New Years Day
ARE AMERICAN HOLIDAYS IN LINE WITH THE WORD OF GOD SERIES
The New Year According To The World
The month of January is named after a false god named Janus. Janus had two faces, looking in opposite directions. One head looking at the past (meaning the old year) and the other head looking toward the future (the new year.) The custom of celebrating old years or New Year’s Eve has been about worshiping this false god. In the city of Rome, a temple known as the Ianus geminus was erected in Janus’ honor. During war, the gates were left open and sacrifices were held inside. The gates of the temple were only closed in times of peace, which didn’t happen very often for the Romans. It was later claimed by Christian clerics, that the gates of the Ianus geminus first closed at the moment that Jesus was born.
January the 1st celebrates the beginning of the Gregorian calendar year which is the most widespread civil calendar & de facto international standard. Though that calendar is associated with the Catholic Church and the papacy, it has been adopted, as a matter of convenience, by many secular and non-Christian countries.
Festivities include counting down to midnight (12:00 AM) on a preceding night, on the last day of December, and creating as much noise as possible to usher in the New Year with gaiety. Drinking too much and making promises (resolutions) are traditional, as well as, celebrations with firecrackers and eating foods that supposedly bring “good luck” in the new year.
With the expansion of Western culture to the rest of the world during the twentieth century, the 1 January date became global, even in countries with their own New Year celebrations on other days (like China and India.) Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday, literally “head of the year,” commonly referred to as the Jewish New Year.” The observance is on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew Calendar ordained in the Torah. Leviticus 23:24, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.”
Reference: About.com, WikiAnswers, Wikipedia
The New Year in the Bible:
According to the Bible, Exodus 12:1-2, God’s calendar year begins in Spring.
“And the Eternal 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.”
The month of Abib, or of new fruits, as the Chaldee translates it, relates to our March (or part of March and part of April, the Vernal Equinox) and was ordered by God, in remembrance of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. Exodus 12:2 Abib, the month of “ripe grain.” See Exodus 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, and Deuteronomy 16:1. Later it was known by the Babylonian name of Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1 and Esther 5:7.)
Are You On Fire For Christ,
or Is It Just About The Fireworks On New Year’s Eve?
Celebrate Your Savior All Year This Year!
1 Peter 1:12-25
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven–things into which angels long to look. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
For, “ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER ” And this is the word which was preached to you.
This Year Make A Commitment to Find Jesus. Ask Him To Forgive You Of Sin And Ask Him To Come Into Your Heart And Save You! Read Your Bible And Ask The Holy Spirit To Help You Understand His Words. Live For Him…He Loves You.
This Is What The Bible Says About Being Saved:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. —Revelation 3:20-22
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. —John 1:12
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. —Ephesians 2:8-10
Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. —2 Corinthians 5:17
But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace… —Ephesians 2:13-15
The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully —Deuteronomy 28:13
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. —Ephesians 1:13-14
if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. —Ephesians 4:21-24
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” —Ephesians 2:13-15
We As Believers Of Jesus, Who Saved Us, Must Now Let Go Of the Worldly Heritage And Traditions Of Man
“This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men…Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition…making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered”
—Mark 7:6-9, 13
“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” —Galatians 5:19-21
“Babylon the great is fallen and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” /*God commands His people,*/ “Come out of…that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” —Revelation 18:2-4
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” —Matthew 6:19-21
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ —Matthew 4:4
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” —John 13:34
for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. —1 Corinthians 14:33