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wicked Jews?" (Arian Controversy,
Gwatkin, p. 38.)
So strong was the anti-Jewish
feeling that pork or ham - an
abomination to the Jews - was de–
liberately eaten on Easter to show
utter contempt for anything "Jew–
ish."
Thus the Nicaean Council - re–
garded by the world as one of the
great rnilestones of Christianity -
condemned observance of the New
Testament Passover without even
looking into the Bible. And by "vio–
lence and bloodshed" - as history
shows (Hislop, p. 107) - the obser–
vance of the pagan Easter was en–
forced in its place.
Does
It
Make
Any
Difference?
Sorne will still say, "Yes, I know
that Easter has a pagan origin, and I
can plainly see that Christ was not
resurrected on a Sunday. But as
long as we keep Easter in a Chris–
tian spirit as a kind of rernernbrance
of Christ's resurrection, what differ–
ence does it make? After all, regard–
less of the significance of the day or
the various customs associated with
it, we're doing it to remember the
resurrection of Christ, aren't we?"
Not the Christ of the Bible, you're
not! Really, though, it doesn't make
a bit of difference -
if
Christ is not
alive, if the Bible is not the Word of
God, and if there is no God.
Because
if
there is no God and
we're left free to pick and choose
whatever custorn most appeals to us
for our own religions, then let's have
at it with great zeal! But, at least,
let's call a spade a spade - and
realize the true significance of the
symbols we use.
But since there is a God and since
Jesus Christ really did walk out of
bis tomb, then it does make a tre–
mendous difference - to Christ!
There is not a single word in the
·Bible telling us to observe Easter.
[nstead, God thunders, "Learn not
the way of the heathen" (Jer. 10:2).
And any encyclopedia will tell you
that Easter is a pagan festival, long
antedating Christianity. More de–
tailed proof is available in our sur–
prising free book.let,
The Plain Truth
About Easter!
Are you going to obey God? The
choice is yours.
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH Aprii-May 1976
(Continued from page 1)
But by about 1960 something sig–
nificant had happened. The average
American wage was about three
times higher than that paid in Brit–
ain and Europe and almost four
times higher than that paid in Ja–
pan. But meanwhile, the Common
Market had given European nations
a MASS MARKET, and they had gone
to mass-machine production. Re–
sull: European nations had come to
mass-machine production with
low–
cost labor, while the United States
had mass-machine production with
HlGH-COSt labor.
This
in
turn got the U.S. dollar
into trouble abroad due to unequal
cash balances.
But this is only a partial ex–
planation of what skyrocketed the
United States up to the highest per
capita income - the highest living
standard of the nation as a whole of
any nation in the history of man–
kind. And it also is only a partial
explanation of the present downturn
of that affl.uent living standard.
A rnajor cause lies in much
deeper roots and involves a history
of upwards of 3,000 years. Actually,
what is now happening - this sud–
den downward trend in American
prosperity, the accelerating trend
worldwide of increasing violence,
wars, overthrow of governments of
nations at the rate of one a month,
and world evils in general - is the
beginning of a staggering clímax of
world trouble such as never oc–
curred before.
World leaders do not realize
what's coming. They are almost to–
tally unaware. They have been
falsely educated into closing their
minds to the CAUSES of great world
events. They have been educated to
ignore causes and deal with effects.
The world's best minds are in ig–
norance of the unprecedented cata–
clysm that is about to strike.
lt
has
been laid out in advance for thou–
sands of years in prophecy. But the
prophecies have not been under–
stood or believed because the vital
KEY
that could unlock prophecies
has been LOST!
That key is the identity of the
United States and the British
na~
tions in biblical prophecies. lt's aLL
explained in our free book.let
The
United States and British Common–
wealth in Prophecy.
This booklet shows that it was
prophesied long ago tha t, beginning
1800-1803, the United States and
Britain would suddenly spring to
the greatest wealth and power ever
attained by any nation. God had
promised that. It happened! ·
These nations reached the zenith
of world power and wealth by the
year 1950. The most amazing fact of
world history is the sudden sky–
rocketing of two nations - the
United States and Britain - to
un–
precedented wealth and power.
The British and Americans carne
into possession of more than two
thirds - almost three fourths - of
the cultivated wealth and resources
of the WHOLE WORLD! All other na–
tions combined shared between
them less than a third!
What CAUSED this uneq ualed
surge to wealth and power?
Abraham Lincoln answered: "We
find ourselves in the peaceful pos–
session of the fairest portion of the
earth, as regards fertility of soil, ex–
tent of territory, and salubrity of di–
mate .... We ... find ourselves the
legal inheritors of these fundamen–
tal blessings. We toiled not in their
acquisition or the establishment of
them."
Again Lincoln said,
"It
is the duty
of nations, as well as of men, to owe
their dependence upon the over–
ruling power of God ... and to rec–
ognize t he s ublime truth, an–
nounced in the Holy Scriptures and
proven by aUhistory, that those na–
tions
only
are blessed whose God is
the Lord.. . . We have been the re–
cipients of the choicest blessings of
heaven. We have been preserved,
these many years, in peace and
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