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38 Hope of Israel Mail Bag

Dear Mr. John D. Keyser, that are common to Judeo-Christianity. Just because
pagans valued these things as well doesn’t make them
I received your address from The Journal, April 30, 2001 bad.
issue. I read some years ago an article which I believe was
written by you entitled “Prophetess or Medium” about El- Why Xmas isn’t mentioned in the Bible. Well, for the
len G. White, also an article again about E.G. White and most part Christ isn’t in the Bible. For another chunk
the “Thyatira Church.” he is alive and isn’t accepted by the general populace
as divine. And finally, Xmas like other Christian prac-
You were then with W.F. Dankenbring. Anyway, do you tices was something that developed later as a part of
still have these articles, and if so would you please send Christian culture.
me them? I lent them to a friend a while back and he didn’t
return them. I no longer receive the Prophecy Flash.I do “By this time the ‘Easter’ tradition was strong enough
believe W.F. Dankenbring went on a bit about dates. Hope to challenge the authentic Passover truth of the apos-
to hear from you, and that you are keeping well. tles and their successors.”

Yours faithfully, Easter wasn’t a replacement for Passover. Early Chris-
D.L.P. (England) tians practiced Passover most likely because they were
Jewish. You see initially it was believed that you had to
COMMENT: The articles you are referring to are El- be Jewish to be Christian.
len G. White -- Messenger or Medium? And The Sev-
enth-Day Adventist Church in Prophecy! Copies have Passover was when the Jews were preparing to leave
been sent to you. Your comment about Dankenbring going Egypt and God sent the angel of death (Azriel) to kill
on about dates is an understatement! I can’t recall how the first born children of every family. Yet the Jews
many different dates he came up with for the return of were instructed to put lamb’s blood upon their door so
Yeshua during the ten years I was associated with him! that the angel would “passover” their households.
“Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing
sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves! “Search the scriptures diligently, from Old Testament
You will recognize them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15, to New, and you will find no mention of Jews or Chris-
16). tians observing an annual period of 40 days of fasting
and abstinence preceding the festival of the Passover,
*** yet today most of the Christian world observes a 40
day period called Lent, which precedes the festival of
Just because Xmas has pagan origins doesn’t mean it Easter Sunday. A period of 40 days is rather common
shouldn’t be practiced. You can’t define something by its in scripture, however.”
origin. It’s meaning is dependent on what it means to the
people today who practice it. It WAS a pagan holiday. Um...well first of all you have to make a distinction be-
NOW it is a Christian holiday. tween Jews and Christians. The majority of the Bible is
about Jews. Jesus was a Jew. So it’s not going to have a
To put it another way many of our words have Latin ori- lot about Christian culture as Christianity had barely
gins, but mean something VERY different than what they started.
mean in Latin. For instance the words “vagina” is Latin for
sheath (sword sheath). Fasting and abstinence before Passover? Well, Pass-
over is a Jewish holiday. So aside from the fact that
The meaning of Dec. 25th originally was pagan. Now it is- most early Christians were Jewish, I don’t see why
n’t. Furthermore, some pagan religions encouraged values Christians would be required to celebrate Passover.

The Berean Voice September-October 2002