CHRISTSMASS
THE TRUTH REVEALED
By Dan Luehrs
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves
teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to
myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
"This testimony is
true. For this cause reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith,
not paying attention to Jewish myths and
commandments of men who turn away from the truth" (Titus 1:13-14).
In the late 1980's I found
myself getting very depressed around Christmas. This was very strange to me
because I am not the type of person to suffer from depression. In 1989 at
Christmas time I asked the Lord why I continued to be depressed at this time
every year. He said, "Because Christmas is not of Me!" I was floored
and said, "What do you mean, not of You, when all churches celebrate Your
birth?" He said, "Look it up." I then began to study the scriptures
on celebrating Christmas and I could not find anything about it in the New
Testament. I went to my 1969 set of encyclopedias to find the true origin of
Christmas. What I read shocked me. Next I began to see what some other authors
had written about it. They had seen the false teaching of Christmas, yet would
not denounce it openly. I had found that Christmas was a "pagan
holiday," not a Christian one!
Without the truth of
scripture we would all be practicing some form of pagan religion today. Now that
we know the truth, we have no excuse. As Christians we have a firm foundation
on which to build our lives. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus compares truth to
having a firm foundation and false teaching to being a foundation of sand. Only
after we have been tested by the fire of His living word will we have proven
what is really in our hearts and what our lives are built on (the Rock of truth
or sand of man's philosophies). The fire of God's trials in our life will
reveal what is in our heart, truth or error. My prayer for years has been,
"Lord get all the lies and false doctrine of men out of me."
Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive (your mind a
prisoner) through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." While the Lord
has been very faithful to show me these false doctrines, it really hurts when I
see these lies I have held onto from childhood. It also hurts the people around
me when they see I can no longer play religious games with them. I know that if
they would just ask God to reveal the lies in them, He would be faithful to do
so. We are in a new day when Jesus is coming back for a bride living in truth.
Paul said very clearly, "For this cause reprove them severely
that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish (Christian)
myths and commandments of men who turn
away from the truth." Myths are stories we are accustomed to,
whether true or false. If I don't speak the truth when God has given me a
mandate to speak from scripture I would do you a disservice. It would be as if
you were going to the Doctors office having cancer and the Doctor sent you home
telling you that your going to be alright, but in reality you are going to die
in a year. I do not want you to stand before Jesus on Judgment Day with lies
and deceptions in our heart. I will speak God's truth as He has given it to me
in love; you must judge the word I have given as truth from His word or as
doctrines of man. "But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (Mark 7:7).
THE MYTH OF
CHRISTMAS
The myth or sacred cow I
want to slay is "Christmas," which derives its name from the Catholic
Church called "Christ's Mass or the Eucharist." To a Roman Catholic
this is when the bread becomes the literal body of Christ and the wine becomes
the literal blood of Christ, otherwise known as transubstantiation. This is
where Jesus is literally sacrificed afresh on the cross and into the priests
hands. If you do not believe this, and accept this, you cannot take mass or
enter into heaven.
Where do the Christmas
teachings about the birth of Christ and the celebrations come from? The Bible,
men, or demons? We know for sure that the teaching of the birth of Jesus in
Bethlehem comes from the New Testament. This is truth, but that's all; there
were no yearly celebrations of the birth of Jesus in the New Testament. In
fact, there were only two feasts celebrated in the New Testament times,
Passover and Pentecost. There were no Christmas, Lent, Easters, or Halloween
feasts. These were started and practiced by the Catholic Church in AD 378 as a
way to get people to come to their services. Rather than having people going to
pagan festivals the church combined pagan practices and Christian services
together. This is exactly what our modern churches do; they incorporate worldly
entertainment into their services to gain numbers in the pews! Both the
Pilgrims and the Puritans forbid their people from celebrating this pagan
holiday. It was not until the nineteenth century that German and Irish settlers
began to celebrate it in North America.
The origin of the pagan
festival of Christmas comes from Egyptian mythology. It was a birthday party in
honor of Osiris the king. Osiris died and came back from the dead. He would
then put gifts under an evergreen tree and was later reborn as Queen Isis's
son, Horus, on the twenty fifth of December. Isis was known as the Queen of
heaven with child, so the church changed their names to Mary and Jesus. The
Romans also celebrated the sun god at this time, because it was the Saturnalia,
a celebration of the shortest day of the year. The church changed the sun god
to the Son of God.
SHOULD
CHRISTIANS OBSERVE CHRISTMAS?
"And He said to them,
"You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows
your hearts; for that which is highly
esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15).
Clearly the scriptures teach
that whatever worldly people highly admire is hated by God. The opposite is
true also; whatever God admires is hated by the world. It is obvious that
Christmas is highly esteemed by the world because businesses of all types can
make up to forty-sixty percent of their yearly income in the month of December.
The world system pushes their materialism onto the consumers while the harlot
church is in full agreement because she is in love with the world system of
material goods, instead of God! "You
adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility
toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God" (James 4:4). We must rid ourselves of this worldly
spirit if we want to be close to God.
Once we know that the root
of Christmas is from pagan religions, why would we even play with it? If the
root is bad, the whole tree is bad and must be uprooted. "But He answered
and said, "Every plant which My
heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up" (Matthew 15:13). "And also the axe is already laid at
the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:9). The fruit of Christmas
is rotten to the core and STINKS TO THE HIGH HEAVEN! Since when is wild parties
and drunkenness of God? People lie to their children about Santa (which spelled
differently spells Satan)! Yet, deceived Christians say, "Keep Christ in
Christmas," "Jesus is the reason for the season." What lies!
What deception! Jesus was not in this pagan celebration from the
beginning. Yet they say, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath
water." I have looked for the baby and didn't find Him! This idolatry must
end in us if we are going to move on to higher ground in Christ.
Psychologists tell us that
Christmas time is their busiest time of year. Many people become stressed out,
depressed, and suicidal because of family separations, lack of money, and
feeling lonely, that nobody cares. The season brings many pressures on families
and people on fixed incomes. God does not put us under any of these worldly
bondages or pressures! The media makes this season out to be such a joyous
occasion because they are making all the money! But some people are saying,
"Where's all the joy?" It's not in material things; it is in Jesus
alone! Christmas teaches our children that materialism and greed is good, when
only the gospel is the good news! Jesus came, died, and rose again to set us
free from the influence of the world over us. It was for freedom that He has set
us free, so let us walk in that freedom!
When your birthday comes
around each year, do your friends and family members remember you as a baby?
Then why does the church remember Jesus as a baby when He is Lord of lord's and
King of king's? I believe this lie is an offense to the cross and will be
destroyed by the brightness of His coming in truth. If the apostles and the
first Christians did not celebrate Christmas, we have no business dragging the
holy name of Jesus Christ into this worldly mess of materialism and idolatry!
Below I have included Bill Britton's
poem about Christmas.
"HAPPY
HOLIDAYS?"
T'was the day before
Christmas, and all through the store
The last minute shoppers
were tired and footsore.
"Who’ve we
forgotten?" They cried in a panic
As from one store to another
they rushed about - frantic.
It can't end too soon, I'll
be glad when its o'er
My wallet is empty, my
muscles are sore.
Whoever invented this
turmoil and bother
One thing for sure, weren't
thinking of father.
But when it's all over and
the whole thing is past
The presents are broken. and
the tree's down at last
The food is all eaten. and
the dishes are done
Then you have to admit, it
was sort of fun.
Now we can relax and start
acting sane
Until that season rolls
around once again
With that jolly fat fellow,
the beard and big belly
Who brought all those toys
to Junior and Nellie.
Well, I'd like to give him a
swift kick so hard
For filling his sack with my
credit card.
Say, tell me again of that
Palestine fable
How this season started in a
Bethlehem stable.
He wasn't born in the winter
so cold
But rather in autumn, so I
have been told.
If the birthday of Jesus we
celebrate
Why don't we do it on the
right proper date?
Why wait for three months
till the time of the Beast
When the pagan sun god is
giving a feast?
Now all of these facts are
history so true
No wonder we're glad when
this season is through.
The parties, the drinking.
the sin, and the greed
The buying of things we
don't really need.
What's this got to do with
the birth of our Lord?
Where do you find this in
His holy Word?
Oh, preachers say: "You
must go along with the rest
Though we realize it's not
really the best.
Yes, we know He wasn't born
on this winter day
But it's already
established, there's no other way.
But there's some men today
who know it's not wise
To reject God's truth and
then compromise.
Others there are who think
I'm a fool
And some would say:
"He's sure Satan's tool
That he would rise up and
attack our great folly
Do away with the tree and
the bells and the holly."
Oh no, my dear friends let
the arguments cease
Let the sinners have their
day, do their drinking in peace.
But let Christians stand up,
(how could we do less)
And not drag our Jesus into
all of this mess.
The parties, debauchery, the
greed, and the sin
How empty of Jesus, how
crowded the Inn.
T'was the day after
Christmas, and all through the city
The merchants still working,
oh what a pity.
They were so busy, they were
counting their money
And they would agree, this
season's a honey.
T'will be many months before
Dad's out of debt
But they'll do it all over
next year, you can bet!
HAPPY HOLIDAY!
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