Easter’s Five Fatal Flaws

Millions of sincerely religious people will soon attend Easter sunrise services, supposedly dedicated to celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. However, one of Satan’s greatest deceptions (Revelation 12:9) is in deceiving sincere people into worshipping a false Jesus on Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday does not honor Jesus; in fact, celebrating Easter greatly displeases Him, as do all idolatrous and heathen practices (Deuteronomy 12:29–32). With that in mind, let’s briefly review five fatal flaws of Easter.

First, Jesus was not resurrected Sunday morning. A careful study of Scripture reveals that Jesus was in the tomb for exactly three days and three nights—just as He had promised He would be. To deny this is to reject the only miraculous sign Christ said He would offer the critics of His Messiahship (Matthew 12:39–40). Jesus died on a Wednesday afternoon, just before the annual Sabbath known as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was buried and then resurrected 72 hours later, just before the end of the weekly Sabbath—near sunset on Saturday.

Second, your Bible condemns sunrise worship services as pagan abominations to God. Sunrise worship was an integral part of the ancient Babylonian religion derived from worshipping the pagan deity Tammuz. In Ezekiel 8:14–16, a vision from the Lord shows the ancient Israelites committing an “abomination” by “weeping for Tammuz” during sunrise worship services. Similar traditions surrounded the idolatrous worship of other figures the ancient Israelites had borrowed from surrounding cultures, including “the queen of heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18), who is known by names such as Astarte, Ashtoreth, and Ishtar—a figure whose worship persisted into the Greek and Roman periods in various cults and religions. Worship of Tammuz continues today in the form of Easter sunrise services, along with other associated counterfeit traditions involving the aforementioned idols.

The third flaw is simply this: Your Bible sternly condemns anyone who adopts pagan practices into their worship, regardless of whether or not someone claims that they keep these customs “to honor Jesus.” Jeremiah 10:2 commands us to “learn not the way of the heathen” (King James Version) and Matthew 15:9 demands that we do not replace God’s commands with the “commandments of men.”

The fourth flaw is similar, in that claiming we somehow “honor” Jesus by pagan practice simply defies common sense and sound reason. Consider this question: If you knew that your human father enjoyed steak and potatoes for dinner and hated ham sandwiches, yet you refused to make steak and potatoes for him and instead kept making him ham sandwiches, could a rational person really argue that you were honoring or loving your human father?

God has shown in the Bible how He wants to be worshipped—through His weekly Sabbath and annual Holy Days. Yet, while perhaps well-intended, many supposed Christians reject God’s Holy Days and claim to show love to their Lord and heavenly Father by continually trying to serve Him with what He calls pagan and abominable. Jesus asks such people, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Revelation 22:15 condemn those who practice these pagan and idolatrous customs as not being allowed in the Kingdom of God. This is a most serious indictment, one that should be taken into the utmost consideration by anyone claiming to be a follower of Christ—especially in light of the preceding flaws. Will you have the courage to examine these five fatal flaws of Easter and start considering the true value of freedom from man-made religious traditions? You won’t be disappointed.

For much more about the origin of Easter and what God says about true, righteous worship, request a free copy of the eye-opening Easter: The Untold Story from the regional office nearest you, or read it online right here at Tomorrow's World. And if you truly desire to learn how to please and honor God by observing the Holy Days in the Bible—some of which are right around the corner in April—you can find out how with a free copy of The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan.