Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Problem With Our Traditions


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.

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