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Posted by The Plain Truth on February 15, 2012 at 07:11 PM in Garner Ted Armstrong Commentaries, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by The Plain Truth on February 14, 2012 at 09:29 AM in Garner Ted Armstrong Commentaries, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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On February 14 millions of people exchange tokens and messages of love and affection. Where and how did the curious customs of Valentine's Day begin? Does God have anything to say about such practices?

Every year in mid-February millions of people express romantic desire for each other by exchanging heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, flowers and "valentines." Children reveal hidden infatuations by sending a card as a "secret admirer." Retailers stock their shelves with merchandise covered in stylized hearts and Cupids now common on Valentine's Day.
Of course, this is nothing new. The custom of sending valentine cards actually became popular in the 1700s. Then in the early 1800s commercial valentines appeared, and soon there was no end to how entrepreneurs could make money from the holiday. Valentine's Day became so popular in the United States that one 1863 periodical claimed that was second in celebration only to Christmas.
Today, Valentine's Day is as popular as ever with children and couples. It's definitely one of the biggest moneymaking days for florists, candy makers and gift shops.
But just where did the curious customs of this day come from? What is the origin of the holiday itself? And what should the Christian perspective of this holiday be, according to the Bible?
Posted by The Plain Truth on February 14, 2012 at 07:11 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by The Plain Truth on February 08, 2012 at 07:11 AM in Religion, Richard Rives Just the Facts about God and the Bible | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by The Plain Truth on February 03, 2012 at 08:01 PM in Religion, Richard Rives Just the Facts about God and the Bible | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Believe it or not, this planet will be the scene of a MASSIVE INVASION FROM OUTER SPACE, probably within YOUR LIFETIME! The invasion will be preceded by the greatest wars in all history; by massive earthquakes wherein MILLIONS will be killed; by monstrous disease epidemics and famines, and by such mind-boggling displays in the solar system that people will topple over dead from heart attacks! The sun will suddenly turn BLACK; the moon will appear red as blood; a vast meteorite shower will SHOCK the world with tens of millions of asteroids streaking across the sky! Huge tsunamis or tidal waves will ravage hundreds of major coastal cities! The invasion will come just as a massive nuclear exchange has occurred; when, if it were not for INTERVENTION FROM SPACE, there would not be a man, woman, or child left alive on this earth!
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 28, 2012 at 07:54 AM in Garner Ted Armstrong Commentaries, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by The Plain Truth on January 21, 2012 at 09:26 AM in Garner Ted Armstrong Commentaries, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Various models explaining the pre-Flood world and the mechanisms that caused the Genesis Flood have been bantered around for years. Several weeks ago I addressed the model of the pre-Flood world being a paradise that was destroyed by the Flood (Hold the Bible Strongly, Hold Models Loosely). Today we are going to take a look at the Meteorite Impact Model as the mechanism that initiated the Flood.
Could a meteorite impact or impacts have been the trigger that initiated the Flood?
Continue reading "Did a Meteorite Impact Cause the Genesis Flood?" »
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 20, 2012 at 08:19 AM in Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Genesis Flood
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The new findings at Ebla are possibly the most significant discovery yet made so far as they relate to the background of early Bible times. The impact on some areas of Biblical knowledge will indeed be startling.
Where Ebla is Located … and the Work Begins
Tell Mardikh -- the ancient Ebla -- is on the main road to Aleppo in Northern Syria, being not quite half way between Hamath and Aleppo. It is nearer to Aleppo than to Hamath. There is a mound and a small village about one kilometer off the highway. Professor Paolo Matthiae of the Rome University has been excavating there since 1964, but his work was not spectacular until 1968 when his team produced a statue dedicated to the goddess Eshtar, and bearing the name of Ibbit-Lim, a king of Ebla. This endorsed the positive identification of the city. The kingdom of Ebla had previously been known in Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian texts, and the excavators had good clues when they began digging in this 50-feet high mound. Now their hopes were bright for the future.
In the 1975 season some 15,000 tablets were recovered. To bring the report up to date, the excavators recently reported (with a smile!) that 1976 was a poor season -- only 1,600 tablets were found! One tablet stated that the city had a population of 260,000.
Professor Giovanni Pettinato, also of the University of Rome, is the epigrapher working on the tablets, and some of what follows stems from his reports, both in the Biblical Archaeologist of May, 1976, and in public lectures and discussions at the University of Michigan in November 1976. Professor Matthiae also lectured at that time, and both professors were most cooperative in two days of lectures, discussion, and question and answer sessions. It was this writer's privilege to participate in these public functions, as well as in more private meetings with the archaeologists and with a number of leaders in the field of Biblical archaeology and Semitic studies.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 18, 2012 at 07:11 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: Ebla tablets, The Bible
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Posted by The Plain Truth on January 17, 2012 at 10:46 PM in Religion, Richard Rives Just the Facts about God and the Bible, Your Health Today | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Image: Detail of the Tower of Babel stele, with the engraving of King Nebuchadnezzar II. (Copyright The Schøyen Collection, MS 2063).
A team of scholars has discovered what might be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel of Biblical fame, they report in a newly published book.
Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE.
It was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen, a businessman from Norway who owns the largest private manuscript assemblage formed in the 20th century.
Consisting of 13,717 manuscript items spanning over 5,000 years, the collection includes parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Buddhist manuscript rescued from the Taliban, and even cylcon symbols by Australia's Aborigines which can be up to 20,000 years old.
The collection also includes a large number of pictographic and cuneiform tablets -- which are some of the earliest known written documents -- seals and royal inscription spanning most of the written history of Mesopotamia, an area near modern Iraq.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 17, 2012 at 07:28 AM in A History Lesson, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted on January 13, 2012 by R.L. David Jolly
I’ve had people ask me if the Bible ever talks about snow and ice, considering that it was written by people that lived in the Middle East and neighboring lands. Most people think of the areas around Israel and the eastern Mediterranean Sea as being warm to hot dry deserts. They don’t think of it getting cold enough to snow.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 14, 2012 at 09:38 AM in Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted on January 13, 2012
We all know the proverbial “snow job.” That’s putting on an entertaining song and dance without doing the assignment. A college sophomore (wise fool) writes a 15-page term paper full of jargon that, on closer inspection, didn’t follow directions or didn’t answer the question – it reveals ignorance of the subject. A job applicant makes an impression with humor or appearance without demonstrating ability to do the work. A junior makes up a fanciful story to cover up why he didn’t mow the lawn. Scientists are supposed to explain things based on observation and testable hypotheses. If Darwinians really believe that an unguided, impersonal, purposeless mechanism led to the diversity of life on Earth, they need to show the evidence. Here are a few recent examples of evolutionary explanations. Check whether they “show” evolution, or distract attention with a “snow” job.
Introducing: TNA! (ta-daah). An article on New Scientist purports to show that you don’t need to start life with the familiar DNA or RNA. A “simpler” molecule called TNA that uses threose instead of ribose might have gotten things started. In fact, the early earth might have been a “hodge-podge world” of many different molecules that could store genetic information. The imagination goes wild with the possibilities.
Only by getting into the nitty-gritty of the article do you come to realize that this is all guesswork. (1) TNA is “not found in nature today.” (2) TNA “would not have arisen on its own.” (3) There is “no trace of TNA or its cousins in modern organisms.” (4) “no one has actually made it in the conditions that existed on Earth before life began….” (5) John Chaput and team at U. of Arizona intelligently designed TNA molecules and “evolved them” in their lab with purpose and intent. (6) “Chaput points out that we still know very little about what TNA can do, because the technology to evolve the molecules in the lab is so new.” Yet reporter Michael Marshall titled his exploration of TNA, “Before DNA, before RNA: Life in the hodge-podge world.” Did he show any life?
Witness evolution in an English quarry: Reporter Carl Yapp of the BBC News is going to “shed light” on evolution through amazingly-preserved fossils found in an abandoned quarry. They’re 450 million years old, he tells us….
Continue Reading on crev.info
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 14, 2012 at 09:35 AM in Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Was the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem more than a place of worship? Was it, in addition, a roadmap to future events – a kind of prophetic landmark whose significance is only now revealed through the development of satellite imagery?
That is the contention of an explosive new book, "Temple at the Center of Time: Newton's Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012," by David Flynn, a book that has risen dramatically on bestseller lists, and is available TODAY ONLY for just $4.95 – but only from WorldNetDaily.
The book asserts it has "deciphered Isaac Newton’s greatest paradox: None other than 'the unified field theory' of Bible prophecy."
Sir Isaac Newton was not only a great thinker in physics, the book explains, but had extensive knowledge of the Scriptures with a special interest in prophecy. Newton believed there was a hidden code, a type of time-encrypted language. He believed the key to deciphering this code was the Temple of Solomon. He wrote extensively on the length measurements of the Temple and suggested it intersected time and dimension, serving as a prophetic and supernatural structure.
According to Flynn, although Newton never cracked this code, he was on the right track and was limited only by the lack of sophisticated satellite technology.
"The description of Jerusalem as a terrestrial center point, situated in the center of the world, is found in Philo's Legatio and Gaium," Flynn notes. "The world is like a human eyeball. The white of the eye is the ocean surrounding the world, the iris is this continent, the pupil is Jerusalem, and the image in the pupil is the Holy Temple."
"A belief that the ancients held unusual scientific knowledge, of which only fragments remain today, was held by many great philosophers and scientists who participated in the 'scientific revolution,' explains the publisher's description of the book. "Though research by these men led to great discovery, many were convinced that they were merely scratching the surface of an immense but lost pristine knowledge … somehow reflected in the architecture and remains of ancient civilizations."
Now comes Flynn's treatise which takes on the explanation of the true form and nature of the original knowledge.
"For the first time in history, 'Temple at the Center of Time' uncovers what Newton was looking for and, in so doing, proves that pivotal events in history are unquestionably connected in time and space to Jerusalem," the review said. "Newton didn't know it. The key was right in front of him."
Among the mysteries addressed is the location now of the lost Ark of the Covenant.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 14, 2012 at 07:11 AM in Books, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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By Bob Barney:
We have learned since our earliest reflections that the number thirteen is unlucky. Many buildings do not have a thirteenth floor, and many people are scared to death when thirteen falls on a Friday- known as Friday the 13th. Horror movies have capitalized on the notion, this fear, that many of us feel concerning this ominous date. Some historians believe that the fear of Friday the 13th came into being because they believe that Christ died on a Friday, the thirteenth of the month. Christ did not die on a Friday, and he certainly didn't die on the 13th of the month! However, that is another story... For now, I want to propose another concept. That concept is that the number "13" is a lucky number! So lucky, that Satan has tried his best to obscure the true meaning of that number ever since God first gave it as a blessing - Yes a blessing! Originally, there were 12 tribes, or nations of Israel, we will see in the article below that God blessed one son more than the rest, and made him the thirteenth nation! That nation was destined by God to be the greatest nation to ever be on this earth until the return of Jesus Christ. Read on and discover that the thirteenth tribe of Israel, has indeed fulfilled Bible prophecy and has become the greatest nation that ever was, and will ever be until Christ's returns.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 13, 2012 at 07:00 AM in America in Prophecy, Bob Barney Commentaries, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Technorati Tags: identity of America, lost tribes of Israel
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(HAARETZ) — Rabbi Shmuley Boteach revels in speaking publicly about topics most Orthodox Jews avoid. In 1999, he gained worldwide popularity with his best seller “Kosher Sex.” He has since written more than 20 books, among them “Kosher Adultery” and “The Kosher Sutra.” And while Boteach’s newest work – due to be released on February 1 – does not take on the issue of sex, it promises to be no less controversial than his previous works.
“Kosher Jesus,” Boteach’s first book published in Israel, asserts that because Christians no longer consider Jews to be their enemies, it is therefore time to recognize Jesus as a Torah-abiding Jewish patriot.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 08, 2012 at 10:01 AM in Books, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Posted by The Plain Truth on January 08, 2012 at 04:22 AM in Religion, Richard Rives Just the Facts about God and the Bible | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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by Patrice LewisEmail | Archive Patrice Lewis is a freelance writer whose latest book is "The Simplicity Primer: 365 Ideas for Making Life more Livable." She is co-founder (with her husband) of a home woodcraft business. The Lewises live on 20 acres in north Idaho with their two homeschooled children, assorted livestock, and a shop that overflows into the house with depressing regularity. Visit her blog at www.rural-revolution.com.
It all started with a quote I recently read, attributed to comedian Stephen Colbert:
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition … and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.
Without condition?
This got me thinking. Conservative Christians are usually branded by liberals as heartless unfeeling misers, unwilling to help the poor and needy due to pure selfishness. They say we should be more like Jesus and legislate more funding for welfare and other entitlement programs.
Now it always amuses me when people with no apparent interest in Jesus as a Messiah will try to pigeonhole Him into supporting their own socialist agenda in the name of “compassion.” But the question here is whether or not Jesus would approve of entitlement programs.
Progressives like to claim Jesus was a socialist. They say welfare is morally equivalent to the teachings of Jesus, who urged us to have compassion on the poor and destitute. Liberals, from their position of lofty superiority, say we “must have no personal wealth beyond our needs.” And to show their solidarity with Jesus, these self-same liberals spend their entire lives working for government-funded nonprofit associations and laboring to pass legislation to help special-interest groups. Surely Jesus would agree.
To prove their point, they cherry-pick various Bible verses to support their logic. But of course the devil can cite Scripture to his own purpose. So what do liberals believe constitutes loving the poor and serving the needy?
Progressives long for a utopian society of complete equality, a land of neither rich nor poor. Human nature being what it is, such a utopia can only be accomplished and maintained through centralized economic management and forced income redistribution. Thus, what progressives ultimately want is communism. But the historical tract record of communist societies isn’t too good when it comes to charity and mercy. Communism has killed 100 million people in the last century. Trust me, 100 million dead people is not compassionate.
And that’s why conservatives oppose entitlement programs … because they lead to socialism. First, welfare creates a dependent class of voters who are guaranteed to vote for more entitlements. Second, entitlements don’t help the poor. Indeed, they cause poverty, not cure it. The proof is in the pudding. If the trillions of dollars we’ve so far spent on entitlements cured poverty, we would have no poor people in this country. None.
So the question remains, was Jesus a socialist?
Jesus did not come to influence the government leaders of the day. Rather, he came to offer salvation and guidelines to the individual. We – not the government – have the responsibility to care for the poor and destitute. Jesus’ message was not one of forcible seizure of individual wealth and unchecked redistribution of that wealth. It was a message of personal charity and compassion.
But liberals don’t see it that way. They look at Acts 4 and conclude that because the early Christians adopted a communal lifestyle, then communism is the biblical ideal. But this entirely misses the point. The early Christians voluntarily engaged in communal living as an endurance mechanism against prosecution. It was not forced by government mandates; in fact, it was a survival tactic against a hostile government bent on their destruction. Savvy?
Christianity teaches that charity is up to the individual. Christians are obligated by their love for God and their neighbors to care for the poor and widowed. But it is very, very clear that we are not to feed the able-bodied who will not work. Socialism, however, forces those who do work to feed those who will not. Not cannot, but will not.
Jesus’ whole ministry was about personal responsibility. We are responsible for our behavior, our attitude, our charity, our mercy and our love. We are judged by our personal thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). There is no “collective” salvation. It’s all done on a person-by-person basis.
People who argue that Jesus was a socialist have absolutely no ability to distinguish between individual charity, and “charity” forced upon people at the point of a gun.
Social justice, one of the buzzwords of the progressives, is not the same as caring for the poor. Forced redistribution of wealth is not charitable. It’s easy to get the government to do your “charitable” work for you. It’s much more difficult to be charitable on your own, even though we are biblically instructed to do so time and time again. Government programs of theft and entitlement do not make someone compassionate. Compassion is donating one’s own time, money and resources – not taking someone else’s possessions for that purpose.
Those who advocate the theory that Jesus was a socialist point to the rich man who was instructed to sell everything he owned and give his money to the poor, and then to follow Jesus (Matthew 19:21-24). The man went away crestfallen because he loved his wealth more than God. Jesus said, “It is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Progressives read this and then somehow make the extraordinary leap of logic that the government must seize and redistribute all wealth (while conveniently ignoring the “follow me” part).
Of course, Jesus was talking to an individual and suggesting an individual course of action. He didn’t tell the rich man to pass a government program to take everyone’s money and give it to the poor. He didn’t hold a gun to the rich man’s head and tell him “donate or die.”
Jesus was not Robin Hood. He never advocated stealing from the rich to give to the poor. He merely told the rich they should give to the poor in order to build up their treasure in heaven.
I’ll conclude with a challenge provided in an excellent essay by Pastor Kenny Burchard: “If you can find any evidence that Jesus taught confiscatory taxation as the primary means for caring for the poor, providing housing, food, and medical care for all who want or need it, I would like to have your verses.” [Italics in original.]
Now dig deep and help the poor out of your own pocketbook, then follow Him. That’s what Jesus wants.
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 06, 2012 at 09:30 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Continue reading "Latest NIV Bible translation ‘clearer’ on homosexual sins" »
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 06, 2012 at 05:32 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Forward by Bob Barney; The Plain Truth-- Think that evolution was a discovery of Charles Darwin? That is what we are taught, but simple good research shows that the idea of a non-religious origin of the universe is as old as civilaization itself. In fact, it wasn't Darwin who first proposed that man "evolved" from monkees! Lord Monboddo wrote about this idea 100 years before Darwin! Read the shocking Plain Truth about the "theory" of evolution....
David Barton 2008
While uninformed laymen erroneously believe the theory of evolution to be a product of Charles Darwin in his first major work of 1859 (The Origin of Species), the historical records are exceedingly clear that the evolution-creation-intelligent design debate was largely formulated well before the birth of Christ. Numerous famous writings have appeared on the topic for almost two thousand years; in fact, our Founding Fathers were well-acquainted with these writings and therefore the principle theories and teachings of evolution – as well as the science and philosophy both for and against that thesis – well before Darwin synthesized those centuries-old teachings in his writings.
Continue reading "The Founding Fathers on Creation and Evolution" »
Posted by The Plain Truth on January 01, 2012 at 07:11 AM in Religion, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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There are so many Christmas traditions in the US! Where did they all come from? America is often called a “melting pot” and its Christmas traditions can be seen the same way! It is a country of immigrants from all over the world who each brought their culture’s unique traditions to the New World. Read on to find out how Americans came to celebrate with Santa Claus, stockings, trees, gifts and more!
Posted by The Plain Truth on December 25, 2011 at 05:11 PM in A History Lesson, Religion, Why We Do What We Do Series | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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By Aaron Klein
© 2011 WND
JROTC cadets on the USS Theodore Roosevelt |
After intervention by the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Defense Department reportedly decided it will now allow Muslim students participating in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps to wear headscarves and turbans while in uniform.
The decision marks the latest influence by controversial Islamic groups on military affairs.
WND previously broke the story that an Islamic group that has been closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and was named by the Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas is the official endorsing agency for the U.S. Armed Forces Muslim chaplain program.
The Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA, also runs regular events for the military's Muslim chaplains.
WND also reported the Army's Muslim chaplain program was founded by a terror-supporting convict while the Army's first Islamic chaplain, who is still serving, has been associated with a charity widely accused of serving as an al-Qaida front.
On Thursday, CAIR announced its activism was responsible for the decision to allow Muslim garb in the JROTC.
The Islamic group got involved following an incident in October in which a Muslim teen, Demin Zawity, reportedly quit the JROTC when her commanding officer at a Brentwood, Tenn., high school would not allow her to wear her hijab in the homecoming parade.
CAIR sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requesting "constitutionally-protected religious accommodations for the girl and for future Muslim JROTC participants."
Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield responded to CAIR's complaint by explaining the JROTC program will not allow religious headwear.
"Based on your concerns, the Army has reviewed its JROTC uniform policy and will develop appropriate procedures to provide Cadets the opportunity to request the wear of religious head dress, such as the turban and hijab," Stubblefield wrote in the letter, made public by CAIR. "This change will allow Miss Zawity and other students the chance to fully participate in the JROTC program."
Continue reading "U.S. Army uniforms to include Muslim headscarves, turbans?" »
Posted by The Plain Truth on December 24, 2011 at 08:48 AM in America in Prophecy, American's fight for America!, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Christmas history in America : see also Santa Claus in America
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday. The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident. After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870. Washington Irving reinvents Christmas
Posted by The Plain Truth on December 24, 2011 at 05:07 AM in A History Lesson, Religion, Why We Do What We Do Series | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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The Pilgrims who came to America in 1620 were strict Puritans who didn't celebrate Christmas: They spent their first Dec. 25th in Plymouth Colony working in the fields as they would on any other day. SEE ALL 12 PHOTOS
How did the first settlers celebrate Christmas?
They didn't. The Pilgrims who came to America in 1620 were strict Puritans, with firm views on religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Scripture did not name any holiday except the Sabbath, they argued, and the very concept of "holy days" implied that some days were not holy. "They for whom all days are holy can have no holiday," was a common Puritan maxim. Puritans were particularly contemptuous of Christmas, nicknaming it "Foolstide" and banning their flock from any celebration of it throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. On the first Dec. 25 the settlers spent in Plymouth Colony, they worked in the fields as they would on any other day. The next year, a group of non-Puritan workmen caught celebrating Christmas with a game of "stoole-ball" — an early precursor of baseball — were punished by Gov. William Bradford. "My conscience cannot let you play while everybody else is out working," he told them.
Why didn't Puritans like Christmas?
They had several reasons, including the fact that it did not originate as a Christian holiday. The upper classes in ancient Rome celebrated Dec. 25 as the birthday of the sun god Mithra. The date fell right in the middle of Saturnalia, a monthlong holiday dedicated to food, drink, and revelry, and Pope Julius I is said to have chosen that day to celebrate Christ's birth as a way of co-opting the pagan rituals. Beyond that, the Puritans considered it historically inaccurate to place the Messiah's arrival on Dec. 25. They thought Jesus had been born sometime in September.
So their objections were theological?
Not exclusively. The main reason Puritans didn't like Christmas was that it was a raucously popular holiday in late medieval England. Each year, rich landowners would throw open their doors to the poor and give them food and drink as an act of charity. The poorest man in the parish was named the "Lord of Misrule," and the rich would wait upon him at feasts that often descended into bawdy drunkenness. Such decadence never impressed religious purists. "Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas," wrote the 16th-century clergyman Hugh Latimer, "than in all the 12 months besides."
Posted by The Plain Truth on December 23, 2011 at 04:55 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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By Anita Crane
© 2011 WND
This is the season of the year when Salvation Army volunteers are on the streets and outside stores ringing their bells to encourage donors to fill their red kettles with money for the poor. The longtime Christian organization provides food, shelter, elderly services, disaster relief, prisoner rehabilitation and many other forms of aid.
But it also has adopted a position statement that is a step toward abortion, and pro-life leaders are expressing alarm at what they see developing.
In its statement on abortion, the Salvation Army says: "A number of biblical and theological principles underpin The Salvation Army's position on abortion. …
"The Salvation Army believes in the sanctity of human life. Humankind was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). All people – without exception – are of value to him, holding a special place in his creation (Psalm 8:5), irrespective of age, gender, race, religion, health or social status, or their potential for achievement."
But it also states, "A serious commitment to the protection and care of the unborn calls us to a commitment to the prevention of unwanted pregnancy through means such as access to reliable birth control, safety in relationships, and societal respect of women."
Specifically, it says the Salvation Army "believes that termination [abortion] can occur only when carrying the pregnancy further seriously threatens the life of the mother; or reliable diagnostic procedures have identified a foetal abnormality considered incompatible with survival for more than a very brief post natal period."
Read more: Salvation Army marching toward abortion support? http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=378413#ixzz1gtI5GJdd
UPDATE:
Salvation Army
at war with itself
Official: 'When I saw position, there
was smoke coming out both my ears'
--WND
Posted by The Plain Truth on December 21, 2011 at 08:01 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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