The Easter holiday can be somewhat confusing because the word itself is found in the King James Version (Acts 12:4). In this one verse, the Greek word, “pascha” is curiously translated as “Easter” when 28 out of 29 times in the New Testament it is correctly translated as, “Passover.” So, technically Easter is not really in the Bible. The Jews were accustomed to observing the Passover as it commemorated their deliverance out of Egypt and God commanded this feast to be kept under Old Testament law (Exo. 12; Lev. 23:4-8). At the death of Jesus, the Old Law was no longer binding, and the observance of the Passover was not necessary for Christians (Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). However, it seems that since Jesus’ death and resurrection happened at the time of the Jewish Passover, the observance of the Passover eventually transformed into an observance of His death as “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). After this, other observances were added like, “Palm Sunday” (the day of His triumphant entry), “Good Friday” (the day He was crucified) and “Resurrection Sunday” (Easter).
The problem is that God has given no authority for the church to elevate this one Sunday over any other. We cannot go beyond the doctrine of Christ (2 John 9-11) and elevate days, months, or season as religious holidays that God has not designated (Gal. 4:10,11). There is only one true holy day that we must observe today and that is the first day of the week (every Sunday). Every Sunday is the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10). The Lord Himself has designed that we remember His death and show it to the world through the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week (Mat. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). There is no need for a special religious “Easter” observance, in fact, it is simply a vain tradition of men (Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 4:3).
~Derrick Coble
The problem is that God has given no authority for the church to elevate this one Sunday over any other. We cannot go beyond the doctrine of Christ (2 John 9-11) and elevate days, months, or season as religious holidays that God has not designated (Gal. 4:10,11). There is only one true holy day that we must observe today and that is the first day of the week (every Sunday). Every Sunday is the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10). The Lord Himself has designed that we remember His death and show it to the world through the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week (Mat. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). There is no need for a special religious “Easter” observance, in fact, it is simply a vain tradition of men (Col. 2:8; 2 Tim. 4:3).
~Derrick Coble