Should We Celebrate Jesus Christ's Resurrection?

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Should We Celebrate Jesus Christ's Resurrection?

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The resurrection of Jesus Christ is indisputably an important event within Christianity. It provides hope and assurance that we may also receive eternal life. It is also proof that Jesus was indeed the long-promised Messiah. Millions of people gather every year on Easter Sunday to commemorate His resurrection. But should they? Is the veneration of this particular day something God intended? Is He pleased with this form of worship and the activities associated with this day?

The answer to these questions rests upon the issue of who determines which days are set aside for worship. If we are free to choose our own days, we can select any occasion we desire. But, if we will allow God, through the pages of the Bible, to determine on which days He is to be worshiped, we should not observe Easter. Here is why.

When we examine the humanly devised Easter celebration, obvious questions and problems come to mind. For example, where in the Bible can we read about Easter symbols and customs such as Easter rabbits, Easter-egg hunts and eating ham? Where did they originate?

These popular customs in fact came from decidedly nonbiblical-heathen-practices. Of course, some will contend that their worship centers exclusively on Christ's resurrection and that they ignore these customs. However, such arguments run counter to God's explicit command that we must worship Him according to His instructions, not adding to or taking away from them (Deuteronomy 12:28-32).

Further, careful study reveals that Christ was not resurrected early Sunday morning as so many people have been led to believe. His resurrection occurred about 12 hours earlier, just before sunset on the weekly Sabbath, a day that God had already authorized to be observed every week.

Aside from Acts 12:4 (where pascha, the Greek word for "Passover," is mistakenly translated "Easter" in the King James Version of the Bible), this celebration of Christ's resurrection is nowhere to be found in Holy Scripture. There simply is no biblical record of the earliest Christians ever observing it. Why? Because God Himself established the specific days of worship for His people. Those days included the weekly seventh-day (Friday-night and Saturday) Sabbath and seven annual festivals (Leviticus 23), but they did not include many celebrations and traditions that were later established, such as Easter.

The biblically sanctioned occasions, which God in Leviticus 23:2-4 calls "My feasts" and "the feasts of the LORD" (rather than festivals exclusively for the Jewish people), represent steps in His plan of salvation for humanity. They show that He eventually will offer every person the opportunity to reconcile to Himself through His Son, Jesus the Messiah, whose role in our salvation is a central focus of the meaning of these days.

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Comments

  • Sophy

    Hello. Thanks for the article. My comment is about the Sabbath. In keeping the Sabbath I think we'lll do good to remember that the Most High goes by the moon. He gave the months to us by way of each new moon thusly giving us each months weekly Sabbath's. So saying the Sabbath starts on Friday night unto Saturday is partly wrong because we can't go according to the Gregorian calendar made by man who thought to change the Father's times and laws. What do y'all think? P.S. I'm not saying we are to observe the moon as in worship, but to see when it is new.

  • Skip Miller

    Hello Sophornia,
    Yes God does use the moon to tell us when months should start.
    But what about days? If we simply look at Genesis we see repeated several times,
    " evening and morning were the first ( second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth) day."
    It seems pretty clear to me that evening and morning constitute one full day.
    And then we have the Sabbath! Did God, all of a sudden, radically alter the sequence that
    He had so carefully and repetitively set in motion? I really don't think so. The Sabbath
    follows the exact same pattern. The names of the days of the week are not important (except for the Sabbath)
    but the way that days start and end are. Days begin at sunset and end 24 hours (approx.) later at sunset.
    One last thought, if you will check, as amazing as it might sound, although the calendar has been changed
    through the ages, the sequence of 7 days to a week has not been changed. (Just ask a Jew!)

  • ingrid

    i believe, christ's resurrection is the most important event in our belief aside from pentecost. it signifies and proves HIS triumph over sin aka death! no it is not easter, and it is not easter sunday, and it is not even easter sunrise service....but 3 days and 3 nights after his death on the eve christ rose from the dead. and yes we ought to celebrate this event as through christ's resurrection have we found a way to our salvation, to be lifted from death into eternal life! christ is the unleavened bread, christ took away our need to find every crumb of leaven in our cupboards (old covenant LAW) fulfilling the scripture and taking our sins to the cross, and instead we need to put our faith into HIM as our saviour and strive to lead a sinless (leavenless) life not holding on to manmade traditions or feasts not pertaining to our new covenant as this would dishonor our proclaimed faith in HIM being God's beloved Son! Christ is Risen!Alleluja, alleluja!

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