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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH & ISRAEL

Over the years the Christian church has made many serious mistakes; one of which was to suppose that because Israel, in the main, rejected the Son of God, Yahweh abandoned His chosen people and transferred His favours and work to the Gentile church. As mentioned previously, this is a colossal error; because the Most High promised never to abandon His chosen people Israel. All that happened when the leaders of Israel rejected Jesus Christ was that the Holy Spirit directed certain Apostles to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, who had previously been mostly excluded from Yahweh's Truth. When Paul and Barnabas answered that call, the 'Time of the Gentiles' began and a partial spiritual blindness settled on Israel. But Israel was not abandoned. She was simply blinded to the Gospel which she had stubbornly refused to accept. That spiritual blindness is being removed at this very moment as thousands of Israelis around the world accept Yeshua and the Gospel of Salvation their forefathers rejected many centuries ago.

ABRAHAM'S SEED

Another fact that comparatively few Christians realise is that every believer in Jesus Christ is considered by the Almighty to be a 'child of Abraham.' In other words Gentiles who believe in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) are spiritual Israelites - Jews! Here is proof of this little-known fact:

Rom.2:28	For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Gal.3:26	For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27: For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29: And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In the book of Romans Paul further figuratively explains how Yahweh prunes away unbelieving Israelites from the Olive of Israel and in their place grafts in believing Gentiles. In other words, believing Gentiles become spiritual Israelites and thereafter partake of the goodness of the Olive of Israel. Jews are not grafted into the Gentile church. It is the other way around; believing Gentiles are grafted onto the Olive of Israel; we become joint-heirs of the Kingdom of God with the Jews! Believing Gentiles, therefore, should not insult Israelis by assuming that Yahweh has abandoned them in favour of the Christian church. Because that is certainly not the case. To fix this little-known fact in your mind, let me again quote the Apostle Paul:

Rom.11:16

For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17: And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18: Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19: Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. 20: Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee… 25: For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26: And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Eph.3:6

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

In view of these amazing facts, everyone, especially Christians, should treat the people of Israel - and their fellow Christians for that matter - with respect. To be sure, some Jews as in the days of old, are the 'children of the Devil' (John 8:44); but the whole nation must not be condemned because of the few. The Jew is the 'Apple of God's eye' and all who oppose them will find themselves fighting God! (Zech.2:7-8) How true were the words of the mercenary prophet Balaam, who, in spite of himself, pronounced this eternal truth as he lifted up his eyes and beheld the people of Israel:

CHRISTIAN BLINDNESS

It is also a dangerous thing for Gentile Christians to smugly gloat over Israel's blindness in rejecting Jesus and his Gospel. Gentile boasting is out of order, because the church, though paying lip service to Jesus Christ, has rejected the very commandments the Saviour came to magnify. The Bible tells us that Jesus came to save mankind from sin, that is from disobedience.

Matt.1:21	And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Rom.8:3-4	... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

In other words, the purpose for which Jesus came to earth was to save believers from sin, that is, from breaking God's law, from disobedience. His final objective is 'that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.' But what do we find in the Christian church? We find that millions, like ancient Israel, have abandoned the law of God and are sinning with impunity. Indeed the average person would be hard pressed to tell you even five of the Ten Commandments, let alone all ten. Why this almost incredible ignorance of so important a law? The answer is, because the Ten Commandments are not being taught in most churches and schools. The law of God is considered, by many, to be impossible to keep and is now obsolete. Some even go so far as to say that it is barbaric! As for the Sabbath commandment, it has become an embarrassment to most Christian ministers and priests. Few will ever preach about Sabbath-keeping. But the fact remains, that without the Ten Commandments it is impossible to define sin, let alone cope with sin's horrifying consequences.

The Bible says:

Rom.3:20	... for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom.7:7	What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
1 John 3:4	Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

In other words, God's law tells us what actions are right and acceptable and what actions are wrong and unacceptable - to Him. If the Ten Commandments are not taught in the schools and churches, then men, women and children will have absolutely no idea how to behave. Nor will they feel guilty when they sin. They will do as they please and the rule of the jungle will take over. Is it any wonder that there is so much evil in the world, so much violence and vice, so much sexual immorality and sin? It is because the knowledge of righteousness, which God's law alone imparts, is fading from the earth. Comparatively few people know anything about the Almighty's standard of morals. His commandments are not being taught any more; so evil is taking over. As for the weekly and annual Sabbaths of the LORD, they are despised and rejected. In their place we find an array of human traditions and pagan celebrations - all abhorrent to the Most High. Consider these staggering quotations about pagan holidays in the Christian calendar.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is not a Bible festival. It is an ancient pagan festival masquerading as the birthday of the Son of God.

• "Indeed it is admitted by the most learned and candid of writers of all parties that the day of our LORD's birth cannot be determined and that within the Christian church no festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the third century was far advanced did it gain much observance. How then did the Romanish church fix on December 25th as Christmas day? Why thus: Long before the fourth century and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen at the precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the Son of the Babylonian Queen of Heaven: and it may fairly be assumed that in order to conciliate the heathen and to swell the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church giving it only the name Christ. This tendency on the part of the Christians to meet paganism half-way was very early adopted ... Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts the apostasy went on, till the church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under pagan superstition. That Christmas was originally a pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated proves its origin. In Egypt the Son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the Queen of Heaven, was born at this very time, about the time of the winter solstice." (The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop , page 93)
• "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911 edition)
• "It is nevertheless almost certain that the 25th of December cannot be the nativity of the Saviour, for it is then the height of the rainy season in Judaea, and shepherds could hardly be watching their flocks by night in the plains. Not casually or arbitrarily was the festival of the Nativity celebrated on the 25th December. One of the principal causes that co-operated in fixing this period was that almost all the heathen nations regarded the winter solstice as the turning point of the year - the beginning of the powers of nature and of the gods who were originally merely symbolical personifications of these."(Chambers Encyclopaedia 1908 edition article Christmas)
• "There can be no doubt, then, that the Pagan festival at the winter solstice - in other words, Christmas - was held in honour of the birth of the Babylonian Messiah." (The Two Babylons page 102)

EASTER

What about Easter? How did this pagan, fertility festival enter the Christian calendar? Most certainly there is no mention of Easter eggs in the Scriptures; no mention of bunny rabbits. Where did they come from? Is it wrong to celebrate Easter? The facts will surprise you; but here are a few quotations about Easter from Alexander Hislop's famous book The Two Babylons, published by S W Partridge & Co., 4 Soho Sq., London. (ISBN 0 7136 0470 0).

• "Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, 'the priests of the groves.'" (page 103)
• "To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general to get Paganism and Christianity, now far sunk in idolatry - in this as in so many other things, to shake hands." (page 105)
• "The hot cross buns of Good Friday and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The 'buns' known too by the identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens- that is, 1500 years before the Christian era... The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says: 'The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women make cakes to the queen of heaven" - Astarte! ((Jer.7:18) page 108))
• "In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus it is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: 'An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess'" - that is Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter." (page 108)
• "The guilt of idolatry is regarded by many as comparatively slight and insignificant guilt. But not so does the God of heaven regard it. Which is the commandment of all the ten that is fenced about with the most solemn and awful sanctions? It is the second: 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.' These words were spoken by God's own lips, they were written by God's own finger on the tables of stone: not for the instruction of the seed of Abraham only, but of all the tribes and generations of mankind. No other commandment has such a threatening attached to it as this. Now, if God has threatened to visit the sin of idolatry above all other sins, and if we find the heavy judgements of God pressing upon us as a nation, while this very sin is crying to heaven against us, ought it not to be a matter of earnest inquiry, if among all our other national sins, which are both many and great, this may not form the very head and front of our offending." (p 127)

Similar quotations can be found in Hislop's 330 page book about other pagan traditions which over the centuries have crept into the Christian calendar, false teachings such as:

• The Nativity of St John (Held immediately after the summer solstice)
• The Feast of the Assumption (A nineteenth century human tradition)
• Idol processions / Relic worship: the clothing and crowning of images etc.

Not one of these practices is endorsed in the holy Scriptures. They are pagan through and through. They were adopted centuries ago by a spiritually blind ecclesiastical hierarchy which had absolutely no idea of the sinfulness of its actions. Celebrating these pagan festivals is nothing but baptised idolatry; and as such is abhorrent to the Almighty and His Son.

THE TRADITIONS OF MEN

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with a human tradition - if it does not clash with a command of the Almighty God. But if a tradition conflicts with a divine commandment, as most of the popular Christian festivals do, then once they are recognised for what they are, their continued acceptance will neutralise one's worship, making it vain, pointless and futile. Their continued use can even jeopardise one's salvation. This frightening fact is clearly taught by the Master himself:

Mark 7:6	He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7: Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Matt.15:8	This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9: But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

The Christian church is guilty of placing the traditions of men above the commandments of God. The celebrating of Christmas, Easter, Ash-Wednesday, the Nativity of St John, the Feast of the Assumption, Hallowe'en and Sunday etc. are all human traditions. Not one of these festivals was authorised by the LORD God. They are all spiritual weeds in the Garden of Salvation. Celebrating them in preference to Yahweh's Sabbaths is no more than self-deluding idolatry. These facts may stun or even anger some who read them. But they must be told. Because replacing a divine commandment with a human tradition is a very serious sin. At the coming Judgement would you forgive me for not telling you the Truth?

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