Halloween Is Pagan Says the Encyclopedia Britannica (Redux)

“Hallowe’en and its formerly attendant ceremonies long antedate Christianity. The two chief characteristics of ancient Hallowe’en were the lighting of bonfires and the belief that of all nights in the year this is the one during which ghosts and witches are most likely to wander abroad. Now on or about the 1st of November the Druids held their great autumn festival and lighted fires in honour of the Sun god in thanksgiving for the harvest.     Further, it was a Druidic belief that on the eve of this festival Saman, lord of death, called together the wicked souls that within the past twelve months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals. Thus it is clear that the main celebrations of Hallowe’en were purely Druidical, and this is further proved by the fact that in parts of Ireland the 31st of October was, and even still is, known as Oidhche Shamhna, “ Vigil of Saman.” On the Druidic ceremonies were grafted some of the characteristics of the Roman festival in honor of Pomona held about the 1st of November.” http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Hallowe’en

The History Channel’s “Haunted History of Halloween” shed’s further light on this holiday’s pagan origins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSUxCt_oAWo .

Halloween is a holiday well suited for the atheist, pagan, hedonist, and animist.  They do not believe in the God of the Hebrews, who came down in human form and gave us an example “that we should follow His steps” in cleaving to that which is good and letting go of the evil.  Halloween is for them.

But is it for us, His sons and daughters?  Would our Father be pleased with us today as He watches us from above, from the high and holy place, watching us teach our little children how to do what the ancient Celts did 3,000 years ago, watching us dabbling in spirits, witches, and divination, watching us follow vain Druidic traditions, watching, watching, watching, and waiting, waiting, waiting for us to awake unto Him.                       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

The Parable of the Sower–The Key to Unlocking All of the Parables

Chapter 20 of  Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

The Master said that one parable is the key that solves the puzzle, that answers the riddles of the other parables. By understanding this one, all the other parables would yield their secrets. That parable is the parable of the sower. And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables? Mark 4:13.

Matthew 13:1-9

“The same day went Yahshua out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

 “And he spake unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, Some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

“And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them; but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirty-fold. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Three Levels of Spiritual Fruit Production

The Master speaks no idle words. He mentions three levels of fruit production—thirty, sixty and one hundred fold. Those who do receive the word, the seed, will produce fruit for Him at different levels of spiritual growth. We know that this 30, 60, and 100 fold He mentions is spiritual because “the words He speaks are Spirit and they are life.” All three of these fruit bearers are in His fold, in His kingdom. They are all “good ground,” with a “good and honest heart.” They are in, and yet, some bear more fruit than others. That is what it says.

First, He gives His understanding to some, and to some He does not. Now some of those who make it into His kingdom will bear more fruit than others. But some will say, What is going on here? That does not seem right. But, is God unfair? He did say that His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

We just wouldn’t do it that way. And with that thought we are tempted to believe that we are more fair than the Father. The fact is that His ways are past finding out. He is the Creator, the Potter, sitting at His wheel. We are the clay. And can the thing formed say to Him that formed it, “Why did you make me like this? I wanted to be a vessel in the house of the king, and here you have made me an old pot that the washwoman uses.” Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Romans 9:21. He is in control, and we need to look it all over.

Some will get it, and some will not

And so He is saying, I am speaking unto them in parables, and some will get it and some will not. And it is a gift. This knowledge is given to certain people in the earth. The Master goes on and says in v. 12, “For whosoever has to him shall be given.” “Has” is present tense, right now. If we are those to whom He has given these precious truths, then it is done. It may be lying dormant in there, but it is just waiting to come alive in us. We just may not realize that we are going to be the receptacle to receive this truth in its fullness.

“Whosoever has, to him shall be given.” Has what? Could it be that that person has their name written in heaven? “And he shall have more abundance: but whosoever has not, from him shall be taken away even that he has. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.”

A person can look right at it and not see it. “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.” He knew that they would close. This is the reason that we don’t comprehend His plan and purpose. It is because our hearts and minds are in this condition. “Lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” So they are in trouble. He is talking about the multitudes at that time and projecting forth to our time.

He goes on to say to the disciples in v. 16, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.” You are seeing things that many righteous men, prophets and kings have desired to see in their natural life, but did not. The Master is saying, “You are seeing me talk to you. You are seeing Me, Yahshua, the Self-Existent One in human form talking to you. For my name means the Self-Existent-One-is-Savior. And you are seeing me speak to you right now lining out this kingdom.”

And that is what all the prophets, who had the Spirit of Yahshua within them, looked forward to and spoke about. It was only because of His Spirit within them that they were able to speak the things that they said.

The Master explains the “Parable of the Sower”

“Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matthew 13:18-23.

He always alluded to what was next to them in nature—a field of wheat, barley, corn, trees. And we know that even in a well-prepared field of corn some of the ears will be bigger that others. That is all there is to it. It is a fact of life, of nature. It is His doing, and it is marvelous, and we are just grateful that we can eat of that corn. When we are eating that piece of cornbread, we don’t care if the ear that the grains were taken from was three inches long or a foot long. It is good corn. And that is the way that we should look at the little ears of corn in His kingdom, and the mid-size ears, and the big ears. We have to see the distribution of it with spiritual eyes.

In the concept of 30, 60, and 100 fold, the Master is talking about different distinct levels of fruit bearing in His kingdom. Some of his offspring will walk in His Spirit in a greater depth than others. This may be a new concept, totally new to our way of thinking.

Yet there are many other scriptures that confirm this. “First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear…Faith, hope, and charity (agape love)…Justification, sanctification, and glorification…”

The Apostle John Explains It Further

A 30, 60, and 100 fold precept is found in I John 2:12. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.” He is saying that I want to reassure you that your sins are forgiven because His name means Yah-is-Savior, and He has done it in your life. I don’t believe that if he were writing another apostle or prophet that he would have to reassure him about that point! The apostle Paul said, “I fathered you in the gospel.” Paul was a spiritual father, not a little child of God. And yet John is writing to all three levels of growth, children, young men, and fathers, for all three were growing together in the assemblies.

Verse 13: “I write unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.” You have that knowledge, that depth and have gone on back into the Father’s heart and know the Father well. He’s not addressing little children “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” No. That is not a father in the gospel; that is not Paul, for sure. “I write unto you young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.” I want to encourage you in that, he is saying. In a 60 fold growth, followers of Yah will have overcome the devil.

So we see that John wrote to three different levels of growth in the Messiah here. This fits in perfectly with what Yahshua spoke of in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. And although there is not one stone upon another in the house of Yahweh, there are three distinct levels of growth. And this is a secret and a mystery of the kingdom.

This does not set well with some people, and to some it is not a problem. If we have our own conception of the way things are in His kingdom that does not have this in it, then there could be some problems in receiving it. “Charity (agape love) rejoices at the truth.” We all must see that our job as His creation, His “create-ture,” is to believe the truth. We are not to formalize the truth in our imagination, but rather be open to it and just receive it.

Most of what John admonished in I John 2 was written to little children. He would not have written, for example, “Keep yourselves from idols,” to a Peter, Paul, or James. That was to little children who needed that exhortation.

The three levels found in another parable

Furthermore, this same concept of differing abilities, different levels of spiritual fruit-bearing in Christians, can be found in the parable of the talents in Mt. 25:14.   Yahshua likens Himself unto a man who was traveling into a far country and delivered all his goods to his servants. He did not give all his servants an identical amount of goods to take care of. He entrusted five talents to one, two to another, and one to another—according to their ability. The servants with the five and two did well and were rewarded accordingly. The servant with one did not do so well. The point is that the Master makes a distinction in responsibility. The ones who were faithful, were rewarded accordingly.

If we are all the same and are going to bear the same amount and kind of fruit, why does He say, “To whom much is given, much is required”? If He gives us much responsibility in His kingdom to do, He will require much. He says of Himself, “I am an austere man, reaping where I did not sow” (His apostles have been sowing all this in us through the scriptures).

He said that there are different harvest production rates, different levels of spiritual fruit production. The word, the seed, falls into a good and honest heart. And the result is that some will bear 30 fold spiritual fruit. They are in, and it is a wonderful thing. And that may be all this writer ever does. If 30 fold is what He has for me, that is fine. I just want to be in the harvest.

And yet, some will bear 60 fold fruit; the Spirit will come into them, and they will have overcome the wicked one. And then some will be 100 fold fruit bearing offspring of the living Yahweh. They will be strong and do exploits in the land. And if I am not called to be one of these one hundred fold fruit bearers, then that is okay. I do not have a problem with it. I just want to help them do it, if that is the case. I just want to be a part of it.  KWH

[You may read the entire book online which you can find at the top of this page.  Just click “Ebook…”]

Borderline Personality Disorder–Reaching Out to the Depressed–Christ and the Man-Who-Lived-in-the-Tombs-and-Cut-Himself

The other day I happened onto a blog by a person who says she has BPD–“borderline personality disorder and other mental illnesses as well.”  As I read her post entitled “I Am Worthless, Pointless, and Hopeless,” I saw how her condition was destroying her.  She confessed that she was contemplating suicide and showed photos of her cutting herself with a razor blade and yearning to end her emotional misery through taking her own life.

I immediately thought of the time that Christ encountered “a man with an unclean spirit, who was dwelling in the tombs.”  He was “always, night and day…in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.”  Christ went on to cast the unclean spirit out of the man, who later was found “sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.”  The man even wanted to go with Him.  But Christ told him to “tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you” (Mark 5: 1-19).

And so I was moved to write this comment to her post: 

My darling girl,

There is another way to end all the pain and misery besides offing the physical body.  The death of the old self, the old ego, the old nature that we were born with, that old blue monkey crouched on our shoulder, screaming in our ear to do bad things to ourselves and others–yes, that selfish old adamic nature must die–not the body, mind you–the old heart inside of us, the old spirit that we have always been–that must die. 

I searched for 5 years desperately seeking solace and was led to the pits of nothingness.  Then, miraculously, while I tripped out on “sillysideburns” one day, it came to me: The old self had to die, not the body…I studied all the philosophies and world religions and did not find out how it is done.  

But then,  a wise man, seeing my plight, told me, “You need to die with Christ on the cross.  Just let all the bad inside of you go, by revelation, up on that cross, and let your old selfish self die.  When He died, you died.  When He was buried, you were buried, and when you truly believe that He arose from the dead, then you will arise from the dead, too.  And you will  walk in a newness of life.  You can read all about it in Romans 6 in your Bible.”

“Why doesn’t the churches teach this?  Because I know they don’t.”

The wise man replied, “Most of them don’t have the truth about real deliverance from sin, which like a serpent, coils around our inner being and has us enslaved. But this truth whereof I speak will deliver you, once and for all.  You are enslaved for now.  Follow my words and you’ll be free from the bondage you are suffering.”

And so, after reading all the books from the East and the West with no surcease from the emotional pain I was experiencing, I did it.  And a complete change happened in my life.  The drink, the smoke (of all kinds), the obsession with music, the womanizing, the cursing, the depression, et al, left.  And it has never come back in all these 40 years. 

I hear your cry, little one.  Read more here on my blog, ImmortalityRoad.wordpress.com
You are not alone…  Wayneman

Parables—Secrets Kept from the Foundation of the World

 Chapter 19 of the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

The Master, the Creator has a stupendous and glorious plan to reproduce Himself. He has had His prophets and righteous men write about it down through the ages. But He has kept it secret by speaking about it in parables. In order to comprehend His purpose, we must first understand His concept of the use of parables.

Man’s wisdom says that parables are nice little stories that make it easier for us to understand what God is teaching us—that they are down to earth little illustrations of spiritual matters. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The first thing that we must realize is that parables contain the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. They conceal the secrets of God that He has hidden since He created the heavens and the earth. We enter into an inner sanctum when we go to the parables, for they are the “dark sayings,” things that He only reveals to those who are in awe of Him. These are only for His chosen people to whom He wants to reveal His secrets unto. “For a man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven.”

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to him that has will more be given (knowledge of the secrets),and he will have abundance; but from him who has not (the secrets), even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, nor do they understand…but blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” Mt. 13:10-13, 16, RSV. 

Parables are His “dark sayings.” The word “dark” is translated from the Hebrew word, chiydah, #2420 in Strong’s, meaning a “puzzle: hence a trick, conundrum, sententious maxim: dark saying (sentence, speech), hard question, proverb, riddle.” Puzzles, riddles, and conundrums are deliberately thought out by the speaker. They are purposely spoken. And so it is with His parables. All these things spake Yahshua unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. Mt. 13:34-35, Psm. 78:2.

 He spoke in parables so that they who were meant to comprehend would, and they who were not meant to, would not. He spoke in parables and deliberately clouded the meaning so that the mysteries of the kingdom, of his governing human flesh by His Spirit, of His plans of reproducing Himself, would only be comprehended by those to whom He had given it. He spoke in these riddles, deliberately clouding the meaning, so that only certain pre-determined chosen people that He foreknew could see His plan and ultimately respond.  KWH

Prove All Things with an Open Mind and Pure Heart, and the Spirit Will Lead Us into All Truth

 Chapter 18 from the book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality

We have come to a mysterious place on the road to immortality. Each step henceforth is veiled in secrecy and shrouded in mystery. God has purposely made the truth of His purpose difficult to see. In so doing He is weeding out the pretenders from the contenders.   His eternal purpose and plan of reproducing Himself is only given to a chosen few. “Few there be to find this way of truth.” From here on out the truth will be given only to those who are of an open mind and pure heart.

In fact, it is better to not come to this rarified knowledge if one is not prepared to go all the way. “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” II Peter 2:21.

 It is only the openness to new truth that allows the Spirit to lead us into all truth. In John 16:12 the Master said, “When the Spirit of truth is come He will lead us into all truth.” If we had not been open a few short months ago to new truth—new to us, anyway—then we would not have been able to receive the present truth we now have. We would have been ossified, stratified, and hardened up like a rock in our hearts to receive something new.

 There is a tendency for human beings to reject something that is new. There is a temptation when change is brought upon us to hold back and not get into it.

 If new truth is not being revealed to us, then usually one of two things is happening. Either that person believes they have all the truth and therefore have no need of truth, or the Spirit of truth is not leading them into all truth at that particular juncture in their life. So the exhortation is to us all: remain open.

 He said to prove all things. Not just the things we think are the truth. We also need to prove things out that we may not at first think is truth. He said to prove all things that come into our seeking. Because praying to Him and asking Him for guidance to discern if something is the truth or not will enable us to not miss some truth that comes our way. We need to ask Him to reveal this new thing, His plan to reproduce Himself, to us. He did say, “I will do a new thing in the earth.”

 For instance, the sacred name of Yahweh is an old thing, but it is new to us. By staying open and trusting Him for discernment, we can prove all things that come our way, whether they be truth or falsehood.

 In order to begin to take in the great and precious promises that Yahweh gave to our fathers the patriarchs, we first must realize that Yahweh wants to reproduce Himself. Reproduction cannot take place without a seed. We only have to look at the earth to understand this. John 1:1 could have read: “In the beginning was the Seed.” He is the Word, the Seed. The Master said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone.” He would have been alone had He not fallen into the tomb three days and three nights. And now by doing that, He brings forth much fruit. He lays it all out in a very simple situation with “first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.” Mark 4:28. KWH