VALENTINE
The Truth
Behind St. Valentine
Part 3 - The Truth Behind St. Valentine –
Why Paganism Is Wrong
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Click here for Part 1 -
Click here for
Part 2 -
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Part 3
Why Paganism Is Wrong
Just
why does God hate anything that resembles pagan customs?
Is
it possible to “whitewash” or “Christianize” pagan practices and make them
clean? Is it okay to practice pagan customs as long as you “worship God”?
Notice
what God says in Leviticus chapter 18. After rescuing Israel from slavery,
God warned them not to practice the customs they had picked up in Egypt, or
learn the ways, customs and traditions of the Gentile nations that they would
encounter in the Promised Land (verses 1-3).
Instead,
God commanded Israel to follow His ways (verses 4-5).
God
then describes the pagan ways of these ungodly nations in great detail.
In verses 7-20, He condemns all kinds of heterosexual sex relations that
fall outside the holy boundaries of marriage—incest, fornication, adultery, etc.
In verses
22-23, God condemns homosexuality
and bestiality. Together, these sins
break down and destroy the family unit that God had so lovingly created and
instituted.
Notice what God links to these perversions:
“And
you shall not let any of your seed [children] pass through the fire to Molech,
neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord” (verse 21).
God
ties in the perverse sexual practices of ungodly, pagan nations with human
sacrifices—parents offering the lives of their children to pagan gods!
The
Bible shows that Israel not only disobeyed God and wholeheartedly embraced the
sexual immorality of the Gentiles, they even went a step further.
“And they have turned unto Me the back, and
not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they
have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in
the house [the temple at Jerusalem], which is called by My name, to defile it.
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech;
which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind, that they should do
this abomination, to cause Judah to sin” (Jeremiah 32:33-35).
Imagine.
Israel committed a sin so vile, so disgusting, that it even shocked God!
But
that was then. What about today? Surely, parents do not sacrifice their
children to pagan gods today—or do they?
Do
not be so certain. Perhaps their lives are not being sacrificed—but what
about their innocence?
Parents
today expect their little ones to “fall in love” and have boyfriends and
girlfriends. They think it is “cute” when little boys and girls hold hands and
act like a couple, sneaking a kiss or two when no one is watching.
Some
parents get worried when their kids do not show romantic interest in the
opposite sex. They constantly ask them, “Do you have a boyfriend yet?” or
“Who’s your girlfriend?”
Yet
these same parents are surprised when their teen-aged “little girl” gets
pregnant. Or, catches a sexually transmitted disease. Or gets an abortion
behind their back.
Valentine’s
Day is just one of many tools the “god of this world” uses to get
parents to sacrifice the innocence of their children (2 Corinthians 4:4).
When
little boys and girls draw each other’s names in a lottery and send Valentine
cards and gifts to each other, declaring their “love,” they are learning the
first stages of intimate relations that the Creator God designed specifically
for emotionally mature adults.
Instead
of embracing the carefree innocence of youth, growing up without the headaches
and heartaches of adulthood (finding a job, paying bills, marriage, raising a
family, etc.), children today are taught to lust after each other.
They
are caught up in a daily drama of “If-you-loved-me-you’d-sleep-with-me;
I’m-pregnant; It’s-not-mine, she-had-an-abortion.”
By
the time they reach adulthood, virtually every shred of innocence, sincerity
and moral decency has been stripped from them. Emotionally drained, they have
world-weary, “been there, done that” attitudes. And their lives are just
beginning.
This
is why we live in a world where a teen-aged virgin is a rare find. Where what
used to be called “shacking up” and “living in sin” is now simply “living
together.”
Where
sex is nothing more than meaningless physical recreation—no emotional
attachments, no cares, no concerns. Where people change sex partners as
conveniently as they change clothes.
Where
unmarried twenty- or thirty-somethings have had at least five sexual
partners—and that is considered a low number, especially in the United States.
Where men are not referred to as “my husband,” or “my fiancé,” but as “my
second baby’s father.”
How
pathetic!
Satan
has deceived the whole world in multiple ways—especially when it comes to
intimate relationships (Revelation
12:9).
Valentine’s
Day is just one of his tools for deception.
“Come
Out of Her, My People”
Concerning the near future, when man’s
Satan-influenced world is about to collapse, God declares, “Babylon the great
is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils [demons], and the
hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For
all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings
of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the
earth are waxed [increased] rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:2-3).
Concerning this pagan, satanic system, God
commands true Christians, “Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers
of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (verse 4).
Valentine’s Day originates from the ancient
paganism of this Satan-influenced world. It is designed to deceive mankind by
appealing to fleshly, carnal desires—or, as the Bible calls them, the works of the
flesh. “Now
the works of the flesh are manifest [made obvious], which are these; Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry…drunkenness, revellings, and
such like”
(Galatians
5:19-21).
Do
any of these sound like Lupercalia
to you?
Ultimately, “they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.”
A
true Christian is focused on God’s soon-coming kingdom and the world to
come—not on the fleshly cravings of this world (Matthew 6:33).
A
true Christian must strive to “put off the old man” and actively imitate the perfect,
righteous example of Jesus Christ.
A
Christian knows that he must actively come out of this world, out of its
pagan-infested customs, practices and traditions.
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Click here for Part 1 -
Click here for
Part 2 -
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http://amredeemed.com/religious-doctrines/roman-catholic-church/truth-behind-st-valentine/
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