The Unholy Days
(April 1999; Modified January 2004)

Sabbath

Church, God has not changed His seventh day Sabbath to first day Sabbath. His Word has not changed, but you have. God, in His Word, does not have to repeat it again and again, letting you know that His seventh day Sabbath is still in effect; He has said it and that's that. What He saw as necessary to repeat in His Word, He did, and that which He did not repeat does not mean it is nullified. A lot He did not repeat in the New Testament, but it still stands. Seventh Day Sabbath was not nailed to the cross with Jesus. God's Ten Commandments are not "typed and shadowed" and nothing in the New Covenant superseded them. Nothing!

The Sabbath commandment is one of the Ten Commandments which most of you think has been done away with, but that is just not so. God instituted the Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were ever presented to man.

The Sabbath has two meanings: 

1. rest or break from your daily acts in physical work or manual labor, and devote full-time to God as on the Sabbath Day to keep it holy; and
   
2. rest as in the book of Hebrews meaning give your burdens to The Lord, trust in Him, for He will work things out for you, as in faith in God alone.

Neither of those meanings replaces the other and neither has been abolished. Sabbath in the context of "holy day" is what is discussed here. Sabbath is a holy day unto The Lord, and has a promise attached to it, that is, you will be blessed for keeping the Sabbath Day. For God said rest on the seventh day as He did. He did not rest on the first day, but rested on the seventh day.

Genesis 2:1-3 reads, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. The Sabbath was instituted right there in Genesis 2 and therefore was not made for the Jews only but for "all mankind. There were no Jews in Genesis 2 to receive the Law containing the Fourth Commandment on the Sabbath because the Sabbath was instituted before the giving of the Law. (Are You Really Not Under The Law?) Mind you, when the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished, which was a job God had worked on for six days, even He on the seventh day took a day of rest from His labors. God saw into the future that day of rest, the seventh day, as being most needed by His children for both ministering unto Him and resting the body from its toils. That verse of Scripture refutes the widespread belief in The Church that the Sabbath was made for the Jews only.

Christ said that the Sabbath (weekly) was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Beloved, the Sabbath is for you to cease from your physical labors and things that you delight in and turn your attention to ministering unto The Lord. The weekly Sabbaths are not typed and shadowed as some would have you believe. God did not do away with the weekly Sabbath Day nor did He change the seventh day of the week Sabbath to first day of the week Sabbath - that was man's doing. Church, by you conforming to the first day (Sunday) observance of The Lord's Day in lieu of the seventh day Sabbath, you are rejecting God's Law, rejecting God's Word, and following the dictates of the church in Rome/Pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" is the fourth of God's Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8. The Sabbath Day in God's Commandments has not been abolished nor was it nailed to the cross on Calvary. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was symbolic of the Jew (the only ones then whose God was The Lord) standing above all others that were not God's people. The Sabbath still symbolizes the difference between you, The Church, and the world or the unsaved, that is, unless you are no different than the world (and you're not any different with your man-made Sunday Sabbath/Lord's Day). You do not stand above the rest of the world with your Sunday Sabbath observance.

The Catholic Church made Sunday, "Day of the Sun" honoring the Sun god (taken from the pagan week) the Sabbath Day for The Church of Jesus Christ. Did you hear what I said? Sunday is a pagan worship day that has been gobbled-up and tacked-on to The Lord God as "holy." God forbid! Human beings can't take something unholy and make it holy unto God. God stands alone and does not need anything pagan to glorify Him nor to draw souls unto Him. That is totally unacceptable to God. The Catholic Church changed God's Commandments and instituted so-called days of observance that are not of God, and you, Beloved, have bought into it. Again, when you observe Sunday Sabbath or any of the unholy days, you have succumbed to the dictates of the Pope and the Catholic Church and you reject the Word of God. Don't you know that no one (not even the Catholic Church) has the right to do things their way by simply ignoring the way God has ordained things to be! What the Catholic Church has done is whoredom - gross sin. YOU are also in whoredom as long as you continue to honor Sunday Sabbath.

Jesus speaks of the Two Great Commandments (Are You Really Not Under The Law?) which are all Ten Commandments inclusive, and a summation of the whole of God's Word - His High Holy Standard, the Bible. These Commandments were not nailed to the cross on Calvary, only the carnal ordinances contained in the Law of Moses. It was these carnal ordinances that were nailed to the cross with Jesus - Moses' temporal promises, and not God's spiritual Law. The offerings were nailed to the cross and thus abolished when Christ was the one and final "offering" replacing those segments of Moses' law. This was not the Ten Commandments containing Saturday Sabbath. God's Law is alive and well, but you just have not been obeying the whole of it. Observance of the seventh day Sabbath is still in effect, and it was not nailed to the cross because it had nothing to do with sin offerings and sacrifices.

Keep holy the seventh day Sabbath, the Fourth Commandment, for it is still in effect in spite of who changed it to the "Lord's Day," and in spite of almost the entire Christian world honoring that day. Church, you have just got to do things God's way and not your way, and not the Pope's way. Quit twisting the Scriptures to suit your needs by saying, "We are not under the law, but under grace" thus excusing yourself out of the seventh day Sabbath. And no, you are not under the law, that is, that part of the Law of Moses containing the carnal ordinances of sacrificial offerings and divers washings for sin. You are not under the law because there is no more Levitical priesthood to perform those carnal ordinances since Jesus, your High Priest forever, was your offering when He died on the cross, thus making it possible for you to become sons of God. With the Law of God having been placed on the fleshly tables of your heart, you still have to live by and obey the Law of God - all of it - including Saturday Sabbath.

Let us look at some "garbage-can-justifications" for not observing the seventh day Sabbath.

• All of the Ten Commandments were repeated by Jesus except the fourth regarding the Sabbath;

• Time zone differences and date lines in the various parts of the world precludes seventh day Sabbath from being observed, and that's why the Sabbath was just for the Jews in Israel at that time;

• When Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, that long day, Saturday then became Sunday for worship (how about that!);

• Saturday: sad day: Jesus in the tomb. Sunday: glorious day: Jesus resurrected.

None of that justifies Sabbath change. I repeat, the Saturday Sabbath was never changed nor was it abolished. Sabbath is mentioned 64 times in the New Testament, so how can you say it was done away with?

Early Christians observed both the seventh day and the first day (only the seventh was necessary), but were soon persuaded by the lead Church, the Roman Church to observe only the first day, Sunday, since Jesus resurrected on the first day of the week (Sunday according to them). I say unto you, in the very first place, there was no need to observe the seventh and first, but the seventh day Sabbath only as was written by The Lord God Himself. Absolutely nowhere in the Scriptures does it state that seventh day Sabbath was changed to the first day because of Jesus not being in the tomb on the first day of the week. For sure the prophets and Jesus would have made some mention of the change. Just because the Apostles participated in certain events taking place on the first day of the week did not mean the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday. Church, The Lord wants you to come back to your First Love, Him, the Head of the True Church; Him who gave directions for this way of life which have been cast aside for centuries. God has not changed, you have. Get back to Saturday Sabbath.

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2:27-28 reads, "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." Doesn't this mean you must observe the Sabbath because you say that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, who after all, also with the Father, is Lord of the Sabbath? The Sabbath He was speaking of was the seventh day, for He made no mention of the seventh day Sabbath changing - and it did not. The Sabbath He is speaking of is the day set aside by Father God as the day of rest.  Again, this is not resting in faith only, as some would have you believe, but resting from labor and spending that time honoring God. The Sabbath Day is to be spent in total dedication unto The Lord. You should be in fellowship with the Believers in the congregation · hearing and receiving the anointed Word of God from the Shepherd of the congregation · studying the Word of God · praising, worshipping and speaking about the goodness of God, and what He has done and continues to do for you and mankind · spending time in thought and discussion on the characteristics and traits of God. God instituted the Sabbath Day for spiritual meaning, a sign of the holiness of Him, and the holiness required by God of you, His people. The Sabbath was made for man - for you, Church. The Sabbath Day was instituted by God for you to break away from the world and bring all of you to Him.

The Sabbath Day of The Lord is a covenant of righteousness and holiness, and is nothing more or less, and on no other day but the seventh day. Church, Father God did not change the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week because of the New Covenant with His Son, Christ Jesus. God announced that the weekly Sabbath was on the seventh day and Sunday is in no way God's "created" seventh day. The Church has been duped into believing this lie for hundreds of years, and again, there is nothing in the Bible that point-blank states that the Saturday Sabbath is now become Sunday, The Lord's Day for Christians. Nothing! Absolutely nothing can be found! Again, the change of the Covenant was about sacrifices and sin, not about changing the Sabbath Day from Saturday to Sunday. (Are You Really Not Under The Law?)

I must constantly bring to your remembrance that the Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments, God's Law, not Moses' law. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Jesus did not come to change the Law of God but indeed came to fulfill it. (1) He fulfilled it by living out the prophesies of Messiah, Savior, High Priest forever, a sacrifice for sin once and for all in place of animals. (2) He fulfilled it by walking in obedience to God's Law. He showed you that you can live a holy and righteous life in obedience to all of God's Law, His Word, while on this journey. God's Law is not extinct. Saturday Sabbath is not extinct.

Honoring the Sabbath, the seventh day that is, should be in your heart on account of it having been made for you, and your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath. Believe the Father through the Word of His Son, Jesus, who only did the Father's will (John 6:38), and the Father nor the Son nowhere said the Saturday Sabbath is abolished. The Lord's day means supreme or belonging to The Lord. Get this, everyday belongs to The Lord but the seventh day is the Sabbath Day unto The Lord and was made for you to minister unto Him. The seventh day is your rest day - dedicated "unto" your God. Praise God! Jesus said in Matthew 5:19, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." It is for real, Church. Repent! You must obey The Lord's Word - His Ten Commandments. You must go back to the seventh day Sabbath.

I see further proof is needed for you. Beloved, this is serious business. This is not a joke and it is time to come to grips with doing things the way God originally planned them before the gates of hell, through the Roman Catholic Church, set out to change things, and indeed did just that. God has not changed His Word; He does not have Alzheimer's, and nor is He "wishy-washy." He said what is to be and that is what He expects of you.

You that believe that God's Law was abolished, how do you "explain-away" the below Scripture relating to God's Law which was never abolished? There is no explanation. This is proof that God's Law has not been abolished but exists in you and you must obey it even now - all of it.

Acts 24:14 "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets . . .." Written in the Law of God, Luke speaks of this because the Law of God, the Ten Commandments, His whole Word, was not abolished by Christ's death on the cross. This means, seventh day Sabbath, the Fourth Commandment is still in effect. Also, these prophets Luke refers to spoke of God's Law by way of revelation from God's Holy Spirit, and not only spoke of Christ fulfilling the temporal or temporary law, but spoke of not polluting the Sabbath (Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah).

Jesus Himself kept the seventh day Sabbath and after His death, even the Apostles kept it. Christ observed the Sabbath in Mark 1:21; 3:1-5; and 6:2; Luke 4:16. (Don't excuse this off as "Jesus was under the Law," for He was here under those carnal ordinances to fulfill them.) After Jesus' resurrection the Apostles continued to observed the Sabbath in Acts 13:14, 42; 17:1-2; and 18:1-4. Jesus observed the seventh day Sabbath, and never spoke a word about observing another day on His behalf after His death. Yes, the early Church was in the habit of observing both Saturday Sabbath and Sunday, but their Sunday observance had to have been kept in commemoration of Jesus' supposed Sunday resurrection from the tomb. (Just as many of you, yearly, remember the death of a love one, perhaps so did they weekly remember the resurrection of Jesus.) Later, the early Church observed Sunday only as Sabbath, but not because God ordained it, but because the very influential Roman Church (Catholic) changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday as it had gained more control over the other churches due to the dwindling number of Jewish Christians and its dislike for Jewish customs. (It was jealousy - the gates of hell attempting to prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ.) Beloved, for centuries, The Church has broken God's heart by breaking this Fourth Commandment and the time is here and now to CEASE! Cease first day Sunday Sabbath observance and get back to Saturday Sabbath as ordained by God!

Colossians 2 is sometimes used to justify not observing God's original Sabbath Day and it reads, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of any holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17). The Sabbath days spoken of here, which are a shadow of things to come, are the seven annual feasts of Israel - set times that were appointed by God. The annually observed Sabbaths/feasts are not the same as the weekly seventh day Sabbaths. Remember, weekly seventh day Sabbaths were instituted by God back in Genesis. Follows are the yearly feast Sabbaths showing them as a "shadow of things" to come. These are holy days yearly Sabbaths, and not the weekly seventh day Sabbaths: 

Church, there is a blessing for seventh day Sabbath-keepers. "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil" (Isaiah 56:2). Church, there is a blessing for Sabbath-keepers! "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it" (Isaiah 58:13-14). There you go, saying "This is for the Jews, not for us. Jacob is their father." Was not Abraham Jacob's grandfather? Are you not of Abraham's seed through faith in Christ Jesus? Isn't Jesus your Lord and Savior? Is not Jesus Lord of the Sabbath? Folks, God is talking to you as well, for His Sabbath goes way back before Jacob. The Lord is saying, if you honor My Sabbath by not doing the things you like to do, but enjoy this day - calling it a delight because it is a day set aside for you and Me, and by not speaking your own words, but words about Me and My goodness, I will surely bless you with love, joy and peace in My precious Holy Ghost; bless you going and coming, spiritually, physically, and materially. Church, try doing it God's way. Oh, how He'd love it. It has been so long since the Lord has been honored on the seventh day Sabbath by His True Church (few exceptions). The Lord is waiting for your return. Repent and go back to your First Love's way of honoring His Sabbath. Praise God!

God is not only the God of Israel, but of all that come to salvation. God is no respecter of persons. What God wanted in the beginning from the Jews, He wants today, from you, His Church. God wants the circumcism of your heart (covenant), that is, your faith in Him, your righteousness, and not the circumcism of your flesh. I said that to say this, The Lord is your God who makes you holy, as He is holy. By observing His Sabbath Day, which was made for you, it serves as a sign between you and The Lord that He is your God, and it also tells the world that your God is holy and is to be reverenced. Church, you are different than the world, which is why you are observing this day. By observing the Sabbath, the seventh day Sabbath that is, you are standing out as that light upon a hill; you are standing out as those Peculiar People; you are standing out as the people holy unto their God. By observing the seventh day Sabbath, it is your mark of distinction from those following the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. Praise God!

This day is hallowed because you have told the world, good-bye, for it is a holy day unto your God. For a day, you turn-off the world and turn-on Jesus. On this day you are to do nothing but minister unto The Lord God - praise and worship Him. Before you know it, that one-day period has gone so quickly that you're wondering where the time went. You'll be wondering because you will have had such a delightful time in The Lord. That's the way it is when you are in glory! Oh, what a glorious blessed day in The Lord! This day was made for you, not you for it. Seventh day Sabbath observance is obligatory.

The Lord wants you to reverence Him because He is God. You say you love The Lord, go ahead and do it, observe the seventh day Sabbath God's way and pay no attention to the world and what they say, neither to what others in The Church will say. YOU have to answer to The Lord concerning the seventh day Sabbath, which He never changed. Live to please The Lord and not others, and not self. Praise The Lord! Do it for Jesus; He is Lord of the Sabbath. Do it for Him.

Nehemiah 10:31 reads, "And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day . . . ." Here, the Lord is instructing you regarding the Sabbath observance. Yes, they, the world, will sell food and clothing on the Sabbath, but you are not to buy it. Reverence The Lord. This is His day that was made for you to honor Him. Out of seven days you have six and He, The Lord, is only asking for one full day of special honor in ministering to Him. Is that asking too much? After all, He is the One you say you know and love. I know it's not too much. Do it! The Lord loves it. Bless His Holy Name!

In those days saw I in Judah some treading winepresses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobels of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day (Nehemiah 13:15-17)? 

My Sweet Lord, if only Nehemiah could be here now. For sure, he would lose the hairs on his head. For a fact, The Church does not observe the seventh day Sabbath. For a fact, that first day Sabbath that The Church is erroneously observing is done irreverently. As soon as the churchgoers leave the church building on Sunday morning, they look for the nearest place to sit for after-church-dinner, buying vituals (food) sold by those who don't observe even the man-made Sabbath. Next, the churchgoer goes home to do either or all of the following: watch sports on television or play sports; cut the grass; wash the car; go shopping; do laundry; clean house; paint, draw, sew; watch secular videos, go to the movie theater, or watch the junk on Christian television stations; and much, much more. Too bad Christian television had to go in this category, but it is, and is so because there is almost nothing on there that really feeds one's soul. "A little Jesus here and a little Jesus there" does not make Christian television worthy of watching on the Sabbath Day. Anyway, all of that stuff is commonly referred to as "delighting yourself in your own pleasures."

Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers (Jeremiah 17:21-22).  

The Lord is saying, cease from working on the job and at home, and make this a holy day unto Him. Clear and simple, observe the seventh day Sabbath reverencing The Lord your God. That bag of garbage can wait to be taken out; that floor can wait to be vacuumed; that business can get someone else to work on Saturday, for you must honor The Lord on His day.

Church, God is real and He is for "really-real" about His Church observing His seventh day Sabbath as He made it in the beginning. There is no excusing yourself from observing this day by believing "Times have changed" or "It doesn't matter which day is Sabbath." You are sinfully incorrect, and if you break one of God's Laws, you have broken them all. It matters! God gave the seventh day Sabbath. Church, remember, God is immutable; He changes not. Just because The Church has been going on this way with first day Sabbath for hundreds of years (2,000-plus) doesn't mean it's okay. Beloved, it has indeed been a long time for you in disobedience, but it's now time to repent. The Lord is tapping you on the shoulder now to get you to repent, for He is soon coming. Even two days (2,000-plus years) worth of grief for The Lord is an awful lot, and you have grieved Him terribly with your Sunday Sabbath.

When you think about it, not too long after our Lord's death on the cross did Satan and the gates of hell begin to "try" to prevail against The Church. Notice I said, "try," and trying for some 2,000-plus years, but not then, not now, and not ever will prevail against the True Church of Jesus Christ. Church, you have grieved The Lord some terribly with your blatant irreverence for His seventh day Sabbath. Just because first day Sabbath has gone on for so long does not make it right. It is written that the Apostle Peter was a fisherman and Paul a tentmaker, but does that tell all Christians that those are the professions they must have? No! Well, it's the same with the Sabbath. Since the Apostles had witnessed Jesus' death and resurrection, and it was yet fresh in their minds, they showed reverence and joy from one Sunday to the next by gathering in His remembrance. However, because they did so, that was not to say that The Church was to now observe the Sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday just as it does not say all in The Church are to be fishermen and tentmakers. God's Word is immutable! Go back to the seventh day Sabbath.

The Lord wants you, His Church, to turn around completely. He wants you to come back to your First Love - Him, whom you think you obey. Do it God's way. Praise His Holy Name! He is giving you the opportunity to get righteous, and to be chosen to rule and reign with Him. Take that wonderful and glorious opportunity. Do it His way, now!

Christmas

You cannot find anywhere in the Bible the celebration of anyone's birthday except for Pharaoh's (Genesis 40:20) and Herod's (Matthew 14:6 and Mark 6:21). Nowhere is birthday celebration written for the servants of God, and in particular, Jesus. What is so stupid about the whole concept of Christmas being Jesus' birthday is that, the real date of His birth is unknown; second to that, you see it as a good gesture by taking what was originally a pagan celebration and making it your Savior's birthday. Garbage! You cannot sanctify pagan holidays to God's glory. You are filthy-filthy if you don't have any more respect than that for The Lord. Utterly silly! Satan is making one big fool out of you so-called Christians. You are just letting the devil make the biggest idiot of you. Shame on you! Repent! Your God deserves better than you taking a pagan holiday and attempting to make it a holy day in His honor. Holy my foot! Yes, I am angry and you ought to be as well, for having participated in such Baal worshipping in the name of Jesus Christ.

You often hear that Christmas is too commercialized and that folks have taken the real meaning out of it, right? I stop right here to say, no one, absolutely no one has taken the real meaning out of Christmas by commercializing it. To you, Church, Christmas "never ever" should have had real meaning. Jesus was never in that mess. This is another lie you received from the Roman Catholic Church - the gates of hell trying to prevail against the True Church of Jesus Christ. You have been deceived by it and above that, you have and continue to cause God much grief over this Christmas trash. The Lord is grieving over the Christmas Baal worship in His Church. Christmas is idolatrous. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14), and will share His glory with no one, not even your Christmas Jesus. You should reverence your God far apart and above Christmas. Lord! Lord! Lord!

The name Christmas comes from combining Christ (Jesus Christ) with mass (Roman Catholic mass). Christ and the mass is Christmas. Please! Give me a chance! What would Jesus have to do with anything so heavily pagan-influenced as the mass? "The holy sacrifice of the mass"? First, Christ cannot be sacrificed on that cross again. He did it once and for all and it was finished when He said so in John 19:30. For human beings to think they can offer the Sacrificial Lamb, Jesus, on the cross again and again and again is demonic, and anything as pagan as that is certainly whorish and of the Devil. This same mass with repetitive prayers is pagan and the Word of God has this to say about repetitive prayers in Matthew 6:7, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Now you can see that Christmas is pagan and of the Devil. Jesus has never had, and nor will He ever have, anything to do with paganism, including Christmas. Remember, this is "A MIGHTY GOD" you serve and He takes second place to no demon nor anyone else for that matter. Praise God! Since you obviously think Jesus had something to do with Christmas, face it, you don't know The Lord and nor do you know His Word!

Luke 2:4-8, "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem . . . . And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." These Scriptures are concerning the time of year and location of Jesus' birth. From Verse 4 you know that Bethlehem is in Israel. Verse 8 about "the shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" must make you wonder how those poor shepherds tolerated that cold. Now you're thinking! Israel is cold in December and shepherds watching their sheep at night in Bethlehem, Israel on December 25th just was not, and in fact DID NOT take place. This Christmas trash is doing nothing but making a fool out of you - tricking you all the way to hell. Haven't you had enough of being made a fool of by the Devil just on a day-to-day basis? Give up Christmas! You won't miss it if you will just get caught up in Jesus like you are suppose to. When you give it up, pay no attention to folks saying, "Well, even though it doesn't quite lineup with the Word of God, don't let these facts discourage you from celebrating our Lord's birth." I tell you, you had better let these facts discourage your celebrating Christmas. It is pagan worship, trash from hell, and you are ordered of The Lord to have no part in it from this moment forward. Give it up!

This is to you, today, you are observers of Christmas (Easter and Sunday Sabbath also). You were heathens on your way to hell before you became Born Again and baptized in the precious Holy Ghost (those of you who are). Before this, you were not a son of God's because you were not led by His Holy Spirit. Now that you are a son of God's, why partake in pagan celebrations? This Christmas trash is not the birthday of Jesus, but is the "birth of the unconquered sun" (Natalis Solis Invicti). With the unconquered sun's birth comes Yuletide or Twelve Days of Christmas · Christmas tree · Santa and his demons, Oops, I mean elves · Feasting on food and drinking until you are as "drunk as a skunk" · Exchanging presents, and there is nothing wrong with gift-giving other than Christmas time. Repent! Give it up!

Church, this Christmas day stuff came about because the Roman Church (Catholic) believed that by taking the highly celebrated pagan holiday, the Winter Festival/Sun worship, and making it Christian, of Christ, they could keep and also draw even more converts into the faith, or shall I say, into hell. Brothers and Sisters, you know that this God that you serve does not need help of any sort to turn hearts to Him; He is in the "heart-turning" business. I ask you why, why would you want to celebrate Christmas ever again and at the same time claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Why? God is not playing with you. He is telling you now, GIVE IT UP. Give up Christmas, Easter, and Sunday Sabbath too while you're at it. Praises to The Lord and bless His Holy Name!

Saints, there are tons of books written on the origin of Christmas. Just pay a little visit to your local public library and read for yourself. Christmas nor Easter have anything to do with The Lord. The both of them are of the Devil, and God is sick of His CHURCH celebrating this mess. The great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon from the Metropolitan Tabernacle on December 24, 1871, had this to say about Christmas:

Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. (The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. Sermons Preached and Revised by C.H. Spurgeon During The Year 1871, Vol. XVII, P 697. Pilgrim Publications, Pasadena, Texas, 1971.)

Brother Spurgeon said, your observance of Christmas is a superstition, that is, you are believing and celebrating resulting from your ignorance or lack of knowledge. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge . . ." (Hosea 4:6). Now you know the truth, and you are no longer ignorant. So, what about it? Christmas? If you call yourself a True Christian and not a Roman Catholic, give up Christmas. Christmas is abominable. Celebrating Christmas is apostasy. If you reject knowledge, God will reject you (that's also in that verse of Scripture).

The Puritans, the first European settlers in the new world (America) didn't celebrate Christmas. They didn't because they knew it was of Roman Catholicism, and a great part of their reason for leaving England was because of the heavy Catholic influence in the Church of England. Enormous persecution for their beliefs and their rejection of Catholicism was another reason for them leaving England. Saints, Christmas is abominable, and celebrating Christmas is apostasy. Give it up!

Beloved, do not forget God’s immutability – He simply does not change. True, Jesus was not found in the tomb on the first day of the week (Sunday), but that does not justify Resurrection Sunday/Easter always being celebrated on a Sunday, each and every year, year-in and year-out. Let’s back up and answer the following question: How could Jesus have died on the cross on Friday afternoon (according to the Catholic Church) and resurrected two days later, or a day and one-half later, on Sunday, the first day of the week? That being the case, Jesus wasn’t truthful when He said He would rise on the third day. (We know that Jesus cannot lie!) Something is terribly wrong there. According to Luke 18:33, Jesus resurrected on the third day. Beloved, again, you have been lied to all these years and you have bought it. You cannot get a three-day resurrection out of two days. Indeed, it is the gates of hell attempting to prevail against the True Church of Jesus Christ. Your observing Easter Sunday is sin on your part and you have Satan and the Roman Catholic Church to thank for that.

What constitutes a day was established back in Genesis - sundown to sundown, or from one time period of between the light of one day to the next. Further proof as to what constitutes a day, look at Exodus 12:18-19, The Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leven found in your houses . . . . This was the feast of Unleavened Bread The Lord was speaking of and it was for seven days, from day 14 to day 21.

From the evening of day 14 to the evening of day 21 is 7 days of 24-hour periods each.

How could Jesus have died on the cross on Friday afternoon and resurrected two days later, Sunday, the first day of the week, if a full day is a 24-hour period? If He died on a Friday, then from Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon would have been three full days and nights, and not from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. Again, according to Luke 18:33, Jesus resurrected on the third day. Jesus said Himself:

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).

And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise [sometime during that third day/24-hour period] again (Luke 18:33).

Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day (Luke 24:46).

Question: Did the third day rising mean in fact rising somewhere within the third day? Did it mean rising at the end of the third day and night, which would have made His resurrection on the fourth day?

Answer: Look at Queen Esther’s requested fast:

Go, gather together all the Jews…and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day [3 full days and 3 full nights]…(Esther 4:16).

Esther requested a fast of her people on her behalf before approaching the king. She requested that the fast should last three full days and three full nights. For example, we will say that the fast was called to begin on a Monday evening.

Let us look at what Esther says next in Chapter 5:

Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house…(Esther 5:1).

"On the third day" meant that some time "before the end" of the third day of the three full days and three full nights of fasting, Esther went before the king. Esther went sometime before the full fast expired at the end of the third day of twenty-four hour periods.

Jesus died about the ninth hour (Matthew 27:45-46). The ninth hour is believed to have been around 3PM in the afternoon, and He was laid in the sepulcher before sundown because the yearly Passover Sabbath feast was to begin at sundown on Wednesday.

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre (John 20:1; Mark 16:1-2).

1. The first day being Sunday, Mary Magdalene went to the sepulcher.
   
2. The first day of the week began at sundown Saturday evening, and would run until sundown on Sunday evening.
   
3. Mary Magadalene went when it was yet dark – meaning some time before daybreak on Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the sepulcher, but Jesus was already gone. Jesus had left before sundown on Saturday Sabbath, the third day from His crucifixion.

In the end of sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week . . . . (Matthew 28:1) shows clearly that this was the weekly Sabbath/Saturday, and not the Passover Sabbath, before the dawning of the first day - Sunday. For three-full-days and three-full-nights, Jesus was to be preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:18-19), but was resurrected on or during the third day, or before the end of the third day, which meant He had to have been crucified on a Wednesday. This also means that, sundown of that Wednesday was the evening beginning the yearly feast (yearly Sabbath) of Passover. "for that sabbath day was an high day . . ." (John 19:31).

Absolutely no earthly way could Christ have died on a Friday and been resurrected three full days and three full nights later, ending up on a Sunday and not a Monday. Church, you are guilty of observing so-called holy days that are not ordained by God, but by man, with Satan as the author. Church, you call yourself saved and yet you continue to partake in this pagan holy day (Easter). This is inexcusable before God! For centuries now, The Church is guilty of savoring not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men, and you continue to savor those pagan/man-made days. Repentance is in order, for you have not given up paganism while claiming to belong to Jesus. Repentance is in order because you choose to continue walking in the dictates of the pope and the Catholic Church.

in the second century was the rise of the Roman church to a position of spiritual pre-eminence. It had long been the leading church in Christendom. Its position in the capital city, the fact that it had borne the brunt of persecution, its claim to have numbered among its martyrs the apostles Peter and Paul, its strong and fearless leadership, won for it the high regard of the other churches….the church at Rome was not content with a position of leadership merely; it soon began to exercise authority over the other churches… The next move was to advance to the position of one central authority among the churches. …Irenaeus of Lyons…declared about 190 A.D., ‘It is a matter of necessity that every church should agree with this church.’ What he meant was that in decisions on matters of doctrine the Roman church should be obeyed by other churches. …Eusebius, the bishop of Rome sought to excommunicate the churches of Asia Minor because they did not agree with him on a doctrinal matter.

While the leadership of Rome in most matters had been accepted by the Church at large, it had not been fully defined how far Rome could exercise control over the other churches. That issue arose in an acute form in connection with a controversy over the time when Easter should be celebrated. The churches in Asia Minor…held that it should always be observed on the fourteenth of the month Nisan regardless of the day of the week when that should fall, while the Roman church held that it should be celebrated on Sunday… The churches in Asia Minor, led by Polycrates [190 to 194 A.D.], the bishop of Ephesus, refused to conform, with the result that the bishop of Rome excommunicated the congregations of Asia Minor. Although there was much dissension from the action of Rome in the Church at large, the churches of Asia Minor declined in influence from that point on, while the church at Rome rose to a position of undisputed suspremacy not only in spiritual matters but in legislative authority over the whole Church. (A History of the Early Christian Church. Scott, William. Cokesbury Press, Nashville, 1936, PP 303, 329.)

Interjection: Victor was the Bishop of Rome at the time Polycrates was Bishop of Ephesus. Polycrates refused to celebrate Easter as Victor and the Roman Church had fixed to always fall on a Sunday. (Celebrating Easter Sunday was to satisfy the pagans that had come into The Church.) Even before Polycrates, there was disputation over the Churches in Asia Minor not celebrating Easter, but celebrating Paschal according to the Jewish Passover on 14th day of Nisan. Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna had refused to celebrate Bishop Anicetus of Rome’s fixed Sunday Easter celebration, and did it according to what he had learned from Apostle John.

Polycarp, the venerable and sainted bishop of Smyrna, who, according to Irenaeus visited Rome in 159 with this object, failed to induce Anicetus to conform to the Quartodeciman [observant of 14^th day of Nisan] usage, which Polycarp had inherited from his master, the Apostle John. (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume VII. The Werner Company, New York, 1900, p 614.)

To this day, there should be no Easter or Resurrection Day celebration in the True Church of Jesus Christ. The True Church of Jesus Christ should be celebrating the "fulfilled" feast of Passover with excitement and lots of joy because Jesus, the unblemished Sacrificial Lamb, is now resurrected from the dead after shedding His blood on Calvary. The Passover feast (out of Egypt) was a shadow of Jesus' shed blood on the cross on Calvary. This is a true holy feast day ordained by God. It is the 14th day of Nisan, which can fall on any day of the week and not always the same day of the week. When the Roman Catholic Church instituted the pagan holy day of Easter, and because of its great influence over the other churches, Passover celebration of Jesus' resurrection made its exit from the early Christian churches. (My Lord! How long You have ached in Your heart because of this gross sin.)

With Easter being so pagan, how can you, the Body of Christ, want anything to do with it? Easter is named after the Goddess of Spring (Eostre, Ostera, Astarte, or Ishtar, according to the Venerable Bede). The Easter eggs, the bunny rabbit, all have to do with sexuality, fertility, and new life (this is not to say that "normal" sex between husband and wife is trash). Easter celebration is pure pagan trash that was incorporated into The Church of Jesus Christ for the purpose of drawing in large numbers of pagan worshipers and keeping them there by making it the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It cannot be said often enough: God does not need the help of pagan practices incorporated with His teachings to draw men unto Him. That is not God! Be forewarned, pay no attention to folks saying, "Well, even though it doesn't quite lineup with the Word of God, don't let these facts discourage you from celebrating Easter." True Church of Jesus Christ, BE DISCOURAGED! Repent!

In Conclusion

No Born Again Believer can, nor should even want to take anything pagan/demonic and attempt to "Christianize" it. Paganism cannot be Christianized. Church, you have got to repent. God is sending this warning to you in love and after much patience, for He is so patient. Look how long He has waited for you to turn loose all the pagan celebrations in His Church. As stated in the above reference, the early Church started to go astray from the original faith in lots of ways. The waywardness in The Church today goes back to the control the church in Rome wanted and started to have over the other church bodies, resulting in them falling victim to the harmful influence of the so-called lead church. Church, you know that anytime you have a controlling spirit in operation in the church body, or a person, it is not of God but is unmistakably of Satan. That is what was going on with the church in Rome - a controlling spirit was and still is in operation. Body of Christ, repent of all the false teachings you have received from the Catholic Church and stay away from her! Stay Away from the Catholic Church and her false celebrations! You are to turn loose of her! The Catholic Church is the gates of hell trying to prevail against the TRUE CHURCH of Jesus Christ through the pagan celebration of these unholy days.

God's Law, His Word, the Ten Commandments, is yet alive down in your heart. It has not been abolished. To be just before God, walk in His Law; give up all the pagan holy days. God's Law is not dead. This immutable God is grieving over you. Repent! Go back to your First Love.

Amen! Amen! Amen!