Easter’s Five Fatal Flaws

Do you unknowingly worship a false Jesus? Do you plan to participate in Easter sunrise worship services this year, which are rooted in what your Bible calls “abominable” paganism? If you really love Jesus, you should not.

Millions of sincerely religious people will soon attend Easter sunrise services, supposedly dedicated to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. 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 us briefly review five fatal flaws of Easter.

First off, 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 the end of the day on Saturday).

Secondly, sunrise worship services are indeed found in your Bible, and they are condemned as pagan abominations to God. Sunrise worship was an integral part of the ancient Babylonian “mystery” religion derived from worshipping the pagan deity Tammuz. In Ezekiel 8:14–16, the glory of 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, or Ishtar—a figure whose worship persisted into the Greek and Roman periods in various cults and religions. Worship of Tammuz (a counterfeit Messiah) 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, 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 follow 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. Analogies are rarely entirely adequate, but 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—by continually defying his wishes?

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 and supposedly Christian ministers and priests 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 revolting, pagan, and abominable. Jesus asks these people, “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 origins of Easter and what God says about true, righteous worship, order the eye-opening booklet Easter: The Untold Story! And if you truly desire to learn how to please and honor God by observing the biblical Holy Days—some of which are right around the corner in April—study the detailed booklet The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan.