Let's see...it is my understanding that Christmas is supposed to be about the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ; Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, why is it when you ask any young child who attends church every Sunday what Christmas is about; their response is: "it's when Santa Claus brings presents to good kids (or something along those lines)." Likewise, if you ask them what "Easter" is about, their response is: "it's when the easter bunny hides eggs and brings candy for kids" (again something along those lines). Churches have easter egg hunts and even have "Santa Claus" come to the church's reception room and have all the kids come sit on his lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. Why? Why do churches perpetuate lies surrounding two of the most important events in Christian history? Do these two seemingly "harmless" lies have ANY foundation in the Bible? What harm comes from these two "holidays" being passed off as "Christian" holidays?
All you have to do is study the Bible and the accounts of the birth of Christ (Christmas) and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (Good Friday and Easter sunday)and you will discover some very important truths. Santa Clause, reindeer, elves, and gifts for children were NEVER mentioned in the Bible and the same can be said for Lent, the easter bunny, hiding eggs, or finding candy in a basket. Where does the name easter come from? Well, that answer is very easy to find. If you check the internet or go to a library to study the origins of both of these holidays you will find that BOTH were actually PAGAN holidays. The word "easter", which is agreed upon by both religious and secular scholars, has it's roots in pagan religion. In fact, the name easter is a revamping of the name of the goddess of fertility, and rabbits and eggs being symbols of fertility. I'm not going to go into all of the history of either because, well...that's too much to type and I'm of the belief that one should make up their own mind. Study both histories, the secular and the Biblical, discover for yourself that I'm not blowing a bunch of smoke.
Now, if I'm not going to go all into detail about the history of these two holidays, why bring it up? I'm writing this because I asked my 4 year old daughter, the other day, if she knew what holiday was coming up. I know that they had been talking about easter at school; I figured maybe she didn't understand what I meant by the word "holiday"; so I asked her if she knew that easter was coming up? She smiled and said "yes ma'am", and I said "can you tell mommy what is so special about easter?"; she said, "it's when the easter bunny brings candy and we hide eggs". Her answer made me take a step back; in fact it upset me. Why would/should that upset me? I want you to understand that I am not upset with her by any means. What upsets me is that she goes to Sunday school (almost every Sunday) and goes to a school that supports a Christian environment and yet when I mentioned "easter" Jesus wasn't even a thought in her mind. "Winter, come on...she's just 4 years old, she doesn't need to think about such horrible events, you know, death and all that yucky stuff". Noooooo...you're right I should just start lying to my child about one of the most IMPORTANT fundamental truths of the Christian faith and let her believe that the easter bunny, dying eggs, and baskets filled with candy is what it's all about. If I lie to her about the Resurrection, then I should also lie to her about the Virgin birth of the Savior, because how can she even begin to wrap her 4 year old mind around all of that. Yes...you're right flying rain deer, pulling a sleigh carrying an overweight (possibly diabetic) jolly, man who leaves presents for little boys and girls (after he breaks into their houses) is a much more believable and better idea to get in her head.
I realize that I probably sound like a hypocrite to everyone. I grew up singing Christmas songs, decorating a tree, opening presents, hunting eggs, and getting exciting about the candy in my easter basket. Likewise, this is Katie's 4th easter and this past December was her 4th Christmas; she got gifts and she got an easter basket. I will point out that Santa was never mentioned (in our house) to Katie: she got gifts from Mommy, Grandma and Papaw, KayKay, A.A....you get the point. Now to get the meat of my story! I feel very strongly about how weak the Christian church is in America. I see the enemy destroying the Christian church in America from within, by minimizing the destructive reality of incorporating pagan worship into true Christian events. The high rate of college aged kids (who grew up in traditional churches) that stop attending church, change faiths, or become agnostic or atheist shortly after graduating high school. I truly believe the reason they so easily leave the beliefs of their parents is because their foundation is based on lies. All it would take is a learned Agnostic/atheist person to ask them "do you believe Jesus was placed in the tomb on "good Friday" and rose on Sunday?" When he/she replies yes, they will immediately be schooled at the math and the words of Jesus that stated he would be killed, buried, and come back after 3 days. "Good Friday" could not be the day that Jesus was buried, because for Him to rise again (and already be gone from the tomb) by Sunday morning 3 days (full days) would not have passed, making your celebration of Friday as being the day of Jesus' death wrong OR making the Bible a lie.
What I am sharing is (obviously) MY belief, my thoughts, my words (no one else). There are others, who feel the same way I do and might do a better job of explaining this. I don't share this to make anyone feel bad or wrong about how you choose to celebrate these 2 events. I share this to simply ask you to step outside of "tradition" and really TRULY examine your heart and the truth that is found in The Word of God.
HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!
No comments:
Post a Comment