Ye That Work Iniquity
Def: Ye That Work Iniquity [G458]: Transgress the law (sin), lawlessness.
Matthew 7: 21–23
Jesus spoke:
21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
1 John 2:1-7 tells us pretty clearly:
In scripture, from the OT to the NT, our Father, longsuffering as He is, eventually judges nations and chastises His people for basically two reasons:
- Idolatry
- Disobedience to His will
These in large part are clearly laid out in the 10 Commandments. If we love God, we will not be disobedient. If we sin, we have propitiation for our sins in the atoning blood of Christ.
The Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Spirit of Truth, convicts us of our sins and we repent in contrition and heartfelt remorse, as loving children do when they grieve a beloved parent. It’s called merciful, progressive sanctification!
Just as parents train up their children, we too are being trained up in Christ.
God’s laws are never burdensome or legalistic; they are a true blessing!! It is blasphemy to believe otherwise.
Which leads me to the old saying, Lipstick on a Pig…
When Planned Parenthood uses the term ‘Reproductive Health’, does that mean we can all of the sudden justify our support for the organization? If they give general health advice to pregnant women and also perform abortions, does that mean we can now support their efforts because of a nice name and some health education that is imparted? I think not, because we know the origins and original objective of Planned Parenthood. Changing the language and adding on service niceties, doesn’t take away the atrocities.
Likewise, changing the name of easter to Resurrection Day, doesn’t take away the atrocities of Easter worship. Adding a Christian veneer, doesn’t take away the rot and pagan influence that were and continue to be celebrated on that day. Jesus kept the last supper on Passover — not easter Sunday. With wine and unleavened bread, He told us to remember His death, not His resurrection.
PROVERBS 14:12
“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
Changing the name of Saturnalia to Christmas is also like putting Lipstick on a Pig:
“Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
- The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
- In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.
- The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.”
Changing the Holy, Blessed, Sanctified Sabbath Day of Rest as modeled and commanded of us by our Creator, and instead worshiping Him on Sun Day (the day of worshiping the pagan Sun God) is willful disobedience. God never changed the Sabbath day of rest, the Roman Catholic Church did, and they are proud of it:
“We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (364 AD) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”
— Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1957, 3rd ed., p. 50.
29th Canon of the Canons of the Synod held in the City of Laodicea,
in Phrygia Pacatiana (364 AD)“Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day [Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath]; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.”
If Christians were not keeping the Sabbath, then the 29th Canon would never have been written. The fact is that early Christians, from the 1st to 4th century, were in fact, following the commandments of God, resting on the Holy, Sanctified, Blessed Day of Rest, remembering Jesus on Passover, and continuing to follow the Lord’s Feast Days.
The 29th Canon goes directly against God’s 4th commandment.
“Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Catholic Church protests that it transferred Christian worship from the biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and that to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday.”
— Rome’s Challenge immaculateheart.com/maryonline, 2003
Keep studying, praying for and seeking Truth. Sometimes revealed truths deeply hurt us, but it is much better to know the truth and repent, than continue to live in lies, deception and sin.