Do You Celebrate Kwanzaa?

Once, sometime during my childhood (around elementary school), a woman in my community decided to put together a Kwanzaa festival. So for 7 days, we came together with her to learn about the princples of Kwanzaa and esentially celebrate. That was the first and last time my family celebrated Kwanzaa...

As an adult, as I shook off pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter, Kwanzaa didn't cross my mind. Eventually, however, I did start to wonder and ask myself "is it ok to celebrate Kwanzaa?"

What is Kwanzaa

To answer the question, we first have to look at what Kwanzaa is: what is it's origin and what does it represent. The sparks note version of Kwanzaa's origin story is that it was invented in 1966 as a non-religious way to celebrate African culture—those of us descending from African slaves were stripped of our heritage and culture, so this was an attempt to reclaim and embrace some form of African culture. Like many of the Biblical feasts, Kwanzaa is not a single day of celebration; it lasts for 7 days (from December 26 - January 1). Each day is marked by a specific principle—umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kumma (creativity), and imani (faith)—and respresented by a candle.[1]

Digging deeper into the history, however, brings to mind quite a few questions (for me at least). The founder of Kwanzaa, Dr. Maulana Karenga, is a professor at California State University. In the 1960's he formed an organization called US that though originally inspired by ideology from Malcolm X, eventually became a rival to the Black Panther Party. In 1969, this rivalry peaked in a shooting that killed 4 Black Panthers. The LAPD supported the conflict and Dr. Karenga's organization. In 1971, Dr. Karenga was convicted of felongy assault for torturing two women. Dr. Karenga denies any involvement in the crime.[2][3]

Does it Glorify God

The primary question for anything we participate is: does it glorify God? There are many things in our modern world that are not mentioned in the Bible; the litmus test for whether these things deserve a place in our lives is how they jive with the word of God.

Unlike holidays such as Christmas or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa doesn't have any religious connections. There is no deity or long standing history that links it back to paganism to set off alarm bells. Yet, the holiday is spiritual. This is evidenced in the seventh principle. Those who celebrate Kwanzaa argue that it is for a person of any religion, and logically faith could apply uniquely to each individual. (Pause for me imagining myself announcing to a crowd: "Continue to have faith in whatever it is you have faith in!" 😂)

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of evidence that part of Dr. Karenga's motivation for creating the holiday was actally to lead black Americans away from Christianity. A holiday like Kwanzaa would be great during black history month or for Juneteenth, but Dr. Karenga chose December specifically becuase he wanted to create an alternative—not supplemental—holiday to Christmas. While I, and many others, may understand that Christmas is a pagan holiday that has nothing to do with Christianity, most of the world sees it has a Christian holiday. Based on Dr. Karenga's statements, it is evident that he saw Christmas as a Christian holiday and wanted blacks to reject Christianity.[3]

Kwanzaa is not an imitation, but an alternative, in fact, an oppositional alternative to the spookism, mysticism and non-earth based practices which plague us as a people and encourage our withdrawal from social life rather than our bold confrontation with it. Maulana Karenga

Dr. Maulana is a secular humanist and thus Kwanzaa is primarily influenced by secular humanism.

Conclusions

If I'm being honest, I love the idea of Kwanzaa. There is a part of me that wants to throw out all of the parts I don't agree with and create a Kwanzaa remix that I can celebrate. I want to move it to February, strip out any ideas that conflict with Christianity, and pretend that the founder hasn't been accused of heinous acts of violence. Of course, then it wouldn't be Kwanzaa any more. The truth is, as a descendent of people who were stripped of their identity, there will always be a longing for a cultural tie to my ancestors. Kwanzaa presents itself as a possiblity, but truthfully, it isn't my heritage. The lingo for Kwanzaa is all based on Swahili which is mostly spoken in eastern Africa—the people stolen from Africa were taken from west Africa. Like the native tribes of the Americas, there were (and likely still are) vast cultural differences between tribes and peoples on the continent of Africa. Sometimes things just aren't meant to be.

I think it's great to celebrate our African heritage, however, I don't suspect Kwanzaa will be my way of doing so. Do you celebrate Kwanzaa, and if so, have you experienced any conflict over it's principles vs. those of the Bible?

References

1. The Offical Kwanzaa Website
2. "Maulana Karenga". Wikipedia; visited January 2021
3. Harold T. Fisher. "The Kwanzaa Quandary". The Balitmore Sun. December 2, 2007
4. Bruce A. Dixon. "Why I Can't Celebrate Kwanzaa". Jacobin; visited January 2021
5. David Roach. "Black SBC pastor & prof: Kwanzaa not rooted in faith". Baptist Press. December 21, 2005

Councils & Creeds

PSALMS to God · Councils & Creeds

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27 CSB

After the first century, the Church continued to have disagreements. When the Constantine declared he was a Christian, the Church became mainstream. With that change, there was an influx of people into the Church that may or may not have been truly converted—Christianity was now "hip." It was during this time that modern Christianity took form.

The Roman religion I mentioned and failed to pronounce is Mithraism. It was the dominate religion until the legalization of Christianity.[1] Much of the sun worship that has crept into the modern church comes from Mithraism.

The first 7 ecumenical councils

1. The First Council of Nicea (325ad)
2. The First Council of Constantinople (381ad)
3. The Council of Ephesus (431ad)
4. The Council of Chalcedon (451ad)
5. The Second Council of Constantinople (553ad)
6. The Third Council of Constantinople (680–681ad)
7. The Second Council of Nicaea (787ad)

Important decisions from the First Council of Nicea include a stance against Arianism (the belief that Jesus is a created being) and officially abandoning Passover for the pagan holiday of Easter.[2]

The Council of Laodicea was held in 364ad. Although it is considered a minor council by scholars, the major decision to "move" the Sabbath to Sunday was made.[3][4] (Note: only God can transfer holiness, we will dive deeper into this in the next episode)

Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ. Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea[4]

References

1. Reinhold Merkelbach. "Mithraism". Encycolpædia Britannica. February 5, 2020
2. "First Council of Nicaea". Encycolpædia Britannica. November 29, 2019
3. What happened at the Council of Laodicea?". GotQuestions.org; visited July 8, 2020
4. "Synod of Laodicea (4th Century)" New Advent; visited July 8, 2020
5. "First Seven Ecumenical Councils". Wikipedia; visited July 8, 2020

The Independence of Black America

When the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, the founding fathers wrote that all men are created equal, but they didn't view my ancestors as men. Despite fighting in the Revolutionary War (on both sides), black people were enslaved for more than 100 years after the formation of country. It wasn'tvuntil Civil War that things turned around. Countrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 only freed the slaves in the states rebelling against country. The institution of slavery (based on race, at least) wasn't formally outlawed until the 13th ammendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.[2][3]

The Civil War

Many people believe the Civil War was about state's rights. The right that the states who formed the confederacy were fighting for was the right to uphold slavery. The abolisionist movement was growing in the North, and countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, and Britain, had already outlawed slavery by the time the Civil War broke out. Much like the atmosphere of today, the country was reaching a boiling point over the issue. The people in the free states out numbered those in the slave states, this is why the Three Fifths Compromise was created in the first place, so once the notion of freeing the slaves throughout the country caught on, it became a real possibility that it would pass as law. With the defeat of the Confederate Army in April 1865, all that was left was to formalize the Union victory with the 13th Ammendment.

Freedom

The Confederacy did not take the loss well (as evidenced by the monuments and flags that are still erected to this day). When Lincoln proclaimed the Confederate slaves to be free, this freed black army units forced to fight in the war by their master, which was part of the goal. However, since these states were in rebellion against the Union, Lincoln's proclamation didn't carry any weight. Slave owners were not going to suddenly free their slaves, and slaves were forbidden to read so they didn't know they had been set free. Union soldiers had to liberate slaves as they defeated cities and regions. The last known occurrence of this happened on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas.

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere. General Order No. 3

Juneteenth

Just as the US wasn't truly an independent nation on July 4, 1776, many blacks were still enslaved after June 19, 1865.[5] Even if slave owners had been cooperative, there was the question of where people would go and what they would do. From a Biblical perspective, when slaves were set free, they were not supposed to be sent out empty handed (Deuteronomy 15:12-13). However, when the "40 Acres and A Mule" proposal fell through, that's exactly what happened,[6] paving the way for the Jim Crow South, and the next phase of the battle.

Nonetheless, June 19, 1865 (Juneteenth) symbolizes the beginning of equality for black people in the U.S.—it was the first major milestone in the fight for freedom. For many of us, this is the true day of independence.

Footnotes and References

1. Colette Coleman. "7 Black Heroes of the American Revolution". History. February 11, 2020
2. "13th Amendment ratified". History. November 13, 2009
3. For caveats on what the 13th ammendment actually does please view the Netflix documentary 13th
4. Michel Martin and Lonnie Bunch. "What The Emancipation Proclamation Didn't Do". NPR. January 9, 2013
5. Stacy Conradt. "12 Things You Might Not Know About Juneteenth". Mental Floss. June 19, 2018
6. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule’". PBS; visited Jun 17, 2020

Let's Have A Feast (Part 3)

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
shall even go up from year
to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts,
and to keep the feast of tabernacles. Zechariah 14:16 KJV

definition

feast[1]

noun

1. a: an elaborate and usually abundant meal often accompanied by a ceremony or entertainment : BANQUET
   b (1): something that gives unusual or abundant enjoyment
   // a visual feast
   (2): ABUNDANCE, PROFUSION
   //an unprecedented feast of corruption, gargantuan in scale — Neil Sheehan
2. : a periodic religious observance commemorating an event or honoring a deity, person, or thing

Feast of Tabernacles

• Leviticus 23:33-44
• Nehemiah 8:13-18
• Zechariah 14

• Starts on the 15th day of the 7th month (roughly September)
• Lasts 8 days
• Description/Instructions
  • The first day is a holy convocation and a treated as a Sabbath (no work)
  • The last day is a holy convocation and a treated as a Sabbath (no work)
  • Offerings were to be made the first 7 days
  • Dwell in "booths" (tents) for 7 days
• Connection to the past
• The Israelites lived in booths during the Exodus
• Symbolic of time to commune with God
• God provided everything during this time and was bringing them to something better
• Connection to prophecy
• Symbolic of the transition between this world, and the new world in which no evil exists
• Possibly the birthday of Christ[2][5]
• Possibly representing the time during the end where God's people will have to depend on Him due to heavy persecution

Purim

• Esther 9:18-32

• Occurs on the 14th day of Adar (roughly in March)
• Commemorates the Jews triumph over Haman in Persia
• God miraculously delivered them from being killed by their enemies

definition

חֲנֻכָּה (Hanukkah)[4]

noun

dedication, consecration

Hanukkah

• 1 & 2 Maccabees (Apocrypha)
• John 10:22

• Celebrated for 8 days starting Kislev 25 (roughly the beginning of December)
• Commemorates the time when one day's supply of oil lasted for 8 days
• This is the only winter feast and thus must be the feast mentioned in John 10:22 (also, Hanukkah means dedication)

References

1. "Feast". Merriam-Webster; March 17, 2020
2. Matthew Ervin. "The Seven Feasts of Israel are Fulfilled in Jesus". Apple Eye Ministries. March 7, 2014
3. "What Is Hanukkah?". Chabad.org; visited March 31, 2020
4. "2598. chanukkah". Strong's Concordance via Bible Hub; visited March 31, 2020
5. Dan Hardin. "Was the Birth of Christ During the Feast of Tabernacles?". Gateway Anabaptist Church. November 13, 2017
6. "5521. sukkah". Strong's Concordance via Bible Hub; visited March 31, 2020

Let's Have A Feast (Part 2)

"The kingdom of heave may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, Matthew 22:2 ESV

definition

feast[1]

noun

1. a: an elaborate and usually abundant meal often accompanied by a ceremony or entertainment : BANQUET
   b (1): something that gives unusual or abundant enjoyment
   // a visual feast
   (2): ABUNDANCE, PROFUSION
   //an unprecedented feast of corruption, gargantuan in scale — Neil Sheehan
2. : a periodic religious observance commemorating an event or honoring a deity, person, or thing

Feast of Weeks/Pentecost

• Leviticus 23:15-22
• Acts 2

• Takes place 7 Sabbaths after the Feast of First Fruits
  I actually confused myself about this timing after I recorded the episode. Some translations (like the NKJV) say for 50 days to be counted after the seventh Sabbath, which implies you would have the 49 days of the seven Sabbaths, plus another 50 days. However, most references just say 50 days after Passover. Using Deuteronomy 16:6-10, you can see that it was only 7 weeks (7 Sabbaths) after Passover that Pentecost was to occur. I checked a Jewish calendar to verify.[3] The Jewish calendar lists April 8, 2020 as Nisan 14 (the date of Passover) and they count 50 days from Nisan 15 to May 29, 2020 for Pentecost. While, this clears up the number of days, apparently I'm not the only one confused.[4] The Pharisees and Sadducees didn't agree on how to count the days either!
  
  The confusion here stems from the word Sabbath. Some times Sabbath means the seventh day of the week, but sometimes it means a holy day God proclaimed to be a day of rest (Sabbath) no matter what day it falls on. The Sadducees took a literal approach and counted from the first seventh day Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, while the Pharisees counted from the first day of Unleavened Bread, which was considered a Sabbath. The Sadducees were in charge when Christ was on Earth, and since He did not correct them, I think it's safe to say that Pentecost should be counted from the first seventh day Sabbath during the feast of Unleavened Bread. That would make the true Pentecost Sunday May 31, 2020.
• Description /Instructions
  • Bring 2 loaves, baked with leaven to offer
  • Offer 7 lambs, without blemish and one year old
  • Offer 1 young bull
  • Offer 2 rams
  • A grain offering
  • A drink offering
  • A Sin offering of 1 young goat
  • A peace offering of 2 male lambs in their first year
  • Treated as a Sabbath; no work was to be done.
• Connection to the past
• Possibly linked to when Moses received the stone tablets from God—Exodus 19:1 confirms that the Israelites reached Sinai in the third month, which is the month Pentecost occurs
• Connection to prophecy
• In Acts 2, the disciples received the Holy Spirit
• At this time God wrote the law in the hearts and minds of His people (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:16)

The long summer between the spring and fall feasts may or may not represent the wait for Christ's second coming.[2]

Feast of Trumpets / Rosh Hashanah

• Leviticus 23:23-25

• Occurs on the first day of the seventh month (1 Tishri)
• Lasts for 7 days
• Description/Instructions
  • Treated as a Sabbath; no work is to be done
  • A holy convocation where trumpets are blown is to take place
  • And offering to the LORD was to be made
• Connection to the Past
  • Nothing explicitly is stated to connect this to the history of Israel
  • Some believe it is linked to the Israel's victory at Jericho in which the walls fell when they blew the trumpets (Joshua 6); that would make this a double prophecy
• Connection to Prophecy
  • Often tied to the 7 trumpets of Revelation (Revelation 8-11)

Day of Atonement

• Leviticus 23:26-32

• Occurs on the 10th day of the 7th month (10 Tishri)
• Description/Instructions
  • Treated as a Sabbath; no work is to be done
  • A holy convocation is to occur
  • Repentance is to happen for each person (afflict your soul)
  • An offering to the LORD was to be given
  • Those not repenting and those working would be punished by God
• Connection to the Past
  • Represents coming before God in repentance
• Connection to Prophecy
  • In the final day, we will stand before God and plead the blood of Christ (our offering) in repentance

In the Next Episode

• Let's Have A Feast Part 3 (to be released on April 1, 2020)
  1. Feast of Tabernacles
  2. Purim
  3. Hanukkah

References

1. "Feast". Merriam-Webster; March 17, 2020
2. Matthew Ervin. "The Seven Feasts of Israel are Fulfilled in Jesus". Apple Eye Ministries. March 7, 2014
3. "From Passover to Pentecost". Jews for Jesus. July 1, 1995
4. Jim Franks. "Counting Pentecost When the First Day of Unleavened Bread Falls on Sunday". United Church of God. January 1, 2005

What is Valentine's Day

² This is what the Lord says:
Do not learn the way of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
although the nations are terrified by them,
³for the customs of the peoples are worthless.
Jeremiah 10:2-3 CSB

In the 5th century, a pope "converted" the Roman festival of Lupercalia [3] to the Feast of Purification, which became our modern Valentine's Day [2]

The massacre I remembered is from 1929; it has nothing to do with the origin of Valentine's Day, though I've definitely had people bring it up when the date is talked about.

Bible verses to reference

• Deuteronomy 14:2
• Revelation 18:4
• 2 Corinthians 6:17
• 2 Corinthians 7:1
• Romans 12:2
• 1 John 2:15-16
• Matthew 6:24
• 2 Corinthians 5:17

References

1. "St. Valentine's Day Massacre". History. February 5, 2020
2. "Valentine's Day". Encyclopædia Britannica. April 18, 2019
3. "Lupercalia". Encyclopædia Britannica. November 8, 2016

4 Biblical Reasons Why I Don't Celebrate Christmas

It's been quite a while since I stopped celebrating Christmas, and no I'm not a Jehovah's Witness. Christmas is America's favorite holiday, and as the season dawns I am inevitably asked to explain why I don't celebrate Christmas. I have several posts on the blog about the history of Christmas and it's pagan origins, I'll list them in references for those who are new to the site. However after overhearing a church leader who knows the history of Christmas "explain" to members of the church why he thinks they can celebrate the holiday, I realized I needed to approach this topic from a Biblical basis not a historical one.

The leader's main point was from 1 Corinthians 8:

⁴As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. ⁵For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) ⁶But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. ⁷Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.1 Corinthians 8:4-7 KJV

His argument was that because we know that the pagan deity originally worshipped on this day is not real, we are free to celebrate the holiday as we choose. I can see how if you have a strong attachment to the holiday and are looking for support, this quote would seem to do the trick. However, we can't just take one quote from the Bible and transplant it into our modern world. We have to look at context and scripture as a whole. It is for that reason, I want to present my reason for not celebrating it from a Biblical context.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Did Not Bow To The Idol

In Daniel 3, the king of Babylon creates a golden statue of himself meant to be worshipped—an idol. The king declares that anyone not bowing to the statue would be thrown in the fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not bow to this statue when the time came and were thus thrown into the furnace, but were saved by God, Who joined them in the midst of the furnace.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were obviously loyal followers of God; they had strong faith and trusted in God to see them through their situation. They knew that the idol set up before them was not a god and had no power over the true God. However, it would have been a sin for them to bow before this statue and would have revealed much about them:

• Their fear of death
• Distrust that God protects those who stand for Him
• A desire to fit in
• False witness: pretending to worship and thus giving credence to a false god
• and many more

So, what's the difference between bowing to an idol and eating meat offered to idols? That's what we need to know to understand how this applies to us today.

Historical Context

Today, when you want meat, you go to the local grocery store and buy it. In Biblical days, that's not how things worked. Animals were always slaughtered as an offering to some deity. Sometimes it meant the animal was reduced to ashes, but sometimes it was probably closer to a cookout or a barbecue. If you read the beginning of Leviticus as well as the passages on the Feast Days, you'll notice that the priests and the offerers, were meant to eat the meat of the sacrificed animal. The most well known example of this is the Passover lamb. They were to kill the lamb as a sacrifice to God, and then eat the meat of the lamb in celebration of the Passover. Animals weren't just killed and consumed because someone had a craving for chicken the way we do now. Wether a person had their own animals to kill or had to buy meat from a marketplace, that animal was killed in a sacrifice before it made it to the table.

So, if you lived in Israel, the meat sold in town or served to you at your neighbor's house was probably offered to God first. However, if you lived in the city of Corinth, as the recipients of Paul's letter did, the meat around town was probably sacrificed to some pagan god worshiped by the Romans or the Greeks. This is why people were concerned about consuming that meat.

The difference in consuming this meat and bowing to a statue is active and direct participation in worship of an idol versus an indirect participation. There's a major difference in me taking an animal to a pagan temple and offering it to this false deity then eating the meat and me simply accepting meat offered to me at my neighbor's dinner table. The former being closer to what the king of Babylon was attempting to get Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to do, requires the person to go through the motions of worshipping a false deity, whereas the latter is simply a consequence of living in a fallen world.

Modern Examples

Because it is the season, most things in the store have Christmas packaging. Just the other day I saw Walgreen's had made an aisle for "Christmas" candy. If I go to the store and buy a piece of chocolate that has Santa on it, that's a consequence of the fact that I live in America (Rome). I'm going to tear the wrapper off and throw it away, because I just want the chocolate inside. That's different from purposefully buying decorations and decorating my house.

God Does Not Change

One of the arguments the leader brought forth was that Christmas isn't associated with paganism today. I imagine that was brought up in rebuttal to Jeremiah 10:2-4 or 1 Thessalonians 5:22. These verses tell us not to participate in pagan customs and to maintain an image of goodness. The logic put forth here only holds in a select circle. I disagree with the concept that Christmas isn't associated with paganism, or rather I would argue that Christmas isn't associated with Christ.

1. If Christmas was associated with Christ, there would be no reason for the slogan "Jesus is the Reason for the Season"
2. If Christmas was associated with Christ, there would be a massive uproar and breach of separation of church and state in that it is a federal holiday
3. Many of my friends who are atheist, agnostic, or members of an entirely different religion love and celebrate Christmas
4. Every Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movie is about finding love, magic, and enjoying the season, but has not a single mention of Christ

I could go on for days, but I think the above list should suffice. Besides, I want to look at this point as though the assumption that Christmas is associated with Christ and Christianity is true. Would it be ok for us to celebrate it now just because it's no longer associated with paganism?

Well, first and foremost, ignorance is bliss (until it gets you in trouble). I don't believe God holds us accountable for things we have no way of knowing. Information hasn't always been easily accessible; that's one of the reasons traditions stick better than the actual Word of God. I know people today who truly believe Christ was born on the 25th of December, and without a doubt over the centuries many people truly believed this. I don't think God is going to say them "hey, you didn't know, but eternal death to you anyway." What I'm discussing concerns those of us that do know or have the ability to learn but choose not to because we don't want to change.

For I am the Lord, I change not;Malachi 3:6

Malachi 3:6 says God doesn't change. When you think about the verses I mentioned earlier (Jeremiah 10:2-4 and 1 Thessalonians 5:22), it's easy to say that it is wrong to participate in pagan festivals. Most Christians today would agree that they have no business playing with a Ouija board or trying out voodoo. Many would still tell you it's wrong to celebrate Halloween, for the same reasons. When Christmas was Sol Invictus or Saturnalia, the early Christians would have known not to go near it. If it was not ok then, how can it be ok now when Malachi 3:6 tells us God doesn't change?

Murder was wrong when Cain killed Abel. Murder was wrong when David had Uzziah killed. Murder was wrong in Jesus' day (Matthew 5:22). Murder is wrong today. The same is true of worshipping idols. To quote Shakespeare, "a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet" and a pagan holiday by any other name is still a pagan holiday.

No Other God

Let's go back to the idea that we know there are none in the same league as God. The pagans actually thought their gods could defeat the Most High God—we see these examples throughout the Bible—but we know there is only one God in Heaven and He reigns supreme. Knowing that God is the only God and only serving God seem to be different things sometimes, though.

Unfortunately, we create our own gods and give them power over us. This is precisely what Adam and Eve did in Genesis 3. Remember, the word "lord" means master. The Lord God is our master. By listening to someone or something over Him, we have chosen a new master. Even though that person or thing may not be a god, we have made them a god in our life. That is, by definition, what consumerism has done to Christmas. People have to have the perfect tree, the perfect lights, the perfect presents, etc. There's a concept of a "good" Christmas vs. a "bad" Christmas. If Christmas is about worshipping God, how do you have a bad one? It's only possible if you let other things creep in.

The fact is, the holiday was created for a pagan deity. Even though he is powerless in the face of the Most High God, people have given this deity power and no matter how hard you try to Christianize the holiday, that pagan deity is lord over it. That's why it's so easy to fall into the trap of consumerism. When asked about the meaning of Christmas, most Christians (and non-Christians) do not say Christ. I've heard "it's about giving" and "it's about family" the most.

My question is, knowing that God never told us to celebrate birthdays (Ecclesiastes 7:1), knowing that Christ was not born on December 25, could you skip Christmas? Whatever it is you do traditionally for the holiday, could you put it aside and treat that day like a regular day? Can you imagine doing it for one year? For two? For ever? If the idea of abstaining from the holiday for even one year bothers you, a false god has power over you. If the idea of giving it up for a little while seems doable, but you could never give it up forever, a false god has power over you. The reason I can tell you this is because I struggle with giving up things too. It took me 4 years to start keeping Sabbath after I started coming to the realization of its importance. I still haven't given up cheese or soda. I'm not judging you, because just like Christmas has power over you, cheese has power over me. I'm simply making you aware of the fact, because you can't combat it until you admit it's a problem.

False Witness

There are plenty of passages telling us not bear false witness, though usually specified against a neighbor, there are also passages telling us not to add or subtract from the Word of God (re: don't bear false witness against God, either). Bearing false witness against God is the devil's greatest tool. How do you take down a leader? Defame his character, and make him look unreliable. I could write a whole book on ways the modern church bears false witness to God, but let's stick to the topic at hand...

For Those Who Engage in Santa

Among Christians who choose to celebrate Christmas, some allow Santa and some don't. I have a whole blog post on the trouble with Santa, so I won't go into detail about that, but I want to reiterate the harm of lying (bearing false witness) to your children about Santa. In an episode of 7th Heaven, when the youngest daughter discovers that Santa (along with the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc.) aren't real, she assumes her parents lied to her about God too. A growing portion of society believes God is a fairy tale like Santa. We, as Christians, have a responsibility to treat God differently, to take Him seriously and to make clear distinctions between fantasy and truth.

Discovery of the Truth

I remember being about eleven or twelve when I discovered that the name I call my uncle is not his name. It's not his first name; it's not his middle name; it's not descriptive... Imagine you've known someone your whole life thinking their name was Robert and you find out their name is actually William John (names are completely random and not my uncle's actual names). I was so confused.

I recognize this confusion in my friends who have abandoned God due to the lies of the church. Let's face it, most people aren't steeped in the Word. Most people don't read the Bible monthly, let alone weekly or daily, not to mention digging deeper to be able to understand context or correlating across books and chapters. A lot of people's entire world has been shattered by the revelation that Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus (among other things). When people discover the religion of the antichrist, the mother god, father god, and son god worship that began with Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz,[14] they see parallels in the modern church and decide the whole thing is false. They've been taught their whole life that pagan worship is false, and now what they've been worshipping all their life is the same as what they were taught to reject.

The antichrist isn't a single person that acts in a blatant sinister and evil manner. The antichrist is a power, a fusion of government and religion that seeks to take the place of God's true kingdom. That's always been Satan's goal: to replace God. It's not that this religion is the exact opposite of what God has commanded us, it's that it is being followed in place of God. Some of it will be true and very compelling, but the way we can spot the difference is by identifying the lie.

Here is the lie:

• Replacing Semiramis with Mary and then elevating Mary. Examples include claiming that Mary was a perpetual virgin, praying to her, creating and bowing to statues of her
• Asserting that Mary's miracle birth coincided with Semiramis', essentially demoting Christ to the role of Tammuz (who was not a miracle birth and is not the Son of God).
• Including all the original sun worship elements, such as aligning the date with the winter solstice, halos, and traditions of Sol Invictus/Saturnalia/Yule

Then, before you know it, you're celebrating the false religion in place of the true Word of God.

So many people have trouble separating Christ's birth from the pagan holiday, that understanding the above negates His entire birth in their mind. The first time someone told me Christmas was not in the Bible, I could not differentiate between the holiday we celebrate and the narrative of Christ's birth in Luke 2. It takes a strong foundation and understanding of scripture to learn the truth about Christmas and understand that it has no bearing on Luke 2 because Christ wasn't born on December 25 and Satan has been trying to counterfeit God's promise of salvation since it was prophesied in Genesis 3:15. The reason this is so hard for most people? The church is bearing false witness against the God they claim to serve. In doing so, we endanger the souls of many.

What Does it Mean?

Primarily, it means you will never hear me telling people "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." I am not going to be shouting lies from the rooftop. I am not putting up a tree in my house or "decking the halls" with garland, because I know why that tradition exists. I am not out spending all the money I don't have to buy gifts for people because the world has said that is what Christmas is about. If I see something I think you'll like, I'll buy it when I see it and give it to you when I see you. Giving is 24/7/365.

Do I watched the hallmark movies? Sometimes. Like with the Nutcracker (which I'm going to see a variation of this evening), the story isn't always about Christmas, it just takes place during Christmas. If the focus of the movie is pagan (like The Santa Clause series, Elf, etc.) I'm not going to watch it. You have other examples like This Christmas, which is about a family coming together and it just happens to be set around Christmas. Or the Nutcracker (I just love the music), which is simply about the dream the main character has on Christmas Eve. In those cases I let the Holy Spirit determine what is and is appropriate. Who knows, 5 years from now I may look back at this post and say the god of Christmas still had it's hooks in me and I shouldn't have been watching any of this either.

Am I rude to people who do celebrate Christmas? Not at all. I know that most people celebrate the holiday and most are not aware of the complex history of it. Think of how long this post is, and I have numerous posts that go into more detail and discus things I haven't mentioned here listed below. That's a lot of research, a lot of time, and a long journey. I don't expect people to be in the same place I am. I also know that when the cashier at the grocery store says "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" they don't want a dissertation. I have no problem with "Happy Holidays" as it includes Hanukkah, which Jesus celebrated (John 10:22). When people say "Merry Christmas", I simply say "I don't celebrate it but thanks, and I hope you enjoy yours."

References

1. Ree Hughes. "Day 1: The Etymology of Christmas. PSALMS to God. December 25, 2015
2. Ree Hughes. "Day 2: The Origin of December 25. PSALMS to God. December 26, 2015
3. Ree Hughes. "Day 3: The History of Santa Claus. PSALMS to God. December 28, 2015
4. Ree Hughes. "Day 4: Giving Gifts. PSALMS to God. December 28, 2015
5. Ree Hughes. "Day 5: Lights of the Season. PSALMS to God. December 29, 2015
6. Ree Hughes. "Day 6: The War on Christmas. PSALMS to God. December 30, 2015
7. Ree Hughes. "Day 7: Carol of the Bells. PSALMS to God. December 31, 2015
8. Ree Hughes. "Day 8: Depression and Christmas. PSALMS to God. January 2, 2016
9. Ree Hughes. "Day 9: Why Red & Green?. PSALMS to God. January 3, 2016
10. Ree Hughes. "Day 10: Frosty the Snowman & Co.. PSALMS to God. January 5, 2016
11. Ree Hughes. "Day 11: Christmas Was Un-American Once. PSALMS to God. January 5, 2016
12. Ree Hughes. "Day 12: The Meaning of Christmas. PSALMS to God. January 6, 206
13. Ree Hughes. "Is Santa Claus Replacing Jesus". PSALMS to God. December 5, 2015
14. I found a claim online that the idea the idea of Semiramis, Nimrod, and Tammuz is actually made up. (See here) I did not research the claim so I cannot speak to it's legitimacy, but regardless of where the the trio of mother god, father god and son god came into being, you can in fact see this pattern repeated in many religions. The History of Religion series by TruthUnedited on YouTube is a great way to learn about this deception.

Passover & the Resurrection

The Passover and it's connection to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is the foundation of Christianity. So, why are we more concerned with "Easter" than Passover? How did we manage to get to the point where the only two holiday Christians are known for are actually pagan holidays?

Season 1 Episode 17

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.1 Corinthians 5:7 CSB

00:01:16	Hey guys welcome back to PSALMS to God podcast. Last week I was planning for this particular episode, and I was studying and researching all of these things to do an episode that would have been part of the high school yearbook superlative series—and I had the person, I had the superlative; I was really excited about this episode. But then I looked at a calendar and some people mentioned some things to me and the Spirit started tugging on my heart to talk about a different topic. And there was a part of me that felt like I didn't need to talk about that topic because I do have a post about this on my blog,[1] and I felt like that covered it. I don't want to beat a dead horse and I was like I don't really need to talk about that again, but of course now that I have a podcast, I feel like they're people who listen to the podcast that don't necessarily read the blog and I'm pretty sure that post came out like four or five years ago. it's pretty old. so things were tugging on me, and then I went to Sabbath School, Saturday, and we talked about some verses from Hebrews. We started at the end of Hebrews 5, in verse 11 and went through the first couple of verses in Hebrews 6. And we were talking about how these established Christians, these people who were supposed to be mature in the faith, were basically still on milk. They were basically still babes, and they weren't able to spread The Word, because they didn't know The Word themselves. And we got into a discussion about our responsibility to spread knowledge and to spread the gospel of Christ, and how we are supposed to continually grow and how we're supposed to push believers around us to grow. And after having that discussion, I felt like what I would wanted to talk about was not as important as what we're going to talk about.
00:03:20	So today we’re talking about the Passover, the resurrection, and this pagan holiday called Easter. I'm pretty sure that most of you are aware that Easter comes up this Sunday. You may not however be aware that the Passover starts this Friday night, and... That’s what you would expect because most people think of Easter as being a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, which happened right after the Passover. This year that seems to be the case, however that is not a guaranteed order of events, for instance in 2016 Easter was on March 27th, the Passover was on April 22nd[3]. How can the Passover happen after Easter? Let alone a month after Easter? Well it's simple Easter has absolutely nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. It's a pagan holiday, and the way Easter is calculated is not by making it the Sunday after Passover. It's not by making it 3 days after the Passover. Easter has nothing to do with the Passover.
00:04:46	Easter is calculated as the first full moon—well, the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21st.[19] No. That makes no sense from a Biblical standpoint. That's because it has to do with some sort of equinox and the stars aligning and all of this Pagan stuff—let's not say it's quite like that, because the stars were given for signs, but my point is Easter is not calculated the way the Passover is calculated. The Passover, the date of the Passover. was given by God. If you go into the Old Testament that is repeatedly telling the Israelites when the Passover is, how to celebrate it, all of these things. So Passover is the 14th day of the month of Nisan, I think it's called—don't quote me on that one,[4] but it is a month that was from the Israelites calendar. Basically it started off their year, because it was the start of their Exodus from Egypt. So that's where they're calendar start—or at least their religious calendar started at that point. And because they have a lunar calendar, which means they base their months off the cycles of the Moon, as opposed to the sun and all of these other crazy things that we have in our current calendar, such as the fact that there were some kings who wanted months named after themselves and they wanted their months to have 31 days and not 30 days, which is why February only has 28 days[5]... Yeah, y’all it's a whole thing. Yeah we're not, we don't have time for all that, but basically that is why Passover occurred at varying dates in Western calendars. But if you were going by the Israelite calendar, or if you went by the Jewish calendar, Passover happening of the same day every year, because that's how God specified it. It's not really a moving date, it’s only moving because we changed the calendar. Easter, on the other hand, is a moving date because it has to do with when the moon occurs and so many days after that and all this other hoop-la.
00:07:13	But why I really wanted to talk about it is because it dawned on me that Easter and Christmas are the days when churches are the most well-attended. People who are... Lukewarm Christians, that's what I'm going to call it because I'm just being honest today. People were lukewarm Christians that don't attend church regularly, who may or may not carry God around with them all the time, who may or may not read The Word, typically express some sort of obligation to go to church on Easter and Christmas. They’re like, “I never miss Easter. I never miss Christmas. I go then.” And you will see, churches will be filled to the brim this Sunday, with people celebrating this pagan holiday that has nothing to do with Christ—and Christmas, also is a pagan holiday that has nothing to do with Christ—He was not born on the 25th we can do a whole ‘nother podcast episode on that, but as I was thinking about it what does that say about the church? What does that say about who we’re worshiping and how were worshiping that people feel most obligated to come worship God on a day that is actually meant for a pagan god? What are we teaching in our churches? What are we proclaiming to the world?
00:08:14	One of the things that fascinated me the most in college when I really started diving into The Word and started studying The Word was understanding the true motive of the devil—the true M.O., and what was really going on in the Bible, and what this war is really about. People often think of the devil as being the opposite of God. He's the adversary, so he, where God is good and gracious and forgiving and beautiful and nice and all of these wonderful positive aspects and attributes, people think of the devil as being ugly and evil and crazy and mean and you know, that he would kill people. And you will see in society that anytime you find somebody that is undesirable people labeled them to be the devil or the antichrist. So just because they disagree with their politics or they dislike them or whatever, suddenly that person is the devil or the antichrist. But if you actually look into the history of Satan and if you look into the origins of the word antichrist, then you realize that the devil's crime is not that he was out doing things that were per se bad things, I mean he did do bad things, but the whole point is that he wanted to be God. He wanted to be worshipped as God. That was his crime. That was where he went wrong. And so in order to get that worship, he started faking gods on Earth. He basically tried to make himself the god of the world—and he succeeded. And that is what the war is about.
00:10:42	And so what he did was not just totally invert God's truth, he took some of God's truth and then he put in a little of his own thing. Maybe he added something. Maybe he took something out. And he caused people to worship him instead of God, because people are doing it his way instead of God's way, but that way may not be so drastically different that it's obvious. You’d have to know God to know difference. That is the danger of Satan.
00:11:15	So what happened is that from the beginning, Satan was told the same thing that everyone else was told. Satan was in the garden when Adam and Eve fell. So when God uttered the very first Messianic prophecy in Genesis 3:15, Satan was there. He was talking to Satan! He was like this is how you going to die, this was going to happen, her seed is going to step on the head of your seed. And so we may not fully understand all of the things that God tells us, because we are human. And despite the fact that Satan told us that this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was going to give us all this grand knowledge, we still don't understand a lot. It's basically like telling children more than they're able to handle, because they're just too young to understand. That's basically where we are as people. We know things that we should not know because we don't know how to handle what we know; that's where we are.
00:12:24	Satan, on the other hand, is an angel, or he was an angel; he’s a fallen angel. He was created above us; he has more knowledge than us. He's not as powerful as God. don't ever get it twisted. God has more power than the enemy, but he has more power than we do, which is why we're not supposed to fight him, we're supposed to let God fight him. Nonetheless he knew some of God's plan. He doesn't know the whole thing—I don’t think—but he knew at least some of it. So he tried to replicate and counterfeit God's plan so that he could convince us to believe him instead.[6] I must say it's a good plan. You know, you usually believe the first thing you hear. The second thing, you’re like “Well, I don’t know, I already believe this thing over here.” So what he did was he tried to stage the whole concept of the virgin birth. So if you look throughout history, you will see many pagan religions that have this trio effect of a father, mother god, and a child. And one of the most famous versions of this is from this Babylonian, or Sumerian. I'm not sure… It’s from that same Mesopotamian era—area—that the Israelites would eventually be in.[7] And there was this child called Tammuz. If you've heard of him, you already know where I'm going.
00:14:02	Basically Tammuz was rumored to be born on the 25th. There were all of these other things that went into his legend and his mythology that also tie into the Spring Equinox and the time of Easter. And so the mother of Tammuz, Ishtar also known as the Queen of Heaven, is a pagan goddess that is found in many, many Pagan religions, and that is where the name Easter actually comes from.[18] Easter is tied to a fertility goddess. And in other languages they do not call this holiday Easter. They call it pascha, or something like that, which ties it closer to the Passover, but it's still not actually related the Passover.
00:15:04	15:04 When I was a kid, I used to be so confused about Easter. First of all, why is a rabbit carrying eggs? OK. As a child, I didn’t question the idea of bunnies at Spring, that seems to go hand-in-hand, of course has nothing to do with the resurrection, but it does have to do with Spring. Which, you know, it being a pagan festival of sun worship, it really is about Spring, so that makes sense. But I couldn't figure out why these bunnies had eggs! Bunnies are mammals; they don't eat eggs, they don't lay eggs—why is the Easter Bunny walking around with these eggs? Right? OK, well you know why, because Easter is about a pagan fertility goddess. Bunnies, you know the whole saying “multiply like rabbits?” That's that's why there are bunnies tied to Easter. The eggs, I think that's self-explanatory. We're not going to go into the eggs.
00:16:04	So, yeah. That’s were a lot of this symbolism comes from, and then of course, us being in America—or at least, I’m in America, not sure where you're listening from, but here in America everything is about money, and so they commercialized the holiday. So by the time I was a kid Easter was like Christmas. I used to get an Easter basket and it would have like a teddy bear in it, and like, I always got a VHS. Y’all, I’m telling my age right now, ‘cause DVDs were not a thing, yet. I was got some sort of VHS; it was some sort of cool movie, usually some sort of Disney movie,[8] and you know, I’d get some candy. I would get just, whatever. Like I used to ask for things for Easter the way people ask for things for Christmas. Yeah, like I said commercialism. So some of the problems that are found in Easter are strictly commercial problems that have to do with money and have nothing to do with paganism, but there are a lot of things about Easter that are tied directly to paganism.
00:17:11	One of the reasons that it bothers me that this distinction is not evident within the church is the fact that the Bible tells us to abstain from the appearance of evil,[9] and it tells us not to do as the pagans do, not to worship pagan gods.[10] It's interesting, because I feel like in today's society, it's so easy to get your hands on information. Information is out there everywhere; correct information and false information. And we are not as well versed in scripture as we should be. So it's really easy for kids to leave church, go to college, and basically be bamboozled into who-knows-what. Because some people are out here teaching the truth and some people are out here teaching some foolishness and some people are teaching something that's kind of in-between here; they’re peppering it with truth and lies. And it's really hard understand what is true, and I've had so many friends that went to college and learned about Tammuz, and learned about this pagan holiday and that pagan holiday, and put two and two together that Easter and Christmas are pagan holidays, and that there's no real difference between those holidays and these pagan holidays for these false gods and goddesses. And then instead of understanding the whole picture, that's where it stops, and they decide that Christianity is also a false religion, and they stopped believing in God and they stopped believing in Jesus. And that is a tragedy, because the Bible doesn't condone Easter or Christmas. Neither of them are promoted in the Bible.
00:19:10	So let's talk about what is actually in the Bible. The word Easter can only be found in 1 verse in 1 translation and that is the King James version (KJV). If you have a King James version of the Bible and you go to Acts 12:4, you will see the word Easter. That is not translated like that in any other version. Now the argument is that the word that is translated to Easter in the King James version there is actually pascha which is the Hebrew word for Passover,[11][12] and so all of the other versions will translate it as Passover. And there is arguments between translators, between scholars, about which version is correct and why it's this way or that way. I'm not an expert on translating from Greek to English,[13] so I'm not inserting my opinion on that, but I can say that no matter how you translate that verse you still come out with the conclusion that Easter was not a Christian holiday.
00:20:19	So, if you go to that verse and you read it and you look at the context, what is happening in that chapter is that the Romans have just crucified James, one of the followers of Christ. They have seen that this made the Jews happy. Remember at this point in history, the Jews hated the Christians and the Romans hated the Christians. So they were both persecuting the Christians. It was illegal to be a follower of Christ at this point in history. So Herod, who was King in Rome at the time, he decided to capture Peter and kill Peter, as well, but it was during the time of the Unleavened Bread, which is the feast that follows Passover. In the King James version, it says that he was going to wait until after Easter to kill Peter. In other translations it will stay until after Passover.
00:21:21	The Jewish religion was an established religion; it wasn't illegal. They were basically letting the Jews be, even though they were in subjugation to Rome. So they were not necessarily trying to cause a riot amongst the Jews by having some sort of crucifixion in the middle of the Passover season, in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread because that would have gone against their tradition, so they would wait until after. That makes sense. Easter would have been a pagan holiday that the Romans kept. So the Romans would have waited until after their celebration to kill the prisoner, as well. There is no way that they would have waited for a Christian holiday, because Christianity was illegal. In fact they would have been more likely to kill this person during the Christian holiday, to spite them basically and to say like we don't care about this this is not a legitimate holiday, and to make a point that they were not recognized by the government. You have to remember, this is not America. This is not during this time where we have freedom of religion; there was no such thing as freedom of religion back then. So that's one thing to be gleaned from that particular chapter, from that particular verse.
00:22:47	That being said there are verses in the Bible that allude to Easter. If you remember back in the beginning when I talked about Ishtar, that is the goddess that is typically associated with Easter. There are so many other names for her and one of them is the Queen of Heaven, and in the Old Testament it talks about the Queen of Heaven a couple of times. So you can check out Jeremiah 7:18, Jeremiah 44:17-25, and you can check out Ezekiel 8:13-16. And in some of these verses you will also see references to Tammuz. And here they talk about not just the whole you know Queen of Heaven worship, they mention hot cross buns, well they mention cakes which became hot cross buns for those who are familiar with that tradition, and they also talked about some sort of sunrise worship situation, which has translated into the modern sunrise service.
00:24:02	And before I continue I do want to insert that I am not trying to come for people who have been celebrating Easter and who’ve gone to sunrise service, ‘cause I've done this too. I celebrated Easter all throughout my childhood. I already told you I used to ask for gifts to be in my Easter basket and I used to be excited to get it. I have plenty of little colorful Easter bunnies that I got during Easter—I love teddy bears, love stuffed animals, still have these bunnies at my house back home.[14] I used to get my little Easter dress and say my little Easter speech at church. We used to have Easter egg hunts. I went to sunrise service. Yeah I did that too, but that was before I really started understanding why it mattered that it was not really of God, and that it really has nothing to do with the resurrection.
00:24:57	So, like I said, there were some verses in the Bible that actually talk about the Queen of Heaven and how dismayed God is at the idolatry of the Israelites worshipping this pagan goddess.
00:25:11	Another thing that comes from this, like I said, of people researching into this and being swayed against God even though the Bible speaks against this, is the confusion that comes from it. I spoke a little bit about this in my podcast called How I Found God.[15] Growing up in the church when I was very young, I did not fully understand what it meant for Jesus to die on the cross for us. You see the whole thing with the Resurrection, the crucifixion and the resurrection, is that Jesus is our Passover Lamb. That is why I chose chose 1st Corinthians 5:7 to start off the episode, because the real significance of the crucifixion and the resurrection is the Passover.
00:26:04	Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Bill Fairs During the Exodus, Moses was sent to bring God's people out of bondage, but the final plague was a plague of death, death to the enemies of God's people. God's people were identified by the covering of the lamb’s blood. They were told to kill this lamb, that was unblemished, and put his blood on their door post, and it was that act that kept them from dying[16]—dying y'all! The symbolism in this act is what God was setting up, for what was to come, which is Jesus the Passover Lamb dying for us, so that we don't have to die the second death. So that we can live for eternity, and so that we can be released from bondage of sin. That is the connection between the Passover, the crucifixion and the resurrection. And it's important. It’s fundamental. That is fundamental thing of Christianity. If you don't understand anything else about Christianity that is what John 3:16 is about, and that is important. So we should not be screwing that message up.
00:27:21	But when I was a kid, what I thought Easter was colorful floral dresses, bright flowers, and happy, happy, happy, and Easter egg hunts. I saw a spring festival and while I concede that Christ rising from the dead is a joyous occasion, and it's a great thing, there is also a lot solemness and sorrow that should also be taken into mind when you're talking about the crucifixion. The fact that He was beat, spat upon, that He bled to death. That He basically suffocated hanging from a cross for us, that He was separated from God for the first time in His life and that that had to have been a traumatic experience, and it was all for us. He didn't do anything wrong. I did something wrong. You did something wrong. Your neighbor did something wrong. We the people did something wrong, and we were the ones that were sitting there saying “yeah kill Him. Crucifying Him.” Meanwhile the disciples are running wild, denying him and hiding, and fleeing, and fearing for their lives, while He is suffering. That is not what is conveyed in our current celebration of Easter.
00:28:43	And while I fully understand that as an adult, I did not see that as a kid, which is why it was hard for me to understand what it actually meant to believe in Jesus and to worship Him as a Savior. I was like “yeah, He died and He rose, yeah. Whooo! I’m happy about this.” Because I didn’t fully understand it. And I think that have been one of those girls that was more materialistic and more girly and less tomboyish, I probably would have gone headfirst into these concepts of the Easter dress and the right shoes and the right hair. I mean I remember being in college, I was just out of college, and one of my friends made a Facebook post where she was bragging about the fact that she had picked out her Easter dress. She bought the dress. She was all set for Easter, but she couldn't figure out what church she was going to. And I was just like wait, you were more concerned about what you would wear than where you would go? Than what community you would fellowship with and what you would do to serve God on that day?
00:29:54	And that was one of the first moments that I really took in how disturbing it is that our perception of this holiday is what it is. Because that's not what the resurrection is about, and it's not what it should be about. We should be more focused on what the Bible actually says. And I would hate to see people end up not in heaven because they were turned away from Christianity by false holidays—by bootleg pagan holidays masquerading as Christian holidays. That's what I'm saying. And I would also hate to see well-meaning, well-intentioned Christians get caught up in the hype, because I realize a lot of people think they're doing the right thing. I don’t think people go out and do things with evil intentions, some people do, but most people I think you're doing what you think is the right thing. And so I would hate to see those people get to Heaven and God be like “I don’t know you, ‘cause you’re were out here worshipping in this pagan goddess Ishtar, claiming you was worshipping My Son, but you wasn't.”[17]
00:31:09	And so, I just wanted to put it out there and encourage you to study The Word. Study the history of these holidays. Know what you're celebrating, why you're celebrating it, and how it came to be, because that's very important. Thank you guys for listening. I hope that it was informative and that it has touched you. And I hope you know like I said that this is not me coming at you it's just me sharing what the Holy Spirit has put on my heart. I hope you will continue to listen in, that you will subscribe, like, all of those wonderful things. If you would like to see the transcript for this episode or to follow up on some of the things that I mentioned in the episode, I will link them in the transcripts. It will be at www.psalmstogod.com/PassoverAndResurrection. See you next time

Footnotes and References

1. Ree Hughes. “Easter”. PSALMS to God.
2. ”Easter 2016”. Calendar 12; visited April 2019
3. ”Passover 2016”. My Jewish Learning; visited April 2019
4. Actually you can quote me on that. Leviticus 23:5 and Esther 3:7 confirm that Passover is in fact the 14th day of the month of Nisan.
5. ”Why does February have 28 days, and July and August, 31 days”. Times of India. January 6, 2008
6. Truth Unedited. “History of Religion (Part 1): Pagans, Nimrod, and Babylon”. YouTube. March 12, 2018
7. ”Tammuz”. Encyclopædia Britannica. January 7, 2015
8. The irony of receiving movies about magic and wizardry (all condemned in Deuteronomy) while celebrating a pagan fesitval in the name of Jesus… Glad He’s a forgiving God.
9. 1 Thessalonians 5:22
10. 1 Peter 4
11. Actually it’s Aramaic, my bad.
12. ”3957. Pascha”. Bible Hub; visited April 2019
13. I don’t know where my brain was at; I was just naming languages. The bottom line is true though. I’m not qualified to translate any languages.
14. And by this weird phrase, I mean my parent’s house
15. Ree Hughes. “How I Found God”. PSALMS to God. March 18, 2019
16. Exodus 12
17. I don’t know why I worded it like this. It’s full of fallacies, but you get the point. I don’t want them barred from Heaven because of the reason I listed
18. Catherine Boeckmann. "When is Easter 2019?". . March 27, 2019
19. "Calculating the Easter Date". Time and Date; visited April 2019

Goodbye

It's time to say goodbye to 2018, and hello to 2019. So here's to my annual New Year's Day poem.

Clear skies and twinkling stars,
as a year of goodbyes comes to a close...
To my twenties, it was fun, now adios—
Au revoir to the friends and family
Now sleeping til that final day,
The people who have shaped me in every way.
Adieu creepy neighbor, addio broken apartment,
Adeus blank, empty, hollow walls...
The mirror lies—sayonara deceiving eyes.
Aloha 2018, a new year calls;
Aloha 2019, the new year calls