Woe to Ariel! (Jerusalem to suffer EU occupation)
by David Ben-Ariel
Isaiah 29:1
Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
Carl Sandburg, an American writer warned: "If America forgets where she came from...if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution." The same principle applies to our Jewish brethren in Israel.
The most merciful God of Jacob-Israel resurrected the nation of Israel from the graveyard of history and offered us a new opportunity to fulfill our unique calling to become a model nation, a kingdom of priests, a light to all nations, based upon the Law and the Prophets. Yet secular Jews, Hellenist Jews, UNJews, have divorced themselves from the Bible and have sought to make Israel just like all the other nations. And the corrupt Chief Rabbinate and blind religious leaders have woefully neglected (and forfeited by default) Judaism's most holy site: the Temple Mount.
Despite the faithlessness of many of Israel's leaders, the Great God of the Universe liberated areas of Judea and Samaria and restored Judaism's holiest site (supposedly) - the Temple Mount - into Jewish hands. Did Israel immediately invite the God of history to return with our exiles (now making aliyah) by building the Third Temple? Did they honor the God of our fathers by creating an Embassy for the Eternal upon the Temple Mount?
No! Instead Israelis despised their most sacred inheritance, the crown jewel of Jerusalem, and permitted militant Muslims to continue their abominable occupation. The foreign foxes terrorize faithful Jews and Christian Zionists who attempt to worship upon the Temple Mount and illegally refuse to let them pray or read the Bible. Israel has failed to uphold religious rights for non-Muslims (that are trampled daily) and has failed to guarantee "freedom of access." The biblical solution is to build the House of Prayer for All Peoples spoken of by the Prophets.
Queen Victoria said: "I think it very unwise to give up what we hold," referring to territories of the British-Israelite empire. Judah has been "very unwise" to surrender holy land to the enemies of God and Israel in the name of a lying peace. The accursed and treacherous Oslo accords, like a murderous cancer, continue to eat away at the very foundations of the Jewish state and the Jews have only themselves to blame.
Does someone have to be a prophet to recognize prophetic trends and to be grieved about them? Or to perceive that divine judgment is surely coming upon our beloved nations? Can't we just be like righteous King Josiah who HEARD AND BELIEVED the inspired words of the PROPHETS? (2 Chron. 34:15-33). He took God's "ancient" warning seriously and then did everything he could to avert national disaster! God respected him for it.
Yet the American, British and Jewish peoples today despise those who dare come forth, teaching and preaching the Word of God, encouraging repentance to spare our people from the unprecedented "Time of Jacob's Trouble," "the Great Tribulation" (Jer. 30:7, Matt. 24:21). At least, when they're temporarily crushed under the heels of a German-led Europe, when the Jewish Quarter is made Judenrein and the Temple Mount seized and occupied by Vatican forces that are intent on ripping the heart out of Israel for their pagan purposes (Dan. 11:45, Zech. 14:2), they will remember that they had been warned by a loving God, and hopefully will then have a change of heart and attitude that will hasten the process of redemption and welcome home the Messiah whom Two Witnesses will announce to the cities of Judah and proclaim to the world (Zech. 12:10).
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
Church of God woefully neglects the Jews, ignores teaching of Herbert W. Armstrong
Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God pretend to follow Herbert W. Armstrong as he followed Jesus Christ. Yet the great commission Herbert W. Armstrong saw must yet be fulfilled among the Jews is WOEFULLY NEGLECTED by Gerald and Stephen Flurry and other Church of God "leaders."
The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah
The PCG is going in circles, doing their own thing rather than the Work of God.
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
Time grows short and the PCG leaves the world without having received a strong warning message about what the German-dominated Europe is about to do, undoubtedly in rapid response to Iran.
PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"
The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah
The PCG is going in circles, doing their own thing rather than the Work of God.
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
Time grows short and the PCG leaves the world without having received a strong warning message about what the German-dominated Europe is about to do, undoubtedly in rapid response to Iran.
PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
The Queen's Christmas Message -- Will this be her last?
The British Royal Family must be reminded of their Hebrew roots and Israelite origins and encouraged to become like King David, "a man after God's own heart."
May Queen Elizabeth II use her Christmas message to educate the world of her Davidic ancestry and biblical responsibilities and announce she will no longer participate in heathen customs and pagan holidays that masquerade as Christian but will begin to love and obey God and keep the biblical festivals that God has blessed Israel with to share with all the world.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
May Queen Elizabeth II use her Christmas message to educate the world of her Davidic ancestry and biblical responsibilities and announce she will no longer participate in heathen customs and pagan holidays that masquerade as Christian but will begin to love and obey God and keep the biblical festivals that God has blessed Israel with to share with all the world.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Monday, November 27, 2006
National Destruction, Defeat and Deportation?
Many of the biblical prophecies concerning the "Lost Ten Tribes" have been fulfilled, especially the birthright blessing of Joseph, the Anglo-Saxon's unparalleled power and prosperity, and the continuation of King David's dynasty, Israel in the isles...but now, unless our proud and stubborn people confess and forsake their physical and spiritual idolatry and immorality, the bitter prophecies of national destruction, defeat and deportation are upon us.
Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives
Death to the American, British & Jewish Peoples?
British-Israelites and Jews in Grave Danger
The Bible is very clear that the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob's Trouble is near.
Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives
Death to the American, British & Jewish Peoples?
British-Israelites and Jews in Grave Danger
The Bible is very clear that the Great Tribulation, the Time of Jacob's Trouble is near.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
"Lakota" speaks with a forked tongue
Exchange with "Lakota" on the History Channel Forum --
White Christian racists imposed their religion on us during the 1800s and early twentieth century.
I'm sure they would appear "racist" to some who would hypocritically make mention of their skin color, realists to others not so prejudiced. Regardless of real or imagined racism, such folks must have been taking a chapter from the brown pagan "Native Americans" (Asian immigrants) who routinely butchered each other, pillaged villages and raped women, kidnapped children and raised them according to their own tribal beliefs.
This practice seems to afflict every race and religion to the honest and objective observer. It is not exclusive to some British or Euro-Israelites. Atrocities occurred on both sides. I grieve at the thought of that, and felt a spirit of heaviness, a great sadness, upon me near Wounded Knee several years ago and I prayed for healing and reconciliation as much as possible, good and honest before God who knows all, who had King David (my forefather) right some wrongs Saul had done against their "Natives."
Ideally, all would come to see that various idolatrous traditions and beliefs are man made at best, demonic at worst (remember your "Ghost Dance" was a dangerous religious lie that resulted in many deaths - Wovoka a false prophet the people fell for), both among pagans and professing Christians, and grow and mature beyond them, rejecting tradition for truth.
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."
Our message...told us how we should live our lives, taught us our ways. This is our belief.
If you truly believe your message (not that you speak for all the various tribes with their warring ideas and different ways), I trust you're living on a reservation to preserve it rather than in the "white man's world" and culture, yes?
If it's not necessary to live on a reservation to practice your particular tribal religion, then why have a reservation? Kind of like me reminding the Jews that they're supposed to follow Judaism to Israel.
Do not despise the word of the Creator as given to us.
You don't actually believe that Creator only spoke to a handful of people in the Middle East do you?
Yes, because that's what the Bible teaches, so why don't you practice what you preach and not despise the Word of the Lord, our Great Creator God, given to Israel to share with the world? God has a plan of salvation for all mankind but has chosen the Jews and Israelites as His Firstborn of many nations. The Bible is an ethnocentric book with great meaning and purpose once understood and rebukes those who would minimize the importance of Israel in that plan or seek to substitute or replace them with any
replacement theology.
Amos 3:2
You [Israel] only have I known of all the families of the earth...
Psalms 147:19-20
"He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD."
"To whom much is given, much is required" which is why the British-Israelites and Jews are held to a higher standard and are bringing divine judgment on our professing Christian nations and the Jewish homeland for our idolatry and immorality borrowed from the Gentile nations.
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
If you've read any of my posts, you would see that I sincerely offer both scathing condemnation of practices (both the Bible and history expose as pagan) among professing Christians, as well as constructive criticism, tough love, for the British-Israelite and Jewish peoples, believing the biblical blessings or curses, life or death options given us.
Isaiah 58
1 “Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
There are things we can learn from each other, the brown "Native Americans" and the white "Native Americans" (I was born here), but whether it's politically correct or not this country was given by our Great Creator God to the descendants of Joseph, primarily, as prophesied and fulfilled before our eyes.
Joseph needs to remember our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities and set an example for the world to follow even if others will continue to find fault and engage in destructive criticism.
You mention the conflict in the Middle East, of which I am very much aware. However, my people are here, my ancestors from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany settled in and around Ohio for the most part. Some people have come before us and other folks have come later. Regardless, we're all here now.
John Mervin: Risingsun, Ohio Pioneer
German-American Israelites?
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
White Christian racists imposed their religion on us during the 1800s and early twentieth century.
I'm sure they would appear "racist" to some who would hypocritically make mention of their skin color, realists to others not so prejudiced. Regardless of real or imagined racism, such folks must have been taking a chapter from the brown pagan "Native Americans" (Asian immigrants) who routinely butchered each other, pillaged villages and raped women, kidnapped children and raised them according to their own tribal beliefs.
This practice seems to afflict every race and religion to the honest and objective observer. It is not exclusive to some British or Euro-Israelites. Atrocities occurred on both sides. I grieve at the thought of that, and felt a spirit of heaviness, a great sadness, upon me near Wounded Knee several years ago and I prayed for healing and reconciliation as much as possible, good and honest before God who knows all, who had King David (my forefather) right some wrongs Saul had done against their "Natives."
Ideally, all would come to see that various idolatrous traditions and beliefs are man made at best, demonic at worst (remember your "Ghost Dance" was a dangerous religious lie that resulted in many deaths - Wovoka a false prophet the people fell for), both among pagans and professing Christians, and grow and mature beyond them, rejecting tradition for truth.
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."
Our message...told us how we should live our lives, taught us our ways. This is our belief.
If you truly believe your message (not that you speak for all the various tribes with their warring ideas and different ways), I trust you're living on a reservation to preserve it rather than in the "white man's world" and culture, yes?
If it's not necessary to live on a reservation to practice your particular tribal religion, then why have a reservation? Kind of like me reminding the Jews that they're supposed to follow Judaism to Israel.
Do not despise the word of the Creator as given to us.
You don't actually believe that Creator only spoke to a handful of people in the Middle East do you?
Yes, because that's what the Bible teaches, so why don't you practice what you preach and not despise the Word of the Lord, our Great Creator God, given to Israel to share with the world? God has a plan of salvation for all mankind but has chosen the Jews and Israelites as His Firstborn of many nations. The Bible is an ethnocentric book with great meaning and purpose once understood and rebukes those who would minimize the importance of Israel in that plan or seek to substitute or replace them with any
replacement theology.
Amos 3:2
You [Israel] only have I known of all the families of the earth...
Psalms 147:19-20
"He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD."
"To whom much is given, much is required" which is why the British-Israelites and Jews are held to a higher standard and are bringing divine judgment on our professing Christian nations and the Jewish homeland for our idolatry and immorality borrowed from the Gentile nations.
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
If you've read any of my posts, you would see that I sincerely offer both scathing condemnation of practices (both the Bible and history expose as pagan) among professing Christians, as well as constructive criticism, tough love, for the British-Israelite and Jewish peoples, believing the biblical blessings or curses, life or death options given us.
Isaiah 58
1 “Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
There are things we can learn from each other, the brown "Native Americans" and the white "Native Americans" (I was born here), but whether it's politically correct or not this country was given by our Great Creator God to the descendants of Joseph, primarily, as prophesied and fulfilled before our eyes.
Joseph needs to remember our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities and set an example for the world to follow even if others will continue to find fault and engage in destructive criticism.
You mention the conflict in the Middle East, of which I am very much aware. However, my people are here, my ancestors from England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany settled in and around Ohio for the most part. Some people have come before us and other folks have come later. Regardless, we're all here now.
John Mervin: Risingsun, Ohio Pioneer
German-American Israelites?
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Monday, November 20, 2006
The Plain Truth About Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God
I was a baptized member of the Worldwide Church of God when Herbert W. Armstrong was alive. Since his death (January 16, 1986) there has been a monstrous betrayal of the brethren by Protestant wolves who were among us, resulting in those faithful to the truth of the Bible (over traditional error) fleeing that present corrupt organization of deceived and deceiving men (or "disfellowshipped" or "marked") to new congregations and organizations that reflect and teach our biblical views.
There has been, as with every group or organization that undergoes serious changes in structure or administration, strong disagreements on how best to continue with what we are convicted is the plain truth of the Bible, but all of us basically agree on our foundational doctrines.
For those sincerely interested in the plain truth about Herbert W. Armstrong and the former Worldwide Church of God and some differences between the various branches of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God and their leaders:
The Plain Truth about Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
Raymond McNair Rejects God's government
David Pack & the Restored Church of God
PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Part 1)
Philadephia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
The Church of God Must Warn the World!
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah
There has been, as with every group or organization that undergoes serious changes in structure or administration, strong disagreements on how best to continue with what we are convicted is the plain truth of the Bible, but all of us basically agree on our foundational doctrines.
For those sincerely interested in the plain truth about Herbert W. Armstrong and the former Worldwide Church of God and some differences between the various branches of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God and their leaders:
The Plain Truth about Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
Raymond McNair Rejects God's government
David Pack & the Restored Church of God
PCG: Carrying on "Business as Usual"
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Part 1)
Philadephia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God)
The Church of God Must Warn the World!
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
The Great Mideast Commission: Reaching the Cities of Judah
C. H. Spurgeon on Christmas
C. H. Spurgeon on Christmas
Spurgeon from a sermon preached by C. H. Spurgeon on Dec. 24, 1871:
We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English. Secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. 'Superstition' has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. ... It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western Church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. ... Probably the fact is that the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December. ... Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.
**********************************
AMEN!!!
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Do You Prefer TRADITION Over Truth?
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Spurgeon from a sermon preached by C. H. Spurgeon on Dec. 24, 1871:
We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English. Secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. 'Superstition' has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. ... It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western Church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. ... Probably the fact is that the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December. ... Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.
**********************************
AMEN!!!
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Do You Prefer TRADITION Over Truth?
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Saturday, November 18, 2006
True Christians prefer TRUTH over tradition
If anybody is honestly interested in knowing whether or not this or that doctrine is actually biblical or merely traditional, all they have to do is objectively search the Scriptures like the noble Bereans did in Acts 17:11, after hearing Paul out, to see whether what he taught was true.
Examples:
The Church of God teaches, like Jesus, "the meek shall inherit the Earth." Traditional Churchianity denies it and says folks "go to Heaven." They have many such misunderstandings, idolatrous traditions and pagan myths like about being born again and Heaven and Hell.
The Church of God keeps the same seventh day Sabbath as Yeshua and the early Church of God, both converted Jews, Israelites and Gentiles. The professing Christian world, under influence of Constantine -- not Christ -- keep pagan SUNday.
The Bible only states the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, the Lord's Day, and that God is consistent and doesn't change but warned that some would "think to change the times and the laws" (Daniel 7:25).
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God keeps the same biblical festivals, the holy days of the LORD, that Yeshua and the early Church of God kept (both converted Jews, Israelites and Gentiles), with a new and improved understanding, in spirit and in truth, not just according to the letter of the law.
Traditional Churchianity is hostile to God's holy days and have replaced them with their pagan Roman hollow days, even though biblical prophecy shows such baptized paganism will soon be history as Yeshua, the King of Israel, teaches Torah from Jerusalem and commands all nations to observe the "Jewish holidays."
It is because of such glaring differences between TRADITIONAL Christianity (following its Roman leaders and Gentilized Jesus), and the Sabbath-keeping Church of God following the Jewish Jesus, exposed by the plain truth teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, that Mr. Armstrong was so hated by many of the angry religious leaders who couldn't refute what he said and weren't prepared to change for the better. They chose tradition over truth, just like many religious leaders did in the days of the Prophets and in the days of Yeshua. Nothing new under the sun.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Examples:
The Church of God teaches, like Jesus, "the meek shall inherit the Earth." Traditional Churchianity denies it and says folks "go to Heaven." They have many such misunderstandings, idolatrous traditions and pagan myths like about being born again and Heaven and Hell.
The Church of God keeps the same seventh day Sabbath as Yeshua and the early Church of God, both converted Jews, Israelites and Gentiles. The professing Christian world, under influence of Constantine -- not Christ -- keep pagan SUNday.
The Bible only states the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, the Lord's Day, and that God is consistent and doesn't change but warned that some would "think to change the times and the laws" (Daniel 7:25).
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God keeps the same biblical festivals, the holy days of the LORD, that Yeshua and the early Church of God kept (both converted Jews, Israelites and Gentiles), with a new and improved understanding, in spirit and in truth, not just according to the letter of the law.
Traditional Churchianity is hostile to God's holy days and have replaced them with their pagan Roman hollow days, even though biblical prophecy shows such baptized paganism will soon be history as Yeshua, the King of Israel, teaches Torah from Jerusalem and commands all nations to observe the "Jewish holidays."
It is because of such glaring differences between TRADITIONAL Christianity (following its Roman leaders and Gentilized Jesus), and the Sabbath-keeping Church of God following the Jewish Jesus, exposed by the plain truth teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, that Mr. Armstrong was so hated by many of the angry religious leaders who couldn't refute what he said and weren't prepared to change for the better. They chose tradition over truth, just like many religious leaders did in the days of the Prophets and in the days of Yeshua. Nothing new under the sun.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Friday, November 17, 2006
The Plain Truth About Christmas
THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTMAS
by Herbert W. Armstrong
1952, 1972, 1974 edition
Where did the world get Christmas? ... from the Bible, or paganism?
Here are the astonishing facts which may shock you! Test yourself.
How much do you know of the origin of the Christmas tree -- of "Santa Claus" -- of the mistletoe -- of the holly wreath -- of the custom of exchanging gifts?
WHEN I was a very little boy, I was taught to hang up my stockings on Christmas eve. When I awakened the next morning, they were filled with small toys and sacks or little boxes of candy and nuts.
And beside the mantle, from which my stockings hung, a Christmas tree had suddenly appeared, decorated with shiny tinsel. And on it hung presents. Other presents for us children were piled on the floor underneath.
I was told Santa Claus had come down the chimney during the night and left all these things.
But did I question what my parents had told me? Of course not. I accepted it -- took it all for granted. Didn't you?
Stop and think a moment! Very few have ever reflected on why they believe what they do -- why they follow the customs they do, or from where those customs came. We were born into a world filled with customs. We grew up accepting them without question.
Why? Sheep instinct? Well, not exactly.
But by nature we do tend to follow the crowd, whether right or wrong. Sheep follow others to the slaughter. Humans ought to check up where they are going.
How -- when did Christmas originate?
Does Christmas really celebrate the birthday of Christ? Was Jesus born on December 25th?
Did the original apostles, who knew Jesus personally and were taught by Him, celebrate His birthday on December 25th? Did they celebrate it at all?
If Christmas is the chief of the Christian holidays, why do so many non-Christians observe it? Do you know?
Why do people exchange presents with family members, friends, relatives, at Christmas time? Was it because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child? The answer may surprise you.
Most people have "supposed" a lot of things about Christmas that are not true. But let's quit "supposing" and get the facts!
What Encyclopedias Say
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," or, as it came to be shortened, "Christ-Mass." It came to non-Christians and Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church. And where did they get it? NOT from the New Testament -- NOT from the Bible -- NOT from the original apostles who were personally instructed by Christ -- but it gravitated in the fourth century into the Roman Church from paganism.
Since the celebration of Christmas has come to the world from the Roman Catholic Church, and has no authority but that of the Roman Catholic Church, let us examine the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, published by that church. Under the heading "Christmas," you will find:
"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." "Pagan customs centering around the January calends gravitated to Christmas."
And in the same encyclopedia, under the heading "Natal Day," we find that the early Catholic father, Origen, acknowledged this truth: "... In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners [like Pharaoh and Herod] who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world" (emphasis ours).
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, has this: "Christmas (i.e., the Mass of Christ) .... Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ...." It was not instituted by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority.
It was picked up afterward from paganism. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1944 edition, says: "Christmas .... It was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth ...." (The "Communion," which is instituted by New Testament Bible authority, is a memorial of the death of Christ.) "... A feast was established in memory of this event [Christ's birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed."
Now notice! These recognized historical authorities show Christmas was not observed by Christians for the first two or three hundred years -- a period longer than the entire history of the United States as a nation! It got into the Western, or Roman, Church, by the fourth century A.D. It was not until the fifth century that the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as an official Christian festival!
Jesus Not Born December 25th
Jesus was not even born in the winter season! When the Christ-child was born "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Judaea in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. Notice that the Bible itself proves, in Song of Solomon 2:11 and Ezra 10:9, 13, that winter was a rainy season not permitting shepherds to abide in open fields at night.
"It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain," says the Adam Clarke Commentary (Vol. 5, page 370, New York ed.)
Continuing, this authority states: "During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As ... the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November [begins sometime in October], we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer. And, as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact ... See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot."
Any encyclopedia, or any other authority, will tell you that Christ was not born on December 25. The Catholic Encyclopedia frankly states this fact.
The exact date of Jesus' birth is entirely unknown, as all authorities acknowledge -- though if I had space in this booklet I could show you scriptures which at least strongly indicate it was in the early fall -- probably September approximately six months after Passover.
If God had wished us to observe and celebrate Christ's birthday, He would not have so completely hidden the exact date.
How This Pagan Custom Got into the Church
Then how did this pagan custom creep into the Western Christian world?
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains it clearly, in its article on "Christmas": "How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (Dec. 25) following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the 'new sun' ... cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence .... The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival."
Remember, the Roman world had been pagan. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were few in number, though increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans. But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who made his profession of Christianity in the fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman world began to accept this now-popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.
But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit. They enjoyed it! They didn't want to give it up! Now this same article in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains how the recognition by Constantine of Sunday, which had been the day of pagan sun worship, and how the influence of the pagan Manichaeism, which identified the SON of God with the physical SUN, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to "Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of the SUN-god), the birthday of the SON of God.
And that is how "Christmas" became fastened on our Western world! We may call it by another name, but it's the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival still! The only change is in what we call it! You can call a rabbit a "lion," but it's still a rabbit, just the same.
Again from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Certain Latins, as early as 354, may have transferred the birthday from January 6th to December 25, which was then a Mithraic feast ... or birthday of the unconquered SUN ... The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry, contending ... that the feast of December 25th, had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus ...."
The Real Origin of Christmas
But if we got Christmas from the Roman Catholics, and they got it from paganism, where did the pagans get it? Where, when, and what was its real origin?
It is a chief custom of the corrupt system denounced all through Bible prophecies and teachings under the name of Babylon. And it started and originated in the original Babylon of ancient Nimrod! Yes, it stems from roots whose beginning was shortly this side of the Flood!
Nimrod, grandson of Ham, son of Noah, was the real founder of the Babylonish system that has gripped the world ever since -- the system of organized competition -- of man -- ruled governments and empires, based upon the competitive and profit-making economic system. Nimrod built the tower of Babel, the original Babylon, ancient Nineveh, and many other cities. He organized this world's first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew, is derived from "Marad," meaning "he rebelled."
From many ancient writings, considerable is learned of this man, who started the great organized worldly apostasy from God that has dominated this world until now. Nimrod was so evil, it is said he married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrod's untimely death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis, propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the real origin of the Christmas tree.
Through her scheming and designing, Semiramis became the Babylonian "Queen of Heaven," and Nimrod, under various names, became the "divine son of heaven."
Through the generations, in this idolatrous worship, Nimrod also became the false Messiah, son of Baal the Sun-god. In this false Babylonish system, the "Mother and Child" (Semiramis and Nimrod reborn) became chief objects of worship. This worship of "Mother and Child" spread over the world.
The names varied in different countries and languages. In Egypt it was Isis and Osiris.
In Asia, Cybele and Deoius. In pagan Rome, Fortuna and Jupiterpuer. Even in Greece, China, Japan, Tibet is to be found the counterpart of the Madonna, long before the birth of Christ!
Thus, during the fourth and fifth centuries, when the pagans of the Roman world were "accepting" the new popular "Christianity" by the hundreds of thousands, carrying their old pagan customs and beliefs along with them, merely cloaking them with Christian-sounding names, the Madonna and "Mother and Child" idea also became popularized, especially at Christmas time.
Every Christmas season you'll hear sung and chanted dozens of times the hymn "Silent Night, Holy Night," with its familiar "Mother and Child" theme. We, who have been born in such a babylonish world, reared and steeped in these things all our lives, have been taught to revere these things as holy and sacred. We never questioned to see where they came from -- whether they came from the Bible, or from pagan idolatry!
We are shocked to learn the truth -- some, unfortunately, take offense at the plain truth! But God commands His faithful ministers, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression!" Shocking as these facts are, they are the plain facts of history and the Bible!
The real origin of Christmas goes back to ancient Babylon. It is bound up in the organized apostasy which has gripped a deceived world these many centuries! In Egypt, it was always believed that the son of Isis (Egyptian name for "Queen of Heaven") was born December 25th. Paganism celebrated this famous birthday over most of the known world for centuries before the birth of Christ.
December 25th is not the birthday of Jesus the true Christ! The apostles and early true Church never celebrated Christ's birthday at any time. There is no command or instruction to celebrate it in the Bible -- rather, the celebrating of birthdays is a pagan, not a Christian custom, believe it or not!
Thus the ancient idolatrous "Chaldean Mysteries," founded by this wife of Nimrod, have been handed down through the pagan religions under new Christian-sounding names.
Origin of Holly Wreath, Mistletoe, Yule Log
Now where did we get this mistletoe custom? Among the ancient pagans the mistletoe was used at this festival of the winter solstice because it was considered sacred to the sun, because of its supposed miraculous healing power. The pagan custom of kissing under the mistletoe was an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery -- celebrating the death of the "old sun" and the birth of the new at the winter solstice. Mistletoe, sacred in pagan festivals, is a parasite!
Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun-god. The yule log is in reality the "sun log." "Yule" means "wheel," a pagan symbol of the sun. Yet today professing Christians speak of the "sacred yule-tide season"!
Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan custom, encouraging the waning sun-god as he reached the lowest place in the southern skies!
The Encyclopedia Americana says: "The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log ... are relics of pre-Christian times." Of paganism!
The book Answers to Questions, compiled by Frederick J. Haskins, found in public libraries, says: "The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era."
Yes, and Even Santa Claus!
But surely dear old Santa Claus is not a creature of pagan birth? But he is, and his real character is not so benevolent and holy as many suppose!
The name "Santa Claus" is a corruption of the name "St. Nicholas," a Roman Catholic bishop who lived in the 5th century. Look in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume 19, pages 648-649, 11th edition, where you'll read: "St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, a saint honored by the Greeks and Latins on the 6th of December .... A legend of his surreptitious bestowal of dowries on the three daughters of an impoverished citizen ... is said to have originated the old custom of giving presents in secret on the Eve of St. Nicholas [Dec. 6], subsequently transferred to Christmas day. Hence the association of Christmas with Santa Claus ...."
Through the year, parents punish their children for telling falsehoods. Then, at Christmas time, they themselves tell their little children this "Santa Claus" lie! Is it any wonder many of them, when they grow up and learn the truth, begin to believe God is a myth, too?
One little fellow, sadly disillusioned about "Santa Claus," said to a playmate, "Yes, and I'm going to look into this 'Jesus Christ' business, too!" Is it Christian to teach children myths and falsehoods? God says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness!" It may seem right, and be justified by human reason, but God says, "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death!" "Old Nick" also is a term for the devil! Is there a connection? Satan appears as an "angel of light," to deceive! (II Cor. 11:14; Rev. 12:9.)
And so when we examine the facts, we are astonished to learn that the practice of observing Christmas is not, after all, a true Christian practice, but a pagan custom -- one of the ways of Babylon our people have fallen into!
What the Bible Says About the Christmas Tree
But if the Bible is silent about telling us to observe Christmas, or recording any such observance by the apostles or early true Church, it does have something to say about the Christmas tree!
This will come as a real surprise to many. But here it is:
Jeremiah 10:2-6: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen .... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."
There is a perfect description of the Christmas tree, termed by the Eternal as "the way of the heathen -- the customs of the people." We are commanded not to learn that way or follow it! It is also viewed in this passage as idolatry. The fifth verse shows that these trees cannot speak -- cannot walk -- must be carried. "Be not afraid of them; for they [the trees] cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." They are not gods to be feared. Some people misread this to make it say there is no harm in having a Christmas tree, but that is not what it says.
Isn't Exchanging Gifts Scriptural?
But when it comes to the most important part of all in this Christmas observance -- the Christmas shopping season -- the buying and exchanging of gifts -- many will exclaim triumphantly, "Well, at least the Bible tells us to do that! Didn't the wise men give gifts when Christ was born?"
Again, we are due for some surprises, when we learn the plain truth. First, let's look at the historic origin of trading gifts back and forth, then see exactly what the Bible does say about it.
From the Bibliotheca Sacra, volume 12, pages 153-155, we quote: "The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the Pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows."
The fact is, this custom fastened upon people of exchanging gifts with friends and relatives at the Christmas season has not a single trace of Christianity about it, strange though that may seem! This does not celebrate Christ's birthday nor honor it or Him! Suppose someone you love has a birthday. You want to honor that person on his or her birthday. Would you lavishly buy gifts for everyone else, trading gifts back and forth with all your other friends and loved ones, but ignore completely any gift for the one whose birthday you are honoring? Rather absurd, when viewed in that light, isn't it?
Yet this is exactly what people the world over are doing! They honor a day that is not Christ's birthday by spending every dime they can scrape together in buying presents to trade back and forth among friends and relatives. But I can say by years of experience, as I believe most pastors and ministers can say, that when the month of December rolls around, nearly all professing Christians forget to give gifts to Christ and His cause almost altogether! December often is the most difficult month to keep Christ's work from dying! People are too busy trading gifts back and forth among themselves to think of Him and His Work, it seems. Then, in January and even into February it seems they have to catch up from what they spent for Christmas, so they seldom get back to normal in supporting Christ and His Work before March!
Now consider what the Bible says about the wise men giving gifts when Christ was born. It is in Matthew 2:1-11. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? ... And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto HIM gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
Why Gifts Presented to Christ
Notice, they inquired for the child Jesus, who was born KING of the Jews! Now why did they present gifts to Him? Because it was His birthday? Not at all, because they came several days or weeks after the date of His birth! Was it to set an example for us, today, to trade gifts back and forth among ourselves? No, notice carefully! They did not exchange gifts among themselves, but "they presented unto HIM gifts." They gave their gifts to Christ, not to their friends, relatives, or one another!
Why? Let me quote from the Adam Clarke Commentary, volume 5, page 46: "Verse 11. (They presented unto him gifts.) The people of the east never approach the presence of kings and great personages, without a present in their hands. The custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Sea Islands."
There it is! They were not instituting a new Christian custom of exchanging gifts with friends to honor Christ's birthday. They were following an old and ancient eastern custom of presenting gifts to a king when they came into his presence. They were approaching Him, born KING of the Jews, in person. Therefore custom required they present gifts even as the Queen of Sheba brought gifts to Solomon -- even as many people today take a gift along when they visit the White House for an appointment with the President.
No, the custom of trading gifts back and forth does not stem from this scriptural incident at all, but rather, as quoted from history above, it is the continuance of an ancient pagan custom. Instead of honoring Christ, it invariably retards His Work, often sets it back, at the Christmas season every year.
Does It Really Honor Christ?
Now come two arguments often used to justify Christmas observance.
1) Many will reason this way: "But, even though the exact date of Jesus' birth is unknown, should we not select some date to celebrate as His birthday?" The answer is positively no! Did you not notice the statement quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthdays." The celebration of birthdays is not a Christian, but a pagan custom, observed by sinners!
2) But, many still reason, "Even so -- even though Christmas was a pagan custom, honoring the false sun-god, we don't observe it to honor the false god, we observe it to honor Christ."
But how does GOD answer in His Word? "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them [the pagans in their customs] ... that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Eternal, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:30-31).
God says plainly in His Instruction Book to us, that He will not accept that kind of worship, even though intended in His honor. To Him, He says, it is offering what is abominable to Him, and therefore it honors, not Him, but false pagan gods. GOD says we must not worship Him according to the "dictates of our own conscience" -- a term we often hear. But Jesus said plainly, "God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And what is truth? God's Word -- the Holy Bible -- said Jesus, is truth (John 17:17); and the Bible says God will not accept worship when people take a pagan custom or manner of worship and try to honor Christ with it.
Again, Jesus said: "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9). Christmas observance is a tradition of men, and the commandments of God, as quoted, forbid it. Jesus said, further, "full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
That is precisely what the millions are doing today. They ignore the commandment of God. He commands, regarding taking the customs of the pagans and using them to honor or worship God: "Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God." Still, most people today take that command of God lightly, or as having no validity whatsoever, and follow the tradition of men in observing Christmas.
Make no mistake! God will allow you to defy and disobey Him. He will allow you to follow the crowd and the traditions of men. He will allow you to sin. But He also says there is a day of reckoning coming. As you sow, so shall you reap! Jesus was the living Word of God in Person, and the Bible is the written Word of God. And we shall be judged, for eternity, by these words! They should not be taken lightly or ignored.
We're in Babylon, and Haven't Known It
Christmas has become a commercial season. It's sponsored, kept alive, by the heaviest retail advertising campaigns of the year. You see a masqueraded "Santa Claus" in many stores. Ads keep us deluded and deceived about the "beautiful Christmas spirit." The newspapers, who sell the ads, print flowery editorials exalting and eulogizing the pagan season, and its "spirit." A gullible people has become so inoculated, many take offense when told the truth. But the "Christmas spirit" is created each year, not to honor Christ, but to sell merchandise! Like all Satan's delusions, it appears as an "angel of light," is made to appear good. Billions of dollars are spent in this merchandising spree every year, while the cause of Christ must suffer! It's part of the economic system of Babylon!
We have professed to be Christian nations, but we're in Babylon, as Bible prophecy foretold, and we don't know it! "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" -- now soon to fall -- is the warning of Revelation 18:4.
This year, instead of gift trading, why not put that money into God's Work?
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Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
by Herbert W. Armstrong
1952, 1972, 1974 edition
Where did the world get Christmas? ... from the Bible, or paganism?
Here are the astonishing facts which may shock you! Test yourself.
How much do you know of the origin of the Christmas tree -- of "Santa Claus" -- of the mistletoe -- of the holly wreath -- of the custom of exchanging gifts?
WHEN I was a very little boy, I was taught to hang up my stockings on Christmas eve. When I awakened the next morning, they were filled with small toys and sacks or little boxes of candy and nuts.
And beside the mantle, from which my stockings hung, a Christmas tree had suddenly appeared, decorated with shiny tinsel. And on it hung presents. Other presents for us children were piled on the floor underneath.
I was told Santa Claus had come down the chimney during the night and left all these things.
But did I question what my parents had told me? Of course not. I accepted it -- took it all for granted. Didn't you?
Stop and think a moment! Very few have ever reflected on why they believe what they do -- why they follow the customs they do, or from where those customs came. We were born into a world filled with customs. We grew up accepting them without question.
Why? Sheep instinct? Well, not exactly.
But by nature we do tend to follow the crowd, whether right or wrong. Sheep follow others to the slaughter. Humans ought to check up where they are going.
How -- when did Christmas originate?
Does Christmas really celebrate the birthday of Christ? Was Jesus born on December 25th?
Did the original apostles, who knew Jesus personally and were taught by Him, celebrate His birthday on December 25th? Did they celebrate it at all?
If Christmas is the chief of the Christian holidays, why do so many non-Christians observe it? Do you know?
Why do people exchange presents with family members, friends, relatives, at Christmas time? Was it because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child? The answer may surprise you.
Most people have "supposed" a lot of things about Christmas that are not true. But let's quit "supposing" and get the facts!
What Encyclopedias Say
The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," or, as it came to be shortened, "Christ-Mass." It came to non-Christians and Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church. And where did they get it? NOT from the New Testament -- NOT from the Bible -- NOT from the original apostles who were personally instructed by Christ -- but it gravitated in the fourth century into the Roman Church from paganism.
Since the celebration of Christmas has come to the world from the Roman Catholic Church, and has no authority but that of the Roman Catholic Church, let us examine the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, published by that church. Under the heading "Christmas," you will find:
"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." "Pagan customs centering around the January calends gravitated to Christmas."
And in the same encyclopedia, under the heading "Natal Day," we find that the early Catholic father, Origen, acknowledged this truth: "... In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners [like Pharaoh and Herod] who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world" (emphasis ours).
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, has this: "Christmas (i.e., the Mass of Christ) .... Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ...." It was not instituted by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority.
It was picked up afterward from paganism. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1944 edition, says: "Christmas .... It was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth ...." (The "Communion," which is instituted by New Testament Bible authority, is a memorial of the death of Christ.) "... A feast was established in memory of this event [Christ's birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed."
Now notice! These recognized historical authorities show Christmas was not observed by Christians for the first two or three hundred years -- a period longer than the entire history of the United States as a nation! It got into the Western, or Roman, Church, by the fourth century A.D. It was not until the fifth century that the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as an official Christian festival!
Jesus Not Born December 25th
Jesus was not even born in the winter season! When the Christ-child was born "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Judaea in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. Notice that the Bible itself proves, in Song of Solomon 2:11 and Ezra 10:9, 13, that winter was a rainy season not permitting shepherds to abide in open fields at night.
"It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain," says the Adam Clarke Commentary (Vol. 5, page 370, New York ed.)
Continuing, this authority states: "During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As ... the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November [begins sometime in October], we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer. And, as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact ... See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot."
Any encyclopedia, or any other authority, will tell you that Christ was not born on December 25. The Catholic Encyclopedia frankly states this fact.
The exact date of Jesus' birth is entirely unknown, as all authorities acknowledge -- though if I had space in this booklet I could show you scriptures which at least strongly indicate it was in the early fall -- probably September approximately six months after Passover.
If God had wished us to observe and celebrate Christ's birthday, He would not have so completely hidden the exact date.
How This Pagan Custom Got into the Church
Then how did this pagan custom creep into the Western Christian world?
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains it clearly, in its article on "Christmas": "How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (Dec. 25) following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the 'new sun' ... cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence .... The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ's birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival."
Remember, the Roman world had been pagan. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were few in number, though increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans. But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who made his profession of Christianity in the fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman world began to accept this now-popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.
But remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit. They enjoyed it! They didn't want to give it up! Now this same article in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains how the recognition by Constantine of Sunday, which had been the day of pagan sun worship, and how the influence of the pagan Manichaeism, which identified the SON of God with the physical SUN, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to "Christianity," their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of the SUN-god), the birthday of the SON of God.
And that is how "Christmas" became fastened on our Western world! We may call it by another name, but it's the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival still! The only change is in what we call it! You can call a rabbit a "lion," but it's still a rabbit, just the same.
Again from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Certain Latins, as early as 354, may have transferred the birthday from January 6th to December 25, which was then a Mithraic feast ... or birthday of the unconquered SUN ... The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry, contending ... that the feast of December 25th, had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus ...."
The Real Origin of Christmas
But if we got Christmas from the Roman Catholics, and they got it from paganism, where did the pagans get it? Where, when, and what was its real origin?
It is a chief custom of the corrupt system denounced all through Bible prophecies and teachings under the name of Babylon. And it started and originated in the original Babylon of ancient Nimrod! Yes, it stems from roots whose beginning was shortly this side of the Flood!
Nimrod, grandson of Ham, son of Noah, was the real founder of the Babylonish system that has gripped the world ever since -- the system of organized competition -- of man -- ruled governments and empires, based upon the competitive and profit-making economic system. Nimrod built the tower of Babel, the original Babylon, ancient Nineveh, and many other cities. He organized this world's first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew, is derived from "Marad," meaning "he rebelled."
From many ancient writings, considerable is learned of this man, who started the great organized worldly apostasy from God that has dominated this world until now. Nimrod was so evil, it is said he married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrod's untimely death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis, propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the real origin of the Christmas tree.
Through her scheming and designing, Semiramis became the Babylonian "Queen of Heaven," and Nimrod, under various names, became the "divine son of heaven."
Through the generations, in this idolatrous worship, Nimrod also became the false Messiah, son of Baal the Sun-god. In this false Babylonish system, the "Mother and Child" (Semiramis and Nimrod reborn) became chief objects of worship. This worship of "Mother and Child" spread over the world.
The names varied in different countries and languages. In Egypt it was Isis and Osiris.
In Asia, Cybele and Deoius. In pagan Rome, Fortuna and Jupiterpuer. Even in Greece, China, Japan, Tibet is to be found the counterpart of the Madonna, long before the birth of Christ!
Thus, during the fourth and fifth centuries, when the pagans of the Roman world were "accepting" the new popular "Christianity" by the hundreds of thousands, carrying their old pagan customs and beliefs along with them, merely cloaking them with Christian-sounding names, the Madonna and "Mother and Child" idea also became popularized, especially at Christmas time.
Every Christmas season you'll hear sung and chanted dozens of times the hymn "Silent Night, Holy Night," with its familiar "Mother and Child" theme. We, who have been born in such a babylonish world, reared and steeped in these things all our lives, have been taught to revere these things as holy and sacred. We never questioned to see where they came from -- whether they came from the Bible, or from pagan idolatry!
We are shocked to learn the truth -- some, unfortunately, take offense at the plain truth! But God commands His faithful ministers, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression!" Shocking as these facts are, they are the plain facts of history and the Bible!
The real origin of Christmas goes back to ancient Babylon. It is bound up in the organized apostasy which has gripped a deceived world these many centuries! In Egypt, it was always believed that the son of Isis (Egyptian name for "Queen of Heaven") was born December 25th. Paganism celebrated this famous birthday over most of the known world for centuries before the birth of Christ.
December 25th is not the birthday of Jesus the true Christ! The apostles and early true Church never celebrated Christ's birthday at any time. There is no command or instruction to celebrate it in the Bible -- rather, the celebrating of birthdays is a pagan, not a Christian custom, believe it or not!
Thus the ancient idolatrous "Chaldean Mysteries," founded by this wife of Nimrod, have been handed down through the pagan religions under new Christian-sounding names.
Origin of Holly Wreath, Mistletoe, Yule Log
Now where did we get this mistletoe custom? Among the ancient pagans the mistletoe was used at this festival of the winter solstice because it was considered sacred to the sun, because of its supposed miraculous healing power. The pagan custom of kissing under the mistletoe was an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery -- celebrating the death of the "old sun" and the birth of the new at the winter solstice. Mistletoe, sacred in pagan festivals, is a parasite!
Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun-god. The yule log is in reality the "sun log." "Yule" means "wheel," a pagan symbol of the sun. Yet today professing Christians speak of the "sacred yule-tide season"!
Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan custom, encouraging the waning sun-god as he reached the lowest place in the southern skies!
The Encyclopedia Americana says: "The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log ... are relics of pre-Christian times." Of paganism!
The book Answers to Questions, compiled by Frederick J. Haskins, found in public libraries, says: "The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era."
Yes, and Even Santa Claus!
But surely dear old Santa Claus is not a creature of pagan birth? But he is, and his real character is not so benevolent and holy as many suppose!
The name "Santa Claus" is a corruption of the name "St. Nicholas," a Roman Catholic bishop who lived in the 5th century. Look in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume 19, pages 648-649, 11th edition, where you'll read: "St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, a saint honored by the Greeks and Latins on the 6th of December .... A legend of his surreptitious bestowal of dowries on the three daughters of an impoverished citizen ... is said to have originated the old custom of giving presents in secret on the Eve of St. Nicholas [Dec. 6], subsequently transferred to Christmas day. Hence the association of Christmas with Santa Claus ...."
Through the year, parents punish their children for telling falsehoods. Then, at Christmas time, they themselves tell their little children this "Santa Claus" lie! Is it any wonder many of them, when they grow up and learn the truth, begin to believe God is a myth, too?
One little fellow, sadly disillusioned about "Santa Claus," said to a playmate, "Yes, and I'm going to look into this 'Jesus Christ' business, too!" Is it Christian to teach children myths and falsehoods? God says, "Thou shalt not bear false witness!" It may seem right, and be justified by human reason, but God says, "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death!" "Old Nick" also is a term for the devil! Is there a connection? Satan appears as an "angel of light," to deceive! (II Cor. 11:14; Rev. 12:9.)
And so when we examine the facts, we are astonished to learn that the practice of observing Christmas is not, after all, a true Christian practice, but a pagan custom -- one of the ways of Babylon our people have fallen into!
What the Bible Says About the Christmas Tree
But if the Bible is silent about telling us to observe Christmas, or recording any such observance by the apostles or early true Church, it does have something to say about the Christmas tree!
This will come as a real surprise to many. But here it is:
Jeremiah 10:2-6: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen .... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."
There is a perfect description of the Christmas tree, termed by the Eternal as "the way of the heathen -- the customs of the people." We are commanded not to learn that way or follow it! It is also viewed in this passage as idolatry. The fifth verse shows that these trees cannot speak -- cannot walk -- must be carried. "Be not afraid of them; for they [the trees] cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." They are not gods to be feared. Some people misread this to make it say there is no harm in having a Christmas tree, but that is not what it says.
Isn't Exchanging Gifts Scriptural?
But when it comes to the most important part of all in this Christmas observance -- the Christmas shopping season -- the buying and exchanging of gifts -- many will exclaim triumphantly, "Well, at least the Bible tells us to do that! Didn't the wise men give gifts when Christ was born?"
Again, we are due for some surprises, when we learn the plain truth. First, let's look at the historic origin of trading gifts back and forth, then see exactly what the Bible does say about it.
From the Bibliotheca Sacra, volume 12, pages 153-155, we quote: "The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the Pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows."
The fact is, this custom fastened upon people of exchanging gifts with friends and relatives at the Christmas season has not a single trace of Christianity about it, strange though that may seem! This does not celebrate Christ's birthday nor honor it or Him! Suppose someone you love has a birthday. You want to honor that person on his or her birthday. Would you lavishly buy gifts for everyone else, trading gifts back and forth with all your other friends and loved ones, but ignore completely any gift for the one whose birthday you are honoring? Rather absurd, when viewed in that light, isn't it?
Yet this is exactly what people the world over are doing! They honor a day that is not Christ's birthday by spending every dime they can scrape together in buying presents to trade back and forth among friends and relatives. But I can say by years of experience, as I believe most pastors and ministers can say, that when the month of December rolls around, nearly all professing Christians forget to give gifts to Christ and His cause almost altogether! December often is the most difficult month to keep Christ's work from dying! People are too busy trading gifts back and forth among themselves to think of Him and His Work, it seems. Then, in January and even into February it seems they have to catch up from what they spent for Christmas, so they seldom get back to normal in supporting Christ and His Work before March!
Now consider what the Bible says about the wise men giving gifts when Christ was born. It is in Matthew 2:1-11. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? ... And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto HIM gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
Why Gifts Presented to Christ
Notice, they inquired for the child Jesus, who was born KING of the Jews! Now why did they present gifts to Him? Because it was His birthday? Not at all, because they came several days or weeks after the date of His birth! Was it to set an example for us, today, to trade gifts back and forth among ourselves? No, notice carefully! They did not exchange gifts among themselves, but "they presented unto HIM gifts." They gave their gifts to Christ, not to their friends, relatives, or one another!
Why? Let me quote from the Adam Clarke Commentary, volume 5, page 46: "Verse 11. (They presented unto him gifts.) The people of the east never approach the presence of kings and great personages, without a present in their hands. The custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Sea Islands."
There it is! They were not instituting a new Christian custom of exchanging gifts with friends to honor Christ's birthday. They were following an old and ancient eastern custom of presenting gifts to a king when they came into his presence. They were approaching Him, born KING of the Jews, in person. Therefore custom required they present gifts even as the Queen of Sheba brought gifts to Solomon -- even as many people today take a gift along when they visit the White House for an appointment with the President.
No, the custom of trading gifts back and forth does not stem from this scriptural incident at all, but rather, as quoted from history above, it is the continuance of an ancient pagan custom. Instead of honoring Christ, it invariably retards His Work, often sets it back, at the Christmas season every year.
Does It Really Honor Christ?
Now come two arguments often used to justify Christmas observance.
1) Many will reason this way: "But, even though the exact date of Jesus' birth is unknown, should we not select some date to celebrate as His birthday?" The answer is positively no! Did you not notice the statement quoted from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthdays." The celebration of birthdays is not a Christian, but a pagan custom, observed by sinners!
2) But, many still reason, "Even so -- even though Christmas was a pagan custom, honoring the false sun-god, we don't observe it to honor the false god, we observe it to honor Christ."
But how does GOD answer in His Word? "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them [the pagans in their customs] ... that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Eternal, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut. 12:30-31).
God says plainly in His Instruction Book to us, that He will not accept that kind of worship, even though intended in His honor. To Him, He says, it is offering what is abominable to Him, and therefore it honors, not Him, but false pagan gods. GOD says we must not worship Him according to the "dictates of our own conscience" -- a term we often hear. But Jesus said plainly, "God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And what is truth? God's Word -- the Holy Bible -- said Jesus, is truth (John 17:17); and the Bible says God will not accept worship when people take a pagan custom or manner of worship and try to honor Christ with it.
Again, Jesus said: "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9). Christmas observance is a tradition of men, and the commandments of God, as quoted, forbid it. Jesus said, further, "full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
That is precisely what the millions are doing today. They ignore the commandment of God. He commands, regarding taking the customs of the pagans and using them to honor or worship God: "Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God." Still, most people today take that command of God lightly, or as having no validity whatsoever, and follow the tradition of men in observing Christmas.
Make no mistake! God will allow you to defy and disobey Him. He will allow you to follow the crowd and the traditions of men. He will allow you to sin. But He also says there is a day of reckoning coming. As you sow, so shall you reap! Jesus was the living Word of God in Person, and the Bible is the written Word of God. And we shall be judged, for eternity, by these words! They should not be taken lightly or ignored.
We're in Babylon, and Haven't Known It
Christmas has become a commercial season. It's sponsored, kept alive, by the heaviest retail advertising campaigns of the year. You see a masqueraded "Santa Claus" in many stores. Ads keep us deluded and deceived about the "beautiful Christmas spirit." The newspapers, who sell the ads, print flowery editorials exalting and eulogizing the pagan season, and its "spirit." A gullible people has become so inoculated, many take offense when told the truth. But the "Christmas spirit" is created each year, not to honor Christ, but to sell merchandise! Like all Satan's delusions, it appears as an "angel of light," is made to appear good. Billions of dollars are spent in this merchandising spree every year, while the cause of Christ must suffer! It's part of the economic system of Babylon!
We have professed to be Christian nations, but we're in Babylon, as Bible prophecy foretold, and we don't know it! "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" -- now soon to fall -- is the warning of Revelation 18:4.
This year, instead of gift trading, why not put that money into God's Work?
********************************************
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Christmas is a pagan holiday in Christian drag!
Merry mass of Christ? No thank you. God rejects it and those who are becoming like Father, like Son, do too. Instead of fooling ourselves, being dishonest, stuck in the muck of traditional garbage that stinks to High Heaven, we expose it for what it is: Christmas is a pagan holiday dressed in Christian drag. This is how God blesses us - He offers us the opportunity to be set free from such religious lies. Will you FORSAKE BABYLON or suffer the plagues? Do you love God's truth more than tradition? How we respond is very revealing to God and will help determine the future of our nations.
Isaiah 58
1 “Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching God.
The Plain Truth About Christmas by Herbert W. Armstrong
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Isaiah 58
1 “Cry aloud, spare not;
Lift up your voice like a trumpet;
Tell My people their transgression,
And the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek Me daily,
And delight to know My ways,
As a nation that did righteousness,
And did not forsake the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
They take delight in approaching God.
The Plain Truth About Christmas by Herbert W. Armstrong
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Thursday, November 16, 2006
FORSAKE HINDUISM
Our Great Creator God, the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, graciously commanded me to "FORSAKE HINDUISM" and I did.
A Higher Calling: Quest for the Kingdom of God
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
A Higher Calling: Quest for the Kingdom of God
Herbert W Armstrong and Worldwide Church of God Mentioned in Israeli Newspaper
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The World Tomorrow Broadcast
This new website was brought to my attention and definitely worthy to visit:
THE WORLD TOMORROW BROADCAST
Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892 – January 16, 1986) was the founder of the Radio Church of God/Worldwide Church of God; Chancellor of Ambassador Colleges and Ambassador University; Publisher of The Plain Truth magazine in several languages; Presenter of The World Tomorrow radio and television programs and director of several programs in other languages; President of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation; self- styled as Ambassador for World Peace and Patron of the Ambassador Auditorium concert series
THE WORLD TOMORROW BROADCAST
Herbert W. Armstrong (July 31, 1892 – January 16, 1986) was the founder of the Radio Church of God/Worldwide Church of God; Chancellor of Ambassador Colleges and Ambassador University; Publisher of The Plain Truth magazine in several languages; Presenter of The World Tomorrow radio and television programs and director of several programs in other languages; President of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation; self- styled as Ambassador for World Peace and Patron of the Ambassador Auditorium concert series
Monday, November 13, 2006
Will God Curse our Countries for Christmas?
"You don't celebrate Christmas?" Well, not any more.
1 Peter 4:3-5
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
I realize that those who are still drunk on the wine of the Babylonian Mystery religion (incorporated into the Roman Catholic Cult as brought out in The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop) don't appreciate or comprehend those who are now SOBER and happy to be free from idolatrous traditions for the plain truth of the Bible and history.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God rejoices in the knowledge and glorious plan of salvation for all mankind that the biblical festivals, the holy days that our Great Creator God has ordained portray - no longer falling for the hollow days of pagan Rome, pimped by Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, false father figures.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God celebrate that soon everybody will join us in celebrating God's holy days, the "Jewish holidays" in spirit and in truth, and will trash their former tinsel traditions. We are pioneers of the Wonderful World Tomorrow!
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."
It is sad when folks continue to fall for all the RELIGIOUS BULL Rome has dumped on the world and pretend they're worshipping Christ who hates such PAGAN ABOMINATIONS. Why remain in denial?
God is truth and despises such religious lies as Christmas and Easter. They're PAGAN to the core and God's People avoid them like the plague, happy with the biblical festivals God has given us to celebrate.
Yeshua, the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, will return and reign supreme from Jerusalem and teach the Torah, slaughtering the papal bull by the sword of the truth:
Isaiah 2:2-3
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the [Temple] mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say,
“ Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [not Rome].
Yeshua will establish the law of God as the law of the land, the law of all the Earth! That holy law reveals the seven biblical festivals of the LORD that Yeshua will faithfully teach and command all nations to observe or else - not just the Jewish people and Israelites.
Yes, too many people have inherited religious lies, and have passed down traditional error from generation to generation; worthless celebrations that God hates and rejects as unclean and polluted. It bears repeating, since our proud and stubborn peoples have thick skulls that need the truth knocked into them, driving home this biblical message: Christmas and Easter are PAGAN - those who say otherwise are liars, dishonest with themselves and others, worshipping God in vain (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4).
I believe many PROFESSING Christians are actually familiar with the Scriptures that condemn futile attempts to modify pagan holidays and tailor heathen customs to serve the true God (Deut. 12:30-32, Jer. 10:2-3), but they conveniently ignore them or reject them by woeful neglect when such Scriptures step on their traditional toes and make them uncomfortable, demanding change (isn't that what true conversion is all about?), requiring them to learn to love God's truth more than their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:7).
Abominable Christians, those who have the perverted religious preference of tradition over truth, are just like every other sinner unwilling to confess and forsake their sins and seek to whitewash or justify them. The difference is such professing Christians often pretend to be better or more righteous than those physical idolaters and immoral folks (who also refuse to repent) while they engage in spiritual idolatry (putting tradition over truth) and spiritual immorality (whoring around with other gods and foreign ways) bringing divine judgment upon our nations.
May the servants of God, who know and believe the Bible and its principles and prophecies about blessings for national obedience and curses for national disobedience (Dan. 9:11), plea for diehard Catholics and Protestants to REPENT!
May we take the Word of God seriously and turn from the pagan holidays that God hates so much He let ancient Israel and Judah suffer war, defeat and deportation for such "harmless" celebrations and blind observations. Will we insist on losing our national sovereignty too, brought to our knees to learn to see things God's way or will we repent and spare ourselves, our family and friends, from suffering the dreadful Time of Jacob's Trouble, the Great Tribulation?
1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. [No mixing and matching of pagan error with biblical truth]
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? [No diluting, adulterating and polluting of God's truth with pagan blends]Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people."
17 Therefore
"Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord. [Don't stay stuck in the rut of tradition, but let the plain truth set you free!]
Do not touch what is unclean,
And [then] I will receive you.
18 [on these conditions] I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty."
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
1 Peter 4:3-5
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
I realize that those who are still drunk on the wine of the Babylonian Mystery religion (incorporated into the Roman Catholic Cult as brought out in The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop) don't appreciate or comprehend those who are now SOBER and happy to be free from idolatrous traditions for the plain truth of the Bible and history.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God rejoices in the knowledge and glorious plan of salvation for all mankind that the biblical festivals, the holy days that our Great Creator God has ordained portray - no longer falling for the hollow days of pagan Rome, pimped by Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, false father figures.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God celebrate that soon everybody will join us in celebrating God's holy days, the "Jewish holidays" in spirit and in truth, and will trash their former tinsel traditions. We are pioneers of the Wonderful World Tomorrow!
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."
It is sad when folks continue to fall for all the RELIGIOUS BULL Rome has dumped on the world and pretend they're worshipping Christ who hates such PAGAN ABOMINATIONS. Why remain in denial?
God is truth and despises such religious lies as Christmas and Easter. They're PAGAN to the core and God's People avoid them like the plague, happy with the biblical festivals God has given us to celebrate.
Yeshua, the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, will return and reign supreme from Jerusalem and teach the Torah, slaughtering the papal bull by the sword of the truth:
Isaiah 2:2-3
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the [Temple] mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say,
“ Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [not Rome].
Yeshua will establish the law of God as the law of the land, the law of all the Earth! That holy law reveals the seven biblical festivals of the LORD that Yeshua will faithfully teach and command all nations to observe or else - not just the Jewish people and Israelites.
Yes, too many people have inherited religious lies, and have passed down traditional error from generation to generation; worthless celebrations that God hates and rejects as unclean and polluted. It bears repeating, since our proud and stubborn peoples have thick skulls that need the truth knocked into them, driving home this biblical message: Christmas and Easter are PAGAN - those who say otherwise are liars, dishonest with themselves and others, worshipping God in vain (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4).
I believe many PROFESSING Christians are actually familiar with the Scriptures that condemn futile attempts to modify pagan holidays and tailor heathen customs to serve the true God (Deut. 12:30-32, Jer. 10:2-3), but they conveniently ignore them or reject them by woeful neglect when such Scriptures step on their traditional toes and make them uncomfortable, demanding change (isn't that what true conversion is all about?), requiring them to learn to love God's truth more than their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:7).
Abominable Christians, those who have the perverted religious preference of tradition over truth, are just like every other sinner unwilling to confess and forsake their sins and seek to whitewash or justify them. The difference is such professing Christians often pretend to be better or more righteous than those physical idolaters and immoral folks (who also refuse to repent) while they engage in spiritual idolatry (putting tradition over truth) and spiritual immorality (whoring around with other gods and foreign ways) bringing divine judgment upon our nations.
May the servants of God, who know and believe the Bible and its principles and prophecies about blessings for national obedience and curses for national disobedience (Dan. 9:11), plea for diehard Catholics and Protestants to REPENT!
May we take the Word of God seriously and turn from the pagan holidays that God hates so much He let ancient Israel and Judah suffer war, defeat and deportation for such "harmless" celebrations and blind observations. Will we insist on losing our national sovereignty too, brought to our knees to learn to see things God's way or will we repent and spare ourselves, our family and friends, from suffering the dreadful Time of Jacob's Trouble, the Great Tribulation?
1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. [No mixing and matching of pagan error with biblical truth]
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? [No diluting, adulterating and polluting of God's truth with pagan blends]Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people."
17 Therefore
"Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord. [Don't stay stuck in the rut of tradition, but let the plain truth set you free!]
Do not touch what is unclean,
And [then] I will receive you.
18 [on these conditions] I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty."
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
Perverted Christians
Yes, Christmas is PAGAN - those who say otherwise are liars, dishonest with themselves and others.
I believe many PROFESSING Christians (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4) are actually familiar with the Scriptures that condemn vain attempts to modify pagan holidays to serve the true God, but they conveniently ignore them or reject them by woeful neglect when such Scriptures step on their traditional toes and make them uncomfortable, demanding change (isn't that what true conversion is all about?), requiring them to learn to love God's truth more than their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:7).
Those who have the perverted preference of tradition over truth are just like every other sinner unwilling to confess and forsake their sins and seek to whitewash them or justify it. The difference is such professing Christians pretend to be religious or more righteous than those physical idolators and immoral folks (who also refuse to repent) while they engage in spiritual idolatry and immorality bringing judgment upon our nations.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
I believe many PROFESSING Christians (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4) are actually familiar with the Scriptures that condemn vain attempts to modify pagan holidays to serve the true God, but they conveniently ignore them or reject them by woeful neglect when such Scriptures step on their traditional toes and make them uncomfortable, demanding change (isn't that what true conversion is all about?), requiring them to learn to love God's truth more than their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:7).
Those who have the perverted preference of tradition over truth are just like every other sinner unwilling to confess and forsake their sins and seek to whitewash them or justify it. The difference is such professing Christians pretend to be religious or more righteous than those physical idolators and immoral folks (who also refuse to repent) while they engage in spiritual idolatry and immorality bringing judgment upon our nations.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
You don't celebrate Christmas?
1 Peter 4:3-5
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
I realize that those who are still drunk on the wine of the Babylonian Mystery religion don't appreciate or comprehend those who are now SOBER and happy to be free from idolatrous traditions for the plain truth of the Bible and history.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God rejoices in the knowledge and glorious plan of salvation for all mankind that the biblical festivals, the holy days that our Great Creator God has ordained portray - no longer falling for the hollow days of pagan Rome.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God celebrate that soon everybody will join us in celebrating God's holy days and will trash their former tinsel traditions. We are pioneers of the Wonderful World Tomorrow!
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “ Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
Hostility Against "Jewish Holidays" to be History!
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
I realize that those who are still drunk on the wine of the Babylonian Mystery religion don't appreciate or comprehend those who are now SOBER and happy to be free from idolatrous traditions for the plain truth of the Bible and history.
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God rejoices in the knowledge and glorious plan of salvation for all mankind that the biblical festivals, the holy days that our Great Creator God has ordained portray - no longer falling for the hollow days of pagan Rome.
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God celebrate that soon everybody will join us in celebrating God's holy days and will trash their former tinsel traditions. We are pioneers of the Wonderful World Tomorrow!
Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “ Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
Hostility Against "Jewish Holidays" to be History!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Christmas tree burnings and Nativity scene demolitions?
Are you tired of the annual ritual of Christmas tree burnings and Nativity scene demolitions?
I've never seen one and wish it were true, but not by misguided ACLU types but by Christians who finally wake up and realize they're fighting the wrong battle! It is Christians who should want to put an end to the gross commercialization of Christmas (abusing God's Name for a profit - "What a friend we have in Jesus" some sing holding hands around the cash register) and the BIG HOAX that Christmas is Christian when it's a pagan holiday in Christian drag!
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
I've never seen one and wish it were true, but not by misguided ACLU types but by Christians who finally wake up and realize they're fighting the wrong battle! It is Christians who should want to put an end to the gross commercialization of Christmas (abusing God's Name for a profit - "What a friend we have in Jesus" some sing holding hands around the cash register) and the BIG HOAX that Christmas is Christian when it's a pagan holiday in Christian drag!
Christmas is About Giving - SAYS WHO?
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The Origin of Sunday Observance
The Origin of Sunday Observance
(This compilation of information regarding the Roman Catholic Cult's thinking to "change the times and the seasons" was put together by some Seventh Day Adventists. For the record, I don't accept everything they teach, but they are absolutely correct that the seventh day remains the Sabbath of the Lord and His People - not Sunday).
"It is certain, that Christ himself, his Apostles, and the Primitive Christians, for some good space of time did constantly observe the seventh-day Sabbath."—William Prynne, A Briefe Polemicall Dissertation, Concerning...the Lordsday-Sabbath , p. 33.
"Until the second century there is no concrete evidence of a Christian weekly Sunday celebration anywhere. The first specific references during that century come from Alexandria and Rome, places that also early rejected observance of the seventh-day Sabbath." Dr. Kenneth Strand, The Sabbath in Scripture and History , p. 330.
"It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed...by the Christians of the East Church, about three hundred years after our Saviour’s death."—Prof. E. Brerewood, A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath , p. 77.
"Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church."—Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified , chap. 26, sec. 2.
"Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this."—Socrates Scholasticus (written about A.D. 440), quoted in Ecclesiastical History , Book 5, chapter 22.
"The Christian Church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious, transference of the one day to the other."—F. W. Farrar, The Voice From Sinai , p. 167.
"Christianity and the higher forms of paganism tended to come nearer and nearer to each other as time went on.... They tended to merge into one another like streams which had been following converging courses."—J. H. Robinson, Introduction to the History of Western Europe. p. 31.
"The two opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere, and one could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption.... The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism and had prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church."—Franz V. M. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism , reprint 1956, pp. 210, 211.
"Remains of the struggle are found in two institutions adopted from its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred days, December twenty-fifth, dies natalis solis , as the birthday of Jesus, and Sunday, `the venerable day of the Sun,’ as Constantine called it in his edict of 321."—Walter Woodburn Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire , p. 60.
"The Church made a sacred day of Sunday...largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance."—Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity , 1928, p.145.
"The church...took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday.... The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom.... And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday." Dr. William L. Gildea, The Catholic World , March, 1894.
"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labour on Sunday."—Hutton Webster, Rest Days , p. 270.
"The Roman Church...reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God’s word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday." Nicolas Summerbell, History of the Christian Church , 3rd edition, 1873, p. 415.
"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."—The Catholic Mirror , September 23, 1893.
"The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church. It is...not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church."—John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883.
"Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."—Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 ed.), p. 50.
"They will needs have the Church’s power to be very great, because it hath dispensed with a precept of the Decalogue."—The Augsburg Confession , 1530.
"The church has changed the Sabbath into the Lord’s day by its own authority, concerning which you have no Scripture."—Johann Eck, Handbook of Common Places Against the Lutherans , 1533.
"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord. In keeping Sunday, non-Catholics are simply following the practise of the Catholic Church for 1800 years, a tradition, and not a Bible ordinance.... With the Catholics there is no difficulty about the matter. For, since we deny that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, we can fall back upon the constant practise and tradition of the Church."—Francis G. Lentz, The Question Box , 1900, p. 98, 99.
"Like two sacred rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible and divine Tradition contain the Word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, TRADITION is to us more clear and safe."—Joseph Fa di Bruno, Catholic Belief , p. 45.
"We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday."—Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About , 1927, p. 136.
"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath."—John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883.
"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we [Catholics] never sanctify."—James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers , 1917 ed., pp. 72, 73.
"Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Church?"—Bertrand L. Conway, The Question Box Answers , 1910, p. 255.
"But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"—Jesus, Matthew 15:3 .
"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."—Jesus, Matthew 15:9 .
"No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed!! It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio—I think his name is DOCTOR ANTICHRIST."—Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist , Feb. 2, 1824, vol. 1, no. 7.
"We ought to obey God rather than men."—Peter, Acts 5:29.
"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate."—Isaiah 24:5,6.
"Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." Catholic Mirror , December 23, 1893.
*****
The Sabbath
(This compilation of information regarding the Roman Catholic Cult's thinking to "change the times and the seasons" was put together by some Seventh Day Adventists. For the record, I don't accept everything they teach, but they are absolutely correct that the seventh day remains the Sabbath of the Lord and His People - not Sunday).
"It is certain, that Christ himself, his Apostles, and the Primitive Christians, for some good space of time did constantly observe the seventh-day Sabbath."—William Prynne, A Briefe Polemicall Dissertation, Concerning...the Lordsday-Sabbath , p. 33.
"Until the second century there is no concrete evidence of a Christian weekly Sunday celebration anywhere. The first specific references during that century come from Alexandria and Rome, places that also early rejected observance of the seventh-day Sabbath." Dr. Kenneth Strand, The Sabbath in Scripture and History , p. 330.
"It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed...by the Christians of the East Church, about three hundred years after our Saviour’s death."—Prof. E. Brerewood, A Learned Treatise of the Sabbath , p. 77.
"Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church."—Lyman Coleman, Ancient Christianity Exemplified , chap. 26, sec. 2.
"Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this."—Socrates Scholasticus (written about A.D. 440), quoted in Ecclesiastical History , Book 5, chapter 22.
"The Christian Church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious, transference of the one day to the other."—F. W. Farrar, The Voice From Sinai , p. 167.
"Christianity and the higher forms of paganism tended to come nearer and nearer to each other as time went on.... They tended to merge into one another like streams which had been following converging courses."—J. H. Robinson, Introduction to the History of Western Europe. p. 31.
"The two opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere, and one could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption.... The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism and had prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church."—Franz V. M. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism , reprint 1956, pp. 210, 211.
"Remains of the struggle are found in two institutions adopted from its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred days, December twenty-fifth, dies natalis solis , as the birthday of Jesus, and Sunday, `the venerable day of the Sun,’ as Constantine called it in his edict of 321."—Walter Woodburn Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire , p. 60.
"The Church made a sacred day of Sunday...largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance."—Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity , 1928, p.145.
"The church...took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday.... The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom.... And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday." Dr. William L. Gildea, The Catholic World , March, 1894.
"What began, however, as a pagan ordinance, ended as a Christian regulation; and a long series of imperial decrees, during the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, enjoined with increasing stringency abstinence from labour on Sunday."—Hutton Webster, Rest Days , p. 270.
"The Roman Church...reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God’s word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday." Nicolas Summerbell, History of the Christian Church , 3rd edition, 1873, p. 415.
"The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday."—The Catholic Mirror , September 23, 1893.
"The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God...is purely a creation of the Catholic Church. It is...not governed by the enactments of the Mosaic law. It is part and parcel of the system of the Catholic Church."—John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883.
"Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."—Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957 ed.), p. 50.
"They will needs have the Church’s power to be very great, because it hath dispensed with a precept of the Decalogue."—The Augsburg Confession , 1530.
"The church has changed the Sabbath into the Lord’s day by its own authority, concerning which you have no Scripture."—Johann Eck, Handbook of Common Places Against the Lutherans , 1533.
"If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord. In keeping Sunday, non-Catholics are simply following the practise of the Catholic Church for 1800 years, a tradition, and not a Bible ordinance.... With the Catholics there is no difficulty about the matter. For, since we deny that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, we can fall back upon the constant practise and tradition of the Church."—Francis G. Lentz, The Question Box , 1900, p. 98, 99.
"Like two sacred rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible and divine Tradition contain the Word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, TRADITION is to us more clear and safe."—Joseph Fa di Bruno, Catholic Belief , p. 45.
"We have, therefore, the same authority for Purgatory as we have for Sunday."—Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About , 1927, p. 136.
"Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath."—John Gilmary Shea, The American Catholic Quarterly Review , January, 1883.
"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we [Catholics] never sanctify."—James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers , 1917 ed., pp. 72, 73.
"Is it not strange that those who make the Bible their only teacher should inconsistently follow in this matter the tradition of the Church?"—Bertrand L. Conway, The Question Box Answers , 1910, p. 255.
"But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?"—Jesus, Matthew 15:3 .
"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."—Jesus, Matthew 15:9 .
"No; it never was changed, nor could it be, unless creation was to be gone through again: for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason, can be changed!! It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio—I think his name is DOCTOR ANTICHRIST."—Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist , Feb. 2, 1824, vol. 1, no. 7.
"We ought to obey God rather than men."—Peter, Acts 5:29.
"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate."—Isaiah 24:5,6.
"Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible." Catholic Mirror , December 23, 1893.
*****
The Sabbath
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The Origin of Halloween
THE ORIGIN OF HALLOWEEN
The Plain Truth October 1967
What about this strange festival? What have goblins, witches and ghosts to do with this feast of All Hallows Eve? And why the demoniacal masks and gaudy decorations?
by Gerhard O. Marx
EACH YEAR millions around the world observe the strangest of all festivals, Hallowe'en -- All Hallows Evening. Especially so in Great Britain, Scandinavia and the United States. Every autumn, young and old alike anticipate its revels. It's a night of frolicking fun and frivolous foolishness. All kinds of nonsense and superstitions are associated with this festival.
But Why?
On the eve of this night children dress in outrageous costumes and put on witch-like masks. Then they are turned loose to frighten or otherwise induce people into giving them food items and other gifts. Millions are familiar with the "trick-or-treat"
threat associated with Hallowe'en. Buildings are desecrated, windows broken and other fooleries are resorted to.
WHY do so many keep Hallowe'en? What useful purpose does such a celebration fulfill in this "enlightened" scientific twentieth century? What purpose did it ever serve? Is it merely a harmless celebration to amuse our children? It's about time we checked into this observance to see WHERE and WHEN it really originated and FOR WHAT PURPOSE it was established.
You may not have realized it, but the ancient pre-Christian Druids in Britain, the pagan Romans and Greeks, and even the Babylonians, among others, kept a Hallowe'en festival.
Not Christian
Yes, Hallowe'en long antedates Christianity! It was only later introduced into the professing Christian world -- centuries AFTER the death of the Apostles.
Notice! "The earliest Hallowe'en celebrations [in Britain] were held by the Druids in honour of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1" (see Halloween Through Twenty Centuries, by Ralph Linton, p. 4). "It is clearly a RELIC OF PAGAN TIMES"! (The Book of Days, Chambers, v. 2, p. 519.)
Further, "It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Saman, lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals" (Enc. Brit., 11th ed., v. 12, pp.857-8). Read what this November celebration was like! It was a pagan belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these spirits, it was believed, would cast spells and cause havoc towards those failing to fulfill their requests. "It was the night for the universal walking about of all sorts of spirits, airies, and ghosts, all of whom had liberty on that night" (Highland superstitions, Alexander Macgregor, p. 44). Literal sacrifices were offered on this night to the spirits of the dead, when, so the belief went, they visited their earthly haunts and their friends.
There was a reason why November was chosen for that particular event. The Celts and other Northern people considered the beginning of November as their New Year.
This was the time when the leaves were falling and a general seasonal decay was taking place everywhere. Thus it was a fitting time, so they reasoned, for the commemoration of the dead. Since the Northern nations at that time began their day in the evening, the eve leading up to November 1st was the beginning of the festival.
According to the Roman calendar it was the evening October 31 -- hence, Hallowe'en -- the evening of All Hallows.
Observed Everywhere
Hallowe'en, or "All Souls Eve," was kept throughout the ancient pagan world. The observance was widespread. "There was a prevailing belief AMONG ALL NATIONS that at death the souls of good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise; but the souls of wicked men were left to wander in the space between the earth and moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of HAUNTING THE LIVING ... BUT THERE WERE MEANS BY WHICH THESE GHOSTS MIGHT BE EXORCISED" (Folklore, James Napier, p. 11).
To exorcise these ghosts, that is, to free yourself from their supposed evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you. "In Wales it was
firmly believed that on All Hallows Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight on every crossroad and every stile" (Folklore and Folk-Stories of Wales,, Marie Trevelyan, p. 254).
In Cambodia people used to chant: "O all you our ancestors, who are departed, deign to come and eat what we have prepared for you, and to bless your posterity and to make it happy" (Notice sur le Cambodge, Paris 1875, E. Aymonièr, p. 59).
This sort of Hallowe'en festival was strenuously observed throughout the non-Christian world. Pagans would pray to their false gods to prevent "DEMONS" and "witches" from molesting them. Notice! "The Miatecs of Mexico believed that the
souls of the dead came back in the twelfth month of the year, WHICH CORRESPONDED TO OUR NOVEMBER. On this day of All Souls the houses were decked out to welcome the spirits. Jars of food and drink were set on a table in the principal room, and the family went out with the torches to meet the ghosts and invite them to enter. Then, returning to the house they knelt around the table, and with their eyes bent on the ground, prayed the souls to accept the offerings" (Adonis, Frazer, p. 244).
This, then, is the way the heathen world celebrated their Hallowe'en, their "All Souls Day". Although some aspects of the Hallowe'en festival varied with each country, the overall pattern and purpose remained the same.
Hallowe'en "Christianized"
But how did the professing Christian world come to accept and keep such a day? Here is what you, probably, haven't been told. In 607 A.D. the Roman Emperor Phocus defeated the Barbarians who were in control of Rome. The Pantheon in Rome, a pagan edifice which had been wrested from the barbarians, was given to pope Boniface IV. Originally, Emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon -- around 100 A.D. He dedicated it to the pagan goddess Cybele and to the other Roman deities. This temple became the central place in Rome where the pagans honored and commemorated their gods. With this splendid edifice now falling into the hands of professing Christians, the question was, What should be done with it?
The pagans had dedicated it to Cybele and all their gods. But the Roman bishop now CONSECRATED IT TO THE VIRGIN MARY AND ALL THE SAINTS of both sexes (see The Mysteries of All Nations, Grant, p. 120). Thus this pagan building became "holy." No more did the pagan Romans use this edifice to pray for their dead. It was now the professing Christians who employed the Pantheon in praying for their dead.
This re-dedication of the pagan temple to Mary and others occurred in 610 A.D. Now converted into a Christian shrine, an annual festival was instituted to commemorate the event. The day chosen was May 13.
This May 13 commemoration of the dead saints was known by the name of "All Saints Day." It continued to be held in May for over two centuries -- until 834 A.D. In that year the NAME and the DATE WERE CHANGED. Notice! "The time of celebration was altered to the FIRST OF NOVEMBER,and it was then called ALL HALLOW" -- from where we get the name Hallowe'en, ALL HALLOW merely meaning ALL HOLY, and the "een" is a contraction of evening (Folklore, James Napier, p. 177).
Thus in 834 A.D. the Church in the Middle Ages began tocelebrate Hallowe'en on the FIRST OF NOVEMBER for the first time. This was the very same day the Druids in Britain, the Norsemen in Scandinavia, and the pagan Germans among others were keeping their festival of ALL SOULS EVE, in commemoration of Saman, lord of death, and his demons.
Reason for Change
Why did the church change the date to November 1st, thus coinciding with the pagans' feast of ALL SOULS? There is a reason!
It was a general practice of the restored Roman Empire, now professing Christianity, to "convert" the pagans within the empire as quickly and on as large a scale as possible. Changing dates of festivals often made it easier to influence newly conquered peoples.
Ever since the time of Constantine -- who made a state religion out of Christianity -- the Roman emperors realized how essential it was to have a UNIFIED empire, in which as many as possible would be of ONE MIND. The civil and religious leaders saw how important it was for the sake of unity to ALLOW ONLY ONE RELIGION within the restored Roman domain. It became therefore a stringent state policy to force all non-Christians to accept the new state religion. Here is how the plan was carried out.
Conversion of Germans
When the German Frankish king Charlemagne invaded and conquered parts of Eastern Germany, he compelled the conquered German king, Wittekind, to be baptized and to accept Christianity. Having no choice and seeing his life was at stake, this heathen ruler who knew little or nothing about Christ -- was forced into this "conversion." And with him his entire people. This policy brought complex problems.
These pagans, who were usually baptized EN MASSE, were still pagans at heart.
Even though they became nominal Christians, they still yearned for many of their heathen practices, which they were expected to discard.
With Wittekind's baptism, for example, a vast number of barbarians were suddenly added to the roll call of the church. Wittekind's Germans, now professing Christians, and other conquered pagans, had a profound influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of the church in the early 800's A. D. These barbaric and uncultured people brought with them many outright pagan practices and celebrations, Hallowe'en merely being one of many. They were fervent in clinging to their past ceremonies and observed them openly -- yet supposedly converted to Christianity. What was the church to do?
Excommunicate them and thus reduce her membership? This she would not do. Was she to force them into discarding their heathen practices and adopt Italian or Roman ones? This, as she had learned in past times, was not possible.
There remained only one other way. Let the recently converted pagans keep certain of their heathen festivals, such as Hallowe'en or All Souls Day -- but label it "Christian." Of course the Germans were asked not to pray to their ancient pagan gods on this day. They must now use this day to commemorate the death of the saints.
To make it easy for them, the Roman Church even CHANGED HER DATE of All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1st to satisfy the growing numbers of Germanic adherents. The Church understood the yearnings the Germans and others had for their old ways.
Throughout history, the Christian-professing world has resorted to this action. We have the theological explanation of this given to us by Pope Innocent. He refers to a heathen festival the pagans kept in the early part of the Roman Empire and explained how the professing Christian world should treat this day: "The heathen dedicated this month [2 Feb.] to the infernal gods ... In the beginning of this month the idolaters walked about the city with lighted candles, and as some of the holy fathers COULD NOT EXTIRPATE SUCH A CUSTOM, they ORDAINED that Christians should carry about candles IN HONOUR OF THE "VIRGIN MARY" (Folklore, James Napier, p. 181).
If a pagan practice or festival could not be forbidden, it was reasoned, "let it be tamed." Thus many were persuaded to TRANSFER devotion from their former gods to the Christian God. So it was with the festival of ALL SOULS EVE. Notice this admission: "Thus, at the first promulgation of Christianity to the Gentile nations ... THEY COULD NOT BE PERSUADED TO RELINQUISH many of their superstitions, which, rather than
forego altogether, they chose to blend and INCORPORATE with the new faith" (Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, John Brand, p. xi).
What About Our Time?
Now come down to the twentieth century. You'll be surprised to what extent we have inherited pagan rites and ceremonies from our forefathers, so obvious in the celebration of Hallowe'en. Note this classic example. "In many Catholic countries the belief that the DEAD RETURN on this day is so strong, that food is left on the
tables and people still decorate the graves of the dead [on this day]" (Dictionary of Folklore, Funk and Wagnalls, v. 1, p. 38).
In Protestant countries many pagan superstitious beliefs and practices have become an integral part of each year's celebration.
In many parts of Britain, BONFIRES are set alight on the eve of Hallowe'en. Of course fire has nothing to do with praying for dead saints. The original reason for the fire, however, was to frighten away witches and evil spirits on this night. Fire has always been an essential part of Hallowe'en in Great Britain.
You and Your Children
What about you and your children? What comes to your mind when thinking about Hallowe'en? The truth of the Bible? Not at all! Instead, weird and FRIGHTENING MASKS -- persons PORTRAYED AS WITCHES AND DEMONS. Pumpkins and turnips hollowed out in the shape of EERIE-LOOKING faces! Lighted candles are placed inside to help bring out the more frightful side of these carvings. Dough is baked into small figurines RESEMBLING WITCHES AND SPIDER'S WEB CAKES are baked by the dozen for this occasion. Children, dressed up in the most revolting garments, are let loose on the neighbors, trying to
scare the daylights out of them.
Let's be honest. I have before me the Good Housekeeping's Book of Entertainment, which my wife picked up from the local library. On page 168 of this much-read book, there is a section on what to do on Hallowe'en. Notice the astonishing advice given!
"Halloween decorations are quite as important as the food. When planning them, remember that if the room is to be dimly lit (preferably by candle and FIRELIGHT) the decorations must be bold to be effective. Orange, black and red, THE DEVIL'S COLOURS, are the colours associated with Halloween and THIS SCHEME SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT as far as possible ... Have paper streamers and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, or, if you would like to have something less usual, you could make a giant SPIDER'S web with black and orange strings, or in narrow strips of crepe paper coming from the four corners of the room, complete with a LARGE SPIDER -- one of the DEVIL'S FAVOURITE FOLLOWERS."
Notice where the stress lies! Read further of the black magic associated with this festival. "To decorate the walls, make large silhouettes of CATS, BATS, OWLS AND WITCHES ON BROOMSTICKS ... For the supper table small WITCHES WITH BROOMSTICKS can be
made by using lollipops on 4-inch sticks."
Weird lanterns, witch-balls, and witches' cauldrons are some other objects, the book suggests, which must fit into the evening somehow. How pagan can you get?
NOWHERE does the Bible command us to observe Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en and other common festivals which people observe in the Christian-professing world have NO BIBLICAL BASIS.
They originated in paganism. The testimony of history stamps Hallowe'en as a HEATHEN festival. It's built on a PAGAN FOUNDATION.
Your Bible warns: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11). Which is the BASIS of YOUR practice and belief?
Turn to Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and read God's condemnation of Hallowe'en! And write for our free article on Hallowe'en which covers many other startling facts not included here!
The Plain Truth October 1967
What about this strange festival? What have goblins, witches and ghosts to do with this feast of All Hallows Eve? And why the demoniacal masks and gaudy decorations?
by Gerhard O. Marx
EACH YEAR millions around the world observe the strangest of all festivals, Hallowe'en -- All Hallows Evening. Especially so in Great Britain, Scandinavia and the United States. Every autumn, young and old alike anticipate its revels. It's a night of frolicking fun and frivolous foolishness. All kinds of nonsense and superstitions are associated with this festival.
But Why?
On the eve of this night children dress in outrageous costumes and put on witch-like masks. Then they are turned loose to frighten or otherwise induce people into giving them food items and other gifts. Millions are familiar with the "trick-or-treat"
threat associated with Hallowe'en. Buildings are desecrated, windows broken and other fooleries are resorted to.
WHY do so many keep Hallowe'en? What useful purpose does such a celebration fulfill in this "enlightened" scientific twentieth century? What purpose did it ever serve? Is it merely a harmless celebration to amuse our children? It's about time we checked into this observance to see WHERE and WHEN it really originated and FOR WHAT PURPOSE it was established.
You may not have realized it, but the ancient pre-Christian Druids in Britain, the pagan Romans and Greeks, and even the Babylonians, among others, kept a Hallowe'en festival.
Not Christian
Yes, Hallowe'en long antedates Christianity! It was only later introduced into the professing Christian world -- centuries AFTER the death of the Apostles.
Notice! "The earliest Hallowe'en celebrations [in Britain] were held by the Druids in honour of Samhain, Lord of the Dead, whose festival fell on November 1" (see Halloween Through Twenty Centuries, by Ralph Linton, p. 4). "It is clearly a RELIC OF PAGAN TIMES"! (The Book of Days, Chambers, v. 2, p. 519.)
Further, "It was a Druidical belief that on the eve of this festival Saman, lord of death, called together the wicked spirits that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals" (Enc. Brit., 11th ed., v. 12, pp.857-8). Read what this November celebration was like! It was a pagan belief that on one night of the year the souls of the dead return to their original homes, there to be entertained with food. If food and shelter were not provided, these spirits, it was believed, would cast spells and cause havoc towards those failing to fulfill their requests. "It was the night for the universal walking about of all sorts of spirits, airies, and ghosts, all of whom had liberty on that night" (Highland superstitions, Alexander Macgregor, p. 44). Literal sacrifices were offered on this night to the spirits of the dead, when, so the belief went, they visited their earthly haunts and their friends.
There was a reason why November was chosen for that particular event. The Celts and other Northern people considered the beginning of November as their New Year.
This was the time when the leaves were falling and a general seasonal decay was taking place everywhere. Thus it was a fitting time, so they reasoned, for the commemoration of the dead. Since the Northern nations at that time began their day in the evening, the eve leading up to November 1st was the beginning of the festival.
According to the Roman calendar it was the evening October 31 -- hence, Hallowe'en -- the evening of All Hallows.
Observed Everywhere
Hallowe'en, or "All Souls Eve," was kept throughout the ancient pagan world. The observance was widespread. "There was a prevailing belief AMONG ALL NATIONS that at death the souls of good men were taken possession of by good spirits and carried to paradise; but the souls of wicked men were left to wander in the space between the earth and moon, or consigned to the unseen world. These wandering spirits were in the habit of HAUNTING THE LIVING ... BUT THERE WERE MEANS BY WHICH THESE GHOSTS MIGHT BE EXORCISED" (Folklore, James Napier, p. 11).
To exorcise these ghosts, that is, to free yourself from their supposed evil sway, you would have to set out food and provide shelter for them during the night. If they were satisfied with your offerings, it was believed they would leave you in peace. If not, they were believed to cast an evil spell on you. "In Wales it was
firmly believed that on All Hallows Eve the spirit of a departed person was to be seen at midnight on every crossroad and every stile" (Folklore and Folk-Stories of Wales,, Marie Trevelyan, p. 254).
In Cambodia people used to chant: "O all you our ancestors, who are departed, deign to come and eat what we have prepared for you, and to bless your posterity and to make it happy" (Notice sur le Cambodge, Paris 1875, E. Aymonièr, p. 59).
This sort of Hallowe'en festival was strenuously observed throughout the non-Christian world. Pagans would pray to their false gods to prevent "DEMONS" and "witches" from molesting them. Notice! "The Miatecs of Mexico believed that the
souls of the dead came back in the twelfth month of the year, WHICH CORRESPONDED TO OUR NOVEMBER. On this day of All Souls the houses were decked out to welcome the spirits. Jars of food and drink were set on a table in the principal room, and the family went out with the torches to meet the ghosts and invite them to enter. Then, returning to the house they knelt around the table, and with their eyes bent on the ground, prayed the souls to accept the offerings" (Adonis, Frazer, p. 244).
This, then, is the way the heathen world celebrated their Hallowe'en, their "All Souls Day". Although some aspects of the Hallowe'en festival varied with each country, the overall pattern and purpose remained the same.
Hallowe'en "Christianized"
But how did the professing Christian world come to accept and keep such a day? Here is what you, probably, haven't been told. In 607 A.D. the Roman Emperor Phocus defeated the Barbarians who were in control of Rome. The Pantheon in Rome, a pagan edifice which had been wrested from the barbarians, was given to pope Boniface IV. Originally, Emperor Hadrian built the Pantheon -- around 100 A.D. He dedicated it to the pagan goddess Cybele and to the other Roman deities. This temple became the central place in Rome where the pagans honored and commemorated their gods. With this splendid edifice now falling into the hands of professing Christians, the question was, What should be done with it?
The pagans had dedicated it to Cybele and all their gods. But the Roman bishop now CONSECRATED IT TO THE VIRGIN MARY AND ALL THE SAINTS of both sexes (see The Mysteries of All Nations, Grant, p. 120). Thus this pagan building became "holy." No more did the pagan Romans use this edifice to pray for their dead. It was now the professing Christians who employed the Pantheon in praying for their dead.
This re-dedication of the pagan temple to Mary and others occurred in 610 A.D. Now converted into a Christian shrine, an annual festival was instituted to commemorate the event. The day chosen was May 13.
This May 13 commemoration of the dead saints was known by the name of "All Saints Day." It continued to be held in May for over two centuries -- until 834 A.D. In that year the NAME and the DATE WERE CHANGED. Notice! "The time of celebration was altered to the FIRST OF NOVEMBER,and it was then called ALL HALLOW" -- from where we get the name Hallowe'en, ALL HALLOW merely meaning ALL HOLY, and the "een" is a contraction of evening (Folklore, James Napier, p. 177).
Thus in 834 A.D. the Church in the Middle Ages began tocelebrate Hallowe'en on the FIRST OF NOVEMBER for the first time. This was the very same day the Druids in Britain, the Norsemen in Scandinavia, and the pagan Germans among others were keeping their festival of ALL SOULS EVE, in commemoration of Saman, lord of death, and his demons.
Reason for Change
Why did the church change the date to November 1st, thus coinciding with the pagans' feast of ALL SOULS? There is a reason!
It was a general practice of the restored Roman Empire, now professing Christianity, to "convert" the pagans within the empire as quickly and on as large a scale as possible. Changing dates of festivals often made it easier to influence newly conquered peoples.
Ever since the time of Constantine -- who made a state religion out of Christianity -- the Roman emperors realized how essential it was to have a UNIFIED empire, in which as many as possible would be of ONE MIND. The civil and religious leaders saw how important it was for the sake of unity to ALLOW ONLY ONE RELIGION within the restored Roman domain. It became therefore a stringent state policy to force all non-Christians to accept the new state religion. Here is how the plan was carried out.
Conversion of Germans
When the German Frankish king Charlemagne invaded and conquered parts of Eastern Germany, he compelled the conquered German king, Wittekind, to be baptized and to accept Christianity. Having no choice and seeing his life was at stake, this heathen ruler who knew little or nothing about Christ -- was forced into this "conversion." And with him his entire people. This policy brought complex problems.
These pagans, who were usually baptized EN MASSE, were still pagans at heart.
Even though they became nominal Christians, they still yearned for many of their heathen practices, which they were expected to discard.
With Wittekind's baptism, for example, a vast number of barbarians were suddenly added to the roll call of the church. Wittekind's Germans, now professing Christians, and other conquered pagans, had a profound influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of the church in the early 800's A. D. These barbaric and uncultured people brought with them many outright pagan practices and celebrations, Hallowe'en merely being one of many. They were fervent in clinging to their past ceremonies and observed them openly -- yet supposedly converted to Christianity. What was the church to do?
Excommunicate them and thus reduce her membership? This she would not do. Was she to force them into discarding their heathen practices and adopt Italian or Roman ones? This, as she had learned in past times, was not possible.
There remained only one other way. Let the recently converted pagans keep certain of their heathen festivals, such as Hallowe'en or All Souls Day -- but label it "Christian." Of course the Germans were asked not to pray to their ancient pagan gods on this day. They must now use this day to commemorate the death of the saints.
To make it easy for them, the Roman Church even CHANGED HER DATE of All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1st to satisfy the growing numbers of Germanic adherents. The Church understood the yearnings the Germans and others had for their old ways.
Throughout history, the Christian-professing world has resorted to this action. We have the theological explanation of this given to us by Pope Innocent. He refers to a heathen festival the pagans kept in the early part of the Roman Empire and explained how the professing Christian world should treat this day: "The heathen dedicated this month [2 Feb.] to the infernal gods ... In the beginning of this month the idolaters walked about the city with lighted candles, and as some of the holy fathers COULD NOT EXTIRPATE SUCH A CUSTOM, they ORDAINED that Christians should carry about candles IN HONOUR OF THE "VIRGIN MARY" (Folklore, James Napier, p. 181).
If a pagan practice or festival could not be forbidden, it was reasoned, "let it be tamed." Thus many were persuaded to TRANSFER devotion from their former gods to the Christian God. So it was with the festival of ALL SOULS EVE. Notice this admission: "Thus, at the first promulgation of Christianity to the Gentile nations ... THEY COULD NOT BE PERSUADED TO RELINQUISH many of their superstitions, which, rather than
forego altogether, they chose to blend and INCORPORATE with the new faith" (Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, John Brand, p. xi).
What About Our Time?
Now come down to the twentieth century. You'll be surprised to what extent we have inherited pagan rites and ceremonies from our forefathers, so obvious in the celebration of Hallowe'en. Note this classic example. "In many Catholic countries the belief that the DEAD RETURN on this day is so strong, that food is left on the
tables and people still decorate the graves of the dead [on this day]" (Dictionary of Folklore, Funk and Wagnalls, v. 1, p. 38).
In Protestant countries many pagan superstitious beliefs and practices have become an integral part of each year's celebration.
In many parts of Britain, BONFIRES are set alight on the eve of Hallowe'en. Of course fire has nothing to do with praying for dead saints. The original reason for the fire, however, was to frighten away witches and evil spirits on this night. Fire has always been an essential part of Hallowe'en in Great Britain.
You and Your Children
What about you and your children? What comes to your mind when thinking about Hallowe'en? The truth of the Bible? Not at all! Instead, weird and FRIGHTENING MASKS -- persons PORTRAYED AS WITCHES AND DEMONS. Pumpkins and turnips hollowed out in the shape of EERIE-LOOKING faces! Lighted candles are placed inside to help bring out the more frightful side of these carvings. Dough is baked into small figurines RESEMBLING WITCHES AND SPIDER'S WEB CAKES are baked by the dozen for this occasion. Children, dressed up in the most revolting garments, are let loose on the neighbors, trying to
scare the daylights out of them.
Let's be honest. I have before me the Good Housekeeping's Book of Entertainment, which my wife picked up from the local library. On page 168 of this much-read book, there is a section on what to do on Hallowe'en. Notice the astonishing advice given!
"Halloween decorations are quite as important as the food. When planning them, remember that if the room is to be dimly lit (preferably by candle and FIRELIGHT) the decorations must be bold to be effective. Orange, black and red, THE DEVIL'S COLOURS, are the colours associated with Halloween and THIS SCHEME SHOULD BE CARRIED OUT as far as possible ... Have paper streamers and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, or, if you would like to have something less usual, you could make a giant SPIDER'S web with black and orange strings, or in narrow strips of crepe paper coming from the four corners of the room, complete with a LARGE SPIDER -- one of the DEVIL'S FAVOURITE FOLLOWERS."
Notice where the stress lies! Read further of the black magic associated with this festival. "To decorate the walls, make large silhouettes of CATS, BATS, OWLS AND WITCHES ON BROOMSTICKS ... For the supper table small WITCHES WITH BROOMSTICKS can be
made by using lollipops on 4-inch sticks."
Weird lanterns, witch-balls, and witches' cauldrons are some other objects, the book suggests, which must fit into the evening somehow. How pagan can you get?
NOWHERE does the Bible command us to observe Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en and other common festivals which people observe in the Christian-professing world have NO BIBLICAL BASIS.
They originated in paganism. The testimony of history stamps Hallowe'en as a HEATHEN festival. It's built on a PAGAN FOUNDATION.
Your Bible warns: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11). Which is the BASIS of YOUR practice and belief?
Turn to Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and read God's condemnation of Hallowe'en! And write for our free article on Hallowe'en which covers many other startling facts not included here!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Reopen Rabin assassination file!
"Zion shall be redeemed with justice" (Isaiah)
The Israeli prosecutor of the ALLEGED assassin of Yitzhak Rabin has now publicly expressed doubt and asked questions, raising concerns the real killers still walk free and Shimon Peres got away with murder.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE. And now with the release of the Kempler video of Yitzhak Rabin's staged assassination, many are doing just that!
The Israeli prosecutor of the ALLEGED assassin of Yitzhak Rabin has now publicly expressed doubt and asked questions, raising concerns the real killers still walk free and Shimon Peres got away with murder.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE. And now with the release of the Kempler video of Yitzhak Rabin's staged assassination, many are doing just that!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Don't Fall for the Rapture!
1 Thessalonian 4:15-18
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For 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.
17 Then 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.
4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
These Scriptures do not support the false notion of a rapture, although some try and twist them to traditional ideas that are in error. These verses reveal that the dead are dead and buried (not in Heaven or limbo) awaiting the first resurrection at the return of Christ when both the living and the dead are then transformed and not a second before. We meet the returning Christ in the air and RETURN TO EARTH - to the Mount of Olives - and reign with but under Him, composing the Kingdom of God: just like the Bible clearly says once we remove traditional blinders.
The only time the dead are resurrected and join with the living to meet Christ is at His return - AT THE LAST TRUMP:
1 Corinthians 15:45-57
45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" [flesh]; the last Adam, a life-giving SPIRIT...
47The first man was of the dust of the earth [flesh], the second man from Heaven [SPIRIT].
48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth [that which is born of flesh is flesh]; and as is the man from heaven [Spirit], so also are those who are of [not in] heaven [that which is born of SPIRIT IS SPIRIT].
49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [flesh], so SHALL we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [SPIRIT].
50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God [just like Yeshua clearly stated that unless you're born again, a SPIRIT BEING, you can see or enter the Kingdom-Family of God], nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable [yet those who bleat they're already born again say they can - let God be true and every man a liar].
51Listen, I tell you a mystery [remains a mystery to most]: We will not all sleep [not go to "Heaven or Hell" at death], but we will all be changed-
52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP (not in this life or at death). For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed [born again].
53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality [YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN].
54When the perishable has been clothed [with our heavenly bodies - not bodies in heaven] with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The rapture is a religious lie, a vain tradition of men. God has always protected those He chose to protect throughout history on Earth. God is faithful and consistent.
For further proof that "the rapture" and the whole idea that Jesus can come back at any minute is totally unscriptural, check out The REAL JESUS Can't Return Until...
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For 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.
17 Then 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.
4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
These Scriptures do not support the false notion of a rapture, although some try and twist them to traditional ideas that are in error. These verses reveal that the dead are dead and buried (not in Heaven or limbo) awaiting the first resurrection at the return of Christ when both the living and the dead are then transformed and not a second before. We meet the returning Christ in the air and RETURN TO EARTH - to the Mount of Olives - and reign with but under Him, composing the Kingdom of God: just like the Bible clearly says once we remove traditional blinders.
The only time the dead are resurrected and join with the living to meet Christ is at His return - AT THE LAST TRUMP:
1 Corinthians 15:45-57
45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" [flesh]; the last Adam, a life-giving SPIRIT...
47The first man was of the dust of the earth [flesh], the second man from Heaven [SPIRIT].
48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth [that which is born of flesh is flesh]; and as is the man from heaven [Spirit], so also are those who are of [not in] heaven [that which is born of SPIRIT IS SPIRIT].
49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [flesh], so SHALL we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [SPIRIT].
50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God [just like Yeshua clearly stated that unless you're born again, a SPIRIT BEING, you can see or enter the Kingdom-Family of God], nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable [yet those who bleat they're already born again say they can - let God be true and every man a liar].
51Listen, I tell you a mystery [remains a mystery to most]: We will not all sleep [not go to "Heaven or Hell" at death], but we will all be changed-
52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, AT THE LAST TRUMP (not in this life or at death). For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed [born again].
53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality [YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN].
54When the perishable has been clothed [with our heavenly bodies - not bodies in heaven] with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The rapture is a religious lie, a vain tradition of men. God has always protected those He chose to protect throughout history on Earth. God is faithful and consistent.
For further proof that "the rapture" and the whole idea that Jesus can come back at any minute is totally unscriptural, check out The REAL JESUS Can't Return Until...
Monday, October 02, 2006
President Bush on Yom Kippur
Bush lauds observance of Yom Kippur
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JTA, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 1, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In holiday greetings, President Bush said Jewish observance of Yom Kippur makes the world a more peaceful place.
"Yom Kippur is a solemn time to express thanksgiving that the Almighty remembers the names of all His children," said a White House statement issued in the name of the president and First Lady.
"During this blessed Day of Atonement, Jewish people gather in synagogues, consider their deeds and actions and celebrate as the sound of the Shofar proclaims the forgiveness and mercy shown by the Creator of life.
"As the High Holy Days come to an end, the Jewish people in America and around the world remind us of the gift of religious freedom and the blessings of God's steadfast love. On Yom Kippur and throughout the year, your deep commitment to faith helps make the world a more hopeful and peaceful place."
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, whose wife and children are Jewish, also issued greetings for the holy day. "My family and I ask all to join with the Jewish people to use this time as the beginning of a new era of peace and security," he said in a message.
************************************
President Bush would do well to note that not only Jews keep Yom Kippur but thousands of Christians faithfully observe the Day of Atonement. Perhaps one of his advisors could also inform him that the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the Last Great Day (Shemini Atzeret) are on their way.
Pagan Holidays—Or God's Holy Days—Which?
The Biblical Festivals That Teach Us About Jesus Christ
Hostility Against "Jewish Holidays" to be History!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JTA, THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 1, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In holiday greetings, President Bush said Jewish observance of Yom Kippur makes the world a more peaceful place.
"Yom Kippur is a solemn time to express thanksgiving that the Almighty remembers the names of all His children," said a White House statement issued in the name of the president and First Lady.
"During this blessed Day of Atonement, Jewish people gather in synagogues, consider their deeds and actions and celebrate as the sound of the Shofar proclaims the forgiveness and mercy shown by the Creator of life.
"As the High Holy Days come to an end, the Jewish people in America and around the world remind us of the gift of religious freedom and the blessings of God's steadfast love. On Yom Kippur and throughout the year, your deep commitment to faith helps make the world a more hopeful and peaceful place."
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, whose wife and children are Jewish, also issued greetings for the holy day. "My family and I ask all to join with the Jewish people to use this time as the beginning of a new era of peace and security," he said in a message.
************************************
President Bush would do well to note that not only Jews keep Yom Kippur but thousands of Christians faithfully observe the Day of Atonement. Perhaps one of his advisors could also inform him that the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the Last Great Day (Shemini Atzeret) are on their way.
Pagan Holidays—Or God's Holy Days—Which?
The Biblical Festivals That Teach Us About Jesus Christ
Hostility Against "Jewish Holidays" to be History!
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