Easter was observed 4,000 years ago among the pagans!
 

But you can't find one word in the entire Bible that Jesus or the apostles ever observed it!

Where did you ever find in your Bible that Peter and Paul held Easter sunrise services?

That the early Christian women in apostolic days dressed up for an Easter parade?  That Christians baked hot-cross buns? That the children of Christians dyed Easter eggs and ate chocolate Easter rabbits in honor of Christ's resurrection?

You never found these practices taught by the inspired apostolic Church, did you? Yet these or similar customs were being celebrated in pagan lands long before apostolic days!

 

Origin of Easter Sunday

Then when did the celebration of Easter Sunday enter the Church calendar?

Here is what Kurtz's Church History states about Easter: "The Saxon name Easter is derived from the old German festival of Ostara, the goddess of spring, which was celebrated at the same season" (vol. 1, page 356).

"The English Easter, AngloSaxon Oster, German Ostern, is at all events connected with the East and sunrise," says the Protestant historian Schaff, who wrote that "the transfer of the celebration of Ostara ... to the Christian Easter festival" took place years after the death of Paul (from a footnote in Schaff's History of the Church, vol. I, page 373).  

 

Easter came from pagan sun worship, not from Jesus Christ or the apostles.

What God says about Easter sunrise services

About 600 years before Christ, the prophet Ezekiel saw, in vision, an Easter celebration: "Then He said to me [God was speaking to Ezekiel] turn again, you will see greater abominations than these. So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east" (Ezekiel 8:15-16).

Notice this abomination Ezekiel saw - the Easter sunrise service. This is what professing Christians are doing today

celebrating pagan customs on Easter Sunday supposedly in honor of Christ, who did not rise from the dead on Sunday at all!

Surely the people today are sincere but so were the pagans! They didn't know better.

Jesus Christ forbids Easter celebrations

Observe what God says He will do to those who refuse to repent of this abomination: "Is it a trivial thing to commit the abominations which they commit here? ... Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice [of course they pray to God], I will not hear them" (verses 17-18).

 

But what if Easter is an ancient pagan festival? Isn't it still all right, if we use it to honor Christ? That's the way people reason today. Let God answer that question.

Jesus Christ  the Word of God - spoke to Moses to warn the people not to follow these customs of the heathen. Here is what Jesus Christ said: "Take heed ... that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, `How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).

Here is what God says. It doesn't matter what we think, but it does matter what God thinks. He calls these pagan Easter customs abominations.

Catholics testify to the origin of Easter

The Catholic scholar Hefele writes concerning Easter: "All the churches of the West, the South and the North had adopted this practice [celebrating Easter], particularly Rome, the whole of Italy, Africa, Egypt, Spain, Gaul [France], Britain, Lybia [Libya], Achaia [Greece]; it has even been adopted in the dioceses of Asia, Pontus and Cilicia" (History of the Councils, vol. I, pages 306307).

Notice that Easter celebrations were adopted, not from the Bible, but from the heathen, long after the death of Jesus Christ!

But from what sources did the scholar Hefele obtain this     amazing information?

He obtained it from ancient church history written shortly after the time Easter was adopted! Here is what Socrates Scholasticus wrote in his Ecclesiastical History not long after the time of Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century: "Neither the apostles,    therefore, nor the Gospels, have anywhere imposed ... Easter ... Wherefore, inasmuch as men love festivals, because they afford them cessation from labor: each individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent custom celebrated [Easter] ... The Saviour and his apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast . . . just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage, so also the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities of the peoples inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the observance originated not by legislation, but as a custom, the facts themselves indicate" (chapter 22).

So says the ancient church historian in the fourth century. Now let us understand exactly how Easter was introduced.

 

The first historical records

The practice of the New Testament Church of God was to observe an annual memorial of the death of Jesus Christ. This memorial was called the Passover commonly known as the "Lord's Supper."

The Lord's Supper on Saturday!

Remember that up to this point the Church of God understood that Jesus rose from the dead after three days  on Saturday late afternoon, shortly before sunset.

But in the professing Christian world, the many began to do what seemed right to them. They began to observe the Passover weekly on Saturday, the Sabbath, believe it or not!

For more than 200 years this custom was a universal practice of the Eastern churches. The church historian Socrates wrote: "While therefore some in Asia Minor observed the day abovementioned [he means that some continued to observe the Passover on the 14th of Nisan, as the apostles did], others in the East kept this feast on the Sabbath indeed." By "sabbath" all early writers meant Saturday!

So universal was the custom of observing the "Lord's Supper" on Saturday that he continued to write: "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this."

You may find this amazing testimony in volume II of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, pages 131-132, from the          Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, book V, chapter 22.

 

Did you catch the real significance of this quotation?

The Passover was transformed by many false teachers from an annual memorial in memory of the death of Jesus Christ into a weekly memorial in honor of His resurrection, which occurred on Saturday.

Yet others were introducing for the first time the idea of a Sunday resurrection. Now observe what happened.

Easter Sunday begins earlier at Rome

In commenting on those who did not observe the Passover either in accordance with the practice of the apostles or on a weekly Sabbath, Irenaeus (who lived toward the close of the second century) wrote to Bishop Victor of Rome: "We mean Anicetus, and Pius, and Hyginus, and Telesphorus, and Xystus. They neither     observed it [the true Passover on the 14th of Nisan] nor did they permit those after them to do so."

Who were these men? Bishops of the church at Rome! Here is the first record, by a Catholic,that the Roman bishops no longer observed the Passover at the correct God-given time or on a weekly Sabbath, but instead on a Sunday!

It was Bishop Xystus (his name is also spelled Sixtus) who was the first recorded individual to prevent the proper observance of the Passover, and to celebrate the "sacred mysteries" annually on a Sunday. Irenaeus speaks further of him, declaring that his doctrine was in direct "opposition" to the practice of the remainder of the churches. Bishop Sixtus was living at the beginning of the second century, just after the apostle John died.

Notice, too, that Easter Sunday did not begin with Peter or Paul in the A.D. 60s, but with Sixtus in the second century!

Here you have the astounding origin of Easter Sunday in the Western churches. Together with this practice, the "sacred mysteries" were also observed every Sunday.

 

The Romans divided

The introduction of this custom naturally divided the Christians at Rome. The Catholic historian Abbe Duchesne wrote: "There were many Christians of Asia in Rome at that time [remember that the Church of God at Rome was founded by those who came from Asia Minor where Paul preached] and the very early Popes, Xystus and Telesphorus, saw them every year keep their Pasch [the true Passover] the same day as did the Jews. They maintained that was correct. It was allowed to pass though the rest of Rome observed a different use" (The Early History of the Church, Vol. I, page 210).

These are startling facts, but they are true! It is time we knew about them.

 

Irenaeus wrote even more regarding the observance of Easter at Rome and elsewhere as follows: "But Polycarp also was not only instructed by the apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop

of the Church of Smyrna ... He it was who, coming to Rome in the time of Anicetus [bishop of Rome around A.D. 154], caused many to turn away from the ... heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received this one and sole truth from the apostles."

While at Rome, Polycarp discussed the matter of Easter with the Roman bishop.

Irenaeus continued: "For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it [the Passover] because he had always observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the apostles, with whom he associated; and neither did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to observe it, who said that he was bound to follow the customs of the presbyters before him" (Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, book V, chapter 24, Nicene and PostNicene Fathers, vol. 1).

 

Counterfeit vision

Shortly after Polycarp left, there appeared an amazing letter, said by many scholars to have been a deliberate forgery. This letter states: "Pope Pius, who lived about 147, had made a      decree, that the annual solemnity of the Pasch [Pasch is the Greek word for Passover] should be kept on the Lord's day [Sunday], and in confirmation of this he pretended that Hermes, his brother, who was then an eminent teacher among them, had received instruction from an angel, who commanded that all men should keep the Pasch on the Lord's day" (Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, pages 1148-1149).

Of this same hoax, we read in Apostolical Fathers, by Donaldson, page 324: "One of the letters forged in the name of Pius, where one Hermas is mentioned as the author; and it is stated that in his book a commandment was given through an angel to observe the Passover on a Sunday."

But the Easter controversy did not end here. Within 35 years it broke out vehemently between Polycrates of Asia Minor and Victor of Rome, who attempted to "cut off whole churches of God, who observed the tradition of an ancient custom" - the true Passover.

Here is a part of the forthright answer given by Polycrates to Victor, vindicating the truth of God: "As for us, then, we              scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the Lord ... I speak of Philip, one of the twelve apostles ... John moreover, who reclined on the Lord's bosom ... Then there is Polycarp ... these all kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in accordance with the gospel, without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith."

This remarkable letter is preserved in volume 8 of the AnteNicene Fathers, pages 772-773.

Polycrates came from that area in which Paul spent most of his time  in Asia Minor, near Ephesus. This is also where John spent his last days. Here there were many Christians still remaining true to the faith!

Here is proof that both the apostles to the circumcision and Paul, the special apostle to the gentiles, taught the observance of the Passover on the 14th of the first month of God's sacred calendar. Chrysostom, who wrote several centuries after the apostles, admitted that "formerly it [the Passover] prevailed also at Antioch" from where Paul began many of his apostolic journeys.

Now, what happened to stamp out the true observance of the Passover from the popular churches?

Constantine - the man of power

Constantine then convoked the first general council of the       Christian-professing world. The Council of Nicaea decided, under his authority, that Easter must be celebrated on Sunday and that the Passover must be forbidden.

Without regard to these decisions, many continued faithful. For this reason Constantine issued an edict declaring: "We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies ... public or private" (Life of Constantine, book III).

Though everyone was now forced to observe Easter or flee the urban areas of the Roman Empire, the churches were still divided over the exact Sunday for Easter. Here is how confusing matters became: "But notwithstanding any endeavours that could be used then, or afterwards, there remained great differences in the church about it for many ages. For the churches of Great Britain and Ireland did not accord with the Roman church in keeping Easter on the same Sunday, till about the year 800. Nor was the Roman way fully received in France, till it was settled there by the authority of Charles the Great" (ibid., page 1151).

 

Does it make any difference?

Listen! Your eternity depends on the answer! Here are the      authentic facts of history.

Here is God's word to you - here is why it does make a difference what you believe - and what you do about it!

You are soon  very soon - going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ! Don't say carelessly, "Well, here's the way I look at it," or, "I don't think it makes any difference." God says it does make a difference. God says there is a way that seems right to a man - to anyone, to you - but that seemingly right way ends in death (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25)!

You will be judged by what God says - not by what you think! God says this whole world today is deceived! We need to heed what history says - heed what God says!