https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHpPUqGukno

The Carnival and Mardis Gras season is upon us. Multitudes are flocking to New Orleans and Trinidad to participate in the festivities and revelry. In Trinidad, countless songs like Super Blue’s Bacchanal Time bellow out the popular refrain “bacchanal time.” The revelers in both cities are dancing in the streets, getting drunk, having flings and a “good” time; bacchanal time. But what is bacchanal time? What is the origin of the word, celebration and customs affiliated with it?

“bacchanal”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 08 Feb. 2016. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bacchanal>.

The definition of bacchanal shows who people pledge allegiance to when they declare it’s bacchanal time! Bacchus is an idol of drunkenness, lewd sexual acts, fornication and reveling (wild partying to an idol). Bacchus is the god of everything that goes on during these carnival and Mardis Gras celebrations! The festival goers wear themselves out with liquor, fornication and nonstop partying. There are countless stories of the lewd acts that travel back from carnival and Mardis Gras. Women in New Orleans show their breast for trinkets like beads while the Trinidadian celebration is known for their scantily clad women in colorful costumes that will “wine (dance) up pon you.”

In the Catholic religion, carnival marks the end of the season where people sin to get rid of their carnal lusts and the beginning of the holy season called Lent. Some people ignorantly believe that carnival is just fun while others know exactly who they are worshiping during carnival; Satan! These celebrations are not the traditions or customs of the children of the Most High. We learned this from the nations that were around us that refused to follow God. We adapted their customs and inherited sin instead of righteousness.

Bacchus float in New Orleans

II Maccabees 14:32-33 And when they sware that they could not tell where the man was whom he sought, He stretched out his right hand toward the temple, and made an oath in this manner: If ye will not deliver me Judas as a prisoner, I will lay this temple of God even with the ground, and I will break down the altar, and erect a notable temple unto Bacchus.

II Maccabees 6:6-9 Neither was it lawful for a man to keep sabbath days or ancient feasts, or to profess himself at all to be a Jew. And in the day of the king’s birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint to eat of the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Bacchus, carrying ivy. Moreover there went out a decree to the neighbour cities of the heathen, by the suggestion of Ptolemee, against the Jews, that they should observe the same fashions, and be partakers of their sacrifices: And whoso would not conform themselves to the manners of the Gentiles should be put to death. Then might a man have seen the present misery.

During the reign of the Greeks, the children of Israel were forced to worship Bacchus. Now the Israelites worship him willingly forgetting the laws of the Most High and committing the sin of idolatry, fornication and drunkenness.

Exodus 20:3-6 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 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; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

The Lord does not say it is okay to purge ourselves by sinning so we can be prepared for Lent or any other holy season.

Ecclesiasticus 15:20 He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, neither hath he given any man licence to sin.

James 1:13-16 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Romans 13:14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

The preceding scriptures show that we are not to willfully sin and feed our lusts with what they desire. We are to refrain from sin and submit ourselves to the will of the Most High through Christ.

1 Peter 4:1-4 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

Galatians 5:19-21 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.

The customs affiliated with carnival/Mardis Gras are evil works of the flesh. If we continue in them, we will not inherit the kingdom of the Most High. We must repent from that sin and turn to the Lord.

I Peter 1:13-16 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Acts 17:29-30 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: