Leading up the the legal Easter Holiday, our church does a lot of outreach through mail, door to door, and advertisement inviting people to join us for the Sunday when we focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is nothing pagan involved, we simply capitalize on the atmosphere of the season to try to bring people in to hear the gospel. Christmas and Easter, though paganized by Catholicis, are both supposedly centered around Jesus Christ. My church and I, and hundreds if not thousands of similar churches around the country and world keep the same Biblical focus and do not allow any kind of pagan symbolism, legend, or artifacts.

From the day Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead leaving the tomb empty, there has always been and will always be disciples of His who keep and obey His word. They are not Catholics, and they are not Protestant (those groups who were born in protest against Catholic dogma). They are sinners whose lives have been bought and paid for by the blood of Christ which He gave for them, and they live with, by and for Him and will never recant in face of torture or death. They were thrown to the lions in Rome, and burned at the stake by Catholics when Rome offered sanctuary to those who claim to be Christian if they would submit to the government controlled church under Constantine. I am one of them who follow Christ and obey His word. I am commanded to be perfect and God knows there is plenty of room for me to grow yet I know I will be perfect when I see Jesus...I will be like Him forever when I see Him face to face...and it will be very soon and how joyfully I look forward to that day, enduring the sufferings of this present world as they are not worthy to be compared to the joy that lies ahead....Jesus went through it for me and will take me through and no cage full of lions or burning stakes can stop me.

When a person knows that their sins are forgiven and they have eternal life through what Christ did for them on the cross, and by His resurrection from the dead, they are forever irrevocably changed.

Easter is mentioned in the Bible and I think you are correct that it's roots are Babylonian...it has been a while since I studied it.

The long story of how Christmas started is a wonderful story and though it is steeped in paganism, it has spread pretty much over the face of the whole planet pointing to the time when the Messiah, the Savior or mankind, came to die for us.

The holiday time is appreciated, and real Christians like me do not mingle paganism into our actions at home or our gatherings at church. We do go out on Halloween and set up a booth in the city, passing out candy, coffee, donuts.....and gospel tracts as we try to get people to hear the gospel, the good news of what Christ did for us so that we can have eternal life.

I'm repeating myself a lot for you....I want you to know this is real and it is worth it to have your life changed by God. His life instead of my life, He lives in me and I will be like Him perfectly forever one day soon.

What I consider true Christians are those who have conceded that they have no right to live and cannot justify their existence outside of the fire of Hell, and they have admitted to God that they are sinners who deserve His punishment, and they have believed on Jesus Christ who died for their sins and rose bodily from the dead to save them from Hell....they have received Christ in reality by faith as He is, the Living God the only Savior and they are born of the Spirit of God who is Jesus Christ living in them. They speak to God as their Father, they are joint-heirs of Heaven with Jesus Christ, and they are my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

If they do not believe the Bible, I doubt that they are Christians and I hope I am wrong....though I do believe there are some true Christians which engage in pagan methods on so-called "Christian" holidays.

The Bible commands only two commemorative ceremonies for Christians......The Lord's Supper and baptism by submersion after a person has truly believed and received Jesus Christ as their Savior. The first alludes to what Christ did for us when He died in our place, the second identifies us publicly as followers of Christ, buried in baptism in the likeness of His death, and raised again to walk in newness of life.

Catholics incorporated Easter and tried to Christianize it to entertain their parishoners. Easter is mentioned in the Bible, but in the Bible it is not a Christian holiday. On Easter, my church has "Resurrection Sunday", keeping all of the focus on the Savior and not allowing any pagan symbols or activities like Easter Eggs, Easter Bunny, etc.