUTH he sys

 you have not because you ask not.



By: carmen pureco
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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easter

Hi,

why do you promote Easter?? it's history is filthy. Easter came from the word Ishtar the goddess of sex and fertility. a pagan in origin.. if i celebrate Easter, i would be damned. i would never celebrate Easter



By: Joycita Caņada
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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i do not know how you people celebrate yours.since we are not using any other name to celebrate,there is nothing that is wrong.We are using the name of Jesus Christ to celebrate.



By: ben best
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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How is the date of easter figured out every year



By: Kathryn Glick
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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who founded easter



By: Christina Hunter
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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Where do we get the name Easter?



By: Molly Wares
Category: The Meaning of Easter
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