The Catholic world celebrates the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross” on September 14th each year. A tradition that has existed since the 4th century. The comparison between Catholic traditions and the Gospel again gives a pagan background price.
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The Cross is Raised – Liturgical Ritual
The Roman Catholic Church as well as the (formerly) Protestant churches have created an entire catalog of their own holidays over many centuries. The liturgical church year of the Roman Church includes the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross” on September 14th. The origin of this event is said to date back to 335 AD. According to stories from the Catholic Church, they had the cross of Jesus Christ. The mother of Emperor Constantine, the “holy” Helena, is said to have found the cross of Jesus on the hill of Golgotha in the year 320. This cross was excavated and Emperor Constantine had the “Church of the Resurrection” built on this site.
Different narratives in detail
However, as is often the case with tradition, the details of the origin of this festival cannot be clearly determined. Anyone looking for more detailed information will receive different answers. The Catholic magazine “Die Tagespost” also provides two sets of information.
On the occasion of the festival in 2023 you can read the following version(Source): On September 14, 335, priests carried a cross to a hill after the “Church of the Resurrection” commissioned by Emperor Constantine was inaugurated the day before. The “elevation” of the cross was retained in the future and from this the tradition of the holiday celebrated on September 14th developed within the Catholic Church.
On the occasion of the holiday in 2022, the following version applies (Source): On September 14, 335, the cross of Jesus was placed at the “Church of the Holy Sepulchre” for veneration.
Whether it is the “Church of the Resurrection” or the “Church of the Holy Sepulcher” is probably irrelevant anyway. These are stories from the Church of Rome, which sometimes describes Emperor Constantine as a converted Christian and who once received a “gift” from him (the exposed lie of the “Donation of Constantine”).
Based on Bible verses
The Gospel also serves as a template for the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross”. According to the biblical account, God sent countless seraph serpents to the grumpy nation of Israel. Their bite was fatal. God commissioned Moses to make a bronze serpent. Moses was supposed to attach this snake to a field pole. Numbers 21:9:
“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”
This snake, as controversial as it may sound at first glance, symbolized Jesus Christ. The “exalted serpent” symbolized the exaltation of Jesus Christ on the cross. Since Jesus Christ took all our sins upon himself, he himself became sin and thus also a symbol of evil, i.e. Satan the serpent.
Jesus Christ himself explained it in John 3:14-15:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
The cross becomes a symbol
The request that the cross be used as the “official symbol” of Christianity is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Worship of the cross is already prohibited by the Second Commandment, which was deleted by the Roman Catholic Church from its official teaching and added to the First Commandment as an unimportant part (fake bids – Info).
But when it was erected by (Catholic) priests for veneration and imitated in other areas of the Church of Rome, the cross acquired the status of an official symbol. It was only centuries later that the figure of the dying or already deceased Christ was added to the cross.
Bible must be twisted
The author of Tagesspiegel (report 2023) is right when he also presents the cross as a possible provocation for Muslims. They see the cross as the symbol of victory for Christianity. But this is likely to be much more a result of the crusades instigated by the popes than the victory of Jesus Christ over death and His adversary. Pope Urban II started the first crusade in 1095 with the motto “Deus lo vult!” (God wants it!). This motto is also the motto of the Knights’ Order of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and this order still exists today.
According to the author, the cross was also provocative for the Jews. For this statement he uses 1 Corinthians 1:23, “the cross was ‘a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles,'” according to his account.
Where he gets the statement that the cross should be the object of offense remains a mystery. The Bible says something different, even the arch-Catholic version “Vulgate”.
(German bibles. Verses translated)
Einheitsübersetzung: “We, on the other hand, proclaim Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles,”
Schlachter 2000: “Let us proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks;”
Gute Nachrichten: “But we proclaim the crucified Christ as the Savior promised by God. For Jews this is blasphemy, for others it is pure nonsense.”
Vulgate: “But we proclaim to people that Christ, the Savior chosen by God, had to die on the cross. For the Jews this message is blasphemy and for the Greeks it is sheer nonsense.”.
The truth is inconvenient
The author tells his readers that the cross is a stumbling block, but the Bible in its various versions declares that Jesus Christ and His teachings are a stumbling block.
There is also the further claim that Paul repeatedly “boasted” in his numerous letters that the cross represented “God’s power and God’s wisdom.” Something like this that comes somewhat close to this statement can only be found in 1 Corinthians 1:17:
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”
On the other hand, there is nothing to be found of God’s wisdom emanating from the cross, although this should be easy given the multitude and numerous letters of Paul described.
It is obvious that the cross must be “glorified” in such a way as to justify kneeling and worshiping in Catholic tradition. But the cross is and remains a symbol made of wood, plastic, metal or any other material. Simply understand, the worship of symbols is strictly forbidden in God’s Second Commandment, Exodus 20:4-5:
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”
Another favorite of the Church of Rome is the depiction of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. As suffering as possible, as dead as possible. So it can also be a “broken cross”, as was favored by Pope John Paul II. A cross in which the horizontal bar describes an arc. Jesus Christ hangs on this “cross” leaning far forward and His stretched arms form a triangle together with the horizontal, curved beam.
Church of Rome wants Jesus Christ dead
For the Roman Catholic Church, victory lies not in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but in His death (on the cross). With His death, Jesus Christ suffered the death of sin, but the work of redemption for man and thus the final victory took place with His resurrection. Death alone cannot mean victory over death. The resurrection, on the other hand, does. However, according to the real ambitions of the Roman Catholic Church, Jesus Christ can no longer be resurrected.
So that His death would always endure, this church introduced the Eucharist and with it thousands of new sacrifices every day. With the ascension of Jesus Christ and ever since then at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ assumed the priesthood. A position that the Church of Rome claims for itself. These crimes and blasphemies (Info) reach their climax in Corpus Christi (Info).
Exaltation of the Cross is co-opted by Catholics
It is obvious that the Church of Rome cannot convey its false teachings without distorting biblical verses. With the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross”, the Catholic Church, which actually practices pagan Roman Mithraism, celebrates (Info) nothing other than the (supposed) victory due to the death of Jesus Christ. Even for this, their persuasion work does not come without telling untruths about biblical statements. This festival celebrated by the Church of Rome is therefore nothing other than the usual Christian packaging of its pagan origins while at the same time ritualistic mockery of Jesus Christ.
But this church has not yet understood that Jesus Christ actually achieved victory with His resurrection and that such heresy, as the Church of Rome expresses in its catechism, will not be left unanswered.
Bible verses from King James Version
