Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BCE), one of ancient Rome’s greatest scholars and a prolific author, defined feriae as “days instituted for the sake of the gods.” Religious rites were performed on the feriae, and public business was suspended. Even slaves were supposed to be given some form of rest.
I would imagine most people would respond to the previous fact with a quick “so what, what does that have to do with me?” Even so, the regular and faith attendee of the local church may say, “and that has what to do with faith?” Let’s look into this matter then shall we?
Exodus 20:9-11 “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
I could go on for days on the subject of Sabbath and its importance, to which, some have said I already did just that. What I am trying to expose here is the blatant disregard for the command of YHVH. Having heard the statement made several times, I stand in shock with those asking; how is it the only commandment that begins with the word ‘remember’ is the first one forgotten?! Exodus 20:8
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
What Varro knew to be “holy” or “religious” were the days dedicated to the pagan pantheon of ‘gods’. For example, the first day of the month, a day sacred to the god Juno, was the Kalends (or Calends, from which the English word “calendar” derives). As the daughter of Saturn, she is the wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. She is the Roman equivalent of Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology.
Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina (“Queen”) and was a member of the Capitoline Triad (Juno Capitolina), centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome; it consisted of her, Jupiter, and Diana, the goddess of wisdom.
Question: still not convinced this has ANYTHING to do with modern faith? Hang On!
In part one we exposed the false god/goddess worship centered around Gaia and how it is the root of “Mother’s Day”. Here we are going to look at the deception that is contained in the Father’s Day holiday (holy-day). As we can see from Varro, the Romans thought they were conquering the gods of other nations as they conquered the peoples of the world. A byproduct of that was replacing the religious practices by convincing the people to serve the Roman mighty ones.
- Deuteronomy 11:16 “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them”
- Deuteronomy 17:3 “And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded”
- Deuteronomy 31:20 “For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.”
Do we see evidence of this in the time of Jesus? Absolutely! He is continually pointing out the additions to the faith the Pharisees are teaching. These additions were born out of the pagan practices they learned in Egypt. These were things Paul also dealt with on a daily basis! When Rome conquered Greece in 146 B.C. they immediately began renaming the gods and goddesses if the Greek pantheon. The goal was to assimilate religion among the conquered nations as soon as possible.
I dropped a couple of hints in the paragraph about Juno, the “queen”, lets see if they find truth.
Acts 17:16-17 “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed (had long conversations) he in the synagogue with the Jews (followers of, and the Pharisees), and with the devout persons (those following Yeshua), and in the market daily with them that met with him.(the common folk)
What were all the long conversations about? In verses eighteen to twenty-one, same chapter, Paul details the crowd listening… “certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks”
- Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek form of hedonism insofar as it declares pleasure to be its sole intrinsic goal.
- Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic, and its views based on the natural world. (Darwinism)
“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” Acts 17:22
I could say the same, just insert “men of Christianity”, but for now I will hold claim to that epitaph. I was too superstitious about my faith in prior years. And really, I am trying to steer all of this towards the exposure of ‘Fathers Day’…… But listen to Paul closely here…. verse twenty-three…. its painful …it was painful to me….
“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”
Here is the reality that Paul lays out for them….
Acts 17:24-25 “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath to all things”
The people have traded the true God for these false gods and have made for themselves a complete system of worship. It is organized, regimented and regulated by the state. The calendar is set by the state and must be obeyed. You would be fined for operating business on a holy-day. Ever wonder why you cannot buy a car on a Sunday in some states? Here is where it originated.
The modern day man that desires to follow Christ is shackled by the conquest of Rome on the teachers of the Word. In their ignorance they proclaim Roman holy-days and the worship of false gods. They even justify them with the very Word of God! (honor your father and mother)
There is an example given by many of the destruction of mankind being similar to the boiling of a frog. “How do you boil a frog? In hot water or cold?” Most everyone answers without thinking and say “hot!” because we associate boil and hot together. Then reality sets in and we devise, “putting a frog in a hot pot he will want to jump out immediately” so we put him in a comfortable pot and turn the heat up.
The “frog”, or the followers of God, were placed in the comfortable pot a long time ago. The heat is currently being turned up! This is how Paul describes it… “And the times of this ignorance God winked at;(overlooked) but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.”
The reason God had overlooked it…. remember he said …”until the fullness of the Gentiles”. Until all the world knew the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Roman “pot” of paganism was comfortable to the masses; inclusion and acceptance lives in the heart of all men, thus the religion of comfort, and deception, began.
- “Not the Creator of Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3,-but the Catholic Church can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days.” (S. C. Mosna, Storia della Domenica, 1969, pp. 366-367)
- “The Pope is of great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws… The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth.” (Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Ribliotheca, Papa, art. 2, translated)
- “The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” (Canon and Tradition, p. 263)
“It is interesting to note how often our Church has availed herself of practices which were in common use among pagans…Thus it is true that Catholic rites and ceremonies are a reproduction of those of pagan creeds.”
(The Externals of the Catholic Church, Her Government, Ceremonies, Festivals, Sacramentals and Devotions, by John F. Sullivan, p 156, published by P.J. Kennedy, NY, 1942)
It should be firmly established in everyone’s mind at this point: Rome is the “many antichrists” John is referring to in his first and second epistles.
Finally….. on to Father’s Day….
Feriae Latinae was celebrated by members of a number of ancient Latin tribes who led simple, pastoral lives and worshiped Jupiter on the Alban Mount about 13 miles outside of Rome. During the observances, all wars were stopped. A sacrifice of a young white cow to Jupiter set off the celebrations and was followed by a ritual pouring of milk. (Indianapolis 500 comes to mind.)
The people of Rome would get together at the temple of Jupiter, which was built in the 6th century B.C.E., to take part in the ceremonial libation and animal sacrifice. They also held a feast and games that continued for two days afterward.
Jupiter (from Latin: Iūpiter [ˈjuːpɪtɛr] or Iuppiter [ˈjʊpːɪtɛr],[11] from Proto-Italic *djous “day, sky” + *patēr “father”, thus “sky father”). According to Wikipedia “Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras.” As a side note or after-thought they add “until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire.” As we have seen by their own admission, it is definitely an ‘AND’ became the dominant religion. And most assuredly still is THE most dominant religion.
Feriae Latinae and Parentalia, another spring festival, were combined over the course of time. Parentalia was observed in praise of the manes, or souls of the dead. More specifically, individuals would use this time to honor their deceased relatives. Parentalia began an eight-day period of the year during which Romans would remember the dead that ended with Feralia. The first day after the 8-day period devoted to the dead—was a day of forgiveness, restoration of friendships and reconciliation of conflicts between neighbors.
Do you see, dear ones, the blurring of the lines between faith and fiction. These people believed man had the power to facilitate their own salvation in these events. That is how the Pharisees were lead astray and thus they lead the people astray. We can see from our current day calendar the far reaching affects of the Roman pagan system.
The final days of the Parentalia were quiet, solemn occasion, without the gleeful and joyous characteristics of earlier part of the spring festivals. Temples, shops and public buildings closed down, and people became preoccupied with decorating graves with flowers and foods, believing that these offerings would be appreciated and actually eaten by the spirits of the dead.”
The comfortable pot offers up the sky god and father Jupiter (aka.Zeus/Atlas, etal), along with the Queen of the Heavens (Minerva/Diana, etal) and the elevation of humans to the status of godhood. To which, the modern day equivalence is Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Memorial Day. Which the church endorses without care of the truth contained both in scripture and history.
God established His “calendar” and it is spelled out for us in great detail all throughout Scripture.
Genesis 1:14-18 “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.”
Exodus 12:1-8 “And the Lord 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. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”
2 Chronicles 8:13 “Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.”
These are Gods appointed time for mankind to feast, worship and commune in the name of YHVH the Creator of the world! It is when HE plans to meet His people! Why would you want to miss (most really avoid it) the opportunity? Paul tells the people converting from paganism this very thing….
Colossians 2:15-16 “And having spoiled (brought to ruin) principalities and powers (false religions), he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, (when you do not participate in their paganism) or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: (when you follow scripture)
Berean Breadcrumbs 
Leave a Reply