Food Sacrificed Unto Idols

 

(This incident happened back in 07′, a few years after we finally stopped celebrating Easter, due to its pagan and unscriptural history, and the pleadings of the Holy Spirit to stop.)

 

I was suffering from a horrible bladder infection.

 

All the special pain medicines that usually relieved such a curse were not working. They actually made the burning worse.

 

The doctors had been called in on the case, and various antibiotics had been prescribed, course after course, to no avail. They could not understand why the pain remained.  Some suspected allergies, while others blamed it on my not being able to tolerate the big guns of antibiotics.  One even claimed that it was probably psychosomatic or “all in my head”.  (Oi! As if I would decide in my own mind to have such a horrid affliction!)

 

Finally I went to  my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and pleaded with Him during prayer, to please help me. (Foolish of me to have waited till all other hope was gone, before turning to Him, eh?)

 

As I prayed, the burning and pain was so bad, that I could not sit still. I just kept crying and crying. I’m glad the Lord could still understand my prayers, for my voice must have been barely coherent.

 

He waited patiently until all my tears were spent, and then He brought to my mind some candy that I had been eating recently.

 

This left me bewildered, as I could not understand what that had to do with my bladder infection.

 

“No, Lord! Please! What about my bladder infection?”

(Which was my way of saying ‘Come on now Lord, stay on topic!’)

 

But again, he brought to mind that candy.

 

They were whipped strawberry cream eggs, whipped raspberry cream eggs, and coconut eggs, all coated in rich dark chocolate.

 

They were my very favorite candy, and they were only available once a year. This particular year, I purchased all I could afford before Easter, and then went back and bought even more the day after Easter, when they were deeply discounted. I had stored them in the freezer, and was eating one or two a day, after my meals as a special treat. This had been going on for many, many weeks, and I had several months of these candy eggs left. I felt as If I had stored up a treasure right in my own freezer, and was thankful for my ability to do this.

 

These chocolate eggs were what the Lord was bringing repeatedly back to my mind? But why? What could they possibly have to do with my bladder infection?

 

The Lord did not answer my question right away. Instead He simply said: “Stop eating them.”

 

This was hard for me to think of doing. They were my favorite treat, and I had even managed to stock up my freezer with them!

 

“Stop eating them.”

 

Oh, the thought of giving these things up for good was just too much for me to contemplate! I hemmed and hawed, hoping for some kind of reason to disobey my Lord, but found none.

 

So I made the decision to stop eating them, to at least see what would happen.

 

But in my mind I still wondered. Why this candy? I had other chocolate bars in the house as well, but he was not bringing them up to mind at all. So what made these so different?

 

Then the Lord answered me.

 

“In My eyes, they are as food sacrificed unto idols.”

 

Shock roiled through  me, as His words filtered through my brain. I had never thought that such Easter (or any other man made holiday,) candy, was actually a sacrifice to other gods. But as I thought of it more, I began to see why the Lord would say this. These sweet items were not made for the glory of Jesus. They were made in remembrance of other gods. Their shape alone signified this, as well as the fact that they were only available at that certain time of the year. So in essence, by eating these items, I was still partaking of the pagan celebration for which they were made.

 

Tentatively I then asked Him, “Could I still have chocolate covered whipped strawberry cream candy if it was in a basic shape and was available at all times during the year?”

 

His answer was quick and sure. “Yes.”

 

Well, within three days of stopping the candy, my bladder infection was gone. Hallelujah!

 

I waited another week just to be sure, and then I ate another chocolate covered whipped strawberry egg, just to see what would happen.

 

The severe burning returned before I had the chance to even eat it all. Three bites into it, I stopped, and then fully repented. I threw out the rest of the egg I was eating, and all those cases of candy from my freezer into the garbage, and then begged forgiveness from my God.

 

This time it took five days before the burning pain finally went away.

 

That Christmas, a friend gave me a chocolate covered  peanut butter candy bar in the shape of a Christmas tree. I ate it, having completely forgotten the past experience with the Easter egg.

 

Sure enough, within the hour after eating it, the burning painful bladder returned, and I then remembered what had happened to me with the Easter egg.

 

I have eaten plain round shaped chocolate covered whipped strawberry cream candies and chocolate covered peanut butter cups without any problems or pain. I can have them to this day.

 

But, still, also to this day, I can not eat any candy made into a shape that gives remembrance or glory to another god or pagan holiday, without getting that burning sensation in my bladder.

 

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“Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them of the Gentiles that are turned to God, But that we send unto them, that they abstain themselves from filthiness of idols, and fornication, and that is strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:19-20, Geneva 1599)

 

“For as touching the Gentiles, which believe, we have written, and determined that they observe no such thing, but that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from that that is strangled, and from fornication.” (Acts 21:25, Geneva 1599)

 

“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that maintain the doctrine of Balaam, which taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, that they should eat of things sacrificed unto idols, and commit fornication. (Revelation 2:14, Geneva 1599)

 

“Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to deceive my servants, to make them commit fornication and to eat meat sacrificed unto idols. (Revelation 2:20, Geneva 1599)

 

Note: To read the 1 Corinthians scriptures on this topic, and for those who think that Paul changed the rules, allowing Christians to eat anything, please read: http://www.bibleserralta.com/ChristiansIdolsAndSacrifices.html

 

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