Sunday, November 21, 2010

"SHARICE" SHAR'S (PART I.)

I'm so blessed to be able to share with God's people. God, through His word (which is inspired by His Holy Spirit), explains that we can not possibly love Him if we don't love one another (1. we 'actually' see one another  2). we're all made in the 'physical' image of God). And loving one another goes way past the "physical" love we may have for another, we are to love one another "spiritually" and with an "eternal" love, for that is "the love of God".

People have to understand that there is a grave difference between sharing God's truths and judging God's people. We are here to judge no man, for we are to let no man judge us. For all have sinned and come short from God's glory (missed the mark--either too 'high' {as the Pharisees} or too 'low' {as with traditional Christianity}.....we have all missed the "mark", transgressed against our Father which art in Heaven). So therefore all needed the Sacrifice of the Passover Lamb of God and all must continuously battle and fight against sin daily (Satan, this world and our own "human" nature). Thankful and blessed that when we fall we can get back up again through Christ our Lord; our Mediator and High Priest in Heaven. 

God lies not, and He is holy, the Holy One, and He will not dwell in sin. This is why we first must know that sin is "the transgression of/breaking of God's Law--The Ten Commandments" if we are to ever over come it; for sin is not what 'the world' says it is, but it is what God tells us it is through His word. For the race is not to the "swift" but to he who "endures" til the "end". 

But we are commanded to "share" God's truths, His word, to share the Gospel, the coming of God's Kingdom. We are not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are to proclaim it and let our light shine. For there is but One Judge, God Almighty and He has given all authority of judging His people to His True &  Faithful Witness (Y'shua-Jesus, the Christ "the Messiah").

The fact is, the "world" has been deceived and we were once apart of "the world". When God opens your eyes and you begin to see, you are literally being set free, spiritually, and you want to set as many other captives free, who are willing, seeking, desiring, wanting to flee (this world, and the lies of Satan). Follows of Christ, people of God, we are one big family, God the Father looks down and sees "the human" race, mankind, His children.

God's plan is eternal and it's shown through His weekly and annual Sabbaths--God reveals the steps in His plan for the salvation of man (mankind). 

God's wisdom, His knowledge, there is nothing like it, what better thing could be shared, for God's word is love, God's truth is love. For God is love and God is truth. Satan would love for us to think that "truth" hurts, but "truth" heals, for our Lord and His word are "truth".

We can only worship God, in "truth" and "spirit", for God's law is "truth" and God's law is "spiritual", God is "truth" and God is "Spirit".

"real truth, really sets us free....from the bondage of the Pharaoh (god) of this world

And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. (Revelation 9:11 NKJ)


For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. (1 John 5:4 NKJ)
 
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And YOUR LAW IS TRUTH. (Psalms 119:142 NKJ)


For we know that THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL, but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14 NKJ)


THE LAW OF TRUTH was in his mouth, And injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, And turned many away from iniquity. (Malachi 2:6 NKJ)


What shall we say then? Is the law sin? CERTAINLY NOT! ON THE CONTRARY, I WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN SIN EXCEPT THROUGH THE LAW. For I would not have known covetousness (lust) unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." (the 10th Commandment) (Romans 7:7 NKJ)


but if you show PARTIALITY, YOU COMMIT SIN, and are convicted by the law AS TRANSGRESSORS. (James 2:9 NKJ)


Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: FOR SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.  (1 John 3:4 KJV)


For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet STUMBLE IN ONE POINT, he is GUILTY OF ALL. (James 2:10 NKJ)


Lead me IN YOUR TRUTH and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. (Psalms 25:5 NKJ)


JESUS said to him, "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6 NKJ)


He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and HIS NAME IS CALLED THE WORD OF GOD. (Revelation 19:13 NKJ)

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: "IN TRUTH I PERCEIVE THAT GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY. (Acts 10:34 NKJ)


Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD GOD OF TRUTH. (Psalms 31:5 NKJ)


Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that THE WORD OF THE LORD in your mouth IS THE TRUTH." (1 Kings 17:24 NKJ)


"So you shall say to them, 'THIS IS A NATION THAT DOES NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD THEIR GOD NOR RECEIVE CORRECTION. TRUTH HAS PERISHED and has been cut off from their mouth. (Jeremiah 7:28 NKJ)


Hear the word of the Lord, You children of Israel, For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "THERE IS NO TRUTH OR MERCY OR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IN THE LAND. (Hosea 4:1 NKJ)


I will bring them back, And they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people And I WILL BE THEIR GOD, IN TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.' (Zechariah 8:8 NKJ)


He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A GOD OF TRUTH and without injustice; RIGHTEOUS AND UPRIGHT is He. (Deuteronomy 32:4 NKJ)


My tongue shall speak of Your word, For ALL YOUR COMMANDMENTS ARE RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Psalms 119:172 NKJ)

Then they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and YOU DO NOT SHOW PERSONAL FAVORITISM, but TEACH THE WAY OF GOD IN TRUTH: (Luke 20:21 NKJ)


I said in my heart, "GOD SHALL JUDGE THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED, For there is a time there for every purpose and FOR EVERY WORK." (Ecclesiastes 3:17 NKJ)

But he WHO DOES THE TRUTH COMES TO THE LIGHT, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." (John 3:21 NKJ)


GOD IS SPIRIT, AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH." (John 4:24 NKJ)


WHO EXCHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD FOR THE LIE, and worshiped and served the creature RATHER THAN THE CREATOR, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:25 NKJ)


For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness OF MEN, WHO SUPPRESS THE TRUTH in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:18 NKJ)


by THE WORD OF TRUTH, by THE POWER OF GOD, by THE ARMOR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS on the right hand and on the left, (2 Corinthians 6:7 NKJ)


For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as IT IS IN TRUTH, THE WORD OF GOD, which also effectively works in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJ)

"to believe" is "to obey"...."if we believe God's word, we will obey God's word".

But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it." (Luke 8:21 NKJ)

(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; (Romans 2:13 NKJ)

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22 NKJ)


But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because GOD FROM THE BEGINNING CHOSE YOU FOR SALVATION THROUGH SANCTIFICATION BY THE SPIRIT AND BELIEF IN THE TRUTH, (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJ)


in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, SO THAT THEY MAY KNOW THE TRUTH, (2 Timothy 2:25 NKJ)


WE ARE OF GOD. HE WHO KNOWS GOD HEARS US; HE WHO IS NOT OF GOD DOES NOT HEAR US. BY THIS WE KNOW THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND THE SPIRIT OF ERROR. (1 John 4:6 NKJ)


Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, IN TRUTH AND LOVE. (2 John 1:3 NKJ)


I REJOICED GREATLY THAT I HAVE FOUND SOME OF YOUR CHILDREN WALKING IN TRUTH, AS WE RECEIVED COMMANDMENT FROM THE FATHER. (2 John 1:4 NKJ)


Now THE PURPOSE OF THE COMMANDMENT IS LOVE FROM A PURE HEART, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, (1 Timothy 1:5 NKJ)


And this commandment we have from Him: that HE WHO LOVES GOD MUST LOVE HIS BROTHER ALSO. (1 John 4:21 NKJ)


THIS IS LOVE, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that AS YOU HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, you should walk in it. (2 John 1:6 NKJ)


By this we know that WE LOVE THE CHILDREN OF GOD, WHEN WE LOVE GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. For THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3 NKJ)

WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US. (1 John 4:19 NKJ)

IN THIS IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10-11 NKJ)


But SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33 NKJ)


"HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE! (Deuteronomy 6:4 NKJ)


Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE. (Mark 12:29 NKJ)





Thursday, November 11, 2010

WHAT ABOUT LUKE 14:26?


"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26




Hate in Luke 14:26 means "love less by comparison." If our love for our parents interferes with worshipping and obeying God properly, we do not genuinely love Him. Matthew 10:37 shows that Christ refers to those who place their father or mother above God in obedience and reverence; this is idolatry. The time may come when it is no longer necessary or right for us to obey our parents. Even so, we should never cease to honor them. Honor indicates a high respect for their worth, high esteem, and reverence. Without this, we cannot properly revere God. Just as our parents corrected us, so also God corrects us. As a result we honor and respect our parents, which is a shadow of our subjection to the Father.

The word "hate" is not an absolute term but a relative one. He is establishing a comparison: "You have to love Me more than mother, father, wife, children, brother, sister." We have to put Christ first; we have to love Him more than the others.

 But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are THESE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND DO IT." (Luke 8:21 NKJ)

Monday, November 8, 2010

ONE BODY; MANY MEMBERS (BIBLE SCRIPTURES)

THE BODY OF CHRIST
.....THE "CHURCH OF GOD"

Has THIS HOUSE, WHICH IS CALLED BY MY NAME, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," says the Lord. (Jeremiah 7:11 NKJ)

While I was with them in the world, I KEPT THEM IN YOUR NAME. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. (John 17:12 NKJ)

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, KEEP THROUGH YOUR NAME THOSE WHOM YOU HAVE GIVEN ME, that they may be one as We are. (John 17:11 NKJ)


Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd THE CHURCH OF GOD WHICH HE PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD. (Acts 20:28 NKJ) 

And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take THE WATER OF LIFE freely. (Revelation 22:17 NKJ)

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and ALL THE MEMBERS OF THAT ONE BODY, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12 KJV)


But now hath GOD SET THE MEMBERS EVERY ONE OF THEM IN THE BODY, as it hath pleased Him . (1 Corinthians 12:18 KJV)


But now are they MANY MEMBERS, yet but ONE BODY. (1 Corinthians 12:20 KJV)


Nay, much more those MEMBERS OF THE BODY, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:  (1 Corinthians 12:22 KJV)


That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same CARE ONE FOR ANOTHER.  (1 Corinthians 12:25 KJV)


MANY WILL SAY to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS!' (Matthew 7:22-23 NKJ)

Now ye are THE BODY OF CHRIST, and members in particular. (1 Corinthians 12:27 KJV)

For WE ARE MEMBERS OF HIS BODY, of His flesh, and of His bones. (Ephesians 5:30 KJV)

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that IT DEFILETH THE WHOLE BODY, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.  (James 3:6 KJV)

On the last day, that great day of the feast, JESUS stood and cried out, saying, "IF ANYONE THIRSTS, let him come to Me and drink. (John 7:37 NKJ)


You did not choose Me, but I CHOSE YOU AND APPOINTED YOU that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:16 NKJ)


"A son honors his father, And a servant his master. IF THEN I AM THE FATHER, WHERE IS MY HONOR? AND IF I AM A MASTER, WHERE IS MY REVERENCE? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, 'In what way have we despised Your name?' (Malachi 1:6 NKJ)


For as we have MANY MEMBERS IN ONE BODY, and all members have not the same office: (Romans 12:4 KJV)


So we , being many, are ONE BODY IN CHRIST, and every one members one of another. (Romans 12:5 KJV)


MY SOUL THIRSTS FOR GOD, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalms 42:2 NKJ)


"Ho! EVERYONE WHO THIRSTS, COME TO THE WATERS; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. (Isaiah 55:1 NKJ)

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To THE CHURCH OF GOD WHICH IS AT CORINTH, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: (2 Corinthians 1:1 NKJ)


TO THE CHURCH OF GOD WHICH IS AT CORINTH, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: (1 Corinthians 1:2 NKJ)


Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks OR TO THE CHURCH OF GOD, (1 Corinthians 10:32 NKJ)


to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God MIGHT BE MADE KNOWN BY THE CHURCH to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 3:10 NKJ)



 
'If disaster comes upon us--sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine--we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (FOR YOUR NAME IS IN THIS TEMPLE), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.' (2 Chronicles 20:9 NKJ)

Now when they had come and GATHERED THE CHURCH TOGETHER, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. (Acts 14:27 NKJ)


For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I PERSECUTED THE CHURCH OF GOD BEYOND MEASURE AND TRIED TO DESTROY IT. (Galatians 1:13 NKJ)


For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, BECAUSE I PERSECUTED THE CHURCH OF GOD. (1 Corinthians 15:9 NKJ)


Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, TO THE CHURCH OF THE THESSALONIANS IN GOD THE FATHER AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Thessalonians 1:1 NKJ)


(for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, HOW WILL HE TAKE CARE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD?); (1 Timothy 3:5 NKJ)

Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk IN YOUR TRUTH; Unite my heart to fear Your name. (Psalms 86:11 NKJ)


For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies TAKE YOUR NAME IN VAIN.  (Psalms 139:20 NKJ)

I remember Your name in the night, O Lord, And I KEEP YOUR LAW. (Psalms 119:55 NKJ)
but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in THE HOUSE OF GOD, WHICH IS THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD, THE PILLAR and GROUND OF THE TRUTH. (1 Timothy 3:15 NKJ)


to THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND CHURCH OF THE FIRSTBORN WHO ARE REGISTERED IN HEAVEN, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23 NKJ)


I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with THE GARMENTS OF SALVATION, HE HAS COVERED ME WITH THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10 NKJ)


the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, THE VOICE OF THOSE WHO WILL SAY: "PRAISE THE LORD OF HOSTS, FOR THE LORD IS GOOD, FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER"-- and of THOSE WHO WILL BRING THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,' says the Lord. (Jeremiah 33:11 NKJ)


GATHER THE PEOPLE, SANCTIFY THE CONGREGATION, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. (Joel 2:16 NKJ)


BRING CHARGES AGAINST YOUR MOTHER, bring charges; For SHE IS NOT MY WIFE, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away HER HARLOTRIES from her sight, And HER ADULTERIES from between her breasts; (Hosea 2:2 NKJ)


THE LIGHT OF A LAMP SHALL NOT SHINE IN YOU ANYMORE, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for BY YOUR SORCERY ALL THE NATIONS WERE DECEIVED. (Revelation 18:23 NKJ)


Then I, John, saw THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, COMING DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN FROM GOD, PREPARED AS A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND. (Revelation 21:2 NKJ)


But I want you to know that THE HEAD OF EVERY MAN IS CHRIST, the head of woman is man, and THE HEAD OF CHRIST IS GOD. (1 Corinthians 11:3 NKJ)


Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "Come, I will show you THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE." (Revelation 21:9 NKJ)


And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let HIM WHO HEARS SAY, "COME!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17 NKJ)

And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, LEST YOU SHARE IN HER SINS, and lest you receive of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4 NKJ)

 
  But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are THESE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND DO IT." (Luke 8:21 NKJ)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

WORSHIPPING THE FERTILITY GODDESS (ISHTAR).EASTER???

Easter is a worldwide tradition involving many customs that people believe to be Christian. What is the origin of Lent and sunrise services? How did rabbits, eggs and hot cross buns become associated with Christ’s Resurrection? Is Easter mentioned in the Bible? Did the apostles and early Church keep it?

Most people follow along as they have been taught, assuming that what they believe and do is right. They take their beliefs for granted. Most do not take time to prove why they do the things that they do.

Why do you believe what you believe? Where did you get your beliefs? Is the source of your religious beliefs the Bible—or some other authority? If you say the Bible, are you sure?

What about Easter? Since hundreds of millions keep it, supposedly in honor of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, then certainly the Bible must have much to say about it. Surely there are numerous verses mentioning rabbits, eggs and egg hunts, baskets of candy, hot cross buns, Lent, Good Friday and sunrise services—not to mention Easter itself.

Easter requires close scrutiny and this booklet examines it carefully.

Bible Authority for Easter?

The Bible is the source for all things Christian. Does it mention Easter? Yes.

Notice Acts 12:1. King Herod began to persecute the Church, culminating in the brutal death of the apostle James by sword. This pleased the Jews so much that the apostle Peter was also taken prisoner by Herod. The plan was to later deliver him to the Jews. Verse 3 says, “Then were the days of unleavened bread.” The New Testament Church was observing these feast days described in Leviticus 23. Now read verse 4: “And when he [Herod] had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions [sixteen] of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.”

Is this Bible authority for Easter?

This passage is not talking about Easter. How do we know? The word translated Easter is the Greek word pascha (derived from the Hebrew word pesach; there is no original Greek word for Passover), and it has only one meaning. It always means Passover—it can never mean Easter! For this reason, we find a Hebrew word used in the Greek New Testament. Once again, this Hebrew word can only refer to Passover. And other translations, including the Revised Standard Version, correctly render this word Passover.

Instead of endorsing Easter, this verse really proves that the Church was still observing the supposedly Jewish Passover ten years after the death of Christ!

Now let’s go to the other scriptures authorizing Easter. This presents a problem. There are none! There are absolutely no  verses, anywhere in the Bible, that authorize or endorse the keeping of Easter celebration! The Bible says nothing about Lent, eggs and egg hunts, baskets of candy, etc., although it does mention hot cross buns and sunrise services as abominations, which God condemns. We will examine them and learn why.

The mistranslation of Acts 12:4 is a not-so-subtle attempt to insert a pagan festival into scripture for the purpose of authorizing it. We will examine the Passover more closely later.
 

A Brief Look at Passover

The well-known Old Testament Passover story centers on God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt through ten miraculous plagues. These included how the death angel would “pass over” all the houses where the Israelites lived. They were instructed to put blood over their doorposts to ensure that only the firstborn of Egypt would die. In this first Passover, it was only the blood of the slain lamb that protected each Israelite home. While Egypt suffered the plague of death, the Israelite firstborn were delivered by blood. By obeying God’s command and by faith in His promise to protect them, they were spared from death.

The Passover account is found in Exodus 12:12-14. Verse 14 states that the Passover ceremony was commanded by God to be an annual memorial feast to be kept by Israel “forever.” (This command is repeated in Leviticus 23:5.) Exodus 12:15 introduces the seven-day festival called the Days of Unleavened Bread (also repeated in Leviticus 23:6-8), which was to immediately follow the Passover feast each year. This is why Acts 12:3 states, “Then were the days of unleavened bread,” before mentioning the Passover in the next verse. These days were always kept in conjunction with one another.


What About the New Testament?

If the Passover was instituted forever, then New Testament instruction for its observance should be clear. This instruction is found in I Corinthians 5:7-8: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast (of unleavened bread, which always followed Passover, as explained above)…”

Christ, as the Lamb of God (John 1:29; Acts 8:32; I Peter 1:19; Rev. 5:6), replaced the Old Testament lamb eaten on Passover evening each year. The New Testament symbols of the bread and wine were instituted so that Christians could eat the body and drink the blood of Christ, the true Lamb of God. Jesus’ sacrifice replaced the need to kill a spring lamb. Luke 22:19 shows that Jesus substituted the bread and wine to be taken annually in commemoration of His sacrifice for the remission of our sins—both spiritual and physical.

It proves Christ did not replace Passover with a different festival! Also, it makes plain that the only thing that He replaced was the spring lamb with His own sacrificeand the institution of the bread and wine to symbolize it!)

Early Christians kept the Passover, not Easter. Notice this from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edit., Vol. 8, p. 828: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers…The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals [God’s festivals of Leviticus 23], though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it, of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb…continued to be observed.”

The original apostles and early New Testament Church did not observe Easter. Notice: “In the second century A.D., Easter Day was, among Christians in Asia Minor [these would be the Gentile churches that Paul raised up in places such as Philippi, Colossae, Galatia, etc.—and he warned the Galatians (4:9-10) about taking days such as Easter] the 14th of Nisan [or Abib] the seventh month of the [civil] Jewish calendar” (World Almanac, 1968 edit., p. 187). The date described here is not Easter Day, but rather the Passover—which was kept on the 14th day of the first month (Nisan) of the sacred calendar. The apostles and early Church did not observe Easter!

Despite the overwhelming proof that God’s Holy Days, as listed in Leviticus 23, are still to be kept by Christians today (Acts 2:1; 12:3; 18:21; 20:6, 16; I Cor. 5:7-8; 16:8), almost no one who claims to believe in the God of the Bible keeps them! Almost no one who professes to worship Jesus Christ observes the Passover as He commanded! Why?

Since instruction to observe Easter is not in the Bible, and God’s permanent command to keep Passover is, then where did Easter originate? After surveying the origin of Passover, we are ready to study the origin of Easter.


When Easter Came to America

Easter has long been known to be a pagan festival! America’s founders knew this! A children’s book about the holiday, Easter Parade: Welcome Sweet Spring Time!, by Steve Englehart, p. 4, states, “When the Puritans came to North America, they regarded the celebration of Easter—and the celebration of Christmas—with suspicion. They knew that pagans had celebrated the return of spring long before Christians celebrated Easter…for the first two hundred years of European life in North America, only a few states, mostly in the South, paid much attention to Easter.” Not until after the Civil War did Americans begin celebrating this holiday: “Easter first became an American tradition in the 1870s” (p. 5). Remarkable! The original 13 colonies of America began as a “Christian” nation, with the cry of “No king but King Jesus!” The nation did not observe Easter within an entire century of its founding.  


What happened to change this?

Where Did Easter Come From?


Does the following sound familiar?—Spring is in the air! Flowers and bunnies decorate the home. Father helps the children paint beautiful designs on eggs dyed in various colors. These eggs, which will later be hidden and searched for, are placed into lovely, seasonal baskets. The wonderful aroma of the hot cross buns mother is baking in the oven waft through the house. Forty days of abstaining from special foods will finally end the next day. The whole family picks out their Sunday best to wear to the next morning’s sunrise worship service to celebrate the savior’s resurrection and the renewal of life. Everyone looks forward to a succulent ham with all the trimmings. It will be a thrilling day. After all, it is one of the most important religious holidays of the year.

Easter, right? No! This is a description of an ancient Babylonian family—2,000 years before Christ—honoring the resurrection of their god, Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife, Ishtar (after whom the festival was named). As Ishtar was actually pronounced “Easter” in most Semitic dialects, it could be said that the event portrayed here is, in a sense, Easter. Of course, the occasion could easily have been a Phrygian family honoring Attis and Cybele, or perhaps a Phoenician family worshipping Adonis and Astarte. Also fitting the description well would be a heretic Israelite family honoring the Canaanite Baal and Ashtoreth. Or this depiction could just as easily represent any number of other immoral, pagan fertility celebrations of death and resurrection—including the modern Easter celebration as it has come to us through the Anglo-Saxon fertility rites of the goddess Eostre or Ostara. These are all the same festivals, separated only by time and culture.

If Easter is not found in the Bible, then where did it come from? The vast majority of ecclesiastical and secular historians agree that the name of Easter and the traditions surrounding it are deeply rooted in pagan religion.

Now notice the following powerful quotes that demonstrate more about the true origin of how the modern Easter celebration got its name:

“Since Bede the Venerable (De ratione temporum 1:5) the origin of the term for the feast of Christ’s Resurrection has been popularly considered to be from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre, a goddess of spring…the Old High German plural for dawn, eostarun; whence has come the German Ostern, and our English Easter” (The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Vol. 5, p. 6).

“The fact that vernal festivals were general among pagan peoples no doubt had much to do with the form assumed by the Eastern festival in the Christian churches. The English term Easter is of pagan origin” (Albert Henry Newman, D.D., LL.D., A Manual of Church History, p. 299).

“On this greatest of Christian festivals, several survivals occur of ancient heathen ceremonies. To begin with, the name itself is not Christian but pagan. Ostara was the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring” (Ethel L. Urlin, Festival, Holy Days, and Saints Days, p. 73).

“Easter—the name Easter comes to us from Ostera or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, for whom a spring festival was held annually, as it is from this pagan festival that some of our Easter customs have come” (Hazeltine, p. 53).

“In Babylonia…the goddess of spring was called Ishtar. She was identified with the planet Venus, which, because…[it] rises before the Sun…or sets after it…appears to love the light [this means Venus loves the sun-god]…In Phoenecia, she became Astarte; in Greece, Eostre [related to the Greek word Eos: “dawn”], and in Germany, Ostara [this comes from the German word Ost: “east,” which is the direction of dawn]” (Englehart, p. 4).

As we have seen, many names are interchangeable for the more well-known Easter. Pagans typically used many different names for the same god or goddess. Nimrod, the Bible figure who built the city of Babylon (Gen. 10:8), is an example. He was worshipped as Saturn, Vulcan, Kronos, Baal, Tammuz, Molech and others, but he was always the same god—the fire or sun god universally worshipped in nearly every ancient culture.

The goddess Easter was no different. She was one goddess with many names—the goddess of fertility, worshipped in spring when all life was being renewed.

The widely-known historian, Will Durant, in his famous and respected work, Story of Civilization, pp. 235, 244-245, writes, “Ishtar [Astarte to the Greeks, Ashtoreth to the Jews], interests us not only as analogue of the Egyptian Isis and prototype of the Grecian Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, but as the formal beneficiary of one of the strangest of Babylonian customs…known to us chiefly from a famous page in Herodotus: Every native woman is obliged, once in her life, to sit in the temple of Venus [Easter], and have intercourse with some stranger.” Is it any wonder that the Bible speaks of the religious system that has descended from that ancient city as, “Mystery, babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Rev. 17:5)?

We must now look closer at the origin of other customs associated with the modern Easter celebration.


The Origin of Lent

According to Johannes Cassianus, who wrote in the fifth century, “Howbeit you should know, that as long as the primitive church retained its perfection unbroken, this observance of Lent did not exist” (First Conference Abbot Theonas, chapter 30). There is neither biblical nor historical record of Christ, the apostles or the early Church participating in the Lenten season.

Since there is no instruction to observe Lent in the Bible, where did it come from? A forty-day abstinence period was anciently observed in honor of the pagan gods Osiris, Adonis and Tammuz (John Landseer, Sabaean Researches, pp. 111, 112). Alexander Hislops, The Two Babylons, pp. 104-105, says this of the origin of Lent: “The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, in the spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans…Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt…”

Lent came from paganism, not from the Bible! (To learn more about the Lenten season, read our article “The True Meaning of Lent.”)
Eggs, Egg Hunts and Easter

Eggs have always been associated with the Easter celebration. Nearly every culture in the modern world has a long tradition of coloring eggs in beautiful and different ways. I once examined a traveling display of many kinds of beautifully decorated egg designs that represented the styles and traditions of virtually every country of modern Europe.

Notice the following: “The origin of the Easter egg is based on the fertility lore of the Indo-European races…The egg to them was a symbol of spring…In Christian times the egg had bestowed upon it a religious interpretation, becoming a symbol of the rock tomb out of which Christ emerged to the new life of His resurrection” (Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, p. 233). This is a direct example of exactly how pagan symbols and customs are “Christianized,” i.e., Christian-sounding names are superimposed over pagan customs. This is done to deceive—as well as make people feel better about why they are following a custom that is not in the Bible.

Notice: “Around the Christian observance of Easter…folk customs have collected, many of which have been handed down from the ancient ceremonial…symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals…for example, eggs…have been very prominent as symbols of new life and resurrection” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991 ed., Vol. 4, p. 333).

Finally, the following comes from Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, James Bonwick, pp. 211-212: “Eggs were hung up in the Egyptian temples. Bunsen calls attention to the mundane egg, the emblem of generative life, proceeding from the mouth of the great god of Egypt. The mystic egg of Babylon, hatching the Venus Ishtar, fell from heaven to the Euphrates. Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in Egypt, as they are still in China and Europe. Easter, or spring, was the season of birth, terrestrial and celestial.”

What could be more plain in showing the true origin of the “Easter egg”? An “Easter” egg is just an egg that pertains to Easter. God never authorized Passover eggs or Days of Unleavened Bread eggs, but there have been Easter eggs for thousands of years!

It naturally progressed that the egg, representing spring and fertility, would be merged into an already pagan springtime festival. Connecting this symbol to Christ’s Resurrection in the spring required much creativity and human reasoning. However, even highly creative human reasoning has never been able to successfully connect the next Easter symbol to anything Christian, because there is not a single word about it anywhere in the New Testament!
 

The Easter Bunny

Here are two additional quotes from Francis Weiser about the origin of the “Easter bunny”: “In Germany and Austria little nests containing eggs, pastry and candy are placed in hidden spots, and the children believe that the Easter bunny, so popular in this country, too, had laid the eggs and brought the candy” (p. 235) and “The Easter bunny had its origin in pre-Christian fertility lore…The Easter bunny has never had religious symbolism bestowed on its festive usage…However, the bunny has acquired a cherished role in the celebration of Easter as the legendary producer of Easter eggs for children in many countries” (p. 236).

Here is further proof of the origin of Easter eggs and rabbits. It demonstrates how no one has ever been able to connect the Easter bunny to anything Christian, let alone to the Bible: “The Easter bunny is not a true Christian symbol” (John Bradner, Symbols of Church Seasons and Days, p. 52), and “Although adopted in a number of Christian cultures, the Easter bunny has never received any specific Christian interpretation” (Mirsea Eliade, The Encyclopedia of Religion, p. 558).

None of this will stop scores of millions of professing Christians from decorating their lawns and houses with Easter bunnies each spring.

Consider this last quote: “The hare, the symbol of fertility in ancient Egypt, a symbol that was kept later in Europe…Its place has been taken by the Easter rabbit” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1991 ed., Vol. 4, p. 333).

Even in modern times, rabbits have remained common symbols of fertility. While their rapid rate of reproduction is well known, another problem arises with rabbits—they do not lay eggs! While both are clearly fertility symbols, there is no logical way to connect them. In a world filled with pagan tradition, truth and logic can be lost. Merging these symbols with Christianity makes an already idolatrous practice worse.

There is nothing Christian about any of these symbols. The true history of these fertility symbols, rabbits and eggs, is completely unknown to all the unsuspecting children who have been led by adults to think them so special.

The entire concept that these are Christian is a lie foisted on innocent children who will believe that “the moon is made of cheese” just because someone tells them so. While these are shocking facts, they are true nonetheless.
 

A Counterfeit Savior?

One of the central themes of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ came to die for mankind’s sins and offer redemption to a world cut off from God.

The master counterfeiter (Satan the devil, called the “god of this world” in II Cor. 4:4) seeks to counterfeit every aspect of God’s plan. He “deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). As the arch-deceiver, he would not be content to counterfeit all other aspects of Christianity but not the identity and worship of the true Savior!

Who is the real “savior” central to the “Easter Sunday” tradition? Is it the Jesus Christ of the Bible? If you say “yes,” are you sure? History answers this question plainly, with this:

First notice that “…the conception of a Saviour-God was quite normal in the ancient pagan world…a conception of salvation underlies the notion of such Gods as Osiris, Attis, and Adonis…” (John M. Robertson, Christianity and Mythology, p. 395).

And then this: “It has often been urged that this belief in the Resurrection of Jesus is due to ideas of divine resurrection current in the contemporary world…stories of Attis, Adonis, and Osiris…In the pagan stories the rising again is a joyous reversal of defeat; in the Christian story it is the complement of victorious death. It may be said that Attis and Osiris saved by rising again, Jesus by dying…the Easter observance did not arise at once out of belief in the Resurrection, but developed later by gradual stages out of the Jewish Pasch. The notion implied in the Easter greeting Christ is risen is a secondary development; the idea comes from this festival and from its occurrence in spring; the festival does not come from the idea. The idea of Christ’s resurrection was injected into the old practice of Easter observance and not the other way around” (A. Nock, Early Gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background, pp. 105-107).

And, finally, the powerful theme of this oft-repeated counterfeit is made most clear by the famous historian, James George Frazer: “Now the death and resurrection of Attis were officially celebrated at Rome on the 24th and 25th of March, the latter being regarded as the spring equinox, and…according to an ancient and widespread tradition Christ suffered on the 25th of March…the tradition which placed the death of Christ on the 25th of March…is all the more remarkable because astronomical considerations prove that it can have had no historical foundation…When we remember that the festival of St. George in April has replaced the ancient pagan festival of the Parilia; that the festival of St. John the Baptist in June has succeeded to a heathen Midsummer festival of water; that the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin in August has ousted the festival of Diana; that the feast of All Souls [following Halloween] in November is a continuation of an old heathen feast of the dead; and that the Nativity of Christ himself was assigned to the winter solstice in December because that day was deemed the Nativity of the Sun; we can hardly be thought to be rash or unreasonable in conjecturing that the other cardinal festival of the Christian church—the solemnization of Easter—may have been in like manner, and from like motives of edification, adapted to a similar celebration of the Phyrigian god Attis at the vernal equinox…It is a remarkable coincidence…that the Christian and the heathen festivals of the divine death and resurrection should have been solemnized at the same season…It is difficult to regard the coincidence as purely accidental” (The Golden Bough, Vol. I, pp. 306-309).

We can summarize the above source. The Roman Catholic Church had a practice of incorporating pagan festivals—of pasting “Christian” names over them and calling them “Christian.” This was done to make “Christianity” more palatable and familiar to heathen worshippers, whom the Church was trying to attract. How did such a state of affairs develop?

It can now be better understood why the apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians to beware of the subtle deceit of “another Jesus whom we have not preached.” He said, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted…” (II Cor. 11:3-4).

People today can think that they are worshipping the true Savior when they are really worshipping a false savior—another Jesus! The entirety of traditional Christianity is actually worshipping Baal, the mediator and sun god, who was named after his “wife” Ishtar (who was actually his mother Semiramis)—who we will later see is the one the Bible calls the “Queen of Heaven.”

People can worship in ways that represent things that are far different than what they sincerely believe or intend. Consider the following classic example.
 

Sunrise Services

Sunrise services are mentioned in the Bible. But what God says about this custom is not what you expect. Notice these astonishing verses. The prophet Ezekiel was being shown, in vision, an important prophecy concerning the sins of God’s people in our time.

The entire context of these verses needs to be examined carefully to understand the heightening condemnation toward which God builds in His conclusion: “…Turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations that they do…and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz…And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then He said unto me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing…that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they…have returned to provoke Me to anger…Therefore will I also deal in fury: Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” (Ezek. 8:13-18).

Observing sunrise services is serious to God! He so hates this vile practice that He will ultimately destroy all who persist in it (Ezek. 9)!

It is no “light thing” to God that many millions do this every Easter! It may seem “beautiful,” “religious,” and “deeply moving” to those participating in it, but God has forbidden His true people to devise their own religious customs and ideas. He is not interested in what people may personally feel or think is right. He is interested in those who care about what He thinks! As far as God is concerned, ancient sun worship, dressed up in Easter finery and bonnets, is just modern packaging of a very old, idolatrous pagan custom.

Consider God’s own words in Deuteronomy 12:28-32 (NKJ): “Observe and obey all these words which I command you…When…you…dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them…and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods…Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

God tells Christians to never mix what is godly with what is pagan—or the true with the false! Do not let men tell you that what God says makes no difference. It does!
 

Hot Cross Buns

When I was in the first grade, all the children in my class had to sing a solo of his or her choice. I will never forget this terrifying moment. I was so embarrassed and nervous that I picked the shortest song in our little songbook, “Hot Cross Buns,” and sang it before the class. Of course, I had no idea what I was singing. Though short (it was only fifteen words), I have never forgotten the lesson of its meaning.

Notice Jeremiah 7:18: “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” The cakes offered to the queen of heaven were these same hot cross buns that millions of children sing about today (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 107). What seems so innocent is not innocent at all.

Who is the “queen of heaven”?
Ashtaroth—The Queen of Heaven

Astarte (Easter)-worship was always associated with the worship of Baal or sun worship. Astarte was Baal’s wife. Notice that another name for Astarte was Ashtaroth. The following quote makes this point clear: “What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven…Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is identified with Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio, vol. ii. p. 179), and by Lucian (De Dea Syria, vol iii. p. 382)…Now, no name could more exactly picture forth the character of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the name of ‘Asht-tart,’ for that just means ‘The woman that made towers’…Ashturit, then…is obviously the same as the Hebrew ‘Ashtoreth’” (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pp. 103, 307-308).

Notice this conclusive quote from Microsoft Encarta Multimedia Encyclopedia: “Ishtar was the Great Mother, the goddess of fertility and the queen of heaven.” So, in actuality, Ashtaroth (Ishtar) was Nimrod’s harlotrous, mother/wife widow, Semiramis, as many other ancient historians attest! Easter is now established as none other than the Ashtaroth of the Bible! We can now examine the scriptures that show how God views the worship of this pagan goddess—by any name!
 

God Calls Easter Evil

Now that we know that Easter is the goddess Ashtaroth, we need to look into the Bible and see what God thinks of her. Look at this verse: “And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth [Easter]” (Jdg. 2:11, 13).

The context shows that God allowed His people to be taken from their land into captivity as a result of this sin! It continues, explaining how God delivered His people over and over again through a series of judges. After each deliverance, Israel returned to the same false gods, which in turn brought another captivity, via conquest by the nations around them. They never seemed to learn, as verse 19 makes clear: “And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves…in following other gods…and…they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.” In chapter 10, verse 6, Israel repeats this pattern of stubbornness. And God, just as stubbornly, still calls it evil.

Baal and Ashtaroth worship reappeared during Samuel’s time. Samuel told Israel, “…put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only…Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only” (I Sam. 7:3-4). Later, in I Samuel 12:10-11, Samuel publicly recounted Israel’s history to them. He reminded them that they continually returned to obeying God, only to fall backwards into idolatry again and again!

It has been said that “The only thing man has learned from history is that no one learns from history.” George Santayana took it further, saying, “Those who do not learn the lesson of history are doomed to repeat it.”

This lesson describes ancient Israel—but it also describes today’s modern world. Because Israel could not stay on track, they were eventually taken into captivity, becoming lost to history! After one more captivity and punishment, prophecy reveals that Christ will gather them for the last time at His Return.
 

One Final Example

The Bible states that King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. Yet, he made a mistake that God considered so great that, after his death, He punished Solomon by removing the kingdom from his son.

His mistake?

He married a woman who led him into the worship of Easter (Ashtaroth). Notice I Kings 11:4-6: “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods…For Solomon went after Ashtaroth the goddess of the Zidonians…And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.” Verses 11-12 demonstrate that the kingdom was taken from his son.
 

Two Churches: The Great Switch

There are two completely different churches pictured in the New Testament. One, the true Church that Jesus built, is described as the bride of Christ, forsaking involvements with this world and its customs in order to be pure when He comes for her. But, throughout the New Testament, it was prophesied that false teachers would creep in and gain control of the church organization. True Christians would have to flee from many of their original congregations to continue to obey God. They would, therefore, be a “little flock,” often scattered, never having political power in this world.

The world has kept little track of this small, scattered, persecuted Church, but Christ promised that He would never leave or forsake it and that “the gates of hell [the grave] shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Though it has periodically had to scatter for its life (Acts 8:1; Dan. 12:7), Christ has faithfully kept His promise to remain with it, empowering and strengthening it through His Spirit. Despite continual persecution—even during periods of great martyrdom by the large popular churches that have always sought to destroy it—a remnant has always remained throughout the last nearly 2,000 years. It has continued to “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).

God has always commanded His Church not to keep pagan festivals! This little Church has been willing to obey Him. The entire inset 12th chapter of Revelation gives a brief overview of its history, right up to and through the time that God protects it just before the Return of Christ.

Paul warned the Thessalonian congregation, “…the mystery of iniquity does already work” (II Thes. 2:7). This mystery was already having an influence within the true Church just twenty years after Christ established it in 31 A.D. It was the very Chaldean Mystery, embodied in Christmas and Easter—its two greatest festivals! Invariably, the arrival of these false pagan celebrations required true Christians to flee.

It is this same pattern at work that has caused this booklet to have to be written. Since the death of Herbert W. Armstrong (the leader of the Church of God from 1934 to 1986), the prophesied “falling away” (the Greek word apostasia here means “to defect from truth”) before the Return of Christ (II Thes. 2:1-3) has now occurred.

Thus, the previously described true Church organization joined the other church, portrayed as a harlotrous queen (like Semiramis/Easter) riding a beast with seven heads (Rev. 17). These heads represent the historic revivals of the Holy Roman Empire. This whorish woman symbolizes a powerful, politically organized church. Gradually, this church, centered at Rome, adopted more and more pagan doctrines and practices until the only discernible difference between it and pagan religion was its use of the name of Jesus Christ. This is how Easter came to be celebrated in place of the true Christian Passover.

This “mother church” has many “daughter denominations,” and the entire system masquerades under the banner of “Christianity,” when they are really the “Babylon Mystery Religion.” The Bible pictures her as a universal deceiver with all “Christian” countries made drunk with her false doctrines! She is pictured as being made drunk with the blood of the saints, while, at the same time, bragging that she is the true church. All of her daughters have adopted her pagan practices.
 

The Quartodeciman Controversy: From Passover to Easter

What does history say about how and when the idolatrous pagan festival of Easter came to replace the Passover service ordained by God? A series of extensive quotes tell this story—commonly referred to as the “Quartodeciman Controversy.” Several sources are quoted so that the story of how the counterfeit Easter came to replace Passover will be perfectly clear. This problem—Passover versus Easter—became so pivotal, as a test of the power of the great church that wished to stamp out the “little flock,” that eventually disobedience brought the death sentence upon any who continued to keep either God’s Sabbath or His true festivals.

Make no mistake! Whether one keeps God’s Passover or celebrates the pagan Easter is serious!

First notice the following by Eusebius (a well-known historian of the early Church) from his work, Ecclesiastical History, Book V, chapters XXIII and XXIV: “A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour’s passover…the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him:

“We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles…and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord…and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia…the bishop and martyr Sagaris…the blessed Papirius, or Melito…All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.”

The 1967 New Catholic Encyclopedia states, “Quartodeciman, a term used to describe the practice in the early Church of celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan (die quarta decima), the day of the Jewish Passover (Ex. 12:6). Quartodecimanism, prevalent in Asia Minor and Syria in the 2nd century, emphasized the death of Christ, the true Paschal victim (Jn. 18:28; 19:42), while Roman practice emphasized the observance of Sunday as the day of the Resurrection. Implicit in these two positions is the disputed chronology of Holy Week. As Christianity separated from Judaism, gentile Christians objected to observing the principal Christian feasts on the same day as the Jewish Passover.

“Roman efforts to induce the Quartodecimans to abandon their practice were unsuccessful. On a visit to Rome (c. 155), St. Polycarp of Smyrna amicably discussed the question with Pope Anicetus without, however, reaching agreement. Pope Victor (189-198) sought unity through a series of synods held in both East and West; all accepted the Roman practice except the Asiatic bishops. When Victor attempted coercion by excommunication, St. Irenaeus of Lyons intervened to restore peace (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 5.23-25). During the 3rd century Quartodecimanism waned; it persisted in some Asiatic communities down to the 5th century” (Vol. 12, p. 13).

The following very lengthy statement from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, well summarizes and details the story of how Easter slowly came to replace the Passover by A.D. 325 within visible, organized “Christianity”: “Although the observance of Easter was at a very early period in the practice of the Christian Church [false], a serious difference as to the day for its observance soon arose between the [true] Christians of Jewish and those of Gentile decent, which led to a long and bitter controversy…The Jewish Christians…(observed) the 14th day of the moon at evening…without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile Christians (Roman Catholics)…identified the first day of the week with the resurrection, and kept the preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month.

“Generally speaking, the Western Churches (Roman Catholic) kept Easter on the 1st day of the week, while the Eastern Churches [including the remnant of the true Church] followed the Jewish rule [the true Christian Passover].

“Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist (last of the 12 apostles), and bishop of Smyrna, visited Rome in 159 (sic) to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject, and urged the tradition which he had received from the apostles of observing the 14th day. Anicetus, however, declined. About forty years later (197), the question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia. That province [embracing churches founded through the apostle Paul, like Antioch and all of those identified in Revelation 2 and 3 as the true Church] was the only portion of Christendom which still adhered to the Jewish usage. Victor demanded that all should adopt the usage prevailing at Rome. This Polycrates firmly refused to agree to, and urged many weighty reasons to the contrary, whereupon Victor proceeded to excommunicate Polycrates and the Christians who continued the [correct] Eastern usage. He was, however, restrained (by counsel from other bishops) from actually proceeding to enforce the decree of excommunication…and the Asiatic churches retained their usage unmolested. We find the Jewish usage (the true New Testament Passover) from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.

“A final settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led Constantine [Roman Emperor] to summon the council at Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the 14th day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and that none hereafter should follow the blindness of the Jews. [Or, in other words, no one was allowed to follow the example of Christ and the true Church He founded!]…The FEW who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the [politically organized] church, and continued to keep the 14th day, were named Quartodecimani [from the Latin word for 14], and the dispute itself is known as the Quartodeciman controversy” (Vol. VIII, pp. 828-829).

This is a very powerful quote making absolutely plain the full story of what happened and how it happened. History records that Polycarp was martyred on the way back from Rome (burned to death in a farmhouse), just days after his meeting with Anicetus over the issue of keeping Passover or Easter. He was almost certainly killed because he would not compromise regarding the proper keeping of the Passover.

The 1967 New Catholic Encyclopedia states this: “Occasionally, the Quartodecimans celebrated Easter on the day that other Christians were observing Good Friday. Originally both observances were allowed, but gradually it was felt incongruous that Christians should celebrate Easter on a Jewish feast, and unity in celebrating the principal Christian feast was called for” (Vol. 5, p. 8).

Now read this quote from the same source, concluding the matter of how the Council of Nicea “decided,” for all, the matter of Easter versus Passover: “As for Easter, the Fathers decreed (1) that all Christians should observe it on the same day, (2) that Jewish customs should not be followed, and (3) that the practice of the West, of Egypt, and of other Churches should remain in force, namely, of celebrating Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox” (Vol. 5, p. 433).

The 1909 edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia says, “After the Pope’s strong measures the Quarterdecimans seemed to have gradually dwindled away. Origen in the “Philosophumena” (VIII, xviii) seems to regard them as a mere handful of wrong-headed nonconformists. SECOND PHASE—The second stage of the Easter controversy centers around the Council of Nicaea [A.D. 325] granting that the great Easter festival was always to be held on a Sunday, and was not to be coincident with a particular phase of the moon, which might occur on any day of the week” (Vol. 5, p. 228).

The truth is that the Passover was always tied directly to the moon, regardless of the day of the week on which it fell! (The word month is derived from moon.) The 14th day of Nisan (Abib) was God’s instruction (Exodus 12:1-6)—not the nearest Sunday to this or any other date.

This same edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia, when describing the final decision at Nicaea in A.D. 325, quotes the words of the Emperor Constantine, writing to all the churches: “At this meeting the question concerning the most holy day of Easter was discussed, and it was resolved by the united judgment of all present that this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day…And first of all it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin…for we have received from our Saviour a different way [this is false because Christ did not ever instruct “a different way”]…And I myself have undertaken that this decision should meet with the approval of your Sagacities in the hope that your Wisdoms will gladly admit that practice which is observed at once in the city of Rome and in Africa, throughout Italy and in Egypt…with entire unity of judgment.” (Vol. 5, p. 228).

Finally, this same source continues a few paragraphs later with, “The final decision always lay with accepted ecclesiastical authority…was primarily a matter of ecclesiastical discipline and not astronomical science” (p. 229). These two short phrases make it clear that church authority at Rome, and not God’s Word, determined whether Easter or the Passover would be kept.

Only the “few” remained faithful to the truth—and it has always been this way. Eventually, as the false pagan church grew in political influence, the death penalty was imposed on anyone found keeping God’s seventh-day Sabbath or His other Festivals, such as the Passover. True Christians have always had to flee to wherever they could continue keeping God’s commandments and truths.

Throughout the centuries, though ignored and persecuted by the world, these same Christians (a single true Church of God) have always held to and kept the truth of God on this vital doctrinal point—as well as many other true biblical doctrines!

The Passover Was Commanded

We have already seen that God never instructed, but rather actually commanded against, keeping Easter. It has always been His purpose that the Passover should be kept once a year—forever. The early portions of this booklet briefly discussed the New Testament instruction to keep the Passover through the newly instituted symbols of the bread and wine.

The New Testament Passover also includes an ordinance of humility called the footwashing. This instruction is found in John 13:2-15 and was commanded by Christ to be taught to all who would learn God’s doctrines. Christ commanded His disciples, “Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them…Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).

This instruction includes the Passover, with the footwashing and the symbols of the bread and wine. It also includes keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread and the rest of God’s annual feast days. If you are determined to no longer participate in this world’s Easter tradition, then the previously offered booklet How Often Should the Lord’s Supper Be Taken? will help you learn what is entailed in keeping God’s New Testament Passover service. The Restored Church of God can help you learn how to do this.

What Will You Do?

Can Easter be kept “in honor of Christ”? Some may say, “Okay, I know Easter comes from paganism—but I’m not pagan! I celebrate it in honor of Christ. I focus on Him.” Because God knew that Israel would feel this way when they encountered the religious customs of pagan nations, and would try to use false customs to honor the true God, He gave the instruction in Deuteronomy 12:28-32. God always commanded that people worship Him exactly as He instructed! So did Christ.

Jesus told the Pharisees, “Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition…in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:6, 9). Mark’s parallel account adds an important element: “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition” (7:9). These verses have clear application to those who reject the Passover that they may keep pagan Easter.

Hundreds of millions keep the rank idolatrous pagan feast known as Easter, believing themselves to be honoring Jesus Christ! Most are in complete ignorance of what they are doing. God’s answer to all is “…the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30)!
 

From Easter Back to the Passover

The following is from the conclusion of Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet The Plain Truth About EASTER. It follows a brief overview of the importance of keeping God’s Passover instead of pagan Easter:

“We need to return to the faith once delivered. Let us humbly and obediently observe this sacred ordinance [Passover] as we are commanded, at the scriptural time, after sunset, the 14th of Abib [Nisan] according to the Sacred Calendar.”

The True Meaning of Lent

What is Lent? Why is it so widely practiced by “Christians” of this world? Is it because the Bible commands it? Did Christ or any of His apostles observe Lent? What about the first century Church? What does the Bible teach about Lent?

Unlike New Year’s, Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day and other pagan holidays that are celebrated by the secular, non-religious world, the Lenten season is observed by dedicated religious believers.

From Ash Wednesday to Easter, many solemnly mark their foreheads with ash, “fasting” (or abstaining from certain foods or physical pleasures) for 40 days. This is done to supposedly imitate Jesus Christ’s 40-day fast in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-2). Some give up smoking. Others give up chewing gum. Still others give up over-eating or cursing. People vow to give up anything, as long as it prepares them for Easter.

People who observe Lent may be religious, dedicated and sincere—but they are sincerely wrong.

Let’s examine Lent, its practices and customs, its historic and religious origins, and its true meaning from the Bible’s perspective, not from the “traditions of men” (Mark 7:7-9).

Examining Lent’s Purpose

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the real aim of Lent is, above all else, to prepare men for the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ…the better the preparation the more effective the celebration will be. One can effectively relive the mystery only with purified mind and heart. The purpose of Lent is to provide that purification by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts.”

On the surface, this belief sounds sincere. However, it does not agree with the Bible, God’s Holy Word, the only source of true spiritual knowledge and understanding (John 17:17). God, through the apostle Paul, commands Christians to “continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them; and that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Tim. 3:14-17).

First, understand that the “celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ” to which the preceding quote refers is so-called “Good Friday” and “Easter Sunday”—holidays deeply rooted in ancient paganism. They were instituted by mainstream Christianity in order to counterfeit and replace the Passover season. Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread were observed by Christ, the original apostles and the New Testament Church—including Gentiles. God commands His people to observe them today (I Cor. 5:7-8).

Second, the Bible says that we are purified—cleansed, set apart and made pure in God’s sight—by the shed blood of Jesus Christ (Heb. 9:11-14, 22; 13:12). This, along with faith (Acts 15:9) and humbly submitting to and obeying God (James 4:7-10) through His truth and prayer (John 17:17; I Tim. 4:5), makes us clean before God. No amount of fasting, abstaining from physical pleasures or any other form of self-denial can purify us.

Third, you cannot, of and by yourself, create within you “the desire to do God’s will.” True, God has given mankind free moral agency. But the carnal, natural mind cannot—will not—submit to God. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit…Because the carnal mind is enmity [hostile] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:5, 7).

Only through a converted mind, actively led by the Holy Spirit, can God work “in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

And fourth, “to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts” is a false tradition taught by this world’s brand of Christianity. It is not taught in the Bible. God is not setting up His kingdom in the hearts of men.

So where did Lent originate? How did it come to be so widely observed by mainstream Christianity?

Approved by Official State Religion

Believe it or not, Lent was never observed by Christ or His apostles. He commanded His disciples to “Go you therefore, and teach all nations…teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus never commanded them to observe Lent or Easter. He did, however, command them to keep Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. In fact, during His last Passover on earth, Christ gave detailed instructions on how to observe the Passover service. He also instituted new Passover symbols (John 13:1-17).

Notice what Alexander Hislop wrote in his book The Two Babylons: “The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third and fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter…That festival [Passover] was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. ‘It ought to be known,’ said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive [New Testament] Church with the Church of his day, ‘that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate.’”

Lent was not observed by the first century Church! It was first addressed by the church at Rome during the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, when Emperor Constantine officially recognized that church as the Roman Empire’s state religion. Any other form of Christianity that held to doctrines contrary to the Roman church was considered an enemy of the state.

In A.D. 360, the Council of Laodicea officially commanded Lent to be observed.

Originally, people did not observe Lent for more than a week. Some kept it for one or two days. Others kept it for 40 consecutive hours, falsely believing that only 40 hours had elapsed between Christ’s death and resurrection.

Eventually, it became a 40-day period of fasting or abstaining from certain foods. “The emphasis was not so much on the fasting as on the spiritual renewal that the preparation for Easter demanded. It was simply a period marked by fasting, but not necessarily one in which the faithful fasted every day. However, as time went on, more and more emphasis was laid upon fasting…During the early centuries (from the fifth century on especially) the observance of the fast was very strict. Only one meal a day, toward evening was allowed: flesh meat and fish, and in most places even eggs and dairy products, were absolutely forbidden. Meat was not even allowed on Sundays” (Catholic Encyclopedia).

From the ninth century onward, Lent’s strict rules were relaxed. Greater emphasis was given to performing “penitential works” than to fasting and abstinence. According to the apostolic constitution Poenitemini of Pope Paul IV (Feb. 17, 1966), “abstinence is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of the year that do not fall on holy days of obligation, and fasting as well as abstinence is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday” (Catholic Encyclopedia).

Today, Lent is used for “fasting from sin and from vice…forsaking sin and sinful ways.” It is a season “for penance, which means sorrow for sin and conversion to God.” This tradition teaches that fasting and employing self-discipline during Lent will give a worshipper the “control over himself that he needs to purify his heart and renew his life.”

However, the Bible clearly shows that self-control—temperance—comes from having God’s Holy Spirit working in the life of a converted mind (Gal. 5:16, 17, 22). Fasting—of and by itself—cannot produce godly self-control.

Paul warned against using self-denial as a tool to rely on your own will. He called it “will worship.” “Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, (touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh” (Col. 2:20-23).

God did not design fasting as a tool for penance, “beating yourself up” or developing will power: “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?” (Isa. 58:5-7).

God’s people humble themselves through fasting in order to draw closer to Him—so that they can learn to think and act like Him—so that they can live His way of life in all things. Notice what the prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the Lord” (9:23-24). Fasting (and prayer) helps Christians draw closer to God.
 

Lent’s Ancient Roots

Coming from the Anglo-Saxon Lencten, meaning “spring,” Lent originated in the ancient Babylonian mystery religion. “The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess…Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz” (The Two Babylons).

Tammuz was the false Messiah of the Babylonians—a satanic counterfeit of Jesus Christ!

So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house;and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.Eze 8:14 NKJ

The Feast of Tammuz was usually celebrated in June (also called the “month of Tammuz”). Lent was held 40 days before the feast, “celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing.” This is why Lent means “spring”; it took place from spring to early summer.

The Bible records ancient Judah worshipping this false Messiah: “Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz” (Ezek. 8:14-15). This was a great abomination in God’s eyes!

But why did the church at Rome institute such a pagan holiday?

“To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands” (The Two Babylons).

The Roman church replaced Passover with Easter, moving the pagan Feast of Tammuz to early spring, “Christianizing” it. Lent moved with it.

“This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent” (The Two Babylons).

Before giving up personal sins and vices during Lent, the pagans held a wild, “anything goes” celebration to make sure that they got in their share of debaucheries and perversities—what the world celebrates as Mardi Gras today.
 

Abomination Masked as Christianity

God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). He never instituted Lent, a pagan observance connecting debauchery to the supposed resurrection of a false Messiah.

God commands His people to follow Him—not the traditions of men. God’s ways are higher, better than man’s (Isa. 55:8-9). Men cannot determine for themselves right from wrong or how to properly worship God. Why? Because “the heart [mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9), and “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (10:23). God designed us and gave us life. He knows how we are supposed to worship Him.

To be a Christian and properly serve God, you must live “by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4), recognizing that His Holy Scriptures “cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

God commands Christians to flee from the pagan traditions and customs of this world (Rev. 18:2-4), currently led and deceived by Satan the devil (II Cor. 4:4; Rev. 12:9).

Lent may seem like a sincere, heartfelt religious observance. But it is deeply rooted in pagan ideas that counterfeit God’s plan.

God hates all pagan observances (Jer. 10:2-3; Lev. 18:3, 30; Deut. 7:1-5, 16). They cannot be “Christianized” or made clean by men. That includes Lent.

Now you know the true meaning of Lent.

DO PEOPLE WANT THE TRUTH? OVERALL?? --THE OVERALL WITNESS IS NO!


MAN (AS AWHOLE) HAS REJECTED GOD FROM THE BEGINNING....For God is TRUTH and Satan is the father of all lies!! For the Scriptures shows that no 'lie is of--comes from the truth' (God)!!

SATAN'S CLAUSE OR GOD'S LAWS? PEOPLE OF GOD?

CHRISTMAS? SATAN'S CLAUSE?

TOPICS TO COVER:

1. WHEN DOES THE BIBLE SHOW THAT CHRIST WAS ACTUALLY BORN? WHERE DO WE GET DEC 25TH FROM?

2. ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES CAN CHRIST BE HONORED BY THIS HOLIDAY?

3.  WHAT ARE THE ROOTS OF THE MODERN DAY "MASS OF CHRIST"?


Where did Christmas originate? From the Bible or paganism? What is the real  origin of Santa Claus—mistletoe—Christmas trees—holly wreaths—and the custom of exchanging gifts? Many are concerned about putting “Christ back into Christmas.” Was He ever there?

Christmas is thought by most to be a wonderful time, focusing the participants on giving, family togetherness, beautiful music and decorations, feasting on special foods and singing Christmas carols throughout the neighborhood (as my family did every year). All of this is supposedly centered around the worship of Christ. Surely the Bible instructs us to do all this—right?

Why do people think that Christmas is wonderful? It certainly felt  wonderful to me. I trusted what my parents told me. I had no reason to doubt them. They were merely teaching me what their parents had taught them. I never questioned the true origin of Christmas!

Most never reflect on why they believe what they believe or do what they do. We live in a world filled with customs, but few ever seek to understand their origin. We generally accept them without question. Most people basically do what everyone else does—because it is easy and natural!

Let’s carefully examine the roots of Christmas. Let’s look at why people follow the customs associated with it. Why is it kept on December 25th? Did the early New Testament Church keep it? Let’s avoid all assumptions and only accept what can be proven!

In 1990, the Solon, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb) school board banned all nativity and other Christmas scenes on any school property because they felt it violated the separation of church and state. They were challenged in court when outraged parents opposed them, feeling that Christmas was being stolen from their children and the community. The board lost the case!  The citizenry had contended that Christmas was a worldwide tradition that was not part of, and transcended, religion. It was deemed to be secular—a part of virtually all cultures worldwide.

The court decision affirmed that Christmas has no Christian roots! However, the court’s opinion also noted that Bible reading and prayer obviously are associated with Christianity—(i.e., could not be "in" the schools...where's the outrage, it's so ironic because people ask "where's the morality of our youth", but no one fights for the ways of God, yet His ways are the on way to live a moral-'righteous unto God' life). We give our children "everything" that this world has to offer but we do not fight to hard for their eternal salvation, to teach them of the ways of God and encourage such in our homes, schools, communities and workplace....yet God's word--and (belief) obedience thereof--is the only way to true happiness, peace, prosperity and love.

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice—the return of the sun—and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun  with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak—some would say its worst moments—in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…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 on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. Many additional sources could be cited and we will return to this later. Let’s begin to tie some other facts together.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honoring “Christ.”

Can Christ be Honored by Christmas?

The most common justification that one will hear regarding Christmas is that people have replaced old pagan customs and intents by asserting that they are now “focusing on Christ.” I have heard many say that they are “honoring Christ” in their Christmas-keeping. The problem is that God does not say this is acceptable to Him! Actually, He plainly commands against it! Keeping Christmas dishonors Christ! He considers everything about it to be an abomination! We will soon see why.

Christ said, “But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9). Christmas is not a command of God—it is a tradition of men. Christ continued, “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:9). Every year, throughout the world, on December 25th, hundreds of millions do just that!

We will see that God plainly commands, “Follow not the way of the heathen.” But most people do not fear God, and He allows them to make their own decisions. Human beings are free moral agents—free to obey (believe) or disobey (disbelieve) God! But woe to those who ignore the plain Word of God (the 'simplicity' of Jesus Christ, the Word of God)!

Was Christ Born on December 25th?

Christ was born in the fall of the year. Many have mistakenly believed He was born around the beginning of winter—December 25th! They are wrong! Notice the Adam Clarke Commentary, volume 5, page 370, New York edition: “It was custom among Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts about the Passover [early spring], and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain.” The first rains began in early-to-mid fall. Continuing with this same quote: “During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As…the first rain began early in the month of March-esvan, 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.”

Luke 2:8 explains that when Christ was born, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” Note that they were “abiding” in the field. This never happened in December. Both Ezra 10:9-13 and the Song of Solomon 2:11 show that winter was the rainy season and shepherds could not stay on cold, open fields at night.

Numerous encyclopedias plainly state that Christ was not born on December 25th! The Catholic Encyclopedia directly confirms this. In all likelihood, Christ was born in the fall! A lengthy technical explanation would prove this point.

Since we now know that December 25th was nowhere near Christ’s actual birthdate, where did the festival associated with this date come from?

Now read this quote under “Christmas”: “In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchanging of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and central Europe. Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edit. Vol. II, p. 903).

A final quote about the selection of December 25th as the birthdate of Christ is necessary. Note an article in The Toronto Star, December 1984, by Alan Edmonds, entitled, “We owe a lot to Druids, Dutch”: “The Reformation cast a blight on Christmas. By then, of course, clever ecclesiastical politicians had adopted the Pagan mid-winter festival as the alleged birthdate of Jesus, of Nazareth, and thrown in a few other Pagan goodies to make their takeover more palatable.”

December 25th was not selected because it was the birth of Christ or because it was even near it. It was selected because it coincided with the idolatrous pagan festival Saturnalia—and this celebration must be carefully examined. In any event, we do not know the exact date of Christ’s birth. While God certainly could have made it known, He chose to hide it from the world’s eyes!

Who Was Saturn?

Previous quotes introduced the subject of the Saturnalia. Let’s carefully study just exactly who Saturn was. Consider the following quote from another large American newspaper, The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, December 1984: “The Roman festival of Saturnalia, Dec. 17-24, moved citizens to decorate their homes with greens and lights and give gifts to children and the poor. The Dec. 25 festival of natalis solis invicti, the birth of the unconquered sun, was decreed by the emperor Aurelian in A.D. 274 as a Winter Solstice celebration, and sometime (later)…was Christianized as a date to celebrate the birth of the Son of Light.”

Dr. William Gutsch, chairman of the American Museum of Natural History—Hayden Planetarium, further confirmed the original name of Christmas with this quote on December 18, 1989, in a Westchester, New York, newspaper, The Reporter Dispatch:

“The early Romans were not celebrating Christmas but rather a pagan feast called the Saturnalia. It occurred each year around the beginning of winter, or the winter solstice. This was the time when the sun had taken its lowest path across the sky and the days were beginning to lengthen, thus assuring another season of growth.

“If many of the trappings of the Saturnalia, however, seem to parallel what so many of us do today, we can see where we borrowed…our holiday traditions. And indeed, it has been suggested that while Christ was most likely not born in late December, the early Christians—then still an outlawed sect—moved Christmas to the time of the Saturnalia to draw as little attention as possible to themselves while they celebrated their own holiday.”

The Saturnalia, of course, celebrated Saturn—the fire god. Saturn was the god of sowing (planting) because heat from the sun was required to allow for planting and growth of crops. He was also worshipped in this dead-of-winter festival so that he would come back (he was the “sun”) and warm the earth again so that spring planting could occur. The planet Saturn was later named after him because, among all of the planets, with its rings and bright red color, it best represented the god of fire!

Virtually every civilization has a fire/sun god. The Egyptians (and sometimes Romans) called him Vulcan. The Greeks named him Kronos, as did the Phoenicians—but they also called him Saturn. The Babylonians called him Tammuz (as Nimrod, resurrected in the person of his son), Molech or Baal (as did the Druids). These were all simply the various names for Nimrod. Nimrod was considered the father of all the Babylonian gods.

Child Sacrifice

Notice this horrible practice associated with the worship of the fire god (Nimrod, Saturn, Kronos, Molech and Baal) in the following quote from The Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop, page 231:

“Now, this is in exact accordance with the character of the Great Head of the system of fire-worship. Nimrod, as the representative of the devouring fire to which human victims, and especially children, were offered in sacrifice, was regarded as the great child-devourer…he was, of course, the actual father of all the Babylonian gods; and, therefore, in that character he was afterwards universally regarded. As the Father of the gods, he was, as we have seen, called Kronos; and every one knows that the classical story of Kronos was just this, that, ‘he devoured his sons as soon as they were born.’ (Lempriere Classical Dictionary, ‘Saturn.’)…This legend has a further and deeper meaning; but, as applied to Nimrod, or ‘The Horned One,’ it just refers to the fact, that, as the representative of Moloch or Baal, infants were the most acceptable offerings at his altar. We have ample and melancholy evidence on this subject from the records of antiquity. ‘The Phoenicians,’ says Eusebius, ‘every year sacrificed their beloved and only-begotten children to Kronos or Saturn.’”

But why was human sacrifice such a key to the worship of this terrible god? What possible good could human beings think they saw in slaughtering their own children? Continuing: “…he who approached the fire would receive a light from divinity” and “through divine fire all the stains produced by generations could be purged away.” Therefore, “children were made to pass through the fire unto Molech” (Jer. 32:35).

As incredible as it seems, deceived human beings actually believed they were pleasing their “god” by sacrificing their own innocent little children to him. They believed fire purified them from original sin. The pagan doctrine of spending time in purgatory to purge the soul from all sin derives from this belief!

Who Was Nimrod?

We must now look more closely at who this biblical figure, Nimrod, was. We have already seen him as one of history’s original false gods, but what else can be learned?

Genesis 10:9 says of Nimrod, “He was a mighty hunter before [in place of] the Lord.” He actually tried to replace God.

The famous Jewish historian, Josephus, records in Josephus Antiquities important evidence of Nimrod’s role in the post-flood world. Notice: “He also gradually changed the government into tyranny…He [Nimrod] also said he would be revenged on God, if He should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach…Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God” (Bk. I, Ch. IV, sec. 2, 3).

Under many names, mankind’s earliest and perhaps greatest rebel has been worshipped throughout false religion. Ancient Israel kept falling into serving the many false gods that Nimrod represented.

Ezekiel 8:13-14 records a picture of the women of Israel “weeping for Tammuz.” This Tammuz (the god of fire) was considered to be Nimrod and the etymology of the word itself is fascinating. Tam means “to make perfect” and muz “fire.” The meaning is clear in light of what we have already learned. Incidentally, in the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Desert Storm War, Saddam Hussein even named one of his missiles the “Tammuz.” He certainly understood that its meaning included fire.

Burned to Molech
Let’s see how God’s people, Israel, worshipped Baal/Molech once they had departed from the true God: “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind, that they should do this abomination…” (Jer. 32:35).

Notice that God Himself says that such horrible abominations never even entered His mind: “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into My mind: Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter” (Jer. 19:5). Verse 6 ties the valley of Tophet or Hinnom to this practice. Jeremiah 7:31 connects Tophet and Hinnom to child sacrifice. Tophet means “the drum.” Drums were played to drown the screams of victims in the flames.

Notice this quote from Paradise Lost, by John Milton, about the terrible god Molech: “First Moloch, horrid king besmear’d with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents tears, Though, for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire To his grim Idol.” Of course, everyone will say that they do not sacrifice their children to Molech today, but read on.

In the New Testament, the martyr Stephen was stoned to death, at least partly, because he indicted his listeners for the worship of this evil idol (Acts 7:43).

When righteous King Josiah came to the throne, as king of Judah, he destroyed the altars in the Valley of Tophet (or Hinnom—the very same valley Christ likened to “gehenna” fire in Mark 9:43-49) soon after coming to power. He realized the great evil of the practices taking place there.

The Druids and Human Sacrifice


Many people have heard of the Druids. Few know who and what they were. We will refer to them later and tie them to other well-known Christmas practices. We must first establish their historic role in human sacrifice.

Julius Caesar is the best-known source of information about the Druids. This comes from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This quote, under “Druids,” clearly explains who they were: “Druids, the learned class among the ancient Celts, whose name means Knowing (or Finding) the Oak Tree. They seem to have frequented Oak forests and acted as priests, teachers and judges. The earliest known records of the Druids come from the 3rd century [B.C.]…Druids took charge of public and private sacrifices, and many young men went to them for instruction. They judged all public and private quarrels and decreed the penalty…The Druids principle doctrine was that the soul was immortal…(they) offered human victims for those who were gravely sick or in danger of death in battle. Huge wickerwork images were filled with living men and then burned; although the Druids chose criminals by preference, they sacrificed innocent victims if necessary.”

The Old Testament is filled with God’s condemnation of Israel for practicing the customs of the nations around them—and we are gathering important facts revealing a shocking picture.

The Role of Cannibalism

Another truth about the origin of Christmas springs from the modern word cannibal. This practice has its roots in a prime function of all priests of Baal. Keep in mind that the Hebrew word for priest is Cahn.

Consider the following quote from The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, page 232: “And it was a principle of the Mosaic law, a principle no doubt derived from the patriarchal faith, that the priest must partake of whatever was offered as a sin-offering (Numbers xviii. 9, 10). Hence, the priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that ‘Cahna-Bal,’ the ‘Priest of Baal,’ is the established word in our own tongue for a devourer of human flesh.”

The reality of this can be lost on no one! It is also true that most civilizations have a tradition that has involved cannibalism. Notice this statement from The New York Times, “What Is the Meaning of Cannibalism?” by Erik Eckholm: “Cannibalism has once fascinated and repelled virtually every known society, including those said to have practiced it.”

This same article went on to show that most civilizations also attached divine significance to its practice.

What About the Santa Myth?


Have you considered that you could also be burning, even sacrificing, your children today (though in a different way) in your practice of Christmas, while you may be trying to sincerely “focus on Christ”?

Parents reason that they owe the whole Christmas myth to their children! Christmas traditions are focused primarily on kids, and they are certainly the center of most of what happens. I know because I kept seventeen Christmases. My older sister and younger brother and I were the recipients of much and the givers of very little on that day—and it all started with the Santa Claus lie.

Some years ago, a priest in New Jersey told his Sunday school class that Santa was a myth. The outrage from parents and his supervisors was swift. He had “killed Santa!” He had “destroyed family tradition!” He had “usurped family authority,” the article continued. He was officially censored by his superiors for being “overzealous and insensitive.”

His crime? He told the truth!

According to Langer’s Encyclopedia of World History, (article “Santa”), “Santa” was a common name for Nimrod throughout Asia Minor. This was also the same fire god who came down the chimneys of the ancient pagans and the same fire god to whom infants were burned and eaten in human sacrifice among those who were once God’s people.

Today Santa Claus comes from “Saint Nicholas.” Washington Irving, in 1809, is responsible for remaking the original old, stern bishop of this same name into the new “jolly St. Nick” in his Knickerbocker History of New York. (Most of the rest of America’s Christmas traditions are even more recent than this.) “Old Nick” has long been recognized as a term for the devil.

In Revelation 2:6 and 15, we read about a “doctrine of the Nicolaitanes,” which Christ twice tells His Church “[He] hates.” Let’s analyze the word Nicolaitane. It means “follower of Nicholas.” Nikos means “conqueror, destroyer.” Laos means, “people.” Nicolaitanes, then, are people who follow the conqueror or destroyer—Nimrod. If you have believed that following Christmas is an innocent Christian custom, let this truth sink in!

Is It Scriptural to Exchange Gifts?

Merchants regularly report that over 60% of their annual retail sales occur during the Christmas shopping season. This represents a tremendous amount of gift buying. Most today believe that gift-giving comes from the Bible example of the “three wise men” (the Bible gives no number) presenting gifts to Christ. Is this true? Where did exchanging gifts come from, and what does God’s Word say about it?

The Bibliotheca Sacra states, “The interchange of presents between friends is a like characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows” (Vol. 12, pp. 153-155).

Like every other aspect of Christmas, the shocking truth is that even this supposed Christian custom does not come from the Bible. It is an irony that people love to believe they are following the custom of the wise men giving to Christ, when actually they are giving almost exclusively to each other! What hypocrisy! Christ is completely forgotten.

The Bible actually teaches that Christians should not keep birthdays. Numerous scriptures make this principle clear. However, what if you went to a birthday party that had been prepared for you and everybody gave gifts to each other and you were left out? The idea is ridiculous! If this happened, you would say that people were being selfish and forgetting you. In fact, most people give to others on Christmas merely because they expect to receive gifts themselves!

Let’s briefly return to the “wise men” who gave gifts to Christ. The scripture describing this is 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.”

It is commonly supposed that these were birthday presents for “baby Jesus.” But is this what the Bible actually says? Absolutely not! First, it is important to note that they did give the gifts to Jesus. They did not stand in His presence and exchange gifts among themselves or give them to others. The gifts were “presented unto Him.” Also, they arrived well after His “birthday.” This is another reason these could not have been “birthday presents.”

A long-standing, ancient custom of the East was to present gifts when coming before a king. These men understood they were in the presence of the “King of the Jews.” The Bible carries many examples of people sending gifts to kings or presenting them upon arrival into their presence. This custom is common today when ambassadors or others come into the presence of a world leader.

Finally, notice what the Adam Clarke Commentary, volume 5, page 46, states about what really happened on this occasion: “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. This custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Seas Islands.” Gifts were customarily presented to kings.

What could be more plain?

The Origin of the Christmas Tree

No booklet about Christmas is complete without some explanation of the “Christmas tree.” We have touched on it without directly focusing on it. The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany. But the Germans got it from the Romans, who got it from the Babylonians and the Egyptians.

The following demonstrates what the Babylonians believe about the origin of the Christmas tree: “An old Babylonish fable told of an evergreen tree which sprang out of a dead tree stump. The old stump symbolized the dead Nimrod, the new evergreen tree symbolized that Nimrod had come to life again in Tammuz! Among the Druids the oak was sacred, among the Egyptians it was the palm, and in Rome it was the fir, which was decorated with red berries during the Saturnalia!” (Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs, p. 242).

Frederick J. Haskin’s Answers to Questions states, “The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era.” Did you know this—that the Christmas tree long preceded Christianity?

Most aspects of Christmas are not referred to in the Bible. Of course, the reason is that they are not from God—they are not part of the way He wants people to worship Him. The Christmas tree, however, is directly mentioned in the Bible! Turn to Jeremiah 10:2-5, “Thus says the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen…For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts 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. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”

This plain description of the modern Christmas tree is clear. God directly refers to it as “the way of the heathen.” Just as directly, He commands His people to “learn not the way of the heathen,” calling these customs “vain.” Verse 23 adds a remarkable and powerful statement: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his [own] steps.” God must teach people how to live. Man simply cannot figure out God’s ways for himself.

There is no room in Jeremiah 10 to believe, as some have tried to suggest, that because these trees are powerless of themselves, it is not really forbidden to have a Christmas tree. God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command!

The Source of Holly Wreaths, Yule Logs and Mistletoe

The Encyclopedia Americana states, “The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log…are relics of pre-Christian times.” In other words, paganism! The Yule log was commonly used in a rite of Teutonic nature worship.

Frederick Haskin further states, “The use of the Christmas wreath is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan custom of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as our Christmas.”

The Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Celastrales,” exposes the origin of the holly wreath: “European pagans brought holly sprays into their homes, offering them to the fairy people of the forests as refuges from the harsh winter weather. During the Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival, branches of holly were exchanged as tokens of friendship. The earliest Roman Christians apparently used holly as a decoration at the Christmas season.”

There are dozens of different types of holly. Virtually all of them come in male and female varieties—such as “Blue Prince and Blue Princess” or “Blue Boy and Blue Girl” or “China Boy and China Girl.” Female holly plants cannot have berries unless a nearby male plant pollinates them. It is easy to see why the holly wreath found its way into pagan rituals as a token of friendship and fertility!

Christmas is incomplete to many unless it involves “kissing under the mistletoe.” This pagan custom was natural on a night that involved much revelry done in the spirit of drunken orgies. Just like today, this “kissing” usually occurred at the beginning of the Saturnalia/Christmas celebration. I will never forget having to always kiss my friends’ mothers upon entering each of their houses every Christmas. It was the first thing that we did. I hated it—but it was something I “had to do”! Mistletoe was considered to have special powers of healing for those who “reveled” under it.

The Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Santalales,” states, “The European mistletoe is thought to have had special ritual significance in Druidical ceremonies and lives in folklore today, its special status as the Christmas mistletoe having come from Anglo-Saxon times.” Mistletoe is a parasite that lives on oak trees. (Recall that the Druids worshipped in oak tree groves.) The ancient Celtics (associated with the Druids) used to give mistletoe as an herbal remedy to barren animals to make them fertile. It is still referred to as “all healer” in Celtic.

Like mistletoe, holly berries were also thought to be sacred to the sun god. The original “sun log” came to be called the yule log. “Yule” simply means “wheel,” which has long been a pagan representation of the sun. No wonder people today commonly speak of the “sacred yule-tide season.”

Worship of the True God Mixed with False Practices

The modern term for merging false pagan customs with the worship of the true God is called syncretism. Anyone who did this in ancient Israel was put to death (Lev. 18:21, 29)! It was that serious!

A fascinating look into how Israel thought and believed, in their own minds, that they were worshipping God as an entire nation, comes from II Kings 17:33: “They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from there.”

Did you grasp this? Yes, they feared the true God while serving other gods. No wonder the very next verse (34) states that they really “fear NOT the Lord” according to the way God commanded. This is how God views what people are doing today—no matter what these people copying ancient pagan practices might think of their own actions!

Verse 30 says that all this had been learned from contact with “the men of Babylon” (among others), whose chief god, we will recall, was Nimrod (Baal or Molech)—who we now know were one and the same.

Notice how specific was God’s warning to Israel in Deuteronomy 12:29-31, and why He warned them! “When the Lord your God shall cut off the nations from before you…and you succeed them, and dwell in their land; Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. You shall not do so unto the Lord your God: for every abomination to the Lord, which He hates, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods.”

Many verses, similar to Deuteronomy 12, should be carefully studied. (See Exodus 34:10-17; 23:23-33; Leviticus 20:22-26; Deuteronomy 20:13-18, etc.) The true God knew that serving other gods always led to sacrificing children to them!

Deuteronomy 12:32 made clear that God does not want us to mix His ways with any false ways: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.”

These are God’s plain words to all who say that they can mix the horrible customs of outright paganism with a supposed “focus on Christ.”

Ancient Israel’s Pagan Practices in Modern Customs

Deuteronomy 12:2-4 establishes an important context. God plainly says, “You shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which you shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And you shall overthrow their altars…and burn their groves with fire…you shall not do so unto the Lord your God.”

Notice God’s references to “every green tree” and “their groves.” There are at least ten similar verses throughout the Old Testament referring to “green trees” and their association with idolatry. Historians hold that the reference to the term “green” refers to green year-round—evergreen trees!

Once again, let’s more closely examine the actual history and origins of some of the Saturnalia customs still practiced today. Notice the following chilling quote from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, “Oscilla” 3rd edition, volume II: “…all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were exchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting ‘Lo Saturnalia.’ An offering was made beneath a decorated evergreen tree, according to the pagan poet, Virgil. Figurines and masks—called ‘oscilla’—were hung on the tree, as are Christmas decorations today. History admits…there can be no doubt that we have in these ‘oscilla’ a relic of human sacrifice…”

Doesn’t all of this sound familiar? Presents, singing in the streets, evergreen trees, decorations, offerings under the tree, merrymaking, feasting? They may sound wonderful, but they represent things that are truly abominable.

Modern oscilla look like chubby little “angels” when hanging on a tree. I placed these little “angel babies” on our tree, myself, as a small child. At least I thought they were angel babies. How wrong I was! Do you think any of your friends realize what they really represent? Of course not—but that does not make it any less serious or less wrong in God’s eyes!

Outright Paganism Blended into the Church


One additional source demonstrates how this all came to be a heritage practiced so “innocently” by millions—yet far from innocent in God’s sight. Now read the following quote from Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, volume 10, pages 1062-3: “Christianity…by a complex and gradual process…became the official religion of the [Roman] empire.

“For a time, coins and other monuments continued to link Christian doctrines with worship of the sun, to which Constantine had been addicted previously. But even when this phase came to an end, Roman paganism continued to exert other, permanent influences, great and small…The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals, notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra. But, most of all, the mainstream of Western Christianity owed ancient Rome the firm discipline that gave it stability and shape.”

An authority as reputable as the Encyclopedia Britannica actually acknowledges, for any willing to see, that the Saturnalia and ancient Rome are what defined the “discipline…stability and shape” of Western Christianity!

This is a truly stunning admission!

The next powerful quote reveals how this idolatrous, pagan festival slipped into the “Christian” world. It is from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, under “Christmas”:

“How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 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 merry-making 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.”

One additional source reveals how the Roman church absorbed Christmas into an official celebration. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, states, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church…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…”

Thus, a pagan festival, celebrated long before Christ’s birth, found its way into recognized Christianity.

Did you know that even the seventeenth century Puritans of New England understood how wrong Christmas was? They actually banned its observance by law, in 1659, throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fines and imprisonment could result from being found keeping it. It was almost 200 years (1856) before people stopped working on Christmas in Boston. The Puritans knew its roots and labeled it “heathen, papist idolatry.”
Those Who “Change Times and Laws”

The prophet Daniel (7:8) speaks of a “little horn,” which (7:25) “shall speak great words against the Most High…and think to change times and laws.” This little horn is a great religious authority that attempts to superimpose its own view of dates and celebrations, on an unsuspecting world, in place of God’s plain instruction.

The Hebrew word translated “change” means to “transform, alter or set.” The word translated “times” means “appointed occasions, seasons or times.” The Hebrew word translated “laws” means “decrees or laws of God.” When put together, this phrase refers to an authority that attempts to “transform appointed occasions and seasons within the Law of God.” Certainly, Christmas is a great example of how this has been done. God’s instructions have been replaced with religious traditions of men.

The following quote reveals how this has happened. It also comes from the Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Christianity”: “Thus, the Easter liturgy has been developed more highly in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Christmas liturgy more highly in the Roman Catholic Church…The Christian calendar is the most widely disseminated Christian institution. The seven-day week and the rhythm of the Christian festivals have been accepted even by most of the non-Christian countries. Despite energetic attempts at the introduction of a sliding work week, the seven-day week with work-free Sunday could not be eliminated even in Communist states with an Atheist world view. Even in Atheistic circles and organizations throughout the world, Christian holidays enjoy an undisputed popularity as work-free days…especially Christmas.”

Truly, it has been the “ecclesiastical politicians,” referred to earlier, who have sought to impose the modern “Christian” calendar on an unknowing world. It is these leaders who have “thought to change times and laws.”

The Dangerous Power of Lies

One of Satan’s names is Destroyer (Rev. 9:11). Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal, like Satan, is the fire god who destroys and devours little children.

The real Jesus Christ was never in and never will be in Christmas! He cannot be put back into where He has never been. But the “god of this world,” Satan (II Cor. 4:4), has always been in Christmas. He is its author!

The true God commands that we “must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). This does not mesh with the great Christmas and Santa Claus lies that all children so willingly believe.

I Timothy 4:2 warns of those “speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Parents can “burn” their own children, to the point of searing them, with the Christmas deception and lie!

There is no “safety in numbers” in this world for those who keep Christmas, because Satan, who is called “the father of lies” and “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), has “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)! Turn to this verse and read it. Then recognize that Christmas is certainly a testimony to that great deception.

But Christ refers to His Church as a “little flock” (Luke 12:32). Many other verses show this. This Church does not have the large numbers of the respected, established brands of the Christianity of this world.

“Another ­ Jesus”

There is another problem with the idea of “putting Christ back in Christmas”—and it is big! The “Jesus” that is the focus of this season is not the true Jesus Christ of the Bible!

Most have been taught that there is only one Jesus Christ. But God’s Word speaks of a counterfeit, and this substitute Christ is identifiable in history. The proof? The apostle Paul warned of “another Jesus.”

Grasp what is at stake ­ here!

First, consider Paul’s entire introduction as he sets the stage for the warning that follows: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent [Satan] beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11:3).

Now for the actual warning in the next verse: “For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him” (II Cor. 11:4). The Corinthians seemed to “bear with this” without much ­ resistance.

Paul, under inspiration of the true Jesus Christ of the Bible, was moved to record the peril of unwittingly following “another Jesus.” Consider. Most have probably never remotely considered the idea of a false Jesus for even a ­ moment—that ­ there is such a thing as a wrong, different and “false ­ Christ” (Matt. 24:23-24)—­ called “another Jesus.” In the past, this “Jesus” has even corrupted the thinking of true Christians. This much is plain. But the “subtilty” of how this can happen, and how it has occurred in history, is so ­ deceptive—­ so ­ seductive—­ that even true Christians can unknowingly slip into worshipping this ­ so-­ called Jesus. This is what was happening to the ­ Corinthians.

People can worship in ways that represent things that are far different than what they sincerely believe or intend. Bible “believers” today can think that they are worshipping the true Savior when they are really worshipping a false ­savior—­another Jesus! The entirety of traditional Christianity is actually worshipping Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal. The modern mother/child “Mary/Jesus” emphasis, including the worshipful adoration of Mary by millions, is a parallel with Nimrod and his mother, Semiramis, that cannot be ­ missed.

Here is the point of what is being explained. Many speak of “putting Christ back into Christmas.” This is heard every year from thousands of pulpits and elsewhere. But the true Christ was never there! Just as a person cannot go back into a room that he had never entered, Jesus Christ cannot be “put back” into an event that He has never been in, and that He in fact hates! (Again, see Mark 7:7.) The Jesus that these preachers and religionists have in mind is another Christ, one with another gospel, another spirit—the Christmas spirit!—bringing totally different doctrines and teachings.

Can you see the connection?

What Should You Do?

Finally, let’s examine what God told His people they should do and the way they ought to teach their children.

Recall Jeremiah 7:31, where God condemned Israel for burning their children in the Valley of Tophet. Eight verses earlier (vs. 23-24), God had made plain what He requires: “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not…but walked…in the imagination of their evil heart…”

Human beings do not want to obey God (Rom. 8:7). They would rather follow their own “imagination.” They do not understand that God wants their lives to go “well.” He wants happiness, joy and blessings to flow into people’s lives. All these are the results of obeying Him.

God inspired Moses to warn parents of the grave responsibility that they have in what and how they teach their children. Notice His instruction in Deuteronomy 6:1, 6-7, 20-21, 25: “Now these are the commandments…which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it…And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up…And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say unto your son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.”

God took Israel out of Egypt—from slavery—out of the customs of the world around them and revealed His Law to them. He does not want His people going back to the traditions, customs and ways from which He has called them.

When all of the interconnected traditions, filled with the symbolism of worshipping an ancient pagan, humanly devised god, are taught, this is not worshipping the true Creator.

We Have not Known that Christmas is of Babylon

Jesus said twice, in Matthew 7:16 and 20, that “you shall know them by their fruits.” Everything that people say or do, good or bad, has fruits. The fruits of Christmas are terrible. This season leads the entire year in adultery, loneliness, jealousy, drunkenness and drunk driving, family arguments (and worse), and accumulation of debt that often lasts until March. This problem is so significant that almost all churches typically report that their incomes—how ironic—drop during this period as people “recover” from all their spending!

The Real “Christmas Spirit”

The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression” (58:1). I have done this. Now that you have read the plain truth about the true origin of Christmas, what will you do?

The next quote comes from the booklet The Plain Truth About Christmas, by Herbert W. Armstrong. It summarizes the booklet you have just read:

“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 you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues’—now soon to fall—is the warning of Revelation 18:4 [emphasis mine].

“This year, instead of gift-trading, why not put that money into God’s Work?”


"Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And TEACH THEM TO YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR GRANDCHILDREN, (Deuteronomy 4:9 NKJ)

especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and THAT THEY MAY TEACH THEIR CHILDREN.' (Deuteronomy 4:10 NKJ)

You shall TEACH THEM DILIGENTLY TO YOUR CHILDREN, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:7 NKJ)

YOU SHALL TEACH THEM TO YOUR CHILDREN, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 11:19 NKJ)

For I have known him, in order THAT HE MAY COMMAND HIS CHILDREN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD AFTER HIM, THAT THEY KEEP THE WAY OF THE LORD, TO DO RIGHTEOUSNESS and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." (Genesis 18:19 NKJ)

For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours AND OUR CHILDREN'S; NOW THEN, WHATEVER GOD HAS SAID TO YOU, DO IT." (Genesis 31:16 NKJ)

And he lifted his eyes and saw the women and children, and said, "Who are these with you?" So he said, "THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GRACIOUSLY GIVEN your servant." (Genesis 33:5 NKJ)

You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and YOU SHALL BE NEAR TO ME, YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN, YOUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have. (Genesis 45:10 NKJ)

And it shall be, when your children say to you, 'WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THIS SERVICE?'  that you shall say, 'IT IS THE PASSOVER SACRIFICE OF THE LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.' " SO THE PEOPLE BOWED THEIR HEADS AND WORSHIPED. (Exodus 12:26-27 NKJ)

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed CHRIST, OUR PASSOVER, WAS SACRIFICED FOR US. (1 Corinthians 5:7 NKJ)

THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity AND TRUTH. (1 Corinthians 5:8 NKJ)

"YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A CARVED IMAGE, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; (Exodus 20:4 NKJ)

you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers ON THE CHILDREN TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATIONS OF THOSE WHO HATE ME,(Exodus 20:5 NKJ; Deuteronomy 5:9 NKJ)

'The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS ON THE CHILDREN TO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION.' (Numbers 14:18 NKJ)

keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN AND THE CHILDREN'S CHILDREN TO THE THIRD AND THE FOURTH GENERATION." (Exodus 34:7 NKJ)

Oh, THAT THEY HAD SUCH A HEART IN THEM that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and WITH THEIR CHILDREN FOREVER! (Exodus 20:6 NKJ)

You shall not eat it, THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU, WHEN YOU DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD. (Deuteronomy 12:25 NKJ)


Observe and OBEY all these words which I command you, THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN AFTER YOU FOREVER, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 12:28 NKJ)


FOR HE SAID, "THEY ARE INDEED MY PEOPLE, CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT DISLOYAL." SO HE BECAME THEIR SAVIOR. (Isaiah 63:8 CJB)


THEY WILL NOT TOIL IN VAIN OR RAISE CHILDREN TO BE DESTROYED, FOR THEY ARE THE SEED BLESSED BY ADONAI; AND THEIR OFFSPRING WITH THEM. (ISAIAH 65:23 CJB)

And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, For THEY ARE A PERVERSE GENERATION, CHILDREN IN WHOM IS NO FAITH. (Deuteronomy 32:20 NKJ)

AND ALL THY CHILDREN SHALL BE TAUGHT OF THE LORD; AND GREAT SHALL BE THE PEACE OF THY CHILDREN. (ISAIAH 54:13 KJV)

"YOU ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE LORD YOUR GOD; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. (Deuteronomy 14:1 NKJ)

that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, THAT HE MAY NOT TURN ASIDE FROM THE COMMANDMENT TO THE RIGHT HAND OR TO THE LEFT, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, HE AND HIS CHILDREN in the midst of Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:20 NKJ)

"But come here, You SONS OF THE SORCERESS, You OFFSPRING OF THE ADULTERER AND THE HARLOT! (Isaiah 57:3 NKJ)

ENFLAMING YOURSELVES WITH IDOLS UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE, SLAYING THE CHILDREN IN THE VALLEYS UNDER THE CLIFTS OF THE ROCKS? (Isaiah 57:5 KJV)


Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, WHICH YOU KEPT BACK BY FRAUD, cry out; and the cries of the reapers HAVE REACHED THE EARS OF THE LORD OF SABAOTH.  (James 5:4 NKJ)

'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, IN THE DAY OF YOUR FAST YOU FIND PLEASURE, AND EXPLOIT ALL YOUR LABORERS. (Isaiah 58:3 NKJ)

Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? WOULD YOU CALL THIS A FAST, AND AN ACCEPTABLE DAY TO THE LORD? (Isaiah 58:5 NKJ)

"How can you say, 'We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us'? Look, THE FALSE PEN OF THE SCRIBE CERTAINLY WORKS FALSEHOOD. (Jeremiah 8:8 NKJ)

Whom do you ridicule? Against whom do you make a wide mouth And stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, Offspring of falsehood, (Isaiah 57:4 NKJ)

The children gather the wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough TO MAKE CAKES FOR THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN; AND, JUST TO PROVOKE ME, THEY POUR OUT DRINK OFFERINGS TO OTHER gods! (Jeremiah 7:18 CJB)

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers , CHILDREN THAT ARE CORRUPTERS : THEY HAVE FORSAKEN THE LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger , THEY ARE GONE AWAY BACKWARD. (Isaiah 1:4 KJV)

Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, THAT TAKE COUNSEL, BUT NOT OF ME; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, THAT THEY MAY ADD SIN TO SIN: (Isaiah 30:1 KJV)

While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images  By the green trees on the high hills. THUS SAYS THE LORD: "CURSED IS THE MAN WHO TRUSTS IN MAN And makes flesh his strength, WHOSE HEART DEPARTS FROM THE LORD. (Jeremiah 17: 4-5 NKJ)

They have built the high places of Ba'al, in order to burn up their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al - SOMETHING I NEVER ORDERED OR SAID; IT NEVER EVEN ENTERED MY MIND. (Jeremiah 19:5 CJB)

I will utter My judgments Against them concerning all their wickedness, Because THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME, Burned incense to other gods, AND WORSHIPED THE WORKS OF THEIR OWN HANDS. (Jeremiah 1:16 NKJ)

You display your grace to thousands but also repay the guilt of the fathers into the lap of THEIR CHILDREN WHO FOLLOW THEM. Great, powerful God, whose name is ADONAI-Tzva'ot, (Jeremiah 32:18 CJB)

I will give them singleness of heart and singleness of purpose, so that they will fear me forever - THIS WILL BE FOR THEIR OWN GOOD AND FOR THE GOOD OF THEIR CHILDREN AFTER THEM. (Jeremiah 32:39 CJB)

Now therefore, THUS SAYS THE LORD, THE GOD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF ISRAEL: 'WHY DO YOU COMMIT THIS GREAT EVIL AGAINST YOURSELVES, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain, (Jeremiah 44:7 NKJ)

KILLING MY CHILDREN, handing them over and setting them apart for [these idols]? (Ezekiel 16:21 CJB)

They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, FOR THEY HAVE BEGOTTEN PAGAN CHILDREN. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage. (Hosea 5:7 NKJ)

"I will stretch out My hand against Judah, And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I WILL CUT OFF EVERY TRACE OF BAAL FROM THIS PLACE, THE NAMES OF THE IDOLATROUS PRIESTS WITH THE PAGAN PRIESTS--(Zephaniah 1:4 NKJ)

In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and YOUR WORKS MAY BE ABOLISHED. (Ezekiel 6:6 NKJ)

Thus says the Lord God: "Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and WITH ALL YOUR ABOMINABLE IDOLS, and BECAUSE OF THE BLOOD OF YOUR CHILDREN WHICH YOU GAVE TO THEM, (Ezekiel 16:36 NKJ)


Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. NEVERTHELESS PAGAN WOMEN CAUSED EVEN HIM TO SIN. (Nehemiah 13:26 NKJ)

Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after OTHER gods: BUT HE KEPT NOT THAT WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED . (1 Kings 11:10)

Should we then hear of your doing all THIS GREAT EVIL, transgressing AGAINST OUR GOD by MARRYING PAGAN WOMEN?" (Nehemiah 13:27 NKJ)

But King SOLOMON LOVED MANY FOREIGN WOMEN, as well as THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites-- (1 Kings 11:1)

Thus I CLEANSED THEM OF EVERYTHING PAGAN. I also assigned duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, (Nehemiah 13:30 NKJ)

No, what I am saying is that the things which PAGANS SACRIFICE, they sacrifice NOT TO GOD BUT TO DEMONS; and I don't want you to become sharers of the demons! (1 Corinthians 10:20 CJB)

For SOLOMON WENT AFTER ASHTORETH the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. (1 Kings 11:5)

Rather, he lived in the manner of the kings of Isra'el; HE EVEN MADE HIS SON PASS THROUGH FIRE [AS A SACRIFICE], IN KEEPING WITH THE ABOMINABLE PRACTICES OF THE PAGANS, whom ADONAI had thrown out ahead of the people of Isra'el. (2 Kings 16:3 CJB)

 "I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But THEY WENT TO BAAL PEOR, AND SEPARATED THEMSELVES to that shame; THEY BECAME AN ABOMINATION LIKE THE THING THEY LOVED. (Hosea 9:10)

Moreover, he made offerings in the Ben-Hinnom Valley and even burned up his own children as sacrifices, in keeping with the HORRIBLE PRACTICES OF THE PAGANS, whom ADONAI had thrown out ahead of the people of Isra'el. (2 Chronicles 28:3 CJB)

For THE STATUTES OF OMRI ARE KEPT; All the works of Ahab's house ARE DONE; And YOU WALK IN THEIR COUNSELS, That I may make you a desolation, And your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people."  (Micah 6:16 NKJ)

You know that when you were pagans, NO MATTER HOW YOU FELT YOU WERE BEING LED, you were being led ASTRAY TO IDOLS, which can't speak at all. (1 Corinthians 12:2 CJB)

Therefore I say this - indeed, in union with the Lord I insist on it: DO NOT LIVE ANY LONGER AS THE PAGANS LIVE, with their sterile ways of thinking. (Ephesians 4:17 CJB)

For YOU HAVE SPENT ENOUGH TIME ALREADY LIVING THE WAY THE PAGANS WANT YOU TO live - in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and FORBIDDEN IDOL-WORSHIP. (1 Peter 4:3 CJB)

But ALL THEIR WORKS THEY DO TO BE SEEN BY MEN. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. (Matthew 23:5 NKJ)

PHYLACTERIES--Used as early as the 3rd century B.C. Modern Jews wear phylacteries on an undergarment called a tallith (prayer veil).

 "Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: 'Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, WHO GIVES ANY OF HIS DESCENDANTS TO MOLECH, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. (Leviticus 20:2 NKJ)

without giving in to lustful desires, LIKE THE PAGANS WHO DON'T KNOW GOD. (1 Thessalonians 4:5 CJB)

"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'THE FEASTS OF THE LORD, which you shall PROCLAIM TO BE HOLY CONVOCATIONS, THESE ARE MY FEASTS. (Leviticus 23:2 NKJ)

So Moses declared to the children of Israel THE FEASTS OF THE LORD (Leviticus 23:44 NKJ)

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your GOOD works AND GLORIFY YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN. (Matthew 5:16 NKJ)

WE WILL NOT HIDE THEM FROM THEIR CHILDREN, TELLING TO THE GENERATION TO COME THE PRAISES OF THE LORD, AND HIS STRENGTH AND HIS WONDERFUL WORKS THAT HE HAS DONE. (Psalms 78:4 NKJ)

By this we know that we love the children of God, WHEN WE LOVE GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. (1 John 5:2 NKJ)

FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3 NKJ)

HERE IS THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:12 NKJ)

And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST.  (Revelation 12:17 NKJ)

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, FOR THIS IS MAN'S ALL. (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NKJ)

And THEY WERE BOTH RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD, WALKING IN ALL THE COMMANDMENTS AND ORDINANCES OF THE LORD BLAMELESS. (Luke 1:6 NKJ)

Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, BUT KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD IS WHAT MATTERS. (1 Corinthians 7:19 NKJ)

THE LORD WILL ESTABLISH YOU AS A HOLY PEOPLE TO HIMSELF, just as He has sworn to you, IF YOU KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD AND WALK IN HIS WAYS. (Deuteronomy 28:9 NKJ)

REPENTANCE IS NECESSARY FOR "SIN"--INCLUDING "UNINTENTIONAL" SIN (FOR GOD WILL NOT DWELL IN "SIN" AND HE LIES NOT) 'SEE IT AS ALL SCRIPTURE AS SPIRITUAL FOR GOD IS SPIRIT--WE ARE "PHYSICAL" (SEE LEV 4). ALL OF THE CEREMONIAL, RITUAL, CLEANSING, PHYSICAL ORDINANCES AND SACRIFICES ALL POINTED TO CHRIST, HIS WORK DURING HIS FIRST COMING--HIS WORK SINCE HIS SECOND COMING--AND HIS WORK WHEN HE COMES TO ESTABLISH THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH, REIGNING FOR 1,000 YRS WITH THE 144,000. SIN IS SIN TO GOD AND WE FIND THAT BREAKING ANY ONE POINT IS BREAKING THEM ALL AND WE FIND THAT THE LAW OF GOD IS A "SPIRITUAL" LAW, INVOLVING NOT ONLY THE ACTIONS BUT ALSO THE THOUGHTS, ATTITUDES AND WORDS OF OUR MOUTH. FOR WE COMMIT MURDER WHEN WE HAVE HATE IN OUR HEART FOR ANOTHER; AS THOUGHTS OF LUST MAKE US ADULTERERS--AS DO KEEPING DAYS CREATED BY SATAN AND HIS DEMONS MAKE US "SPIRITUAL" ADULTERERS--IDOLATERS!!! BREAKING ONE OF MORE OF GOD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS IS BREAKING THEM ALL TO GOD; SIN IS SIN AND SIN IS THE BREAKING OF GOD'S TEN (AND NOT HAVING FAITH IN HIS WORD--WRITTEN--THE "HOLY" BIBLE; MADE FLESH--"CHRIST" THE MESSIAH).

So the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "SPEAK TO THE CONGREGATION, saying, 'Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.' " Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spoke to the congregation, SAYING, "DEPART NOW FROM THE TENTS OF THESE WICKED MEN! TOUCH NOTHING OF THEIRS, LEST YOU BE CONSUMED IN ALL THEIR SINS."  And he spoke to the congregation, saying, "Depart now from the tents of these wicked men! Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins."  So they got away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little children. (Numbers 16:23-27 NKJ)


And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4 NKJ)

ONE GENERATION SHALL PRAISE YOUR WORKS TO ANOTHER, And shall declare Your mighty acts. (Psalms 145:4 NKJ)

and said, "Yes! I tell you that unless you change and BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN, you won't even enter the Kingdom of Heaven! (Matthew 18:3 CJB)--{WE MUST BE TEACHABLE (HUMBLE BEFORE OUR FATHER AND TEACHER}

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN BELONGS TO SUCH AS THESE." (Matthew 19:14 NIV)

"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked Him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " 'FROM THE LIPS OF CHILDREN AND INFANTS YOU HAVE ORDAINED PRAISE'?" (Matthew 21:16 NIV)

For you used to be darkness; but now, united with the Lord, you are light. LIVE LIKE CHILDREN OF LIGHT, (Ephesians 5:8 CJB)


so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, without defect IN THE MIDST OF A TWISTED AND PERVERTED GENERATION, among whom you shine like stars in the sky, (Philippians 2:15 CJB)

So it is with us - WHEN WE WERE "CHILDREN" WE WERE SLAVES TO THE ELEMENTAL SPIRITS OF THE UNIVERSE;(Galatians  4:3 CJB)

SO IMITATE GOD, AS HIS DEAR CHILDREN; (Ephesians 5:1 CJB)

FOR THE PROMISE IS TO YOU AND TO YOUR CHILDREN, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." (Acts 2:39 NKJ)

He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: " 'YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BECOME YOUR FATHER. ' (Acts 13:33 NIV)

SO, SINCE WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD, WE SHOULDN'T SUPPOSE that God's essence resembles gold, silver or stone shaped by human technique and imagination. (Acts 17:29 CJB)

"'I said to their children in the desert, "DON'T LIVE BY THE LAWS OF YOUR FATHERS, OBSERVE THEIR RULINGS OR DEFILE YOURSELVES WITH THEIR IDOLS. (Ezekiel 20:18 CJB

They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. (Psalms 106:37 CJB)

"BUT THAT GENERATION ALSO DEFIED ME. THEY BROKE MY LAWS AND DID NOT KEEP MY COMMANDS, which bring life to anyone who obeys them. THEY PROFANED THE SABBATH. I was ready to let them feel THE FORCE OF MY ANGER there in the desert and to kill them all. (Ezekiel 20:21 GNT)

"I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. (Hosea 2:4 NKJ)

and WHEN OFFERING YOUR GIFTS, YOU MAKE YOUR CHILDREN PASS THROUGH THE FIRE AND DEFILE YOURSELVES WITH ALL YOUR IDOLS - to this day. So, am I supposed to allow you to consult me, house of Isra'el? As I live,' says Adonai ELOHIM, 'I swear that I won't have you consult me, (Ezekiel 20:31 CJB)

For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. PEOPLE KNOW NEITHER LOVE NOR HATRED BY ANYTHING THEY SEE BEFORE THEM. (Ecclesiastes 9:1 NKJ)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; BECAUSE YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF YOUR GOD, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6 NKJ)

For AFTER KILLING THEIR CHILDREN FOR THEIR IDOLS, they came THE SAME DAY INTO MY SANCTUARY TO PROFANE IT; this they did IN MY HOUSE. (Ezekiel 23:39 CJB)

When the Lord first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, "Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her. IN THE SAME WAY MY PEOPLE HAVE LEFT ME AND BECOME UNFAITHFUL." (Hosea 1:2 GNT)--{GOD GIVES MANY "PHYSICAL" EXAMPLES TO SHOW "SPIRITUAL" ADULTRY--UNFAITHFULNESS TO HIM.

FOR YOUR MAKER IS YOUR HUSBAND, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called THE GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. (Isaiah 54:5 NKJ)

BRING CHARGES AGAINST YOUR MOTHER, bring charges; For SHE IS NOT MY WIFE, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away HER HARLOTRIES from her sight, And HER ADULTERIES from between her breasts; (Hosea 2:2 NKJ)

And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5 NKJ)

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, MY SOUL SHALL BE JOYFUL IN MY GOD; For HE HAS CLOTHED ME WITH THE GARMENTS OF SALVATION, HE HAS COVERED ME WITH THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10 NKJ)

For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, SO SHALL YOUR GOD REJOICE OVER YOU. (Isaiah 62:5 NKJ)

the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, THE VOICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE, THE VOICE OF THOSE WHO WILL SAY: "PRAISE THE LORD OF HOSTS, FOR THE LORD IS GOOD, FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOREVER"-- and of those who will BRING THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,' says the Lord. (Jeremiah 33:11 NKJ)

Then I, John, saw THE HOLY CITY, NEW JERUSALEM, coming down OUT OF HEAVEN FROM GOD, prepared AS A BRIDE ADORNED FOR HER HUSBAND. (Revelation 21:2 NKJ)

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, "COME, I WILL SHOW YOU THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE." (Revelation 21:9 NKJ)

And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" AND LET HIM WHO HEARS SAY, "COME!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17 NKJ)

"Oh, WHAT CAN I COMPARE THIS GENERATION WITH? They're like children sitting in the marketplaces, calling out to each other, (Matthew 11:16 CJB)

"I will sow them among the peoples, And THEY SHALL REMEMBER ME IN FAR COUNTRIES; They shall live, together with their children, And they shall return. (Zechariah 10:9 NKJ)

A TEACHER OF THE FOOLISH, having in the law THE FORM OF KNOWLEDGE and of what is true; (Romans 2:20 BBE)

AND HE WILL TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN, AND THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN TO THEIR FATHERS, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." (Malachi 4:6 NKJ)


Have you not known? HAVE YOU NOT HEARD? HAS IT NOT BEEN TOLD YOU FROM THE BEGINNING? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? (Isaiah 40:21 NKJ)

Who has performed and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning? ' I, THE LORD, AM THE FIRST; AND WITH THE LAST I AM HE.' " (Isaiah 41:4 NKJ)

WHO HAS DECLARED FROM THE BEGINNING, THAT WE MAY KNOW? And former times, that we may say, 'HE IS RIGHTEOUS'? Surely there is no one who shows, Surely there is no one who declares, SURELY THERE IS NO ONE WHO HEARS YOUR WORDS. (Isaiah 41:26 NKJ)

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, 'MY COUNSEL SHALL STAND, And I will do all My pleasure,' (Isaiah 46:10 NKJ)

"I HAVE DECLARED THE FORMER THINGS FROM THE BEGINNING; THEY WENT FORTH FROM MY MOUTH, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. (Isaiah 48:3 NKJ)

EVEN FROM THE BEGINNING I HAVE DECLARED IT TO YOU; BEFORE IT CAME TO PASS I PROCLAIMED IT TO YOU, Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, And my carved image and my molded image Have commanded them.' (Isaiah 48:5 NKJ)

"Come near to Me, hear this: I HAVE NOT SPOKEN IN SECRET FROM THE BEGINNING; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me." (Isaiah 48:16 NKJ)

He said to them, "Moses, BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS OF YOUR HEARTS, permitted you to divorce your wives, BUT FROM THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO. (Matthew 19:8 NKJ)

But from the beginning of the creation, GOD 'MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.'  (Mark 10:6 NKJ)

just as THOSE WHO FROM THE BEGINNING were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, (Luke 1:2 NKJ)

But there are some of you who do not believe." FOR JESUS KNEW FROM THE BEGINNING WHO THEY WERE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE, AND WHO WOULD BETRAY HIM. (John 6:64 NKJ)

YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, and THE DESIRES OF YOUR FATHER YOU WANT TO DO. He was a murderer from the beginning, and DOES NOT STAND IN THE TRUTH, BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, FOR HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF IT. (John 8:44 NKJ)

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8 NKJ)

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that NO LIE IS OF THE TRUTH. (1 John 2:21 NKJ)

And HE IS THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH, who is the beginning, tHE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18 NKJ)

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation THROUGH SANCTIFICATION BY THE SPIRIT AND BELIEF IN THE TRUTH, (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJ)


and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."(2 Peter 3:4 NKJ)--{THIS INCLUDES THE "SABBATH" WHICH HAS BEEN SINCE "THE BEGINNING"--THE FIRST WEEK OF CREATION--WHEN GOD REFORMED AND REFASHIONED THE EARTH FOR US, MANKIND, FOR IT HAD "BECOME" VOID AND WITHOUT FORM AFTER SATAN AND 1/3 OF THE ANGELS--FALLEN ANGELS--DEMONS--REBELLED AGAINST THE "WORD/WILL OF GOD"}


THAT WHICH WAS FROM THE BEGINNING, WHICH WE HAVE HEARD, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- (1 John 1:1 NKJ)

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. THE OLD COMMANDMENT IS THE WORD WHICH YOU HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING. (1 John 2:7 NKJ)

I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE WICKED ONE. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. (1 John 2:13 NKJ)

For this is THE MESSAGE THAT YOU HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, THAT WE SHOULD LOVE ONE ANOTHER, (1 John 3:11 NKJ)

And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had FROM THE BEGINNING: THAT WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER. (2 John 1:5 NKJ)

THIS IS LOVE, THAT WE WALK ACCORDING TO HIS COMMANDMENTS. THIS IS THE COMMANDMENT, THAT AS YOU HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, YOU SHOULD WALK IN IT. (2 John 1:6 NKJ)

I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE WICKED ONE. (1 John 2:14 NKJ)

THEREFORE LET THAT ABIDE IN YOU WHICH YOU HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. (1 John 2:24 NKJ)

And it shall be that THE ROD OF THE MAN WHOM I CHOOSE WILL BLOSSOM; thus I will rid Myself of the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against you." (Numbers 17:5 NKJ)

"How long shall I bear with this EVIL CONGREGATION who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make AGAINST ME. (Numbers 14:27 NKJ)

Moreover YOUR LITTLE ONES AND YOUR CHILDREN, who you say will be victims, who today have no knowledge of good and evil, THEY SHALL GO IN THERE; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. (Deuteronomy 1:39 NKJ)

And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, "WE HAVE TRESPASSED AGAINST OUR GOD, AND HAVE TAKEN PAGAN WIVES FROM THE PEOPLES OF THE LAND; yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of this. (Ezra 10:2 NKJ)

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "YOU HAVE TRANSGRESSED AND HAVE TAKEN PAGAN WIVES, ADDING TO THE GUILT OF ISRAEL. (Ezra 10:10 NKJ)

NOW THEREFORE, MAKE CONFESSION TO THE LORD GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, AND DO HIS WILL; SEPARATE YOURSELVES FROM THE PEOPLES OF THE LAND, AND FROM THE PAGAN WIVES." (EZRA 10:11 NKJ)

PLEASE, LET THE LEADERS OF OUR ENTIRE ASSEMBLY STAND; and let all those in our cities who have taken PAGAN WIVES come AT APPOINTED TIMES, together with the elders and judges of their cities, until the fierce wrath of our God is turned away from us in this matter." (Ezra 10:14 NKJ)