Feb 14th - What's really so bad about Valentines Day
Where did the curious customs begin? Does God have anything to say about such practices?
Merchandising
This is nothing new, it has been going on a ling time. The business owners have capitalized on to make a profit.
1863 - Valentines became second only to Christmas. What's all the fuss?
On the surface it seems very insignificant.
Avenue of history to review the origins of Valentines Day - What is the perspective of the Bible?
Jer 10:1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
Jer 10:2 Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
Gentiles - pagan, heathen
Hebrew word "way" - dayreck - manner, habit, course of life, moral character
Jer 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
Act 18:24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
Act 18:25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
Greek "way"- course of conduct, thinking, feeling, deciding
Act 18:26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
There is a way of the Gentiles.
There is a way that seems right to a man that leads to death.
There is a way of God.
Exo 32:4 And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!"
Exo 32:5 So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD."
Exo 32:6 Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
Exo 32:7 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
Exo 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' "
have corrupted themselves.
When we decide for ourselves how we are going to follow God, we begin to corrupt ourselves.
It's amazing about the information that is out there for the origins of Valentines.
It can be traced back to prior to Christ.
490ad. Roman Catholics changed the name from Lupercalia to Valentine
496ad. Pope Gelashius outlawed Lupercalia, only he retained the lottery. The box was filled with saints names. The person drawing a name was to emulate that saint for a whole year.
February was a time to start courting for marriage.
Deu 12:29 "When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,
Deu 12:30 take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'
God says beware of a trap. God knows the end from the beginning. He knows it is the beginning of corruption.
Deu 12:31 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
Chambers book of Days Volume 9 - amalgamate, result has been a strange medley
Robert Myers - Complete book of American holidays - wherever Christians settled, they took on the ways of those living in those areas.
Sources keep going back to Lupercalia
What about Lupercalia in Christianity? It was common for pagan converts to keep some of their practices and customs.
The decline and fall of the Roman empire -
Roman God's and Christian Saints -
Php 1:1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Saints in Roman tradition began to take on a whole different meaning. A special class of people. Offering prayers to a dead saint doesn't go very far. Bishop of Rome was the one to decide who earned Sainthood.
Some will ask the question, What harm can there be in celebrating love?
Ecc 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
Ecc 3:8 A time to love
Son 2:7 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, By the gazelles or by the does of the field, Do not stir up nor awaken love Until it pleases.
Son 2:7 Young women of Jerusalem, swear to me by the gazelles or by the does in the field that you will not awaken love or arouse love before its proper time.
Lupercalia was an immoral fertility feast.
What is wrong with a little bit of paganism?
When we merge truth and err, we weaken the truth. It starts a process of corruption. It is like cancer.
Showing love towards another is not wrong, just do not do it under the trappings of a pagn festival.
1 John 4:8
God says if you love Me, follow My example, honor, respect Him
Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
Lev 18:1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 18:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:3 According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.
Lev 18:4 You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the LORD your God.
Lev 18:5 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.
1Co 10:19 What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything?
1Co 10:20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
1Co 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons.
It is clear, we have to separate the two.
Deu 12:2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.
Deu 12:3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.
Deu 12:4 You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things.
When God called us, we said whatever you say God, I will do.
1Pe 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
1Pe 4:2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
1Pe 4:3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
All that we think say and do should be in honor of God.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
Joh 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Valentine's Day is just one of the celebrations that need to be rooted out of our lives.
MP3 Audio (8.16 MB) 
