Should followers of Christ Jesus celebrate the Feast of the Wolf, known as Saint Valentine’s Day? Do professing believers really understand that if they recognize Lupercalia, or participate in the annual celebration of this ancient pagan festival of lust, that they are in no way pleasing God?
Do believers really know about the origins of this unholy holiday and that it was promoted through the ages by Papal Caesars, who fully adopted and carried on the lascivious rituals of heathen nations? Shouldn't the disciples of Jesus today heed God’s warning to NOT adopt CUSTOMS used to worship or honor false gods? Why DO Christians observe this day with other unbelievers?
Valentine’s Day is not just an innocent Hallmark holiday. A study of ancient history will reveal that ancient heathen nations, who had fallen under Roman rule, had begun to adopt the hodgepodge state religion of Rome, during the reign of Constantine the Great, however, they weren’t anywhere close to agreeing to abandon their traditional celebration of Lupercalia. They had every intention of continuing their superstious, ancestral 'fertility rites' as part of the new conversion process. So, too, the followers of the Way of Jesus Christ, who had been suffering persecution during that era, were persuaded to join in the bizarre celebrations throughout Rome, especially to avoid the death penalty for non-participation in Roman culture and society. So, it came to be that the festivals such as Lupercalia were widely promoted and celebrated as a way to unite both Christianity and paganism under the Roman Rule, in order for Papal Rome to gain control over the expanding Empire.
The Lupercalia festival was partly in honor of Lupa, the she-wolf who, according to legend, nursed the infant orphans Romulus and Remus. Roman legend states that Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome in 753 B.C. The pagan festival was also in honor of the Roman god Lupercus, who was the god of shepherds. Lupercus was Rome's equivalent to the Greek god Pan.
The link between the Lupercalia, fertility rites, and new romance in general is clearly evident in the festivities that occurred during the celebrations:
To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification.
The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat-hide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.
Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The men of the city would each choose a name out of the urn and be paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches began a union that lasted for a year or so until the next Lupercalia Day.
The Greek historian Plutarch (c. 46 to 120 A.D.) also describes the Lupercalia and its relationship to fertility:
"Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time, many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy."
The second-century Christian apologist Justin Martyr further links the worship of pagan gods to the Lupercalia when he writes of an image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus," who is nude save for a girdle of goatskin, which stood in the Lupercal, the cave where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf.”
Does it MATTER?
Does it matter that the church of God, would later adopt the practices associated with an ancient heathen festival where pagan gods were worshipped and supposed “fertility rites’ were practiced by everyone in the cities? What was really going on during the festivities? The parties lasted for days with eating and heavy drinking that led to great drunkenness, wantonness in the extreme, including spiritual and sexual idolatry. Does God really CARE what customs are used to worship and honor Him or what holidays we celebrate? Does the Word of God encourage His people to align themselves with the ways of the world? Maybe we should check, just to make sure.
Notice the following warning God gave to the children of Israel:
“When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.”
Deuteronomy 12:29-31, KJV
The warning is to NOT adopt CUSTOMS used to worship or honor other gods in order to serve and worship the true God!
“And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”
2 Corinthians 6:15-17, KJV
God’s people are to be SET APART from the ways of the world and man-made traditions.
"Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 20:7, KJV
"Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:22-23, KJV
The true origin of Valentine's Day and its symbols are ROOTED in the worship of false gods. It definitely has no biblical basis! It's another man-made tradition, one that gives nod to false gods past and present. Those who celebrate the Roman pagan holiday of Valentine's Day, and still consider themselves believers in the one True God of the Bible, after learning of its origins, should take a prayerful look at their personal observance of the holiday that glorifies the ‘lust of the flesh’. Is this practice leaning more toward worshipping the creation (their bodies and themselves) more than worshipping the Creator of the Heavens and Earth? You decide.
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