Should Rabbits and Eggs Be Part of Easter?

Uncle Bud said:

Because Easter is about the life death and resurrection of our Lord, not about making kids happy, or giving them something fun to do. It is secular garbage, and it ticks me off to see it in a church where it has no place.

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I agree 100%.

Shalom, brother.

Lucas

catlover said:

Does anyone else enjoy coloring eggs and the chocolate rabbits?

We know Easter is about The Resurrection, but should we even celebrate Easter with eggs and rabbits?

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no absolutely not ................. now make an orderly queue and hand over all those chocolate eggs , they are safe with me .....

cygnusx1 said:

no absolutely not ................. now make an orderly queue and hand over all those chocolate eggs , they are safe with me .....

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The malted eggs are all mine!!

revrobor said:

Leaders were assigned and "rules" were given to the BODY OF BELIEVERS. That does not make them a religious organization. They were followers of the Lord Jesus. When Scripture refers to the "church" it is referring to the BODY OF BELIEVERS not to any religious organization - not Baptist, not Methodist, not Roman Catholic, not Presbyterian, not Pentacostal not ANY religious organization. It is not surprising that you do not comprehend this. As soon as man established religious organizations its leaders failed to teach the difference and the cause of Christ has gone downhill ever since. Just compare the BODY today with the BODY portrayed in the Book of Acts. If the BODY had not been hindered by the religious organization over the centuries and it were as strong as that BODY there would hardly be an unsaved person on the face of the Earth. Thankfully there are Brothers and Sisters who are waking up to this fact and the "home church" movement is growing by leaps and bound all over the world.

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How do you explain the Apostles appointing Elder's in every Church? What does that mean? Why did the Apostles say that the Elder's where the one's in charge, and if there were problems, to go to them? Why were these same Elder's responsible for feeding the flock, and be examples to them? How can you explain "home Churching" with all this testimony in Scripture?

It is not suprising that you do not comprehend this. I see the cause of Christ at every Liturgy I attend. I see HIs cause in the 1000's of Monks worldwide who have died to themselves, took up their cross and followed Him. I see His cause in the 1000's of martyrs who were persecuted and killed for His names sake. I am sorry that you couldn't see this in whatever "denomination" you were, but that doesn't surprise me either. The Orthodox Church IS the Church of Acts. Scripture, nor the Church isn't whatever people decide they want it to be in these so called "home churches". The Apostles passed down the Church, by appointing Elders who in turn appointed others in their place, all the way until today. Nobody "home churched" themselves. The Orthodox Church keeps it the way the Apostles did. Your "home churching" as you call it is not the way it was my friend. Just because they worshipped and celebrated the Eucharist in peoples homes, doesn't mean "home churching". They still had Presbyters and Bishops who were the Elder's appointed. They worshipped at homes (and catacombs) because they were being persecuted, and couldn't build a central place of worship for the whole city or community like we can now. This is why they worshipped in homes and catacombs, together, with the appointed Elder's leading them. It wasn't until the 4th century when the Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and made it the religion of the Roman Empire, that the first Church was built in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). The Church still exists today and is named Agia Sophia or Holy Wisdom in English. It is an Orthodox Church by the way, and Constantinople is where the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch is....

For all the people saying we should still worship in homes (though my church actually is a house ), do you also think that we should worship in catacombs if they are around? It's what first century Christians did, as Repentant pointed out. Worshipping in homes and catacombs was a matter of necessity because Christians had been thrown out of the Temple and synagogues and weren't able to build a place for themselves to worship in the open yet.

I just remembered...they recently excavated a Church in Israel that I believe pre dates Agia Sophia. I think this Church was from the 3rd century..

revrobor said:

The Church (note the capital C) He established is the Body of Believers NOT a religious organization.

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Your calling something "a religious organization" does not make it so. We are neither an organization nor a denomination. The Orthodox Church is a body of believers.

revrobor said:

Why people, in their apparent ignorance, keep insisting that our Lord established a religious organization escapes me except perhaps they are trying to defend the thing to which they have pledged their loyality.

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Ignorance is in the eye of the beholder.

We have pledged our loyalty to Christ in His Body.

revrobor said:

The "house of God" is wherever Believers gather NOT a reference to a religious organization.

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The house (oikos)of God is a synaxis (gathering) of the called-out ones (ekklesia). Jesus established the Church and its governance which we continue unbroken and unabated.

catlover said:

One thing I really enjoyed is Pysanky the fancy Ukrainian eggs. My mom kept a lot around the house. Lately she has tried to make some.

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My mom makes good ones. Mine always suck. But yeah, I've been doing those since I was little. Comes with being Ukrainian.

How do you explain the Apostles appointing Elder's in every Church? What does that mean? Why did the Apostles say that the Elder's where the one's in charge, and if there were problems, to go to them? Why were these same Elder's responsible for feeding the flock, and be examples to them? How can you explain "home Churching" with all this testimony in Scripture?

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"Every Church" is a reference to the Body of Believers in each community they visited and not a reference to a religious organization. Why do you not comprehend this?

I realize that those involved in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations have sold out and pledged their allegiance to those religious organizations and have been so indoctrinated that they cannot comprehend anything other than what they have been taught. So I am not really interested in constantly repeating myself. Hopefully they will realize one day that their loyality should be to Jesus Christ and they will come to understand the difference between a religious organization and the Body of Believers.

cygnusx1 said:

no absolutely not ................. now make an orderly queue and hand over all those chocolate eggs , they are safe with me .....

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well eggs mean 'life' as in a chicken hatches from a egg. An egg resembles the beginning of life and thats what Jesus did, he gave us new life in a sense, it is something that people have been doing for ages, Introducing chocolate was to make it more enjoyable and for companies to make money. See how something so important was commercialised by the world. As for the rabbits, i think they were inroduced by Pagan beliefs, im not to sure. Oh well thats the best i can do, hope it helps

revrobor said:

"Every Church" is a reference to the Body of Believers in each community they visited and not a reference to a religious organization. Why do you not comprehend this?

I realize that those involved in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations have sold out and pledged their allegiance to those religious organizations and have been so indoctrinated that they cannot comprehend anything other than what they have been taught. So I am not really interested in constantly repeating myself. Hopefully they will realize one day that their loyality should be to Jesus Christ and they will come to understand the difference between a religious organization and the Body of Believers.

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Obviously you did not read what Iakovos said...

You still didn't explain how there were Elder's who were the appointed leaders in these community's if everyone "home churched themselves". What you fail to comprehend is that the EOC IS this Body you are speaking of. It is not an institution like you think it is. Just because it has structure and orginization (just like the Church in Acts) does not mean it is not the Body of Christ. We do not pledge allegiance to an "originization" but we pledge our allegience to Christ through His Body, just like the way He gave it to us. Do you think that Orthodox and Catholics don't worship Christ, or that Christ is not the central point of our entire worship, being and existance?

I think maybe you should learn about these "orginizations" before you slander, and stop "bearing false witness". You really have no idea what you are talking about. Go to an Orthodox Liturgy one day, a service by the way that was writtten by a Church Father, St. John Chrysostom, and has been the same for 1700 years. It is a shorter variation of the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle...and see if our loyalty is not in Jesus Christ..

Hopefully you and these other new age non denominational "home churched" people will one day wake up and see the Church is not what you want it to be, nor does Scripture say what you want it to..and return to the Body of Christ you think you belong to now...

And what do you make of this? If you have nobody to answer within your "body"...who would you go to in this situation? In other words, Jesus is telling the Apostles that if someone faults you, tell him so that you can reconcile, if he doesn't listen to you, get some witnesses, and if they don't listen to the witnesses, tell the Church. So in other words, who or what is the Church that you would go to to solve this problem?

Matthew 18:
15Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

16But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

17And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

18Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

revrobor said:

What you say about Jesus is true. But you have blurred the line between being a follower of the Lord and being a member of a religion.

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There is no line, save for the one that a Prot has put up in a fallacious didactic. St. James tells us quite clearly what religion is:
There is no contradiction here between religion and what we are called to do by our Lord Christ Jesus - for how could anyone say they love as Jesus calls us to love, yet neglects orphans and widows in distress and prefers to remain in the stain of sin? What does it mean to follow Jesus? Does it not mean to live in the life in the Spirit? If religion is as St. James claims it to be, then how can it not be a part of the life in the Spirit, which is in the vitality of our Lord Christ Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit. Vain words of refutation concerning the true nature of religion mean very little and do not reflect the true words of the Word Incarnate. And that Word [that is Christ] puts all our words to shame in their vanities. For our fallen words can in no wise measure up to the unfallen Word of our Lord.

You are apparently devoted to a religion with all it's dogma, traditions, rules, regulation, icons, Pope worship, etc.

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I am devoted to religion in the purity that is stated by St. James, an Apostle of our Lord, whose dogma (interpretation) I assent to because of Christ. In like manner, I also assent to the Apostolic succession of St Peter in the Pope. I assent to Tradition, being that it and the Bible are closely intertwined and come from the same source - Christ Jesus our Lord. I also assent to rules, being that Christ in no ways destroyed the law, but instead traded our hearts of stone, so that the law may live in the heart of flesh. And, if I am to of conscience follow "the rules," then certainly I am bound in conscience to the duty of regulations, for they are a means of justice - and Christ does not condemn justice, but instead says that the just are blessed. Of course I consider icons, as they have been used since the beginning of Christianity as a means of reference to our Lord. Furthermore, no Catholic in their right mind worships the Pope. That is a common slandering fallacy used by anti-Catholics who have not intellect enough to argue in a reasonable manner. I could easily go the rout that even Protestants bickering between one another have gone and say that you worship St. Paul, or maybe Luther or some other Refermer is your "icon" and distracts you from Jesus. But where would that lead but to more bickering and nonsensical denouncements of each other's Christian faith. In short, such arguments are futile and unworthy of any Christian - yet, we still plunge into such fallen use of language. May God have mercy and, though we may be unworthy, may He say the Word and heal us.

These are not things Jesus instituted. Jesus said "Follow me". Whether you want to admit it or not there is a difference between being a follower of the Lord and being a member of a religious institution.

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Well, it depends. The head needs a body. So the question then boils down to which body is connected to the head. If we speak of Christ as the head, then surely the religion of Christ is His body. Or would you that the body be headless or the head to be dismembered from His body? Either we are or are not a part of this body, this Church, this religion of Christ we call Christianity.

However, I will admit it is possible for some to do both. But being a member of a religious instution is not essential for our salvation or spiritual growth.

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Being a part of the Body of Christ, the Church, is indeed necessary. This should be all the more apparent for anyone who went to Easter services in which the Baptismal vow is revisited to remind us of our commitment to Christ since becoming a part of His body. Romans 6 tells us quite well how we are a part of Christ's body and what it implies.

Pax Tecum,

John

hardcoreGL1229 said:

Why does this tick you off? It's just something fun for the little kids to do, and it's not like the bunny is really hurting anyone, or corrupting little kid's minds to believe that the Easter is all about the bunny.

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Plus, bunnies are part of God's creation too.

Well, so are bees, but they aren't cute.

HowardDean said:

"The bunny, the bunny, ooh I love the bunny...."
(song from veggie tales)

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You do realize that this now means that the Veggie Tales are now to be smeared as "secular garbage" or some other nonsense, don't you?

Pax Tecum,

John

HowardDean said:

Well, so are bees, but they aren't cute.

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But they make the honey - that sweet nectar that goes with the milk of the Promised Land.

Pax Tecum,

John

revrobor said:

"Every Church" is a reference to the Body of Believers in each community they visited and not a reference to a religious organization. Why do you not comprehend this?

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It's not that I don't comprehend your statement- quite the opposite- I recognize it for what it is: polemics. It's essentially a large scale ad hominem.

Scripture does not bear out that the churches which met in homes were self-governing edifices. Quite the opposite- each city had elders, each congregation had presbyters, and all of these answered to the Apostles and their representatives.

The so-called home church movement in America is nothing more than Congregationalism with a smaller building budget. It is fundamentally unbiblical.

revrobor said:

I realize that those involved in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations have sold out and pledged their allegiance to those religious organizations and have been so indoctrinated that they cannot comprehend anything other than what they have been taught.

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Who taught you that?

revrobor said:

So I am not really interested in constantly repeating myself.

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You've used the expression 'religious organization' in three consecutive posts.

revrobor said:

Hopefully they will realize one day that their loyality should be to Jesus Christ and they will come to understand the difference between a religious organization and the Body of Believers.

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To me this post in toto reads like an exit statement on the part of someone who has been found by means of confrontation to have no substanitive argument.

On Easter Sunday we're gonna greet each other with "He is risen!", with the response being "He is risen indeed!". I'm not gonna give anyone the opportunity got forget why we're there, or what the day is all about.

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Amen. I miss doing that. I loved how joyous people became when they would respond.
Maybe next year.

revrobor said:

"Every Church" is a reference to the Body of Believers in each community they visited and not a reference to a religious organization. Why do you not comprehend this?

I realize that those involved in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic denominations have sold out and pledged their allegiance to those religious organizations and have been so indoctrinated that they cannot comprehend anything other than what they have been taught. So I am not really interested in constantly repeating myself. Hopefully they will realize one day that their loyality should be to Jesus Christ and they will come to understand the difference between a religious organization and the Body of Believers.

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Honestly, it's comments such as the above that make me want to become an Orthdox...the ignorance about what Catholics and Orthodox believe is just frightening.

On the other hand, we don't make decisions about God in the heat of anger.

HowardDean, how could you say a bee is not cute, just look at their hairy eyes.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/kids-only/downloads/images/honeybee1280_4366_1.jpg