INTRODUCTION:
This work could be
considered the second volume and or a continuation of its predecessor; Get Back
to the First Century. In Get Back to the First Century we firmly established
the relevance and joyous, yet incumbent universal nature that the Torah (Law)
has upon Believers in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) today, despite ones ethnicity
(Jew or Gentile). In close connection to Torah Observance is the celebration of
the Feasts of the LORD as found in Leviticus 23. However, it was beyond the
scope of the previous volume to expound on these Feasts and their observance,
nor was it the place to expose and expound on the true origins of the holidays
that replaced them; thus the reason and necessity for this volume.
In all honesty I
put off writing this book for years. Why? Because I felt I was trying to
reinvent the wheel. It only takes seconds to look this stuff up on the web and
there are tons of excellent sites and resources and a plethora of information
out there regarding the Feast of the LORD and the pagan origins of the western
Christian holidays, so why rehash it? I finally concluded that it would be nice
to have such information all in one place (volume) instead of sending people on
an internet quest or to suggest buying several books that covered the topics. I
also put it off because there is so much information regarding the pagan
holidays, that it was intimidating on trying to find a place to start, and that
it is nearly impossible to put all the information out there concerning these
things in one volume, and I hate to leave stuff out if I can help it. There are
so many angles, cultures and time periods in which I could address them from as
well, and so I agonized on where to begin and how to lay out the information in
an orderly and understandable way. I concluded that there is no way I could put
every bit of information out there into this, so I determined to try and keep
it as simple and as concise as possible, knowing that if people do further
research on their own after reading this book that they will uncover much, much
more. And so this is not an exhaustive work on the subject matter, but enough
to whet ones intellectual appetite to research further and to prove the point. So
my purpose is not necessarily how to observe the Feasts of the LORD (there are
many great resources that do a good job of that), but to show you their origins
and contrast them with the holidays the church at large observes that have
pagan origins and to make a case for believers to reject such holidays and
adopt the Divinely Appointed ones. My goal is to try to make this work
enjoyable and accessible to scholar and layman alike.
My Experience and the Hard Questions:
Growing up in a
Protestant (Free Will Baptist) Christian home, celebrating Christmas and Easter
as well as other holidays that supposedly had Christian origins and having fond
memories of such, even as a youth, I was bewildered and questioned what a tree
decked with gold and silver tinsel and balls and an egg bearing rabbit had to
do with the Birth and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. What did a naked baby with
wings have to do with Christ-like love? How can you honor saints that have
passed on by dressing up as monsters and having faces carved from pumpkins? How was He (God and Christ) honored by these
things that seem to have absolutely no connection with Him or Scripture?
I was taught as a
child that the celebration of Christ’s birth and resurrection came before the
infusion of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny by our consumer, secular society
which has bleed into the observance. I was taught that, “Jesus is the Reason
for the Season.” But as I began to look into these things for myself, I was
shocked to discover in all actuality, the very opposite was true. I was stunned
and saddened to discover that these and many other holidays touted to be
Christian in origin, actually originated in ancient Babylon and Rome and was
birthed from its pagan religions. These holidays did not have Christian origins
but pagan, and Christianity has attempted to sanitize and “Christianize” them
in an effort to redeem them. But can what was offered to pagan gods be “sanitized”
and taken and be offered to YHWH the Most High God? Can the customs and rituals
stay the same but just change the name to whom such rituals are addressed to? I
didn’t think so.
“When thou art come into
the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those
nations.” – Deut. 18:9
“And Nadab and Abihu, the
sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense
thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which
he commanded them not… And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the Lord.” –
Lev. 10:1, Num. 26:61
But as I
investigated further and spoke with Christian religious authorities that they,
and many laity in Christendom, knew about the pagan origins of the “Christian”
holidays and yet celebrate them anyway and say, “Jesus knows my heart.”
Meaning, God knows their intentions to honor Him with these holiday observances
and celebrations and not to acknowledge or honor the pagan deities for whom
these holidays were originally for. Or they reason, “Oh it’s just fun for the
kids, those holidays don’t mean what they originally did back then.”
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Is
there any justification in this line of reasoning?
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So how
did this all happen? How did this all come about?
-
If
these religious holidays are truly pagan, have they been redeemed?
-
Are
they okay for Believers in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) to celebrate?
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Are
there true, Divinely Appointed, Biblical Holidays we have been commanded and should
be celebrating instead?
-
If so,
what are they and when and how can I celebrate?
-
If
there is no way to redeem the pagan holidays do I have the boldness to stop
celebrating them and replace them with other acceptable holiday observances,
regardless of what anyone else says or thinks?
As for those who
have read the blog series that came before this one (Get Back to the First
Century), I opened with hard questions, and so I do with this blog series as
well. We, as follower and proclaimer of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), need
to be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves these hard questions and respond
with honest answers, and not just ones that will please our flesh, culture or
traditions and not offend our neighbors.
Growing up in the
Western World, woven into the fabric of our lives, are various these holidays
that festively brings families and friends together and breaks up the monotony
and the mundaneness of the year. It’s so
ingrained into our culture it has defined us as Westerners and has forged and
has become a part of our national Christian identity. Supposedly, these
celebrations that have been secularized with commercialism, special sales,
leprechauns, cupid, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny have Christian origins; or
so we have been told, but do they? When you run across one who doesn’t celebrate
certain holidays like Christmas and Easter, it feels like sacrilege, and one
assumes they are of a different religion, culture or they belong to a religious
cult, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or something. After all, even non-religious
people and atheists embrace the holidays, but do not acknowledge the
“Christian” and or religious aspects of the holidays. But can we truly
secularize or even “Christianize” these holidays? Can you really separate the
religious aspects from such observances? The Pharisees of Yeshua’s day had a
tough time separating the Commands of the LORD from the traditions that have
built and imposed upon them.
“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem,
saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they
wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying,
Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die
the death. But
ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be
free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your
tradition. Ye
hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh
unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is
far from me. But
in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. –
Matt. 15:1-9
The Roman Catholic
Church is much to blame for the blatant paganism that lies under the veneer of
Christianity. And Constantine is mostly
responsible for this. Secular History records Emperor Constantine as being the
first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. The alleged conversion
supposedly took place in 312 AD while worshiping in the Grove of Apollo the sun
god (Prior to Christianity the official Roman religion was sun god worship
called Mithraism) in Gaul, which is ancient France. Constantine claims to have
had a vision where Christ appeared to him telling him to put “XP” upon the
shields of his troops and the very next day he claims to have seen a cross
superimposed over the sun and heard a voice say, “In this sign you will be
victorious.” Other say the voice said, “In this sign you will conquer.”
Shortly after the
Edict of Milan was issued, officially ending the persecution of Christians.
Despite
Constantine’s alleged conversion, he still worshipped the sun god. You see,
Constantine had a divided kingdom of Roman sun god worshippers and Jewish
Believers and Gentile Christians. They lived and worshipped differently and so
in an effort to unify his empire, he simply changed the times and seasons (Dan.
7:25) in which Christians worshipped to the days the Romans worshipped their
pantheon of gods and was in many ways the father of the Roman Catholic Church.
The various gods were simply substituted for Mary, Jesus and the saints
(apostles).
Convening the
Council of Nicaea, Constantine, through the council was able to blend
Christianity and Mithraism to create what we know today as Roman Catholicism.
Catholic missionary’s
strategy has always been to take whatever pagan culture, religion and customs
that exist among whatever people they find themselves with and synchronize and
sanitize their belief system and make it “Christian.” This is why you have the
pagan origins in Western Christian holidays today. The old religion and customs
that have been passed down from Babylon, to Greece, Rome, the Celts and Nordics
etc., have been “Christianized.” Baal, Osiris, Zeus, and Odin become God,
Saturnalia, Mithra, Tammuz become Jesus and Simiramus, Ishtar, Venus, and Frigg
become Mary and other minor gods of the various pantheons become the venerated
saints.
In Christianity it
has been taught and perpetuated that the things of the Old Testament, its Laws
and observances have been done away with and replaced with the celebration of
Jesus’ birth at Christmas and His resurrection at Easter. We celebrate the
lives of His followers at Valentine’s Day and Halloween also known as All
Saints Day. But is there really any Scriptural validation or mandate to have
done such? Or are we just fooling ourselves and actually honoring other gods
and the ways of the nations whom God destroyed before Israel? Are there really
two different reckonings of time? Does God have a Divine clock and calendar and
does satan have a knock off version? If so, what are they, how can we tell the
difference? And if we find out is it even possible anymore to follow God’s time
table and reject the evil one’s? And if so, will we cave and succumb to
nationalistic and cultural peer pressure and comfort ourselves by saying, “God
knows my heart,” or will we have the guts to say:
“And if it
seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye
will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” – Josh 24:15
Making Evil, Cute.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20
This
is the number one objective, the prime directive, the method of operation in
the war room of Satan himself.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are
not ignorant of his devices. –
II Cor. 2:11
In
Satanism, he is often prayed to or addressed in the reverse, in a backward
chant, whether it be a living or dead language it is pronounced and said
backwards. Satanism habitually inverts or puts upside down symbols such as the
pentagram and the cross. This is Satan’s fingerprint and calling card. He does
the opposite and flips things around and upside down.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20
Those who know me
well, knows that I am not hung up on paganism to the point of being a
paga-phobic and deeming virtually everything as pagan. Nonetheless, evil and
that which is pagan at the root is
covered in a veneer of cute and cuddly fluffiness, and is thus blindly accepted
by the masses. Those who decided to celebrate the Feasts of the LORD instead
are seen as strange, unpatriotic, self-righteous, and such folks are deemed as
bad parents for depriving our children of fun. After all, how can harmless,
cute and cuddly fun be evil!?
·
Eggs dipped in the blood of sacrificed infants and ritualized
cultic sex unto a fertility goddess are now replaced with pastel colored eggs
and multiplying cute and cuddly furry bunnies and downy chicks. People are
calling good evil and evil good.
·
The night when virgins daughters are kept under lock and key
lest they be kidnapped, defiled and or sacrificed. The night where produce is
carved into frightening visages to ward off evil spirits and food is placed
outside to appease the spirits has become a time to dress up as cute,
puppy-eyes, bobble headed ghouls with plastic jack-o-lantern buckets in which
to collect candy in door to door. People are calling good evil and evil good.
·
The darkest time of the year when all nature seemed dead,
where folks would leave candles burning in every window, when the elemental
spirits and phallic gods would be offered gifts in order to hasten the coming
of spring has become a commercialized, hedonistic time for your materialistic
wishes to be granted. People are calling good evil and evil good.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20
The Evil One asks
oh so innocently, “Come now, how can something so cute and fun be pagan,
harmful or evil?”
Lay a woolen
fleece upon a wolf or put a bowtie on a bear get him to balance upon a ball and
see how cute and cuddly they really are if you try and snuggle up to them. They
may look cute and cuddly, but they are nonetheless deadly and ravenously wild
animals.
As the old saying
goes, no matter if you take a pile of manure, spray it with perfume and put it
into a jewel incrusted silver box and put a gilded bow around it, inside it is
still manure.
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for
sweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20
People, we must take
a hard look at the customs and traditions we practice in His Name.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn
from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin, and will heal their land – II Chron. 7:14
After discovering
the truth of these “Christianized” pagan holidays, I, in a clear conscious
could no longer celebrate or participate in them. I am without excuse.
Where Did Paganism Come From?
In archeological
and critical historical religious literature the authors (usually agnostic,
atheist or secular and with an agenda) often attempt to make one believe other
cultures are older and predate that of Scriptural writ, simply because physical
evidence found is often older than the earliest Biblical manuscripts. They
claim that the Biblical writers took traditions and stories from these so
called older cultures and adopted them as their own creation story and flood
account and so on. However, if one believes the inerrancy of Scripture one
would easily realize that the entire world was at one time one people, language
and culture until the confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel Babel
I read books such
as “The Two Babylon’s” and see how Satan has perverted the truth in each
culture in an attempt to drive them away from the truth, yet the grain of the
truth lies within each culture; which lends to the possibility of a pagan
culture to come to the truth. Indeed, it is an ingenious plan of the evil one
to hide truth in plain sight, yet disguised in cultural paganism.
For these reasons
I believe the ADONAI, Yeshua (Jesus) and the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) is
One but, I do not believe they are, or come from, a pagan trinity. And because
of the reasoning stated above I believe Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is
Divine, and why I believe in the miracle of the Virgin Birth and Resurrection
of Messiah from the dead. This is also why I believe He is coming again to
reign over the New Earth as the Priest and King.
Many things in
Judaism that oppose a divine Messiah, a virgin birth and such came after the
late 1st century as reactionary doctrine in an attempt distances
itself from the pagan influenced Constantinian type Christianity that had
separated itself from Nazarene Judaism.
