As I sit before the computer many of you are beginning to gather with family and friends and when you read this post, probably sometime after December 25th, you will remember what I wrote at the end of "Ho Ho Ho!" The Beginning - Part 1, "What does any of this have to do with me?! I don't see it that way!"
Neither did I.
Like many of you, I grew up in a middle class home in north America. The celebrations surrounding Christmas are as revered as mom and apple pie. Christmas is viewed as a time for children and their families to gather together to share their love and to make happy memories. It was no different in the life of our family. In fact, 2012 was the first time that our home was not decorated in a modern Victorian style for the holidays. In previous years, the Christmas gatherings within our home included the women in my Bible study who were invited to share in a pot luck luncheon and gift exchange complete with Christmas music playing in the background, a birthday cake for Jesus, and stories of Christmases past. So in case any of you out there wonder if I am just pretending to be the Grinch who stole Christmas, let it be known that I totally understand how this time of year is so beloved and guarded against anyone who would dare to mess with it.
So ...having shared my regard for Christmases past, let me explain why it changed.
It all began with that group of YouTube videos that I wrote about in part one of this series. From them I learned the Pagan origins of the holidays that we embrace, like Valentine's Day, Easter, and Christmas. I sat literally stunned in front of my computer! I had known for a few years that the two most celebrated holidays in Christendom had Pagan roots, but I thought it was really cool that the Christians took them away from the Pagans and made them into something holy. However I was naive and had no idea concerning the details, so at first I was just shocked by the truth! Then through the study of His word, it began to grieve me deeply to realize that I was unknowingly trying to mix holy with unholy; an impossible endeavor where I could not end up with something that was pleasing to the One who I claimed to love more than anything else in the world.
Since I believed with all of my heart that the Elohim I serve never changes, I had to know how my worship at Christmas made Him feel. I knew what it meant to me, I needed to know what it meant to Him.
The process, it turns out, was really quite easy. Remember how Yeshua warned the apostles to not hinder the little children but to let them come to Him? He told them that the kingdom of heaven is composed of people who have a simple faith like theirs. For example, when children are told by their parents that something they are doing is wrong, they trust in what their parents say. They might not want (or choose) to obey, but they believe what they are told. Well something happens to that child-like trust as we age. We become set in our ways, determined to do things on our own and skeptical of anything that goes against stuff as we see it. If we are not very careful, we will lose our ability to believe, trust, and obey as a child. Especially when the voices all around us are telling us something different than the truths that good parents impart to us.
This kind of thing has happened to Israel too many times for me to even begin to speculate. Not only were they prone to be like everyone around them, but in so doing they became ensnared to follow them to the extent of even trying to worship Elohim in the ways that the Pagans worshipped their gods. In fact, He warned them of it so many times. The first six verses in Exodus 20 gives a clear warning. "1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 2 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:1-6
I learned that He is very serious about the way in which He is worshipped and it is not the manner in which Pagans worship their gods.
Let's turn to Deuteronomy 12. As the children of Israel were getting ready to enter into the land promised to them, Yahuah warned them not to worship Him in some other way than the ways in which He had commanded them. The ESV renders it this way, "28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. 29 When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? - that I may do the same?' 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add or take from it." Deuteronomy 12:28-32
I sat frozen when I read this passage! It all came together! From childhood I thought that Christmas was all about Jesus: the decorated tree, the gifts, the evergreen bows, the caroling, etc., but it has nothing to do with Him. It has everything to do with their worship of their gods and it is an abomination to mine! I was sick! Here I thought that I was pleasing Him, and from His perspective, he remembered each screaming child thrown into the fire of a demonic deity. My Christmas traditions had represented those gods, not mine!
There's more. Jeremiah is talking about a future day; this day that we are living in, when he prophesied from YHVH saying, "17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. 19 O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." Jeremiah 16:17-19
With all of the evidence before me it was indeed time that I admitted to myself and to Yahuah that I inherited lies. I have gone a step further and looked at the meaning of, "...my land" in verse 18. It is Hebrew #776 and indeed means the whole earth, not just Israel.
Let's look at the book of Exodus. Several months ago a friend of mine told me that when Aaron made the golden calf in chapter 32, that he was trying to worship YHVH. My first thought was, "Nooo ...I don't think that's right because HE got really mad at them and wanted to destroy them." If Moses had not stepped in between Him and the children of Israel in verses 11-13, He said that He would have consumed them. However, curiosity got the better of me so I looked for myself. In chapter 32 we see that the people wanted Aaron to make them gods because they didn't know what happened to Moses and they needed someone to lead them. They had come from a place of Pagan deities, they were accustomed to giving lip service to Yahuah while their hearts embraced other gods. But note in verse five that after making the golden calf, it reads, "5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an alter before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast day to the Lord." I looked up the word Lord in the Hebrew to see exactly which "Lord" Aaron was referring to because even satanists call Lucifer, Lord. Lord is a title, not a name. And sure enough, the Hebrew #3068 for Lord in this passage means Yehovah. To appease the people, Aaron tried to worship the true Elohim in the way the Egyptians honored their gods. But ...his intentions were good, right? Well, let's look at what Yahuah thought of it, starting in verse six."6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. 7 And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9 And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation." Exodus 32:6-10
Aaron's intentions to worship Yahuah while standing in front of the golden calf, didn't matter to Him. To Yahuah it was spiritual adultery. We see that confirmed in the renewed covenant in the book of Acts chapter 7, during the powerful, Holy Spirit-filled, speech that Stephan made before he was stoned. The whole chapter is more than worth your time, but I will begin in verse forty one. "41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? 43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: " Acts 7:41-43a
They wouldn't sacrifice to YHVH, but they would set up a tabernacle of Molech and the star of Remphan. Again, no matter what Aaron intentioned, it was spiritual adultery to Yahuah. It is interesting that Molech was a metal god with the head of a bovine. Was it merely coincidence that the god Aaron fashioned for the people was a golden calf? Based on v43, I don't think it was a coincidence. (See Amos 5:25-27)
In 1 Corinthians 10, we see another admonition against idolatry where the passage in Exodus 32 is referred to once again. Only this time we see that their abomination, in truth, was even against Christ. " 1 MOREOVER BRETHREN, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud; and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play ...11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Corinthians 10:1-7, 11-12 What happened to the children in the desert when Aaron set up the calf and all that happened as a result, was recorded for those of us in the end times so that we would be admonished not to repeat their folly and sin against Messiah Himself!
In conclusion, the celebration of Saturnalia/winter solstice is the worship of the rebirth of the sun and its gods. Christmas was made to coincide with that Pagan festival. It grieved my heart deeply to realize that it has absolutely nothing to do with my Lord and Savior, Yeshua Ha 'Machiach, and that the traditions surrounding it were those used to celebrate false gods that are nothing more than demons in disguise. When Messiah spoke about man's traditions in Mark 7:6b-8a, He said, "This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men: 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, ..."
The apostle Paul tells us in Acts 17 that the time has come for people to stop worshipping the true Elohim in the way that the heathens worship their false gods. He said, "30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. 31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Acts 17:30-31
I will include one more warning from the book of Revelation that speaks directly to us in this time. "4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou has left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whense thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicholaitans, which I also hate. 7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Revelation 2:4-7
Who were the Nicholatians that so offended YHVH? The Nicholaitans were the spiritual descendants of Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. He was ordained as a deacon in Acts 6:5. He had no problem melding pagan practices into the early church and encouraging others to do so.
(I encourage you to learn more by referring to the article below.)
To those of you who have read through every post in this series, I want to Thank You! It has been a painful process for me. It was rough to realize all of this and repent of it. It hurts that some of our family and friends do not understand. It has grieved me to visit the passages again and lay them out before you. But all of that is nothing compared to the thought of the accuser of the brethren mocking the One True Elohim, saying in effect, "Look at them! They say that they are Yours and that they love and worship only You, yet they surround themselves with the things used to worship me! They clothe themselves in the worship of my gods and say they are Your children!"
Depictions of the god Molech.
Part one and two of Sunburned can be found at: www.YouTube.com
This last video made me smile. You will see why. :)
