Easter

[james1523]

I always took Galations 4:10 to refer to those who observed specific years, times of the year, and seasons. Such as those who celebrate spring, certain years (zodiac), etc.
What about observing Christ's birth, Christ's resurrection?

The situation in Gal 4:10 was that the believers were trying to please God by observing specific and set times of the year. Whether that is Jewish days or Christian days, it makes no difference really.

Every Easter and Christmas the church attendance numbers increase 10 fold with people trying to please God by remembering His death and His birth. They are Christians who go to church at Christmas and Easter but don't really go any other time.

Keeping Easter and Christmas is seen as a meritorious work, and Christians look down upon other Christians who do not keep Easter and Christmas.

This is despite the fact that the Lord Jesus never commands or asks us to observe these occasions. The only form of remembrance that Christ asked us to keep was to remember Him by partaking of bread and wine.

Partaking of various festivals is a Jewish and pagan concept. For the Christian, the whole life and every day of the year belongs to the Lord.

Despite Easter and Christmas being an aged tradition, the majority of protestant and free churches observe the occasion in a spirit of religious bondage. The pressure to observe these occasions comes from secular and Christian alike. It is religious bondage because it is one of the busiest times of the year for churches, busy and stressed with activities that the Lord doesn't even command.

There is a lot of research out there that shows the origins of Easter and Christmas are pagan:

In 354 A.D., Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on December 25. He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it as the Feast of Saturn, celebrating the birthday of the sun (Sechrist E.H. Christmas. World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 3. Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, Chicago, 1966, pp. 408-417).

The early church did not keep special feast days, so as to be clearly differentiated between paganism. Christians are warned not to adopt the practices of pagan countries, which would include Easter and Christmas, which fall on the same days as observed pagan practices in Rome and Greece at the time (Deut 12:2-4, 18:9-12).

 

[lawrenceb]

Evangelical Christianity and today's "Easter Sunrise Service":

Eze 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, [were] about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Other "sun worship" verses:

Deu 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, [even] all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

Deu 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

2Ki 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

2Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which [was] in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

Jer 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Jer 19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

Job 31:26, 27 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

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