TRAPPINGS OF POPERY (PART FOUR):

	- Popish Festivals -
___________________________________
	“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
	Come out of her, my people...” (Rev.18:4).

	BY SHAUN WILLCOCK

(From the Introduction at the beginning of Part One)
  Many Christians and Christian churches have retained various trappings of Popery, either out of ignorance, or because they view them as mere trifling matters, or because they simply cannot bear to part with them.  Christian man, Christian woman: you ought never to play the part of ungodly Achan, hiding any “goodly Babylonish garment” in the midst of your tent (Jos.7:21)!  The embellishments of Popery should never be retained by those who, by sovereign grace, have clean escaped the clutches of the mystical harlot.  Rev.18:4 says that the Lord's people must fully “come out” of Popery; but alas! many flee from this “Babylon” like Rachel fleeing from her father's house —  with her father’s gods hidden amongst her possessions (Gen.31:19,34,35).
  We must examine these trappings of Popery.  Come out —  truly out —  of Babylon, have nothing to do with the harlot or her ways!

  It is astounding how many Popish festivals and “holy days” are an accepted and never-questioned part of the lives of the vast majority of those today who would call themselves Protestants and Bible-believing Christians, and how powerful an influence these things have upon them.  So powerful, in fact, that even to dare to expose them for what they really are is considered in most circles to be tantamount to heresy, and to a denial of the birth, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ!  But God’s own Word, as well as the records of history, prove beyond all doubt that these “days” are of heathen and Popish origin, and that they should therefore be shunned by all believers and all Christian churches, as being no part of true biblical worship whatsoever.
  Consider, first of all, those two great trappings of Popery, the festivals of Christmas and Easter; the most popular festivals on earth.  In my book, The Pagan Festivals of Christmas and Easter, I have gone into much detail about the Babylonian and Popish origins of these festivals, and thus I will not do so again here.  There is far too much information to be compressed into this short section on these Roman Catholic festivals.  The reader is urged to obtain a copy of the book and to carefully study the biblical and historical evidence presented.  Suffice it to say, here, that any Christian who is observing these festivals is celebrating, not the birth, death and resurrection of Christ, but the supposed birth, death and resurrection of the ancient heathen sun-god!  For many centuries ago the false “Church” of Rome took these ancient heathen festivals and simply worked them over, giving them the superficial appearance of being “Christian” festivals, renaming the ancient pagan deities as “Mary” and the “Christ-child,” and retaining all the ritual and paraphernalia that had been part and parcel of the revolting heathen sacrificial system that had its origins in Babylon not long after the Flood, many centuries before the Lord Jesus Christ was manifest in the flesh.  Even the true events of our Saviour’s birth, death and resurrection were distorted to make them fit the pagan festivities.
  The very names of these festivals give the game away, for those prepared to look behind the facade.  For what is Christmas but “Christ-mass,” or the mass of Christ, so named after the central idolatry and blasphemy of Roman Catholic worship: the so-called “sacrifice” of the mass?  “Then look at Easter.  What means the term Easter itself?  It is not a Christian name.  It bears its Chaldean origin on its very 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... is Ishtar” (Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg.103).  The word “Easter” is simply the anglicised form of “Ishtar.”
  Christmas and Easter have absolutely nothing to do with the true Christ of God.  And yet many millions of Protestants readily observe these Romish festivals, while at the same time condemning Popery.  This is to speak with a forked tongue indeed!  You cannot condemn Popery, and yet keep the Popish festivals in honour of their false “christ”!

  But Christmas and Easter are not the only Roman Catholic “days” which are observed by Protestants.  There are a number of others.  Again, space does not permit a detailed examination of all of them; but here is a brief summary.
  There is the increasingly popular “Valentine’s Day,”  held every February 14th.  This is said to be the day of romance and love.  But what is it really?  It is nothing less than the ancient heathen Roman festival called the Lupercalia, dressed up (like Christmas and Easter) to appear to be “christianized.”  The Romans celebrated this festival, beginning on the eve of February 14th, in honour of the goddess of sexual love, Venus, and they observed it as a lovers’ festival!  It was a time of sexual immorality and lust (and nothing has changed —  it still is!).  The supposed son of Venus, called “Cupid,”  was said to blindly shoot arrows at the hearts of people.  And this Roman god Cupid was no other than the Greek god Eros.  Eros was the god of sexual love, as seen even in the related word “erotic.”
  And in the year 496 AD, the pope, Gelasius, “catholicized” the festival and renamed it “St. Valentine’s Day,” after a priest of Rome of that name in the third century!  As Valentine had performed marriages secretly, against the edict of the emperor, his name was considered the perfect choice by the pope for this day dedicated to sex!
  Thus, once again, a heathen festival became part of “Catholic” worship; and from Rome it has slipped into the lives of many calling themselves “Protestants” as well.  And to this day, it retains all the heathen trappings: Cupid, hearts, the date (February 14th), sexual immorality, etc.  True Christians should have nothing to do with “Valentine’s Day”!

  Then there is that Satanist high day that is intertwined with a Roman Catholic festival: the dark and demonic festival of Halloween.  In reality of course, all these festivals are of the devil, for they all have their roots in the devil's religion; but Halloween is so obviously demonic that it is a wonder any who call themselves Christians have anything to do with it.  And yet they do! —  thereby showing their blind ignorance of the Gospel of Christ, regardless of the claims they make about themselves.
  This festival, under another name, was celebrated by the pagan Druids, those powerful Celtic priest-wizards of ancient times.  They practiced human sacrifice and other abominations, and October 31st was their festival of Samhain, the sun god and lord of the dead.  They believed that on that day, the dead left their graves and wandered the streets.  This explains why the symbols of death are such an integral part of Halloween.  On that night, if people had to go out, they would masquerade as ghosts, devils, witches, etc., to (as they believed) be able to blend in with the real ones, and thus avoid recognition!
  Although defeated by the Romans, the Druids continued operating underground, and do so to this very day.  Halloween is still a high day in the calendar for Satanists and witches.  It is a day of occult killings and dark rituals.
  The name, Halloween (or Hallowe’en), was originally “hallowed even,” meaning holy evening; the night of October 31st.  And why “hallowed evening”?  Here again, we see the slimy hand of the Papacy.  The Roman Catholic monks were fascinated by the Druids, and Druids even became monks themselves.  And Pope Gregory (“Gregory the Great,” as he was called) incorporated the Druids’ holy day into Romanism (a familiar pattern emerges here, doesn’t it?).  Gregory changed the Roman Catholic festival of October 31st to November 1st, and it was called “All Saints’ Day.”  So the “hallowed evening” was the night before this great Popish holy day —  Halloween!  This is the time when Roman Catholics supposedly honour their dead “saints.”  In Mexico, for example, they take a deceased relative’s favourite food to the cemetery on this day, and spend the night around the grave, believing the dead actually feast on the aroma of the food they have brought.  Thus, the ancient Druid festival of the dead is celebrated today, not only by Satanists and witches, but by Roman Catholics as well! —  and still as a festival of the dead!
  Halloween is thus in every sense a demonic festival, to be shunned by all true believers: “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph.5:11); “what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor.6:14); “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer” (Deut.18:10,11); “They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead” (Psa.106:28); “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils” (Psa.106:37); “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God” (Deut.32:17); “I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor.10:20).

  Even “Mothers’ Day” and “Fathers’ Day” contain echoes of ancient Popery.  Centuries ago, a day for supposedly honouring mothers was observed in England, and known as “Mothering Sunday.”  It was held in the middle of the Roman Catholic pre-Easter period known as Lent; and on this day, people attended what they called their “Mother Church” (i.e. the edifice where they had been baptized as Papists, and were thus supposedly “born” into the “Mother Church”), and there they offered gifts to their mothers and to the “church,”  as tokens of love and gratitude!  When one reflects on the fact that Rome calls itself “Holy Mother Church,” and claims that outside of it there is no salvation, one can understand how this made sense to the faithful, blinded Papists; but it is of course completely contrary to the Word of God.
  The modern observance of “Mothers’ Day” was first suggested by Julia Ward Howe in 1872, as a day dedicated to peace, and for several years she held an annual Mothers’ Day meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.  In 1887, Mary Towles Sasseen of Kentucky began holding Mothers’ Day celebrations.  In 1904 Frank E. Hering of Indiana launched a campaign for its observance; and in 1907, Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia began a campaign for the national observance of Mothers’ Day.  And she chose the second Sunday in May.
  On May 10, 1908, churches in Grafton and Philadelphia held celebrations.  Anna Jarvis’ own mother was honoured in a service held in Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church.  And at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopalian denomination in 1912, a delegate from the Andrews congregation introduced a resolution recognising Anna Jarvis as the founder of “Mothers’ Day.”  Finally, on May 9, 1912, President Wilson of the U.S. was authorised to proclaim it as an annual national observance.
  As for Fathers’ Day, Mrs John Bruce Dodd in 1909 persuaded the ministerial society of Spokane, Washington, to salute fathers with special services.  And in 1916, President Wilson officially approved it, with President Coolidge in 1924 recommending national observance.
  It is true that the modern-day “Mothers’ Day” and “Fathers’ Day” may not have a direct connection with Rome.  But consider the following.  First, the ancient celebration of “Mothering Sunday” was certainly a Papist celebration, and there are definite similarities, suggesting that this was deliberate.  Second, whatever Anna Jarvis’ reason was for choosing the month of May for the modern-day observance, the fact is that May is the month dedicated to Mary in the Roman Catholic institution.  And Mary is blasphemously worshipped by them as “Mother of God.”  Was this just coincidence?  Perhaps.  But even if it was, do we not discern satanic work behind the scenes, establishing a “Mothers’ Day” in the centre of the month dedicated to the “mother goddess” of Rome, known as Mary?  And third, why should we as believers follow the dictates of the denomination known as the Methodist Episcopal denomination, or any other for that matter; and why should a special day to honour mothers (or fathers) be forced upon us?  What saith the Scripture?  “Honour thy father and mother” —  on one day of the year only?  No —  every single day of the year!  Many make a big fuss of their parents on one day of the year, to ease their guilty consciences, because for the rest of the year they show them no honour whatsoever.  As Christians, we must obey the commandment of the Lord, and honour our parents constantly.  We do not need a special day in the year to do it!  It is our ongoing privilege and duty.

  “Come out of her, my people,” then, means to come out of Romish festivals and special “days” no less than Rome's many other abominations.

(This is the fourth in a series of nine pamphlets exposing various Romish trappings which many Christians and Christian churches have retained.  To obtain the other pamphlets in this series entitled “Trappings of Popery,” please write to the address below.  In addition, they have all been published together, slightly edited and enlarged, as a book entitled Trappings of Popery.  This book is available from the address below.)

Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel.  He lives in South Africa and runs Bible Based Ministries.  For other pamphlets (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, audio messages, news articles, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website; or write to the address below.  If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ electronic mailing list, please send your details.

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