However, there is a more subtle, seemingly non-offensive practice that the Heathens do every year and which is accepted nearly world wide.  It is especially loved by the women of our day, and each year brings new and creative ideas to exploit it further. Read the following scripture and SEE if you can determine what it is:

“1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2 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.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.” (Jeremiah 10:1-8.)

Now, perhaps you don’t go out and cut a tree yourself every year for Christmas, or maybe you don’t buy a cut tree at all; (Do you really think that such rationalizations will provide escape from the judgments of God who has called this practice a vain custom, and the way of the Heathen?)  However, do you fasten a tree to stand upright, whether real or plastic, etc, or on a stand and “deck” it with silver or gold balls, and lights and other ornaments? And doesn’t this tradition CHRISTmas appertain to Christ and His name, who is the King of Nations? And after all of that doesn’t the Lord call it brutish, foolish, and the stock a doctrine of vanities? Are you willing to sear your conscious with a hot iron over what God so plainly calls a foolish tradition?  If one learns and practices the “way of the heathen” does not one then become the heathen? Can you defy the word of God?

Then to add injury to insult, how many times each year during this heathen practice do people break the commandment and take the name of the Lord in Vain?  Even by the mention of its name, CHRISTmas, it is done.  And is it justified of them that do so?  Does not the Lord say He will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain? How can one not take His name in vain, when the Lord Himself calls this practice vain?

In verse 15, 21 and 25 of the same chapter above, it says:

“15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.  

[Has your Pastor, Bishop, Stake President, or leader sought the Lord about these things or warned you of such practices?? God says they have not.]

25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.”

[What will consume a man? Fire will consume a man.  Do the scriptures not tell us that the Lord’s day is a day of wrath, a day of burning, of fire and vengeance?]

After reading the above scriptures, the following statement from Chrysostom, John, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, seems fitting and relevant for the majority of those who may scoff and mock at such things:

“Perhaps some are even disgusted and laugh. For this very cause ought we to make our lamentations the more intense, because we are so mad and beside ourselves, that we do not know that we are mad, but laugh at things for which we ought to groan. O man! "There is wrath revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (from. Romans 1.18); "God will come manifestly: a fire will burn before Him, and round about Him will be a mighty tempest." (Psalms. 50. 3.) "A fire will burn before Him, and consume His enemies on every side." (Psalms. 97. 3.) "The day of the Lord is as a burning oven." (Malachi 4. 1.) And no man lays up these things in his mind, but these tremendous and fearful doctrines are more despised than fables, and are trodden under foot. He that heareth,—there is no one: while they who laugh and make sport are—all. What resource will there be for us? Whence shall we find safety? "We are undone, we are utterly consumed" (Numbers 17. 12), we are become the laughingstock of our enemies, and a mockery for the Heathen and the Demons. Now is the devil greatly elated; he glories and is glad. The angels to whom we had been entrusted are all ashamed and in sadness: there is no man to convert [you]: all means have been used by us in vain, and we seem to you as idle talkers. It is seasonable even now to call on the heaven, because there is no man that heareth; to take to witness the elements: "Hear, O heaven! and give ear, O earth! for the Lord hath spoken." (Isaiah 1. 2.)”

 [Note: The passages above are quoted from the New Advent Bible, which has a somewhat different translation from the King James Version and it is recommended to look  them up to note the difference; also originally the references were abbreviated and roman numerals were cited and have been changed to the full name and standard numerals and bold/underline emphasis added.]

“2 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!

3 For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.” (Ezekiel 30:2-3.)

[Have you ever seen a Nuclear Mushroom Cloud, 80,000 feet in the air? It SHALL BE in THE TIME OF THE HEATHEN, as the scripture says. Think of how many celebrate the heathen way, in the time of the heathen,  even Christmas season.]

“13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

[Do not be fooled, for everything God has caused to be written will be fulfilled.]

14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.” (Isaiah 47:13-14.)

“4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” (Jeremiah 4:4.)

“13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

14 And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.” (Jeremiah 15:13-14.)

“1 For, behold, THE DAY COMETH THAT SHALL BURN burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1.)

[Who are your roots?  Who are your Branches?  Your Parents and your Children.]

“10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  (Matthew 3:10,12.)

“6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.” (Psalms 11:6.) [The wind from a nuclear blast (1 megaton) is over 300 mph, and the fire is 11 million degrees.]

“21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.” (Ezekiel 39:21.)

Yes the heathen will know that they have brought the wrath of God upon themselves.  Is the word of the Lord hard? To some it is.  But, to those who want to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4), it is plain and easy to be understood.  Others will find fault with, or transfigure the holy word of God as Mormon 8:33 says: “… Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might bring damnation upon your souls?...” Do you change the meaning of the scriptures to suit your lifestyle, or are you willing to accept them for what they really mean?

And still others it will cut to their heart: “2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth;. . .wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.” (1 Nephi 16:2.)

We have been caught up in the very thing which the Book of Mormon has warned us of time and time again: INCORRECT TRADITIONS.  Traditions that people have clung to for hundreds of years, they are the shackle of bondage upon them, and keep their minds clouded from the truth.  To break them, it is regarded by many, is to go against the grain and fabric of humanity and become a traitor, imbecile and loony of society.  They have become all important, to the point of invoking our Jealous God to anger, for He is a Jealous God, and has commanded that we have no other God’s before Him.

“ 5 I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.” (Mosiah 1:5.)

“15 Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols, and the curse of God had fallen upon them because of the traditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them on the conditions of repentance.” (Alma 17:15.)

“7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—

8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free. . .” (Helaman 15:7-8.)