We are pretty low-key about how our family does holidays mostly because we don’t do them at all. Some people notice. People notice when you don’t post pictures in front of the tree, send cards, or talk about your holiday. They wonder when you don’t say Merry Christmas. Someone noticed the other day and asked. I know for every one that asks there are many that wonder but don’t ask. So here it is. For those of you interested. This is our story.
Many years ago I was in the kitchen preparing our Easter breakfast feast. The children were happily playing with the stuff from the baskets they has recently found through our annual scavenger hunt. The ham was in the fridge waiting to go into the oven for dinner. Colored eggs were on the table for anyone who wanted them. Tom sat at the table on his laptop talking to me while I cooked. Little did he know the words out of his mouth would change things so drastically for our family. Why do we do all of this? Do all of what I asked. Easter. You know, Jesus died and was resurrected. No, he said. The other stuff. Bunnies and baskets and eggs. I shrugged my shoulders, no clue. Why don’t you look it up? So he did. And our world as we knew it flipped.
Give me a bit of information and I’m like a dog with a bone. Yes, I did just refer to myself as a dog – ha ha. So like that dog I couldn’t let it go. I had to keep at it until I learned everything I could. So started years of reading and researching. I read the Bible through and through, over and over again. I read other historical materials and researched the true meanings of words. Simple words like “ALL” and “Entire” and “World”. Words that we are taught to mean one thing but really mean something entirely different in the context of when they were written.
As we learned, we made decisions. We had to. We couldn’t live the same once we were given information. We had to choose. The question was do we live the same knowing we are being disobedient or do we make the difficult changes? Who do we choose to follow. UGH! Very tough decisions, especially when it comes to these holidays and you have small children.
After learning the truth about Easter and making the decision that it would be our last year celebrating it the next logical thing to look at was Christmas. Was that going to be the same thing? What we found was even worse. Real references in the Bible that we hold so dear to decorated evergreen trees and special cakes for the queen of heaven in Jeremiah. Many, many years before the Savior was even born.
Jeremiah 10:1 – 4
Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus said Yahweh, “Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are awed by them. For the laws of these peoples are worthless, for one cuts a tree from the forest, work for the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They beautify it with silver and gold, they strengthen it with nails and hammers so that it does not topple.”
Jeremiah warned them to get rid of the paganism or they would reap the consequences of not doing so. They did not so ended up in captivity that is still ongoing today, almost 3,000 years later. (Another story for another day.)
I started reading more about the mixing of several pagan religions with the new religion Christianity. By the mid-300’s the Roman ruler Constantine was trying to solidify his rule and bring all of the pagan religious factions combined as one religion to make his life easier. I learned that all of the fun things we look forward to for the holidays were old pagan traditions re-clothed to make both the pagans and Christians in Roman times happy.
Finding out that December 25th was the traditional sun-god day of worship, a week long (or more) festival of sex, murder, rape, and anything goes without accountability or justice made me sick. That even the name Christmas is pagan and means celebrating killing an anointed one. Add the word “Merry” and you basically have “I’m happy they killed the anointed one”. And by the way, at the time the anointed one could have meant any one of several “high” gods of the time, Yahshua (Jesus) being only one of them to appease the Christians. The Saturn worshipping Romans decorated their homes with evergreen trees and lights. They gave each other gifts. This was all to pay homage to their god Saturn who was said to have been born on December 25th.
Remembering the story of the birth of Yahshua the Messiah, the sheep and shepherds were still in the fields. Realizing that wouldn’t be possible in late December I did more digging on that and came to realize that it was more likely Yahshua was born during the fall when it may have been cool at night but not cold yet.
We learned the truth of why the Israelites were sent into captivity, a captivity they are still in to this day. All for their stubborn refusal to give up the pagan traditions that they had adopted over the years. Yahweh demanded they worship Him the way He wanted to be worshiped, not the way they wanted to worship Him. They refused. He acted. We are still paying the price for that disobedience. And worse than that, we are continuing in those same old ways today. And justifying it the same way those Israelites of old did.
The puritans who came to America did so because they knew the truth and wanted a life without those pagan traditions. It didn’t take long before those traditions crept back in. Satan is sly. I said to Tom years ago that the enemy is smart. He doesn’t hold up obviously pagan things and say, here you want these, right? Nope. He dresses cute little girls in Easter dresses and bonnets. He says put a manger under your tree and call it Jesus’ birthday. He convinces us with the smiles of our children on Christmas morning and that it’s all about giving. All the while knowing that Yahweh is seething with anger at our continued disobedience. That 3,000 years later we have not learned our lesson. And even worse, that even our churches have Easter (Ishtar) egg hunts and sunrise services (sun god). Our churches have led the way into paganism instead of preaching against it. Embrace it and make it ours they say. Let’s turn something bad into something for God is the mantra.
There is a big problem with that. Over and over are examples in the Bible of the Israelites doing the same thing. It doesn’t work that way. We are not allowed to take something pagan and make it into something good or holy. It’s way, way above our pay grade. Only Yahweh has the right to decide what is good and holy. And what is not.
That is our story. Whether you keep these holidays or not is the choice of your family. We will never judge you. As I end most of my website pages I will end this blog post today.
As Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
And this is Simply My Opinion by Kathe
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