The Day Santa Clause Was Baptized If any activity can be baptized in or colored with Christian connotation, we dishonor God and cheat ourselves by failing to do so.
Candles [Catholic Encyclopedia] Also intimately connected to SOPHIA - ZOE worship. The BOOK OF THE BEE is one of those lost documents apparently
The word candle (candela, from candeo, to burn) was introduced into the English language as an ecclesiastical term, probably as early as the eighth century. It was known in classical times and dennoted any kind of taper in which a wick, not uncommonly made of a strip of papyrus, was encased in wax or animal fat.
We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead.
But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.
Stephen was murdered in part for denying that God lived in houses or was worshiped with the works of men's hands:
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Acts 7:41
Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Acts 7:42
"Then God turned away from them and gave them up, and let them serve the sun, moon, and stars as their gods! In the book of Amos' prophecies the Lord God asks, 'Was it to me you were sacrificing during those forty years in the desert, Israel? Acts 7:42LIV
See the connection between "Holy Communion" and the worship of the Sun God.
Dr. Rubel Shelly has:
> Used Narrative Theology to claim that the Bible is a product of sifting of belatedly-remembered "eyewitness accounts" through the sieve of philosophy to "take liberties" and write to fit their personal ministry and agenda.
> Has reserved only seven facts "about" Jesus as tests for faith and practice.
> Defined away the authority of the Bible for commands, examples or inferences in contradiction of the Bible and 2,000 years of church history.
> Has denied that the Bible defines "commands" as restrictive.
> Has denied that "silence" has authority and therefore a Law of Silence enables us to do what there is no explicit law against. Since the Bible has no authority then such commands are hard to find.
> Has used that liberty to define the horrors of the Exodus event as an approved pattern for Christian worship and community.
Israel colored the S.U.N. and stars of the worship of the Egyptian triad under the golden calf as Yahweh worship. Coloring idolatry in colors of "Christian" is none the less idolatry.
"The triumphal hymn of Moses had unquestionably a religious character about it; but the employment of music in religious services, though idolatrous, is more distinctly marked in the festivities which attended the erection of the golden calf." (Smith's Bible Dictionary, Music, p. 589).
"Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance (play)'" (1 Cor. 10:7).
However, there are many Biblical contradictions of this which show that Israel's musical idolatry caused God to turn the nation over to the worship of the starry host. This was essentially the worship of the S.U.N.
Astrology is one of the primary methods of obtaining a message from the dead.
"Manesseh also cultivated star and planetary worship (II Kings 21:3, 5) and the cult of Moloch, an Ammonite deity, whose worship was closely connected with astral divination (Amos 5:25, 26 Acts 7:41-43) and whose ritual was characterized by parents sacrificing their children by compelling them to pass through or into a furnace of fire." (Unger, Merrill, Archaeology and the Old Testament, Zondervan, P. 279)
Israel worshiped the S.U.N. and stars under Remphan or Chiun with musical worship. Judah worshiped the S.U.N. and stars or planets under Molech and other burning babies with musical accompaniment.
> Has now claimed that we can somehow color S.U.N. worship into worship of the S.O.N.
> Easter has also colored the Babylonian mother of the gods in the colors of Mary worship and the son, Tammuz, into the colors of Lord Jesus Christ. This was essentially the worship at Mount Sinai and at the temple in Jerusalem as recorded in Ezekiel 8 and elsewhere.
Symbols have actual power: for instance the erected Asherah pole was a giant penis which was also a feminine symbol of supernatural power. The symbols of the S.U.N. and STARS were projected off the end of the penis. By looking at these symbols the CREATURE is "colored" or "baptized" as the CREATOR but God sees through the lie.
God always demanded the poles (trees of the cross) be cast down because by giving heed (worshiping) the poles one's very spiritual nature is COLORED or BAPTIZED into being a disciple of the S.U.N. which is the Devil's device. The Jews in Jerusalem worshiped the S.U.N. and stars under Molech at Topheth which had once been "the king's music grove" and named after the tambourine and the symbol for hell itself.
See further the Worship of Shamash as the Babylonian S.U.N. god. This includes quotes which are claimed to be from Max Lucado's Cosmic Christmas.
The "musical worship team" does not come from the Bible but from S.U.N. worship at the Towers of Babylon which always had its female singers as The Harem of the Gods.
"Very definitely may the assurance be given here that, prior to the coming of the Christ, adjustments will be made so that at the head of all great organizations will be found either a Master, or an initiate who has taken the third initiation. At the head of certain of the great occult groups, of the Freemasons of the world, and of the various great divisions of the church, and resident in many of the great nations will be found initiates or Masters." 14.
Central to the bimillennial fervor and millennial delusion of these initiates -- the false prophets whom Jesus warned would abound in the last days -- is found a curious fascination with the tradition of Christmas. A 1994 publication, The Star Of 2000: Our Journey Toward Hope by evangelical leader Jay (Judson) Gary, introduces the Church to the secular Bimillennial agenda and encourages our participation commencing with Christmas of 1999.
In America, founding members of the New York Historical Society revived the Christmas tradition in the early 1800s and in 1836 the state of Alabama declared it a legal holiday. No doubt many of a Puritan mindset who strove to stem the tide of apostasy recalled the words of Tertullian, who lamented the identical compromise of Christians as early as 230 B.C.
From a Sermon at Woodmont Hills Family of God: The Day Santa Claus Was Baptized December 19, 1999 / Acts 17:23 & 1 Timothy 4:3-5
Some of this is repeated as more specific worship of Shamash.
Rubel Shelly: "And when I tell you that Santa has been baptized, I'm echoing the ancient Christian tradition of what one theologian dubbed "baptizing the traditions of secular holidays in the message of God's love that has been revealed in Jesus Christ." Since the time of Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christ and his order to "Christianize" the pagan feasts,
Christians have been seeking to turn every symbol (mark IDOL) to the glory of God. Thus a midwinter festival to the s-u-n was converted into a day of rejoicing over the S-o-n of God. If Jesus is described by biblical writers as the "Sun of Righteousness" and God's "true light coming into the world," what could be more natural?
Christians assembled on the first day of the week forever. When Constantine granted the first day as a second day of rest for the empire that did not change the nature of the church. Mithras who was more Sabbath than Sunday worship was a day of "rejoicing" and therefore Christians were restricted to their homes or to Bible Study to keep them away from the Sabbath days.
Note: While Christ is the morning star or sun or light or some other parable, He is never THE SUN. For instance, the "sun of" righteousness means that God Himself is the CREATOR of light: He is never the CREATURE. However, baptizing the S.U.N. connected with sun worship in Israel intends to give approval for what was Israel's doom pronounced at Mount Sinai for worshiping the CREATURE instead of the CREATOR.
As we will see later, Jesus as the S.U.N. of Righteousness will burn up the stubble.
See Tertullian and the Spectacles justified the same way.
Andrew White notes why there are so many skeptics:
"While the fathers and schoolmen were labouring to deduce a science of meteorology from our sacred books, there oozed up in European society a mass of traditions and observances which had been lurking since the days of paganism;
and, although here and there appeared a churchman to oppose them,
the theologians and ecclesiastics ere long began to adopt them and to clothe them with the authority of religion.
Both among the pagans of the Roman Empire and among the barbarians of the North the Christian missionaries had found it easier to prove the new God supreme than to prove the old gods powerless.
- Faith in the miracles of the new religion
- seemed to increase rather than to diminish faith in the miracles of the old;
- and the Church at last began admitting the latter (the old) as facts,
- but ascribing them to the devil.
In other words, they old practices are decadent and deleterious.
In seeking their
worship facilitation minister, Woodmont Hills stress that in
developing or facilitating the seeker service he
must:
The play is named after the chorus, that is, the song-and-dance ensemble who stand for the true followers of the god. That is, they are the mediators replacing the worshippers. See the clear claim here. Someone noted that churches are tempted to adopt old and largely unsuccessful attempts by theologians to force the worshiper and God into intimate contact. This is defined by the idea of "knowing God personally." Nowhere has there been more success after which theologians lust than secular music as a way to triumph over God and the paying customers:
As the musical dance team claims to be the platform upon which God lands (like the Tower of Babel "helio-port for the gods") the music is the vehicle which brings Him down to the worshipers:
As William D. Romanowski points out in his history of Jesus music, "Baptizing rock music with Christian lyrics was a way of legitimizing the music for born-again hippies and making it viable in the youth market" (Schultze 1990, 149). For the article Click Here |
We believe that Constantine and the Catholics turned the worship of the S-O-N into the worship of the S-U-N. Interestingly, it was SATURN as the symbol of the sun which focused the MASS upon Saturday.
This is identical to the Catholic Encyclopedia which "seeks" God in human traditions which are usually paganism:
We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead.
But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial.
We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc.
were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.
They are, in fact, part of the natural language of mystical expression, and such things belong quite as much to secular ceremonial as they do to religion.
The Catholic Encyclopedia expresses honesty and confirms that the ONLY place to get music to enhance the "worship" was from idolatrous pagans.
Dr. Rubel Shelly treats the Exodus event as an example for "Christian worship and community." However, the Bible treats Mount Sinai as the time and place when Israel repudiated God's Covenant of Grace and "went seeking" something out of their old Egyptian paganism to "lead them into the presence of the gods." This was rising up to play in musical idolatry. God then "turned them over" to worship the starry host (Acts 7) which was the sun god and the gods of the other "wandering stars."
"The god is Moloch, the god of barbarity and blood. Moloch signifies 'king'; and Nimrod was the first after the flood that violated the patriarchal system, and set up as 'king' over his fellows. At first he was worshipped as the 'revealer of goodness and truth,' but by-and-by his worship was made to correspond with his dark and forbidding contenance and complexion. The name Moloch originally suggested nothing of cruelty or terror; but now the well-known rites associated with that name have made if for ages a synonym for all that is most revolting to the hearts, and amply justify the description of Milton:--
- First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
- Of human sacrifices, and parents' tears,
- Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
- Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire
- To his grim idol.
See how Nimrod and the Musical Worship Team is reproduced before your watching eyes.
"In almost every land the bloody worship prevalied (Greece, Rome, Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, Druids) Human wailings were the sweetest music in his ears; human tortures were believed to delight his heart (Hislop, Alexander, The Two Babylons, p. 150-151, Loizeaux Brothers)
Molech . . . Chiun--"Molech" means "king" answering to Mars [BENGEL]; the Sun [JABLONSKI]; Saturn, the same as "Chiun" [MAURER]. The Septuagint translates "Chiun" into Remphan, as Stephen quotes it (Ac 7:42,43). The same god often had different names.
Molech is the Ammonite name; Chiun, the Arabic and Persian name, written also Chevan. In an Arabic lexicon Chiun means "austere"; so astrologers represented Saturn as a planet baleful in his influence. Hence the Phoenicians offered human sacrifices to him, children especially; so idolatrous Israel also. Rimmon was the Syrian name (2Ki 5:18); pronounced as Remvan, or "Remphan," just as Chiun was also Chevan. Molech had the form of a king; Chevan, or Chiun, of a star [GROTIUS]. Remphan was the Egyptian name for Saturn: hence the Septuagint translator of Amos gave the Egyptian name for the Hebrew, being an Egyptian. [HODIUS II, De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus. 4.115].
The same as the Nile, of which the Egyptians made the star Saturn the representative [HARENBERG]. BENGEL considers Remphan or Rephan akin to Teraphim and Remphis, the name of a king of Egypt.
The Hebrews became infected with Sabeanism, the oldest form of idolatry, the worship of the Saba or starry hosts, in their stay in the Arabian desert, where Job notices its prevalence (Job 31:26); in opposition, in Am 5:27, Jehovah declares Himself "the God of hosts."
God didn't condemn Israel "for a bad mental attitude" but for the worship of the starry host God turned them over to at Mount Sinai as a DIRECT RESULT OF MUSICAL IDOLATRY:
Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. Amos 5:23
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. Amos 5:24
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts. Amos 5:27
Those who worshiped God in the Old Testament among the people's congregation did so by seeking Him in His Word and in prayer. That is, the Israelites did not worship God with sacrifices: they paid for their own sins. However, those who synagogued or assembled were prohibited to blow the trumpets and make a loud rejoicing noise "to the Lord." This just proved that they did not assemble to Seek God's will but their own.
After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: Acts 15:16
That the residue (tiny remnant) of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Acts 15:17
ekzeteo (g1567) ek-zay-teh'-o; from 1537 and 2212; to search out, i.e. (fig.) investigate, crave, demand, (by Hebr.) worship: - en- (re-) quire, seek after (carefully, diligently).
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Heb.11:6
IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Col.3:1
Zeteo (g2212) dzay-teh'-o; of uncert. affin.; to seek (lit. or fig.); spec. (by Heb.) to worship (God), or (in a bad sense) to plot (against life): - be (go) about, desire, endeavour, enquire (for), require, (* will) seek (after, for, means). Comp. 4441.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; John 8:31
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
Continue is:
Meno (g3306) men'-o; a prim. verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): - abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), * thine own.
It is a marketing scheme to claim that you can lead people to worship with the works of human hands and seeking "ritual" out of paganism.
Here is what Dr. Shelly seems to preach how people should "seek" God stated y others
As the musical dance team claims to be the platform upon which God lands (like the Tower of Babel "helio-port for the gods") the music is the vehicle which brings Him down to the worshipers:
You need to hear this again:
"A quiet revolution had taken place since John Lennon declared that the Beatles were more popular than God. Suddenly a whole generation raised on free love, drugs, and rock and roll was looking for something more eternal. They found it in Jesus Christ -- not the Jesus Christ who was found in their parents' churches -- but a Jesus Christ that was much like them -- the ultimate hippy. These self-proclaimed "Jesus Freaks" originated in California, centering especially in Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa.
"Like most religious revivals, the "Jesus Movement" was accompanied by a new music that expressed the mood, culture, and tenets of the new faith.
"Jesus Music" was an attempt to use the language of the generation-- music--as vehicle to bring Christ to the generation.
As William D. Romanowski points out in his history of Jesus music, "Baptizing rock music with Christian lyrics was a way of legitimizing the music for born-again hippies and making it viable in the youth market" (Schultze 1990, 149). For the article Click Here
First, note that one isolated verse is used to prove that Christ is the "s-u-n" close enough that we can baptize Santa and the sun for our own purposes. Look at the references. Here is the baptism of fire:
The literal S.U.N. source of burning stubble:
FOR, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1
But the Sun of Righteousness is not the same as THE SUN as "wandering star." The S.U.N. of Righteousness comes to burn up the lost.
FOR, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Malachi 4:1
The word SUN does not mean the same thing as SUN of righteousness:
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. Malachi 4:2
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 4:3
Therefore, there is a contrast between the two.
The sun of righteousness is the lighting of righteousness as the "spirit of understanding" is the mental disposition of understanding. The "sun" is not the name of God as s-u-n is the name of the heavenly body and its personification in dozens of "gods."
If we can understand that we are not literal stubble we can understand that Christ is not the literal sun. Rather, Jesus is the lighter of righteousness.
The phrase "true light comming" proves that Jesus is the "beam" of enlightenment and is not the sun.
Phos (g5457) foce; (to shine or make manifest, espec. by rays; comp. 5316, 5346); luminousness (in the widest application, nat. or artificial, abstr. or concr., lit. or fig.): - fire, light
Second, we are to walk in the commands of Messiah which is the light in our world.
And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Mi.4:2
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Jn.8:12
He did not say that He was the S-U-N but the light!
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 2 Peter 1:19
Lucifer is also the day star according to his own presumption. However, because Jesus is also the day star we do not have authority to baptize Lucifer and paint him holy.
Alexander Hislop shows how the Santa of Christmas and Lady-Day of Catholicism is not honoring Christ under pagan images; it was worshiping the Babylonian Sun God along with Ishtar, His Babylonian Whore.
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 1 John 2:7
Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 1 John 2:8
The pagan - Christian ecumenical movement did not worship Jesus as the sun. The worship of the sun did not cease. People baptized Santa to baptize pagan gods and goddesses. The women in the Temple in Jerusalem musically lamented for Tammuz and celebrated his arrival to play the flute and smell the incense while the men worshiped the s-u-n in the east. (Eze. 8). Ishtar or Easter is regularly worshiped in modern churches.
This was NOT worshiping the s-o-n under the image of the s-u-n; it was unabashed worship of the s-u-n as the god along with the moon. When the pagan feasts were "christianized" then the "Beast" had won. Santa is the magical "giver of free gifts" consistent with the Babylonian "god" rather than Jehovah.
Why, thus: 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 honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ.
"This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way 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.
"By us," says he, "who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians."
Again: Of Candles the Catholic Encyclopedia notes:
"The word candle (candela, from candeo, to burn) was introduced into the English language as an ecclesiastical term, probably as early as the eighth century. It was known in classical times and dennoted any kind of taper in which a wick, not uncommonly made of a strip of papyrus, was encased in wax or animal fat.
"We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead.
"But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial.
"We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc.
were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults.
They are, in fact, part of the natural language of mystical expression, and such things belong quite as much to secular ceremonial as they do to religion.
Modern candle, fire or sun worship is as ancient as the Catholic urge to adopt pagan practices to attract pagans. However, calling a thing "Christian" does not make it so as Dr. Rubel Shelly suggests:
| Rubel Shelly: "Whatever you do, whether
in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,"
counseled the Apostle Paul (Col. 3:17).
If any activity, celebration, or feast cannot be immersed in Christ-honoring significance, there is no place for it in our lives.
|
This does not translate "Do whatever you wish to do, just label it with Christian."
Rather, it means that "unless you have Christ's authority attached to it you CANNOT do it."
You cannot DO YOUR THING and then CERTIFY it as new authority as proposed by Rubel Shelly and John York in a sermon on John 21.
"When once it was proved that the Pope was willing to adopt Paganism under Christian names, the Pagans and Pagan priests would be his most hearty and staunch defenders.
And when the Pope began to wield lordly power over the Christians, who were the men that he would recommend--that he would promote--that he would advance to honour and power?
Just the very people most devoted to "the worship of the strange god" which he had introduced into the Christian Church.
Gratitude and self-interest alike would conspire to this.
Jovinian, and all who resisted the Pagan ideas and Pagan practices, were excommunicated and persecuted.
If this is the standard then nothing can be excluded. Didn't Paul really say: "Whatever you do in word and deed, do all by the authority of the Lord Jesus?" Paul had just demanded, as clear as a sunny day:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col 3:16
Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are the Word of God. Why fill up with "the word of Christ" and then overflow in songs with "the word of Twila Paris?"
Putting a tag or MARK upon various forms of music and theatrical performance can never be, by our power, washed and painted up to replace the clear revealed word of God.
Dr. Shelly has opened up a whole new paradigm:
If any activity can be baptized in or colored with a Christian connotation,
We dishonor God if we do not "immerse" or "paint" with a Christian connotation.
Example: Contemporary Christian music in the "praise book" has a "Christian connotation." That is, we can "tag" it as Christian.
Rock and Rap (Voodoo) can have "Christian overtones.'
Conclusion: We not only must use Rock and Rap but we dishonor God if we do not "baptize" it and paint it as "Christian."
This "paradigm" has been worked out to define those who do not fellowship instrumental churches as fratricidal -- brother murderers: excommunicated and persecuted.
And we cheat ourselves if we do not "wash" or "paint" the world's activity to make them part of our lives.
Rubel Shelly also sees the Exodus event as a "pattern for Christian worship and community." Never mind that every true scholar on the face of the earth for 2,000 years understand that in which in his book,
Too Long In The Sun, Richard Rives sees in Exodus 32, a Biblical precedent which provoked God nearly to the point of destroying the nation of Israel for their sin of blending (baptizing) pagan worship with His own:
"...the golden calf was built and the celebration declared a 'feast to the Lord.'...The people had declared a celebration to honor God that
he did not recognize as being in his honor."
This was S.U.N. worship under the Egyptian TRINITY of Osiris, Isis and Horus. God then "married" Israel to Molech or Saturn identified with the sun in Rome. His number is 666.
The SIN was "musical idolatry."
Therefore, the golden calf was the image of sun worship. Hathor (the cow eared goddess) was the womb of Isis. Isis, as in many pagan myths was both the mother and wife of Horus the sun of Osiris.
This worship is summed up as "rising up to play." This was musical worship.
"Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship.
"The event at Mount Sinai was just one episode in the Satanic apostasy which began at the tower of Babel. The celebration of December 25th, originally proclaimed in honor of the birth of the sun god Mithra, can only be one of the final events in the long continuing saga of Satanic sun worship." Richard Rives, Too Long in the Sun, Partakers Pub., 1996, pp. 129-30.
How can Post Modernism taught to the exclusion of other views in many "christian" colleges manage to narrate Satanic apostasy into "a pattern for Christian worship and community?"
This identical form of worship is found among God's people again in I Kings 12, which records the Israel's apostasy under the reign of Jeroboam, who devised a feast "like unto" the true feast in Judah:
The worship defined by Amos especially in chapter 5 and 6 was the worship "of the starry host" done at Mount Sinai. This sentenced all of Israel and most of Judah to captivity and death. As it was instituted in Samaria it is defined in 1 Kings 12
If you wonder why not "doctrinal trash" is allowed around here; why there is musical joy and no one says anything negative; everyone has their every need met with programs, programs, programs, then you may be under the Lucifer (ZOE) attack:
The Star Of 2000 commends and quotes liberally the New Age wisdom of Robert Muller, Hans Kung, Isaac Asimov, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry and St Francis of Assisi who praised "sister Moon," "brother Wind" and "sister Earth" in The Canticle of the Sun. Addressing a 1994 Adopt-A-People Consultation, Gary also highly recommended the New Age books of David Spangler and Tom Sine, calling these Luciferians "the best." And what is the gospel according to David Spangler?
"The true light of Lucifer cannot be seen through sorrow, through darkness, through reflection. The true light of this great being can only be recognized when one's own eyes can see with the light of the Christ, the light of the inner sun. Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness, and as we move into the New Age (Post Modern), which is the age of man's wholeness, each of us is brought to that point which I term, the particular doorway through which the individual must pass if he is to come fully into the presence of his light and his wholeness.
"Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness. If we accept it, then he is free and we are free, that is the Luciferic Initiation. It is one that many people now, and in the days ahead, will be facing, for it is an initiation into the New Age.
Lucifer prepares man in all his ways for the experience of Christhood...
See how Max Lucado sees the possibility of the redemption of Lucifer.
The Catholic church baptized most of the pagan beliefs and practices but they "did not have their sins remitted." The baptismal service for Christmas festivals was always recognized as a "hook" to bring in the pagans.
"Lucifer and the powers of the air hovering around it... try in vain to tear down the cross and to silence the importunate clangour of the bells. In the Golden Legend Longfellow wrote:
- --- Lucifer Lower! lower!
- Hover downward!
- Seize the loud vociferous bells, and
- Clashing, clanging, to the pavement
- Hurl them from their window tower,
- ---Voices. All they thunders
- Here are harmless!
- Fore these bells have been anointed,
- And baptized with holy water!
- They defy our utmost power."
In making the unctions, and not, be it noticed, in washing the bell, a form is used introducing the patron saint: "May this bell be + hallowed, O Lord, and + consecrated in the name of the + Father, and of the + Son and of the + Holy Ghost. In honour of St. N. Peace be to thee." Finally, the thurible with incense (thymiama) and myrrh are placed under the bell so that the smoke arising may fill its cavity. Then another prayer is said of similar purport to the last, and the ceremony ends with the reading of the passage in the Gospel concerning Martha and Mary. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Lordy, don't we "baptize" little children and call it "dedication?"
If we are going to baptize the s-u-n and Santa (closely related) then we might want to call in a priest.
Sound as Exorciser
The sounds of "music" has always been the home of the gods or might be used to "baptize" or "paint" an activity to make it "Christian" and therefore holy.
It is not surprising therefore that sound instruments were exorcized of demons who likely lived within them in order to make them suitable for a money-making religion:
"The bells (spirit or story-exorcising) were solemnly consecrated and popularly supposed to be baptized by the priests; certainly they had received names and were washed, blessed, and sprinkled with holy oil
'to drive away and repel evil spirits.'..
Thus blessed, it was endowed with great powers; allayed all storms; diverted the thunderbolt; drove away evil spirits."
"On the ceremony they all laid hold of the rope; bestowed a name on the bell; and the priest, sprinkling it with holy water, baptized it in the name of the Father, etc.; he then clothed it with a fine garment.
- After this the gossips have a grand feast,
- and made great presents,
- which the priests received in behalf of the bell.
Thus blessed, it was endowed with great powers; allayed (on being rung) all storms; diverted the thunderbolt; drove away evil spirits. These consecrated bells were always inscribed." (Sir James George Frazer, Folk-Lore in the Old Testament, Macmillian, p. 425-6, 1923)
A writer of the time denied that "a church bell lost all of its miraculous virtue when it was named--he will not allow us to say baptized--
by the priest's concubine.
Bacon condescended to mention the belief that "great ringing of bells in populous cities hath chased away thunder, and also dissipated pestilent air."
Why not, as at Mount Sinai, rise up to play with sacred, baptized sex, dancing, singing, mocking and playing musical instruments? We could show them the common form of fun condemned by Amos.
Rubel Shelly: All this is to say that one of the good things about "baptizing Santa Claus" is to dispel the false notion that Christians don't know how to have fun. That we never lighten up. That we're perpetually guilty of some sort of -- and this is Jack Hayford's term -- "sanctified Scroogism." Jack Hayford may be the authority to say that NOT baptizing Santa may be dishonoring God and damaging to those who don't believe in him:
"I've picked up the pieces of too many mangled souls to believe the "anti-Santa, anti-celebration" program works. I can't begin to number the people who have told me about turning from the Lord because of the way their church or parents attacked the joys of Christmas celebration. Nor can I number the souls who have received Jesus in the midst of our congregation's high, festive, rejoicing times* some of them admitting they had no idea that God's love and Christmas' fun could be married in holy union. Jack Hayford. Click here to donate or buy. Of course they are interdominational and part of Four Square (charismatic)
Rubel Shelly: Painting Images To Make them Holy We repeat Dr. Shelly If it can be baptized in or colored with Christian connotation,
we would be dishonoring God and cheating ourselves by failing to do so.Coloring or baptizing Rock, Rap, hand clapping, singing secular songs, refusing to preach the gospel but preaching to make people feel good: all of these are attempts, in the words of Rubel Shelly, to be as much like the world as possible to win the world..
The Emperor Michael II (820-9), in his letter to Louis the Pious, describes the excesses of the image worshippers:
They have removed the holy cross from the churches and replaced it by images before which they burn incense.... They sing psalms before these images, prostrate themselves before them, implore their help. Many dress up images in linen garments and choose them as godparents for their children. Others who become monks, forsaking the old tradition -- according to which the hair that is cut off is received by some distinguished person -- let it fall into the hands of some image.
Some priests scrape the paint off images, mix it with the consecrated bread and wine and give it to the faithful. Others place the body of the Lord in the hands of images from which it is taken by the communicants. Others again, despising the churches, celebrate Divine Service in private houses, using an image as an altar (Mansi, XIV, 417-22).
Indeed, why not baptize these practices and color them Christian?
Rubel Shelly: Conclusion I'm all for using the traditions or visual images (idols) of a culture to turn people's hearts to thoughts of the one true God.
Since the God of the Bible is pure or Holy Spirit while much of our culture is secular, carnal and often evil, how can you use "the work's of men's hands" to turn people's heart to thoughts of the one true God.
Can you make use female, stand over, non-sedentary, female pastors "teaching with a tune" over the flock as a visual image of sexuality and the idolatry of human talent and make people think about a Spirit God. How childish!
So are Catholics using all of the traditions:
[The holy Synod commands] that images of Christ, the Virgin Mother of God, and other saints are to be held and kept especially in churches, that due honour and reverence (debitum honorem et venerationem) are to be paid to them,
not that any divinity or power is thought to be in them for the sake of which they may be worshipped,
or that anything can be asked of them, or that any trust may be put in images, as was done by the heathen who put their trust in their idols [Ps. cxxxiv, 15 sqq.],
but because the honour shown to them is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that by kissing, uncovering to, kneeling before images we adore Christ and honour the saints whose likeness they bear (Denzinger, no. 986).
"In Rome especially, we find the position of holy images explained soberly and reasonably. They are the books of the ignorant. This idea is a favourite one of St. Gregory the Great (d. 604). He writes to an Iconoclast bishop, Serenus of Marseilles, who had destroyed the images in his diocese: "Not without reason has antiquity allowed the stories of saints to be painted in holy places. And we indeed entirely praise thee for not allowing them to be adored, but we blame thee for breaking them. For it is one thing to adore an image, it is quite another thing to learn from the appearance of a picture what we must adore. What books are to those who can read, that is a picture to the ignorant who look at it; in a picture even the unlearned may see what example they should follow; in a picture they who know no letters may yet read. Hence, for barbarians especially a picture takes the place of a book" (Ep. ix, 105, in P. L., LXXVII, 1027).
The cathedrals were built because they tyrants thought that they could "lead the peasants into the presence of God" with lavish, expensive architecture, colomns (asherah poles), relics and images.
Music was stolen from the same Pagans because it was "Seeker-Friendly" or could attract the masses to the theatrical performance. Music was therefore "baptized" in order to make money. Santa is baptized in order to attract people to the "passion plays." The images were "painted" or "colored" to make them look alive enough that the paint could be sold by the priests.
Rubel Shelly: Want a biblical example of that strategy? How about Paul addressing the cultural center of his day, Athens, and saying:
Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.
Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you (Acts 17:22b-23).
Paul did not say that he was going to proclaim Jesus as the unknown god. Rather, they worshiped gods called "the unknown." Earlier, when they thought that Barnabas was the unknown God and Paul was Hermes, the father of musical instruments, liars and thieves:
Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Ac.14:12
The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. Ac.14:13
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: Acts 14:14
Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. Acts 14:15
This would have been a dandy place for a "proof text" by baptizing himself as Hermes, the Logos who was discovered by John according to Dr. Shelly.
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. Acts 17:22
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. Acts 17:23
Paul is not going to "baptize" their pagan views in order to win friends and influence people.
Pausanias Description of Greece
[5.14.8] An account of the great altar I gave a little way back; it is called the altar of
Olympian Zeus. By it is an altar of Unknown Gods, and after this an altar of Zeus Purifier, one of Victory, and another of Zeus--this time surnamed Underground. There are also altars of all gods, and of Hera surnamed Olympian, this too being made of ashes
[1.1.4] The Athenians have also another harbor, at Munychia, with a temple of Artemis of Munychia, and yet another at Phalerum, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary of Demeter. Here there is also a temple of Athena Sciras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown.
So, why not "baptize" Zeus and color him "Christian" and worship Zeus? If we call Jesus "Father Zeus" and get a charge out of it would it really be a sin if we didn't call Jesus Zeus?
Strabo in his Geography wrote of the muse connection:
[10.3.17] From its melody and rhythm and instruments, all Thracian music has been considered to be Asiatic. And this is clear, first, from the places where the Muses have been worshipped, for Pieria and Olympus and Pimpla and Leibethrum were in ancient times Thracian places and mountains, though they are now held by the Macedonians; and again, Helicon was consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians who settled in Boeotia, the same who consecrated the cave of the nymphs called Leibethrides.
And again, those who devoted their attention to the music of early times are called Thracians, I mean Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris; and Eumolpus, (sweet singer) too, got his name from there.
And those writers who have consecrated the whole of Asia, as far as India, to Dionysus, derive the greater part of music from there.
And one writer says, "striking the Asiatic cithara"; another calls flutes "Berecyntian" and "Phrygian"; and some of the instruments have been called by barbarian names, "nablas," "sambyce," "barbitos," "magadis," and several others.
What might seem spiritual to the ignorant or the purely mercenary modern priesthood, and which will appeal to similar secular or legalistic minds, often just looks comical or worse to those who understand a bit of history and can read the Bible. For instance, Strabo continues to question the authority and gender of men who joined in with "preside-over or stand-over or non-sedantary" female worship leaders:
10.3.18] Just as in all other respects the Athenians continue to be hospitable to things foreign,
- so also in their worship of the gods;
- for they welcomed so many of the foreign rites
- that they were ridiculed therefore by comic writers;
and among these were the Thracian and Phrygian rites. For instance, the Bendideian rites are mentioned by Plato, and the Phrygian by Demosthenes,
when he casts the reproach upon Aeschines' mother and Aeschines himself
that he was with her when she conducted initiations,
that he joined her in leading the Dionysiac march,
and that many a time he cried out "evoe saboe," (Eve, Zoe) and "hyes attes, attes hyes";
for these words are in the ritual of Sabazius and the Mother.[10.3.15] They invented names appropriate to the flute, and to the noises made by castanets, cymbals, and drums, and to their acclamations and shouts of "ev-ah," and stampings of the feet;1 and they also invented some of the names by which to designate the ministers, choral dancers, (Today: Musical Worship Facilitators) and attendants upon the sacred rites, I mean "Cabeiri" and "Corybantes" and "Pans" and "Satyri" and "Tityri," and they called the god "Bacchus," and Rhea "Cybele" or "Cybebe" or "Dindymene" (Today: Zoe) according to the places where she was worshipped. Sabazius also belongs to the Phrygian group and in a way is the child of the Mother, since he too transmitted the rites of Dionysus (This is the ancient Babylonian Triad worship)
Vergil Aeneid
- bring back the flowing wine!" Thereat he bound
- his forehead with green garland, calling loud
- upon the Genius of that place, and Earth,
- eldest of names divine; the Nymphs he called,
- and river- gods unknown; his voice invoked
- he night, the omen-stars through night that roll.
- Jove, Ida's child, and Phrygia's fertile Queen:
- he called his mother from OIympian skies,
Rubel Shelly: So showing a clip from "Christmas Vacation" or singing carols or ticking off Internet "research" about Santa being female isn't really such a new strategy, is it? We're way behind the times in terms of Paul's ability to using the prevailing culture to communicate Jesus to people (cf. 1 Cor. 9:19ff). How about using the internet to communicate the Jesus who delivered the Word "once and for all?"
Being "all things to all people" did not mean that he used "prevailing culture to communicate Jesus." Haven't we just noted that Paul refused to "color" Zeus ad Christ or Himself as Hermes. Rather, he rebuked them for "baptizing" anything as Christian. Listen again more carefully:
Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. Acts 14:15
The S.U.N. is not a living god as they believed. Therefore, the image of a lifeless S.U.N. to replace the Living S.0.N. of God was a WORTHLESS THING.
Rubel Shelly believes and teaches that everything of Biblical truth has been SIFTED OUT except seven factual statements about Jesus. All of the rest has been put through the filters of time, human philosohy and the CONTEMPORARY NEEDS of the Bible writers for their own personal agenda.
Rubel Shelly believes and teaches that John wrote the LOGOS back into his gospel account. He got the idea from reading and associating with Greek philosophers who used the word LOGOS. Of course this was not much like the Biblical Logos translated as DABAR beginning in Genesis.
Rubel Shelly shows how the Sifter Works.
In the same sermon Rubel Shelly makes the same accusation that Jesus was a wine drinker and wine manufacturer his enemies made. Jesus called them liars.
The Saxons, as is well known, regarded the Sun as a female divinity, and the Moon as a male. The Sun god is therefore the sun goddess as the gifts of Santa in church rituals are provided by the female component and "Santa" is given the credit. This is quite similar to the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai where Israel gave the bull "image" credit rather than God.
Paul would tell the people who baptize bells or Santa Clause or worship fire that their worship is totally pagan, ignorant and they must stop it:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Acts 17:24
Neither is worshipped with mens hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; Acts 17:25
This means that there is nothing you can do with your body which constitutes acceptable spiritual worship. Jesus said that God only seeks those who see Him in spirit or in the mind (which is not physical) and according to truth.
To try to worship God with the body is to presume, as does Praise Singing, that God is in need and will surely fail if we do not help prop Him up.
Music and rituals are clearly the "works of mens hands." He does not need it; cannot use it. It has been "baptized" to try to lead people into spiritual regeneration through external means. This was the error of Nimrod -- the original sun god.
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; Acts 17:26
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: Acts 17:27
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:28
Music is specificially "baptized paganism" claiming that it can "lead you into the presence of God." It cannot and any attempt to get God to "land" on your "team" will just get you burned up.
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and mans device. Acts 17:29
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Acts 17:30
Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Acts 17:31
Rather than Paul baptizing the pagan, Athenian worship of images, Paul declared them totally ignorant for assuming that there was more than ONE God.
They worshiped the God "Unknown to Them" in ignorance and using ignorant methods. Music was a very important method of "bringing the worshipers into the presence of God."
See More on the worship of the Unknown Worship of the sun, fire and the serpent are all the same.
This was wrong, ignorant, sinful and they must repent. How can this be sold as an inspired model for baptizing Santa or "anything" which will aid in breaking down the doors to heaven.
Why? Because God lives within the human heart and you don't have to "drum up" the gods (plural.)