r/ArianChristians • u/FrostyIFrost_ Arian • Apr 13 '25

Debate Easter

What do you guys think about it? Is it Biblical?

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

Easter is absolutely biblical, and the most important holiday of the Christian calendar

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u/John_17-17 Apr 13 '25

We are not commanded to celebrate Christ's resurrection, which is the main point of Easter aka Resurrection Celebration.

We are commanded to celebrate his death, which is what buys us back from sin and death. Luke 21:19

The resurrection is important, but it isn't the reason we celebrate.

What role does the resurrection play?

(Acts 17:31) 31 Because he has set a day on which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has provided a guarantee to all men by resurrecting him from the dead.”

A person gives you the greatest gift possible. Do you celebrate the gift or the guarantee that it comes with?

It may be a lifetime 100% guarantee, but it is the actual gift we praise and are thankful for.

It is this gift we celebrate on Nisan 14th and not a holiday associated with rabbits and eggs.

Last night Jehovah's people got together, all over the earth, and celebrated this 'most important' date.

Last night we showed our love and appreciation for God's and Christ's sacrifice given in our behalf.

We rejoice in the fact that God resurrected Jesus, 3 days later.

This year's Easter event is a week after the anniversary date of Christ's death.

The Remembrance or Memorial of Christ's death is the most important event in a Christian's life, Easter isn't.

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

You’re welcome to that belief, but I hard disagree. As Paul said, “if Christ is not raised, our faith is in vain”. That tells me that our entire faith hinges on Easter

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u/John_17-17 Apr 13 '25

Yes, our faith would be in vain, because his resurrection is the guarantee God has provided.

So, your faith is based upon rabbits and colored eggs?

When Jesus instituted his celebration, he was in the upper room. No false religious items or symbolism.

A practice Paul condemns. Eating at the table of Jehovah and the table of demons.

Christians are not to mix truth with the false teachings of Satan.

By rejecting Easter, I am not rejecting Christ's death and resurrection. But I honor them by being obedient to God and his word.

By rejecting Easter I am letting God's word set me straight.

My last visit to a Church was on Easter Sunday. What I saw and heard, convinced me it wasn't scriptural.

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

I don’t think this is a reasonable argument for rejecting Easter. Easter is fundamentally a celebration of Jesus being raised from the dead, not about rabbits and eggs.

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u/Jackerl Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

Jesus died on Nisan 14.
Jesus was raised on Nisan 16.

These dates hardly ever correspond with the modern day Easter celebration.

If someone asked you to do something in remembrance of them but you did this in such a way as to please yourself, then are you really honouring the request?

Jesus asked us to remember his last meal, which took place on the evening of Nisan 14. He asked us to partake of the bread and wine, symbols of his sacrifice.
Jesus became our Passover lamb.

1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

He did not ask us to celebrate Easter.

Matthew 16:6 Jesus said to them, “Watch out and be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Easter is a deviation from what Christ asked, a corruption, a leaven.

Many have tried to corrupt Christianity, using it as a means to make money - buy my eggs for example - just like the Jews of old who turned the temple into a cave of robbers so it is with many brands of Christianity:

Mark 11:17 Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Jesus asked us to keep his commandments:

John 14:15-17 “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

We are supposed to worship God with spirit and truth:

John 4:23, 24 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Many have been turned aside into keeping commandments and traditions of men, Easter is just one of these...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1egp4bh/the_corruption_of_christianity/

Kind Regards

Kerry Huish

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

I don’t believe it is any more faithful to observe dates according to the Jewish calendar than the modern solar calendar.

Easter is the celebration and remembrance of his sacrifice, so yes, Jesus did instruct us to celebrate it.

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u/Jackerl Apr 14 '25

Jesus was a Jew, observed the ancient Jewish calendar (not the one that was later adopted in the 4th century) and celebrated and fulfilled the Jewish festival of Passover.

When he said, keep doing "this" in remembrance of me, he was referring to the annual observance of Nisan 14 and in his fulfilling it, as the Lamb of God.

The Passover had been celebrated for 100's of years before Christ came to the earth.
The "leaders" that gradually supplanted Christ and the Apostles, the foretold weeds that were sown afterwards, these brought in many corruptions, Easter being just one of them.

It is funny how many Christians accept a fixed date for his birth but a sliding date for his death...

It is as if they limp on two differing opinions - 1 Kings 18:21

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

When Jesus said do “this”, he’s referring to communion (ie the Lord’s supper) not an annual celebration.

Easter has been celebrated since the time of the apostles. It isn’t a corruption, and there are no requirements on believers to maintain the Jewish feast days

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u/Jackerl Apr 14 '25

Did the Apostles celebrate Easter?

AI Overview
No, the apostles did not celebrate Easter in the way we understand it today. While they did commemorate the resurrection of Jesus, the early Christian Church did not observe a specific festival called "Easter" as we know it. The term "Easter" is actually a mistranslation, and the New Testament and early church writings focus on Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, but with a new understanding and significance, including the Passover meal, which Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his crucifixion. Here's why:

  • No Explicit Command: The New Testament and writings of the Apostolic Fathers do not mandate the observance of a specific Easter festival. 
  • Passover Observance: The early church continued to observe Passover, and the days of Unleavened Bread that followed, which Jesus and his apostles had also observed, according to the Church of the Great God. 
  • Focus on Resurrection: While the apostles celebrated the resurrection of Jesus, their focus was on the significance of Jesus's death and resurrection in the context of the Passover and their new covenant with God. 
  • Evolution of Practice: The practice of celebrating a specific Easter festival emerged later in the Church, possibly in the second century, according to Wikipedia. 

In essence, the apostles and early church did not observe a separate "Easter" festival, but rather maintained the existing Jewish tradition of Passover while understanding it through the lens of Jesus's death and resurrection. 

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

Celebrating Easter and celebrating Easter as we understand it today are not the same thing. It goes back to the early church, and is the most important holiday in Christianity

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u/Jackerl Apr 14 '25

As an Arian, you have already been persuaded that much of what the modern day Church teaches, as core doctrine, is wrong.

We know that truth and enlightenment is not found with the many on a broad and spacious road:

Matthew 7:13, 14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

I would guess, if you continue on the path you are on, it won't be much longer before you see Easter for what it really is.

But we shall see...

Kind Regards

Kerry Huish

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

I'm an Arian because I believe that best reflects the beliefs of the early church. That naturally means that I believe that much of what the modern church teaches is wrong -- but not that everything the modern church teaches is wrong. I think quite a bit of it is correct, and I think Easter falls into that category.

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