In this series we are reviewing some of the heathen beliefs, customs and practices that the Institutional Church has embraced as foundational principles due to a lack of knowledge concerning the source of those principles. Incredibly, even after being told the source of such “truths,” along with what God says about them, the overwhelming majority of people refuse to abandon them and embrace the God of the Holy Scriptures. Nevertheless, I will continue to highlight the “truths” his followers refuse to abandon. In this posting we will examine three of the most popular holidays that Satan has institutionalized within the church community. They are the observance of Christmas, Easter and New Years. Again, this Mission Statement Review presents a summarized view of the subject along with instructions as to how to learn more about the subjects by downloading the original series.

CHRISTMAS: No less than seven heathen gods have December 25 as their birthday or celebration day. The reason for this phenomenon has nothing to do with spiritual matters and everything to do with nature. December 25 is the date that the sun begins to rise higher in the sky each day, thereby making the days longer, warmer and brighter. In the heathen vernacular, the sun is “born” on that date and “grows” each day for several months. Thus the “birth” day of the various gods has dominated the heathen world for thousands of years. The reason why the sun is the focus of this religious belief system is that, over the thousands of years human beings have lived on earth, millions of them have worshiped the sun. So much so that one day of each week was set aside for worship of him–the “venerable day of the sun”–Sunday. The sun has been the god of many societies. Therefore December 25–the “birthday” of the sun–has become the “birthday” of Jesus of Nazareth among the modern day heathen religion known as “the church.”

Early on the Lord, communicating through His holy prophets, warned those who called themselves by His name to “Learn not the ways of the heathen, for one goes into the woods, cuts down a tree, brings it into his home and there props it up with hammer and nails and decorates it with silver and gold” (Jer. 10:4). The earliest record of a god’s birthday celebration conducted in such a way comes out of Egypt where decorated palm trees were used in the celebration. In at least one society the sun god (Tammuz–Eze. 8:14) was believed to have been born on December 25. Legend has it that he returned to earth on the night of his birthday to leave gifts for his followers. As we learn in the Book of Ezekiel, the Israelites at one point worshiped the sun–specifically Tammuz the sun god. Now back to the birth of Jesus the Christ (anointed One).

The fact is that Jesus was most likely born in early spring (March-April) because that was the birthing season for sheep and other cattle, just as it is today. Shepherds would stay with the sheep at night to aid them in giving birth. Some contend that Christ’s birth took place during the September-October time frame because the sheep had not been taken in for the winter due to the lack of grass. We do not know the exact date of His birth, but we do know that it was not in the dead of winter for the shepherds were “in the field.” Neither shepherds nor sheep stayed in the field during cold weather. One will notice that Biblically, death dates, not birth dates, are recognized. I believe that God deliberately withheld the date of His Son’s birth so that man would celebrate His death and resurrection instead of His birth. One does not read in the Scriptures about anyone’s birth date being celebrated. Read the series on Christmas. Key word–Christmas.

EASTER: Among heathen societies there were a number of female goddesses who were worshiped and served. They were known by different names in different areas, Diana (Acts 19:24) and Ashtoreth (1 Ki. 11:5,33) being examples. In Egypt the female goddess was called Ishtar, which was pronounced exactly as she is known in the Western world today–Easter. We will call her Easter for the remainder of this posting.

Easter, also known as the Goddess of Fertility, used the emblems of birth (eggs, baby chicks and rabbits) as her “calling cards.” During my youth one could buy colored eggs along with baby chicks and rabbits on the streets in Southeast Missouri. On Easter Sunday the church would have an egg hunt following “dinner on the grounds” (meaning outside). With the advent of television, huge, nationally televised “Easter Parades” would be conducted in honor of the “Queen of heaven.” I once saw a picture of an archeological find–a hand-carved image of the “Queen of Heaven” herself. This idol had half a dozen or more breasts. Today, throughout the world’s Christian nations, the Easter celebration is as popular as ever. Her honoring, along with Christmas observance, are the two top holidays celebrated by “the church.” Read the series on Easter using that word as the key.

NEW YEARS: This celebration came out of the Roman Empire which was spiritually guided by the Catholic Church. Church authorities changed the time of the year’s beginning from mid-spring, which God commanded in Exodus 12 in coordination with an annual Passover observance, to mid-winter in order to satisfy the sun worshipers who revered the “birth” of the sun as it rose higher and higher in the sky each day beginning on December 25. Sun worshipers, along with other heathen groups, had been forced into the church by their Roman masters who had embraced Catholicism as their primary religion. The New Year’s celebration was a time marked by sexual license and drunkenness. It was during this annual celebration that people in the church and throughout the empire were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do, which usually involved unrestricted sexual activities. Sex orgies, combined with much alcohol consumption, were commonplace as all pretense of morality was abandoned. When combined with what came to be known as Christmas (meaning Christ death???), the week-long period marked a sin highpoint in the lives of those within the Roman Empire which ruled much of the world for many years and was still in power when Jesus walked the earth.

This was the world into which Jesus came preaching a religion of holiness and self-restraint. And worse in the eyes of the Romans, He came declaring another God. The Romans’ god was Ceasar. Because Jesus presented another God, He was on the Roman’s hit list. Because He angered the Jews for angering their Roman masters, they also hated Him. Then when God’s church came on the scene …. One can only imagine the struggles of the early church which had to deal with the Romans, the Jews and later on, the Catholic Church which was introduced in 33 A.D. and immediately began to infiltrate the Church of God. The early apostles had to deal with all of those factors in order to spread the true Gospel. Nothing has changed. Today God’s Truth is rejected by those who keep a copy of it in their homes and carry it to church with them on the day of the week that they pay homage to their god–Sun day. Once each year they observe the birth of their god–Tammuz–and his mother–Easter. To understand how all of this came to be embraced by the Institutional Church, read Simon of Samaria. Key word–Simon. L.J.