Christmas Easter And Lent
Their Pagan Origins
Pastor George Burnside
The Strange Origin Of Christmas - Easter - Lent
REGARDING the birth of our Lord, I read in Matthew, chapter 2 and verse 1, these words: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.” There is no evidence whatsoever that Jesus Christ was born on December 25. History does not record the date of His birth and the Bible is entirely silent on this subject. It is very evident, friends that God did not wish us to know, or He would not have left us in such complete ignorance as to the exact birth date of Jesus. December 25 has been handed down by the Roman Catholic Church as the traditional date of the birth of Christ. That date was set by Pope Julius. I understand that the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates January 6 as the birthday of Jesus. That, too, of course, is only a traditional date-there is no evidence for it whatsoever.
In verse 1 of Matthew 2 we find an indication as to when He was born: “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.” Now, we have evidence to prove that Herod died in March of 4 BC, and Herod was still living when Jesus was born. Jesus was born about 4 BC. Of course, that harmonizes perfectly with the great prophecy of Daniel 9 which outlines the time when Jesus would be baptized and also when He would die. Jesus died when He was thirty-three years of age, in AD 31. Working back, you have to drop a year when you cross the B.C.-A.D. mark, and that would bring you to 4 BC. It all harmonizes. In verse 13, God says, “And when they were departed [that is, the wise men had departed], behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. When he arose, he took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Matthew 2:13-15. And so, friends, Jesus was in Egypt till the death of Herod, and as Herod died in March 4 BC, Jesus was born just a little while before that - He was born in 4 BC.
We have evidence to indicate that Jesus was not born on December 25. While we do not know the date, it is very, very evident that He was not born on December 25. You will remember, according to Luke chapter 2 and verse 1, that Caesar Augustus had passed a decree that the whole would should be taxed. He would not have people traveling to enroll and be taxed in the middle of winter. December 25 in the Northern Hemisphere is the coldest time. As Caesar Augustus ruled Western Europe and right down into Palestine, it would have been almost impossible for the people to have traveled across the country to enroll at that time.
It is very, very evident that no emperor would compel people to be enrolled in the middle of winter. When Jesus was born, the shepherds were watching their flocks on the hills. It is unlikely that they would be doing that in the middle of winter, for Jerusalem is a cold place. A friend of mine told me that when he traveled the world, the coldest night he experienced anywhere was the night he spent in Jerusalem.
I read from Dr. Adam Clarke of the Methodist Church, that at times the cold in the Middle East is so very intense as to kill man and beast. Note this from an illustrated British magazine, Picture Post - “Christmas snows fall on Jerusalem.” That was when the British troops were in Jerusalem during the last war and they had a white Christmas in Jerusalem. December 25, and Jerusalem was covered with snow! So, it is unlikely that shepherds would be out on the hills looking after the sheep at such a cold time.
I notice that early Christian writers differ greatly as to the date. Some have claimed January 2, others May 30, April 18, March 28, January 6. In fact, do you know there have been at least 136 different dates set for the birth of Jesus? That is enough to choose from, is it not? From another writer, I read, “Fourteen Christmases are celebrated in Jerusalem annually, and they are all on different dates.” In the days of Cromwell a decree was passed in England forbidding the celebration of Christmas on December 25, for, like the Scots, the Puritan English regarded it as a pagan holiday, The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions March 28, April 19 or 20, and May 20 as dates advocated by early write is, and further states: “Lupi has shown that there is no month in the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Christ’s birth.” (Volume 3, page 724.) It is very evident, dear friends, that folk have no idea when Jesus was born, but it is evident that it was not in the middle of winter.
About the fourth century after Christ, when the church had fallen away from Truth, December 25 was advocated. Remember, the apostles all died before AD. 100, and the Book of Revelation was written before that. According to Second Thessalonians, there was to be a terrible falling away from the Truth of God. History reveals that the church fell away until it went down into what is known as the Dark Ages. In the fourth century the church of God had fallen away from the Truth of God, it had fallen right away from the Bible. Not only that, but paganism was creeping in. They hated the Jews and were anxious to win the pagans. Gradually they worked toward the pagans, adopting doctrines and arguments to harmonize with them, till they were as far away from the teachings of the Jews as they could be. Paganism rolled into the church in such a tidal wave that it just eclipsed the Truth of God. Instead of God’s Truth it was nothing but “baptized paganism” that ruled through the Dark Ages. The people drifted right away from the early Christian standards, till the church which started out as the light of the world ended up by dragging the world into the Dark Ages. When the church had adopted a great deal from paganism, it set up December 25 as a traditional date for the birthday of Christ.
“The observance of Christmas is not of Divine appointment, nor is it of New Testament origin. The Fathers of the first three centuries do not speak of any special observance of the nativity.” Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature,” Volume 2, page 276.
“December 25 was celebrated as the birthday of the ancient Persian sun god Mithras, whose religion was a rival of Christianity during the early Christian centuries.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 18, pages 622-624.
Now, I am going to give you another side to the picture. Turn to Genesis, chapter 10, verse 8, and I will show you some very, very interesting things. This is after the Flood, “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.” Other translations say, “He became a despot.” Nimrod set up a counterfeit system to the Truth of God. There was one line, the descendants of Shem, standing by the Truth of God, but Nimrod became a dictator and set out to introduce a system of religion that would counterfeit the Truth of God through and through. He was the one who originated Babylon, for you read in verse 9: “He was a mighty hunter before the Lord [or, “against the Lord,” as other translations have it]: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the, mighty hunter before [or against] the Lord.” He led in rebellion and revolution against God. Verse 10 says: “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.” The margin says “Babylon,” Chapter 11 and verse 31 says, “An Terah took Abraham his son, and Lot the soil of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter--in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan.”
Now, we have Nimrod setting tip a counterfeit religion down there in Babylon. God took a man out of Babylon, out of Ur of the Chaldees, and placed him over there in Canaan to represent the Truth of God, and from Abraham came the city of Jerusalem. From there on, my friends, right through the Bible, you read of those two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. In fact, the Bible is really the tale of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. They I through to the last book in the Bible, for there you will read of the doom forever of Babylon and the exaltation forever of the New Jerusalem. In those two cities are centered two different worships, one the very Truth of God and the other the counterfeit, paganism. God took Abraham out of Babylon and used him to establish the Truth of God in this earth.
When the city of Babylon went down, the Babylonian priests fled to Pergamos in Asia Minor. When the Romans conquered Pergamos they were very obliging and accommodating- they would just take and adopt any god at all, placing its image in the Pantheon of Rome. That represented the gods of the nations, and if the Jews had had an image to their Jehovah, the Romans would have taken this image and put it there in the Pantheon. They took the religion of Persians and adopted it, very largely in Rome. That is why the Book of Revelation when talking about Rome and Pergamos says, “Where Satan’s seat is” - because that system of religion which originated in Babylon and transferred to Pergamos and hence to Rome, was the very religion of Satan. It was a counterfeit to the Truth of God. Always remember, dear friends that the devil aims at having whatever God has. If God has a religion, then the devil is going to have a religion. Away back in the beginning when he rebelled against God he said, “I will be like the Most High,” If God has a church, then he will have a church. You didn’t know that, perhaps, but you read in Revelation 2 about the “synagogue of Satan.” In 2 Corinthians 11 it tells you that the devil has ministers, and they operate in the sphere of religion.
The great battle of the ages has not been between religion and no religion. Oh, no! The great battle of the ages has been between truth and error, between the true religion and a false religion. The most dangerous thing on this earth is not no religion. Atheism is not much of a problem to the Truth of God. A counterfeit religion that operates as the Truth of God while leading men darkness is the most dangerous thing.
The system of religion that originated back there is Babylon, behind which was the great master rebel himself shifted with the downfall of the city of Babylon to Pergamos in Asia Minor and hence to Rome. Rome is never mentioned by name in the prophecies of the Bible, but Babylon is. Why? Because Rome was really a continuation of the system of religion that originated in ancient Babylon-it was an echo of Babylon. Hence Cod refers to Rome all the way through as Babylon. The system of religion that was founded there in Rome was nothing else than the old Babylonian paganism, perhaps with the names changed. When I say that, I am not straining tile point at all, for if you pick up the Roman Catholic Bible and turn over there to the Epistle of Peter where it mentions Babylon, you will find in the margin “Rome.” You turn to Revelation 17 in the Catholic Bible, and where it mentions Babylon they will tell you it means Rome. So you see here is something on which both Catholics and Protestants are agreed--Babylon of the Book of Revelation is nothing else but Rome. Why? Because she adopted the very system that originated back there in Babylon as the great counterfeit of the Truth of God.
Behind the paganism of Babylon was sun worship. Notice Isaiah 14:12-14. 1-sere is a verse that is very, very interesting. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou has said in your heart, I will ascend into heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the Most High.”
Satan intended to exalt himself and set up a religion that would be the very counterfeit of the Truth of God. Now do you have a marginal reading for that word “Lucifer”? “Daystar.” Go outside on a clear day and what is the only star you see shining? The sun. The suit is a star, and stars are suns. Lucifer meant “Daystar” - the great star you see shining in the day, and the devil set up a religion that was centered in sun worship. All through the Old Testament you will find that when the people of God drifted away into paganism they drifted into sun worship. Baal worship was only sun worship, and all those systems of paganism in those ancient countries were, one and all, sun worship. Behind the worship of the sun was the worship of the devil. Paul says in Corinthians that when those heathens and pagans sacrificed they sacrificed to devils, for behind Baal worship and behind paganism was nothing else than devil worship. You will find the same thing down there in Egypt.
Now, God called Abraham out of Babylon and set up the Truth of God. When Israel drifted back into pagan Egypt, God lifted a people out of Egypt to hold the-Truth of God, and right down, here in these last days, the message of God is “Come out of her [Babylon] My people.” All the way through God has been lifting people of Egypt, the way of Babylonian paganism to stand by the Truth of God. When He called His people out of Egypt, notice what He said in this, very interesting statement in Leviticus 18: 3: “After the doings of the doings of the land of Egypt wherein you dwelt, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.” You see, my friends, these pagans in Egypt and in Canaan had a system of religion, “their ordinances, rites and ceremonies and holy days.” God called His people out saying: “Don’t do what these people are doing. Follow. Me and worship Me. Keep My truth, but don’t worship Me as the pagans worship their gods.” That is plain is it not?
Turn to Deuteronomy 12 and you will notice again that God emphasizes this in very strong and emphatic terms. Deuteronomy 12:30-32 : “Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise. Thou shall not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which He hates, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What things so ever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” Now, that is plain and simple isn’t it? God says, “Take My commandments and do them. Do not add to them and do not take from them.” He tells you the same thing in the last chapter in the Bible saying: “Whatever you do, do not go to the pagans and take their things and then hand that to Me as worship. Take My Word and stand by it. Do not add to it and do not take away. I do not want the religion of the want you to that, for I am going to show you now, my friends, how even professed Christianity, like tragic Israel before them, dropped the Truth and the Commandments of God and wandered into paganism. Before we get through, you will see it. Christianity today is just riddled with paganism which God said His people were not to touch.
Come over to Ezekiel chapter 8 and verses 13 and 14. Israel had drifted away into idolatry and God raised up Ezekiel to preach a message of warning to that people. He gave Ezekiel a glimpse of their abominations and their paganism. “He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shall see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz?” Tammuz was the Babylonian name, for the sun god, and when they worshipped Tammuz they made the sign of Tammuz - “T.” But when the Babylonians made a “T” for Tammuz they made it in the form of a cross.
Now, we read on. “Then said, He unto me, Has thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee, yet again, and thou shall see greater abominations than, these, And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar were about 25 men, With their backs toward the temple and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”
Verses 15 and 16. Here they have turned their backs on the Truth of God and are down on their knees worshiping the sun toward the east. Tell me, my friends, when is the sun in the east? Early in the morning-is that not so? They worshipped the sun towards the east and dedicated the different days of the week to their gods. The first day was dedicated to their main god, the sun, hence the name Sunday.
Early on Sunday morning they would get up bowing and worshipping towards the east. Ever see people getting up very early on Sunday morning and getting along to church? You check up and you will find that when they are bowing down in their churches they are bowing towards the east. That is where it came from. And, friends, when they made the sign of the cross, the sign of Tammuz, they put the sign of the sun around it, a cross within a circle. Ever see churches with something like that up on the top? It was the same system of religion that brought Sunday into Protestantism. That is where it came from!
Turn over to Ezekiel, chapter 6, verse 4: “And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken.” The margin reading says your “sun images” shall be broken. God was opposed and very hostile to them. When the Christians were endeavoring to win the pagans, the pagans to a man were sun worshippers, for behind all paganism was sun worship, they found the pagans worshipping the birthday of the sun god December 25. Remember, my friends, December 25 was kept by the pagans hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Did you know that? Not as the birthday of the Son of God, but as the birthday of the “Sun.” In fact, I notice here from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition that it says: “In Britain, December 25 was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity.” The old Druids, a sun worshipping cult in the British Isles, kept and looked to December 25 as the birthday of the sun long before they ever heard of Jesus. The Yule log was used when they sacrificed fire to the sun god. When those early priests went out and found the pagans worshipping the Sun on December 25 they said, “Don’t call it the birthday of the Sun, call it the birthday of the ‘Son of God.’
Here is something else very interesting. Someone asks, “Where did the Christmas tree come from?” You listen to this, written, away back long before the time of Jesus, as the people of God were drifting into paganism. “Hear you the word which the Lord speaks into you. O house of Israel: Thus said the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs [the Bible margin says “statutes” or “ordinances”] of the people are vain.” You see they had a system of religion or ordinances, holy days: they had a counterfeit of the Truth of God! God says that it is “vain” worship or useless worship. Listen- “1 Hear you the word which the LORD speaks unto you, O house of Israel: 2 Thus said the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.” Jeremiah 10:1-5. They deck the tree with gold and silver and they set’ it up like a palm tree. Ever see them doing that today? Yes, my friends, way back there in their worship of the sun on December 25, they not only had the Yule log, their big dinners and drink, but they would go out into the forest, cut down a tree, and set it up and deck it with their ornaments. Don’t you see it? Very simple is it not?
Here is something else very interesting, and this time in Jeremiah chapter 7, verses 17 and 18: “See thou not what they do in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.” Somebody asked me about the “queen of heaven.” Folk tells us the Virgin Mary is the “queen of heaven.” The only time, my friends, when you will find that expression in the Bible is when it is talking about sun worshipping paganism, and the people exalted a woman to the skies and worshipped her as the mother of god. They were baking cakes away back there to the “queen of heaven.”
Tammuz was the sun god, and then there was the mother, or the woman, and her name was Ishtar. Tammuz was the sun god and his wife was Ishtar. When they baked their cakes to the queen of heaven they always made them round with tilt- sign of the sun and stamped them with the sign of the sun. Why are they always round? They baked their cakes to the queen of heaven. They made hot-cross buns hundreds of years before ever Jesus was born.
Now, you do not have to think very long before you can see that Easter has nothing to do with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. If it was the anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus it would fall, like your birthday, on a certain date every year, isn’t that so? But it doesn’t. The date is arrived at by the Moon, isn’t that so? You see, the king of heaven was the Sun the queen of heaven wits the Moon.
Someone asked me what Easter eggs have to do with the resurrection of Jesus. Nothing at all. Listen to this from the Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, page 227: “A great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring generated in the Easter.” (That’s .m admission, isn’t it?) The, egg is the symbol of the generation of life of early spring. That is where your Easter egg comes from. They say it comes from paganisn1. I will go further. Do you know that before the pagans baked their cakes to the queen of heaven they had a forty days’ fast? Ever heard of the forty days of Lent that precedes Easter? You can read the Bible from cover to cover and you will not find any forty days’ fast just before the crucifixion of Jesus. But, the pagans back there had a forty-day fast before they celebrated their worship to Ishtar when they baked their cakes to the “queen of heaven.” Ishtar in the Chaldean, is Easter in the English. They called it the very same name. As Christianity drifted away from the Truth of God and, trying to get a long way from Jerusalem were anxious to bring in the pagans, they drifted right into paganism and ended up in the Dark Ages.
Not long ago somebody asked how it was that some people do not eat meat on Fridays and why they have fish. They asked: “What is the significance there?” There is no religious Significance at all--none whatsoever. This is one thing they did not get from paganism. In the olden days, strict laws concerning diet were not only laid down by the Christian churches, but were also enforced by Parliament. At one time the only days during Lent that meat could be eaten were Wednesdays, and then only on strict conditions that there was at least three times as much fish as meat on the table. In 1563, everyone eating meat on a fast day was fined three pounds, or put into prison for three months. The strange thing is that these regulations were not made in any spirit of religious fervor, but to help the fishing industry. In these modern times Friday is fish day. In the Middle Ages, the church, as in Italy today, was the greatest land owner. Not only was it the greatest land owner, but it also controlled many of the industries, and back in the Middle Ages the fishing industry run by the church in the British Isles was having a very hard time. So to give a real boost they enforced the eating of fish at certain times. That is the way to help business, is it not? That is where it came from. There is just no religious significance whatsoever.
Now, I turn over into the New Testament, and notice this, for not only did Israel drift away from the Truth of God into paganism and accept all these things, but so did professed Christians. The poor Galatians who had been pagans were not only drifting back into Jewish ritualism, but also in paganism. Galatians 4:8-11. “How be it then, when you knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no God. But now, after that you have known God,” that is, after they had come out of paganism into the Truth of God “or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements.” Here were Galatians who had been rescued from paganism into the Truth of God, turning back into paganism. “You observe days, and months, and times, and years,” says Paul, and “I am afraid of you.” My Christian friends, I am afraid of you, too, if you follow their order.
These Christians were drifting back into and adopting the days of paganism-the times, the months, the years---for paganism had holy years, and some Christians have them today. They had days, holy days, Christmas, Easter, Lent, their months, seasons, and years. And Paul said, Brethren, “I am afraid of you.” God said, “Do not worship Me as the pagans do. Do not take their days and their ordinances and hand them over to Me: I do not want them. Stand by the Truth of God.” But Christianity, like Israel of old, dropped the Word and Commandments of God and adopted the things of paganism. Remember, that when the Galatians were going back, it was not merely into paganism but to the ritual of the Jews. The religion that dominated the world during the Dark Ages is only an amalgamation of the old Jewish ritual and very largely the paganism of the heathen. And that, my friends, is where Sunday came from-from sun-worshipping paganism.
This falling away from the Truth of God that ended up with all of this came very largely from two things-an endeavor to gain the pagans and hatred of the Jews. They tried to get away from Jerusalem as far as possible and as close to the pagans as possible. Jerusalem was the center of the worship of the Truth of God. Babylon was the opposite. Even today, if you keep the Commandments, Christians will say, “You’re a Jew,” as though that finishes everything. Remember, friend, all the religion we have come to us from the Jews. The Lord Jesus Christ who died for you was a Jew. He said: “Salvation is of the Jews.” The same Philosophy that plunged this world into the blackest period of its long dark history came from the same hatred against Jerusalem and anything Jewish. Be careful, my friends, that you do not repeat that awful Phrase for God is writing it down. “By your words,” He says, “you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.”
Here is a letter from Constantine. It is quoted by Eusebius, the great church historian of the days when the church was plunging into paganism, in his “Life of Constantine,” “it appears an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy thing [that was in connection with the death of Jesus] we should follow the practice of the Jews who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin. Let us have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd.” They wanted nothing in common with the Jews, but they were very anxious to get in common with the pagans, and that led to the great plunge from the Truth of God. All the Bible writers were Jews, but the professed followers of the apostles wanted nothing to do with the “detestable Jewish crowd.” They dropped the “detestable Jewish crowd” and they dropped the “detestable” Jewish Book. They lost all Truth, and paganism came right in.
When paganism had eclipsed the Truth of God during the Dark Ages, under the name of Jesus, professed Christians turned round and crushed under foot those that followed the words of Jesus. That is why you read in Revelation 17:4: “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color.” The woman is a church, a religion, and, decked with precious stones and pearls, she has a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Upon her forehead was a name written, “Mystery, Babylon the Great.” Why called “Babylon”? Because, my friends, it was but an echo of Babylon. Verse 6: “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” He could not understand it. Here was a church professing to be the true church of Jesus and vet at the same time crushing underfoot the Truth of God and drunken with the blood of the very saints of Jesus. Then they accepted paganism they not only dropped the Bible, but persecuted those that followed it, referring to them as “Jews!” Today you hear the same.
There was a tailor in France during the reign of Henry the Second. Caught working on one of these pagan holidays, he was brought before the judge, and this was his speech of defense. “Sir, I am a poor man. I have nothing but the labor of my hands to depend on. The Bible tells me of no days to keep but the Sabbath, and hence I do not keep them.” But they condemned him and burnt him at the stake for working on Good Friday, a pagan day, and, friends, Good Friday is still observed, is it not? Good Friday is just as pagan as Sunday. You have no more Scriptural evidence for Sunday than you have for hot cross buns, for Good Friday, or Easter Sunday. They all come down to us branded with paganism. Worse than that, Sunday is stamped with the very name of the sun god!
The devil said, “I will be like the Most High,” and he stands back today hurling blasphemy into the face of Jesus, when he has the whole Christian world, Catholic, yes, and Protestant, bowing and worshipping on his day that is stamped by his very name, Sunday. I think I have just about shown you why I quit Sunday keeping.
My friends, I am going over there with the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a Jew. Today they can say, “You’re a Jew,” but I want to be on the side of Jesus, don’t you? I am like the great British Prime Minister, Disraeli, who, by the way, was a Jew. During a debate one of the opposition cast a very slighting remark about “the Jew.” Disraeli smiled and said, “That is all right, for I know one half of Christendom worships a Jew and the other a Jewess [the Virgin Mary].” It is true, is it not? My Catholic friends, if you want to pay homage or respect to the Virgin Mary, keep the day she kept. If you want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, follow Him all the way.
I read in Revelation, talking about Babylon, it says: “And the merchandise of -old and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linens” and goes on right through the merchandise of that power--she would be the greatest landowner in her country, would dabble not only in politics and sign pacts with the governments of earth, but also deal “in the bodies and souls of men.” That is last. That is their list consideration. Cold and pearls are their main consideration, and lastly are the bodies and souls of men. They have even traded in them, for it will cost you a lot of” money to see some of the bodies of the saints. I have seen poor people down on their knees praying to dried up bones. They are gathering in money for the fictitious souls of men in a fictitious purgatory. But the least of their consideration is the Souls of men. It starts with gold and ends with the souls and the bodies of men. That is man’s estimation. That is paganism’s estimation.
What a contrast with Christ. He declared, “What shall it profit a man if lie gain the whole World and lose his soul?” Gather up all the gold, precious stories, and wealth of the whole world, and one person outweighs it all. Babylon places wealth and political power first, and people last. Christ places one person above all, and at the end of His earthly life as He faced Calvary He saw “the travail of His soul.” He saw people way down here in the year 2007 those who would be willing to follow Him in the face of ridicule. In the face of difficulty they would be willing to follow Him all the way. And because of that, friends, He took hold of those nails in His dying agony and held on till His great heart broke for you and for me; to open the door home to glory for those who will accept film. Why not do it now, friends? Why not give Him your heart and your life, putting them into the hand that was once nailed to the cross for you, and determine to follow Him all the way?
Let us pray:
“Our God and Father, we thank Thee for the clear evidence that Thou hast given to us. Bless those who seek Thy truth, and down here in these last days, Lord, give them the grace to give their lives to Thee, to be willing to stand for Thee in these dark days of apostasy. Oh, Lord, as Thou art finishing Thy work on this earth, speak to hearts that many of these dear people will be in that company that will sweep home to glory. Help them to stand by Thy truth and live it by Thy grace in their lives. Grant this, Lord, and speak to every heart the words of Thy truth for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”