Modern Day Sacrifices Of The Dead
Modern
Day Sacrifices Of The Dead
Each year, on the last day of the Roman month of October, millions of people seem to enjoy a night filled with fun and games. Parties abound. Dressing up in costumes that represent devils, demons, and witches are all part of the tradition that is called Halloween. "Trick or Treat" is the phrase for the night and childish pranks are played. "Of course, this is all done for pleasure, and it is just for the children, they need to have a nice time and enjoy life!''
The celebration of Halloween is an established custom in the United States, the British Commonwealth, and various Scandinavian Countries.
What Could All This Fun Possibly Have To Do With The Followers Of Yahweh?
In the earliest accounts of history from the Holy Scriptures, Abraham was instructed by Yahweh to remove himself from his established clan and go to a place Yahweh instructed.
Genesis
12:1,4—
1 Now Yahweh had said to Abram: Get
out of your country, from
your kindred and from your father's house, to a land that I will show
you.
4 So Abram departed as
Yahweh had spoken unto him; and Lot went with
him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham, obeyed Yahweh. In the time of Abraham, as it is in this very day, there were many denominations and sects of beliefs, but there were only a few people who followed Yahweh. The worship of the heathen people was directed at the sun, the moon, the stars, demons, gods and spirits.
So why did Yahweh tell Abraham to leave? The land of Ur, which was a part of Mesopotamia, was where the ancestors of Abraham lived. Abraham's ancestors worshiped Gods and demons. Yahweh knew Abraham had to come out from under the powerful influence of his ancestors' worship in order to grow and learn to follow Him only.
The
Encyclopedia Judaica,
Volume 5, page
1521, tells us what demons and demonology
are:
DEMONS,
DEMONOLOGY.
A
demon is
an evil
spirit,
or devil,
in the ordinary English usage of the term.
This definition is, however, only approximate. In polytheistic
religions the
line
between gods and demons is a shifting one...
In general, the
notion
of a demon in the ancient Near East
was of a being less powerful than a god and less endowed with
individuality. Whereas the great gods are accorded regular public
worship,
demons
are not; they are dealt with in magic rites
in individual cases of human suffering, which is their particular
sphere.
Collier's
Encyclopedia,
Volume 8, page 96, shows that the intervention of spirits, Gods, and
demons, according to demonology, was made possible by means of
magic.
Magical
Influence.
The
intervention of
spirits in nature and human affairs is made possible, according to
demonology, by means of magic.
The
same page of
this source shows us the
types of spirits that were influenced by magic.
Types
of Spirits. Among the
spirits most familiar to
students of demonology are the spirits of vegetation, water spirits,
domestic spirits, ancestral
spirits,
and dream
demons.
...The
worship
of ancestral spirits, either
as gods or as surviving souls of departed members of the family,
reflects belief in immortality
and the
almost universal
belief that death does not dissolve an individual's relation to the
group.
The Children of Israyl, chosen of Yahweh, were delivered out of a land, which was defiled by the worship of every God and demon. These chosen people were taught by Mosheh in the wilderness. Mosheh was not ignorant of the enticement of pagan Baal worship. Mosheh was instructed by Yahweh to tell the Children of Israyl not to fall into the trap of God worship.
Deuteronomy
18:9-12—
9 When you come into the
land Yahweh your Father is giving you, do
not learn to follow the abominable ways of those nations.
10 Let there not be
found among you one who sacrifices
his
son or his daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery,
interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,
11 Casts spells, or who consults
familiar spirits, or a
wizard, or a necromancer.
12 Anyone who practices these is
abominable to Yahweh,
and because of these abominable practices, Yahweh your Father is
driving out the nations in front of you.
The Laws, statutes and judgments were not given to be ignored. Mosheh was not ignorant of the worship of the pagan nations. They worshiped demons, led by Satan the Devil.
Sacrifices Of The Dead
The
ancient
Babylonians had a God called Samas,
as we find in The Encyclopedia Judaica,
Volume 5,
page 1020.
...for
example, before going out to
battle with the Babylonian
king Kastilias, the Assyrian king accuses the latter of betrayal and
violation of the treaty between them, and as proof he reads the treaty
in a loud voice before the
god
Samas.
The
Encyclopedia Judaica,
Volume 14, page 719 says:
Samael,
from
the Amoraic
period onward the major name
of
Satan
in Judaism.
Jewish
legend says
Samael-Samiel is the
angel of death and
the head of the devils. The Greek rendering of the word, Samael is
Sammane.
...includes
the name, although not in
the most important
place, in the list of the leaders of the angels who rebelled against
God. The Greek
versions
of the
lost Hebrew text
contain the forms Sammanhv (Sammane)
and Semiel (Semiel).
The
Standard Encyclopedia of
Folklore, Mythology and Legend, pages 968-969,
tells us about
Samain.
Samain
The
festival
of the beginning of
winter, celebrated on
or about
November 1
in
Ireland and Gaelic Scotland and of very great antiquity... According to
Keating, in heathen times the
druids
of Ireland assembled to
sacrifice to the gods and burn their victims on Samain eve.
All other fires were to be extinguished, to be rekindled only from that
fire. This
custom
still lingers on,
without
the
sacrifices, in parts of Ireland and Scotland. The peat fires are
extinguished in the cottages on Halloween and are relighted from the
bonfires which burn on the hilltops.
Samain
is the
Druidic assembly on the night
of October 31, to sacrifice to their Gods and burn their victims. The
Standard Encyclopedia of Folklore, Mythology and Legend,
Volume A-1, page 263, tells us more about the sacrifice of the dead.
Cromm
Crúac
A
huge idol
which
stood on the plain of Mag Sleact in County
Cavan. "Around him were twelve idols made of stone but he was of
gold'' and to
him the
early Irish sacrificed one third of
their children on Samain
(Nov. 1)
in return for "milk and
corn'' and the good weather which insured the fertility of cattle and
crops.
The
Dictionary of Folklore,
Mythology and Symbols, Part One, pages 200-201,
tells us:
BELTANE
(BALTEIN,
BEALTUINN,
BELTAINE, BELTAN)
Druids
drove cattle between two
needfires to which miraculous
virtues were ascribed to prevent the murrain; dances were performed,
and the day was filled with gaiety, which culminated in the sacrifice
by fire of a man representing the oak king. Parallels the
fire-cleansing ceremonies of ancient Babylonians.
Beltane is the Druidic assembly marking the opening of summer and is marked by human sacrifice. The above excerpt openly admits that the pagan, Celtic worship parallels the ancient fire cleansing ceremonies of ancient Babylon from which it came.
A
Dictionary of
Non-Christian Religions by
Geoffrey Parrinder, page 42, says:
Bel.
God
of the
earth in Babylonian religion...
The
name means the same as
Baal (q.v.). The apocryphal book of Bel
and the
Dragon or
Snake says
that Cyrus
the
Persian worshiped the
Babylonian idol called Bel...
Belenos.
A sun
god of Celtic mythology,
from belos,
'bright'... See BELTANE.
A
Dictionary of Non-Christian
Religions, page 242, goes on to say:
Samhain,
Samuin.
Ancient
Celtic feast, held at the end of October
and
beginning of November. In Ireland it was celebrated on the shores of
lakes. Samhain marked the beginning of winter, as Beltane (q.v.) marked
the onset of summer. Samhain meant 'summer end', and bonfires were lit
to strengthen the powers of the waning sun. In
the
Christian
calendar, Samhain was merged into All Saints' Day on November 1.
The
Dictionary of Folklore,
Mythology, and Symbols, Part 2, page 1393, says:
SAMHAIN
(SAMAIN, SAMAN,
SAMHAN)
Literally,
summer's end. Celtic winter solstice festival celebrated about November
1. On the Isle of Man called Sauin, in Wales called Nos Galan-gaeof
(Night of the winter calends). Corresponds
to Halloween.
Compare Beltane.
Halloween!
The Yearbook of English Festivals, by Dorothy Gladys Spicer, pages 153-157, shows us the ancient meanings of Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. All of these are part of the ancient sacrifices of the dead.
ALL
HALLOWS'
EVE
October 31. All
Hallows' Eve or All Hallow
E'en...To ancient Druids the end of October commemorated the festival
of the waning year, when the sun began his downward course and ripened
grain was garnered from the fields. Samhain, or
"Summer's End,'' as this
feast to the dying sun
was called, was
celebrated with human sacrifice, augury
and prayer; for at this season spirits walked and evil had power over
souls of men.
Not
until the fourth century
did the pagan vigil
for the god of light give way to All Hallows, the mass for Christian
saints; and
not until the
tenth, did the
Druids' death feast become All Souls', the day
of prayer for souls that had entered rest. Cakes for the dead were
substituted for human sacrifice, fortune-telling for heathen augury,
lighted candles for the old Baal fires.
Gradually, the
last night of
October—first
a Druid feast, then a Christian holy day—emerged
as
a night of gaiety, when young people played games and read fortunes
from simple objects, such as apples, cabbages, or nuts.
ALL
SAINTS' AND ALL SOULS'
November
1 and 2
The
early English Church called All
Saints', the feast to
commemorate all
the saints, All
Hallows.
Hallow E'en, All Saints' and All Souls' (October 31, November 1 and 2,
respectively) share a common tradition. The three festivals concern
remembrance of departed souls.
In
The
Book of Festival Holidays,
by Marguerite Ickis, pages 123-125, we are shown the meaning behind the
traditions of Halloween.
The
custom of holding a festival at
harvest time goes back
over two thousand years. The
last
day of the year on the old
pagan calendar, October 31, served the triple purpose of bidding
goodbye
to summer, welcoming winter and remembering the dead.
...folks
began
hollowing out
turnips and pumpkins
and placing lighted candles inside to scare evil spirits
from
the house.
It
was the
Irish, too, who
initiated the "trick or
treat" system hundreds of years ago.
Groups of Irish farmers would go from house to house soliciting food for
the village Halloween festivities in the name of no less a personage
than Muck Olla (ancient god of Irish clergy).
Surprisingly, Halloween
was
scarcely observed in
the United States until the last half of the nineteenth century.
It is thought the large-scale Irish immigration had much to do with the
popularizing of the holiday.
The
Book
of Holidays,
by J. Walker McSpadden, pages 149-153 are displayed:
Halloween,
in spite of
the fact that it takes its name from a Christian festival (All Hallows
or All Saints' Day), comes
from
pagan times
and has
never taken on a Christian significance.
There were two different festivals in
the early world at this
time of year, and they are both represented in our own Halloween
activities. When you duck for apples, or throw an apple paring over
your shoulder to see what initial it makes on the floor, you are doing
as the
Romans did—honoring
Pomona, the Roman goddess of orchards
and
especially of apple
orchards. And when you light a candle inside the jeering pumpkin face, you
are in a small way imitating the Celtic Druids of northern Britain, who
lit a fire to scare away winter and the evil spirits who were waiting
to come rushing in when summer was over.
On
that
night between
October and November,
the Druids kindled great fires on the hills as a barrier against the
evil to come. By
waving
burning wisps of plaited straw aloft
on pitchforks, people tried to frighten off demons and witches, but
just in case this didn't work, they also put on grotesque and
terrifying costumes.
For if
you dressed in a horrible enough
fashion and went trooping around with the spirits all night, they would
think you were one of them, and do you no harm. This
is
where
the persistent Halloween custom of "dressing up'' and wearing masks
originated;
and among
the children who come to the door on
Halloween, calling "trick or treat,'' the most alarming costumes are
still considered the best.
When one studies the origins of the customs of the Christian religion, one comes to the conclusion that the pagan worship was not banished from the world. The strongest pagan religions were just incorporated into Christianity.
The
book, Strange Stories,
Amazing Facts,
by the Readers' Digest Association, corroborates this conclusion.
Like
Christmas and Easter, the festival
of Halloween
originated in a pagan celebration,
even
though its name
derives from the Christian festival of All Hallows' or All Saints' Eve.
...in the eighth century All Hallows'
Day was moved to
November 1, to
counteract the pagan celebrations held on that
date.
October 31, the eve of November 1, was
the last night of the
year in the ancient Celtic calendar and was celebrated as the end of
summer and its fruitfulness.
In the 17th and 18th centuries,
however, it
was
customary for "guisers''—people
in
weird
masks and costumes—to go from house to house, singing and
dancing to keep evil at bay,
or to go
about as
representations of the ghosts and goblins of the night.
Yahweh Tells Us
Leviticus
19:31—
Do
not
turn to mediums nor
familiar spirits.
Do not seek after them, to be defiled by them. I
am
Yahweh.
Deuteronomy
18:10-11—
10
Let
there
not be found
among you one who
sacrifices his son or his daughter in the fire, who practices
divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,
11
Casts
spells, or who
consults familiar spirits,
or a wizard, or a necromancer.
The tradition of Halloween is steeped in the very the abominations Yahweh told us not to whore after. Consulting these abominations is the worship of demons, and not of Yahweh.
I
Corinthians
10:20-21—
20
But I say that
the things which those
of
the nations
sacrifice, they
sacrifice to demons
and not to Yahweh; and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
21
You cannot drink the
cup of Yahweh
and the cup of demons;
you cannot partake of Yahweh's table and of the table of demons.
All of the Children of Israyl who had forsaken Yahweh to serve Baal Peor and ate the sacrifices of the dead (Numbers 25:1-5), died themselves.
Deuteronomy
4:3—
Your
eyes have seen what
Yahweh did
concerning Baal Peor; The
Lord of Peor; how
all
the men
who followed Baal
Peor; The Lord
of Peor, were
destroyed.
For Yahweh was with you to help you.
All of the customs of this pagan celebration called Halloween, which have come down to this sin__sick world as fun and games have originated with Baal worship, which Yahweh hates.
Add Nothing To: Take Nothing From
Yahweh commands us to follow His instruction, not adding to it, nor diminishing from it, that we may live.
Deuteronomy
4:2—
You shall not add to
the word
which I command you,
NOR shall you take anything from it, so
that you may keep the Laws of Yahweh your Father which I command you.
Many Halloween articles appear in different newspapers around the United States, but in each article, the conclusion is: Somehow, all this pagan worship has now been accepted by the Creator, and since it is now only in fun, there is little or no harm in re-enacting these traditions. But, to coin an old phrase, "a rose by any other name is still a rose.''
To know these traditions and customs are the worship of pagan Gods, and then to still participate in them, is actually worse than not knowing at all. It is classified as an abominable sin to Yahweh.
The worldly preachers claiming to follow the Scriptures are afraid to condemn these pagan practices. Search the Holy Scriptures from Genesis through Revelation and you will only find the warning to come out from among these pagan practices.
Revelation
18:4—
And I heard another
voice from heaven,
saying: Come
out of her, My people, so that you do not partake in her sins,
and so that you do not receive of her plagues.
There is no blessing from Yahweh for the practice of this pagan worship. Yahweh does pronounce many curses for these worshipers (Deuteronomy 28:16-68).
Preachers today condemn the Laws of Yahweh, while they condone these pagan practices. Whose side are they on? The Apostle Shaul answers this question in:
Romans
6:16—
Do you not know that to
whom
you yield yourselves as
servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey__
whether of sin, which
leads to
death, or of
obedience, which
leads to righteousness?
Yahshua warned us, over and over, about false preachers who would teach against the Laws of Yahweh, while they serve Satan. He said you will know them by their fruits.
Mattithyah
7:16-20—
16
You
will know them by
their fruits.
Do
men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
17
Likewise, every
righteous
tree brings forth
righteous fruit; but a tree of evil brings forth fruit of iniquity.
18
A righteous tree
cannot bring forth
fruit of iniquity, nor can
a
tree of evil
bring forth fruits of righteousness.
19
Every tree which does
not bring
forth righteous fruit is
cut down, and cast into the fire.
20
Therefore, by their
fruits
you will know them.
Can
you follow these
false preachers who
teach this pagan God worship? Can you accept the ways of Baal any more,
now that you know this way is condemned by the Word of Yahweh, your
guide to eternal life?