Holidays; Holy and Pagan: INTRODUCTION (2024)

INTRODUCTION:

This work could beconsidered the second volume and or a continuation of its predecessor; Get Backto the First Century. In Get Back to the First Century we firmly establishedthe relevance and joyous, yet incumbent universal nature that the Torah (Law)has upon Believers in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) today, despite ones ethnicity(Jew or Gentile). In close connection to Torah Observance is the celebration ofthe Feasts of the LORD as found in Leviticus 23. However, it was beyond thescope of the previous volume to expound on these Feasts and their observance,nor was it the place to expose and expound on the true origins of the holidaysthat replaced them; thus the reason and necessity for this volume.

In all honesty Iput off writing this book for years. Why? Because I felt I was trying toreinvent the wheel. It only takes seconds to look this stuff up on the web andthere are tons of excellent sites and resources and a plethora of informationout there regarding the Feast of the LORD and the pagan origins of the westernChristian holidays, so why rehash it? I finally concluded that it would be niceto have such information all in one place (volume) instead of sending people onan internet quest or to suggest buying several books that covered the topics. Ialso put it off because there is so much information regarding the paganholidays, that it was intimidating on trying to find a place to start, and thatit is nearly impossible to put all the information out there concerning thesethings in one volume, and I hate to leave stuff out if I can help it. There areso many angles, cultures and time periods in which I could address them from aswell, and so I agonized on where to begin and how to lay out the information inan orderly and understandable way. I concluded that there is no way I could putevery bit of information out there into this, so I determined to try and keepit as simple and as concise as possible, knowing that if people do furtherresearch on their own after reading this book that they will uncover much, muchmore. And so this is not an exhaustive work on the subject matter, but enoughto whet ones intellectual appetite to research further and to prove the point. Somy purpose is not necessarily how to observe the Feasts of the LORD (there aremany great resources that do a good job of that), but to show you their originsand contrast them with the holidays the church at large observes that havepagan origins and to make a case for believers to reject such holidays andadopt the Divinely Appointed ones. My goal is to try to make this workenjoyable and accessible to scholar and layman alike.

My Experience and the Hard Questions:

Growing up in aProtestant (Free Will Baptist) Christian home, celebrating Christmas and Easteras well as other holidays that supposedly had Christian origins and having fondmemories of such, even as a youth, I was bewildered and questioned what a treedecked with gold and silver tinsel and balls and an egg bearing rabbit had todo with the Birth and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. What did a naked baby withwings have to do with Christ-like love? How can you honor saints that havepassed on by dressing up as monsters and having faces carved from pumpkins? How was He (God and Christ) honored by thesethings that seem to have absolutely no connection with Him or Scripture?

I was taught as achild that the celebration of Christ’s birth and resurrection came before theinfusion of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny by our consumer, secular societywhich has bleed into the observance. I was taught that, “Jesus is the Reasonfor the Season.” But as I began to look into these things for myself, I wasshocked to discover in all actuality, the very opposite was true. I was stunnedand saddened to discover that these and many other holidays touted to beChristian in origin, actually originated in ancient Babylon and Rome and wasbirthed from its pagan religions. These holidays did not have Christian originsbut pagan, and Christianity has attempted to sanitize and “Christianize” themin an effort to redeem them. But can what was offered to pagan gods be “sanitized”and taken and be offered to YHWH the Most High God? Can the customs and ritualsstay the same but just change the name to whom such rituals are addressed to? Ididn’t think so.

“When thou art come intothe land which theLordthyGod giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of thosenations.” – Deut. 18:9

“And Nadab and Abihu, thesons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and putfiretherein, and put incensethereon, and offeredstrangefirebefore theLord, whichhe commanded them not… And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offeredstrange firebefore theLord.” –Lev. 10:1, Num. 26:61

But as Iinvestigated further and spoke with Christian religious authorities that they,and many laity in Christendom, knew about the pagan origins of the “Christian”holidays and yet celebrate them anyway and say, “Jesus knows my heart.”Meaning, God knows their intentions to honor Him with these holiday observancesand celebrations and not to acknowledge or honor the pagan deities for whomthese holidays were originally for. Or they reason, “Oh it’s just fun for thekids, those holidays don’t mean what they originally did back then.”

As for those whohave read the blog series that came before this one (Get Back to the FirstCentury), I opened with hard questions, and so I do with this blog series aswell. We, as follower and proclaimer of Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), needto be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves these hard questions and respondwith honest answers, and not just ones that will please our flesh, culture ortraditions and not offend our neighbors.

Growing up in theWestern World, woven into the fabric of our lives, are various these holidaysthat festively brings families and friends together and breaks up the monotonyand the mundaneness of the year. It’s soingrained into our culture it has defined us as Westerners and has forged andhas become a part of our national Christian identity. Supposedly, thesecelebrations that have been secularized with commercialism, special sales,leprechauns, cupid, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny have Christian origins; orso we have been told, but do they? When you run across one who doesn’t celebratecertain holidays like Christmas and Easter, it feels like sacrilege, and oneassumes they are of a different religion, culture or they belong to a religiouscult, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or something. After all, even non-religiouspeople and atheists embrace the holidays, but do not acknowledge the“Christian” and or religious aspects of the holidays. But can we trulysecularize or even “Christianize” these holidays? Can you really separate thereligious aspects from such observances? The Pharisees of Yeshua’s day had atough time separating the Commands of the LORD from the traditions that havebuilt and imposed upon them.

“Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem,saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for theywash not their hands when they eat bread.But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye alsotransgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying,Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him diethe death.Butye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, bywhatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;And honour not his father or his mother, he shall befree. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by yourtradition.Yehypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,This people draweth nighunto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart isfar from me.Butin vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. –Matt. 15:1-9

The Roman CatholicChurch is much to blame for the blatant paganism that lies under the veneer ofChristianity. And Constantine is mostlyresponsible for this. Secular History records Emperor Constantine as being thefirst Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. The alleged conversionsupposedly took place in 312 AD while worshiping in the Grove of Apollo the sungod (Prior to Christianity the official Roman religion was sun god worshipcalled Mithraism) in Gaul, which is ancient France. Constantine claims to havehad a vision where Christ appeared to him telling him to put “XP” upon theshields of his troops and the very next day he claims to have seen a crosssuperimposed over the sun and heard a voice say, “In this sign you will bevictorious.” Other say the voice said, “In this sign you will conquer.”

Shortly after theEdict of Milan was issued, officially ending the persecution of Christians.

DespiteConstantine’s alleged conversion, he still worshipped the sun god. You see,Constantine had a divided kingdom of Roman sun god worshippers and JewishBelievers and Gentile Christians. They lived and worshipped differently and soin an effort to unify his empire, he simply changed the times and seasons (Dan.7:25) in which Christians worshipped to the days the Romans worshipped theirpantheon of gods and was in many ways the father of the Roman Catholic Church.The various gods were simply substituted for Mary, Jesus and the saints(apostles).

Convening theCouncil of Nicaea, Constantine, through the council was able to blendChristianity and Mithraism to create what we know today as Roman Catholicism.

Catholic missionary’sstrategy has always been to take whatever pagan culture, religion and customsthat exist among whatever people they find themselves with and synchronize andsanitize their belief system and make it “Christian.” This is why you have thepagan origins in Western Christian holidays today. The old religion and customsthat have been passed down from Babylon, to Greece, Rome, the Celts and Nordicsetc., have been “Christianized.” Baal, Osiris, Zeus, and Odin become God,Saturnalia, Mithra, Tammuz become Jesus and Simiramus, Ishtar, Venus, and Friggbecome Mary and other minor gods of the various pantheons become the veneratedsaints.

In Christianity ithas been taught and perpetuated that the things of the Old Testament, its Lawsand observances have been done away with and replaced with the celebration ofJesus’ birth at Christmas and His resurrection at Easter. We celebrate thelives of His followers at Valentine’s Day and Halloween also known as AllSaints Day. But is there really any Scriptural validation or mandate to havedone such? Or are we just fooling ourselves and actually honoring other godsand the ways of the nations whom God destroyed before Israel? Are there reallytwo different reckonings of time? Does God have a Divine clock and calendar anddoes satan have a knock off version? If so, what are they, how can we tell thedifference? And if we find out is it even possible anymore to follow God’s timetable and reject the evil one’s? And if so, will we cave and succumb tonationalistic and cultural peer pressure and comfort ourselves by saying, “Godknows my heart,” or will we have the guts to say:

“Andif itseem evil unto you to serve theLord, choose you this day whom yewill serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the otherside of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:butasformeandmyhouse, we will serve theLord.” – Josh 24:15

Making Evil, Cute.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and goodevil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter forsweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20

Thisis the number one objective, the prime directive, the method of operation inthe war room of Satan himself.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we arenot ignorant of his devices. –II Cor. 2:11

InSatanism, he is often prayed to or addressed in the reverse, in a backwardchant, whether it be a living or dead language it is pronounced and saidbackwards. Satanism habitually inverts or puts upside down symbols such as thepentagram and the cross. This is Satan’s fingerprint and calling card. He doesthe opposite and flips things around and upside down.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and goodevil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter forsweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20

Those who know mewell, knows that I am not hung up on paganism to the point of being apaga-phobic and deeming virtually everything as pagan. Nonetheless, evil andthat which is pagan at the root iscovered in a veneer of cute and cuddly fluffiness, and is thus blindly acceptedby the masses. Those who decided to celebrate the Feasts of the LORD insteadare seen as strange, unpatriotic, self-righteous, and such folks are deemed asbad parents for depriving our children of fun. After all, how can harmless,cute and cuddly fun be evil!?

Woe unto them that call evil good, and goodevil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter forsweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20

The Evil One asksoh so innocently, “Come now, how can something so cute and fun be pagan,harmful or evil?”

Lay a woolenfleece upon a wolf or put a bowtie on a bear get him to balance upon a ball andsee how cute and cuddly they really are if you try and snuggle up to them. Theymay look cute and cuddly, but they are nonetheless deadly and ravenously wildanimals.

As the old sayinggoes, no matter if you take a pile of manure, spray it with perfume and put itinto a jewel incrusted silver box and put a gilded bow around it, inside it isstill manure.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and goodevil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter forsweet, and sweet for bitter! – Isa. 5:20

People, we must takea hard look at the customs and traditions we practice in His Name.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humblethemselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turnfrom their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive theirsin, and will heal their land – II Chron. 7:14

After discoveringthe truth of these “Christianized” pagan holidays, I, in a clear consciouscould no longer celebrate or participate in them. I am without excuse.

Where Did Paganism Come From?

In archeologicaland critical historical religious literature the authors (usually agnostic,atheist or secular and with an agenda) often attempt to make one believe othercultures are older and predate that of Scriptural writ, simply because physicalevidence found is often older than the earliest Biblical manuscripts. Theyclaim that the Biblical writers took traditions and stories from these socalled older cultures and adopted them as their own creation story and floodaccount and so on. However, if one believes the inerrancy of Scripture onewould easily realize that the entire world was at one time one people, languageand culture until the confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel.Thus, in the post Babelworld everyone took the shared traditions and legends from the Creation to theFlood and all the prophecies of redemption and messiah that lies therein andmolded into what each people group has become. This is why every people grouphas a creation and flood story. Justbecause most all cultures practice or practiced at one point animal sacrifice, havelegends of virgin births, god-men messiahs, and just because these thingsappear in Christianity and Nazarene Judaism in the truthful events does notmean they were gleaned from a pre-Biblical pagan culture of Mesopotamians,Canaanites or what have you. No, we did not rip stories from them and claimedthem as our own holy history, they ripped stories from us. After all, we havethe Protoevegelium, the prophecy in Genesis (3:15), the prophecy of the god-manYeshua prior to Babel, so it stands to reason other pagan cultures would have aperverted concept of this.

I read books suchas “The Two Babylon’s” and see how Satan has perverted the truth in eachculture in an attempt to drive them away from the truth, yet the grain of thetruth lies within each culture; which lends to the possibility of a paganculture to come to the truth. Indeed, it is an ingenious plan of the evil oneto hide truth in plain sight, yet disguised in cultural paganism.

For these reasonsI believe the ADONAI, Yeshua (Jesus) and the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) isOne but, I do not believe they are, or come from, a pagan trinity. And becauseof the reasoning stated above I believe Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) isDivine, and why I believe in the miracle of the Virgin Birth and Resurrectionof Messiah from the dead. This is also why I believe He is coming again toreign over the New Earth as the Priest and King.

Many things inJudaism that oppose a divine Messiah, a virgin birth and such came after thelate 1^st century as reactionary doctrine in an attempt distancesitself from the pagan influenced Constantinian type Christianity that hadseparated itself from Nazarene Judaism.