Meaning of the word Christmas.

The word Christmas originated as a compound meaning ‘Christ’s Mass’. It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. “Cristes” is from Greek Christos and “mæsse” is from Latin missa (the holy mass).

Mass- 1909 Catholic dictionary

The Eucharist as a sacrifice is called the Mass, most probably from the dismissal (missa) of the catechumens before the celebration. The Mass is a true proper sacrifice, namely, “the external offering up of a sensible gift, which is destroyed or transformed by an authorized minister in recognition of God’s supreme dominion.”

Hence, Christmas literally means the ‘death/sacrifice of Christ.’  Why does Christmas celebrate the supposed birth of Christ but yet literally means the death of Christ?  Because this holiday traces back to sun worship where the sun would ‘die’ at the winter solstice and be ‘resurrected’ on the 25th as it began to rise again.

The Winter Solstice is the day when the Sun is the lowest in the southern sky. During the short winter days the Sun does not rise exactly in the east, but instead rises just south of east and it sets south of west. Each day after the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21st, the Sun’s path becomes a little higher in the southern sky after having remained motionless in the sky for 3 days. The Sun also begins to rise closer to the east and set closer to the west until we reach the day when it rises exactly east and sets exactly west. This day is called the equinox. In fact this is what the word ’solstice’ means, ’sun standing still.’   Solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).

So when we speak of the Winter Solstice it is rather easy knowing this that as the Sun sank deeper into the southern horizon on a daily basis and with less light every day to the point that the path of the Sun had moved further down the sky to where it had remained motionless for 3 days at the Winter Solstice then the ancients considered that the sun had actually died. In fact, the great orb, would remain standing still for three days neither moving north or south. Then, it was noticed, that on the third day, the sun would begin moving northward again.

Sun Worshipclick here

“Each day in the week, the planet to which the
day was sacred was invoked in a fixed spot in the crypt;
and Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially
holy . .
“The rites which they [the Mithraists] practised offered
numerous analogies . . They also held Sunday sacred,
and celebrated the birth of the Sun [god] on the
25th of December.”—Franz Cumont, the Mysteries of
Mithra, Trans. by T.J. McCormack, 167, 191.

Here we see a picture of the Messiah dying and rising again after 3 days.  This is why so many pagan religions have dying and rising Messiah figures.  The adversary knows that the Almighty gives shadow pictures of His great plan in His creation and the adversary seeks to pervert this picture to lead mankind astray.click here.  The sun, moon and stars are specifically used to teach of His glory.

Psa 19:1  To the chief musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens are recounting* the glory of God, and the expanse proclaiming His handiwork.

*m’sepharim- literally from, or out of the books.  When looking at the constellations and the path of the sun we are seeing another witness to the Holy Scriptures.
Psa 19:2  Day by day they pour forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
Psa 19:3  There is no speech, nor are there words where their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4  Their measuring line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world; in them He has set up a dwelling-place for the sun,
Psa 19:5  and he comes forth like a bridegroom from his canopy. He rejoices like a hero to run a race;
Psa 19:6  his going forth from the end of the heavens, and his orbit to their ends; and nothing is hidden from his heat.

The religions of the heathens incorporate different aspects of the work of the Messiah in their religions because they knew what the zodiac taught concerning the Messiah to come.  The adversary knew since the garden that the Seed of the woman was going to come to crush his head and sought to pervert the picture of this Seed to lead mankind astray.  This is why it is so important for believers not to associate with Christmas because it is a part of that perversion of the picture of the Messiah.  The reason why movies like Zeitgeist and books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the DaVinci Code can lead so many astray because it is true that the Roman Catholic Church mixed heathen customs with the Scriptures.  The next logical step is to think that they perverted the Scriptures themselves or that they are just retelling the same pagan myths in a different form.  This is just one reason among many that Christmas is so dangerous to the spiritual welfare of mankind.

“In Constantine’s day, Rome’s official religion was sun worship–the cult of Sol Invictus, or the Invincible Sun–and Constantine was its high priest…By fusing pagan symbols, dates, and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a type of hybrid religion…

The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Son of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25…By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus” (Brown D. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, New York, 2003, p. 232).

2Pe 1:16  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables(Pagan mythology), when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

What saith the Scriptures?

The fact that Christmas is derived from paganism is a statement of fact that can’t be denied.  The question is whether or not it is acceptable to our Heavenly Father to join in customs, traditions and holidays that are birthed from the religions of satan worship.  The Holy Scriptures are clear on what the answer is:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her*, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

*Come out of Babylon…this is speaking of the customs of the satanic system.  Christmas is Babylonian to the core.
Isa 52:11  Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Jer 51:45  My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

We will loathe ourselves when we see the horrible abominations we have committed
Eze 6:8  Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
Eze 6:9  And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Clean can not come out of unclean
Job 14:4  Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Hag 2:11  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
Hag 2:12  If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
Hag 2:13  Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.
Hag 2:14  Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

Sir 34:4  Of an unclean thing what can be cleansed? and from that thing which is false what truth can come?
Sir 34:5  Divinations, and soothsayings, and dreams, are vain: and the heart fancieth, as a woman’s heart in travail.
Sir 34:6  If they be not sent from the most High in thy visitation, set not thy heart upon them.
Sir 34:7  For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them.
Sir 34:8  The law shall be found perfect without lies: and wisdom is perfection to a faithful mouth.

Keep far from a false matter
Exo 23:7  Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

Do not desire the “pretty” things of the heathens
Deu 7:25  The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.
Deu 7:26  Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

Jos 7:15  And it shall be, he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of YHWH and because he has committed folly in Israel.
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoil a goodly robe of Shinar (Babylonish garment), and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, one of fifty shekels in weight, then I lusted after them, and took them. And behold, they are hidden in the earth, in the middle of my tent, and the silver under it.
Isa 44:9  Those who form a carved image are all of them vanity. And their delights do not profit; and they are their own witnesses. They do not see, nor know, that they may be ashamed.
Psa 141:4  Do not let my heart turn aside to any evil thing, to practice deeds in wickedness with men who practice iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.

The ways of the heathen are abominations

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

Golden Calf/Synchretism

Exo 32:1  And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Exo 32:2  And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3  And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5  And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.

Notice, Aharon stated that the golden calf was YHWH.  We can not take the customs of the heathen and apply them to YHWH or Messiah Yahshua.
Exo 32:7  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Exo 32:8  They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:9  And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Exo 32:10  Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Deu 18:9  When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Lev 18:3  After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
Lev 18:4  Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:5  Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

LEARN NOT THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other(G3062…remaining) Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eze 20:32  And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
Eze 20:33  As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:
Eze 20:34  And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
Eze 20:35  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Eze 20:36  Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 20:37  And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:
Eze 20:38  And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 20:39  As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
2 TABLES…we must choose 1
1Co 10:19  What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
1Co 10:20  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
1Co 10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
Mat 6:24  No man 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.
2Co 6:15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

BE NOT CONFORMED
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ;
Eph 4:21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
1Co 10:5  But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
1Co 10:7  Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play……Shaul makes a reference to the golden calf and warns believers not to be idolaters who mixed worship as Israel did in the wilderness.

1Co 10:8  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. ….NUMBERS 25 BAAL PEOR AND BILAM…again mixing worship.
1Co 10:14  Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
1Co 10:19  What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
1Co 10:20  But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
1Co 10:21  Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

Mat 10:5  These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
2Kings 17:24-41; Samaritans “believed” in YHWH but also followed after their own gods.

We must forsake traditions that lead us away from the Word.

Mar 7:6  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Mar 7:7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
Mar 7:9  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mar 7:13  Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Mat 15:6  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Elijah Messageclick here

The Custom of Christmas trees was passed down to us from the “sacred groves” of the heathen religions.  This is Baal worship, this was a main battleground for Eliyahu.

Rom 11:2  “God did not thrust away His people” whom He foreknew. Psa. 94:14 Or do you not know what the Scripture said in Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

Rom 11:4  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to {the image} of Baal.

Why was “the image of” added to the text in Romans 11:4

To Baal (τῇ Βάαλ)
The feminine article is used with the name instead of the masculine (as in Septuagint in this passage). It occurs, however, in the Septuagint with both the masculine and the feminine article. Various reasons are given for the use of the feminine, some supposing an ellipsis, the image of Baal; others that the deity was conceived as bisexual; …it may also be referring to Baal’s female consort Ashtoreth.

Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life.

History

the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
tells us how the December 25 holiday entered the Christian church:
“How much the date of the festival depended upon
the pagan Brumalia [The December 25 celebration],
following the Saturnalia [an eight-day December 17-
24 festival preceding it], and celebrating the shortest
day of the year and the ‘new sun’ . . cannot be accurately
determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia
were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be
set aside by Christian influence . . The pagan festival
with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that
Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration
with little change in spirit and in manner.
Christian preachers of the West and the Near East
protested against the unseemly frivolity with which
Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of
Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry
and sun worship for adopting as Christian this
pagan festival.”—New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, “Christmas.”

“A feast was established in memory of this event
[Christ’s birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century
the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated
forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth
of Sol [the Latin word for ‘sun’], as no certain knowledge
of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”—Encyclopedia
Americana (1944 edition), “Christmas.”

“Certain Latins, as early as [A.D.] 354, may have
transferred the birthday from January 6th to December
25, which was then a Mithraic feast . . or birthday
of the unconquered sun . . The Syrians and Armenians
accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry.”—
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 ed.

“The uncertainty that existed at the beginning of the
third century in the minds of Hippolytus and others—
Hippolytus earlier favored Jan. 2; Clement of Alexandria
(Strom., i. 21), “the 25th of Pachon” [May 20]; while
others, according to Clement, fixed upon Apr, 18 or 19
and Mar. 28—proves that no Christmas festival had been
established much before the middle of the century. Jan.
6 was earlier fixed upon as the date of the baptism or
spiritual birth of Christ, and the feast of Epiphany . .
was celebrated by the Basilidian Gnostics in the second
century . . and by Catholic Christians by about the beginning
of the fourth century.

The earliest record of the recognition of Dec. 25 as
a church festival is in the Philocalian Calendar [although
copied in 354, represented Roman practice in 336].”—
Newman, A.H., “Christmas,” New Scaff-Herzog Encyclopedia
of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, 47.

“Uncertainty about Jesus’ birthday in the
early third century is reflected in a disputed passage of
the presbyter Hippolytus, who was banished to Sarinia
by Maximinus in 235, and in an authentic statement of
Clement of Alexandria. While the former favored January
second, the learned Clement of Alexandria enumerates
several dates given by the Alexandrian chronographers,
notably the twenty-fifth of the Egyptian month,
Pachon (May twentieth), in the twenty-eighth year of
Augustus and the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of
Pharmuthi (April eighteenth or nineteenth) of the year
A.D. 1, although he favored May twentieth. This shows
that no Church festival, in honor of the day, was established
before the middle of the third century. Origen, at
that time in a sermon, denounced the idea of keeping
Jesus’ birthday like that of Pharaoh and said that only
sinners such as Herod were so honored. Arnobius later
similarly ridiculed giving birthdays to ‘gods.’ A Latin treatise,
De pascha computus (of ca. 243), placed Jesus’
birth on March twenty-first since that was the supposed
day on which God created the Sun (Gen 1:14-19), thus
typifying the ‘Sun of righteousness’ as Malachi 4:2 called
the expected Messiah. A century before, Polycarp, martyred
in Smyrna in 155, gave the same date for the birth
and baptism placing it on a Wednesday because of the
creation of the Sun on that day.”—Walter Woodburn
Hyde, Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire,
249-25

“It is now generally granted that the day of the nativity was
not observed as a feast in any part of the church, east or
west, till some time in the fourth century. If any day had
been earlier fixed upon as the Lord’s birthday, it was
not commemorated by any religious rites, nor is it mentioned
by any writers.”—Samuel J. Andrews, The Life
of Our Lord Upon the Earth, New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 1891, 17.

“While Christianity won a comparatively
easy victory over the Graeco-Roman religion, it had a hard
struggle with the Mithras religion. The worshipers of
Mithras were won by taking over the birthday of Mithras,
December 25, as the birthday of Christ.”—H. Lamer,
“Mithras,” Worterbuch der Antike, 2nd ed.; Leipzig: A. Kroner, 1933.

“Remains of the struggle are found in two institutions adopted from its rival by Christianity in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred
days, December twenty-fifth, dies natalis solis [birthday
of the sun], as the birthday of Jesus, and Sunday “the
venerable day of the Sun,” as Constantine called it in his
edict of 321.”—Walter Woodburn Hyde, Paganism to
Christianity in the Roman Empire, 60.

“The first footsteps we find of the observation of this
day are in the second century, about the time of the emperor
Commodus.”—Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary,
“Christmas,” Philadelphia: Crissy and Markley,
copyright 1851, 71.

Tertullian 160-22o AD

Tertullian

The Minervalia are as much Minerva’s, as the Saturnalia Saturn’s; Saturn’s, which must necessarily be celebrated even by little slaves at the time of the Saturnalia. New-year’s gifts likewise must be caught at, and the Septimontium kept; and all the presents of Midwinter and the feast of Dear Kinsmanship must be exacted; the schools must be wreathed with flowers; the flamens’ wives and the aediles sacrifice; the school is honoured on the appointed holy-days. The same thing takes place on an idol’s birthday; every pomp of the devil is frequented. Who will think that these things are befitting to a Christian master, unless it be he who shall think them suitable likewise to one who is not a master? (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter X. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
But, however, the majority (of Christians) have by this time induced the belief in their mind that it is pardonable if at any time they do what the heathen do, for fear “the Name be blasphemed”…To live with heathens is lawful, to die with them is not. Let us live with all; let us be glad with them, out of community of nature, not of superstition. We are peers in soul, not in discipline; fellow-possessors of the world, not of error. But if we have no right of communion in matters of this kind with strangers, how far more wicked to celebrate them among brethren! Who can maintain or defend this?…By us,…the Saturnalia and New-year’s and Midwinter’s festivals and Matronalia are frequented–presents come and go–New-year’s gifts–games join their noise–banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself!…Not the Lord’s day, not Pentecost, even it they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter XIV. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

But “let your works shine,” saith He; but now all our shops and gates shine! You will now-a-days find more doors of heathens without lamps and laurel-wreaths than of Christians. What does the case seem to be with regard to that species (of ceremony) also? If it is an idol’s honour, without doubt an idol’s honour is idolatry. If it is for a man’s sake, let us again consider that all idolatry is for man’s sake; let us again consider that all idolatry is a worship done to men, since it is generally agreed even among their worshippers that aforetime the gods themselves of the nations were men; and so it makes no difference whether that superstitious homage be rendered to men of a former age or of this. Idolatry is condemned, not on account of the persons which are set up for worship, but on account of those its observances, which pertain to demons (Tertullian. On Idolatry, Chapter XV. Translated by S. Thelwall. Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American Edition, 1885. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).

An Armenian scholar called Ananias of Shirak, circa 600 A.D., wrote:

The Festival of the holy Birth of Christ, on the 12th day before the feast of the Baptism, was not appointed by the holy apostles, nor by their successors either, as is clear from the canons of the holy apostles…which is 6th of January, according to the Romans.

But many years after their fixing the canons, this festival was invented, as some say, by the disciples of the heretic Cerinthus; and was accepted by the Greeks, because they were truly fond of festivals and most fervent in piety; and by them it was spread and diffused all over the world.

But in the days of the holy Constantine, in the holy Council of Nice, this festival was not received by the holy fathers (Ananias of Shirak, On Christmas, The Expositor, 5th series vol. 4 (1896) Translation. pp.323-337, as reported by ccel).

Cerinthus was a heretic who the Apostle John publicly denounced towards the end of the first century. Notice that Irenaeus wrote that John detested Cerinthus so much that he would not even take a bath in the same building as him:

There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.” (Irenaeus. Adversus Haeres. Book III, Chapter 3, Verse 4).

The Roman Catholics have also condemned Cerinthus as a heretic:

Cerinthus A Gnostic-Ebionite heretic, contemporary with St. John…Cerinthus was an Egyptian, and if not by race a Jew…Cerinthus’s doctrines were a strange mixture of Gnosticism, Judaism, Chiliasm, and Ebionitism (Arendzen J.P. Transcribed by William D. Neville. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III. Published 1908. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York).

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits this about Christmas:

Christmas…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.

Alexandria. The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. About A.D. 200, Clement of Alexandria (Strom., I, xxi in P.G., VIII, 888) says that certain Egyptian theologians “over curiously” assign, not the year alone, but the day of Christ’s birth, placing it on 25 Pachon (20 May) in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus…

Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Asia Minor. In Cyprus, at the end of the fourth century, Epiphanius asserts against the Alogi (Hær., li, 16, 24 in P. G., XLI, 919, 931) that Christ was born on 6 January…

Rome. At Rome the earliest evidence is in the Philocalian Calendar (P. L., XIII, 675; it can be seen as a whole in J. Strzygowski, Kalenderbilder des Chron. von Jahre 354, Berlin, 1888), compiled in 354, which contains three important entries. In the civil calendar 25 December is marked “Natalis Invicti”…

By the time of Jerome and Augustine, the December feast is established, though the latter (Epp., II, liv, 12, in P.L., XXXIII, 200) omits it from a list of first-class festivals. From the fourth century every Western calendar assigns it to 25 December…

Notice what The Catholic Encyclopedia reported:

Jerusalem…In 385, therefore, 25 December was not observed at Jerusalem.This checks the so-called correspondence between Cyril of Jerusalem (348-386) and Pope Julius I (337-352), quoted by John of Nikiu (c. 900) to convert Armenia to 25 December (see P.L., VIII, 964 sqq.). Cyril declares that his clergy cannot, on the single feast of Birth and Baptism, make a double procession to Bethlehem and Jordan. (This later practice is here an anachronism.) He asks Julius to assign the true date of the nativity “from census documents brought by Titus to Rome”; Julius assigns 25 December…(Martindale C. Christmas, 1908).

Notice what a Franciscan Catholic priest from Jerusalem reported:

The peregrinations also extended to Bethlehem on the occasion of the Epiphany, which was a feast that united with Christmas.

The feast of Christmas, on December 25 despite the protestation of St. Jerome that the feast was already “universal”, was not introduced until the 6th century (Bagatti, Bellarmino.  Translated by Eugene Hoade.  The Church from the Gentiles in Palestine, Part 1, Chapter 1.  Nihil obstat: Ignatius Mancini. Imprimi potest: Herminius Roncari. Imprimatur: +Albertus Gori, die 28 Februarii 1970.  Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, p. 73).

Mixing Christianity & Paganism

“Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it”  Will Durant- 20th Century American Historian

Puritans

Puritans sought to keep the Biblical commandments click here
When the Puritans came to power in the 1600’s, they attacked Christmas as ‘the old heathens’ feasting day to Saturn their god.’  Even singing carols was forbidden.

In 1644, in protest against Christmas, the Church of England proclaimed December 25th as a fast day, and Parliament banned celebrating the festival.  The new rule was enforced by the English army, and the prohibition was enforced with great rigor.

In the 17th century, the English anti-Christmas attitude spread to the Puritan territories in America.   As ardent Protestants, Puritans identified the embracing of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the early 300s as the starting point of the degeneration and corruption of the church. They believed the corruption of the church was brought on by the interweaving of the church with the pagan Roman state. To Puritans, Christmas was impure because it entered the Roman Church sometime in this period. The New England culture was permeated with Puritan values. As late as 1847, no college in New England had a Christmas holiday.

The Puritans banned the holiday in 1659.

“For preventing disorders, arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other communities, to the great dishonor of God and offense of others: it is therefore ordered by this court and the authority thereof that whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way, upon any such account as aforesaid, every such person so offending shall pay for every such offence five shilling as a fine to the county.”

From the records of the General Court,
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 11, 1659

The General Court banned the celebration of Christmas and other such holidays at the same time it banned gambling and other lawless behavior, grouping all such behaviors together. The court placed a fine of five shillings on anyone caught feasting or celebrating the holiday in another manner.

“The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ. How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth …”

- Reverend Increase Mather, 1687

Not celebrated by early believers

Abodah Zarah 1:3 These are the festivals of gentiles: ` Calends, Saturnalia, Cratesis [the commemoration of the empire], `and the emperor`s anniversary, his birthday, `“and the day of his death,”

“There is no historical evidence that our [Savior's] birthday was celebrated during the apostolic or early post-apostolic times,” The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, “Christmas,” p. 47.

“The day was not one of the early feasts of the Christian church. In fact the observance of birthdays was condemned as a heathen custom repugnant to Christians,”click here The American Book of Days, George W. Douglas, p. 658

Saturnalia

In memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice.

In Babylon he was called Ninib and was an agricultural deity. Saturn, called Cronus by the Greeks, was, at the dawn of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Ops, (called Rhea by the Greeks) was a Harvest Helper.

In memory of the Golden Age, when Saturn reigned in Italy, the great feast of Saturnalia was held every year during the winter.  The idea of it was that the Golden Age returned to the earth during the days it lasted.

Author Hugo Slim reminds us that Christmas “is perhaps the best example of the early Church Christianizing the traditional non-Christian festivals of a season—in this case the festivals of returning light surrounding the winter solstice” (A Feast of Festivals, pp. 36–37). The Romans celebrated the solstice season as the “Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture” (Fillmore, p. 10).
This connection to the Saturnalia reveals an even darker side to Christmas traditions, and shows plainly why Christmas is not a child-friendly holiday! The Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that at the feast of Saturnalia, “all classes exchanged gifts, the commonest being wax tapers and clay dolls. These dolls were especially given to children…” (article: “Saturnalia,” 11th edition). What was the purpose of those gifts? “Varro thought these dolls represented original sacrifices of human beings to the infernal god. There was, as we have seen, a tradition that human sacrifices were once offered to Saturn, and the Greeks and Romans gave the name of Cronus and Saturn to a cruel Phoenician Baal, to whom, e.g. children were sacrificed at Carthage” (ibid.).

Saturnalia—the festival Christmas absorbed—even carries echoes of ancient child sacrifice! It sounds horrific that dolls were given as gifts as symbols or proxies of children burnt to pagan gods. Yet this practice echoes the modern tradition of hanging cherubs or human figures on Christmas trees! The ancient Greeks placed small masks called oscilla on branches, where they could twirl freely in the wind. Encyclopaedia Britannica explains that oscilla were small figures, most commonly masks or faces, that were hung up “as offerings to various deities.… The custom of hanging these oscilla represents an older practice of expiating human sacrifice” (ibid.).
Not only did ancient Saturn-worship and fire-worship involve child sacrifice, it also included cannibalism. Author John Garnier noted: “Cannibalism appears to have been initiated by Cronus, i.e. Saturn… For we are told by Sanchoniathon that Cronus was the originator of human sacrifices… Saturn is represented as devouring his own children.” (The Worship of the Dead, pp. 34–35).

Passing through the fire to Molech

Jer 7:30  For the sons of Judah have done evil in My eyes, says YHWH. They have set their idols in the house on which is called My name, in order to defile it.
Jer 7:31  They have built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

Psa 106:34  They did not destroy the peoples, as Jehovah said to them,
Psa 106:35  but mingled with the nations, and learned their works.
Psa 106:36  And they served their idols, and they became a snare to them.
Psa 106:37  Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;
Psa 106:38  and they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with the blood.
Psa 106:39  And they were unclean with their works, and went whoring in their acts.

Alexander Hislop in his book, The Two Babylons, says, “The god whom the Druids worshipped was Baal, as the blazing Baal-fires show — We know that they offered human sacrifices to their bloody gods. We have evidence that they made `their children pass through the fire to Molech’, and that makes it highly probable that they also offered them in sacrifice; for, from Jeremiah 32:35, compared with Jeremiah 19:5, we find that these two things were parts of one and the same system.” Further, it is to be noted that the “priests of Nimrod or Baal were necessarily required to eat of the human sacrifices; and thus it has come to pass that `Cahna-Bal’, (Cahna is the emphatic form of Cahn which means `a priest’) meaning the priest of Baal, is the established word in our tongue for a devourer of human flesh.” (from The Two Babylons, Hislop. See page 232).

John Gill commentary

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire: which was done, as Jarchi says, by putting them into the arms of the brasen image Moloch, heated hot. The account he gives of Tophet is this,

“Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved:”

but in this he is mistaken; for “Tophet” was not the name of an idol, but of a place, as is clear from this and the following verse. There is some agreement between this account of Jarchi, and that which Diodorus Siculus (z) gives of Saturn, to whom children were sacrificed by the Carthaginians; who had, he says, a brasen image of Saturn*, which stretched out his hands, inclining to the earth; so that a child put upon them rolled down, and fell into a chasm full of fire:

*This is important to note.  The worship of Saturn = Ba’al worship. This brazen image of Saturn is the origin of placing children into the lap of Santa Claus.  Halloweenclick here (death) and Christmas (birthdays) are intimately connected.  Birthdaysclick here originally were celebrations of the dead which can be seen by the Greek word that is translated into ‘birthday’.

Moreover, the Romans practiced human sacrifice during the Saturnalia and human heads adorned the pine trees as ornaments.
“William Smith, in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities…notes this is stated distinctly in Macrobius who tells us that ‘on the Saturnalia presents were made with little pottery figures or faces.’… And he adds that, as with Dionysus, ‘We have then the propitiation by human sacrifice once real and afterwards simulated, at festivals of Jupiter, and of gods connected with death, Saturnus (to whom human sacrifice especially belonged…). These masks or figures…were hung upon the boughs of trees…for Vergil speaks of a pine… There can be little doubt that (they)…represented sacrifices’.”

The 12th century rabbi Rashi, commenting on Jeremiah 7.31 stated:
Tophet is Moloch, which was made of brass; and they heated him from his lower parts; and his hands being stretched out, and made hot, they put the child between his hands, and it was burnt; when it vehemently cried out; but the priests beat a drum, that the father might not hear the voice of his son, and his heart might not be moved.
A different rabbinical tradition says that the idol was hollow and was divided into seven compartments, in one of which they put flour, in the second turtle-doves, in the third a ewe, in the fourth a ram, in the fifth a calf, in the sixth an ox, and in the seventh a child, which were all burnt together by heating the statue inside.

This is the origin of setting children on the lap of Santa.

Christmas Bacchus connectionclick here

Two Babylons pg 95
It was no mere astronomic festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there, showed whence it had been derived. The feast, as regulated by Caligula, lasted five days; * loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry, slaves had a temporary emancipation, ** and used all manner of freedoms with their masters. {Exactly the same as the feast of Bacchus seen above that Antiochus forced Yisrael into doing}

* Subsequently the number of the days of the Saturnalia was increased to seven.
** If Saturn, or Kronos, was, as we have seen reason to believe, Phoroneus, “The
emancipator,” the “temporary emancipation” of the slaves at his festival was
exactly in keeping with his supposed character.

This is important to note.  This is a counterfeit of the Jubilee of the Scriptures.  The Jubilee was sounded at Yom Kippur and Sukkot which follows 5 days later is a picture of dwelling/tabernacling with the Messiah when He returns.  According to the book of Maccabees, Hanukkah is just a replay of Sukkot (2Maccabees 1:9).  So we see two opposing feasts which represent two opposing marks.  Hanukkah which is a ‘2nd Sukkot’ where the Temple (body) is rededicated (resurrection) at the coming of the Messiah or Christmas which is a rehearsal of the coming of the antichrist where the Temple (body) is defiled (mark of beast).

Christmas Customs

“Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church . . The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. Pagan customs centering around the January calends [the pagan calendar] gravitated to Christmas.”— Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 ed., “Christmas.”

Christmas Carols

CHRISTMAS CAROLS
Gal 5:21  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,G2970 and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

G2970
κῶμος
kōmos
Thayer Definition:
1) a revel, carousal
1a) a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchusclick here or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry

Christmas plays

The European drama had its origin in Greece. Both forms, tragic and comic, took their rise in the celebrations of the Greek festivals of Dionysus (Bacchus), at which hymns and chants were sung by choruses in honour of the god, and the chorus continued to be a prominent feature of the old Greek drama.

In most modern European countries the regular drama took its rise in the mysteries, miracle-plays, and moralities of the middle ages.

Holly/Ivy wreaths

According to “The Green Mountain Gardener,” Dr. Leonard Perry, ancient pagans fashioned ivy “into wreaths and garlands for decorations during the winter months.” Ivy had close ties with the Roman god of wine, Bacchus. Holly, meanwhile, figured prominently in the Roman celebration of the Saturnalia (upon which the Christmas holiday was directly modeled), as it was considered sacred to Saturn.

Circular wreaths of evergreen
branches (especially holly) were a featured part
of the festival. These were formed in the shape of the
sun, and represented life which could not exist without sunlight. These wreaths were placed on inside and outside
walls during the celebrations. At the time of initiation
into the Dionysian mysteries, these were worn by
the initiates as fertility symbols. They represented the
perpetuity of existence through on-going cycles of life,
death, and rebirth.
“Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sungod.
“The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities
to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating
buildings and places of worship at the feast
which took place at the same time as Christmas.”—
Frederick J. Haskins, Answers to Questions.

Mistletoe

Where did the mistletoe custom originate?
Among the ancients, because mistletoe was considered
sacred to the sun, it was used at the December
festival of the winter solstice, when the sun was lowest
in the noon sky.
Kissing under the mistletoe was thought to be an
act of solar worship, empowering the worshipers for still
further worship. As this indicates, pagan sun-worship
services were very licentious. Temple prostitution was
performed during the eight-day Roman Saturnalia which
immediately preceded the December 25 sun-birth celebration.

“The mistletoe was a sacred plant
in the pagan religion of the Druids in Britain. It was believed to have all sorts of miraculous qualities: the
power of healing diseases, making poisons harmless,
giving fertility to humans and animals, protecting from
witchcraft, banning evil spirits, bringing good luck and
great blessings. In fact, it was considered so sacred that
even enemies who happened to meet beneath a mistletoe
in the forest would lay down their arms, exchange a
friendly greeting, and keep a truce until the following
day. From this old custom grew [p. 104] the practice of
suspending mistletoe over a doorway or in a room as a
token of good will and peace to all comers . .
“After Britain was converted from paganism to Christianity,
the bishops did not allow the mistletoe to be
used in churches because it had been the main symbol
of a pagan religion. Even to this day mistletoe is rarely
used as a decoration for altars. There was, however, one
exception. At the Cathedral of York at one period before
the Reformation a large bundle of mistletoe was brought
into the sanctuary each year at Christmas and solemnly
placed on the altar by a priest. In this rite the plant that
the Druids had called ‘All-heal’ was used as a symbol of
Christ, the Divine Healer of nations.

“The people of England then adopted the mistletoe
as a decoration for their homes at Christmas. Its old,
pagan religious meaning was soon forgotten, but some
of the other meanings and customs have survived: the
kiss under the mistletoe; the token of good will and friendship;
the omen of happiness and good luck and the new
religious significance.”—Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of
Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and World, Inc., 1958), 103-104.

Exchanging gifts

“The interchange of presents between friends is alike
characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and
must have been adopted by Christians from the pagans,
as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows.”—
Bibiothica Sacra, Vol. 12, 153-155.

“Christmas”, THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA, Vol. 3, “C-Ch”, 1997

“The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in A.D. 336

in an early Roman calendar. The celebration of this day as Jesus’ birth date was

probably influenced by pagan [unchristian] festivals held at that time. The ancient

Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god; and Mithras,

the [sic] god of light… As part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special

foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving.

These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration.”

The Yule Log

The yule log. The calend fires were a scandal even to Rome, and St. Boniface obtained from Pope Zachary their abolition (Martindale C. Christmas, 1908).

Hence it is clear that even early Roman writers such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen did not endorse Christmas, nor did Augustine even list it as an important holiday. And that even later Catholic sources recognize that it is not likely that a census (as shown in Luke 2:1) would be done during the winter–making a December 25th date of birth unlikely (it was also too cold for shepherds to spend the night with their flocks out in an open field, as shown in Luke 2:8, making a December 25th birth basically impossible).

Yule {Eol} in Chaldee means infant.
“It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.” (cited in “Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries”, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)

Christmas Trees

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz (DAN 10:5), the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

In the midst of Jeremiah 10 we read Jeremiah proclaim that there is none like unto thee O YHWH! You are great, and your Name is great in might.  Who would not fear thee or King of the nations?

Jer 10:6  There is none like You, O YHWH; You are great, and Your name is great in might.

This is a direct reference to Revelation 15 and those who overcome the mark of the beast. ‘Who is like thee’ is a reference back to the Maccabees who overcame the mark of the beast in their day.  The name Maccabee is an acronym for mi kamocah b’elim YHWH…which comes from Exodus 15.  The song of Moshe and the song of the Lamb.

So we don’t reject the use of trees at Christmas time because they were pagan, we continue to use them, because as symbols of life they now point to Christ. (Killian Brian. Halloween, as autumn celebration, reminder God’s name is hallowed. Catholic Online International News. 10/31/06. http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=21818).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Ashtoreth
The moon goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the passive principle in nature, their principal female deity; frequently associated with the name of Baal, the sun-god, their chief male deity (Jdg_10:6; 1Sa_7:4; 1Sa_12:10). These names often occur in the plural (Ashtaroth, Baalim), probably as indicating either different statues or different modifications of the deities. This deity is spoken of as Ashtoreth of the Zidonians. She was the Ishtar of the Accadians and the Astarte of the Greeks (Jer_44:17; 1Ki_11:5, 1Ki_11:33; 2Ki_23:13). There was a temple of this goddess among the Philistines in the time of Saul (1Sa_31:10). Under the name of Ishtar, she was one of the great deities of the Assyrians. The Phoenicians called her Astarte. Solomon introduced the worship of this idol (1Ki_11:33). Jezebel’s 400 priests were probably employed in its service (1Ki_18:19). It was called the “queen of heaven” (Jer_44:25).

John Gill

the star of your god {hexagram/Talisman of Saturn/seal of Solomon/star of David}, which ye made to yourselves; or the star “your god” (q); meaning the same with Chiun or Saturn; perhaps the same with the star that fell from the air or sky*, mentioned by Sanchoniatho (r); which Astarte, the wife of Chronus or Saturn, is said to take and consecrate in Tyre; this they made for themselves, and worshipped as a deity.

Astarte was the wife of Saturn.  Otherwise known as the wife of Nimrod. Please notice in the image above that the hexagram was her symbol as well.  More on this at the bottom of this study.

ISBE (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

In Assyrian asirtu, which appears also under the forms asrātu, esrēti (plural) and asru, had the further signification of “sanctuary.” Originally Asirtu, the wife of Asir, and asirtu, “sanctuary,” seem to have had no connection with one another, but the identity in the pronunciation of the two words caused them to be identified in signification, and as the tree-trunk or cone of stone which symbolized Asherah was regarded as a Beth-el or “house of the deity*,” wherein the goddess was immanent, the word Asirtu, Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life*. It was as a trunk, however, that it was forbidden to be erected by the side of “the altar of Yahweh” (Deu_16:21; see Jdg_6:25, Jdg_6:28, Jdg_6:30; 2Ki_23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was “cut down” by Asa (1Ki_15:13). So, too, we hear of Asherim or symbols of the goddess being set up on the high places under the shade of a green tree (Jer_17:2; see 2Ki_17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2Ki_21:3, 2Ki_21:7).
*This connection between the Christmas tree the House of God (Bethel) and the tree of Life is important to note.  The Christmas tree is a counterfeit tree of life which is really the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  The tree of life represents the Messiah who is pictured by the menorah.  The tree of knowledge represents the adversary who is pictured by the Christmas tree/Asherah pole.

Exo 23:24  You shall not bow down to their gods, and you shall not serve them. And you shall not do according to their works. But tearing you shall tear them down, and smashing you shall smash their pillars.

H4676 מצּבה matstsêbâh
BDB Definition:
1) pillar, mastaba, stump
1a) pillar
1a1) as monument, personal memorial
1a2) with an altar
1b) (Hophal) stock, stump (of tree)*

*This is the word used in Genesis referring to the stone that Jacob anointed and proclaimed as Bethel.

Gen 28:18  And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar{H4678 matstsebeth}, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Gen 28:19  And he called the name of that place Bethel {H1008 house of God}:: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Gen 35:14  And Jacob set up a pillar(H4678 matstsebeth) in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon {This is a strong reference to the Messiah, which means anointed one.}.
Gen 35:15  And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel{H1008 בּית־אלbeytḣ’el house of God}

Messiah is the image of Elohim
2Co 4:4  in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the brightness of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

The congregation of believers are to be the “image” of Messiah
Rom 8:29  because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.
2Co 3:18  But we all with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord Spirit.

Here we see that the pillar that Jacob anointed is to be the house of Elohim.  His house are His people (Hebrews 3:6).  His body.  Pictured by the menorah, the tree of Life.  The counterfeit is a pillar/Asherah which is called Bethel.  The antichrist’s house are his people.  His body.  Pictured by the Christmas tree, the tree of knowledge.

Our “star,” Greek ” aster,” Latin stella, is akin*. Her worship was most licentious and abominable; closely connected with that of (See ASHERAH, “THE GROVE”. Ashtoreh is the goddess, asherah “the grove,” the image or the symbol of the goddess, of wood;* asher, yashar, “to be straight,” a straight stem of a tree living, or fixed upright (1Ki_18:19; 2Ki_21:7; 2Ki_23:6; 2Ki_23:13-14; 2Ki_23:15; Jdg_6:25; Jdg_6:30). The “bringing out the asherah from the house of the Lord,” and the “cutting down,” suit such a symbol, not a grace in our sense. The active and passive powers of nature, generative and receptive, suggested the male and female deities, Baal and Ashtoreh. {This is seen further in the principle ‘as above, so below’ which will be discussed in connection to the mark of the beast in a future study, Yah willing}

Again, another connection to the star (hexagram) and the Asherah (Christmas tree).

Exo 34:11  Take heed for yourself what I am commanding you today. Behold, I am about to drive out from before your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exo 34:12  Take heed to yourself, that you not cut a covenant with the people of the land to which you are going in, that it not be a snare in your midst.
Exo 34:13  But you shall cut down their altars, break their pillars, and you shall cut off their Asherahs.
Exo 34:14  For you shall not bow to another god, for YHWH whose name is Jealous, He is a jealous God;*

1Co 10:20  But the things the nations sacrifice, “they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.” Deut. 32:17 But I do not want you to become sharers of demons;
1Co 10:21  you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and a cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and a table of demons. {Mixed worship}
1Co 10:22  Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Deut. 32:21

Deu 7:5  But you shall deal with them in this way: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces the cult-stones; and you shall cut down their Asherahs; and you will burn their carved images with fire.
Deu 7:6  For you are a holy people to YHWH your God. YHWH your God has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all the people on the face of the earth.

John Gill commentary on Deu. 7:5

Deu 7:5  But thus shall ye deal with them,…. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:

ye shall destroy their altars; on which they sacrificed to their idols:

and break down their images; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:

and cut down their groves; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; so Maimonides (e) says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the אשרה, or “grove”, spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, 2Ki_21:7,

and burn their graven images with fire; distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, Num_33:52.

(e) Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.

Deu 12:3  And you shall break down their altars, and shatter their standing pillars. And you shall burn their Asherahs with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and shall destroy their names out of that place.
Deu 12:4  You shall not do so to YHWH your God.

Two Babylon’s – Alexander Hislop

The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm-tree denoting the Pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith.

The mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognised as the “Man the branch.” And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas-eve, and the appearance of the Christmas-tree the next morning. As Zero-Ashta, “The seed of the woman,” which name also signified Ignigena, or “born of the fire,” he has to enter the fire on “Mother-night,” that he may be born the next day out of it, as the “Branch of God,” or the Tree that brings all divine gifts to men. But why, it may be asked, does he enter the fire under the symbol of a Log? To understand this, it must be remembered that the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces), on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers. Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all its branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock (see figure 27), and lo, at its side up sprouts a young tree–a tree of an entirely different kind, that is destined never to be cut down by hostile power–even the palm-tree, the well-known symbol of victory*.

*Notice that the serpent wrapping around this tree brings forth life from the dead or resurrection or transformation.  This will be seen below in connection with the Christmas tree and Kundalini.

The Christmas-tree, as has been stated, was generally at Rome a different tree, even the fir; but the very same idea as was implied in the palm-tree was implied in the Christmas-fir; for that covertly symbolised the new-born God as Baal-berith, * “Lord of the Covenant,” and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, not that after having fallen before his enemies, he had risen triumphant over them all.
* Baal-bereth, which differs only in one letter from Baal-berith, “Lord of the Covenant,” signifies “Lord of the fir-tree.”
Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed at Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth, was held at the Natalis invicti solis, “The birth-day of the unconquered Sun.” Now the Yule Log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas-tree is Nimrod redivivus–the slain god come to life again.*

*Again it is seen that Christmas is not about birth.  But about life from the dead/rebirth or the ‘evolution of man’ into homo noeticus.  The promise of the adversary in the garden.

In the light reflected by the above statement on customs that still linger among us, the origin of which has been lost in the midst of hoar antiquity, let the reader look at the singular practice still kept up in the South on Christmas-eve, of kissing under the mistletoe bough. That mistletoe bough in the Druidic superstition, which, as we have seen, was derived from Babylon, was a representation of the Messiah, “The man the branch.” The mistletoe was regarded as a divine branch *–a branch that came from heaven, and grew upon a tree that sprung out of the earth.

*See Mark of the Beast part 3- Ivy, Bacchus, Christmas & Hanukkahclick here

FROM CHRISTMAS IN RITUAL BY CLEMENT MILES
Let us turn to the customs of the Roman Empire which may be in part responsible for the German Christmas-tree. The practice of adorning houses with evergreens at the January Kalends was common throughout the Empire, as we learn from Libanius, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. A grim denunciation of such decorations and the lights which accompanied them may be quoted from Tertullian; it makes a pregnant contrast of pagan and Christian. “Let them,” he says of the heathen, “kindle lamps, they who have no light; let them fix on the doorposts laurels which shall afterwards be burnt, they for whom fire is close at hand; meet for them are testimonies of darkness and auguries of punishment. But thou,” he says to the Christian, “art a light of the world and a tree that is ever green; if thou hast renounced temples, make not a temple of thy own house-door.”

Birthday connectionclick here

“Herod reigned over the Jews in Syria, in the times of Augustus; therefore the Herodians kept Herod’s birthday, as also the sabbath, on which day they set up candles in the windows lighted, and encircled with violets.”

This they did, believing him to be the Messiah: and it is further to be observed, that the word here used, is said (r) to be proper to the dead, and not to the living; and that he that uses it of the living, speaks very inaccurately: but however, it was a festival, and a time of great mirth and jollity; and a proper opportunity offered to Herodias, to execute her malicious designs against John the Baptist; for at this time,
2Ma 6:7 On the monthly celebration of the king’s birthday, the Jews were taken, under bitter constraint, to partake of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Dionysus came, they were compelled to walk in the procession in honor of Dionysus, wearing wreaths of ivy click here.

Isa 1:29  For they shall be ashamed of the trees which you lusted after; and you shall be ashamed of the gardens that you have chosen.
Isa 1:30  For you shall be like a tree whose leaf fades, and like a garden that has no water in it.

The Christmas tree represents the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The Menorah represents the tree of Life, Yahshua where the living waters come from (Psalm 1).

Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Isa 30:21  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
Isa 30:22  Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places (where the trees were) with divers colours (H2921), and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

H2921 טלא ṭâlâ’ taw-law’
A primitive root; properly to cover with pieces; that is, (by implication) to spot or variegate (as tapestry):
Tapestry
TAP’ESTRY, n. [L. tapes, tapestry.] A kind of woven hangings of wool and silk, often enriched with gold and silver, representing figures of men, animals, landscapes, &c.

Eze 6:13  Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols.
Jer 3:6  The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Christmas tree – Kundalini connection

Kundalini is the belief that there is a serpent encoiled at the base of the spine which can be meditation and ’spiritual’ acts, causing it to climb the spine where it reaches your pineal gland and opens your ‘3rd eye.’   Interestingly, the word for spine and tree are the same.

The serpent rises up the spine to the pineal gland which was represented in ancient cultures as the pine cone….the fruit of the pine tree.

Staff of Osiris

Staff of Bacchus

The pine cone is associated with the Sumerian Annunaki who are said to have ‘created’ men from clay jars.  This is referring to manipulation of DNA which will need to be discussed in greater detail in another study but needless to say it is associated with the Kundalini spirit, the ‘awakening’ of the serpent and the result of man being ‘enlightened’ or evolving into a higher spiritual being.

Notice that Christmas tree lights are connected to the serpent.  The word for serpent is nachash which literally means shining one.  This is also connected to Lucifer which means light bringer.  Here we see the Christmas tree, which represents the ‘born again’ pagan Christ who brings enlightenment to mankind.

Antichrist connection

The tradition of the Christmas tree symbolically portrayed the death and reincarnation of Osiris in his son, Horus:
“…the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces…on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers.) Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all his branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great Serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock…and lo, at its side sprouts a young tree – a tree of an entirely different kind, that is never to be cut down by a hostile power -…and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, how that after having fallen before his enemies, he has risen triumphant over them all. Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed in Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth was held at the Natalis invicti solis, ‘The birthday of the unconquered Sun.”

The feast of Christmas is, in allegorical form, the pagan celebration of the Serpent’s eventual triumph over the very God who frustrated the Babylonian attempt to build a tower to heaven (symbolized by a tree). By reviving and restoring the mystery religions as they were practiced in the pre-flood civilization, Horus became the Egyptian savior and virtual counterpart of Jesus Christ. In her Theosophical Glossary, H.P. Blavatsky thus describes Horus:
“Horus (Eg.). The last in the line of divine Sovereigns in Egypt, said to be the son of Osiris and Isis. He is the great god ‘loved of Heaven,’ the ‘’beloved of the Sun, the offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the world.’ At the time of the Winter Solstice (our Christmas), his image in the form of a small newly-born infant, was brought out from the sanctuary for the adoration of the worshipping crowds…

In pagan Rome, the celebration of the Winter Solstice began on December 17 with the feast of Saturn — also called the Saturnalia. Through December 23rd, the Roman world engaged in merrymaking and the exchanging of gifts in honor of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry and, according to a Rosicrucian source, to commemorate a future Golden Age of Saturn:
“Here is the general reformation of the world announced in the Rosicrucian manifestos described as a world reformation… Whilst involving definite reforms in education, church, and law, this general reformation has millenarian overtones; it will bring the world back to the state in which Adam found it, which was also Saturn’s golden age. So, in the Confessio, the second Rosicrucian manifesto, the general reformation is said to presage ‘a great influx of truth and light’ such as surrounded Adam in Paradise, and which God will allow before the end of the world…this millennium, this return to the golden age of Adam and Saturn, is said to be assisted by ‘the high society of the Rosicrucians.’”

…the manner and the means by which the present-day man is transformed into the Divine Superman.  This symbol-  Christian Rose Cross- shows the end and aim of human evolution; ” “the solution of the World Mystery – Man’s past evolution, present constitution, and particularly the secret of his future development.

Christmas is a “Christianized” form of Saturnalia.  The winter-solstice celebration in honor of Saturn.  It established that Saturn’s mark is the hexagram and is the star which ancient Yisrael worshipped in the wilderness according to the prophet Amos.

Interestingly, it is said that Mithras referred to himself as a star.  December 25th was Mithras birthday
“I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths”-Mithraic Saying

Crowned Emperor
On Christmas Day in 800, while Charlemagne knelt in prayer in Saint Peter’s in Rome, Pope Leo III seized a golden crown from the altar and placed it on the bowed head of the king. The throng in the church shouted, “To Charles the August, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, long life and victory!”…the history of Charlemagne is interesting and connects to the Merovingian bloodline.  This will have to be discussed in more detail in a future study, Yah willing.

Connection to Nibiruclick here ?

The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star,[1] is a star in Christian tradition that revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi (or “wise men”) and later led them to Bethlehem.

Share International Reveals Christmas Miracle
In 1988, CNN and other media reported on Maitreya’s miraculous appearance to 6,000 people in Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, June 11. A week before the event, a remarkable sign occurred: “On Saturday 4 June a big, bright star was sighted, unusually brighter than ordinary stars,” reported Kenya Times editor Job Mutungi.
News Release No. 87, 11 December 2008
Christmas Miracle

For years the world has been filled with miracles of all kinds. In April 1995 Time magazine devoted an eight-page spread to its cover story on miracles, and concluded:”People are hungry for signs.”

Look now for the biggest miracle of all. In the very near future a large, bright star will appear in the sky visible to all throughout the world – night and day.
Awaited by all faiths under different names, Maitreya is the Christ to Christians, the Imam Mahdi to Muslims, Krishna to Hindus, the Messiah to Jews, and Maitreya Buddha to Buddhists. He is the World Teacher for all, religious or not, an educator in the broadest sense.

“In the very near future, people everywhere will have the opportunity to witness an extraordinary and significant sign, the like of which has been manifested only once before, at the birth of Jesus. Then, according to Christian teaching, a star appeared in the heavens and led three wise men from the East to the birthplace of Jesus. Soon, once again, a star-like luminary of brilliant power will be seen around the world.” (Benjamin Creme’s Master, ‘Maitreya’s first interview’, SI Jan/Feb 2009)

On 12 December 2008 Share International distributed a news release announcing that in the very near future a large, bright star would appear in the sky visible throughout the world, night and day, heralding the imminent appearance of Maitreya in His first interview on a major US television programme. Since early January 2009 sightings of the star have been reported all over the world and hundreds of sightings have been sent to Share International. We include a selection of the latest reports from the media, Share International readers, and sightings from YouTube. All are genuine sightings confirmed by Benjamin Creme’s Master to be the ‘star’.

With Maitreya and His group working openly in the world, humanity is assured not only of survival but of the creation of a brilliant new civilization.

The term “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” A New Order of the Ages, was adapted by Charles Thomson in 1782 who, while designing the Great Seal of the United States, was inspired by a line in Virgil’s Ecologue IV from the first century:

Now the last age by Cumae’ Sibyl has come and gone,

And the majestic roll of circling centuries begins anew:

Justice returns, old Saturn’s reign

With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.

On do thou, at the boy’s birth in whom

The iron shall cease, the golden race arise,

Befriend him, chaste Lucina: ‘this thine own Apollo reigns….

He shall receive the life of gods,

And see Heroes and gods commingling,

And himself be seen of them,

And with his father’s worth.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is designed to be a direct counterfeit of the Messiah…therefore he is a representative of the antichrist

Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Satan wants to be like the Most High…he is a counterfeiter
Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

WHITE HAIR
Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
Rev 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

CLOTHING…red & white

Dan 7:9  I was looking until the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days sat, whose robe was white as snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was like flames of fire, its wheels like burning fire.

Isa 63:2  Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?

FURNACE
Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

CARPENTER (Santa’s North pole workshop)
Mar 6:3  Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

NORTH POLE
Eze 8:14  Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

CROWN OF THORNS(HOLLY)
Mar 15:17  And they clothed him with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head,

RIDES UPON THE SKIES

Deu 33:26  There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

HO HO HO
Zec 2:6  Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.

FALLEN ANGELS=ELVES
Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

LOVES US
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
Mat 7:7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

ALL POWERFUL
Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

IMMORTAL
Psa 102:24  I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

OWN SPIRIT…Christmas spirit
Pro 1:23  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

FEAR…children taught to fear Santa
Psa 34:11  Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

GIVE ACCOUNT…making a list, checking it twice
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

THRONE…Santa’s throne of Molech
Mat 25:31  When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

JUDGEMENT BOOKS
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

BELIEVE
Joh 10:42  And many believed on him there.

WHITE HORSE
Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

GLORIOUS APPEARING
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Santa Claus Poseidon connection

St. Nicholas ever existed as a human. In fact, there are quite a few indicators that his life story was simply recycled from those of Pagan gods. Many other ancient Pagan gods and goddesses were similarly Christianized in the early centuries of the Church. His legends seems to have been mainly created out of myths attributed to the Greek God Poseidon, the Roman God Neptune, and the Teutonic God Hold Nickar.  “In the popular imagination [of many Russians] he became the heir of Mikoula, the god of harvest, ‘who will replace God, when God becomes too old.’

“St. Nicholas of Bari (Fourth Century),” Catholic Information Network, at: http://www.cin.org/nichbari.html

When the church created the persona of St. Nicholas, they adopted Poseidon’s title “the Sailor.” They seem to have picked up his last name from Nickar. Various temples of Poseidon became shrines of St. Nicholas. 1 “In medieval England… in tiny sea ports we find the typical little chapel built on an eminence and looking out to sea.” 8 St. Nicholas also adopted some of the qualities of “The Grandmother” or Befana from Italy. She was said to have filled children’s stockings with gifts. Her shrine at Bari was also converted into a shrine to St. Nicholas.

“Probably earlier than the association of St. Nicholas with Poseidon is that with Demeter, or Diana*, whose cult was particularly in vogue in Lycia, the scene of the principal events in the story of St. Nicholas.”
George H. McKnight, St. Nicholas: His Legend and His Role in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs (1917).

*Here we see again the connection between Nimrod & Semiramis.

Poseidon-The horse, the dolphin (the symbol of the calm sea) and the pine-tree, with wreaths* of which the Isthmian victors were crowned, were sacred to him.
By far the most famous of his festivals was that celebrated every alternate year on the isthmus of Corinth, at which the “Isthmian games” were held. Here a colossal statue of him was set up in bronze by the Greeks after their victory over the Persians.

*Isthmian games:

Ivyclick here
ı̄´vi (κισσός, kissós): The only mention of the word in all the sacred writings is in 2 Macc 6:7 in connection with the oppression of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes: “On the day of the king’s birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus (Dionysus) was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Dionysus, carrying ivy,” this plant (Hedera helix)* being sacred to the Greek god of wine and of the culture of the vine (compare Eur. Bacchae, passim). It was of ivy or of pine that the “corruptible crown” of the famous 1sthmian games was made (1Co_9:25).

1Co 9:25  But everyone striving controls himself in all things. Then those truly that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

Robertson Word Pictures

A corruptible crown (phtharton stephanon). Stephanos (crown) is from stephō, to put around the head, like the Latin corona, wreath or garland, badge of victory in the games. In the Isthmian games it was of pine leaves, earlier of parsley, in the Olympian games of the wild olive. “Yet these were the most coveted honours in the whole Greek world” (Findlay).

The triden of Shiva is another representation of Poseidon…In Hinduism it is associated with transformation…

The shin is associated with 3 vav’s…ie 666click here.

The birth of the Messiah

Luk 2:1  And it happened in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus for all the habitable world to be registered.
Luk 2:2  This registration first occurred under the governing of Syria by Cyrenius.
Luk 2:3  And all went to be registered, each to his own city.
Luk 2:4  And Joseph also went from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because of his being of the house and family of David,
Luk 2:5  to be registered with Mary, the one having been betrothed to him as wife, she being pregnant.
Luk 2:6  And it happened as they were there, the days were fulfilled for her to bear.
Luk 2:7  And she bore her son, the First-born. And she wrapped Him and laid Him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luk 2:8  And shepherds were in the same country living in the fields and keeping guard over their flock by night.
Luk 2:9  And, behold, an angel of the Lord came on them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they feared with a great fear.
Luk 2:10  And the angel said to them, Do not fear. For, behold, I proclaim good news to you, a great joy, which will be to all people,
Luk 2:11  because today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born to you in the city of David.
Luk 2:12  And this is a sign to you: You will find a babe having been wrapped, lying in the manger.
Luk 2:13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
Luk 2:14  Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will among men.
Luk 2:15  And it happened as the angels departed from them into the heaven, even the men, the shepherds, said to one another, Indeed, let us go over to Bethlehem, and let us see this thing occurring, which the Lord made known to us.
Luk 2:16  And hurrying, they came and sought out both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger.
Luk 2:17  And seeing, they publicly told about the word spoken to them about this Child.
Luk 2:18  And all those hearing marveled about the things spoken to them by the shepherds.
Luk 2:19  And Mary kept all these words, meditating in her heart.
Luk 2:20  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all things which they heard and saw, even as was spoken to them.

The Shepherds would not have been in the fields during December 25th

Lightfoot commentary

Luk 2:8

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,  keeping watch over their flock by night.

[And there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock;  etc.]  These are the sheep of the wilderness;  viz.  Those which go out to pasture about the time of the Passover,  and are fed in the fields,  and return home upon the first rain.

“Which is the first rain?  It begins on the third of the month Marchesvan.  The middle rain is on the seventh:  the last on the seventeenth.  So R. Meier:  but R. Judah saith,  On the seventh,  seventeenth,  and one-and-twentieth.”

The spring coming on,  they drove their beasts into wildernesses or champaign grounds,  where they fed them the whole summer,  keeping watch over them night and day,  that they might not be impaired either by thieves or ravenous beasts.  They had for this purpose their tower to watch in;  or else certain small cottages erected for this very end,  as we have observed elsewhere.  Now in the month Marchesvan,  which is part of our October and part of November,  the winter coming on,  they betook themselves home again with the flocks and the herds.

John Gill commentary

abiding in the field, watching over their flock by night: from whence it appears, that Christ was born in the night; and the (o) Jews say, that the future redemption shall be in the night; and Jerom says (p), it is a tradition of the Jews, that Christ will come in the middle of the night, as was the passover in Egypt: it is not likely that he was born, as is commonly received, at the latter end of December, in the depth of winter; since at this time, shepherds were out in the fields, where they lodged all night, watching their flocks: they were diligent men, that looked well to their flocks, and watched them by night, as well as by day, to preserve them from beasts of prey; they were, as it is in the Greek text, “keeping the watches of the night over their flock.” The night was divided into four watches, the even, midnight, cock crowing, and morning; and these kept them, as the Arabic version adds, alternately, some kept the flock one watch, and some another, while the rest slept in the tent, or tower, that was built in the fields for that purpose. There were two sorts of cattle with the Jews; there was one sort which they called מדבריות, “the cattle of the wilderness”, that lay in the fields; and another sort which they called בייתות, “the cattle of the house”, that were brought up at home: concerning both which, they have this rule (q),

“they do not water nor slay the cattle of the wilderness, but they water and slay the cattle of the house: these are the cattle of the house, that lie in the city; the cattle of the wilderness, are they that lie in the pastures.

On which, one of their commentators (r) observes,

“these lie in the pastures, which are in the villages, all the days of cold and heat, and do not go into the cities, until the rains descend.

The first rain is in the month Marchesvan, which answers to the latter part of our October, and the former part of November; and of this sort, seem to be the flocks those shepherds were keeping by night, the time not being yet come, of their being brought into the city: from whence it appears, that Christ must be born before the middle of October, since the first rain was not yet come; concerning this, the Gemara (s) is more large,

“the Rabbins teach, that these are they of the wilderness, or fields, and these are they of the house; they of the field are they that go out on the passover, and feed in the pastures, and come in at the first rain; and these are they of the house, all that go out and feed without the border, and come and lie within the border (fixed for a sabbath day’s journey): Rabbi says, those, and those are of the house; but these are they that are of the field, all they that go out and feed in the pastures, and do not come in to remain, neither in the days of the sun, nor in the days of the rains.

(o) Tzeror Hamrnor, fol. 73. 3. (p) In Matt. xxv. 6. (q) Misn. Betza, c. 5. sect. 7. (r) Maimon. in ib. (s) T. Bab. Betza, for. 40. 1. & Sabbat. fol. 45. 2. Vid Maimon Hilch. Yom Tob, c. 2. sect. 2.

Adam Clarke

Luk 2:8
There were – shepherds abiding in the field – There is no intimation here that these shepherds were exposed to the open air. They dwelt in the fields where they had their sheep penned up; but they undoubtedly had tents or booths under which they dwelt.
Keeping watch – by night – Or, as in the margin, keeping the watches of the night, i.e. each one keeping a watch (which ordinarily consisted of three hours) in his turn. The reason why they watched them in the field appears to have been, either to preserve the sheep from beasts of prey, such as wolves, foxes, etc., or from freebooting banditti, with which all the land of Judea was at that time much infested. It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could he have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this disputed point. See the quotations from the Talmudists in Lightfoot.
The time in which Christ was born has been considered a subject of great importance among Christians. However, the matter has been considered of no moment by Him who inspired the evangelists; as not one hint is dropped on the subject, by which it might be possible even to guess nearly to the time, except the chronological fact mentioned above. A late writer makes the following remark: “The first Christians placed the baptism of Christ about the beginning of the fifteenth year of Tiberius; and thence reckoning back thirty years, they placed his birth in the forty-third year of the Julian period, the forty-second of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth after the victory at Actium. This opinion obtained till a.d. 527, when Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar account. Learned and pious men have trifled egregiously on this subject, making that of importance which the Holy Spirit, by his silence, has plainly informed them is of none. Fabricius gives a catalogue of no less than 136 different opinions concerning the Year of Christ’s birth: and as to his birth Day, that has been placed by Christian sects and learned men in every month in the year. The Egyptians placed it in January – Wagenseil, in February – Bochart, in March – some, mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, in April – others, in May – Epiphanius speaks of some who placed it in June – and of others who supposed it to have been in July – Wagenseil, who was not sure of February, fixed it probably in August – Lightfoot, on the 15th of September – Scaliger, Casaubon, and Calvisius, in October – others, in November – but the Latin Church, supreme in power, and infallible in judgment, placed it on the 25th of December, the very day on which the ancient Romans celebrated the feast of their goddess Bruma.” See more in Robinson’s Notes on Claude’s Essay, vol. i. p. 275, etc. Pope Julius I. was the person who made this alteration, and it appears to have been done for this reason: the sun now began his return towards the northern tropic, ending the winter, lengthening the short days, and introducing the spring. All this was probably deemed emblematical of the rising of the Sun of righteousness on the darkness of this world, and causing the day-spring from on high to visit mankind.

Alexander Hislop writes in The Two Babylons:

And first, as to the festival in honor of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. How comes it that that festival was connected with the 25th of December? There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when He was born. What is recorded there, implies that at what time so ever His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time that the angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night in the open fields. Now, no doubt, the climate of Palestine is not so severe as the climate of this country; but even there, though the heat of the day be considerable, the cold of the night, from December to February, is very piercing. It was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October. It is in the last degree incredible, then, that the birth of Christ could have taken place at the end of December. There is great unanimity among commentators on this point (pp. 91-92).

Hislop continues:

Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord’s birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of until the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance (pp. 92-93)

Messiah Yahshua was born around the Sukkot seasonclick here.

Conception of John the Baptist

Course of Abijah
Luk 1:5  In the days of Herod the king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the daily course of Abijah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luk 1:6  And they were both righteous before God, walking blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
Luk 1:7  And no child was born to them, because Elizabeth was barren. And both were advanced in their days.
Luk 1:8  And it happened in his serving as priest in the order of his course before God,
Luk 1:9  according to the custom of the priests, entering into the Holy Place of the Lord, it was Zacharias’ lot to burn incense.
1Ch 24:1  And these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 24:2  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and they had no sons. And Eleazar and Ithamar were priests.
1Ch 24:3  And David divided them according to their offices in their service, even Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:4  And more sons of Eleazar were found than the sons of Ithamar, for heads of the men. And they divided them. For the sons of Eleazar were: sixteen chiefs to their father’s house; and eight to the sons of Ithamar, to the house of their fathers.
1Ch 24:5  So they divided them by lots, these with these. For these were the rulers of the sanctuary and rulers of God, of Eleazar’s sons and Ithamar’s sons.
1Ch 24:6  And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the rulers of the fathers of the priests and Levites. One father’s house was taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.
1Ch 24:7  And the first lot came out for Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1Ch 24:8  the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1Ch 24:9  the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1Ch 24:10  the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
1Ch 24:11  the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1Ch 24:12  the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1Ch 24:13  the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
1Ch 24:14  the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1Ch 24:15  the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,
1Ch 24:16  the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
1Ch 24:17  the twenty first to Jachin, the twenty second to Gamul,
1Ch 24:18  the twenty third to Delaiah, the twenty fourth to Maaziah.
1Ch 24:19  These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of YHWH, according to their ordinance, to Aaron their father, as YHWH God of Israel had commanded him.
The Talmud records that each shift was a week.  From noon sabbath to noon sabbath

Josephus records that these courses were being followed in the 1st century.
Josephus Antiquities 7:14.7
He divided them also into courses: and when he had separated the priests from them, he found of these priests twenty-four courses, sixteen of the house of Eleazar, and eight of that of Ithamar; and he ordained that one course should minister to God eight days, from sabbath to sabbath. And thus were the courses distributed by lot, in the presence of David, and Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, and of all the rulers; and that course which came up first was written down as the first, and accordingly the second, and so on to the twenty-fourth; and this partition hath remained to this day.

Yahshua was born in the Fall of 5 BC, therefore John the Baptist was born in the Spring of 5 BC and conceived 9 months earlier in the summer of 6 BC.  In the year 6 BC, the first day of the first month was a weekly Sabbath March 20.
Zachariah was of the 8th course.  He was assigned the 9th and 10th weeks from the beginning of the year.  Iyar 27 – Sivan 5 (May 15-22) and Sivan 5 – Sivan 12 (May 22-29).  Sometime during these two weeks Gabriel appeared to him.  It is a possibility that this occurred on Pentecost which was Sivan 6 (May 16).  Zachariah returned home on May 29 so it can be assumed that Elizabeth conceived May 30 – June 12 in the year 6 BC.  6 months later Mary visited Elizabeth (Luk 1:36) at the time of Hanukkah.  John would have been born sometime between Adar 19 & Nisan 3 or February 27 – March 11 5 BC.  Mary’s conception would have been around Kislev 17-30 Nov 28- Dec 11, this brings Messiah’s birth to around the time of Elul 24-Tishri 15 or August 27- September 8.

This would mean that Yahshua was conceived on Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights) and born on Sukkot (the Festival of Lights).  Hanukkah is also an 8 day festival that was based on Sukkot.

2Ma 10:6  And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.
2Ma 10:7  Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
2Ma 10:8  They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.

During the Sukkot season (John 7-8) Yahshua proclaimed the following:

Joh 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. The one following Me will in no way walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

The building of the Tabernacle

Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Joh 1:9  He was the true Light; He enlightens every man coming into the world.
Joh 1:10  He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him.
Joh 1:11  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Joh 1:12  But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones believing into His name,
Joh 1:13  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God.
Joh 1:14  And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and of truth.

What is the counterfeit of these festival of lights?  Christmas.  This has connections to the mark of the beast, which is a counterfeit of the mark of YHWHclick here

Sukkot is a picture of the Messianic kingdom where Messiah dwells with His people.

Zec 14:16  And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Yahshua dwelling with His people during the Messianic era
Eze 37:22  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
Eze 37:23  Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 37:24  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
Eze 37:25  And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Eze 37:26  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Eze 37:27  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Christmas is a counterfeit of Sukkot.  Hence, Christmas is a picture of the antichrist kingdom.

It is clear from Scripture that the magi did not come to visit the babe.  He was close to 2 years old when they came to see Him.

Mat 2:1  And when Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men arrived from the east to Jerusalem,
Mat 2:2  saying, Where is He born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.

Mat 2:7  Then secretly calling the wise men, Herod asked of them exactly the time of the star appearing.
Mat 2:8  And sending them to Bethlehem, he said, Having gone, exactly inquire about the child. And when you find him, bring me word again so that coming I may also worship him.

Mat 2:16  Then seeing that he was mocked by the wise men, Herod was greatly enraged, and having sent, he killed all the boys in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he exactly asked from the wise men.

Where does this tradition of the wise men visiting the baby Jesus come from?  The Gnostic gospels.

Protoevangelion 15:9  Wise men come to Christ in the cave

1 Infancy 3:1 Wise men, listening to a prophecy of Zoroaster bring gifts to Jesus

Mark of the Beast connection

Moloch is synomonous with Saturn.  Christmas is derived from Saturnalia…
The Talisman of Saturn became known as the Seal of Solomon.

From James Fausset Brown commentary on Amos 5:26
the star of your god — R. Isaac Caro says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence “images” correspond to “star” in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God (Num_24:17). “Images” are either a Hebraism for “image,” or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.

John Gill commentary on Amos 5:26

Holy Blood Holy Grail pg 297
Quoting from Perlesvaus pg. 359
“Well I know that many brave knights dwell with the Grail at Munsalvaesche.  Always when they ride out, as they often do, it is to seek adventure.  They do so for their sins, these templars, whether their reward be defeat or victory.  A valiant hose lives there, and I will tell you how they are sustained.  They live from a stone of purest kind.  If you know not know it, it shall here be named to you.  It is called lapsit exillis. By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again.  Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before.  There never was a human so ill but that, if he on day sees that stone, he cannot die within the week that follows.  And in looks he will not fade.  His appearance wills tay the same as when the best years of his life began, and though he should see the stone for two hundred years, it will never change, save that his hair might perhaps turn gray.  Such power does the stone give a man that flesh and bones are at once made young again.  The stone is called the Grail.”

“Lapsit exillis might be a corruption of lapis ex caelis– ‘stone from the heavens.’ It might also be a corruption of lapsit ex caelis – ‘it fell from heaven’; or of lapis lapsus ex caelus- ‘a stone fallen from heaven; or, finally, of lapis elixir -the fabulous Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy.”…The Philosopher’s stone will need to be discussed in more detail in a future study, but it points to the ‘evolution of man’ into a ‘god.’  DNA is a stone, when it is mixed with the ’stone’ from heaven the ‘Holy Grail’ or transformation is attained.  This is what Christmas is a foreshadow of.  The return of the age of Saturn.  The age of Aquarius.  The golden age of the ‘gods.’

Back to John Gill’s commentary:

The Targum is,

“ye have borne the tabernacle of your priests, Chiun your image, the star your God, which ye have made to yourselves.”

It may be further observed, for the confirmation and illustration of what has been said concerning Chiun, that the Egyptian Anubis, which Plutarch (x) says is the same with Saturn, is called by him Kyon, which seems to be no other than this word Chiun: and whereas Stephen calls it Rephan, this is not a corruption of the word, reading Rephan or Revan for Chevan; nor has he respect to Rimmon, the god of the Syrians, but it is the Egyptian name for Saturn; which the Septuagint interpreters might choose to make use of, they interpreting for the king of Egypt: and Diodorus Siculus (y) makes mention of an Egyptian king called Remphis, whom Braunius (z) takes to be this very Chiun; see Act_7:43; but Rephas, or Rephan, was the same with Chronus, or Saturn, from whence came the Rephaim (a), who dwelt in Ashtaroth Karnaim, a town of Ham or Chronus; see Gen_14:5.

(q) כוכב אלהיכם “sidus deum vestrum”, Liveleus; “sidus, vel stellam deos vestros”, Calvin. (r) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 38. (s) כיון צלמיכם “placentam imagiuum vestrarum”, Pagninus, Tigurine version, Vatablus. (t) Dictionary, in the word “Chiun”. (u) “Basim imaginum vestrarum”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; “statumen”, Burkius. (w) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. p. 35. (x) De Iside. (y) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 56.

The six-pointed star is considered by occultists to be the Star of Bethlehem which will precede the Advent of the False Christ.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days…shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven…” (Matt. 24:29-30) “The Star is the symbol of the perfect life, the perfect balance, of the Christ-man. The six-pointed star is the Star of Bethlehem, which again means the Star of the Son of man…
“The star with the six points represents the star of Light…of brotherhood, the Star of Christ. The love of Christ is represented by this Star.  So, we have in that symbol a representation of the Ancient Wisdom, and the love of Christ, the wisdom and love combined, which is to be realized by humanity in this New Age – the age of Aquarius.” -Gaia Mind

Broken Heart

Eze 6:9  And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken (H7665) with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

H7665
שׁבר
shâbar
A primitive root; to burst (literally or figuratively): – break (down, off, in pieces, up), broken ([-hearted]), bring to the birth, crush, destroy, hurt, quench, X quite, tear,

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I’m sitting at my laptop wrapped in a warm glow of smug satisfaction, which is just as well because it’s cold and miserable out in the sukkah I have just put up.  It’s taken the best part of a frustrating day to complete but after several false starts (and one injury where an upright fell and hit me in the tabernacles) I finally succeeded and am jolly pleased with myself.  How good are my tents, oh Jacob?  Huh?

One of the many mysteries of Sukkot is how sections I’ve used in previous years miraculously don’t fit properly without having to chop, shave, saw and jam them into place.  During the year, while it’s sitting in the shed, I suspect it grows extra bits.   That aside, I must say these pre-fabricated steel and MDF sukkahs are marvelous.  I’d hate to have to design and build one from scratch using random pieces of wood, that’s for sure.

Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised at my success.  While we Jews are not thought of as particularly handy when it comes to construction, the temporary booth is our speciality.   During the war, my great uncle, a cabinet maker, was sent to build a barracks.  Clearly the army was not fully aware of difference between a sideboard and a hostel.  Nevertheless, Uncle Joe did his best and was commended for his work.  The only negative feedback he received was for the leaky roof and his reluctance to use more than two and a half walls. On the plus side, they loved his inlay work.

This year I am the proud owner of a deluxe etrog. While in every other area of Jewish law something is either kosher or not kosher, when it comes to etrogs some are evidently more kosher than others.  I wish you could see mine.  It is so beautiful you would be struck dumb and your eyes would pop out on their stalks as you jealously salivate over it.  You can be forgiven for assuming that I’m talking about a supermodel rather than a piece of inedible fruit, but agreeing to pay several pounds more for this item than for another because someone had graded it as “exquisite” has adulterated my mind.  Only yesterday I voluntarily offered an additional £8 for some particularly shapely apples at the supermarket.

So, as I gaze at the walls decorated with the deteriorating artworks of lulavs, etrogs and horses created by my daughter (she must have been into horses at the time), of one thing I am confident:  by the time you read this Sukkot will be over, the etrog will be sitting forlornly while someone decides what to do with it (you can’t just sling a £25 piece of fruit in the recycling bin, after all) and I will have probably spent no more than 45 minutes in the sukkah all week.

By Sara Appel-Lennon

SAN DIEGO–While researching Thanksgiving origins, I uncovered some hidden history. Many were taught that the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The meal served only a small part of the celebration. Originally Thanksgiving focused on prayer to offer thanks for a bountiful harvest.

In Jewish tradition the festival of the harvest is called Succoth. It falls in September or October, the 15^TH-22ND day of the seventh month of Tishrei of the lunar calendar. Many cultures including Jews, Greeks, Native American Indians, and the Puritans. observed the tradition of celebrating by giving thanks for their harvest around the same time as  Succoth.

To this day Thanksgiving in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday in October to give thanks for the harvest.

During Succoth Jewish people build a three sided hut-succah, made from all natural materials with a roof which allows the stars to be seen. It is a mitzvah-commandment forJewish people– to eat their meals and sleep in the succah for one week. (dependent upon the weather)The purpose is two fold. Living in the succah for one week serves as a reminder of how God protected our ancestors when they wandered in the desert for 40 years after the exodus from Egypt. This reminder strengthens our faith that God is present in our lives.

Here is the Biblical reference to Succoth. “You shall sit in Sukkot (or Succot) for seven days, all citizens of Israel will sit in Sukkot (or Succot). In order that your generations shall know that I enabled the children of Israel to dwell in Sukkot (or Succot) when I brought them out of Egypt, I am the L-rd your G-d” (Vayikra 23:42-43, or in English, Leviticus 23:42-43). http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/passover/sukkot/sukkah.html

Another hidden historical fact concerns the Pilgrims and the Indians.

History books teach that the Pilgrims and the Indians shared a Thanksgiving meal together. The Wampanoag Indians befriended and taught the Pilgrims how to plant potatoes and tomatoes. Several of my resources indicated the Pilgrims stole land from the Indians and killed them. I leave it up to the reader to decide what to believe.

I find it interesting that the desire for domination has been with us for centuries and continues to be a dilemma today. As  Jimi Hendrix once said, and I have paraphrased, in a previous article. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the  world will know peace. “

Thanksgiving reminds me to count my blessings. Rabbi Martin Lawson, spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El, said that Jews are asked to say 100 blessings daily. The words “thank you” mean so much and take little effort to express.

Thank you for reading my articles. May you all have a nurturing and safe Thanksgiving week-end.

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Appel-Lennon is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Her email: appels@jewishsightseeing.com

• Read Ecclesiastes 2 here.
• If you missed Sunday’s sermon (November 22) you can listen to it here.

My Thanksgiving sermon this year was heavily influenced by a presentation I heard by Dr Dave Bland at the Great Lakes Lectureship in late October.  As he taught on the book of Ecclesiastes a couple of things caught my attention.  First, the Jews today read Ecclesiastes during the Feast of Tabernacles (sukkot), which has a lot in common with American Thanksgiving.  Second, he highlighted Ecclesiastes’ emphasis on joy, which was news to me.

There are seven joy passages within Ecclesiastes.  (2:24-26; 3:9-14; 3:22; 5:17-20; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:7-10)  Scholars disagree regarding their significance, but the viewpoint Dr Bland presented establishes these passages as the core message of the book.  My message focused on the first of the joy passages found in 2:24-26.

In the first eleven verses of chapter 2, Qoheleth (the Hebrew name used by the author, a word thought to mean ‘Teacher”) searches for meaning by pursuing pleasure.  His quest is summed up in v10, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.“  And yet in v11 the pursuit only resulted in emptiness, “a chasing after the wind.“

Instead in v24 he concludes that the best thing we can do is to “eat, drink and find satisfaction in our toil.“  Over in 9:7-9 the eating and drinking is placed in a context of enjoying life with family, specifically, one’s wife.  The enjoyment is not found in the food itself, but in the context of loving relationships.

This sounds to me a lot like Thanksgiving, or Christmas, dinner.  A meal with family and friends, contentedly resting from work, and celebrating God’s goodness.  Anyone who experiences conflict within their family may regard this picture as unrealistically idyllic.  And for many people it is.  Perhaps that’s why Qoheleth describes this scene as a gift “from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?”

We don’t obtain meaning for our lives through pursuing pleasure, but through placing God at the centre of our lives.  When we do this He allows us to enjoy life.  While we might often see God in the big areas of our life: family, job, and health, God also makes possible the enjoyment of many small moments.

I hope that each reader will at some point pause their festivities and notice God around their dinner table.

• Do you have a favorite “small part” of Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner that reminds you of God’s presence & provision?
• Is this an interesting way of approaching Ecclesiastes?  Should I write some more on this topic?
• At first glance Ecclesiastes is a strange book to read at Thanksgiving.  What would you suggest as an appropriate Scripture passage?

If you’re trying to understand how these “joy passages” serve as a theme for the book a couple of extra points might prove helpful.

1. Each ‘joy passage” addresses the “meaningless” passages before and sometimes after, so you need to read them in context.
2. The phrase “People can do nothing better” needs to be read not as an exasperated sigh that “the only thing left to do is…”, but as a declaration that “The best thing that people can possible do is…”

History According to Wikipedia:

In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. It is the only other country outside of the United States that officially observes the day as a holiday.

Thanksgiving involves a group of people commonly known as the Pilgrims.

They were a dissenting religious group considered to be outside of mainstream “Christianity”.  The Pilgrims felt that the only way freely to practice their religion was to physically separate themselves from the Church of England that had persecuted them*. First to flee persecution, these “Separatists,” moved to the English Midlands. Then they went to Amsterdam in 1607. In 1609, they moved to the more religiously tolerant Netherlands. But they decided that this would not do.  Finally, they began their voyage to America in 1620. It took months to cross the sea and they lost many during that voyage as well as after coming to America.. In spite of all their sufferings and the death of half of their company, in October 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest.  In 1863, US President Lincoln made a proclamation that ultimately led to Thanksgiving becoming a US holiday.

*Was this a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy?

Deu 29:24 “And all nations shall say, ‘Why has יהוה  done so to this land? What does the heat of this great displeasure mean?’
Deu 29:25 “And it shall be said, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of יהוה  Elohim of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim.
Deu 29:26 ‘And they went and served other mighty ones and bowed themselves to them, mighty ones that they did not know and that He had not given to them,
Deu 29:27 therefore the displeasure of יהוה  burned against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.
Deu 29:28 ‘And יהוה  uprooted them from their land in displeasure, and in wrath, and in great rage, and cast them into another land**, as it is today.’
The Puritans and most Americans of the 1600’s believed the above Scripture applied to them.  They believed they were Israelites who were being led to a new promised land by the hand of Providence.

**Eretz acharet…America was called the ‘New World’ which could be translated roughly from this Hebrew phrase.
2Sa 7:10 “And I shall appoint a place for My people Yisra’ĕl, and shall plant them, and they shall dwell in a place of their own and no longer be afraid, neither shall the children of wickedness oppress them again, as at the first,
This prophecy was told to David while Yisrael was dwelling safely in the Land.  Ultimately, this is a prophecy of the Kingdom of Messiah but a partial fulfillment may be America.

2 Esdras 13:34 And an innumerable multitude shall be gathered together, as thou sawest them, willing to come, and to overcome him by fighting.
35 But he {Messiah} shall stand upon the top of the mount Sion.
36 And Sion shall come, and shall be shewed to all men, being prepared and builded, like as thou sawest the hill graven without hands.
37 And this my Son shall rebuke the wicked inventions of those nations, which for their wicked life are fallen into the tempest;
38 And shall lay before them their evil thoughts, and the torments wherewith they shall begin to be tormented, which are like unto a flame: and he shall destroy them without labour by the law which is like unto me.
39 And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him;
40 Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land.
41 But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt,
42 That they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land.
Here we see an amazing prophecy of the 10 tribes, which are represented by the Christians that left Europe to travel to the New World.  There is much historical evidence that the 10 tribes migrated to Europe and later accepted the Gospel.  It is these ‘lost tribes’ that purposed to go to a land where mankind had not known to keep the Torah that they didn’t keep while in the Land of Yisrael.

The Vine in the wilderness

Isa 5:1  Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Isa 5:2  And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
Isa 5:3  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
Isa 5:4  What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
Isa 5:5  And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
Isa 5:6  And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Mat 21:33  Hear another parable: There was a certain man, a house master, who planted a vineyard and placed a hedge around it; and he dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. And he rented it to vinedressers and left the country. Isa. 5:1, 2
Mat 21:34  And when the season of the fruits came, he sent his slaves to the vinedressers to receive his fruits.
Mat 21:35  And the vinedressers, taking his slaves, they beat this one, and they killed one, and they stoned another.
Mat 21:36  Again he sent other slaves, more than the first. And they did the same to them.
Mat 21:37  And at last he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son.
Mat 21:38  But seeing the son, the vinedressers said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and possess his inheritance.
Mat 21:39  And taking him, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Mat 21:40  Therefore, when the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
Mat 21:41  They said to Him, Bad men! He will miserably destroy them, and he will rent out the vineyard to other vinedressers who will give to him the fruits in their seasons.
Mat 21:42  Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the Scriptures, “A Stone which the builders rejected, this One became the Head of the Corner? This was from the Lord, and it is a wonder in our eyes?” Psalm 118:22, 23
Mat 21:43  Because of this I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken from you, and it will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.*

*This is the role that America was/is to fulfill.  No single nation has spread the Gospel more than the USA/America.  The problem is that when believers fled from Europe to escape religious persecution, there was also those from the side of darkness that came along with them to escape that same religious intolerance.  There has always been this power struggle in this country between those who wish to worship YHWH according to the dictates of their hearts versus those who hate Him and wish to bring about a new world of antichrist. click here

The date and location of the first Thanksgiving celebration is a topic of modest contention. Though the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida

The traditional “first Thanksgiving” is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621. The Plymouth celebration occurred early in the history in one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States, and this celebration became an important part of the American myth by the 1800s.

Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, presently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. It did not become a federal holiday until 1941. Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God,[1] and is still celebrated as such by many families, but it is now also considered a secular holiday as well.
“Thanksgiving Day”. Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590003/Thanksgiving-Day. Retrieved 2009-11-03.

The First Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God and the Native Americans for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter. Although half of the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower had already died, many more would have had it not been for the native Americans teaching the pilgrims to harvest foods. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three whole days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians. The traditional Thanksgiving menu often features turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Americans may eat these foods on modern day Thanksgiving, but the first feast did not consist of these items. On the first feast turkey was any type of fowl that the pilgrims hunted. Pumpkin pie wasn’t on the menu because there were no ovens for baking, but they did have boiled pumpkin. Cranberries weren’t introduced at this time. Due to the diminishing supply of flour there was no bread of any kind. The foods included in the first feast included duck, geese, venison, fish, lobster, clams, swan, berries, dried fruit, pumpkin, squash, and many more vegetables.

Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English as a slave in Europe and travels in England). The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals existed in English and Wampanoag tradition alike. Several colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists, are not to be confused with Puritans who established their own Massachusetts Bay Colony nearby (current day Boston) in 1628 and had very different religious beliefs*.

There were two different camps of believers that came out of the Protestant reformation.  The Pilgrims were considered ‘Separatists’ who did not seek to reform the church but to separate from it.  The Puritans sought to ‘purify’ church and state.

The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, after a switch from communal farming to privatized farming finally resulted in a larger harvest.[9] Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (consisting mainly of Puritan Christians) celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter.

Charlestown, Massachusetts held the first recorded Thanksgiving observance June 29, 1671 by proclamation of the town’s governing council.

During the 18th century individual colonies commonly observed days of thanksgiving throughout each year. We might not recognize a traditional Thanksgiving Day from that period, as it was not a day marked by plentiful food and drink as is today’s custom, but rather a day set aside for prayer and fasting.

Later in the 1700s individual colonies would periodically designate a day of thanksgiving in honor of a military victory, an adoption of a state constitution or an exceptionally bountiful crop. Such a Thanksgiving Day celebration was held in December 1777 by the colonies nationwide, commemorating the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale,[3] proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.”

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Interestingly, Thanksgiving was proclaimed as a national holiday after the north and south came back together as one nation.  The Scriptures speak of the northern tribes and the southern tribes coming back together as a time of Thanksgiving as well.

Jer 30:18  So says YHWH, Behold I will turn the captivity of Jacob’s tents and will have mercy on his dwelling places. And the city shall be built on her ruin heap; and the fortress shall remain on its own ordinance.
Jer 30:19  And out of them shall come thanksgiving and the voice of those who are merry. And I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. I also will honor them, and they shall not be small.

Isa 51:3  For YHWH comforts Zion. He comforts all her desolations, and He makes her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of YHWH; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of singing praise

Hodu – Turkey

In excavations near Salem, Massachuseets an old Hebrew manuscript was found that sheds light on why turkey is eaten on Thanksgiving.
b’chag hahodaya
On holiday/feast Thanksgiving

Hodu sheain atem
Give thanks that not you are

tarngol hahodu asher lfaneikhem
the fowl indian/turkey that is before you

This manuscript was called Haggada Shel Hodaya…similar to Haggada shel Pesach.  At Passover it is said:

leshana ha’ba’a b’yerushalayim

Next year in Jerusalem

Haggada Shel Hodaya instructs Thanksgiving day meal be concluded with:

Hodu=give thanks

India = Hodu
The other name for turkey in those days was Indian chicken because Columbus thought he was in India when he saw turkeys for the first time.

The Hebrew word for Turkey is

Benjamin Franklin proposed that turkey be the national bird of the USA arguing that the turkey was more honest, honorable, diligent and smarter than the bald eagle.

Puritans, Yisrael & The Torah

Marvin Wilson’s book,  Our Father Abraham
explains (pp. 127-128):

During the period of the Protestant Reformation (16th century), some signs of the re-Judaization of the Christian faith began to surface, as certain Hebrew categories were rediscovered. The Reformers put great stress on sola scriptura (Scripture as the sole and final authority of the Christian). The consequent de-emphasis on tradition brought with it a return to the biblical roots. Accordingly, during the two centuries following the Reformation, several groups recognized the importance of once again emphasizing the Hebraic heritage of the Church. Among these people were the Puritans who founded Pilgrim America, and the leaders who pioneered American education. We shall comment briefly on the first of these groups before concentrating on the second.

The Puritans came to America deeply rooted in the Hebraic tradition. Most bore Hebrew names. The Pilgrim fathers considered themselves as the children of Israel fleeing “Egypt” (England), crossing the “Red Sea” (the Atlantic Ocean), and emerging from this “Exodus” to their own “promised land” (New England). The Pilgrims thought of themselves as “all the children of Abraham” and, thus, under the covenant of Abraham. (Feingold p. 46.)

The President of Yale College used these words before the Governor and General Assembly of the state of Connecticut in 1783: “Their influence on American society was not soon forgotten: more than a century and a half after the first Puritan settlers reached New England, the American people were referred to in a State Assembly as ‘God’s American Israel.’” (Feldman p. 5)

The seeds of religious liberty for the American Church did not come from New England leaders such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson-as noble as they and others were. Rather, it came from the Hebrews themselves, whose sacred writings inspired the Puritans. Accordingly, many of the Puritans in seventeenth-century England were learned Hebraists. William Bradford (1590-1657), prominent early American and Governor of Plymouth Colony for more than three decades, maintained an intense interest in Hebrew. Bradford stated that he studied Hebrew so that when he died he might be able to speak in the “most ancient language, the Holy Tongue in which God and, the angels, spake.” Cotton Mather (1663-1728), a well-known Puritan minister and scholar from Massachusetts, had a similar deep respect for the Hebrew language. Concerning its importance, Mather once observed, “I promise that those who
spend as much time morning and evening in Hebrew studies as they do in smoking tobacco, would quickly make excellent progress in the language.”click here (Rosovsky)

So popular was the Hebrew Language in the late 16th and early 17th centuries that several students at Yale delivered their commencement orations in Hebrew. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania taught courses in Hebrew—all the more remarkable because no university in England at the time offered it.

Many of the population, including a significant number of the Founding Fathers of America, were products of these American universities—for example, Thomas Jefferson attended William and Mary, James Madison Princeton, Alexander Hamilton King’s College (i.e. Columbia). Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were not only well acquainted with the contents of both the New and Old Testaments but also had some working knowledge of Hebrew. Notes Abraham Katsh in The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy (p. 70):

At the time of the American Revolution, the interest in the knowledge of Hebrew was so widespread as to allow the circulation of the story that “certain members of Congress proposed that the use of English be formally prohibited in the United States, and Hebrew substituted for it.”

Many of the earliest “pilgrims” who settled the “New England” of America in early 17th century were Puritan refugees escaping religious persecutions in Europe.

Over the next century, America continued to be not only the land of opportunity for many people seeking a better life but also the land of religious tolerance. By the middle 1700’s, the east coast of America was settled by a virtual “Who’s Who” of Christian splinter sects from all over Europe. Among them were:

* the Puritans, whom we already know so well
* the Quakers, an extremist Puritan sect who did not believe in ministers and for whom a Society of Friends meeting together was good enough to bring down the Holy Spirit
* Calvinists, who early on had challenged the Catholic belief that the bread and wine became the body and blood of Jesus in the celebration of the mass
* the Huguenots, or French Calvinists
* the Moravians, followers of John Hus, the protestant martyr from Bohemia
* the Mennonites, a Swiss sect of Anabaptists who rejected infant baptism
* the Amish, the most stringent of the Mennonites

These were just some of the numerous groups who arrived in America in search of religious freedom.

The majority of the earliest settlers were, of course, Puritans. Beginning with the Mayflower, over the next twenty years, 16,000 Puritans migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and many more settled in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Like their cousins back in England, these American Puritans strongly identified with both the historical traditions and customs of the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament. They viewed their emigration from England as a virtual re-enactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt. To them, England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the Land of Israel, and the Indians were the ancient Canaanites. They were the new Israelites, entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land. Thanksgiving—first celebrated in 1621, a year after the Mayflower landed—was initially conceived as day parallel to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur; it was to be a day of fasting, introspection and prayer.

After that first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Indians. In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest. During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, which he may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod.

Other believe that the Pilgrims were celebrating Sukkot

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday5.htm

Many Americans, upon seeing a decorated sukkah for the first time, remark on how much the sukkah (and the holiday generally) reminds them of Thanksgiving. This may not be entirely coincidental: I was taught that our American pilgrims, who originated the Thanksgiving holiday, borrowed the idea from Sukkot. The pilgrims were deeply religious people. When they were trying to find a way to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, they looked to the Bible for an appropriate way of celebrating and found Sukkot. This is not the standard story taught in public schools today (that a Thanksgiving holiday is an English custom that the Pilgrims brought over), but the Sukkot explanation of Thanksgiving fits better with the meticulous research of Mayflower historian Caleb Johnson, who believes that the original Thanksgiving was a harvest festival (as is Sukkot), that it was observed in October (as Sukkot usually is), and that Pilgrims would not have celebrated a holiday that was not in the Bible (but Sukkot is in the Bible). Although Mr. Johnson claims that the first Thanksgiving was “not a religious holiday or observance,” he apparently means this in a Christian sense, because he goes on to say that the first Thanksgiving was instead “a harvest festival that included feasts, sporting events, and other activities,” concepts very much in keeping with the Jewish religious observance of Sukkot.

Gabriel Sivan, in The Bible and Civilization, (p. 236) observes:

“No Christian community in history identified more with the People of the Book than did the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed their own lives to be a literal reenactment of the Biblical drama of the Hebrew nation. They themselves were the children of Israel; America was their Promised Land; the Atlantic Ocean their Red Sea; the Kings of England were the Egyptian pharaohs; the American Indians the Canaanites; the pact of the Plymouth Rock was God’s holy Covenant; and the ordinances by which they lived were the Divine Law. Like the Huguenots and other Protestant victims of Old World oppression, these émigré Puritans dramatized their own situation as the righteous remnant of the Church corrupted by the “Babylonian woe,” and saw themselves as instruments of Divine Providence, a people chosen to build their new commonwealth on the Covenant entered into at Mount Sinai.”

The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England was all determined by Scripture. At the first assembly of New Haven in 1639, John Davenport clearly stated the primacy of the Bible as the legal and moral foundation of the colony:

Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well as in the government of families and commonwealth as in matters of the Church … the Word of God shall be the only rule to be attended unto in organizing the affairs of government in this plantation. (See Abraham I Katsch, The Biblical Heritage of American Democracy, p. 97)

Subsequently, the New Haven legislators adopted a legal code—the Code of 1655—which contained some 79 statutes, half of which contained Biblical references, virtually all from the Hebrew Bible. The Plymouth Colony had a similar law code as did the Massachusetts assembly, which, in 1641—after an exhortation by Reverend John Cotton who presented the legislators with a copy of Moses, His Judicials—adopted the so-called “Capitall Lawes of New England” based almost entirely on Mosaic law.

Ezra Stiles

The following excerpts from Pastor Ezra Stiles’ sermon capture the vision which many of America’s great churchmen had for this planting of God’s vine in the wilderness:

… I have assumed the text only as introductory to a discourse upon the political welfare of God’s American Israel, and as allusively prophetic of the future prosperity and splendor of the United States.
Pastor Ezra Stiles, D.D., “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor,” election sermon on May 8, 1783, quoted in John Wingate Thornton in The Pulpit of the American Revolution: Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, 1860 ed., reprinted (Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 1970) p. 403.

Already does the new constellation of the United States begin to realize this glory. It has already risen to an acknowledged sovereignty among the republics and kingdoms of the world. And we have reason to hope, and, I believe, to expect, that God has still greater blessings in store for this vine which his own right hand hath planted, to make us high among the nations in praise, and in name, and in honor. The reasons are very numerous, weighty, and conclusive.  Stiles, pp. 438-439

Our degree of population is such as to give us reason to expect that this will become a great people…. This will be a great, a very great nation…. Should this prove a future fact, how applicable would be the text, when the Lord shall have made his American Israel high above all nations which he has made, in numbers, and in praise, and in name, and in honor! Stiles, Stiles pp. 439-440

Any possible ambiguity in Pastor Stiles’ sermon is cleared in the following declaration by Pastor W. B. Record:
LOOKING WESTWARD…

Standing on the western shores of Europe 500 years ago, you could not see nor visualize a great continent that lay to the west; only what seemed to be an endless stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet there was a great continent out there to the west.

Now may I ask you, “Did Jesus Christ know of this North American Continent?” Your only answer could be, “Yes, of course He did.”

Let me ask another question, “Did Jesus Christ know that a great nation would be established here?” Of course He did!

Still another question, please -”Did Jesus Christ know this great nation (yet to be born) would be Christian from its beginning?” Of course He knew that, for He Himself is the source and Author of the faith we call “Christian.”

Now one more question, “Is it possible that this great nation, known to Jesus, was never mentioned, indicated, or foretold in the Bible?”

Consider this, “I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:2). “The kingdom of God shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). Where is this great nation, which is bringing forth the fruits of the kingdom of God? The answer is quite obvious: you are living in it. See to it that you make your calling and election sure. Pastor W.B. Record, Truth & Liberty Magazine, September 1964

In The Beginnings of New England, American historian and philosopher John Fiske wrote:

The men who undertook this work were not at all free from self consciousness. They believed that they were doing a wonderful thing. They felt themselves to be instruments in accomplishing a kind of “manifest destiny.” Their exodus was that of a chosen people who were at length to lay the everlasting foundations of God’s kingdom upon earth. Such opinions … took a strong colour from their assiduous study of the Old Testament…. In every propitious event they saw a special providence, an act of divine intervention…. This steadfast faith in an unseen ruler and guide was to them a “pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.  John Fiske (Edmund Fisk Green), The Beginnings of New England (Cambridge, MA: H.O. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Liberty Press, 1889) vol. 1, p. 308

Samuel Eliot Morison commented on Pastor Cotton’s vision of this New Canaan land:

[Pastor John] Cotton’s sermon was of a nature to inspire these new children of Israel with the belief that they were the Lord’s chosen people; destined, if they kept the covenant with Him, to people and fructify this new Canaan in the western wilderness.Samuel Eliot Morison, Colonial America (1887) p. 25.

John Cotton

Pastor John Cotton, D.D., sermon to fellow Puritans departing for America in 1630, God’s Promise to His Plantation (London, UK: William Jones, 1630) pp. 13-14.
Was it just by coincidence or was it by the providence of God that in 1630 a young Puritan minister by the name of John Cotton chose 2 Samuel 7: 10 as his text for a farewell message to a boatload of fellow Puritans departing for America

2Sa 7:10 “And I shall appoint a place for My people Yisra’ĕl, and shall plant them, and they shall dwell in a place of their own and no longer be afraid, neither shall the children of wickedness oppress them again, as at the first,

In his book New England’s Memorial, Nathaniel Morton demonstrated how perfectly America’s early  settlers fulfilled this passage from Isaiah:

That especially the seed of Abraham his servant, and the children of Jacob his chosen, may remember his marvelous works (Psal. 105.5-6.) in the beginning and progress of the planting of New England, his wonders, and the judgements of his mouth; how that God brought a vine into this wilderness; that he cast out the heathen and planted it; and he also made room for it, and he caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land; so that it hath sent forth its boughs to the sea, and its branches to the river. (Psal. 80.8-9.) And not only so, but also that He hath guided his people by his strength to his holy habitation, and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance, (Exod. 15.13.) in respect of precious gospel-enjoyments. So that we may not only look back to former experiences of God’s goodness to our predecessors, (though many years before) and so have our faith strengthened in the mercies of God for our times….Nathaniel Morton, New England’s Memorial (Cambridge, MA: S.G. and M.J. for John Usher, 1669), reproduced with extracts from other writers (Boston, MA: Congregational Board of Publication, 1854) pp. 13-14.

Cotton Mather

In Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England, Pastor Cotton Mather, writing of the dangers facing the Puritans seeking asylum beyond the seas, pictured America as a desolate wilderness:

… the God of Heaven served as it were a summons upon the spirits of his people in the English nation; stirring up the spirits of thousands which never saw the faces of each other, with a most unanimous inclination to leave all the pleasant accommodations of their native country, and go over a terrible ocean, into a more terrible desert, for the pure enjoyment of all his ordinances.
Pastor Cotton Mather, D.D., Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England, 1702 and subsequent editions reprint. (New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967) vol. 1, p. 69.
Being happily arrived at New-England, our new planters found the difficulties of a rough and hard wilderness presently assaulting them… Mather, vol. 1, p. 77.

Never was any plantation brought unto such a considerableness, in a space of time so inconsiderable! … an howling wilderness in a few years became a pleasant land, accommodated with the necessaries, yea, and the conveniences of humane life Mather, vol. 1, p. 80

In his foreword “An Attestation to this Church-History of New England” in the above mentioned book, John Higginson also depicted America as an empty wilderness:

It hath been deservedly esteemed one of the great and wonderful Works of God in this last age, that the Lord stirred up the spirits of so many thousands of his [Celto-Saxon] servants, to leave the pleasant land of England, the land of their nativity, and to transport themselves, and families, over the ocean sea, into a desert land in America, at the distance of a thousand leagues from their own country; and this, merely on the account of pure and undefiled Religion [Christianity], not knowing how they should have their daily bread, but trusting in God for that, in the way of seeking first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof: And that the Lord was pleased to grant such a gracious presence of his with them, and such a blessing upon their undertakings, that within a few years a wilderness was subdued before them, and so many Colonies planted, Towns erected, and Churches settled, wherein the true and living God in Christ Jesus, is worshipped and served, in a place where, time out of mind, had been nothing before but Heathenism, Idolatry, and Devilworship; and that the Lord has added so many of the blessings of Heaven and earth for the comfortable subsistence of his people in these ends of the earth. Surely of this work, and of this time, it shall be said, what hath God wrought? And, this is the Lord’s doings, it is marvellous in our eyes! Even so (O Lord) didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name!

John Higginson, “An Attestation to This Church-History of New-England,” foreword to Pastor Cotton Mather, D.D., Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England, 1702 and subsequent editions reprint. (New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967) vol. 1, p. 13.

Pastor William Gordon was another voice of the early American church. He not only preached concerning what this land had been, but he also preached what it was becoming in light of Isaiah 35:1-2:

They came from a well-cultured kingdom to a savage people and a wild country, enough to discourage the stoutest. However, they ventured to take up their abode in it…. The face of the colony is not less changed for the better since first settled than what is set forth in the language of Isaiah’s prophecy: “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.  Pastor William Gordon, discourse preached on December 15, 1774, quoted in John Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution: Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, 1860 ed., reprint. (Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 1970) p. 210-211.

Pastor Emry contrasted the new promised land with the old promised land:

A look at the United States, and Canada, reveals a different picture. Here we find the only land on the face of this earth that is truly a land of unwalled villages. Our Christian ancestors left castles, walls, and moats in the “old world” when they came to the “New World,” and our cities are without walls. God who knows the end from the beginning, can be expected to be accurate in His word.
Emry, p. 10.

[Pastor] John Norton, in the Election Sermon of 1661, said that theycame “into this wilderness to live under the order of the gospel”; “that our polity [government] may be a gospel polity, and may be compleat according to the Scriptures, answering fully the Word of God: this is the work of our generation, and the very work we engaged for into this wilderness; this is the scope and end of it … written upon the forehead of New England … the compleat walking in the faith of the gospel, according to the order of the gospel.”

The venerable [John] Higginson, of Salem, in his Election Sermon of 1663, stated the point with great fulness, as follows: “It concerneth New England always to remember that they are originally a plantation religious, not a plantation of trade…. Let merchants … remember this:

that worldly gain was not the end and design of the people of New England, but religion….”

In the [Harvard University] Election Sermon of 1677 … Increase Mather uttered these words: “It was love to God and to Jesus Christ which brought our  fathers into this wilderness…. There never was a generation that did so perfectly shake off the dust of Babylon, both as to ecclesiastical and civil constitutions, as the first generation of Christians that came into this land for the gospel’s sake.”

[Pastor] William Hubbard, the historian, in a Fast-day sermon, preached June 24, 1682, declared that the fathers “came not hither for the world, or for land, or for traffic; but for religion, and for liberty of conscience in the worship of God, which was their only design.”

The historical fact was stated by President [Ezra] Stiles, of Yale College, in 1783: “It is certain that civil dominion was but the second motive, religion the primary one, with our ancestors, in coming hither and settling this land. It was not so much their design to establish religion for the benefit of the state, as civil government for the benefit of religion, and as subservient, and even necessary, towards the peaceable enjoyment and unmolested exercise of religion – of that religion for which they fled to these ends of the earth.”  John Wingate Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution: Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, 1860 ed., reprint. (Boston, MA: Da Capo Press, 1970) pp. xviii-xix.

I WRITE the WONDERS of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION , flying from the depravations of Europe, to the American Strand; and, assisted by the Holy Author of that Religion, I do with all conscience of Truth, required therein by Him, who is the Truth itself, report the wonderful displays of His infinite Power, Wisdom, Goodness, and Faithfulness, wherewith His Divine Providence hath irradiated an Indian Wilderness.  Pastor Cotton Mather, D.D., Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England, 1702, subsequent ed. reprint. (New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967), vol. 1, p. 25.

The people in the fleet that arrived at New-England, in the year 1630, left the fleet almost, as the family of Noah did the ark, having a whole world before them to be peopled … but where-ever they sat down, they were so mindful of their errand into the wilderness, that still one of their first works was to gather a church into the covenant and order of the gospel.  Mather, vol. 1, pp. 78-89

In the year 1643, after divers essays made in some former years, the several colonies of New-England became in fact, as well as name, UNITED COLONIES. And an instrument was formed, wherein having declared, “That we all came into these parts of America with the same end and aim -namely, to advance the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoy the liberties of the gospel with purity and peace….”  Mather, vol. 1, p. 160.

The ministers and Christians by whom New-England was first planted, were a chosen company of men; picked out of, perhaps, all the counties in England, and this by no human contrivance, but by a strange work of God upon the spirits of men that were, no ways, acquainted with one another, inspiring them, as one man, to secede into a wilderness … a reasonable expression once used by that eminent … lieutenant-governor of New-England … “God sifted three nations [England, Scotland,and Ireland], that he might bring choice grain into this wilderness.”

The design of these refugees, thus carried into the [North American] wilderness, was, that they might there “sacrifice unto the Lord their God:” it was, that they might maintain the power of godliness and practice the evangelical worship of our Lord Jesus Christ, in all the parts of it ….Mather, vol. 1, p. 240

In “An Attestation to This Church-History of New-England,” the foreword to Magnalia, Christi Americana, John Higginson wrote:

It hath been deservedly esteemed one of the great and wonderful works of God in this last age, that the Lord stirred up the spirits of so many thousands of his servants, to leave the pleasant land of England, the land of their nativity, and to transport themselves, and families, over the ocean sea, into a desert land in America … and this, merely on the account of pure and undefiled Religion … seeking first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof… Surely of this work, and of this time, it shall be said, what hath God wrought? And, this is the Lord’s doings, it is marvellous in our eyes! Even so (O Lord) didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name [Isa. 63:141]  John Higginson, “An Attestation to This Church-History of New-England,” Foreword to Pastor Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana: or, The Ecclesiastical History of New-England, 1702, subsequent ed. reprint. (New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967) vol. 1, p. 13.

Daniel Webster

…if God prosper us, we shall here begin a work which shall last for ages; we shall plant here a new society, in the principles of the fullest liberty and the purest religion; we shall subdue this wilderness which is before us; we shall fill this region of the great continent, which stretches almost from pole to pole, with civilization and Christianity; the temples of the true God shall rise, where now ascends the smoke of idolatrous sacrifice ….Daniel Webster, discourse at Plymouth Rock, 2 December 1820, The Works of Daniel Webster (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1858) vol. 1, p. 10.

Patrick Henry

America’s Christian foundations could not be affirmed any more emphatically than they were by Patrick Henry:

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Patrick Henry, quoted in David Barton, The Myth of Separation (Aledo, TX: Wallbuilders Press, 1992) p. 117.

David Josiah Brewer

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Josiah Brewer provided additional evidence that America began as a Christian nation:

We classify nations in various ways, as, for instance, by their form of government. One is a kingdom, another an empire, and still another a republic. Also by race. Great Britain is an Anglo-Saxon nation, France a Gaelic, Germany a Teutonic, Russia a Slav. And still again by religion. One is a Mohammedan nation, others are heathen, and still others are Christian nations….

This Republic is classified among the Christian nations of the world. It was so formally declared by the Supreme Court of the United States. In the case of HOLY TRINITY CHURCH vs. UNITED STATES, 143 U.S. 471, that Court … added, “these and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation….”

Nathaniel Morton also observed:

In the year 1602, divers godly Christians of our English nation … entered into covenant to walk with God, and one with another, in the enjoyment of the ordinances of God, according to the primitive pattern in the word of God .

1639 – FUNDAMENTAL AGREEMENT OF THE COLONY OF NEW HAVEN [Connecticut]: … We all agree that the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in duties which they are to perform to God and to man, as well in families and commonwealth as in matters of the church; so likewise in all public officers which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we will, all of us, be ordered by the rules which the scripture holds forth; and we agree that such persons may be entrusted with such matters of government as are described in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1: 13 with Deuteronomy 17:15 and I Corinthians 6:1,6 & 7.

1639 – CONNECTICUT HISTORY: In June 1639, however, a more definite statement of political principles was framed, in which it was clearly stated that the rules of Scripture should determine the ordering of the Church, the choice of magistrates, the making and repeal of laws … that only Church members could become free burgesses and officials of the colony … and in 1644 the general court decided that the judicial laws of God as they were declared by Moses should constitute a rule for all courts ….

1776 – DELAWARE CONSTITUTION: … officeholders were required to make and subscribe to the following declaration: “I … do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. “

1776 – NORTH CAROLINA CONSTITUTION: … no person who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within the State.

1777 -VERMONT CONSTITUTION: …required of every member of the house of representatives that he take this oath: “I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by divine inspiration, and own and profess the Protestant religion. “

Alexis de Tocqueville recognized the uniqueness of our beginnings and wrote of the Scriptural, moral and civil code which was the foundation for those early laws of New England:

… in studying the earliest historical and legislative records of New England. They exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now present[s] to the world is to be found.

Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650. The legislators of Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ. “Whosoever shall worship any other God than the Lord,” says the preamble of the Code, “shall surely be put to death.” This is followed by ten or twelve enactments of the same kind, copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape were punished with death ….

The 1879 McGuffey’s Sixth Eclectic Reader clearly illustrated how early America’s Christianity influenced her government:

Their  form of government was as strictly theocratical … insomuch that it would be difficult to say where there was any civil authority among them entirely distinct from ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Whenever a few of them settled a town, they immediately gathered themselves into a church; and their elders were magistrates, and their code of laws was the Pentateuch]….

God was their King; and they regarded him as truly and literally so ….

James Madison, “the Father of the U.S. Constitution” and our fourth President, understood that the future of our American civilization was (and still is) dependent upon the Laws of God:

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Jewish Encyclopedia

UNITED STATES: … the early forms of government and laws were fashioned in a manner upon Old Testament times. This was particularly the case in Massachusetts (whose first criminal code [in 16411 gave chapter and verse from the Bible as its authority), as also in Connecticut. The records of the colony of New Haven, founded in 1638, have distinctly Old Testament character, and Biblical precedent is quoted for almost every governmental act. One can form some opinion of the measure of Old Testament influence when one considers that in the code of colony laws adopted in New Haven in 1656 there are 107 references to the Old Testament....

But Jews as individuals contributed little or nothing to direct the trend of colonial legislation of this early period.

Forefathers of the Puritans & Immigrants to America believed they were Israel

Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, England
During his reign from 871 to 899 the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great declared:

Be ye kind to the stranger within thy gates, for ye were strangers in the land of the Egyptians

Scottish Declaration of Independence
In 1320 the Scottish Declaration of Independence was drawn up by King Robert (the Bruce) and twenty-five Scottish nobles in which the Scots are addressed as Israelites. This great document states the following regarding their migrations:

…the Scots … passing from the greater Scythia … and coming thence one thousand two hundred years after the outgoing of the people of Israel … acquired for themselves the possessions in the West…

Adam de Houghton, Bishop of Saint David, Wales
In 1377 Adam de Houghton, the Bishop of Saint David, Wales, delivered a speech before the British Parliament in which he recognized England as Israel:

…you may embrace your noble King … there is through him [King Edward III] that peace over Israel which the Scriptures name – Israel being the heritage of God, and that heritage being also England. For in good truth, I believe that God would never have honoured this country by victories such as had given glory to Israel, had He not intended it for His heritage also.

William Tyndale, English Reformer and Martyr
In 1530 the great English religious reformer, William Tyndale, who translated the New Testament and the Pentateuch into English announced his amazing discovery:

…the properties of the Hebrew tongue agreeth a thousand times more with the English than with the Latin. The manner of speaking is both one; so that in a thousand places thou needest not but to translate it into the English, word for word; when thou must seek a compass in the Latin, and yet shall have much work to translate it well-favouredly, so that it have the same grace and sweetness, sense and pure understanding with it in the Latin, and as it hath in the Hebrew. A thousand parts better may it [the Hebrew tongue] be translated into the English, than into the Latin.

Sir Francis Drake, English Navigator and Admiral
In 1587 Sir Francis Drake, an explorer for Queen Elizabeth I, wrote to the religious writer John Foxe beseeching his prayers:

God may be glorious, His church, our Queen and country preserved, the enemies of truth vanquished, that we may have continued peace in Israel…. Our enemies are many, but our Protector commandeth the whole world….

King James VI of Scotland and I of England

King James VI of Scotland (James I of England) (1566-1625), who commissioned the King James Bible, claimed that the Lord had made him King over Israel; the gold coin of his day, bearing his head was called the “Jacobus” and James had the reverse inscribed in Latin the prophecy of Ezekiel 37:22, “I will make of them one nation.”

Pastor John Cotton, Puritan Clergyman
In 1630, prior to the departure of the ship Abrella for America with Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop and his fellow Puritans aboard, the young Puritan minister John Cotton preached a stirring farewell message taken from 2 Samuel 7:10:

I  will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed….

Pastor Cotton further exhorted his audience:

Go forth … with a publick spirit … have a tender care … to your children, that they doe not degenerate as the Israelites did….

American historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote the following concerning Pastor Cotton’s sermon:

Cotton’s sermon was of a nature to inspire these new children of Israel with the belief that they were the Lord’s chosen people; destined, if they kept the covenant with Him, to people and fructify this new Canaan in the western wilderness.

B. Woodbridge concluded his epitaph for Pastor John Cotton with the following words:

Though Moses [referring to Pastor John Cotton] be [dead], yet Joshua is not dead: I mean renowned [Pastor John] Norton; worthy he, Successor to our Moses, is to be. O happy Israel in America. In such a Moses, such a Joshua.

Edward Johnson, English Historian
In 1630 historian Edward Johnson, writing of those early Puritan and Pilgrim settlers, often made reference to them as being Israel:

…the Lambe is preparing his Bride … yee the ancient Beloved of Christ, whom he of old led by hand from Egypt to Canaan through that great and terrible Wildernesse.

…you the Seed of Israel both lesse and more, the rattling of your dead bones is at hand, Sinewes, Flesh and Life: at the Word of Christ it comes.

…you  People of Israel gather together as one Man, and together as one Tree. Ezekiel 37 and 23.31

Then judge all you … whether these poore New England People, be not the forerunners of Christ’s Army, and the marvelous providences which you shall now heare, be not the very Finger of God, and whether the Lord hath not sent this people to Preach in this Wildernesse, and to proclaime to all Nations, the neere approach of the most wonderful workes that ever the Sonnes of men saw. Will not you believe that a Nation can be borne in a day [Isa. 66:8 – a Scripture that can only be fulfilled in Israel]?

This year the great troubles in our native country encreasing, and that hearing prophane Esau had mustered up all thye Bands he could make to come against his brother Jacob, these wandering race of Jacobites deemed it now high time to implore the Lord for his especial aid in this time of their deepest distress.

As Jacob professes, I came over this Jordan with my staff, and now have I gotten two Bands; so they came over this boisterous billow-boyling Ocean, a few poor scattered stones raked out of the heaps of rubbish, and thou Lord Christ has now so far exalted them, as to lay them sure in thy Sion … the seed of Christ’s Church in the posterity of Israel should be cut off, and therefore pleaded the promise of the Lord in the multiplying of his seed; so these people at this very time, pleaded not only the Lord’s promise to Israel, but to his only son Christ Jesus.

Pastor Jonathan Mitchell, Puritan Preacher
On October 4, 1649, Pastor Jonathan Mitchell wrote in his diary:

…God will humble me before the sun, and in the sight of all Israel

On August 8, 1667, at Pastor John Wilson’s funeral, Pastor Mitchell included the following in his eulogy:

Ah! Now there’s none who does not know, that this day in our Israel, is fall’n a great and good man too

Nathaniel Morton, New Plymouth Court Secretary
In 1669 in New England’s Memorial, Nathaniel Morton wrote of God moving the seed of Abraham to New England:

That especially the seed of Abraham his servant, and the children of Jacob his chosen, may remember his marvelous works (Psal. 105.5,6.) in the beginning and progress of the planting of New-England, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; how that God brought a vine into this wilderness; that he cast out the heathen and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance (Exod. 15.13.) in respect of precious gospel-enjoyments. So that we may not only look back to former experiences of God’s goodness to our [Israelite] predecessors, (though many years before) and so have our faith strengthened in the mercies of God for our times

I shall close up this small history with a word of advice to the rising generation…. God did once plant a noble vine in New-England, but it is degenerated into the plant of a strange vine. Jer. ii, 21. It were well that it might be said that the rising generation did serve the Lord all the days of such as in this our Israel …Josh. xxiv, 31.

Pastor James Keith, American Clergyman
On October 30, 1676, in a letter to Pastor John Cotton, Pastor James Keith wrote the following:

Let us join our prayers, at the throne of grace, with all our might, that the Lord would so dispose of all of public motions and affairs, that his Jerusalem, in this wilderness, may be the habitation of justice and the mountain of holiness

Pastor Increase Mather, American Clergyman and Author
In 1681, in a preface to a discourse on Urian Oakes, Pastor Increase Mather wrote the following:

…[Urian Oakes] at last called to the head of the “sons of the prophets” in this New-English Israel

Pastor John Bunyan, English Preacher and Author
Regarding the beliefs of Pastor John Bunyan (1628-1688), author of Pilgrim’s Progress, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein commented:

…Bunyan actually fancied himself an Israelite

Pastor Cotton Mather, American Clergyman and Historian
In 1702 a Boston minister Cotton Mather wrote the following concerning New England and some of her earlier inhabitants:

…in our hastening voyage unto the History of a new-English Israel

…I am going to give unto the Christian reader an history of some feeble attempts made in the American hemisphere to anticipate the state of the New-Jerusalem

These good people [the first settlers of Plymouth, Massachusetts] were now satisfied, they had as plain a command of Heaven to attempt a removal [from England, Ireland and Scotland], as ever their father Abraham had for his leaving the Chaldean territories…

Among these passengers were divers worthy and useful men, who were come to seek the welfare of this little Israel…
The colony might fetch its own description from the dispensations of the great God, unto his ancient Israel, and say, “O, God of Hosts, thou has brought a vine out of England…

whilst he [Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Governor John Winthrop] thus did, as our New-English Nehemiah, the part of a ruler in managing the public affairs of our American Jerusalem … he made himself still an exacter parallel unto the the governour of Israel…
Make room, then, for Urian Oakes, ye records of New-England. He was born in England … whose liberal education in our College have rendered the family not he least in our little Israel…

Dean Jacque Abadie, French Educator and Author
In 1723 Dean Jacques Abbadie of Killaloe, Ireland, wrote regarding the whereabouts of the “lost” Israelites:

Unless the Ten Tribes of Israel are flown into the air, or sunk into the earth; they must be those ten Gothic Tribes that entered Europe in the fifth century, overthrew the Roman Empire and founded the ten nations of modern Europe.

Alexander Cruden, Scottish Bible Concordance Compiler
In 1761 on a page addressed “TO THE KING” in the well-known Concordance of Alexander Cruden, the author renders this prayer:

May the great God be the guide of your life, and direct and prosper you, that it may be said by the present and future ages, that King George the Third hath been an Hezekiah to our British Israel.

In 1773 the men of Marlborough, Connecticut, made this proclamation:

Death is more eligible than slavery. A freeborn people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and liberties… (they) implored the Ruler above the skies, that He would make bare His arm in defense of His church and people, and let Israel go.

Jonathan Trumbull, Connecticut Governor
In a letter dated July 13, 1775, to George Washington (then Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army) Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut, wrote in part:

…be strong and very courageous, May the God of the Armies of  Israel shower down the blessings of His Divine Providence on You

George Washington

[Almighty God] Endow with the spirit of wisdom those whom in Thy name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be peace and justice at home, and that through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth….

One may wonder at whether Governor Trumbull was referring to the Continental Army as one of the “armies of Israel.” There appears no question as to his intent when one reads another exhortation written in his own hand later that same year. In a public proclamation concerning Thanksgiving, dated October 14, 1775, Governor Trumbull proclaimed:

That God would … guide our affairs in this dark and difficult Day; and make them know what Israel ought to do … that He would confirm and increase Union and Harmony in the Colonies, and throughout America…

Great Seal of the United States of America
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to design a seal for the emerging new nation. The committee was composed of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. Both Franklin and Jefferson proposed designs related to ancient Israel. While John Adams’ contribution is not recorded here, he wrote to his wife, Abigail, on August 1, 1776, and described in part what the committee had thus far accomplished:

Dr. F[ranklin] proposes a Device for a seal. Moses lifting up his Wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, in his Chariot overwhelmed with the Waters … The motto: Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.

Mr. Jefferson proposed. The Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by day, and Pillar of Fire by night, and on the others Side Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon Chiefs, from whom We claim the Honour of being descended and whose Political Principles and Form of Government We have assumed.

Following are later depictions of these ideas by Franklin and Jefferson:

Pastor John Clark, American Preacher
In 1781 in his election sermon, Pastor Jonas Clark spoke of the children of the captivity who came to this new land to serve God:

Under this happy [Massachusetts] constitution we have seen, to universal satisfaction, that blessed prophecy concerning GOD’S people after their return from captivity, literally fulfilled unto us “There congregation shall be established before me – their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them.” (Jer. 30:20-21)

May we not – yea, rather, ought we not, upon this joyful occasion, in a deep sense of our obligations to heaven, to ascribe the glory of all to GOD, and devoutly acknowledge that this is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes!

On this joyful day we are invited to see God, the Supreme ruler, on the throne of his holiness, the favour and defence of an afflicted land; “The princes of the people of the God of Abraham gathered together”: And ‘The Shields of the earth.” (Ps. 47:9) The rulers of every department, devoting themselves to the service of God and their country, in devout acknowledgement of his government, to the end, that God might be greatly exalted, in the good of his people, by their administration.

Noah Webster, American Statesman and Lexicographer
In 1783 Noah Webster wrote The Elementary Spelling Book, better known as the Blue-Back Speller. Following “Lesson Number 123” we find Mr. Webster’s sentiments regarding our Israelite relatives:

All Israelites are brethren, descendents of common parents. How unnatural and wicked it is to make war on our brethren, to conquer them or to plunder and destroy them

George Washington, American General and President

In 1785 George Washington referred to America as the “second land of promise,and in his first inaugural address in April, 1789, he accredited Providence for advancing the affairs of this new nation:

No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency

Thomas Jefferson, American Statesman and President
In 1814 in a letter written to Dr. Walter Jones regarding the death of President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson conveyed his belief in an American Israel:

I felt on his [George Washington’s] death, with my countyrmen, that “verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.”

Pastor B. Murphey, Canadian Preacher
In 1817 Pastor Murphey provided evidence for the Israelites’ migrations into Ireland:

Israelites came from Egypt into Ireland.

Washington Irving, American Essayist, Novelist, and Historian
In 1824 in his story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Washington Irving wrote the following about a man whom he named “Absalom Crowinshield” who lived in New England in the 1700s:

It was announced in the papers with the usual flourish, that “A great man had fallen in Israel.”

Sir Walter Scott, Scottish Poet and Novelist
In 1830 in his novel Woodstock, Scottish author Sir Walter Scott had Oliver Cromwell using these words:

…as my soul liveth, and as He liveth who hath made me [Oliver Cromwell] a ruler in Israel

United States District Court for the District of Maine
On November 5, 1840, in a case titled “The Huntress, 12 F. Cas. 984, 993” regarding Constitutional neglect, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine declared:

…we may well ask, with some feelings of surprise, where during these seven years, were slumbering the watchmen of our American Israel.

Charters & Constitutions

In several colonies and States a profession of the Christian faith was made an indispensable condition to holding office. In the frame of government for Pennsylvania, prepared by William Penn, in 1683, it was provided that “all treasurers, judges, and other officers, and all members elected to serve in provincial council and general assembly, and all that have right to elect such members, shall be such as profess faith in Jesus Christ.” And in the charter of privileges for that colony, given in 1701 by William Penn and approved by the colonial assembly, it was provided “that all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, shall be capable to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively and executively.”**

**Similar requirements can also be found in the Delaware Constitution of 1776; the New Hampshire Constitutions of 1704 and 1792; the Fundamental Constitutions of the Carolinas; the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780; the Fundamental Order of Connecticut for its Governor; the Vermont Constitution of 1777; the Maryland Constitution of 1776; the current Maryland Bill of Rights, Article 37; the Mississippi Constitution of 1817; and the Arkansas Constitution of 1874 with 1963 supplements – most of which are listed in Justice Brewer’s speech.

1606 – The Charter for the Virginia Colony read in part: “To the glory of
His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian religion to such people
as yet live in ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God.”

1606 – JAMESTOWN CHARTER – Purpose: “…in propagation of the Christian religion.”

1606 – FIRST VIRGINIA CHARTER: “…tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God….”

1610 – NEW ENGLAND CHARTER – Aims in settling America: “…to increase the knowledge of the Omnipotent God and the propagation of our Christian faith.”*
*”First, it will be a service unto the Church of great consequence, to carry the Gospel unto those parts of the world, and raise a bulwark against the Kingdom of AntiChrist….” Pastor Cotton Mather, D.D., “General Considerations for the Plantation of New England,” Magnalia Christi Americana or The Ecclesiastical History of New-England quoted by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America (New York, NY: The Colonial Press, 1899) Vol. 2, p. 360.

1609 – Second Virginia Charter – Purpose: “to live in fear and true worship of Almighty God, Christian peace, and civil quietness.”

1610 – New England Charter -Aims in settling America: “to increase the knowledge of the Omnipotent God and the propagation of our Christian faith.  Walter S. Remmie, “This Is a Christian Nation,” Kingdom Digest (Irving, TX) July 1981, p. 28.

1620 – MAYFLOWER COMPACT (the first legal document in America): “In the name of God amen … having undertaken for the glory of God, and [the] advancement of the Christian faith….”

1620 – King James I granted the Charter of the Plymouth council. “In the
hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the
glory of God Almighty.”

1620 – The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower, in
Plymouth Harbor. “For the glory of God and advancement of ye Christian faith.
doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God and one of
another, covenant & combine our selves together into a civil body
politick[sic].”

1623 – “But God gave them health and strength in a good measure; and
showed them by experience the truth of the word, Deuteronomy 8:3: ‘Man does
not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the
Lord.’” (William Bradford, in BHOPP, p. 175).

1624 -SWEDISH CHARTER OF DELAWARE COLONY: “In the first place God’s glory, which above all must be especially cared for and promoted, can be increased thereby, His blessed Word and Holy Gospel planted and spread among all kinds of people and many thousand souls be brought to the true knowledge and understanding of God.”

1629 – The first Charter of Massachusetts read in part: “For the
directing, ruling, and disposing of all other Matters and Thinges, whereby
our said People may be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as
their good life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of
the Country to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of
Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth, which in our Royall Intencon, and The
Adventurers free profession, is the principall Ende of the
Plantacion….”[sic]

1632 – MARYLAND CHARTER: [our Celto-Saxon forefathers were] animated with a laudable and pious zeal for extending the Christian religion … Cecil Calvert [founder of Maryland] wrote in a letter at the time: “At the place prepared we [Celto-Saxon Christians] all kneeled down and said certain prayers; taking possession of the country for our Saviour and for our sovereign Lord.”  Nathanial Morton, New England’s Memorial (Cambridge, MA: S.G. and M.J. for John Usher, 1669), reproduced with extracts from other writers (Boston, MA: Congregational Board of Publication, 1854) p. 20.

1630 – Settlement of Massachusetts published under the subtitle of “Wonder-Working Providence of Zion’s Saviour.”

1636 – Harvard, which was the first college in America, whose name-sake and benefactor* stated in his provision for a fund to build a college: “Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”  1636 Harvard University document, quoted in John le Boutillier, Harvard Hates America: The Odyssey of a Born-again American (South Bend, IN: Gateway Editions, 1978), quoted in Walter S. Remmie, “This is a Christian Nation,” Kingdom Digest (Irving, TX, July 1981) p. 29.
John Harvard (1607-1638) was the namesake and benefactor of Harvard University, founded in 1636 and still operating undera 1650 charter

1638 – The towns of Hartford, Weathersfield, and Windsor adopt the
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. “To mayntayne and presearve the liberty
and purity of the Gospell of our Lord Jesus, which we now professe….” [sic]

1639 – The governing body of New Hampshire is established. “Considering
with ourselves the holy will of God and our own necessity, that we should not
live without wholesome laws and civil government among us, of which we are
altogether destitute, do, in the name of Christ and in the sight of God,
combine ourselves together to erect and set up among us such government as
shall be, to our best discerning, agreeable to the will of God….”

1639 – Fundamental Orders of Connecticut states as a part of its purpose: “to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now profess…Walter S. Remmie, “This is a Christian Nation,” Kingdom Digest (Irving, TX, July 1981) pp. 28-29. Additional documents, charters, constitutions, etc., are quoted in this same article.

1643 -ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION: “Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and ye same end and arms, namely to advance the Kingdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to enjoys ye liberties of ye Gospell in puritie with peace….”
1775 – In Patrick Henry’s speech: “We shall not fight alone. God presides
over the destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us. The battle
is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains
and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take,
but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

1787 Article III of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787: “Religion, morality,
and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

1789 – George Washington said “Let us with caution indulge the
supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion.” (Schroeder
ed. p. 106)

1794 – John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in a
letter to his wife, stated “God’s will be done; to him I resign-in him I
confide. Do the like. Any other philosophy applicable to this occasion is
delusive. Away with it.” (Johnston ed. vol. 4, p. 7.)

In addition to the nation’s united expression of faith in God, each individual state has separately acknowledged God as Sovereign and as the Author of liberty. The Legislative Service of the Library of Congress has compiled the provisions of State constitutions relative to the Supreme Being.  Pat Brooks, et.al., “50 Evidences that the U.S.A. is ‘Constitutionally Christian!,” Appendix D, Freedom or Slavery! (Fletcher, NC: New Puritan Library, 1990) p. 159. Pages 159-165 contain the pertinent portion of all 50 state constitutions.

ARIZONA, BILL OF RIGHTS, Section 12: The liberty of conscience shall not be construed to excuse acts of licentiousness….

CALIFORNIA, DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, Article 1, Section4: … The liberty of conscience does not excuse acts that are licentious….

DELAWARE, BILL OF RIGHTS, Article 1, Section 1: …it is the duty of all men to frequently assemble together for public worship of Almighty God; and piety and morality, on which the prosperity of communities depend are hereby promoted….

MARYLAND, BILL OF RIGHTS, Article 36: …it is the duty of every man to worship God; and piety and morality, on which the prosperity of communities depend are hereby promoted….

MASSACHUSETTS, DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, Article 2: It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated sessions, to worship the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe.

Article 3: As the happiness of a people and the good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend upon the piety, religion and morality…. And every denomination of Christians….

MINNESOTA, BILL OF RIGHTS, Section 16: … The right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience shall never be infringed … the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness….

MISSISSIPPI, BILL OF RIGHTS, Section 18: … The rights hereby secured shall not be construed to justify acts of licentiousness injurious to morals or dangerous to the peace and safety of the state, or to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school of this state.

NEBRASKA, BILL OF RIGHTS, Article 1, Section 4: All persons have a natural indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience…. Religion, morality, and knowledge, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the legislature to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceful enjoyment of its own mode of public worship….

NEW HAMPSHIRE, BILL OF RIGHTS, Article 6: As morality and piety, rightly grounded on high principles, will give the best and greatest security to government, and will allay, in the hearts of men, the strongest obligations to due subjection; and as the knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through society, therefore, the several parishes, bodies, corporate, or religious societies, shall at all times have the right of electing their own teachers, and of contracting with them for their support and maintenance, or both….

OHIO, BILL OF RIGHTS, Section 7: All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience…. Religion, morality, and knowledge, however, being essential to good government….

VIRGINIA, BILL OF RIGHTS, Article 1, Section 16: That religion or the duty which we owe our Creator… it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other….

On the 20th September, 1776, the first constitution of the Delaware State was adopted, the 22d article of which provided, that “every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, before taking his seat or entering upon the execution of his office, shall take the following oath … to wit: I … do profess of faith in God, the father, and Jesus Christ his only son, and in the Holy Ghost, on God blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments to be given by divine inspiration.  Clayton, pp. 565-566.

Freedom of Religion

In 1776 there were approximately 2.5 million people in America. Less than one percent of the population was, represented by 20,000 Catholics, 3,000 Jews, and a few Deists; more than ninety-nine percent were Christian Protestants.

After the Constitution was signed and the Bill of Rights made provision of Freedom of Religion these numbers changed drastically.

In 2007 the percentages were as follows:

Which religion had the most to gain?  Roman Catholicism.  Yah willing, this will be addressed in a future study but it begs the question…who had the most to gain by the American Revolution?  The Puritans and those who sought to follow the Scriptures in peace and freedom had no desire to rebel against the king.  It was these same Puritans that refused to allow Catholicism to take a stronghold in America due to the persecution they saw in Europe.  A good reference to learn about more history on the founding of America is ‘Rulers of Evil’ by Tupper Saussy.

Native American Indians

The Indians that were at the first Thanksgiving were the Wampanoag Indians.

The Wampanoag had their own harvest celebration in which they gave thanks for abundant crops to Kiehtan, the Creator. They believed corn, the most valued crop, was a gift from him. The tribe expressed gratitude to the spirits of the game for the animals they killed for food.

Wampanoagtribe.net

tribal elder Gladys Widdiss has to say about the Wampanoag and thanksgiving:

“With Native Americans you do not separate the spiritual from the rest of your life. You’re very involved with who you are, where you came from , and where you are going. We have special holidays or festivals, but every day is a day of thanksgiving.”

Native American’s & Yisrael connection

Cherokee Indians

18th Century explorer, trader, and researcher, James Adair from London, author of History of the American Indians who spent 40 years among the Cherokees, wrote a book named Out of the Flame, listing 23 hard proofs why he believed the Cherokees were descended from Israel. Among other things, the Cherokees were fiercely monotheistic who observed the Ten Commandments to the letter. Harvard professor Barry Fell cites an ancient carving of the Ten Commandments in North America as further proof, another subscriber to the lost tribe theory. Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, former USAF Chaplain and prominent Jewish historian, also holds that the Indians of the Americas are descendants of Northern Israel’s seafaring tribes, Dan and Zevulun. The additional list is long and exhaustive.

Understanding the Exodus Stephen Barrett Segall
James Adair lived among the Cherokee for 40 years beginning in 1736 and John Howard Payne lived among them in the early 1800’s.  Both speak of Cherokee legends about the creation, the great flood, expulsion from Eden, the Tower of Babel, Abraham, crossing the Red Sea, Moses, wandering in the wilderness and the construction of the tent of worship and sacred ark.
The Cherokee believed in life after death, reward and punishment after death for behavior in life, an emphasis on spiritual and sexual purity and the use of baptism and fasting as a means of purification.
On certain days Cherokee would assemple for worship in obedience to Ye ho waah.  If obedient to Ye ho waah’s commandments they would spend eternity with Him in heaven, if not they would spend eternity in a lake of fire and be tortured forever.
In the Cherokee story of creation, the Great Spirit created the world in seven days.  Man was created from the dust of the earth and the Creator breathed life into him.  The Creator saw that man was loney and took one of his ribs to make a woman.  Initially man could live forever, and snakes were not poisonous.  But to make sure the world was not overpopulated the Creator made snakes poisonous and a member of the first family was bitten by a snake and died.  As a result of this all people were doomed to death.
Cherokees tradition stated that Ye ho waah had commanded the people to rest from work every seventh day.  They celebrated the new moon.  They had crystals for predicting the future like the Urim and Thummim.  They had a sacred ark that represented an everlasting bond between them and the Creator.
SEE Cherokee People by Thomas Mails

Cherokee Corn Feasts Parallel Jewish Holy Days!
Also, one of the more convincing evidences is that the Jews followed a Religious Calendar of 7 main Festivals. And so did the Mediavel Cherokee! Even more so, examination of these Celebrations show that they were basically about the same thing–except that the Cherokee followed the growing cycle of corn, rather than that of barley and wheat, as the Jews did.

And for a brief summary, these Mediavel Cherokee Festivals were:1- FIRST FULL MOON OF SPRING,
which would have been literally the Day of Passover, and was accompanied by the slaughter of a lot of animals to prepare the meat for that Feast Day, and was set by the sprouting of the new grass of Spring (like the Passover Barley)! [Not to mention the intensive Spring Cleaning of the Feast!]

 

2- GREEN CORN FESTIVAL,
which was when the corn first balled, so that it could be cooked and eaten–similar to First Fruits, when the Barley was first edible. (However, for the Cherokee, this occured later in the year, more towards Summer, as the Climate in America was not as warm as in the Middle East).

3- MATURE or RIPE CORN FESTIVAL,
which was set for 50 days after the Green Corn Festival (like Pentecost)–and when the Sacred Fire in the Heptagon (like the Jewish Temple Menorah) was re-lit for the next year!

4- GREAT NEW MOON FEAST,
which was set as the first Full Moon of Autumn, and when Cherokee myth said that the whole world was created (and similar to Rosh HaShannah)!

5- PROPITIATION and CEMENTATION CEREMONY,
for cleansing one’s soul of Sin, and joining in UNITY with the Community as they ALL joined with the Creator–setting their relationship to HIM in cement (and similar to the Day of Atonement, with its earlier Kol Nidre purifications and making ammends.) Moreover, as this ended the Torah Study Cycle, many Jewish boys were often bar mitzvahed here, with an appropriate ceremony for Cherokee lads, also.

6- FESTIVAL OF EXALTING or BONDING BUSH CEREMONY (week long),
or a very loose approximating of the 8 Day Feast of Tabernacles–and in the Fall.

Here we see that the Cherokees followed a festival cycle similar to the Scriptural festival cycle.  Did the Wampanoag also trace their festivals back to the Scriptures?

1- Much of the information for the early or Mediavel Cherokee comes from the colonial works of Payne, Butrick, and Adair, a lot of which is quoted in THE CHEROKEE PEOPLE–The Story of the Cherokees, from Earliest Origins to Contemporary Times; by Thomas E. Mails, published in 1992 by Council Oak Books of Tulsa, Oklahoma. 2- Supplemental information confirming Mails work can also be found in The HISTORY OF THE CHEROKEE INDIANS and Their Legends and Folklore by Emmet Starr from Oklahoma City in 1921 but was reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore, Maryland in 2004.

Pagan Harvest Festivals

Does the holiday of Thanksgiving derive from pagan customs like other holidays in American culture such as Christmas, Easter and Halloweenclick here?

The first feast wasn’t repeated, so it wasn’t the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn’t even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast–dancing, singing secular songs, playing games–wouldn’t have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.

History.com

World Book Encyclopedia, 1942 Edition, article entitled, Thanksgiving Day

‘Thanksgiving Day, in the United States and Canada, a day set apart for the giving of thanks to God for the blessings of the year. Originally, it was a harvest thanksgiving, and while the purpose has become less specific, the festival still takes place late in autumn, after the crops have been gathered.’ Indeed, it is probably an outgrowth of the Harvest-Home celebrations in England. Such celebrations are of very ancient origin, being nearly universal among primitive peoples.

The Ancient Greek Harvest festival was called Thesmophora and celebrated Demeter, the founder and goddess of the harvests.  The symbols of Demeter were poppies of ears of corn, a basket of fruit and a little pig.  The Roman goddess of the harvest, Ceres had a festival, which occurred on October 4th and was called the Cerelia.

In ancient China, the 15th day of the eighth month was considered the birthday of the moon. To honor this special occasion, the families held a festival called Chung Chiui trimmed with a meal of moon cakes, roasted pig, and fruit.

Each October the Romans danced to music and watched as parades awed the eyes of onlookers during a celebration they called Cerelia. During the tradition pig and fruit were offered as gifts to the gods, while the people feasted together in thankfulness to their goddess.

Egyptians celebrated fruitful harvest by honoring the God of Vegetation and fertility. This celebration was held each spring and included feasting, music and dancing.

The pagans in Rome celebrated their thanksgiving in early October. The holiday was dedicated to the goddess of the harvest, Ceres, and the holiday was called Cerelia. The Catholic church took over the pagan holiday and it became well established in England, where some of the pagan customs and rituals for this day were observed long after the Roman Empire had disappeared. In England the “Harvest Home” has been observed continuously for centuries.

The ancient Semites called the earth mother Astarte…The Phrygians called her Semele. These deities were absorbed by the Greeks into the one great goddess, Demeter.’ ‘The Roman also had a harvest festival which they called the Cerelia, after Ceres, the Roman goddess of the corn.’

In our own hemisphere, among the Aztecs of Mexico, the harvest took on a grimmer aspect. Each year a young girl, a representation of Xilonen, The goddess of the new corn, was beheaded. The Pawnees also sacrificed a girl. In a more temperate mood, the Cherokees of the American Southeast danced the Green Corn Dance and began the new year at harvest’s end.

We Gather Together: The Story of Thanksgiving, by Ralph and Adeline Linton, 1949.

‘Even before biblical times the ancient people of the Mediterranean Basin held festivals at harvest time in honor of the earth mother. The goddess of the corn (‘corn’ being the European term for any grain; Indian corn (American corn), is called maize), was always one of the most important deities in the hierarchy of the gods, and her child was the young god of vegetation.’17

‘The ancient Semites called the earth mother Astarte…The Phrygians called her Semele…The Minoans had an earth mother for each district. All these local deities were absorbed by the Greeks into the one great goddess, Demeter.’18

‘Besides eating, feasting, etc. the married women practiced special rites. Under the cover of night, the women spent the next day bathing nude in the sea and dancing and playing games on the shore. Then they fasted, sang songs, then feasted, sang, and had general gaiety. All this lasted over a period of several days.’19

‘The Roman harvest festival…was called the Cerelia, after Ceres, the Roman goddess of the corn.’20

‘With the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of Rome and the conversion of the barbarians who had invaded the crumbling Empire, these pagan rituals were frowned upon and even forbidden by law. However, the peasants clung to them with a tenacity which has made the word ‘pagan’ (originally meaning simply ‘a villager’), a synonym for ‘heathen.’ As late as the sixth century … St. Benedict … found the local peasantry worshiping Apollo in a sacred grove. Even after conversion, old habits and beliefs died hard, and the church was too busy trying to keep the flame of civilization alive to trouble with minor heresies.’21

‘The benevolent earth mother … blended with the equally benevolent mother of Christ. Folk memory of local deities fused with the Christian tales of saints to provide patrons for villages, and the white robed goddess of grain lived on in various guises. To those who live close to the soil, the harvest has an emotional and religious significance … their gratitude finds expression in rites in honor of the being who they feel is most closely related to fruitfulness; a being of warm earth, rather then cold heaven.’22

‘Even today a half pagan belief in the corn mother still survives among the peasant’s in many parts of Europe.’23

‘The Pilgrims undoubtedly brought memories of such English harvest home celebrations with them when they came to the new world. They had also witnessed ‘thanksgiving’ ceremonies during their sojourn in Holland … The Pilgrims themselves would have denied that the Thanksgiving feast in honor of their first harvest in 1621 was evoked by memories of the profane practices of the old world; however, all revolutionaries, political or religious, once their goal is accomplished, turn back to the patterns of the society in which they have been reared, and the Pilgrims, at the time of the first Thanksgiving, were no exception.’24

‘In Peru, the ancient Indians worshiped the ‘Mother of Maize’ and tried every year to persuade her to bring in another good harvest. In Europe, the Austrians also had a ‘Corn Mother’ doll, fashioned from the last sheaf of grain cut in the field and then brought home to the village in the last wagon.’

Organic Gardening and Farming, Nov. 1975, page 132ff, the article entitled, Thanksgiving Day.

Cornucopia

The cornucopia,a horn-shaped container overflowing with fruit, nuts, and vegetables which is typically seen at Thanksgiving in the United States is a Pagan Symbol.

From Wikipedia,
The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC, also referred to as horn of plenty, Horn of Amalthea, and harvest cone.

In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a goat who raised Zeus on her breast milk. When her horn was accidentally broken off by Zeus while playing together, this changed Amalthea into a unicorn with 17 whiskers. The god Zeus, in remorse, gave her back her horn. The horn then had supernatural powers which would give person in possession of it whatever he or she wished for. This gave rise to the legend of the cornucopia. The original depictions were of the goat’s horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, was depicted with the horn of plenty. The cornucopia was also a symbol for a woman’s fertility.

In modern depiction, the cornucopia is typically a hollow, horn-shaped wicker basket typically filled with various kinds of festive fruit and vegetables. In North America, the cornucopia has come to be associated with Thanksgiving and the harvest.

Harvest Queen
A name given to Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture and crops or to a young woman chosen from among the reapers to whom was given a post of honor at the harvest home.  Demeter is the Greek version of the Egyptian goddess Isis and Roman version of Ceres.

Harvest festivals around the world:

* Mid-Autumn Festival: China
* Chuseok: Korea
* Dongmaeng: Korea
* Bon Festival: Japan
* Dożynki Poland
* Erntedank: Germany & Austria (1st Sunday in October)
* Festa e Grurit (Wheat Festival): A festival that used to mark the end of the harvest of wheat in Communist Albania. No longer observed.
* Freyfaxi (Aug. 1st): marks the beginning of the harvest in Norse paganism. Historically from Iceland, the celebration consists of blót, horse races, martial sports, and other events, often dedicated to the god Freyr.
* Harvest festival: United Kingdom
* Lammas or Lughnasadh (Aug 1): celebration of first harvest/grain harvest in Paganism and Wicca spirituality and by the ancient Celts.
* Mabon (Autumnal Equinox): the second of three recognized harvest sabbats in Paganism and Wicca
* Mhellia: Isle of Man
* Mehregan (October 2): Iran, Ancient Persia
* Annual Harvest Festival of Prosser, Washington, celebrated on the 4th full weekend in September
* Samhain (October 31): the third and final of three recognized harvest sabbats in Paganism and Wicca; celebration of the end of the harvest season and beginning of the Celtic New Year.
* Solung: falls between June and July for nine days. The Adi (also Abor) is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh
* Sukkot: Jewish harvest festival lasting eight days in the fall, in which time is spent in tabernacles or booths
* Hasyl toýy:Turkmenistan – the holiday on the last Sunday in November.
* Timoleague: Harvest Festival is held every year in August – Tigh Molaige in Irish
* Ikore: celebrated by the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria
* Khuado Pawi: celebrated by the Chin tribe of India, Burma and recently in the USA and many other parts of the world.

North America

* Duneland Harvest Festival: celebrated the last weekend in September in Porter, Indiana, near Chicago.
* Harvest Festival (United States): celebrated by American Christians on October 31st
* Thanksgiving (United States): the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
* Thanksgiving (Canada): the holiday on the second Monday in October.

South Asia

* Bhogali Bihu: (or Magh Bihu) is a harvest festival celebrated in Assam which marks the end of harvesting season in mid-January.
* Lohri: celebrated in North India esp. Punjab
* Nabanna: Bengal region which comprises West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh
* Onam: celebrated by Malayali people in Kerala (India) and other places
* Pongal: celebrated by Tamil people in Tamil Nadu (India) and other places
* Sankranthi or Makar Sankranti: Celebrated in several regions of India including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh
* Vaisakhi (or Baisakhi): celebrated by Punjabi people in Punjab (India), other parts of North India and elsewhere. The festival falls on the first day of Vaisakh month (usually mid-April), and marks the Punjabi New Year.
* Traditional New Year celebrations in Sri Lanka coincides with the harvest festival in mid-April.
* Dree Festival is a agricultural festival of the Apatanis of Ziro valley in Lower Subansiri District of Arunachal Pradesh, which is celebrated every year from 4th to 7th July.

South Asia

* Flores de Mayo :Flower festival in the Philippines
* Gawai Dayak: Malaysia
* Kaamatan (May 30-31), Sabah in Malaysia
* Maras Taun: Belitung in Indonesia
* Mid-Autumn Festival: Vietnam
* Pahiyas Rice festival in the Philippines

Thanksgiving in the Scriptures

Food is associated with thanksgiving

1Ti 4:4  Because every creature of God is good, and nothing to be thrust away, but having been received with thanksgiving;
1Ti 4:5  for through God’s Word and supplication it is sanctified.

Thanksgiving comes from the Hebrew word Hodu which derives from Yadah.

From the root yad (hand)

Thanksgiving used in the Scriptures

Col 4:2  Steadfastly continue in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,
Col 4:3  praying together about us also, that God may open to us a door of the Word, to speak the mystery of Christ, on account of which I also have been bound,
Col 2:6  Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,
Col 2:7  being rooted and being built up in Him, and being confirmed in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Eph 5:1  Then become imitators of God, as beloved children,
Eph 5:2  and walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.
Eph 5:3  But let not fornication, and all uncleanness, or greediness, be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
Eph 5:4  also baseness, and foolish talking, or joking (the things not becoming), but rather thanksgiving.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for you, that the grace may superabound through the greater number, and may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

Jer 33:11  the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of those saying, Praise YHWH of Hosts, for YHWH is good, for His mercy endures forever; those who shall bring the sacrifice of thanksgiving into the house of YHWH. For I will bring back the captivity of the land, as at the first, says YHWH.

Jer 30:17  For I will give health back to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says YHWH, because they called you, Outcast; saying, This is Zion; no one is seeking for her.
Jer 30:18  So says YHWH, Behold I will turn the captivity of Jacob’s tents and will have mercy on his dwelling places. And the city shall be built on her ruin heap; and the fortress shall remain on its own ordinance.
Jer 30:19  And out of them shall come thanksgiving and the voice of those who are merry. And I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. I also will honor them, and they shall not be small.

Isa 51:3  For YHWH comforts Zion. He comforts all her desolations, and He makes her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of YHWH; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of singing praise.
Isa 51:4  Hear Me, My people; yea, give ear to Me, My nation. For a law shall go out from Me, and My justice I will make rest as light to peoples.
Isa 51:5  My righteousness is near; My salvation went out; and My arms shall judge peoples; coastlands shall wait on Me, and they shall hope on My arm.

Psa 100:1  A Psalm of Thanksgiving. Shout joyfully to YHWH, all the land.
Psa 100:2  Worship YHWH with gladness; come before His face with joyful singing.
Psa 100:3  Know that YHWH, He is God; He has made us, and not we ourselves, His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Psa 100:4  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts with praise; be thankful to Him; bless His name.
Psa 100:5  For YHWH is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His faithfulness to generation and generation.

Psa 107:1  Give thanks to YHWH, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever.
Psa 107:2  Let the redeemed of YHWH say so, whom He redeemed from the hand of the foe;
Psa 107:3  and gathered them from the lands; from east and from west; from north and from south.
Psa 107:4  They wandered in the wilderness, in a desert way; they found no city of dwelling;
Psa 107:5  hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them;
Psa 107:6  and they cried to YHWH in their distress; He delivered them from their straits.
Psa 107:7  And He guided them in the right way; to go to a city of dwelling.
Psa 107:8  Let them thank YHWH for His mercy, and His wonders to the sons of man.
Psa 107:9  He satisfies the thirsty soul, and He fills the hungry soul with good.
Psa 107:10  Those who live in the darkness, and in the shadow of death, being prisoners in affliction and iron,
Psa 107:11  because they rebelled against the Words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High;
Psa 107:12  and He humbled their heart by toil; they stumbled, and none were helping;
Psa 107:13  and they cried to YHWH in their distress; He saved them out of their distresses;
Psa 107:14  He brought them out from darkness and the shadow of death; and He broke their bonds apart.
Psa 107:15  Let them thank YHWH for His mercy, and His wonders to the sons of man.
Psa 107:16  For He has broken the gates of bronze; and He cut bars of iron in two.
Psa 107:17  Fools are afflicted from the way of their rebellion, and from their iniquities;
Psa 107:18  their soul hates every food; and they touch the gates of death;
Psa 107:19  and they cried to YHWH in their distress; He saved them from their straits;
Psa 107:20  He sent His Word and healed them; and delivered them from all their pitfalls.
Psa 107:21  Let them thank YHWH for His mercy, and His wonders to the sons of man.
Psa 107:22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and recount His works with rejoicing.
Psa 107:23  They who go down to the sea in ships, who work in the great waters;
Psa 107:24  these see the works of YHWH, and His wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For He speaks, and He raises stormy wind, and makes its waves high;
Psa 107:26  they go up to the heavens; they go down to the depths; their soul is melted because they are in evil;
Psa 107:27  they reel and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up;
Psa 107:28  and they cry to YHWH in their distress, and He saves them out of their straits.
Psa 107:29  He settles the storm to a whisper, so that its waves are still;
Psa 107:30  and they are glad, because they are quiet; and He led them to their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Let them thank YHWH for His mercy, and His wonders to the sons of mankind;
Psa 107:32  and exalt Him in the congregation of the people; and praise Him in the seat of the elders.
Psa 107:33  He sets rivers to a wilderness, and watersprings to thirsty ground;
Psa 107:34  a fruitful land to a salty desert; because of the wickedness of those who live in it.
Psa 107:35  He puts the wilderness into pools of water; and dry land into water-springs;
Psa 107:36  and He makes the hungry live there, and they may prepare a city of dwelling.
Psa 107:37  And they sow the fields, and plant vineyards, and make fruits of produce.
Psa 107:38  He also blesses them, so that they multiply greatly; and He does not allow their cattle to diminish;
Psa 107:39  but they are diminished and bowed down from coercion, evil and grief.
Psa 107:40  He pours scorn on nobles, and causes them to wander in a desert; there is no path.
Psa 107:41  But He raises the poor up from affliction, and He sets families like a flock.
Psa 107:42  The upright shall see and be glad; and all iniquity shuts its mouth.
Psa 107:43  Whoever is wise and will observe these things, they shall discern the mercies of YHWH.
Psa 50:14  Offer thanksgiving to God, and pay your vows to the Most High.
Psa 50:15  And call on Me in the day of distress, and I will save you; and you shall glorify Me.
Psa 26:7  to cause to hear with the voice of thanksgiving and recount all Your wonderful works.
Psa 105:1  O give thanks to YHWH; call on His name; make His deeds known among the peoples.
Psa 105:2  Sing to Him; sing praises to Him; tell of all His wonders.
Psa 105:3  Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek YHWH rejoice.
Psa 105:4  Seek YHWH and His strength; seek His face without ceasing.
Psa 105:5  Remember His wonders that He has done, His miracles, and the judgments of His mouth,
Psa 105:6  O seed of His servant Abraham; O sons of Jacob, His elect.
Psa 105:7  He is YHWH our God; His judgments are in all the earth;
Psa 105:8  He has remembered His covenant forever; the Word He commanded to a thousand generations;
Psa 105:9  which He cut with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac;
Psa 105:10  and He established it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel for a perpetual covenant;
Psa 105:11  saying, To you I will give the land of Canaan, the portion of your inheritance;
Psa 105:12  when they were a few men of number; very few, and aliens in it.
Psa 105:13  And they went about from nation to nation; from one kingdom to another people.
Psa 105:14  He allowed no man to oppress them; yea, He reproved kings for their sakes;
Psa 105:15  saying, Touch not My anointed; and, Do My prophets no harm.
Psa 105:16  And He called a famine on the land; He broke the whole staff of bread.
Psa 105:17  He sent a man before them, Joseph, being sold for a slave;
Psa 105:18  they hurt his feet with chains; his soul came into iron;
Psa 105:19  until the time His Word came, the Word of YHWH refined him;
Psa 105:20  the king, the ruler of peoples, sent and shook off his links and set him free;
Psa 105:21  he made him lord of his house, and ruler over all he owned;
Psa 105:22  to bind his leaders at his will, and to teach his elders wisdom.
Psa 105:23  Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
Psa 105:24  And He increased His people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.
Psa 105:25  He turned their heart to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants.
Psa 105:26  He sent His servant Moses and Aaron whom He had chosen.
Psa 105:27  They put things of His signs among them; yea, wonders in the land of Ham.
Psa 105:28  He sent darkness and made it dark; and they did not rebel against His Word.
Psa 105:29  He turned their waters into blood and killed their fish.
Psa 105:30  Their land swarmed with frogs in the rooms of their kings.
Psa 105:31  He spoke, and fly swarms came; gnats in all their borders.
Psa 105:32  He gave hail for their rain, flaming fire in their land.
Psa 105:33  He struck their vines also, and their fig trees; and He broke the trees of their borders.
Psa 105:34  He spoke, and locusts came; and larvae without number;
Psa 105:35  and they ate up all the plants in the land; yea, ate the fruit of their ground.
Psa 105:36  He also struck all the first-born in their land, the firstfruit of all their vigor.
Psa 105:37  And He led them out with silver and gold; and among their tribes, not one was stumbling.
Psa 105:38  Egypt was glad when they went out, for their dread had fallen on them.
Psa 105:39  He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.
Psa 105:40  He asked, and He brought quail; and satisfied them with the food from the heavens.
Psa 105:41  He opened the rock, and waters gushed out; they went in the dry places like a river.
Psa 105:42  For He remembered His holy Word and His servant Abraham;
Psa 105:43  and He brought His people out with joy; His elect with gladness.
Psa 105:44  And He gave to them the lands of the nations; and they inherited the labor of the peoples;
Psa 105:45  so that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise YHWH!

Rev 7:12  saying, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen.

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   Did you know Thanksgiving is Jewish? Well, almost.

   That first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony, 1621, Christian Pilgrims fashioned a celebration after the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles. The Pilgrims learned about the feast in Holland, where they lived among Jews who were expelled from Spain.

   The Feast of Tabernacles, known today as Sukkot [sue-KOHT], is celebrated by setting up temporary shelters, decorating with a harvest theme, inviting guests for a meal, visiting others for a meal, and enjoying the abundance of fall foods. Sound familiar?

   And Mom’s cranberry stuffing? Stuffing one food into another is a Jewish symbol of abundance.

   “You can’t serve too much food,” says Linda Burghardt, author of Jewish Holiday Traditions. “Could there be anything more Jewish than that?” 

   But you don’t have to be Jewish to celebrate Thanksgiving. Across America, people of all faiths come together on the same day to reflect on freedom, abundance, heritage and family. It’s the country’s largest communal meal. We all have much for which we can give thanks.

For Thanksgiving celebration ideas, including Biblically kosher menu and recipes, click here!

An etrog is a very interesting fruit. You never really hear of it except for during Sukkot, and even then nobody eats it; we just shake it. It doesn’t help that they’re really expensive, and not that easy to eat.

This was my first experience cutting into an etrog. It’s a citrus fruit similar to a lemon, but you can’t squeeze the juices out. I guess you can use the outside like you would lemon zest, but it would be much harder, since the surface isn’t very smooth.

Jewish superstition connects etrog jelly to pregnancy and fertility. I have heard that it eases labor pains, helps a woman get pregnant, and can be eaten any time during pregnancy for health and luck.

There are so many seeds in an etrog!

Anyway, I remember making etrog jelly with my 2nd grade teacher, Aaliyah. Upon googling etrog recipes, this seemed to be the most popular way to use an etrog after the holiday. I read a bunch of these recipes, combined them with my knowledge from my previous jam experiments (raspberry and fig-strawberry), and came up with this:

Ingredients:

• 1 etrog
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange marmalade

1. To prepare for your cooking-with-etrog adventure, soak your etrog in for a week changing the water ocassionally.
2. After the week is up, chop the etrog, and remove the seeds. Discard the ends (and the pitom, gasp!), but keep the peel! Then grind it in a food processor.
3. Simmer the etrog pieces in water for about 30 minutes and strain.
4. Put the fruit back into the pot and heat on high. Stir in orange marmalade. Add the sugar, 1/3 cup at a time, mixing until it is incorporated. When all of the sugar is added, continuously stir the mixture until it boils and you can’t stir it away.
5. Place the mixture into a jar (I used a cleaned-out applesauce jar), seal, and let sit and set in a cool, dark place.

What is your favorite post-sukkot etrog recipe?

Just a few days ago the citizens of Israel switched a piece of text in our daily prayers from the paragraph Barchenu Hashem (Bless us G-d) which we ask for the prosperity of the land to Barech Alenu Hashem (Put blessing upon us G-d) where we ask for rain.  Outside of Israel we don’t start until December 4 in the evening.  It would seem that if it is so important to pray for rain in Israel, which is what the prayer is talking about, then we should all say it on the same day.
Besides for the logistical reasons of not praying for rain while Jews who went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Sukkot holiday were returning to their homes, there is another aspect that reflects the nature of Israel.  Israel is not like any place in the world, and I’ve been to quite a few.  You can feel that the veil of nature to the greater spiritual realms is peeled back a bit more than elsewhere.  Both years which I lived in Israel and the semester I spent on my study abroad, the rain really started a very short time after the Sukkot/Simhat Torah holidays in the fall and stopped around the same time that the Pesah festival came out.  I could stand in the courtyard in my yeshiva and look up and feel the world spinning while I was watching the clouds knot up in anticipation of the rainy season.
Prayer, spiritual endeavors, physical endeavors, even politics have the ability to affect your environment.  We are tied to the spiritual world with every physical action we take.  But you can really see it in Israel if you just pick up your eyes and look around.

Often, in this blog, I try to share the hope and comfort that Judaism provides for me. Today, though, there will be none of that. I am writing about Sukkot, which is just behind us, because, for me, it is the harbinger of a season of despair.

I dread Sukkot during most years. In addition to whatever else might cause my depression, it has a strong seasonal component. Like clockwork, the darkness inevitably falls during Sukkot. I stand up to daven Maariv on that first night, declaring that Sukkot is “זמן שמחתינו,” the season of our joy, and it’s like a slap in the face, a direct taunt from God or our tradition: “It’s supposed to be the time of happiness, but you can feel none of it!” [Insert evil throaty laugh here.]

Year in and year out, as the days shorten and my life seems to crumble around me in a heap, I force my lips to bitterly spit out “זמן שמחתינו.” I cringe whenever I hear a well-meaning person, citing Deuteronomy 16:14, declare the important mitzvah, or commandment, to be happy during the holiday of Sukkot:

Most years, the Sukkot liturgy is like salt in my wounds. It feels like Judaism is making my depression worse, not better. It’s kicking me when I’m already down, not lending an arm to help me back up.

The culmination of Sukkot with Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, where we dance with the Torah, is possibly the worst part of it. It’s still the season of our joy, but we’re supposed to not only intone it during services, but dance about it, and about the Torah, which tells us to be happy. There are many divrei Torah floating about questioning how we can be commanded to feel something: to be happy, to love, etc. Perhaps I will write something about that, one day. Today, though, is about how the contrast between Jewish tradition and my real life is sometimes incredibly painful. There is something simply soul-rending about declaring happiness while being embraced by overshadowing darkness.

I didn’t actually feel depressed during Sukkot this year. I thought that I might have, somehow, escaped Seasonal Affective Disorder this year. Silly me! It hit a week later. And, oh boy, did it hit hard. It knocked the wind right out of me and I’m still very much on the floor, desperately gasping for breath.

It’s much easier, in so many ways, to use this blog as a vehicle to write about hope when I am actually feeling some or to write about the darkness when it’s past. (It’s a little hard to imagine it when it’s past, but luckily, I have written enough things from the well of sadness that I can refer to them when I’ve forgotten just how bad it can be.) The hardest thing, I think, is to write about the soul-deadening depression when it’s actually wrapped around my head, muffling the world around me, sapping me of energy, desire, motivation, and any smidgen of belief in myself.

When it’s not shut down completely, my mind races around in circles, trying to find a way out, trying to distinguish truth from lie, fact from fiction.

I can’t do this. I just can’t live my life. I wasn’t made for this world. Maybe if I die, I can get a do-ever. With a new personality or a different life or some of each. I screw up everything I attempt to do. Nobody likes me. I have no friends. I will never be able to just get up in the morning and go about my day. It will be a struggle forever, every morning anew. God, I can’t believe how I mess everything up. Why can’t I move? Why can’t I go to bed? Why am I watching television? Why don’t I just turn out the light? Why can’t I fall asleep? Why can’t I just cook meals for the week on Sunday, like everyone says I should? Why did I buy and eat a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s? I don’t understand anything. I hate my life. I miss myself–the self that doesn’t have these thoughts. Everybody thinks I’m lazy. Lazy and a failure. Who’s going to want to date a psycho like me? I’ll be alone forever. I need to like myself first. I hate myself! How can I like myself when I can’t do anything? I just can’t do it. Not at all. Not even a tiny bit. If I could just get up on time tomorrow morning, everything would be alright. If I could just get some exercise, everything would be alright. If I could just make myself some dinner, everything would be alright. I can’t move. I want to die. I want to lie here until something, until anything, in my life changes. Now. Change now! If I was a better person, it wouldn’t be this way. I’ll be like this forever. Or maybe just every October-December. That’s not acceptable. I can’t be this way every fall. It will kill me. Or I will kill myself. It amounts to the same thing. Well, if I can just wait it out until December, it will get better. How much damage can I do between now and late December? Oh, God. I can do so much damage.

I don’t know if writing these things out will help me, or you, or some other person that you forward this to. I’ve been through this enough times, and I know myself well enough, to know that this is at least 95% depression and no more than 5% me. I know this because, thank God, there have been many times, especially over the past five years, when I have not been depressed at all, and the internal monologue has been different. There were days–heck, there were days in September–when I woke up, hit snooze once, got out of bed, took a shower, and set about my day, excited and happy and sure that I was doing what made me most fulfilled in the world. I wish I could have bottled that and sprinkled some onto my pillow this month. I never like the mornings. I probably never will. But there are times when I just do stuff and don’t have to have an internal battle to get things done. There are days–months, seasons–when I don’t think, “Fuck it, another day. מודה אני, my foot!”

Unfortunately, knowing that isn’t enough to stop feeling depressed, though. Would that it were! And I don’t really want to wait until late December for the fog to lift.

Aside: It’s a little odd that my depression always seems to lift in late December. That is when the days start lengthening, but they are awfully short then! It might be that the superficial commercial cheer of Christmas helps me, somehow. (I’ve missed it when I’ve been in Israel then, although when I’m in the US, I miss the cheer of all of the Jewish holidays that permeate the malls in Israel.)

When I was thinking of the confluence of “זמן שמחתינו” and soul-deadening SAD, I was wondering if this is what depressed Christians feel around Christmas time. JOY! abounds on the airwaves then. Even if I’m depressed, I don’t feel bad hearing that, the way I do intoning “זמן שמחתינו.” I sort of feel happier hearing all the Christmas cheer if I want to let it affect me and neutral towards it if I don’t want to. I would think that if I felt any connection to Christmas at all, that I would feel worse feeling sad, if I already felt sad. [Wow. That is not a great sentence. Depression brain, anyone?] Somehow, it’s my very deep connection to Sukkot, and my desire for it to be what God declares it to be, that makes me feel so terrible about feeling depressed over Sukkot. Does that make any sense at all?

I hope to write more soon about what I’m going to do instead of simply waiting for Christmas to come and dry up all my tears.

Well I consider my posts similar to sermons. I plan news stories daily, but i plan my mega posts, also known as “A Word from the Author” over a course of days. I know that you are saying, ‘well i see news stories under this category as well, what does that mean?’ Next week will be when i will have A Word from the Author each day(except Fridays and Saturdays). They will be on a number of topics in first person and i will begin one today explaining my category classifications, what makes a news story in the “Topics of Jewish Community” category, or “Topics of Israel”?

On the third night of Sukkot, the Collel members were honored to join Rav Feuer at a Simchas Bet Shoeva, held at the Stern Family in Shaarei Hesed. The Rav spoke about the question “How can one know if they have drawn Ruach HaKodesh from the Simchas Bet Shoeva?”  The litmus test, he said, was if when you left the Simchas Bes HaShoeva you felt important or not. Ruach Hakodesh, he said, was the feeling that you are important. That your life makes a difference. That Hashem had you in mind already from the Six Days of Creation, just like He planned on Mt. Everest, the Jordan River, Mt. Sinai and Mt. Moriah. If you feel like that, then you have succesfully drawn forth those waters of salvation.

 Each of us has a little demon inside who tries to convince us otherwise, namely that we are not important. As David HaMelech said: “Your holy spirit (ruach kadshecha) take not from me!”

Rabbi Feuer’s son Rav Tzvi also spoke at the gathering. Striking a similar note, he spoke about why water particularly was drawn and offered during Sukkot. The answer, he said, was to appease the mayim tachtonim, the “lower waters” mentioned in the story of Creation. These waters wanted to also come close to Hashem, just as the upper waters were made into the heavens. They kept yearning, and did not give up. Similarly the instrument used at the ceremony was a flute, a hallal in hebrew, related to the word hollow. The flute takes that emptiness, that feeling of distance, and uses it to produce the sound, it takes the separation and uses it to produce the joy.

A final observation I made at the Simchat Bet Shoeva was that those Shweitzers (Swiss) really know how to lift a leg and dance! They make the rest of us look like a bunch of clowns. Except for the Rav, of course, who doesn’t let his back problem stop him from dancing up a storm.

In this special installment of the Jewish Book Council/MyJewishLearning Authors Blog series, we spotlight book illustrator and visual artist Eliyahu Alpern.

Eliyahu Alpern is an amazing photographer. With author Allison Ofanansky, he’s done two children’s books that put distinctly different spins on Jewish holidays: In Harvest of Light , they walk through the process of making olive oil from tree to bottle. And, in Sukkot Treasure Hunt, a family tracks down all four species growing in the hills of rural Israel to use for their lulav and etrog.

We asked Eliyahu to take his camera on a stroll through Safed, Israel, where he lives. What he found was a menagerie that would put the sukkah scenes in Ushpizin to shame — and, if you’ve seen Ushpizin, that’s saying a lot.

Here he walks us through the sukkah market in Safed, showing us the detail and agony with which some people pick out their own lulavim and etrogim, and the other tools for celebrating Sukkot, too — from bamboo mats to sukkah decorations.

Eliyahu Alpern is the photographer of Sukkot Treasure Hunt and Harvest of Light .See his original art, and his blog, at GolemProductions.com.

I can breathe a sigh of relief, until next year, Sukkot, Simhat Torah and all the rest of it is finally over with. The New Year has begun, counting down the days yet again.

Every year I approach the building of our Sukkah and the entertaining we do in it with renewed enthusiasm. The Los Angeles area, with its mild climate, lends itself to dining al fresco at night even in September, October. Today I must confess, with impending rain clouds above (strange for this time of year), my helpers and I rushed to take it all down and store it away until next year. The saris hung across the roof, the tacky clustered grape lights that created atmosphere when the sun went down, the wall tapestries, candles, the tables and chairs, finally the palm fronds, and extension cords all dispatched to their cupboards to wait out another four seasons until next September or the trash. I will share a few pictures and the menus for two of the evening’s parties.

Turkey and Prime Rib

Squash Blossoms for the starter

Ready to enjoy

Menu for First Night

Challah 

Kiddush Hashem Syrah

Appetizer trio of chopped heirloom tomatoes on arugula with lemon and olive oil

Deep fried squash blossoms in tempura style batter

Kibbeh sineah with hummous

Main Course

Roast turkey with natural jus, cranberry orange sauce

Roast herb crusted prime rib with shitake pomegranate sauce

Grilled artichoke halves with chipotle mayonnaise

Sweet potato fries  or brown and wild rice mix

Roasted Brussel sprouts with sea salt

Desert

Linda’s chocolate espresso cake

Cranberry pear crumble

Apple cake

Pistachio biscotti

Mixed berries

coffee or tea

Sort of Sukkot

Camped out in tents for the Feast of Tabernacles celebration. 1 official sukkot, the rest in tents.

Tribe of Reuben

We camped out all night as we celebrated the Jewish festival, the Feast of Tabernacles and what it means to our Christian faith. This is the tribe of Reuben during the time of reflection following the “blessing of the children.”

so the whole summer went by and I didn’t post anything, but here are some fall-y shots.
sometimes I’m just wandering innocently around nyc at night on my way to and from somewhere and I come across the most random things.
these night time celebratory shots were from a Sukkot celebration in a parking lot on west 34th Street – fire juggling, loud dance music and everything.
a nice guy named Ari came over and invited me to join, but I declined, being on my way back to my office for some late night work catch up.
the pretty landscape stuff is from my favorite place on the planet – a friend’s cabin in a secret location.
click on the images to get ‘em bigger.

Lev 23:39  Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather the increase of the land, you shall keep the feast of YHWH seven days; on the first day a sabbath, and on the eighth day a sabbath.
Lev 23:40  And you shall take to yourselves on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, palm branches, and boughs of oak trees, and willows of the valley, and shall rejoice before YHWH your God seven days.
Lev 23:41  And you shall keep a feast to YHWH, seven days in a year, a never ending statute throughout your generations*; in the seventh month you shall keep it.
Lev 23:42  You shall live in booths seven days; all who are native in Israel shall live in booths,
Lev 23:43  so that your generations shall know that I caused the sons of Israel to live in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am YHWH your God.

*A never ending statute

Zec 14:16  And it shall be, everyone who is left from all the nations which came up against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, YHWH of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zec 14:17  And it shall be, whoever will not go up from the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, YHWH of Hosts, there shall even be no rain on them.

Sukkot comes from the following Hebrew word:  It literally means a protective covering.

The meaning of the word is perfectly illustrated in the following verse.

Exo 33:22  And as My glory is passing it will be that I will put you in a cleft of the rock; and I will cover* My hand over you during My passing.

H5526
שׂכך  /  סכך
sâkak  /  śâkak
BDB Definition:
1) (Qal) to hedge, fence about, shut in
2) to block, overshadow, screen, stop the approach, shut off, cover
2a) (Qal)
2a1) to screen, cover
2a2) to cover oneself
2a3) protector (participle)
2b) (Hiphil)
2b1) to screen, cover
2b2) to cover, defecate (euphemism)
3) (Qal) to cover, lay over
4) to weave together
4a) (Qal) to weave together
4b) (Pilpel) to weave, weave together
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: a primitive root

Dwelling in the cleft of the rock is associated with hiding under the shelter of His wings which is a term of intimacy.click here

Psa 61:4  I will dwell in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.
Psa 63:7  For You have been a help to me, and I will rejoice under the shadow of Your wings.
Psa 63:8  My soul is cleaved (clings Deu 10:20; 11:22) after You; Your right hand (Messiah) upholds me.

Abiding in the cleft of the rock = abiding under the shelter of His wings

Psa 61:4  I will dwell in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.  Abiding in the Tabernacle = abiding in the shelter of His wings

Rev 7:15  Because of this they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His sanctuary. And He sitting on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.

Psa 27:5  For in the day of evil He shall hide me in His shelter (sukkah); in the secrecy of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me up on a rock.

Rock of Etam
Jdg 15:8  And he struck them hip on thigh, a great slaughter, and went down and lived in the cleft of the rock Etam.

H5862
עיטם
‛êyṭâm
BDB Definition:
Etam = “lair of wild beasts”
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H5861

H5861
עיט
‛ayiṭ
BDB Definition:
1) bird of prey, a swooper
Part of Speech: noun masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H5860

Samson dwelling in the cleft of the Rock (Messiah) at Etam (Eagles wings).
H5861
Strongs #5861: AHLB#: 1354-M (N)

The root word of Etam is at (aleph tet)

Here we see that the word Etam means an eagle’s wings in the sense of wrapping.  Samsom dwelt in the cleft of the Rock (Rock = Messiah 1 Cor 10:4) in the city of Etam (wrapped in eagles wings)

This is what Sukkot is all about.  The marriage of Messiah Yahshua and His bride.  Dwelling together in the Kingdom.

Feast of Ingathering

Exo 23:14  Three times in the year you shall make a feast to Me.
Exo 23:15  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the set time of the month of Abib. For in it you came out from Egypt, and they shall not appear before Me empty.
Exo 23:16  Also the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. Also the Feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year, at your gathering your work from the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year every one of your males shall appear before the Lord YHWH.
Deu 16:13  You shall keep the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after you have gathered in from your threshingfloor, and from your winepress.
Deu 16:14  And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son, and your daughter, and your male slave, and your slave-girl, and the Levite, and the alien, and the fatherless, and the widow that are inside your gates.
Deu 16:15  You shall keep a solemn feast seven days to YHWH your God in the place which YHWH shall choose; for YHWH your God shall bless you in all your produce, and in every work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.

The Purpose of Creation

Messiah, the Creator desires to  dwell with His creation

Col 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat on them. And judgment was given to them, and the souls of the ones having been beheaded because of the witness of Jesus, and because of the Word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast nor its image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God with men! And He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.

1st Letter of the Scriptures

In Torah Scrolls the 1st letter of B’reisheit is enlarged

This letter in Hebrew means a house.  The purpose of creation the Most High dwelling with His people.  This is what Sukkot is a foreshadowing of.  It is a tradition that Adam was created around the time of Yom Teruahclick here
/Rosh Hashana. Perhaps Eve (Chawwah) was brought forth during the time period of Sukkot.  This would be a perfect foreshadowing of the Messiah dwelling with His bride.

All of the Feasts are wedding rehearsals

Lev 23:4  These are the feasts {H4150 moed} of the LORD, even holy convocations which ye shall proclaim in their seasons {H4150 moed}.

H4150 מועדה  /  מעד  /  מועד mô‛êd  /  mô‛êd  /  mô‛âdâh
appointed place, appointed time, meeting, also a rehearsal
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H3259

H3259 יעד yâ‛ad
BDB Definition:
1) to fix, appoint, assemble, meet, set, betroth

Passover….the proposal
Unleavened Bread….sanctification
Pentecost….espousal, betrothal
Feast of Trumpets…bridegroom returns with a shout
Day of Atonement….wedding supper
Feast of Tabernacles….husband and wife dwell together

Sukkot – the Messiah dwelling with His people.

1st Coming

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt (G4637 tabernacled) among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

2nd Coming
Zec 14:4  And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Zec 14:9  And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

G4637 σκηνόω skēnoō
to fix one’s tabernacle, have one’s tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle

Messiah Yahshua was born around the Sukkot season.

Conception of John the Baptist

Course of Abijah
Luk 1:5  In the days of Herod the king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the daily course of Abijah. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
Luk 1:6  And they were both righteous before God, walking blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
Luk 1:7  And no child was born to them, because Elizabeth was barren. And both were advanced in their days.
Luk 1:8  And it happened in his serving as priest in the order of his course before God,
Luk 1:9  according to the custom of the priests, entering into the Holy Place of the Lord, it was Zacharias’ lot to burn incense.
1Ch 24:1  And these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 24:2  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and they had no sons. And Eleazar and Ithamar were priests.
1Ch 24:3  And David divided them according to their offices in their service, even Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:4  And more sons of Eleazar were found than the sons of Ithamar, for heads of the men. And they divided them. For the sons of Eleazar were: sixteen chiefs to their father’s house; and eight to the sons of Ithamar, to the house of their fathers.
1Ch 24:5  So they divided them by lots, these with these. For these were the rulers of the sanctuary and rulers of God, of Eleazar’s sons and Ithamar’s sons.
1Ch 24:6  And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the rulers of the fathers of the priests and Levites. One father’s house was taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.
1Ch 24:7  And the first lot came out for Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1Ch 24:8  the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1Ch 24:9  the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1Ch 24:10  the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
1Ch 24:11  the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1Ch 24:12  the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1Ch 24:13  the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
1Ch 24:14  the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1Ch 24:15  the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,
1Ch 24:16  the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
1Ch 24:17  the twenty first to Jachin, the twenty second to Gamul,
1Ch 24:18  the twenty third to Delaiah, the twenty fourth to Maaziah.
1Ch 24:19  These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of YHWH, according to their ordinance, to Aaron their father, as YHWH God of Israel had commanded him.
The Talmud records that each shift was a week.  From noon sabbath to noon sabbath

Josephus records that these courses were being followed in the 1st century.
Josephus Antiquities 7:14.7
He divided them also into courses: and when he had separated the priests from them, he found of these priests twenty-four courses, sixteen of the house of Eleazar, and eight of that of Ithamar; and he ordained that one course should minister to God eight days, from sabbath to sabbath. And thus were the courses distributed by lot, in the presence of David, and Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, and of all the rulers; and that course which came up first was written down as the first, and accordingly the second, and so on to the twenty-fourth; and this partition hath remained to this day.

Yahshua was born in the Fall of 5 BC, therefore John the Baptist was born in the Spring of 5 BC and conceived 9 months earlier in the summer of 6 BC.  In the year 6 BC, the first day of the first month was a weekly Sabbath March 20.
Zachariah was of the 8th course.  He was assigned the 9th and 10th weeks from the beginning of the year.  Iyar 27 – Sivan 5 (May 15-22) and Sivan 5 – Sivan 12 (May 22-29).  Sometime during these two weeks Gabriel appeared to him.  It is a possibility that this occurred on Pentecost which was Sivan 6 (May 16).  Zachariah returned home on May 29 so it can be assumed that Elizabeth conceived May 30 – June 12 in the year 6 BC.  6 months later Mary visited Elizabeth (Luk 1:36) at the time of Hanukkah.  John would have been born sometime between Adar 19 & Nisan 3 or February 27 – March 11 5 BC.  Mary’s conception would have been around Kislev 17-30 Nov 28- Dec 11, this brings Messiah’s birth to around the time of Elul 24-Tishri 15 or August 27- September 8.

This would mean that Yahshua was conceived on Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights) and born on Sukkot (the Festival of Lights).  Hanukkah is also an 8 day festival that was based on Sukkot.

2Ma 10:6  And they kept the eight days with gladness, as in the feast of the tabernacles, remembering that not long afore they had held the feast of the tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains and dens like beasts.
2Ma 10:7  Therefore they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing his place.
2Ma 10:8  They ordained also by a common statute and decree, That every year those days should be kept of the whole nation of the Jews.

During the Sukkot season (John 7-8) Yahshua proclaimed the following:

Joh 8:12  Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. The one following Me will in no way walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

The building of the Tabernacle

Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.

Yom Kippur click here is a picture of the 2nd coming of the Messiah.

Yom Kippur was an atonement for the golden calf according to Jewish tradition.
On the 6th of Sivan (2nd month) the 10 Commandments were given, on the 7th Moses ascended the mountain and remained 40 days and nights. On the 40th day he descended on the 17th of Tammuz (4th month) and found Israel sinning with the golden calf and he broke the tablets. Moses ascended back up the mountain on the 18th of Tammuz and remained another 40 days and nights. (Deu 10:10) He descended on the 28th of Av (5th month)-hewed the 2nd set of tablets and ascended Sinai a 3rd time. He descended on the 10th of Tishrei (7th month)-Yom Kippur.  It was then that Moshe commanded Yisrael to build the Tabernacle so that YHWH could dwell in their midst.  This points to Sukkot which follows Yom Kippur.

Rashi comments on Exodus 33:11
and he would return to the camp: After He spoke with him, Moses would return to the camp and teach the elders what he had learned. Moses conducted himself in this way from Yom Kippur until the Mishkan was erected, but no more [than that]. For on the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken, and on the eighteenth he burned the calf and judged the sinners, and on the nineteenth he went up [Mount Sinai], as it is said: “It came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, etc.” (Exod. 32:30). He spent forty days there and begged for mercy, as it is said: “And I cast myself down before the Lord, etc.” (Deut. 9:18). On Rosh Chodesh Elul it was said to him, “And in the morning you shall ascend Mount Sinai” (Exod. 34:2) to receive the second tablets, and he spent forty days there, as it is said concerning them, “And I remained upon the mountain just as the first days” (Deut. 10:10). Just as the first ones [days] were with good will [from the seventh of Sivan to the seventeenth of Tammuz], so were the last ones [days] with good will. [We may] deduce from this that the intermediate ones were with wrath. On the tenth of Tishri the Holy One, blessed is He, was appeased to Israel joyfully and wholeheartedly, and He said to Moses, “I have forgiven, as you have spoken.” He [God] gave over to him the second tablets, and he [Moses] descended, and He [God] began commanding him concerning the work of the Mishkan. They constructed it until the first of Nissan, and once it was erected, He no longer spoke with him except from the Tent of Meeting. -[from Midrash Tanchuma 31, Seder Olam ch. 6]

Earthly Tabernacle is a shadow of the heavenly
Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

The Glory of YHWH filled the Tabernacle and He dwelt among Yisrael

Exo 40:33  And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
Exo 40:34  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exo 40:35  And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exo 40:36  And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
Exo 40:37  But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
Exo 40:38  For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

Glory of YHWH is Yahshua
Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

The Glory/Cloud of YHWH abiding with Yisrael is a marriage term

Isa 4:5  Then YHWH will create a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, over all the site of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies; for on all the glory will be a canopy*.
Isa 4:6  And there shall be a booth for a shade from the heat, and for a refuge, and for a hiding place from storm and rain.

*H2646
חפּה
chûppâh
BDB Definition:
1) chamber, room, canopy, closet
1a) canopy
1b) chamber
1c) divine protection (figuratively)
Part of Speech: noun feminine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H2645

It is in the wilderness, where Yisrael dwelt in Sukkot, that the bride is called

Son 3:6  Who is this who comes up out of the wilderness like columns of smoke, sacrificing as incense myrrh and frankincense, from all powders of the merchant?

Keil and Delitzsch commentary

Son 3:7-8

The description of the palanquin now following, one easily attributes to another voice from the midst of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
7 Lo! Solomon’s palanquin,
Threescore heroes are around it,
Of the heroes of Israel,
8 All of them armed with the sword, expert in war.
Each with his sword on his thigh,
Against fear in the nights.
Since אַפִּרְיוֹן, 9a, is not by itself a word clearly intelligible, so as to lead us fully to determine what is here meant by מִטָּה as distinguished from it, we must let the connection determine. We have before us a figure of that which is called in the post-bibl. Heb. כַּלָה הַכְנָסַת (the bringing-home of the bride). The bridegroom either betook himself to her parents’ house and fetched his bride thence, which appears to be the idea lying at the foundation of Ps 45, if, as we believe, the ivory-palaces are those of the king of Israel’s house; or she was brought to him in festal procession, and he went forth to meet her, 1 Macc. 9:39 – the prevailing custom, on which the parable of the ten virgins (Matt 25) is founded.
(Note: Weigand explains the German word Braut (bride) after the Sanscr. prauḍha, “she who is brought in a carriage;” but this particip. signifies nothing more than (aetate) provetca.)
Here the bride comes from a great distance; and the difference in rank between the Galilean maid and the king brings this result, that he does not himself go and fetch her, but that she is brought to him. She comes, not as in old times Rebecca did, riding on a camel, but is carried in a mittā, which is surrounded by an escort for protection and as a mark of honour. Her way certainly led through the wilderness, where it was necessary, by a safe convoy, to provide against the possibility (min in mippahad, cf. Isa_4:6; Isa_25:4) of being attacked by robbers; whereas it would be more difficult to understand why the marriage-bed in the palace of the king of peace (1Ch_22:9) should be surrounded by such an armed band for protection. That Solomon took care to have his chosen one brought to him with royal honours, is seen in the lavish expenditure of spices, the smoke and fragrance of which signalized from afar the approach of the procession, – the mittā, which is now described, can be no other than that in which, sitting or reclining, or half sitting, half reclining, she is placed, who is brought to him in such a cloud of incense. Thus mittā (from nāthā, to stretch oneself out), which elsewhere is also used of a bier, 2Sa_3:21 (like the Talm. עֲרַס = עֶרֶשׂ), will here signify a portable bed, a sitting cushion hung round with curtains after the manner of the Indian palanquin, and such as is found on the Turkish caiques or the Venetian gondolas.

Jer 2:2  Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, So says YHWH, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, your going after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Hos 2:14  Therefore, behold, I will lure her and bring her to the wilderness, and speak to her heart.
Hos 2:15  And from there I will give her vineyards to her, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall answer there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hos 2:16  And at that day, says YHWH, you shall call Me, My husband; and you shall no more call Me, My Baal.
Hos 2:17  For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth; and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
Hos 2:18  And in that day I will cut a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and the creepers of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely.
Hos 2:19  And I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions.
Hos 2:20  I will even betroth you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know YHWH.

The children of Yisrael were led in the wilderness to their Husband and their home, the promised land of Yisrael.

Sukkot=Messianic era

Zec 14:16  And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Yahshua dwelling with His people during the Messianic era
Eze 37:22  And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
Eze 37:23  Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 37:24  And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
Eze 37:25  And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Eze 37:26  Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.
Eze 37:27  My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Sukkot-remembering the Egyptian exodus

Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Lev 23:42  Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
Lev 23:43  That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

ALL believers in Messiah were redeemed from Egypt
1Co 10:1  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
1Co 10:3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
1Co 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

The Egyptian redemption is prophetic
1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The Egyptian redemption is a parable about the end of days
Psa 78:1  <Maschil of Asaph.> Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
Psa 78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
Psa 78:3  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
Psa 78:4  We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

The Future redemption is likened unto the Egyptian redemption
Hos 2:15  And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Mic 7:15  According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

Sukkot is the Festival of Ingathering
Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:16  And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Harvest is the end of the age…the field is the world
Mat 13:36  Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
Mat 13:37  He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
Mat 13:39  The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Mat 13:41  The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
Mat 13:42  And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Mat 13:43  Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The gathering of produce from the field is the same word for the gathering of people together.  אספ comes from the root סף which means a bowl which is used to gather things to eat.  It is when we are gathered together that we are brought to the wedding supper, at the same time the wicked will be weeping and gnashing their teeth.

Mat 22:2  The kingdom of Heaven is compared to a man, a king, who made a wedding feast for his son.
Mat 22:3  And he sent his slaves to call those being invited to the wedding feast, but they did not desire to come.
Mat 22:4  Again, he sent other slaves, saying, Tell the ones invited, Behold, I have prepared my supper; my oxen, and the fatlings are killed, and all things ready; come to the wedding feast.
Mat 22:5  But not caring they went away, one to his own field, and one to his trading.
Mat 22:6  And the rest, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them.
Mat 22:7  And hearing, the king became angry. And sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
Mat 22:8  Then he said to his slaves, Indeed, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
Mat 22:9  Then go onto the exits of the highways and call to the wedding feast as many as you may find.
Mat 22:10  And going out into the highways, those slaves gathered all, as many as they found, both evil and good. And the wedding feast was filled with reclining guests.
Mat 22:11  And the king coming in to look over those reclining, he saw a man there not having been dressed in a wedding garment.
Mat 22:12  And he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment? But he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then the king said to the servants, Binding his feet and hands, take him away and throw him out into the outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of the teeth.
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few chosen.

Harvest is great the workers are few
Mat 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

The end of the exile is likened to the harvest

Psa 126:1  <A Song of degrees.> When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

The great commission

Mat 28:18  And coming up Jesus talked with them, saying, All authority in Heaven and on earth was given to Me.
Mat 28:19  Then having gone, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20  teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. Amen.

We have been scattered into the nations/the wilderness in order that we might disciple all mankind in the power of the Spirit

Eze 20:35  And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and I will be judging face to face there with you.
Eze 20:36  Just as I was judging your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will be judging you, declares the Lord YHWH.

70 bulls were sacrificed during the feast of Tabernacles Numbers 29…for the 70 nations of the world (Genesis 10).  The nations are divided up according to the number of the sons of Yisrael.
Deu 32:8  When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

All nations will keep Sukkot

Zec 14:16  And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zec 14:17  And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

The Living Waters

Joh 4:5  And He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Joh 4:6  And Jacob’s fountain was there. Then being wearied by the journey, Jesus sat thus on the fountain. It was about the sixth hour.
Joh 4:7  A woman came out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me some to drink.
Joh 4:8  For His disciples had gone away into the city that they might buy provisions.
Joh 4:9  Then the Samaritan woman said to Him, How do You, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, I being a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not deal with Samaritans.
Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who is the One saying to you, Give Me to drink, you would have asked Him, and He would give you living water.
Joh 4:11  The woman said to Him, Sir, You have no vessel, and the well is deep. From where then do You have living water?
Joh 4:12  Are You greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and he and his sons and his livestock drank out of it?
Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said to her, Everyone drinking of this water will thirst again;
Joh 4:14  but whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst, never! But the water which I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life.
Joh 4:15  The woman said to Him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.
Joh 4:16  Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here.
Joh 4:17  And the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, Well did you say, I have no husband.
Joh 4:18  For you have had five husbands, and now he whom you have is not your husband. You have spoken this truly.
Joh 4:19  The woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
Joh 4:20  Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.
Joh 4:21  Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me that an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Joh 4:22  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such, the ones worshiping Him.
Joh 4:24  God is a spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Joh 4:25  The woman said to Him, I know that Messiah is coming, the One called Christ. When that One comes, He will announce to us all things.
Joh 4:26  Jesus said to her, I AM!* the One speaking to you.
Joh 4:27  And on this, His disciples came and marveled that He was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, What do You seek? Or, Why do You speak with her?

*This is also spoken by Yahshua during Sukkot.

Joh 8:24  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.

During the triennial Torahclick here portion for the week of Sukkot of the 3rd year Psalm 118 is read.

Psa 118:14  The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.  Yah YHWH becomes our Yeshua

The Feast of Tabernacles is a week of dwelling (eating and sleeping) in a sukkah, and holding a wedding feast – a great feast (of literal food) to which we invite the poor.
(Year 1) Reading #27 for the previous Sabbath (Genesis 29:22) is about the wedding feast.
(Year 2) Reading #27 for the previous Sabbath (Leviticus 5) relates to the many offerings of this Festival.
(Year 3) Reading #28 for the included Sabbath (Deuteronomy 6-7): A holy people preparing to dwell in the Land.

Joh 4:28  Then the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city and said to the men,
Joh 4:29  Come, see a Man who told me all things, whatever I did. Is this One not the Christ?
Joh 4:30  Therefore, they went out of the city and came to Him.
Joh 4:31  But in the meantime the disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, eat?
Joh 4:32  But He said to them, I have food to eat which you do not know.
Joh 4:33  Then the disciples said to one another, No one brought Him food to eat?
Joh 4:34  Jesus said to them, My food is that I should do the will of Him who sent Me, and that I may finish His work.
Joh 4:35  Do you not say, It is yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest.
Joh 4:36  And the one reaping receives reward, and gathers fruit to everlasting life, so that both the one sowing and the one reaping may rejoice together.
Joh 4:37  For in this the word is true, that another is the one sowing, and another the one reaping.
Joh 4:38  I sent you to reap what you have not labored over. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
Joh 4:39  And many of the Samaritans out of that city believed into Him, because of the word of the woman testifying, He told me all things, whatever I did.
Joh 4:40  Then as the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them. And He remained there two days.
Joh 4:41  And many more believed through His Word.
Joh 4:42  And they said to the woman, We no longer believe because of your saying; for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this One is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.

The Water Libation ceremony

Hoshanna Rabah
Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John Gill’s commentary

That is, of tabernacles, as appears from Joh_7:2, which was usually called  חג, “the feast”, in distinction from the passover and Pentecost (q); and the eighth day of it was called הרגל האחרון, “the last day of the feast” (r), as here: and it was a “great day”, being, as is said in Lev_23:36, an holy convocation, a solemn assembly, in which no servile work was done, and in which an offering was made by fire unto the Lord. According to the traditions of the Jews, fewer sacrifices were offered on this day than on the rest; for on the first day they offered thirteen bullocks, and lessened one every day; so that on the seventh, day, there was but seven offered, and on the eighth day but one, when the priests returned to their lots, as at other feasts (s); but notwithstanding the Jews make out this to be the greater day for them, since the seventy bullocks offered on the other seven days, were for the seventy nations of the world; but the one bullock, on the eighth day, was peculiarly for the people of Israel (t): and besides, they observe, that there were several things peculiar on this day, as different from the rest; as the casting of lots, the benediction by itself, a feast by itself, an offering by itself, a song by itself, and a blessing by itself (u): and on this day they had also the ceremony of drawing and pouring water, attended with the usual rejoicings as on other days; the account of which is this (w):

“the pouring out of water was after this manner; a golden pot, which held three logs, was tilled out of Siloah, and when they came to the water gate, they blew (their trumpets) and shouted, and blew; (then a priest) went up by the ascent of the altar, and turned to the left hand, (where) were two silver basins–that on the west side was filled with water, and that on the east with wine; he poured the basin of water into that of wine, and that of wine into that of water.”

At which time there were great rejoicing, piping, and dancing, by the most religious and sober people among the Jews; insomuch that it is said (x), that

“he that never saw the rejoicing of the place of drawing of water, never saw any rejoicing in his life.”

And this ceremony, they say (y), is a tradition of Moses from Mount Sinai, and refers to some secret and mysterious things; yea, they plainly say, that it has respect to the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost (z).

“Says R. Joshua ben Levi, why is its name called the place of drawing water? because, from thence שואבים רוח הקודש, “they draw the Holy Ghost”, as it is said, “and ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation”,  Isa_12:3.”

Moreover, it was on this day they prayed for the rains for the year ensuing: it is asked (a),

“from what time do they make mention of the powers of the rains (which descend by the power of God)? R. Eliezer says, from the first good day of the feast (of tabernacles); R. Joshua says, from the last good day of the feast.–They do not pray for the rains, but near the rains;”

that is, the time of rains; and which, one of their commentators says (b), is the eighth day of the feast of tabernacles; for from the feast of tabernacles, thenceforward is the time of rains. The Jews have a notion, that at this feast the rains of the ensuing year were fixed: hence they say (c), that

“at the feast of tabernacles judgment is made concerning the waters;”

or a decree or determination is made concerning them by God. Upon which the Gemara (d) has these words,

“wherefore does the law say pour out water on the feast of tabernacles? Says the holy blessed God, pour out water before me, that the rains of the year may be blessed unto you.”

Now when all these things are considered, it will easily be seen with what pertinency our Lord expresses himself on this day, with respect to the effusion of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, as follows:

Sukkot and the rain
Isa 44:1  Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
Isa 44:2  Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:3  For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

Joe 2:23  Then be glad, sons of Zion, and rejoice in YHWH your God. For He has given to you the early rain according to righteousness, and He will cause the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month.

Joe 2:28  And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Joe 2:29  And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

Hab 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

The Rain

The Torah is likened to rain

Deu 32:2  My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

The root word for Torah has the meaning of rain

King Messiah likened unto the rain
Psa 72:1  <A Psalm for Solomon.> Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.
Psa 72:2  He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
Psa 72:3  The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
Psa 72:4  He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
Psa 72:5  They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
Psa 72:6  He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

Hos 6:3  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain* unto the earth.

*The latter rain refers to the rains of the spring and the former rain refers to the rains of the fall.  This points to the 2 ‘advents’ of the Messiah.  The spring feasts showing forth His first coming and the fall feasts showing forth His second coming.

The Torah was read during Sukkot…the season of the rains

Deu 31:10  And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of seven years in the appointed time, the year of release, in the Feast of Tabernacles,
Deu 31:11  when all Israel comes in to see the face of YHWH in the place which He chooses, you shall proclaim this Law before all Israel, in their ears.
Deu 31:12  Assemble the people, men and women, and the little ones, and your alien who is within your gates, so that they may hear, and so that they may learn, and may fear YHWH your God, and take heed to do all the Words of this Law;

This is why the plague in the Kingdom is no rain if the nations don’t come up to Jerusalem.

Israel rejected the Living Waters

Joh 8:1  But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Joh 8:2  And at dawn, He again arrived into the temple; and all the people came to Him. And sitting down, He taught them.
Joh 8:3  And the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman having been taken in adultery. And standing her in the middle,
Joh 8:4  they said to Him, Teacher, this woman was taken in the very act, committing adultery.
Joh 8:5  And in the Law, Moses commanded that such should be stoned. You, then, what do You say?
Joh 8:6  But they said this, tempting Him, that they may have reason to accuse Him. But bending down, Jesus wrote with the finger in the earth, not appearing to hear.
Joh 8:7  But as they continued questioning Him, bending back up, He said to them, The one among you without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.
Joh 8:8  And bending down again, He wrote in the earth.
Joh 8:9  But hearing, and being convicted by the conscience, they went out one by one, beginning from the older ones, until the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the middle.
Joh 8:10  And Jesus bending back up, and having seen no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are those, the accusers of you? Did not one give judgment against you?
Joh 8:11  And she said, No one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I judge you. Go, and sin no more.
Jer 17:13  O YHWH, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken YHWH, the Fountain of living waters.
Jer 17:14  Heal me, O YHWH, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved; for You are my praise.

Sukkot the Season of our Joy

Lev 23:39  Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
Lev 23:40  And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
Deu 16:13  Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
Deu 16:14  And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.
Deu 16:15  Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.

Joy is connected with the ingathering of the exiles and marriage
End of our Captivity
Psa 126:1  <A Song of degrees.> When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Psa 126:2  Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
Psa 126:3  The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Psa 126:4  Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.
Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Psa 53:6  Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Isa 35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isa 51:11  Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
Jer 31:7  For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Jer 31:8  Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
Jer 31:9  They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Jer 31:10  Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Jer 31:11  For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Jer 31:12  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Jer 31:13  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jer 31:14  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

Jer 33:11  The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever:** and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.

**This phrase…Hodu l’YHWH ki tov Ki l’olam chasdo is associated with the dedication of the Temple.  When was the first Temple dedicated?  Sukkot.

1Ki 7:51  So was ended all the work that king Solomon made for the house of the LORD. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, did he put among the treasures of the house of the LORD.
1Ki 8:1  Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
1Ki 8:2  And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
2Ch 7:8  Also at the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.
2Ch 7:9  And in the eighth day they made a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
2Ch 7:10  And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the LORD had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

Glory of YHWH fills the Temple
1Ki 8:6  And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims.
1Ki 8:10  And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
1Ki 8:11  So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.

It was the cloud/glory of YHWH that led Yisrael in the wilderness and it was the cloud/glory of YHWH that filled the Holy of Holies to let Yisrael know that He would dwell among them.  This occurred, during Solomon’s time during Sukkot.

Our bodies are a Tabernacle

2Pe 1:13  Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
2Pe 1:14  Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

2Co 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Our lives are a tabernacle
Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Heb 11:9  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Heb 11:10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

We abide in YHWH…Sukkot reminds us that He is the one that gives us life and provision
Psa 90:1  A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God. O Lord, You have been our dwelling-place in all generations.

He abides in us
Joh 15:4  Remain in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.
Joh 15:5  I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, because apart from Me you are not able to execute, nothing.
Joh 15:6  Unless one remains in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is dried up; and they gather and throw them into a fire, and they are burned.

Purpose of life
Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Last Great Day – New Jerusalem
Rev 21:2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

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Just about to head out to the Holy ground for the last day of Sukkot.  For those who thought that Sukkot was over 2 days ago let me remind you of Gen 1:14

Genesis 1:14 (NJB)
¹⁴ God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years.

The new moon was sighted 15 days before Sukkot started…  see my post Yom Kippur …. the controversy.

Brenda and I have come to realize that Christmas is a forgery of this festival.

We have had a fantastic joyous time and met many new friends and got re-acquainted with old ones these past 8 days.

TWOT: Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

Most commonly, it is used in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. Once a year the Israelite left his home to tabernacle in a “booth,” made from tree branches (Leviticus 23:34ff.). The feast marked not only the joy and thankfulness of a grateful people for God’s provision at the end of the agricultural season (Leviticus 23:39-41), but was to be a perpetual reminder (Deut. 16:13ff.) to the people of God’s care for his own whom he had rescued from Egypt during those long years in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:42-43). The feast was closed by a day of rest, featured by a holy convocation, marking not only the climax of the religious year but symbolizing the rest of the believer in his God (Leviticus 23:39). Prophetically, the feast finds final fulfillment in that grand day when God will raise up the fallen booth of David (Amos 9:11) and give shelter to his repentant, redeemed, and regathered people (Isaiah 4:6).

What a joyous day THAT will be!

Brenda and I didn’t build a Succa this year but we did participate as much as we could in the teachings and festivities.