Question:
Why doesn't the church have an Easter service?
Answer:
Around the Easter holidays, many begin to wonder why we do not have an Easter service like so many other churches. In answering this question, we must first point out that our religious practices should not be established by what other churches are doing, but by what God’s Word teaches the church to do in its religious practice. If we believe in the inspired Word of God, it is important that our religious practices be derived from it.
With that in mind, the answer is quite simple. We do not have an Easter day service for the same reason we do not have a Grandmother’s Day service, an Independence Day service or a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service. The reason is this—there is no Scriptural authority for it. You never find the church of the New Testament celebrating Easter as a yearly observance nor do you find it commanded.
At this point, many turn to Acts 12:4 to try and claim Easter is found in the Bible. First, we need to note that the word “Easter” is found in the King James Version but it is a mistranslation. This mistranslation is correctly translated in the New King James Version as well as other more reputable translations such as the ASV, NASB, NIV, ESV and Young’s Literal Translation as “Passover.” Thus, Acts 12:4 has nothing to do with a yearly observance of the resurrection. By reading the context, you can see that this was the Jewish festival of Passover.
Here’s the point: using Acts 12:4 as your Scriptural authority indicates two major mistakes. First, it is basing a practice on a mistranslation of the Scriptures. Second, it does not prove the existence of a Christian holiday, but a Jewish one. Paul once asked, “...how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” What were those “weak and beggarly elements?” He explains in Galatians 4:10, “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” In Colossians 2:13-17 he declares that such “ordinances” have been “nailed to the cross.” In other words, we are no longer under obligation to keep such feasts.
With a little research, we will discover Easter is not found in God’s Word. Instead, its practices are of pagan origin. Its very name is taken from the ancient goddess Eostre who was celebrated at the vernal equinox by pagans each year. Why would a church bind a holiday that is of pagan origin upon its members? Go ask your church and quote Matthew 7:21-23. Even religious people with good intentions should be careful of binding popular traditions that God’s law has not bound! Truth is not established by popularity or tradition.
April 2007