Cogitations on Christmas. In Russian the word for Sunday is Воскресенье (Voskreseniye) meaning “Resurrection”. While evidence doesn’t show a strong relation to pagan practices of similar kind, new age traditions demonstrate a similar sounding practice called “light language”. A practice having a pagan origin does not necessarily make it unbiblical. Orthodox bishops and catholic popes openly admit this. In order to convert the people of Europe (and the world) from their pagan beliefs, the Church felt they had to turn them against their beliefs by fear or adopt the pagan beliefs into the Christian religion. As Jesus says, the field is the world, in which He has established His church. Human nature has a long history of explaining such pesky details away. A perpetual fire shall burn on the altar; it shall never go out. Jeremiah 10:1-5 ESV / 309 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. He is writing to clarify lawkeeping's relationship to justification and what a person believes through justification. At a fundamental level, that still doesn’t make sense. The context is the heathen practice of idolatry. This incident is of special importance to us because of the context and because of who we are. The Essene’s were also known as the Son’s of Light because they were ILLUMINATED as inheritors of the Egyptian Aten Mysteries. 1, p. 356). One of the hallmarks of Christianity is the quasi-demonizatiion of the flesh, particularly sex.. Why so? . Horus was a child of the Sun-God Osiris, and Horus took over the sun-god position after the death of Osiris (sound familiar?). The true teachings and those who were the original Christians were completely swept aside and removed from the Roman creation of Christianity. As a result, the people wanted to know how to propitiate the gods of the land, which is what the Gentiles did in their idolatries. Man's intuitions and reason are the best clues that we have to the nature of God. Hardly anything more clearly illustrates the self-deceived perverseness of human nature as its presumptuous additions of the observation of Christmas and Easter to the worship of the God of the Bible. The idea being that it would make it easier for the pagans to convert if they could still worship at their sacred sites. Earl L. Henn (1934-1997) But, to the point, the commandment actually admits there are other “gods. They sound identical and both claim to be channeling higher powers to speak in other languages. weeping for Tammuz." The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Four). "They built for themselves high places in all their cities . I also find it so interesting that Moses is trying to persuade the Israelites to follow one god. Paul warned them about this in Colossians 2:8: "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.". Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." God's commandments are in the Old Testament; the Jews' traditions are not, and they are what the Jews lived by. This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. Satan persuades us to argue over two options, or two points of view, neither one of which is true. (emphasis added). I feel like there is more here but will have to investigate further. . God is revealed in trinity even back in Genesis 18:1–8. These ancestors of the Samaritans developed a syncretistic system, blending some of God's truth with outright paganism. Blessed Be <3, I really appreciate this entry im a christian raised in catholic church and methodist and ive felt like i need to be praising the earth and elements instea of an invisible god who controls all of us. I also will do likewise." This is obviously some sort of pagan sunrise service, in which they honor the sun more highly than God, to whom they contemptuously show their backsides. It is a lie, and the Devil is the father of it (John 8:44). .'" Christians believes there is only one God who has revealed Himself in three co-eternal different persons. I just have to point out that the day of rest, the Sabbath, is Saturday, not Sunday. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, asserts that one of Satan's most common ploys is to "send error into the world in pairs"—pairs of opposites—"and then he encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking, Which is the worst?" How can we put Christ back into something in which He never was in the first place? Thus, the "days and months and seasons and years" is not something Paul wrote in reference to the law of God or even to Judaism. Fulton J. Sheen addressed this kind of stuff decades ago. We must understand that our god is not what we say we worship but what we serve. https://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2015/02/uw-religion-today-how-constantine-created-the-christian-church.html. I am sorry for your losses in life, and the pain of their timing, but so grateful that you reconnected with something that felt right to you. Searching for Israel (Part Six): Israel Is Fallen, Is Fallen. He commands, regarding taking the customs of the pagans and using them to honor or worship God: "Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God." The greatest Teacher and Pastor who ever graced this earth preached to tens of thousands of people, yet ended His ministry with only 120 converts. I am the LORD your God." The Pentecostals see speaking in tongues as one of the “gifts of the spirit”, which means they believe the Holy Spirit “comes upon” them (enters their bodies) and gives them the gift of speaking in another language or in a heavenly … However, there is more to this story, giving us understanding of the term "strange fire" that follows in chapter 10. We have been told for centuries that we are different, separate, and to hold to those differences. Arising spontaneously in the ancient world, holidays and feasts developed in Syria and Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamia, in Gaul and the dark woods of present day Germany, and in the Roman Empire. Many of the oldest Catholic churches and monasteries were built on top of ancient pagan sites. But how does God answer in His Word? Then why was Israel named after Isis -Ra- El = IS RA EL. He was based loosely on the English Father Christmas and the German Kris Kringle. Question: "What laws were given to Israel in exact response to pagan practices?" He spies a hole in a wall in the court of the Temple (verse 7) and obeys God's command to dig around that hole (verse 8). They simply cannot be used as a starting point for establishing a doctrine of worship. Atheists and agnostics arrayed against Christmas-bent "Christians"—for whom do we root? They led their society to become one of rape and rapine, murder and violence in every quarter. Reiki is the practice of using one’s hands to allow Divine or Universal energy to flow into another person to aid in relaxation, stress reduction, and to promote healing. Isn’t it striking that Christiaanity hasn’t proscribed the Song of Songs of the Ancient Testament, a truly sensual and even erotic poem? The period between the Testaments—between Malachi and Matthew—covered roughly 400 years in which a great deal took place.