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…
Story Category: Miscellaneous Topics
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
5 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
5 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
5 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…
Christmas? thebiblesaysthat.com
Ryan Welsh
5 years ago in Christmas
I really liked the short, to the point approach this article took regarding the biblical stance on Christmas. It begins with the pagan origins of Christmas that are documented and well-established. Most mainstream Christians don’t even argue that fact. With the origins well established we move to the second point. Within Jeremiah it’s stated that we are not to worship God the way gentiles worship…
Lazarus & Rich Man – Scriptural Proof of Hell? hwalibrary.com
Steven Orchard
5 years ago in Judgement, Heaven & Hell
First, the Bible is clear that there is no consciousness after death and no immortal soul. There are, however, resurrections in sequence for both the righteous and the unrighteous. Both Lazarus and the rich man died. One was to be resurrected to life, the other to permanent destruction. Christ is using an allegory with terms familiar to His audience. It is in the context of…
Has God’s Law Been Done Away? – Ken Murray ucg.org
Julie Modad
5 years ago in Law, Law Done Away
A fundamental question looms over much of Christianity today: Has the law been done away? What does Christ have to say about this – as He should be the foremost authority on the matter. There is a scripture in Luke that is often cited to say the law is no longer needed to be kept. The Bible explains itself, never contradicts, and states with full…
“You Will Not Surely Die!” – Jim Franks lifehopeandtruth.com
Ryan Welsh
5 years ago in Gospel Message, Plan of Salvation, Human Beings, Second Resurrection, Immortal Soul
At some point we all face and wonder what happens after death. Most accept without question that what they are taught comes from scripture. That is “we are an immortal soul that at death lives on eternally in heaven or in hell.” What most don’t realize is this belief predates the first coming of Jesus, having its origins in paganism. It can arguably be traced…
Is the Holy Spirit a Person? ucg.org
Steven Orchard
5 years ago in Trinity
The teaching of the Trinity (i.e. that the Holy Spirit is a divine person) is not in the Bible. That idea arrived after the Bible was complete and stems from pagan origins. Rather than describing the Holy Spirit as a distinct person or entity, the Bible refers to it as God’s divine power. Jewish and Catholic scholars agree that the Bible speaks of the Holy…
Timeline of Easter / Passover tomorrowsworld.org
Ryan Welsh
5 years ago in Holy Days, Passover, Easter
This is one of those subjects that becomes clearer with a visual aid. There is a lot of confusion around Good Friday, Easter, and Jesus being dead 3 days and 3 nights. As one will see in this 7 min video, the only sign given that Jesus is the Christ did happen as described without the verbal gymnastics required to make the pagan traditions work….
What Is God Really Like? – John Ogwyn tomorrowsworld.org
Julie Modad
5 years ago in God, Holy Spirit, Trinity
So many religions, so many conflicting views about God. And what about the Trinity? If there are so many differing versions of God, how can you know which one is true? There is a definitive authoritative work that reveals the truth, the very book inspired by God himself wherein He reveals himself, reveals the Son and the truth about the Holy Spirit. The Bible is…
Prove Evolution Is False Without the Bible – Mario Seiglie ucg.org
Amanda Stiver
5 years ago in Creation, Evolution, Miscellaneous Topics
At school the theory of evolution is taught in science class. To doubt or question it can often result in being the object of ridicule. But is it okay to just accept a theory of science because it is the “typical” explanation for the origin of life in this day and age? Is the theory of evolution infallible? How can you effectively question that theory…