| (Copyright) by Jeffrey Caldwell (Arkansas) |
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| Eve, the first woman, meant well … at least she felt she meant well … reaching for the forbidden fruit. Satan’s deceitful and misleading spiel had convinced her. Nobody had ever lied to her … she wasn’t prepared for that. After all, “… she saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her…” (Genesis 3:6), can’t fault the reasoning. Adam knew better, he remembered God had said it was not to be eaten, that death would be the consequence. But he went along with his mate anyway, and thus they and their children were corrupted with sin, disobedience to God. For Christians to observe Christmas is much like Eve eating the forbidden fruit … it looks like a great idea, it seems very pleasant, what could be better than remembering and honoring Christ by celebrating his birth? He should be glad we care, right? I am a Christian, but I do not celebrate Christmas. With regard to the Christian faith, keeping Christmas is a corrupt practice. From its inception, the keeping of Christmas as a “Christian” observance, supposedly to honor Christ our Lord and King, is corrupt to the core, in its very essence. The very concept of keeping Christmas dishonors the Word of God! Its inception came after all of Christ’s apostles were dead. True Christian doctrine and practice was once for all time delivered to God’s flock in the time of Christ and his apostles. Even well before the life and work of Christ’s apostles was finished, there were people attempting to subvert the faith and leading portions of the church away from the Way of Truth for their own purposes. Jude, the brother of Jesus, writes “I found it necessary to take up my pen and urge you to join in the struggle for that faith which God entrusted to people once for all” (Jude 4, ‘The Revised English Bible’). Christ’s apostles bequeathed the New Testament to the people of God, which represents, I believe, their doing their “utmost” to ensure that after they were gone we would have a sound basis for understanding the truth of the good news and the Way of faith (2 Peter 1:15). Satan’s continually moving false teachers to corrupt the faith is a concern of Paul’s: “I am afraid that, as the serpent in his cunning seduced Eve, your thoughts may be corrupted and you may lose yoursingle-hearted devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 REB). I, Jeffrey, was moved to write this article as just now I consulted the ‘Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary’ to better understand the book of Hosea and ran across this note on Hosea 10:6: “The word for “its wooden idols” is often translated “its counsel” (cf. NIV note). The former translation refers disdainfully to the calf [the shrine idol of Israel in Bethel set up by the first king of the house of Israel] as mere wood; the alternate translation to the “counsel” given by Jeroboam I when he had first established calf worship (1 Ki 12:28).” (page 1419). It seems that in the Old Testament, the word for “false gods” is the same as for “falsehoods”. Saul, David and Solomon were the first kings of all Israel. But when Solomon’s son came to power and proved unacceptable to the ten northern tribes, they broke away and formed the “house of Israel” … while David’s dynasty continued to rule only over the “house of Judah”. Jeroboam I, the first king of the house of Israel, was afraid that if his subjects continued to travel down to Jerusalem in Judah, the place God had chosen — to keep the feasts of the LORD, they might “revert to the house of David” (1 Kings 12:26 NIV). So, Jeroboam I set up alternate shrines and alternate feasts, designed to appeal to the tastes and customs of the people. “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem” he said to them … he instituted a festival “like the festival held in Judah” [the LORD’s feast] (1 Ki 12:32 NIV) … on a day and month “of his own choosing” (1 Ki 12:33 NIV). Bethel was a good choice for his major shrine … the name means “house of God” and there Jacob (a.k.a. “Israel”), the father of their nation, had his first recorded significant encounter with God. But God’s prophets called Jeroboam’s Bethel of idolatrous worship, worship according to wicked counsel, by the name of Beth-Aven — “house of wickedness”, or even, merely, “Aven”, wickedness. Thanks to the typical spiritual lack of acumen and dullness of the Israelites, that idolatrous worship in Bethel — based on false and deceitful counsel of clever human devising, was confounded with worship of the one true God, the One whose name is Truth. I am reminded of Aaron and the golden calf. Of that day of revelry when people were dancing in front of the golden calf, the day Moses broke the first tablets of the ten commandments, of that very day Aaron, the brother of Moses and the first high priest — had said: “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5 NIV). “So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings.” (Exodus 32:6a NIV). Those offering-rituals were their nod, as it were. Somehow, they must’ve thought it was all OK with Him … or would be if they just gave Him their ritual nod. “Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to engage in revelry.” The “made up” rituals of Jeroboam 1 were also, by the people, somehow thought to honor the LORD. The “made up” holiday of Christmas is in the same vein. The date and the trappings of pagan worship were appropriated by men to create a man-made “Christian holiday” … and thus the church of Rome, like the house of Israel, turned away from the LORD’s festivals (Leviticus 23:2ff) to keep observances in ways and on dates of their own choosing, designed to appeal to the masses under the influence of pagans who know not the God of Israel. Jeroboam 1 had said “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem” the place God had chosen for His festivals to be kept. Similarly, the church of Rome came to deem it “too much” to continue to keep the LORD’s holy days, days kept by the Jews, at a time when Jews were deeply despised in the Empire. The Jews were intensely hated in Rome in those days because Jewish revolts were militarily very costly to the Empire. Everything equated with the despised Jews, including the Sabbath and the LORD’s other appointed feasts, became inconvenient and even dangerous to observe. Increasingly, Christians became willing to listen to leaders who argued and counseled that it would be good and right to “do otherwise”. It was found expedient, not only to avoid persecution, but also to make converts more easily … to take pagan observances and “Christianize” them … but so doing was the work of men, not the will of God. Ideas that seemed good include “let’s celebrate Christ’s birth” and “let’s celebrate Christ’s resurrection”. I am reminded of Eve. Eating the forbidden fruit seemed good to her … a way to be wise … the tree looked good … seemed like it would taste good. But her choice was not “good” to God. Even though the tree was beautiful, God had said it would be a loss, not a gain, to eat of it. Christmas is not holy. It did not come from the Holy One. God set the standards and commands the observances of “your most holy faith” (Jude 20 NIV) … “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3, NIV). It may seem like a good idea to “celebrate Christ’s birthday” … but God does not command it, His apostles do not do it … though they do keep the LORD’s festivals. One of the most joyful of His holy festivals, the feast of tabernacles, points to Christ’s birth, when he came and “tabernacled” among us! (John 1:14) ‘Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words’ says the Greek SKENOO … “to pitch a tent (skene), to tabernacle, is translated “dwelt,” in John 1:14, A.V., R.V. marg., “tabernacled;”. ‘The New Testament in its Original Order: A Faithful Version with Commentary’ renders the Greek naturally: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of grace and truth.”) Those of us who keep the feast of tabernacles sing Joy to the World and other hymns about Christ’s birth at that time … when not only Christ’s birth, but also His life and work, from the beginning, now and forever, is joyfully celebrated! God hates to be worshiped in any manner that reminds Him of the worship of other gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-31), so surely, He would not want us to choose the Saturnalia as a pattern to celebrate Christ’s birth! Nor does He desire us to appropriate any of the customs of sun-worship to worship the Son of God. These are His sentiments with regard to worshiping Him: “See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32 NIV). That Christians, under the influence of deceitful counsel, have embraced Sundays, Christmas and Easter and St. Valentine’s Day as their observances, and have jettisoned all of His holy days, does not please Him. Pure devotion to Christ, “the simplicity that is in Christ” is expressed in these words of Moses, which constitute a genuine creed of the apostles: “It is the LORD your God you must follow and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:4 NIV). The Jewish Bible renders this verse (Dt. 13:5 in their versification) even more imperatively: “Follow none but the LORD your God, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone, and heed only His orders; worship none but Him, and hold fast to Him” (‘Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures’).This way of holiness is the Way of Christ and of His apostles! Peter addresses Christians as “God’s elect, strangers in the world” (1 Peter 1:1) and says: “just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.'” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV). But as Paul says: “… I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” (2 Corinthians 11:3-4 NIV). Paul’s fears are historically exemplified by the church in Rome … and by all of us Christians who have followed her lead, to this present day … jettisoning the LORD’s holy days to institute cleverly “Christianized” pagan days as ‘Christian observances’! Ever since this early choice of the church of Rome, Christian sheep “accept” these man-made holidays as “Christian” much in the same way as Eve listened to the serpent, or the house of Israel listened to her first king, or Aaron and the children of Israel in the wilderness listened to those who wanted the golden calf. The observance of Christmas is a practice not built on the Rock of our salvation! Brothers and sisters in Christ, I say to you: Christmas-keeping, splendid in so many ways as it may humanly seem to be, is a corruption of your most holy faith. “Christmas” is not holy!! Celebrating Christmas is not the Way of holiness … In regard to the worship, He is truly honored to receive, the Holy One says: “See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it” (Dt. 12:32 NIV). There is a proverb of Solomon that reminds me of Eve: “The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful” (Proverbs 12:5). Eve knew that being wise is good and she wanted to be wise … but heeding Satan’s deceitful and wicked advice spoiled her good plan. As Solomon says, the “fear of the LORD is the” true and genuine “beginning of wisdom”! (Proverbs 9:10). |
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