Oh, Not So Holy Night!

 

I have held this off as long as I could, because I do NOT enjoy bursting the bubble of Christians, but once I learn a truth, I’m obligated to share it.  You are free to disagree with me if you like, or you can take the next 363 days, to pray, research, and search the Scriptures to either prove me right or wrong in your own minds, hearts, and conscience.   I don’t answer to GOD for what anyone else does in their relations and worship of Adonai, I only answer to Him for myself and my actions.  I have to do what I’m led to do, based on the truth YHWH reveals to me through Scripture, revelation (Rhema’s), and what I can discover based solely on historical facts.  Believe me, this was NOT an easy decision for me to make. 

We had a very toned down Christmas this year, because to spring this on my children that quickly, so near to the Christmas season, I felt would be unreasonable as a parent. After all, I’m the one who taught them from birth that Christmas was indeed a holy event, because we said it was, but not because Scripture said it was.  We followed the traditions of men, and one man decided in order to coaxed the pagans into this new state religion called Christianity, it was best to adopt their pagan practices, "baptize it into Christ," the pope said, or rather slap a Christian title a pagan celebration to a pagan god and declare them holy.  The people back then were told that these men were vicars for Christ, and infallible when it comes to revelation from GOD, so the people followed their religious leaders, because they did not have access to the Scriptures.  A priest named Jerome translated it into Latin so the average person could never have access to GOD's Word. 

This realization of the truth hasn’t been easy for me, either. Heck, I love those traditional Christmas songs from “Last Christmas,” to “Walking in the Winter Wonderland,” (which has NOTHING to do with Christmas, actually) to “Jingle Bells,” (again, Christmas not mentioned), to “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree,” to “Away in the Manager,” to my absolute favorite of all the hymns, “Oh Holy Night.”  I didn’t sing a single one this year, nor were any of them shaking the paint of the walls of my bedroom while me and the girls belted out our favorites with my speakers jacked up to full volume as we danced around the room, having the time of our lives, doing what we do every Christmas.  It was a difficult decision, and I missed the fun of it.  Sometimes, we have to sacrifice the traditions of men to prove our loyalty to YHVH GOD, like Jesus said in the Bible. 

 The roots of Christmas are in ancient events like Saturnalia to the German celebrations of Yule, which served the Norse god Odin. Christmas actually comes from pagan celebrations and fertility rites. Once, I learned of just how offensive the whole Yuletide season was to GOD Elohim, I just could not enjoy doing it anymore. The kids really put up a fight about the Christmas tree, and I must say, I caved and let them put one up this year, unbeknownst to them, it’s going out in the trash the next day Rumpke comes to haul away the torn-up gift wrapping paper.  Yes, we did gifts, but there was no Christmas dinner, no holiday music, just gift giving, because they had their gifts picked out before all this truth came in and wiped away fifty-six years-worth of Christmas celebrations and traditions. 

Included for your reading enjoyment is the Twelve Christmas Traditions rooted in Pagan Culture  that the Roman Pope decided, “if you can’t beat them join them,” and slapped a “Christian” title onto these pagan-god worship traditions.  Feel free to take this link, do your own research, and come up with your own conclusion. Again, you answer to GOD for your holidays, and I answer to GOD for my festive days I celebrate in honor of Adonai.  For example, we celebrated Hanukkah this year for the first time. It’s a Jewish tradition based on the celebration of the Maccabees defeat of the first anti-christ, type, (or example) in Antiochus IV of Epiphanes.  That was one cruel anti-semite, who paid and placed his own high priests in the Jewish Temple, and who tortured into submission the majority of the Jewish nation that was left after the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple around 3-4 centuries before him.  Even Jesus honored that Festival of Lights in John 10:22, as he went up to the Temple in the winter to acknowledge the deliverance of GOD’s people from a tyrannical murderous demon covered in human skin.  It is not one of the Hebrew feasts that the LORD ordained in Leviticus, as none of those six feasts are observed by the church today.  That’s a whole new topic on the anti-semitism in the gentile church, which they will emphatically deny is practiced, but yet, is so clearly practiced by gentile Christian church, replete of all signs of any Judaic traditions, lest they be called out as Judaizers and heretics, bring up the Torah in the church.  How dare they do that? Another blog post in the future will be titled, “Oh Where Oh Where has the Torah Gone? 

If the LORD elected to choose a people to Himself, then only, He should be able to ordained that which is  an acceptable practice to worship Him.  Copy-cat worship is not something He is okay with, because He is GOD and there is no other.  Every time I mentioned this new conviction to someone this year, I got the same argument that I used to give, that we are honoring the birth of Jesus, and yes, you are, but on the wrong day, in the wrong season, and with traditions seeped in idolatry.  GOD’s definition of idolatry in the Old Testament was for His people to adapt the religious practices and false gods of the pagan nations into their worship of the Most High. That was the sin of the high places that the divided nations were guilty of, instead of doing worship exactly how it was prescribed in the Torah.  It was what got them divided as a nation, then the ten tribes of Northern Israel virtually annihilated, and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin sent to Babylon for seventy years of exile, until they learned their lesson.  Let me tell you, when Elohim sends you into a 70-year time out, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll want to repeat the offense, by worshiping Him the way the pagans worshiped their false gods. It is most assuredly offensive to the Most High.

Someone who is truly adept at the New Testament will bring up Romans 14, when Paul declared one man’s unholy day an another man’s acceptable holy day. At least, I would have, and did, until I read the Scripture more closely, and realized that there was an exception in that rule was ( 10 For if someone sees you, the one who has knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will his conscience, if he is weak, not be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge the one who is weak is ruined, the brother or sister for whose sake Christ died. 1 Corinthians  8:10-11)   Likewise, in 1 Corinthians 10, the example Paul used referred to the eating of foods sacrificed to idols which was an abomination to GOD.  The details are different, but the principle of the practice is there.  When Jesus came to earth to fulfil the Law, he did not abolish it, he just took the principle of the Law to a whole new level of understanding.    He taught the depth of the Law, the meaning behind the Law. 

  Scripture must verify Scripture and one text taken out of text does not nullify or justify and action that may or may not be ordained by GOD.  With YHWH, it’s is always a heart thing, and never a performance thing.  So, celebrating a pagan’s traditional worship to their pagan gods is essentially the same thing eating foods sacrificed to idols.  Paul said that if they knew the food was sacrificed to an idol or a false god was strictly forbidden, then in essence  us knowing that holly and mistletoe and Christmas tree in your home is doing the exact same thing.  

Once the LORD pricks my conscience in this manner, like He did this year, then, I just could never see Christmas the same way ever again. It went from a sacred event in my mind to a very unholy night/season, and for the rest of my life, I just cannot perceive it as a joyous event if the LORD says in Scripture that it is an abomination to Him.  What I thought for five decades was worship, now I know was an offense.  We are responsible for what we know at the time and what the LORD teaches us, when we are taught it, not before.  My  more than five decades of celebrating  Christmas was not a sin, because we are only sinning when we know it’s a sin. There are unintentional sins in which we will not be held guilty of, and then there are the outright rebellious sins we know to be wrong, in which we will stand and give an account. 

I just can’t do it anymore, knowing what I know, now,  because my conscience before GOD won’t let me.  I would rather offend man, even though it’s NOT what I like to do, than to risk  offending GOD.  If I have to choose between GOD and man, well then man  loses out.   My children will answer to Him themselves as He teaches them in the same progressive revelation He taught me.  As I advise all parents of adult children, they are not your children when they are adults, they are GOD’s, and you have to give them back. They now become just your offspring and any advice or counsel you want to give them must be sought out by them, not offered freely or oppressively, because you are not their mommy anymore. You do not answer to GOD for what they do as adults. You are only obligated to the LORD for teaching them what you do know while they are still under your stewardship. When the LORD teaches us new things, it’s because we have come to him to seek new things to be taught. He never oppresses a man into morality, it is always a choice on our part out of the love in our hearts for Him. For that is your bodily act of worship, and the only kind of sacrifice he wants from us.

TOSS the CROSS

        My next act attempt at shocking you would be addressing this problem of wooden crosses scattered all over the planet.  I’m about to ruin going to church for many of you.  I’m not doing this for fun, I’m not enjoying giving this bad news, but once I learn something in Scripture from GOD, it is imperative that I share it, lest I be held accountable for someone continuing in a tradition  that could very well be an abomination to the Almighty.  Some people who read this won’t care, because you’ll say that I’m being ridiculous, and that’s fine.   For those others who are sensitive to GOD’s Holy Spirit and leading, not wanting to commit any kind of offense to The Most High,  you may not sit in that pew looking up at that cross again without wondering if it offends GOD.  

I’m calling it a carved image, because that is what it is. It is wood carved out of a tree, which grows from the earth.  That one hanging up in front, over the baptismal, or the one on the top of the steeple, or the one with Jesus still on it, (the Crucifix), or the one hanging around your neck right now, is the exact kind of carved image GOD meant in that second commandment to not create any carved image.   As usual, when I heard this from a Messianic Rabbi that I’ve been listening to, as of late, of course, I want straight to the Scripture.  I got right to  the Hebrew,  and I investigated his claim, and by golly, I got the SHOCK of my life. I’m still not recovered from this. 

https://biblehub.com/text/exodus/20-4.htm

     As you can see in this verse, (of anything) is parenthesis, because the Hebrew word for image in this verse could lean more toward man or animal, as in gold calf?  However, by inserting the word    כֹּל  (kol) in there, that now covers the WHOLE gamut of images or likeness of ANY thing on earth below or heaven above.  For you protestants who thought that the Catholic statutes were an abomination, you might want to rethink that about your giant empty cross that you bow down to when you make your way up to the altar on Sunday morning, for an altar call and meeting time with Jesus.  Crucifying someone on the cross was considered the most shameful way of executing the most vile of criminals.  Jesus, our Savior, subjected himself to dying the same manner of murderers, thieves, and societies most iniquitous degenerates who would be sentenced to die a horrific death. 

Would you hang a giant wooden noose up over your baptismal in your mostly black congregations?  I dare say, no you would not.  Well, GOD sees the cross as if it is a noose to us.  You don’t believe me, open your Bibles and count how many times GOD condemns His people for crafting idols of the surrounding pagans and incorporating them into the Temple.  Now for those of you who actually know something about the Bible, you'll say that GOD instructed Moses to carve an image similar to an almond branch for the lampstand, and cherubim with extended wings over the Mercy seat.  Those are carved images, right?  Yes, they are.  However, GOD told them to build them for the Tabernacle.  GOD never told anyone that I know of to carve the image of the "noose" Yeshua gave up his life on and put it up in churches all over the world, calling these church buildings GOD's house, or the house of the LORD, which they are most definitely not.  GOD destroyed the one place on earth that He dwelt with His people.  After that, His Holy Spirit dwells within us, so essentially, we are the "house of the LORD," and very mobile, not buildings of mortar and stone. 

     GOD wanted His people to stand out and be different from the surrounding pagan nations. He did not want His people to resemble in any way the detestable ways of pagan polytheism of the pagan nations around them.  I spoke to my daughter about this, and she said, and I quote, “I always thought of it as a guillotine type symbol, anyway.”)  No more accurate way to describe it.   The carved image of the cross has for so long been a part of Christianity over a thousand years, and we have been conditions to (love) “worship” the carved image.    It’s going to require a whole new way of thinking to see that wooden cross, or that metal cross on your neck, or earrings the way GOD sees it.  Remember, GOD doesn’t think anything like man, and man can’t think anything like GOD.  Therefore, what GOD hates, man usually loves. What man loves, GOD usually hates.  One must learn to think on a completely different level when it comes to what GOD may want or like in us.  Most likely, what GOD wants or likes in us makes no sense to us, because we are but mere mortal humans incapable of thinking in GOD's higher ways.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we should hate the cross, we are grateful for what Jesus did on it, but should we have that graven image around our necks? We are no different than the Israelites who bowed down to pagan idols, incorporated pagan rituals and even temple prostitutes into the Temple services.   I’m including a link to the time when King Josiah’s priest had found the Book of the Law, which had been lost for generations.  Note Josiah’s reaction when the words were read, and he learned about the True GOD and what He required of His people.    

I did some research to see just when the cross became a symbol of Christianity, and wouldn’t you know it, it is the fault of that tyrant emperor Constantine. He didn’t just make Christianity legal, and stopped the persecutions, he made it the official religion, thus f0rcing it upon all of his subjects, whether there was a regeneration of the soul or not.  He incorporated their pagan practices, symbols, idols, and rituals into his new church in order to ease the transition for the polytheists of Rome.

Contrary to popular believe Jesus did not invent Christianity, Constantine did.  The Greek word for church in the Gospels is not  what we do (are) today.  The Greek word, (: ἐκκλησία, ας, ἡ) ekklésia is what Jesus said he was his bride, and the gates of hell would not prevail against her.  That Greek word means called out ones, whereas, Constantine converted forced conversions and began the practice of building  oikodomé  which means a building used for spiritual enhancement. GOD destroyed the central worship center when He put the Gospel in legs and arms as the new mobile Temple, meant to spread, not gather.  For further references you can read those blogs.

 This is going to take me some time to adjust our thinking to because we’ve so accepted the carved wooden image as a symbol of the love Jesus had for us for 1600 years.  Nothing changes that that love or act of self-sacrifice, it is too much for us to grasp.   I hated to be the bearer of bad news, but that giant wooden cross hanging up, in your oikodomé  buildings could just be an abomination to GOD.  Are we willing to take that chance? 

Who am I? I really do not know, I wish I did.  

I'm not really an author, so to speak.  I may have written a couple of fiction books, against my will, but I did it, anyway.  I hate fiction. I’ve always hated fiction.  When GOD put that silly notion into my head to write a novel, even though I'm not a novelist, I did have one condition though.  I would do it, ONLY if it had a happy ending.  Too many tragic literary fictional stories out there, and life is depressing enough. I surely won’t write anything that is depressing for anyone else.  I don’t see myself as an author by trade, I don't want any money for them, nor do I want to ever write again.  I only did it, because GOD put a story in my head. 

I totally objected to the idea of writing a novel, because I'm NOT a novelist.  I don't want a publishing contract, even if offered one, I won’t sign on any condition, especially if there is money involved.  I don't even want my books really out there until after I'm gone, as in permanently Retired in that Assisted Living Mansion in Paradise, the one Jesus says that he is preparing for me. (John 14).   So, I’m not an author seeking any kind of notoriety,  I'm not a college graduate, unless you want to count four years of college with only an Associate's Degree to speak of? I'm not a seminary student, I have no theological training, unless you count thirty years as a student of the Word, with these last eight being the most intense training and studying 24/7 a person could do.  I even have the Bible or one of those Netflix Gospels playing while I sleep, so I can absorb as much as I can, even while semi-conscious.    

There are three MIA this day my eldest graduated college at 31.

 I'm a mother who has graduated five children into legal adulthood, so I can’t be sued by anyone for anything they do, now. I have three left that are minors that I have to worry about and graduate to legal adult.  I say legal adult, because in the eyes of the law, they are adults, in the eyes of anyone else, that’s left up to interpretations.  GOD told Moses to count only the males twenty and over as adult enough for any kind of military service. (Numbers).   A Levite could not start serving as a priest until thirty. (Leviticus, Ezekiel)

  I'm a wife, but cast aside by a husband who doesn't want to live the Christian life anymore, after 30 years.  I'm not an ex, I'm not the current, but by law, I'm the one who gets to pull the plug.   I'm not old as some would see it, but I'm not young as others would see it. I'm at that dreadful middle-age.  You know, smack dab in the middle, wishing I was young, but not stupid, yet, wishing I was a golden-oldie,  almost done, packing up and getting ready for retirement in Paradise with Jesus.  I’m a nobody who can probably relate to just about everybody.  I’ve been through it all in this fiery furnace of affliction.  

These past years in the furnace, I’ve studied just about every main character in the Bible, backward and forward in order to find some semblance of hope that the fire will go out someday, and the furnace door will open, and I will be delivered from the fire, while in the fire.   Those are my BBF's, (Bible Best Friends), and they all gave me a  reason to put my feet on the floor in the morning, besides my children, who now only have one parent full-time, and another who is paying his "guilt-offering," so he can run off and be with another.  

So, daily, I ask GOD, who am I?  Why did all this awful stuff happen to me?  I’ve lived Job’s life, only not so immediate, but I’ve suffered gradual losses over the years, the kind that just keep picking away pieces of your heart, until you think there’s nothing left to pick away or give away.  There has to be some kind of “Biblical” reason for it, as Romans 8:28 says. (I really hate that verse, it’s never good news when one hears that verse.) I do not handle loss very well, in fact, I handle it quite badly, because I love too big. 

So, I guess: I'm Abram - called out of Ur or in my case – Massachusetts, away from my family of non-believers.  

I'm Leah - the rejected wife who was a dirty man's trick to a "trickster," who competed w/a beauty queen, then her ghost.   

I'm Jacob - the trickster, trying to manipulate GOD, losing all the time, because I'm slow learner

I'm Joseph - rejected by my siblings as the different one, imprisoned for not doing "it" Egypt's way.

I'm Ruth - married to Mahlon, the weakling with no future, a Moabite woman, wishing there was a Boaz for me.

I'm Hannah- barren with no spiritual descendants to speak of waiting for GOD to give me spiritual children.  Worse even than that;

 I’m Peninnah - her rival, used only as a wife to pop out a bunch of babies, because the “wife” my husband really loved, couldn’t.   

I'm David- hunted by a mad king (the devil) wanting to kill me, yet suffering the consequences of my sins brought on by my rebellious discouragement and sinful desire to get even with GOD for breaking my heart.  Yeah, I’m that petty.  

I'm Josiah - The Law has been found under my watch, but GOD's subjects prefer it their own way, as in the book of Judges.

I'm Jeremiah - the weeping prophet with a fire burning inside me that I can't quench, GOD won't put out, and grieving for what I see as not just a lost sheep, but an entire field of them. 

I'm Daniel - trapped in an upper room with only Jesus as my friend, nose buried in the Word, if not in the carpet, sucking up prayer dust mixed with tears. (With an occasional Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-ego who show up at very opportune times, via Twitter, of course.)

I'm Zerubbabel - an exile, wondering if ever we will ever be able to back to Jerusalem and rebuild or are we lost forever, a people forsaken by GOD, so as it seems. 

I’m Paul, a former legalist, who was set apart (and very much alone) in the wilderness for a certain amount of years to learn to hear only the voice of GOD, and not cave to the voice of the masses.  Paul only took three years, (Galatians). I’m a very slow learner, it’s been eight so far for me.

I’m Peter – an impulsive loud mouth with a bit of a temper, who has trouble swearing I’ll do things, then finding I don’t have the strength or stamina to do them, constantly feeling like a failure. 

What about you?  Who are you?  Can you identify with one of these? Maybe you can identify with all of them, like I can. Are you a seed in the soil like me, covered up, buried in the dirt where it's dark, damp and you feel quite alone and despaired wanting to break out of your shell?  Maybe you have a dream bigger than the prison in which your trapped? David did, Joseph did, Jacob did, Josiah did, Daniel did, Zerubbabel did, Ezra and Nehemiah did, and a host of others.

I see Zerubbabel’s prophecy coming to pass at this particular time in history.  It is a prophecy that has been completely ignored by every Bible scholar, the commentators are sketchy on what it meant and why it’s there in Haggai chapter 2.  That’s a hint, you’ll have to go look it up.  It’s in the end of the chapter. Likewise, they were clueless about Zechariah's eight visions, which I think I see happening at this present time. 

Time will tell, because GOD never gave a prophecy that made sense to any of the prophets until after it was fulfilled.  Remember, future proves the past, so after the event, we can go back into the prophecies and see what we thought was just GOD exaggerating or being poetic, was really Him giving us hints and clues of what is to come.  If anyone tells you they have the keys to the end times, consider them a false prophet, because none of us will truly know or understand GOD's time-line until AFTER it has come to pass and played out in the end for GOD's Glory, the Kingdom's sake and in the name of Jesus. 

Curiosity doesn't kill cats.  

     Contrary to popular believe, curiosity doesn't actually kill cats, as a matter of fact, it saves souls, breeds life, and give hope to the despaired. It educates, seeks out truth, opens the mind, eyes and expands the horizon for the curious fellow who needs to know. For the research junkie like myself, it's my bread and butter. Curiosity cures what ails us the most, ignorance and apathy, the two worst plagues that divide humans and breads discontent.     As we have experienced these past two years, it is so much easier to believe a lie we are told over and over again, because it takes too much time and effort to search for the answers ourselves. As faulty humans with faulty reasoning, we just choose to believe what we've heard a thousand times from who we think are reliable sources. It makes sense to us, because they are experts at sounding like experts, when in all actuality, they are just propagandists.

     Many times, we are looking for someone to validate our point of view, so we will seek out only those who agree with us. We don't want to take another persona's view in mind and consider it, because that might require effort, humanity and worst of all, humility. GOD knows how much we hate to admit that we might have been wrong. There is no one who hates doing that more than yours truly. I've been stuffed with more humble pie than your average middle-ager, because I'm particularly stubborn, a trait my late mother gave me, thanks a lot mom!   It goes against everything human to swallow a dish full of humble pie, let alone an entire bakery's worth. I do not presume to be right all the time. I'm sure that I am wrong a lot. Because I've been wrong a lot and stubborn, I expect my readers to fact check and double fact check my blogs in regards to the Bible. I will include Bible passages in these blog, however, I expect you to go find them yourself. I'll give you the estimate GPS, but you will have to actually drive to that location with your fingertips. You will have to read the passages before and after to make sure that I've used the Scripture in context. In that way, you will learn the context.

   That is how I learned the Bible so well. I always wanted to prove someone wrong, so I would check out every passage I read in a blog or a book. I checked out the passages before and after, and then I checked out the historical context. That's a research junkie's curse, we can't help ourselves. We cannot learn the Bible by being lazy just taking someone's word for it, or let them spoon-feed us passages.  By not understanding the full context and historical context of the Bible, one may end up following any whack-job that calls themselves a prophet. Believe me, there are millions out there who do. One thing I have learned is that if a person is a self-proclaimed prophet, then that indeed is all they are, self-proclaiming and not GOD ordaining.

    GOD has put it on my heart to write this book, and I have stubbornly refused. Because of that stubborn streak in me, He keeps sending "spankings" from Above. If GOD spanks you, consider it a compliment from GOD. He doesn't spank those who He knows will not be humble enough to learn, or who will refuse to say those words we fight like anything to avoid, "I was wrong, now I apologize, will you forgive me?"  I hope that my blog blesses you. It is my second attempt. I had a blog for three years which got a lot of exposure and over 130K readers, and in one of my usual toddler-temper tantrums with GOD, because I couldn't get what I wanted my own way in my own time, I deleted it. So, here I am, again, starting all over, again. I plan to use much of what I wrote before, because I got the same response from people, over and over.  Please feel free to comment, good or bad. We never know how we are doing until someone either rebukes us or commends us.