MARDI GRAS - LENT - ASH WEDNESDAY

PALM SUNDAY - HOLY WEEK

YAHWEH SAYS…

Everyone seems to love a party – a chance to have a good time and be a part of an event. Otherwise, why would such big crowds make annual visits to Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Carnival in Rio de Janiero, two locations famous for big carnivals and gatherings. Those are big, crowded, noisy parties with food, drink, costumes and parades. Sounds like lots of fun, doesn’t it? But exactly what is it? Why don’t all people celebrate like this? Is it something we, as Yahweh’s people, should be doing? Is this supposed to be a fun time? Or is there a more serious background behind these ideas and customs?

MARDI GRAS / CARNIVAL

World Book Encyclopedia, 1975, volume 13, page 157 –

“MARDI GRAS is a gay, colorful celebration held on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. The date of Mardi Gras depends on the date of Easter. The celebration takes place at the end of a long carnival season which begins on January 6, or Twelfth Night. It is celebrated in many Roman Catholic countries and other communities. Mardi Gras is a French term meaning fat Tuesday. The term arose from the custom of parading a fat ox through the streets of Paris on Shrove Tuesday.”

“French colonists introduced Mardi Gras into America in 1766. The custom became popular in New Orleans, La., and spread throughout the Southern States. Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in Alabama, Florida, and in eight parishes (counties) of Louisiana. The New Orleans celebration is the most famous.”

“Mardi Gras in New Orleans attracts tourists from everywhere. Street parades begin about two weeks before Mardi Gras Day. Societies called Krewes organize and pay for the parades and other activities. The best known Krewes are Comus, the oldest, founded in 1857, and Rex, founded in 1872. During the carnival season, the Krewes give balls and private parties. Their members parade in the streets in masks and fancy dress. A parade of beautiful floats and marching bands climaxes the carnival on Tuesday, Mardi Gras Day.”

“The Mardi Gras celebration goes back to an ancient Roman custom of merry-making before a period of fast. In Germany it is called Fastnacht, and in England it is called Pancake Day.”

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Ivor H Evans, editor –

Page 684 – “Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday, the last day of the Lent Carnival in France. At Paris, a fat ox, crowned with a fillet, used to be paraded through the streets. It was accompanied by mock priests and a band of tin instruments in imitation of a Roman sacrificial procession.”

Page 191 – “Carnival. The season immediately preceding Lent, ending on Shrove Tuesday, and a period in many Roman Catholic countries devoted to amusement; hence, revelry, riotous amusement. From the Latin caro, carnis, flesh; levare, to remove; signifying the abstinence from meat during Lent.”

Festivals of the World, Elizabeth Breuilly, Joanne O’Brien and Martin Palmer, page 62 –

“Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent, is called “Mardi Gras” in French. Literally, it means “fat Tuesday” since it was a time of overindulgence to compensate for the forty days of fasting and self-deprivation that lay ahead. In the British Isles and North America, the dish of choice is normally pancakes, which use up eggs, sugar and milk. Pancake races still survive in England.”

“The carnivals that take place all over Europe at this time may have their roots in the Roman carnival of Saturnalia, which was an occasion for great celebration and feasting. The origin of the word ‘carnival’ is a matter of some dispute whether it derives from carne-vale – Latin for ‘farewell to flesh (or meat)’ – or from the Latin carnus navalis – the ‘ship of fools,’ in reference to pre-Christian festivities.”

Feasts and Festivals, Jacqueline Dineen –

Pages 30, 32 -- “In the days before food could be preserved by freezing or canning, it was often in short supply during the winter months when nothing was growing. Long ago, it was decided to combine this period when food was scarce with the Christian festival of ‘Lent’. Lent, which commemorates the time when Christ was in the wilderness without any food or water, used to be a period of strict fasting in Christian countries. Before the forty days of fasting began, people held carnivals and enjoyed themselves.”

“’Ash Wednesday,’ the first day of Lent, falls between 4 February and 10 March. The name refers to the time when Christians used to wear scratchy, uncomfortable sackcloth and have ashes sprinkled on their heads when they were repenting their sin, to remind them of Christ’s suffering. In some churches a similar ceremony is still carried out.”

“’Mothering Sunday,’ or ‘Mother’s Day,’ is held on the fourth Sunday in Lent. This used to be the one day when Christians did not have to fast. The day gets its name from the time when villagers took gifts to their ‘mother church’. Nowadays, it is a family occasion when children give cards and presents to their mother.”

New Orleans, Fodor’s Travel Publications, 2004, pages 61-64 –

“Mardi Gras (French for ‘fat Tuesday’) is the final day of Carnival, an entire Christian holiday season that begins on the Twelfth Night of Christmas and comes crashing to a halt on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Though Mardi Gras is technically merely one day in the season, practically speaking the term is used interchangeably with Carnival, especially as the season wears on and anticipation of the big day increases. As sometimes befalls the Christmas holiday, the religious associations of Carnival serve mainly as a pretext for weeks of indulgence. Also like Christmas, Carnival claims elaborately developed traditions of food, drink, and music.”

“On Mardi Gras Day, the entire city dons costumes, face paint, and masks, and takes to the streets for the final bash-of-a-celebration before Lent. It’s an official city holiday, with just about everyone but the police and bartenders taking the day off. People roam the streets, drinking Bloody Marys for breakfast and switching to beer in the afternoon, and admiring one another’s finery. Ragtag bands ramble about with horns and drums. Mardi Gras anthems pour from jam boxes, and king cakes (ring-shaped cakes topped with purple, green, and gold sugar) color the streets. Some dozen parades roll through the city’s streets along various routes, with large floats carrying riders who throw plastic beads and trinkets to onlookers. Apart from the parades and the street scene, nearly 200 Carnival balls, all with their own kings and queens, are held over the course of the season, hosted by individual Carnival organizations, called krewes.”

“In deference to the religious pretext for this holiday, Mardi Gras ‘ends’ with the arrival of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season. At midnight on Tuesday night Downtown streets are cleared, and policemen in cars and on horses cruise through the French Quarter blaring from their loudspeakers ‘Mardi Gras is over. Go home’.”

SHROVE TUESDAY

World Book Encyclopedia, 1975, volume 17, page 362 –

“SHROVE TUESDAY is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Its name came from the old custom of confessing (being shriven) on that day. Shrove Tuesday is a time of rejoicing in many countries and communities. It is the last day of the carnival season of southern Europe, and corresponds to the Mardi Gras of the French and the Pancake Tuesday of the English.”

The Folklore Calendar, George Long, page 19 –

“SHROVE TUESDAY – This day is well known to country folk as Pancake Day. In medieval times the day was devoted to feasting, doubtless as a set-off to the dismal period of fasting which followed. It is supposed that pancakes were made on this day in order to use up the household stores of fats or butter, which before the Reformation were strictly forbidden to the people for the period of Lent. There are several interesting customs relating to pancakes which are still observed. One of these is the Pancake Bell, a survival of the pre-Reformation practices of calling the people to church to confess their sins on Shrove Tuesday, by ringing a bell. The name Shrove Tuesday, of course, refers to the fact that after confession the faithful were shriven.”

LENT

World Book Encyclopedia, 1975, volume 12,page 175--

“LENT is a religious season observed in the spring by Christian churches. It begins on Ash Wednesday, forty days before Easter, excluding Sundays, and ends on Easter Sunday. The term Lent comes from the Old English word lencten, which meant springtime. The word used in church liturgy is Quadragesima. Lent is part of the regular church year in the Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic churches, and churches that belong to the Anglican Communion. Many other churches hold religious services, meetings, or preaching missions to honor the Lenten season. Some churches prescribe a special book of devotions for Lent. In the Roman Catholic Church, each day of Lent has its special mass.”

“Many Christians observe Lent by fasting, performing penance, giving alms, abstaining from amusements, or not solemnizing marriages. The season originated as one of the spiritual preparations for Easter in remembrance of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It also symbolized the mourning of the Church, the bride, for the departure of Christ, the bridegroom. The length of time for observing Lent varied through the ages. For many years, it was considered a 36-day period of fast. By the reign of Charlemagne, about A. D. 800, four days were added, making it 40. This may have been done as a reminder of the 40 days that Jesus Christ fasted in the wilderness.”

Feasts and Festivals, Jacqueline Dineen –

Pages 30, 32 -- “In the days before food could be preserved by freezing or canning, it was often in short supply during the winter months when nothing was growing. Long ago, it was decided to combine this period when food was scarce with the Christian festival of ‘Lent’. Lent, which commemorates the time when Christ was in the wilderness without any food or water, used to be a period of strict fasting in Christian countries. Before the forty days of fasting began, people held carnivals and enjoyed themselves.”

“’Ash Wednesday,’ the first day of Lent, falls between 4 February and 10 March. The name refers to the time when Christians used to wear scratchy, uncomfortable sackcloth and have ashes sprinkled on their heads when they were repenting their sin, to remind them of Christ’s suffering. In some churches a similar ceremony is still carried out.”

“’Mothering Sunday,’ or ‘Mother’s Day,’ is held on the fourth Sunday in Lent. This used to be the one day when Christians did not have to fast. The day gets its name from the time when villagers took gifts to their ‘mother church’. Nowadays, it is a family occasion when children give cards and presents to their mother.”

Sacred Origins of Profound Things, Charles Panati –

Page 206 – “LENT: EARLIEST OBSERVANCE, FOURTH CENTURY – As the Church moved away from the fervor or apostolic times, peoples’ piety began to wan, and bishops cast about for some celebration that would deepen the devotional approach to Easter, climax of the spiritual year.”

“Many Christians had already reserved a period prior to Easter for fasting, confession, and schooling candidates for baptism on Easter Eve. But the time frame was never fixed, rules never formalized. Different groups of Christians followed different customs – some fasted several days, others several weeks. Some observed a total fast for exactly forty days (minus the Lord’s day, Sunday), a feast called Quadragesima, which would evolve into Lent.”

“Thus, by mid-fourth century, the duration of Lent – the word itself means ‘lengthening spring days,’ from the Indo-European langat-tin, ‘long’ + ‘day’ became more or less fixed at forty days, less Sundays; the time frame did not become official, though, until the eighth century.”

“What constituted a fast varied: no meat for forty days; no milk and eggs; or only one light meal a day.”

“… a fast can be as slight an inconvenience as abstaining from chocolate or ice cream for the duration. A token fast.”

ASH WEDNESDAY

World Book Encyclopedia, 1975, volume 1, page 733 –

“ASH WEDNESDAY is the first day of Lent. In Roman Catholic churches of the Latin Rite, ashes from the burned palms of the preceding year’s Palm Sunday are blessed. With these ashes, the priest marks a cross on the foreheads of the congregation, saying, ‘Remember, man, that dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return’ (Gen. 3:19). From Biblical times, sprinkling oneself with ashes has been a mark of sorrow for sin. To this meaning of penance, Ash Wednesday customs add a second lesson, a reminder of the need of preparing for a holy death. The churches of the Anglican Communion, as well as some other Protestant churches, observe the day. Eastern Rite churches do not. Their Lent begins on the preceding Monday.”

Sacred Origins of Profound Things, Charles Panati, page 206-207 –

“ASH WEDNESDAY: SIXTH CENTURY C.E. – The first day of Lent, a Wednesday, was always special, and it came to be called Ash Wednesday from a custom involving ashes, long a symbol for repentance. Early Christians approached the church altar to have the ashes of blessed palm leaves scored on their forehead in the shape of a cross – which more often than not resembled a smudge.”

“A worshiper wears the mark on his forehead throughout the day as a symbol of his sorrow for his sins. The blessed palm leaves that are burned to make the ashes are, in fact, ‘leftovers’ from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. This Lenten custom originated in the sixth century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great.”

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Ivor H Evans, editor, page 52 –

“Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent, so called from the Roman Catholic custom of sprinkling on the heads of penitents the consecrated ashes of palms remaining from the previous Palm Sunday. The custom is of uncertain date but is commonly held to have been introduced by Gregory the Great (Pope 590-604).”

Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, Maria Leach, editor, 1972 –

Page 82 – “Ash Wednesday The first day of Lent: so called from the ceremonial use of ashes as a symbol of penitence in the Roman Catholic Church. … At first ashes were administered only to public penitents who appeared barefoot and in penitential garb before the church door. As the number of penitents grew larger, ashes were administered to the entire congregation.”

“Ash Wednesday and the three days following originally were not a part of the Lenten period, but were added about 700 A.D. to make the fast days 40 in number (since the Sundays in Lent are not included as fast days) to correspond to the number of days Christ fasted.”

“Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a period of abstinence, quiet, and penance, in strong contrast to the preceding period of carnival.”

HOLY WEEK

Sacred Origins of Profound Things, Charles Panati, pages 207-210 –

“Palm Sunday observance is thought to have begun with the Christian Passover or Pascha, a celebration of Christ’s death and Resurrection. A Palm Sunday procession, replete with palm branches, is first mentioned in the travel writings of the Spanish nun Etheria. Rome itself did not stage regular Palm Sunday processions until late in the eleventh century.”

“Palm Sunday begins Holy Week, which follows Jesus’ activities day by day through his death. By the late fourth century all of the following feasts, major and minor, were being celebrated.”

“HOLY MONDAY. Twenty-four hours after Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, he’s thought to have cleansed the temple by chasing out money changers. … Holy Monday is commemorated with private meditation and Mass.”

“HOLY TUESDAY. Jesus addressed his disciples on the Mount of Olives, speaking about the sad destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of the last day. … Holy Tuesday is commemorated with private meditation and Mass.”

“HOLY WEDNESDAY. Once widely known as ‘Spy Wednesday’, this is the day Judas Iscariot agreed, for thirty pieces of silver, to show Jesus’ enemies where they could capture him easily without arousing the populace. Holy Wednesday is commemorated with private meditation and Mass.”

“MAUNDY THURSDAY. This is associated with three tragic and closely spaced events near the end of Jesus’ life: his Last Supper with the apostles, his Agony in the Garden, and his arrest.”

“The strange word ‘maundy’ is thought to be a corruption of the Latin mandatum, ‘commandment of God,’ and borrowed from Jesus’ words (as they appear in the Latin Vulgate) at the Last Supper: ‘A new commandment I give to you [Mandatum novum do vobis], that you love one another; even as I have loved you’ (John 13:34-35). Thus, traditionally, Thursday has been the day of ‘brotherly love’.”

“At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, an ancient act of humility that has appealed to the imaginations of the people down through the ages. Kings washed the feet of the poor. Feudal lords washed the feet of serfs. Popes washed the feet of cardinals. During the Mardi Gras, a ceremony in which a priest washed the feet of the indigent was called a maunder – the term deriving from Christ’s ‘mandatum’ statement.”

“Maundy Thursday services have been varied and deeply symbolic of Christ’s arrest and predicament: altar candles are extinguished to symbolize the forces of darkness; the altar is bare and washed in preparation for Christ’s Resurrection; Hosts or wafers are consecrated in commemoration of Christ’s initiation of the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.”

“GOOD FRIDAY. Scourged and forced to carry his own cross, Christ is crucified on ‘Good’ Friday, the blackest day in Christian history.”

“Tre Ore, ‘Three Hours,’ is the name of the solemn service – from noon to 3:00 P.M. – that has represented over the ages Christ’s three hours on the cross. During the time Christians meditate on the Seven Lost Words of Christ, the Seven utterances Jesus delivered from the cross, called from the four Gospels.”

“HOLY SATURDAY. This brings both Holy Week and the forty-day season of Lent to a close. It was the day for baptisms in the early Church. Also, a tall ‘Paschal candle’ was lit, placed on the altar, and embedded with five grains of incense, representing Christ’s five wounds. The candle remained on the altar for forty days, a living presence of the risen Christ, until the feast of his Ascension into Heaven. Holy Saturday is also called Easter Eve. Thus, the period from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday is the most profound duration in the Christian calendar.”

A MORE ANCIENT IDEA

All of the research had gone back no further in history until recently. But there is a connection of ideas between Mardi Gras and the worship of Attis.

Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend, Maria Leach, editor, 1972, page 90

“Attis -- In Greek and Roman religion, a Phrygian god of vegetation, always worshipped in connection with the Great Mother. Attis was either of Semitic origin or was influenced by Semitic religion. His cult, centralized in Phrygia and Lydia, spread to Greece and finally throughout the Roman Empire.”

“His worship, characterized by frenzied orgies, was carried to Rome after the worship of Cybele had been adopted by the Romans in 204 B.C. … March 24 was known as the Day of Blood, for on this day the ceremonies reached their peak. They were characterized by blood-letting, the barbaric music of flutes and cymbals, and the whirling contortions of the lesser priesthood, who in a frenzy of excitement slashed themselves to bespatter the altar and the sacred tree with their blood. … On the next day the resurrection of Attis was celebrated in the form of a licentious carnival.”

Spirit of Antichrist -- Against The Hebrew God of Creation, Alan Knight, WPC Volume 2, 2^nd Edition –

Page 150-151 – “The Roman emperor Claudius (41 to 54 A.D.) first gave official sanction to public celebrations in honor of Attis. Following Claudius, additional emperors sponsored and enlarged those celebrations.”

“Whereas the spring celebrations in honor of the Mother were official state holidays, those in honor of Attis were intensely religious, promising personal salvation for all who submit themselves to the savior Attis and his mother.”

“This is what the Romans called ‘Holy Week’. Despite the name it was not a celebration of seven consecutive days. Instead it was multiple days scattered over the second half of March.”

“Holy Week began on March 15. The initial day was called Day of the Reeds and celebrated Attis’ early life. The reeds symbolized certain mythical events when he was abandoned as a child among reeds on the river Gallus. Reeds were cut and brought in procession to the temple. The cutting of reeds also symbolized Attis’ emasculation.”

“The next day, March 16, began a nine-day period of fasting and abstinence. There was a long list of foods to be given up, including bread, wine, fish and pork.”

“We now skip to March 22, the day called Entry of the Tree. This reenacted events associated with Attis’ death. According to some versions of the myth, Attis died at the foot of a tree, after which his spirit entered the tree. Therefore the activities on this day officially symbolize his death. An effigy of Attis together with ribbons are attached to a tree. The tree is then carried in procession into the temple where it lay in state as though it were Attis himself.”

“The following day, March 23, was the Day of Mourning. The faithful engage in rhythmic wailing to the accompaniment of crashing cymbals, in honor of their dead savior.”

Page 152 – “March 24, called the Day of Blood, was the final day of fasting. The priests whip themselves and sprinkle their blood on the effigy of Attis.”

“The climax of Holy Week was a late night vigil beginning on the 24^th and extending into the 25^th. The body of Attis (in the form of the tree, and effigy attached to the tree) is buried. A vigil is maintained past midnight and into the early hours of the 25^th. Suddenly the vigil erupts in joy, signaling the savior’s revival. This is the Hilaria,, which means ‘joyful’.”

Page 155-156 – “In the latter stages at Rome it promised access to heaven through the shed blood of their suffering savior Attis. There was even an immaculate conception. In one version of the myths a virgin conceived Attis by means of the fruit of the almond tree placed on her lap. The Great Mother was sometimes addressed as the Virgin. She was not considered literally a virgin. Rather, this expressed the idea of purity that came from ascetic rejection of the material world and the fact that Attis’ devotion to her ultimately was Platonic, because of his emasculation. She was also called Queen of Heaven, and she was both the mother of Attis and his spouse.”

“The spring Holy Week celebration depicted Attis dying and reviving after three days. The day of his death was portrayed primarily on March 22, the Day of the Tree, and he was revived three days later in the early morning hours of March 25. The 25^th also happened to be the day the Roman church originally chose to celebrate Christ’s death, an uncomfortable coincidence. Remember as well the Lenten-style nine-day fast leading up to the celebration of Attis’ revival.”

“Finally, one of the greatest attractions of the cult of the Great Mother was its theme of divine love similar to that promoted by the Christian faith. Salvation came from the Mother’s profound love for mankind, expressed in her relationship with Attis. And she in turn received total love and devotion from her grateful following, patterned on the love and total devotion expressed in the Attis myths,”

“The Attis cult’s connection between salvation and a suffering savior and shed blood was not Christian. Rather it evolved out of traditional Babylonian themes of the divine ruler Dumuzi.”

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

If you have celebrated these festivals in the past or if you are thinking about doing so today, please consider these questions first.

1. Are any of these celebrations found in Scripture?
2. Where did the idea of a long carnival season originate?
3. If these events are so important, why is there no mention of them in Scripture?
4. “Bishops cast about for some celebration.” Why? Based on what authority?
5. “An imitation of a Roman sacrificial procession.” Why? That is a pagan custom of the Saturnalia.
6. “A token fast.” What is the use of value? Doesn’t that make a mockery of what Yahshua did?
7. If they really wanted to commemorate Yahshua’s 40 days fast, why not be serious and do without ALL food and drink as He did? What about doing it for 40 days?
8. Check your Bible. Can you find any mention of the following:

A period of fasting in the spring.

Doing penance

Abstaining from amusements

Burning palm branches

Putting ashes on the forehead

Forbidding fat or butter

A “duty” of confession

No meat, milk or eggs for 40 days

Costumes or masks

A parade

To do any additional research on your own, just put “Mardi Gras” into any search engine and start to read. You will find descriptions of drunkenness and debauchery – not things that Yahweh wants his people involved in doing.

YAHWEH SAYS….

All of Yahweh’s festivals and celebrations are listed in Leviticus 23. He tells us which days we are to observe. The activities described above in this article are nowhere to be found or commanded in Scripture. So what does Yahweh have to say about these things?

Leviticus 18:3-5, 24-26, 29 3 – You shall not do according to the doings of the land of Egypt in which you lived; and you shall not do according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; nor shall you walk in their statues. 4 – You shall do My judgments and you shall keep My statutes, to walk in them; I am Yahweh your Elohim, 5 – and you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live by them. I am Yahweh. 24 – Do not defile yourself with all these, for with all these nations have been defiled, which I am expelling before you, 25 – and the land is defiled, and I will visit its iniquity on it; and the land is vomiting out its inhabitants; 26 – and you, you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not do any of all these disgusting acts; either the native nor the alien who is staying in your midst. 29 – For anyone who does any of these disgusting things, even the persons who are doing them, shall be cut off from the midst of their people.

Leviticus 20:23 And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out from before you, for all these they have done, and I am disgusted with them.

What about simply adding these to the religion we already practice?

Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, to keep the commandments of Yahweh your Elohim which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:28-32 28 – And you take heed to obey all these words which I am commanding you, in order that it may be well with you and with your sons after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your Elohim. 29 – When Yahweh your Elohim shall cut off the nations from before you, where you are going in to possess them, and you shall possess them, and shall live in their land, 30 – take heed to yourself that you not be snared to follow them after they have been destroyed before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? And I shall do so, even I. 31 – You shall not do so to Yahweh your Elohim; for everything hateful to Yahweh, which He detests, they have done to their gods. For they have even burned their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 – All the things that I command you, take heed to do them, and you shall not add to it, nor take away from it.

Jeremiah 10:2 So says Yahweh, You shall not be goaded to the way of the nations; and do not be terrified at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are terrified at them.

Revelation 22:18-19 18 – For I testify together with everyone hearing the words of the prophecy of the Book: If anyone adds to these things, Yahweh will add upon him the plagues having been written in this Book. 19 – And if anyone takes away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, Yahweh will take away his part from the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and of the things having been written in this Book.

Yahweh is very particular that we follow only what He set forth and not man’s ideas or customs in worshipping something other than Him. Just how important is it to Him?

Acts 5:32 And we are His witnesses of these things, and so is also the Set-Apart Spirit, whom Elohim has given to them that obey Him.

Hebrews 5:8-9 8 - Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which He suffered, 9 – and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

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