Many people are aware of the pagan origin of Christmas and Easter (which isn’t Passover), but what about holidays of recent invention, such as Mother’s Day? There’s no heathen religious history associated with it, and there isn’t anything wrong with honoring our mothers on a particular day, is there? Well, yes, there is for the children of God who are called out of men’s artificial ways of honoring themselves in corruption. For more on this, read the following portion of an online meeting from 2010 (See below).
Note: During the meeting Walter twice referred to the “pagan origin” of Mother’s Day without specifying what that was. I looked up the history of Mother’s Day and discovered it was started, not in honor of mothers, but mothers rising up after the US Civil War to put an end to all wars of bloodshed. Here is part of “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe (1870 – author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”).
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace…
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God –
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Later, another woman, Ann Reeves Jarvis, organized “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to educate poor women about health and hygiene. Her daughter, Anna Jarvis, began to organize the first Mother’s Day celebrations in the US, which eventually was declared a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Nine years later, Jarvis protested against what Mother’s Day had become, even calling for boycotts: “This is not what I intended. I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit.” So much for the best intentions of man, which cannot overcome the nature of man to serve himself and not the Lord, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Applicable portions from our May 8th, 2010 Sabbath meeting where we covered the topic of Mother’s Day:
“Who are My mother, brother, and sister?” the Lord asked. Can you imagine Jesus setting aside “Mother’s Day” for His mother? The very thought is repugnant to Him.
These words are true and applicable to all, especially give attention to the last verse for now.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36 MKJV).
To know the truth is to embrace it. It is not about head knowledge; With head knowledge, you will honor your mother, and only your mother. With heart knowledge, you will honor the Creator and all He has made. Without Him, you can honor nothing. With Him, you honor Him, and by Him, all. And your head knowledge is vain, so that even your mother won’t be honored – nothing of the flesh or the world has life; never did, never will. In Him was life and IS.
And what about the other 364 days? Are mothers and fathers honored on those? Is one formal, official day going to make up for negligence, thoughtlessness, and carelessness on any or all of the other days?And if we live right every day, which is why we are gathered here today, in the Lord, do we need a special day set aside? Frankly, is it not substitution for the reality?
Is it not playing on people’s consciences just to open their wallets or exalt themselves as “heroes”?
All these days and observances are so vain. What we want to do is understand the origin and significance of these things. It certainly was not the Lord Who decided on a day of the year to keep His Fifth Commandment, was it? “For the time of life which is past is enough for us to have worked out the will of the nations, having gone on in lasciviousness, lusts,excess of wine, parties, carousings, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3 MKJV). In these things they are surprised, that you are not running with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming. But they shall give account to Him Who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:4-5 MKJV)
The Fifth Commandment is from the new heart, every day.
“Who are My mother, brother, and sister?” the Lord asked. Can you imagine Jesus setting aside “Mother’s Day” for His mother? The very thought is repugnant to Him.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26-27 MKJV).
“But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer,he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like. But whoever looks into the perfect Law of liberty and continues in it, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one shall be blessed in his doing” (James 1:22-25 MKJV)
I recall I used to wonder how much to spend on a Mother’s Day card. Back in the ‘50’s one could likely buy one for 10 cents, maybe 5; don’t recall – or for $1, which was a big fancy one. Now just what kind of honor would I do my mother if I didn’t work as a kid and make sure I got her the best card on the counter? And what about flowers? “Don’t you love your mother enough to get her flowers, or some gift? Are you going to cheap out and just give her a card? What kind of son are you?!? For shame!” Thus says the accuser, the destroyer, and the merchandiser. The same with Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s, and everything else of the world. It is never, but never, enough – never.
Unless my mother knew I had only $1 dollar to my name and I went without my pleasures just to buy her the $1 card. Then my mother should consider that she could have taught me to not try to artificialize my love for her – “Oh son, you shouldn’t have!” And it’s true! Those mothers who teach the way of God are the true mothers, and they are honored daily of God and those they teach. Motherhood is not biological; it is spiritual.
“But the Jerusalem from above is free, who is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26 MKJV).
Of course, all that is said here for tomorrow’s event can be said of Father’s Day, as well.
“And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, Behold, My mother and My brothers! For whoever shall do the will of My Father in Heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother”
(Matthew 12:49-50 MKJV).