When I was a preteen, my parents encouraged me to select a church and begin attending even though they didn’t attend. I had two friends who lived in the neighborhood. We had a lot of spats, and it seemed that it was always two of us against the other one. I ended up selecting the church attended by the family of the boy I sided with at the time, admittedly not a very good reason for selecting what church to attend.

Due to my questionable motivation for attending, my attendance was rather sporadic. One of my main reasons for attending was that I felt guilty when I didn’t. My guilt increased when someone told me that it was necessary to attend Easter services to maintain membership status. So there were some people who attended only once a year, on Easter Sunday.

That was more than half a century ago. I have since become a minister of a different church, yet I haven’t attended an Easter service for more than 40 years. I do not celebrate Easter or Christmas. How can I claim to believe in Christ when I don’t observe the two main Christian holidays that allegedly celebrate the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Notice my use of the word “alleged.” If you examine the facts of history, you may be surprised to find that both of these holidays and the customs by which they are celebrated originated in paganism.

If I were to offer one scripture that forms the basis for my decision not to observe Christmas or Easter, that would be what God commanded ancient Israel in Deuteronomy 12:29-32, “The LORD your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But … be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.’ (31) You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. (32) See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.”

Jesus said we should worship God “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). John 17:17 defines God’s Word (what we call the Old Testament) as the truth that would set His true disciples apart from the world.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s Easter parade, nor is it my purpose to criticize anyone for how they worship God. I am simply offering the opportunity to understand more on this important subject and encouraging everyone to be better informed on what the Bible says about how to worship him. I urge you not to simply go along with “time honored” traditions (Romans 12:1-2), but to be like the Bereans, whose response to the new truths Paul preached to them was to be “open-minded …, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so.”

The vast resources of the Internet make it easier than ever before to research Easter (Google “Easter origin”) or any other subject. I invite you to access the Web site of the Good News magazine (www.gn magazine.org), where you can read and/or download many articles about Easter and other topics of interest. You can also listen to a recent interview of Good News writer Jerold Aust on the subject of Easter conducted by Fox News Radio host Alan Colmes. Articles that I have written on this and other subjects are available on our local Web site (www.ucgbend.org).

We are blessed to live in a free country where we enjoy the liberty to worship God according to our personal beliefs and convictions. We also enjoy freedom of the press to express our views and share them with others.