TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS
A time for loving your family. . . getting together . . .rejoicing together. . . right? WHAT ARE WE TO REMEMBER ? We have been commanded to ‘remember His death, until He come’ (I Corinth.11:24+26). .Remembering Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension has direct purpose. It is from Calvary that He released the power of God for redemption etc. We must not forget that Jesus is ‘the pattern son’ for us who have become a part of Him - His Body. The things that He did, we shall do also. To accomplish those things and more, we need to have the same nature, authority and resources that He had.
Each birthday that we celebrate is different from the one before because we have grown up since the last one. Keeping Jesus as a babe in the manger draws one away in the spirit REALM from the maturing work of the Holy Spirit which is to grow us up in all things . . . to become like He is (I John 4:17). We must not be drawn away from God’s initial vision . . . ‘Let us make man in our image and after our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26). Majoring on Jesus’ birth, places the wrong vision before those who are desiring of growing up into Him in all things (Eph.4:16). We wouldn’t think of giving a rattle to a teenager for he has grown up.
The anniversary of our birth falls on a different day each year. Birthdays always emphasize that which is of the earthly realm and are always filled with emotion which so often takes precedence over the anointing of God. When emotion dictates a reaction, it will be seen to undergird all who live their Christian lives from ‘the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. If is it ‘good’, we will do it; if it is ‘evil’, we will all shun it! Christmas is a ‘good’ thing to do! Let’s celebrate the coming of Jesus to the earth — even though the Bible says nothing about doing that! Mix in a few lies about ‘Santa Claus’! Initiate our children into the ‘Gimme Club’ which can sow the seed of expecting ‘handouts’ in years that follow. If there are great aspects, such as giving, that cannot be overlooked, then why keep them to a one time in a year?
The awareness of His life within us and Him being Lord there, seems for the most part to get cunningly covered up with all the celebrations connected with that season. Christmas, with all its carols, glitter and excitement, keeps one on the surface of thanksgiving. Truly we are thankful for the coming of the Saviour into our world; so let us show it by our lives and walk, which is His way of honouring Him. The holidays are truly a great time for families to get together and love by giving. . . God so loved ... He gave ...!
CHRISTMAS is what Christian tradition calls ‘the birthday of Jesus’. Why do folk celebrate the birthday of Jesus on a day that is not the actual day of His birth ? How did this ever happen? There are many reasons which we will look at. First, let us find His true birth date as close as we can from scripture and later we’ll see the significance of it.
JUST WHEN WAS HE BORN? We know for sure that Jesus died at the time of the Feast of Passover which was the 15th. Day of Abib — the first month which would be (for us) around the end of March/beginning of April (it varies a little each year). Jesus ministered for three and a half years; this puts the time of the beginning of His ministry at the end of September/beginning of October. This is the time for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles which starts with the Feast of Blowing of Trumpets followed by The Day of Atonement. This Day of atonement was when the High Priest went through the veil on behalf of himself and for the people. He returned after performing his duties therein. Jesus came from the glory which was ‘behind the veil’ when He was born; He returned behind the veil after He rose from the dead and had accomplished all that the Father had purposed for Him.
SCRIPTURAL PATTERNS TO BE FOLLOWED. Many times in scripture God lays out an order of events and then leads us to follow these patterns in a reverse order. The Tabernacle of Moses was one such pattern as was the High Priest’s duties. The description of the Tabernacle in Exodus 25 starts with the Holiest of All and goes to the Outer Court. We come to God in the reverse order starting at the Brazen Altar (The Cross) and He takes us through each experience until we are seated with Him on His Throne (The Ark of the Covenant) in the Holiest of All. We see Jesus fulfilling these patterns in His life. Jesus in turn becomes the pattern Son for us to follow. ‘The things that I do, ye shall do also and greater . . .’ (John 14:12).
THIRTY YEARS OLD. Luke 3:23 declares that He had just had His 30th. anniversary of His birthday. So we can simply deduce when He was born. We can safely say that the date of the High Priest going through the veil was on the day of Atonement. Aaron become the pattern that Jesus would fulfil — that pattern was fulfilled by Jesus and He was called to be our High Priest (Hebrews 3:1). Jesus also fulfilled another pattern . . . He started His ministry at the river Jordan when Priest John (the Baptizer) initiated Him into the priesthood by the washing of baptism. To become a priest that dealt with the Ark (Presence) of God, the candidate had to be 30 years of age (Numbers 4:3).
JESUS WAS BORN INTO THIS WORLD ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT in the seventh month of the Hebrew year . . . for us, around the end of September/beginning of October. He came from the glory beyond the veil into our natural world to show us the way to the Father. He was called ‘the Way. . .’
THE SHEPHERDS. At this time Shepherds would be watching their flocks 24 hrs. a day as the nights would not yet have become too cold for that (Luke 2:8) . . . they were like ‘the Feast of Trumpets’. OK in September . . . but by the time December would have arrived, their sheep would all be in a pen or corral.
We are desiring to present truth which TRADITION is geared to make of none effect (Matthew 7:13 - Jesus talking to the Pharisees). The word ‘tradition’ in the Greek has a mathematical value (called GEMATRIA) of ‘666’ and thus becomes a part of the mark of the Beast!!!
WISE MEN. The Bible does not tell us that there were three wise men! It does say that wise men brought three gifts for Jesus (Matthew 2:1+11). Tradition assumes that three gifts had to be carried by three men. The true significance of the three gifts so easily gets lost when tradition takes over; all that seems to get recalled is how the emotions were stirred!
CHRISTMAS IS A HANGOVER FROM SUN WORSHIP. In headline — Christmas is a hangover from the times when SUN WORSHIP was at its height. Back in Constantine’s day around the 400’s A.D., he had a big problem in his domain. It was split right down the middle with no possible solution! Half of his people were Christians and the other half were Sun worshippers. The sun worshippers had festivals which were all important to them . . . they would not give them up on any account. The Christian community would have somewhat less a number of celebrations and would have nothing to do with anything that even smelt of sun worship! Constantine’s advisers came up with this idea to keep every one happy and able to live together peacably! They proposed that he keep all the festivals associated with Sun worship but give each of them a Christian title! It worked . . . and so since that time the Church has, without knowing for the most part, inherited most of its festivals from the Sun worshippers of Babylon , but are convinced that, because they have a Christian name, they are truly Christian in origin.
Here’s a further example of some hangovers from those days when sun-worship was so predominant. THE DAYS OF THE WEEK. Even the days of the week are all from Sun worship. SUNday, MOONday, ZEUSday (Zeus being one of the names for the Sun god), WODNESday (Germanic deity equivalent to MERCURY day), THORSday, (god of thunder), FRIGday (wife of Wodnes equivalent to VENUS day) and SATURNday (the god of agriculture and the second largest planet to the sun). These are just names which do not draw any applause from Christians — they are simply a reference point.
HISTORY tells us that ‘Christmas’, as the birthday of Jesus, was introduced to the Christian Church in the third century. This lines up with Constantine’s big decision which has been outlined. A hundred or so years later, the ‘Christmas idea’ was firmly entrenched in most people.
Long before this time, the heathen celebrated a festival to honour the birth of Nimrus . . . the son of Astarte (Queen of heaven) and Nimrod (the deified Sun-God). This custom came from Babylon where they worshipped Nimrod as Baal: meanwhile early Egyptian religions celebrated the birth of a son to Isis (their name for the Queen and heaven) in the winter time (northern hemisphere).
YULE is the Chaldean word for infant. Many a ‘Christmas cake’ is shaped like a log! Back in Babylon in Daniel’s and Jeremiah’s time, the celebration would include a log called a ‘yule-log’, to be placed in the family’s fireplace on the evening of the 24th. December representing Nimrod laying down his life. Next morning, the 25th., after the log had burned to ash, there would be placed in the room ‘an evergreen tree’ signifying Nimrus — Nimrod’s son had come to take his place. The parallel picture was of Nimrod dying on the 24th. December as the log burning to ash and rising again on the 25th. December depicted by an evergreen tree.
Long before Christianity was introduced to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons celebrated the birth of the son to the Queen of heaven . . . they called it ‘Yule-Day’ and it included celebrating any and every ‘lord’ that supposedly had come from heaven to earth! By contrast to this sun worship, the Arabians celebrated a birthday of ‘the lord moon’ on December 24th. from which came the phrase ‘the man in the moon’! The Babylonians stuck rigidly to the worship of Baal — the sun god.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE which simply started out as a tree in different heathen religions. At the time when Adonis (a further picture) who was the Mother-Sun-God was said to have been changed into a tree! The Mother being a tree, her son was called ‘the branch’. Even mistletoe was regarded as ‘a divine branch’. One that came from heaven and grew upon a tree that came out of the earth . . . engrafting itself onto the earthly tree and by so doing, would redeem that tree from sin! All these traditions from similar festivals in Babylon, Egypt, Greece and so on, contributed to our ‘Christmas’ which has been strongly adhered to by the Roman Church and also ‘her daughters’! Rome used a fir tree . . . ever green depicting the coming or birthday of the unconquered sun . . . while Egypt used a palm tree . . . depicting the victory of a conquering king or god.
IN JEREMIAH’S TIME this was in full swing! Remember that Jeremiah was in Babylon!
Jeremiah 10: (2) ‘Thus saith the Lord, ‘Learn not he way of the heathen . . . (3) For the customs of the people are vain (empty, vanity): for one cutteth a tree out of the forest . . . with an axe. (4) They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails . . . that it move not.’ Israel, God’s people, didn’t need it to remind them of their God! (6) ‘Forasmuch as there is none like unto Thee, O Lord. Thou art great. Those that do need it (8) . . . they are brutish and foolish; the stock (Hb. = TREE) is a doctrine of vanities’.
The whole season around these celebrations was called ‘saturnalia’ (you will recognize ‘saturn’ as being associated with the stars as well as Saturday as we have seen). During that season, the tree and the altar to the sun-god would have candles burning continuously. GIFTS were associated with the tree — the Christmas tree as it was later called — which was festively decorated . . . because their ‘god’ was visiting his people!
God purposed in His Son, Jesus, to show us that we are to progressively grow up into Him in all things (Ephesians 4:15). Each year we grow in a natural way, but we are hindered from growing spiritually as ‘the pattern’ is repeatedly shown as a ‘babe’. Celebrating repeatedly Jesus as a baby, causes us in many ways to identify with the BEGINNING of our spiritual life which diminishes the emphasis of growing up to maturity. This is reflected in many of the Sunday services being a time of presenting only the gospel of salvation (our beginning) to those who are already ‘saved’. The sheep bear the lambs, don’t they? Sunday services should be an encouragement to the believers to grow up. In the Old Testament, birthdays were counted as we are told the ages of many people with great accuracy. With traditional Christmas, Jesus never gets to be ONE year old! IT IS LIKE JESUS COMES EVERY YEAR FOR A VISIT!
Because Christmas is a big item in most families, just how much should we, as Christians, get involved with it? Firstly let us realize that it is not a Christian based occasion. It has had a ‘Christian name’ added to it, but it started out as being a heathen custom. Please do not try to ‘put Christ back into Christmas’ — He was never in it! Let us rather use our voices to obey God’s word and exhort all to grow up into Him in ALL things. We have glibly spoken ‘Merry Christmas’ over our friends and family either being unaware of what we are thus magnifying or out of sheer habit. Let us rather speak a true ‘blessing’ that will encourage our friends to walk in the Spirit. Instead of wishing them ‘a merry Christmas’ or something just like that, let us come up with something that is full of life.
We have used periodically something like this — “Have a blessed time with your family during this holiday season” — or — “Enjoy the presence of the Lord with your loved-ones” . . . and so on. We fully realize that God can draw men to Himself at any time using any circumstance of His choice even ‘Christmas’! Our calendar gives us a public holiday. By all means use this time to have extra fellowship with your family and give them gifts too . . . but don’t label them ‘Christmas presents’. You are not giving because it is ‘Christmas’ but because you love them. Call them ‘gifts’ and a gift at any time during the year is really great. If we keep ourselves separate from the spirit of Christmas, the anointing and presence of God will not diminish in our walk.
Given the choice of attending a Spirit-filled, Spirit-led, present truth conference or attending a traditional family ‘Christmas’, which would you choose? What would be your FIRST reaction to such a situation? The greatest 24th -26th December that we ever spent was when we were in Nigeria. A ‘three hour plus’ meeting on the 24th. followed by two ‘three hour plus’ meetings on the 25th. with two more similar gatherings on the 26th. What a glorious presence of the Lord accompanied by the mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit in the sharing of the word from the Lord.
Matthew 12:46-50 records Jesus’ words when He declared that whosoever doeth the will of His Father was His family! Who takes first place in our thoughts when we are asked about our family? Natural family or your spiritual family? Which are you really ‘at home’ with?
Can we be truly free before the Lord to teach, share in, condone or promote that which is not truth and is not Christian in its origin? Any transition from our traditional past to the vision of the Lord, takes time to adjust. What are we aiming for?
While we do not dogmatically refuse to participate whereby we could cause great offence, we simply walk in the spirit and have an answer ready to give to any that ask of us. We do not persuade men . . . that is God’s business! Let us walk in love knowing that the Lord has moved with us in great patience, so why wouldn’t He move with our loved-ones in the same way?
’Whatsoever He says unto you, do it’ §
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