things i wrote in church pt2.
This will be my final post for brickhouseministry.com, so I want to make it good.
Let me explain my decision, and the actions that led me to it.
Some of you may remember my last post, for those of you that haven’t, it was mainly about the things in my life that are keeping me distant from God, which eventually led into a rather large rant about sex before marriage where I wrote some of the most personal things I have ever written about.
Here is a couple of quotes from that post
#1
“I come from a pretty screwed up past… I spent the majority of my life making the absolute worst decisions, and it amazes me that I am in the position that I am in today. 10 years ago I would have never dreamed that I would be able to freely write these kinds of things on a church website for all of our youth to read.”
#2
“I have always had low self esteem, I have never felt accepted, and I get nervous every Wednesday because I’m afraid I will say the wrong thing to someone, or upset someone. I don’t know about you but sometimes when I am alone… a voice pops in my head and says: “hey screw up… what you are doing at concord? Do you even remember all the things you have done in the past? You can’t do anything great for God. Not with your past, not with the way you are.”
I am beginning to realize that #1 is completely false… and #2 is completely true.
A couple of people had problems with two of the words I used in the post, the words were dubbed ‘street-talk’ and deemed ‘not appropriate for a church website’
Bill said the post was fine but those words needed to be changed.
I am stubborn, I didn’t, and still don’t feel that I needed to change those two words.
I feel that if God led me to write them, then they should stay there.
But having talked it over with some of my friends I decided that since I am not an official voice of the church, my opinions should not be expressed on a church website.
I have since moved the post over to my personal blog, and all other posts I write will be posted there.
I was thinking the other day about Martin Luther.
*editors note… this is not Martin Luther King jr…. read a book some time.
A long long time ago in a land far far away, a many named Martin Luther became fed up with the practices of his church, so he wrote a note pointing out 99 things that was wrong with the church and pinned the note to the church door.
This upset allot of people… some people rebelled against him. They felt that the current church was fine and that nothing needed to be changed. They called him a rebel, and if im not mistaken they ran him out of town.
Allot of people these days hate people who act like Martin Luther. They don’t want anyone to rock the boat… they don’t think anything within the church needs to change, they don’t think things should be made modern.
What they fail to realize is if Martin Luther hadn’t said to the church “these things need to change” then we would all still be Catholic.
Jesus said in Mark 8:38: “If any man is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his father’s glory with the holy angels”
I have often wondered what makes older people fear change. I have come to realize that people still belive that what was good for them is good enough for anyone else.
The other day I asked my friend James to come to church with me, he said no.
He said that church was:
boring
not relevant to his life
and for the most part I agree that most churches are like that. I see my friends get passionate about Christ, I sit around the dinner table and talk to them about the wonderful things God is doing in their lives and the lives of those around them, then I go to church and we take an hour long nap together… wake up and talk about Christ some more.
In Luke 7:31 Jesus asked “to what shall I compare this generation?”
then he said
“they are like children sitting in the marketplace playing their flutes for us, yet we will not hear their songs.”
Think that verse may be more relevant today than it has ever been. I sit back and watch the youth of concord grow in Christ, and do amazing things out of love for him. I see them witnessing, helping less fortunate people, I hear them praising God in their words and their actions, then I see them quieted down.
“you are to loud”
“you cant say that in church”
“you cant wear that to church”
And my personal favorite
“you cant do that at church”
I listened to wendy Wednesday say “wait until marriage before you have sex, that includes oral sex!” and I thought to myself ‘RIGHT ON!’ because I had never ever ever heard ANYONE speak out against oral sex in ANY church I have EVER been to, even though it is more prevalent to this generation than it has ever been.
About a year ago Time magazine did a survey, the survey said that teens today view oral sex in the same way the teens in my generatin viewed ‘making out’. Basically they all thought it didn’t mean much, it was just something that you do when you are dating.
I have christen teen friends who say, “yeah im a virgin, but I have oral sex… it dosent count” THEN WHY IS IT CALLED oral SEX!?!?!
I agree that we need to be mindfull of what we say. We need to know where the lines are between Christianity and the world… and we must be sure we don’t cross them. However we also need to be sure that we aren’t watering down a message to appease the masses. I made it a point to watch Mtv today…. This is important because I dispise Mtv.
I watched it to count something… over the course of 3 hours oral sex was mentioned or implied nine times.
Hold up… I want to make sure you got that…
9 times
NINE!
3 hours is 180 minutes… there are 4 minutes of commercials every 11 minutes which leaves 132 minutes of show (roughly)
132 divided by 9 = 14.6
That’s a mention of oral sex every 14.6 minutes of Mtv.
Don’t think this is just on Mtv… tonights Law and Order svu was about a girl getting killed after she had oral sex with someone.
Yet for some reason we aren’t allowed to talk about it.
A pastor once asked me this, “if we embrace the way the world speaks, then how will anyone be able to tell us as Christians apart from people of the world?”
I was tired… I couldn’t think… I said “I dunno” I should have said: the same way you recognize that Jay Bakker is a Christian, that Lacey Mosley is a Christian. That Mel Gibson (although slightly whacked out) is a Christian.
If you were to meet Dr. Cox at Chic-fil-a one day, and you had never met him before, and didn’t know he was a pastor, you would still know he loves the lord. Why? Because of his actions, because of the way he carries himself… because Gods love radiates from you and others can just tell there is something wonderful going on in your life.
Actions speak louder than words.
Ugh… im going off on another rant… forgive me.
The point of this post is to say this.
I am not an official voice of the church, and therefore will not be posting on the brickhouse website any longer
things i wrote in church part 1
What follows is the outline of a post i made on brickhouseministry.com
the completed post was what i would consider the best religious article i have ever written. sadly it was too much for the church and they removed the post before i could save it.
this is all that is left… you’ll get the gist of it.
Sunday night I went with the youth group to Wendy’s after church. Somehow towards the end of our meal we started talking about sex. This is starting to be a regular occurrence and that scares me. I am never really sure what to say about the issue. I didn’t save myself for marriage, far from it in fact, so I sorta keep my mouth shut and listen.
Whenever this happens my mind tends to wander to a verse I heard once. The pastor was talking about a raising money for a building fund and he quoted this verse… I took it another way when I first heard it.
Prov. 29:18
Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.
I hope that in this post I can show you that this is an excellent post about love and sex, dating and marriage.
All I can say is hold on for dear life, because my only goal with this is to make you extremely uncomfortable by talking about the stuff that the church has been afraid to talk about for far to long, and to address it from God’s viewpoint.
So Proverbs says “Where there is no revelation (a more accurate term would be ‘vision’), the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. “
I think we can all agree that our society has gone wild sexually and cast off all restraint.
I have noticed in my years of being a teenager, and my few years working with them, not only have teenagers cast off all restraint but the preaching and teaching that we are providing as a church is not getting the job done.
Our teens are no more prepared to date, than a teen who has never stepped foot inside of a church.
The teens that come out of church are having sex just as frequently as those who have never signed a ‘true love waits’ card
Think I’m not talking about your kid? I’ve talked to your kid… trust me… I’m talking about them.
This has made me do some soul searching over the last few months… because I believe I will be devoting my life toward helping students. It seems that sex is something that is widely talked about in church and it bothers me that something so widely talked about would have so little impact
I think I have figured out one of the reasons that the preaching we do does so little good in the lives of those who hear it.
The reason our marriages, dating life, and sex lives are no different than our cultures, even though we know the truth, is because typically our preaching and teaching has been based on restraint rather than vision.
DON’T HAVE SEX UNTIL YOU GET MARRIED!
YOU SHOULD NOT DATE THIS KIND OF PERSON!
Its all about restraint.
IF YOU ARE MARRIED YOU SHOULDN’T BE DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOUR SPOUSE!
Restraint.
But restraint without revelation leads to rebellion.
Rules without relationship lead to rebellion.
And proverbs 29:18 says that in any area of your life, particularity relationships (I believe) vision must come before restraint
Its my belief that if the church would do a better job casting vision for students, we wouldn’t have to counsel as many for teenage pregnancy, e wouldn’t have to hand out condoms at school, because they would be so gripped by their destiny that they have seen in God and they would fall in love with the future that God created for them that they will keep their hands off of each other, because they will not sacrifice their future on the alter of temporary sexual pleasure.
I want to paint a picture of your preferred future and convince you that God has seen far beyond your present stage in life and has prepared glorious things for you.
Have you ever watched a young couple date each other?
They are so serious about their relationship…. But they are 13
And you think to yourself… they don’t have a clue.
I was at Chic-fil-a the other day having lunch with a friend… and sitting on our table was a love letter that some boy had written to a 13 year old girl
I want to post that letter here…
This will be fun I promise.
I have not edited the letter for grammar or spelling
Terrah Victoria Beautiful Skye I love you so freekin much baby doll. I hope you have tons of fun on this trip you are about to go on. I know it will be fun to get away but promise me you wont forget about me, and remember that wherever you go you always have that pice of my heart and you will always have my heart you have grown into being a part of my family and I feel as if I have grown into your family I don’t care if NE1 says we wont last because I have big plans for us to go through life together. I know people say it wont happen but I know we can do it baby. I have never felt this way about anyone or anything in my entire life and it’s the best feeling and I will never let you go. You know im always here for you baby no matter what besides we are live a married couple terra hive grown so close to you in these past four months I know we have a lifetime together so I know I have tons to make up to you because of my bumpy start to our relationship but terrah baby I know I can make it up to you. The beach is going to be so awesome together waking up early in the morning staying out late on the beach at night its going to be the best thing that has ever happened to me except when I asked you out for the first time. Little did I know terrah baby but my life changed soooooo much. And I know now that I have met the girl I need and I want to spend the rest of my life with you I need you baby and you know you have me and im totally commited to you in our relationship together I cant wait to give you this promise ring its going to be the best feeling that I will ever expreiance its going to mean so much to us and I know we will last forever I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I never knew I could fall in love at this age and my love for you grows ever second I am with you or away from you terrah you are the ost beautiful woman that I will ever see you are so amazing and I am so glad that god blessed the broken road that led me straight to you angel I love you so much AND I ALWAYS WILL I will miss you so much over these next to weeks but just think baby we have the rest of our lives ahead of us to share I cant wait to put that huge ring on your finger well I love you ill miss you don’t forget about me and call every day at least 2 times a day I love you and don’t forget you are most beautiful in sweats a tshirt and no makeup on
Your man
Eric
Congratulation eric… you are a moron
You may be asking ‘why are you making fun of eric?’ because Eric doesnt understand love
I hoped that I could use that letter to cast a correct vision of a relationship or marriage because where there is vision there is restrain and where there is restrain there is purity and where there is purity there is holiness.
So if you want to see holiness you don’t start out with a ‘thou shalt not’ list you start out by telling people wher god wants to take them and by infusing in them that the God of the universe implanted in them the seeds of greatness.
That’s how we can keep our kids pants on… by casting a vision from the bible of the beauty of marriage.
If we can cast a vision of love on our young people maybe we wont have to keep condemning them because we will be to busy inspiring them.
Remember when you were in school and the motivational speakers would come up and talk about abstinence?
Here was their whole sales pitch :
“don’t have sex before marriage you might end up like jenny who got AIDS when she was 13 and herpes when she was 17, then she had triplets.
All they did was scare the kids then three weeks later when the scare tactics wore off they were back to doing the same things again.
It takes a divine vision to grip the soul of a person we have to preach the vision of jesus
Marriage is about jesus
Dating is about jesus
Life is about jesus
Sex is about jesus
And to the extent that we can point the generation that is lost and struggling through a sea of mixed messages by the media to jesus
To the extent that we can rekindle in their hearts a vision of the greatness and glory of god in the institution of marriage. To that extent if we are able to paint that picture we will see a generation set free from sexual issues.
All by casting a
And here is gods vision for marriage
Eph 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
If you are single , and you are a woman, find a man that you can submit to like that, and settle for nothing less.
If you are a man, be a man who is so like jesus that you are worth submitting to like that
If you are a woman who is single, be a woman who is worth loving as Christ loved the church
And if you are a man, accept nothing less than a woman that you are willing to die for because of her character, not her breasts.
Im excited about this vision… because where there is a goal, a picture, and example worth following, people restrain themselves.
Of course… that’s just what the bible says.
Think every young lady… from age five up starts dreaming about a man who will love her like that, and the wedding, and the flowers, and the music.
And the guy around age 13 starts dreaming about the honeymoon.
But somewhere along the line, most young ladies settle for the first smooth talking guy who will tell her what she wants to hear.
Or the first guy who touches her and says “if you love me you will touch me back”
We all want a love that grows throughout the years but somewhere along the line some of us settle and before you know it we have given our virginity to someone with the spiritual maturity of a grasshopper.
You become what you behold, the vision you see directs the future you create
As I watched this my standards were being raised
How far is to far
Who cares how far is to far?
If you love that woman as christ loves the church you will keep your hands off of her because she is the daughter of a king.
After I asked jonquil to marry me, I began keeping a little notebook of advice.
I would tell married people that I was engage and ask them “if you could give me one piece of advice about marriage what would that advice be?’
I asked my grandfather
He said
Hang in there no matter what
She is my wife
This generation doesn’t have that picture
They have brad and Angelina
They have people with lots of money and they are real sexy but they cant make a marriage last longer than 18 months
This is the vision this generations seeing
There are a couple of young ladies who come to this church that I am really protective of
I cant explain why
I think its because I have seen to many young ladies give themselves away so there is a part of me that wants veto power over any guy these girls would want to date… because I can see through all the crap that guys can lay down
Matt jamin and I were talking about nichole once
Nichole is single… but if you are a guy who wants to get to her you better have your junk together, because you have to get through the three of us first.
Then if you make it through us you have to go through bill
And he doesn’t like anybody ;)
So if you want to date nichole, that fine… no problem
But you better have the book of Habakkuk memorized
In Hebrew
You better have a job
You better have some ambition
You better not be lazy
This girl is like my little sister in Christ and if you want to date her the biggest achievement on your resume better not be ‘beating halo 3’
I have sat through allot of sermons on relationships and I struggled with this post to find new ideas and new things to say
And it dawned on me that for many of us dating has become idolatry
Its not just sex
Its not just lust
It’s the need to be completed or to not be alone
And until you realize that no one can complete you you are committing idolatry
It’s a whole lot better to be single and lonely than married and lonely
So here is what you do
You rest your standard and settle for nothing less than Ep5 love
The Mystery Of The Pagan Origin Of Christmas
Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th? Most people assume that it has always been a Christian holiday and that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. But it turns out that Jesus was not born on December 25th. However, a whole bunch of pagan gods were born on that day. In fact, pagans celebrated a festival involving a heroic supernatural figure that visits an evergreen tree and leaves gifts on December 25th long before Jesus was ever born. From its early Babylonian roots, the celebration of the birth or “rebirth” of the sun god on December 25th came to be celebrated under various names all over the ancient world. You see, the winter solstice occurs a few days before December 25th each year. The winter solstice is the day of the year when daylight is the shortest. In ancient times, December 25th was the day each year when the day started to become noticeably longer. Thus it was fitting for the early pagans to designate December 25th as the date of the birth or the “rebirth” of the sun.
The truth is that thousands of years before there was a ”Santa Claus”, there was another supernatural figure who would supposedly visit a tree and leave gifts every December 25th.
His name was Nimrod.
The celebration of December 25th goes all the way back to ancient Babylon.
According to ancient Babylonian tradition, Semiramis (who eventually became known as the goddess Astarte/Asherah/Ashtoreth/Isis/Ishtar/Easter in other pagan religions) claimed that after the untimely death of her son/husband Nimrod (yes she was married to her own son), a full grown evergreen tree sprang up overnight from a dead tree stump. Semiramis claimed that Nimrod would visit that evergreen tree and leave gifts each year on the anniversary of his birth, which just happened to be on December 25th.
This is the true origin of the Christmas tree.
On Bibletools.org, Mike Ford describes this ancient pagan tradition about Nimrod this way….
—-
After Nimrod’s death (c. 2167 BC), Semiramis promoted the belief that he was a god. She claimed that she saw a full-grown evergreen tree spring out of the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new life for Nimrod. On the anniversary of his birth, she said, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts under it.
—-
On that same site, John Plunkett described the ancient pagan myth regarding December 25th in this manner….
—-
From many ancient writings, considerable is learned of this man, who started the great organized worldly apostasy from God that has dominated this world until now. Nimrod was so evil, it is said he married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrod’s untimely death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis, propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the real origin of the Christmas tree.
—-
From this original fable peddled by Semiramis (the “Queen of Heaven”) came the tradition for pagans to go out to the holy “groves” and leave gifts for Nimrod (who later came to be worshipped as “Baal”) at an evergreen tree.
Does that sound like a “Christian” holiday to you?
In fact, in his classic work “The Two Babylons”, Alexander Hislop describes the Babylonian origins of Christmas on page 93….
“Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven. It may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ adopted the same festival. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism halfway was very early developed; and we find Tertullian, even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of Christ in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition.”
In fact, the name “Yule” is the Babylonian word for “infant” or “little child” as Hislop describes on pages 93 and 94 of his book….
“That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies, with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, ‘about the time of the winter solstice.’ The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among us — Yule-day — proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. ‘Yule’ is the Chaldee name for an ‘infant’ or ‘little child’; and as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, ‘Yule-day,’ or the ‘Child’s-day,’ and the night that preceded it, ‘Mother-night,’ long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide, in the realms of Paganism, was this birthday observed.”
So when you offer “yuletide” greetings, you are actually acknowledging Nimrod’s birthday.
The truth is that the pagan holiday of “Yule” has been celebrated by the pagans of northern Europe from late December through early January for centuries and centuries. Yule logs were traditionally lit throughout northern Europe to honor the pagan god Thor. The festival would continue until the Yule log burned out - which could take up to twelve days. This is where we get the so-called “12 days of Christmas”.
In fact, Wiccans, neo-pagans and even many witches still celebrate Yule to this day. Many of them think it is incredibly funny when Christians use the pagan word Yule. Yule is one of the most important holidays for them. The following excerpt was taken from a website on witchcraft:
—–
Birthday of the Twins:
Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) holy day. Birthday of the Twins, Heru Sa Aset and Bast, children of Aset [Isis]. Origin of Yule and Christmas. On Winter Solstice Asar [Osiris] dies. Aset [Isis] with the magick help of Nebt Het [Nephthys] creates a Djed Pillar [artificial penis] for Her husband and impregnates Herself. For three full days (December 22-24) Asar lies dead and the Twins grow in Aset’s belly. On this day (December 25th) the Twins are born, the reincarnation or resurrection of Their Father. The green tree is a symbol of the green-skinned Asar, God of fertility and vegetation. The colored lights are symbols of Aset, Goddess of magick and divine light. Red, green, and white are the traditional candle colors of Bast (this was Her birthday alone for several thousand years of early Kemetic history), later being adapted to red for Aset (the color of the Mother’s menstrual flow), green for Asar (the color of vegetation), and white for the Twins (the color of pure light).
—–
So where did Christmas come from?
Well, the truth is that the word “Christmas” is not actually found anywhere in the entire Bible.
In fact, the word “Christmas” was not even invented until about a thousand years after Jesus left this earth.
The Catholic Encyclopedia even admits this….
“The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038.”
But Jesus was not even born on December 25th.
The reality is that it would have simply been far too cold for shepherds to be out with their sheep at night in Israel on December 25th.
The vast majority of Christian scholars now acknowledge this.
So when was Jesus actually born?
Based on the information we have in the Scriptures, it appears that it is most likely that Jesus was born in the fall. In particular, it seems most likely that Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Tabernacles as the video posted below demonstrates….
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So how did December 25th come to be celebrated by Christians?
Well, by the time the Roman Empire legalized Christianity in the 4th century, most of the other religions in the empire were celebrating the birth of their gods on December 25th.
Leading up to December 25th in ancient Rome, a festival known as Saturnalia was one of the biggest celebrations of the year. Saturnalia was a festival during which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of their god Saturn. This holiday began on the 17th of December and it would last for an entire week until the 23rd of December.
Saturnalia was typically characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and lots and lots of debauchery. The priests of Saturn would carry wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the pagan Roman temples.
Later on, the Romans also started holding a festival on December 25th called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means “the birthday of the unconquered sun.” Basically it was a way for the empire to consolidate all of the December 25th “sun god” birthdays throughout the empire into one holiday.
In the year 350 A.D., Pope Julius I declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on December 25th from then on. There appears to be little doubt that Pope Julius was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans to convert to Catholicism.
However, the new holiday did not really take off with Christians at first. The widespread celebration of December 25th by Christians did not really get going until 378. It was apparently then dropped in 381 and then resurrected in 400.
But the truth is that December 25th was celebrated as the birthday of scores of pagan gods long before it was ever associated with Jesus.
As we discussed earlier, the celebration of December 25th goes all the way back to Nimrod (who eventually came to be worshipped as Baal).
Baal worship spread throughout the known world and provided the basis for all other pagan religions. The following are just some of the pagan gods that had “birthdays” on December 25th….
Mithras
Horus
Attis
Dionysus the son of Zeus
Tammuz
Hercules
Perseus
Helios
Bacchus
Apollo
Jupiter
Sol Invictus - (The “Unconquered Sun”)
When the Roman Catholics decided to make December 25th a “Christian holiday” in the fourth century, they simply adopted a long standing pagan holiday and kept most of the same pagan traditions.
For example, the ancient Babylonian “Christmas tree” became known as a symbol of fertility throughout the ancient world. The pole, balls, and tinsel (phallus, testes, semen) represented various aspects of male fertility, while wreaths were always fashioned in a circle to represent female fertility.
In “The Two Babylons”, Hislop describes some of the ancient traditions surrounding the Christmas tree on page 97….
“The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm tree denoting the Pagan messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the sun-god and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as the ‘Man the branch.’ And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas Eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning.”
That sure puts a different spin on Christmas traditions, now doesn’t it?
Most Christians don’t even realize that God warned us about such things in the Bible.
In Jeremiah 10:1-4, God warns us against putting up these decorated trees like the pagans were doing….
Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel. This is what the LORD says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.”
The Puritans understood this. It comes as a surprise to most Americans to learn that the Puritans once banned Christmas trees in many areas of the United States because they were considered so pagan.
According to ancient Babylonian tradition, the springtime fertility festival of Ishtar (Easter) was a time when the “Queen of Heaven” was believed to become impregnated. Nine months later the sun god would be “born” or “reborn”.
To the ancient Babylonians, these holiday trees came to be worshipped as the “Queen of Heaven”, and gifts were brought to the “groves” of trees that had been grown in her honor and placed beneath them as offerings.
The Babylonians also used wreaths to represent the nativity of the sun, since they were objects that depicted the “womb” of the Earth mother.
Early Christians completely rejected these traditions. In the 3rd century, Tertullian wrote the following about these pagan celebrations….
“On your day of gladness, we [Christians] neither cover our doorposts with wreaths, nor intrude upon the day with lamps. At the call of public festivity, you consider it a proper thing to decorate your house like some new brothel. We are accused of a lower sacrilege because
we do not celebrate along with you the holidays …”
The truth is that the celebration of December 25th and most of the accompanying traditions have always been pagan.
But many Christians will protest and say that it is okay for them to celebrate December 25th because to them it is all about Jesus.
That was the same excuse that Aaron used when he and most of the rest of the people of Israel worshipped the golden calf while Moses was up on the mountain getting the Law of God. Aaron actually said that the worship of the golden calf was being done to the Lord as we read in Exodus 32:5….
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
But we know how that turned out.
God was not pleased.
At all.
In fact, He was furious.
In the same way, God is not pleased when we celebrate pagan holidays and keep traditions that have been pagan for thousands of years.
For even more on the pagan origins of Christmas, check out the following YouTube video….
taken from Unexplained Mysteries of the World
Read MoreAn open letter to religious people: You are idiots and i hate you.
Before you go and get the wrong idea, this is NOT about why religion is bad, or why it is wrong. Of course religion is bad, and of course religion is wrong. But this is so blindingly obvious that it no longer needs to be said.
Instead, this is a direct attack on you, the religious person. The argument? That your failure to reject religion indicates that you are colossally irredeemably stupid.
Religion is fundamentally flawed in a staggering variety of ways, to the point that a curious child can bring down the entire framework of baloney with an innocent question.
Such questions include
*Why is there evil?
*Who made god?
*Why should I trust you after that santa claus thing?
But you didn’t ask those questions, did you? Or if you did, you accepted the pathetic rationalizations that where offered without further contemplation.
perhaps you where even afraid to ask, or even to think about it.
Your comforting little worldview matter more to you then the truth.
But can this critical failure really be blamed on fear of the consequences of religion being wrong? Is a godless world that terrible to contemplate?
The idea that santa claus isn’t real is also unpleasant, and this proves a deterrent to disbelief. But not a significant one.
God doesn’t even bring people presents. In fact, in most religions he is actually a real jerk. Plagues and laws and smiting and eternal torture. Is this really a so attractive an idea that people can’t let it go?
Perhaps disinterest is the only real problem. After all, if a man can’t read greek, that doesn’t make him stupid. It simply means he doesn’t care to learn greek.
But can really a disinterest in the fundamental nature of reality really be justified in such a way? maybe so. After all, it makes little difference in day to day living if god is really up there or not.
And yet, should not the fact that god’s existence has no major consequence itself raise a red flag?
The idea that a being with immense powers exist, but never tampers with the world in a noticeable way is an absurdly childish hypothetical scenario. it’s “I’m not touching you” on a cosmic scale.
Granted, we used to see a lot more evidence of god’s tampering then we do today. Lightning, disease, floods, butterflies and the sun.
But even then, a bunch of inexplicable things hardly adds up to a magical being who you can’t see.
And of course all this “evidence” wilted and died with sufficient rational inquiry. The sun and stars turned out to be big nuclear furnaces, diseases and butterflies are now well understood, and lightning is just an electrical discharge.
Indeed, from a leopards spots to pregnancy to the shape of the earth, religions has been proved wrong, wrong, wrong.
It would take an IDIOT not to see a pattern in this. And that’s exactly what you are.
The icing on this pathetic cake is that you realize that all OTHER religions are wrong, you just have a blind spot towards your own.
Perhaps you have a vague awareness that religion is retarded, but you never really give it up because your thoughts are to disorganized to deal with it.
If this is the case, and your mind is a dusty closet full of odds and ends, motivational phrases and vacation photos, I have nothing but contempt for you.
I refuse to respect religious beliefs, and I refuse to respect the people who hold them. Your willful ignorance is inexcusable and it disgust me.
Read MorePart of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty
heather told me today that I should let out my anger
I should vent my frustrations
so I’m going to
and its going to piss allot of you off
George Bernard Shaw once said: No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means
and nothing could be more true
this past week I have been quoted one verse from the bible
one verse that explains away all peaceful teachings in the bible, all messages of love, hope, forgiveness, and humility.
Matthew 10:34
“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword!”
taking this verse at face value brings an image of god to mind
a wrathful god raining fire upon those who oppose him
destroying his enemies
reading it in context (with a little cross referencing) makes it clear that it is anything but a description of how Jesus is coming into this world or what mentality towards people he wishes to impose on his followers
you cant see this scripture and think of it literally
its not like Jesus is walking into a cookout saying “hey I come not bringing beer but chicken!!!”
- the sword is symbolic of the division of the people as a result of hismission
the parallel verse is found in Luke 12:53
“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
go… get your bible and read both passagesthey are the samepeople take their bibles and their religion to seriously
every Christian wants every non Christian, to become Christian… then jointheir church… and pay tithe
the top 10 religions of the world are - Christianity: 2.1 billion
- Islam:1.3 billion
- Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
- Hinduism: 900 million
- Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
- Buddhism: 376 million
- primal-indigenous: 300 million
- African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
- Sikhism: 23 million
- Juche: 19 million
*it should be noted that Christianity contains all religions believing in Jesus, in one way or another
however oddly enough only Christians actively recruit members
you will never here a Buddhist yell “BE ONE WITH THE TAO OR BURN FOREVER YOU FUCKING FAG!!!”
attention class! raise your hand if you can tell me the one thing that keeps most people from becoming a Christian.
yes Tommy?
“other Christians”?
wow Tommy you are absolutely correct
other Christians hate anger and intolerance is listed as a major atheist publications top reasons people do not become Christian
but this post was supposed to be about me….
so what pisses me off about most Christians?
their inability to figure out which batch of text is literal and with is figurative
if you believe the bible is real because of faith… then nothing I say will make any difference to you
because you are a person who takes pride in believing in things that are hard to believe in
but if you need something more you have to cross reference the bible with the events that actually happened in biblical times
you cant rely on the bible
because, to quote penn and teller
“the bible contains an equal amount of fact, history, and pizza.”
like
genesis 6 11-13
Noah’s ark
there is no possible way that Noah could have put all 10 billion species of animals on a boat and distributed them appropriately, where the marsupials are all in Australia and so forth…. its just fucking retarded
its not a literal story, its a story about redemption and forgiveness. starting over. to try and read it literally is to miss the point of the story.
the Noah story is more than likely a metaphorical story based on an actual (albeit smaller) event
a flood on the Euphrates river around 2900 bc. one of the kings of the land named Ziusudra who took a commercial barge… loaded it with shit and road down to the Persian gulf
exodus 14: 22-31
Moses and the red sea
thousands of Jews are enslaved by an Egyptian pharaoh, oddly enough there is no evidence of that
so Moses (whom we also have no evidence of) comes to the pharaoh and says “let my people go”
pharaoh says no
why wouldn’t god appear to the pharaoh and say it himself? because go works in mysterious inefficient and painstakingly cruel ways.
once free Moses leads his people to the red sea and parts the water like pages in a book
these people supposedly wandered around in the desert for 40 years. there is absolutely no archeological evidence that this ever happened.
you would think if thousands of people lived in the desert for 40 years they would leave behind some trash, dead bodies… something…. these people must have either been
1 neat freaks
2 gay men
3 metaphorical
there is no evidence that a man named Moses ever even existed
the gospels
there’s this guy
says he is the son of god, that he will change the world and can heal the sick, raise the dead, make the blind see. his followers claim that he has performed all of these miracles
he was persecuted by the roman government for his beliefs, was crucified, and then raised from the dead and appeared to his followers
his name?
Apollonius of Tyana
I should say that very very few historians doubt the fact that Jesus existed
hell I don’t doubt it one bit
here is my argument
the bible, in and of itself cannot be a basis for belief…. because it is inaccurate on so many levels
hell we cant even agree on who wrote it just that it was “inspired by god”
but what about the other gospels that we are now finding that aren’t in the bible?
the core of the cannon came from the usage in biblical church.
not from relevance
not from accuracy
it came from people asking “what is your favorite story?”
many of the gospels we are finding now contradict, explain away, and elaborate many of the stories we are used to hearing today.
you can think whatever you want about what I have said
frankly I don’t care
my beliefs are not weak enough that your opinions can change them
but don’t try to take one thing literally without taking it all literally
and when taking it all literally be sure to keep these verses in mind
exodus 35:2 35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, asabbath ofrest to the LORD: whosoever doethwork therein shall be put to death.
Romans 1:29-32
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
1 Corinthians 14:34
“Women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says.”
Mark 9:43
“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched.”
Deuteronomy 23:2
“One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the congregation of the Lord.”
if you believe that the bible was truly inspired by god, and god is infallible
then you cant throw out some of the rules, just because you don’t like them
it isn’t our job to judge people
it isn’t really our job to judge the bible
the bible is a book
its a series of pages strung together and bound
your belief structure is in your heart
your god tells you what is right and what is wrong
if we could get passed what we “think” is right
and listen to our gods. maybe we could finally understand this
Matthew 22:37-40
“Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Gandhi said “God has no religion”
just a little something for you to think about
Read MoreAbout Me
Having grown up in the sweltering Florida heat, George enjoys staying indoors, and air conditioning. A Level 7 Elvish Photoshop Mage with +10 Dropshadow Power, George specializes in visual design & interaction design — two fancy terms he uses to make himself sound important and to explain that he cares about both how things look and how things work.