Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts

Saturday, April 03, 2010

What most ministers will FAIL to tell you Easter Sunday

The Resurrection Was Not on Easter Sunday!
Every year, billions rejoice at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet most do not realize that the Bible tells a very different story than they usually hear from the pulpit. What is the truth about Jesus’ resurrection?

The Plain Truth About Easter
Has it ever occurred to those stuffing their faces with Easter ham that Jesus would puke at the thought? Neither Jesus or Peter, James or John ever ate forbidden foods. They wouldn't feel too comfortable at plenty of people's dinner tables.

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?
Many believe that God's endorsement of Passover ended with Christ's death—and that He has since replaced it with the observance of Easter as a celebration of Christ's resurrection. But is that so?

The Big Lie of Easter
"Why do you perpetuate pagan fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs and don't have anything for Passover? No little lambs, nothing. John the Baptist called Jesus the 'Lamb of God' - not the Easter bunny!" - so I wrote a popular family restaurant about their country store and was informed they received my email and would respond.

Does your Church honor the goddess Easter?
Both the Bible and history condemn Easter as a spring goddess and yet these professing Christian churches aren't ashamed to blazon the name of the GODDESS EASTER on their church billboards!

Epitaph for America?
America is under a curse and those who treacherously voted for that fraud and foreigner are helping to make Marxist Jeremiah Wright’s wish come true that God damn America. Shame! -
"Black Day in America: Obama Wins, America Loses"


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Does your Church honor the goddess Easter?

"Why do you perpetuate pagan fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs and don't have anything for Passover? No little lambs, nothing. John the Baptist called Jesus the 'Lamb of God' - not the Easter bunny!" - so I wrote a popular family restaurant about their country store (see The Big Lie of Easter). I could have just as easily written another popular down on the farm restaurant questioning why they're disrespectfully offering Easter ham when the Bible strongly expresses its distaste for such an abomination that Jesus and the apostles never ate and the Scriptures forbid (see Is All Animal Flesh Good Food?).

If you walk into any store or restaurant at this time of year, you quickly see how the pagan Easter rabbit has supplanted the Passover lamb. A myth has replaced the truth!  It's totally absurd and illogical as both the Bible and history condemn Easter as a spring goddess and yet these professing Christian churches aren't ashamed to blazon the name of the GODDESS EASTER on their church billboards! Would they also advertise Venus or Ishtar? Are they all asleep in the pews? Don't their ministers have a clue? God says the names  of these pagan gods and goddesses will be history and yet they're kept alive by apostate Christian ministers! "For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals [false gods], And they shall be remembered by their name no more" (Hosea 2:17). Who are they serving? Certainly not our Great Creator God, the God of the Bible, the God of Jacob.

How can any professing Christian not take offense at this baptized paganism, these whitewashed heathen customs that mislead the masses? Shame on those (especially the worthless ministers) who continue to let folks get carried away with idolatrous traditions rather than set them free with the plain truth!

"How can you say, ‘I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Baals'?" (Jeremiah 2:23). You advertise the GODDESS EASTER with your Easter Egg Hunt, your Easter Egg Roll, your Easter ham, your Easter Sunday. Others pimp Easter and her fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs with Easter Egg trees and Easter decorations. We're a nation of spiritual drunks and whores in denial, whoring around with pagan gods and goddesses, going through the mindless motions of pagan traditions and flirting with heathen customs and we see nothing wrong with it since we're deaf, dumb and blind (Isaiah 42:19).

Such Easter "offerings" based upon colorful fables certainly aren't acceptable or cute to God ( 2 Timothy 4:3-5). “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall [the slain] at the time I punish them..." (Jeremiah 6:15). Traditional Christianity, like an adulterous woman, "…eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done no wickedness...'" (Prov. 30:20).

Sin that's been dressed up, camouflaged, made to appear harmless, is still sin in God's eyes and He hates the mass religious deception that has been going on for too long and will hold the nation accountable for living a lie and promoting whitewashed paganism. The rotten ministers who have failed to stand in the gap, to expose such error and call upon the people to turn from such vain traditions, are especially guilty (Ezekiel 22:30-31).

Hosea 4:6
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest [minister] for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God [that you may keep your own traditions], I also will forget your children.

It's past time we remember our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities and return to the Faith once delivered - the Faith that focuses on the Lamb of God and keeps Passover - and stop mixing pagan error with biblical truth (spiritual adultery). We must serve the God of Israel wholeheartedly as Elijah encouraged (when he mocked Baal and Easter) or go into national captivity like Israel did who failed to take God's Word seriously! What will it be: return to the Faith once delivered or return to slavery?

The Plain Truth About Easter


Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Monday, March 22, 2010

The Big Lie of Easter

"Why do you perpetuate pagan fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs and don't have anything for Passover? No little lambs, nothing. John the Baptist called Jesus the 'Lamb of God' - not the Easter bunny!" - so I wrote a popular family restaurant about their country store and was informed they received my email and would respond.

How many folks actually stop and THINK? How many question why the focus is on an Easter bunny and not on the Passover Lamb? Why have professing Christians enabled this deliberate diversion and deception? Where has the outrage been among those who profess to love the Lord when they see society swept away with hare-brained traditions? Why the tacit approval by deathly silence and default?

You will find people celebrating Passover throughout the Bible, including Jesus. But you won't find people celebrating Easter. The word Easter comes from an ancient fertility goddess. It's spelled in different ways but usually pronounced "Easter" or something like it. For instance, the Babylonians called her Ishtar. The Phoenicians worshipped their goddess Astarte. The Germans had Ostara. The Hebrews called her Ashtoreth. This is all the same goddess, and God condemned the Israelites for having anything to do with this pagan goddess of fertility and the dawn. - Shocked by the Bible
How can a Christian nation have anything to do with a pagan goddess? With the fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs long associated with Easter and exposed by history and condemned by the Bible? Any observance of Easter is as impudent as a whore who feels no shame for her sins.

Those who dishonestly continue to partake of Easter's modified pagan practices, its whitewashed heathen customs, are guilty of spiritual adultery! Such perverse Christians are whoring around with foreign gods and goddesses and undoubtedly will incur the wrath of God upon our nation of drunks and whores and illegitimate children (who have been sacrificed to demons rather than consecrated to God).

“Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall [the slain] at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down, says the LORD” (Jeremiah 6:15).

Traditional Christianity, like an adulterous woman, "…eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done no wickedness...'" (Prov. 30:20).

God let ancient Israel and Judah suffer NATIONAL DEFEAT, DESTRUCTION AND DEPORTATION due to their "harmless" religious celebrations! Has God changed His mind? Isn't Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever?

God condemns our countries for IDOLATRY — not just for immorality! Easter is both immoral and idolatrous, as are those worthless ministers who have let Easter take root and defile our land with its pagan pollutions. It is idolatry when religious folks continue to put pagan Easter above Passover (that the early Church of God faithfully observed), when they continue to pimp traditional religious lies of a "Sunday resurrection"  - even though the plain truth of the Bible teaches: "After the women rested on the regular weekly Sabbath, they went to Jesus' tomb early on the first day of the week (Sunday), "while it was still dark" (John 20:1), and found that He had already been resurrected (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:1-3)"- Easter: Masking a Biblical Truth .

Easter's not harmless; engaging in pagan practices like dying eggs and mindlessly decorating trees with eggs and eating Easter ham (an abomination!)  is showing extreme disrespect to our Great Creator God, the God of the Bible, the God of Israel who thunders:

Jeremiah 10
2 Do not learn the way of the Gentiles...

Why not keep it simple and love and obey God and do as He says rather than blind tradition dictates? If not, stop calling yourself a Christian nation and be honest enough to admit you're a pagan nation and prepare to suffer the consequences!



http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Christmas and Easter are modified pagan holidays

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?

#145. To: domer (#28)

Easter is exactly like Christmas.

Yes, both Easter and Christmas are modified pagan holidays, filled with whitewashed heathen customs, baptized paganism, ABOMINATIONS that God hates and legitimate Christians avoid like the plague!

True Christians don't deny both the Bible and history condemn Easter and Christmas, even though spiritual drunks and whores, "Christians" in denial, dig themselves in deeper, stuck in the muck of Babylon, when they refuse to repent and forsake such religious sins.

Deuteronomy 12
30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them [pagans], after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? [heathen customs] I also will do likewise.’ [modifying pagan hollow days to worship the true God]
31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods

Jeremiah 10
2 Thus says the LORD:
Do not learn the way of the Gentiles

1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. [No mixing and matching of pagan error with biblical truth]

2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? [No diluting, adulterating and polluting of God's truth with pagan blends] Or what part has a believer with an
unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

"I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people."

17 Therefore
"Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. [Don't stay stuck in the rut of tradition, but let the plain truth set you free!] Do not touch what is unclean, And [then] I will receive you.

18 [on these conditions] I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."

C.H. Spurgeon on Christmas and Roman Catholicism
First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English. Secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant  whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition

Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent

Mark 7
"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' 8You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

9And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!... 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Both the Bible and history condemn Christianity!

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?

#129. To: Sweetjustusnow (#72)

[mindless cut and paste]


It's so sad to see you've failed to FORSAKE BABYLON and continue to prove your critical thinking ability has been severely damaged by your unclean cult of traditional Christianity.

True Christians follow Yahshua and His example - traditional Christian cultists, apostate Christians, follow Rome and Constantine from Sunday to Easter to many other unclean doctrines of demons headed for the Lake of Fire (the real Hell that will destroy the unrepentant - not torment them like a sadist).

Won't you let the truth set you free rather than hate it and condemn yourself? Do you think God is fooled by baptized paganism, idolatrous traditions, your traditional religious bull? Both the Bible and history condemn traditional Christianity's hypocrisy and deceitfulness.

Is the Plain Truth Too Strong?
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression [the Church and Synagogue], And the house of Jacob [the family of Israelite nations - all Twelve Tribes of Israel] their sins. 2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God" (Isaiah 58).


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The Forbidden Fruit

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?

#48. To: Chaka (#33)

the idea that an omnipotent deity would create a wonderfully-flavored animal like the Pig and then forbade eating it is heretical and preposterous

Perhaps to those who steal the forbidden fruit of self-righteously determining for themselves what is good and what is evil, rather than submit to the Word of God - divine revelation - that clearly instructs us what our Great Creator God decrees is fit and what is not fit for human consumption. It is heretical and the height of chutzpah to pretend to know more than our Creator! Such covetous cravings and idolatrous thoughts expose an unclean heart and impure mind.

Like the serpent who lied to Eve about the "wonderfully-flavored" fruit, you don't have a leg to stand on.

Isaiah 5:20
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 55:7-9
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD.
9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Is All Animal Flesh Good Food?
Were all animals made clean? What about the unclean animals shown to Peter in a vision? Here is a straightforward Bible answer, giving the New Testament teaching. This subject is important to your health and well-being!

Unclean Christianity vs. Peter's Vision
Unclean traditional Christianity teaches the religious lie that Jesus "did away with" the dietary laws, sinning against both God and man (1 John 2:4; Matt 5:17-20).

Jesus Upheld the Biblical Dietary Laws
Unclean traditional Christianity has misled many with their lack of understanding of the Bible as a whole. They often take Scriptures out of context and totally twist their meanings, like they do when it comes to abusing Matthew 15 and slaughtering it to teach we can now eat anything.

Monday, March 08, 2010

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?

Many believe that God's endorsement of Passover ended with Christ's death—and that He has since replaced it with the observance of Easter as a celebration of Christ's resurrection. But is that so?

Easter or Passover: Which Is Christian?

Monday, October 19, 2009

Should Christians celebrate Halloween?



It's true Christians should have nothing to do with the pagan holiday of Halloween. But don't stop there! FORSAKE BABYLON - come out all the way! Don't stay stuck in the whitewashed muck of Christmas and Easter.

For more information, please feel free to check out:

Gay Pride and Christian Hypocrisy

Apostate Christians

Shape up or get shipped out!

Death to America?

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Friday, April 24, 2009

Gentilized Christians, misled by Romanizers!

MILITANT MINORITIES have a dream: SUPREMACY (Deuteronomy 28:43). They only clamor for “equality” as a stepping-stone for their real goal: replacing those in the positions of power with their own kind. (Please notice I stress militant minorities. There are many minority members who aren’t out to harm or undermine White Israelite culture and are a wonderful part of it). Multiculturalism is mad and destroys national unity!

Likewise, the early Church of God faithfully kept the SEVENTH DAY SABBATH (sunset Friday to sunset Saturday) for several hundred years. Later, under political pressure and religious opposition, they backed down. They allowed the observance of “the venerable day of the Sun” back-to-back with God’s Sabbath. What a tragic mistake! We’re still suffering the consequences of such shameful compromise.

By sanctioning Sunday services, the Church gave SUNday the necessary clout to claim “equality.” That peaceful coexistence was short-lived, however. Soon the Gentile “converts” managed to make it illegal for Christians to keep the “Jewish Sabbath!” In 365, during the Council of Laodicea, they forcibly substituted Sunday for the seventh day Sabbath! Constantine or Christ? Yeshua said He was Lord of the Sabbath - the seventh day Sabbath is the Lord's Day. Yet Constantine pimped SUNday and his Christian reprobates - apostate Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant followers - continue to keep it as an idolatrous tradition over the commandment of God. This plain truth angers many of the self-righteous!

Earlier, to promote “unity”—NOT the truth—the Council of Nicea (in 325 AD) ruled the Christian PASSOVER (commemorating Jesus’ death) had to go! Whoever disagreed faced the death penalty! Their religious fabrication supposedly emphasized Jesus’ resurrection—in direct violation of Christ’s command! Eventually they stopped their charade of keeping the Jewish Passover of the Lord, moved their new Roman holiday to a different date that the faithful - like Polycarp and Polycrates who kept the biblical Passover - opposed, knowing it was devised by deceived and deceiving Gentile men) and eventually even called their celebration Easter instead of Passover or Pascha. But they forgot to give it a Christian-sounding name. Easter’s the Babylonian spring goddess—Baal’s playboy bunny! They had given up the kosher Lamb of God for a rabbit trick! And to this day, many Gentilized Christians, misled by Romanizers, even go so far to add insult to injury by pigging out on Easter ham and having Easter egg hunts!

In time, anything even remotely “Jewish” about the Church of God came under attack. The Gentile minority-turned-majority demanded changes to reflect their “universal” appeal. They wanted to appear more inclusive—at the expense of the Church’s Jewish (read biblical) heritage. They were intent on destroying the doctrines they once held dear.

Changes… for the Worse!

Misguided ministers GUTTED THE BODY OF CHRIST and were now picking at the bones (Micah 3:1-3). In their racist zeal, they were throwing out the original truths and replacing them with popular error. The early Church of God, with its now-derided leaders, should’ve NEVER attempted to power-share! It only led to disaster. They foolishly enabled their “equals” to oust them (3 John 9, 10).

Not everyone was thrilled about all the changes taking place. The flood of “new truths” had come so fast and furious, many were caught off guard (Rev.12: 15). They were simply unprepared for this “scholarly” onslaught (Malachi 2:12). Some expressed concern, others questioned what was going on, but everyone sensed something just wasn’t right. It seemed almost overnight everything they’d been taught was somehow wrong. Now there were DIFFERENT MEANINGS given to biblical words, and supposedly the Church now had a “deeper understanding” of various scriptures.

What was troublesome to longtime members, though, was that these DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES didn’t enhance or add to whatever they already understood—it took away, undermined, or totally denied what they’d PROVEN to be true. They felt that they shouldn’t give these new “Christians” the time of day (Galatians 2:5) and agreed with the words of the apostle Paul who spoke against adultery, warned about whoring around with foreign gods and alien religions, who condemned mixing and matching biblical truth with pagan error:

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16).

Therefore, unlike the majority of spiritual drunks and whores, the many who followed after false Christs, they refused to surrender God’s truth, accept a pagan truce, or enter into a marriage of convenience. They knew better! And they weren’t going to deny God’s truth or ignore it—despite charges of “refusing to grow” and “worshiping a man” (Paul). They knew the true source of such slander (Rev.12: 10).

The Faithful Few

"For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted... 13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:4).

Those Sabbath-keeping Church of God members, who remained faithful to the original Christian beliefs and authentic practices established in Jerusalem, who didn't succumb to seducing spirits or fall for the many different versions of "Jesus" and other "gospels" attractively offered that they were warned about, were forced to flee for their lives. They became part of the “underground” and got involved in “the resistance movement.” They had to hide out in the mountains and valleys of Europe and Asia Minor to escape persecution and death (Revelation 12: 6).

Beyond the pale of the pope, these “wandering Jews” carried their “Sanctuary” with them, and its attendant truths (Hebrews 11: 38). During their wilderness trek, God’s true Church would retain its unique identity (John 17: 11). Though banished upon penalty of death, these freedom fighters kept the FAITH alive (John 8:32). They knew that God would end their exile, and waited patiently for TRUTH to triumph over tradition.

Excerpt from Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Will God Curse Our Countries For Easter?


"You don't celebrate Easter?" Well, not any more.

1 Peter 4:3-5
For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

I realize that those who are still drunk on the wine of the Babylonian Mystery religion (incorporated into the Roman Catholic Cult as brought out in The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop) don't appreciate or comprehend those who are now SOBER and happy to be free from idolatrous traditions for the plain truth of the Bible and history. Truly, the vast majority of religious people constitute a nation of drunks and whores.

The Sabbath-keeping Church of God rejoices in the knowledge and glorious plan of salvation for all mankind that the biblical festivals, the holy days that our Great Creator God has ordained portray -- no longer falling for the hollow days of pagan Rome, pimped by Roman wolves in sheep's clothing, false father figures.

The Sabbath-keeping Church of God celebrate that soon everybody will join us in celebrating God's holy days, the "Jewish holidays" in spirit and in truth, and will trash their former tinsel traditions. We are pioneers of the Wonderful World Tomorrow!

Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things."

It is sad when folks continue to fall for all the RELIGIOUS BULL Rome has dumped on the world and pretend they're worshipping Christ who hates such PAGAN ABOMINATIONS. Why remain in denial?

God is truth and despises such religious lies as Christmas and Easter. They're PAGAN to the core and God's People avoid them like the plague, happy with the biblical festivals God has given us to celebrate.

Yeshua, the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, will return and reign supreme from Jerusalem and teach the Torah, slaughtering the papal bull by the sword of the truth.

Isaiah 2:2-32
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the [Temple] mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.

3 Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.
”For out of Zion shall go forth the law [contrary to Christian liars, it wasn't done away],
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [not Rome].

Yeshua will establish the law of God as the law of the land, the law of all the Earth! That holy law reveals the seven biblical festivals of the LORD that Yeshua will faithfully teach and command all nations to observe or else -- not just the Jewish people and British-Israelites.

Yes, too many people have inherited religious lies, and have passed down traditional error from generation to generation; worthless celebrations that God hates and rejects as unclean and polluted.

It bears repeating, since our proud and stubborn peoples have thick skulls that need the truth knocked into them, driving home this biblical message: Christmas and Easter are PAGAN -- those who say otherwise are liars, dishonest with themselves and others, worshipping God in vain (Titus 1:16, 1 John 2:4).

I believe many PROFESSING Christians are actually familiar with the Scriptures that condemn futile attempts to modify pagan holidays and tailor heathen customs to serve the true God (Deut. 12:30-32, Jer. 10:2-3), but they conveniently ignore them or reject them by woeful neglect when such Scriptures step on their traditional toes and make them uncomfortable, demanding change (isn't that what true conversion is all about?), requiring them to learn to love God's truth more than their TRADITIONS (Mark 7:7).

Abominable Christians, those who have the perverted religious preference of tradition over truth, are just like every other sinner unwilling to confess and forsake their sins and seek to whitewash or justify them.

The difference is such professing Christians often pretend to be better or more righteous than those physical idolaters and immoral folks (who also refuse to repent) while they engage in spiritual idolatry (putting tradition over truth) and spiritual immorality (whoring around with other gods and foreign ways) bringing divine judgment upon our nations.

Death to America? May the servants of God, who know and believe the Bible and its principles and prophecies about blessings for national obedience and curses for national disobedience (Dan. 9:11), plea for diehard Catholics and Protestants to REPENT!

May we take the Word of God seriously and turn from the pagan holidays that God hates so much He let ancient Israel and Judah suffer destruction, defeat and deportation for such "harmless" celebrations and blind observations.

Will we insist on losing our national sovereignty too, brought to our knees to learn to see things God's way or will we repent and spare ourselves, our family and friends, from suffering the dreadful Time of Jacob's Trouble, the Great Tribulation?

1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons. [No mixing and matching of pagan error with biblical truth]

2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? [No diluting, adulterating and polluting of God's truth with pagan blends] Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

"I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people."

17 Therefore
"Come out from among them

And be separate, says the Lord. [Don't stay stuck in the rut of tradition, but let the plain truth set you free!]
Do not touch what is unclean,
And [then] I will receive you.

18 [on these conditions] I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty."

Friday, April 10, 2009

Forget Easter, Remember Passover!

Hear O British-Israel: Remember your Hebrew roots and Faith once delivered!

2 Chronicles 30:1-11


1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the LORD God of Israel. 2 For the king and his leaders and all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month. 3 For they could not keep it at the regular time, because a sufficient number of priests had not consecrated themselves, nor had the people gathered together at Jerusalem. 4 And the matter pleased the king and all the assembly. 5 So they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem, since they had not done it for a long time in the prescribed manner.

6 Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the command of the king: "Children of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel; then He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7 And do not be like your fathers and your brethren, who trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation, as you see. 8 Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD; and enter His sanctuary [this includes the Land of Israel where Israelite representatives ought to be encouraged to move to], which He has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you. 9 For if you return to the LORD, your brethren and your children will be treated with compassion by those who lead them captive, so that they may come back to this land; for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him."

10 So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but they laughed at them and mocked them [often this is the same response the servants of God receive today by our proud and stubborn Israelite peoples who prefer their Gentile traditions to biblical truth and by smug Jewish brethren who want to remain exclusivist]. 11 Nevertheless some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem

Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives

Ezekiel 3:7
But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.

Some precious few British and Euro-Israelites have repented of keeping pagan holidays pretending to be Christian (like Christmas and Easter) and have been restored to keeping the biblical festivals that soon the whole world will observe in spirit and in truth.

The majority of professing Christians, many Israelite in origin, continue to live a pagan Gentile lie, and act like drunks and whores, inviting disaster upon our nations, divine judgment upon our peoples. They won't be able to say they weren't warned, but will have been left without excuse.

A Nation of Drunks and Whores

Europe Nukes US!

Death to America?

Shape up or get shipped out!


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Death to America?



Death to the American, British and Jewish peoples? Concentration camps for YOUR family and friends? Why would God permit Europe to defeat and deport us? Does He really hate the abominations of Christmas and Easter that much?

Death to the American, British & Jewish peoples?

Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?

A Nation of Drunks and Whores

Friday, February 27, 2009

ADULTERY!

Are you guilty of spiritual adultery?

Some professing Christians need to stop trying to be more righteous than God and the early Church of God (1 John 2:4; Titus 1:16). No matter what excuse they throw up for the PAGAN festival of Saturnalia/"mass of Christ", or PAGAN Easter, they remain PAGAN festivals in God's sight (and in the eyes of those who love God's Word more than idolatrous ideas and tinsel traditions) - not Christian holidays!

God hates it when folks mix some biblical truth with pagan error. It's SPIRITUAL ADULTERY. They adulterate, they pollute, they dilute the truth by mixing it with condemned paganism. Spiritually, they're whoring around with false gods and flirting with foreign religions.

Why not keep it simple and love and obey God and do as He says, rather than fall for pagan Rome? FORSAKE BABYLON or suffer the consequences! Time is running out.

Deuteronomy 12
30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you [for their wrong religious practices and behavior], and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' 31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods...
32 Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Jeremiah 10
2 Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the Gentiles...

Jude 1:3
I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints [in Jerusalem, not Rome].

Jeremiah 6:16
"Thus saith Yahweh, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk there in, and ye shall find rest to your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein."

1 Corinthians 10:19-21
19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? 20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“ I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.”

17 Therefore
"Come out from among them
And be separate, say the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the LORD Almighty."

Christian Reprobates?
Plea to Diehard Catholics & Protestants to Repent
A Nation of Drunks and Whores
Why I No Longer Celebrate Christmas
Will God Curse Our Countries for Christmas?
Death to the American, British and Jewish Peoples?
British-Israelites and Jews in Grave Danger
EU to Conquer Anglo-Saxons and Jews
The Plain Truth About Easter
Christmas is About Giving -- Says Who?
C.H. Spurgeon on Christmas and Roman Catholicism
Do You Prefer TRADITION Over Truth?
Is the Plain Truth Too Strong?
Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Elijah Mocked Baal and Easter!

Our Gentilized Israelite people have always had a problem with paganism involving Easter:

1 Kings 18
17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the [traditional] Baals. 19 Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah*, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 23 Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”
So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
25 Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”
26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.
27 And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. 31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” 32 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. 35 So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.
36 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”
40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.

*"Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar."-The Two Babylons - Easter - Alexander Hislop

Some precious few British and Euro-Israelites have repented of keeping pagan holidays pretending to be Christian (like Christmas and Easter) and have been restored to keeping the biblical festivals that soon the whole world will observe in spirit and in truth.

Hear O Israel: Remember your Roots & Faith cnce delivered!

The Two Babylons - Easter

The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop


Chapter III
Section II
Easter


Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, "the priests of the groves." Some have imagined that the Druidical worship was first introduced by the Phoenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era, traded to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship are found in regions of the British islands where the Phoenicians never penetrated, and it has everywhere left indelible marks of the strong hold which it must have had on the early British mind. From Bel, the 1st of May is still called Beltane in the Almanac; and we have customs still lingering at this day among us, which prove how exactly the worship of Bel or Moloch (for both titles belonged to the same god) had been observed even in the northern parts of this island. "The late Lady Baird, of Fern Tower, in Perthshire," says a writer in "Notes and Queries," thoroughly versed in British antiquities, "told me, that every year, at Beltane (or the 1st of May), a number of men and women assemble at an ancient Druidical circle of stones on her property near Crieff. They light a fire in the centre, each person puts a bit of oat-cake in a shepherd's bonnet; they all sit down, and draw blindfold a piece from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and whoever gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the circle, and pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was previously burnt as a sacrifice. Now, the passing through the fire represents that, and the payment of the forfeit redeems the victim." If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be difficult to believe that his consort Astarte was also adored by our ancestors, and that from Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now practised, are called by the name of Easter--that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath. The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover, and though not of Apostolic institution, * was very early observed by many professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ.
* Socrates, the ancient ecclesiastical historian, after a lengthened account of the different ways in which Easter was observed in different countries in his time--i.e., the fifth century--sums up in these words: "Thus much already laid down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any Apostle." (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Every one knows that the name "Easter," used in our translation of Acts 12:4, refers not to any Christian festival, but to the Jewish Passover. This is one of the few places in our version where the translators show an undue bias.

That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a period which, in the days of Tertullian, at the end of the second century, was believed to have been the 23rd of March. That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. "It ought to be known," said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, "that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate." Whence, then, came this observance? The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, "in the spring of the year," is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: "Three days after the vernal equinox...began a solemn fast of forty days in honour of the sun." Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for "forty nights" the "wailing for Proserpine" continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called "Castus" or the "sacred" fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her "excess of sorrow," that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days' fast of Lent was made in later times to have reference to both. Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the "month of Tammuz"; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity--now far sunk in idolatry--in this as in so many other things, to shake hands. The instrument in accomplishing this amalgamation was the abbot Dionysius the Little, to whom also we owe it, as modern chronologers have demonstrated, that the date of the Christian era, or of the birth of Christ Himself, was moved FOUR YEARS from the true time. Whether this was done through ignorance or design may be matter of question; but there seems to be no doubt of the fact, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was made full four years later than the truth. This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let any one only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the "sacred fast" or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations, "went down to Egypt for help" to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to "revive" it, than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had sunk, and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three weeks. *
* GIESELER, speaking of the Eastern Church in the second century, in regard to Paschal observances, says: "In it [the Paschal festival in commemoration of the death of Christ] they [the Eastern Christians] eat unleavened bread, probably like the Jews, eight days throughout...There is no trace of a yearly festival of a resurrection among them, for this was kept every Sunday" (Catholic Church). In regard to the Western Church, at a somewhat later period--the age of Constantine--fifteen days seems to have been observed to religious exercises in connection with the Christian Paschal feast, as appears from the following extracts from Bingham, kindly furnished to me by a friend, although the period of fasting is not stated. Bingham (Origin) says: "The solemnities of Pasch [are] the week before and the week after Easter Sunday--one week of the Cross, the other of the resurrection. The ancients speak of the Passion and Resurrection Pasch as a fifteen days' solemnity. Fifteen days was enforced by law by the Empire, and commanded to the universal Church...Scaliger mentions a law of Constantine, ordering two weeks for Easter, and a vacation of all legal processes."

The words of Socrates, writing on this very subject, about AD 450, are these: "Those who inhabit the princely city of Rome fast together before Easter three weeks, excepting the Saturday and Lord's-day." But at last, when the worship of Astarte was rising into the ascendant, steps were taken to get the whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within the Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this by a Council held at Aurelia in the time of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome, about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should be solemnly kept before Easter. It was with the view, no doubt, of carrying out this decree that the calendar was, a few days after, readjusted by Dionysius. This decree could not be carried out all at once. About the end of the sixth century, the first decisive attempt was made to enforce the observance of the new calendar. It was in Britain that the first attempt was made in this way; and here the attempt met with vigorous resistance. The difference, in point of time, betwixt the Christian Pasch, as observed in Britain by the native Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, at the time of its enforcement, was a whole month; * and it was only by violence and bloodshed, at last, that the Festival of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess came to supersede that which had been held in honour of Christ.
* CUMMIANUS, quoted by Archbishop USSHER, Sylloge Those who have been brought up in the observance of Christmas and Easter, and who yet abhor from their hearts all Papal and Pagan idolatry alike, may perhaps feel as if there were something "untoward" in the revelations given above in regard to the origin of these festivals. But a moment's reflection will suffice entirely to banish such a feeling. They will see, that if the account I have given be true, it is of no use to ignore it. A few of the facts stated in these pages are already known to Infidel and Socinian writers of no mean mark, both in this country and on the Continent, and these are using them in such a way as to undermine the faith of the young and uninformed in regard to the very vitals of the Christian faith. Surely, then, it must be of the last consequence, that the truth should be set forth in its own native light, even though it may somewhat run counter to preconceived opinions, especially when that truth, justly considered, tends so much at once to strengthen the rising youth against the seductions of Popery, and to confirm them in the faith once delivered to the Saints. If a heathen could say, "Socrates I love, and Plato I love, but I love truth more," surely a truly Christian mind will not display less magnanimity. Is there not much, even in the aspect of the times, that ought to prompt the earnest inquiry, if the occasion has not arisen, when efforts, and strenuous efforts, should be made to purge out of the National Establishment in the south those observances, and everything else that has flowed in upon it from Babylon's golden cup? There are men of noble minds in the Church of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, who have felt the power of His blood, and known the comfort of His Spirit. Let them, in their closets, and on their knees, ask the question, at their God and at their own consciences, if they ought not to bestir themselves in right earnest, and labour with all their might till such a consummation be effected. Then, indeed, would England's Church be the grand bulwark of the Reformation--then would her sons speak with her enemies in the gate--then would she appear in the face of all Christendom, "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners." If, however, nothing effectual shall be done to stay the plague that is spreading in her, the result must be disastrous, not only to herself, but to the whole empire.

Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The "buns," known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens--that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. "One species of sacred bread," says Bryant, "which used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun." Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying, "He offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine flour and honey." The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven." *
* Jeremiah 7:18. It is from the very word here used by the prophet that the word "bun" seems to be derived. The Hebrew word, with the points, was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os (PHOTIUS, Lexicon Syttoge); and, at other times, Khabon (NEANDER, in KITTO'S Biblical Cyclopoedia). The first shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into the Latin panis, "bread," and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would become Bon or Bun. It is not to be overlooked that our common English word Loa has passed through a similar process of formation. In Anglo-Saxon it was Hlaf.

The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to whence they have been derived. The origin of the Pasch eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindoo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden colour. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: "An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess"--that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a grand scale.

The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte, in one of its aspects (for it had a twofold significance), had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race were shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If any be inclined to ask, how could it ever enter the minds of men to employ such an extraordinary symbol for such a purpose, the answer is, first, The sacred egg of Paganism, as already indicated, is well known as the "mundane egg," that is, the egg in which the world was shut up. Now the world has two distinct meanings--it means either the material earth, or the inhabitants of the earth. The latter meaning of the term is seen in Genesis 11:1, "The whole earth was of one language and of one speech," where the meaning is that the whole people of the world were so. If then the world is seen shut up in an egg, and floating on the waters, it may not be difficult to believe, however the idea of the egg may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be Noah's family that contained the whole world in its bosom. Then the application of the word egg to the ark comes thus: The Hebrew name for an egg is Baitz, or in the feminine (for there are both genders), Baitza. This, in Chaldee and Phoenician, becomes Baith or Baitha, which in these languages is also the usual way in which the name of a house is pronounced. *
* The common word "Beth," "house," in the Bible without the points, is "Baith," as may be seen in the name of Bethel, as given in Genesis 35:1, of the Greek Septuagint, where it is "Baith-el."

The egg floating on the waters that contained the world, was the house floating on the waters of the deluge, with the elements of the new world in its bosom. The coming of the egg from heaven evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no explanation. This, then, was the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however, everything that was good or beneficial to mankind was represented in the Chaldean mysteries, as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained in its bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ's resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: "Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c" (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844). Besides the mystic egg, there was also another emblem of Easter, the goddess queen of Babylon, and that was the Rimmon or "pomegranate." With the Rimmon or "pomegranate" in her hand, she is frequently represented in ancient medals, and the house of Rimmon, in which the King of Damascus, the Master of Naaman, the Syrian, worshipped, was in all likelihood a temple of Astarte, where that goddess with the Rimmon was publicly adored. The pomegranate is a fruit that is full of seeds; and on that account it has been supposed that it was employed as an emblem of that vessel in which the germs of the new creation were preserved, wherewith the world was to be sown anew with man and with beast, when the desolation of the deluge had passed away. But upon more searching inquiry, it turns out that the Rimmon or "pomegranate" had reference to an entirely different thing. Astarte, or Cybele, was called also Idaia Mater, and the sacred mount in Phrygia, most famed for the celebration of her mysteries, was named Mount Ida--that is, in Chaldee, the sacred language of these mysteries, the Mount of Knowledge. "Idaia Mater," then, signifies "the Mother of Knowledge"--in other words, our Mother Eve, who first coveted the "knowledge of good and evil," and actually purchased it at so dire a price to herself and to all her children. Astarte, as can be abundantly shown, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but also of the mother of mankind. (see note below) When, therefore, the mother of the gods, and the mother of knowledge, was represented with the fruit of the pomegranate in her extended hand, inviting those who ascended the sacred mount to initiation in her mysteries, can there be a doubt what that fruit was intended to signify? Evidently, it must accord with her assumed character; it must be the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge"--the fruit of that very

"Tree, whose mortal taste.
Brought death into the world, and all our woe."


The knowledge to which the votaries of the Idaean goddess were admitted, was precisely of the same kind as that which Eve derived from the eating of the forbidden fruit, the practical knowledge of all that was morally evil and base. Yet to Astarte, in this character, men were taught to look at their grand benefactress, as gaining for them knowledge, and blessings connected with that knowledge, which otherwise they might in vain have sought from Him, who is the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Popery inspires the same feeling in regard to the Romish queen of heaven, and leads its devotees to view the sin of Eve in much the same light as that in which Paganism regarded it. In the Canon of the Mass, the most solemn service in the Romish Missal, the following expression occurs, where the sin of our first parent is apostrophised: "Oh blessed fault, which didst procure such a Redeemer!" The idea contained in these words is purely Pagan. They just amount to this: "Thanks be to Eve, to whose sin we are indebted for the glorious Saviour." It is true the idea contained in them is found in the same words in the writings of Augustine; but it is an idea utterly opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, which only makes sin the more exceeding sinful, from the consideration that it needed such a ransom to deliver from its awful curse. Augustine had imbibed many Pagan sentiments, and never got entirely delivered from them.

As Rome cherishes the same feelings as Paganism did, so it has adopted also the very same symbols, so far as it has the opportunity. In this country, and most of the countries of Europe, no pomegranates grow; and yet, even here, the superstition of the Rimmon must, as far as possible, be kept up. Instead of the pomegranate, therefore, the orange is employed; and so the Papists of Scotland join oranges with their eggs at Easter; and so also, when Bishop Gillis of Edinburgh went through the vain-glorious ceremony of washing the feet of twelve ragged Irishmen a few years ago at Easter, he concluded by presenting each of them with two eggs and an orange.

Now, this use of the orange as the representative of the fruit of Eden's "dread probationary tree," be it observed, is no modern invention; it goes back to the distant times of classic antiquity. The gardens of the Hesperides in the West, are admitted by all who have studied the subject, just to have been the counterpart of the paradise of Eden in the East. The description of the sacred gardens, as situated in the Isles of the Atlantic, over against the coast of Africa, shows that their legendary site exactly agrees with the Cape Verd or Canary Isles, or some of that group; and, of course, that the "golden fruit" on the sacred tree, so jealously guarded, was none other than the orange. Now, let the reader mark well: According to the classic Pagan story, there was no serpent in that garden of delight in the "islands of the blest," to TEMPT mankind to violate their duty to their great benefactor, by eating of the sacred tree which he had reserved as the test of their allegiance. No; on the contrary, it was the Serpent, the symbol of the Devil, the Principle of evil, the Enemy of man, that prohibited them from eating the precious fruit--that strictly watched it--that would not allow it to be touched. Hercules, one form of the Pagan Messiah--not the primitive, but the Grecian Hercules--pitying man's unhappy state, slew or subdued the serpent, the envious being that grudged mankind the use of that which was so necessary to make them at once perfectly happy and wise, and bestowed upon them what otherwise would have been hopelessly beyond their reach. Here, then, God and the devil are exactly made to change places. Jehovah, who prohibited man from eating of the tree of knowledge, is symbolised by the serpent, and held up as an ungenerous and malignant being, while he who emancipated man from Jehovah's yoke, and gave him of the fruit of the forbidden tree--in other words, Satan under the name of Hercules--is celebrated as the good and gracious Deliverer of the human race. What a mystery of iniquity is here! Now all this is wrapped up in the sacred orange of Easter.




Note


[Back] The Meaning of the Name Astarte



That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but as the mother of mankind, we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that "the Syrian goddess" was Astarte (LAYARD'S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is identified with Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio), and by Lucian (De Dea Syria). These testimonies in regard to Astarte, or the Syrian goddess, being, in one aspect, Semiramis, are quite decisive. 1. The name Astarte, as applied to her, has reference to her as being Rhea or Cybele, the tower-bearing goddess, the first as Ovid says (Opera), that "made (towers) in cities"; for we find from Layard that in the Syrian temple of Hierapolis, "she [Dea Syria or Astarte] was represented standing on a lion crowned with towers." Now, no name could more exactly picture forth the character of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the name of "Ash-tart," for that just means "The woman that made towers." It is admitted on all hands that the last syllable "tart" comes from the Hebrew verb "Tr." It has been always taken for granted, however, that "Tr" signifies only "to go round." But we have evidence that, in nouns derived from it, it also signifies "to be round," "to surround," or "encompass." In the masculine, we find "Tor" used for "a border or row of jewels round the head" (see PARKHURST and also GESENIUS). And in the feminine, as given in Hesychius (Lexicon), we find the meaning much more decisively brought out. Turis is just the Greek form of Turit, the final t, according to the genius of the Greek language, being converted into s. Ash-turit, then, which is obviously the same as the Hebrew "Ashtoreth," is just "The woman that made the encompassing wall." Considering how commonly the glory of that achievement, as regards Babylon, was given to Semiramis, not only by Ovid, but by Justin, Dionysius, Afer, and others, both the name and mural crown on the head of that goddess were surely very appropriate. In confirmation of this interpretation of the meaning of the name Astarte, I may adduce an epithet applied to the Greek Diana, who at Ephesus bore a turreted crown on her head, and was identified with Semiramis, which is not a little striking. It is contained in the following extract from Livy: "When the news of the battle [near Pydna] reached Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana, whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid." Tauropolos, from Tor, "a tower," or "surrounding fortification," and Pol, "to make," plainly means the "tower-maker," or "maker of surrounding fortifications"; and P53 to her as the goddess of fortifications, they would naturally apply when they dreaded an attack upon their city.

Semiramis, being deified as Astarte, came to be raised to the highest honours; and her change into a dove, as has been already shown, was evidently intended, when the distinction of sex had been blasphemously attributed to the Godhead, to identify her, under the name of the Mother of the gods, with that Divine Spirit, without whose agency no one can be born a child of God, and whose emblem, in the symbolical language of Scripture, was the Dove, as that of the Messiah was the Lamb. Since the Spirit of God is the source of all wisdom, natural as well as spiritual, arts and inventions and skill of every kind being attributed to Him (Exo 31:3; 35:31), so the Mother of the gods, in whom that Spirit was feigned to be incarnate, was celebrated as the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences (DIODORUS SICULUS). Hence, also, the character attributed to the Grecian Minerva, whose name Athena, as we have seen reason to conclude, is only a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess. Athena, the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the "goddess of wisdom," the inventress of arts and sciences. 2. The name Astarte signifies also the "Maker of investigations"; and in this respect was applicable to Cybele or Semiramis, as symbolised by the Dove. That this is one of the meanings of the name Astarte may be seen from comparing it with the cognate names Asterie and Astraea (in Greek Astraia), which are formed by taking the last member of the compound word in the masculine, instead of the feminine, Teri, or Tri (the latter being pronounced Trai or Trae), being the same in sense as Tart. Now, Asterie was the wife of Perseus, the Assyrian (HERODOTUS), and who was the founder of Mysteries (BRYANT). As Asterie was further represented as the daughter of Bel, this implies a position similar to that of Semiramis. Astraea, again, was the goddess of justice, who is identified with the heavenly virgin Themis, the name Themis signifying "the perfect one," who gave oracles (OVID, Metam.), and who, having lived on earth before the Flood, forsook it just before that catastrophe came on. Themis and Astraea are sometimes distinguished and sometimes identified; but both have the same character as goddesses of justice. The explanation of the discrepancy obviously is, that the Spirit has sometimes been viewed as incarnate and sometimes not. When incarnate, Astraea is daughter of Themis. What name could more exactly agree with the character of a goddess of justice, than Ash-trai-a, "The maker of investigations," and what name could more appropriately shadow forth one of the characters of that Divine Spirit, who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God"? As Astraea, or Themis, was "Fatidica Themis," "Themis the prophetic," this also was another characteristic of the Spirit; for whence can any true oracle, or prophetic inspiration, come, but from the inspiring Spirit of God? Then, lastly, what can more exactly agree with the Divine statement in Genesis in regard to the Spirit of God, than the statement of Ovid, that Astraea was the last of the celestials who remained on earth, and that her forsaking it was the signal for the downpouring of the destroying deluge? The announcement of the coming Flood is in Scripture ushered in with these words (Gen 6:3): "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." All these 120 years, the Spirit was striving; when they came to an end, the Spirit strove no longer, forsook the earth, and left the world to its fate. But though the Spirit of God forsook the earth, it did not forsake the family of righteous Noah. It entered with the patriarch into the ark; and when that patriarch came forth from his long imprisonment, it came forth along with him. Thus the Pagans had an historical foundation for their myth of the dove resting on the symbol of the ark in the Babylonian waters, and the Syrian goddess, or Astarte--the same as Astraea--coming forth from it. Semiramis, then, as Astarte, worshipped as the dove, was regarded as the incarnation of the Spirit of God. 3. As Baal, Lord of Heaven, had his visible emblem, the sun, so she, as Beltis, Queen of Heaven, must have hers also--the moon, which in another sense was Asht-tart-e, "The maker of revolutions"; for there is no doubt that Tart very commonly signifies "going round." But, 4th, the whole system must be dovetailed together. As the mother of the gods was equally the mother of mankind, Semiramis, or Astarte, must also be identified with Eve; and the name Rhea, which, according to the Paschal Chronicle was given to her, sufficiently proves her identification with Eve. As applied to the common mother of the human race, the name Astarte is singularly appropriate; for, as she was Idaia mater, "The mother of knowledge," the question is, "How did she come by that knowledge?" To this the answer can only be: "by the fatal investigations she made." It was a tremendous experiment she made, when, in opposition to the Divine command, and in spite of the threatened penalty, she ventured to "search" into that forbidden knowledge which her Maker in his goodness had kept from her. Thus she took the lead in that unhappy course of which the Scripture speaks--"God made man upright, but they have SOUGHT out many inventions" (Eccl7:29). Now Semiramis, deified as the Dove, was Astarte in the most gracious and benignant form. Lucius Ampelius calls her "the goddess benignant and merciful to me" (bringing them) "to a good and happy life." In reference to this benignity of her character, both the titles, Aphrodite and Mylitta, are evidently attributed to her. The first I have elsewhere explained as "The wrath-subduer," and the second is in exact accordance with it. Mylitta, or, as it is in Greek, Mulitta, signifies "The Mediatrix." The Hebrew Melitz, which in Chaldee becomes Melitt, is evidently used in Job 33:23, in the sense of a Mediator; "the messenger, the interpreter" (Melitz), who is "gracious" to a man, and saith, "Deliver from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom," being really "The Messenger, the MEDIATOR." Parkhurst takes the word in this sense, and derives it from "Mltz," "to be sweet." Now, the feminine of Melitz is Melitza, from which comes Melissa, a "bee" (the sweetener, or producer of sweetness), and Melissa, a common name of the priestesses of Cybele, and as we may infer of Cybele, as Astarte, or Queen of Heaven, herself; for, after Porphyry, has stated that "the ancients called the priestesses of Demeter, Melissae," he adds, that they also "called the Moon Melissa." We have evidence, further, that goes far to identify this title as a title of Semiramis. Melissa or Melitta (APPOLODORUS)--for the name is given in both ways--is said to have been the mother of Phoroneus, the first that reigned, in whose days the dispersion of mankind occurred, divisions having come in among them, whereas before, all had been in harmony and spoke one language (Hyginus). There is no other to whom this can be applied but Nimrod; and as Nimrod came to be worshipped as Nin, the son of his own wife, the identification is exact. Melitta, then, the mother of Phoroneus, is the same as Mylitta, the well known name of the Babylonian Venus; and the name, as being the feminine of Melitz, the Mediator, consequently signifies the Mediatrix. Another name also given to the mother of Phoroneus, "the first that reigned," is Archia (LEMPRIERE; SMITH). Now Archia signifies "Spiritual" (from "Rkh," Heb. "Spirit," which in Egyptian also is "Rkh" [BUNSEN]; and in Chaldee, with the prosthetic a prefixed becomes Arkh). * From the same root also evidently comes the epithet Architis, as applied to the Venus that wept for Adonis. Venus Architis is the spiritual Venus. **
* The Hebrew Dem, blood, in Chaldee becomes Adem; and, in like manner, Rkh becomes Arkh.

** From OUVAROFF we learn that the mother of the third Bacchus was Aura, and Phaethon is said by Orpheus to have been the son of the "wide extended air" (LACTANTIUS). The connection in the sacred language between the wind, the air, and the spirit, sufficiently accounts for these statements, and shows their real meaning.

Thus, then, the mother-wife of the first king that reigned was known as Archia and Melitta, in other words, as the woman in whom the "Spirit of God" was incarnate; and thus appeared as the "Dea Benigna," "The Mediatrix" for sinful mortals. The first form of Astarte, as Eve, brought sin into the world; the second form before the Flood, was avenging as the goddess of justice. This form was "Benignant and Merciful." Thus, also, Semiramis, or Astarte, as Venus the goddess of love and beauty, became "The HOPE of the whole world," and men gladly had recourse to the "mediation" of one so tolerant of sin.