The Easter Bunny and other secular/pagan Easter practices

...that is one way to look at it but does that make Christ subservient to the culture? Shouldn't the culture be returned to Christ?

To my rational mind your argument makes good sense. But then, there is a way that seems right to men but the end leads to death. I can't help but think that it was rationalizing that led Saul to spare the flocks. I can only imagine that he thought to himself that it would be a shame to destroy those perfectly (seemingly) good animals. Why could they not be spared and used in service to the Lord. They could serve as sacrificial animals to honor the Lord. And so his reasoning led him to disobey a direct command of God and the Lord rejected him from that time forward. Saul forgot one very important principle that it is better to obey than to sacrifice.

If we look to the end of time we find an unfaithful church, a harlot woman in symbolism, a confused system of worship referred to as Babylon. She has become "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Perhaps She held on to these pagan teachings and symbols thinking She would not be contaminated by them but rather could incorporate Christ into their culture and thereby sanctify them for the Lord; that by accepting them and introducing Christ into that culture many pagans would be won for Christ. But what has been the result? Has Christianity been diluted and has the commandment not to make images of anything on earth been neglected, even removed from plain view? Have the images not been venerated and bowed to and sought after for protection as in the case of St. Christopher? Don't we see statues of him on our dashboards?

But what does the Lord say,"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. ...How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." (Rev 18) This sounds more like a separation from those pagan things. A coming out. A lifting up of the soul to Christ; not an act of bringing Christ down.

Yes, I can see rising early to praise the God of Creation for the sun. But I am convinced the sun should not enter into our worship service. The Lord designed the tabernacle so that the backs of the worshipers would be to the rising sun rather than their faces. And remember that Emperor Constantine was a sun-worshiper and decreed in 321AD "Let all judges and townspeople and occupations of all trades rest on the venerable day of the Sun..." That was the first recorded Sunday-closure law. And its primary purpose was to honor the sun, not the Son.

I've cited the case of Saul and scripture from Revelation describing the situation in the church at the end to demonstrate why I believe Easter sunrise services facing the sun are not in our best interest. Do you have any scripture which would demonstrate the force of your reasoning? Do we have an example of Easter sunrise worship in scripture, for example? I don't think we do.

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"Iniquitas mentita est sibi"