Oh, look at God's most highly favored crackpot prophet, absolutely on a tear after his recent itty-bitty Feast of Tabernacles snooze fest. Never in the history of humanity has the world experienced such a perfect, infallible human being—who's basically a direct channel for God's infinite wisdom. We should all kneel down in awe at being in the very presence of this magnificent one!
While many are aware of some of the pagan origins of Halloween celebrations, many d0 not realize where the practice of birthday celebrations came from or how they are viewed by certain Satanists.
Back in 1969 Anton Lavey wrote The Satanic Bible. On page 96 (in the 1976 version) it mentions birthdays:
THE highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birth. This is in direct contradiction to the holy of holy days of other religions, which deify a particular god who has been created in an anthropomorphic form of their own image, thereby showing that the ego is not really buried.
The Satanist feels: “Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself.” Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrates his own birthday as the most important holiday of the year. After all, aren’t you happier about the fact that you were born than you are about the birth of someone you have never even met? Or for that matter, aside from religious holidays, why pay higher tribute to the birthday of a president or to a date in history than we do to the day we were brought into this greatest of all worlds?
After one’s own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht and Halloween (or All Hallows’ Eve). (Lavey A, Gilmore P. The Satanic Bible. Avon, September 1, 1976, p. 96–note it is on page 53 of an online version I found also).
Hyperventilating in Grover Beach, the Chosen One continues:
It is interesting that birthdays are considered one of the three most important holidays to these Satan worshipers (the two others called Walpurgisnacht and Halloween have pagan ties and are observed by millions who claim to be Christian). While not all Satanists share that view, most celebrate birthdays and those who practice astrology also consider birthdays of vital importance.
The Bible never encourages the celebration of birthdays. Instead, it tends to speak in a negative manner concerning them (cf. Matthew 14:6-11; Jeremiah 20:14-18).
Now although there is no specific command against the celebration of birthdays in the Bible, the Jewish custom in those days was apparently based on the negative occurrences in the Bible surrounding birthdays, as well as the astrological implications of the celebration of birthdays (pagan practices, like astrology, were specifically prohibited in the law).
No early religious/church writing from the second century that I have seen (and I have read most that are available) seems to endorse (or even suggest) the celebration of birthdays by any who professed Christ either.
Note this from the As Bereans Blog:
"I want you to keep in mind another very important point: Birthdays are not religious celebrations. If they are not religious, then they are not pagan. Pagan, by definition, has to do with religious matters. Pagans can celebrate their birthdays, but birthdays are not by nature pagan.
Birthdays are entirely secular. Birthdays are every bit as secular as the Fourth of July ...the birthday of America. Do you know anyone who condemns secular national holidays like Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo, and etc? I don't. (I'm sure someone out there does.) During my time in Armstrongism, I was never taught to avoid those days. What's the difference? There is none.
Birthdays are just anniversaries. Do you celebrate your wedding anniversary? Then don't throw rocks at birthdays.
Some people will not celebrate the birth of their Lord and Savior but they will celebrate the birth of their nation or their marriage. So, they are not against all birthdays, just specific ones.
What's more, there are people who say we should not have any celebration that is not specifically commanded in the Bible. Where did they get that notion? Not from the Bible! (Please read Martha's article "Established and Imposed".)
But let's go with that. The new standard is, we can't do anything the Bible doesn't command us to do. Well, the Bible says nothing for or against birthdays. Condemning birthdays is not something we are commanded to do in the Bible! So, why are people doing it? The Bible is neither here nor there about birthday celebrations. It only mentions them as part of the narrative of events. It never says they are good or bad. It seems to me the weakest of all arguments to say if the Bible is against something, don't do it, but if the Bible is not against something, don't do it." Only Pagans Observe Birthdays?
And this:
Crackpot Bob absolutely needs to master the fine art of keeping his mouth shut about everyday life and stop shoving his nose into everything that doesn't concern him. After all, he's nothing more than a walking encyclopedia of Armstrongite literature, regularly regurgitating it all over everyone just to spread sheer joy—by which I mean, to make people utterly miserable."It is not true that in the Bible only pagans celebrate their birthdays. Job's kids were faithful. Herod Antipas was a Jew.
What is true, however, is that only people who explicitly celebrated their birthdays in the Bible were wealthy. Birthdays were for the upper echelons until quite recently, but not because they were rejected as pagan, rather because of societal norms. It seems reasonable to conclude it was the tearing down of social strata in the 1700s and 1800s that led to common birthdays.
Birthdays were not ignored in the Bible. Other birthdays besides the three explicit references are hinted at. Jews are not necessarily against birthdays.
Birthdays are not religious celebrations, they are secular, therefore they are not able to be "pagan" any more than Independence Day or wedding anniversaries.
Origen tried to apply guilt by association, but he misunderstood who kept a birthday in the Bible as well as what the nature of uncleanness is in Leviticus. We know the accusation that only pagans observed birthdays is false. We don't find it compelling to stop just because someone was killed on the day. We know the uncleanness was ceremonial only, and does not apply in the New Covenant. So, any guilt by association is removed.
What is left? Nothing much at all. I would say birthday celebrations come out rather clean in this investigation. Seems to me that makes the answer 'yes'. Yes, Christians may celebrate birthdays.
Were you accused of being a pagan for celebrating a birthday? You can see it was a baseless accusation, made by someone parroting something they heard but did not genuinely understand. People will accuse you of paganism for many things besides just birthdays. If you are considering giving up birthdays because someone accused you of paganism, don't fool yourself that it will help. You will only find you are accused for something else. It is an endless chase. In the end, will you find grace and peace?" Only Pagans Observe Birthdays?
I remember friends of mine saying to me they celebrated their birthdays in wwcog. Quietly, and with others in wwcog. I admit I cracked up when I heard this and laughingly accused them of being heretics. They said yes they were heretics and we all had a great laugh together. Quietly of course, and no one else was any the wiser in the church, especially the ministry ha ha. I bet we were not the only ones lol. Imagine if booby boy got wind of this if he was in your church area. The ministry would soon know. And you would be outside before you could even consider asking for mercy for this indiscretion.
ReplyDeleteA characteristic of all tyrannies is that they are anti joy. The emotion of joy tells people that their lives are precious and are not to be taken away from them by evil people and evil governments. Which accounts for today's abusive churches rejecting celebrating birthdays. I believe that the FOT isn't meant to exclusively point to the millennium, but also to affirm life's value.
ReplyDeleteDeuteronomy. 16:14 "Be joyful at your Feast — you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns."
A typical case of straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel!
ReplyDeleteAll COGs are, in fact, worshipping Satan, the God of the Old Testament, who killed +/- 3 million people for the slightest disobedience. He also destroyed and stole from other nations, and Yehoshua clearly points this out in John 10:10.
The exchange in John 8:44 with the scribes and Pharisees is even more telling as Yehoshua is direct to point out the identity of the God of Israel, whom Israel worshipped, Yahweh; "Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him."
Yahweh and Yehoshua are different deities, or if they are the same as COG (or Mormons) purport, then the Bible contradicts itself. Here are a few examples to show the disparities.
1. In 1 John 1:5 (ESV), it says: "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." But Yahweh is associated with dwelling in darkness (1 Kings 8:12) or being enveloped in darkness (Exodus 20:21; Deut 5:22) or poetic descriptions of Him coming with darkness surrounding Him (Psalms 18:9-11)
2. Yahweh said Adam and Eve would die on the day they ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:17), but Adam died at the age of 970 years. The word "day" in Genesis 2:17 is "yowm", which is defined as "from sunrise to sunset or from one sunset to the next". It's not a prophetic 1,000 years as COG teaches. Did Yahweh lie....from the beginning (John 8:44)? The serpent said Adam and Eve would be as gods, "knowing good and evil", which is what happened. They didn't die on the same day, but became conscious of their nakedness and knew good and evil. The serpent told the truth. Interestingly, the serpent is compared to Yehoshua in John 3:14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up".
3. When Israel cried out for bread (Exodus 16), Yahweh provided manna instead of bread. Numbers 11:7-8 describes manna as coriander seed, which the people had to first grind/beat in a mortar, then bake it in pans. Coriander seeds look like small stones. Yet in Matthew 7:9, Yehoshua asks, "Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?" But that's precisely what Yahweh did. Why did Yehoshua mention this if He was Yahweh? That's odd for Yehoshua to put Himself on the spot for feeding stones to Israel when they cried out for bread, unless Yehoshua is calling out the characteristics of a different God than Him!
4. The Israelites also cried out for meat, and Yahweh sent serpents to kill them (Numbers 11:33). Yet Yehoshua reproves the actions of Yahweh when He asks in Matthew 7:10, "Or if he ask a fish [meat] will he give him a serpent?"
5. Yahweh's acceptance of a human sacrifice in Judges 11, where Jephthah had to sacrifice his virgin daughter to fulfil a vow, raises serious questions. What does this say about the character of Yahweh? Would this be the characteristic of Yehoshua as Yahweh? These are not just historical accounts, but they demand our moral and theological reflection.
6. When we allow the Bible to interpret itself, a significant revelation emerges. The same deity who incited David to take a census of Israel is identified in two verses. This revelation sheds light on the identity of Satan, a crucial figure in the biblical narrative.
- 2 Samuel 34:1 - "And again the anger of the LORD [Yahweh] was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah."
- 1 Chronicles 21:1 - "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David" to number Israel.
The writing is on the wall!
It's funny. I don't like customs that make me be the center of attention, so never got back into birthdays, and usually become highly pissed if anyone even mentions the possibility of celebrating mine. No religious reasoning behind that. They are certainly not Satanic, and Bob Thiel is quite the little a$$hole for suggesting that people are Satanists for celebrating them.
ReplyDeleteTry "I don't really care what you think the Bible says" on someone. LOL. Watch the look of disbelief and horror.
ReplyDeleteThe Mayans didn't celebrate birthdays. By rejecting birthdays, Bob is showing us his allegiance to pagan ideas.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning about this Armstrongist teaching that Christians should not celebrate birthdays since in the Bible the 2x they’re mentioned they’re associated with tragedy or deaths. I later learned from an exWCG minister that this teaching is wrong. He explained to me that one reason it’s foolish is because 1) it’s akin to superstition ie better not celebrate your birthdays since tragedies might occur on them; and 2) another reason was if we shouldn’t observe birthdays since people died on them in the Bible then logically we shouldn’t observe the Passover since the Messiah tragically died on that day too. And if it was not to be observed or celebrated then God would have prohibited it. They’re basically adding to God’s Word saying, “Thus saith the LORD” when He never said such a thing (cf Jeremiah 14:14; 23:21-22; Ezekiel 13:6–7).
ReplyDelete