The Easter Bunny and other secular/pagan Easter practices
Submitted by Loutzenhiser on Mon, 2008-09-15 14:53.
Just who is this Easter Bunny? Where did he come from? How did he get into Christ's resurrection? Should Christian's participate? What other secular/pagan Easter practices are in Christ's Resurrection? For discussions on the Resurrection of Christ then please use the Passover thread.
But the point is still missed...
jwmcmac said - We point out to them the error of what they are doing wrong and then re-direct them toward the Truths of the Faith . . . thereby changing and making a correct practice from a wrong practice and wrong-minded understanding. . . . Paul said it was okay to eat the meat that was formerly sacrificed to false gods . . . as long as everybody understood things correctly, that we do not worship those 'idols' . . . or . . . that there was no longer any sacrifice of this sort . . . and that eating this meat did not cause scandal amongst the Faithful.
jqlogan says - This is not a good example to prove your point. Paul did not instructing them to go out and seek meat offered to idols. Rather, it was something difficult to avoid under those conditions. It was better to eat than to fast so Paul gave them words of wisdom regarding the situation in their day. Yet, if it was known that the meat was offered to idols then it was better not to eat of it for the sake of the conscience of the weaker brothers.
If "clean" meats had been available then Paul would have, for the sake of conscience of the weaker brothers, instructed them where to find it. But he told them instead to eat whatever was found in the market place but not to ask if it had been offered to idols for conscience sake.
However, you make it sound as though Paul was using this instruction to shape the doctrinal beliefs of the weaker brothers. That is simply not the case. Paul was very sympathetic toward the weaker in faith. He would not instruct them to eat that tainted meat in the presence of a weaker brother in order to correct their beliefs. In fact, he instructed just the opposite. He said, Don't eat of it for the sake of the conscience of the weaker brother.
The direct commandment of God is to not make anything that can become an idol to us. We are not to bow down to them nor to worship them by undue respect or veneration. We are not to seek their help as though they were gods. We are not to employ them to aid us instead of seeking God's help. We are in no way to make them our first recourse but rather God is to be Supreme in all things. Anything owing to God cannot be directed to inanimate objects (statues, icons, pictures, emblems) without becoming idolatry.
Scriptural References:
Romans 14
1 Cor. 8
1 Cor. 10
Exodus 20
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"Iniquitas mentita est sibi"