"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Galatians 4:16

This is another subject that will cause a lot of people to be contentious towards me and verbally attack me, very similar to how they react when I talk about the offenses and evils involved with the Christmas traditions, and if you are a churchgoer who has already made up your mind (based on the title alone) that nothing I am writing here could be true or apply to you and your family, then by all means, close this page and go do something else with your time. I am not going to force this down anyone's throat, and I am not going to tell anyone what you should or should not do in your home because I am not a priest; I am simply a teacher that has conviction to share the truth of the Word of God and warn Christians about the dangers of blindly following traditions.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
-Colossians 2:8

If there is a single tradition in this country that is blindly followed with extreme prejudice, I would say the birthday celebration is a primary example. Please do not misunderstand, I am not saying a person is going to hell because he/she had a birthday party, but be honest with yourself: Have you ever once, in your entire life, questioned where the birthday celebration traditions come from, or why we celebrate birthdays at all?

The Lord God told Israel:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
-Hosea 4:6-8

The reason I get attacked and/or get excuses from people for even asking the questions about birthdays is because their hearts are set on iniquity, and as they become more prosperous, they increase in their sin and turn their hearts away from God. It does not matter to the average American churchgoer what the Lord God says, or how He sees things; they simply want to follow their feelings and fulfill their desires.

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
-Matthew 7:27

Often, when I write about these types of celebratory or holiday topics, I get people who foolishly write me in defense of their personal attachments, and tell me what I already know. They will write to tell me that they do it to honor their children, or honor their parents, or respect the life that God gave someone, and many other excuses—I have heard them all, and they are a dime a dozen. They always write me to try convincing me their personal household traditions are justified because their personal feelings and opinions, but to be straight-forward, I do not care about your personal feelings and opinions; I simply want to look at the facts, and the fact is that most people have gotten themselves so wrapped up in the traditions of cakes, candles, parties, and gift-giving, they have never stopped for one second to ask why the traditions exist, or if they should be doing them in the first place.

For example, one of the most well-known birthday traditions in American culture (and in many other countries around the world) is the blowing out of birthday candles to "make a wish." Sometimes this is done at something like an anniversary party, but it is mostly centered around the birthday tradition. Have you ever wondered why this is not done at weddings or Christmas? Why would we even risk getting melted wax inside a cake that people would prepare themselves to eat? There are no Biblical verses to back up that tradition, and there certainly isn't any other American tradition we can connect such a thing to, so where did it come from in the first place?
(Read "The Biblical Understanding of Weddings & Marriage" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

Whether American church-goers want to admit it or not, the birthday candles have an origin in witchcraft, in a category called "Candle Magick." The following author is a bestselling Wiccan author who has developed her own set of tarot cards and other teachings on shamanistic witchcraft, and she explains that witches have used candle magick over the past few thousand years:
"In spell crafting, candles speak a magickal language. Their words are the flickering flame, popping wax, and curling smoke. A candle flame touches something deep within your being. It represents the spirit's highest potential while the smoke carries your wishes, prayers, and desires to the divine. Candle magick can be as simple as dedicating a candle to a God or Goddess, or making a dedication by lighting a candle in memory of an ancestor or for a friend who has died. Birthday candles are still used for making magick wishes."
-Sirona Knight, The Wiccan Spell Manual, Citadel Press, 2001, p. 91-92, ISBN: 9780806523576; Knight is a bestselling author on shamanistic witchcraft, and develops tarot cards.

So Americans traditionally put candles on a cake, and the person whose birthday is being celebrated is told to "make a wish" and then blow out the candles. The resulting smoke from the candles is symbolic in witchcraft that the wishes of the person blowing out the fire would be heard by the pagan gods and goddesses.

Over the years, as I have exposed more and more witchcraft traditions adopted by churchgoers, I have received more than enough hateful emails to know how they will respond to this teaching: They will say that their intentions are pure, and they have liberty in Christ, so that makes it acceptable with God.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
-Galatians 5:13

These are nothing more than excuses because churchgoers do not want to get rid of anything they enjoy for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. They love the traditions so much, the cost of getting rid of them is higher than the lesser value they put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are born again in Christ understand that these matters have nothing to do with how we personally want to see them, but rather, we ought to focus on how the Lord God sees them.

Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.
-Deuteronomy 12:8

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.
-Proverbs 12:15

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.
-Proverbs 21:2

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
-Jeremiah 17:9

To the Devil, it does not matter what your intentions are; it only matters whether or not you bring his demonic practices into your home, and witches themselves will tell you that it has nothing to do with your intentions:
"Anyone who has made a wish before blowing out birthday candles has practiced candle magic. Quick, easy, and effective, this magical art requires no religious doctrine or previous magic experience."
-Thea Sabin, Wicca for Beginners: Fundamentals of Philosophy & Practice, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2010, ISBN: 9780738717753; Sabin has been a witch and astrologer for most of her life, and her work has appeared in many publications around the world.

Let's also stop and consider why we have birthday cakes. Have you ever thought about that? What does a baked cake with icing have to do with birthdays at all? Most people never even question it because they are so used to the tradition, but it really does not make any sense how those two things are connected—unless we look at the traditions of witchcraft. The following author was a 20-year veteran witch, and very highly regarded among witch covens:
"Offering a special cake to a person enjoying a birthday is a custom of obscure origin, but almost certainly is meant to magically ensure that the recipient won't suffer poverty or hunger during the coming year... Created from sacred foods (grains, butter, sugar, and eggs), cakes are uniquely linked with the divine and are perfect gifts on birthdays. Why do we write on special-occasion foods, such as birthday cakes? This involves the idea that the act of eating words (even those created out of icing) magically transfers the energies represented by those words to their eaters. 'Happy Birthday' and 'Good Luck' carefully written on cakes were originally more than kind gestures--they were ritual assurances of just these things... Blowing out the candles and 'making a wish' are obviously remnants of forgotten magical rituals--perhaps those performed to gain the favor of Artemis. The next time you're presented with a candlelit cake, visualize your wish as you blow."
-Scott Cunningham, Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2012, ISBN: 9780738717111; Cunningham practiced magic for over 20 years and authored more than 50 books on the subject.

So now we can see why cakes were given as gifts specifically on birthdays, and were also done for special occasions like weddings and anniversaries; they were rituals designed to not only infuse the "luck" of the pagan gods into a person or people who the cake was given to, but also to help magically infuse the concept of pagan energies into a person eating the cake via the words written on it. If we will stop and think about it, these traditions are extremely specific, which means they need explanations that have specific purposes, and we don't find those specific purposes anywhere outside of witchcraft, which means these birthday traditions came from pagan religion.

The visualization techniques used in sorcery are applied to the birthday tradition because it is common to tell someone to, "Close your eyes, make a wish, and blow out the candles." The word 'sorcery' is the root where we get the word 'pharmakeia', which is the root word for 'pharmaceutical', and many sorcerers today still use drugs to help them enter into visualization trances. The closing of the eyes is the sorcerer's practice of visualizing in your mind what you desire in effort to materialize it.

"Wiccans use visualization constantly in magic and energy work. In Wicca, visualization means creating a picture in your mind's eye of what you want to happen. There is a magical idea that 'energy follows thought.' What that means is that if you create and see something in your mind, that image attracts energy, and whatever you're picturing begins to become a reality."
-Thea Sabin, Wicca for Beginners: Fundamentals of Philosophy & Practice, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2010, p. 47, ISBN: 9780738717753; Sabin has been a witch and astrologer for most of her life, and her work has appeared in many publications around the world.

Please consider that the reason witches do this is not because it's just some wacky religious practice that passes the time; they get results from their magic. After all, the Devil will give them what material things they seek, so long as it keeps them from the truth of God's Word. This stuff is very dangerous because it will invoke demons to do your bidding, and I have (in the past) been involved in franchising businesses that teach people these sorcery techniques of visualization (thank God I got out of it); although it can produce results in someone who puts their faith into the sorcery, it's not worth selling your soul over.

To give an example of connecting the concept of visualization sorcery and candle witchcraft, an online store called "The White Witch Parlour" published an image that showed someone holding a candle, and said:
"When it comes to healing, spells, rituals or prayers, the key to successful progress is to visualize the person or animal being better & in full health. Don't focus on them being sick or weak. See them in a state of full recovery & happiness."
-Witches of The Craft, "The Magick of Love & Light," retrieved Mar 30, 2017, [pinterest.com/pin/525021269035203663]

The context "healing witchcraft" talked about in this quote is irrelevant because I'm simply showing an example of what witches/sorcerers do. The Lord God hates these visualization techniques taught by pagans.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
-Revelation 21:8

Tim Roderick, a 30-year veteran Wiccan high priest, teaches the same thing when he tells witches how to make magical sigils (symbols infused with "magical energies"):
"Hold the candle in your hands and visualize the final result of your magical working. Imagine that the visualization transfers to the candle... and light it."
-Timothy Roderick, Wicca: A Year and a Day - 366 Days of Spiritual Practice in the Craft of the Wise, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2005, p. 53-54, ISBN: 9780738706214; Roderick is a psychotherapist in southern California and an initiate in Traditional Wicca.

I'm not going to go into great detail on the subject of visualization in this article, but the fact is that visualization techniques and the candle magic go hand-in-glove. The visualization witchcraft (i.e. close your eyes and make a wish) is then "mind energy" transferred into the fire of the candle, and the smoke then sends it up to the pagan gods and goddesses to receive a witch's blessings. This is the origin of the birthday traditions many of us grew up learning and ignorantly participated in.

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.
-Jeremiah 10:2

When I quote these Old Testament Scriptures, scoffing church-goers commonly say that they don't need to pay any attention to these after Jesus Christ died on the cross. The reason they make this excuse is because they don't care about how the Lord God sees these pagan rituals; they think because God sent His Son to die for our sin, therefore, they have an open-ended ticket to ignore His Word.

Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
-Jeremiah 7:8-10

These excuses we hear today to justify pagan holidays (e.g. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc), and other pagan traditions like birthdays, are exactly the same excuses the Jews made in the Old Testament. They performed the traditions and rituals that were abomination in the sight of God, and then said "we are delivered by God to do these things," just as the church-goer today foolishly believes and claims, "We're delivered by Jesus, so we can do whatever we want." In the end, they're more focused on the pleasures of this world than they are on what pleases the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Read "False Converts vs Eternal Security" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
-Matthew 13:22

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
-2 Timothy 3:1-4

For the pagan, these birthday rituals are forms of witchcraft and idolatry. Since the church-goers of America do not care about how God sees things in the Old Testament, perhaps His Word repeated in the New Testament will pierce their hardened hearts:

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
-1 Corinthians 10:14

Did that say to take liberty to adopt the traditions of idolatry and practice those you personally think are acceptable for the church? Or did that say to FLEE (i.e. move quickly away from) idolatry?

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
-Galatians 5:19-21

Don't misunderstand, this is not to say that celebrating birthday traditions will end you up in hell, but that the very people who have created these traditions have ended up in hell because they rejected the Christian God of the Bible. As Christians who have repented and been born-again in Christ, we have no excuse to adopt those pagan traditions and bring them into our homes since the Bible tells us that God hates those things.

The average American church-goer claims to follow and honor Christ by calling him "Lord," giving lip service to Him, but they demonstrate by their actions that they really don't care about Him at all:

This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
-Matthew 15:8

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
-Luke 6:46

Of course, the typical church-goer gives the same ludicrous excuse, in which they claim that God can use anything for His glory. This is complete conjecture (i.e. opinion or conclusion formed on little or no information) because there is no chapter in any book of the Bible that tells of God taking a tradition born out of witchcraft and paganism and giving it to the Jews or Christians for their use; rather, God has ALWAYS condemned those pagan rituals and traditions, sanctified His people from them, and destroyed them to cleanse the land for His people.

However, the Bible does speak of birthdays in two places, and we should look at the context of them to find out who was celebrating birthdays:

And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
-Genesis 40:20

The birthday was being celebrated by the King of pagan Egypt, and he ended up executing the chief baker on this occasion. God has never looked favorably upon the Egyptians, nor their practices, so this is one place we can see that the birthday celebration is not connected with anything holy and righteous.

The second place a birthday is mentioned is in the New Testament:

But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
-Matthew 14:6

This was not the same Herod that killed the firstborn of every household in attempt to kill Jesus as a child; this Herod is his son. (i.e. Herod Jr.) John the Baptist told Herod Jr. that his taking of the wife of his brother (Philip) was sin because the law stated that the taking of a deceased brother's wife was only lawful if he had no children, and she had a daughter. Herod Jr. wanted to kill John, but out of fear of the public's outrage of executing John (since he was publically considered a prophet of God), Herod threw John in prison, and then later executed him at the request of his step daughter at his birthday celebration.

As we can see, the only time the Bible mentions birthday celebrations, they are in honor of wicked, pagan rulers, and evil things took place on these days. I don't care how many names people want to call me, and I don't care how many excuses church-goers want to make, the fact is that there is nothing in the Bible that indicates these highly esteemed birthday celebrations are good in any sense.

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
-Luke 16:15

On top of witchcraft and the evil men in the Bible who celebrated birthdays, there are some other problems most people don't (and won't) consider. Most people see the birthday giving as "charitable" or "kind" or "thoughtful," but the reality is that the giving of gifts for the particular purpose of the birthday tradition is neither charitable, kind, nor thoughtful.

Of course, many will be offended that I would say such a thing (because they look to their feelings first and foremost over Scripture), but consider the situation in which someone close to the one having the birthday does not get them something. For example, a Reddit post on a "Confession" board had a testimony about a teen who didn't get a present on her birthday:
"My 19th birthday is coming to an end, and so far only two of my friends have even acknowledged it. I've spent the day at home, mostly crying... I haven't received a single birthday present or card, from neither my family or friends. My father, who came back last night from a cruise with gifts for my little brother, said that he was out of money and he didn't know what to get me... My mom got me a birthday cake and went straight to bed after work so now I'm eating it alone in my room. My two friends who congratulated me over text asked me how I spent the day, and I had to lie because the truth is so pathetic."
-tw_bday, "No one gives a s**t about my birthday and I am ashamed," Reddit, retrieved Mar 31, 2017, [http://bit.ly/2oHeypb]

There are a number of things I want to address here, but first, I want to say that I felt bad for this person when I read this; I certainly know what it's like to be ignored and feel lonely, and it hurts a lot. However, there is a serious problem with this testimony because the author focuses on not receiving "a single birthday present or card," and yet, when she complains about the issue, she reflects on how no one was spending time with her (i.e. "I'm... alone in my room"); those are two VERY different things.

Consider for a moment that the cake her mother gave her IS a present by definition, but she was more offended that her mother "went straight to bed" instead of taking a moment to spend time with her, and that's what created the loneliness in the first place, so what most Americans foolishly do is think their gifts are valued more than their time. It is the vanity of the flesh that wants material gifts, but deep in their spirits, people (including children) want others to spend time with them and value their company, and one of the greatest mistakes parents/family/friends make is thinking their money can replace their time, or in other words, they foolishly believe their presents can replace their presence.

The next problem I want to address is the obligation, which I believe is a huge problem that I've tried to explain to people many times, and either I'm not doing a very good job of it, or people are simply unwilling to understand because the acknowledgment of this would incite a great deal of change in the lives of Americans. Let's first define the term so readers understand what I mean:

obligation (n): the binding force of civility, kindness or gratitude, when the performance of a duty cannot be enforced by law; any act by which a person becomes bound to do something to or for another
(See 'obligation', American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828, retrieved Mar 31, 2017 [webstersdictionary1828.com])

If a family member doesn't get a present for a birthday or for Christmas, there are feelings of animosity that arise, and disapproval from other family members. It is EXPECTED that when one has a birthday, you must then get him/her a present, and if you don't, then you suddenly fall out of favor with that person, which means the basis of your relationship is built upon gifts, rather than upon a bond of love.
(Read "The Biblical Definition of Love" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.
-Proverbs 19:6

Don't misunderstand; the Bible is not saying that they are real friends, but rather, they call the man who gives them gifts a "friend" because they get lots of free material things from him. They will act friendly towards him, but only because of the gifts, not because they have a personal relationship or loving attachment to him. So when the gifts disappear, the "friendship" will also disappear, and the bitterness of not receiving the obligation of a gift on a birthday (or even the expectation of a card or phone call) will often result in hatred.

Of course, no one admits they hate someone for not giving them a present for their birthday, but the hatred is demonstrated quite clearly in most instances. For example, a man is dating a woman and he forgets her birthday; what happens? If a man forgets the woman's birthday, he is shunned in a hateful manner, which means he has an OBLIGATION to give that gift, or he will suffer the consequences.
(The birthday obligation is more like tribute than charity. Tribute is NOT taxation, even though most pastors teach that it is; read "Should Christians Submit to Governing Authority?" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

One author wrote about her personal feelings as she slowly began to hate her boyfriend as her birthday passed without him giving her anything:
"I woke up on the morning of my birthday and checked my phone expecting to find a loving text from my love. When I didn't see anything, I felt a slight pang of pain in my heart. I consoled myself. 'He's probably going to give me a call later or send flowers,' I thought. 8am, 9am, 10am... still nothing. I went to a workout class and balled my eyes out thinking, 'He forgot about me. He doesn't care about me.'... My sadness turned to anger and I started to attack him in my mind."
-Nicole Moore, "What My Boyfriend Forgetting My Birthday Taught Me About Love!" DailyLove, June 17, 2013, retrieved Apr 4, 2017, [thedailylove.com/what-my-boyfriend-forgetting-my-birthday-taught-me-about-love]

This is a process that happens to people every day of the year; where anger and hatred is built up against someone for not fulfilling an obligation. The man probably cared very deeply for her, and was out working to earn a living so he can do good things for her, but in the selfishness and pride of her heart, she lifted herself up on a pedestal, and expected everyone else to do the same. There can be no love in such obligation because when someone is doing something out of pressure and fear, there is no love and no charity.

One woman wrote about her experience with her family not recognizing her birthday every year, and she does not want to see them anymore:
"My birthday is a week and a half before Christmas. My family has forgotten my birthday several years in a row now. I kinda don't want to visit for Christmas anymore... I just don't feel much like a part of the family right now."
-Anonymous, "They forgot my birthday... again," Ask MetaFilter, Dec 18, 2014, [ask.metafilter.com/273219/They-forgot-my-birthday-again]

Ignoring the pagan idolatry of Christmas (because these quotes are coming from unbelievers), the fact is that her hatred had grown to the point she didn't even want to see and talk with her family anymore. The obligation over the birthday gift-giving has become a destructive force, and it not only continues to plague families across the country, but also the church as well (if they participate in the birthday traditions).
(Read "Christmas: The Rejection of Jesus" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

I find it interesting that the Lord God has always hated gifts from those who do not truly love Him. In fact, He has told the Jews that if they bring Him gifts with that attitude, then they are polluting His name:

As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
-Ezekiel 20:39

The Jews were at a point where most of them were bringing gifts into the temple for the sake of tradition, rather than out of loving God and His Word. He wanted them to bring those gifts WILLINGLY, not out of a necessity of obligation.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
-2 Corinthians 9:7

So many people in American culture think they have loads of friends, but most of them stand on pretense, or in other words, they uphold a friendship only if certain conditions are met (e.g. "You better give me a gift on my birthday, or else."). Most people do it, but will never admit it. It's amazing to me how many marriages exist on this feigned pretense of love, when in reality, that "love" can be dropped at a moment's notice if the civil obligations are not fulfilled; and then people wonder why there seems to be so little closeness in their marriages.
(Read "Weddings: What Christians Should Know" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

In the end, the gift giving frenzy that surrounds American birthdays (and other events like Valentine's Day or Christmas) are a never-ending effort to appease the wrath of a wicked person. The gift is given in a pagan fashion to keep the fake "peace," similar to tribals making a sacrifice to a volcano to keep it from erupting it and destroying everything.


There are people I have personally seen who will go the entire year and never speak to each other or have any contact with one another, and yet, they believe that some sort of relationship is maintained as long as they send a birthday card. That's vanity and insanity. If you work for a corporation, and they send you Thanksgiving turkey once a year, you don't believe that you have a close personal relationship with the corporation, nor do you believe they truly love you. People go through tragedy and hardship, and yet they continue this facade of a relationship through birthday cards to say "I'm thinking of you," which does less than nothing for the people who have gone through the tragedy and hardship, and so the point I'm making is that it's nothing more than standing on pretense to create the illusion of a close relationship when there isn't one.

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
-James 2:15-16

Birthday gifts and cards are not there for people when they go through tragedy, and people do not go to their closet to dig out old cards and gifts when they are grieving. The cards do not help anything; it is fake, and it is like pulling teeth to try and get someone to understand that.

Birthday cards and presents have become nothing more than a way to maintain the facade of a real relationship/friendship.

I am a person who has, for decades, been firmly against the industry of greeting cards; I think it is one of the most vain and superficial businesses in existence, and allow me to explain: While I was growing up, I can remember getting greeting cards on holiday and birthday events MORE than I can remember intimate conversations with my parents, siblings, and extended family. The greeting cards do nothing; they are vain. For those of you who buy greeting cards, please stop and think for a moment: How many of the people you send greeting cards do you actually have intimate conversations with on a semi-regular basis? You know the answer is very few if any. I highly doubt I am the only person who sees this, but I am one of the very few who is willing to recognize it and talk about it because I believe that video games have become babysitters, public schools have become parental figures, television has replaced family bonding, birthdays have attempted to fill a gaping hole in people by replacing true love with pride and vanity, and greeting cards have given people an excuse to live a lie.

The pride of the birthday celebration is horrible because it teaches children that they should be lifted up and honored, and it gives them the idea that vain material things are good, rather than teaching them humility and to value virtue instead of stuff. Children don't learn virtues and humility from birthday celebrations; they learn it from quality time with parents who have a good Biblical foundation, and blowing up some balloons in their honor once a year doesn't help.

Just ask any adult who didn't have a good relationship with his/her parents if they could go back and do it all again, would they rather have more presents, or would they rather have quality time with their parents? Without any surveys, the answer should be obvious.

When I was in my early teens, I began to hate the birthday celebrations, and it took me decades to realize that it wasn't normal thinking for a teenager, but it also took me decades to realize why I began to hate them so much. I could see I was being lied to, but I couldn't explain it. I would have a father who may spend time with me one day, and then go back to ignoring me the rest of the year, or I would have a sibling who absolutely hated me every day of my life except one, and whereas most teenagers would be pleased to have one day instead of none, I hated that one day because I knew it wasn't real, for the same reason that the Lord God hated the Jews who brought Him gifts when He knows it wasn't real.

The Bible refers to these types of people as "double minded," or "double hearted," meaning that they claim one thing, but do another. They speak vanity because they are not genuine, even when they CLAIM to be genuine with their mouths; it's a lie.

They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.
-Psalm 12:2

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
-James 4:8

My question to Christians is if you want to do something special and charitable for someone, why do you need to wait for a special occasion? There is no reason to wait for a special occasion other than being used to a tradition. In fact, if you do something good for someone, or give them something, when there is no occasion for it, that's when it means the most; it's incredibly surprising to do something out of nowhere, or rather "just because."

It's amazing to me how many women I've seen pull out the devilish, selfish hatred on men for not remembering their birthdays or Valentine's Day, but I saw a commercial recently on Youtube that contradicted that. It was an advertisement that was giving examples of the "perfect" man, in which he had went out and gotten her a few vases of fresh flowers, and when she asked why, he said, "Oh, just because." If women will be honest with themselves, they value the "just because" moments MORE than the special occasion moments, and the reason for that is because, if they'll think about it for a moment, they too know that maintaining holiday and birthday traditions is just upkeeping a facade.

Think about it for a moment: Let's take away the Christmas traditions of gift giving, and the birthdays, and anything else like that; would most people give gifts at all? You might begin to see the truth if we took that all away, because then people would begin to see how little they actually think about one another; or in other words, people keep up traditions to keep up the facade that they really care.

If you really want to find out how much someone cares about you, take away the traditions, and see what you're left with. Even for Christians, most of them would be too afraid to face the truth.

The reason most Christians won't give up the birthday celebrations is because they're far too concerned about how their children will feel, or how their spouse will feel, or how their neighbors will feel; they are afraid of other peoples' reactions to their decisions. I just want to remind Christians that the Lord Jesus Christ pointed out to us that if we love our family over Him, then we are not worthy of Him:

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
-Matthew 10:37-38

Taking up the cross means that you will suffer the grief and persecution of others against the words you speak and the choices you make. We only suffer that grief when we choose to be sanctified by the Word of God:

Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
-Hebrews 11:25

If there are those of you who choose to enjoy the pleasures of pagan traditions in your household, that's your business; I'm not going to tell you what to do in your house. I would simply ask those who are born-again in Christ to consider His Word, and what pleases Him, rather than what pleases ourselves and appeases those around us.
(Read "The Biblical Understanding of Sanctification" here at creationliberty.com for more details.)

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
-Luke 12:51-53

Don't misunderstand to think that counting the years of how old you are on your birthday is wrong; that's always been done throughout the history of mankind to keep track of how old we are, but if you want to start up a tradition in your household that would be more Biblical, why not implement a charitable tradition instead of a selfish one? With your children, turn the tradition around and have the child with the birthday get gifts for everyone else in the family, and have them do it only with what they have on hand, meaning that if they don't have money, they need to get creative.

There's all sorts of other ideas of things that could be done on birthdays besides the traditional witchcraft that most people participate in, but ultimately, I would suggest Christians get rid of these traditions altogether and start to build a new foundation on Christ. If you want to give something to someone, then give when it's least expected, and don't look to appease people's selfish and prideful motivations by fulfilling obligations.

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