christmas – 11:3 Restoration

Being without excuse..

I know. People would rather not be faced with truth, but sometimes, it is so blindingly obvious that it can’t be avoided and we are therefore without excuse.

Our local TV station ran a story on their website, and maybe in their visual media as well, two days before Christmas. On searching for it to save the link a similar I stumbled on a link for an even more direct story that was run on the same day in the Baltimore Sun newspaper. Amazingly, the Baltimore Sun article claims that they do this every year to insure truth is being told…

Here are two headlines and links to prove that the masses are without excuse on the matter! Continue reading “Being without excuse..”

Did Israel sanctify pagan altars?

Or, did Yehovah command them to destroy the altars and NOT approach Him as the pagans approached their gods? Can we take pagan practices and “Christianize” them? If so, why don’t we use temple prostitutes? If not, why do we insist on evergreens, balls, wreaths, eggs and bunnies?

Please. Do the serious research. “Christmas” was around 1500 years before Messiah Yeshua was born…

http://bible.com/100/deu.12.30-31.NASB

Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.4

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

No reading of the ‘Christmas’ story is complete without John 1, yet these verses pose a sizable challenge to Christian theology if we stop and really take a look at them.

Have you ever considered the implication of these verses? Jesus, or by His Hebrew name, Yeshua, was with God in the beginning and was (is) God. Easy, right? Not so fast, my friend!

What are the implications of the Messiah being present from the beginning? Continue reading “Difficult verses in the ‘Christmas’ story, p.4”

Bridges to Ba’al: How Satan Uses the Canaanite Influenced Christmas and Easter to Ensnare the Children of the Household

Following is part one of a series that friend Peter Vest is writing. These are not easy words to hear, but much needed if we are to truly seek truth.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Bridges to Ba’al: How Satan Uses the Canaanite Influenced Christmas and Easter to Ensnare the Children of the Household

The beautiful tree, bedecked with silver and gold, warm glowing lights, beside a roaring hearth, a host of shiny presents–what’s not to like? Christmas is beloved especially by children because of all of the beautiful traditions, the celebration of family, the feeling of security with the hearth with the promise of food nearby (“visions of sugar plums”) and especially the presents!

And since, as Christians believe, the day of Christmas has been devoted to the G-d of Israel (i.e. Yeshua) then Christmas is all the more special, right?

No. Here’s why:

A BRIEF NOTE ABOUT CANAANITE FIRE [g]ODS:

Allow me to briefly connect several dots showing the evolution of the Canaanite religion, it’s overt beginnings with child sacrifice to the fire gods Ba’al and Asherah, to the fire gods Jupiter and Vesta, to the modern vestigial remains as observed in certain customs of Christmas and Easter.

Thanks to modern discoveries of Ugarit texts, Ugarit being one of the ancient city-states of Canaan, we now know a little bit about some of the major players in the Canaan pantheon:

Asherah, was the fertility goddess, the “Queen of Heaven” (now immortalized with fertility symbols on Easter), married to El, a senile god who was eventually replaced with Ba’al. The people believed that Asherah was best appeased with sexual rites, often symbolized with a pole (the “May pole” being a modern vestige of this phenomenon) and that Ba’al was best appeased with a fire and a “green” tree.

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Plans for December 25th?

Most of the world has a pretty good idea what they will be doing December 25th, but I don’t. Since we stopped celebrating that holiday, due to its myriad pagan rituals and connections, we have spent the last several December 25ths with friends doing various things.

Last year, a group of friends helped us with finishing a barn, the year before we hosted a bunch of Messianic friends and I taught a cheese making class, etc…

Well, it is time to start thinking about what we will do this year. While we could simply stay home and do nothing, and I am fine with that, I know many other recovering former Christmas celebrants who need some activity as a way of avoiding the day’s traps. So, I am pondering co-hosting a shofar making class in a friend’s shop…. Is there anybody in the SC area that would be interested in a day of fellowship and shofar-making??

And, if you are not in this area, maybe you can plan a December 25th gathering for a bunch of Messianics to do something other than what the world will be doing….

The time to make plans and preparations is now…

Shalom!

Puppets and Parrots Can Move Along….

So, you are not a puppet or a parrot? Then I assume you are willing to wrestle with a few challenging questions….

Have you ever wondered why or how pagans, Wiccans, Buddhists, Hindus and virtually everyone else in the world can celebrate Christmas even though they have/desire no relation with the Messiah?
Have you ever stopped to wonder why the ancient Greeks and Romans were celebrating a day of festivities complete with tree, ornaments, gifts and parties in late December more than 300 years before the Messiah was born?
Have you ever heard, or dared to look up the word ‘Saturnalia?’
Have you ever considered the fact that December 25th is regarded as the birthday of more than a dozen pagan gods?
Have you ever wondered what Yehovah meant when He said, “…beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ ³¹You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God,…”

To read/study a little more deeply: Christmas in July

Don’t be a parrot or a puppet.

Study to show yourself approved, a workman who need not be ashamed. 2 Tim. 2:15

Fencing the Commandments

One of the unfair charges often leveled against Rabbinic Judaism is that they added to the Word of God by ‘fencing the commandments.’ And, while the charge may be true, it is generally leveled as if no one else is guilty of the same and the Jews have therefore committed some dastardly crime.

While reading a paper written by Messianic Jewish friend and midrash partner, Jonathan Krause, a section really caught my eye. He wrote,

When did sin occur on earth? Many scholars will say that it happened when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. However, in Deut. 4:2 G-D tells us not to add or take away from his word(s). Since words were added to what G-D said, it created a door to sin. But, Adam had the roots of sin in his heart when he added to the words of G-D. Perhaps he did not trust G-D in that he had to instruct Eve further by telling her she was not only not to eat of the fruit, but not to touch it.

I looked up from the paper and said, “Adam fenced the commandment!” Continue reading “Fencing the Commandments”

Blessed is the man…

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord,
And in His Torah he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3

Marinate.

Some pictures are too funny NOT to share…

Enjoy!

Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Well, an acquaintance sent me a picture from Jerusalem, and it tells about a thousand words…

It may be hard to get the message just from this pic, so, here is another of the beautiful snow a couple days ago in Jerusalem.

snow3 Here are a couple more interesting and glorious pictures that illustrate the same story, and of course… the story. Continue reading “Pictorial Evidence of Scriptural Truth!!”