Fellow Christians, do you think a Church can claim to be Christian if it celebrates Easter?

You're committing the genetic fallacy, dude. That's like saying "Sunday is the day of the sun when people worshiped the sun god. Therefore, if you go to church on Sunday, that means you worship the sun god!"

You are correct that Christians originally called the festival of the Resurrection "Pascha" meaning Passover. The Roman Catholic church still does. Its official language is Latin in which the feast is name "Festa Pascalia" - the Passover feast. Almost every language except English and German uses words based on Passover - Paques in French, Pascua in Spanish. Clearly the feast itself, the celebration, can be traced back to the Jewish Passover. So why is it called "Easter" in English? Here you are completely wrong. There is no evidence whatsoever that Easter has anything to do with Ishtar, there are NO historical records of the sort of sexual celebrations you seem to be fantasising about. The earliest reference to the word Easter is from c 700 AD when the Venerable Bede wrote that the word was derived from the Anglo-Saxon name for the season (Eosturmonath) in which the festival occurred. He guesses that this month had been named much earlier after a goddess but there is otherwise no record anywhere of her so he was probably wrong about that.

Sure the early christians celebrated passover, thats why the tradition of Easter came from Passover. So obviously they can be Christian and celebrate Easter, they've been doing it for 2000 years....

A simple look into English translation history of the Bible can help clear this up. Before we do, consider this... ********** 2 Kings 18:27 (King James Version) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings+18:27&version=KJV But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? ********** What's this? Is this profanity in the Bible? How can this be the word of God if it has profanity? Well, hold on... The word "piss" as it is used here does refer to what the word implies: urine. The KJV was first published in 1611, and the word "piss" was not considered profanity or vulgar at the time. Saying the word "piss" in service would have been no more shocking than saying "urine" or "waste". You see, the English language is a living and dynamic language. The modern English spoken today is different than the early modern English of the KJV (and that of Shakespeare) even more different than late Middle English of the Geneva Bible (sometimes referred to as the Pilgrim's Bible since this was the Bible of the English Pilgrims who settled in America). As you may well know, the King James Bible was not the first English translation of the Bible. Others included the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible, the Catholic Douay-Rheims as well as William Tyndale's English translation earlier on. The word "Easter" was commonly used for "Passover", and the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, defined "Easter" with usage dating back to the 10th century as "The Jewish passover. Obs." Tyndale used the word "Easter" in his translation since the word was commonly used to mean Passover. Actually, there was no English translation for the word in Hebrew, and >> the word "Passover" used to it translate today is a descriptive word that Tyndale invented to translate the Hebrew <<. Tyndale did not feel that translating the word in the Old Testament as "Easter" was appropriate since it predated the birth of Christ. The Geneva Bible used the word "Passover" whereas the later KJV used Tyndale's translation. Tyndale was not "wrong" when you consider how people understood the word in his time. Nevertheless, modern translations also use the word "Passover". For example: ********** Acts 12:4 (English Standard Version) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2012:4&version=ESV And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. ********** God reaches out to us where we are, so it is no surprise that the translations of His word will reach out to us in our contemporary languages. This was true when the Hebrew scriptures were translated to Greek 300 -100 years before the birth of Jesus (the Septuagint), it was true on the day of Pentecost, it was true in Tyndale's time, and it is true for us today. There is no conspiracy; rather, there is simply a need to understand our biblical and English language history. I hope this helps. Peace be with you.

1) Fellow Christians, do you think a Church can claim to be Christian if it celebrates Easter? Of course. 2) Easter comes from Ishtar, the goddess of love. Not an accurate claim. There is no known connection between Easter and Ishtar. Scholars are agreed that the English word "Easter" is etymologically derived from the Germanic deity "Eostre". In German and English, this linguistic connection to a pagan deity is maintained in the name of the celebration "Easter" - but that connection **cannot be found** in other languages. In nearly all languages, the word for "Easter" is **the very same** as the word for "Passover" - including in languages that are much, much older than is the English language. I repeat: there is NO known connection between Easter and Ishtar. That purported connection is a myth based on similarity of the words that exist in **English** - it is not accepted by scholars as accurate. 3) The Play boy bunny was used by Pagans to symbolize sexual freedom I'd like to see evidence of that claim. It seems extremely unlikely, the "playboy bunny" symbol being a very modern stylized depiction of a rabbit. 4) the painted egg symbolized female fertility Where? When? For whom? Has it always symbolized that, and only that? 5) if a minister doesn't teach this he is not teaching the truth. Well...I know for certain that one part of your teaching is not true, but I have an important question: should we believe it is the truth because you say that it is? Should a Christian believe you because you say that you are speaking the truth? Or should you provide evidence supporting your claims so that your fellow Christians can **know** that you are speaking the truth? - Jim, http://www.bible-reviews.com/

Of course you have a handle on the situation. But this would exclude most every church out there. Most pastors continue to teach the lies of both Easter and Christmas year after year. I think that they know the truth but they are afraid of losing their congregations and therefore their paychecks. So they play along. What a tragedy. God is not pleased. There is nothing Christian about Easter or Christmas.

You're absolutely 100% Biblically RIGHT! So, next "Easter", you and all the REAL Christians should firebomb all the churches claiming to be celebrating "Easter". Burning HERETICS to death was good enough for Real Christians back then, and there's no reason not to continue a well-established Tradition!

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT JESUS OBSERVED PASSOVER ( AT THE LAST MEAL ) BEFORE HE DIED AKA AS THE LAST SUPPER I AM CELEBRATING PASCHA THIS WEEKEND GOING TO MIDNIGHT LITURGY THIS SATURDAY NIGHT OUR PASCHA IS ALWAYS 1 WEEK AFTER HEBREW PASSOVER ( NEVER CHANGES TAKE PASSOVER OF THE HEBREWS ANY YEAR AND ADD ONE WEEK AND YOU WILL BE CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION IN TIME OF JESUS JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED AFTER HEBREW PASSOVER TO GOD BE THE GLORY GREEK ORTHODOX ( RIGHT WORSHIP) KATHOLIKOS ( FIRST GREEK UNIVERSAL) APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN IC XC NIKA KYRIE ELEISON>

I would at best be leery of anything from Shepherd's Chapel. This is a cult that denies the Trinity of God revealed to us in the Bible (among other things). Modalism, a doctrine of cults such as Shepherd's Chapel and Oneness Pentecostals, is not Christian and these groups are not Christian. As you can see from some of the responses here, the facts that you have presented lack scholarly support and do not hold up to analysis of historical facts. God's word and teachings from those he inspires and leads will be honest, truthful, and factual. The so-called information that you present fail that test, and so we know these teachings to be false and not of divine origin or inspiration. Have a good one.