pagan – 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

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.

[Continue at original post…]

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

Messianic Pharisees. Paradigm breakers!

As we discussed yesterday, Christendom is generally not taught to have a high regard for the Pharisees. Yet, ironically, we hold several Pharisees up as models of faith!! How can that be?

If you say, ‘because they stopped being a Pharisees,’ you would be wrong!!

Walk with me as we consider a couple Messianic Pharisees!

John 3:1-21 recounts the story of a Pharisees, Nicodemus, who sought out Yeshua by night to ask a few questions. Nicodemus obviously understood something worthy of investigation was going on, he just did not understand it. It didn’t quite fit his box. Instead of discounting it, he investigated! The result is that he became a follower. Continue reading “Messianic Pharisees. Paradigm breakers!”