If a Christian can be identified by the "Holy-days" he keeps, would one be found in America?
In recent history, Progressives and Socialists have wanted to create a holiday called The Winter Solstice; it would begin somewhere around December 24 and end January 2, or there-abouts, and give everyone working a grand work exemption. Many "Christians" have been adamantly opposed to this. They argued that some people want to "take Christ out of Christmas". You can see the signs, cards and advertisements...."Jesus is the Reason for the Season". But they couldn't be further from the truth.
Christmass is one of the many Roman holidays celebrated throughout history, and in the New Testament Babylon becomes Rome. The Roman Empire embodies the pagan beliefs and practices of ancient Babylon and is seen as the arch enemy of God's people. Each of these practices has come to us through the Roman Catholic church. At the heart of the Roman Catholic Mass is a denial of the sufficiency of Christ's atonement. In 1660 the General Court of Massachusetts decreed punishment for those who kept the season, but today you would be hard pressed to find a politician supporting New Testament Christian values in all of America.
Like Halloween, Christmas has been co-opted by "Christians" to use as an evangelistic tool to "win souls for Jesus". The church I sometimes attend even called the worst holiday of the year, not Halloween but Holy-ween (it numbs the senses and nauseates true believers).
A simple study of the New Testament text should comfort a reader to know that Jesus most likely was born in the early Spring, when shepherds watched their flocks at night, but there is no real reason to believe anyone can pinpoint the birth of Jesus on December 25. We can find in Babylonian history the celebration of the birth of the sun god, Tammuz at the winter solstice. Yule was the Babylonian name for the child and Yule day was celebrated on December 25, long before Jesus was born.
A lot has been debated against the dissolution of Christmas as a Christian "Holiday", but I am one who is adamantly behind stamping out this celebration. There is nothing Christian about celebrating any "Holy-day" because there is no day commanded in Scripture to be Holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath.
These sorts of "holidays" have given the world over, people who choose to celebrate Christianity, by claiming these days "for Christ" as if the only Son of God needed this kind of recognition. I say, let the world have its "holidays" and let the Christians have Jesus. . Let the world go into debt buying stuff that means very little in the long run and worry themselves into sickness over these things. None of it proves that a person believes anything, except perhaps that he believes in a "man that lives somewhere in the north, and visits his people once a year, spending the other 364 days in obscurity. If a child writes him, it is a one way communication". Why would a Christian want to be a part of that? Does Santa, replace God, for you? We are in the world but we are not of the world; we must put aside those things the world worships and do it quickly, while argueing for and agreeing to our being able to worship on the Sabbath, without the worlds' influence on us and how we do that.
Stand with me and put aside the Christmas celebration and the Easter celebration and the other "holidays". As Christians, we must come out of the world. Let the world have their deities, we have the living God and His Son. "....Be ye separate". Jesus is NOT the reason for the season. He is the reason for our reconciliation to God. God has given us, that gift. If you have been reconciled, walk as a child of the living God and not an admirer of pagan gods.
The best outlet, other than the Bible, to the question IS CHRISTMAS CHRISTIAN? are the tracts and literature available at the Chapel Library, on the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment