Every text book, encyclopedia, and newspaper article that I have read the past few years, both pro-Christmas and no-Christmas, agree that December 25^th is NOT Yeshua"s (Jesus") birthday. So, whose birthday is it? And, what does the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have to say about celebrating this day? How does He feel about making December 25^th a "festival unto the Lord?"

First, we will examine reference sources and learn about Christmas from a historical perspective. Next, we will examine Scripture and see what God says or does not say about this holiday. Everyone knows from experience, that Christmas is a very emotional, "feel-ly kind of time. Documented studies have shown that more people commit suicide, get depressed, and fall into crippling debt this time of the year than any other. Why? Isn"t this time appointed and blessed by God? As a recent newspaper writer, Judy Tarjanyi, stated in the December 5, 1998 issue of The Knoxville News-Sentinel, "The chaos that characterizes the American celebration of Christmas has a way into the soul, culminating in a sense of emptiness and exhaustion by Dec. 25."

So, in studying this subject, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us spiritual eyes to discern Scriptural truth, helping us lay aside our human biases and "feelings. We must not allow our human reasoning, which is based upon the "traditions of man," cloud our understanding of how God views Christmas celebrations. Feelings can often mislead us; especially if they are not coupled with God"s Word. Always remember that God is a God of order, not Chaos. He is a God of Truth and He does not lie nor deceive. When you are confronted with the decision of explaining things away because there is a majority, remember that "Wrong is still wrong, no matter how many are doing it. And right is still right, if only one is doing it!"

The following references are easily found in your local library or religious book stores. This is not an exhaustive list. I have only provided enough quotes to give the reader a solid understanding of where Christmas originated. Bolding and underlining have been added for emphasis.

p. 515, "The fact as we know it, is a rather modern invocation. Christ"s birthday was not celebrated until more than 300 years had gone by...so why do we celebrate Christ"s birthday on December 25? A pagan festival, Natalis Invicti, was a boisterous Roman affair celebrated on December 25, when the sun was in its winter solstice. Worshipers of the Roman sun god enthusiastically pulled their Christian friends into partying. By A.D. 386, church leaders set up the celebration of "Christ Mass," so that Christians could join the festival..."

P.133, "Christmas is a very old holiday. It clearly started as a celebration of the passing of the winter solstice, and the start of the sun"s return...the ancient Romans observed this time with a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and it was called Saturnalia...the festival was observed with great merriment and abandon...gifts were exchanged...the Christians gave the holiday an entirely new name and an entirely new meaning.

"In Britain, the 25th of December was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity, for Bede (de temp. rat.ch.13) relates that the ancient peoples of the Angli began the year on the 25th of December.

"This celebration was probably influenced by pagan (unchristian) festivals held at that time. The ancient Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god; and Mithras, the god of light...as part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving. These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration... popularity of Christmas grew until the Reformation, a religious movement of the 1500's...many Christians began to consider Christmas a pagan celebration because it included nonreligious customs...During the 1600s, because of these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America...however, people...soon started to follow the other old customs again...Christmas became increasingly important to many kinds of businesses during the 1900's."

CELEBRATIONS, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971."Christians of Armenia and Syria accused the Christians of Rome of sun worship for celebrating Christmas...Pope Leo the Great in the fifth century tried to remove certain practices at Christmas which he considered in no way different from sun worship...other pagan forces were at work. From the seventeenth of December until the twenty-third, Romans celebrated the ancient feast of Saturnalia, a period of merrymaking and jubilation. It was commemorative of the Golden Age of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandly, who brought the inhabitants of Italy peace and plenty under his wise rule...Not only did these people retain the ancient festivities, but the clergy eventually brought the upside-down world of the Saturnalia into the Church itself.

"Prior to the celebration of Christmas, December 25 in Roman world was the Natalis Solis Invicti, the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun. By the year 274, Mithras....Aurelian proclaimed...Roman Empire's official state religion. The feast took place just after the winter solstice of the Julian calender, was in honor of the Sun God, Mithras, originally a Persian deity who"s cult penetrated the Roman world in the first century B. C.... Christianity and Mithraism...had much in common in ways of doctrine and symbolism. The Legends of the shepherds and their gifts, the belief in holy water, and communion, and a doctrine concerning the immortality of the soul...The pagan symbolism was taken over and, in the Christian view, elevated. Jesus became the 'Sun of Justice' and the 'Sun of Righteousness.'

"In England, for example, the Puritans could not tolerate this celebrating for which there was no biblical sanction. Consequently, the Roundhead Parliament of 1643 outlawed the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, along with the saints' days.

"Roman Catholics, Lutherans, members of the Dutch Reformed and the Anglican Churches, and those of the German sects all brought their Christmas traditions from Europe and continued to hold to them in America. The stricter, more austere groups-the Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, and Presbyterians-saw hypocrisy and faintly concealed paganism in the Christmas festivities and rites.

p. 13, "In New England, Christmas celebrations were forbidden...in 1659, and although this law was repealed in 1681..one after another the States of the Union acknowledged...Christmas day by making it a holiday, beginning with Alabama in 1836...Today, few Americans know that it was ever outlawed in their country...

"On December 22, 1657, Christmas was abolished in England by an order of Cromwell's Puritan Council....Indeed the Pilgrims, Congregationalists, Baptist, Presbyterians, and Quakers, all Puritans in spirit, brought with them a deep-seated abhorrence of the Church of England's 'relics of Popery,' including 'Christ-mass'... that the day called Christmas was a human invention...they believed any celebration of the Savior's birth was totally without Biblical sanction....As late as 1886 the American Methodist newspaper The Christian Advocate described Christmas as a day on which more sin and sacrilege and pagan foolishness is committed than on any other day of the year.

p. 267, "The fires of the old religious controversy over Christmas observances still burned high midway through the nineteenth century...in 1855, Christmas day fell on Tuesday...the following day, The New York Times reported, The churches of the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodist, &c., were not open. They do not accept the day as a holy one, but the Episcopal, Catholic, and German churches were all open and decked with evergreens."

p. 30, "Many customs and practices of the English Christmas are linked with ancient pagan ceremonies.. ever-greens....it is true that the early church forbade the custom, as savoring of paganism, but the practice was too deeply rooted...

"The choice of December 25 was probably influenced by the fact that on this day, the Romans celebrated the Mithraic feast of the Sun God (natalis solis invicti) and that Saturnalia also came at this time.celebrated in church and in the home with a blend of pagan usages and Christian devotion. The suppression of the Mass during the Reformation led to a sharp change in the observance of Christmas in some countries. In England, the Puritans condemned the celebration and, from 1642 to 1652, issued a series of ordinances forbidding all church services and festivities. This feeling was carried over to America by the Pilgrims and it was not until the nineteenth‑century wave of Irish and German immigration that enthusiasm for the feast began to spread throughout the country. Objections were swept aside and the old traditions revived among Protestants as well as Catholics."

"Christian festival celebrated on December 25, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and also a popular secular holiday... was celebrated in Rome by AD 336...In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted. In the Armenian Church, a Christmas on December 25 was never accepted...The reason why Christmas came to be celebrated... Christians wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the birthday of the Unconquered sun" (natalis solis invicti)....In the Roman world of Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchange of gifts...December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness...Sol Invictus (the unconquerable sun) was hailed as the supreme deity of Rome. Such was the religious world within which Christianity grew up...

"What considerations led the ecclesiastical authorities to institute the festival of Christmas? The motives for the innovation are stated in great frankness by a Syrian writer, himself a Christian. 'The reason,'he tells us...It was the custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25th of December the birthday of the sun, at which time they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true nativity should be solemnized on that day...

p. 367, 321, "At the time of the Reformation the Protestant Church calendar virtually abandoned the Marian feasts; indeed, certain of the sixteenth century reformers even refused to celebrate the holidays of Christmas and Epiphany... which the Presbyterians and the Puritans as a whole rejected. Christmas they said, is Christ-Mass, the devil with the sting in his tail," Away with the Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Easter and all the holy days of Rome, which withdraw men from their godly callings.

"It was not until A.D. 350 that December 25 was declared the official date for celebrating Christmas by Pope Julius I. When the fathers of the church decided to settle upon a date to celebrate the event, they wisely chose the day of the winter solstice, since it coincided with some rival religious celebrations and the rebirth of the sun, symbolized by bon-fires and yule logs...But in the wildness of these celebrations...In Scotland, John Knox put an end to Christmas in 1562. In England, the observance of Christmas was forbidden by act of Parliament in 1644...When Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector...the House of Commons sat on Christmas day and sheriffs were sent out to require merchants to open for business.

p. 42, "Chinese...Birthday of the Sun...the festival of the sun begins at homefive saucers are filled with cakes and sweets and place before the sun on the stone alter....red candles...children are given red sweets in shapes of cocks...after that the families go to their temples to burn incense to the sun...gay public games... priest...wonderful story of creation.

p.14, "in early Roman days a pontiff stood in front of Saturn"s temple and exclaimed , Saturnalia! Io Saturnalia!"...it is to the merriment and bestowing og favors at the Saturnalia time that we owe our common Christmas practice... Egyptians celebrated this mid-winter festival. They claimed that Horus, son of Isis, was born at the close of December.

p.16, "St. John Chrysostom writing in 386..."They call this December 25, the Birthday of the Invincible One (Mithras); but who was so the invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disc; but Christ is the Son of Righteousness.

p.93. "...within the Christian church, no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance...we find Tertullian, even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting...'By us,' says he, 'who are strangers to the Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January...are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din...oh how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians...' That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all doubt."

p.96. "It was no mere astronomic festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there, showed whence it had been derived... loose reins were given to drunkenness and revery...this was precisely the way in which, according to Berosus, the drunken festival of the month Thebeth, answering to our December, in other words, the festival of Bacchus, was celebrated in Babylon.

p.100, "On Christmas day the Continental Saxons offered a boar in sacrifice to the Sun..."The Phoenicians" says Eusebius, every ear sacrificed their beloved only-begotten children to Kronos or Saturn, and the Rodians did the same...

o Each man offered a pig [Remember the pig sacrifice on the alter to Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple by the Assyrians (Hanukkah)]

Saturn was known as the "Hidden One, same as the Greek god "Kronos whose name means "Horned one, known as the father of the gods and men, first of the Syrian Kings, his wife was Rhea 'Great goddess Mother' (worshiped in Babylon as Semiramis), in the east he was worshiped as "Bel or Bal," in Egypt as "Apis the bull or calf (Israel"s golden calf), as Pluto, it was said that he devoured all his children. (The Two Babylons, Rev. Alexander Hislop.)

p.45. "The ordinary way in which the favorite Egyptian divinity Osiris was mystically represented was under the form of a young bull or calf‑the calf Apis‑from which the golden calf of the Israelites was borrowed...for that calf represented the divinity in the character of Saturn...'Apis' being only another name for Saturn.

"Serapis ‑ Egypto‑Grecian deity of the sun first encountered at Memphis, where his cult was celebrated in association with that of the sacred Egyptian bull Apis...Sarapis became revered not only as a sun god ("Zeus Sarapis")...His worship was established in Rome and...Among the Gnostics (early Christian heretics who believed that matter is evil and the spirit is good) he was a symbol of the universal godhead.

1620, "Pilgrim Fathers arrived at Plymouth in Massachusetts, bringing their great dislike of Christmas." (Myers)

1620 - 1750, "Strong religious antagonism to the feast lasted from..." (Myers)

1659, "The General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law that stated, 'anybody who is found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way, any such days as Christmas day, shall pay for every such offense five shilings.' "Gov. William Bradford, ...the Govr tould them that if they made of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed."" (Myers)

1659, "Connecticut, there was a law put on the books forbade both the keeping of Christmas.." (Snyder)

1660 "...the citizens reclaimed Christmas, but it was a different festival from what it had been. The religious aspects were often neglected, with the result that the secularization of the holiday was well under way." (Myers)

1681, "Influx of Anglicans....helped... repeal of the anti-Christmas law..." (Myers)

1700, "...first German dissenters, 'from these people were to come, although not quite yet, those most universal of Christmas customs: the Christmas tree, and the portly, beneficent Kriss Kringle, known also as Santa Claus.'" (Myers)

1776, "December 25, 1776, George Washington crossed the Delaware and defeated the Hessian mercenaries in a critical battle at Trenton...They were said to have abandoned themselves to a rousing German festival and failed to set a watch." (Myers)

1821, "In the diary of Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the date of December 20, 1821, a Christmas tree is mentioned for the first time in America."

1830,"In 1830 in York, Pennsylvania. the first known exhibition of a Christmas tree was held...soon churches started to set up elaborately decorated trees for the purpose of raising money." Myers)

1836, "Alabama was the first state to grant legal recognition to Christmas. (Myers)

1850, "Before the 1850s Christmas had a tremendous struggle trying to establish a foothold in America." (Snyder)

1874, "Henry Ward Beecher, a Congregationalist (Separatist), wrote of his New England boyhood: To me Christmas is a foreign day, and I shall die so. When I was a boy I wondered what Christmas was...we had an Episcopal church in our town...I saw them dressing it with evergreens, and wondered what they were taking the woods in the church for; but I got no satisfactory explanation." A little later I understood it was a Romish institution, kept by the Romish Church. (Myers)

1886, "As late as 1886 the American Methodist newspaper The Christian Advocate described Christmas as a day 'on which more sin and sacrilege and pagan foolishness is committed than on any other day of the year.'" (Snyder)

1887, "In 1887 a Christmas carnival, the first ever held in New England, took place at Bridgeport, Connecticut. (Snyder)

1890, "All states and territories had made similar acknowledgment. [Acceptance of Christmas celebrations] (Myers)

1897, "..the Reverend Henry Harbaugh, a Reformed Churchman, who had spent eighteen years writing and preaching to promote Christmas among other Protestant faiths...in frustration wrote: 'Here where I am living-in the western Pennsylvania hills-they want to hear nothing of Christmas...God have mercy on these Presbyterians-these pagans." (Snyder)

Celebrations, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971.

"Actually, he is the sum total of several trends, customs, and beliefs that only unified about a century and a half ago...in America: St. Nicholas, Kriss Kringle, and Santa Claus....St Nicholas...for the most part a shadowy figure, lost in historical mists and religious myths...known that he was the Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor during the first half of the fourth century, was exiled and imprisoned during the persecution by Diocletan...given freedom by Constantine the Great....He developed into the giver of gifts to children, visiting them on the eve of his feast day, December 6...Dutch children put a wooden shoe by the fireplace before going to bed...shoe is lined with straw on which an apple is laid...straw is for St. Nichols' donkey and "swarte Piet," or "Black Pete," his servant, gets the apple." (Myers)

"Behind the name Santa Claus actually stands the figure of the pagan Germanic god Thor...Thor was the god of the peasants and the common people. He was represented as an elderly man, jovial and friendly, of heavy build, with a white long beard, His element was the fire, his color red...drove a chariot drawn by two goats (called Cracker and Chasher)...fought giants of ice and snow and thus became the Yule log...was said to have lived in the Northland"... by our pagan forefathers he was considered as the cheerful and friendly god, never harming humans but helping and protecting them. (Townsend)

"The Reformation did much to lessen the popularity...a more secular figure took his place...Christmas Man...in England he was called Father Christmas, In France, Papa Noel....When the Dutch arrived in America, the figure of St. Nicholas was on the first ship...Much of the present form of the Santa Claus story is undoubtedly due to the work of Clement Clark Moore and Thomas East. In 1822..wrote a poem...East a cartoonist.." (Myers)

Celebrations, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971.

"The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm tree denoting the pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. (Hislop)

"..the pine tree on which images of the god Attis were hung amid rows of ribbons at a spring festival, to convince us of the ultimate pagan origin of our custom. Trees ere often the habitation of gods, and having divine quality would have been attributed..to fir trees which weathered the bitterest storms.."(Myers)

"The birthplace of the modern Christmas tree seems to have been in the vicinity of the upper Rhine River in Germany... fifteenth or sixteenth century." Myers)

"The Roman Catholic Church frequently banned or other wise tried to discourage the use of evergreens, but the age-old custom remained so deeply ingrained in the German culture that the tree eventually became transformed into a Christian symbol. (Snyder)

"The first Christmas tree to appear in an American church caused a real furor. In 1851, the Rev. Henry Schwan, a 32-year-old German immigrant who had arrived in America less that a year before, placed a Christmas tree in his church in Cleveland, Ohio...members of his congregation immediately branded it a throwback to pagan customs. (Snyder)

"In the diary of Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the date of December 20, 1821, a Christmas tree is mentioned for the first time in America....In 1830 in York, Pennsylvania. the first known exhibition of a Christmas tree was held...soon churches started to set up elaborately decorated trees for the purpose of raising money....introduced the Christmas tree into Paris in 1837...did not gain immediate acceptance...the community tree is solely an American custom.." (Myers)

"Many customs and practices of the English Christmas are linked with ancient pagan ceremonies..evergreens...it is true that the early church forbade the custom, as savoring of paganism, but the practice was too deeply rooted... (Metcalfe, p.30)

Celebrations, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971.

"The decorating of homes with evergreens at this time of year is a custom of the utmost antiquity...plants have always been symbolic of the continuance of life...adorning their houses...the people were aiding the sun in its climb." (Myers)

"The custom was passed down to us from the Romans who observed the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun at the winter solstice and, a few days later, their New Year festival. They hung other greenery, rosemary, bay, laurel, holly, ivy, and mistletoe." (Myers)

"During the celebration of the Roman Saturnalias, laurel and other green and flowers were used extensively for processions and house decorations...In Northern Europe, evergreens, because they did not die in the winter time, became symbolic of eternal life and were almost objects of worship. (Colliers)

"Mistletoe is the famous Golden Bough, honored in Norse legend and worshiped by the Druids...Pliny the Elder, the Roman naturalist of the first century B.C., describes it: The Druids, for so they call their wizards, esteem nothing more sacred that the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows...So deeply imbedded was it in the pagan way of life that the early Christian leaders would not permit it in their churches...In England this is still the case." (Myers)

Celebrations, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971.

"Our practice of giving and receiving gifts at Christmas has descended from the customs of the Roman New Year....Among the Romans such gifts were called strenae, a word said to be derived from the goddess of luck, Strenia. At first the gifts were branches from sacred trees meant to wish recipients an auspicious New Year." (Myers)

"In Rome the custom developed of presenting gifts to the emperor, and in a society where the power of the ruler was of such eminence, the gift ceased to be a gift and became a forced "payment." (Myers)

"The exchange of gifts and greetings at or near Christmas time began long before Christianity...In pagan Rome rich men gave generously to their poorer neighbors during Saturalia...Because gift-giving was so essential a part of the pagan celebrations, the early church frowned upon it as sternly as upon other and more questionable New Year customs. (Hole)

Celebrations, The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, 1971.

HOW DOES THE GOD OF ISRAEL VIEW HIS PEOPLE USING THE TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PAGANS TO WORSHIP HIM?

If you read the above references, you learned that the origin of Christmas is clearly in paganism, not Judaism or the Bible. You"ve also learned that the calf called "APIS, whom the Israelites worshiped in the wilderness (Exodus 32), is the one and same god - SATURN, the "hidden one or "sun god who was worshiped and sacrificed to by pagans on December 25 every year since ancient Babylon.

If Yeshua (Jesus) is the author and finisher of our faith, should we not ask, did He celebrate Christmas? Did He teach the apostles and early church fathers to celebrate it? If the answer is no and obviously it is, then why should anyone who claims to be a believer in Yeshua celebrate it?

In the Tenach (Older Covenant), idolatry was a capital offense, punishable by death. In the Renew Covenant (1 Cor . 6:9), Rabbi Paul writes, "Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters...will inherit the kingdom of God.

We know that Yeshua and Rabbi Paul did not teach anything contrary to the Older Covenant. The Apostle John even stated that we must have the mind of Messiah and walk as He did (1 John 2:6). Yeshua only celebrated His appointed times, "the feasts of the Lord, listed in Leviticus 23. Why don"t we? Clearly in Scripture, Gentiles are grafted into Israel (Romans 11:17). Rabbi Paul tells us to celebrate the Biblical feasts (1 Cor. 5:8) as he did, and to flee from idolatry (1 Cor 10:14). And, if the Biblical feasts of the Lord are a sign between us and our God (Ezekiel 20:12, 20), is there a sign surrounding Christmas? Maybe the sign of "mystery Babylon?

Revelation 18:4states, Come out of her my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.

May we not be found doing as the Israelites of old did and call this pagan festival a festival to the Lord! Read what happened to King Jeroboam in Kings 12:25-13:34 when he decided to "institute a festival...in the month of his own choosing..."

Deuteronomy 12:29-32,"The Lord your God will cut off before you...be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, "How do the nations serve their gods? We will do the same. You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates...See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it."

Deuteronomy 13:6-8,"If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him.

Deuteronomy 13:13-14,"...wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people astray, saying, Let us go and worship other gods" (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe, and investigate it thoroughly..

Exodus 32:4-,"He (Aaron) took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the form of a announced, Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." As we look further in the chapter we see traditions common to other nations in their worship of their gods mixed with the worship of the God of Israel , "burnt offerings, fellowship offerings, "drink, revelry(sexual connotations), dancing, singing, bowing down, running wild, out of control."

1 Kings 12:26-33 Jeroboam set up golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan. "...built shrines on high places...appointed priest from all sorts of people..He instituted a festival...month of his own choosing...offered sacrifices.."

Micah 6 The Lord's case against Israel in verse 16, "You have observed the statutes of Omri [1 Kings 16:25...King of Israel..did evil..and sinned more than those before him] and all the practices of Ahab's (Omri's son, was worse) house and you have followed their traditions

Jeremiah 7:17-,"Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven (Babylonian title for Istar).

Jeremiah 10:1"...This is what the Lord says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations...For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. The adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter."

Acts 19:24Concerning the silver-smith who made shrines of Artemis (the Roman goddess Diana):"brought in no little business for the craftsman." Verse 26, "He says that the man-made gods are no gods at all."

Colossians 2:8,"See to that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Messiah."

1 Thess 1:7-9, Rabbi Paul spoke highly of the Thessalonians, "And so you became a model to all believers...they tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."

Mark 7:5-9, Yeshua talking to a sect of the Pharisees about "clean and unclean," verse 8, "You have let go of the commandments of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

Rom 11:16, "If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches."

1 Cor. 12:2,"You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols."

Do Christmas trees speak? God is a jealous God, he neither shares his glory with no one, the moon, sun, stars, evergreen tree, santa clause, mistitle toe, or any part of his creation. We are told NOT to make images....

1 Timothy 4:7,"Have nothing to do with godless myths (profane, fables) and old wives' tales; rather train yourself to be godly."

2 Timothy 4:3, "For a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear, They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

"Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will plainly tell them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity."

The word "iniquity in the Greek (anomia) means: lawless, anti-law or against the Law. We"ve clearly seen what the Law says about idolatry. Our Father in heaven is a jealous God and desires to be worshiped as He said to worship Him, not adding to nor taking away from His Word.

Is the Torah for Gentiles?

Hard to Understand Teachings of Rabbi Paul

The Shabbat (Sabbath)

Food for Thought - Did Yeshua Cancel the Dietary Laws

Biblical Feast Day Chart

Passover To Easter

Pharisees - Who Were They?

What Really Happened on December25

Under the Law - What Does this Mean?

Women Teachers - Is this Scriptural?

Traditions - The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

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