Tying together loose ends

We have seen that Babylon is the root of all rebellion against God in paganism, and also the root of some of our Christian holidays. In a seemingly unrelated matter, we also saw that those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ in the past 2000 years have been primarily Gentiles, as the Jews have been blinded to Yeshua their Messiah until the fullness of Gentiles have come in. We learned that the Gentiles were seeded with the house of Ephraim, who never returned from his captivity in Assyria, but who were scattered among the nations. This was in accordance with Jacob's prophecy over Ephraim, that he would become a fullness of Gentiles ("melo hagoyim" in Hebrew; "a fullness of Gentiles;" translated "multitude of nations" in many English translations).

So we Christians (who were Gentiles, some of whom were originally Ephraimites) have received a heritage of holidays and traditions which originated in Babylon, and now that we are at the end of this age of history, the Lord is saying to us, "Come out of Babylon, My people!" He is opening our eyes to the fact that we not only are His people, but we were His people Israel, which we had forgotten. The holidays and traditions which the Lord originally gave us were Israelite: the biblical feast days, the patriarchs, the covenants, the promises, and the Commandments, all belong to us. They have been mistakenly called "Jewish" holidays; but the Jews are 2/12 of Israel; the holidays and covenants were given to all of Israel, all the twelve tribes.

We saw that those who belong to the Lord are marked on the hand with His name, because they celebrate the holidays He commanded them to celebrate (outlined in Lev 23), and because they keep the Commandments and practices He commanded them to keep. They are marked on their forehead with His name, because they remember why they celebrate and do what they do; they meditate on the Word of the Lord (all of His Word, including the Torah) all their days.

We learned that those who belong to the beast, the kingdoms of this world (of which Babylon is the head of gold), are marked on the hand with his name, ROMAN, because they celebrate the Roman holidays he instituted which commemorate his rebellion against God. We learned one of these is December 25, the birthday of the sun god, who is Nimrod deified - the instigator of the rebellion at Babel. We learned one of these is Easter (Saxon for Ishtar) at the spring equinox, the fertility festival of Ishtar, Nimrod's wife deified. Thus the bunnies and eggs. Interestingly enough, it is the Roman authority in the form of Constantine and the Roman church who commanded Christians to leave off celebrating Passover and the Lord's feast days, and which fixed the day to celebrate the Resurrection in coincidence with Ishtar's day. We learned that those who belong to the beast are marked on the forehead with his name because they are indoctrinated with Roman - ultimately Babylonian - traditions, thoughts, and practices.

God acknowledges that His people are dwelling in Babylon. In fact, it was likely His plan that they do so. Look at it this way: Satan corrupted people from following God's way by introducing paganism; it worked like yeast in dough, which spread until the whole lump was leavened with rebellion. In an elegant counter strike, God introduced His people with the seed of His Word in them among the pagans; they worked like yeast in dough; they spread until the whole lump was leavened with the knowledge of God. But now, God is calling us out of Babylon, like He called Lot out of Sodom, because judgment is soon to commence on the beast, and He does not want His children to partake of her plagues.

To be continued ...