Isaiah 1:13-15
(KJV)
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
I HAVE POSTED THIS AUDIO HERE AND ALSO BELOW.
IT'S THAT IMPORTANT.
BELOW IS PART I AND PART II TOGETHER.
Christmas
As I write this, November of 2011, we are just about a month away from another Christmas. We just had 'Black Friday' two days ago. On many news websites I frequent, I'm seeing how, once again, people are killing each other (a literal fist fight, hair pulling, punching, the works) to save $2.00 on a waffle iron. No doubt it was a purchase for a Christmas present. Who buys themselves a waffle iron? So this fight for the waffle iron is all in the name of Christ. (The dictionary defines delusion as, "A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence.")
I use to look forward to Christmas every year. Especially when I first became a believer. It was MY WAY of showing my Lord my love for Him. (Notice how I underscored MY WAY?) Little did I realize my Lord already knew how much I loved Him. (Now I was going to have to prove it.) However, when the holidays rolled around something didn't feel quite right. Maybe it was the commercialization of Christmas. Maybe it was how it seemed Christ wasn't even in Christmas anymore. I was never comfortable with Santa Claus, but it was even worse after becoming a believer. And I noticed I saw Santa more then I saw Christ around the holidays. On T.V., in the stores, decorations on houses, everywhere.
Every year I would decorate my house to the hilt. Thousands of lights, inside and out. Evergreen everywhere. I would put up a beautiful, old-fashioned little Christmas village, complete with snow and miniature gas lights all lit up. Christmas stockings hung and were filled every Christmas. The children got whatever their little hearts desired. Never mind if they deserved it, if they were good or not. Even though it got us in debt more and more every year. It was MY WAY of showing my love. Can anybody relate?
Somehow, with all this happening, all the anticipation and excitement, all the decorating and baking, come Christmas morning I felt empty. The joy, I thought, would just appear like magic just because of my enthusiasm. But it just wasn't there. Shouldn't I have felt something considering this was for the Lord. Shouldn't He had made me feel full and happy and joyful? After all, doesn't the song go, "Joy to the World"? Doesn't the Lord know this? But, I didn't see it. I didn't feel it.
A few years back, as I was reading my Bible, I read a scripture that turned my world upside down. (As they often do . . . lol.) It came out of nowhere. It wasn't even Christmas time. The scripture was Jeremiah 10:1-8, and it says this:
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 axe.
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.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
(Later, I found out I was the house of Israel. But that's for another page.)
Wow! If this didn't sound like a Christmas tree, I don't know what does. And the last verse, "the stock is a doctrine of vanities." Hmmm . . . I remember going to church on Christmas morning (they would always have a special service if Christmas didn't fall on Sunday), and hearing the scripture Luke 2:1-16, where the babe was lying in the manger, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Even my husband would read this every Christmas to our children, and he isn't at all spiritual.
For a year or two after reading that scripture I tried to dismiss the fact that Jeremiah 10:1-8 could be referring to Christmas. I just couldn't bring myself to believe God hated Christmas. But, I couldn't shake it. I just prayed and prayed, "Lord, show me what you mean. Show me the truth." And so He did. And I will show you now. It is up to you to decide for yourself if YHWH wants his children to be involved in Christmas or not. I will present to you facts from scripture, and there are a couple of audios below to listen to that tell you more about the background of Christmas.
History shows that Christmas stems from ancient pagan religions. This holiday was celebrated long before Yeshua came to the Earth in the form of a man. Later, it was incorporated into the Catholic Church centuries after the days of the Yeshua and the apostles. The Word of YEHOVAH nowhere sanctions the observance of this holiday, and instead condemns everything to do with paganism!
December 25th is actually the "birthday" of invictus sol, the "unconquerable sun" god, not Yeshua (Jesus)! It was widely observed by the pagan Romans. We can tell by the scriptures Yeshua was not born in December. They talk about shepherds were in the fields with their flocks at night. It would have been too cold, and too late in the season to be in the fields on December 25th.
However, a pagan festival was also held at this time called the Saturnalia, a time of feasting and partying, drinking, mistletoe, eggnog, exchanging of gifts, and decorating of trees - a drunken pagan debauch!
The Bible says learn not the way of heathen. As believers in Yeshua, we need to take a stand against sin and unbelief. I have no doubts anymore that Christmas is sin because it is a million miles from God’s word. How blessed we are to know the truth. Yeshua is calling his Bride out of every creed, out of every dogma, and out of every tradition of man to live a pure, sanctified life before God. "Come out of her my people." He is coming back for a spotless bride. It takes a born again experience by the Holy Spirit to stay true to the Word in this hour. Let us therefore fear God, and worship Him in spirit and truth, and obey his commandments.
Since becoming born again, I always wondered why we Christians didn't celebrate the seven feasts days the Lord directly gave us to celebrate. And instead we celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter that are not in the Bible. Well, they are in the Bible, but not in a good light.
YEHOVAH God commands, "These are the LORD's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim AT THEIR APPOINTED TIMES. The LORD's Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work . . . And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work" (Lev. 23:4-8).
For thousands of years, the Jews have celebrated the Passover, keeping a family feast after sunset, on the fifteenth of Nisan or Abib, called the Passover seder. It is a highly ritualistic meal, commemorating the deliverance of YEHOVAH's people out of Egypt and spiritual bondage. Yeshua the Messiah observed this holy day all his life, from childhood, setting us an example (Luke 2:41-48; I Pet. 2:21; I John 2:6). Yeshua added two new elements of understanding to the traditional Passover meal, when he took the unleavened bread, broke it, and said it represented his body, and the wine and said it represented his blood shed for our sins (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20). These new symbols were to become part of the traditional Passover seder. They add tremendous meaning to the whole evening, pointing to the supreme sacrifice of Yeshua the Messiah for our sins, as he was typified by the slain Passover lambs for thousands of years.
The apostle Paul plainly says true believers are to celebrate this holy festival, the Passover. He wrote to the Church at Corinth, saying, "For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us KEEP THE FESTIVAL, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:7-8).
The Passover, held at the night portion of Nisan 15, is a sacred, holy dinner, a commanded observation. It is the "night to be much observed" (Exodus 12:42), "that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations" (same verse). Originally, this was the very night when YEHOVAH God "passed over" the Israelite dwellings, where the blood of the lambs was placed on the door posts, and executed judgments upon the Egyptians, who were not protected by the blood, and who suffered the death of every firstborn in their homes (Exodus 12:6-13). This day was to be a "memorial," and it was to be observed as a "feast by an ordinance forever" (Exodus 12:14). Notice the word FOREVER.
To leave the ways of paganism and to embrace the truths of YEHOVAH God, including observance of His holy days as they are outlined in the Bible, is not easy. I know it won't be easy to just turn your back on a yearly, traditional habit. You may be afraid your family will get angry at you. Especially your children who will be deprived of gifts. People will think your nuts. But, we're not to live for people. We're to live for God. And it would be a great opportunity to spread the gospel to the lost.
As Paul wrote, "The hour has come for you to WAKE UP FROM YOUR SLUMBER, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light" (Rom. 13:11-12).
As Yeshua the Messiah put it so eloquently: "Yet a time is coming and HAS NOW COME when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and TRUTH, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in TRUTH" (John 4:23-24).
This is the truth of YEHOVAH God. And Yeshua himself told us just how important the TRUTH is, for he also said: "Your word is truth" (John 17:17); and: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will KNOW THE TRUTH, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).
Are you "free" yet from the shackles of error and the bondage of sin? Are you "free" yet from false teaching, and corrupt practices and perverted and twisted "holy days"? Have you been "delivered" into the true liberty of the knowledge of the true holy days of YEHOVAH God?
If you value your salvation and eternal life, in the kingdom of YEHOVAH God, then please take these words to heart - listen, and heed!
Besides the audios I have down below, I also heard a wonderful talk on this subject just recently from Jim Staley. He gets deeply into the customs and traditions of Christmas, and also Easter, and where these traditions came from. It is lengthy, but well worth taking the time to listen to. It is posted below as well.
Let's be honest. The journey from error to truth is not an easy one. But once you know the truth about Christmas, you may want to run, not walk, away from celebrating this holiday. I pray the teachings below will help you in your decision and help you to grow closer to the Lord.
God Bless You!
Exodus 23:24-25
24 Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.25 And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.
Galatians 4:8-11
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
These next two audios are very strong messages. You may not even want your children in the room. They are not very long. And PLEASE listen to Part II. It's stronger then Part I, but you need to hear them both.
PART I OF "THE BIRTHDAY OF THE ANTI-CHRIST"
http://branch.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-01T19_28_49-08_00
Maria Merola
www.DoublePortionInheritance.com
Maria has spent 31 years Studying scripture and is
Called to be a watchman to the house of Israel!
Tonight she brought us part one of telling us some very important fact about the Birth date of “The Anti-Christ”
“We are Warning the World as it HAPPENS!”
It is up to you to pray and sort it out!
Please visit
www.prophecyhour.com
also visit
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If you were edified by this program please make a donation. This will go to feeding the homeless.
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PART TWO OF "THE BIRTHDAY OF THE ANTI-CHRIST"
http://branch.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-11T15_04_38-08_00
Christmas Part 1
Here is a quote from a former nun, who escaped the bondage of the convent and was spreading the message of the gospel:
I am afraid that many people do not realize the serious consequences of participating in this pagan holiday. In the eyes of God it is an abomination. However, I sometimes wonder if Christians ever stop and think of how much God hates idolatry and pagan worship? If there was ever anything that provoked God to anger in the Bible, it was idolatry and pagan worship. When we look at Christmas, or even the spirit of Christmas, it is very much hated by God. Knowing this, why should we ever want to have anything to do with it? God Hates It! We should never entertain this spirit in anyway whatsoever. Even the smallest participation in Christmas is of the wrong spirit, and it will grieve the Holy Spirit. Christians (message believers especially) should separate themselves from every appearance of this evil and sinful holiday season. We should guard our mind, soul, and body from being lured into participating in Christmas. Sure, you will be persecuted when you do, but God will bless you for your obedience. It is so easy to get caught up in the spirit of this holiday because it is so enticing. Everywhere you go (the mall for instance) there are beautiful lights, greenery, pleasant music, and sweet fragrances to catch your attention. Remember one thing, sin is beautiful and pleasant to the human senses, that is why it is so easy to fall into the Christmas trap.
2 Corinthians 11:14
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
God is saying in Deuteronomy 12:28-32 not to worship Him the way the heathen worship their gods:
Deuteronomy 12:28-32
28 Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.29 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Christmas Part 2
God gave us seven feasts to observe. Feasts means appointments. I will have information posted on the feasts soon. Look for them!
1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Yeshua commanded us to remember him this way:
Luke 22:19
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Mark 7:7
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Leviticus 18:30
Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.
Jim Staley - Truth or Tradition -
Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter?
From: PassionForTruthVideo/June 27, 2011
This is BY FAR one of THE MOST POPULAR video on the internet detailing the historical accounts and biblical commentary on Christmas and Easter. Did you know that during the popular 16th century plays, before the devil would come on stage, he would announce himself by saying the phrase "Ho, Ho, Ho"? And this is where Santa got his most famous phrase! This teaching was first featured on God's Learning Channel. Jim exposes the TRUTH of where these holidays came from and how they came to be celebrated. You will be shocked at the details of this video and it is not for the faint of heart. DO NOT watch this unless you want to know the truth. Even if you already know the history, this video will challenge even you.
Truth and Tradition - By Michael Rood
Traditions can blind us from the truth and cause us to wander in the myopic fog of man-made religious systems for an entire lifetime. Join Michael on a journey "out of Babylon" and away from its pagan traditions to uncover long lost truths preserved in the Biblical record.
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Part of Vol. 1 "Out of Babylon" - "Truth and Tradition"
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