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Easter is a feast or festival of the Christian church that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or after March 21 or one week later if the full moon falls on a Sunday.

In other words, Easter falls consistently, annually, between March 22 and April 25.

Easter was originally a pagan festival honoring, Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of light and spring. At the time of the vernal equinox (the day in the spring when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are of equal length), sacrifices were offered in her (Eostre) honor.

The vernal equinox is two moments in the year when the Sun is exactly above the equator, and day and night are of equal length. As early as the eighth century, the word EASTER was used to designate the annual Christian celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Ancient civilizations were extremely intelligent and aware of astronomy, without the modern sophisticated technologies science offers us today. They had a way of measuring time of day and night to determine to the second that day and night were of equal length.

Even though they honored the pagan god EOSTRE for this time of the year, something good and Godly causes us to remember the greatest miracle in the HISTORY of the WORLD, the RESURRECTION.

No other religion in the world can make this categorical claim. No other religion saves their finances and pay thousands of dollars to visit an empty grave. Who does this unless there is historical archaeological evidence to prove that something miraculous happened?

The something which has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt is that He (Jesus) Rose from the grave.

The only appearance of the word Easter in the King James Version (KJV) is a mistranslation of the Greek word pasch, the Greek word for Passover (Acts 12:4).

Pasch, the mistranslated word for Easter in Acts 12:4 in the KJV, denotes the Passover. The phrase “after the Passover” indicates after the whole festival was at an end. It is important to remember that the term “Easter” is not of Christian origin.

It was another form of Astarte, one of the Chaldean goddesses, the queen of heaven. The festival of pasch held by Christians was a continuation of the Jewish feast, but was not instituted by Jesus Christ, nor was it connected with Lent.

From this Pasch, the pagan festival of “Easter” was quite distinct and was introduced into Western religion as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity.

It worked!

All over the United States of America and in many regions in the world Easter is celebrated. That is AMAZING! Only God could take something which had an original intent to honor a pagan goddess and shift the focus to the resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Being raised from the dead has three primary meanings in the Bible: miraculous healings, our LORD’S resurrection and the hope of a general resurrection.

God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Without the resurrection, preaching and belief is meaningless (I Corinthians 15:14). The resurrection is the point at which God’s intention for Jesus becomes clear (Romans 1:4) and believers are assured that Jesus is Christ.

Do you believe Jesus rose from the grave? Are you sure beyond any reasonable doubt?

These are significant questions because without the resurrection you might as well hang up your choir robes and close your church doors.

Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity.

Please believe TODAY! Believe.

 

The Rev. Harry Abrams writes about faith for Port Arthur Newsmedia. He can be reached at harrybramsjr@gmail.com.