The most widely celebrated secular holiday, Christmas, is most widely celebrated by Christians themselves!
When the time comes that the little child has grown, and declares that "Santa is not real", what is the first thing that most folks do? They try their best to convince the child that Santa is indeed real, and that all they need to do is to "believe"...
Doesn't that particular privilege of "believe" belong exclusively to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Wasn't it a Philippian jailer question that told us that?
Acts 16:30-31 (KJV) "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
I have been very depressed as of late. After reading God's Appointed Times and doing a lot of research on the internet I have realized that I have been lied to my entire life.
Used to be that at Christmas I was happy to have the house filled with the scent of pine, a decorative the tree, have mistletoe hanging, a fresh holly wreath on the door and have special food on Christmas and Christmas eve. But now my eyes have been opened and I am going to share what I have found with all of you.
Has anyone even read up on the origin of Christmas or Easter? Has any one read about these holidays in the Bible? What about the things associated with these holidays?
First of all if you come at me with "we are celebrating the birth of Jesus". Jesus was not born on December 25th, He had to been born sometime in the fall because no shepherd would have his sheep outside in the dead of winter. Then for those of you who come at me with, "Jesus is the reason for the season." I will say that we as Christians should just leave it as "Jesus is the reason." When we add the season part of "Jesus is the reason," we drag in all of the secular junk with it like Santa, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, season’s greetings, seasonal music, decorated evergreen trees, mistletoe, holly wreaths, lights, debt, and gift exchanges.
It's not fair nor just by any standards, but rather it's a snare of the devil, of devilish law. Yet it's childish folly many adults never seem to outgrow, because churches and ministers fail to tell them the truth, not knowing the scriptures nor the gospel of God themselves. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power. Christmas Awareness is sorely lacking among churches and church folks. Every year many say, or go along with, Christmas is the happiest time of the year. First of all Christmas isn’t the happiest time of the year according to the facts. Police records and other media records indicate no other season has more shop lifting, feuds, drunk drivers, accidents, fires, divorces, depression, suicides, binges, hypocrisies, lies, murders, vandalism, debt incursion, etc.
Many also say, go along with, Santa Clause, elves, and flying reindeer. Lying to children is not Godly or good. I understand about the wonder and belief of a child but they can not be in the dark forever. They will one day know the truth and on that day will be let down and disappointed. As a child I would watch Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and I knew it was make believe but I would still daydream about being in such a place where everything was made of candy. So my imagination was never lacking just because I knew the truth.
The explanation of the “Christmas tree.” Evergreens have been a symbol of rebirth from ancient times. Bringing greenery into one's home, often at the time of the winter solstice, symbolized life in the midst of death in many cultures. The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany. But the Germans got it from the Romans, who got it from the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Most aspects of Christmas are not referred to in the Bible. Of course, the reason is that they are not from God—they are not part of the way He wants people to worship Him. The Christmas tree, however, is directly mentioned in the Bible! Jer 10:2-5
(2) Don't follow the customs of those nations who become frightened when they see something strange happen in the sky.
(3) Their religion is worthless! They chop down a tree, carve the wood into an idol,
(4) cover it with silver and gold, and then nail it down so it won't fall over.
(5) An idol is no better than a scarecrow. It can't speak, and it has to be carried, because it can't walk. Why worship an idol that can't help or harm you? There is no room in Jeremiah 10 to believe, as some have tried to suggest, that because these trees are powerless of themselves, it is not really forbidden to have a Christmas tree. God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command!
The Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Celastrales,” exposes the origin of the holly wreath: “European pagans brought holly sprays into their homes, offering them to the fairy people of the forests as refuges from the harsh winter weather. During the Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival, branches of holly were exchanged as tokens of friendship. The earliest Roman Christians apparently used holly as a decoration at the Christmas season.”
Christmas is incomplete to many unless it involves “kissing under the mistletoe.” This pagan custom was natural on a night that involved much revelry done in the spirit of drunken orgies.
Like mistletoe, holly berries were also thought to be sacred to the sun god. The original “sun log” came to be called the yule log. “Yule” simply means “wheel,” which has long been a pagan representation of the sun. No wonder people today commonly speak of the “sacred yule-tide season.”
The interchange of presents between friends adopted by Christians from the pagans. Like every other aspect of Christmas, the shocking truth is that even this supposed Christian custom does not come from the Bible. It is an irony that people love to believe they are following the custom of the wise men giving to Christ, when actually they are giving almost exclusively to each other! What hypocrisy! Christ is completely forgotten.
Once again, let’s more closely examine the actual history and origins of some of the Saturnalia customs still practiced today. Notice the following chilling quote from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, “Oscilla” 3rd edition, volume II: “…all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were exchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets. An offering was made beneath a decorated evergreen tree, according to the pagan poet, Virgil. Figurines and masks—called ‘oscilla’—were hung on the tree, as are Christmas decorations today. Doesn’t all of this sound familiar? Presents, singing in the streets, evergreen trees, decorations, offerings under the tree, merrymaking, feasting? They may sound wonderful, but they represent things that are truly abominable.
How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25) following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the ‘new sun’…cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence…The pagan festival with its riot and merry-making was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.”
One additional source reveals how the Roman church absorbed Christmas into an official celebration. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, states, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church…Certain Latins, as early as 354, may have transferred the birthday from January 6th to December 25, which was then a Mithraic feast…or birthday of the unconquered SUN…The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry, contending…that the feast of December 25th, had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus…”
Thus, a pagan festival, celebrated long before Christ’s birth, found its way into recognized Christianity.
Did you know that even the seventeenth century Puritans of New England understood how wrong Christmas was? They actually banned its observance by law, in 1659, throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fines and imprisonment could result from being found keeping it. It was almost 200 years (1856) before people stopped working on Christmas in Boston. The Puritans knew its roots and labeled it “heathen, papist idolatry.”
One of Satan’s names is Destroyer. Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal, like Satan, is the fire god who destroys and devours little children.The real Jesus Christ was never in and never will be in Christmas! He cannot be put back into where He has never been. But the “god of this world,” Satan has always been in Christmas. He is its author!
The true God commands that we “must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” This does not mesh with the great Christmas and Santa Claus lies that all children so willingly believe.
1Ti 4:2 They will also be fooled by the false claims of liars whose consciences have lost all feeling. warns of those “speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Parents can “burn” their own children, to the point of searing them, with the Christmas deception and lie!
There is no “safety in numbers” in this world for those who keep Christmas, because Satan, who is called “the father of lies” and “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), has “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)! Turn to this verse and read it. Then recognize that Christmas is certainly a testimony to that great deception.
The bottom line is that "Jesus is the Reason," and instead of a large evergreen tree in your living room set up a large Nativity scene to celebrate Jesus' birth. Instead of singing Christmas carols around the neighborhood, sing hymns and witness to your neighbors, friends and family. Instead of gift giving (and going into debt), give the money to doing God's work. If you truly want to go along with the Bible celebrate Hanukkah as a lead up to the celebration of Jesus' birth.
12 comments:
I never heard most of this stuff before. I did hear that Jesus wasn't actually born on Dec. 25 but that's just the date that was chosen to celebrate His birth.
Great post! I agree that Christmas is not for Christians but I do believe that we can and must make use of this opportunity to commemorate the coming of the Messiah and His Salvation. I will continue to use Christmas or other similar occasions to share the love of the Lord Jesus to lost sinners.
Don't let satan rip you off by stealing your joy. Lots of Christians celebrate Christmas to mark the first advent -- no one knows for certain what that date was.
Every day is an opportunity to bask in the love of the Lord and share His love with a lost world. Christmas gives us an opportunity to reach the lost, everything else that you mentioned is a peripheral issue.
I told my wife before she wrote this that everybody and their mother will pipe up in an attempt to "salvage" christmas.
This type of clinging to "worldly" things is exactly what Paul and others stressed NOT t do.
christmas has nothing to do with Christ, the Church, the Word of God, or anything else remotely having to do with any of the three.
Dec 25 is a day like any other, can you witness on that day? Sure, can you teach, preach, and baptize throughout all the world on that day? Yes.
But to pay any attention to that day outside of it is heresy, bottom line.
The original Church fathers never noted Dec 25th as a holy day, and rightly so! Because it is not, and never will be, no matter how hard folks try to "salvage" it in the Lord's name (Yet another blaspheme)
I am not going to get into a long sermon here, because this is not my post, but what I will say is that those who give one breath of celebration towards the secular holiday known as christmas, are doing nothing more than exactly what Satan is hoping they will do.
Your best bet is to read your Bible, pray on it, turn the television and radio off, reject all print media, and take ONLY what the Bible has to say, in regards to what is what.
It is futile to try and convince the majority of the current incarnation of the New Testament Church that christmas is a direct heresy, and blasphemy against the Lord, because they will not listen. Things of this world are already the master they serve, and they are in no way shape or form going to place God above money, and secular needs.
As I said wife.... Satan holds too strong a sway upon the Church to even think of getting the majority of its members to trust the Bible over their fellow man.
Thank you for writing this post. I think it's needed to be said for quite some time that this most commercial time of year pays tribute to materialism, not our Savior.
I personally am not a fan of the "Christmas" tree and though we have one in a box somewhere in the attic, my husband and I have never put it up. It's just felt...off, I suppose. It's funny, but it was only last night that I was watching a documentary on one of the History channels that discussed how the date of Jesus' birth might be as late as April or May...though I've also come across an article that professes that day to be sometime in June or July.
I've always known that my church does things a little differently, but Christmas seems to be a good example. Tons of services are always held on Christmas Eve and the message is always something to the effect of how we cannot fully appreciate what took place on the cross without remembering that Jesus was born into the body of a man and contended with all that came with the flesh. And he makes a point to appeal to those who've not yet dedicated their lives to Christ to do so now.
I have to say though, right or wrong, I do love 'O Holy Night'. It's sort of a tradition to close the candlelight service with that one and...I don't know; the words speak to my soul. On some level, I know the sentiment is being expressed during the wrong time of year, but it's there nonetheless.
Oh...we don't really exchange gifts anymore either. I don't see the point to focusing gift-giving and good will to a single day in the year. Even if 12/25 was the date of His birth, I just don't feel as though Jesus would approve of a celebration in His honor that was so entrenched in consumer-driven materialism.
Wow...I've really been rambling on this comment. Sorry. I really did enjoy your post and I hope to soon read one about Easter as you alluded to something there as well.
~Jen
Just curious here but what type of a church do you go to?
Nice post, I actually do not believe Jesus Christ was born on December. However we still celebrate xmas for only one reason that we are thankful that Jesus Christ was born whatever the date was. I learned when I was a kid that xmas was actually a pagan celebration. But since I really don't know what date Jesus Christ was born so we just celebrate it during xmas season too. I also grew up knowing Santa is not real. So that's how we will let our kids grow too. Knowing what's real and what's not. Have a blessed new year. God bless
I go to a non-denomenational church...if that question was meant for me.
~Jen
Actually I was just curious about Juliette's church...not trying to be confrontational...just curious.
I actually agree with afparks here. We have told our children that there is no Santa simply because if we lie to them about that...why should they believe us about Jesus.
I know all the pagan beginnings and such, but I do believe that we should celebrate the fact that Jesus was born in the flesh. The Bible doesn't tell us when that happened and so out of traditions sake alone we choose to celebrate it on 12-25. It only becomes worldly in my opinion when we put more emphasis on material objects and less on his sacrifice. Which we as humans tend to do anyway everyday of our lives.
Juliette attends at:
Genesis Christian Ministries
PO BOX 177
Wells River, Vt.
05081-0177
Her Pastor is also her husband.
Feel free to address any questions on that matter directly to me.
Just wondering because she had quoted a calvary chapel preacher in a previous post.
Thanks!
Very few people ever question anything that they believe. They are happy to be told what to think, and hang many of their behaviors and ideas on the thoughts of other people. It saddens me. The one thing that I have kept from my life growing up as a Christian and all of my vast questioning and study, is that we are all connected by what I can only define as a divine and encompassing love. I wish we all would behave in such a way.
Post a Comment