They wanted to stop and to come out of it, but they were afraid to expose the error for what might happen to them. Does this mean that we need the Holy Spirit to understand truth? At the stroke of midnight, beginning Easter Sunday, the mourning is turned to joy with shouts, “He is risen! The elders had already told the captives that they would not be in Babylon for very long—a totally opposite message than God gave in verses 5 and 6. Just saying, “I am a pastor” or “I am a priest” or “I am a preacher” does not make it so! Many men and women warn of the doom that is coming to this earth. What about heaven and hell? The majority of them were participating in the same kind of worship; they had evidently sunk far into paganism. Apparently everyone is trying to get to the same place—heaven. God Hates the Abominable Occult Holidays : God is a jealous God and will not give His glory to any other so-called god, nor to images: “I am the L ORD ; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images” (Isa. Have you ever wondered why God would allow His people, a small group during that time, to go into captivity? Have you ever wondered why there are so many different religions and so many different denominations? The holidays observed by mainstream Christianity—Easter, Christmas, New Years, Halloween, etc.—are not commanded in the Scriptures. And again, the New Testament declares: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. Thus says the L ORD , ‘Do not learn the way of the heathen [occult practices and the worship of false gods], and do not be terrified at the signs of the heavens [as in astrology and witchcraft]; for the nations are terrified at them’ ” (Jer. 3:6). Take heed to yourself that you do not become ensnared by following them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not ask about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods [the customs of the heathen], that I may also do likewise?’ You shall not do so to the L ORD your God , for every abomination to the L ORD , which He hates, they have done to their gods; even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods. There is such a difference! Remember, when a person says, “I am a prophet of God,” then he or she must speak as God speaks. Yet, those who observe them claim to be worshiping the true God. Anyone who gives a different message than what the Bible says can be put in the class of a heathen. And behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz” (verses 13-14). The Apostles Encounter Occult Opposition : The early New Testament Church was confronted with an occult adversary who was a powerful religious leader in Samaria. Whatsoever thing that I command you, be careful to do it. James G. Frazer writes: “Under the names of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, and Attis, the peoples of Egypt and Western Asia represented the yearly decay and revival of life, especially of vegetable life, which they personified as a god who annually died and rose again from the dead…. They understood them very well, and they used them to their advantage. There are a number of lessons to be learned in this life, and sometimes we have to be led in this direction and in that direction in order to learn the lesson that God has for us. God warned His people against the false prophets and religious leaders in their midst in verses 8 and 9: “Let not your prophets and your diviners, that [be] in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. Likewise, when Paul wrote to the Colossians, he urged them to stand fast in Christ and not be deceived by “ the traditions of men, according to the elements [elemental spirits or demons] of the world…” (Col. 2:8). In the religious literature of Babylonia, Tammuz appears as the youthful spouse or lover of Ishtar [Easter], the great mother goddess, the embodiment of the reproductive energies of [Mother] nature…. As we saw in Ezekiel, ancient Israel and Judah became so corrupt that they had the gall and hardheartedness to actually worship other gods at the temple of the true God in Jerusalem! Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. How could God’s last-day people, as it were, who were supposed to know Him, get so deeply involved in these kinds of rites and ceremonies? Israel was committing the same atrocities as the Babylonians were, which was just inhumane. In the same epistle, Paul writes that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If you are looking today for a Saviour, He is there. Not everyone who reads it is going to reach the same conclusion. A garden cannot be tilled, planted, and harvested in a few days’ time either. Ezekiel continues: “And He said to me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? However, when the apostate Israelites and Jews worshiped the sun god Baal, they worshiped toward the east with their backs to the temple of God. We are going to be here for only a little while, and then we are going home.” But God said, through His prophet Jeremiah, “Build ye houses, and dwell [in them]; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.” Verses 5, 6. They understood eclipses; they understood comets. In large cities as well as small villages, it seems there is a church on practically every corner. The choice is yours. “You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each doing whatever is right in his own eyes…. “Those only who read the Scriptures as the voice of God speaking to them, are true learners. They understood the orderly conjunction of the stars, the sun and the moon, and the different heavenly bodies. I Kings 16:30–34 tells of Ahab and how, through raising altars to Baal, he “did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” He participated in providing altars for human sacrifices. Darby Bible Translation Thus saith Jehovah: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons. Yet, thousands of years ago, before God brought them into the Promised Land, He warned the Israelites not to follow the customs of the nations around them. It needs to be made very clear that no one will be saved because of the denomination to which he or she belongs. Many Christians define a heathen as anyone who does not theologically agree with them. [Every] year Tammuz was believed to die, passing away from the cheerful earth to the gloomy subterranean world, and every year his divine mistress journeyed in her quest for him … that the two might return together to the upper world, and that with their return all nature might revive.