I do not celebrate "Easter" as so many "Christians" do. They have been given a strong dilution to believe this holiday was given by God, it was not. It is a man-made holiday instituted by the Catholic church to inculcate into the church some paganism to draw in the pagans.
You can take anything you like, attach a Christian meaning to it but if it was not commanded by Christ it remains pagan in spite of tacking on a Christian theme to that which comes out of paganism.
Here is what God says:
Mark 7:13-14 "13 Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.” 14 Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand:…"
By attaching pagan practices to Christ we do not have a Christianized pagan holiday we just have blasphemy, assigning to Christ what belongs to the pagans.
Many years ago as a Catholic I was into all these holidays believing they honored God. When I became a born-again believer on fire for Christ, He opened my eyes to the origins of all these holidays and gave me a disdain for them.
If every believer would just search the scriptures while asking the Holy Spirit for wisdom they would see that God never commanded or endorsed any of these man-made "Christianized pagan" holidays. They were the devil's trick to distract "religious" people from Christ. Many religious people pride themselves in their practices as though doing these rituals makes them special in some way, it appeals to the flesh.
Notice how so many people show up at church gatherings on these holidays while ignoring Christ the rest of the year? That is because they are "feel good" holidays that relieve the conscience. Many unsaved people gain a sense of safety and happiness from doing what is worthless to God.
I grew up with these traditions, the dress-up clothes, the coloring of eggs, the special services every year, but in the home, there was no mention of Christ and a lot of pride that led to mean-spirited words and actions regularly. There was no fruit of the Spirit in the home, only traditions that caused a lot of stress.
God said you shall know them by their fruit.
What is the fruit? Here it is, the very character qualities of Christ that dwell in every born-again believer.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.
When these character qualities are missing there will not be continual bad manners, snide, and mean-spirited remarks. In fact, there will be kindness, concern for others, respect for them as though they have value. There will not be raging in a discussion or intimidation to control others. If we were to ponder each quality we would see how love is present in every one of them. Even when there is corrective instruction there is no sense of superiority or intimidation from the one correcting, there is gentle with kindness to help. Those who rage, using intimidation and mocking have no love. Even worse when they are told they are acting badly they will further rage as well as blame their target for daring to show them their fault.
This prideful stance is proof the one doing this is not walking in the Holy Spirit. If this happens continually as a way of life then we can presume this person is not born again no matter what they say. The solution is to not engage with them and pray for their salvation.
You see, many people who love these pagan practices with Christ's name tacked on, are walking in the flesh, full of self-exaltation without the fruit of the Spirit. Yes, there may be some kind people who are not born again who love these holidays, but these people still need to become born again.
If it is difficult to remove the holiday from your life at least call it "Resurrection Day" and stop indulging in the pagan practices that honor the goddess Eostre. Leave behind all that is associated with this paganism and make it all about Christ. Soon after making this choice, you will notice you have grown a hatred for what dishonors God. You will have no need for any of it and even more at peace than you were when you enjoyed the rituals.
Just something to pray about, how much do we love Christ more than our traditions?
Mark 7:7-9 "…7 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ 8 You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.” 9 He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.…"
Yes, it's true, we can worship God in vain without His blessing by adding paganism to our worship.
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