Hope everyone has had a great start to this year’s Holy Days. We are looking forward to the Last Day of Unleavened Bread tomorrow here in Tyler with a potluck planned for after services and an evening of fun and fellowship including Bible Trivia and Karaoke. Like with the weekly Sabbath, it is refreshing to take a break from the chaos of the world and rejoice in honoring God’s commands with like-minded brethren.

Meanwhile, the news has been a regular roller coaster ride. The tariff hubbub has finally crystallized around the primary conflict, the struggle for economic dominance between the US and China. American institutions have found themselves in an uncomfortable position, dependent on cheap foreign goods and government largess with an administration determined to wean the country off both.

If all your hopes and dreams are tied up in the stock market it has probably been a harrowing experience. It has been a scramble to ascertain which companies’ operations will be most affected, which will be insulated, and which have the capacity to adapt. The temporary reprieve given to all markets other than China has offered a preview of what may be coming as well as an opportunity to shift production or negotiate a mutually advantageous alternative. Many are working toward that alternative, and while the media is focused on the fallout there will also be unexpected winners as supply lines shift and new players become competitive or viable.

We are so busy being shocked by market volatility and record highs among safe havens like gold that we forget some of the major, underlying issues. The financial trajectory of the US and the majority of developed Western nations has been abysmal. France has yet to limit itself to a 5% budget deficit without dissolving the government and triggering elections. The sad truth is, there is no good time or easy way to make the kind of changes that need to be made. 

We are seeing the Houthis devastated in Yemen. This as the US pursues high level negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and role in the region. And it has not been a good year for Iran. Hamas is not gone but there is hardly anything left of Gaza, potential deals to end the war and release the hostages keep breaking down. Hezbollah is all but obliterated in Lebanon. Assad is out of Syria. The Houthis are hurting as we mentioned and even the Shiite militias of Iran are offering to disarm. 

The war in Ukraine also continues to grind on. Headlines continue to tease that a mineral deal is possible or near completion that would vest US interests in the region. Various European nations have voiced a willingness to participate in the security aspect but the reality on the ground has continued to deteriorate. Russia controlling all of the regions it claims to have annexed will be a hard pill to swallow for many capitals that have repeatedly insisted every inch be returned to Ukraine as a prerequisite to peace. Who doesn’t want another uncomfortable geopolitical reality like that between North and South Korea or China and Taiwan? 

My Dad asked me to write the update this week as he is feeling a bit under the weather. Your prayers are appreciated, as they are for all those facing trials. The prayer wall at the ICG site is a good place to keep up with many of the requests we receive as are the various social media pages and groups. And we are always happy to pass them along for those who prefer to call or email. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power…” (James 5:16 ESV) We would also like to acknowledge the passing Mrs. Marsh, who many would know from the Myrtle Beach, SC Feast site, and Mr. Jensen, who others may know from Lake Tahoe. We sorrow over their loss but we rejoice that their salvation is secure and that they will rest in peace until Christ’s return. In hard times, and especially during these Holy Days, we remember that our hope is not in this world but in His Kingdom.

Happy Sabbath,

Michael Armstrong

The post Weekly Update by Michael Armstrong – April 18, 2025 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Greetings from Tyler,

Hurricane Helene has racked up a death toll to compare with the deadliest hurricanes of all time. Some of our people were caught up, stranded in the devastation it caused. It will be some time before they come out with all the statistics, but it was, and is awful. It rates alongside the worst of all time. It particularly tore up Asheville, North Carolina.

Now we hear that Disaster Relief funds have been depleted by funding the illegal immigrants. This is going to get weird, and right before possibly the most important election we’ll ever have.  

Israel seems to be disregarding all the outrage and breast-beating by the international community. They’re going into Lebanon on foot. How deep, nobody knows. First the pagers went off, and now Israel is targeting the leadership.  Nasrallah has been killed along with several other leaders of Hezbollah. It looks like Israel is determined that this never happens again, and is willing to disregard all the discussion about “proportionality.”

Since when did war become about proportionality? It looks like Israel is going to take the opportunity to make sure something like Oct 7^th doesn’t happen again for a long time.  There are still hostages.  No telling what is happening to them or if they’re still alive.  But this terrorist stuff has got to stop, regardless. 

Iran has fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel.  Most of them, intercepted and shot down.  One guy got a shrapnel wound.  Still, they have the satisfaction of firing them and dreaming of the damage they might cause.  They’re mad all over the Arab world, making life very uncomfortable for the leaders who’ve tried to moderate.  This time it looks like they’ve kicked over a hornet’s nest.  It may never be over.

This is the Fall Holy Day season.  We had a wonderful Feast of Trumpets yesterday and are planning for the Day of Atonement on the Sabbath next week.  Michael, Melody and family are planning to drive to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. I’m going to be in PCB. My Mom used to tug my sleeve when I’d start talking out loud in airports. Needless to say, I’m not flying to all the sites this year.  

I imagine we’re all tired of what’s going on. Notice that gas prices are falling? Don’t get used to it if the current regime remains in charge. Kamala has to bus her crowd to give a speech and make it look like she’s got support. You have to camp to get into a Trump rally. But the mainstream is not done. They’re trying to link him to something that will make us turn away. It turns out he attended some P. Diddy (or whatever he’s calling himself) party. But it was a long time ago, and he had Melania with him. They’ll try to make something of it, even if there’s nothing.

It’s hard to believe that it’s Feast time again. The Feast runs from October 17^th through October 24 which is the Last Great Day. The way things are going, the prophetic fulfillment may not be as far off as we think.  

Say a prayer for those who suffered the wrath of the hurricane. And that no more are coming.   

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – October 4, 2024 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

To hear the mainstream tell it, Trump’s in a lot of trouble.  They better hope he is, because it won’t go well for them if he’s not.  The court cases are cobbled together using a combination of laws to try to prove their point.  Constitutional scholars say no prosecution like this has ever been brought to court, and good luck this time.  But they are keeping him off the campaign trail.

It kind of strikes us as intentional, that they brought these court cases while campaigning is going on.  They better hope they get him, otherwise he might not be so benevolent the next time around.

The pretender shows up, too often, to let us all know he’s not doing so well.  No one has ever tried acting as president at his age.  There comes a time…  If you ask me they’re trying intentionally to mess things up so badly they can’t be fixed.  Every time you consult the news we’ve got some new problem that just might finish us off.  I can’t help but wonder if that’s not the goal.  Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems Obama advisors are telling him what to say and how to say it.  He’s got to have them in agony as they watch him try to do what he’s told.  We don’t even want to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

We’ve just sent the new WATCH magazine to the printer, and we hope you’ll like it.  We feature the eclipse on the cover.  Talk about making you feel small!  It was an incredible event that scientists have all figured out.  Still, being able to see the activity of the sun outside the blockage of the moon sort of puts you in your place.  We feel sorry for those who think this universe behaves as it does out of pure chance.  Preposterous!

There was a recent article showing Palestinians at the beach.  Apparently it’s hot, and they thought they’d go and cool off.  But they’re wearing their street clothes!  Can you imagine going to the beach in a purple suit, or wrapped in layers of cloth?  Must be a cultural thing.  You wouldn’t understand.

The scandal is that hostages are still being held.  Negotiations have not yielded the desired results, so the war goes on.  The  American administration keeps holding press conferences as if they hold the keys to Israel’s next move.  They don’t.  But they act like they know what they’re talking about, and they’re usually embarrassed and angry.  Maybe they’re about to change sides.

Other than that, most everything is how we left it.  The war in Ukraine is still going on, at great expense as well as the war in Gaza, and we’re still being invaded with the blessing of the current administration.  You wonder if it can be fixed, short of the second coming.  My take is that they’re trying to foul up as much as possible, more than can be fixed in four years.  We can only hope the evil-doers don’t succeed.  We love our country and always have.  The more we see of the world and the insanity that goes on, we can only thank the Creator that He put us here, out of harm’s way.  It may not always be this way.  

Mark

P. S.  We had a great Passover service, with a nearly full auditorium.  The rest of the Holy Day festivities will occur in the few days ahead.  Thanks to all who observe these ceremonies with us.  Don’t you wish everybody did?

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – April 26, 2024 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

We wish we didn’t, but we live in historic times.  Look at who’s leading this nation at a time when our enemies are consolidating and our presumptive president needs sleep.  It’s starting to feel like the worm is turning.  The gaffs, the mumbling, the pratfalls, and now something really important. There’s something we haven’t been told.

The usual suspects are out in force, doing interviews and telling us that the impeachment inquiry is nothing but a conspiracy theory with no facts to back it up.  Those three or four pesky loudmouths are playing rough with no evidence, they claim.  But things are falling apart on every front.

Can you stand to see what’s going on at the border?  It’s a stomach turning exercise, particularly after the play by play manhunt that went on this week ending in the capture of an illegal, wanted for murder in Brazil, convicted of murdering his girlfriend gruesomely.  He was just another sad sack who’d made his way to the land of opportunity.  How much did the manhunt cost?  How much is the incursion at the border costing?   What on earth is going on?

At no time in human history has anything like this taken place. The details are too idiotic to go into. Our national debt is admittedly out of hand, and we act like the well will never go dry. The truth of many untenable situations is obvious to anyone paying attention, but the networks tell us otherwise.

That may be about to change, insurance policy for the ages or not.  

We’re having electric cars waved in front of our faces day and night.  Why?  Has a panel discussion taken place somewhere that convinces us that electric cars are the future?  The news today is that auto workers are on strike at several factories.  They’re worried that electric cars will be built in such a way that they’re no longer needed.  They also want a big raise.  Where does the power that charges electric vehicles come from?  

Do you remember the news worrying whether the power grid would hold up during inclement weather?  Maybe the demands are greater, but we never worried that there wouldn’t be sufficient wind to generate what we needed.  Texas is on board with saving the planet.  Well, we’ve got windmills anyway, the life expectancy and power generated is a taboo subject.  Things are being done on the basis of feelings rather than brass tacks.  You’d think this would all be explained logically, but that’s not the case when it comes to saving the planet.  China and India think it’s nuts.

Word has it that we’re about to be legally bound by W.H.O. regulations. 

They’ve got to convict Donald Trump of something!  Otherwise the destruction might be turned around, and no self-respecting liberal can stand for that.  How dare we love the United States?  We hate seeing what is being done, and even worse, why.  The idea of the nation being saved, being turned back to the traditions we were founded upon, is reprehensible to the “new” values that we’re being spoon-fed on a daily basis.  

The values this nation was founded upon were enduring. These buffoons have tried everything and they’re almost there! If they could just stamp out those of us who remember that God’s blessings are beyond anything these do-gooders can come up with. We’d like to preserve them. The Feast of Trumpets falls tomorrow, and pictures the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. We celebrate it every year as the Bible dictates. Some things we’re never going to stop doing, no matter what.

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – September 15, 2023 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The new monthly letter is being printed and will be mailed the first of next week.  Our HQ building is cleaned up and cleaned out of leaven, and we expect there will be a good turnout for the Passover (Lord’s Supper) service to be held this evening at sundown.  I will tell you that several hundred people have gone to the 21^st Century WATCH website in response to a post offering explanation about the origins of Easter.

There is much to be said and understood about what’s happening in the United States and all around the world.  Hopes for prosperity and survival have been dashed in so many ways, it’s hard to keep up and not much fun in any event.  It appears as though those who purportedly “won” the election are going to use every conceivable path to try to outlaw the rights we considered inviolable.

But this is no time to be in a terrible attitude.  We’ve got more important things to contemplate as another (forgettable) year has passed, and it’s time for the Passover and the Spring Holy Day season to commence.  God has a glorious future in store for those who overcome the sins of this world, and this is a good time to reflect on those promises.  We hope you all have a fulfilling Passover, and First Day of Unleavened Bread.  And we’re looking forward to having visitors from near and far for the activities scheduled around the Last Day of Unleavened Bread next weekend.

There will be plenty of time to rail against the insanity playing out against everything we stand for next time.  May God bless all His people who keep His commandments and respect His Word.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 26 March 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For those of us who have avoided the unfolding spectacle, it’s been quite a peaceful week.  We’ve found ways of keeping up without having to go through the emotional upset of watching the insanity play out.  We asked for it, they tell us. They’ll probably never report that the impossible outcome means that some 15 million like gibberish more than the fake One.  But the media hasn’t noticed, or seen fit to inform whatever audience is left to note that embarrassing tidbit.

We said we’re not giving up, and we’re not.  Nobody has any idea what will unfold in the weeks and months ahead.  Let the would-be overlords celebrate.  Chances are they’ll reap the whirlwind, one way or the other.  God hates vain haughtiness, and the media is drowning in it.  Maybe they think it will all be their way from here on out.  It won’t.

For now, they control all the levers of power.  Enemies of Americans are now in control of the government, social media, the big corporations, you name it.  How bad will it get before some return to sanity?  Remember, patience is a virtue.  If you look at what it took to secure this nation, or what it has taken to preserve it, you know that things often look very dark before the dawn.  We’re hoping it doesn’t get too much darker.

But it might.  When it does, don’t lose hope.  Maybe our faith is being tested.  We know where our faith lies and it’s not in human leaders, no matter how entertaining.  It is entirely possible that not enough credit was given where it was due.  As much as we may have enjoyed the brash braggadocio, maybe it didn’t play well upstairs.  We’ll find out someday.

In the meantime let us worship God, the Author of everything good, and let Him work this out as He sees fit.  Let us not descend into the insanity of this world and its vain liars.  But let’s not lose our heads either.  Throw a fit now and again, but be careful about it.  God’s got this.  For further commentary, see this month’s letter.  It’s written, and will be mailed early next week.

Mark

P. S.  We’ve embarked on a television ad campaign for 21^st Century WATCH, having bought a package on One America News.  It started this week, and so far we have approximately 100 new subscribers to the publication.  We won’t send them the monthly letter, unless they go on to order material offered within the pages.  People won’t necessarily know about our belief in the weekly Sabbath or the annual Holy Days from having seen the spot.  But reading any issue of ours should remedy that.  We will include the commercial on this week’s Sabbath DVD, so you can see it there.  Just because it looks like everything is circling the drain doesn’t mean we’re about to give up free speech or the commission God gave to His church.  We might need a lawyer, and if so, so be it.  We’ll continue using whatever means are available to communicate.  And they said print was dead!  That was before we realized the power they’ve taken to themselves, assuming everything is digital.

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 22 January 2021 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Believe it or not, there is no biblical commandment to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ! Instead, there are many commands to solemnly celebrate his death!

Most professing Christians are completely ignorant of this fact.

To hundreds of millions of professing Christians all over the world, “Easter” is either the MOST important “Christian” holiday, or second, behind “Christmas.” Few have ever researched the origins of either celebration. Few know that both are laden with paganism; customs derived from heathens who were sun worshipers, and not from the Bible, or the apostles of Christ.

Jesus Christ would never have allowed His chosen disciples to worship Him by using symbols of sex and fertility, such as rabbits, eggs, mistletoe, little green trees, holly wreaths and the like. Certainly, He would have soundly CON­DEMNED the practice of a “religious” service conducted at SUNRISE, facing the SUN! Such is utterly pagan, and Jesus Christ, in His pre-human state, inspired Jeremiah to write, “LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN,” while He described the Christmas tree (Jeremiah 10:1-4).

Make no mistake! The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a GREAT EVENT! The fact of Christ’s resurrection represents the very cornerstone of the faith of the apostles; the reason for their deep conviction and conversion; the wellspring of their courage in the face of martyrdom! It was the proof of Christ’s resurrection which caused them to assemble in Jerusalem for that first great moment on Pentecost when God sent audible and visual evidence of His Holy Spirit!

Yet, for all the stupendous significance of the resurrection, there is not one scripture in all the Bible which sets apart the DAY of the resurrection as a day to be appointed for worship; not one “thus saith the Lord” which commands Christians to gather for worship on that day!

In spite of this, the entire “Sunday – Saturday” controversy is based on Catholic doctrine (adopted by almost all Protestants) which states that “Our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week.”

Professing Christians know there is no command in the Bible to observe Sunday. They say they are doing it in “commemoration of the resurrection.” But the resurrection was NOT ON SUNDAY.

The Bible Commands Us To Celebrate Christ’s Death

While there are no scriptures commanding Christians to celebrate the moment of Christ’s resurrection, there are many plain ones commanding us to observe, in solemn ceremony, His DEATH on the “tree.”

Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians in Corinth, “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

“After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

This was not the age-old celebration of the PASSOVER, but a supper held as the nighttime of the fourteenth began, with new and different symbols which Christ had instituted, conducted from 17 to 24 hours prior to the “Feast.” The Feast of the Passover was eaten in the NIGHT at the beginning of the fifteenth of Abib, or Nisan. The lamb, which pictured Christ, was killed in the afternoon of the fourteenth!

Christ CHANGED the symbols of the Passover, setting His disciples an example of a NEW Testament observance Paul later referred to as “The Lord’s Supper.” In ancient Israel, the roast lamb, eaten on the night of the Feast with their shoes on their feet, their staffs in their hands, in haste, symbolized Jesus Christ, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The lamb was slain by shedding its blood. The unleavened bread, or the “bread of haste” symbolized getting rid of SIN. These shadows led to Christ. Once the reality had come; once the very Son of God was now about to become the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, there was no further need to follow shadows. The shadow LED to the stake upon which Christ died. Now, the Savior of all mankind instituted a NEW ceremony. The ancient Israelites did not engage in a foot washing ceremony; did not partake of only a small piece of unleavened bread, or drink a sip of wine. Instead, they ate an entire meal of roast lamb!

When Christ instituted the NEW Testament symbols of the foot washing, the bread and the wine, He commanded His disciples, “For I have given you an example, that you should DO, as I have done unto you!” (John 13:15).

For centuries, God’s called and chosen servants continued to faithfully observe the “Lord’s Supper” (which many continued to call “The Passover”) ON THE FOURTEENTH OF NISAN.

When an APOSTATE church began to IMPOSE the ancient custom of Ishtar (the “h” is silent, so the pronunciation is “Easter”), and command Christians to cease and desist from observing the Lord’s Supper on the fourteenth of Nisan, many thousands continued to do so in defiance of the “Council of Nicaea.”

For centuries, these believing people, faithful to Christ’s commands and His example, were sought out, persecuted, and murdered. The “Quartodeciman Controversy” is documented through many centuries of history; “Quartodeciman” meaning “Fourteenth.”

Thus, God’s true Church continued to follow Christ’s example by observing the symbols of His DEATH. NEVER did the apostles celebrate a sunrise service! NEVER did they observe the dawning of the first day of the week in “celebration of the resurrection.” NEVER did they revel amid symbols of fertility, such as colored eggs and rabbits!

Instead, they gathered to rehearse Christ’s instructions just as he gave them on the “night in which he was betrayed,” reminding themselves, year by year, of the DEATH of the Lord and Savior of all mankind!

The ONLY SIGN That Christ Was The Messiah

The murder-plotting, posturing Pharisees, like many professing Christians today, wanted to see some kind of supernatural “sign,” as proof of Christ’s credentials. Matthew recorded it: “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:38-40).

The significance of the sign was the precise LENGTH OF TIME Christ would be in the tomb! Think of what this means! Christ was NOT saying that the SIGN of His Messiahship would be the fact of the resurrection, but, instead, the length of time He would be dead, IN THE TOMB!” 

This has caused tremendous controversy, and no end of devious circumventions, human reasonings, evasions, convoluted explanations and outright falsehoods among the so-called “higher critics” and would-be Bible “scholars.” Why? Simply because steeped in the traditions of men, they have clung to their fables surrounding “Easter,” and REJECTED the ONLY SIGN Jesus gave as PROOF that He was, in fact, the Son of God!

None of these would-be scholars will admit he is REJECTING CHRIST! Oh, no, he will use every excuse, every argument, to GET AROUND the plain statement of Christ Himself, and, without knowing it, cling to a FALSE “Christ” of his own imagination, REJECTING the real Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

How do they do this? What reasons do they put forth to get around Christ’s statements?

First, it is obvious that “Good Friday” to “Easter Sunday Morning” cannot fit into Christ’s plain statement that He would be in the tomb for “three days and three nights.”

For, if He was entombed late on “Good Friday,” then Friday sunset to Sabbath sunset is one night and one day; Sabbath sunset to Sunday sunset is two nights and two days, and Sunday sunset to Monday sunset is THREE NIGHTS AND THREE DAYS!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that something is wrong here!

So, they have decided to say that Christ’s statement was in the Greek language, and that He used a Greek idiom, which meant only “part” of three days and “part” of three nights, or, in other words, just TWO nights, and ONE DAY! Thus, since they claim Christ was buried on “Good Friday” just before sunset, He would have been in the tomb only all night Friday night (which is really not “Friday” at all, but “the Sabbath,” since the days began at sunset), all day “Saturday,” all night “Saturday night” and would have arisen AT SUNRISE on “Easter Sunday Morning!”

But Jesus Christ would not have spoken in Greek to His disciples, who were Galileans; hill-country folk, who spoke Aramaic, a dialect of the Hebrew language which had developed among Jewish captives during the Babylonian captivity!

Also, Jesus said specifically that He would be in the tomb “…AS JONAH WAS three days and three nights!” The book of Jonah was written in HEBREW, not in Greek! The only scriptures extant during the days of Christ and the disciples were the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament! The first book of the New Testament — the very book containing Christ’s words about the sign of Jonah, Matthew, was not written until almost twenty long years later; about 55 AD!

There is no “Greek idiom” contained in Jonah!

Did not Christ know the difference between a day and a night? When He presented the ONLY SIGN which He would leave as a perpetual sign of His Divine origins; His Messiahship, would He have used confusing language?

Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because heseeth the light of this world.

“But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him” (John 11:9, 10). Clearly, Jesus stated there are twelve hours of daylight, and an equal time of darkness! He was using a spiritual analogy, of course, but it is absolutely PROVED that when Jesus Christ said “three DAYS” He meant three periods of twelve hour daylight, and three periods of equal darkness — three days and three nights!

There are not three periods of twelve hours of daylight between “Good Friday” at sunset and Ishtar(pronounced “Easter” today) Sunday morning! Instead, there are only TWELVE HOURS of daylight — ONE twelve-hour day —the day we call by its pagan name, “Saturday!”

The so-called “higher critics” admit that Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for seventy-two hours. Jesus said He would be in the tomb for the exact same amount of time! WHY?

For the very important reason that to remain in the tomb for such a protracted period of time would remove any last vestige of doubt about whether Christ had truly DIED or not! When Jesus resurrected Lazarus, He was warned that Lazarus had been in the grave for four days and nights, and warned that there would be a terrible odor, for his body would have begun to decompose by this time!

Notice the account. Christ had arrived at the tomb where Lazarus had been buried when “Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days” (John 11:39).

All knew that Jesus Christ had been mercilessly, horribly beaten with a “scourge,” like a “cat o’ nine tails,” or a lash with bits of stone or metal woven into the tips! His flesh had been ripped and torn! God’s Word says, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

“As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men [so much so that He didn’t look human!]

“So shall he sprinkle many nations [from the blood dripping out of many wounds!]; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider” (Isaiah 52:13-15).

In the moving prophecy about Christ’s sufferings found in Psalms 22, it says, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

“I may tell [count] all my bones [they had flayed His flesh from His ribs!]: they look and stare upon me.

“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

“But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me” (Psalms 22:15- 19). A Roman soldier jammed a spear into Christ’s side, at which time He cried out, and died! Christ died by the shedding of His blood from multiple lash wounds and a spear thrust!

It was critical for ABSOLUTE PROOF that He was the Son of God that He remain in the “heart of the earth,” for exactly three days and three nights! Jesus Christ said so!

The Bible Definition Of Days and Nights

Jesus Christ told His disciples that He would “rise the THIRD DAY!” Now, what is the Bible definition of that third day?

“And God [Elohim; more than one. See John 1:1-10] said, Let there be light: and there was light.

“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening [darkness] and the morning [light] were [together!] the first day” (Genesis 1:3-5). The Hebrew word for “day” is Yom. It means a normal twenty-four hour day, commencing with sunset, with approximately twelve hours of darkness, and twelve hours of light.

Notice further biblical proof about the meaning of “days” in the only scriptures extant when Christ made His prediction from the book of Jonah. Esther asked all the Jews to fast for “three days.” Notice what she said: “Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,

“Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

“So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

“Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house” (Esther 4:16-17; 5:1).

Just as in Christ’s day, the expression “on the third day” meant when the full period of three days and three nights had been completed!

Now you have the BIBLE definition of the meaning of three days and three nights!

Even a little child in the first few grades of primary school can understand this!

Christ had said, “After three days I will rise again!” When His murderers reminded the Roman authorities of this statement, His tomb was not only sealed, but an armed guard was required to remain there! “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,

“Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

“Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

“Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.

“So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Matthew 27:62-66).Notice that statement carefully! It was the DAY AFTER THE PREPARATION, which some have mistakenly assumed was the weekly Sabbath! As you shall see, it was NOT the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath, but the preparation day prior to the ANNUAL Sabbath of the FIRST DAY OF UNLEAVENED BREAD; an“high day Sabbath!” Your Bible says so!

Jesus had also said, “Destroy this temple [referring to His body], and IN THREE DAYS I will raise it up … But He spake of the temple of His body” (John 2:19-21).

Obviously, from several absolute proofs, the expression “in three days” does NOT mean AFTER ONLY TWO DAYS, but during a part of the third day. No, it means “after three full days” as we have seen!

The so-called “higher critics” make no mention of the appeal by the Jews to Pilate! WHY? Simply because they did not ask that the sepulchre be made sure for only “part of three days and three nights!” Nor did they speak using a “Greek idiom!” No, they remembered that Christ had specifically stated that He would be three days and three nights in the tomb!

What Was The TIME OF DAY When Christ Was Buried?

Can we know the time of day when Christ was entombed? For if we can determine the time of day, all we need do is count seventy two hours from that time to determine the exact time of the resurrection!

We have seen, from Christ’s own words; from the Bible definition of the number of hours in a day; from The Jews’ own fears and determination to set a watch for three days over the tomb that Christ did NOT say He would be only TWO NIGHTS AND ONE DAY in the tomb, but THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS!

Anyone who refuses to accept this ONLY SIGN of His true Messiahship is REJECTING THE REAL JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH and accepting a false “Christ,” who never existed; a myth!

Now, notice what Mark wrote: “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day” (Mark 9:31). The duration of time Christ expressed could not be one second PAST 72 hours for Christ to rise from the dead “the third day!” Therefore, it could not have been from Friday sunset to “Easter” sunrise, which would be only 36 hours; two nights, and one day!

Christ was quoted by the Jews [who were speaking HEBREW, not in idiomatic Greek!] as having said, “After three days I will rise again!”

This cannot possibly be figured in less than 72 hours!

John wrote, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

“Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

“But he spake of the temple of his body.

“When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:19-22). This conversation was in Hebrew; the Aramaic dialect, NOT in “Greek idiom!”

Unlike the “higher critics” today, the disciples REMEMBERED exactly what Jesus had said, and it was because of this, and His many appearances to them that “they BELIEVED.”

To be raised up IN three days cannot be MORE than 72 hours. Therefore, the length of time Christ was in the tomb could not have been LESS than 72 hours, and it could not have been MORE than 72 hours! It had to be 72 hours, EXACTLY!

Now, THINK! For the resurrection to have been AT SUNRISE, then the BURIAL had to be AT SUNRISE, 72 hours earlier!

But Christ was NOT buried at sunrise, but just before SUNSET on the day called “the preparation,” (Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54).

It was soon after the “ninth hour,” or at about three o’clock in the afternoon when Jesus “cried out” loudly (Matthew 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46). The preparation day would end at sunset, according to Bible reckoning (Leviticus 23:32).

Joseph of Aramathaea came to claim the body of Jesus and accomplish the burial at some time after 3:00 PM, but before sunset on that “preparation” day, which was the day before a Sabbath!

“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Aramathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:

“He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

“And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

“And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

“And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,

“Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again” (Matthew 27:57-63).

Now notice the parallel account in Luke’s chronology: “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.

“And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

“And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on.

“And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.

“And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:52-56).

The laws required the Jews to bury a dead body BEFORE A SABBATH DAY began! Therefore, haste was made to bury the body of Jesus BEFORE SUNSET on that preparation day. John wrote, “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand” (John 19:42).

Jesus Christ was buried before sunset on the same day He died, in a tomb very near to the “place of the skull” called “Golgotha.”

Since the burial of Jesus Christ occurred some time after 3:00 P.M., and before sunset on this “preparation day,” it follows that He was resurrected at the SAME TIME OF DAY exactly 72 hours later!

IF He was buried on a “Friday,” (which He was not, as we shall soon see) then He would have remained in the tomb all of Friday night, all of Saturday daytime, all of Saturday night, all of Sunday daytime, all of Sunday night, until late in the afternoon on a MONDAY!

But Christ did not remain in the tomb until Monday!

Clearly, the tomb was EMPTY when the disciples came to see it while it was YET DARK, “as it BEGAN TO DAWN toward the first day of the week!”

Notice Luke’s account of the resurrection: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

“And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.

“And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

“And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:

“And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

“He is not here, but is risen [obviously, this is past tense; He had already risen!]: remember how he spakeunto you when he was yet in Galilee,

“Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:1-7).

It was in the pre-dawn darkness when Christ’s followers first approached the empty tomb! It was not at sunrise! Notice John’s account: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

“Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

“Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.

“So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

“And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.

“Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,

“And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

“Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

“For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead” (John 20:1-9).

Since Christ was buried on a late afternoon, some time just prior to sunset on a “preparation” day, and since He plainly staked His claim to divine office; His very Messiahship, on the precise length of time He would be in the tomb, and since He HAD ALREADY RISEN prior to the time the disciples came to the empty tomb while it was yet dark, then Jesus Christ MUST have been placed in the tomb on a WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!

But wait! How is this possible?

Haven’t we read, time and again, that it was the “preparation” day? And isn’t the “preparation” day the day before the SABBATH? And does not the Sabbath correspond to our weekly “Satur­day?”

The answer is found in the fact that God also instituted seven annual Sabbaths, or “high days,” to picture His plan of salvation. All seven are laid out in Leviticus 23. Notice what God’s Word says about these feast days of God: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

“Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

“These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.

“In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover.

“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

“In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” (Leviticus 23:1-7). This holy day could fall on whichever day of the week happened to be the fifteenth day of the month called “Abib,” whether or not it was the seventh day, or the weekly Sabbath. It was called one of God’s “Sabbaths,” and was celebrated as a special “high day” Sabbath.

Notice another example: “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24).

Regardless as to which day of the week upon which the first day of the seventh month fell; whether a Monday or a Thursday, it was called a “Sabbath!”

Christ Our Passover Is Sacrificed For Us

For centuries, God’s people had observed the annual Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. The paschal lamb, which typified Christ, was sacrificed in the afternoon, which was on the “preparation” day for the FEAST, which was (and is) the first day of Unleavened Bread!

This annual high day Sabbath is the first annual holy day of the year, immediately following the Passover. Christ was killed by a spear’s thrust, following a horrible beating, in which skin and flesh was flayed from His body! He died at the same moment the High Priest slaughtered the first sacrificial lamb! From the time of the Exodus, (Exodus 12) this ceremony had been accomplished on the fourteenth of Abib “at even,” meaning just before sunset “at the going away of the sun.” The lamb was then roasted, and the FEAST was eaten in the nighttime of the fifteenth of Abib.

God commanded Moses, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

“And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

“And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

“Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

“And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire” (Exodus 12:5- 10).

Millions of people who observe pagan Ishtar (pronounced “Easter”) are absolutely IGNORANT of the events surrounding the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They know NOTHING about the Days of Unleavened Bread which immediately followed!

Because of this, they do not know that the “Sabbath” which was coming on and the “preparation” day on which Christ died which caused the haste with which He was buried occurred on Wednesday and Thursday!

That Thursday was the first annual Sabbath of the year; the FEAST day of Unleavened Bread after the Jews slaughtered the lambs and kids in the ancient Passover ceremony! The lambs and kids were slaughtered in the afternoon of the FOURTEENTH of the first month!

Now, notice John’s eyewitness account of which day of the week it was when Christ was slain: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost [exhaled; breathed His last].

“The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:30,31). Of course! This HIGH day Sabbath was the ANNUAL Sabbath; the first day of Unleavened Bread! It was followed by the day we call “Friday,” then “Saturday,” or the WEEKLY Sabbath!

Count back from the time of Christ’s resurrection, late on a weekly Sabbath afternoon, and you come to late Wednesday afternoon! Wednesday was the “preparation day” prior to the FEAST day on that Thursday, which was the fifteenth of Nisan, or Abib!

The calendar proves that the only year in a sequence of years when the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on a Thursday was in 31 AD! But the so-called “scholars” WILL NOT ever choose 31 AD, even though it is the ONLY year in which all the parameters FIT!

Instead, they will choose the years 29, 30, 32 or 33, deliberately avoiding 31 AD!

A little simple research proves that Christ was born in “4 BC” according to the flawed Roman calendar. He was exactly 33 1/2 when He was killed. He was thirty when His public ministry began. The prophecies stated He was to perform a seven year ministry, and was to be “cut off in the middle of the week!” Thus, not only was He cut off in the exact middle of His seven year ministry, leaving another three and one half years to be fulfilled AFTER His second coming (See Isaiah 66:19-23), and He was also cut off in the MIDDLE OF THE WEEK!

The prophecy says, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:27). The sacrifices and oblations CEASED for Christians when Christ rose from the dead, for now the reality which had cast the shadow had come. There was no longer any need for a “schoolmas­ter” to lead toward Christ, for Christ had now come in the flesh!

Christ came to “confirm the covenant” by preaching repentance and salvation; the terms and conditions of the NEW covenant (Jeremiah 31:31) for three and one half years.

Notice what Dr. Bullinger says in his Appendix concerning the events surrounding the crucifix­ion: “That Sabbath and the high day of John 19:31, was the ‘holy convocation,’ the first day of the feast, which quite overshadowed the ordinary weekly Sabbath … this great Sabbath, having been mistaken from the earliest times for the weekly Sabbath, has led to all the confusion … We have therefore the following facts furnished for our sure guidance:

“1. The ‘high day’ of John 19:31 was the first day of the feast.

“2. The ‘first day of the feast’ was on the 15^th day of Nisan.

“3. The 15^th day of Nisan commenced at sunset on what we should call the 14^th.

“4. ‘Six days before the Passover’ [John 12:1] takes us back to the 9^th day of Nisan.

“5. After two days is the Passover’ [Matt. 26:2; Mark 14:1] takes us to the 13^th day of Nisan.

“6. ‘The first day of the week,’ was the day of the resurrection [Matt. 28:1, &c.], was from our Saturday sunset to our Sunday sunset. This fixes the days of the week, just as the above fix the days of the month, for,

“7. Reckoning back from this, ‘three days and three nights’ [Matt. 12:40], we arrive at the day of the burial, which must have been before sunset, on the 14^th of Nisan; i.e. before our Wednesday sunset.

“Therefore Wednesday, Nisan 14^th [commenc­ing on the Tuesday at sunset], was ‘the preparation day’, on which the crucifixion took place: for all four Gospels definitely say that this was the day on which the Lord was buried [before our Wednesday sunset], because it was the preparation [day] that the bodies should not remain on the cross [Greek: Stauro, meaning an upright pale] on the Sabbath day, ‘for that Sabbath day was a high day,’ and, therefore, not the ordinary seventh day, or weekly Sabbath. See John 19:31” (The Companion Bible, Bullinger, Appendix 156, p. 180).

It is because people have blindly assumed that the “preparation day” was a Friday that they thought Christ was not buried until late on a Friday, and thus remained in the tomb only two nights and one daylight period!

Did Jesus Christ Fulfill His Sign?

Unless Jesus Christ was EXACTLY the length of time in the tomb He said he would be, you have no Savior!Jesus staked His Messiahship on being exactly three days and three nights in the tomb!

For centuries, because fallible men, many of  whom were bitten with antisemitism, and who desperately wanted to rid the apostate church of all things “Jewish,” claimed they were worship­ing on SUNDAY in “honor of the resurrection!”

But Christ DID NOT RISE ON SUNDAY! The angels told the two Marys, “He is NOT HERE!” They said “HE IS RISEN!” They did not use the present tense that He was just then “rising,” but the past tense, saying He had already risen!

There is simply no question about the days of the month, the days of the week, or the hours of those days in which these MOST IMPORTANT events occurred!

Paul wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

“By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

“And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

“After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

“After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

“And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

Paul said “…according to the scriptures.”

Paul MAY have known about the earliest gospels, but remember, the only “scriptures” extant during Paul’s day were those of the “Old Testament.” Paul had to be including Christ’s reference to Jonah, and the fact that he was exactly “three days and three nights” in the belly of the great fish, as well as referring to Christ’s statements which were faithfully recorded by the apostles.

The apostles believed because they saw the living proof, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, now GLORIFIED; able to appear and disappear at will; able to materialize within a room enclosed by stone walls! They were so CONVICTED by the proofs they saw that many of them were martyred for their faith! Men do not go willingly to their deaths by crucifixion, burning, or beheading because they believe in a hoax!

Now, notice one final proof! Only the Fenton translation of the English from the Greek takes note of the fact that the word for “Sabbath” in Matthew 28:1 is in the plural! In a footnote to this text in his translation, he says, “The Greek original is in the plural; Sabbaths!”

Of course! There were TWO Sabbaths that week; the annual HIGH day Sabbath, the FEAST, which fell on Thursday, and the regular weekly Sabbath, which fell on the day we call “Saturday.”

Yes, believe it or not, the plain truth is the resurrection was NOT on Sunday!

Jesus Christ commanded His disciples, and He commands US, today, to observe the symbols of His DEATH each year (1 Corinthians 11:23-30) at the “Lord’s Supper.” He told His disciples, “HAPPY are ye if ye do these things.”

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

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The post Believe It or Not-The Resurrection Was NOT on Sunday! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Anyone can discover the truth about the pagan origins of Christmas, simply by looking up the word, along with all its accouterments and symbols in the major encyclopedias and history books. With the development of the Internet, it is even easier for those who possess PCs, and have access to the Worldwide Web. However, very few ever bother to do so. What about you? Have you ever really wondered about some of the customs we take casually for granted? Ever wanted to know the real TRUTH about the symbolism of “the mass of Christ,” or “Christmas”?

From time to time, I will see an article entitled “Put Christ back in Christmas,” or words to that effect. But it is impossible to “put Christ back in Christmas,” since He was never in Christmas in the first place! None of the apostles of Christ ever heard of the term; not one of them ever celebrated Christ’s birthday. The words Christmas, holly wreath, mistletoe, Rudolph, Santa Claus and Christmas tree do not appear anywhere in the Bible.

The early true church never heard of Christmas. Centuries passed before the large, apostate church ever so gradually began adapting purely pagan practices and mythology to a time they originally called “the epiphany” (relating to Christ’s baptism, which they erroneously believed occurred early in January). Later, some writers began urging a celebration at the same time as the pagan winter solstice observances. This was done for the simple reason that so many pagans were already accustomed to “joyous,” sometimes “riotous” orgies of feasting at the time of the winter solstice.

Each year, articles appear in thousands of publications at Christmas time, cheerfully admitting that the true origins of the celebration are wholly pagan, not Christian. Such articles admit that Christ was probably born several months earlier than December 25^th; admit the pagan origin of the Christmas tree, “Santa Claus,” mistletoe, holly wreaths, yule logs, and the exchanging of gifts.

But most then go on to explain that the so-called “Christian” celebration “replaced” the pagan celebrations, and are therefore perfectly acceptable customs for Christians. Is this true? Does it make any difference to God? Why did not the apostles of Christ celebrate Christmas, instead of doggedly clinging to the Passover? Why did not the early church, for many, many centuries, not celebrate it? Why was it banned in early colonial America?

Did you ever really wonder WHY we do the things we do? WHY do we just take for granted such things as Hallowe’en, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Groundhog’s Day and April Fool’s Day? How many have ever really researched the origins of these and other practices, and pondered whether they are Christian or pagan?

You and I were born into a “ready-made” world. We had no part in customizing it to suit our own tastes—there it was, laid out for us, replete with holidays and customs we were taught as children (most of us). What was YOUR childhood response when you discovered there is no Santa Claus? Or did you cling to the myth of “Santa,” without thinking your parents had fibbed to you? Years ago, I heard of one young lad who, upon finding out there was no Santa Claus, said, “Well, maybe I had better look into this Jesus Christ business, too!”

I certainly never did look up any information about Christmas until I was well into my twenties, and already married. I did so, not so much to prove it was alright to celebrate Christmas, but to try to determine if my father who claimed it was pagan, and preached vigorously against it was right or wrong. That left me the “odd man out” in my neighborhood and in my school when it came time for carol singing and tree decorating. How desperately I wanted to conform to all that was in place around me. Christmas looked like so much FUN, after all.

As a boy, I deeply envied my neighborhood friends and school chums. They all gaily entered into the “Christmas spirit.” My parents didn’t observe Christmas. I never remember a time when we had a Christmas tree, or when any members of our family exchanged presents, or sang Christmas carols. My father, who was a preacher, claimed he had found historical and biblical proof that the whole thing was “pagan to the core,” as he invariably put it.

Therefore, from a family perspective, I dreaded Christmas.

But in school, and among my friends along the block, I loved it. I so wanted to be a part of it; to share in the “Yuletide,” and, especially, to find my stocking filled with wonderful goodies, or to mimic the scenes of kids around the Christmas tree, joyfully opening up gaily-colored boxes, or spending the first few hours on their new bicycles, or in their little red wagons.

To a limited extent, my mother allowed me to participate. We would draw each other’s names out of a box in our grade school classrooms, and each pupil was encouraged to buy a gift for the one whose name was drawn. But this was during the Great Depression, and folks didn’t have much money. Ten cents was a lot to spend on a gift. Keen frustrations occurred, when my Mom would take me down to the five and dime, and help me buy a tiny vial of perfume for a nickel, and wrap it up to give to the girl whose name I had drawn; all apprehensive, excited, expectant about what I would find on my desk when we had our classroom “Christmas party,” only to discover a tiny handkerchief—well, that was disappointment in capital letters!

I used to “play Christmas” out of sight of my parents, in our garage. But I couldn’t play my game until AFTER Christmas, because only then could I sneak out into the neighborhood, retrieve a little tree someone had thrown away, delighted to find a few scraps of tinsel still on it, and spirit it away, and into our garage. I would find brightly-colored wrappings people had discarded, take them out of the garbage cans, and then wrap them around little blocks of wood, like chunks of 2×4’s we sometimes used for kindling. Then, I would arrange them under my pitiful little tree, and pretend they were gifts!

My pretended Christmas was even more frustrating than exchanging gifts in class! For one thing, it was all out of sync, and for another, I was terrified I would be caught.

I learned to lie about Christmas. When the kids would be out riding their new bikes, or waltzing by on a pair or roller skates, or pulling one another in their new red wagon, and asked me, “Teddy, what did you get for Christmas?” I would tell them socks, or underwear. After all, who was going to check up—and how could they prove it one way or another?

Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to understand, before you read the rest of this book, that I desperately wanted to conform to the world around me. I deeply resented the fact that my parents didn’t “keep Christmas.” Later, as a man, I would have dearly loved to be able to justify Christmas from the Bible—not only justify keeping it, but being able to PROVE that I should! If I could do that—if I could prove that Christ was really born on the 25^th of December, and that He wants me to celebrate His birthday by making out a Christmas shopping list, and entering into the “Christmas spirit,” then I assure you I would have the most beautiful tree in the neighborhood; would have my shrubs and roof all lit up, and would sneak down and fill my grandkids stockings with goodies, and blame it all on Santa Claus.

But, alas. I looked into the history books and encyclopedias—and the Bible.

I was as astonished at what I found—as you will be!

The Origin Of The Holiday

December 25^th was not the birthday of Christ. It was not until the fourth century, about twice as long a period of time as the United States has been a nation, that the apostate church adapted the pagan rituals and symbols to professing Christianity, thus beginning to recognize such customs as cutting down trees and bringing them indoors to decorate with orbs and bulbs.

The Encyclopedia Britannica admits, “…before the 5^th century there was no general consensus of opinion as to when it [the Epiphany] should come in the calendar, whether on the 6^th of January, or the 25^th of March, or the 25^th of December” (ibid. Vol. IV p. 293).

Origen, one of the so-called “church fathers” (known as the “ante-Nicene fathers” to scholars, meaning those writers of nominal Christian thought who lived prior to the Nicene Council, in 325 AD), repudiated the very idea of “keeping the birthday of Christ as if He were a King Pharaoh.” Apparently, the very first mention of the idea of attaching December 25^th to the birth of Christ came in about 354 AD, more than three hundred and twenty years after Christ sent the Holy Spirit to build His true church, from the pen of a LATIN chronographer. Translated into English, it read, “Year 1 after Christ, in the coinsulate of Caesar and Paulus, the Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 25^th of December, a Friday and 15^th day of the new moon.” Long before, however, Clement of Alexandria, another of the so-called “ante-Nicene fathers,” condemned such speculation as mere superstitions. Clement, in issuing a scathing denunciation of such writings, added that some chronologists alleged Christ to have been born on the 20^th of May; others said on the 19^th or 20^th of April, and Clement himself argued it had probably occurred on the 17^th of November, 3 BC. At least, he was a bit closer in his guesswork than those he dismissed.

The same Latin (Roman Catholic) chronologist, along with others, began arguing that the date should be fixed on the same day observed by the Mithraic Priests [a pagan order held in awe and reverence by superstitious adherents], who termed December 25^th, Natalis invicti solis, or “birthday of the invincible [unconquerable] sun.”

But the nominal Christians in Syria and Armenia scornfully accused the Romans of sun worship and blatant idolatry, contending that December 25^th may well have been an invention of the disciples of Cerinthus to commemorate the “natural” birth of Jesus. Cerinthus may have been a contemporary of the apostle John during his last years, and was an advocate of a blend of gnosticism and Judaism; holding the strange notion that Jesus Christ was the “natural” son of Joseph and Mary, and that the “Christ” descended upon Him at His baptism, but left Him again prior to His death. He also taught that the resurrection was yet future; that Jesus was still dead during his time. Therefore, his suppositions about the birth of Christ were rejected by the “ante-Nicene fathers,” such as Irinaeus, Polycarp, and Eusebius.

The Britannica, Eleventh Edition, states, “In Britain the 25^th of December was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity [and therefore a pagan festival], quoting Bede, who said the pagans called it “the mother’s night.” This may be very significant indeed, as will be seen later. The Puritans in England, as late as 1644, by an act of Parliament, declared “Christmas” on December 25^th to be an “heathen festival,” and to show their contempt, ordered people to fast on that day. Their descendants outlawed any celebration of the pagan December 25^th in New England up until only about 22 years before my father, Herbert W. Armstrong, was born, in 1892!

Actually, following their custom of superimposing “Christian” observances upon purely pagan, heathen celebrations, the apostate church eventually established December 25^th as the birthday of Jesus Christ in order to make it easy for hundreds of thousands of Teutons and others, who were accustomed to feasting on that day in commemoration of “the Saturnalia,” or the “birthday of the invincible sun,” to embrace nominal Christianity.

The encyclopedias and history books are replete with information about the pagan origin of Christmas. Even the Bible encyclopedias admits the truth. An outstanding example is from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge which admits, “How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25^th) following the Saturnalia (December 17th-24th), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the `new sun’…cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence…The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers in the west and the near east protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival” (ibid. Article: “Christmas”).

Don’t assume that all these pagan sun-worshiping customs are only ancient practices of those long since dead. Believe it or not, there are “Saturnalians” and dozens of small sects of Satanism and witchcraft practicing in the United States and other “Christian” countries TODAY!

The Internet contains weird pages of material about HOW TO CELEBRATE THE SATURNALIA! At least, Satanists and sun worshipers know the true meaning of the season!

Was The Birth Of Jesus Christ The “First Noel”?

The “first noel” is a common phrase. Not only is it one of the dozens of best-known Christmas carols, it may be found on cups and glasses, on orbs and bulbs, on gaily-colored wrapping paper, and practically everywhere, including huge letters set up on brightly-lit neighborhood lawns.

The words of the famous song are well-known: “The first noel, the angels did say, was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay,” etc. Thus, a purely pagan phrase is adapted to the annunciation of the birth of Christ by the angels. Millions casually assume that the “first Noel” simply means “the first Christmas.” Not so.

The word has a Celtic origin, and comes from two words among the ancient region of Gaul (modern day northern France and Brittany), novo Hel. Novo means “new” and Hel means “sun.” You will recognize both ancient words in our English words “novice,” and “heliograph.” It meant “new sun”, or the winter solstice, and marked the first day of the year when the days began lengthening.

The holiday is actually nothing more than the ancient “Saturnalia,” celebrated among different pagan, heathen peoples in different lands by amazingly similar customs and nonsensical beliefs. SUN worship was virtually universal among all savage, heathen tribes, clans, and nations.

Truth be told, the celebration of the birth of Christ has occurred in every month of the year among different peoples at different times. For a period of centuries, it was celebrated in January. To this day, a common expression is “the twelve days of Christmas,” which refer to the signs of the Zodiac, and pagan, agrarian rituals. In other words, as pagans prayed to the sun god, they celebrated the signs of the seasons; appealing to the solis invictus, or the invincible sun, to “begin his journey back to the northern latitudes,” lengthening the days, warming the earth, melting the ice and snow of winter, and bringing once again the springing forth of new life.

By taking such “quaint” beliefs, and adapting them to nominal “Christian” beliefs, the universal church was able to “convert” countless hundreds of thousands of savage peoples in dozens of countries all over the world. As one book, The Origins of Christmas, states, “Across Europe, Roman, German or Celtic festivals marked the beginning of winter. Christianity originated and expanded in the ancient world by promising a new life, and by announcing a new light to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Little by little, a calendar of religious festivals was established from the forth century, replacing ancient rituals and pagan celebrations.”

But the ancient rituals and pagan celebrations, with all their accompanying symbolism and enactments were by no means replaced with anything that was “Christian.” One may claim a pig is a duck hundreds of times, but the pig is a pig, nevertheless.

Christ Was Not Born In The Winter

Christ was not born on or anywhere near the 25^th of December. The Bible says, “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night [Note carefully! The sheep were gathered into sheep cotes much earlier; no sheep were still “abiding in the field” this late in the year. But in September or early November, such a scene could have obtained. There is ample proof for this].”

There is virtual unanimity among some of the most well-known commentators on this point: Barnes, Doddridge, Lightfoot, Joseph Scaliger, and Jennings, who wrote Jewish Antiquities all agree that December 25^th could not have been Christ’s date of birth. Joseph Mede, following a long dissertation on the subject, says, “At the birth of Christ every woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city whereto they belonged, whither some had long journeys; but the middle of winter was not fitting for such a business, especially for women with child and children, to travel in. Therefore, Christ could not be born in the depth of winter. Again, at the time of Christ’s birth, the shepherds lay abroad watching with their flocks in the night time; but this was not likely to be in the middle of winter. And if any shall think the winter wind was not so extreme in these parts, let him remember the words of Christ in the gospel, “Pray that your flight be not in the winter,” if the winter was so bad a time to flee in, and women and children to travel in.

Here is what Christ Himself said: “Then [when the Abomination of Desolation is in place] let them which be in Judaea [the very place of Christ’s birth] flee into the mountains:

“Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

“Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

“And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:16-21).

Notice how Jesus Christ singled out pregnant women, or nursing mothers, saying they should PRAY that they should not have to flee their homes into the countryside, and into the mountainous country of Judaea in the winter! Further, it was not the practice of the Roman government to force their subject peoples into arduous, even perilous, travel in the middle of winter. Their object was census-taking for taxation purposes, not to create popular rebellion. Therefore, they would have chosen the season of the year when it was the easiest time for travel, not the most difficult.

Now, continuing with the account of the annunciation of Christ’s birth:

“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men [actually, the verse reads, in the original, `Peace on earth among men of good will’].

“And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

“And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:7-16).

However, one may see the shepherds AND the wise men, or the “Magi” (Persian followers of the “Magus,” and believers, perhaps, in Zoroaster, who were forced to acknowledge the King of kings and Lord of lords) standing about the manger in many, many pictures, movies, books, and of course, in decorations on millions of lawns.

But the Magi did not arrive in Bethlehem until after a journey of many, many MONTHS, perhaps a YEAR after the birth of Christ. Historical facts mean nothing to those who blindly adopt “custom,” however.

Study carefully the 2^nd chapter of Matthew. Herod would not have risked killing all the little boys from two years old and younger if he had known the Christ child was a mere week or two old! He ordered the murder of all those from two years and younger because he had carefully interrogated the wise men about the time the star had appeared. Notice the account, how the Magi had “…come into the HOUSE [not a manger], [where] they saw the young child [not here called a baby, or an infant] with Mary His mother…” (Matthew 2:16).

This is simply another example of the ignorance of millions, who, though they believe they are celebrating a “Christian” custom, have not bothered to so much as read the Bible account carefully.

What Is The Origin Of The Christmas Tree?

Tree worship is virtually universal among heathen peoples. To this day, there are those who believe trees have a spirit; those who will “apologize to the spirit of the tree” before cutting it down.

From the earliest times, since trees come in so many thousands of varieties, and are so useful to man, ancient mankind ascribed any number of god-like qualities to trees. Trees produce many hundreds of varieties of foods for man, from nuts to bananas; from fruits to bark used as spices, as in the case of the cinnamon tree. The ubiquitous palm trees of the tropics and Middle East have been used for rafts, canoes, building homes, thatching roofs, producing clothing, and for dozens of kinds of foods, from coconuts to dates.

But it was not only the most “primitive” peoples who worshiped trees. Even such notable Greek philosophers a Plato and Aristotle taught that trees possessed reason, just as humans do; believed trees had “feelings.” Ancient Egyptians held to the superstition that the life of a human being and the life of a tree were somehow connected; that the fate of one was identical to the fate of another. In the famous Egyptian fable called “the tale of two brothers,” dating from perhaps 1,000 B.C., one of the brothers allegedly “leaves his heart on the top of the flower of an acacia tree,” but then falls down dead when the tree is cut down.

There is a “black arts” connection here. As in voodoo, wherein people believe a human being can be cursed with sickness, wounds, or even killed by sticking pins in a doll-like caricature of the victim, many believed that a person’s life was inextricably intertwined with the life of a tree. By depositing fingernail clippings, human hair, or some article that had been in close contact with the man, pagans believed they were putting themselves into close “personal” contact with the tree. Then, if certain boughs were cut off, and investigated, and it appeared that a blight was affecting the tree, the man drew conclusions from this—believing he would be stricken with a disease, or die.

Encyclopedias are replete with pagan concepts of tree worship. Customs in dozens of countries all over the world show that it was common belief that humans and trees had some common bond; some spiritual interconnection. Some believed it was possible to transfer disease from a sick person to a tree. Thus, they would place bits of hair, items of clothing, or some personal item from the sick person; even fingernail clippings, into a niche or hole bored into the tree. The Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition, states that some sick persons would be passed through the aperture resulting from splitting a tree, and then, if the tree survived, the patient would surely recover. In India, the Korwas hung rags on trees which formed the shrines of their various village gods. Even in early America, in Nebraska, some believed that hanging of objects on the branches of trees propitiated supernatural beings, or could give them such blessings as good hunting and good weather.

The universality of tree worship was also observed by the well-traveled Charles Darwin, the “father of evolution,” who wrote of a tree he saw in South America festooned with various offerings, including rags, meat, and even cigars! Not only were libations made to this tree, but horses were sacrificed to it.

From the most ancient times, the Bible records how the pagan nations inhabiting Palestine in the time of Joshua and the Israelitish occupation worshiped in “groves.” Wooded copses atop hills were used as pagan shrines. Sometimes, amidst the groves, the tops and branches were lopped off a standing tree, which was then carved to represent a phallic symbol, or carved with the face of a “god.” Notice one outstanding example:

“And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

“And they set them up images and groves [groves of trees] in every high hill, and under every green tree:

“And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger” (2 Kings 17:9-11). God commanded them—as He commands us today—”LEARN NOT THE WAY of the heathen!” We are commanded of God NOT to adopt the customs; the “way” of worship of the demented, savage, ignorant minds of heathen peoples, thinking them “quaint” or “cute,” and then pretending they are “Christian.”

God said, “And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them” (2 Kings 17:15).

If pagan Amorites, Amalakites, Babylonians, Druids, Teutons, Celts, Greeks, Egyptians or Romans could come back to life today, they would immediately recognize many of the customs practiced by professing “Christians.”

But where did the concept of cutting down millions of little firs, spruce, or balsams come from? Most authorities agree it stems from the fable of “St. Boniface” (meaning “pretty face”), who supposedly cut down the “great oak of Jupiter,” a tree worshiped by pagan Teutons at Geismar in Hesse, Germany. As the story goes, Boniface, who is also identified as an early English missionary, named “Winfred”, came upon a group of heathens who were worshiping at their huge, spreading oak, the “sacred oak of Jupiter.” Poor little Prince Asulf was about to be sacrificed to “Jupiter,” it seems, until Boniface and his armed men stopped the impending sacrifice and rescued Asulf. Then, Boniface ordered the tree cut down. The legend varies; one version claiming he then planted an evergreen in its place, and another claiming he told the pagans in the next day or so that, by a divine miracle, a little fir tree had “sprung up in its place,” and that the new little tree was the “tree of life,” and represented “Christ.”

Quaint. Always accommodating, the apostate church and churchmen allowed heathens to cling to their symbols of worship, while merely calling them by a different name.

One version of the story says Boniface had a church built in honor of “St. Peter” from the felled oak. Some oak tree!

Today, some utterly ignorant “Christian” people will utter the bovine nonsense that the “evergreen is a symbol of everlasting life”!

But there is an even older version of the story, in which Nimrod, the first organizer of cities and city-states (Genesis 10:8-12), who was also identified with Tammuz, or the sun god, was depicted by a sacred tree, which was cut down, only to find that a young green tree had sprung up from the trunk overnight, thus representing the “rebirth” of Nimrod, or the sun god.

The early pagan Scandinavians were tree worshipers, and it was only natural that their “Brumalias” or the winter festival of Saturnalia should feature the holly tree and the fir tree, whose wreaths and branches were brought indoors. The Romans exchanged green tree branches on the “calends,” or the 1^st of January, as good luck symbols.

Today, tens of millions of beautiful trees, which COULD become huge, mature Douglas firs, spruce, balsams, or other kinds of conifers, and which COULD be used to build millions of homes, or produce resins, paper, and dozens of useful products, are instead cut down, then shipped via truck and rail to distribution points, then stood up, to have a base nailed to them, and sold to “Christians” to take indoors and decorate with orbs and bulbs.

As the tree withers and dies, it becomes a fire hazard. Each year, children and families die as a result of faulty wiring on Christmas tree lights.

Does God say anything about the Christmas tree? Notice, “Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

“They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not” (Jeremiah 10:1-4). When God says LEARN NOT the “way of the heathen,” He means exactly what He says. Notice further, “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;

“Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

“Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods [this was done in groves of trees, or asherah, just as the worshipers of Jupiter were doing in Germany].

“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32). Many will argue that Christmas and other pagan festivals are “extra-Biblical”; that, while they are not enjoined by scripture, are nevertheless harmless inventions of sincere Christians in worship of God and Christ. But God thunders at rebellious mankind, “Thou shalt not add thereto” in methods of worship!

Plainly, God commanded His people NOT TO COPY the modes of heathen worship of the degenerate pagan nations of the world; not to adapt their ceremonies, symbols, and rituals, and call them by a different name. Yet, in direct, flagrant disobedience to this divine command, tens of millions indulge in customs which would be readily recognized by pagan sun-worshipers.

Today, the entire TIME of late autumn until mid-winter is celebrated. The day or so after Hallowe’en (itself a totally demonic, satanic, pagan celebration), millions of commercial establishments drag out their Christmas decorations, and put them in their shops and display windows. God commanded, “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

“Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who claims to be able to communicate with the dead],

“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD…” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

“`Tis the season to be jolly! Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! Deck the halls with boughs of Holly!”—a familiar refrain. The “Christmas season” is exactly the same thing as “observing times”; observing the winter solstice, just as pagan sun-worshipers did.

The “holiday season,” or “yuletide,” or the “twelve days of Christmas” are commonly used to connote the “Christmas” holiday, or the “Christmas season.”

Where Did We Get The Yule Log?

What in the world is “yuletide”? What is a “yule log,” and where did it come from? Like so many of our “modern” customs, the yule log is also buried in the most ancient myths and superstitions. A Nordic word for the winter solstice was geol, the “g” being pronounced like our “y,” thus: “yeol” or “yool.” The Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, states that the term has come to mean “the season of Christmas.” Further, it says, “This word is chiefly used alone as an archaism or in poetry or poetical language, but is more common in combination, as in `yuletide,’ `yule-log,’ & etc….it was the name of two months of the year, December and January, the one the `former yule’ (se aerra geola) and the other the `after yule’ as coming before and after the winter solstice. According to A. Fick [its] proper meaning is noise, clamour, the season being one of rejoicing at the turning of the year among Scandinavian peoples before Christian times” (ibid. Vol 28, p. 946).

Writing of both the Christmas tree and the yule log, Hislop says, “The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm tree; in Rome it was the fir;

“The palm tree denoting the pagan messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the sun-god and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was the tree, the son must have been recognized as the `man the branch.’ And this entirely accounts for the putting of the yule log into the fire on Christmas eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning…but why, it may be asked, does he enter the fire under the symbol of a log? …Now the yule log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas tree is Nimrod redivivus—the slain god come to life again” (The Two Babylons, Hislop, p. 87, 98).

Satan paved the way toward the Madonna and child with many false, counterfeit representations, including Isis and Osirus, which are the Egyptian versions of the Babylonian Nimrod and Semiramus.

Thus, it was no great leap of imagination for pagans to embrace the worship, NOT of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world; as the RULER, who will return to this earth to rule it with a rod of iron, but as a “little babe in his mother’s arms”; worship symbols of “madonna and child.” After all, they had done so for thousands of years! But God’s Word does NOT portray Jesus Christ as being overshadowed by His mother, and does NOT urge WORSHIP toward the “queen of heaven,” which was the role of Semiramus, the mother-wife of Nimrod!

Christmas Dinners—Boar’s Heads, Geese and Turkeys

Obviously, every pagan festival centered around food and drink—especially drink. Today, tens of millions of people all over the western world of professing Christianity revel in “office parties” at Christmas time; in neighborhood parties, and in many kinds of Christmas-oriented celebrations, from school plays to huge concerts.

The “Tom and Jerry” bowl is a carry-over from the “Wassail” bowl of ancient times. Bacchanalian orgies featured sumptuous banquets and wine. It was the sport of kings and nobles to hunt boar throughout Europe and the Balkans. But the boar represented more than wild game, at a king’s table. Pagan mythology says “Adonis” was killed by an attack of a wild boar. Therefore, boars were sacrificed to Adonis in many countries. How the boar’s head came to “grace” many a medieval (and modern) English table is another of those mystical, pagan stories of pure myth. Hislop says, “According to one version of the story of the death of Adonis, or Tammuz [the sun god], it was, as we have seen, in consequence of a wound from the tusk of a boar that he died. The Phrygian Attes, the beloved of Cybele, whose story was identified with that of Adonis, was fabled to have perished in like manner, by the tusk of a boar. Therefore Diana, who though commonly represented in popular myths only as the huntress Diana, was in reality the great mother of the gods, has frequently the boar’s head as her accompaniment [in pagan statuary, icons, medals, etc.], in token not of any mere success in the chase, but of her triumph over the grand enemy of the idolatrous system, in which she occupied so conspicuous a place…in memory of the deed that the mystic boar had done, many a boar lost its head or was offered in sacrifice to the offended goddess” (Ibid. P. 100).

The same authority describes how the Saxons in Europe (sons of “Saac,” or “Saccae,” the sons of Isaac, and thus part of the so-called “Lost Ten Tribes”) offered a boar in sacrifice “on Christmas day” to Venus for the “loss of her beloved Adonis.”

Hislop wrote, “In Rome a similar observance had evidently existed; for a boar formed the great article at the feast of Saturn, as appears from the following words of Martial: `That boar will make you a good Saturnalia.’ Hence the boar’s head is still a standing dish in England at the Christmas dinner, when the reason of it is long since forgotten. Yea, the `Christmas goose’ and the `yule cakes’ were essential articles in the worship of the Babylonian messiah, as that worship was practiced both in Egypt and at Rome” (ibid. P. 101).

Hislop includes two pictures; one features an Egyptian hieroglyph of the Egyptian god “Seb,” with his symbol the goose on his head; the other shows a Roman sacrificial goose, bound, and placed on a stand, its head drooping down in death.

Once the apostate church had established December 25^th as the birthday of Christ, it was a simple matter to count backward 9 months, and establish the festival called “Lady Day,” on the 25^th of March. “Lady Day.” Was it mere coincidence that March 25^th was a pagan celebration in Rome in honor of the Babylonian messiah, and his alleged miraculous conception in “Cybele,” the “mother of god,” or the “mother of the messiah?”

Of course, the pagan festivals all featured sumptuous feasting (the meaning of “festival”), so it was natural that those animals upon which they feasted carried symbolic meaning. In the United States, the turkey came to be the centerpiece of “Thanksgiving” because of the gifts of Indians to the Puritans, and because of the harvest of wild game such as the turkey, which was easier to kill once the leaves had dropped in late November. However, the turkey has no mystic symbolism whatsoever, and Thanksgiving is purely a national celebration in honor of God’s blessings, and is utterly devoid of any pagan trappings or rituals.

“Here We Go `A-Wassailing'”

One of the familiar “Christmas carols” is “Wassailing.” To most, it is merely some ancient word they assume came from England or somewhere—perhaps Germany—they don’t really know, which means, “Here we go, singing carols in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve.”

But the old English word meant “Be whole,” or “Be well.”

Allegedly, the custom of “wassailing” began with “…the reception of King Vortigern by Hengist, when Rowena `came into the king’s presence, with a cup of gold filled with wine in the hand, and making a low reverence to the king said, Waes hael hlaford Cyning, which means `Be of health, Lord King.’ In a collection of ordinances for the regulations of the royal household in Henry VII’s reign, the steward on the Twelfth Night [of the `Twelve nights of Christmas’] was to cry `wassail’ three times on entering with the bowl, the royal chaplain responded with a song. Wassailing was as much a custom in the monasteries as in laymen’s houses, the bowl being known as poculum Caritalis. What is popularly known as wassailing was the custom of trimming with ribbons and sprigs of rosemary a bowl which was carried round the streets by young girls singing carols at Christmas and the New Year. This ancient custom still survives here and there, especially in Yorkshire, where the bowl is known as `the vessel cup,’ and is made of holly and evergreens, inside which are placed one or two dolls trimmed with ribbons. The cup is borne on a stick by children who go from house to house singing Christmas carols. In Devonshire and elsewhere it was the custom to wassail the orchards [trees again!] on Christmas and New Year’s eve. Pitchers of ale or cider were poured over the roots of the trees to the accompaniment of a rhyming toast to their healths” (Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, vol. 28, p. 361). One will recognize the English word “hale,” as in “hale and hearty,” in the word “wasshail,” or “wassheil.”

Thus various “quaint” superstitions were added to the custom of “wassailing.” In Germany, the gamekeeper, once his hunter has killed a stag, breaks off a twig of evergreen, dips it into the blood of the animal, and then presents it with a “toast,” pronouncing similar words, “Wass-heil!” The sprig of bloody evergreen then is worn in the successful hunter’s hat band.

Here is a list of sometimes idiotic superstitions as practiced today from countries around the world during the middle of winter, about Christmas and New Years. As the Back to Christmas Chroniclesgaily admits, “Midwinter has always been a time when spirits and monsters were on the prowl. It is also a time that looks forward to the coming of Spring, hence a good time for fortune-telling and weather forecasting.” Then, the following list is included:

1) At midnight on Christmas Eve, all water turns to wine; cattle kneel facing the East; horses kneel and blow as if to warm the manger; animals can speak, though it’s bad luck to hear them; [how cute—that way no one will be sure to destroy the myth by listening in!] bees hum the hundredth psalm.

2) In Ireland, it is believed that the gates of heaven open at midnight on Christmas Eve. During this brief period, those who die get to go straight to heaven, instead of having to wait on purgatory—where is Dr. Kevorkian? Sounds like he could be very busy in Ireland on Christmas Eve.

3) A child who is born on Christmas Eve is considered very lucky in many countries; however, in Greece, he is considered to be like an evil demon, and in Poland he may turn out to be a werewolf, according to pagan superstition.

4) Some idiotic people once conjured up the notion that each of the twelve days of Christmas indicates what the weather will be on the ensuing twelve months. Pretty stupid in the tropics, or anywhere else, for that matter.

5) In Germany, time was when unwed girls would sit in a circle, blindfold a goose, and the first girl the goose blundered into would be sure to marry within the year.

6) In northern Europe, it was considered bad luck to let the fire go out in the house during Christmas season—the yule log was a feature of such fires.

7) Another “quaint” custom was to see which spouse brought a holly wreath into the house first; if the husband, he would rule the house for the next year; if the wife, she would do so. This may have resulted in a mad scramble for holly.

8) In Greece, it was believed you should burn your old shoes in the fire during the Christmas season to avoid bad luck in the coming year.

9) Some believed one should never allow to fall, drop, or throw away the evergreen decorations once set up in the home. Instead, they should either be burnt, or “fed to your cow.” Personally, I have never seen a cow eat a fir tree, and holly is rather prickly.

10) It is said that in Hertfordshire, England, the harvest is predetermined by sticking a plum cake on a cow’s horn, then throwing cider into her face. If the cake falls forward, it will be a good harvest, if backward, a bad one.

11) In Sweden, Christmas Eve bodes evil. It is believed “trolls” roam the countryside during the night hours, and that one should remain indoors.

There are dozens more such idiotic and silly customs—so many space would not permit them to be catalogued. Many revolved around eating mince pie for luck, and of course, there is always the ancient Druidic belief that the parasite “mistletoe” is an aphrodisiac, since it’s waxen-white berries are present in the winter. Thus, mistletoe is hung over doorways and upon light fixtures and from the ceilings, so that, if one encounters one’s neighbor’s wife “under the mistletoe,” it is mandatory to kiss. There is no record of how many fights, arguments, or even divorces have resulted from this practice.

Like the ignorant heathen of the past, modern professing “Christians” cheerfully indulge in such silly customs, believing them harmless and “quaint.”

When Was Jesus Christ Really Born?

Since Jesus Christ was not born anywhere near December 25^th, when was He really born? And, if we can determine the date with any reasonable degree of accuracy, are we to “observe His birthday”?

Believe it or not, there are biblical clues concerning the true date of Jesus Christ’s birth. However, it is obvious the writers of the gospels did not think it important to include the exact date, speaking only of the events surrounding His birth, or events when he was 12 years of age, answering the learned doctors in the Temple, or when He began His ministry, being “about thirty.” The Bible nowhere enjoins upon Christians to observe the birthday of Jesus Christ, or the birthday of any other famous biblical person, whether Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, or the apostle Paul!

Satan the devil is the great counterfeiter. He is the arch deceiver, who will go to any lengths to deceive and mislead God’s people. He knows the old adage, “a miss is as good as a mile.” Actually the word for “sin” means “to miss the mark.” Just one tiny slash of a knife across the “smile” of the Mona Lisa would be enough to destroy the painting, just as only a “little” poison in an otherwise good meal can kill you. If people “miss the mark” in observing purely pagan customs, with pagan, mystical symbols all about, but call it “Christian,” the devil is satisfied, for he has duped the people into committing SIN against God; “missing the mark” of the pure worship of the Creator of all things by doing the opposite of what He has commanded, “Learn NOT the way of the heathen.”

For decades, I knew that Satan had obfuscated, or concealed the real truth about the Passover by the pagan substitution of “Easter,” or Ishtar, a celebration of fecundity, procreation, and new life. I knew that eggs and rabbits symbolize fertility, and have nothing to do with Christ’s resurrection. Hallowe’en is blatantly pagan, but is a HARVEST celebration of sorts, featuring corn stalks, squashes and pumpkins, along with all the demonic symbolism, and obfuscates God’s true fall harvest festival, the “Feast of Tabernacles,” which always falls on the 15^th day of the 7^th month of God’s sacred calendar.

But what does “Christmas” obscure?

What is hiding behind it? Is there something we would be better off if we knew about the latter part of December? Originally, there were those who celebrated December 25^th as “St. Michaelmas” day, claiming it was the day of the annunciation to Mary by the archangel, and therefore was CONCEPTION day; the day God “became flesh.” Was it?

There are some important clues we should understand. They begin with the miraculous birth of John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ second cousin, and the “voice in the wilderness” who was to announce the coming of the Messiah.

Notice what the Bible says about this great event: “”There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

“And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

“And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

“And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,

“According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

“And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.

“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

“And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

“But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

“And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

“For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

“And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.

“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

“And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

“And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings.

“And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

“And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.

“And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.

“And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house” (Luke 1:5-23).

Zacharias served during the “course of Abia,” or the EIGHTH of the priestly courses (meaning their assigned times of service) in the Temple (see 1 Chronicles 24:10). This took place twice each year. Each time of service, or “course” changed each week, commencing on the Sabbath. The reckoning commenced on the 22^nd day of Tisri or Tehanim, which was the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the “Last Great Day.”

Remember that the courses served together at the three great feasts. The dates for the twice-yearly ministrations of Abia fall on the 12^thto the 18^th of Chisleu (our December 6^th to the 12^th), and from the 12^th to the 18^th of Sivan, or our June 13^th to the 19^th.

Therefore, the announcement about the CONCEPTION OF JOHN occurred somewhere between our June 13^th to the 19^th in 5 BC!

Old Zacharias’ course ended on the Sabbath, our June 20^th, which would have been a Sabbath. Therefore, he could not have journeyed to his home on that day, but would have left on the 21^st, our Sunday. He lived “in the hill country of Judaea,” about 30 miles away. Easily, this was a two day journey for an elderly man, putting him home late on the 22^nd of Sivan, or our June 23^rd. Therefore, the miraculous conception of John HAD TO TAKE PLACE somewhere on June 23^rd or 24^th of 5 BC!

To this day in England, the “Day of the Nativity of John the Baptist” is June 24^th! In reality, it is not the date of his BIRTH, but the date of his conception!

Elizabeth and Mary were first cousins. Therefore, John the Baptist and Jesus were second cousins. John was conceived on the 7th of Nisan, corresponding to our June 23rd or 24th, in 5 BC.

Six months later, on the first day of the Jewish month Tebeth, which corresponds to our December 25th, 5 BC, Jesus Christ was begotten. Nine months later, when the shepherds were still “abiding in the fields by night,” Christ was born in Bethlehem on our September 29th, which fell on the FIRST DAY OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES!”

Bullinger’s Companion Bible says, “The fact of the birth of our Lord having been revealed to the shepherds by the Archangel Michael on the 15^th of Tisri, corresponding to September 29^th, 4 BC—the FIRST DAY OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES—must have been known to believers in the Apostolic age. But the `mystery of iniquity’ which was already working in Paul’s day (2 Thessalonians 2:7) quickly enshrouded this and the other great fact of the day of the Lord’s `begetting’ on the first day of the Jewish month Tebeth, corresponding to December 25^th, 5 BC, as well as other events connected with His sojourn on earth, in a rising mist of obscurity in which they have ever since been lost.

“The earliest allusion to December 25^th as the date for the Nativity is found in the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria, about the beginning of the Third Century AD.

“That `Christmas’ was a pagan festival long before the time of our Lord is beyond doubt. In Egypt, Horus, the son of Isis (queen of heaven), was born about the time of the winter solstice. By the time of the early part of the fourth century AD, the real reason for observing Christmas as the date for the miraculous `begetting’ of Matthew 1:18 and `the Word becoming flesh’ of John 1:14 had been lost sight of…If, however, we realize that the centre of gravity, so to speak, of what we call the Incarnation is the Incarnation itself—the wondrous fact of the Divine `begetting’ when `the Word became flesh‘—and that this is to be associated with December 25<sup>th</sup>, instead of March—as for 1,600 years Christendom has been led to believe—then `Christmas’ will be seen in quite another light…”

“The announcement to the shepherds by the Archangel Michael marked the birth of our Lord. John 1:14 is read as though `the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us’ were one and the same thing, whereas, they are two clauses. The paragraph should read thus: `And the Word became flesh; [Gr. Ho logos sarx egeneto.] `And tabernacled with [or among] us,’ [Gr. Kai eskenosen en hemin].

“The word tabernacled here [preserved in the RV margin] receives beautiful significance from the knowledge that the `Lord of glory’ was `found in fashion as a man,’ and thus tabernacling in human flesh. And in turn it shows in equally beautiful significance that our Lord was born on the FIRST DAY OF THE GREAT JEWISH FEAST OF TABERNACLES, vis. The 15^th of Tisri, corresponding to September 29^th, 4 BC [modern reckoning].

“The circumcision of our Lord took place therefore on the eighthday, the last day of the Feast, `The Great Day of the Feast’ of John 7:37″ (ibid. Appendix 179, emphasis mine).

Christ is the central figure of all the annual Sabbaths, or Feasts, of God. He is the Passover Lamb. He is the “living Bread” depicted by the unleavened bread of the “Days of Unleavened Bread” following the Passover. He is the FIRST of the “firstfruits” depicted by the “Feast of Sabbaths,” or the “Feast of the Firstfruits,” which was celebrated by counting until the 50^th [the word “Pentecost” is Greek for “fiftieth”] day following the wave sheaf offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread. He is the soon-coming King of kings and Lord of lords, whose arrival is heralded by the blowing of the great trumpet of the archangel on the “Feast of Trumpets.” He is our “Atonement” pictured by the fast day of Atonement.

The feast of temporary booths, or kiosks, or shanties, or huts, or “tabernacles,” portrays our total transitory nature; our impermanence on this earth during our short physical life span.

In a shadowy type, it also looks forward to our eventual inheritance of our permanent, spirit body, when we inherit the Kingdom of God.

Notice, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [this means you and me, in our physical bodies] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die: the Bible continually uses profound “sleep” as a type of death], but we shall all be changed,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

Read the entire 15^th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Paul explains how the physical body is to decay, but that, in the resurrection, a new spirit body is given to the dead in Christ, or the living in Christ, who are changed, in a “twinkling of an eye.”

Notice, “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened [made alive], except it die:

“And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

“But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

“All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

“There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

“It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:35-44).

You and I reside in a physical body. We may lose a leg, or an arm, or an eye, and we are still here. Our volition; our psyche; our personality; our conscience and will power reside in the frontal lobes of our brain, not in our kneecap or our elbow.

God’s Holy Spirit enters into our MIND, changing our mind from carnal to spiritual—it does not enter into our kneecap or our elbow.

When God begets us with His Spirit, we become one more of His spiritual children—He is our FATHER, not merely in an intellectual sense, or as a “spiritual title,” but in a very REAL sense! Notice how Paul puts it, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [the Greek word means more than legal adoption. [It connotes “sonship”], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:14-17).

God’s Word says “there is a spirit in man.” Most people falsely call it the “soul,” believing in the pagan doctrine of the “immortality of the soul.”

But the human spirit has no consciousness apart from the physical life sustained by the bloodstream. It is said to be deeply ASLEEP when the body dies. Notice how Paul said this several times: “…And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

“Then they also which are fallen asleep [meaning, “are dead”]in Christ are perished.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20).

The human spirit, together with God’s Holy Spirit, becomes a new, never-before, unique SPIRIT BEING; a new spiritual creation!

You Are Unique

There is no one else quite like you. You are unique. Your fingerprints are different from anyone else among the more than five billion living humans. Your DNA is unique. The “pattern” that was imparted to the fertile egg in your mother’s body by your father made you what you are.

In a tiny, microscopic beginning, YOU became you. It happened in only a moment of time, yet, all that you were to become—your unique fingerprints; color and texture of hair; color of eyes; skin color and texture; musculature and physical stature—everything about you, including inherited proclivities such as music or athletic prowess, began at the moment of conception. At that moment, YOU became you. You WERE, from that moment. Yet, you were smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Millions take human procreation; life itself, for granted. But human life, and the awesome law of “biogenesis,” that kind reproduces after kind, is a miracle.

The Bible uses begettal (conception) and birth as analogies to help us understand spiritual begettal and rebirth. Almost intuitively, societies all over the world, from the most primitive to the most developed, believe that there is something “spiritual” about human life—that there is life after death in some form. Few seem willing to accept the plain truth about the next life from He who conquered death in human flesh: Jesus Christ.

He said to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8). Nicodemus knew Christ used a term for birth which was exactly the same term one would use in describing human or animal birth. This is why He retorted, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (John 3:4). Nicodemus was not attempting bawdy humor. He knew Christ spoke of actual BIRTH, not some emotional human experience, and the proof is in what he asked.

Christ then stated a simple fact. That which is born of flesh IS FLESH. But that which is born of the Spirit IS SPIRIT. Simple, and yet millions refuse to believe or accept it, and prefer to twist this plain statement into a pretzel-like shape of confused contortion, and believe that being “born again” is an emotional experience—or “speaking in tongues.”

The Greek word John used is gennao. In the Greek, the entire process of conception, fetal development and parturition, or birth, is encompassed in that one word. Just as you and I were BEGOTTEN at the moment in time when our father’s sperm impregnated our mother’s fertile egg, so we can become BEGOTTEN CHILDREN OF GOD at the moment when God’s Holy Spirit comes into our mind, to join with our human spirit, and form a “new creature” in Christ!

The Inspiring Truth About “Tabernacles”

It is because Satan has obfuscated the fabulous truths contained in the types presented to us in God’s annual Sabbaths that millions are confused and deceived.

Paul knew he was dwelling in a “temporary tabernacle”; his body—and he knew that at his death, the body would be laid down in the grave, but that the new spiritual creation; the “new creature in Christ” would merely be “asleep,” and would be resurrected at the second coming of Christ.

He wrote, ” For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“But we have this treasure [this priceless knowledge of salvation and God’s plan] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7). Paul knew our bodies are like clay bowls, or urns. They are merely temporary, fragile, earthen vessels, which contain something very precious.

He said, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish [the aging process, and eventual death], yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment [in comparison, our fleshly lives are but a brief span], worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). How true. We cannot see, taste, smell, hear or feel spirit. We know physical things by the physical senses, but we can only understand spiritual things by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Our bodies are “temporal,” meaning transitory, temporary. But the spiritual life which can be begotten within us is PERMANENT—eternal.

Paul wrote, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

“If so be that being clothed [with a spirit body; with eternal life!] we shall not be found naked.

“For we that are in this tabernacle [we “new creatures in Christ” who live temporarily in a human, physical body] do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:1-4).

Can anything be plainer?

The beautiful type of dwelling in “tabernacles” or “booths” during the Feast of Tabernacles in the Autumn impresses upon us the TEMPORALITY of this human life; the impermanence of our physical bodies, and the yearning for life after death; eternal life with Christ in His kingdom. Notice further, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Being “in Christ” means to be converted, baptized, and to receive God’s Holy Spirit. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9).

These words are not so much spiritual “salt and pepper” sanctimonious-sounding phrases to be quickly read or intoned in a sermon, with almost no meaning. Paul meant that, once we have been begotten of God’s Holy Spirit, our very lives are no longer constituted only in the flesh; a physical, temporary, metabolic organism dependent upon food, water and air for daily survival, but constituted IN SPIRIT, because a new spiritual CREATION has been begotten within us. If you are a repentant, converted, baptized person who has had hands laid on for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, you are a “new creation” inside a temporary physical body.

One may say, “I lost my leg in the war,” but the PERSON is still there; the personality, the character, the memory, the will power, the decision-making ability, the conscience — all are intact. Carried to its bizarre extreme, even a blind, armless, legless human being is alive, so long as the human intelligence survives in the brain.

Paul wrote, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit [each of us possesses a human spirit in the frontal lobes of our brain] , that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16).

When you were born, you had the physical characteristics of both parents. This became more obvious as you matured. When God gives us of His Holy Spirit, which begets us as His children, He imparts to us a bit of His own nature: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

As I partook of the nature of my human, physical father, Herbert W. Armstrong, and possess many of his personality traits and characteristics, so we partake of the nature of our Divine Heavenly Father in the “inner man,” or the “new creature in Christ.”

Notice how the apostle Peter reminded Christians about this temporary “tabernacle” in which we live: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

“Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle [meaning as long as he was living physically within his body], to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

“Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me” (2 Peter 1:12-14). Jesus had told Peter that the time would come when he would be martyred. Peter knew that time was drawing near. With the powerful HOPE the knowledge of God engendered, Peter knew that HIS LIFE was constituted in the “new creature in Christ”; a SPIRITUAL life which was only dwelling temporarily in a human, physical body.

Such faith inspires courage and confidence. Peter could face martyrdom with stolid determination, knowing what lay beyond. He wrote, “Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance” (Verse 15).

How plain! Peter spoke of his physical body as a temporary dwelling place; a “tabernacle,” which was subject to death.

The profound and moving truth about Christ’s begettal and birth has been buried beneath a jangled, confusing, convoluted, avalanche of pagan myth and superstition! Christmas obscures the TRUE time of Christ’s birth, which was on the FIRST DAY OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES!

Tabernacles pictures the beautiful truths you have just read; that we are only temporarily dwelling in human, physical bodies, but that a new creation; a never-before, never-to-be-again, once only, UNIQUE spiritual creature in Christ, possessing the Divine Nature, is to be born into God’s Kingdom.

Christ came to this earth to “tabernacle” in human flesh! That is the very meaning of the word of John 1:14, “…And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us….”

His temporary sojourn among the creatures of His own design and creation was for many and profound reasons. He came to live a perfect life in the flesh through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, thus becoming a flawless, unblemished sacrifice for sin. He came to call, teach, and commission His disciples, thus building His church. He came to deliver the good news (the gospel) of the coming Kingdom of God; the world-ruling GOVERNMENT of God which will rule all nations with a rod of iron for 1,000 years (Rev. 2:26; 3:21; 20:4). He came to DISqualify Satan, the “lord of the dead,” and to qualify as King of kings and Lord of lords. He came to die for the sins of all mankind, and to be resurrected from the dead, to ascend to His Father, having condemned sin in the flesh. He came to qualify as our DAILY HIGH PRIEST, as the entire book of Hebrews expounds.

How FABULOUS are these TRUTHS of God, when compared to “Santa Claus” allegedly coming down chimneys, holly wreaths, mistletoe, Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, the yule log, and orbs and bulbs on trees, symbolizing fertility and the pagan worship of the sun!

Of course, IF THERE IS NO GOD, none of this makes any difference.

But GOD DOES EXIST, and He thunders at rebellious mankind, “LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN!”

Millions will rationalize their continued observance of heathen customs, finding comfort in the fact that “everyone else is doing it.” But God says, to those who live amid “spiritual Babylon,” “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4).

Will YOU be one who will surrender your will to God, and come out of Babylon, and into the glorious light of God’s truth? o

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

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Are you a slave to custom? Do you blindly accept whatever “society” imposes upon you, blissfully ignorant of the origin and meaning of commonly observed customs?

Each October, like so many dupes or slaves, hundreds of thousands of shopkeepers and clerks labor to install their usual “Halloween decorations” each October. Each autumn, thousands of markets, drugstores, department stores and millions of houses and lawns become scenes of “jack-o’-lanterns,” witches, broomsticks, black cats, leering skeletons, weird, bleeding skulls, knives, daggers, spears and swords, bloody masks, fake spider webs and other symbols of the devil and his demons, and macabre death.

Millions of yards of black and orange crepe paper is strung up on walls and ceilings. Replicas of corpses hanging from a gibbet dangled from chandeliers. Leering death’s heads and grinning skeletons festooned displays of masks and costumes.

In my neighborhood, people take a sheet, wind it around a fence post, or hang it in a tree, or drape it over a shrub, and pretend it is a ghost. Some merely place some pumpkins on their porches. Millions of pumpkins are destroyed, as vast numbers in third world countries starve, so neighborhoods can be in the spirit of Hallowe’en.

Why? What’s it all about? Where did we get it? Should a Christian be observing such customs?

A “Ready Made World”

You were born into a “ready-made” world. You had no say-so in the customs, traditions, annual holidays and celebrations which are faithfully and continually marked on the yearly calendar. From your earliest childhood, your parents repeated the myths, lies, superstitions and silly folly they, themselves, had been taught as children.

The “tooth fairy” will deposit money under your pillow if, when you lose a baby tooth, you sleep on it. The “Easter bunny” will lay candied eggs in your nest if you are good, or a licorice whip if you are bad. “Santa” will squirm down the chimney (even if it is a tiny stove pipe!), and leave you some goodies from his bag of toys. And “bobbing for apples” and playing “trick or treat” on neighborhood families is such fun! Hunting for “Ishtar” (pronounced “Easter” today) eggs, which are nothing less than symbols of sex and fertility, is fun and exciting for children. Pretending to be a ghost or demon is very attractive to imaginative little children.

Thus is it that, as the generations pass, millions of little children are gradually introduced to the myths, superstitions, lies, fairy tales and demonic observances of their parents and preceding generations.

Does God approve of such man-made holidays? Churches conduct Hallowe’en parties; freely sanction revelry on October 31^st. And why not, since the Roman Catholic Church adapted the pagan customs to its “All Saints’ Day,” or the “Evening of All Hallows?”

You did not invent “Hallowe’en.” You did not invent “Easter” (wich is a celebration of Ishtar of ancient Babylon and Oestara of the Nordics, and nothing short of sun worship) with its bunnies and eggs. You did not “invent” Christmas and its myths. They were just “there,” waiting for you to be introduced to them as wide-eyed little children; to be inculcated into your mind and memory by yearly repetition; by school classrooms, family gatherings, and church services.

Little did you know that a very ancient, apostate church followed the practice of adopting pagan ceremonies, then “adapting” them to “Christian” customs. Thus, even though Christ was actually resurrected on a late Sabbath afternoon, and put to death on a Wednesday afternoon, the “Good Friday/Easter Sunday Morning” tradition was imposed. Christ was most likely born in September, on the first day of the “Feast of Tabernacles,” but since the pagan sun worshipers appealed to Solis Invictus their “invincible sun” god to begin his northern journey once again at the winter solstice on December 25^th, the “Mass of Christ” was imposed, instead.

Ancient pagan Druidic superstitions about death, Satan, Samhain, wandering souls, weird demons and headless “Jacks,” Jicks, or Jokers (symbols of Satan), black cats, witches, goblins, ghouls, ghosts, poltergeists, trolls, mummies, and other symbols of death and Satanism have been superposed over “The Evening of `All Hallows,'” or “All Saints,” which is therefore dubbed, “Hallowed Evening,” or, for short, “Hallowe’en.”

Should God-fearing Christians be found observing celebrations of the devil and witchcraft?

“The Day When Columbus Discovered America”

I shall never forget the Halloween night when I attempted to find out whether the marauding little band of “trick or treaters” who came to my doorstep had the slightest inkling of what they were about. My wife and I, in self defense (for we didn’t want the “tricks” and so, out of fear, as in a protection racket, we had to pay the blackmail to avoid our windows and screens being soaped, our trees “papered” or our dog strangled) decided to buy a box of apples. Not candy, or junk food, but healthful apples. We didn’t know, then, that apples became one of the most suspicious and dangerous of all “treats,” since evil, perverted persons began delighting in placing needles or razor blades in them.

A large band of giggling “monsters” came to our door. When I opened the door, it was to see a group which looked like they included a member of the Ku Klux Klan in a hooded sheet, a grotesque little monster in a Nixon mask, some skeletons, ghouls, witches, and death’s heads.

There was much giggling and shuffling of feet as they all chimed, “Trick or Treat!!”

I said, “I’ve got something for each one of you — but first, you have to tell me what is the real meaning of Hallowe’en!” More giggling. The masks look at each other without changing expression.

“Come on,” I prompted, “Surely you know why you’re out dressed like demons and goblins, going to people’s houses and demanding food or candy?”

Some said “I don’t know.” Taken aback, they didn’t know what to say! Obviously, they were completely ignorant of the meaning of the night; didn’t know WHY they were doing what they were doing. They were just “having fun!”

Eventually, a little boy in the back of the group piped up, “I know! It’s the day when Columbus discovered America!”

Obviously, he had heard somewhere of “Columbus’ day,” and, not knowing when it fell on the calendar, improvised. I chuckled, and then, in a very brief thumbnail sketch, told them, “No, this is the evening before `all saints’ day’ of the Roman Catholic Church. You see, they assigned one day of the calendar to each one of their `saints,’ and when they had more saints than three hundred and sixty-five, they simply lumped them all together on November 1^st, and called it `All Saints’ Day.’ They chose November 1<sup>st</sup>, because this was the day celebrated by the pagan Druids of Ireland, who believe that `Samhain,’ the lord of the dead — who is like Satan, the devil — would consign the souls of their departed loved ones to the bodies of animals, and they sought a lighter sentence. To do this, they would placate the evil spirits by offerings of food, or even by sacrificing cats. They put jack o’ lanterns in their windows to frighten away evil spirits, and lit bonfires, and had all sorts of superstitions associated with that night — especially their belief that witches and demons were abroad. It’s called `Hallowe’en’ because it merely means `hallowed evening,’ or the evening of `All Hallows.'”

The grotesque masks simply leered at me. They then leered at each other. More embarrassed shuffling of feet and some giggles. I then handed each of them an apple — I know that must have been a really “yucky” kind of treat to them; they would far more have preferred a big fat Baby Ruth candy bar, and they fled.

A couple of station wagons with mothers anxiously awaiting them with the motors running then received the little horde, and off they went to the next neighbor’s driveway. Could it have been that, with my brief speech, I was more frightening to the little children than they were to me?

Why would I do such a thing? After all, as a little boy, I had delighted in Halloween. My parents didn’t believe in it, and told me I should not participate, and told me exactly why I should not, but, to a little kid of about 8 or 10, such lectures are to be shrugged off. There is something much too exciting about wearing a mask. And them, there is all that free candy!

Wanting to conform, and do the things everyone else is doing is a very powerful force.

Have You Ever Wondered About Hallowe’en?

If you ever decided to look up the origins of Hallowe’en in encyclopedias and the history books, here is what you would find in the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: “HALLOWE’EN, or All Hallows Eve, the name given to the 31^st of October as the vigil of Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day. Though now known as little else but the eve of the Christian festival, Hallowe’en and its formerly attendant ceremonies long antedate Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Hallowe’en were the lighting of bonfires and the belief that of all nights in the year this is the one during wich ghosts and witches are most likely to wander abroad. Now on or about the first of November the Druids held their great autumn festival and lighted fires in honour of the sun god in thanksgiving for the harvest. Further, it was a Druidic belief that on the eve of this festival, Saman [Samhain, or Satan the devil], lord of death, called together the wicked souls that within the past twelve months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals.

“Thus it is clear that the main celebrations of Hallowe’en were purely Druidical, and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland the 31^st of October was, and even still is, known as Oidhche Shamhna, “Vigil of Saman.” On the Druidic ceremonies were grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honour of Pomona held about the first of November, in which nuts and apples, as representing the winter store of fruits, played an important part. Thus the roasting of nuts and the sport known as `apple ducking’ — attempting to seize with the teeth an apple floating in a tub of water — were once the universal occupation of the young folk in medieval England on the 31^st of October. The custom of lighting Hallowe’en fires survived until recent years in the highlands of Scotland and Wales. In the dying embers it was usual to place as many small stones as there were persons around, and next morning a search was made. If any of the pebbles were displaced it was regarded as certain that the person represented would die within the twelve months” (Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Vol. XII, p. 857,858, emphasis mine).

There is a vast amount of literature available to prove the absolutely PAGAN origins of the customs surrounding “Hallowe’en.”

It is fascinating that the term “Shaman” was used to indicate a communicator with spirits in cultures all over the earth; from the vast Siberian forests to the North American plains, where many of the “Indian” tribes referred to their “medicine man” as the “Shaman.”

Ralph Linton, in his book, “Halloween Through Twenty Centuries,” wrote, “The American celebration rests upon Scottish and Irish folk customs which can be traced in direct line from pre-Christian times. Although Halloween has become a night of rollicking fun, superstitious spells, and eerie games which people take only half seriously, its beginnings were quite otherwise. The earliest Halloween celebrations were held by the Druids in honor of Samhain, lord of the dead, whose festival fell on November 1^st.”

Another author, Ruth Kelley, in her book “The Book of Halloween,” wrote that the Druids believed souls “….passed from one body to another at death…they believed that on the last night of the old year (October 31^st) the lord of the dead gathered together the souls of all those who had died in the passing year and had been condemned to live in the bodies of animals, to decree what forms they should inhabit for the next twelve months. He could be coaxed to give lighter sentence by gifts and prayers.”

The Druids, like many a religious leader today, managed to concoct a doctrine which repulsed and frightened their adherents about the fate of loved ones; a doctrine which inevitably caused an outpouring of “gifts” into the coffers of the priests, the Druids.

One is forcibly reminded of the beliefs commonplace among modern nominal “Christians” that gifts to their church help to alleviate protracted suffering or interminable anxiety as the souls of their dear departed allegedly progress through various stages of spiritual purgation.

“Let’s Have Ourselves An Orgy”

As I was writing this article, I heard the announcer on television say a segment of their program would be “how to protect your children on Halloween.” There was not the slightest hint that children should not be participating in such a Satanic ritual, but, instead, cautions for parents because of many potential dangers.

The dangers are many. After all, modern-day Satanists and self-professed witches and believers in “wicca” regard the evening of October 31^st as their “Samhain,” or “New Year’s. It is a very important date for Satanists. Kidnaping and ritual murders are not unknown in our lands; the ritual slaughter of animals and evisceration is also not unknown. In past decades, children have been horribly injured, and some have died, as a result of needles and razor blades in apples, drops of LSD on candy, poisons, such as strychnine, arsenic, and acid have been injected into the goodies children collect and eat.

Parents, regardless of the utterly pagan origins of the practice, allow their children to enact the ancient rituals, pretending to be demons; agents of Samhain, demanding gifts and “treats” in exchange, in the modern version, for protection from harm to persons or property.

Neighborhoods in thousands of cities and towns are the scene, not just on the “Eve of All Hallows,” but for two or three nights in a row of automobiles crowded with children as their mothers shepherd them about, hoping to load their big shopping bags with all kinds of goodies which they haven’t earned, don’t deserve and shouldn’t eat, and which will, aside from the pimples, bad teeth, and assorted diseases they might cause, quite possibly kill them.

The murderers of dozens, who placed deadly poisons in various consumer products are still “out there,” never having been found. The American bottling and packaging industries have had to spend billions of dollars to invent tamper-proof packaging on practically everything consumers eat or drink because of such evil, depraved, vicious killers. Why send one’s children out among them?

But like a cold front from Canada, inevitable, inexorable, the spirit of conformity demands, “Do it!” The spirit of docile following of the masses cries, “Be `in,’ take part, celebrate!” Dutifully, millions of parents say “Yes lord” to Samhain, who is Satan, and cheerfully indulge themselves in his ready-made celebrations. It all seems so “harmless,” somehow — just “innocent fun,” like going to see “The Exorcist,” or some other demonic horror movie. Where’s the harm? At least, this is the way God-rejecting, carnal-minded people reason.

Time was when Hallowe’en was viewed as “for the children.” Most adults only performed the rite of handing out the “treats” to avoid the “tricks” of having their outhouses turned over, their cattle run off, or tied to the front door knob, their cats strangled, their trees papered, or their windows soaped. Not any more. Now, Hallowe’en is orgy time. Now, millions of adults seize upon Hallowe’en as an excuse to act out every ghoulish fantasy ever imagined. Dressing up in the weirdest, most threatening or horrendous garb they can find or manufacture; mummies, ghosts, goblins, sado-masochists, murderers, demons, devils, cats, witches or skeletons, they booze, pop drugs, and cavort to heavy metal in a wild orgiastic abandon called a “Hallowe’en party.”

In tens of thousands of bars, lounges, clubs and private homes, orgies reminiscent of the Bacchanalian orgies of ancient Rome are conducted.

Today, with the influence of all the “splatter movies,” the costumes are increasingly bizarre. Many feature blood and dismemberment, and, inevitably, one will see a weirdo wrapped in bandages which conceal his head, carrying a lighted “jack-o’-lanterns” instead, as he masquerades of the headless “Jack,” “Jick,” or “Joker,” the capricious, wanton trickster who in turn is a type of Satan.

Why do people do it?

Because it’s “FUN”, they say!

“So What? What Difference Does It Make?”

Of course, all of this makes no difference whatsoever if there IS NO GOD! Are you willing to bet your eternal life there is not? God’s existence can be PROVED, and proved scientifically! For many years, I taught college classes on the proofs of God from paleontology, geology, biology, archaeology, and the Bible. In those classes, students were taught the scientific PROOFS of the existence of the Creator; proofs which can be seen every day by any one of us.

If you have not yet written for it, send immediately for my brochure, EVOLUTION — A WHALE of a Tale, which shows how symbiosis demolishes the theory of evolution.

The Bible is the word of our Creator, Who gives us every breath of air we breathe, and Who has the power to either save us or condemn us to eternal destruction in Gehenna fire.

God thunders at His people, “LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN!” (Jeremiah 10:2). When God called His people out of Egypt, which is a type of Sin; Pharoah being a type of Satan, He said, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,

“Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits [demons], or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who claims to communicate with the dead].

“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

“Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 18:9-13).

Millions are completely IGNORANT of just WHO it was who issued this command.

Believe it or not, it was the member of the divine Godhead, called “Elohim” in Genesis who became Jesus Christ of your New Testament!

Notice the proof! “In the beginning was the Word [Greek: Logos, meaning Spokesman”], and the Word was with God [Theos, the Greek equivalent of Elohim, meaning more than One] and the Word was God.

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him [He was the CREATOR of Genesis!]; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

“The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

“He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

“He came unto his own [the Jews], and his own received him not.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

There is no possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpreting these verses of your Bible! Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT! He said to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).

Most churches will not accept this truth, and therefore stand condemned of God! Why? Because they know it leaves in a shambles their commonly assumed doctrines that God’s laws are “done away”! Faced with the incontrovertible truth that the One who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger is Jesus Christ of the New Testament; that the One who called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the One who said “Let there be light” is Jesus Christ, they quickly hide behind their traditions, and refuse to admit the truth.

The same Person of Elohim says, “Let US make man in OUR image, and after OUR likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

He says, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). Your Bible says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Now, knowing that it was the Divine Member of Elohim, JESUS CHRIST, who spoke to the fathers, notice! “When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;

“Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise [God’s people are NOT TO FOLLOW PAGAN CUSTOMS!].

“Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:29-32).

Any person deciding to delve into the “black arts” and become a “witch” was to be put to death in ancient Israel, ruled by the Member of Elohim Who became Christ: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18).

YOU DECIDE!

Are you a part of this present society; conforming, going along with its ways? As stated earlier, if there is no God, then none of this makes any difference. But since GOD DOES EXIST, and since Jesus Christ is soon coming to JUDGE this world, and rule it with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 20:4), it behooves each person to CHOOSE!

God (the One who became Christ) said, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

“In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

“But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

“I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30: 15-19).

Witchcraft, Wizardry, And The “Harry Potter” Books

Today, a female British author, J.K. Rowling, is filthy rich. The term is an accurate assessment for her new-found wealth, for she obtained it by writing a series of books about a little boy who spent the first 20 years of his life sleeping under the stairs in a house where he is hated by his parents. His parents are killed by an evil “Voldemort,” and Harry escapes with but a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and then discovers that he has mysterious powers.

Critics joyously acclaim the books, saying that the Harry Potter books are the “first books that a child reads `just for the fun of it,’ and therefore the books are hailed as a wonderful incentive for the age group of from 9 to 12 to learn to read!

The first book is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone; No. 2 is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; No. 3 is about the Prisoner of Askaban, and number 4 is about the Goblet of Fire. Children can buy “Harry Potter related products available just in time for Halloween” according to one major web site, which lists “Kids Wizard Hat in Black and Gold; a “Crimson Wizard Children’s Costume,” and a “Small Miracles Iridescent Star Want.”

Thus, literally millions of our youth are taught that wizardry, “magic,” witchcraft, and all assorted forms of demonism and Satanism are “fun,” and exciting! In her fourth book, the author writes about Harry’s vision in which his scar burns, and how he returns to the “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” The book says that “happily, the prospect of attending the season’s premier sporting event, the Quidditch World Cup, is enough to make Harry momentarily forget that `Lord Voldemort’ and his sinister familiars — the `Death Eaters,’ — are out for murder.”

Such books were being snapped up faster than cabbage-patch dolls, beany babies, or the “Pokeman” toys! Again, it shows the alacrity with which unthinking human beings flock to the siren song of Satan; how eagerly they wish to look into the bizarre, the mysterious, the demonic occult.

Books about Jesus Christ or God would not even begin to compete with books about witches, demons and “death eaters.”

If such materials were to have been produced during God’s rulership over Israel through Moses and Aaron, or during the period of the Judges or any of the very few righteous kings, the producers of such trash would have been stoned to death. Today, they become multi-millionaires!

God sets before every individual TWO OPPOSITES: The WAY of life, good health, peace of mind, prosperity, happy marriages, obedient children — the way to everything we want, or the WAY which leads to rebellious children, broken marriages, disease, drug addition, crime, violence, insanity and DEATH!

Millions unconsciously CHOOSE the wrong way!

God commands us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformedby the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1,2). Peter said, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). To be converted means to become CHANGED. It means “turning around and going the other way.” Any old dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a lively one to swim upstream, battling rapids and falls!

Christ said it is the BROAD way; the dazzling, lighted, glitzy, attractive, wide, wide way of the world that leads to DEATH, but the narrow, rocky, difficult way which leads to LIFE, and “few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13,14).

Christ inspired John to write, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 15:18-20).

Hallowe’en, like pagan Easter (Ishtar, with a silent “h,” pronounced “Easter”) and Christmas, are all PAGAN TO THE CORE! They CONCEAL God’s true annual Holy Days, which reveal His great PLAN year by year. Christmas, with its pagan tree, bulbs and orbs, and mythical “Old Saint Nick” is laden with pagan symbolism. Just as Hallowe’en is replete with pagan symbols, yet masquerading as a “Christian” holiday, Easter, with its symbols of sex and fertility; rabbits, eggs, and rituals of Spring, with “hot cross buns” in honor of Horus, also masquerades as the resurrection of Christ.

But our God thunders at us, “LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN!”

He leaves the choice with us. Which way will you choose?

To learn about the true annual Holy Days of God, and how they reveal His great PLAN for you and your loved ones, call (903) 561-7070 or write to Box 747, Flint, Texas, 75762 for your free copy of HOW SEASONAL HOLY DAYS REVEAL GOD’S PLAN. 

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Hallowe’en is Pagan! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Did God command His people to keep His feasts, only to later decide to “do away” with them? Did Christ’s atoning death “do away” with the annual Sabbaths? Did Christ come to ABOLISH these so-called “Jewish” Feasts?

If so, then WHY will He FORCE all nations to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the millennium? You will be astonished at the TRUTH about God’s seasonal holy days, and the marvelous HUMAN POTENTIAL revealed in their rich spiritual meaning!

Why have you never heard the Sunday-observing preachers explain the beautiful Christ-centered pictures, types and shadows contained in God’s seven annual holy days? WHY does your Bible say Christ will command even present-day ISLAMIC nations, such as Egypt, to begin to keep the Feast of Tabernacles during His millennial reign?

WHY will Jesus Christ ENFORCE His weekly Sabbath days and His annual Sabbaths upon ALL NATIONS during His one thousand-year reign on this earth? Since Christ will FORCE all nations to keep His feast during the millennium, WHY do people assume all of God’s annual holy days are “done away” today? If they are “done away” why will Christ force you, and every other human being to KEEP them when He rules this earth?

Your Bible says, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.

“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.

“And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh” (Isaiah 66:22-24).

This is describing the horrible punishment for rebellious, unrepentant sinners. Sin is the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4), and the wages of sin is death in Gehenna fire (Romans 6:23). Survivors of the Tribulation and Day of the Lord will see the decaying bodies and ashes that were once living human beings as a witness and warning to those who would rebel against God’s laws. Describing this same period the final chapter of the Old Testament says, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3).

The “worm doth not die” because the larval stage of the fly does not die, but turns into another fly! This is describing rotting human flesh, fly-blown and teeming with maggots, being burned.

And the time setting? It is inescapable! This is another description of the horrendous events to occur just before and at the time of the second coming of Christ; the “Day of the Lord,” and the beginning of Christ’s RULE over this earth!

Notice the proof: “But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4).

HOW will He do this? What will be the method He will use to “slay the wicked”? Notice, “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20).

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is coming again. He is coming to RULE this rotten, God-defying, sin-sick, decadent world with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:27). One of the first laws Christ will enforce upon all nations is His command that they must OBSERVE HIS FEAST OF TABERNACLES!

But WHY?

For the simple reason that God’s seven annual feasts, or holy days, picture the entire PURPOSE for human life! They picture, in moving, beautiful, rich types and shadows, the plan of salvation; the progressive fulfillment of all prophecy; how the saints of this time are but the “first fruits” of the great latter-day time of judgment; the second coming of Christ; the banishment of Satan; the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and the great general resurrection of the “rest of the dead” (Revelation 20:5) to take place AFTER the millennium.

By understanding the types and shadows implicit in each of the annual Sabbaths, or holy days, one comes to understand the very PURPOSE OF ONE’S OWN LIFE! It is awesome! It is mind-boggling! It is GLORIOUS beyond your wildest imagination! Your fantastic human potential is so breathtaking you will not want to believe it at first. Yet, it is TRUE, as you will see amply proved in these pages!

At creation, the Divine Member of Elohim who brought the entire universe, the solar system, this earth and all life upon it into existence, gave command after command. He compacted pure ENERGY into MATTER. Matter is but energy, arranged in almost limitless law-abiding forms.

After the first six days of the REcreation of this earth (from an earlier creation, perhaps billions of years in the past, which had been destroyed by Satan), the one who had caused the dry land to appear; who had said “Let there be light,” and who had said “Let US make man in OUR image,” continued His creation process by RESTING! He had finished the WORK of creation, but He had not finished creating!

As the sixth day waned, and the earth turned on its axis, bringing sunset once more to the Mideast, Elohim RESTED from all His works! Your Bible says, “And God [Elohim. A plural word, meaning more than one] saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 1:31; 2:1-3).

Jesus Christ proclaimed, “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

“Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (Mark 2:27, 28). The Sabbath was something which was MADE. It was made when MAN was made. It was made for MAN, and not “for the Jews”! There was no person called a “Jew” (from “Judah,” who was one of the sons of Jacob, or Israel) on the earth until thousands of years later!

The Sabbath was made when MAN was made, and it was made by its MAKER, who is, believe it or not, the same personage of the Godhead who “emptied Himself” and “became of no repute,” and was born of the virgin Mary!

Notice that Jesus Christ said He is LORD of the SABBATH day, and not Lord of “Sunday”! The true “Lord’s Day” is THE SABBATH; the day of which Jesus is LORD!

In His pre-human state, as a member of the divine family we call “God,” the one who became Christ wrote with His own finger on two tables of stone the Ten Commandments. He wrote, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

“Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

“But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).

He commanded Israel to REMEMBER the Sabbath because it was created at creation! Christ of the New Testament is the CREATOR of the Old Testament! Your Bible plainly says so! Notice it, “John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word [Greek: Logos, meaning “Spokesman”], and the Word was with God [Greek: Theos a plural, synonymous with Elohimin the Hebrew], and the Word was God.

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

“He came unto his own [the Jews], and his own received him not.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

“Which were born [Greek: gennao, meaning “begotten”], not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt [Greek: “tabernacled”] among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-14).

Can anything be plainer? The one who said “Let there be light;” who said, “Let the dry land appear;” the one who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and said “I AM”; The one who parted the Red Sea; the one who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger in stone IS THE SAME PERSON WHO WAS BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY!

Do you doubt this? No sane person can! Unless we are to rip John 1 out of our Bibles, the plain truth is that Jesus Christ, in His pre-human state, was the divine SPOKESMAN of the God family called Elohim. Elohim is a PLURAL word! This is why God (Elohim) said, “Let US make man in OUR image” (Genesis 1:26).

Do you require further proof? Then notice what Jesus said to the doubting Pharisees who challenged Him! “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

“Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:56-58). The false prophets of this world WILL NOT accept these divinely inspired words! They WILL NOT admit that Jesus Christ is the GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!

WHY?

Because if they admit that the one who wrote the Ten Commandments is the SAME personage of the Godhead who came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, they condemn themselves for refusing to observe God’s wonderful, righteous laws! They know that if they admitted the truth about John 1 they would be condemned of God for refusing to keep the holy Sabbath days and God’s annual Sabbaths!

Yet, the first great edict which the conquering, returning Christ will issue to the nations is to command them to come up to Jerusalem to KEEP THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES!

Read it in your own Bible: “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.

“And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

“And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

“This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16-19). No matter who you are; no matter your racial, political or religious background, you WILL be keeping God’s Sabbath days, and you WILL be keeping His annual Sabbaths when God sets up His kingdom on this earth!

In that day, there will be no Muslims, Shintoists, Animists, Buddhists, Confucianists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants, or Satanists! Instead, there will be ONE GREAT WORLD RELIGION; the TRUE religion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! All nations will be required to keep the LAWS OF GOD!

IF they are still alive then (which is very much in doubt), such dictators as Maomar Kadaffi, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro and Slobodan Milosevich WILL BE KEEPING THE SABBATH AND THE HOLY DAYS!

You Live In A World Steeped In Paganism

This world is fascinated with paganism. If it is “pagan splendor,” people want to know about it. When one visits ancient sites, such as the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at “San Juan de Teotihuacan” near Mexico City, for example, it is to be told about the human sacrifices of the Aztecs; about their calendar and their way of life. But especially about their religious superstitions. Man’s fascination with spiritual ritual is endless. Isn’t it strange that man’s fascination with the mythological seemingly deliberately overlooks the rich typology seen in God’s annual Sabbaths given to ancient Israel?

Historians know much about ancient, bygone civilizations from religious artifacts. As God charged, these nations, who worshipped false, nonexistent “gods” NEVER CHANGED those gods down through centuries and centuries of mythological, superstitious religious practice. Countless tens of thousands of helpless human beings have been slain as a sacrifice to a completely fictitious “god” who “demanded” such of his or her worshipers. Pagans have clung tenaciously to utterly false gods for thousands of years. Has China departed from Buddhism? India from Hinduism? Loyaltyseems common among pagan religions.

Yet, God’s own people have turned away from the one true God, away from the beautiful, detailed, seasonally-revealed picture of His plan for the human family, embracing purely pagan myths, instead! Do you doubt this? What are some of the pagan myths gleefully accepted by modern, space-age “Christian” societies?

Annual “Holidays” of this “Christian” Civilization: What Do They Picture?

Which is the chief “Christian” holiday? Why, “Christmas,” of course. Christmas means, simply, the “Mass of Christ.” The Catholic Encyclopedia admits, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church” (Vol. III, p. 724), and explains, “The well-known solar feast, however, of natalis invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date” (ibid., p. 727, emphasis mine).

History documents that the Roman Catholic Church did not settle upon the final date for the “Mass of Christ” as Christ’s birthday until perhaps five centuries after Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Christmas is connected with purely pagan ceremonies: sun worship, ancient Roman festivals, and even more ancient Babylonian mysteries. You will find that holly wreaths, mistletoe, bulbs and orbs, trees, “Old St. Nick,” and many other trappings of Christmas are utterly pagan in origin!

Yet, for all its paganism, Christmas is eagerly embraced by countless millions in the professing Christian world as the birthday of Christ; a time to exchange gifts, have family reunions, enjoy roast turkey or goose; a time replete with its own nostalgic music, feelings of good will, and hospitality. For an in-depth study about the purely PAGAN origin of “Christmas” be sure to call (903) 561-7070 immediately, or write to the address listed in this booklet for your free copy of “Facts You Should Know About CHRISTMAS!”

Pagan feasts revolved around the seasons because Satan the devil has counterfeits he has foisted on the world to deceive.They were based upon celestial observations, the summer and winter solstices, the vernal equinox. Most pagan holidays were essentially harvest festivals. Pagans prayed to their “invincible sun” (invictus solis) in the depths of winter to begin “his” journey further north once again, putting an end to winter, and bringing the springtime, and new growth.

The springtime festival of Ishtar, the pagan goddess of sex and fecundity of the ancient Babylonians (pronounced “Easter,” with a long “ee” sound on the “I” and a silent “h”) was in thanksgiving for the advent of the spring, the end of winter, and new life. It was celebrated with a plethora of mythological ritual: rabbits, for their rapid procreation; eggs, as the source of life and the pagan concept of the beginning of creation; the bous, or symbol of Tammuz (Nimrod), represented by the Ox, and cakes to Semiramis, Nimrod’s mother-wife, and high priestess of the Babylonian mystery religion, as the “queen of heaven.” Such cakes, called boun, or bous, featured a cross, as a solar symbol, and were baked in honor of Ishtar, or Ashtoreth, and are seen today at “Easter” (Ishtar) time as “hot cross buns.”

What did you learn, as a child, about your purpose for being here, the plan of salvation, from “Easter”?

Your parents probably told you it was about the resurrection of Christ. Perhaps you went to a sunrise service, faced the rising sun as a minister chanted or prayed. Then there was the excitement of wonderful new clothes—yellows, greens, and whites, the colors of springtime—white patent-leather shoes for little girls; “Easter” (Ishtar) bonnets, parades, and, of special excitement to little children, “Easter egg” hunts! Cuddly little bunnies and eggs. How cute. How wondrous. How nostalgic. But what do the children who gleefully engage in the annual White House “Easter egg hunt” learn about the PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE?

But not one child in a million was taught that the rabbits and eggs were sex symbols; that sunrise services were conducted in sun worship; that “Easter” means Ishtar, or Ashtoreth, the pagan goddess of sex and fertility.

Consider next the frivolous, capricious, demoniacal trappings of “Halloween.” What is Halloween? Even the spelling has been altered, as the passing years and obfuscating tradition contrive to obscure the true, pagan symbolism of this most transparent of all the pagan harvest festivals.

Originally, the phrase “All Saint’s Day” became called the “Evening of All Hallows” or “Hallowed Evening.” Eventually it was shortened to “Hallowe’en.” Were you taught this as a child? Catholics often celebrate the day of their favorite saint, perhaps the “saint” after which they were named. When the calendar was filled with 365 names, a convenient date was chosen, our November 1st, as a day for “All Saints.” Many Central and South American countries feature towns and villages named Todos los Santos, meaning, “All Saints.”

However, Halloween is not an invention of the Catholic Church, but an adaptation of an ancient, pagan festival. “Though now known as little else but the eve of the Christian festival, Hallowe’en and its formerly attendant ceremonies long antedate Christianity” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. XII, p. 857). History proves most of the superstitions connected with Halloween, including “apple dunking,” and the like, are purely Druidic, from the pagan priests of pre-Christian Ireland.

The pagan Greeks and Romans celebrated a fall harvestfestival in honor of their goddess “Pomona,” which featured apples and nuts. Since the Druids believed “Saman,” or Samhain, or Shaman, the “lord of the dead” (Satan), consigned the departed souls of people to the bodies of animals as punishment for wickedness, it was natural for them, in their darkened, pagan superstitions, to imagine it necessary to attempt to placate Saman with offerings, and to attempt to frighten away wicked spirits with “Jack o’ lanterns.”

Halloween features symbols of witchcraft, demonism, and death. What does it teach little children? The common practice of “trick or treating” is nothing more than children playing the part of Saman and his demons, approaching homes, demanding an “offering” of candies and the like in return for refraining from vandalizing the house!

Today, people festoon their houses and yards with “ghost decoys,” in blissful ignorance. Are they attempting to attract “ghosts,” or demons? Naturally, were you to make such a suggestion, a neighbor who has festooned his yard with jack o’ lanterns, witches, black cats and plastic ghosts would look at you in utter amazement, and wonder if you had gone crazy.

It would not seem “crazy” to the neighbor to decorate his home and yard with symbols of Satan, demons, and death.

Do modern space-age Americans, Canadians, Britons and many other nations actually “believe” they are frightening away evil spirits by pieces of white plastic hung in trees, or orange leaf bags with hideous faces, “jack o’ lanterns,” placed on their lawns? Of course not. They are “innocently” mimicking pagans, entering into the “spirit of Halloween,” perhaps vying with the neighbors for decorations about the house.

Perhaps you have not realized Halloween is the most important annual festival to Satanists. You will be astounded at the rank paganism associated with this fall harvest festival!

These three—Christmas, Easter, and Halloween—are probably the most important among “Christian” holidays. Then there is “Valentine’s Day,” also rooted in paganism, with connections to Nimrod; and other days, like “New Year’s” day, in the middle of a dead winter; “Groundhog Day,” and many, many more. Among them all, “Thanksgiving” and the 4^th of July stand out as celebrations one may safely assume God endorses.

For Americans to gather around a bounteous table, giving thanks to God in commemoration of the early Pilgrim’s practice of doing so is surely a wonderful thing to do, and has no pagan connotations, and “Independence Day,” or the 4^th of July is certainly not condemned of God.

But why, in all your church-going and religious experience, have you never been told about the rich, CHRIST-centered, NEW Testament meanings of God’s annual Sabbaths given to Israel and Judah? Look at the emphasis on Christ in the Passover.

The Passover and the Exodus— Pictures of Christ

When God called His nation out of slavery under Moses, it was for the express purpose of “sacrificing the `Passover'” (Exodus 3:18; 5:1-3; Exodus 12).

Egypt is a type of sin. As ancient Israel was living as captive slaves in Egypt, so each one of us has lived as a slave to our appetites; to this world, with its false, vanity-ridden, materialistic values; held captive by the sway of Satan, who is the present world ruler (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:9).

Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Moses appears in two distinct shadowy roles: (1) as a type of God the Father, calling His people out of sin, breaking the grip of Satan, and granting repentance. Also, Moses typified the Father in giving the lawof God from Mount Sinai. (2) As a type of Jesus Christ: as the shepherd of God’s people, leading them from Egypt; as the advocate for the people before Pharaoh (Satan); and as a “redeemer,” conveying them out of slavery, toward freedom.

Moses and Aaron are also seen as shadowy types of the future “two witnesses” of Revelation 11. Continually, Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh (type of Satan), performing miracles (see Revelation 11:4-6). Pharaoh’s two magicians, Jannes and Jambres (types of the “beast and the false prophet” of prophecy [Revelation 19:19-20]), empowered by Satan and his demons, counterfeited the miracles until the plague of the lice, when they were forced to admit, “This is the finger of God.”

The perfect, helpless little sacrificial lamb is a type of Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:7). The shed blood of the lamb on the lintels and door posts of the Israelites’ houses is a symbol of Christ’s shed blood atoning for our sins, causing the penalty of death (Romans 6:23) to pass over those who call upon Christ for forgiveness.

The death angel symbolizes God’s judgments against unrepentant sinners who will not obey God (Ezekiel 9:2-11; Revelation 14:17-20). The “firstborn” are to be sanctified to God. Instead, the Egyptian firstborn, and everyone else, was lost in the most repugnant idolatrous paganism. God reaped a bitter harvest of the firstborn of Egypt as a terrible penalty for sin, but spared Israel as the “firstfruits” unto God from the earth, His own chosen people, protected under the symbol of the blood of Christ.

Once God had broken the hold of Pharaoh over the Israelites, they were hastily thrust out of Goshen. In like fashion, when one repents, receives baptism and God’s Holy Spirit, former friends—sometimes even beloved family members—have no further use for a person whose new understanding makes them uncomfortable. Instead, they attempt to dissuade such a repentant sinner from accepting God’s truth, talk them out of it, make them feel “out of step” with the rest of society.

When Israel was hemmed in by the wilderness, facing the Red Sea on one hand, Pharaoh’s army pursuing to the rear, and steep mountains on both sides, it typifies the newly-repentant sinner contemplating baptism, as a symbol of the burial of the old man; the washing away of sin in the waters; the resurrection of the “new man,” or the “new creature in Christ,” to live a new and different life, free from sin.

Satan and his minions do not give up easily. As Pharaoh’s armies pursued Israel, so do former friends, habits, appetites, moods and attitudes attempt to overtake the repenting sinner.

Moses had to say, “Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Eternal!” at the Red Sea.

By a stupendous miracle, Israel walked through the Red Sea bed dry shod! When Pharaoh and his army assayed to follow, they were drowned. Paul wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers passed through the sea; and were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat [manna]; and did all drink the same spiritual drink [water, brought forth from the rock miraculously. Christ is the rock; the water is a symbol of God’s Holy Spirit]: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).

When Israel passed through the Red Sea, a Christ-centered, New Testament type, or picture, of God’s plan of redemption and salvation took place. Notice how Paul mentioned their miraculous sustenance on manna, which God sent down from heaven.

The Israelites were commanded to eat the Passover with “unleavened bread,” called the “bread of haste,” bread which was flat, plain—not light and fluffy, puffed up. Immediately following the Passover were the Days of Unleavened Bread.

God commanded them, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover.

“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Eternal: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread” (Leviticus 23:5, 6).

Leaven, as an agent which spreads throughout moist dough, and which causes bread or cakes to rise when baked, lending a light, airy texture, was pointed out as a type of sin. Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:5-12).

Unleavened bread, on the other hand, pictured sinlessness; humility, an absence of vanity, pride, and sin. Christ said, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

“This [pointing to Himself] is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).

Do not all Christian-professing churches believe in Christ as Savior? Then why do they never teach the rich meaning of God’s annual holy days—the plan of redemption and salvation centering around Christ and His sacrifice as pictured in each of God’s annual Sabbaths? 

Can anything be more New Testament oriented than the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread?

There is an incontrovertible anti-Judeo BIAS among professing Christianity! From the earliest moments in the first century, when many Gentiles—Greeks, Romans, and others—were being converted, when the church wrestled with the problem of circumcision (Acts 15), a gradually increasing anti-Jewish bias began to emerge.

This rejection of all things Jewish took quantum leaps over the passing centuries. Though Christ Himself was Jewish, and though the apostles and the vast majority of the early church were Jewish, the Gentile leaders of the apostatechurch of the second and third centuries threw out the baby with the bath water: rejected God’s Sabbath day; rejected God’s annual Sabbaths; changed the date for the observance of the Passover, and called it Ishtar (Easter), instead; embraced the purely pagan festivals of Roman idolatry, such as Christmas, and effectively stamped out all knowledge of God’s holy days.

Finally, during the days of Constantine, who had “converted” from sun worship to apostate “Christianity,” the then visiblechurch (God’s true church had been forced “underground” by horrible persecutions) issued a decree that Christians were not to be found “Judaizing” by observing the Passover on the 14th of Abib, but were ordered to observe Easter, instead!

Is there anything “Jewish” about the CHRIST-centered meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread? No, nothing. Yet, you have not heard sermons preached in the Sunday-observing churches explaining the rich types and shadows of God’s holy days as they pertain to repentance, baptism, the receiving of God’s Spirit, the second coming of Christ to set up His Kingdom, the binding of Satan, and the final great resurrection.

Today, the Christian-professing world is lost in a sea of ignorance about God’s plan! Embracing the pagan doctrines of the “immortality of the soul,” and “going to heaven when you die,” they fail to understand the plan of God as revealed in the progression of the seasons—fail to understand the truth about God’s mercy upon the darkened races of Gentile nations who have never heard the Gospel.

More Bible Types Revealed

The next holy day following the Days of Unleavened Bread is the “Feast of Sabbaths,” or the “Feast of Firstfruits,” which became named “Pentecost,” meaning “fiftieth,” by the Greek speaking world.

Why “fiftieth”?

Because the high priest was to cut the very first sheaf of grain on the weekly Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread. This meaningful ceremony pictured the first of the firstfruits; the very first sheaf of the springtime barley harvest.

It pictures the RISEN CHRIST, now “cut off” from the world, ascending to the Father in heaven. The ceremony became known as the “wave sheaf” offering, since the priest would select a sheaf of the grain, harvest it, and then wave it toward heaven in thanksgiving to God.

God said, “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete:

“Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days…” (Leviticus 23:15, 16).

Christ ascended to His Father on a Sunday, after being resurrected late Sabbath afternoon. The wave sheaf pictures CHRIST, as the FIRST of the “firstfruits” of God’s righteous harvest of the earth.

The number seven pictures perfection. Seven times seven symbolizes complete perfection. Built around the land sabbaths and the year of release was the Jubilee. This shadowy type of the Kingdom of God is found in the seven sabbaths (49 days) which were to be reckoned until thefiftieth day (Jubilee), which was the Feast of “Sabbaths,” or “Firstfruits.”

The firstfruits pictures God’s righteous harvest from among mankind from the time of Christ until the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:1-5; 11-15).

Is anything more richly rewarding to a farmer than seeing the fruits of his labor coming from his land, the early grain harvest of abundant food—giving thanks to God for rain in due season, for the new wealth coming forth from the soil?

God’s springtime holy days picture repentance, acceptance of Christ’s shed blood, allowing Christ to dwell within us through His Spirit (by eating unleavened bread for seven days), and shows us that we are part of an early harvest, a “firstfruits” unto God (James 1:18). It also shows us that God is not trying to save the whole world now, that there is to come a later, fall harvest unto God.

This is a vitally important point, for the vast majority of professing Christians simply do not understand the schedule of events in God’s plan. If they knew the beauty of His plan as revealed seasonally through His annual Sabbaths, they would never suppose most of the world is lost forever, never believe that God could be so cruel as to punish, in a blazing hell fire, little oriental infants who have never so much as heard the name of Christ.

Ample biblical proof exists to demonstrate that Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, not only kept God’s annual Sabbaths, but taught Gentile converts to do so.

He wrote to the Corinthians, “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

“Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened [a clear contradiction of terms, unless he plainly means they were observing the Days of Unleavened Bread, for he had just told them they were “leavened,” meaning they were guilty of sins which needed to be purged, or expunged. When he said “as ye are unleavened,” it can only mean that they received this missive during the Festival of Unleavened Bread, that they were keeping it!]. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

“THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Can anything be plainer?

Paul instructed these Gentile Christians in the large Gentilecity of Corinth to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread! 

Not only did the Feast of Sabbaths picture the risen Christ, and the firstfruits unto God, it also foreshadowed the momentous events on the Day of Pentecost, explained in Acts, the second chapter.

How appropriate that the Feast of “Firstfruits” unto God should fall on the very day God sent His Holy Spirit to this earth, as Christ promised! (John 16:7).

Though many Protestants celebrate “Whitsunday,” they do so 50 days after Easter (Ishtar), not 50 days from the weekly Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Many myths and traditions sprang up surrounding “Whitsunday.” The Church of England formerly celebrated three days surrounding it, and in May, 1871, the British government declared “Whitmonday” a legal bank holiday.

Those who keep God’s annual holy days know that Pentecostis the birthday of the church, the Christian festival in commemoration of the great events on that original Pentecost when the Holy Spirit, with a loud, roaring sound like a rushing wind, filled all the room where the apostles and others were assembled, when the apostles appeared to have flaming crowns of fire atop their heads.

Nearly 30 years following Christ’s resurrection, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, wrote to the Gentile church in Corinth, “But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost” (1 Corinthians 16:8).

Trumpets and Atonement

When was the last time you heard a sermon expounding all these rich, detailed types and shadows of Christ, of salvation, as revealed through God’s annual holy days? If you are among the majority, you will probably answer, “Never!”

Yet, all the annual Sabbaths given to Israel convey to our minds part of the detailed tapestry that is God’s great plan of redemption and salvation.

Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost all come in the springtime. Just before the fall comes the Feast of Trumpets. God said, “In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:24).

The trumpet was Israel’s means of communication. Study Numbers 10:1-10 for further details. To assemble the people, trumpets were blown. They were blown as “officers’ call,” just as in the military, to cause this or that tribe to march, or to herald the arrival of special occasions. They were blown as an announcement—to say, in effect, “ATTENTION, everyone!” They were blown as an alarm if an enemy was approaching, and blown on solemn holy days.

In a sense, the trumpet was ancient Israel’s “radio and television,” for it was a means of instant, mass communication.

God’s prophetic messages clearly show that God announceseach great intervention of God by the sound of a trumpet(Revelation 8:6). Christ said, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another” (Matthew 24:30, 31).

Though this final trumpet blast occurs suddenly, God shows that the process of calling out God’s elect from this earth over many decades is also typified by the blowing of a trumpet!

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sin,” wrote Isaiah (Isaiah 58:1). Christ said, “And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14), and told His disciples, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27).

The primary focus of the Feast of Trumpets is the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. God says, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [die the first death], but we shall all be changed,

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump[the last of all the trumpets listed in Revelation, the same trumpet call to which Christ referred]: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

Today, God sends out His announcement of Christ’s coming Kingdom through His church, through the preaching of the Gospel, through proclaiming the sins of our peoples, through witnessing, warning, forth-telling, inviting people to repent!

But the time is coming when God will no longer speak through human voices, but will cause mighty angels to blow on ear-splitting trumpets! Then, the whole world will hear! The final trumpet blast heralds Christ’s second coming as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS to rule this earth with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 19:11-16).

The emphasis on the Feast of Trumpets is mostly prophetic! It focuses mainly on Christ’s coming and the resurrection, but also foreshadows the announcement God is sending to mankind through His church, through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ as a witness and a warning!

Then comes the only commanded fast day of the year, the solemn Day of Atonement.

God said, “Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation [a commanded assembly] unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls [lives]…” (Leviticus 23:27).

In a solemn ceremony on this day of fasting, when God commanded Israel not to eat or drink from sundown of the previous day until sundown on Atonement, the high priest enacts a fascinating, meaning-laden ritual. Study Leviticus the 16th chapter to understand all the types.

Two goats were to be presented. One was “for the Eternal,” and the other an Azazel, erroneously called a “scapegoat.” The Azazel goat was to have all the sins of Israel symbolically placed upon its head, and then was to be led in the hands of a “fit man” who would not allow the goat to turn back into the distant wilderness, where it would be released.

One goat was sacrificed, symbolizing an atonement for sin, a shadow of Christ’s impending sacrifice. The other was to be allowed to wander in the wilderness, bearing, figuratively, the sins of Israel upon it (Leviticus 16:21).

Only once in the year was Aaron, or the high priests to follow through the centuries, to enter into the “Holy of Holies” in the tabernacle (later, the temple). The ninth chapter of Hebrews explains the deep meaning of this ritual. Paul wrote, in part, “But into the second [the Holy of Holies] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

“The Holy Spirit this signifying, that the way into the holiest [type of heaven, and God’s presence] of all was not yet made manifest, while as yet the first tabernacle was yet standing…But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us…” (Hebrews 9:7-12).

The sacrifice on the Day of Atonement was extremely elaborate. The priest had to carefully wash and dress, had to sacrifice an animal for his own sins, had to sprinkle blood upon the book and the people (Hebrews 9:19).

In this elaborate ritual, accomplished on a day of fasting, one sees the terrible consequences of sin. God has decreed that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Yet, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as the “Lamb of God” to die for the sins of you and me, for all mankind—to atone for sin so that those who call upon Christ are symbolically covered by His shed blood, their sins forgiven.

To be sure, the ancient ceremony of Atonement was a bloody one. Now, see the whole picture: The high priest was a type of Christ, entering “through the veil” that separated the outer holy place from the “Holy of Holies,” a type of heaven itself. The veil in the temple split when the miraculous earthquake struck at the moment of Christ’s death, signifying that Christ’s death had made it possible for mankind to have direct access to God the Father through Christ!

The Azazel goat is not a type of Christ, but a type of Satan! Notice: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit [the abyss: see Jude 13] and a great chain in his hand.

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:1, 2). This angel was pictured by the “fit man” selected to take the goat over whose head the sins of Israel were confessed into a trackless wilderness, and there release it, alive.

Thus, God shows we have all had a partner in sin! This goat is not a “scapegoat,” for God places guilt where guilt squarely belongs! The Hebrew word Azazel comes from a word meaning “fierce, mighty, rough, or strong,” such as “rough goat.” It means, literally, “the rough goat that is sent out.”

Thus, the detailed ceremony of the Day of Atonement shows the necessity for Christ’s sacrifice to atone for sins; shows how His death opened the way into God’s presence in heaven itself; shows how Satan will finally be bound, unable to deceive the nations any more.

Paul wrote, “Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

“For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures [types, pictures] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

“Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year [on the Day of Atonement!] with blood of others…but now once in the end of the world [age] hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:21-28).

Do you see how these rich New Testament truths were pictured so ceremoniously, so richly, and in such detail, by the accompanying rituals of the annual holy days?

WHY, then, do the churches utterly ignore these annual Sabbaths? Why have you not heard the Christ-centered, NewTestament meaning of God’s annual holy days?

Now for one of the richest of all—the fabulous fall harvest festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, followed by the “Last Great Day.”

The Feast of Ingathering

At the time of the great fall harvest season, God set His “Feast of Tabernacles.” The word “tabernacle” merely means “booth,” or “kiosk,” a temporary domicile. God said, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.

“On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein…Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

“And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.

“And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

“Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:

“That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

“And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:33-35, 39-44).

Notice that the Feast of Tabernacles, or little “booths,” was coincident with the time of the gathering in of the fruit of the land—a festival which emphasized the harvest.

Notice also that God said the purpose for their dwelling in these little tabernacles or temporary domiciles for seven days was so that they would remember that God “made the children of Israel to dwell in booths….”

All you really learn from this scripture, standing by itself, is that God said they were to “dwell in booths” so they would remember that God made them to “dwell in booths.”

It is only when one looks at all other relevant scriptures concerning the meaning of dwelling in temporary domiciles; only when one considers the Feast of Tabernacles in light of its logical seasonal progression, viewing it from the perspective of all the other annual Sabbaths, that the rich, detailed, inspiring picture of the meaning of the festival of temporary booths, or tabernacles, becomes clear.

God reveals that He has placed within each human being the “spirit in man,” or the human spirit, which, while it has no separate consciousness or intelligence apart from the brain, it is nevertheless spiritual.

Paul wrote, “The spirit itself [God’s Holy Spirit] beareth witness with OUR SPIRIT that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). All of us are endowed with the human spirit. This entire eighth chapter of the book of Romans says a great deal about how God’s Holy Spirit is to dwell inside our mortal bodies.

Jesus said we are not to fear man, who after he has destroyed the body, cannot destroy the “soul.”

The traditional concept of the “immortality of the soul” misses the mark by a wide margin. There is no separate, intelligent, feeling, living “soul” which departs the body at death.

That there is something which is spiritual in connection with the human brain which man cannot destroy is obvious from Christ’s words. Christ said, “…fear not them which kill the body [Greek: soma] but are not able to kill the soul [Greek: psuche]: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). Notwithstanding the fact that the traditional concept of the “immortal soul” is erroneous, it is clear from Jesus’ words that there IS something spiritual in connection with the human mind which man simply cannot destroy.

That is why the Bible speaks of a complete conversion by the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit.

Paul put it this way, “…put off concerning the former conversation [conduct] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Few have understood that God is begetting children, that a new spiritual life is engendered within each human being who repents and receives God’s Spirit. Plainly, it is “created.” Conversion—receiving the begettal of the Holy Spirit—is not merely a change in attitude or outlook; not merely “turning over a new leaf,” or making minor adjustments in life style. It is the creation of a new creaturein Christ!

He wrote to the Colossians, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

“And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him…” (Colossians 3:9, 10).

Paul also wrote, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The word for “creature” is used for “creation” in many instances.

To be sure, there IS something “spiritual” about each human mind.

Almighty God is reproducing after His own kind. Creation was not completed in the Garden of Eden—only begun, in physical prototype.

God is the author of all life, Creator, and Life Giver. God has created the process of reproduction in all species of life, and is the Inventor and Designer of human procreation.

You will come to understand the beautiful analogy of human reproduction; where you came from; the miracle of human birth as it portrays the spiritual begettal, and ultimate spiritual rebirth into the very family of God.

What has this to do with the Feast of Tabernacles? Everything!

As Christ showed, though man can destroy this mortal, temporary body, he cannot destroy the real you!

Notice how the apostle Paul expounded this beautiful concept: “…we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“But we have this treasure [and it is real treasure, the priceless truth of eternal life and the Holy Spirit of God now creating in us a NEW SPIRIT BEING; a “New Creature in Christ”] in earthen vessels [our physical bodies], that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7).

Paul went on to explain, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish [the aging process, and the ultimate fate awaiting every human being, death] yet the inward man [the new “creature in Christ”] is renewed day by day.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

“While we look not of the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; [like a temporary domicile, or “booth” made of branches, leaves and other materials, which will soon perish] but the things which are not seen are eternal.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this TABERNACLE were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

“If so be that being found clothed we shall not be found naked.

“For we that are in this tabernacle [the new creature in Christ, dwelling temporarily in these physical bodies] do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality [this human body, this temporary existence] might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 5:1-4).

What a beautiful analogy. Notice how many times our physical bodies are likened to a “tabernacle,” or a little booth, a temporary dwelling place. Study the entire 15^thchapter of 1 Corinthians, and see how Paul showed we are to be CHANGED; to become GLORIFIED; to become a SPIRIT BEING; a member of God’s own great, expanding family, of which Jesus Christ is the Elder Brother; the first-born among many brethren. 

The apostle Peter put it this way: “Yea, I think it meet [fitting], as long as I am in this tabernacle [Peter, the “new man in Christ” living in his human, physical body], to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

“knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, [knowing his death was approaching!] even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me” (2 Peter 1:13, 14).

Can anything be plainer?

The apostle Paul plainly wrote, “There are also celestial [heavenly] bodies, and bodies terrestrial [earthly, of the flesh]: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another…so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body…as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:40-49).

This human, physical body in which we dwell is only a temporary “tabernacle.”

While it is a little bizarre to contemplate, what of someone who has lost a limb? That individual, with all his or her character traits, personality, knowledge and intelligence is still there! As horrifying as it is to contemplate, there are those who have lost all four limbs. Yet, they are still there; the person is still alive, though missing limbs.

You see, your personality, your innermost being, where your decision making powers reside, where your deepest and innermost thoughts dwell, where your moral character lies, is in your mind!

God’s Holy Spirit does not come into our elbow, or our big toe, or our femur or clavicle. God’s Holy Spirit comes into, and unites with the human spirit that dwells in our minds!

It took living cells to beget you, cause you to be born as a unique, once only, individual human being.

By the uniting of your father’s life with your mother’s life, YOU became to be.

In the same fashion, by Almighty God placing His life-giving Spirit within a human mind, uniting it with the “human spirit” to become a “new creature in Christ,” He reproduces His “children” after HIS, God’s, kind!

Look how plainly Paul puts this beautiful truth: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption [sonship!], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:14-16).

You were the child of your parents. You are like them in many ways, for you came from them. What was, or is, your relationship with them? Why, you are LIKE them; you are members of their family! My elder brother, Richard David, was an Armstrong. He was killed in an automobile accident in 1958. He was my brother. We both had the same father. I can never BECOME my father, for he was unique, and was the one who brought me into being by imparting his life to my mother; the two of them producing me. What was (am) I? Why, an Armstrong, of course. A member of their family! God’s FAMILY names, revealed to us through the Hebrew and Greek, are Elohim and Theos, respectively. Both are plural names, meaning more than one. However, we shall eventually be given a NEW name, and the secret name of divine Elohim will be revealed (Revelation 2:17; 19:12)

It is no mere accident that the analogy of family relationships occurs in the Word of God. It is not some theologians’ ideas, but God’s own revelation to us that He is our “Father,” while Christ is the firstborn Son, and we can become the “children of God.” In shadowy type, the invisible church, which is called a spiritual organism, is seen as “Jerusalem above, the mother of us all.” We are referred to in the Word of God as “brothers and sisters in Christ.”

When you were born of your parents, what did you become? Why, you became you, with your parents last name, and many of their own likenesses and characteristics.

And when you are finally born of God, when this temporary domicile that is your human body is of no further use, and has been completely changed by the resurrection from the dead or instantaneous change at Christ’s return (1 Corinthians 15:50-52), what will you become?

You already read it: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly!” (1 Corinthians 15:49).

The word “image” in the Greek is rendered substance in the Ivan Panin Greek Numerics Text, and can be so rendered. As you and I presently consist of physical flesh—our substance is earthly, from the ground—so God’s Word says the spiritual creature, called the “new creature in Christ,” is to become spirit. John wrote, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

More Beautiful Types and Shadows

Remember the many shadowy types and analogies we learned concerning the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread? With the Passover, Almighty God brought His people, Israel, out of the slavery of pagan Egypt, and into a wilderness, where that older generation wandered for 40 years (a number which connotes trial, or testing).

But did you know that that entire older generation, save the family of Caleb, died in the wilderness, including Moses?

Look at the obvious analogy: Forming in the bodies of this older generation during the time of their trial and testing in the wilderness were new human beings who had never known Egypt! During those 40 years, a whole new generation of Israelites was born.

It was this new generation which crossed the River Jordan, which is a shadowy type of the transition from physical to spiritual, into the promised land.

Their leader? It was Joshua, which is the Hebrew form of the Greek word for Jesus!

Just as Joshua (Hebrew word for “Jesus”) led the NEW generation of Israelites into the promised land (a type of the Kingdom of God), so Jesus Christ will lead NEW spiritual generation of NEW “creatures in Christ” into His kingdom!

Even as God is begetting His own children within the human physical bodies (temporary tabernacles) of a present-day generation, so those “new creatures in Christ” will emerge as a completely new, never-before, unique spirit being in the Kingdom of God!

These human, temporal, physical bodies, with all their diseases, debilities, deformities, aches and pains—these fleshly bodies, which are growing older every day and will only ultimately return to the soil of this earth from which they came, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God!

Paul said, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

Now consider another beautiful type: When the member of the Godhead who became Jesus Christ “emptied Himself” of His divine, powerful, spiritual form and “…took on Him the seed of Abraham,” (Hebrews 2:16) He was God, temporarily “tabernacling” in the human flesh! Thus, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the first begotten of Almighty God among all humankind lived a life of 33 1/2 years as “God in the flesh,” tabernacling in a human, physical body which was later on changed to spirit!

After Christ’s resurrection, He was able to appear and disappear at will. He would appear in a room where His frightened disciples were gathered, literally materializing through a stone wall! Yet, this resurrected, spiritual body still bore the wounds and scars inflicted by His torture and crucifixion, for He forced doubting Thomas to actually put his hand into the spear wound, and his finger into the wounds in His wrists.

Christ had the power to materialize in His previous human form, yet was once again very God, and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, to await His return to this earth as the conquering King of kings and Lord of lords.

When was the last time you went to a church service where the minister expounded and explained all of these many wondrous Christ centered New Testament truths concerning God’s plan of redemption, and salvation?

The Last Great Day

Immediately following the Feast of Tabernacles comes the “Last Great Day” (Leviticus 23:36). This is the seventh annual holy day in God’s seasonal plan, and falls on the 22nd day of the seventh month.

It is followed by late autumn, and the winter, when all deciduous trees; the grasses, shrubs, flowers and grasses become dormant, and there are no annual holy days or festivals of any kind in God’s beautiful plan of salvation until the early spring, and the Passover.

Now, review what we have learned. The Passover primarily focuses on Christ and His sacrifice for sin. The Days of Unleavened Bread focus on Christ coming to live within each newly repentant Christian, thus driving sin out. The Feast of the Firstfruits, or Pentecost shows us that God is calling only a comparative few at this time, that God has never attempted to “save the world” in the past; that He did not attempt to “save the world” during the time of Christ, that He is not attempting to save the world now! Rather, it emphasizes that God is calling only a “kind of firstfruits of His creatures” in this dispensation, and shows that the great latter, fall harvest of human lives is to come during the millennium, and even afterward.

The New Testament observance of Pentecost portrays Christ sending the “other Comforter” to be available to human beings for the first time.

The Feast of Trumpets pictures not only the announcements of Almighty God from the time of Christ until the time of the end by the preaching of the Gospel, but God’s own righteous angels, sounding the alarming trumpets leading up to the last plagues and the final great trump, announcing the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The Day of Atonement, the only FAST day (Acts 27:9; Lev. 23:32) among the seven holy days, depicts the whole world finally AT ONE with God through the atoning work of Christ; Satan banished, unable to deceive the nations any further.

The Feast of Tabernacles not only portrays all the beautiful types of our temporary dwelling places in these human physical bodies, but presages the Kingdom of God, and the millennial reign of Jesus Christ over all this earth.

The Feast of Tabernacles acknowledges that we are living, as human beings, in but a temporary dwelling place, but it looks ahead to the PERMANENT dwelling place in God’s Kingdom! Jesus Christ said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” which can also be rendered “positions of responsibility,” or “offices.”

So, in addition to acknowledging our temporality, the Feast of Tabernacles also is a foretaste of the very Kingdom of God, the millennial reign of Christ.

Remember, the first resurrection of all of the “dead in Christ” occurs at the last trump, at the exact moment of Christ’s second coming (1 Corinthians 15:50-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Matthew 24:31).

Now, notice: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls [Greek psuche, meaning spirits, or lives] of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

Christ promised, “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations … To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Revelation 2:26; 3:21).

Therefore, the “firstfruits unto the Lamb” as pictured by the Feast of Firstfruits or Pentecost, will “live and rule over the nations with Christ” for one thousand years, which is foreshadowed, in part, by the Feast of Tabernacles!

Now, what remains to be done to accomplish God’s great plan for the redemption and salvation of the vast majority of the human race?

God’s Word answers: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished!” (Revelation 20:5).

Jesus plainly said there is a resurrection unto life and a resurrection unto “judgment.”

But judgment is not sentencing! The “rest of the dead” includes the entirety of the human race who are not among the “dead in Christ.”

And who does this include? It includes the vast majority of all human beings who have ever lived and died from Adam until the present! It includes the hundreds of millions of China, India, many other Asian nations such as Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, Taiwan, etc. It includes the vast multitudes of the world where paganism, animism, heathenism and idolatry—yes, and “professing” Christianity has been living in deception! (Revelation 12:9).

This last, great resurrection brings perhaps more than six billion people out of their graves!

It is a staggering, stupendous event!

All of these virtually countless human beings of so many races and nations will be resurrected at the end of the millennial reign of Christ, and will be given a glorious opportunity for salvation, at last!

This is what is pictured by the “Last Great Day.” It logically follows immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles, which foreshadows, in many ways, the Kingdom of God.

And what comes immediately after Christ’s millennial reign?

Read it, in the 20th chapter of Revelation: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

These “books” which are opened mean nothing more than biblos, the Greek word for “book,” or “books.” It is only when the word “holy” is placed with the word “book” that it connotes the Bible. These “books” which are open, out of which these billions of human beings are to be judged are nothing more than the books of the Bible, the same books which are judging the Church of God today. God’s Word plainly states that the church is being judged now. Since God is consistent, and says He “changes not,” and the Bible says Jesus Christ is “the same, yesterday, today and forever,” we know that God’s master plan for salvation will not change.

This vast multitude from all of the human family will receive a one hundred year lifespan (Isaiah 65:20-25), during which they will experience the incredible blessings and benefits of living on an earth which has been under God’s own divine rulership for one thousand years!

It is then, in that climate and at that time, that these countless millions of Asians, Africans, and so many more will finally be given a thorough education in God’s marvelous truth, and will be required to choose whether to obey God, repent of their sins and receive God’s Holy Spirit, or to rebel and force Almighty God to destroy them.

Jesus Christ gave us a shadowy type of the meaning of this Last Great Day from His inspiring invitation to repentance made on that very day during His earthly ministry.

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38).

Notice how Jesus made it clear that “any man” was being invited to come to Christ! Surely, this open invitation to all, including Gentiles presaged the meaning of this Last Great Day.

The Last Great Day typifies the “Great White Throne Judgment” of the 20th chapter of Revelation.

This final annual holy day signifies the completion of God’s plan, the last great general resurrection and the final destruction of the incorrigibly wicked, and leads directly from the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20 to the “new heavens and new earth” of the last two chapters of your Bible.

Thus, when one comes to understand the beautiful types and pictures portrayed by the seasonal holy days of God, one comes to understand the WHOLE PLAN OF GOD!

There is NO ROOM in this beautiful plan for the pagan holidays of this world, nor for the pagan doctrines of the “immortality of the soul” or an “ever-burning hell.”

Once again I must ask, WHY have you not heard? Why have not the Sunday-observing churches preached the beautiful truths about God’s plan of redemption and salvation by informing and educating their congregations of these rich shadows and types revealed through God’s annual Sabbaths?

Why on the one hand should there be such a fascination with rank paganism, as seen in Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, and an anti-Hebrew prejudice against the beautiful and merciful truths revealed in God’s seasonal plan?

The plain truth is, Almighty God commanded His annual Sabbaths to be observed down through all living generations of His people. Jesus Christ and the apostles kept these days. The apostle Paul—an apostle to the Gentiles—urged Gentile churches throughout the Greek and Roman world to observe these annual holy days! It took the large, visible apostate church many centuries to stamp out the observance of God’s Passover on the 14th of Abib, to eradicate any remaining knowledge concerning the rich meanings conveyed to the human mind through all seven of God’s annual Sabbaths.

Today, professing Christendom is locked into an annual ritual of pagan mythology, all the while thinking it is celebrating Christ’s birthday or His resurrection, or “All Saints Day,” yet doing so amid the symbols and accouterments of rank heathenism, Satanism, Babylonian mysteries, and caricatures of death.

One final question: Will you be keeping God’s Feast of Tabernacles after the second coming of Christ? For your answer, turn to and read Zechariah 14:16-19: “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.

“And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

“And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

“This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”

There can be no mistake as to the time setting of this beautiful chapter. It is when the returning, conquering Christ fights against the nations resisting Him, and when His feet shall stand “…in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…” and when “…living waters shall go out from Jerusalem … and the Eternal shall be King over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name One” (Zechariah 14:3-9).

One thing is sure. Every living human being of whatever religion, nationality, race or creed will be absolutely forced to observe God’s annual Feast of Tabernacles shortly after the arrival of Jesus Christ on this earth!

Those who are rebellious against God, those who adamantly refuse to obey Almighty God now, will no doubt be absent at this time, for they will very likely be among the stiff-necked, antagonistic, rebellious human beings who will resist God’s truth and will suffer the terrible consequences of the tribulation and the Day of the Lord.

When Jesus Christ is King over all this earth, the time of gentle, merciful invitation is past! Then, He will command and all will obey! May God grant you the spirit of repentance, the spirit of surrender to God, and lead you into His truth and an humble acceptance of His will in your life.

Now, you KNOW. Now, you should make plans immediately to attend with the nearest group to your home on God’s annual holy days, to hear these, and other inspiring, encouraging truths expounded! You should begin planning NOW to set aside so you can COME TO THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES this year! Write or call to obtain information on where the Feast site nearest your home is located, and determine to BE there! After all, since Christ will ENFORCE Feast attendance in His kingdom, why not get in the habit NOW?

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

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