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4 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course Test 4

me a commandment, what I should say; and breath of air you breathe, is provoked to ANGER
what I should speak. And I know that His by such pagan and heathen practices! Yes, even
commandment is LIFE EVERLASTING: today!
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father Notice they made a nice “family” custom
said unto me, so I speak" (John 12:49-50). out of it. Even the kiddies had a part to play! The
The letter we received said: “Your idea “daddies” and “mummies” all entered into it.
of doing away with Easter is immature." And -- it probably seemed pretty good to them.
It’s not OUR idea. After all, isn’t a pleasant hearthside chat
Don’t misunderstand. We don’t print any good? Isn’t the smell of baking cakes around the
placards saying, “Help Stamp Out Easter!” We home-fire good? And isn’t it fun when the
have no intention of starting a movement to “do children can play with the dough, and perhaps
away” with it. That would be a mountainous make quaint little designs of their own? It really
task, indeed! APPEALS to children!
And, as to what is or is not “immature” -- And the SYMBOLS on the cakes? Well
just what is “mature” about Easter? -- such historical problems never occur to
The pagan goddess “Ishtar” (pro- children, unfortunately -- nor to their mothers. If
nounced, today, “Easter”) was an imaginary it’s colorful, fun, exciting, and the kiddies
figment of a weird, pagan fool (only the fool has ENJOY it -- that’s “good enough for them.”
said in his heart there is no God!). Mark that. A
goddess “Ishtar” didn’t exist! But ancient
Babylonians -- including their poor deceived
little children, and their mothers, thought she
did.
So they busily perpetuated customs
accompanying their belief in this would-be
goddess of sex, fertility, productivity, and
perpetual life.
They even made it a family-type
ceremony. It’s described in your Bible!
YEHOVAH God inspired Jeremiah to describe
some of the pagan ceremonies carried down into
And, again, all this is good old-fashioned
our societies today -- “Seest thou not what they
human reasoning -- even sounds logical -- if
do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
there is no God. But there IS a God, and that
Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the
great God has utterly condemned the practices of
fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead
heathen, pagan, sun-worshiping savages; just as
their dough, to make cakes to the queen of
He has condemned the seemingly innocent
heaven [again -- the same wildly imaginary
COPYING of those identical practices, and then
figure, dreamed up by superstitious heathens!],
calling them by a different Christian-sounding
and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods,
name.
THAT THEY MAY PROVOKE ME TO
But mark this. YEHOVAH God, out of
ANGER"! (Jeremiah 7:17-18.)
mercy, allowed the sudden slaughter of those
YEHOVAH God asserts, “I change not”!
rebellious people for such customs. (Read the
(Malachi 3:6), and Paul wrote, “Jesus Christ,
succeeding chapters in the book of Jeremiah!)
the same, yesterday, today and forever”
Why. Because departing from His laws led them
(Hebrews 13:8). Then, according to your Bible,
into such unspeakable wretchedness it brought
your Creator and the God who gives you every