THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF EGGS AND RABBITS AND WHETHER CHRISTIANS SHOULD CELEBRATE THE PASSOVER

The rabbit gets enough criticism at Easter time, but I thought I'd add the Christmas controversy to the table. Photo by yours truly at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Park, Oct. 22.

It's that time of the year... well, one of the times. Let me share three concepts I saw on one FB thread, from different authors:

• Rabbits and Eggs are pagan.
• Rabbits and Eggs are Biblical.
• Christians should observe the Passover, since Jesus did.

If you're a regular reader of the blog, I have at least one installment each year dealing whether Christmas and Easter are holidays Christians should observe. Well, when I saw this, I thought it was time for another.

Anybody besides me crack up (pun unintentional) about the two statements about rabbits and eggs? Both hit the edge of credibility. 

Given, pagans use rabbits and eggs as fertility symbols. But does that mean they're pagan? Uh, no. Who created the rabbits and the eggs? Sorry, but I think it's ridiculous to call rabbits pagans. Same with eggs.

So are they Biblical? Well, if you look above, I gave all the Biblical references that the authors gave on the rabbits and eggs quotes. What? There aren't any Scripture references? No, they didn't give any. A commenter noted that the one who said rabbits and eggs were Biblical gave NO references to prove his point. My hunch is he's one of the troublemakers who make a ridiculous statement to start heated debate and disappears. (By the time I got to it, the comment option had been turned off for that thread.) 

I'm one who prefer using the term "Resurrection Sunday" instead of Easter. There is an instance in the KJV where "Easter" appears in Acts 12:4, but the Greek Word is pascha, the word elsewhere and in all other versions is translated passover. I also don't think Easter eggs and bunnies have a place in the church. However, Paul states that he who observes the day does so to the Lord, and the one who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. (Romans 14:6). Why can't we aceept those who disagree? Maybe because we like disputing doubtful things (Jubilee Bible says "doubtful discernment) (Rom. 14:1).

Let's move from Resurrection Sunday to Passover. I read that in the Nicene Council one other item decided on was to separate the dating for Easter from the Passover, in spite of the fact that they're connected together. But should a Christian celebrate the Passover? Or should he abstain? Or is it another of those things that we shouldn't divide over?

I'll definitely go with it not being something to divide over. But let me deal with some arguments.

First, dealing with those who say Christians should observe the Passover. I heard a conversation where someone used 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 to say it commands Christians to observe the feast. Here's the passage: "Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

To me, it's obvious it's not talking about the official celebration of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread. Thus, it's not a command for Gentile Christians to act like Jews. 

Now, Christians often say that Passover has been replaced with the Eucharist/Communion/The Lord's Supper. Sorry, I don't see that in the text. They are two different events observed differently. Passover is an annual event, starting a week of celebration. Communion is offered with differing frequency. Becky and I both grew up in churches that observed communion weekly. When we got into Baptistic Churches, it was observed on the first Sunday of the month. I attended a church that at first had communion irregularly, but realized it was so rare they celebrated it on the first Sunday. Another decided to go from monthly to quarterly. None of those options are commanded or condemned in Scripture.

A couple of years, though, I was reading through Exodus, and there was something that hit me when God was giving instructions for the Passover (Exodus 12:43-49). Participation was limited to households where all the men have been circumcised. Is that a law we should observe? It does make me question whether Gentile Christians are to observe the Passover. On the other hand, one can try to argue that in the Age of Grace it refers to the circumcision of the heart, though it sounds like the argument of someone who wants to keep the Passover because he has the freedom to.

But I will again put in a plug for Easter caroling. One book suggested it, and I thought it sounds great and uplifiting.

CHRISTMAS - A CHRISTIAN CELEBRATION OR BAPTIZED PAGANISM?

 

Living Faith Church, Indianapolis

Let me start with wishing you a Merry Christmas. Then, let me follow up by questioning some of our Christmas traditions. How's that for creating some confusion? If I start sounding like Scrooge, please bear with me until the end of this blog.

Two items I've seen recently have inspired and influenced this blog. The first is watching Kirk Cameron's movie "Saving Christmas." The other, which came on CBN News right before I was going to write this blog, was an episode of "Faithwire Presents Faith Vs. Culture" with Dan Andros and Dale Partridge, titled "To Santa Or Not To Santa."

Let me begin by mentioning that the Christmas Wars were silent this year. On the one hand, there are the secularists who want to remove any remembrance of Christ. On the other are Christians who believe Christmas is a pagan holiday filled with pagan traditions and symbols and thus play the role of Scrooge. Again, both of these antagonists didn't show up on my Facebook Newsfeed this year.

Allow me to start with the movie. The plot of "Saving Christmas" is Cameron's brother-in-law, named Christian, is grieved with all the materialism and how the focus is on unbiblical concepts like Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. Sadly, neither the questions nor the answers were the strongest, and the point of the movie seems to be we shouldn't be grieved with all the materialism of Christmas. 😱

The common thread between the movie and the TV show is Santa Claus. One of the weak arguemnts Christian uses in "Saving Christmas" is that "Santa" has the same letters as "Satan." While true, we also need to remember "Santa" means "Saint," as in the California cities Santa Ana and Santa Barbara. Cameron's refutation is telling a story about St. Nicholas of Myra, including a telling of the legend that he beat up on the heretic Arius. (This legend was first told in 1300, with it being a follower of Arius; it later became the theology's founder.) 

Christian did refer to the godlike qualities of Santa such as his omniscience ("He sees you when you're sleeping, He knows when you're awake, etc.) and the works base of the Santa myth, with him giving those who do what is good all the stuff they want. Cameron completely ignored those objections so he could tie in St. Nick with the real Saint Nicholas. Andros and Partridge of Faithwire treated those objections more seriously, as well as stating that parents spend eleven months a year teaching their children to care for others to please the invisible sovereign of the universe and then encourage them to think of themselves to get the favor of an invisible fable.

How about Christmas trees and other items? Are they symbols with godly origins or totally pagan? One friend encourages people to read all of Jeremiah 10 to see that God condemned the Christmas tree. I read that chapter, and concluded it's not talking about modern Christmas trees. Jeremiah points out they can't speak and can't move themselves (10:5); I've never met anyone expecting a Christmas tree to talk to them or to transport itself from point A to point B without someone carrying them. The language in this chapter, talking about overlaying it with gold, made me think about overlaying a wooden image with gold (Isaiah 40:19-20). Is it possible that when Jeremiah is referring to a tree, he's actually using that term of an idol to get across that carved image is just a tree and not a god?

I've heard Christians avoid traditions because those traditions can lose their original meaning. This is true about godly practices, but could it also be equally true with pagan practices? I won't argue that decorated trees, missletoe, and wreaths didn't originally have ungodly roots, but I also don't see anything in their use that can be identified as paganism.

There's a lot of questions about Christmas and its traditions. Some say that the Constantine era church started assigning Biblical themes to heathen festivals to keep the pagans from revolting. I can't say it was or wasn't true, since I wasn't around then. Maybe Jesus wasn't born December 25th, but I heard one pastor say he'd take any opportunity to honor Him he gets.

One last thing about the Christmas tree. To be honest, I wouldn't put one on the church platform. However, a former church I attended would have a tree on the platform and place shoebox gifts underneath it for the Baptist Center to distribute to children in women's shelters. I liked it being a reminder of a ministry the church was doing.

BUT HERE'S THE IMPORTANT POINT!!! Too often we are looking for things to judge and correct others, and we don't take off from that practice on Christmas (or any other holiday or non-holiday either). I may have my concerns, and you may not. I should not ignore my concerns so I fit in, but neither should I rob joy from others by imposing my opinion and concerns on those who don't have them. After all, isn't that what grace is? God showed us grace, and Christ's birth is the perfect illustration of that: Shouldn't we show that grace to others also?

Again, have a Merry Christmas. (Unless you want to be like me and have a Joseph Christmas instead.)