As has been the case for hundreds of years, Valentine’s Day once again came on like a flood a few days ago. The joy, love, etc. filling the air was so thick it was as if the Lord had made His second appearance and was gathering his people for their long-awaited flash trip to a heavenly paradise where their respective mansions awaited.

Like all so-called “Christian holidays,” Valentine’s Day is big business for those in the retail business. Candy and flower venders report that almost half of their annual income is derived from the sale of sweets and flowers during the lead up to the very popular holiday. Many people in the church believe that Valentine’s Day had its origin in the New Testament Church, that God ordained it as a day to express love among His people. The truth is that the festival was introduced some 4000 years ago and, like anything having to do with sex, caught on and became popular very quickly.

In the beginning the holiday featured an individual writing a love note to the one with whom one was infatuated. Sensing that much revenue could be squeezed out of the love birds, money-minded man began mass-producing cards which carried a variety of love themes. Quicker than a love bug can bite, a commercial enterprise was born. The rest is retail history. Believing the holiday to be Christian in origin, many modern church people lament the fact that St. Valentine’s day has become totally commercialized.

Because the mother Roman Catholic Church, along with her supposedly “protesting” (Protest-ant) daughters, have absorbed numerous heathen people and their beliefs, customs and doctrines over the past 1900 years, it is not surprising that Valentine’s Day also has a heathen origin. Equally not surprising is the fact that this “Christian” celebration falls on the same day as the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a holiday borrowed from the ancient Babylonian mystery religion written about in Revelation 17:1-5. When a Roman military leader named Constantine was supposedly “saved” by the Catholic Church her leaders immediately crowned him emperor of the Roman Empire. Constantine expressed his gratitude by becoming chief protector and enforcer of the Catholic Church. With the power of the Roman Empire behind her, the church became the scourge of the empire. Taking advantage of the power at her disposal, the church launched a “Become Catholic Or Die” campaign. Because being Catholic was better than being dead, heathen people by the hundreds of thousands became Catholics. And when the Catholic fathers embraced their heathen gods, beliefs, etc. by incorporating them into the church’s theology, the heathen were more than happy to join. L.J.