Easter - Almost Here

Okay, let's just say it.

Easter is a pagan festival, it isn't really about Jesus.

Today, we see a secular society celebrating the spring equinox, while religious folks celebrate the resurrection. 

However, early Christianity made a decision to accept the ancient pagan celebration known today as Easter, that's what we have today.

The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross, the Winter Solstice ) and the rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a story in the ancient world. 

What is interesting to note here is that in the old world, wherever you had popular resurrected god myths, Christianity found lots of converts. So, eventually Christianity came to accept the pagan Spring festival. 

Although we see no celebration of Easter mentioned in the New Testament, early church fathers celebrated it, and today many churches are offering "sunrise services" at Easter which is an obvious pagan solar celebration. 

The date of Easter is not fixed, but instead is governed by the phases of the moon – how pagan is that?

All the fun things about Easter are pagan. Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre, a great northern goddess whose symbol was a rabbit or hare. 

Exchange of eggs is an ancient custom, celebrated by many cultures. 

Easter is essentially a pagan festival which is now celebrated with cards, gifts and novelty Easter products, because it's fun and the ancient symbolism is still popular.

What better way to celebrate, than to bite the head off the chocolate bunny goddess, or helping yourself to a piece of pagan simnel cake? 

Happy Easter everyone!

Witches Outnumber Presbyterians in the US; Wicca, Paganism Growing 'Astronomically'

The Christian Post wrote an article expressing concerns about the growing number of Witches and Pagans stating "The population of self-identified witches has risen dramatically in the United States in recent decades, as interest in astrology and witchcraft practices have become increasingly mainstreamed."

If you would like to read the entire article, the link is below:

READ ARTICLE HERE

Violence Against Pagans in Brazil

The above scripture was given to us recently as a warning to us Pagans.

We thanked them for telling us, even though we immediately dismissed it.

But in Brazil, some are taking matters into their own self righteous hands...

Can America be a Christian Nation?

We have to give credit where credit is due.  Paul K. Lott Sr. asks the question, can a nation truly be Christian?

Paul K. Lott Sr. began teaching Sunday school in his father's church when we was 11 and started preaching at age 12. He went on to study theology at Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA at the age of 16, before being accepted at Harvard College where he had a dual major in computer science and engineering sciences. 

Read what he has to say:

"I am an American patriot and a decorated veteran of the United States Army, and I think it is about time American Christians faced the truth.  America is not a Christian nation and it never was.  I want to add one more thing to that statement; Thank God.

It amazes me that so many people forget the words of the Christian founder, Jesus Christ.  Jesus repeatedly taught that his kingdom is not of this world and reminded those who looked for that kingdom is physical form that the kingdom of Heaven is within.  The Jewish nation had a special status that Christians have never had.  Moses was sent to create a nation out of slaves for God’s purpose.  In the nation of the Jews, God created the birthing place for the Messiah who would come to bring an age where nations no longer mattered.  The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of the heart.

We all know that behavioral modification can make things look better on the surface, but if we take Christ at his word, we also know that behavior modification and the following of blind rules are meaningless to God.  Yet, I hear Christians moan over the demise of America as a Christian nation.

The idea of America as a Christian nation is one of the key ideas that undermine the very practice of Christianity.  In the days of Christ, his followers understood that status before God depended on faith and actions as a result of that faith.  The America as Christian myth has led generations of people to ignore the call of Christ with the comfort that paying lips services to God was more than enough to earn a place in Heaven.  The myth of a Christian America has led most people to abandon the practice of personal piety and sacrifice.  The myth of a Christian America has robbed the gospel of its power.

When I took over as pastor of the First Church of Christ in Wilkes-Barre, PA, the minister I replaced passed by the near by high school and became angry over how short the skirts of the girls were.  I looked at him calmly and stated that I did not think that it matters at all. “Why?”, he asked.  I said that if they had a relationship with Christ they would practice modesty.  Practicing modesty without that a core relationship with Christ would be meaningless.  It is the outward appearance of modesty and Christian appearance that has led so many to ignoring the cause of Christ because they feel that their mimic of outward Christian values is enough.  Christian values are only valuable if you actually follow Christ. The outward appearance of Christian like values in a nonbeliever is just an empty exercise. Making laws to force people to appear Christian is the fastest way to make sure that true conversation never takes place.

Society is a reflection of its value system, not a reflection of its religions. Those values only change when the people change. In fact, true religious piety rarely finds a home in a society that thinks of itself as Christian.  Nations don’t follow Christ.  People follow Christ.  When the people follow Christ, the tangled web of laws designed to create the appearance of a Christian nation are unnecessary because true Christian individuals behave in a spiritual way regardless of the law.

The myth of America as a Christian nation has harmed the faith in more ways that I can count. I welcome the realization that we do not live in a Christian nation.  In our mythical Christian nation, we have learned to let government take care of the poor and feel no burden to practice Christian charity.  In our mythical Christian nation, we have condemned our women to raising children alone, thus plunging them and their children into perpectual poverty. In our mythical Christian nation, we record evil on our cell phones rather than oppose it.  In our mythical Christian nation, we pursue pleasure over goodness and kindness in the comfort that we are living in a Christian nation and therefore we must be ok with God.

My advice to Christians is to rejoice at the shattering of this myth.  The idea of a Christian nation should be condemned from every pulpit in every state, in every county, and in every city. When the message is understood, maybe, just maybe, we can begin the real work of bringing the kingdom of Heaven to the hearts of America. Remember. Nations cannot be Christian. Only people can."

Understanding Christianity by the Church of England

The Church of England has developed a new training program called 'Understanding Christianity', for young people because they feel that classes currently do not always properly explain Christian beliefs.

The Christian activities will also include festivals and practices, with the hope the program will help schools teach on the creation, the fall, incarnation, salvation and the Gospel.

Project leader Derek Holloway says, "We're living in an age of increasingly discussion and interest in religion - which is often quite negative - and it's important that all adults are able to hold an informed conversation about religion."

"They can only do that if they have got a good understanding of what those religons teach."

"There is a great excitement when people see the resource and the potential that it has to enhance, improve and make more creative the lessons which teachers are delivering around Christianity."

This may be a response to decisions like the two-year commission, chaired by the former senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss (photo below) and involving leading religious leaders from all faiths, calls for public life in Britain to be systematically de-Christianised.

Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, a major inquiry into the place of religion in modern society has concluded, really upsetting ministers and the Church of England.

It says that the decline of churchgoing and the growth of other faiths mean a "new settlement" is needed for religion in the UK, giving more official influence to non-religious voices and those of non-Christian faiths.

The report, by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, claims that faith schools are "socially divisive" and says that the selection of children on the basis of their beliefs should be eliminated.

Then there's  the compulsory daily act of worship in school assemblies should be abolished and replaced with a "time for reflection". 





Noah's Ark Theme Park

Williamstown, Kentucky is ready for tourists to see a life-size replica of Noah's Ark, yes, right there in Kentucky.

It's the Ark Encounter, a theme park set to open July 7 where visitors can tour a replica of the Ark as told in the Bible.

Measuring 510 feet in length -- or 300 cubits, according to the Bible is 120,000 square feet. 

To make it seem real, the ark, will also come stocked with hundreds of sculpted animals.

But a petting zoo with live animals is also planned for the future.

Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, the faith-based group behind the $100 million project, makes no bones about Ark Encounter's expressly religious mission.

"We are an overtly Christian organization -- we don't hide that fact," said Ham.

Ham said the plan for the Ark Encounter is to encourage "people to actually talk about the Bible and the message of Christianity."

Opponents have attacked Ark Encounter for demanding park employees and job candidates sign a "statement of faith" affirming belief in the basic tenets of Christianity, as a condition for employment.

"We're not out to attack people or cause problems," he added. "We're not hitting people on the head with the Bible. We want everyone to come."

Bryan Fischer Warns About Wicca

Bryan Fischer is bringing out the pitchforks and torches, warning America about the rise of  “ancient, recycled superstition" called Wicca.

Fischer says that Wicca is “the worship of Satan” and a “spiritual warfare” against Christians. 

As Wiccan numbers increase Bryan Fischer calls it “evangelism in witchcraft and demonism.” 

Fischer begins by saying that “Russell Moore of the Southern Baptists falsely says we are not a Christian nation.” We were and are a nation of mostly Christians but that is a far cry from the claim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation.

According to Fischer, in 1892 the Supreme Court ruled that the United States is a Christian nation. This of course isn't true. In fact, Justice Brewer states in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), that “These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”

Then Fischer seems to have forgotten the Treat of Tripoli (1797) which states, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Fischer’s is in shock that Wiccans are meeting “right out there in front of God and everybody” in a coffee shop, where they dared to talk about members of their group visiting a local cemetery to commune with the spirits. Fischer can't believe “they’re not hiding this."

Fischer calls Wicca the “modern version of ancient Pagan religion.” 

Yes and no, because even though Wicca is often called the “Old Religion” Wicca is really not old, but new.

Wicca is not from the old religion. Rather it is an collection of beliefs, some old, some new.

Wicca incorporates many of the beliefs of ancient cultures, just like the beliefs of Fischer’s Christianity.

While Fischer refers to the Wiccan religion as superstition Thomas Jefferson regarded Christianity as “our particular superstition."

'Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone' - and as usual the there are rocks flying everywhere.