Many of those among the heathen masses who entered the Catholic Church at the point of a Roman sword were celebrators of a holiday called Lupercalia–a time of free, unbridled sex and debauchery. So powerfully entrenched was the celebration in the people that they refused to give it up after entering the church. As was the custom within Catholicism, rather than do battle with them she decided to embrace the festival in order to keep the peace. In A.D. 496 Pope Gelasius “Christianized” the Babylonian festival and renamed it “Saint Valentine’s Day.” Like other pagan holidays such as Christmas, New Years, Easter and Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day was embraced by the church described in Revelation 17:1-5 as “Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” True God-seekers are commanded to come out of that “unclean” religious system (2 Cor. 6:17/Rev. 18:4) which today has over two billion parishioners world-wide. Her two main divisions are known as Catholicism (the mother) and Protestantism (her daughters).

St. Valentine’s Day is symbolized by hearts and a cute little fellow called “Cupid.” In the Babylonian culture the word for heart was “Bal,” symbolic of Baal–Lord of the Babylonians. To appease her heathen parishioners the church also “Christianized” the symbol, referring to it as the “Sacred Heart,” meaning “Sacred Baal” (Lord). Cupid is often depicted with his mother, Venus, known in the Western world as Easter–the Goddess of Fertility–who is venerated annually with rabbits and eggs–symbols of reproduction.

Before allowing His people to enter the Promised Land God warned them about dealing with the heathen who would be living outside their borders: “Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them …. Do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.’ You must not do so unto the Lord your God, for every abomination to the Lord, which He hates, have they done for their gods” (Deut. 12:29-31). He later stated in Matthew 6:7: “… do not do as the heathen do ….” God’s message is clear. Few, however, read it and even fewer heed it. The few (Mat. 7:13,14) who do so he calls His church.

Spiritually, we are what we believe and do. This makes professing Christendom a heathen institution. Many, if not most of professing Christendom’s beliefs, customs, doctrines and traditions have been borrowed from the Babylonian mystery religion originally founded by Nimrod. These pagan rituals, etc. were then Christianized–embraced by God–and presented to the church masses as “The will of God.” Let us read the Word of the Lord and, having believed it, come out of Satan’s religious system and embrace His way as provided in His Holy Bible. L.J.