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The History of Valentine's Day

"For God so lo V ed the world ,         That He g A ve               His on L y              Begott E n                    So N T hat whosever         Believeth I n Him             Should N ot perish,          But have E verlasting life."                                           John 3:16 .

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The History of Valentine's Day

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  1. "For God so loVed the world,        That He gAve              His onLy             BegottEn                   SoNThat whosever        Believeth In Him            Should Not perish,         But have Everlasting life."                                          John 3:16

  2. The History of Valentine's Day • Who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? • We do know that February has long been a month of romance. • St. Valentine's Day contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. • Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.

  3. The History of Valentine's Day • One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. • Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. • According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself

  4. The History of Valentine's Day • The stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. • It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. • Others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.

  5. The History of Valentine's Day • In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. • Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

  6. The History of Valentine's Day • To begin the festival, members of the Luperci would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. • The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. • The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. • Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.

  7. The History of Valentine's Day • All the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. • The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. • These matches often ended in marriage.

  8. The History of Valentine's Day • Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. • The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed. • It was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February -- Valentine's Day -- should be a day for romance. • The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

  9. The History of Valentine's Day • In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. • By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. • By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. • Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s.

  10. The History of Valentine's Day • In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced valentines in America. • Known as the Mother of the Valentine, she made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap". • According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. • Approximately 85 percent of all valentines are purchased by women.

  11. The History of Valentine's Day Er·os (èr¹òs´, îr¹-) noun 1.Greek Mythology. The god of love, son of Aphrodite. 2.Psychiatry. Sexual drive; libido. 3. Creative, often sexual yearning, love, or desire:

  12. Love God’s Way agape, ajgavph “unconditional, impersonal love” phileoo, filevw “conditional, personal love” theloo, qevlw “desire or want”

  13. Love God’s Way 1 John 4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

  14. Love God’s Way • All who consider themselves Christian, and possibly many who are not Christian, are familiar with the chapter in God’s word known as the “love chapter.” (1 Cor. 13) • Love is the first of the nine elements listed as the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22)

  15. Love God’s Way • Love is part of God’s Divine Essence, one of the characteristics of God. Sovereignty Love Omnipotence Omniscience Righteousness Immutability Omnipresence Justice Eternal life Veracity

  16. The Integrity of God • Love is one of the three characteristics of God, His Divine Essence, that are the Integrity of God. Love Righteousness Justice

  17. The Integrity of God • After Adam's fall, God's love is extended toward man in two ways. • God loves an imperfect, sinful object - unregenerate mankind - with impersonal love. Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own [impersonal] love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

  18. The Integrity of God • Such love emphasized the perfect and absolute qualities of God, rather than the failings of man. • Impersonal love does not require compatibility, intimacy, friendliness, or attraction between the subject and object of love.

  19. The Integrity of God • Impersonal love depends solely on the integrity of God. 1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

  20. The Integrity of God • After Adam's fall, God's love is extended toward man in two ways. • God loves an imperfect, sinful object - unregenerate mankind - with impersonal love. • God’s personal love is conditional, reserved for only those who express faith alone in Christ alone and become possessors of the imputed righteousness of God.

  21. The Integrity of God Divine Personal Love Divine Impersonal Love Believers Unbelievers Integrity of the object Integrity of the subject Emphasizes God’s righteousness in the believer Emphasized the justice and righteousness of God Conditional Unconditional Directs His integrity toward believers through Bible Truth Directs His integrity toward unbelievers through the redemption solution

  22. “to love” • "To love" is a transitive verb: It has a subject, the one doing the loving, and an object, the one receiving the love. • In the human race even the greatest capacity for love is not love unless it has somewhere to go.

  23. “to love” • You could not love a friend or a member of the opposite sex if there were no such people. • You could not love watching the sunset behind Mt. Apo if there were no Mt. Apo. • Some people love superb firearms good automobiles beautiful music good food rare antiques

  24. “to love” • Human love is exactly what God does notpossess. • God's love is an inherent quality that does not require inspiration. • Divine love is different from human love in yet another way. • Not only does our love require an object, but it always involves emotion.

  25. Love Misunderstood • Thought is the part of love that is so often missing. • When you truly love someone, that person becomes the focus of you thoughts. • This first characteristic of love, then, occurs in the mentality of the soul.

  26. Love Misunderstood • Thought is the part of love that is so often missing. • Respect is the second characteristic of human love, and is the application of thought. • True love, especially a woman's love for a man, actually begins with this point. • Respect lays a foundation that eventually supports a wonderful structure of admiration and intimacy. • Whether in Hebrew of Greek, phobos, the word for fear, also means respect.

  27. Love Misunderstood • Thought is the part of love that is so often missing. • Respect is the second characteristic of human love, and is the application of thought. • Emotion, the third factor, also pertains to the soul, and expresses the thoughts of love.

  28. Love Misunderstood Emotion, the third factor, also pertains to the soul, and expresses the thoughts of love. • We call that being romantic. • If a woman says she loves a man, she means that she has pleasant thoughts about him and enjoys what she thinks. • But when she says she is in love with him, her love is intensified. • Her emotion is involved; he has her soul's full attention!

  29. Love Misunderstood • Thought is the part of love that is so often missing. • Respect is the second characteristic of human love, and is the application of thought. • Emotion, the third factor, also pertains to the soul, and expresses the thoughts of love. • Sex is the fourth point, and pertains to marriage only.

  30. Love Misunderstood Sex is the fourth point, and pertains to marriage only. • It brings in the physical aspect of love between a man and a woman. • Here is where love so often gets fouled up. • God designed sex primarily for the recreation of husband and wife, not merely to perpetuate the human race. • Sex is not love • Sex is one expression of the coalescence, the coming together, of two souls in love.

  31. Love Misunderstood Thought Respect Emotion Sex

  32. Love Misunderstood Emotion Sex Virtuous thought is the root and foundation of love, but few bother to do much thinking at all.

  33. Love Misunderstood • You cannot truly love without thought and concentration • All that is left then is emotion and sex. • Anyone can emote; it takes no character or effort. • Emotion which is not based on the doctrinal or establishment content of the right lobe of the soul is superficial and meaningless at best; at worst, it is self-destructive. • When you hook up an emotional revolt with sex, sex becomes meaningless and self-destructive.

  34. Love Misunderstood • Young people who are emotionally and sexually frustrated often assume that marriage is the solution to all their problems. • But as soon as they get married under such false premises, everything falls apart. • Emotion and sex are not love. • Emotion will not sustain a relationship any more than people can have sex every minute of every day! • When thought and respect are the driving forces of human love, emotion and sex are expressions of this true love and make for some very intimate moments in life.

  35. John 3:16 • The believer has understood the point of the verse well enough to be eternally saved. • But when he goes back to take a closer look at God's attitude, he misses the point. • The only way he can relate to love is through his own limited frame of reference. • He never considered thought to be the essential element of love. • He therefore does not consider the issue of what God thinks.

  36. John 3:16 • Awe and respect are certainly not his idea of what constitutes love. • He fails to consider that the perfect standards of God's absolute righteousness must be met before God can respect anyone. • This believer does not realize that God cannot possibly think well of the devil's world or respect and personally love its sinful human citizens. • All that exists in his hazy, limited concept of love is emotion and sex. • Of course, sex related to God is no issue • The ignorant believer therefore jumps to the only conclusion he has left: emotion.

  37. John 3:16 • This believer, ignorant of Bible truth, then looks at John 3:16 and sees sentimental, emotional love; • Human love at its superficial worst. • He has the audacity to suppose that God personally loves everyone with human love! Therefore John 3:16 is an example of divine impersonal love.

  38. God’s love • The criteria for God's love are always His own absolute justice and righteousness: • He loves only what His righteousness approves. • Each Person of the Godhead loves absolute divine righteousness • But how can God direct that same love toward imperfect human beings whom His perfect righteousness rejects and His justice condemns? • If His righteousness and justice are compromised, so is His love.

  39. God’s love John 3:16 "For God so loved the world [ all of mankind, not the world system ], that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Romans 5:19 For as through the one man's [Adam’s] disobedience the many [ all of humanity ] were made sinners, . . . .

  40. God’s love • The solution is found in divine impersonal love, which depends exclusively on the perfect and eternal character of God. • The ignorant believer imagines that God somehow ignores sin and evil, somehow throws away His perfect standards, and somehow falls in love with sinful mankind. • He assumes that God cannot quite get along without us and that we will be welcomed into heaven with open arms if only we do our best and behave ourselves.

  41. God’s love vs. human love • God does not love in the same emotional, unthinking, unstable way that man loves; • The Members of the Trinity do not love as man does even at his human best. • Divine love is far superior to our love; • It is more demanding and, therefore, far more exclusive. • People who take John 3:16 to mean that God is somehow attracted by fallen man have completely missed the point of this often-quoted verse. • Those who expound such all-loving, all-forgiving, all-sweetness 'theology' do not realistically portray the truth of the Word of God.

  42. God’s love vs. human love • Some people speak in terms of brotherhood, of loving everyone, with never a reference to the necessities of impersonal love - honor, integrity, and justice – only to sweetness and light. • When this erroneous interpretation of God's love, this tendency for emotionalism, gets tied up with religion, the evil result is no surprise.

  43. God’s love vs. human love • What is the result? Pentecostalism! The tongues crowd, the miracle crowd, the healing crowd, drunk with emotion! Worship services long on emotion and short on truth. • Even those Christians who stop short of talking gibberish and rolling in the aisles want to feel spiritual or feel close to God. • They seek an emotional or mystical experience.

  44. God’s love vs. human love • They want to feel good from doing good deeds; • to feel the approbation of a Pastor patting them on the back; • to hear preaching, devoid of content, that inspires the comment as they leave the service, "Oh pastor, it was thrilling to have been here, today!“ • This notion of Christianity is divorced from the truth.

  45. God’s love vs. human love • Only truth enables the mature believer to know God and to stand in genuine awe of the Members of the Trinity. • Emotion happily and contentedly tags along as a response to the saturation of truth in his right lobe. • This is the true human love for God, occupation with Christ. • Our love works the same way toward husband or wife, toward friends and family.

  46. The Bottom Line • God’s greatest gift of love was when He sent His son to earth to pay the penalty for man’s sin so that God and man could once again have a relationship. • Jesus Christ demonstrated God’s love as the God-man during his first advent on this earth over a period of nearly 34 years. • He was crucified on the cross for you and me, He was buried for 3 days, and then He rose from the grave to live again, to never die again. Forty days after He rose from the grave He returned to His promised place of authority at the right hand of the Father.

  47. The Bottom Line • Ten days after He returned to heaven He sent His Spirit to permanently indwell all who would place their trust in Him and His work on the cross as their only means of salvation. • Christ’s desire for you and me as Church Age believer’s is to allow Him to continue what He started when He walked on this earth nearly 2,000 years ago by yielding, total 100% unconditional surrender to the Holy Spirit inside each of us. As He told us in Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

  48. "For God so loVed the world,        That He gAve              His onLy             BegottEn                   SoNThat whosever        Believeth In Him            Should Not perish,         But have Everlasting life."                                          John 3:16

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