Definición de publicidad

The pastor of the church had invited a colleague. The other pastor refused the invitation. He had been invited to a Halloween party. The fancy dress party was more important to him than the gospel.

All Saints’ Day and Halloween originated in a pagan festival. Before the days of Christianity, the Druids in England (priests of a Celtic race) had the idea that people needed to be cleansed after they had died. The soul of the departed was transferred by magic to the body of an animal. During the night of October 31, the enchanted souls were freed by the Druid god, Sam- hain, and taken together into the Druid heaven.

This Druid festival was always accompanied by animal and sometimes human sacrifices and linked with all kinds of magic.

In spite of the coming of Christianity, this pagan festival continued to be kept in England until the sixth century. Gregory the Great (a.d. 540-604) advised the Archbishop of Canterbury to retain the hitherto Druid sacrifices and celebrate them in honor of the Christian saints.

This is one example of the Catholic policy of assimilation, and has par- allels on many mission fields. In the summer of 1975, I was visiting a Catholic church in Bogota, Colombia, where I was astonished to find masks of Indian gods on the walls. The guide explained that the Spaniards had used these In- dian gods to entice the Incas into the Christian church. In the light of Bible teaching, it is incredible that anyone should try to lead people to the living God with the aid of the demons.

To return to the Druid festival, English settlers brought these customs to America. There the festival enjoys widespread popularity, because it gives people an opportunity for a holiday.

In Germany, the association of All Saints’ Day with the pagan Druid festival has long since disappeared. Only the religious custom has remained, and it is very popular among Catholic people. As long as the decoration of graves is only an expression of reverence for the departed, the custom can remain. The other custom of lighting candles to show lost souls the way is su- perstition. What counts in eternity is whether our lives have been lived for Christ or not. There is nothing we can do to alter the fate of the departed, however near and dear they are to us.

Christians and Halloween (by Jenna Robinson)

Are we, Christians, against Halloween? — We are! Halloween is also ref- ered to as Samhain, and is still celebrated as an ancient pagan festival of the dead by wiccans and pagans all over the world. Unfortunately, just giving the date a “holy” name like All Hallows' Eve or All Saints' Eve cannot change its grisly character. Halloween is an occasion when the ancient gods (actually demons) are worshiped with human sacrifice. The apostle Paul warns us: “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to dev-

ils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with dev- ils” (1 Cor. 10:20).

Halloween is filled with all sorts of pagan characters and customs that Christians need to avoid. The black cat, for example, was believed by the Druids to be evil spirit friends of witches, and even witches themselves. These cats were often kept in wicker cages and burned in animal sacrifices. Witches are worshipers of Satan, and they are an abomination to God (Exo. 22:18; Deu. 18:10-11). Why would a God-fearing Christian want to dress-up their child like something that God hates? Scary masks were worn by the Celts to scare away evil spirits. The jack-o-lantern was used for the same purpose, although a turnip was originally used. What the world thinks of as “ghosts” are not the spirits of dead people, but rather EVIL spirits which we are warned about in the Bible (Lev. 19:31; 20:27; II Kgs. 23:24; Mat. 10:1; Mar. 3:11; Acts 8:7; Rev. 16:13). Why would a Christian want to decorate their home with such wickedness? Does God want you to dress your child up like an evil spirit?

Even the orange and black colors of Halloween have a wicked origin. At the Druid Festival of Death for Samhain huge bon fires were used for offering human and animal sacrifices. So the colors of the night were orange flames glowing in the dark. Trick-or-treating finds it's origin in the custom of peas- ants going house to house begging for money to purchase necessities for a feast for Muck Olla, the Druid sun god. A blessing was promised to generous givers, while threats were often made to those who were stingy.

Apple bobbing probably comes from the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. This festival was merged with the festival of Sam- hain after Rome conquered Britain. In honor of Samhain, subjects were forced to bob for apples in boiling hot water. Those who lived through this or- deal were set free.

Friend, Halloween is Satanic! You may pretend that it's a harmless game for kids, but in reality it represents paganism, Satanism, human sacri- fice, torture, rape, murder, idolatry, witchcraft, and spiritualism! Did you know that October 31st is considered by Satanists to be their most important day of the year? Friend, WAKE UP! Don't honor the Devil! Honor God instead by refusing to observe Halloween this year. The Lord Jesus Christ wouldn't dress innocent children up like the devils of Hell and march them around town, so why should you? Are you a TRUE follower of Jesus Christ? Then SKIP Halloween this year and tell others to do likewise!

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (Eph. 5:11)

“The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” (Rom. 13:12)

Hari Krishna.

Hari Krishna is an Eastern Indian sect which is collecting money in the Western world. I have come across them three times in the USA. On one oc- casion, I was strolling along a street in San Francisco. I noticed a group of

young men. They were standing together, dressed in saffron yellow robes and singing an Eastern song. Their heads were shaved. Only one single tuft of hair remained, standing up vertically on top. They made a strange impres- sion. When enough people had assembled, they began to take around the collection box.

Being familiar with their robes and their habits from my experience in East Asia, I did not give them a cent.

I came upon them a second time in Los Angeles. This Hari Krishna group is very active: for example, in this Californian metropolis they collect about a million dollars a year. No one knows what happens to the money.

The leader of this group is Tosan Krishna. He is twenty-three years old. He is at the same time the sect’s administrative director. He insists that the money received is not used for the members of his church. He described its object like this: “Our task is to spread the Krishna consciousness, the Krishna message over the whole world.”

I heard of this group for the third time in Manhattan, New York. They were in the process of buying a club house at the Columbia University for two and one-half million dollars. This action shows that the sect is extremely act- ive and well-lined financially.

The sect has about two thousand members in the USA, and is said to have as many members in the other continents.

Let us now go over to Germany. In December 1974, an article entitled “Hari Krishna — the God Who Cashes in Many Millions From His Monks” ap- peared in a German magazine.

These bald-headed monks would have continued their shady business even longer in Germany, if the public prosecutor had not taken action against them. First of all, some of the ringleaders were imprisoned for illegal possession of firearms. Then 720,000 marks, which had been collected by begging, was confiscated by the authorities in Frankfurt. These sums of money, however, are not the aspect which should cause the most concern. Rather, it is the spiritual deceit carried out by these monks. Young people fol- low them with enthusiasm. Their parents are helpless to stop them. Their children usually disappear abroad, using false passports.

It is a question that many Christian parents ask themselves today: how do we protect our children from the spirit of the age? Young people are at- tracted by drugs and rock music, sex and alcohol, or become the victims of religious fanaticism. There is only one thing they are unwilling to do — to obey Jesus Christ and become His disciples.

More about Hare Krishna.

History. The origin of the Hare Krishnas (International Society for

Krishna Con-sciousness or ISKCON) dates back to the fifteenth century A.D., when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu developed The Doctrines of Krishnaism from the Hindu sect of Vishnuism.

Simply stated, Vishnuism believed Vishnu, the Supreme God, manifes- ted himself at one time as Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught the re-

verse: Krishna was the chief God who had revealed himself at one time as Vishnu. The doctrinal system of Krishnaism is Hinduistic and while worshiping Krishna, acknowledges universal monism. This system believes every indi- vidual must go through a series of successive lives (rein-carnation) to rid himself of the debt of his actions (karma).

Krishnaism was one of the early attempts to make philosophical Hin- duism appealing to the masses. While pure Hinduism's god is impersonal and unknowable, Krishnaism (and other sects) personalize god and pro-mote wor- ship of and interaction with the personalized aspects of god, such as Krishna. In 1965 Krishnaism came to America by means of Abhay Charan De Bhakt- ivedanta Swami Prabhupada, an aged Indian exponent of the wor-ship of Krishna. He founded ISKCON and remained its leader until his death in 1977. Presently, ISKCON is ruled by two different groups, one group of eleven men rule over spiritual matters, while a board of direc-tors heads the administrat- ive matters. This wealthy organization presently has about 10,000 members in America. Part of ISKCON's wealth comes from soliciting funds and distribut- ing its lavishly illustrated literature including the Bhagavad-Gita: As It Is and its periodical Back to Godhead. ISKCON's beliefs are those of Hinduism and are wholly incompatible with Christianity. This can be observed by a compar- ison between the statements of ISKCON on matters of belief with those of the Bible.

God. The Bible speaks of God as the infinite-personal creator of the universe.

He is eternally a separate entity from His creation. He existed before His cre- ation came into being. The Scripture says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), showing God was there before His cre- ation existed.

ISKCON practices monotheism. However it assumes traditional Hin- duistic monism (essential pantheism). To them they are all one. “In the be- ginning of the creation, there was only the Supreme Personality Narayana. There was no Brahma, no Siva, no fire, no moon, no stars in the sky, no sun. There was only Krishna, who creates all and enjoys all.

“All the lists of the incarnations of Godhead are either plenary expan- sions or parts of the plenary expansions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krsna (al- ternate spelling of Krishna) is the original Personality of Godhead Himself,” Srimad Bhagavatam 1:3:28 (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, n.d.).

Jesus Christ. According to Scripture, Jesus Christ is God Almighty who be-

came a man in order to die for the sins of the world. He has been God from all eternity. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). ISKCON denies this by making Christ no more than Krishna's son. “Jesus is the son, and Krsna is the Father, and Jesus is Kr- sna's son” (Jesus Loves Krsna, Los Angeles Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, n.d., p. 26).

Salvation. The Bible teaches that all of us have sinned against a holy God

and are therefore in need of a Savior: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This is not so in the teachings of ISKCON. According to ISKCON, salva-tion must be earned by performing a series of works. To get rid of the ignorance, one must practice disciplinary devotion by chanting the name of God, hearing and singing his praises, meditating upon the divine play and deeds of KRSNA, and engaging in the rites and ceremonies of worship. One must also repeat the name of God to the count of beads (Abhay Charan de Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhagavad-Gita As It Is p. 326).

Self-denial and sacrifice are crucial for salvation in ISKCON. Note the following quotation: All these performers who know the meaning of sacrifice become cleansed of sinful reactions, and, having tasted the nectar of the remnants of such sacrifices, they go to the supreme eternal atmosphere (ibid p. 81).

The Passantinos have done extensive research in the area of the cults, and they offer pertinent comments regarding salvation in ISKCON:

Salvation in Hare Krishna is thoroughly entwined with the Hindu concept of karma, or retributive justice. This teaching, which requires belief in rein-carnation and/or transmigration of the soul, says that one's deeds, good and bad, are measured and judged either for or against him. Only when his good deeds have “atoned” for his bad deeds (and he is thus cleansed of this evil world) can he realize his oneness with Krishna and cease his cycles of rebirth. The idea of karma and reincarnation is anti-biblical. Is it just or reasonable for a man to suffer in this life or be required to atone for sins in this life that he committed in a previous life that he doesn’t even remember? How can suf-fering for an unknown sin reform the sinner and mature him to the point where he no longer performs that sin? Such so-called justice is cruel and absolutely opposed to the God of the Bible (Robert and Gretchen Passantino, op. cit., p.150).

Conclusion. Since ISKCON has a different God, a different Jesus, and a dif-

ferent way of salvation from what the Bible reveals, it is impossible for there to be any compatibility between the two. They differ on all crucial issues. A person must choose between Krishna and Jesus Christ; no harmony can exist between the sect of Hare Krishna and Christianity.

The Story of a Former Hare Krishna Devotee (by P.B.)

I had a short but stormy love affair with Krishna, and now that I have emerged from the veil of Maya I feel qualified to talk clearly of my spiritual experience. For this privilege I have only the Lord of Heaven and Earth [Yah- weh] to thank.

I joined ISKCON like many other devotees because I was seeking the truth, and believed that this was where it was to be found. In my questions about the meaning of life the Prabhus of Krishna have me many satisfactory

answers: “The reason for your anxiety,” I was told, “is your mind. Your mind is a part of Maya, Illusion. When you chant the Mahamantra you say goodbye to your Maya-mind and enter the transcendantal state of bless which is Krishna concsiousness.”

On the streets I noticed how happy the devotees seemed to be, and their orange robes were so much more attractive than the black habits of my religious tradition. Surely God — the Creative One — was on their side! To cut a long story short I joined the temple, had the customary haircut, and changed my jeans and jumper for an orange dhoti and kirtan.

“Once you become a devotee,” by Prabhu told me, “your problems will disappear.” As the days went by t h e o p p o s i t e w a s t h e c a s e . My prob- lems, deep and psychological, began in earnest. I was torn between two forces: my head, which said “Just chant and everything is okay” and my h e a r t which wouldn't keep quiet and gave me the constant feeling that something was wrong.

The one thing that the devotees claimed to have was the one thing they were missing — LOVE. I noticed signs of de-personalisation. When the devotees laughed they laughed with their mouths but not their eyes. Their eyes remained hard as steel — transcendental — like the round cold eyes of the deity on the altar. Bhakti Yoga was surely a strange cold love — unworthy of the name. Even the devotees, so peaceful on the streets, showed signs of occasional hatred behind the walls of the temple.

My heart won the battle and I ran away. When I returned to the World I felt sad because I thought that, like Arjuna on the battlefield, I had refused to fight. I still continued to chant and remained a vegetarian for months after I had left the temple. I still believed that Krishna was God.

Then the God of Love began to move in my life. I had sought Him and not found Him, and now He began searching for me. He spoke to me through books I “accidentally” came across, people I “accidentally” met, and situ- ations in which I “acidentally” found myself. He introduced Himself to me by Name; and His Name was Yahshua (Jesus).

He taught me a thousand things, all in the space of a few short weeks. The veil of Maya was the veil of my sinfulness, and as I repented it lifted. Yahshua (Jesus) revealed Himself not only as the Son of God (man) but as God the Son (God). When I opened the door of my heart and let Him in He ar- rived and cleaned out the house of my body. I knew a peace I had never known before - a continual peace of mind and heart which was far greater, warmer, and truer than the brief transcendental “trips” which resulted from chanting to Krishna.

He showed me the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 verse 37 where Krishna admits to being the “M a s t e r o f D e m o n s .”

Reader, if you are sincerely seeking God, I advise you to turn from Krishna to Christ.

Healing Fanaticism.

In the last few decades there has been much discussion about miracu- lous healing. There are extremes on either side. I am convinced that God is able to help and to heal both with and without the aid of a doctor. There are many examples I could quote. I have also made it my practice for many years to obey the instructions in James 5:14, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the presbyters of the church; and let them pray over him.” But in spite of my positive attitude to faith healing, I am utterly opposed to healing