February 17, 2016
Dear Members and Coworkers,
We wanted to mention right here at the beginning something about this month’s offer, a message entitled “Three Days and Three Nights” by Garner Ted Armstrong. Yes, it’s early before the annual commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Mainstream Christianity celebrates the occasion on Easter Sunday morning, a mere day and a half following “Good Friday.” So why did the Savior Himself go to such lengths to say, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”?
Even though our main offer this month is the CD entitled “Three Days and Three Nights,” if you don’t already have a copy, we’ll be happy to include our booklet, Should Christians Observe EASTER or the PASSOVER? It goes into the obvious pagan origins of the customs of Easter, often citing the Catholic Encyclopedia as a source of that history and information, beginning with the name of the holiday! Here’s a sample from that booklet.
“Here’s what the vaunted Catholic Encyclopedia has to say about Easter: ‘The English term, according to the Venerable Bede (De temporum ratione,I,v) relations to Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring…that the Apostolic fathers [the apostles of Christ] do not mention it and that we first hear of it principally through the controversy of the Quartodecimans are purely accidental’ (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 224)
“Bunnies are cuddly to little children. So are tiny chickens, and gaily-colored eggs. Concerning Easter eggs, the Catholic Encyclopedia somewhat reluctantly admits, ‘The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring…the Easter rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility…’”
It has always been something of a mystery, how Catholic “scholars” could have published such an incredibly lame explanation as the one in the quote just above, or that it could have been so widely accepted by all the Protestant denominations that have brought such nonsense forward all the way to the present day. The Easter rabbit lays the eggs? No self-respecting rabbit ever “laid an egg,” but even if one ever did, how on earth does that lead to, “for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden”?
The research my Dad did for the booklet goes on to detail many other customs that have been practiced in Germany and in England alongside Easter which most modern nominal Christians have never known about. But it’s all harmless stuff, right? All the Easter rabbit and colored eggs are just meant to add to the interest and enjoyment of little children after all! Or is it more serious than that?
Even casual readers of the Bible should know of the warnings addressed to Israel, and to converts in the New Testament, about “learning the way of the heathen,” and about adding to or detracting from any of the commands concerning the worship of the true God.
When we take a look at current news from around the world, and particularly concerning the state of affairs in Europe and the United States, does it make you wonder at all as to whether some of those warnings aren’t beginning to take effect?
Europe has been flooded with Muslims from across northern Africa and the Middle East. While EU and national leaders try to cover up the extent of the crime wave that their new “guests” have created, the news of assaults, muggings and sexual attacks against women inevitably gets around via social media and eventually gets reported. Nevertheless, Europeans are now acutely aware of the roving gangs of “refugee children” roaming city streets, and the new dangers that now prevent indigenous citizens from living the peaceful carefree lives they took for granted until recently. But that’s not even the extent of the new problem that has come about largely as a result of the actions of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
ISIS boasts that they have infiltrated terrorists among the “refugee” population. Some few have already been identified, but there are plenty more. The one who was involved in the Paris massacre was from Yemen, with close ties to al Qaeda. There have been numerous other raids and arrests from France to Germany to Belgium of terrorist cells stockpiling weapons and explosives for additional attacks.
The fact that Europe as a whole is in dire financial straights with several EU member states having to be bailed out, has been a recurring theme over the past three years. Now they’ve got to figure out how to shelter and feed over a million unappreciative Muslims, at the same time they are beefing up intelligence and security to try to prevent bombings and mass shootings. That additional security and law enforcement must come with a hefty price tag for many countries already in deep financial distress. In addition to the imported crime wave and terrorist threat there is a growing movement of protest against the Muslim onslaught, often drawing massive crowds willing to go head to head with riot police. This too has to represent massive expenditures.
Surely most of our readers are well aware of the overwhelming troubles that are being foisted upon the United States by a president that exercises his own resentments against the very nation he purports to represent. He’s shown an abiding determination to allow some of the most undesirable specimens of third world humanity on earth to be lodged and coddled in American society without the knowledge or approval of local authorities or citizens. His intention is to make all these “immigrants” citizens, redistribute the income of future generations to them now by simply adding to our national debt.
This is only one of several ways in which the national heritage of the United States is being trodden under the boot of “political correctness,” spent into ruinous debt and robbed of every Constitutional benefit our founders were inspired by God to bestow upon our great nation. Despite our modern conveniences and military prowess, we’re no longer behaving as a great nation, but rather an institutional promoter of unnatural behavior and appeaser of sworn enemies.
My Grandfather, Herbert W. Armstrong, my Dad, Garner Ted Armstrong and the Church of God as a whole, have made it an enduring cause to call for national repentance (not only in the United States, but also for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and western Europe) for having strayed so far from the Truth of God, and for having become so comfortable with the sins of this world, including its false doctrines and false traditions of religious worship.
The seeds of destruction for the whole of western civilization have not only been sown, they’ve taken root and will choke off all the blessings of freedom if things continue as they are. Europe will see massive political upheaval in the months or years ahead. The U. S. is headed for disaster on any number of fronts, and the prospects for a major turnaround are looking mighty dim, particularly in light of the presidential prospects and their behavior. But there is hope for those who remain true!
Sincerely,
Mark Armstrong
