CHURCH SYMBOLS: “That’s not why I do it” was the response I received after pointing out that an item a church person was wearing was condemned by God in the first three commandments of His Law (Exo. 20:1-6). The item in question was a wedding band, the wearing of which was a religious symbol (sign) borrowed from Babylonian Mystery Religions. Wedding rings and bands, being round and bright, were worn by married couples to signify their unity in the worship of the round, bright sun. In that same vein, sun worshipers made fire yules to honor their god. Yules were made of logs placed in a circle and set ablaze, thereby making a large, bright, round light. Sun worshipers paid homage to their sun god (Tammuz–Eze. 8–note vs 14,16) on his day–“The Venerable (holy) Day of the Sun–SUNDAY. Worship of the sun is but one of several religious symbols embraced by the church that reflect the heathenism that has come to identify the Catholic/Protestant Religious System since the reign of the Roman Empire, which came to be called the Holy Roman Empire due to its affiliation with the Catholic Church. The home page of this website lists several symbols of church paganism.
So important to the Lord is His warnings relative to the use of religious symbols that He uses both His introduction to the Ten Commandment Law and the first three commandments to get His message across to those who seek to spend eternity with Him. Obviously, He is deadly serious about this ever-present abomination within the modern-day church. We will now enter into a “fine print” session in which we will allow the Lord to tell us what we need to know about man-made church symbols which He HATES because, as He says, those who use them reveal that they HATE HIM. Bear this in mind: WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO IS IRRELEVANT IF HE TELLS US NOT TO DO IT. A prostitute can do her business in order to support the church. Nevertheless, she will burn in hell for prostituting herself. Keep that Truth in mind if you defile God’s Holy Sabbath (the 7th day of the week) by doing what you want to do, then honor Tammuz on his sabbath (the 1st day of the week) by doing what Satan wants you to do. Read and heed Second Corinthians 6:14-7:1.
Turn with me now to Exodus 20 beginning with verse one. Notice that the God of the Old Testament (the Word–Jn. 1:1-4,14) Himself spoke these Words to biological Israel then and speaks them to spiritual Israel (His true church–Gal. 6:16) today. He later wrote them in stone. In verse two He reminded His chosen people that He had brought them out of Egyptian slavery (1 Cor. 10:4). He had done so by exhibiting His Godly powers, thereby removing all doubt that He was who He said He was–ALMIGHTY GOD TO WHOM THEY OWED THEIR FREEDOM AND THEIR LIVES. In verse three He reminds them that He is their ONE AND ONLY GOD, and that they were to have NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM.
It is vital that we consult the Hebrew dictionary at this point. The English Word “before” in this verse means much more in the Hebrew language than “in front of” as it does in English. In fact the word has several dozen other meanings–too many to discuss here. Therefore I will do my best to generalize the meaning of the two Hebrew words that mean “before” in the Israelites’ language. Those words are “paneh” and “al” which mean to have no relationship or association with, to not use with, to not be present with, to not to be in the same geographical area with, etc. In verses three, four and five the Lord is saying that His people were NEVER TO MAKE A “GRAVEN” (HAND-MADE) IMAGE OF ANY KIND–PERIOD. GOD’S PEOPLE ARE NEVER TO, IN ANY WAY, TO ANY DEGREE OR INDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE INFER A RELATIONSHIP OF A MAN-MADE ITEM WITH HIM BECAUSE HE VIEWS ALL SUCH ITEMS AS GODS, MAKING THEIR OWNERS GUILTY OF IDOLATRY. AS INFERRED EARLIER, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHY ONE WEARS A CROSS OR FISH SYMBOL, OR WHY ONE OWNS A STATUE OR PAINTING OR CARVING OF ANYTING OR ANYONE, INCLUDING JESUS, MARY, THE APOSTLES, ANGELS, ETC. THAT HAS A RELIGIOUS MEANING. GOD HATES ALL SUCH THINGS BECAUSE THEY PROVE THAT THOSE WHO HAVE SUCH ITEMS HATE HIM. HE CALLS THE USE OF SUCH ABOMINATIONS “INIQUITY” (LAWLESSNESS). HE TELLS US THAT HE IS A JEALOUS GOD WHO WILL HOLD ALL WHO USE SUCH RELIGIOUS ITEMS ACCOUNTABLE ON THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT. THE KEY IS TO NOT POSSESS ANY SUCH IDOLATROUS ITEMS. THAT WILL PREVENT ALL OTHER PROBLEMS FROM HAPPENING.
God’s ways are not our ways. His ways are above our ways. We are to learn, embrace and obey His stated ways without question. No amount of religious rationalizing or well-meaning explanations will make a sin anything but a sin. Sin is whatever God says it is. The graven items listed above are gods in the eyes of the Creator of the universe. His Word and His Word alone define what is to be done and what is not to be done. Man’s opinion of His ways is meaningless. We must agree with Him that He is God, which means that He is right even when we do not understand what, why He does what He does. He does what He does and commands what He commands BECAUSE HE IS THE LORD–PERIOD. A Lord is one who must be obeyed. If we wish to spend eternity with Him, WE MUST OBEY HIS WRITTEN WORD–PERIOD. Those who obey Him will rise to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds when He returns. Those who do not will not–period. L.J.
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