For those who embrace the doctrines of any one of the hundreds of church denominations, the answer is the former option without a doubt. For the supposedly saved, born again and rapture-ready believer, to even ask the question is proof of the questioner’s spiritual ignorance of the ways of the Lord. But to the true saint of God, the answer is the latter option without a doubt. Does it not seem strange that, though God commands His true saints to commemorate His Son’s DEATH, those who call themselves God’s children ignore His command, choosing instead to celebrate His birth and His resurrection, neither of which does He command to be commemorated. A double irony surrounds professing Christendom’s celebration of Christ’s birth and resurrection in that, (A) no one knows the date of His birth, and (B) the observance of His resurrection has evolved into a day of children’s games in honor of a self-appointed deity called “Easter”–the goddess of fertility and her symbols–colored eggs. Christ’s resurrection is dutifully mentioned in an abbreviated pastoral message. shortened so that the congregation could get on with the REAL reason for the festivities–seeing who can find the most colored eggs during the party that takes place following the sermon.

I write about this abomination relying upon decades of experience during which I did what all other counterfeit Christians have done for approximately 1700 years. Like billions of other salvation seekers, I chose the way of the church and ignored the Lord’s Scriptural call to “come up hither” to His level of knowledge and power. Looking back, the Lord’s grace never ceases to amaze me. I often voice my appreciation of His patience and long-suffering, especially relative to my early life during which I KNEW HE HAD CALLED ME TO WALK IN HIS HOLINESS AND SERVE HIM IN HIS SPIRIT-EMPOWERED, SPIRIT-LED MINISTRY WHICH IS PROCLAIMED IN JOHN 14:12. Fortunately, I eventually embraced His call on my life and will never look back. Again, praise Him for His incredible grace toward me–the most unworthy of souls.

Every year about this time millions of professing Christians observe Easter Sunday in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What is called the Easter Service is the church’s most sacred observance of the year during which the proclaimed focus is the rising of the Messiah from death, just as the activities surrounding Christmas focus on His Birth. But on a day dedicated to His resurrection and the sacredness of that day, people worship Him by watching their children search for colored eggs, then go home to watch a football game.

You may have noticed that there is no mention of Easter in the Bible? This is brought out by the historical fact that Easter was not observed by the church until 325 A.D. when Roman Emperor Constantine declared that, within the Roman Empire, which included the Catholic Church, Passover would no longer be observed, that Easter would be celebrated instead, and that the festivities would always take place on Sunday. He called Passover a Jewish Holy Day. Wrong. It is God’s Holy Day, and His people celebrate it and will continue to do so until His Son’s return.

The word “Easter” is not found in the original manuscripts comprising the Holy Bible.. The word is found one time in the King James translation of the Holy Scriptures from Greek to English. The word (Easter) found in Acts 12:4 is pascha in the Hebrew and should be translated “Passover” which the Lord commanded to be observed.

Let us examine the first time the so-called “Easter Service” is mentioned in the Bible. Here God is speaking to Jeremiah about the people of Judah who had taken on many of the religious practices of the heathen nations around them. The Lord says to the prophet whom He assigned to lead the people of Judah: “Do you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. Is it Me whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own confusion?” (Jer. 7:17-19). During that observance they were worshiping the queen of heaven for whom the women baked bread cakes. The children were picking up sticks in the streets so that their fathers could make fires with which their mothers could bake the cakes.

The other relevant Scripture is found in Ezekiel 8:16-17 where God is showing the prophet a vision in which he is taken into the Temple in Jerusalem where Jews were worshiping a wide variety of gods. “And He (God) brought me (in spirit) into the inner court of the house of the Lord. At the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the porch and the alter, were abut twenty-five men with their backs to the Temple and their faces toward the east. They were WORSHIPING THE SUN IN THE EAST. The Lord said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too slight a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me further to anger?'”

What those Jews were doing, millions within the church today do every Easter Sunday. They stand and face the rising sun in an attitude of worship. This practice traces its origin back to the worship of the Babylonian sun god and his mythical wife–a goddess called Easter in English. Ezekiel reports that this act of worship provokes God to anger. The custom has nothing to do with the Lord, the worship of Him or what He commands of those who claim to be in His human family. It has everything to do with idolatry, specifically the worship of the sun. The sun has been worshiped as god by billions of people throughout the ages.

We know what God does NOT want us to observe, let us now determine what He DOES want (command) us to celebrate at this time of year. The Apostle Paul wrote about Jesus Christ’s command to the disciples shortly before His death: “For I (Paul) have heard from the Lord that which I have spoken to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, broke it and said: ‘Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ After the same manner He took the cup and when He had partaken of it, said; ‘This cup is the New Testament in My blood. This do you as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me’. Then Paul told them that as often as they ate the break and drank the wine they were memorializing the Lord’s DEATH until His return. Notice that nowhere in Scripture are we told to memorialize Christ’s birth or his resurrection.

Read the series on Easter and the Passover, key word–Easter–for a more detailed explanation of the terrible sin that takes place throughout professing Christendom around this time each year. This observance is an example of how the church has fallen away from the Lord exactly as Paul prophesied would take place as time of Christ’s return drew near (2 Thes. 21-3). Let us be about pleasing the Lord by obeying Him and rejecting church doctrine. Read Second Corinthians 6:14-71 and obey the Lord’s Word to you. L.J.