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SUBJECT:
Christmas
QUESTION:
Frankly, I guess what I'm
not seeing is how these practices are wrong, or offensive to
God. I guess I would argue that I don't see any biblical
evidence that God would be displeased with baptized
believers celebrating the birth of His Son, regardless of
whether or not that's in the singing of hymns, giving gifts,
fellowshipping and sharing a meal with family and friends,
and spreading good cheer...just because the time of year of
this modern custom coincides with the time of year that
pagans committed sinful acts centuries ago.
ANSWER:
Dear Sir:
I understand your point of
view completely. It is the precise reasoning followed by the
Roman Catholic Church, and millions of adherents to the
pagan practice of "The Mass of Christ." I have dealt with
this same reasoning for more than 44 years now. I appreciate
your letter, and will try to remember to do a bit of editing
when I next reprint my "Christmas" booklet, so the point
will be more thoroughly covered.
God tells us "My ways are not your ways," and does not allow
us to decide HOW to worship Him, only WHETHER. For
centuries, man has invented his own concepts of "gods." I
wrote my book, "The REAL Jesus," because the name "Jesus
Christ" conjures up in the minds of millions a false Christ;
a long-haired "hippie" who bears not the remotest
resemblance to the real Jesus Christ of history; the living
Christ Who now sits at the right hand of His Father,
awaiting the time until His "enemies be made His footstool."
The Real Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th. He did
not die on "Good" Friday, and was not resurrected on
"Ishtar" (pronounced
"Easter") Sunday morning. He did not try to save
the world then. He has not tried to save it since, and is
not trying to save it today. He did not come to do away with
the law. He did not die on a "cross." The Greek word is "stauros,"
which means an upright pale, or tree, and has no remote
etymological connection to the Latin word "crux," from which
we derive the English word "cross."
This world gives lip service, and even emotional adoration
and worship to a false Christ, who has been palmed off on
unsuspecting nominal "Christians" by Satan the Devil
himself, who is the great deceiver of all nations
(Revelation 12:9), the "Prince of the power of the Air
(Ephesians 2:2), and the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians
4:4).
The word sin means "to miss the mark." It is true that "a
miss is as good as a mile," especially when someone is
shooting real bullets at you. The same holds true with God's
laws. If we "miss the mark," by attempting to dress up rank
paganism into "Christian" garb; adapt rank heathenism to
so-called "Christian worship," God soundly condemns us. God
said, "Learn NOT the way of the heathen" (Jeremiah 10:1-4)
and then described a tree, cut out of the forest, anchored
so that it "move not," and decked with silver and gold
ornaments. God told the Israelites, "When the Eternal thy
God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou
goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and
dwellest in their land;
"Take heed to thyself that
thou be not snared by following them, after that they be
destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire NOT AFTER
THEIR GODS, saying, 'HOW DID THESE NATIONS SERVE THEIR GODS?
even so will I do likewise.
"Thou shalt not do so unto
the Eternal thy God: for every abomination to the Eternal,
which He hateth, have they done unto their gods..."
(Deuteronomy 12:29-31).
For centuries, men have
said, in effect, "How did the ancient Babylonians, Romans,
Greeks, Germans, Nordics and Druids worship their gods of
the sun, moon and stars; their gods Nirmrod and Semiramus,
Isis and Osirus, Sol and Luna?" Let us DO LIKEWISE, only,
let us do it in the pretense we are doing it in honor of the
birth of the SON of God, not the rebirth of the SUN god!
Hence, December 25, at or
near the winter solstice, when the heathen would pray to
their nonexistent "Solis Invictus" to begin his northerly
journey once more; adopting the pagan "Saturnalia" and
calling it "Christian." Hence, bulbs and orbs on trees; the
bulbs representing eggs and human procreative organs; the
tree representing the myth of Nimrod's miraculous
resurrection from a dead log, or the myth of "St. Boniface"
rescuing little Wulfred at the "Sacred Oak of Jupiter." The
mistletoe, a supposed aphrodisiac among the pagan Druids (therefore,
the tradition of "kissing under the mistletoe"),
the lighting of bon fires ("bon" coming from "bous," or "the
Ox, a symbol of Horus), the cooking of the goose, since
Juvenal, in Rome, said "Osirus cannot be pacified except by
the cooking of a fat goose and thin cakes."
Every single accouterment
attached to Xmas and Easter is pagan to the core.
Like the Ishtar
celebrations, Satan has made it all a FAMILY occasion. God
told Jeremiah, "Seest thou not what they do in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
"The children gather wood,
and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their
dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven [Semiramus
-- the mother/wife of Nimrod] and to pour out
drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to
anger" (Jeremiah 7:17,18). The nostalgia of a man taking his
kids into the woods to cut down and decorate a tree; of"mom"
bustling about cooking Christmas turkey; the stockings and
the fable (lie)
of "Santa" -- the wonderful songs, gay colors, holly
wreaths, together with an outpouring of gifts, all is
fraught with "warm, family memories" which are quite
powerful.
"Besides, we should not take
all these things away from our kids, people reason. "What
are you, anyway?" they ask me, "Scrooge?"
But man's excuses will not
avail when God comes to judge the world.
God is not interested in
man's human reasoning, but in obedience to His laws!
No, the excuse that we are
"doing it all in the name of Christ" will not avail with
Jesus Christ in the judgment. He thunders at us, "LEARN NOT
THE WAY OF THE HEATHEN."
Finally, please do not think
"Christmas" is somehow "threatening" to me. It is no more so
than Chinese New Year, or the "year of the pig." No more so
than "Ramadan," or "Oktober Fest." Paul said "the idol is
nothing," and I know that the trappings of Christmas to not
contaminate me, any more than meats which were slain in
idolatrous ceremony were rendered unfit to eat.
I hope my somewhat lengthy
reply will be helpful.
Sincerely,
In Jesus' name,
GTA
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