"Father Time"
Another symbol of New Year's celebrations is equally pagan! It is the familiar figure of a white-haired man carrying a scythe. What does he represent? The ancient Greek god Cronos. It is from the name "Cronos" we derive our "chronograph" which measures time.
Among the Greek gods, Cronos originally cut a swath of human sacrifice with his sharpened scythe! The "silent reaper" anciently "reaped" little children in horrible episodes of mythical cannibalism! This Greek rite of human sacrifice was adopted by ancient Rome, where human sacrifice was practiced at least until 300 A.D.
No wonder God Almighty warns the pagan New Year's celebration is an abomination to Him! See Deuteronomy 12:31.
Strange as it seems, the professing Christian world praises and practices customs and days of pagan origin — thinly cloaking them in "Christian" sounding names! You too, may have accepted these vain traditions of men, never realizing they are PAGAN TO THE CORE!
"In vain do they worship me," said Jesus Christ, "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men!"
Jesus said it is possible to worship God — to venerate the name of Christ — and still do it all in vain!
"Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition," He continued, ". . . making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered!" (Mark 7:7, 9, 13)
Many people will confess, when forced to, the pagan origin of these days. But they stubbornly refuse to stop observing them! God is their Judge!
Don't you make this mistake!
When Does God Begin the New Year?
Remember! It is God Almighty who created the Universe. He set the heavenly bodies in their courses at Creation. It is by His "master-clock" that time is determined.
The earth's rotation regulates the length of a day — the lunar phases indicate the length of a month. And the orbit of the earth around the sun dictates the length of a year!
But only God has the authority to set the date of the beginning of the new year!
God's sacred calendar year begins in the spring — not in the middle of a dead winter! Notice Exodus 12:1-2, "And the Eternal spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you."
The first month of God's sacred calendar is called, in the Bible, Abib. It means the month of "green ears." Later, the Jews called it Nisan — a Babylonian word having the same meaning.
It was in the month of Abib or Nisan that Israel came out of Egyptian captivity under Moses (Ex. 34:18). The Hebrew month Abib overlaps the months of March-April on the pagan Roman calendar in use today.
God placed the beginning of the sacred year in the early spring to mark the beginning of the seasonal harvests. The two annual harvests in Palestine foreshadowed God's Plan for the twofold spiritual harvest of souls to be born into His Kingdom.
Your Bible speaks of a great false religious system which will "think to change times and laws" (Dan. 7:25). This system has deliberately thought to change the beginning of God's calendar year in an attempt to hide God's Plan for the salvation of mankind! But man has no authority to change God's "master-clock."
Satan, however, has cleverly deceived the world into believing the new year begins on January first!
Why National Captivity?
The very same pagan practices God condemns in the Old Testament are being perpetuated in our modern world today!
The very same festivals of paganism adopted by ancient Israel have become an integral part of this modern society!
Read, in II Kings 17:15-18, the reason why God Almighty took ancient Israel into captivity: "And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them!"
What was the result of Israel following the customs of the heathen nations around them?
"Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. . . and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight. . . So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day!" (II Kings 17:18, 20, and 23)
Israel never returned as a nation to the land of Palestine!
Israel was lost! Its true identity was concealed until modern times! Now there is proof that the lost ten tribes of ancient Israel migrated to Northwestern Europe. The chief peoples among them have become the United States and British Commonwealth today! (If you don't already have your copy of our free booklet, The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy, send for it immediately)
Modern Paganism Will Be Punished!
Do you suppose God has changed His mind about compromising with paganism?
"For I am the Lord, I change not!" warns the Eternal in Malachi 3:6. This same reminder is repeated in Hebrews 13:8.
Speaking to the modern nations of Israel today, Almighty God says, "As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Eternal God; Go ye, serve ye everyone his idols and thereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols" (Ezek. 20:39).
In other words, God is saying, "Be pagan if you insist; but quit calling it Christian."
God continues to warn modern Israel against the holidays of paganism, in Hosea 2:11:
"I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days [days the people chose], her new moons [marking the beginning of the pagan New Year], and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." Notice that these were Israel's feast days — those Israel had acquired from the pagan nations around them — not those God had originally instituted through His Bible! "And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them . . ." (verse 13)!
The very same punishment awaits any nation today that forsakes God's law as revealed in His Holy Bible, and turns to the customs of pagan nations — observing pagan days of worship!
Does it make any difference if you continue observing pagan customs — like New Year's? It certainly does! God says so!
What You Should Do
God Almighty prophesies a final revival of Babylonian religion in great power just before He cuts short man's misrule of this earth. Read His warning in Revelation 18:
"And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen. . . 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 rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 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!"
New Year's celebration began in Babylon 4,000 years ago. It is practiced today by almost every people on the face of the earth. Satan the Devil has indeed deceived the whole world! (Rev. 12:9)
But God Almighty has sent His ministers to warn this world — to cry aloud, and spare not, and sow His PEOPLE THEIR SINS (Isa. 58:1). Punishment will not be forever withheld!
May God help you to HEED THIS WARNING, and forsake the pagan practices of this modern world!