Page 6 - Easter The Untold Story

The observance instituted by Jesus was to commemorate his death – not his resurrection. The true Lord's Supper was to "proclaim the Lord’s death" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Its observance was clearly commanded by Jesus and taught by the apostles. But no command to commemorate Jesus' resurrection is found anywhere in the Bible.
The Church Under Attack
Many people assume Christianity as we see it today is little different from Christianity of the first century. Not so. Sweeping changes have taken place in doctrine and practice. Even before the apostles passed from the scene, many congregations began to stray from what Christ and the apostles had taught.
The New Testament called on the churches to reject false teachings and ideas that were beginning to circulate. Jude found it necessary to exhort Christians "to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). Some in the churches in Galatia were actually "turning to a different gospel" (Galatians 1:6). Paul warned the Christians at Rome to beware of anything "contrary to the teaching you have learned" (Romans 16:17), and told Titus to warn the brethren about myths or "the commands of those who reject the truth" (Titus 1:14).
At the end of the first century, John, the only surviving apostle, lamented the spiritual condition of one congregation. Some who had departed from sound doctrine had gained the upper hand. Their leader (a certain Diotrephes) no longer was willing to receive instruction from the apostle John. Further, this Diotrephes put faithful members out of the church (3 John 9-10).
Such were the adverse pressures and influences that converged on Christianity even while the apostles were still alive. As a result, second century Christianity faced no shortage of conflicting doctrines and dissimilar opinions.
In the second century, according to J.L. Hurlbut, "we find a church in many aspects very different from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul" (The Story of the Christian Church, page 41).
Historian Will Durant paints a picture of a Christianity on the verge of being "divided into a hundred feeble parts by every wind of intellect, by disloyal heretics, ecstatic prophets, or brilliant sons. Celsus himself had sarcastically observed that Christians were 'split up into ever so many factions, each individual desiring to have his own party.' About [A.D.] 187 Iranaeus listed twenty varieties of Christianity; about [A.D.] 384 Epiphanius counted eighty. At every point foreign ideas were creeping into Christian belief, and Christians were deserting to novel sects" (The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, page 616).
It was in this context that Easter came into popularity.