5 December 2010 (Rishon/Pesach) Day #264, 5934 AM
The Winter Gods
Whom Will You Worship This Month?
"You shall worship no other elohim (god), for Yahweh, whose name is Qanna' (Jealous), is a jealous Elohim (God)" (Ex.34:14, NKJV).
At this winter time of various seasonal holidays and festivals I am very pleased to see that some Evangelical and Messianics are starting to question the validity of Christmas and Hanukkah, respectively. Norman Willis, whom I have great respect for as a serious and honest Messianic Bible scholar (though I don't agree with many of his conclusions in a number of subjects) makes this observation:
"Whoever's calendar we keep, that is essentially whom we worship (worth-ship). The reason we keep anyone's calendar is because we consider that person worthy to instruct us, as to what we should do. Yet YHWH is clear that we are not to follow man's instructions, but that we must only follow His instructions. He tells us very plainly not to add to His instructions: yet Hanukkah does this very thing.
"It is clear that YHWH did not instruct us to keep either Hanukkah or Purim: men did. Yet since YHWH tells us to be careful not to add anything to His instructions, then at least, in one sense, if we keep Hanukkah or Purim, are we not being disobedient to His will? And might we not even be unwittingly guilty of esteeming these men as 'greater' than YHWH, since we are following their instructions, rather than YHWH's?" (Norman Willis, Hanukkah Reconsidered, p.11).
I have to agree. And because I agree, I have ask everyone: 'Whom do you worship?' What you observe as being something that honours Yahweh, whether it be Christmas, Easter, Advent, Hanukkah, Purim, Lag b'Omer, or any other observance not commanded in Scripture, when Scripture nowhere commands it, then you are worshipping the one who commanded the observation of these things. When you obeserve Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Advent, Lent and the other man-made festivals common to Christendom, then you worship the popes who commanded them and you become Roman Catholic whether you claim to be a Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Methodist, or whatever. And since these festivals all originate in paganism, you are simultaneously identifying yourself with Paganism and the demonic author of those antichrist religions. Is that what you really want to do if you choose to observe Christmas this year? Similarly, if you choose to observe Hanukkah then you worship a man, Judah Maccabee, who commanded Judah to observe it, and the Talmudists who have enshrined it. You declare, when you observe it, Purim (ordered to be observed by Queen Esther, not Yahweh) and other non-biblical Jewish festivals, to be a Tamudic (non-Messianic, anti-Christian) Jew.
I am sorry, but there just aren't two ways of saying this. And when you worship multiple deities and follow multiple religions that makes you a pagan because that is essentially what paganism is. You are worshipping at mutliple altars, just like Antiochus Epiphanes commanded (at pain of death to those Judahites who refused) and just like the pagan Roman Emperors demanded of the first Christians (also at pain of death in the arena). Paganism doesn't care if you worship Yahweh, Yah'shua, God or Jesus provided you acknowledge and worship their gods too! For that is all Satan's wants - your worship, part or whole, for if you worship him in part, then you cease to worship Elohim who jealously (and rightly) demands your COMPLETE worship.
So I ask you, in all soberness, if you love the truth but are an habitual Christmas- or Hanukkah-observer, to reconsider the facts and choose to honour and obey Yahweh rather than Catholic popes, pagans, or Talmudic Jews. Abandon paganism, purify your lives, and witness a greater influx of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)!
Further Reading
[1] The Jewish Christmas: Exposing the Mithraic Lie of Hanukkah
[2] The Christmas Goat: Pagan Yule Customs in Scandinavia
[3] Hanukkah and Christmas: Two Pagan Winter Solstice Feasts
[4] The Tree and the Candlestick: Dismissing the gods of Christmas and Hanukkah
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