{"id":228,"date":"2024-03-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comingoutofegypt.local\/?p=228"},"modified":"2024-03-29T09:18:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T13:18:12","slug":"to-observe-or-not-to-observe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comingoutofegypt.local\/2024\/03\/to-observe-or-not-to-observe\/","title":{"rendered":"To Observe Or Not To Observe? (Part 1 of 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Easter Sunday has historically been considered by Christians to be the pinnacle of the liturgical year. It is the culmination of more than a month of prayer and fasting, and commemorates the most important event in the history of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, some dispute that this is the actual reason for this holiday. Many assert that it is ancient paganism, not Christianity, that is the real source of the festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are usually two different components to this claim, one which atheists and anti-Christians commonly circulate, and another which is more unique to the Torah Observant movement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Easter Sunday is supposedly derived from a celebration in honor of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and the word Easter is said to be derived from her name. Rabbits and eggs are claimed to have been symbols of Ishtar, because she was a fertility goddess, and this is where the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs supposedly come from.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The early Church is claimed to have continued to celebrate the Jewish festival of Passover well into the 2nd century until the “evil Emperor Constantine” supposedly abolished the practice at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD because of his “intense hatred for Jews”. This is when the Church is said to have adopted the pagan Ishtar celebration known as Easter.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The first several parts of this series will be focused on addressing claim #2 and showing that the debate in the early Church was NOT about a pagan holiday replacing the Jewish Passover, but was mostly just a calendar dispute. In addition, I will show that the Council of Nicea did not play quite as large of a role in this debate as is often claimed, and Constantine did not institute “Easter Sunday”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Next, I will briefly talk about claim #1 and provide conclusive evidence that this is false as well. By the end of this series, it will be abundantly clear that Easter is an entirely Christian holiday, and all claims to the contrary are based on historical myths, out-of-context quotes, and misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let’s get into it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Quartodeciman Controversy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, a debate arose in the Church about when Christ’s Passion should be celebrated. This debate is now referred to as “the Quartodeciman controversy”, and it is frequently misunderstood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In this section, I’m going to respond to a portion of an article entitled “Polycrates, the Gospel, and the Torah”<\/a> found on the website of the “House of David Fellowship” <\/a>founded by Lee Miller. There is no direct attribution of authorship in this article, so I’m going to assume Miller himself wrote it. In this article, the Quartodeciman controversy is looked at, and it is characterized as a question of “to observe Passover or not to observe Passover”, but as I intend to show, this isn’t the case at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Polycarp vs. Anicetus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Now, there are a few different places I could start the story, but I think the best place to start is around 150 AD, when Polycarp went to Rome to visit with Pope Anicetus. Here’s what Lee Miller says in the article,<\/p>\n\n\n\n