What are we truly supposed to celebrate?

Bradleywarholm

Dear friends,

For the longest time I have been pondering the history of many of our most loved "Christian" holidays. As I dug deep into the history of Christmas, Easter ect. I was shocked to learn about the very pagan backgrounds attached to all of them. I was even more shocked to learn that none of these would have been celebrated by the early church fathers until the reign of Constatine. Now how did we come to except these practices and holidays when clearly they do not have any true early conection to the christian church. Further more, when reading in Zechariah 14 I came to find that in the end of days when the Yahweh reigns we will be celebrating the feast of booths and those who don't will be punished. Now why would we be celebrating the feast of booths if we got christmas and easter? weren't all those feasts done away with. Yet after reading even more I quickly find that in the original texts of the Torah I found that Yahweh had appointed feasts to the Isrealites to celebrate at appointed times (Leviticus 23) and that they are to always celebrate these days. Then if we are grafted in as it is said in Romans 11, should we not then celebrate these days also and rid ourselves of the ones that we have unkowingly attached ourselves to without knowing their history? For me I decided half a year ago to follow these feasts and holidays given to the Isrealites, for I feel that these truly are days given to us by the Lord. I would like all of your input on this and would like to hear some discussion on the subject, it really interests me and would love to hear from all of you.

Your brother in Yahweh,
Bradley Warholm

VCO · Alley Cat Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 178

Okay, Bradley, I will give you some things to think about. First of all, the fact that the dates are the same as some pagan holidays, is NO EXCUSE not to celebrate them as Christians. I guarantee you that throughout the history of man, there have been SO MANY pagan religions, that there absolutely has to be a pagan holiday of some sort on every one of the 365 days.

"Celebration" even in the very name implies that there is something in the celebrators mind that he or she is celebrating. AND I GUARANTEE, the Christians that are Celebrating those Holidays ONLY have Christ in mind. Hence "Jesus is the reason for the Season", is VERY, VERY accurate and appropriate.

Our Great Commission:

Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV)
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The word "nations" is the Greek word "ethnos". That is the same Greek word that we get "ethnic" from. So we are to teach all ethnic groups about Jesus. YES even those that are Buddhist, or from some other culter. Therefore, if it takes a Holiday called Christmas (which was originally named Christ's Mass) to get them to ask who this Christ of Christmas is, Praise the Lord. Even the athiest cannot walk into WalMart or some other department store without seeing a little Nativity Sceen. If he sees it often enough, he just may ask, "How in the world can you believe in that?" THEN the door is wide open for you to witness. Granted, I do not like the commericialization of Christmas, but you have to admit, more non-believers hear about the birth of Jesus the Christ in the month of December than any other time of the year. We Christians should boldly and publically show the world what Celebrating Christmas is all about, leading by example. Therefore I commend all Churches that invite the public to a Christmas Program, or those that put on a "Living Christmas display", etc.

1 Corinthians 9:22 (NASB)
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

As for Easter, even I have a problem with that name. I peronsally think all Christians should call it Resurrection Sunday. BUT OH YES, I believe we should Celebrate HIS Resurrection. It is the Holiest Day on the Christian Calendar and it should be celebrated with the deepest Reverance.

Colter · Rabid Pit Bull Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 409

Hi Bradleywarholm,

Your absolutely right, these holidays were imported into Christianity as the Pagan mystery religion's and Paul's new gospel about Jesus merged to form what we have today; a shadow of the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul was a Jewish Roman citizen from the town of Tarsus which was Pagan. Paul, a great and sincere charismatic leader, brought some of his own religious philosophy into the newly forming religion of Christianity.

During the early apostolic era the church existed as a "sect" inside Judaism, inside Jerusalem, until the confrontations with the same so called authorities that tried to stop our master began. Jesus didn't teach "grafted on", he said that in his kingdom there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Jesus didn't teach "atonement" either, that was from Paganism. In the 3 years of Jesus ministry he taught that our heavenly Father is forgiving already; Jesus' death on the cross was a "shared human experience" just as his life of unbroken faith had been.

The only celebration that Jesus established was the remembrance supper, the breaking of bread in celebration of a new dispensation, a new outpouring of grace and truth. That has been merged with the blood drinking of the Pagan ritual.

Early converts to Christianity, from the apostles to the NT writers, were converted from Judaism. So quite naturally they viewed Jesus through the heritage of their previous religious convictions. You can imagine how difficult it must have been for these men and women to leave their old religious practice to become followers of a new one and how the old thinking could in some ways contaminate the new.

Keep searching and compare what Jesus taught in the red letters to what Christianity became.

Colter

VCO · Alley Cat Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 178

Does God want people to Celebrate Festivals that Glorify HIM?

Nahum 1:15 (GW)
15 There on the mountains are the feet of a messenger who announces the good news: “All is well!” Celebrate your festivals, Judah! Keep your vows! This wickedness will never pass your way again. It will be completely removed.

Leviticus 23:4-44 (GW)
4 “The following are the Lord's appointed festivals with holy assemblies, which you must announce at their appointed times.
5 “The fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, is the Lord's Passover.
6 The fifteenth day of this same month is the Lord's Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly. Don't do any regular work.
8 Bring the Lord a sacrifice by fire for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a holy assembly. Don't do any regular work.”
9 The Lord spoke to Moses,
10 “Tell the Israelites: When you come to the land I am going to give you and you harvest grain, bring the priest a bundle of the first grain you harvest.
11 He will present it to the Lord so that you will be accepted. He will present it on the day after Passover.
12 On the day you present the bundle, you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects as a burnt offering to the Lord.
13 Bring a grain offering of four quarts of flour mixed with olive oil with it. This will be a sacrifice by fire made to the Lord, a soothing aroma. Use one quart of wine for the wine offering.
14 Don't eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this same day, when you bring the offering to your God. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live.
15 “Count seven full weeks from the day after Passover (the day you bring the bundle of grain as an offering presented to the Lord)
16 until the day after the seventh week. This is a total of fifty days. Then bring a new grain offering to the Lord.
17 Bring two loaves of bread from your homes to present to the Lord. Bake them with four quarts of flour. They are the first harvested grain for the Lord.
18 With the bread bring seven one-year-old lambs that have no defects, one bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord. With these offerings also bring grain and wine offerings. They will be a sacrifice by fire, a soothing aroma to the Lord.
19 Also sacrifice one male goat as an offering for sin and two one-year-old lambs as a fellowship offering.
20 The priest must present them along with the bread of the first harvested grain as an offering to the Lord. All this, along with the two lambs, will be holy and will belong to the Lord's priests.
21 Make an announcement that there will be a holy assembly on that same day. Don't do any regular work. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live.
22 “When you harvest the grain in your land, don't harvest the grain in the corners of your fields or gather what is left after you're finished. Leave it for poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”
23 The Lord spoke to Moses,
24 “Tell the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month hold a worship festival. It will be a memorial day, a holy assembly announced by the blowing of rams' horns.
25 Don't do any regular work. Bring a sacrifice by fire to the Lord.”
26 The Lord spoke to Moses,
27 “In addition, the tenth day of this seventh month is a special day for the payment for sins. There will be a holy assembly. Humble yourselves, and bring the Lord a sacrifice by fire.
28 Don't do any work that day. It is a special day for the payment for sins. It is a time when you make peace with the Lord your God.
29 Those who do not humble themselves on that day will be excluded from the people.
30 I will kill those who do any work on that day.
31 Don't do any work. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live.
32 It is a day of worship, a day when you don't work. Humble yourselves starting on the evening of the ninth day of the month. From that evening to the next, observe the day of worship.”
33 The Lord spoke to Moses,
34 “Tell the Israelites: The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Booths to the Lord. It will last seven days.
35 On the first day there will be a holy assembly. Don't do any regular work.
36 For seven consecutive days bring a sacrifice by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day there will be a holy assembly. Bring the Lord a sacrifice by fire. This is the last festival of the year. Don't do any regular work.
37 “These are the Lord's appointed festivals. Announce them as holy assemblies for bringing sacrifices by fire to the Lord. Bring burnt offerings, grain offerings, other sacrifices, and wine offerings—each one on its special day.
38 This is in addition to the Lord's days of worship, your gifts, all your vows, and your freewill offerings to the Lord.
39 “However, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered what the land produces, celebrate the Lord's festival for seven days. The first and the eighth days will be worship festivals.
40 On the first day take the best fruits, palm branches, the branches of leafy trees and poplars, and celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God for seven days.
41 It is the Lord's festival. Celebrate it for seven days each year. This is a permanent law for generations to come. Celebrate this festival in the seventh month.
42 Live in booths for seven days. Everyone born in Israel must live in booths
43 so that generations to come may learn how I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
44 So Moses told the Israelites about the Lord's appointed festivals.

Exodus 23:16 (NASB)
16 "Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

Romans 8:23 (ISV)
23 However, not only creation groans. We, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, also groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 (ISV)
13 At all times we are obligated to thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you to be the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through faith in the truth.

Revelation 14:4 (ISV)
4 They have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. They follow the lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from among humanity as the first fruits for God and the lamb.

Matthew 2:8-11 (NKJV)
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also."
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Luke 2:6-14 (NKJV)
6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
10 Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

NOW if a multiude of angels Celebrated the Birth of Christ, who are we to say we should do less?

And what do the Feasts of Israel have to do with Christianity? I suggest you read Zola Levitt's booklet: The Seven Feasts of Israel, and you will find out they have a great deal relevance to us Christians. It is only $3, but contains a treasure house of information. When you get to section on the Festival of First Fruits you will find out more about why we Celebrate His Ressurection.

http://store.levitt.com/cgi-bin/perlshop.cgi?ACTION=ENTER&thispage=study.html&ORDER_ID=!ORDERID!#SFI

VCO · Alley Cat Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 178

DO YOU STILL WANT TO KNOW WHY WE CELEBRATE?

Watch this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyR0lwO-nXc

lone-traveler · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:32 am Post subject:

THANK YOU