This Sabbath November 30th, 2019, marks the 8th Day of Chanukah. It begins on the 25th day of the ninth month which was last Sabbath. This is of course for those who are keeping the months according to the early sighting of the barley in March 2018.
But many of those who claim to be followers of Yehovah will be keeping Chanukah this coming December starting at sunset on December 22, until sunset on December 30, in 2019.
For many of those keeping Chanukah, coming from the Christian faith and learning about the Sabbath and the Holy Days, Chanukah is a convenient way to transition from the celebration of Christmas and explaining to their family and friends why they now keep the Sabbath and all things Jewish. It is a way for them to be excepted and not so estranged by the family, in this new walk they have begun.
I want to also point out something that should be very obvious to everyone and yet it is not. The current Gregorian calendar continues to name the months as they have always been called throughout history. Some of those months’ names were changed to honour Roman emperors over the year but other months were not changed. From September to December, the latin versions of the names continue to be called as they always were in ancient days. Septem is Latin for 7, Octo is Latin for the 8, Novem is latin for 9 and Decem is latin for 10.
What this is showing us is another proof the Hebrew calendar is off by 30 days. But I digress.
I have not announced this festival of Chanukah for our readers to keep for one simple reason. It is a sin to keep it in the exact same way it is a sin to keep Christmas. And if that offends you then grow up and open up your bible and study it. Stop being so nieve as to follow everything people tell you. PROVE ALL THINGS!
Let me quote you from one of articles from Octoeber 2011.
I guess I should wish you all a happy Diwali which is the Indian Festival of Lights. We could send gifts and light candles and such other things.
Oops my bad, you don’t keep that pagan festival of lights. Well maybe I will wait and wish you a happy or Merry Christmas which is also known as the Festival of lights. Then we could send gifts and light candles and other traditions to celebrate this most biblical of holidays.
Oops again some of you no longer keep this pagan tradition either. After all we all know it comes from the worship of Nimrod, right? He was the light they paid homage to. Hence the Festival of lights. A false light much like Satan who comes as an Angel of light.
Many of you have dumped the pagan traditions of the Far East; many of you have dumped the pagan traditions of Christmas and have jumped head long into Judaism and are now going to be keeping the Festival of Lights called Chanukah. And because it is Jewish it must be OK, right??? You can give gifts and send out cards and light Chanukiahs and candles and have Chanukah bushes that look just like the old Christmas trees. But because it is Jewish it is therefore Kosher and OK.
Wrong!!!
We are told in Lev 23 exactly what Holy Days we are to keep and Lev 23 does not mention Diwali, or Christmas or Chanukah or any other festival of lights. Yet millions will again this year try to justify their keeping of these pagan festivals which are nothing more than the worship of Nimrod.
Deu 4:2 “Do not add to the Word which I command you, and do not take away from it1, so as to guard the commands of Yehovah your Elohim which I am commanding you.
Deu 12:32 “All the words I am commanding you, guard to do it – do not add to it nor take away from it
Pro 30:6 Do not add to His Words1, Lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar.
Rev 22:18 For I witness to everyone hearing the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, Elohim shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, Elohim shall take away his part from the Book of Life, and out of the set-apart city, which are written in this Book.
Now I will let you quote to me from Lev 23 where we are told to keep Chanukah and how we are to light the candles and in what order. I look forward to your comments at the end of this article. But I already know the crickets will be louder than the chorus that will quote Lev 23 to back up Chanukah.
I will now let you do your own homework and go and read our article about the Feast of Dedication that Yeshua kept according to John 10:22The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
After learning about the Sabbath in 1982, and trying to prove it false all that winter of 1982-1983, I began to attend the World Wide Church of God in Toronto Canada around Passover. I did not keep Passover as I did not know what it was.
A month later I landed a job in Trois Riviere, Quebec and began to attend the English World Wide Church of God group in Montreal. It was not long after I was there that they were all talking about the Feasts. I had no clue. But the Brethren there were so kind and so hospitable to me that I loved to be in thier company. The push back from my family and the world at this time was very great and I almost quit a number of times. It was the brethren and their love that kept me coming back.
My work was wrapping up and I was about to lay off my crew and myself two days before Christmas in 1983.
This was a sermon I heard the week before I was about to head home. I have heard many sermons since then. This is one I have never been able to forget or put out of my mind. And I am trying to remember the Pastors name but it escpaes me at this moment. I later asked him for these notes on what he had spoken about and he gave me his roiugh notes of which the following is from. I will update it a little for you. He began like this.
Deu 12:1 These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to do in the land which Jehovah, the God of your fathers gives you to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth.
Deu 12:2 You shall completely destroy all the places in which the nations which you shall possess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
Deu 12:3 And you shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars, and burn their pillars with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and destroy their names out of that place.
Deu 12:4 You shall not do so to Jehovah your God.
We are commanded to destroy the ways that others worship false gods and not to do likewaise to Yehovah
Deu 12:29 When Jehovah your God shall cut off the nations before you, where you go to possess them, and you take their place and dwell in their land,
Deu 12:30 take heed to yourself that you do not become snared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I too may do likewise?
Deu 12:31 You shall not do so to Jehovah your God. For every abomination to Jehovah, which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 All the things I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
We can also read in Leviticus similar instructions.
Lev 18:21 And you shall not let any of your seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shall you profane the name of your God. I am Jehovah.
When we do these types of worship we profane the name of Yehovah.
Lev 18:1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 18:2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, I amJehovah your God.
Lev 18:3 You shall not do like the doings of the land of Egypt in which you lived. And you shall not do like the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you. Neither shall you walk in their ordinances.
Lev 18:4 You shall do My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them. I am Jehovah your God.
Lev 18:5 And you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Jehovah.
By doing what the nations did before us we defile ourselves and the land.
Lev 18:24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these things. For in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you.
Lev 18:25 And the land is defiled. Therefore I visit its wickedness on it, and the land itself vomits out those who live in it.
Lev 18:26 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither the native, nor any stranger that lives among you.
Lev 18:27 For the men of the land who were before you have done all these abominations, and the land is defiled.
Lev 18:28 You shall not do these so that the land may not spew you out also when you defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you.
Lev 18:29 For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls who commit them shall be cut off from among their people.
Lev 18:30 And you shall keep My ordinance, so as not to do any of these abominable customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves in them. I am Jehovah your God.
When we worship Yehovah in these pagan methods, then the land we live in will spew us out of the land. This is serious and we need to take heed of what we are being told.
From the Zondervan Bible Dict.
Moloch, Molech, Muluk, Malik, Chemosh, Milcom (1 Kings 11:5), Malcam (Zeph 1:5) are all variants of Hebrew words meaning “the reigning one”. A heathen god worshiped especially by the Ammorites with gruesome orgies in which little ones were sacrificed. At least in some places an image of the god was heated and the bodies of the children who had just been slain were placed in the arms.
Note ” the statue was made from bronze or iron with a hollowed out human body and the head of a calf. Fire was heated in the statute till a red glow came from the statute then the child was placed on the outstretched arms as a sacrificial offering.
Let me interject here a couple of things.
In 1914 there was a silent film made called Cabiria and they were advanced for the time in the things they showed and dramatized. This movie is based on Carthage. Carthage was where many of the Israelites fled before and during the Assyrian invasion in 723 BC.
This is what WIKI says about the Punic Wars.
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC.[1] At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place.[2] The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning “Carthaginian”, with reference to the Carthaginians’ Phoenician ancestry
They say the Carthiginians were of Phoenician ancestry. It was the Israelites who manned the Phoenician ships that sailed around the world. Carthage was founded as an outpost arond the year 825 BC.
after defeating the city of Carthage in the Third Punic War (146 BC), the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus ordered the city be sacked, forced its surviving inhabitants into slavery, plowed it over and sowed it with salt.
Returning to our sermon from 1983;
Punishment for Child Sacrifice
Lev 20:1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,Lev 20:2 Again you shall say to the sons of Israel, Any man of the sons of Israel or of the strangers who live in Israel, that gives any of his seed to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Lev 20:3 And I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile My sanctuary, and to profane My holy name.
Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives of his seed to Molech, and do not kill him,
Lev 20:5 then I will set My face against that man and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go lusting after him to commit adultery with Molech, from among their people.
Yehovah did not want Israel to begin to look on Him like Molech.
As incredible as it may sound in Psalm 106:34-42 it tells us that Israel did get involved in this worship.
Psa 106:34 They did not destroy the nations as Jehovah commanded them;
Psa 106:35 but were mixed among the nations, and learned their works.
Psa 106:36 And they served their idols, which were a snare to them.
Psa 106:37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons,
Psa 106:38 and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was defiled with blood.
Psa 106:39 And they were defiled with their works, and went lusting in their doings.
Psa 106:40 And the wrath of Jehovah was kindled against His people, and He detested His inheritance.
Psa 106:41 And He gave them into the hand of the nations; and those who hated them ruled over them.
Psa 106:42 And their enemies oppressed them, and they were humbled under their hand.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says the primitive title of this god was very probably Melech, “King”, the consonants came to be combined through derision with the vowels of the word BOSETH, “shame”. Or king of shame
Speaking of the Phoenicians the catholic encyclopedia says “They deified the sun and the moon which they considered the great forces that create and destroy, and called them Baal, and Astaroth. Each city had its divine pair: at Sidon, it was Baal Sidon (the sun) and Astarte (the moon); at Gebel, Baal Tammuz and Baaleth; at Carthage, Baal Hamon and Tanith. But the same god changed his name according to as he was conceived creator or destroyer; thus Baal as the destroyer was worshipped at Carthage under the name of Moloch. As creators, they were honored with orgies and tumultuous feast; as destroyers by human victims. Baal Moloch was figured at Carthage as a bronze colossus with arms extended and lowered. To appease him children were laid in his arms, and fell at once into a pit of fire. ”
In Ezek 23 God says;
Eze 23:36 And Jehovah said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah, and declare to them their abominations,
Eze 23:37 that they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands? And they have committed adultery with their idols and have also caused their sons whom they bore to Me to pass through the fire to them, to devour them.
Eze 23:38 And yet they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary in that day, and have profaned My sabbaths.
Eze 23:39 And when they had slain their sons to their idols, then they came into My sanctuary in that day to profane it. And lo, this they have done in the midst of My house.
The Israelite’s had mixed Yehovah’s worship with the worship of Moloch just as he had said not to.
Jer 19:1 So says Jehovah, Go and get a potter’s earthen jar, and assemble from the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests.
Jer 19:2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom by the entry of Potsherd Gate. And there declare the words that I shall tell you.
Jer 19:3 And say, Hear the Word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and people of Jerusalem. So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which shall cause the ears of him who hears it to tingle.
Jer 19:4 Because they have forsaken Me, and have made this place famous and have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents.
Jer 19:5 They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I never commanded nor spoke, nor did it come into My mind.
Jer 19:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The Valley of Slaughter.
Jer 19:7 And I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of those who seek their lives. And I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the animals of the earth.
Jer 19:8 And I will make this city a waste and a hissing. Everyone who passes by shall be amazed and shall hiss because of all its plagues.
Jer 19:9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall each one eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall distress them.
Jer 19:10 Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you,
Jer 19:11 and shall say to them, So says Jehovah of Hosts, Even so I will break this people of this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury them in Tophet until there is no place left to bury.
Jer 19:12 I will do this to this place, says Jehovah, and to its people, and make this city as Tophet.
Jer 19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be as defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of the heavens, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.
Jer 19:14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy. And he stood in the court of Jehovah’s house, and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15 So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their necks so that they might not hear My Words.
Topheth in Strongs concordance is #8612 taken from #8611 to mean a smiting or contempt. Tophteh #8613 is from #8612 meaning a place of cremation. And #8611 is taken from #8608 taphaph meaning to play on the drum the tambourine ; play with timbrels.
In the Hebrew Bible, Tophet or Topheth was a location in Jerusalem in the Gehinnom where worshipers influenced by the ancient Canaanite religion engaged in the human sacrifice of children to the gods Moloch and Baal by burning them alive. Tophet became a theological or poetic synonym for Hell within Christendom.
The Valley of Hinnom was used as a place for worshipers in Canaan to burn their own children alive as sacrifices to the gods Moloch and Baal. One section of the Hinnom Valley was called Topheth (also spelled Tophet or Topeth), where the children were slaughtered (2 Kings 23:10). Medieval Jewish commentators David Kimhi and Rashi claimed that the name Topheth is derived from the Hebrew word toph, meaning a drum, because the cries of children being sacrificed by the priests of Moloch were masked by the sound of the beating on drums or tambourines.
The traditional explanation that a burning rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem gave rise to the idea of a fiery Gehenna of judgment.
Take note that the drums were played to drown out the screams of the children.
From the Catholic encyclopedia Topheth was the place where Judas Iscariot hung himself and his body fell and burst open on the rocks below. The field of blood (Haceldama).
From the Chamber Encyclopedia under Molech; it is clear that in Palestine and Syria from at least the 18th century BC infants about 8 days old were sacrificed and buried in womb shape jars, possibly in connection with fertility rites. In the king cult, the king was regarded as the son embodiment of god & the Hebrew phrase “to the Molech” may have meant for the sake of the life of the king. Remember we said earlier Melek = king of nether world.
Jer 7:30 For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says Jehovah. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, in order to defile it.
Jer 7:31 They have built the high places of Tophet, which isin the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart.
Jer 7:32 So, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet, until there is no place.
Jer 8:1 At that time, says Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
Jer 8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of the heavens, whom they have loved and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth.
Note: They are worshiping the sun god Baal Moloch and the moon god Astarte. That’s why Yehovah spreads them out before their god as dung.
Jer 32:26 Then the Word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 32:27 Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
Jer 32:28 Therefore so says Jehovah: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
Jer 32:29 And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come up and set this city on fire, and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.
Jer 32:30 For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have only done evil before Me from their youth. For the sons of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says Jehovah.
Jer 32:31 For this city has been to Me as a cause of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before My face;
Jer 32:32 because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and of the sons of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger, they, their kings, their rulers, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 32:33 And they have turned the back to Me, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.
Jer 32:34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech; which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
So in the early 600’s BC in Jeremiah’s time this was the official religion and it included child sacrifices.!!
But even in King Solomon’s day it was going on.
1Ki 11:1 And King Solomon loved many foreign women, even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites;
1Ki 11:2 of the nations which Jehovah had said to the sons of Israel, You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you; surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 For it happened when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as was the heart of David his father.
1Ki 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites;
1Ki 11:6 and Solomon did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and did not go fully after Jehovah like his father David.
1Ki 11:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill which is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
1Ki 11:8 And likewise he did for all his foreign wives, and burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
The Lord Raises Adversaries
1Ki 11:9 And Jehovah was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from Jehovah, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice1Ki 11:10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; and he did not keep that which Jehovah commanded.
1Ki 11:11 And Jehovah said to Solomon, Since this is done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
1Ki 11:12 But I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
1Ki 11:13 Only, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for David My servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.
Note. Solomon’s weakness greatly encouraged this worship, and for this reason Yehovah stripped the dynasty from him. Because the wives were sacrificing children. IN the map above you will see the Mount across from Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives. The southern moutn is where Solomon built these altars to Moloch and this is why this Mount is now called the Mount of Offence.
1Ki 11:1 And King Solomon loved many foreign women, even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites;
1Ki 11:2 of the nations which Jehovah had said to the sons of Israel, You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you; surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 For it happened when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. And his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as was the heart of David his father.
1Ki 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites;
1Ki 11:6 and Solomon did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and did not go fully after Jehovah like his father David.
1Ki 11:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill which is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the sons of Ammon.
1Ki 11:8 And likewise he did for all his foreign wives, and burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
The Lord Raises Adversaries
1Ki 11:9 And Jehovah was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from Jehovah, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice1Ki 11:10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; and he did not keep that which Jehovah commanded.
1Ki 11:11 And Jehovah said to Solomon, Since this is done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
1Ki 11:12 But I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
1Ki 11:13 Only, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for David My servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.
2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. But he did not do the right in the sight of Jehovah, like David his father.
2Ch 28:2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molded images for Baals.
2Ch 28:3 And he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had cast out before the sons of Israel.
2Ch 33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:2 But he did the evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the heathen whom Jehovah had cast out before the sons of Israel.
2Ch 33:3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.
2Ch 33:4 And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, of which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.
2Ch 33:5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah.
2Ch 33:6 And he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He also practiced secret arts, and used fortune-telling, and used witchcraft, and dealt with mediums, and with soothsayers. He did much evil in the sight of Jehovah in order to provoke Him to anger.
2Ch 33:7 And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.
2Ch 33:8 Nor will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have set apart for your fathers; only if they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.
2Ch 33:9 And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem to err, to do worse than the nations whom Jehovah had destroyed before the sons of Israel.
In 2 Kings 23: 1-28 we read how Josiah destroyed all the altars and poles and shrines. It is a good read but I want to point out the following scriptures.
2Ki 23:5 And he put down the idol-worshiping priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem. He also put down those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens.
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
2Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of Jehovah, by the room of Nathan-melech the eunuch, which was in the suburbs. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
And again in the book of Acts, Stephen just before he is martyred says in Acts 7:42-43
Act 7:42 Then God turned and gave them over to serve the host of the heavens, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: “O house of Israel, have you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness?
Act 7:43 Yea, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images which you made in order to worship them; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.”
Stephen is quoting Amos 5:25-26 where he says in verse (26)
You also carried Sikkuth (Moloch) your king and Chiun your idols, the star of your idols which you made for yourselves.
Amo 5:25 Have you offered sacrifices and offerings to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Amo 5:26 But you have carried the booth of your king and Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves.
Note what is said directly before these offerings to Moloch in Amos 5:21
Amo 5:21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not delight in your solemn assemblies.
Why does Yehovah hate our feast days? We know how much he hates Molech and Astarte , but we don’t worship them.] Or Do we??? DO YOU?
In Ezekiel 20:18-21
Eze 20:18 But I said to their sons in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
Eze 20:19 I am Jehovah your God. Walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them,
Eze 20:20 and keep My sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I amJehovah your God.
Eze 20:21 But the sons rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes, nor kept My judgments to do them; the judgments which, if a man do, he shall even live in them; they profaned My sabbaths and I said I would pour out My fury on them, to fulfill My anger against them in the wilderness.
That day was in Ezekiel’s day, but as Revelation 2:14 points out it was still going on in the 90’s AD when the Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation.
Rev 2:14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.
Rev 2:15 So you also have those who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Rev 2:16 Repent! But if not I will come to you quickly, and will fight with them by the sword of My mouth.
The Catholic Encyclopedia on Nicolatians reveals very little other than to say, ”based on the identical meaning of the names to the Bileamites or Balaamites (Rev 2:14) who are mentioned just before them as professing the same doctrines.
The Catholic Encyclopedia under Moloch it says,”The offerings by fire, the probable identity of Moloch with Baal, and the fact that in Assyria and Babylonia Malik, and at Palmyra Malach-bel, were sun-gods, have suggested to many that Moloch was a fire or sun-god.
My Pastor then concluded his sermon by saying that all of this is the reason he does not keep Christmas. I was floored. I had not idea. He then went on to say that December 25th was the traditional birthday of Molech.
I walked out of that Sabbath service stunned. I called my wife and told her were not going ot have a Christmas tree or keep this horrific celebration again.
I arrived home on Dec 24th to find the tree up and all decorated. December 25 after a huge fight I took the tree and all the bulbs and threw it out in the snowbank. I then slept on the couch for the next 4 months.
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Beyth Shalom Torah Ministry 