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 Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2016 5:26 pm
by Joe Owen
One of the wonders of December is the nostalgic display of Christmas lights that brighten up the cold evenings of the Northern Hemisphere. Sharp colors of green, red, blue, yellow, and white hang from the gutters, window sills, and surrounding trees of the old and new homes alike, giving them that yearly spark that has the power to turn a bad day good and an anxious heart into the deep retrospective realms of childhood memories. We embrace the sentimental feelings of Christmas that seem to resurface about the same time every year. It is a time when families are brought back together and the distinctive of each family member’s personality is brought alongside the gift or food item to be shared.
Along with the calendar, there are certain smells, colors, songs, and attitudes that tell us of the certain date that closes in . . . Christmas.
As we grow up, though, we are faced with one of the raw deals of reality—the bitterness of others who put up signs, posts, and news reports to broadcast their disdain for this special day. We may even grit our teeth and mutter something like, “Don’t these people have other things to do or did they not receive enough attention as children for them to lash out at such a wondrous occasion?”
Emotions run high on both sides of this debate, but before we come together to strike back at these modern day Scrooges and Grinches, it just may be an opportunity for a defining moment for ourselves as well. Could it be that so many of us tend to blur the distinctive line between a cultural day of celebration and the real Jesus that was born in a manger?
Although I am looking forward to celebrating this Christmas in my home, with my wife and children, it would be beneficial to take an objective look at what is at stake here and make sure that, even in a defense of what is good and true, that all is in its correct order.
For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17, NASB)
We must ask ourselves, amidst the joyous colors and shapes that enter our eyes, among the redundant but renewing choruses that yearly find their way back to the radio waves and out to our ears, and even within every feeling and thought, have we kept the Christ in Christmas? It is so easy for us to do things in the name of Christ without considering His Word or will. Notwithstanding, even if we have, may we please be open to consider that if we do, we could be wrong? Any time we keep Christ in anything, we are submitting to an idolatrous religion, that’s it. Please consider what is being said before cutting out any such thought. Our rebuttal just may be only for childhood sentimentalism without even knowing it. If you work to keep Christ in a song, your song has become an idol because the song is the end, not Christ. If you keep Christ in your home, you are working too hard and for the wrong cause. Please, allow me to explain.
According to the Apostle Paul, we are to be “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), which is not taking Christ captive to the obedience of every thought! In other words, the redeemed shouldn’t fancy the idolatry of keeping Christ in Christmas, but in our lives, in our homes, in our churches, we are to submit the very idea of Christmas to Christ Himself! Any other way of considering such a feat is not only putting the day before the Lord (idolatry) but also can be a delusional placement (or displacement) by mere humans of Christ himself.
Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. His kingdom is forever and forever. We don’t make Him Lord of our lives. He is Lord. In the salvation experience, we are submitting to His lordship in this life, and those who reject Him will submit to His lordship after, but without salvation (Philippians 2:10–11).
For those who have His free gift of salvation, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), they are hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3), so everything in the Christian life should flow from the Word of God, thus should submit and be in Christ. Therefore, for the believer, we are to keep Christmas in Christ.
So, of the things whose placement and submission we can control, Christmas is one, but Christ is not! So to submit Christmas to Christ, we must find Christ according to His Word (Hebrews 1:1–2), which starts in Genesis 1:1.
According to His Word, in Genesis 3:15, there is a promise of a coming “Seed” that would bruise or crush the serpent’s head, which is a mortal wound in comparison to the bruising on the heel that the serpent would inflict on this blessed Seed. Through progressive revelation (the clarifying points of God’s redemptive plan through Scripture), the Scripture tells us that this Seed would humanly come from the lineage of Abraham (Genesis 22:1 cool , but would be God made flesh (Isaiah 9:6; Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 9:3–5), be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and that He would bear the punishment as a propitiation for our sins (Isaiah 53).
Just as foreordained and prophesied by the prophets, this baby Jesus was born; the eternal Son of God was given to us approximately 2,000 years ago in a humble manger in Bethlehem and even from a virgin, as foretold. Angels announced His birth and a bright leading light was given for wise men from the east to follow. The buildup to the bruising of His heel began as King Herod sought to end His life and thus the fight ensued.
After around 33 years of earthly life, this perfect God-man assumed our role even further by giving His life as a ransom for many on a Roman cross, and even though this wooden cross was nailed together by human hands and fashioned by Greco-Roman minds, it was really the divine condemnation of the Father turning His anthropomorphic back on His only begotten Son as propitiation was made in this voluntary transaction. The sinless God-man was made sin for us on that dark, blessed day as He was accursed.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)
He was cursed! He was cursed! The eternal Logos, who is the Father’s precious, coequal Lamb, was cursed for the sins of mankind. If Christmas is a materialistic time for you, a family time, or even a time of giving, and you don’t know Christ, please understand, if anyone could convince you to put Christ in your Christmas, that may only add another sentimental value to your 25th of December. There is, though, something that you could do. Would you consider submitting not just your Christmas, but also your entire self to Christ?
For those of us who do know Christ, let us remember that we are called not only to keep the Christmas in Christ, but to submit all to Him for His glory. Let us take this debate to its corresponding gospel front. If you are inclined to “correct” someone for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” you would honor Christ to talk to them about the Christ who is Lord of all during Christmas, as well as the other 364.25 days of the year, and let them know that He will save those who trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins.
Let the manger scene, whose centerpiece is the baby in swaddling clothing, speak to us now on the true meaning of Christmas by looking at what this baby would later proclaim: “"Repent and believe in the gospel"” (Mark 1:15).
What is this glorious gospel in which we must place our trust?
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3–4)
In conclusion, we could approach Christmas in a few ways:
Elect not to celebrate.
Use this time as a materialistic way to buy our way into our children’s favor (and our neighbors’ awe).
Somehow “put” Christ in Christmas for the celebration of a holy day.
Submit this day and all of our lives to Christ and live celebrating His birth, life, death, and Resurrection forevermore.
I don’t know about you, but as for me and my house, we’ll take number four while enjoying the celebration on December 25th. So with these thoughts in mind, Merry Christmas to you and yours.
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Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 1:06 pm
edited to rephrase & edited again to add disclaimer I see improvement, but there is still worldly compromise present in their reasoning. Two points:Point #1:Quote: Let the manger scene, whose centerpiece is the baby in swaddling clothing, speak to us now on the true meaning of Christmas by looking at what this baby would later proclaim: “"Repent and believe in the gospel"” (Mark 1:15).
Deuteronomy 4:15-18 (NIV)
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
Psalm 115:2-4 (NIV)
2 Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
3 Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
4 But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
The obedient Israelites made no images of God.
As thoroughly covered in the [Idolatry] topic, the ones who made images of their deity were the pagans. Not the people who were holy / set-apart from the ways of the nations. And if you want to depict Jesus, allow the Father to conform you into the image of His Son, not us make images of Him with our hands. They're being sinful by suggesting God's Commands allow this behavior.Point #2:Second of all, as I addressed in my reply to the topic [Save Yourself Some Pain],
cristobela WROTE:
Speaking of saving yourself some pain: this right here is one of the most frustrating things to witness Christians doing—to their own demise: God promises to punish idolatry, and Christmas is full of idolatrous customs (evergreen tree brought inside the house, mistletoe, yule log, yuletide carols—all having to do with Yule, Odin-worship, the practices of Teutonic nature worship, winter solstice celebrations, etc. and what is universally-pagan is making images of the entity being worshiped, unlike the Israelites who never did and were Commanded not to do so [Deut 4:15-18; Psalm 115:2-7]; thus, Christians are honoring demons, myths, and other false beliefs by borrowing practices that the pagans used to honor their demons, or useless gods and myths) and they're also invalidating gospel details by assigning Christ's birth in the winter despite both the census and the presence of sheep outdoors that night speaking contrary to such a date assignment. They invalidate the historicity of Christ's birth as preserved by the gospels and profane His Holiness (His unlike-the-idols-and-demons-worshiped-by-the-world-ness) by mixing in with the spiritual practices and decorations of the pagans.
[...]
There are more Biblically-sound deductions for Jesus' birthday, for instance: [The birth of the Messiah revealed in scripture] that He incarnated on the divine appointments of God (i.e. Feast of Tabernacles, which can be deduced from details in Luke's gospel, in light of the priestly divisions mentioned there); that is more Biblically consistent considering Jesus fulfilled other prophetically-significant events on other of YHWH's appointed times (i.e. Passover/Unleavened Bread [sacrificed], First Fruits [resurrected], and Pentecosts a.k.a. Feast of Weeks [Holy Spirit poured out] which are divine appointments made by God in Leviticus 23. By keeping track of God's reckoning of time, people would already be commemorating such events, since they speak of Christ, what He would do, and when He would do it. We don't need to invent more. God's days are both commemorative and prophetic [e.g. Passover commemorates the tenth plague in Egypt and simultaneously prophesies about Christ, our Passover Lamb]). Adopting December 25th is not only a lie, and invalidater of gospel details, but superfluous.
[...]
If they bring up December 25th date as well we must restore them to the truth. The date invalidates the details in the gospels that state Jesus was born during a census (not going to happen in winter, of which December 25th falls in, and yet He was born during the census decreed by Caesar Augustus; the reason why Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and stayed in a manger was because of the census. This isn't winter) and that the shepherds were watching over their sheep at night in the fields on the night of His birth. So there is no saving December 25th / winter as remotely true. We must defend the truth of Scripture. Not adopt festivities that speak contrary to the historical details of the gospels (not to mention the Commands to not adopt their ways even if we make Him the focus of it). We must alert believers of all these Scriptural truths. We cannot partake in traditions that nullify the word of God.
There is no saving December 25th or the winter season as His birthday. The verbal gymnatics he tried to go through to avoid the obvious: celebrating His birth on December 25th gives off the wrong impression that He was born on December 25th. Lie. You're not worshiping in Spirit and in TRUTH, if you do that.
Option number 3 of the article ("Somehow 'put' Christ in Christmas for the celebration of a holy day") is no option at all. Well technically, it is an option, but a sinful one. How dare he mislead the sheep into thinking this is an obedient option though:
Deuteronomy 12:30-31 (NIV)
30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
Know what else they even do? They even worship the sun. We must not mimick their practices and give off the wrong impression (that all YHWH worship really is, is hijacked pagan tradition, nature worship, and sun worship, adapted to Christian signification, to go along with, from their perspective, some "made up" commands that clearly they don't have to live by because, not only do Christians not live by them, but those pagans recognize that Christians stole traditions from them; so, Christians must be validating their beliefs, but since those pagans don't live by those commands, then YHWH's commands are optional, and so pagans must have the legitimate spirituality since they already have been keeping the festivity. No need to convert, leave the lies behind, as long as they're dressed up in Jesus' Name—and not even that, because they're already celebrating the festivity under Odin and Saturn, so what's the big difference? Again to the pagan and those who deviate from YHWH's Commands).
There's a reason YHWH commanded holiness / being set-apart from the ways of the nations. Aside from the practices themselves being harmful and/or useless and outright lies, they make it seem like everyone worships the same Spirit.
This has to stop.
Relevant out-of-guild topic linking to a study that utilizes the Bible and both secular and Christian dictionaries and encyclopedias, ousting the customs and date of the December 25th celebration for the idolatry—and traces of demon worship—that it is [Sunburned - Part 1]--- edit on 12/3/2016 - just want to make very clear, in case my reply gets misconstrued, my conscience would not let me rest until I posted this clarification: Christians definitely are expected to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). The Biblical Christian does not set the least of the commands aside, unlike the Pharisees who do; we are not to follow the Pharisees' example (Matthew 5:17-20; Matthew 15:1-9; Matthew 23:1-3).
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SolaceSerenitySerendipity
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Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 3:34 pm
Quote: Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. His kingdom is forever and forever. We don’t make Him Lord of our lives. He is Lord. In the salvation experience, we are submitting to His lordship in this life, and those who reject Him will submit to His lordship after, but without salvation (Philippians 2:10–11). For those who have His free gift of salvation, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), they are hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3), so everything in the Christian life should flow from the Word of God, thus should submit and be in Christ. Therefore, for the believer, we are to keep Christmas in Christ. This was so uplifting! Thank you so much for sharing it smile It is much appreciated!
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