|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 5:26 am
 |
|
|
 |
by Avery Foley
What immediately comes to mind when you hear “Christmas”? Tantalizing presents wrapped in bows and colored paper? A tree covered in tinsel and lights? Freshly fallen snow sparkling in the winter sunshine? Family gathered around a juicy turkey? Jesus swaddled and lying peacefully in the manger? For most of us, Christmas brings back a flood of memories from our childhood onwards. For me, “Christmas” means my fourteen siblings and I gathered to take turns reading the account of Christ’s birth and then eagerly exchanging small gifts with each other. Christmas is a time of family, fellowship, and often gift-giving. But, above all, Christmas is a time of remembrance.
All throughout the year we have important days of remembrance. Some of these are government-instituted holidays, set up not just so we can have some time off work or with family, but often to encourage us to remember something important. Memorial Day reminds Americans that many people have given their lives for freedom; it’s not something that was or is simply free. Veteran’s Day (or Remembrance Day in my home country of Canada) likewise reminds us of the cost of freedom. Independence Day, July 4th (or Canada Day, July 1st), reminds us of our national heritage and brings us together in a celebration of our nation and how we got here. Thanksgiving is a time to slow down and be thankful for everything we have. It points us toward our Creator God who has given us everything we have and who deserves our never-ending thanksgiving and praise. Easter is a time when the knowledge of what Christ did for us is on our minds more often than perhaps other times of the year.
Each of these holidays, and others, reminds us of something and provides a chance to just stop and remember. These days are important because they keep us from forgetting where our nation has come from, or what freedom costs, or, more importantly, what Jesus Christ has done for us. Essentially that’s what Christmas is. It’s a time of year when we actively think about what Jesus’ coming to earth meant for us both for now and eternity. It’s a time of remembrance and thanksgiving for God’s greatest gift, His Son (John 3:16).
Of course, Christmas was not instituted in the Bible, but Romans 14:5 reminds us that it is perfectly acceptable to esteem some days above others (or not to!). And we see examples of reminders—and the importance of them—in the Bible. In Joshua 4, after the Israelites crossed the Jordan River by God’s supernatural provision, God commanded the Israelites to set up 12 stones as “a memorial to the children of Israel forever” (verse 7). When their children asked them what these stones meant, the parents were to tell their children the account of God’s provision and how He divided the waters so they could cross safely (verses 6–7). In 1 Samuel 7:12, the prophet Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer. It was to serve as a reminder that “thus far the Lord has helped us.” (At the Creation Museum, we have an allosaurus skeleton named Ebenezer that serves as a reminder of the truth of the Flood of Noah’s day and God’s Word.) In Exodus 12 God instituted the celebration of Passover as a memorial of the Israelites’ dramatic deliverance from the hand of Egypt by the Lord their God. The Israelites were to celebrate Passover each year and remember what God had done for them. These are just a handful of many Old Testament examples of reminders and memorials to great things the Lord had done for His people.
We see memorials continue into the New Testament. Before His death, Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of what He has done for us on the Cross. The Apostle Paul recounts Christ’s words: “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me . . . This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25). We are to remember Christ and His sacrifice by the bread and the cup. So reminders of things that God has done for His people are certainly biblical.
Why did God establish so many memorials and reminders of His provision and grace? Because, sadly, humans are prone to forget and neglect God. This happened frequently to the Israelites, and the result was always tragedy. Memorials and reminders serve as something tangible to stop us in our busy lives and cause us to focus on what we should be focusing on all year—God and His goodness and grace. These memorials can help us get our thoughts back on track.
Reminders are also an important part of raising God-fearing children. In Deuteronomy 4:25 we read, “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger . . . ” Here Moses is highlighting that people and their descendants would forget God and what He has done. It might have seemed ridiculous to the Israelites that they should forget God’s rescue from Egypt, but sadly they often did and their children and grandchildren certainly did (e.g. Judges 2:10–12). They needed a reminder to keep it fresh in their minds and that’s why God instituted memorials.
God commands His people to raise children to love the Lord and His Word: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7); “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6); “and you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). This means we need to teach our children to love God’s Word and to hide it in their hearts (Psalm 119:11). We need to model godly living for them by constantly showing them what it means to follow, obey, and love the Word of God (Deuteronomy 6:7). But we should also provide reminders for our children of God and His goodness. These special days or times direct our thoughts back to who is most important—God.
This brings us back to Christmas. Regardless of when Jesus was actually born, this joy-filled holiday can be a wonderful time of remembering the reason we have joy for this life and hope for eternity. Christ came to earth as a baby, a descendant of Adam, so that He could grow up and be tempted just as we are, and yet live without sin (Hebrews 4:15). And then, this God-man who never knew sin would eventually become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), taking our penalty of death upon Himself so that we could receive the free gift of salvation and be forgiven and welcomed into eternity with Jesus (John 3:16). What a beautiful picture of love! And what an incredible event to be reminded of.
This Christmas, take time to remind yourself and your children of God and His goodness. Use Christmas as an opportunity to slow down and marvel in the amazing grace and love of our gracious Heavenly Father and His Son. What a wonderful way to end this year and herald in the next!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 1:03 pm
|
|
|
|
The Father also reminds us to not adopt—nor preserve the slightest remnant of—the spiritual customs of the pagans. Both the Father and the Son speak against this behavior:
Deuteronomy 12:1-4 (NIV)
12 These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land. 2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.
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.
Jeremiah 10:2 (NIV)
2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
Matthew 6:7-8 (NIV)
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Their ways—the way they worship, the way they pray—if not detrimental, are useless, and contradict God's commands. They lie about: (1) the true nature of God, (2) how we communicate with him, (3) how he wants to be worshiped.
Preserving Moloch worship parties, as long as we get rid of the child sacrifice, is not okay. He wants it gone completely. 100%.
Preserving Asherah images, as long as we get rid of the prostitution, is not okay. He wants them gone completely. 100%.
Preserving Baal get-togethers, as long as we get rid of the self-cutting with spears and swords, is not okay. He wants Baal worship eradicated completely. 100%.
Same with atheist spiritual beliefs. Same with theistic beliefs that deviate from his.
Our Heavenly Father wants their spiritual ways destroyed, not preserved by any means. He does not want to be worshiped in their way, nor have his people participating in the spiritual customs of the nations, no matter how hard people try to justify this.
Leviticus 18:3 (NIV)
3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.
And “Christmas” is “their way”:
“Gradually a number of prevailing practices of the nations into which Christianity came were assimilated and were combined with the religious ceremonies surrounding Christmas. The assimilation of such practices generally represented efforts by Christians to transform or absorb otherwise pagan practices. The Feast of Saturnalia in early Rome, for example, was celebrated for 7 days from the 17th to the 24th of December and was marked by a spirit of merriment, gift giving to children and other forms of entertainment. Gradually, early Christians replaced the pagan feast with the celebration of Christmas; but many of the traditions of this observance were assimilated and remain to this day a part of the observance of Christmas._ Other NATIONS, the Scandinavians, Germans, French, English and others, have left their mark . . . as well (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible) (pp. 804, 805).
Various symbolic elements of the pagan celebration, such as the lighting of candles, evergreen decorations, and the giving of gifts, were adapted to Christian signification. Later as Christianity spread into northern Europe, the Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavic winter festivals contributed holly mistletoe, the Christmas tree, bonfires, and similar items. (The Christian Encyclopedia)
The giving of presents was a Roman custom; while the Yule tree and Yule log are remnants of old Teutonic nature worship. Gradually the festival sank into mere revelry . . . . The custom was forbidden by an act of parliament in 1555; And the reformation brought in a refinement in the celebration of Christmas by emphasizing it Christian elements. (Unger's Bible Dictionary)
Many of the customs associated with Christmas also took their origins from the heathen observances. The exchanging of gifts, extravagant merriment, and lighting of candles all have previous counterparts in the Roman Saturnalia. The use of trees harkens back to the pagan Scandinavian festival of Yule. ~James Taylor, "Christmas," in The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church (J. D. Douglas, ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), p. 223.
What the above means: somewhere down the line, some Christian(s) one day decided: we know that this pagan custom honors ______ , but no, let's make it about our Heavenly Father and Jesus! AKA Let's break that command of our Father in Deuteronomy. Because after all, if we cannot partake in the name of their pagan gods, then let's partake in the name of our God!
No. Still unacceptable.
To go ahead and hijack their spiritual traditions, and apply them to our lives—whether we make Him the meaning behind the spiritual custom or not—is not conducive to worshiping the Father in Spirit and in Truth.
John 4:23 (NIV)
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Leviticus 20:26 (NIV)
26 You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Ephesians 5:17 (NIV)
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Psalm 40:8 (NIV)
8 I desire to do your will, my God;
your law is within my heart.”
Matthew 7:21 (NIV)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 15:3 (NIV)
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
AiG needs to reassess the justification they've given Christmas: we can reason things away as innocent, but if our Father commanded against it, then it is NOT good. Avoiding it is for our own good and the good of others.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NIV)
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
God is leading people away from lies/myths, but people are choosing to dress in the costume of the myth. We're confusing people, not being clear about who YHWH/Jesus is, nor about who we are. He's not a sun God and we're not sun worshippers (but by allowing the sun god / nature worship, pagan custom to continue existing in Christian culture that is exactly the message we're communicating to onlookers and outsiders who are comparing/contrasting the cultures. When they see that this festivity predates Christ, and is found in pagan cultures, they'll think that we're closet pagans putting on a Christian mask and that the legitimate spirituality is that of the pagans).
We become useless—just like a garment interwoven of wool and linen (Deut 22:11), a lukewarm mixture—when we mix the truth of God with the myths of the world and the customs of these myths. Jesus is saving us from myths. He's also saving us from self-imposed traditions that nullify commands of the Father. Jesus is the truth, the way and the life—the light of the world leading us out of darkness (not leaving us in it). How can we adopt lies/darkness/demon-honoring-traditions into our worship and think this will please the Father? We cannot insinuate that he was born on this day (but that's exactly the impression we give off by observing that day to commemorate his birth). Every “holy day” reminder that God has given us commemorates the event on the exact day it happened in the past (on his calendar). For example, Passover is the 14th day of the first month on God's calendar because that's the day the Israelites placed the lamb's blood on their doorpost in Egypt and thus it became the day that Jesus would sacrifice himself as our passover lamb, and thus is the day we commemorate what God did both in Egypt and in Jerusalem. Jesus rose on the day of First Fruits, ergo every time this date rolls around on God's calendar, his resurrection is commemorated. God poured out his Holy Spirit on Pentecost (a.k.a. the Feast of Weeks), ergo every time that day rolls around on his calendar, this act is commemorated.
We are suppose to be bearers of light/truth, but when we intermingle with the ways of the nations, we stifle that light, pollute it and contaminate it. He is unlike what the nations worship—so we are not to worship Him in the ways that the nations worship their gods / the way the nations do spirituality, but lead our lives based on what is in accord with the Father's commands (because if not detrimental, the pagan's ways are useless spiritual customs; and they fail to convey the truth of the Living God, and fail to exclusively honor him).
Posting justifications to break this command is not conducive to helping God's children stay on the narrow path. You're encouraging them to compromise with the world. I was going to ignore this post, but something said no: it could mislead people into thinking this is a legitimate stance, when in actuality, it is not: no one in the bible supports observing idolatrous days.
Not even Paul—whom they tried to use as support:
Galatians 4:8-11 (NIV)
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces[a]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10 You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11 I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.
Footnotes:
a. Galatians 4:9 Or principles
We are not free to observe the festivities of idols / things that make us look like part of the pagan beliefs we came out of. Like most people do, they twist Paul's letters to say: “it's okay to partake of spiritually-pagan customs that are a part of the religious culture God drew you out from”. It is NOT okay. He's judging them for the days they want to keep. This is not the type of day we're at liberty to choose whether to observe or not.
This behavior will only lead to the wrath of God, even if you're a believer:
Ezekiel 20:8 (NIV)
8 “‘But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in Egypt.
---
That said, the author of this article twisted the meaning of Deut 4:25...
Quote: In Deuteronomy 4:25 we read, “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger . . . ” Here Moses is highlighting that people and their descendants would forget God and what He has done.
More like, “would forget God and what he has prohibited”: to depict him in image form and worship him in their ways.
Exodus 34:17 (NIV)
17 “Do not make any idols.
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.
We are to have NO depictions of God to show the world.
And what's happening on Christmas...? Nativity scenes galore.
Some even in the shape of bears...[link]
Some even depicted by action figures (who are the idols of the nations; myths) [link]
What impression does that give a child? That Jesus is just a fictional character—just as fictional as these toys of yours who are lifeless. Just another idol among idols. What we “do” communicates more than what we “say”—if we ever get a chance to “say” (on top of that, what we “say” is invalidated by what we “do”). People are judging our culture / cultural practices before they ever read a bible or even get acquainted with the commands to note the difference between the Living God described in the bible, and the concept of god floating around in the nation(s). What Christmas says: “do not worship the God of the bible exclusively, go ahead, have other gods before him, you can mix him into other beliefs, you can mix yourself into other beliefs, the spiritual practices of your culture are worth preserving, it's all good.”
That is a lie.
That's not what the Father says.
That's not what Jesus says.
That's not what Paul says.
None of the apostles or prophets will support what AiG is telling Christians to do concerning Christmas.
We cannot adopt and tweak the spiritual practices of the pagans, and continue participating in them once we've been saved from them. We can't participate in any practice that contradicts the Father's commands.
And comparing this to memorial day glosses over the fact that memorial day does not give honor to myths/lies, the way Yule and all those other nature worship practices in Christmas still do.
Our love for God should make us hate giving honor to demons/lies even in the slightest. Our love for the lost sheep should make us desire to make it is easy for them to differentiate between truth and lie, the narrow way and the broad path.
Whoever wrote this article is dishonestly handling the Father's commands and thus, deceiving people and deviating them from God's will/ God's commands.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
