How pagan festival of Easter was used against the Sabbath

[hobie]

Except for the Roman and Alexandrian Christians, most Christians were observing the seventh-day Sabbath at least as late as the middle of the fifth century [A.D. 450]. The Roman and Alexandrian Christians were among those converted from heathenism, and supposedly dropped it when they became Christians and yet they held on. They began observing Sunday as a merry religious festival in honor of the Lord's resurrection, about the latter half of the second century A.D. However, they did not try to teach that the Lord or His apostles commanded it. In fact, no ecclesiastical writer before Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century even suggested that either Christ or His apostles instituted the observance of the first day of the week.

"These Gentile Christians of Rome and Alexandria began calling the first day of the week 'the Lord's day.' This was not difficult for the pagans of the Roman Empire who were steeped in sun worship to accept, because they [the pagans] referred to their sun-god as their 'Lord.' "--EM. Chalmers, "How Sunday Came Into the Christian Church," p. 3.

Certain historians agree that it was the pagan sun-worshipers--and not Christians--who first gave the name 'Lord's day' to Sunday. "The first day of each week, Sunday, was consecrated to Mithra [the most widely known sun-god of the early Christian centuries] since times remote, as several authors affirm. Because the Sun was god, the Lord par excellence, Sunday came to be called the 'Lord's day,' as later was done by Christianity."--Agostinho de Almeida Paiva, 0 Mitraiomo, p. 3.

In Revelation 1:10 we are told of "the Lord's Day," but we are not there told which day of the week this is. Else where in Scripture the "Lord's Day" is clearly explained: only the Seventh-day Sabbath is His day (Ex 16:23,25; 20:10; 31:15; 35:2; Lev 23:3; Deut 5:4; Isa 58:13; Matt 12:8 and Mark 2:28). But it was pope Sylvester, Bishop of Rome (314- 337 A.D.--the "pope" during the reign of Constantine) who officially called Sunday the "Lord's Day." "He officially changed the title of the first day, calling it the 'Lord's Day' "--M. Ludovicum Lucium, Historia Ecclesiastica, "Century IV," chap. 10. pp. 739-740, Edition Basilea, 1624.

"The keeping of the Sunday rest arose from the custom of the people and the constitution of the Church . . . Tertullian [155-225 A.D.] was probably the first to refer to a cessation of affairs on the Sunday; the Council of Laodicea [337 A.D.] issued the first conciliar church council] legislation for that day; Constantine I [321 A.D.] issued the first civil legislation."--Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-day Occupations, 1943, p. 203. [Kelly is an American Catholic priest of the Redemptorist order].

Though Sunday is mentioned in so many different ways during the second century, it is not till we come almost to the close of the second, century that we find the first; instance in which it is called “Lord’s day.

So we see that the pagan festival was picked up and claimed to be in honor of the resurrection of Christ in order to hide its origin and is directly the rites and rituals of Easter Sunday which Catholics claim is the communion instituted by Christ at the last supper. So we see the rites they call the Eucharist is not from the last supper, but from the pagan festival which is todays Easter. So lets back up look at the origin of Easter a bit.

Easter is a pagan festival that many are not aware of, or have not seen its origin from history. So then if Easter isn't really about Jesus, then what is it about? For the most part, you will find its secular culture celebrating the spring equinox, whilst religious culture celebrates what they consider the resurrection of Christ. However, if you go through history you will find that it is from the pagan celebrations or festivals consisting of the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) . While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, the solstice spring festival was allowed to creep in to the church and it made a acceptance of this ancient pagan practices, of what today is known as Easter. The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a well worn story in the ancient world. There were plenty of parallel, rival resurrected pagan gods too.

The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. Even as late as the 4th century AD, the Sol Invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church faced and rather than reject it let it come into the church with its sun worship. Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected and Dionysus also brought the mother goddess, Semele, back to life.

The Cybele cult flourished on today's Vatican Hill. They held that Cybele's lover Attis, was born of a virgin, died and was reborn annually. This spring festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday, rising to a crescendo after three days, in rejoicing over the resurrection. There was violent conflict on Vatican Hill in the early days of Christianity between the Jesus worshippers and pagans who quarrelled over whose God was the true, and whose the imitation. Christianity came to an accommodation with the pagan Spring festival and used it to bring in unconverted pagans. Although we see no celebration of Easter in the New Testament, the church in Rome celebrated it and used its power to spread it throughout Christiandom, and today we see many churches offering "sunrise services" at Easter an obvious pagan solar celebration.

All the things about Easter are pagan. Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. Exchange of eggs is an ancient custom, celebrated by many cultures. Hot cross buns are very ancient too. In the Old Testament we see the Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders trying to put a stop to it. The early church clergy also tried to put a stop to sacred cakes being baked at Easter. In the end, in the face of defiant cake-baking pagan women, they gave up and it swept into the church as it fell into apostasy and turned against the true believers which it then persecuted.

Easter is essentially a pagan festival which was celebrated with gifts and the ancient symbolism still is held by those who call themselves pagan followers and unfortunately by many Christian.

 

[hobie]

In 195 A.D., Victor, bishop of Rome, tried to force all of the eastern church leaders to keep the annual celebration of Christ's resurrection on Sunday. Of course, the bishops of the other churches protested, insisting that if done at all, the Biblical precedent for this was on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan [Ex 10,12,14, Lev 23:5].

But Victor would not consider this, and had the boldness to write letters "ex-communicating" all leaders and churches that refused to do as he said. He declared all the churches of Asia to be apostates because they would not follow his example in the matter. Back in those days, some churches were more influential than others, but none were "over" the others. Now, prior to this Victor, as the bishop of Rome, had entered into a compact with Clement of Alexandria, on about 190, to carry on 'research around the Mediterranean basin' to secure support to help make Sunday the prominent day of worship in the church. Sunday was already a day exalted among the heathen, being a day on which they worshiped the sun; yet Rome and Alexandria well knew that most of the churches throughout the world sanctified Saturday as the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Fourth, when Victor I, pronounced excommunication on all the churches of the East who would not with him make Easter always come on Sunday, Alexandria supported this first exhibition of spiritual tyranny by the bishop of Rome.

What Victor tried to do in 195 AD. was not sanctioned in any way by scripture.This was probably the first time in history that the bishop of Rome attempted to gain control over all the other churches, and commenting on it, Dr. Bower, in his History of the Popes, volume 1, page 18, calls it "The first essay of papal usurpation." In simple language, we would call it, "the first attempt at papal takeover." A careful study of the historical records reveals that gradually, with the passing of the years, the Roman bishop tended to use his new day, Sunday, as a ploy for political supremacy over the other churches. Victor's decree was the first ecclesiastical Sunday Law of any kind, in history. The festival on Easter controversy continued, with the Eastern churches giving it stiff opposition until the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., at which time Sunday was declared the official day for Easter observance. Emperor Constantine immediately followed this, the same year, with civil enactments enforcing it among the churches.

The other Christian leaders saw the danger of worship according to the old pagan festivals and tried to stop it in what came to be known as Paschal/Easter controversies. We can find in history as the Quartodeciman controversy.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History, V, xxiii) wrote:
"A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor I, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, according to an ancient tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon [of Nisan], on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch (epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes), contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour." So the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday and it spread through the old areas of the Empire.Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle who was now the bishop of Smyrna, came and confronted Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome who had allow the changes in the Passover and other changes to bring in converts.According to Irenaeus, around the 150s or 160, Polycarp visited Rome to discuss the differences that existed between the other centers of Christianity in Asia and Rome "with regard to certain things" and especially about the time of the Pasch or Passover which in Rome were now the Easter festivals. Irenaeus says that Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, observed the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever day of the week that might be, following therein the tradition which he derived from John the Apostle. Irenaeus said that on certain things the two bishops speedily came to an understanding, while as to the time of the Pasch and the change to Easter, each adhered to his own custom. Polycarp following the eastern practice of celebrating Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it fell while the bishop of Rome let it be observed on Sunday.

Here is from Wikipedia where I am a editor...
"Quartodecimanism (from the Vulgate Latin quarta decima in Leviticus 23:5,[1] meaning fourteenth) refers to the custom of early Christians celebrating Passover beginning with the eve of the 14th day of Nisan (or Aviv in the Hebrew Bible calendar).

The modern Jewish Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days, starting with the sunset at the beginning of Nisan 15. Judaism reckons the beginning of each day at sunset, not at sunrise as is the ancient custom in European traditions. The biblical law regarding Passover is said to be a "perpetual ordinance" (Exodus 12:14), to some degree also applicable to proselytes (Exodus 12:19).

Regarding the chronology of Jesus, some claim the Gospel of John (e.g., 19:14, 19:31, 19:42) implies that Nisan 14 was the day that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem and that the Synoptic Gospels instead place the execution on the first day of Unleavened Bread (Matthew 26:17). In Ancient Israel the first day of Unleavened Bread was on Nisan 15 and began a seven-day feast to the Lord (Leviticus 23:6). By the time of Christ, many customs in regard to the festival had changed, notable among them the intermixing of the two festivals in some customs and terminology. The eight days, passover and the feast of unleavened bread, were often collectively referred to as the Passover, or the Pesach Festival.[2][3]"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartodecimanism

So the Bishop of Rome ignore the warning and continued to allow the Passover to be observed on Sunday at the pagan Spring Equinox festival, so this is how the Pasch was change to the festival of Easter.

 

[hobie]

Now as for the question of the change from Passover for the Pasch to the rites and riturals of Easter by the bishop of Rome, there is no dispute...

Quartodecimans | Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transc...

Quartodecimanism - Oxford Reference https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.201108031...

What does quartodecimanism mean?
https://www.definitions.net/definition/quartodecimanism

Quartodecimanism
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Quartodecimanism

Easter or Passover: Which Is for Christians?
https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2011/march-april/easter-or...

Passover (15): Why Jewish Passover and Easter don’t match -Chuck Missler
https://michaeljamesstoneonline.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/passover-1...

This is a excellent study...
"Why did POLYCARP and the Asiatic bishops refuse to accept the Roman Method of reckoning the date to celebrate the death of Christ? And why did they the Asiatic churches emphasize the DEATH of Jesus rather and his resurrection?

The answer can be found in what is written about POLYCARP himself.

"Bishop of Smyrna, 2nd century martyr .... a disciple of St.
John, probably the Apostle. ....Polycarp journeyed to Rome as representative of the churches of Asia Minor and dealt with the Pope Anicetus (155-166) on the Quartodeciman question....
CATHOLIC ENCY. ART. 'POLYCARP ').

Did you catch it? Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John!

Mr. LATOURETTE, writing about Irenaeus in his "HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIANITY" says, "....A native of either Syria or Minor, Isrenaeus had in his youth seen POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp, he informs us, had been instructed by the apostles and had talked with many who had seen Christ" page 131.

On the evening of the 14th of Nisan Jesus instituted the NT ordinance of FOOT WASHING (see my study on that question under the Passover studies), among His disciples as a sign of humility to each other, and the symbols of Bread and the fruit of the Vine, to represent His broken body and shed blood for our sins
(John 13:1-15; Mat.26:17,20,26-29).

The apostolic church continued to keep this very special evening and service (1 Cor. 11:17-34).

God's people under the leadership of Polycarp and others of the 2nd century followed the teaching and example of Jesus and the early church, in remembering the death of Christ on the 14th of Nisan (in the Jewish calendar).

People of God today will do the same."...Keith Hunt - Quartodeciman Controversy
http://www.keithhunt.com/Quarto.html

 

[Josiah]

Except for the Roman and Alexandrian Christians, most Christians were observing the seventh-day Sabbath at least as late as the middle of the fifth century [A.D. 450].

I'd like to see your proof that the majority of Christians publicly worship on SATURDAY as late as 450 AD.

You posted a lot of misc. stuff but nothing that substantiated this foundational claim.




.

 

[Josiah]

The Resurrection of Christ is not a pagan thing. It is the centerpiece of the Christian gospel.



.

 

[psalms 91]

Only thing I will say on this as I dont see where the Sabbeth changed from Saturday to Sunday in scripture or that the early chirch changed it according to scripture. I dont think God changed

 

[Xarto]

Easter is the word used in the King James Bible to describe the Passover, everywhere that doesn't speak English calls it the Pasch. It's just an anglo-ism and has no connection to pagan practices.

 

[Andrew]

Only thing I will say on this as I dont see where the Sabbeth changed from Saturday to Sunday in scripture or that the early chirch changed it according to scripture. I dont think God changed

Correct, Jesus showed us how man had changed the Sabbath into something grossly inhumane when he healed on the Sabbath.
The priest were enraged at Him for doing his fathers will on the Sabbath, saving the lost sheep, the Sabbath had become a day of darkness for the vulnerable, Christ even celebrated a Holiday that was based on a Jewish revolt where they fought and took back their Temple, the reason they lost the temple in the hands of the Greeks in the first place was due to the Jewish priest not resisting and being slaughtered on the Sabbath day.. Jews today will still fight on the Sabbath.

Jesus saw that like the slaughtered Temple priest so were the sick being left to die on the Sabbath by the orders of the Pharisees, Jesus tells us that only through Him can you come to know the Father. The Sabbath day is replaced with the Lord's day which according to Acts is everyday, Christians chose Sunday due to the fact that if they were caught holding service on Saturday they would be arrested and they were also banned from the synagogues thus had bo other option.. they instead rose early Sunday morning before dawn and held service at a neighbors house, they did this again that Sunday night, yet everyday Christians are told to love their neighbors, enemies and to spread the gospel and care for another regardless of "observances", they stayed vigilant just as Christ taught them.
Christ is our Sabbath, everyday IS the Lords day for Christians

 

[MoreCoffee]

In fact, no ecclesiastical writer before Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century even suggested that either Christ or His apostles instituted the observance of the first day of the week.

If saint Paul is an ecclesiastical writer then he suggested first day worship was happening.
Maybe he doesn't count.
Not fitting the proposed theory makes saint Paul inconvenient I guess.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Easter is the word used in the King James Bible to describe the Passover, everywhere that doesn't speak English calls it the Pasch. It's just an anglo-ism and has no connection to pagan practices.

I think that German has a word similar to Easter for Easter, it's "ostern".
Italy and most other southern European nations have Pascha or similar.

 

[rstrats]

The Resurrection of Christ is not a pagan thing. It is the centerpiece of the Christian gospel.

Just so it's understood that scripture is silent with regard to anyone celebrating it on the 1st day of the week.

 

[rstrats]

If saint Paul is an ecclesiastical writer then he suggested first day worship was happening.

I'm not aware of where he did that. What do you have in mind?

 

[Albion]

Just so it's understood that scripture is silent with regard to anyone celebrating it on the 1st day of the week.

See Acts 20:7

 

[rstrats]

See Acts 20:7

I don't see where the verse says anything about the resurrection.

 

[Albion]

I don't see where the verse says anything about the resurrection.

You have to know what the passage is saying in order to understand it. When it refers to sharing bread on the first day of the week, it's a reference to the sacrament of the Altar (Holy Communion) which was the main feature of weekly worship in early Christianity and was/is, among other things, a commemoration of Christ's resurrection from the grave, just as Jesus said at the Last Supper when he instituted this observance.

 

[rstrats]

"You have to know what the passage is saying in order to understand it. When it refers to sharing bread on the first day of the week, it's a reference to the sacrament of the Altar (Holy Communion)..."

You don't know that. The "breaking of bread" can simply be saying that the disciples got together to eat a meal on this particular first day of the week, perhaps because Paul was in town and wanted to speak with them. The phrase, "to break bread", does not have to refer to a religious service - unless it is specifically stated - but to dividing loaves of bread for a meal. "It means to partake of food and is used of eating as in a meal...... The readers [of the original New Testament letters and manuscripts] could have had no other idea or meaning in their minds" (E.W.Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, pp. 839,840.

Also, a further explanation taken from B Ward Powers’ First Corinthians - An Exegetical and Explanatory Commentary:

"The expression 'the breaking of bread' found in Acts 2 was commonly used amongst the Jews to refer to the sharing of a meal in conscious religious fellowship, and this usage is found in the New Testament, not least in the Gospel by the same author as Acts and even elsewhere in the Acts."

"The significance of the religious aspect of the breaking of bread would be greatly heightened for the disciples in the light of the Last Supper, but this is not the same as saying that they held a ritual meal deliberately re-enacting the Last Supper in conscious obedience to the command of Christ, commemorating his death through eating bread and drinking a cup; and these features would be necessary if we are to regard the 'breaking of bread' as equating with the Lord’s Supper."

"Rather, the evidence indicates that in the New Testament the expression 'the breaking of bread' or 'broke bread' refers to the usual Jewish practice of prayer with which a hunger-satisfying meal commenced. When we recognize that references to the breaking of bread are not references to the Lord’s Supper, we see the significance of what we learn from Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians."

But even if the breaking of bread mentioned always did refer to the Lord’s Supper, it had nothing to do with placing a special emphasis on the first (day) because Acts 2:46 says that they broke bread every day.




re: "...which was the main feature of weekly worship in early Christianity and was/is, among other things, a commemoration of Christ's resurrection from the grave."

That's true today with regard to a number of religious organizations; just so it's understood that scripture is silent with respect to the practice.

 

[Albion]

You don't know that. The "breaking of bread" can simply be saying that the disciples got together to eat a meal on this particular first day of the week, perhaps because Paul was in town and wanted to speak with them.

That's the rationalization used by the small number of churches that, fairly recently, decided to revise some of the long-held beliefs of Christianity. But there's no real basis for the several "what ifs" you had to build into your contention.

Without going into it too far, the argument is faulty, based upon what moderns might say and mean in that situation rather than what the writer of that Bible book was describing. You also have to consider the whole passage, even though it's usually just that one verse that gets cited when this debate starts.

For support, you cite E. W. Bullinger, a man who was a proponent of beliefs famously associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christadelphians, and with Seventh-day Adventism. Also, with "Hyper-Dispensationalism" and with several other Nineteenth Century innovations.

You'd probably reject the Wikipedia article that's concerned with the strange beliefs of E. W. Bullinger, but other readers might be interested to read why "Bullingerism" is used to refer to the pack of heresies that are associated with the man and which, not surprisingly, are rejected by both Catholicism and mainline Protestantism.

 

[rstrats]

That's the rationalization used by the small number of churches that, fairly recently, decided to revise some of the long-held beliefs of Christianity. But there's no real basis for the several "what ifs" you had to build into your contention.

Rationalization and contention could also be said about you. Please explain how you know that the phrase "to break bread" in Acts 20:7 has to be referring to Holy Communion?

 

[Albion]

Rationalization and contention could also be said about you.

Could be said about me...and almost all of the Christians, churches, and theologians of history!

Take note that the prominent people who, during Bullinger's own lifetime, respected the man for various reasons couldn't accept his unorthodox religious theories as well.