While the word "Easter" does not appear in the Bible and
no early church celebrations of Christ's resurrection are mentioned in
Scripture itself. Easter, like Christmas, is a tradition that developed later
in church history for the children of God to remember and celebrate what Jesus
did for the world through His birth, His death and His resurrection. In later
years, the resurrection of Jesus was celebrated in the spring for centuries in
Christendom before the word "Easter" was even adopted as a label for
this occasion. The word itself is derived from an Old German root, ostern, for
dawn or east, which is the time and place of the rising sun. This makes sense
as a reason why a day commemorating Jesus’ resurrection would have begun to be
called "Easter." Some Critics take issue because the Word
"Easter" is derived from the name of a Germanic goddess of spring,
Eastre. An English monk, Venerable Bede, who lived in the eighth century, made
this view popular. However, this idea is not at all certain. In any case, even
if the word "Easter" was associated with an ancient false goddess, it
does not mean we cannot use the word today. We have many words in the English
language that were connected with ancient false gods. For example, the word
"cereal" comes from the name of an ancient goddess of agriculture,
Ceres. The word "cloth" comes from Clotho, a spinster goddess who was
said to spin the thread of life. The word "hymn" is thought to come
from a god of marriage, Hymen, and in ancient times meant any song offered in
praise or honor of a god or gods. But when we use "hymn" in church
services we mean a song sung in praise of the one true God. When we use the
word "cereal" we’re not thinking of a goddess much less, worshipping
it, but of fruit loops or corn flakes. Cloth is a material used to make clothes
to us and has nothing to do with a goddess, Clotho.
In the Old Testament God
gave the Jews festivals in order to remind them of important experiences, days
and events that they had been through. The festival of Trumpets is an example
of how God transformed many pagan customs into a form of worship devoted to
Him. The festival of Trumpets came on the new moon of the seventh month. The
Jews even had a new moon celebration with the blowing of trumpets in Psalm
81:3. Yet, the moon was regularly worshipped as a god or goddess in other
cultures. That’s where we get the name for "Monday." It was the day
set aside in honor of the moon. If we were to apply the reasoning some people
use to call the Easter celebration "pagan" to Israel’s worship
system, which God gave them, we would be falsely painting a picture of
paganism. Even the sun, universally worshipped as a god by pagan cultures, is
used in Scripture to symbolize an aspect of Jesus’ glory. Luke called him
"the rising sun" Luke 1:78. Jesus is also called the "bright
Morning Star" in Scripture Revelation 22:16. God can use symbols
misappropriated by pagans and transform them for his own use, and for
acceptable worship. God transformed those institutions for his use just as he
transformed pagan sacrificial and priestly systems for his use. He meant them
to be transformed as vehicles for godly worship and Christians do the same
thing with their worship on Easter. Today, on Easter Sunday, Christians believe
and worship Jesus Christ and Him alone, and what a joyous occasion for us to
celebrate!
Hold Fast,
Bren
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