What are you doing on New Year’s Eve? A more intriguing question might be, do you know where the traditions associated with New Year’s Eve originate from? There are many customs and superstitions associated with the celebration that vary around the world. The one thing they all have in common, however, is a pronounced focus on human reasoning. So, from a Christian perspective, it is…
Story Category: Miscellaneous Topics
A Right Christmas – Edwin Stepp & Robert Boraker vision.org
Steven Orchard
3 years ago in Paganism, Christmas
The early Christian Church didn’t keep Christmas. Christ wasn’t even born in winter. However, a solar feast commemorating the Persian god Mithra, whom the Romans also worshiped, was historically observed on December 25th around the winter solstice. Gift-giving and unrestrained revelry were also features of the Roman Saturnalia, another solstice festival that anchors modern Christmas traditions. Roman emperor Constantine saw the tension between emerging Christianity…
What Is the Mark of the Beast? tomorrowsworld.org
Ryan Welsh
3 years ago in Mark of the Beast, Sunday Worship
The Mark of the beast as described in the book of Revelation has been a subject of wild speculation. This whiteboard video clearly lays out what it is and what it isn’t. Within the context of scripture, the mark is not something physical. It is not a vaccine, tattoo, barcode, chip, or anything else that can be forced upon someone against their will. This mark on the hand and…
Hell: Origins of an Idea – Richard Burky, Jeannette B. Anderson vision.org
Ryan Welsh
3 years ago in Heaven & Hell
The authors of this article set out to answer a simple question – “how can anyone worship a god who sets up fallible humans to be forever tormented in hell?” The idea of perpetual torment for the dead that in some way fell short in life is held by most of this world’s religions. This includes two of the three Abrahamic religions (Christian and Muslim)…
Halloween – Bill Butler vision.org
Steven Orchard
3 years ago in Paganism, Halloween
Halloween is rooted in ancient pagan rites and customs. Why do those who claim Christian identity keep it? Paul told the followers of Christ to disassociate themselves such customs when he said “…what accord has Christ with Belial? …‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord’” (2 Corinthians 6:14–17). Christians ought to reject this overtly pagan festival. Halloween’s history goes back 2,000…
Halloween: Treat, or Trick? – Richard A. Wilson tomorrowsworld.org
Ryan Welsh
3 years ago in Halloween
There is a Gaelic tradition that says, at Samhain, the doors to the underworld open— allowing dead souls and harmful spirits to enter our world. Modern Halloween costumes originated as an attempt to mask one’s identity as protection from those harmful spirits. This tradition melded with the practice of “souling”. This was a practice where children and the poor would go house to house offering…
Proverbs 26: When Should You Answer a Fool? – Mike Hanisko lifehopeandtruth.com
John Grabara
3 years ago in Miscellaneous Topics
There is a Proverb that at first glance might seem contradictory (Proverbs 26:4-5). It reads, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly.” Yet, the very next verse reads, “Answer a fool according to his folly.” Actually, these two verses are not contradictory, but a closer study shows that they are complementary. When to apply either verse, the principle taught by what either verse teaches, depends on the…
Easter Sunday sunrise services thebiblesaysthat.com
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Easter
Easter Sunday service doesn’t commemorate Christ’s resurrection as assumed by millions of Christians. This is laid out in Timeline of Easter / Passover. Does the Bible mention any kind of sunrise service?… ” with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east… they were worshiping the sun toward the east. And He said to me, “Have you seen this,…
Daily Thanksgiving cgg.org
Delisa Brown
4 years ago in Thanksgiving, Miscellaneous Topics
Millions of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day each year. For many the day is little more than a routine holiday party complete with wonderful traditional food items and plenty of football on TV and in backyards across the country. Some people will be spending part of their day pouring over newspaper ads preparing their “plan of attack” for a successful Black Friday Shopping sore the following…
Who Was “Saint Patrick”? ucg.org
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Saint Patrick's Day
Will the real Saint Patrick please stand up. Most believe St. Patrick, a Catholic monk, brought the doctrine of the Trinity to Ireland. In addition, he is also believed to have driven out all the snakes from the Emerald Isle. Maewyn Succat, aka Patrick most likely took on his name sake due to his Scottish origins. At the age of sixteen he and thousands of…
Passover to Easter – Peter Nathan vision.org
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Passover, Easter
Societal traditions are rarely viewed through a historic lens. To do so would reveal, all too often, a violent blending of traditions and rituals. Easter is one such tradition. At its core, Easter is an ancient pagan fertility celebration that took on Christian terminology. This controversial blend centered around the timing of this celebration- specifically what day to memorialize. Lasting nearly 3 centuries this became…
Valentine’s Day – Steven Orchard thefatherscall.org
Cathy Pridmore
4 years ago in Valentine's Day, Paganism
Valentine’s Day is a ubiquitous global tradition accepted as a celebration of love and endorsed by Christianity and commerce alike. However, the origins of the custom are sordid. St. Valentine apparently existed only in legend. The day was likely named for a popular Gnostic heretic who blended pagan ideas into Catholic doctrine and promoted eroticism as a way to connect with the spirit realm. In…
Cupid’s Disheartening Past – Alice Abler vision.org
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Valentine's Day, Paganism
Cupid, that winged Valentine’s Day mascot with a sordid past. “From a lusty shepherd-king who died annually, causing weeping of women throughout the known world, to the incestuous sun god who is the bringer of life, his tale spans eons and outlive entire civilizations with variations in names and lore. This intertwined history of Cupid and his mother, the traditional mother/son/spouse deities of sexual love…
Fulfillment of the Law – Tim Vail thefatherscall.org
Brian Orchard
4 years ago in Law, Law Done Away, Days of Unleavened Bread
Do all the laws of the Old Testament end with Christ’s death? Many believe that the 10 commandments as well as the statutes based on those laws are not binding on man today. This belief is supported by Jesus’ role as High Priest fulfilling many of the rituals observed by the ancient Israelites, such as animal sacrifices. So indeed, some Old Testament practices did end…
Evidence of God’s Design – Bill Jahns lifehopeandtruth.com
Marshall Stiver
4 years ago in Physical World, Creation, Evolution
Many wonder when they look up in the heavens at night or simply at all the life forms here on earth, “Is there really a God who designed and created all these things?” Well, there is a great deal of evidence that points to a creator God. We marvel at some of the design and subsequent construction of complicated mechanical devices that are credited to…
Sabbath Rest sabbathcog.org
Julie Modad
4 years ago in Weekly Sabbath, Sunday Worship
Some say that the Sabbath is just a Jewish day, or even further minimized, no longer commanded as it was nailed to the cross. Is this truly the case? The Sabbath is a part of God’s spiritual creation, not just a random day of the week. The Sabbath day is holy because it was God Himself who set the day apart from all the rest….
Changing the Sabbath to Sunday thebiblesaysthat.com
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Sunday Worship
The shifting of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday is quite an interesting tale to hear, especially from those that instituted the change. It’s almost a chicken or the egg scenario. Most Seventh day Sabbath keepers say Sunday worship is wrong because it was instituted by men (within the Catholic Church). The Catholic Church, on the other hand, say we changed the Sabbath, without scriptural…
Keeping Christmas Breaks All Ten Commandments! – Randy D’Alessandro ucg.org
Jule Zehrung
4 years ago in Miscellaneous Topics
This message compares a historic world event that was hijacked and relabeled to a set of guidelines in the ‘manual’ that show that Christmas is not Christian and contravenes all 10 Commandments. Perhaps the most obvious infractions that this presenter outlines are in Commandment #2 “do not worship idols”; worship defined as honoring with religious rites and #9 “do not lie”. Some people know it’s…
Is God a Trinity? – Peter Nathan, Jeannette B. Anderson vision.org
Ryan Welsh
4 years ago in Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity – where did this “extrabiblical dogma” come from? For those that ask “why,” the doctrine of the Trinity is difficult to unravel. As we look back, around a century after the time of Emperor Constantine and the council of Nicaea (325 C.E.), there was still little consensus of God’s nature by “Church leaders” and brief mention of the Holy Spirit….
Paganism: Who Cares? – Brian Orchard thefatherscall.org
Steven Orchard
4 years ago in Paganism
The pagan origins of popular holidays is common knowledge, but who cares? Perhaps the important question is, instead, does God care? God gave the nation He formed, Israel, very specific instructions to avoid paganism. Yet they repeatedly adopted pagan practices including worship of multiple gods, nature, and goddesses. Paganism interrupts the singularity of focus on the true God. It breaks the core of the covenant…