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When Did Christians Start Celebrating Easter?

We have been taught that Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. We have been told that the early church began this practice right after Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. There was some disagreement about the date and method of celebrating Easter in the church so Constantine addressed that issue at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

The truth is Constantine never mentioned Easter at the council of Nicaea in 325. A dear friend of mine said, “But Doc, I have read the translation of Eusebius’ transcripts from the Council of Nicaea. It clearly talks about Easter.” I said, “You are correct. That is what the translation says. I read Eusebius’ notes in the original Greek. Constantine called the celebration ‘the feast of salvation’ and Passover.” Who changed the church’s celebration of Christ’s resurrection to the day and name of Ishtar, a pagan deity?

I have not been able to find where this change took placebut I would love to know. I hope someone much smarter than I will find it. Some point after 325 the church replaced Passover with Easter. I don’t know about you, but I am mystified and even a little upset over the fact that we have been lied to about the most important holiday we Christians celebrate. I realize that most people in Church don’t think about the goddess of fertility on Easter (but we seem to have a hard time not thinking about the rabbit with colored eggs). The most common defense of Easter I hear is “that is not what it means to me.” I think the real question is what does it mean to God?

The church has lost its vision, passion, and power. I believe this has happened in part because we have forgotten the significance of the God ordained holidays (holy days). God designed these holy days to teach us about Him and His plan to redeem us. I ask, what does the Easter bunny and colored eggs have to do with Christ’s resurrection?

See the article:   What did Constantine say about Easter?  by Dr. Steven L. Smith

© Dr. Steven L Smith 2017

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