Are the Feasts of God Important? Valentine’s Day Is Pagan? So What?

Are the Feasts of God Important?

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• "With the world in chaos over the covet-19 pandemic, many have begun to seek God and His holy guidance once more. But one can become confused as to whether they are observing the will of God, or not. Questions often arise as to how we serve God?

One of the most common questions, why does the Bible tell us to do one thing, and our church tells us to do something totally different? For instance, why are we told Christmas is a religious holiday, when it’s nowhere in the Bible. Yes, you read right, Christmas cannot be found in the Bible. The story of the birth of Jesus has no time setting as to when He was born. Jesus’ death is far more elaborated on than His birth, why is that?

The Bible does tell us to observe certain times and days, with no ambiguity. Those days and times can be found in Leviticus 23, one should read the entire chapter. the first day mentioned is the seventh-day Sabbath putting it first makes it extremely important to God, so it should be important to us.

Who are God’s people?

Exodus 31:12-15 tells us those that keep His holy Sabbath are His people. They may be Jews or any other Israelite, but they may also be converted gentiles. They all have one thing in common, they observe god’s Sabbath’s and that includes all the days listed in Leviticus 23. What isn’t included, is christmas, easter, ‘holloween’ and sunday observance.

So, yes keeping God’s Holy days are important, whether we agree or not, your choice.

What can keeping these days teach you?”  From: https://thetcog.com/

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Valentine’s Day Is Pagan? So What?

“Many know that St. Valentine’s Day had pagan origins. But today it’s just a day of romance and fun, right? Does its past really matter to God?

Why would it matter that the origin of Valentine’s Day is rooted in paganism? In this day and age, who really cares? After all, you’re just interested in doing something nice for your significant other on a day that seems to be for that purpose.

So what’s wrong with that? So what if the origin of this holiday goes back into ancient history? Would it matter if it turns out that what we consider innocent fun is actually offensive to God?

Leather strips and fertility?

First, let’s take a brief look back into the ancient history of Valentine’s Day.

The origin, though somewhat murky, is generally accepted as follows:

The ancient Roman festival Lupercalia is considered to be one precursor to Valentine’s Day. It was celebrated from Feb. 13-15 as a purification and fertility ceremony.

“To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. …

“They would then strip the goat’s hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year.

“Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city’s bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. …

“The Roman romantics ‘were drunk. They were naked,’ says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile” (History.com).

History also records that around A.D. 500 Pope Gelasius established St. Valentine’s Day in an attempt to convert this pagan Roman fertility festival into a Christian holiday, thus retaining its attractions and making it easier for pagan people to accept Christianity. (It is unclear as to which Valentine was being honored by this day, since there were several Catholic saints so named.)

The Roman church was astute enough to keep the game of chance alive due to its popularity. But it replaced the women’s names with names of saints. Both men and women participated in the drawing and were told for the following year to emulate the life of the saint whose name they had drawn.

But the pagan roots are still visible today.”

Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/plan-of-salvation/holy-days-vs-holidays/valentines-day/

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