With “Easter” Sunday fast approaching and reading Joe Kovacs’ chapter on this subject in Shocked by the Bible, I thought it only appropriate to address the question a lot of Christians are not asking today. Should we be celebrating Easter by hunting eggs and so forth?

The conclusion I have reached is that Christians should not be partaking in these practices—even though most consider them completely harmless. I listed several Scriptures from the Old Testament in my previous post (Judges 10:6, 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Kings 11:5). These passages made it clear that God disapproved of the Israelites’ participation in the worship of the Pagan goddess Ashtoreth. Nearly all Easter celebrations are originated from the worship of this goddess.
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” This rhetorical question was given to make it abundantly clear that Christians—who are the temple of the living God—have no business being tied to idol worship.

Furthermore, Elijah also made it clear that we are to have nothing to do with idol worship when he challenged the prophets of Baal. He said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing (1 Kings 18:21).” The Israelites were mixing the worship of God with the worship of Baal. They had not completely turned from God, but they had included Baal in their worship practices—and so Elijah was urging them to stop riding the fence and choose to follow God.

Paul implored the Corinthians to “flee from idolatry” (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). He explained that we cannot “partake” of both the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (idols). Peter also addressed this issue in 1 Peter 1:13-16, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” We are called to holy, which means “set apart.” We are not to be partakers of evil, particularly when we are made aware of sin.

In fact, we are not only called to abstain from partaking in evil, but we are called to expose it. “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11).” What is sad about this whole topic of Easter is that the unbelieving world has figured out that the “typical” Easter celebrations are not Christian what so ever. These unbelievers find it humorous and hypocritical that we Christians say we would never participate in anything “godless,” and then we turn around and incorporate many godless practices in the celebration of one of the most important holidays on our religious calendar. For this reason, I feel that it is necessary to share this information with Christians everywhere, because I do not want us to become the Israelites who “profaned [His] holy name (Ezekiel 36:20).” We may have participated in these practices, but now that we are aware of the truth we are called to abstain and expose these practices for what they are—idol worship.