It seems the 40-day idolatry is catching in most anything, always prefaced by "as it says in the Bible!" Where?
The 40-day "testing" in Noah's day was to destroy the rest of humanity, Noah to have been safe in his "cruiser" with all necessities available to him. He and his were deprived of nothing, and his faith in God was definitely NOT being tested! He had spent dozens of years building a sea craft, where water was not to be found anywhere around in which it could have sailed, at the expense of being derided by all around him! THAT was clear evidence of his faith, and not the lousy 40 days of rain!
Rick Warren has capitalized on the 40-day myth, and I mean, as in the dollar sign and the sound of his cash register raking in the money!
Roman Catholicism pushes the envelope to the extreme, with ashes and signs placed on the forehead, fasting and self-sacrifice, JUST AS THE PAGANS DO, TO THIS DAY! This is utterly disgraceful!
The following is found on the Jesus-is-Savior site, and is of unknown origin:
The name "Easter" is merely the
slightly changed English spelling of the name of the ancient Assyrian goddess
Ishtar, pronounced by the Assyrians exactly as we pronounce "Easter." The
Babylonian name of this goddess was Astarte, consort of Baal, the Sun-god,
whose worship is denounced by the Almighty in the Bible as the most abominable
of all pagan idolatry.
Look up the word "Easter" in
Webster's dictionary. You will find: "AS. (Anglo-Saxon), from name of old
Teuton goddess of spring."
Easter, as Hislop says (The
Two Babylons) "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 of Nineveh, was evidently identical
with that now in common use in this country."
The ancient gods of the pagans
had many different names. While this goddess was called Astarte in Babylon, it
appears on Assyrian monuments found by Layard in excavations at Nineveh as
Ishtar (Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, page 629). Both were pronounced
"Easter." Likewise, Beltis, or Bel (referred to in the Old Testament) also was
called Moloch. It was for sacrificing to Moloch (I Kings 11:1-11, especially
verse 7, where Moloch is called an abomination) and other pagan gods that the
Eternal condemned Solomon, and rended away the Kingdom of Israel from his son.
In the ancient Chaldean
idolatrous Sun-worship, Baal was the sun god, Astarte his consort, or wife.
And Astarte is the same as Ishtar, or the English Easter.
Says Hislop: "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 (and Protestant) church, and at that time was not known by any such
name as Easter. IT WAS CALLED PASSOVER, and was very early observed by
Christians . . . . That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish
Passover, when Christ was crucified. . . . That festival was not idolatrous,
and was preceded by no Lent."
Where Did We Get LENT?
"It ought to be known," wrote
Cassianus in the fifth century, "that the observance of the forty days (Lent)
had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained
inviolate." [Perfection needs no embellishment! It is interesting that reference is made to a "primitive church," as in the New Testament church, and NOT the Roman Catholic, indeed!]
Jesus observed no Lent. The
apostles and the early true Church of God observed no Lenten season. Then how
did this observance originate?
"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 was held by the pagan
Mexicans, in honor of the sun. . . . Such a Lent was observed in Egypt
(Wilkinson's Egyptians). This Egyptian Lent of forty days was held expressly
in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god." (The Two
Babylons, by Hislop, pages 104 and 105, and Sabean Researches, by
Landseer, p. 112).
Do you realize what has happened?
God Almighty commanded His people to observe the PASSOVER forever! (Ex.
12:24). This command was given while the Israelites were still in Egypt, prior
to the Old Covenant, or the Law of Moses! It pictured, before the Crucifixion,
Christ's death for the remission of our sins, as a type looking forward to it.
At His last Passover, Jesus changed the emblems used from the blood of a lamb
and eating its roasted body to the bread and wine.
Jesus did not abolish Passover —
He merely CHANGED the emblems, or symbols used. All the apostles of Christ,
and true Christians of the first century true Church observed it, on the 14th
day of the first month of the sacred calendar. It is now a MEMORIAL of
Christ's death, reaffirming, year by year on its anniversary, the true
Christian's FAITH in the blood of Christ for the remission of his sins, and
the broken body of Christ for his physical healing.
But what has happened? DO YOU
REALIZE IT? All western nations have been deceived into dropping the festival
God ordained forever to commemorate the death of the true Saviour for our
sins, and substituting in its place the PAGAN festival in commemoration of the
counterfeit "saviour" and mediator of Baal, the SUN GOD, named after the
mythical Ishtar, his wife — actually none other than the ancient Semiramis,
who palmed herself off as the wife of the sun god, the idolatrous "QUEEN OF
HEAVEN."
THIS is not Christian! IT IS
PAGAN TO THE CORE!
Yet scores of millions of
Americans are deceived into observing this form of heathen idolatry, under the
delusion they are honoring Jesus Christ the Son of the Creator GOD!
Easter does not honor Christ! And
yet, have you not been, like a blind sheep, following the other millions in
this custom? "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth to
come to repentance" (Acts 17:30).
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