Talking about the truth behind these traditions that we
practice every year is a touchy topic seems like, since people are so attached
to their worldly things that they become defensive about the topic. For
example, if I tell you that Christmas is demonic, how do you feel right
now???......... I simply want everyone to understand what it is that you are
doing, what it means to God, and you choose for yourself whether or not you
continue in it. But at least KNOW what you are doing. Hosea 4:6 says, “My
people will perish for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge.”
Please don’t reject this knowledge. The reason people share this information is
because they don’t want YOU to PERISH, that’s all. If they didn’t care, they
wouldn’t worry about telling you. I mentioned in my last post about letting
things go, that sometimes we don’t let go because we’re scared or it’s
uncomfortable. Also, sometimes it’s because we become so engulfed in that thing
that we’ve made IT our god and not God himself. How many of you will sing
Christmas songs all day, but you have to make time to pray to God? How many of
you spend all week decorating your house for Christmas, but don’t have time to
open your bible?
As a teacher, our instruction is best when it is
student-centered. It takes work to create lessons that involves more student
interaction than lessons where the teacher just stands in the front of the
classroom and just lectures. Student-centered means the students get more out
of it. Student-centered means the student gets more of the learning. God-centered
means God gets all of the glory!
These things that we celebrate are not God-centered. We say
they are, but we say a lot of things…does that mean it’s all true?....... Look
at it this way, if Christ is really the meaning behind all of these traditions,
does that mean He’s a god that lies??? Jesus was not born on December 25, there
is no Santa Claus, there are no reindeers, there is no Easter bunny, Jesus did
not die on the cross on Good Friday and raised on Easter Sunday (that’s not
even three full days). My God is not a god that He should lie, so these
traditions should not be associated with Him. How do we sit there and take a
bunch of lies and demon celebration and put Christ on it???
I will give some background on each of these traditions and
then give what The Word says about these things. The background given is just snippets of the large amounts of
details and histories that make up these celebrations. I know some of you don’t
want to hear some of these things and possibly didn’t even know any of this,
but I look at it this way, if I reject the knowledge then I’m rejecting God. I
definitely don’t want to do that! So, let’s start at the beginning of the
Gregorian calendar, January.
The Traditions
January-New Years
New Years was derived from the Babylonian(pagan) celebration
called Akitu. This celebration took place during the first new moon that
followed the vernal equinox in March. It involved an 11 day celebration
counting down to the new year and celebrated the sky god named Marduk, whom had
defeated the evil sea goddess Tiamat. This is also the time that they crowned
their new king. Even the new year’s resolutions was Babylonian as they made
promises in order to please their gods. The Romans changed the calendar and
then it was changed again by Pope Gregory XIII (Catholic) in 1582 where new
years ended up on January 1. And eating black-eyed peas for good luck for the
new year…it’s pagan, too!
February-Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day, or St. Valentine’s Day, was originally a
fertility festival in ancient Rome called Lupercalia (or wolf festival), which honors
the god named Lupa which was a she-wolf that suckled the two founders of Rome.
This festival also honors the Roman god named Lupercus (Pan in Greek
mythology). It took place from February 13 to 15 and included the priests to
sacrifice a goat and a dog, touching women with the goat skin to produce
fertility in the next year. These women would also get matched with men to be
with for the next year using what seems to be a lottery type system. It became
Christianized then later outlawed (just renamed). This is when Lupercalia
became Valentine’s Day. It still didn’t become about love until centuries
later. During Lupercalia festival, februa was included which was an early
spring cleaning ritual, hence the name February.
March-St. Patrick’s Day
Saint Patrick’s Day is a Roman Catholic festival that honors
an Irish patron saint named Patrick. He was kidnapped and brought to Ireland
from Roman Britain. He later escaped and returned to Ireland to convert the
pagan Irish people to Christianity (Roman Catholic). He died on March 17, which
is celebrated as St. Patrick’s Day today. The green is for the shamrock that
Patrick used to teach the people about the holy trinity. He used the Celtic
cross to aid in converting pagans and getting them to understand the importance
of the cross. The Celtic cross is a combination of a cross and the sun cross,
which is a pagan symbol which finds its roots to Tammuz and Nimrod from Babylon.
April-Easter
Easter was also a pagan festival that was later converted
into Christianity. Easter, named after the fertility goddess Ishtar, Ashtoreth,
Astarte (The same deity but different in names depending on the culture) was a
festival honoring Eostre/Ishtar. Ever wondered what the rabbit and eggs had to
do with anything? (I never saw the connection because rabbits don’t lay eggs!)
Well, rabbits and eggs represented fertility (this is the fertility festival.
So, you are letting your kids are partake in fertility festivities.) When it
was converted to Christianity, it became one of the major days during the Lent
season (Roman Catholic). There’s Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, which is basically
get all of your sinning done before the fast day (part of the pagan Saturnalia
and Lupercalia celebrations); Spy Wednesday, observing the betrayal; Maundy
Thursday, which observes the last supper; Good Friday, which observes the day
of the crucifixion; Holy Saturday, which observes the days between the
crucifixion and the resurrection; Easter Sunday, which observes the
resurrection and begins the days leading to Pentecost.
July-Independence Day
One question, whose freedom are we celebrating here???..... And
wasn’t America supposedly founded in Christianity? What happened to that??
(okay, those were three questions)
October-Halloween
Halloween was a pagan festival called Samwain (SAH’ win). It
was a day that the people thought that the pagan gods and other spirits could
come into our realm more easily (rising dead). The people would dress up as
ghosts to disguise themselves and leave food and wine on the front steps in
order to keep the spirits from entering. When Christians (Roman Catholic)
converted it, it became All Hollow’s Eve, along with All Saints Day (Nov. 1)
and All Soul’s Day (Nov. 2). It all eventually merged and became Halloween and
now targets children (like the rest of these festivals). Now, my birthday is on
October 31, but please don’t call me a Halloween baby or a Spook! You will be
dismissed! (LOL) As a kid, I didn’t even care about all of this stuff. I can
get candy anytime through the year! What I need to dress up for as a demon?!
Also, Halloween or Sahmain is still celebrated by modern pagans, which are now
called Wiccans, witches, and wizards (pagan=witchcraft…starting to see it
now?). Still want you kids a part of it? That’s who they’re after!
Bonus-Columbus Day
Christopher Columbus didn’t even do any of what they teach
us that he did! So why are we even…oh wait…..Christopher Columbus was
Italian…..Roman Catholic……moving on!
November-Thanksgiving
The most “traditionally accepted” story about Thanksgiving
is where the pilgrams and native Americans had a wonderful first harvest
festival from the natives teaching the pilgrams how to grow certain crops. They
laughed, ate, and played games. There’s also the story where some years later, the
settlers (we call them pilgrims) had a big dinner to give thanks for their
victory over the natives. They slaughtered hundreds of native men, women, and children.
Many of the women and children were put into slavery. We get the lovey-dovey
stories in school because basically, that’s what we want to hear! Nobody wants
to hear this. But deep down, some of you knew that this was the true story when
they taught us isn’t quite the whole story. Thanksgiving wasn’t a tradition
until Lincoln declared it.
Bonus-Black Friday
Basically, we show up in long lines for Black Friday, but
can’t pray. We show up in long lines for Black Friday and can’t even show up at
our children’s school. We fight over TVs and game systems, but won’t fight for
our kids or fight our flesh when we know we need to live right. This day just
shows where our priorities are.
December-Christmas
Christmas! This is the big one! People don’t like you
talking about Christmas…well let’s dig in!
Just like Valentine’s Day began a Lupercalia, Christmas actually
began as a Babylonian celebration of the rebirth of the sun-god Tammuz(
Nimrod/Baal reborn/ the sun of the sun-god really), but later became known as
Saturnalia, or Yule. This festival was in honor of the Roman god Saturn and was
filled with gift-giving and partying. It began on December 17 because of the
winter solstice. This day on the Julian calendar is December 25. December 25 is
also the birth of the sun god Sol Invictus (Persian sun-god named Mithra). Notice
there is nothing about Jesus. The Roman Catholics later “Christianized” the
festival referring to it as the day of Jesus’ birth (more like the day
celebrating His birth). But there are no exact records of what specific day
Jesus was born. If this isn’t enough, let’s talk about what all Christmas
includes:
Christmas tree- Pagans cut
down and put evergreens in their houses and temple during the winter solstice
(Saturnalia). It too, was “Christianized” and hung apples on the tree to
represent the Garden of Eden, along with candles and sweet treats. The
decorations later became round, glass ornaments and lights. A pagan tree in
your house is not okay just from the fact that it’s pagan, but check out
Deuteronomy 16:21 and Jeremiah 10:1-5 (forbidden forms of worship).
Christmas lights- When light
bulbs were invented, lights were specially made for and placed on the Christmas
tree in place of candles. The candles came from the Saturnalia festival where
the people greeted each other holding the candles. The lights represented
Saturn’s light. This later became the light of Jesus.
Wreaths- You know those
leafy crowns or headbands worn by the Romans and Greeks that we have seen?
That’s what we put on our doors. They represented social status and is included
usage of Greek and Roman gods. They were made from the branches of the
evergreen trees that were also used as worship in the houses.
Mistletoe- This plant was
believed to have special powers against evil spirits, along with representing
love, friendship, and fertility (from Norse mythology). Wiccans would place
love spells on women through the mistletoe to render a woman powerless against
seduction. This is where kissing under the mistletoe came from. It was also
used as Saturnalia decorations.
Christmas carols- These
songs were also a part of the Saturnalia festival. While the people partied,
they would travel the streets and sing.
Santa Claus-
This guy that we teach our children comes into our homes at night while we are
sleeping (breaking and entering) to leave us presents is based on a combination
of deities such as hearth gods (coming down the chimney) and a pagan god named
Odin. When Christmas was “Christianized”, they renamed this god after a bishop
of Myra named Saint Nicholas. He died in December, which is how the celebration
of him ended up combining with the pagan god Odin. If that’s not enough, then
take the “n” in Santa and place it at the end of Santa and what do you
get?.....
Even Though it’s Hard for Some
Now, I know some of you may be thinking, “Ok, so what? I
don’t celebrate these things for these reasons! I just like to have fun and
spend time with family!” Others of you may be thinking, “Well, I’m hanging up
my Christmas decorations, and nobody is going to take that away from me!” Which
is true. No one is going to take them away, the choice is yours. Some of you
probably wish you never read any of this because you really want to do what’s
Godly and it breaks your heart because you’ve become so attached to these
customs and you don’t want to let go, but you know you should. And then there’s
those of you, a few, that what you’ve read so far is all you needed to know and
you’re ready to drop it all and follow God completely without throwing all of this
pagan in His face! That was me! I never understood the connections between
Jesus and trees and lights and bunnies and eggs! I was always told what the
holiday was for, but nobody could explain to me why we have a Christmas tree
with presents under it and why does it have to be so big??? Why does it have to
be in front of the window? So everyone can see how pretty it is? But is that
giving God glory?
Maybe some of you were this way, but I was that kid that
asked questions. I wanted to understand. I didn’t want to be told something and
just follow along just because I was told to. I wanted to understand what I was
doing. That’s why I fell in love with God so young, because I understood His
love, His forgiveness, and His protection and through Him, no weapon formed
against me would prosper! So, I wanted to understand all of this extra stuff we
were doing. What does the mistletoe have to do with Jesus? What do these
decorations have to do with Jesus? What does Santa and reindeer have to do with
Jesus? (And I never believed in Santa. My parents made it clear to us when we
were very little that there was no Santa and our parents gave us the presents
and we would leave cookies out for my dad for getting the presents together
while we were sleep…but why are we doing the rest of this stuff?)
I know some people also say, “but the look on my kids’ faces
Christmas morning is just priceless!” (so we lie to our children, teach them
how to lie, and wonder why they won’t worship God when they grow up) Okay, when
I was a kid, all I wanted was presents and candy. Guess what, we can get candy
and presents ANY time of the year!!! Why does it have to be on pagan festivals
just because you want to see your kids smile? (If I told my students, “let’s
have a party tomorrow in class” their faces will light up just the same!) Come
up with you own days to spend special time with family and give gifts just for
the fun of it. Give gifts any random time of the year! Give to the needy ANY
time throughout the year! Not just the end of the year. As Christians, why do
we have to take part in pagan festivals to have a nice time? Because we were
told to?? Because that’s what everyone else is doing? Because our best
childhood moments came from those times of year, so we want the same for our
own kids??? Just because it is popular doesn’t mean it’s right, and just
because it’s right doesn’t mean it’s popular. Stop following the crowd!
I love the idea of originality. Create special times with
your family that’s just for your family. Let it be just a family thing. Give
thanks to God for your family. Pray together, study the bible together, eat
together, play games together, and laugh together! But can we please stop
worshipping these other gods and putting Christ’s name on it? If you are going
to celebrate this stuff, can you not include Jesus? If you say you would like a
sparkly necklace as a gift, but I gave you a bag of garbage, how would you
feel? You don’t want it??? But I put your name on the bag……
Any who, let’s talk about what God’s Word say about all of
this.
What The Bible Says
God gave us the 10 Commandments along with the other laws to
follow (Exodus 20 1-21). These commandments are:
1. You
shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You
shall not make idols.
3. You
shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5.
Honor your father and your mother.
6. You
shall not murder.
7. You
shall not commit adultery.
8. You
shall not steal.
9. You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You
shall not covet.
The very first one says to not have other gods for the Lord
your God! You can take that to mean other gods coming first AND other gods in
His presence! Why would God be okay with us worshipping AND other gods??? 1
Corinthians 10:20-22 says, “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer
to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of
the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to
jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” We cannot serve God AND these demons. It
has to be one or the other. If you partake in the pagan’s practices, you are
offering up to demons, not God. God never told you to do that stuff. (And why
is it that we can accept that Halloween has demons, but cupid and that
leprechaun and santa aren’t demons???? I don’t know about you all, but the
stuff they do is pretty creepy!)
Ephesians 5:6-7 (please read the entire chapter) says, “Let
no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of
God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with
them.” Just because someone tells you something that sounds good doesn’t mean it
is truth. Seek for yourself in the Word. Remember, the Word is God. To add on
to Ephesians, Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by
philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” You can’t be
doing stuff just because it’s human tradition, just because it’s been done for
so many years, just because you are told some reasons that can’t even be backed
up by the Word! If someone is telling me I should put up a Christmas tree in my
house, I want them to show me in the bible where it says I need to do that!
Where in God’s Word does it even say that tree has anything to do with
Christ??? Deuteronomy 16:21 talks about not planting a tree and setting up
pillars that the Lord HATES! (Asherah-a Canaanite pagan god) Yes, He didn’t
want them beside the altar of the Lord, but for those of you that are married,
would you want you want your spouse cheating on you right in your face??? Let
alone you don’t want them cheating at all, but in your face??? God is a jealous
god!!! He doesn’t want us worshipping or even partaking in any kind of worship
to other gods!! Not to mention right there in His altar that is supposed to be
just for Him. Ladies, you wouldn’t like it if your husband took you out to
dinner (like you wanted), but brought another woman along because he likes how
she looks so he want her to come too, but say it’s all for you, but he’s
staring at her all evening. You wouldn’t react very pleasantly, which is proof
we are made in God’s image. He wouldn’t react very pleasantly either. He wants
us to worship Him! He made us!!! That’s like me giving birth to children and do
everything for them and protect them and they call someone else mommy, like I’m
not the one taking care of them and LOVING them! Do you all realize how many
times He wanted to wipe out the children of Israel for this same foolishness?
Not to mention the nations He did wipe out!
Matthew 15: 1-9 and Mark 7:3-9 talks about choosing human
traditions over God and making His word void. We rather choose Easter over
Passover. How do I know? We have easter egg hunts at church, but when someone
mentions Passover then it’s, “Oh, we’re not under that anymore! We’re not under
the law anymore and the laws for observing the feasts!” Or “that doesn’t apply
to us!” What?? But we’re quick to dress our children up for their Easter
pictures with the Easter bunny, which has nothing to do with Christ or His
Word. It’s not even in the bible to do that, but we do it with no questions,
with no hesitation. But disregard what the actual Word says.
Deuteronomy also tells us in chapter 12 verse 32 that,
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add
to it or take from it.” We can’t take Christ’s birth and add all of this
paganism to it. We can’t take Christ’s death and add all of this paganism to
it. We can follow some commandments and say the others don’t count anymore. We
can’t do these things and still call ourselves righteous. We can’t do these
things and say we are not sinning. The Word tells us that sin is lawlessness (1
John 3: 4-10) and the law tells us how not to partake in idol worship. He even
told us in Jeremiah not to even LEARN these traditions! (Jeremiah 10: 1-4)
We are so quick to celebrate these pagan feasts and God
already gave us feasts to observe. We have seven Feasts of the Lord to observe
what all the Lord has done for us, but we rather celebrate Saturnalia and offer
worship to pagan gods and put Christ’s name on it to “Christianize” it and call
it Christmas and New Years. Why go through all of that??? Let go! Let it all
go!!! We have feasts that we can make new memories with our families with and
still honor God. Teach our children that it’s all about honoring the Lord our
God!!! It’s all about remembering what all Christ did for us!!! Teaching our
children why Jesus died for them and what it means. We focus on celebrating
Christmas because of the looks on our children’s faces, but what about
celebrating Passover to remember that Jesus died to save THEM. The Lord had you
in mind AND your babies in mind. Jesus died for them, but we rather tell them
to be good for the next couple of weeks for Santa???
In my next post, we will look at the feast that were given
to us by God Himself. These feasts include:
1.
Passover
2. The Feast
of Unleavened Bread
3. The
Feast of Firstfruits
4. The
Feast of Weeks (Pentacost)
5. The
Feast of Trumpets
6. The
Day of Atonement
7. The
Feast of Booths (Tabernacles)
The true holy days!
I hope this post has been a blessing to you and an
eye opener. I hope you continue the research and continue to seek the Word and
learn more in practicing righteousness and what pleases God, not what pleases
false gods or what pleases you. Like we tell our children, I brought you in
this world, I can take you out. Well, God can do that to all of us, so let’s
honor Him and ONLY Him so He won’t have to take us out!
Amy M.
