Merry Christ-mass--ho ho ho
"One of the best-known festivals of ancient Rome was the Saturnalia, a winter festival celebrated on December 17-24. Because it was a time of wild merrymaking and domestic celebrations, businesses, schools, and law courts were closed so that the public could feast, dance, gamble, and generally enjoy itself to the fullest. December 25--the birthday of Mithra, the Iranian god of light, and a day devoted to the invincible sun, as well as the day after the Saturnalia--was adopted by the church as Christmas, the nativity of Christ, to counteract the effects of these festivals."
( When they say adopted by the church, they are talking about the Roman Catholic Church AND the Russian Orthodox Church which are not Christian.)
Remember ancient Rome is where the Roman Catholic Church got its start... So Christ-mas[s] will be making more sense to you as we proceed on!
Even today we are continuing this pagan holiday. We usually have a few days to a week or more off for the merry making, partying, living it up, so to speak. We are celebrating Saturnalia and then on the 25th of December we hit the birthday of Mithra, the Iranian God of light. A celebration of the invincible sun...
The Roman Catholic Church has been doing this from their inception...
POST VATICAN II
Richard McBrien, Notre Dame theologian, "The conversion of Constantine also
allowed the Church to be less defensive about pagan culture, to learn from it and be enriched by it."
From THE GREAT MYSTERIES, Andrew Greeley, page 119, "As part of the
exuberant enthusiasm of the early Christians, Mary replaced the mother
goddesses of the pagan world."
From COLUMBIA, May 1990, VATICAN, by Robert Graham, S.J. "The
Fathers knew how to purify, bring to perfection, all that was good and true in
the work of the pagan philosophers.
SECULAR JOURNALS
From Albuquerque, NM TRIBUNE, 4/6/91, p. B-8, LIFETIMES PULLOUT. "Indians
cross themselves like Roman Catholics on the steps of Santo Tomas, a 16th
century church in Guatamala's southwestern highlands, then burn cheap rum
and speak to Malay gods.
"Inside the whitewashed church in the town of Chichicastenango, copal
incense burns before a Catholic altar. Sand and feather designs are laid
out to honor a departed relative in the Malay way.
"Chickens are sacrificed in the church; black ones for sick, red for
good luck.
"Half the 9 million people in Guatemala are Indians, and most cannot
read or write. Their religion is an amalgam of centuries-old pagan beliefs
and Catholic ritual....
Even though the Roman Catholic Church doesn't acknowledge Constantine as a Saint, the Greek Orthodox Church does. Constantine basically got Roman Catholicism on the roll...By making "Christianity" the only religon so in turn all the pagans got saved but their salvation was in name only as was Constantine's. They were not about to give up their pagan gods or holidays. So they just mixed them together and kept going. Christmas and Easter were two of the holidays the Roman Church brought together to make Christ's birth and resurrection suitable to the pagans...
Enough said here... Roman Catholicism is still incorporating paganism into their church. The pope is going all over telling heathens such as Buddhists, Voodoo people of Haiti that they are Christians like he is... I agree with him, they are Christians like he is...
Anyway Catholicism gave us Christ-mass as was shown in another article. Spurgeon refused to celebrate that day as most Christians rejected it during his time in the late 1800's... The Catholics gave us Easter too! Two of the most celebrated "Christian" holidays...
God is still telling us to come out and touch not the unclean thing...
Let's look a little more at the evergreen tree...
In another article we talked about...
Jer. 10:1-5
1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 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.
It looks as though they are dismayed at the signs of the heavens so their custom is to cut down trees in the forest and bring them indoors, fasten them down so they doesn't move and decorate them with silver and gold... Do we not see that God tells his people not to be afraid of them like the heathens are.. They can't move, do good or evil..., it reminds me of the idols in...
Psa. 115:1-8
1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
The trees in Jer. 10 are like the idols in Psa. 115...
Ezekiel 6:13
"Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols. "
We usually have some milk and cookies or today in our enlightened society, we have some gin and cookies under or close to the tree..
Jer. 3:6-8
"6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also."
God says it 10 times in 10 verses from Deuteronomy to Ezekiel that they worshipped and served their images, their gods "under every green tree" Think about it! Every green tree, a sign of perpetual life to the pagans...
Didn't we see where they offered "gifts" to their gods under every green tree in Ezekiel 6 above???
Are not many Christians and non-Christians alike offering "sweet savours" to the god of Christmas (Christ-mas[s]), St. Nicholas, Santa Claus (Satan Claws). Whatever you want to call him...
Are they not celebrating a pagan's god's birthday, "Mithra, the Iranian god of light"???
A FINAL THOUGHT ON SANTA CLAUS...
"The cult of St. Nicholas spread to Eastern Europe and eventually to the United States. While Nicholas may be the inspiration for Santa Claus, they are not one and the same. Claude Levi-Strauss, in his famous essay, "Father Christmas Executed," says Santa "is not a mythic being, for there is no myth that accounts for his origin or his function. Nor is he a legendary figure, as there is no semi-historical account attached to him. [Santa] belongs more properly to the family of the gods.""
Pull of the Pole
By Dave Ihlenfeld, Britannica.com
In other words, Santa has no beginning or no ending, so to speak...
Just as we saw what Spurgeon said in another article,
"We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Saviour was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. "
Is God putting backslidden Christians in America away and giving them a bill of divorce because they are committing adultery with a pagan world and her ways? Are we lights in this sin sick world exposing the works of darkness or a "help-meet" to its ways like Eve was to be to Adam.. In other words, are we participating in the evil causing them not to see it? (ck. Gen.2:18)
Are we now seeing the Laodicean Church in Rev. 3 being spued out of Jesus' mouth? Are we a part of it? Or are we watchmen at the gate warning others of the evil in this time of year?
Rev. 3:14-19
"14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."
Think about this in context with the pagan holiday that we call Christ-mass... Because we are neither cold or hot but lukewarm then we are playing with this holiday like it is of God showing the world that we are lukewarm in regards to Christ-mass...
We are either taking a stand by exposing it which is operating in the hot or not having anything to do with it which equals walking cold... Lukewarm is playing with this pagan holiday and with God... Hot and cold don't mix, light and darkness... They are two different extremes...
GOD SAYS,
"14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I WILL RECEIVE YOU," (II Corinthians 6:17)
Are you really living separated from the world in regards to this pagan holiday or are you celebrating it like the world is??? I don't mean necessarily in the same way such as getting drunk, partying, etc. I mean pretending it is something that it is not, feeding your greedy, sinful flesh but buying junk for you, your kids and others they don't really need anyway?
Don't be rejected by God, live for him today...
Heb. 3:12-4:3
"12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
John 9:4,5
"4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
The night is not here yet but it is fast approaching... We must work while it is day. Jesus is the light of the world and we are commanded to shine his light while we are here and while we can, the night is coming when no man can work...
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