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Sunday, February 14 2010
The name Valentine was relatively common during a particular era of ancient Rome (see Ancient Empires - Rome). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, three Roman emperors were known by the name: Valentinian I (reigned 364-375), Valentinian II (reigned 375-392) and Valentinian III (reigned 425-455). As well, there were two Church of Rome "martyrs" by the name of Valentine, one a priest, the other a bishop, who died in the internal power struggle between the Emperors and Popes of Rome.
In 496, Pope Gelasius I established a Roman festival in commemoration of their "saint" Valentine (one or both of them). The February 14 festival date chosen by the pope did not however correspond with the birth, death or any other significant event of the lives of either of the Valentines. "Valentine's Day" (as it later became known), was already being observed by the pagan Romans. Again, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
"St. Valentine's Day as a lovers' festival and the modern tradition of sending Valentine cards have no relation to the saints but, rather, seem to be connected either with the fertility festival of the Lupercalia [note: Lupercalia replaced an earlier pagan Roman spring festival, known as Februa - from which the Roman month of February got its name] or with the seasonal mating of birds."
"Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen"
There is nothing more Godly than love because God is love i.e. "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
"4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 4:7-12 KJV)
The Commandments of God are based upon love (see the Fact Finder question below).
"22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40 KJV)
But Godly love does not use heathen festivals to express love. Heathenism isn't merely a sin in itself; it's a means of committing sin.
"10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:2 KJV)5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28 KJV)
"4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." (Mark 4:19 KJV)
"8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:43-44 KJV)
As stated above, the Roman festival of "Valentines Day" was connected "with the seasonal mating of birds." That sort of deviation is exactly what is described in the Scriptures about those who "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds."
"1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." (Romans 1:22-25 KJV)
Fact Finder: How is it that everything that God does, and is, is based upon love?
See The Two Great Commandments
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This Day In History, February 14
1014: Pope Benedict VIII crowned Henry II as Holy Roman Emperor (see Emperors and Popes).
1400: The deposed King Richard II was murdered in Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire.
1658: The Battle of Bahadurgarh; it helped to decide the war of succession among the sons of Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor of India.
1779: British explorer Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii.
1797: The British fleet, under Admirals John Jervis and Horatio Nelson, defeated the Spanish at the battle of St. Vincent off Portugal.
1876: Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for U.S. patents related to the telephone. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled that Bell was the rightful inventor.
1896: Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl was published in Vienna; English and French translations soon followed.
1922: Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began the first regular radio broadcasting transmission from England.
1929: "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" in Chicago. Al Capone's gunmen, in order to prevent the hijacking of whiskey shipments, killed 7 members of the Bugs Moran gang in a Chicago garage.
1939: The German navy launched the battleship Bismarck.
1942: The German Afrika Korps was organized under the command of Lt. Gen. (later Field Marshall) Irwin Rommel. It consisted of two armored divisions and one motorized infantry division. After initial successes, the Afrika Korps was defeated by British and Canadian forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
1944 The Mark I, the first computer that could perform arithmetical operations without human intervention, was completed by inventor Howard Aiken. It was 51 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighed 35 tons. It had about 500 miles of wire and 3 million connections.
1946: An "electronic brain", or "computer", began working at the University of Pennsylvania, taking seconds to do calculations which normally took hours. It was called ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.
1946: The Bank of England was nationalized.
1947: British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin announced that Britain was turning the "Palestine situation" over to the United Nations.
1949: The first session of the Constituent Assembly (later entitled the Knesset) of the new state of Israel was opened.
1958: The Arab Union, a federation of Jordan and Iraq, was formed to counter the formation of the United Arab Republic by Egypt and Syria 2 weeks earlier. King Hussein of Jordan dissolved it August 2 of that same year.
1971: President Richard Nixon installed a secret taping system in the White House - the recordings of which later provided much of the evidence that brought down his presidency.
1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered a worldwide death sentence for writer Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses.
1992: The European Community and the seven-nation European Free Trade Association struck a final deal, clearing the way for the creation of the world's biggest single free market, exceeding that of the combined markets of the United States and Canada.
