At one time in the ministry of Jesus, He announced to his disciples that He was going to suffer death. Peter in his zeal jumped up and holler out, "No, that is not going to happen to you." Jesus rebuked him, telling him to get behind him. Why? Because Peter had unknowingly aligned himself with the devil and not with God. Satan always wanted Jesus dead. From the very day Jesus was born, the Devil did all he could to kill Him ,defeat Him, deny Him. When Jesus died on the cross, something the Devil would have been elated at. (Remember he is the one who got into Judas and instigated the betrayal.) The devil wanted Jesus to stay dead. In his futility to keep Jesus in the tomb, he had a large stone placed at the mouth of the tomb. In addition he had his agents place armed guards to secure the place. Despite all of that , Jesus came out. Again, the devil through his agents, paid large sums of money to lie about the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus was the ultimate defeat of the Devil. That is something the devil will never admit or tell the truth about or want people to know about.
In light of all of this , it is my feeling that the Devil is the one responsible for starting and spreading the propaganda that 1) Easter is pagan 2) that Jesus was not resurrected on a Sunday 3) that Jesus was nor crucified on a Friday. Why so much hollabolu about events that clearly occurred and events that form the core of Christian belief? To me this points to the hand of an enemy who hates what Jesus came to do and who won't give up opposing the cross which is our gain and his downfall. He would accept the death of Christ since that is what he always wanted, but he hates the resurrection. Is this the real reason why the cults celebrate the death of Christ but not His resurrection? The question we must ask is, are we, like Peter, unwittingly favoring the things of the devil rather than the things of God when we treat the resurrection Sunday as if it were of heathen origin.
