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What is Easter and why do Christians Celebrate it?

Holy week is this week coming up ending with the culmination of Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The reason why this holiday is so important to Christians is because the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of their Saviour is the hinge point of the Christian faith. Christians believe that if Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead, then Christianity could not exist. 1 Corinthians 15:17 KJV And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. The Christian doctrine of forgiveness of sins is what makes it possible for anyone to go to Heaven when they die, and Christians believe that if Christ was not raised from the dead they are still in their sins, or in other words they will perish after death.

Jesus' resurrection guarantees the Christians resurrection at the end of time when we believe that Jesus will return to this earth to bring final salvation for those that await him here. We also believe, that our Christian dead will rise from their graves and join the other Christians, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,d that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

These verses are complicated to understand, but what they are really saying is that after we die in Christ we are resting in a place that is not fully heaven in the sense that it is not permanent. The dead in Christ will rise from the state their soul is in after death and be reunited with their bodies, which will be free from sin. Heaven will be on this earth, with the resurrected saints and the saints who were alive at the coming of Jesus. Some in evangelical Christianity like to call this the rapture of the church, but it is more the gathering of the saints and the second coming of Jesus Christ. The bible also refers to this event as the first resurrection. The second resurrection of the second death is for the wicked.

So you can see why Jesus' resurrection is so important in Christian theology because not only his resurrection depends on the Christian faith, but our own resurrection if we are in Christ depends on the return of Christ and God raising us up from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:23 NIV But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. This is Mike.

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