I Want To Be Saved!

       Well, it's that time of year. The corn stalks are in the land fill and all that remains of the jack-o'-lantern is a sticky spot on the front step. That means Christmas decorations are coming to a mall near you. But whose birthday is it any way? It's not Christ's. He was born (according to Bible scholars) during the feast of the tabernacles, which occurs in the fall. But not to worry we still have a pseudo virgin birth to celebrate. It's that of Tammuz the bastard son of Semeramis. You see she was impregnated by a sunray sent to her, posthumously, by her late husband Nimrod (one of the bad guys from the Old Testament). Tammuz was gored to death by a wild boar in his 40th year of life, so those who worshipped "the son of the sun god" would weep and abstain from a worldly pleasure for 40 days, 1 day for each year of Tammuz's life on earth (sounds like lent). Years later Semeramis also died and the gods were so pleased with her that they reincarnated her as Easter (Ashstarte) by having her emerge from a giant egg that landed in the Euphrates river at sunrise on Sunday after the vernal equinox. Then to exercise her divine power she changed a bird into an egg laying rabbit (see Ezekiel 8).

       Why is it that we, along with our families and our churches, try to "Christianize" pagan holidays that point to pagan gods instead of the feasts that God set apart to point to Jesus Christ, and to celebrate the heritage that we, as Christians, have been adopted into (Ephesians 1). Maybe we didn't know, now we do. Maybe we don't want to know, or maybe we should find out more.

       The Feasts of God are a prophetic outline of Gods plan. There are the spring holidays: The Passover when Jesus was sacrificed at the exact time the Passover lamb was to be slain. Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread the day Jesus was buried, the Day of First Fruits, Jesus is the first fruits and the last spring feast the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The fall holidays (yet to be fulfilled) begin with the Feast of trumpets which may indicate the rapture of the church. The Day of Atonement possibly the Judgment day and the Feast of Tabernacles the day we will dwell or tabernacle with God (Leviticus 23). The traditional celebration of these holidays all point to some aspect of our history, future and relationship with the one true God. I know Christ fulfilled The Law but He was first most explicit that He did not abolish it (Matthew 5). It's still here. It's for us, not to follow legalistically like the Pharisees, but to enjoy and to learn more about our God and His plan for His creation. Why do we not celebrate it His way?

       Bob Buttriss, Westlake

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