Question 45: What does the “resurrection” of Christ profit us?
Answer: First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, that he might make us partakers of that righteousness which he had purchased for us by his death; secondly, we are also by his power raised up to a new life; and lastly, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection.
Footnotes: [For “first”] 1 Cor.15:16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: Rom.4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 1 Pet.1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [for “secondly’] Rom.6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Col.3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Col.3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Eph.2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Eph.2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: [for “lastly”] 1 Cor.15:12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1 Cor.15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 1 Cor.15:21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Rom.8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Do note that the Heidelberg Catechism does not repeat the error in the KJV, substituting the word Easter/Ishtar (the name of a Roman pagan goddess and celebration) for Pesach/Passover in Acts 12:4. It was the preference of Constantine (who disliked the Jews) to sever Christianity from its Hebrew roots and not to continue the Jewish feasts. He encouraged (or intimidated?) the early leaders to comply with his wishes. He also wanted and taught the church leaders how to set up and centralize a centralized hierarchy of power under themselves (and under himself, of course). For this reason, the Church feasts and calendar became Roman-ized and the symbols and the metaphors hidden in the Jewish traditions and feasts and the continuity and connection of Judaism and Christianity were obscured or devalued.
Yes, #1, I believe all trace of connexion between the feast of the Resurrection and the Passover languished in total obscurity until it was rediscovered by the theologians of the Reformation. No mention of it at the Council of Nicaea, micro-managed as it was by Constantine. I’m sure he was a secret worshipper of that Roman goddess Ishtar! I feel a great conspiracy theory coming on…
Meanwhile, a holy and blessed Easter to all!
All the world, except for England and Germany, use “PESCHA” for the feast of the Resurrection. Why not England and Germany? The Saxon invasion brought with it the language of the Germanic kingdoms. In the Anglo Saxon terminology, they celebrated the Resurrection facing East, the rising sun, because the Son of Righteousness would come again from the east, therefore they gave the name “Easter” (or Eastern facing) for the holiday, and it spread throughout the Kingdoms ruled by them, and then to the colonies they founded, including the New World. The only connection with Easter to a pagan diety is found in one line of Bede, in [i]De Temporarum Ratione[/i], and that has been discounted.
A complete etemology of the festal name can be found [url=http://www.celtic-catholic-church.org/oak_tree/easter.html]here[/url], a site run by the Celtic Catholic Church, and written by Caedmon Parsons, an Eastern Orthodox and scholar of the Middle Ages, who concludes:
“I find attempts to dismiss as “pagan” a true survival of English Orthodoxy very problematic. Furthermore, there does not seem to be any English form of the word Pascha; Orthodox England never called the feast anything but Easter. ”
May the blessing of the Resurrection transform us all by His wonderful grace.
Jim E. <><