Christmas tree -- vestige from Babylonian worship
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See post #15
28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
- Pretending that the celebration of Saturnalia and the worship of the sun is celebrating Jesus' birth is to trample the Son of God underfoot.
- The feast of the purification of Isis became the feast of the nativity, in this way they treat the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing.
- The expression “the spirit of Christmas” is an insult to the Spirit of grace.
The Christmas Story by Charles Dickens builds on this "spirit of Christmas" compared to the spirit of scrooge. As a result they shame Christians who would not embrace the celebration of Christmas as being scrooge. This is how the pagan worship works, we entice you on one hand and slander you on the other if you refuse the enticement.
My point exactly. If you don't go along with Christmas then you are a miserly scrooge without a heart for others. That is the message. How many Christians have been shamed in this way.
"As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one." - 1 Corinthians 8:4
An idol is nothing in itself. Idolatry is the thing to be mindful of. Many cultures amalgamated into Christianity, and each of them have qualities to share with the culture, whether it is Jewish mysticism, Greek logic, or Norse Yuletide imagery. All of it is in honour of God (and at the same time honouring cultural heritage from father and mother). It is only a bad thing if a thing becomes the object of idolatry.
I don't see the feasts and festivities to be the issue. But I will agree that there are antiChrist elements in play within the realm of corporate consumerism. They shutdown anything that has to do with Christ and replace it with "Happy Holidays" or "xmas" and weird fairy tales to distract from the fact that Christ is the focus of Christmas.
I wouldn't waste time trying to target elements that were brought into the Christian culture, I would pay more attention to the antiChrist cultures that attempt to attack and tear down Christ.
An idol is nothing in itself. Idolatry is the thing to be mindful of. Many cultures amalgamated into Christianity, and each of them have qualities to share with the culture, whether it is Jewish mysticism, Greek logic, or Norse Yuletide imagery. All of it is in honour of God (and at the same time honouring cultural heritage from father and mother). It is only a bad thing if a thing becomes the object of idolatry.
I don't see the feasts and festivities to be the issue. But I will agree that there are antiChrist elements in play within the realm of corporate consumerism. They shutdown anything that has to do with Christ and replace it with "Happy Holidays" or "xmas" and weird fairy tales to distract from the fact that Christ is the focus of Christmas.
I wouldn't waste time trying to target elements that were brought into the Christian culture, I would pay more attention to the antiChrist cultures that attempt to attack and tear down Christ.
I have a very different focus in this thread. I agree with you that the idol is nothing and if people are doing this ignorant of the pagan rituals behind it then it is nothing.
I also agree with how horrible the rampant consumerism is but that also is not my interest in this thread. Nor am I interested in the "Xmas" and trying to put Christ back into Christmas.
My interest is this. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. In the Old Testament they were given very specific and detailed instructions on festivals to keep and they were told they were a rehearsal for future events. We can see a very detailed correlation between Christ's crucifixion on the cross and the Passover feast, feast of unleavened bread and feast of firstfruits.
So then, shouldn't Christians also be treated the same? We know that there will be a pre tribulation rapture for many believers and the church in Philadelphia as a whole. Meanwhile there will be many other Christians who are caught up in the apostasy that are left behind. We should have a festival that depicts this and in which we rehearse this. The Lord said we are to watch, we should have a rehearsal of watching in the night, the long silent night. The Lord said that this day would be like the coming of a thief. We should have a festival that describes the coming of a thief in the night, sneaking into the house. In Revelation 12 we are told about the birth of the man child that is then snatched up to heaven and at the same time Satan and his angels are cast down to the Earth. We should have a celebration of the birth of the manchild. All we have is the birth of Jesus though strangely we celebrate His birth on a day that everyone knows He wasn't born on.
Do we have a Christian festival, a holy day that is 50/50 where half of it is a beautiful sweet worship of the Lord Jesus with those saints who are watching for His return, and the other half is filled with those nominal Christians completely involved in pagan worship, lascivious parties, consumerism and the apostasy? A celebration where half of it describes miracles like the virgin birth, while the other half makes a mockery of the rapture with a satanic figure (Santa in the red suit, king of the elves), a figure that has been part of the great delusion, feeding people who did not love the truth with lies and exchanging the God of glory with a bunch of junk from the mall?
We see in scripture that "the law" refers to more than just the ordinances/commandments and is inclusive of different teachings. With Christ the law was nailed to the cross. We see that we are not required to have a strict adherence to traditions declared in the OT:
"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day." - Col 2:16 NIV
This isn't apostasy in so doing, it is following the direction of the current head of the priesthood: Christ.
Let me get this straight, you think Paul's reference to "religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day" is a reference to Santa Claus, Rudolph, the Grinch, a reference to Satan (Santa) dressed in a Red suit, along with lascivious songs like "Santa Baby", various Christmas parties, as well as some of the classic worship songs like "O christmas tree". Simple yes or no will do, because if the answer is no everything else you said was not relevant to the discussion.
K
kaylagrl
Guest
amazing to me that when more people around the world are thinking about Jesus this time of year than any other, some " Christians " want to bad mouth that.
that is as silly as thinking that the Jewish festivals were meant for modern Christians , not for Jews only.
that is as silly as thinking that the Jewish festivals were meant for modern Christians , not for Jews only.
K
kaylagrl
Guest
So many people are invited to Christmas plays put on in churches, many have never heard the Gospel. It's a time of year where hearts are softened, where they hear of a babe in a manger that came to take their sins away. It's a wonderful time to share the Gospel. Then you have these nutty ideas people have about Christmas and you just share your head. Bound up in legalism. They make themselves and those around them miserable. So tired of the Christmas bah humbugs. They are literally draining.
Charles Wesley's hymns like "Hark the Herald Angels sing" is a great example of thinking about Jesus at this time. I would encourage everyone to sing that. "Joy to the world, the savior reigns" is another great song to get you thinking on Jesus. I encourage everyone to think on that.
Mary not being able to stay in the Inn is a great story to read at this time during vaccine mandates that prohibit you from staying in certain places. I would encourage all to read that especially in this season.
The wise men seeing the Messiah's star and coming to worship Jesus is a great story that reminds us of some of the great signs we have seen like the Revelation 12 sign. I would encourage all to read that story and consider it.
There is also a story about the angels appearing to the shepherds which were in the fields watching the flocks while at the same time the phony baloney shepherds in Jerusalem were in the dark. That is another good story to read and consider at this time.
And then of course there are great stories about the history of the Christmas tree, not in the Bible but on the internet that tell you the pagan roots, no reason to be ignorant, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
There are other stories about flying reindeer, a workshop at the North pole, alien creatures, etc, etc that clearly have no place at all in the worship of Jesus or remembrance of Him.
K