Jesus sternly corrected the religious teachers of His day who substituted human traditions and teachings for God's truths: "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites ... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:6-9).

Further, Jesus instructed His apostles not to vary from God's edicts in the Old Testament: "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:17-19).

One of the commandments to which Jesus referred concerned God's instruction about honoring Him with pagan practices. Notice it in Deuteronomy 12:30-32: "... Do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way ... Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it."

Rather than teaching Christians to adopt pagan practices in their worship, Jesus and the apostles plainly kept and taught Christians to keep God's Holy Days and festivals first recorded in the Old Testament (see Leviticus 23).

They kept the Christian Passover (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), the Days of Unleavened Bread (Acts 20:6; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8), Pentecost (Acts 2:1; 20:16) and the fall feasts—the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement (called "the Fast" in Acts 27:9), the Feast of Trumpets, and the Feast of Tabernacles, along with the Last Great Day (John 7).

The apostle John is direct in his evaluation of any who claim to be Christian but refuse to follow Christ's laws and commandments: "He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:4).

In the Old Testament, God pronounced a curse on Israel for adopting pagan feast days: "Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and ye shall be taken away with it" (Malachi 2:3, American Standard Bible). The Scriptures give us no reason to think that God's abhorrence of the celebration of pagan festivals to honor Him is any less today!

Satan, the great deceiver (Revelation 12:9), has duped mankind for millennia with his pagan holidays. He doesn't portray them as they really are, which Paul describes as "fellowship with demons" (1 Corinthians 10:20). Paul knew that Satan "transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14). Satan has, for the time being, successfully substituted himself as this world's god in the place of the true God. He has counterfeited God's truth and true Holy Days, substituting his false religious holidays in their place.

If you keep religious holidays not sanctioned by the Bible, you have been hoodwinked by the god of this world into honoring him as an angel of light. God finds these pagan holidays offensive, because it blinds mankind from Him and His truth.

As Yeshua said ;

Luk 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to

the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

In HIS Love

Rob in Fla.