A sin is a suggestion proposed by Satan, meditated on by human beings, embraced by them, acted upon., first mentally, then physically or orally.  As I have noted before, the sin takes place during the embracing (“conception” stage–James 1:14-16).  I recently wrote an expose’ about Christmas, one of the devil’s two main heathen customs he has convinced professing Christendom to embrace, honor and venerate.  Both Christmas and Easter are mind-centered/frame of mind sins.  As I pointed out earlier, there are two heathen holidays that separate Christmas and Easter.  They are New Years Day and Valentine’s Day.  I will expose the pagan origins of Valentine’s Day as the time approaches.  For the present I will bring out the historical roots of the so-called New Years Day celebration that marks the end of the pagan Christmas-to-New Year time element which normally results in the most suicides of any other seven day period of the year.  The official cause of this phenomenon is unknown, but I suspect that Satan is intimately involved in that he plays a defining role in all suicides.  How else does one explain an otherwise normal person taking his/her own life.  Let us now look into the history of the celebration that commemorates the supposed beginning of a new year that is observed throughout the world.  As is the case with all such holidays, Satan is the spiritual straw that stirs the spiritual elixir that is the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new celebration which, in times past has no been the observed as it is today.  What we must today bear in mind is God command to: “Learn not the ways of the heathen for they are an abomination unto me.”

But before we examine the historical activities surrounding the pagan holiday, let us determine who Satan used to introduce the holiday to the church.   In Daniel 7:20-25 we find the prophet writing about a future “little horn” with a “loud mouth” who would “change times and seasons” by doing away with God’s Holy Days (“festivals”) and introducing his (the little horn’s) times and seasons which are in reality heathen “holidays”.  This “horn,” which  symbolizes a government, will have been ruling religious men’s lives for hundreds of years before the beginning of the final “time” (one year), “times” (two years) and “half a time” (6 months) of man’s history.  It will be during the Great Tribulation (2 1/2 years) and the Day of the Lord (1 year) that this little horn–the Great (Catholic) whore and her harlot (Protestant) daughters that will comprise the all-powerful church-state union–will rule the world.  Read about the whore, her harlot daughters and the Beast in Revelation 17:1-5.  This unholy church state union will rule the world for the final 3 1/2 years of its existence.  Following this 3 1/2 year time of terror, destruction and death Christ will return to earth to establish His Father’s Kingdom and rule, first the earth for 1000 years, then the entire universe forever with His Very Elect saints.  Read The Kingdom of God and God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe.  Key words–Kingdom and Caretakers respectively.

The little, blaspheming “horn” Daniel refers to in chapter 7 is the coming world-wide church that will, using the world-ruling political, military power of the Beast government, rule all the world EXCEPT GOD’S VERY ELECT WHOM HE WILL HAVE TAKEN TO A PLACE OF SAFETY WHERE HE WILL PROTECT AND PROVIDE FOR THEM FOR THE final 3 1/2 YEAR PERIOD that will end with the return of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:14).  I believe “her (the church’s) place” will be a mountain range called Petra in Jordan.  I have visited the area and seen its extensive  cave network which is ideal for a group to live in while the world around them is facing the wrath of both God and Satan.

The stout, loud-mouthed horn that Daniel said would blaspheme the Lord and change His established times and seasons has done exactly that.  The horn (the Catholic church operating under the power of the Roman Empire) changed God’s Holy Days into Satan’s holidays.  For example, the false church changed the beginning of the year from mid-spring to mid-winter.  She also changed the beginning of the day from sunset to midnight, the beginning of the month from the first sighting of the moon to a time set by the church herself, and the Lord’s Sabbath from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday).  These are the “times” she was prophesied to change, and which she in fact did.  The “seasons” (“festivals”) are the Holy Days she either eradicated or replaced with holidays such as Christmas and Easter.  Having the power of the Roman Empire to enforce her demands on the people, that old whore established Satan’s religious system which both Catholics and Protestants continue to use to this day.  They do this while proclaiming that what they are doing is dictated by God in His Holy Word.  The problem is that they cannot find where such abominable beliefs and practices are found in His Holy Word.  And when people like me prove that He states the exact opposite in the Scriptures, they prove their hatred toward Him and His Word by rejecting His Words (Lk. 10:16/Jn. 14:15,23; 15:10/ Deut. 1:8; 7:9,10).  Read Hatred Toward God.  Key word–Hatred.  In the following posting we will study the history of the subject of this series: the popular New Year’s Celebration observed by people throughout the world.  L.J.