For a start, we run into difficulty with the dates.

According to the Bible, Jesus's death and resurrection occurred at the time of the Jewish Passover, which was celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

In AD325 the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would depend on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox.

This explains why the Passover and Easter rarely coincide.

Easter has origins going back to Nimrod, the wicked great-grandson of Noah whose promotion of fertility cults within Baal worship later morphed into Eastre in pagan anglo-saxon culture as a fertility event.

To this day, fertility is a feature of Easter celebrations with the ever-productive rabbit and eggs.

Wrap these fertility symbols with chocolate and the employment of smart marketing and we find a powerful natural attraction that takes in children and adults alike.

If we can see past the pagan origins of Easter, we should still celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ whose death on the afternoon of Friday, April 3, AD33 and resurrection on the following Sunday, mark the two most sacred and meaningful days of the Christian calendar.

If you want to fully appreciate Easter in a spiritual sense, then you have to accept that Satan really believed that he forever owned mankind when he inveigled Adam and Eve into sin.

He knew that the penalty would be death and never imagined that God would find a way to redeem mankind by offering His only Son as a death-sacrifice to pay the price for sin.

Even non-believers know that Jesus was a proven historical figure who lived and died nearly 2000 years ago.

The story of Jesus has a transforming power and Christianity is built upon the belief that the saving of the human race depended on that sacrifice on our behalf so long ago.

That and nothing but that, is the true meaning of Easter.

Join us at Avondale Memorial Church, 584 Freemans Drive, Cooranbong, this Saturday, April 19, for our Easter service at 10.50am. The inspirational message and fine music are sure to enhance your Easter.

■ Dr John Hammond is public relations spokesperson for Avondale Memorial Church, Cooranbong.