Time for a Change

   

[ Disclaimer: This is certainly not a judgement from me against your practices. This corrective information is solely to bring about an educational awareness on the deception and an attempt for other believers to see things from another Point of view in order to sincerely find middle ground on what truly is God approved, Christ centered traditions]

[ This was written during my devotional prayer time with God in search of clarity on this divisive subject. I feel God has placed it on my heart to simplify, and make known. I have been on a 7 day fast from food while being completely immersed in the Word of God. Diving deep and unpacking the Scripture while conducting this research. It is my deepest desire to unveil and expose the lies of the enemy as we are instructed to do and to reveal God’s truth so that we can be more unified especially for such a time as this ]

Two Great Truths 

The Greater Truth #1– The message that is absolutely essential and most important is the spread of truth of the Good News Gospel of Christ that saves souls. 

The Greater Truth #2 – The Church also must set a good example of Holy and Righteous Living in obedience according to the Whole Word of God for those that are saved so they are not misled and fall away. 

Both Truths are equally important! 

The Traditions of Men: 

The Breakdown 

Holiday– derives from the word Holy Day [ Holy Days was first given to us by God Yahweh]

Traditions – A day of dedication in religious or secular observances. Customs passed down. Common examples of traditions include public holidays and observances. 

Root of Holidays – Many secular holidays  tend to occur at the approximate dates of ancient, pagan festivals; Secular commemoration 

Who are Pagans – Their practices are Ancient, deeply spiritual and evil. Their followers come from many decentralized spiritual paths such as Wicca, Wiccan Divinity, Druidry, Saturnalia, Heathenry, Celtic paganism , Shamans, The Horned God, Spiral goddess, Sacred Ecologists, Odinist, Egyptian Kemeticism, satanic occults, witches, magic, New Age , Zodiacs, Astrologists, Chakras, Crystals, Yogis, Yoruba priestess, Psychics,  Necromancers , Heathens, Hermeticism , Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnostics, Stoics, even Atheists and many more are ALL of these are parts of the Pagan community 

They all seek another source of power outside the one TRUE LIVING GOD anything outside of God Yahweh Is evil! 

1 Corinthians 10:19–22

Paul describes how demons delight in the worship of any “god” but the one true God

Pagans follow – a female divine principle

Pagan goddesses– Cybele, Isis, Demeter, Danú, Artemis, Victoria, Athena, Aphrodite, Brigid, Hera, Juno, Bóann, Hestia, Vesta, Hecate, Asherah, Astarte, the Mórrígan

Pagan gods–

Norse Germanic pagan gods – Odin, Thor, Frigg Tyr 

Egyptian Kemetic Pagan gods- Osiris, Isis, Horus, Amun, Ra , Apopis – to name a few

Pagan Symbols– (not an exhaustive list )

Pentagram– 5 pointed Star 

Pentacle – 5 pointed Star in a circle, represents spiritual magic  

Unicursal hexagram – 6 pointed star has a goat image represents As above so below 

Wheel of the Year– A circle with 8 divisions that represents solstice and it’s festivals 

Ankh – resembles a cross with the two arms looped at the top 

Pagans Belief –  that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. They believe in gender essentialism such as dual genders like androgyny. 

Pagan Festivals: Pagans celebrate festivals that mark seasonal changes in astrological events, such as the solstices and zodiacs. Pagan holidays are days of celebrations where they often dedicate sacrifices and offerings to their many gods or to celebrate the different walks of life among their many followers. The dates and times of their events overlap the secular holidays that have been renamed and repurposed and are now celebrated as “harmless” “fun” holidays in order to deceive the masses. These holidays covertly or secretly pays homage, glorifies, honors, commemorates, acknowledges, their false gods. No matter how much you chop and screw it.  The Catholic “Christians “ in the early days began to assume these traditions of pagans in order to appease and convince them to convert to believers. Christians ended up adopting more of the pagan ways than they adopted the ways and lifestyles of a true believer and follower of Christ. This is why God explicitly warned people not to take on these traditions! 

Co operative- Repurposed Holidays– 

(The most popular ones) 

Samhain – Halloween 

A Druid festival on October 31 that celebrates the dead with a bonfire and communion. Christians participating in Halloween wearing  evil or even nice costumes and making jack-o’-lantern pumpkins,  trick or treating asking for candy that’s  been wickedly prayed over are all influenced by Samhain. They use pumpkins to summon witches. All Hallows eve is the Wicca pagans New year where Neopagans honor the dead as part of a Samhain ritual. – This is what parents have their young children participate in. 

Mabon – Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not an original pagan holiday: Thanksgiving is primarily an American and Canadian holiday. Its history in North America is rooted in English traditions from the Protestant Reformation but it is also rooted in murder and theft of the land from the native Americans by the European Settlers. 

Also,  many people took on traditions of pagan feasts and added them to Thanksgiving.  Mabon is a neopagan festival of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the Gods during the coming winter months. 

The thanksgiving Symbols of  the cornucopia (Goats Horn) is a harvest offering to their god. Christianity adopted the cornucopia as a symbol of God’s abundance and blessings. 🥴

 It’s like handing an offering to God in a trash can. Sharing God’s Glory or  Repurposing God’s honor and glory is something he detests. 

Yule Festival- 12 Days of Christmas 

Yule was commonly known as Yuletide, taking place on the eve of December 21st and lasting for 12 days. 

In Yule, people would burn a log for 12 days,  to worship the sun.  In many forms of Wicca, Yule is celebrated at the winter solstice as the rebirth of the Great horned hunter god, who is viewed as the newborn solstice sun. Ancient Egyptians were said to celebrate the same pagan holiday, putting up Asherah poles (idols) all over town but instead of burning trees, they cut them down and decorated them with silver and gold , bringing the concept of the Christmas tree to life. The gift givings are offerings to their gods

A Germanic and Norse festival that celebrated the return of the sun and the victory of light over darkness

It was an ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. At this feast all were to take part in the drinking of ale. Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called hlaut[sacrificial blood], were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and served as food at the banquet.

Winter Solstice- Christmas Dec 25 

Represented The birth of the SUN

The sun god, over time, was worshipped all over the ancient world on this date of December 25th. It was a time of sexual orgies, drunkenness, reveries, gluttony and the sacrificing of infants to Baal, a false god.

Because this feast was so popular amongst the heathen population of Greek and pagan Rome, this date was simply adapted to co- operate with the time of the birth of The SON of God Jesus Christ by the Roman Church. Many customs associated with the season- the giving of gifts, the general rejoicing and festivity is due to this winter festival of Saturnalia 

These are the ancient beginnings of what Christians now happily call Christmas to honor  and commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ  🥴

Pagan customs – that have become associated with Christmas celebration:

• Gift-giving / milk and cookies – offerings to their god Odin
• The idol image of Santa Claus- bearded old man is called Odin. This deity was worshipped by Germanic pagans 
• Christmas stockings – 
• Christmas caroling, pagans called this wassailing
• Decking the halls with Holly- Holly was another holy plant connected with the god Saturn
• Decorating evergreen trees. – Asherah poles with a pentagram star on top
• Kiss under the Mistletoe – was considered a highly sacred plant and was involved in several pagan rituals

Wheel of the year – New Years  

For many Pagans, the Winter Solstice is the start of the “Pagan New Year.” Solstices are naturally occurring celestial events, and as the Winter Solstice marks the sun’s “growing stage” on the Wheel of the Year,

The month of January is named after Janus, who was the Roman god of doorways, beginnings, endings, time, and transitions.

Feast of Lupercalia – Valentine’s day 

From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed 2 men, a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain. Thanks to the martyr Saint Valentine’s reputation as a “patron of lovers,” he became synonymous with romance. In the late 5th century A.D., Pope Gelasius I eliminated the pagan celebration of Lupercalia and declared February 14 a day to celebrate the martyrdom of Saint Valentine instead, although it’s highly unlikely he intended the day to commemorate love and passion. In fact, many modern biblical scholars warn Christians not to celebrate Valentine’s Day at all since it’s thought to be based on pagan rituals.

Valentine’s Day uses some of Lupercalia’s symbols, such as the color red which represented a blood sacrifice during Lupercalia and the color white which signified the milk used to wipe the blood clean and represents new life and procreation. 🥴

Ēostre- Easter 

The feast day of Easter was first a pagan holiday of renewal and rebirth. Honored in the early spring, it praised the pagan goddess of fertility and spring known as ‘Ostara’, ‘Eastre’ or ‘Eostre’ The pagans had held feasts in Ēostre’s honor,

Easter was originally a pagan festival that celebrated the spring equinox, pagans considered solstices and equinoxes to be sacred.  The Spring Equinox represented the return of the sun God from the underworld – the rebirth of light, life and creation.  This Ungodly celebration was replaced by the Emperor Constantine who converted to Christianity thru Catholicism and put an end to the ongoing persecution of Christians. He slowly started to adopt existing pagan rituals into Christian festivities. In 325 AD, the church council – known as the Catholic Council of Nicaea – first decided that Easter’s celebration should fall on the Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. And thus Easter Sunday was born, and symbols are associated with nature’s rebirth and now somehow this also commemorates the celebration of  “Resurrection of Jesus Christ” 🥴 

This has absolutely nothing to do with the true resurrection of Jesus Christ! It’s on the wrong day!

Easter Symbols

Bunnies – represent the fertility Goddess Eostre The rabbit is connected to fertility – and spring is a time of creation, sex and birth. 

Egg painting ritual– Pysanky eggs prayer and magical rite involving “writing” sacred symbols and prayers onto the egg.

This blasphemy is what we have made of the Resurrection of our Lord & Savior!! 

Making The Case

It is very clear that the same ancient pagan celebrations honoring other gods were continued, with the adoption of these traditions by THE CATHOLIC  CHURCH  under the masked guise of simply relabeling, renaming the festivities and customs and thus continuing the same evil rituals, rites and passages and calling them godly Christian traditions. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig and calling it something else- It’s still a pig! 

Saying one thing & Doing Another = Hypocrite

When we engage and participate in these secular holidays this robs the one true living God Yahweh of his glory. It also weakens the believers faith because it’s absolutely hypocritical. It’s not rooted and established in scripture whatsoever. To say you love God on one hand and that we should absolutely live set apart lives but on the other hand you pay homage to other gods by participating in their disguised wicked traditions feels very wrong and offensive. Because you are saying to do one thing and yet you’re doing something entirely different that looks like the rest of the world of unbelievers. By doing this it makes the body of Christ – His Church look like unfaithful hypocrites. God spoke very clearly about the unfaithfulness of his children to God likened them to prostitutes and unfaithful lovers. 

Falling Away

Following these secular holidays is also how other religious groups mock God, and they laugh at true Christians because we are not good examples of our faith. The Apostle Paul says we should contend for our faith. Be doers of the word and not just hear it! This is also why true believers who are bible literate run away fast from the churches, and leave pastoral guidance. This causes true believers that want to honor and be faithful to God, to completely pull away from the church. We are not to be in isolation, we are called to fellowship but with discernment. In return people like myself are left out of true fellowship in the church. I’m so broken hearted that I can’t fellowship fully in the church the way God intended us to In Spirit and in complete truth. 

I love God and I have a heart on fire to Obey The Word of God & The follow the testimony and teachings of Jesus Christ with unyielding faith. 

This waffling the fence mixing secular with Godly things pulls people away more than it brings people in, in the long run. People are beginning to know better now! 

Matters of the Heart

Even with good intentions, if your actions break God’s laws, it is still considered a sin and it goes against God’s will, meaning the positive intent does not negate the negative consequence of violating divine principles; there’s a saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

According to Christ, “matters of the heart” refer to the inner motivations, desires, and intentions of a person, true faith and righteousness stem from a pure heart,

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” 

A pure heart is characterized by unyielding love for God and others, free from selfish desires, malice, greed, and lust. 

Knowing how deeply God felt specifically about the participation in Pagan traditions. He rails on them. He detests it. He said that it provokes his anger! Why then do People who truly Love him  – try to put lipstick on a pig for his name sake when he forbids pigs!! 

He commands us to DO NOT DO what the pagans do then why do we??

This is not a suggestion but a command! 

Does God’s point of view on this entire subject Not even matter? Does how God feels matter? 

So your good intentions and heart posture must line up directly with God’s Truth. We can have good intentions, however, if they are contrary to God’s Word, then we are moving in rebellion to God’s Word – and that is not a good place to be! 

Matthew 18:6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin [by leading him away from My teaching], it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

Jesus is clear—yes intent matters. We can do the right thing for all the wrong reasons, ultimately displeasing the Lord and breaking his commands.

 Mark 7:6-9 ( New Testament)

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 

[Man made ideas and turned them into commands of God]

For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition.” … and you do many things like that. And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

This passage highlights the danger of elevating human traditions to a level of authority equal to or greater than God’s commandments. 

Participating in these things are considered idolatrous by God Yahweh it breaks his 1st commandment 

1st Commandment 

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.

This means …

God should be thee most important thing in your life, above your own self, your spouse, your children, your family taking precedence over any other deity, idol, or holiday, any celebrity, any worldly pursuit of success and happiness, and it is a command to avoid idolatry and put your faith solely in God and obey the whole truth of his word.

When we know better 

We are now very clear on the basic origins of all of these holiday celebrations who really honor and glorify men and their demonic gods. We now know we have been ignorant, some willfully to these facts. Some people are absolutely clueless about these things. Most people have just been following these traditions because it has been passed down from generation to generation. There’s never been a need to question anything. Besides, why question what is fun? Why stop it when there’s something for you to gain out of it ?? That’s the greatest deception. Is it Fun? sure it is but at whose expense ??  Your God who is HOLY? and Your Lord & Savior whom you are to love with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul?  The God who sent his only begotten son to die a brutal death to save you from your sins? Is he NOT worthy of your complete FAITHFULNESS? 

Do You really believe God accepts this honor of his one and only son ??  Is this truly how we are to honor our Lord & Savior?  Does it even matter how fun, family oriented, warm and fuzzy it looks like today? Does your sincere heart and good intentions change the facts about its originations? No! If you now understand this to be true. What do you do now? Do you just dismiss what is true and follow the same ole disguised evil traditions anyway in order not to go against the grain or ruffle any feathers? If you choose to dismiss the truth you have surely decided to choose to live the lie that comes from no one else but the father of all lies because you don’t want your life and others to be inconvenienced by the truth. 

Syncretism is a practice from paganism into the stream of Christianity. God Yahweh will not be served in imitation of other gods. God’s way cannot be “improved” by human sincerity. It’s quite presumptuous for anyone to assume that God actually enjoys these celebrations with good intentions or not? Why should God be angry at your excuse?

This simply implies the lack of honesty to what you say is right vs. what you do. Essentially, you didn’t mean what you said. God tells us to divide his word rightly. This could be seen as disrespectful and undermines the seriousness of walking in his statutes. So you make excuses instead of taking responsibility for your actions

Participating in these secular holidays is vain selfish glory reserved  for your own selves. You do this for all for yourselves and you say it’s in the name of the Lord to validate it. The truth is God says he does not accept this “honor”!

God’s Word- Jesus, is truth and the Bible says God will not accept worship when people take a pagan custom or in any other manner of worship and try to honor Christ with it. 

Scriptural Alignment to What I have written 

According to the Bible-

Titus 1:16

They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

Reprobate– that which is rejected on account of its own worthlessness

-God disapproves of adopting or repurposing pagan traditions, as the scriptures often instruct against following the practices of other cultures that worship false gods, viewing such actions as a form of unfaithfulness and idolatry.

God is against practicing and even incorporating elements of paganism into worship practices.

Two Examples: There are many more 

Example 1: Christmas Trees on the Altar or in the Place of Worship. 

Example 2: Halloween at church in the house of the Lord! 

Abominable- denotes idolatry; extreme disgust and hatred: loathing.

 These are examples of the same idol worship the Israelites did in the book of Ezekiel in God’s Holy temple; they built altars of other gods and worshiped them in the Holy Temple where God Yahweh was! 

Isaiah 42:8 

I am the Lord. [ YAHWEH] That is my name,

and I will not give my glory to another

or my praise to idols.

Worship doesn’t just mean bowing down!

Worship: The act of love, devotion, respect, acknowledgement, reverence, act of participation, to engage in, honor, paying homage or tribute to, to praise, exaltation, idolization shown toward a deity, principle, a person, people group or object, statue or structure 

John 17:17 – Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth”

Repurposed Pagan Traditions = Idolatry 

IDOLATRY CONSISTS NOT ONLY IN THE ACTUAL WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS, 

BUT ALSO IN THE WORSHIP OF THE TRUE GOD IN FALSE WAYS.

Passages that explicitly warn against imitating pagan customs

Deuteronomy 12:30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I’ll also do the same.’ 

[ This basically means Do not come into agreement with their gods or their traditions, ways & customs]  

And Jeremiah 10:2-4

This is what the Lord says:

Do not learn the way of the nations …
for the customs of the peoples are worthless. Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.

He decorates it with silver and gold.
It is fastened with hammer and nails,
so it won’t topple.

[ Sounds like Christmas tree 🎄]

The primary concern here is that adopting pagan practices is absolutely seen as worshipping other deities, which is considered a serious offense against God.

1 Corinthians 10:18-22

 ( Israel today represents all of God’s chosen believers )

Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 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.

A Warning Call To All Believers  

Colossians 2:8– 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.

In Colossians 2:8, Paul refers to the basic assumptions that people use in their thinking. He says that if someone starts with an anti-scriptural standpoint, they will come to anti-scriptural conclusions because it’s not rooted in God’s Law, The prophets, Christ, or the Apostles teachings that is based on THE WHOLE BIBLE

You must have spiritual discernment, ensuring that their faith and practices are rooted in Scripture rather than in human inventions or their own interpretations of their truth. 

Sometimes perspectives take a fresh pair of eyes to look at what’s off or missing, and that’s ok. 

Sadly, All of these decades, generations after generations this is how we all have chosen to honor God during these secular holidays.  God is still so loving and gives his grace and mercy to us because he is long suffering…but now that we know better. We can do better if we can repent and turn away from these things. In order to truly follow in the narrow way the Lord God has instructed and intended All of his children to do. 

One Thing I Know For Sure…

God understands this is a big change for all of you reading this, it may seem unpopular, hard, you may face rejection from people to let go of these long held traditions that we all grew up on, including myself. We were all lied to by unknowing people who loved us. I too have also lied to my own children. It’s not our fault, they didn’t know any better. God knows that, but he gives us so much compassion, grace and mercy to begin uprooting these ungodly, unfaithful practices out of our lives. So he can begin new amazing things in our lives. Let this be your last abominable Christmas Celebration. For some it’s a gradual process, some can do it all at once.  I’m going on year five with this process, I’m done uprooting. I’m now sowing good seeds.  Praying it lands on good soil. What matters is that you begin and keep going forward! 

In these coming days we are going to need to read the Bible. This secures your relational bond with God by knowing his word in order to endure and have oil to burn during these hard days ahead. We are also going to need to know God’s appointed times that point to the return of Christ. How will we know if we don’t follow his instructions?  Please pray about this and ask God to tug at your spirit. If this moves you in any way, then obey the nudge. Ask him if this is on the right track to his narrow road on set apart way. That doesn’t look like the rest of the unbelieving world. I have already done these things with my own family. I had to do it first before I could tell you to do this. So I know you can do hard things. Start a Godly trend. Please know that I truly love God, with all my heart, all my mind and all my soul. I promise God’s set apart way is so much better! 

It’s Time For A Change! 

Please continue to read my next blog post

 As I simplify God’s Holy Days, Sabbaths, Festivals traditions, customs, and using God’s word and his instructed appointed times so that we can all begin to follow and fellowship together rightly in Spirit & In Truth. God wants us to worship him in that way! That is worthy, pleasing, and honoring to our 

Most High God

Yahweh

 To Honor our Lord & Savior

Jesus Christ