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For Lukewarm, Disobedient Secular Believers

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And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors Me with their lips
but their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Having left behind the commandment of [YeHoVaH], you hold on to the tradition of men.”

He was also telling them, “You set aside the commands of [YeHoVaH], in order that you may validate your own tradition. ~ Mark 7:6-9 (also read Isaiah 29:13 and Matthew 15:8-9)

but Jacob journeyed to Sukkot and built a house for himself, and for his livestock he made booths. That is the reason that place is called Sukkot. ~ Genesis 33:17

For a week now, I have seen several Facebook postings in which the poster(s) has said the same thing, or similarly worded, as I have done in the above image. On a few of those postings, I made several variations of the following:

Evidently, the poster doesn’t know, or the poster refuses to believe or accept, that Christmas is a man-made holiday and season. It is common knowledge that Yeshua (a.k.a., Christ, Jesus, and Jesus Christ) wasn’t born on December 25, yet countless Christians not only continue to celebrate Christmas and its season but also continue to lie about their Savior’s birth just so that they can feel justified in keeping a pagan holiday.

Christians’ Bible makes it clear that it was too cold and rainy during the ninth month (Kislev) of Israel (November – December on the Gregorian calendar). Ezra 10:9 and Jeremiah 36:22 both mention that in the month of Kislev the weather was rainy and cold, so shepherds would not have had their sheep outside on December 25 because, by December 25, Israel would have been into its tenth month, Tevet (or Tebeth), which is December – January on the Gregorian calendar. If it was too cold and rainy in Kislev, then it was even colder in the month of Tevet – especially where December 25 is concerned, which is when Christendom and the secular world claim Yeshua was born.

The uncomfortable truth is that Yeshua was born on a feast day that the Jewish people have always celebrate – the Feast of Tabernacles (when He physically came to Earth and tabernacled with the Hebrews). The Feast of Tabernacles is one of the seven annual Feast Days (Moedim or Appointed Times) YeHoVaH (God) established, and the Jewish Yeshua kept every one of these feast days, in more than one way.

It is more likely that YeHoVaH is using people’s current gift-buying frenzy to reach the lukewarm, disobedient secular believers who keep Christmas – an unholy tradition of men. This year’s gift-buying frenzy started because some retailers predict that there would not be enough items to choose from the closer folks get to December 25. There can be  no doubt that YeHoVaH wants these people to stop celebrating Christmas, as well as all the other secular holidays, because His Son wasn’t born on the pagan Gentile holiday known as Christmas, He didn’t die on the pagan Good Friday or rise from the grave on the pagan Easter Sunday.

Now, there are plenty of believers who keep telling other believers that YeHoVaH (God) did not tell anyone (neither Jew nor Gentile) to celebrate Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, etc. because these holidays are pagan. Unfortunately, more Christians continue to keep these pagan holidays than the saints who keep the biblical Feast Days YeHoVaH commanded His people to keep.

If Christians really believe they are supposed to live holy and righteously as Yeshua did, then why are so many of them still celebrating Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Halloween, etc.? Yeshua never celebrated these, or other, traditions of men and neither did His Disciples and Apostles. Furthermore, there are plenty of Bible verses that prove to everyone who believes in YeHoVaH and Yeshua that Yeshua kept all of YeHoVaH’s Feast Days, as well as kept the Mosaic Law.

For example, the Torah (Old Testament) contains the stories about the Israelites’ captivity and exodus. Historically speaking, the Israelites began celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles long before Yeshua was born on the Feast of Tabernacles, as well as many centuries before Christians made Christmas a holiday. The Hebrews celebrated the holy Feast of Tabernacles because YeHoVaH established this feast day as a special holy time of the year for them to remember He had the sons of Israel live in booths when He brought them out from the land of Egypt (see Leviticus 23:42-43). Therefore, there was no need for the Hebrews to create a day and a season to celebrate the birth of Yeshua – the day He physically began to tabernacle among them – because the day Yeshua was born was one of the already established seven annual feasts days they were commanded to keep.

The uncomfortable truth is that everyone is lying who says Christmas is when Yeshua was born and that His birth is why they celebrate Christmas and the Christmas season. Those who know Yeshua wasn’t born on December 25 yet say it doesn’t matter if they or the masses believe Christmas is as good as any day to celebrate Yeshua’s birthday have deceived themselves. The undeniable truth is that Christmas and its season were created from the pagan traditions of men – lies.

For those who don’t believe putting up a decorated Christmas tree is a pagan Christmas tradition, there are many other traditions associated with cutting down a Christmas tree, putting it in homes, and decorating it. There are the Christmas traditions of kissing under a mistletoe, cutting down holly trees and hanging holly plants in homes for good luck, hanging wreaths,  caroling from house to house (a.k.a., wassailing), hanging ivy plants in pots inside homes,  burning yule logs, believing in Odin – a pagan god who often was depicted as a chubby old man with a white beard who wore a long flowing cloak (i.e., Santa Claus), and gift-giving. Every one of these pagan traditions of men is an aspect of pagan holidays that were adapted into Christmas celebrations in the early years.

Now, Christians should already know that the only one who can establish HOLY DAYS and HOLY SEASONS is YeHoVaH, and the only HOLY DAYS and HOLY SEASONS He established for humanity are His regular and high Sabbaths and His seven annual Feast Days (Moedim or Appointed Times). Every one of His seven Moedim is about His Son, Yeshua. These biblical and Divine Truths are why YeHoVaH has never given any men or women the authority to create or designated what they call Holy Days. That is why their Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and other special “festive” days are just holidays.

In this century, as previously stated, it is  common knowledge that Yeshua’s birth was not on December 25 because this day is  when the pagan gods are remembered. That is why it should be evident to Christians that a Holy, Omniscient YeHoVaH, who knew beforehand everything that would happen on Earth, would not allow His Holy Son to be born on a day that pagan gods are remembered.

Plenty of Messianic Jews celebrate Yeshua’s birthday during the Feast of Tabernacles, and the following six reasons are why:



1. Many Messianic Jews believe that the manger that is mentioned in the New Testament was more likely a sukkah or tabernacle – the kind the Israelites built during the biblical feast of Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles (see Leviticus 23:33–43). The biblical connection between a manger and a sukkah is found in Genesis 33:17. The writer of Genesis says that Jacob built booths for his livestock. The Hebrew writer is letting Gentiles know that sukkah (plural, sukkot) can also mean a barn for livestock, a manger, and a temporary shelter similar to the one the Israelites dwelt in during the biblically commanded Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles).


2. Sukkot of the Feast of Tabernacles provides a deeper understanding of the Bible verse, “ …the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…” (John 1:14a). Additionally, for the Hebrews, Sukkot is the season of their joy. That is why Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles was the more appropriate time to for the angels to declare ““Glory to God in the highest, and on earth shalom to men of good will.” (Luke 2:14). Indeed, it also is written:

Shout joyfully to [YeHoVaH], all the earth.
Break forth, sing for joy, and sing praises.
Sing praises to [YeHoVaH] with the harp,
with the harp and a voice of melody.
With trumpets and sound of the shofar
blast a sound before the King, [YeHoVaH] ~ Psalm 98:4-6

Since Sukkot not only is a festival of joy but also the “Festival of the Nations,” when the angel told the Jewish shepherds to not “…be afraid! For behold, I proclaim Good News to you, which will be great joy to all the people” (Luke 2:10), that angel was actually speaking a Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) greeting to them.

3. This joy to the world truth is why, as previously stated, shepherds would not have been out in any field with their sheep in the dead of winter in Israel (i.e., December 25).


4. Also, since the Romans would want to have as many Hebrews participate in their census, they would not have had people traveling during Israel’s rainy or cold months. That is why it would be more likely that King Herod used the time of the Festival of Sukkot to have a census – the time when Jewish families in Jerusalem and those that traveled to Jerusalem celebrated this feast instead of on Chanukah (Hanukkah), which is the festival that falls around December 25 on the Gregorian calendar. One of the reasons why King Herod would not have chosen on Chanukah as the time for the Roman census is, according to biblical historians and scholars, because King Herod  loathed and feared the Hasmoneans – the descendants of the Maccabee family.


5. Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles is the only Feast in which YeHoVaH commands the Jewish people to be joyful (see Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Looks like YeHoVaH not only established Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles to be a remembrance of the time when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt but also established Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles as to be a future seven-day birthday celebration for His Son, Yeshua.


6. The day that follows the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot is called “The Eighth Day” (see Leviticus 23:39). Since Yeshua more than likely was born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, He would have had to be circumcised on the “Eighth Day,” which literally would fulfill the Scripture that says, “ In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin is to be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:3).

Once again, if Christians really believe they are supposed to live holy and righteously as Yeshua did, then knowing that He kept YeHoVaH’s seven annual Feast Days, Sabbaths, and the rest of the Mosaic Law should be more than enough information that would make them want to stop celebrating Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Halloween, etc. The reasons why they don’t stop are because they haven’t heard anyone teach or preach the common knowledge pertaining to Yeshua’s birth not being on December 25, haven’t studied the Bible verses about the kind of weather Israel had in their months that correspond to the western world’s month of December, haven’t studied the Bible verses about YeHoVaH’s seven annual Feast Days, haven’t studied how Yeshua already fulfilled most of these seven Feast Days and will fulfill the others in the end times, or, as lukewarm, disobedient secular believes, don’t care what YeHoVaH established or commanded – they reject His established and commanded Feast Days and Sabbaths so that they not only can validate their own traditions which are rooted in unholy pagan traditions but also so that they can use their traditions to teach lies about what day Yeshua was born and the season in which He was born. Selah!

Man-Made Holidays Aren’t YeHoVaH’s Moedim

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6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors Me with their lips
but their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 Having left behind the commandment of [YeHoVaH], you hold on to the tradition of men.” – Mark 7:6-8, TLV; the bracketed word is my emphasis

8 See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men and the basic principles of the world rather than Messiah. – Colossians 2:8, TLV

As it was in biblical times so has it been in our Common Era. In fact, it would seem that religious leaders have always had a propensity for either inappropriately adding their man-made traditions to the Law of YeHoVaH or completely replacing His Commandments with their own. Moreover, each time they added their own traditions or replaced YeHoVaH’s Commandments, those new man-made customs and replacements made YeHoVaH’s Law of no effect. Now, it should be noted that the word traditions, as used in this blog entry, means that which has been handed down or passed on to others – whether by word of mouth or in writing.

The above-mentioned truth about added traditions of men making YeHoVaH’s Law of no effect have is why Yeshua knew full well that, if He disregarded the seemingly harmless traditions of the religious leaders in His day, His behavior would stir the Pharisees’ righteous indignation. Furthermore, Yeshua not only violated the man-made traditions of the experts in the Law but also taught that these religious leaders’ traditions were dangerous.

Today, believers in Yeshua can see the massive damage that man-made traditions have done to so-called Christians. Because of the often referred to as harmless man-made holidays – many of which have either added to or completely replaced YeHoVaH’s Moedim and other Holy Days (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Day of First Fruits, Feast of Pentecost,  Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the regular Sabbath) – and because of the additions of church programs (orders of worship), gimmicks, man-made holidays, and hierarchies that often are referred to as harmless customs, Christians have essentially developed a lack of personal holiness, an infrequent faith-walk, and a socially acceptable complacency, as well as have effectively blocked most of YeHoVaH’s intended way of life He has wanted His Children to live on earth.

Since this is the Christmas season, showing a sharp contrast between the Law of YeHoVaH and religious leaders’ traditions of men is necessary. Yeshua, Himself, declared that the Jewish religious leaders had “…left behind the commandment of [YeHoVaH]…” (Mark 7:8), had “..set aside the commands of [YeHoVaH], in order that [they] may validate [their] own tradition” (Mark 7:9), and were “making void the word of [YeHoVaH] with [their] tradition that [they’ve] handed down…” (Mark 7:13) by not keeping what “…Moses said…” (Mark 7:10).

Without a doubt, most modern-day Christian religious leaders have continued many of the old traditions of men started by the Roman Catholic Church. Most of those old traditions of men had completely replaced the Moedim (appointed times or holy days) of YeHoVaH with new religious seasons, sacred days, and holidays – like keeping Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath and celebrating Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (Feast of Three Kings), Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter.

For centuries, men have been adding their oral traditions to the written Word of YeHoVaH. Beginning with the written Torah, as dictated by YeHoVaH to Moses who wrote it down and then shared YeHoVaH’s Law with the Israelites, this written Torah was significantly expanded with the oral Torah, which includes The Mishnah, the Talmud, the Tosefta, the Kabbala, and so on and so forth. Each one of these oral traditions became additions to the original written Law of YeHoVaH. They were humans’ interpretations – what men thought YeHoVaH intended to express in Scripture. My point here is that the Roman Bishops and other religious leaders in the early Roman Catholic Church were not the only ones who added to the Word of YeHoVaH.

The problem is that YeHoVaH has warned His Jewish people and, by extension, all of His Children who are saved through Yeshua, about altering His Word. He advised them, and us, about not adding to or subtracting from what He gave to them – and to us via surviving manuscripts. In spite of His clear biblical warning, adding to and subtracting from His Word is exactly what has happened.

At Yeshua’s First Coming, the traditions of men had become the Letter of the Law – completely taking over the Spirit of the Law. As a result, Yeshua repeatedly called the Pharisees hypocrites. Since then, many non-Jewish religious leaders have moved the masses of so-called Christians so far away from, for example, YeHoVaH’s Law, including His established eternal Moedim, by completely replacing them with many seemingly harmless oral traditions. As previously mentioned, the result has been that Christians have essentially developed a lack of personal holiness, an infrequent faith-walk, and a socially acceptable complacency, as well as have effectively blocked most of YeHoVaH’s intended way of life He has wanted His Children to live on earth.

It should be clear that no man-made tradition is better than YeHoVaH’s Law. Even so, the sad truth is that many Christians who keep breaking His Law by adding to or subtracting from YeHoVaH’s Word will hear Yeshua tell them to depart from Him because He knows them not. When Yeshua returns again for His Second Coming and finds left behind Christians continuing, for example, to keep Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath and/or continuing to celebrate Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (Feast of Three Kings), Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter instead of observing YeHoVaH’s commanded Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Day of First Fruits, Feast of Pentecost,  Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the regular Sabbath, Yeshua won’t just call these surviving or resurrected Christians hypocrites. He will cast them into the Lake of Fire.

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Shalom!

Stubborn As Mule

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

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I composed this poem on December 8, 2019, after seeing so many Christmas postings in my Facebook newsfeed that professed Christians posted. It is hard to believe that – in this twenty-first century – so many who declare they are Christians are still kicking against the goads (are still refusing to hear YeHoVah’s Voice about not following/not keeping the traditions of men). They have closed their souls and their ears to His Truth – choosing to be unfaithful to His Will and His Ways. Perhaps the real problem is that they are Christians instead of Netzarim (faithful servants/disciples/saints of Yeshua).

By stubbornly refusing to obey YeHoVaH, Christmas celebrators and believers are driving their individual goad in deeper and deeper. Choosing to be unfaithful to YeHoVaH’s Divine Truth, by rejecting the Holy Spirit’s teaching/revealing, causes the necessary pain that comes from His Discipline, which eventually will happen to them, if it hasn’t already begun. Selah . . . .

Why would you be so stubborn as to close your hearts and your ears to me? You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just like your forefathers! – Acts 7:51, TPT