SACRIFICE
Ex 22:20 He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only,
he shall be utterly destroyed.
My comments:
When Israel were camped close to Moab, some of them attended Moab`s
pagan sacrifices and took part in their feasts =96 on their feast days.
Numbers 25:2 For they sent for the people to be present at the
offerings made to their gods; and the people took part in their feasts
and gave honour to their gods.
God`s sacrifices are eaten on on his feast days =96 8 evenings in the
spring during the days of unleavened bread, one evening at Pentecost,
one on the eve of the Day of Trumpets and 8 in the autumn during the
Feast of Tabernacles.
Many of the Catholic churches =93feasts=94 are now named after
=93saints=94
and are kept on what were originally Pagan feast days.
One such pagan feast is the feast of =93sol invictus=94 on December 25th
which has been renamed the =93birthday of Jesus Christ=94 on which the
=93Mass of Christ=94 is kept.
=46rom the =93Catholic Encyclopaedia=94 we find that =93sacrifice=85 was
originally regarded as a feast for the gods, before whom food-
offerings were set=94.
=85According to the Babylonian idea, sacrifice (libations, offerings of
foods, bloody sacrifices) is the due tribute of mankind to the gods,
and is as old as the world; sacrifices are the banquets of the gods,
and the smoke of the offerings is for them a fragrant odour; a joyous
sacrificial banquet unites the sacrificers with their divine guests.
=85Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church.
Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen,
glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in
Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures
sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday; Arnobius (VII, 32
in P.L., V, 1264) can still ridicule the "birthdays" of the gods.
=85Natalis Invicti. The well-known solar feast, however, of Natalis
Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the
responsibility for our December date =85 (for the birth of Christ).
Many, if not all of the Catholic feast days are ancient pagan feast/
sacrificial days which have been renamed to look as if some event in
the Christian bible took place on that day.
Just for an example:
=85Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ
=85Observed on August 6 to commemorate the manifestation of the Divine
glory recorded by St. Matthew (Chapter 17).
=85Origin. The Armenian bishop Gregory Arsharuni (about 690) ascribes
the origin of this feast to St. Gregory the Illuminator (d. 337?),
who, he says, substituted it for a pagan feast of Aphrodite called
Vartavarh (roseflame), retaining the old appellation of the feast,
because Christ opened His glory like a rose on Mount Thabor. It is not
found however in the two ancient Armenian calendars printed by
Conybeare (Armenian Ritual, 527 sq.). It probably originated, in the
fourth or fifth century, in place of some pagan nature-feast,
somewhere in the highlands of Asia.
Another example:
=85At Tulle and in Bas (Lower) Limousin, every year, on the vigil of St.
John the Baptist, a feast is kept which is known as le tour de la
lunade (the change of the moon); it is a curious example of the manner
in which the Church was able to sanctify and Christianize many pagan
customs.
And the Pagan =93New Year`s day=94 feast (kept on January 1st) was
=93turned=94 into a =93Christian=94 feast:
=85When Christmas was fixed on 25 Dec., New Year's Day was sanctified by
commemorating on it the Cir***cision, for which feast the Gelasian
Sacramentary gives a Mass (In Octabas Domini). Christians did not wish
to make the celebration of this feast very solemn, lest they might
seem to countenance in any way the pagan extravagance of the opening
year.
Those examples are just a few of many in the =93Catholic Encyclopaedia=94
which show how many pagan feasts are kept today by so-called
=93Christians=94 =96 they are eaten on pagan feast days (for example
December 25th) =96 and not on God`s feast days (which are found in
Leviticus 23).
A sacrifice/feast/meal on a pagan feast day is honouring another god
other than the true Creator of the Universe.
(passages preceded by three dots (=85) are quotes from =93the Catholic
Encyclopaedia=94).
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