Some Christians Shun Easter Celebrations

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I never said I was. I am simply a follower of the Messiah of Scripture.


It would be far more accurate to say my "ideas" are not coming from the sectarian preacher.

Question: What Bible did YahuShua read?

Yes.

"... the first and most important article of faith is the shema, that YHWH is one, and there is only one YHWH. I have learned from experience that unless that most basic point is agreed upon there can be no right fellowship. It is the most basic truth of our faith." (Mountain Jew)

The "Last Supper" is mentioned there, but I was curious as to whether JWs actually have some kind of doctrine saying followers are therefore now required to "commemorate his death".

For every Christian doctrine, there is a Christian group that disagrees with it.

What Jesus says there sounds to me like "So dudes, like next time you have bread in company, try remembering that we did this , cause seeing how things are going I am not going to be with you for long".

Catholics interpret it as the institution of eucharisty .And it seems Jehova Witnesses see it as Jesus saying that you should eat bread to remember him.

I think you are much closer there than those who insist he was saying to be sure to thereafter and regularly eat his body and drink his blood!

Yuck.

Well, prior to the Catholics there was also some manner of communion before it was hyper-formalized by the Roman government in the 4th century:



This is from Paul's letter to the believers in the Greek city of Corinth, of which the "Eucharist" is called "the Lord's supper" and also some of the believers there were being selfish and eating prior to others having a chance to get any food or drink. They were treating it as a common meal and selfishly hogging the bread and wine in a meal which was supposed to be in remembrance of Christ's last supper prior to his death on the cross.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCSUKIhjevo[/youtube]

Cute video, but a correction is needed ...

"And ... He fell on His face, and prayed, saying, 'O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I desire, but as You desire.'”
(Matthew 26:39)

And then, of course, there is also that allegation of human sacrifice being required for salvation that must be addressed.

Are you referring to semantics? If so, the "memorial of Christ's Death", "Lord's Evening Meal", "Last Supper", "commemoration of Jesus' Death" all mean the same thing. This is like some one referring to money as "moola", "dough", "bucks", and so forth... but it all means money. Semantics aside we honor Jesus' sacrifice, and Jehovah God for providing that sacrifice to buy back all faithful mankind from Adamic sin and death. (Romans 5:12; John 3:16) This doctrine has been ongoing since the 1800's when the International Bible Students (as Jehovah's Witnesses were then known) accurately reestablished it per Jesus' instructions in the Bible.

Indeed.

The way I read it, consuming the flesh and blood of Christ is not a literal statement, else Christ would have cut pieces of Himself off and passed it around. To anyone but Hannibal Lecter, that would be immensely disturbing.

In context, it isn't a literal statement. Christ's blood is shed and His flesh broken at the crucifixion, therefore prior to Christ's death the Last Supper doesn't really make sense. The next time would have been one of those, "oh yeah, I remember Him talking about that... I get it now" moments. The quasi-literal part (since it is metaphorical) is that those who place their faith in Christ, acknowledge that they are sinners, and turn away from their sinful lives do take part in the death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism by immersion signifies the same thing in many churches. The Lord's Supper is a bit more picturesque, I think, and even more so is the Passover rite. Personally, I think Christians should incorporate a modified Passover seder into their "memorial" holiday (what we refer to as "Easter").

Come to think of it...

Easter DOES have a connection to pagan rituals, but I simply don't understand why it is Christianizing former pagan holidays is such a problem. If it's a family kind of celebration, you say something to the effect of "Our ancestors were pagans and worshiped false gods on this day. But we have been rescued from our sins because we worship the One true and living God. Our ancestors worshiped in ignorance and darkness. Today, we worship in knowledge and light, and we celebrate on [x_day] that God [x_deed] for us."

Bear in mind that the Jewish festivals were mean for God's covenant people--the Jews. Not for Gentiles. As pagans who had not yet been given the Light, we gained a false understanding of how we should relate to God. We celebrated, but we did not celebrate God. Why abandon the holidays if we have attained the proper understanding of them as days to worship Yahweh and not some other God as we did before when we were pagan?

For those who ignorantly INSIST on demonizing western Christian holidays:

The holidays are not JUST about worshiping God, either. The holidays differentiated between those of one ethnic group and another. My ancestors came from England, so ethnically my family is Anglo-Saxon and, prior to Roman influence, would have followed Anglo-saxon or Germanic traditions. Over the centuries, they would have been influenced by a Greco-Roman religious heritage, which would have dominated their everyday life and forever shaped their identity. How DARE you presume to strip them of that heritage and identity when they became Christians after hearing of what Christ did for them??? How DARE you presume to take away the celebration and worship of people who have been made new in Christ and THEN call them doomed sinners JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THE DAY OF THE YEAR THEY CHOOSE TO CELEBRATE???

I'm sorry... I wouldn't ever want to cause my Christian brother to stumble in his faith by telling him he HAS to celebrate a holiday if he finds it questionable in terms of that celebration resembling too much a pagan festival. I wouldn't blame anyone if they found it troubling. I most certainly would not judge them if they declined. I say if anything offends your conscience, don't do it. For Christians, all things are permitted to us, but not everything builds us up. I understand that. But do NOT be a hypocrite and give believers guilt and grief over what day of the year they worship God, all because you're on some kind of holier-than-thou ego trip.

No, just curious about the possibility of any kind of doctrine saying followers are now required to "commemorate his death".


At the very least, it deviates and distracts from Scriptural convocations.

The same thing happened when he spoken these things before a crowd. Even Jesus disciples said, “This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?" After the crowd left in disgust, Jesus asked his disciples "YOU do not want to go also, do YOU?” Simon Peter replied: “Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life." You can read the entire account in John 6:52-71. It's worth a read.



(John 4:24) God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.

If you don't understand John 4:24 then listen to reason provided by Jesus in Matthew 13:14-15: "By hearing, YOU will hear but by no means get the sense of it; and, looking, YOU will look but by no means see. For the heart of this people has grown unreceptive, and with their ears they have heard without response, and they have shut their eyes; that they might never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and get the sense of it with their hearts and turn back, and I heal them"

Why?

(2 Corinthians 4:4) among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.



(1 Timothy 4:1-3) However, the inspired utterance says definitely that in later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons, by the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, marked in their conscience as with a branding iron; forbidding to marry (like they do in Christendom), commanding to abstain from foods (Mormons with wine; also look up 1 Corinthians 10:25) which God created to be partaken of with thanksgiving by those who have faith and accurately know the truth.

Easter is a false pagan belief, you already acknowledge this. Anyone who reads the bible knows this. Those worshiping Jehovah God must worship him in truth.



No matter how much people want to justify Easter or claim it's been thoroughly sanitized what matters is what Jehovah/Yahweh thinks. Jehovah warned his people how they should feel about pagan religious customs. "Beware lest thou imitate them, and lest thou seek after their ceremonies, saying: As these nations have worshipped their gods, so will I also worship." (Deuteronomy 12:30-32) Jehovah hasn't changed his views thousands of years later.



You have a right to celebrate Easter but celebrating it doesn't make it scriptural no matter how hard you try to justify it or seek scriptures to support it. At the end of the day you know deep down it's based on a lie. And you know John 4:24 says those worshiping Jehovah must worship with spirit and truth.

Does a little kid who stole candy once from a shop deserve to be put in jail/prison for life for the theft?

I stole some BubbleTape when I was 7.

EDIT: WHAT?!? That video was serious....like, put out by a Christian org?

Yes historical both Christmas and Easter have parallels with pagan celebrations.
In modern both Christmas and Easter via commercialization can be seen as now a celebration of corporate capitalism.
So now another "religion" wants to get in on the action!!

I like Easter, and I'm a "militant" Atheist. (Not my label.)