Church of Christ and Easter

[akarmitage]

My husband is a member of a fairly conservative brand of Church of Christ. It’s a little confusing to me, but apparently there are different kinds of COC.

His “brand” doesn’t believe in celebrating Christmas or Easter as religious holidays because Jesus wasn’t actually born on December 25 and he didn’t actually rise from the dead on whatever date Easter falls on.

OK, whatever, it’s weird to me but I don’t push.

But today he tells me that someone texted him to say Happy Easter. I said, “Why would they text you that when you don’t celebrate Easter?”

He said, “We do celebrate Easter, just not as a religious holiday.”

I must have snorted at that, because he said, “What’s so funny?”

I said, “How do you celebrate Easter without it being a religious holiday?”

He said, “The Easter bunny, baskets of candy …”

I just quietly said, “That’s not what Easter is” and left it at that.

But I must say, this truly baffles me. They do Santa Claus and all the secular things like presents, but nothing special at church for Christmas.

I know the dates we celebrate are arbitrary, but I fail to see how celebrating the two most important events in the Christian religion is anything but good.

 

[1ke]

The date of Easter is not arbitrary at all.

While the Church set December 25 as the Feast of the Nativity, Easter is based on the Jewish Passover and we certainly do know when Christ was crucified in relation to Passover.

 

[TeenageConvert]

So they just take Jesus out of holidays and continue to celebrate them?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to do like the Jehova’s Witnesses and not celebrate them at all? I mean things like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and eggs are what are normally seen as bad, and connected to pagan traditions.(I’m not saying they are, just saying people are condemning those things, not actually the holidays themselves)

Is the COC the same or similar to the church of god, and non-denominational? I’ve heard that they were the same but had different names for indivisual churches.

 

[akarmitage]

@Teenage Convert, that’s exactly what I mean! It makes no sense to me.

I’m not sure about the connection to Church of God. I just know my husband can tell from how the church looks if it’s his “brand” of COC. Very plain, no adornment of the building. No instrumental music during liturgy. Very sola scriptura.

 

[booksandmusic]

I know nothing of the Church of Christ, but a family member used to be very involved with it and she was just baffled that Catholics would have mass on Christmas no matter what day of the week it fell on. She said that the Church of Christ only had services for Christmas if it fell on a Sunday, but they aways celebrated the whole Santa/presents thing no matter what day of the week it was. That just seems so odd to me.

This particular family member has been attending mass with us, and while not openly seeking information about the Catholic faith, seems to be open to it. Please pray that she continues to observe and explore and one day will want to begin the process of becoming Catholic.

Thanks!

 

[Catholic87]

my uncle is in the coc and I do not understand that religion at all, can anyone here help me?

 

[mackbrislawn]

Yes, the Church of Christ is very sola scriptura, so that if something is not mentioned in the bible, they do not do it, such as celebrating Christmas or Easter as a religious holiday. Of course as a secular holiday, part of secular culture, that would be okay, but not religious, since scripture doesn’t mention them specifically.

They say musical instruments are not mentioned in scriptural worship, so they do not use instruments, but only a cappella singing.

An interesting aspect of the Church of Christ is that they are so thoroughly sola scriptura, that they are not influenced by Luther or Calvin. That is, their theology of salvation and baptism is not at all Protestant, but in fact very similar to Catholicism. This is because when they began in the 1800’s, their founders made a point of ignoring all confessions and creeds, including the Westminster confession, the Augsburg confession, etc. So, the theologies of Luther and Calvin were forgotten, and they went “back to the bible,” alone, for their theology. And, in doing so, surprise, surprise, they returned to a very Catholic understanding! They did this by scripture alone, free of the biases of Luther and Calvin.

However, their understanding of church is not Catholic, but on the contrary, very independent and congregational.

Nevertheless, we must remember, they wouldn’t have the bible if it weren’t for the Catholic Church!

 

[FaithJoy]

When I was CoC for 20 yrs, the “preacher” would speak of the resurrection story. We also actually had some flowers up front,as we would never do in any other case. We also told each other happy Easter, but that was the extent of it all. A one Sunday event. As for confession, the CoC would surprise you I think. As it wasn’t but only maybe a couple people per year, a person may go up front to the “preacher” and confess some sins to him, then the “preacher” would go up front to ask all to pray for him. Although the confessed sins would be in a vague confessed type.

 

[akarmitage]

FaithJoy. I hope you don’t mind me asking … Why did you put the word preacher in quotes?

 

[pkdsquared]

So weird! I was just doing some research on CoC because one of hubby’s co-workers is associated with this (I don’t think you would say belongs to this denomination, as they don’t consider themselves a denomination at all) and he seems to always get personally offended when he hears him talking about going to Mass or fasting, etc.
Seems like such an odd practice, but I got some good fodder for apologetics when he tries to get into it with hubby. I should have him ask about whether he actually celebrated Easter or not.

 

[YADA]

Yes, the Church of Christ is very sola scriptura, so that if something is not mentioned in the bible, they do not do it, such as celebrating Christmas or Easter as a religious holiday. Of course as a secular holiday, part of secular culture, that would be okay, but not religious, since scripture doesn’t mention them specifically.

They say musical instruments are not mentioned in scriptural worship, so they do not use instruments, but only a cappella singing.

An interesting aspect of the Church of Christ is that they are so thoroughly sola scriptura, that they are not influenced by Luther or Calvin. That is, their theology of salvation and baptism is not at all Protestant, but in fact very similar to Catholicism. This is because when they began in the 1800’s, their founders made a point of ignoring all confessions and creeds, including the Westminster confession, the Augsburg confession, etc. So, the theologies of Luther and Calvin were forgotten, and they went “back to the bible,” alone, for their theology. And, in doing so, surprise, surprise, they returned to a very Catholic understanding! They did this by scripture alone, free of the biases of Luther and Calvin.

However, their understanding of church is not Catholic, but on the contrary, very independent and congregational.

Nevertheless, we must remember, they wouldn’t have the bible if it weren’t for the Catholic Church!

Funny this ***the Church of Christ is very sola scriptura ***- I was baptized in the Church of Christ … very nice people - I hope to join many friends and relatives in heaven some day - though they might be surprised to find that this Latin Rite Catholic makes it there …

Sola Scriptura is not the reality of the Church of Christ - I would say that they “claim” to be Sola Scriptura would be a more accurate description of the faith …

Becausew you are correct about worship and instruments - The branch of the Church of Christ that does not celebrate ‘religious holidays’ also does not use musical instruments in Chruch … Why because in one passage scriptures say “Lift up your voice and make a joyful noise unto the Lord” - nothing about instruments … but of course this denies all of the passages that speak of 'flutes, stringed instruments, trumpets and drums"

But then we have similar arguments with the use of organs [or okay - some would also say that a piano is okay too] versus the use of guitars, drums or other instruments in worship … In truth we find that scripture refers to stringed instruments, trumpets and drums used to worshipa dn glorify God - and as for an organ - well never really …

The real issue is worthy worship - recognition of our Creator - the Lord of Lords and having contrite hearts focused on God …

IMHO - Sola Scriptura works for those who like to pick a passage that fits a theology … the rest of Christianity is just trying to deepen their relationship with God through the totality of Scripture.

 

[FaithJoy]

FaithJoy. I hope you don’t mind me asking … Why did you put the word preacher in quotes?

It may be different today, but it was an unwritten rule in the CoC, use only the word “preacher”. Never use pastor,reverend,teacher, or priest. The reason being, the CoC is different, they don’t use what others churches use. It is the same mind set when they use no instruments in church, just a way to single the CoC out.

 

[akarmitage]

From what I understand, they also disregard the Old Testament and only use the New Testament. My husband says that Jesus made the new covenant and that eliminated the old covenants.

His mother once told him that it was too bad that my son and I are going to hell because we seem like nice people.

I’m always astonished by people who presume to know who is and isn’t going to hell.

 

[bbarrick8383]

I grew up in the CoC and still go on occasion although I’ve been reading up on Catholicism for a feW years now. My brother and I like to debate th teachings of the two religions. He just asked me if, when an adult whose never been baptized, becomes q Catholic, do they full submerse an adult or just sprinkle the water on them?

Our CoC is very old fashioned and does celebrate Easter and Christmas as religious holidays. They do not use musical instruments, and do talk about confession, although they never actually confess.

The older people complaign how they go to other CoC and they are doing things “wrong”. Yet they have no central authority to follow and keep other churches in line.

 

[Barbkw]

Akarmitage,

Some info on the dating of Jesus’ Resurrection to share with your husband.

God set the date for Passover with the Jews in Exodus 12. The celebration begins with the Feast of Unleaven Bread and then Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan and is celebrated for seven or eight days.

The reason that the dating of Passover / Easter varies each year (then and now) is that it is a floating holiday dependent on the lunar cycle of the full moon.

Jesus’ death can be dated, because the year that He was crucified, Passover began late on a Friday evening and continued through to Saturday (which is also the Sabbath for Jews). There are only a few Passover dates that land on a late Friday / Saturday within that 50 year time period.

jewfaq.org/holiday0.htm

When Holidays Begin

All Jewish holidays begin the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish “day” begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight.

If you read the story of creation in Genesis Ch. 1, you will notice that it says, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.”

From this, we infer that a day begins with evening, that is, sunset. Holidays end at nightfall of the date specified on most calendars; that is, at the time when it becomes dark out, about an hour after sunset.

Months of the Jewish Year

The “first month” of the Jewish calendar is the month of Nissan, in the spring, when Passover occurs.

Background and History

The Jewish calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year).

These three phenomena are independent of each other, so there is no direct correlation between them. On average, the moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days, that is, about 12.4 lunar months.

The civil calendar used by most of the world has abandoned any correlation between the moon cycles and the month, arbitrarily setting the length of months to 28, 30 or 31 days.

The Jewish calendar, however, coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.

The Jewish calendar is lunar, with each month beginning on the new moon. The new months used to be determined by observation.

When the new moon was observed, the Sanhedrin declared the beginning of a new month and sent out messengers to tell people when the month began. People in distant communities could not always be notified of the new moon (and therefore, of the first day of the month), so they did not know the correct day to celebrate. They knew that the old month would be either 29 or 30 days, so if they didn’t get notice of the new moon, they celebrated holidays on both possible days.

 

[Barbkw]

I would encourage you and your husband to watch this religious documentary (or read the website information) on the birth of Jesus:

bethlehemstar.net/

Using a NASA computer to “rewind” time, this man searched for celestial objects in the night sky that the Magi may have used to travel to Jerusalem.

According to him, December 25th is the star date when the Magi arrived in Bethlehem and found Jesus.

 

[akarmitage]

BBarrick, At my parish, an adult who hasn’t been baptized but is joining the chuch leans over the baptismal font and the priest pours water over the head, just as we do for infants. We never do full immersion.