5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
When Theodosius I made Christianity the State Religion in 380 all the pagan holidays and feasts, festivals and even temples had to be converted to Christian ones. I don’t necessarily think this was a bad thing or immoral in anyway. I mean they had to do something. So Winter Solstice became Christmas because it was traditionally around the same time and I am sure other things like that happened too. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate our saviors birth. Well anyway, one of the things I have read is that originally there was a 44 day fast in the ancient Babylonian religion that was still being observed by the Romans call the Weeping for Tammuz. It is mentioned in Ezekiel 8:13 as an abomination. The original fast and feast were pagan in origin. Tammuz was the God of Seeds and drowned in a flood but was said to rise from the dead after 44 days which they celebrated with a feast. When Rome converted to Christianity as the State religion they changed this to be the 40 day fast of Jesus I think explaining the four days off as Sundays. The Papal church currently defines Lent as the period of fasting leading up to the feast of Easter, symbolizing Jesus’ 40-day fast in the wilderness. The Roman Lent is observed for 44 days, starting on Ash Wednesday (Feb 6th in 2008), going through the Thursday of Easter Week (March 20th 2008).
And the LORD said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.
I think God is making a point about our stubborness without God and what it takes to make a sinner let go of their stupid ideas… Keep in mind that even after this Pharaoh ran after them to destroy them and got drowned. We are truly fools without God’s wisdom.
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