I belive the practice is called sanctification. But what does God think of it? The first of the 10 Commandments 1.. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. A reading of the Old Testament will give many examples of what God wanted done with items that had previously been used for Pagan worship, even items made of Gold where to be ground to dust and the dust scattered to the wind, they where not to be melted down and used in another form. Neverthe less, the Hebrews where constantly guilty of not keeping thier worship of God Spiritually clean, heres a report on what God thinks of "sanctification", that is, if something clean touches something dirty, does the dirty thing become clean, or does the clean thing become dirty? 11 "This is what Jehovah of armies has said, 'Ask, please, the priests as to [the] law, saying: 12 "If a man carries holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and he actually touches with his skirt bread or stew or wine or oil or any sort of food, will it become holy?"'" And the priests proceeded to answer and say: "No!" 13 And Hag´gai went on to say: "If someone unclean by a deceased soul touches any of these things, will it become unclean?" In turn the priests answered and said: "It will become unclean." 14 Accordingly Hag´gai answered and said: "'That is how this people is, and that is how this nation is before me,' is the utterance of Jehovah, 'and that is how all the work of their hands is, and whatever they present there. It is unclean.' Pete Charlton ----- Original Message ----- From: philip madsen To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:30 PM Subject: [geocentrism] Re: expelled Well 2 points Jack.. December the 25th was chosen because this day was already almost a universal holiday in the Roman world. Christians thereby were not forced into evading work in their celebrations. Naturally the Pagan religions died and the day became ours. (reversed today ) Directing pagan practises such as gift giving to the cause of Christs teachings is a clever teaching aid. The SUN becomes Christ..representing the brightness of God. Who can gaze upon God? I do not like Peters picture of the madonna though. Quite ugly. Back then , who knows how well it was received.. What is its Catholic name Peter. As the people converted they gave their temples to be consecrated for Christ, blesed, and used as churches.. Probably exorcised as well to oust the Devil. As regards Halos, your "identification" reason is sound enough but doesn't the Bible refer to visions of the saints or Angels as being surrounded by light? This opposes the prince of darkness. Philip. ----- Original Message ----- From: Jack Lewis To: geocentrism@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 8:29 PM Subject: [geocentrism] Re: expelled I believe most Christians realise that Jesus' birthday is unknown. Like I said earlier, whatever date is chosen to celebrate His birth will have probably been used for some other celebration. Surely you can see that. Dec 25 is not a mystical date. Regarding the Maddona and Child, I do not subscribe to the R.C. paintings which show people with haloes. The closest I would come to defend is simply to say it was their method of defining the Biblical personalities. They could have used a pointing arrow just as effectively. Jack PETER CHARLTON wrote: December 25th, Christmas day, brought to you by the same people who brought you the Trinity, the same people who where used to celebrating the birthday of thier Sun god on December 25th. Though we are not given the date of Jesus birthday, we are given the day of his death and the age at death, working back takes you to Jesus birth being late September or October. What did you think of my little picture of the Catholic Maddona with child, and how the child looks like the Sun? Pete ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.7/1408 - Release Date: 30/04/2008 6:10 PM