The Truth About Christmas
An article by R. F. Becker
"This people draweth nigh unto me with their
mouth, and honoureth me with their lips: but their heart is far from me"
(Matt. 15:8)
"...Ye are they which justify yourselves before men;
but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men
is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15)
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1
John 5:21)
What is Christmas?
These three verses from God's Word should be
intensely startling to anyone who is in the habit of celebrating
Christmas. They ought to search out the very depths of the conscience and
bring a conviction and condemnation to every Christian who has been active
in any way, in the festivals of Yuletide.
From these words of the Spirit, we should have no
trouble understanding that what ever is very popular in the world is not
of God. They place the unerring finality of Omnipotence on the decree,
"That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of
God." They also present to our innermost being the chilling fact that
people are not always at heart what they appear to be. And again, here we
find a lesson as positive as it is appalling, that the saints of Christ
are often, even if unwittingly, led through man's traditions into
idolatry, which thing God hates.
We all know holiday seasons are very popular. Any
time of festival seems to have great sentimental appeal to the hearts of
most people. Add to this emotional expectation, the complex of a
conscience which compels a vague respect of the day when Christ supposedly
was born and we have - the Christmas spirit. No date on the calendar is
welcomed more. Old and young - rich and poor - pious and vulgar - saint
and sinner, with boundless frenzy, race with the coming Christmas day like
the waters of a flooded river, submerging everything before it. Christmas
is the day when the driving power of this festival love reaches its
zenith. No other day can equal it for fleshly revelry, and debauchery
combined with the heathen misrepresentation of Christ which, as a
fanatical religious orgy from every quarter swirls to a literal vortex of
confusion and jamboree on December 25th.
No - Christmas is NOT of God. It is abomination to
Him. It is NOT honoring to Jesus Christ. It only calls forth from
multitudes of unthinking people a natural sentimentality and a false
worship of Him. The observances of Christmas are in no way inspired by the
Holy Spirit. The Christmas spirit is only terrible mockery to Him.
Christmas time is not a season of revival and
upbuilding in the church of God. Instead it is a pagan spell of evil,
which spreads spiritual pollution as it rages among churches and believers
for the time appointed. Thousands of evangelical believers who would be
horrified and deeply depressed to find a professor smoking or drinking or
dancing, calmly and deliberately indulge in idolatries of the heathen at
Christmas time.. And those who know and love the truth are counted to be
narrow minded and sacrilegious if a protest is raised. So, such honest
souls are forced to stand aside and witness annually this glittering cloud
of pagan observances descend with a smoldering and paralyzing pall on all
people. And as we watch parents, who loudly proclaim the necessity of
truthfulness in children, who advocate the need of so many social
reformations and who bemoan the juvenile delinquency which prevails,
deliberately teach their unsuspecting little ones the monstrous Santa
Clause lie, we can only cry with the Apostle John "I wondered with
great wonder" (Rev. 17:6 R.V.)
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the
land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their
means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end
thereof?" (Jer. 5:30-31)
The Origin of Christmas
The celebration of Christmas is a mixture of pagan
Babylon's "mystery" idolatry in it's purest form, imported through
Pergamos (Rev. 2:13) into Rome, and there incorporated into her pagan
religious ritual, and from then introduced into the world by the Roman
Catholic church as a commemoration of Christ's birth. A wealth of proof
can easily be produced today to put this fact beyond question.
It is freely admitted by all learned and honest
writers of old, that the date of Christ's birth cannot be known. How then
did it come to pass that the Roman Catholic church fixed Dec. 25th as the
day He was born?
First we must remember that Satan's chief object has
always been to claim the honor and worship due the most High God. For it
is written in Isaiah:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
(Isa. 14:12-14)
In keeping with these words of Isaiah long centuries
before the time of Christ, Satan in his bid for the worship due to God,
instituted a great pagan feast which was celebrated at that exact time of
the year in the Chaldean city of Babylon. The heathen celebration was in
honor of the birth of the son of Semeramis, or Cybele or Rhea, the
Chaldeans queen of heaven.
Now in Babylon where the sun was worshipped, it was
not worshipped as merely a light giving divinity, but as the Incarnate
God. And one essential in this Chaldean worship was, that Baal was that
same God. So when Tammuz was worshipped as God incarnate the implication
was that he was an incarnation of the sun, or Baal.
When Belshazzar was slain (Dan 5:30) and the
Chaldeans defeated by Darius the Mede, those with authority and power to
continue Babylon's idolatrous "mystery" worship, fled to the city of
Pergamos, where afterward a Christian Church was founded (Rev. 2:13).
There for many centuries Satan himself brought about the worship of
Aesculapius, the child of the "incarnate sun." This worship was celebrated
in frantic excesses of evil as Babylon's "mystery" idolatries were
perpetuated in their exile. Then in the course of time, at the death of
Attalus III when Phyrgia was given to the Roman Empire in 133 B.C., the
worship of pagan Babylon was removed from Pergamos and it's wicked course
renewed in the city of Rome on the Tiber.
Now, nearly every recorded form of pagan worship
which has descended from the Babylonian "mysteries" focuses the attention
of its deluded worshippers on the mother god and her child. In Egypt the
mother and child are Isi and Osiris. In India they were Isa and Iswara. In
Asia the mother was Cybele and the son Deoius. In Greece we find Ceres and
her son Plutus. Even in Tibet and China the mother was Shing Moo, and her
son was devoutly worshipped with her. Lastly, we have many records of the
mother Fortuna and her son Jupiter in pagan Rome. In the worship of all
these false gods there had been more or less departure from the original
Babylonian form. Only in the Roman Catholic church can we find the pure
idolatry of the ancient Chaldean "mysteries." From that source has
emanated the greatest "mystery" idolatry of all ages. For Rome has given
to the world this mother and child worship of wicked Babylon of old,
concealed beneath the Satanic disguise of a commemoration of the birth of
Jesus Christ.
How did this come to pass? In the third century when
the Apostolic Church was in its infancy, grievous wolves entered among the
flock of God speaking perverse and evil doctrines. Slowly and cautiously
at first (Acts 20:29), they began to bring Rome's pagan worship among the
believers. Constantine's false conversion and his edict making
Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, rapidly developed the
imported paganism in the worship of the fast decaying Church of Rome.
Now Rome's way of converting the other pagans to her
style of worship has always been to absorb them gradually, along with
their idolatrous observances. So about the 4th century the Roman church
brought the worship of Sereramis the Babylonian Queen of heaven and her
son Tammuz into her ritual, disguised as the worship of Mary and her son
Jesus. Then followed the December 25th commemoration of the birth of
Christ, and the evil institution of the "mass" for Christ, and behold! -
the iniquity of Christmas was launched forth! Thus the pagans in the now
apostate church could worship the queen of heaven and observe the birth of
her son Tammuz while the untaught unsuspecting believers thought they were
honoring Christ in the same ritual. Behold the trail of Satan's Christmas
festive ritual of counterfeit! From Babylon to Euphrates, to Pergamos once
the capital of Asia, to Rome upon the Tiber and thence into the apostate
Church there, finally to emerge through the Roman Catholic church a flood
of lying pagan wonder, covering the earth.
Faithful men of God who knew and loved the
Scriptures of truth fought against the mingling of paganism with the name
of Christ. They were valiant in opposing the entry of Christmas and its
festivals among the believers. But in spite of their efforts, the lukewarm
and rapidly decaying church, with the exception of a few faithful
Christians, was overcome and finally forced to submit to the observance of
the mother and child worship from Babylon. Sad and solemn has been the
spiritual and moral wreckage wrought by this Romish evil down through the
history of men. And in spite of the plain truths of the Word of God,
revealing His holy hatred of idolatry, nearly all of the Protestant
Churches and assemblies of Christian believers have followed Rome in her
Satanic observance and unholy celebrations of Christ-mass.
Now since the Roman Catholic church is truly the
"Mystery, Babylon the Great" of Rev. 17, and the virgin in her
sanctuaries is the real and actual Chaldean queen of heaven, and her
blasphemous representation of the birth of Christ is, in fearful reality,
a form of devil worship, how we should shrink from having any part in her
heaven defying wickedness. For though some may consider the sin of
idolatry a light thing, our God does not, no indeed, for the Almighty has
attached the greatest of all threatening to the commandment forbidding
false worship.
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" (Ex. 20:4-5)
And shall we, who have been saved by the great grace
of God through the atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who enjoy
the liberties of a government founded by our Puritan fathers who
themselves fled from Roman Catholic persecution, shall we join hands with
that same false and bloody Rome which is daily adding to the fearful list
of over 50 million martyrs of Jesus? Shall we embrace and love and
celebrate with Babylon the Great, her festivals of iniquity, and shall we
do so any longer with our eyes wide open, knowing that her Christ-mass is,
after all, just Satan's pagan mockery of the birth of our only Savior and
Lord Jesus Christ? And if, alas, too late we awake suddenly to find the
relentless judgments of God bearing down upon our nation and people, can
we not discern His own hand in fulfilling His Word for our national sin of
following Rome into her glittering sanctuary of Christmas and Easter
evils?
Origin of Christmas Customs
The following quotations are from standards of
authority on the origin of Christmas customs and observances.
1. In Alexander Hislops famous book "The Two
Babylon's" the following quotation concerning the birth of Christ is on
page 91...
"There is not a word in the Scriptures about the
precise day of His birth, or the time of the year He was born."
2. In Webster's Student Dictionary for Upper School
Levels, page 145 (a Catholic dictionary used in our schools today) we
read...
"Christmas - Christ + mass. A church festival,
December 25. Christmas day commemorating the birth of Christ."
3. In the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, 1903,
Vol. 2, page 987 - we read...
"Christmas - Christmas properly begins with the
evening of December 24... and continues until Epiphany, January 6, the
whole period called Christmastide. In the Roman, Greek, Episcopal and
Lutheran Churches Christmas is observed as a religious festival with
special services. It's celebration was formerly forbidden by the
Puritans."
4. In the Encyclopedia Brittanica, 9th Edition, Vol.
5, page 611 - we read...
"Christmas Day - There is however difficulty in
accepting this (December 25th), as the date of the Nativity, December
being the height of the rainy season when neither flocks nor shepherds
could have been at night in the fields of Bethlehem. By the fifth century,
however, whether from influence of some tradition or from the desire to
supplant heathen festivals of the period of the year such as Saturnalia,
the 25th of December has been gradually agreed upon."
5. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1942 Edition, Vol. 6,
page 623 reads thus...
"Christmas - It was according to many authorities
not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church as the
Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable
persons rather than their birth. A feast was established in memory of the
birth of the Savior in the fourth century. In the fifth century the
western church (Roman Catholic) ordered it to be celebrated forever on the
day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol."
6. In the new Americanized Encyclopedia Brittanica,
1900, Vol. IX, page 5236, we read...
"Saturn - an ancient Italian god... Saturnalis,
this is the great 'Festival of Saturn,' celebrated on the 19th, but after
Caesar's reform of the calendar, the 17th of December. Augustus decreed
that the 17th and the 18th should be sacred to Saturn and the 19th and
20th to Opalia the festival of Ops. Caligula added a fifth day, 'The Day
of Youth,' December 25th lasting seven days. The time was one of general
joy and mirth. The wooden fetters were taken from the feet of Saturn and
each man offered a pig. During the festivals schools were closed..."
7. The new Americanized Encyclopedia Brittanica,
Edition 1899, Vol. XI, page 404, has this...
"Befferna - a corruption of the word epipania
(Epiphany) in the name of an old female character in Italian folklore, who
was so busily engaged in housecleaning, when three wise men of the east
passed by on their way to offer their treasures to the Infant Savior, that
she excused herself for not going out to see them thinking she would have
the opportunity of doing so when they returned. Not knowing that they went
home by another road she has been ever since watching for them. She, like
the Dutch Santa Clause, is supposed to take great interest in children,
where in Italy a stocking of each is hung up before the fire. Soon the cry
'Ecco le Beffena' is raised when the children jump up and seize their
stockings, each of which contains a present bearing value in proportion to
the conduct of the child during the year. One whose behavior has been
particularly bad finds his stocking filled with ashes in token of
Beffena's displeasure."
The custom of carrying an effigy called the Beffena
on the 'Twelfth Night' in the procession through the streets is probably
relic of one of the 'Mysteries of the middle ages.' "
8. The new International Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition,
Vol. 3, page 27, tells us...
"Epiphany - A festival held on the 6th of January
be the Roman Catholic, Eastern and Anglican churches in commemoration of
the manifestations of Christ. Three different events are included in this
celebration. As early as the third century at least, it was observed as
the commemoration of the baptism of Christ ... Later in the east it was
taken to commemorate the manifestation of divine power in Christ's first
miracle at Cana in Galilee ... In the forth century the birth of Christ
was also connected with it by some writers. Many special observances have
been connected with the day which under the name 'Twelfth Day, Twelfth
Night' was a time of special merry making in England and closed the
Christmas festivities."
9. In the "History of the Christian Church" by
Fisher on page 65, it is recorded...
"About the end of this period (3rd century) two
festivals came in. One was Epiphany originating in the East - the other
was Christmas, a festival of Roman origin taking the place of the heathen
festival in honor of the sun or of the deity bearing that name, which was
celebrated at the winter solstice or on the 25th of December, the time
erroneously assigned for the solstice in the Julian Calendar."
10. In McAbes History of the Popes, Vol. 1, page 18,
we find the following information given by Bishop Eusebius in his
"Ecclesiastical History" ...
"There was at the time (fourth century) an acute
controversy about the date on which Easter ought to be celebrated. We must
remember that Easter was then the greatest, if not the only ecclesiastical
festival; for December 25th was the supreme festival of the pagan and
Mithraic calendars and was an abomination to Christians."
Practical Considerations
1. The name Christmas. This very name is an
abomination to our Holy God. The reason for this is that the word
Christmas is an unholy and pagan combination of the two words "Christ" and
"Mass." Christ died once for our sins (Heb. 9:26). By that ONE
offering He has perfected forever every believer (Heb. 10:14).
But behold the terrible mystery on iniquity! For in
the Roman Catholic mass, Satan himself has introduced unto the ends of the
earth, the crowning blasphemy of Anti-Christ. It is the teaching that the
'mass' is not a mere representation of the sacrifice of Christ, but that
it is a continuation of the same offering, as the priest commands our Lord
Jesus to come down from glory and become a piece of bread. And besides all
this, the Roman priest teaches that this same 'mass' adds to and improves
upon the atonement of our Savior which He made on Calvary. Thus in the
blasphemy of the 'mass' can we not hear Satan say "I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High" (Isa.
14:14)?
Christ is the divine title of our wonderful Lord and
Savior. "Mas" is just the shortening of the blasphemous "mass" of Rome.
Christ is the head of the true and living Church which He bought with His
own blood. The Roman Catholic church under the headship of the Pope is
verily the synagogue of Satan, the false church. She is spoken of in God's
Word as "The Mother of Harlots and abomination of the earth" Rev.
17:5). Nothing in the realm of the natural will stir one to anger
so suddenly as to learn of someone having connected the name of his wife,
sister or mother with the name of a well known woman of ill fame.
Christian, how then can you, with serene composure, and interested
cooperation, join hands with Rome as she brazenly and wickedly blends the
"mass" of the harlot church with the name of Christ the risen Head of the
True Church of God?
2. The Christmas tree. The production and sale of
evergreen trees in the U.S.A. has developed, thanks to Rome, into a vast
enterprise. So while lumber is becoming scarcer and prices soar, millions
of young trees are annually sacrificed to satisfy America's Christmas god,
Tammuz. During the weeks of Christmas festivities one is met everywhere
with these dead evergreen trees arrayed in their glitter and tinsel,
reminding us of the lifeless pagan gods of old. But behold! as the fervor
of the festivity dies down, out goes the stripped and bedraggled remains
of the Christmas god into the junk pile or garbage barrel or to be kicked
around the street! Yet thousands of untaught people will gladly go hungry
and willingly deprive their families of necessary things in order to buy
and decorate this same Christmas tree.
The first decorating of an evergreen tree was done
by pagans in honor of their god Adonis, who after being slain was brought
to life by the serpent Aesculapius. The representation of this slain god
was a dead stump of a tree. Around this stump coiled the snake Aesculapius
symbol of life restoring. And lo - from the roots of the dead tree comes
forth another and different tree - and evergreen tree symbolic to pagans
of a god who cannot die! In Egypt this god was worshipped in a palm tree
as Baal Tamar. The fir tree was worshipped in Rome as the same new born
god as Baal Berith, who was restored to life by the same serpent, and a
feast was held in honor of him on December 25th called the "Birthday of
the unconquered Sun."
Now in Babylon's "Mystery" system of idol worship
the sun was called "Baal," the one and only god. So when Tammuz the son of
the queen of heaven was worshipped as God he was also reverenced by the
name Baal. Thus we can see how, in the annual custom of erecting and
decorating evergreen trees, the Roman Catholic church has brought down
through the ages to us, the paganism of Baal or the worship of the sun,
mingled with the worship of Aesculapius the serpent. Whether erected in
public or private, a tinseled and spangled evergreen tree is just a
glaring symbol of the worship of this false god. So in keeping with the
policy of Rome for centuries, while she keeps millions vainly supposing
they do honor to Jesus Christ with the Christmas tree, they are actually
even if unwittingly commemorating a pagan festival in honor of Baal, which
thing our God hates (1 Kings 18; Judges 8:33)
"For the customs of the people are vain: for
one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the
workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten
it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the
palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot
go..." (Jer. 10:3-5)
3. The date of the birth of Christ. There is not one
Scripture in the Word of God which indicates that December 25th is the
anniversary of the day on which Christ was born. Neither do we find in
that Word anything to prove what time of year He was born. There is not a
verse in the Bible in which can be found the word "Christmas." No one
knows the date of the birth of Jesus. Those archeologists and historians
who can be depended upon and whose honesty never was doubted, and who are
unbiased in their conclusions all agree that the birth of Jesus could not
possibly have been December. There is no reason to connect His birth with
December 25th, except for the purpose of a pagan festival as the church of
Rome has so successfully done. God in His wisdom has chosen to hide the
time of His Beloved Son's incarnation. The Bible is the inspired Word of
the same Holy God who inhabits Eternity. His dear Son is the central
figure in the Word from Genesis to Revelation. He has revealed to us many
wondrous things about His Son Jesus Christ. But one thing He has
completely hidden from man. It is the precise date of His birth.
Nowhere in the Word of God are we told to remember
the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians are commanded to remember His death,
both by the Lord Himself in Luke 22:18,19 and by the Apostle Paul in 1
Cor. 11:23-26. Surely the heart of man must be far from right with God
when it can enjoy itself greatly in doing exactly the opposite of His
command. Yet many who pass before the world as Christians gladly join the
hilarious ungodly in celebrating the pagan festival of Christmas. Another
thing I have noticed, those who make the most of Christmas day are those
who care the least about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and
the day on which Christ told us to remember His death, the first day of
the week - the Lord's Day. People who very willingly desecrate the Lord's
day with all manner of pleasure seeking, all sorts of open business
places, every kind of secular work, will forfeit all these with great zeal
to attend some Christmas service or program in a Church or some other
place. Then back they go to their ungodly polluting of the Lord's Day
until the next Christmas, when with a conscience aroused by festival
emotion they rush again to the altars of the Roman goddess from Babylon.
But who that has been taught by God's Spirit can go
in for these pagan celebrations? Christian, can you take part in the
idolatries of Babylon? How can you who have been bought with His own
blood, offer false worship to a pagan god introduced among us by Satan's
Anti-Christ? Can you like Judas, betray Christ by joining hands with them
who hate Him and blaspheme His atonement, yet falsely pretend to honor His
birth in a festival of sin? Can you, too, enjoy the Romish pageantry in
your church and help crucify Jesus afresh by putting Him to open shame in
the idolatrous mockery of Christmas?
"If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)
"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:4)
4. The giving of Gifts. In Bible accounts where
celebrating and gift giving were done at someone's birthday party, sin and
evil prevailed and murder followed. In Genesis, on Pharaoh's birthday, the
chief baker was hanged and beheaded. During Herod's birthday celebration
John the Baptist was beheaded for preaching against sin. In Rev. 11 we
read how wicked people celebrated the slaying of God's two faithful
witnesses by making merry and sending gifts to one another. The Holy
Spirit by the mouth of Paul once said, "Ye observe days, and months,
and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you
labor in vain." (Gal. 4:10-11).
I believe that gifts can be great blessings. But a
gift is of no value whatever unless it is given in love. Today the common
custom seems to be to give a gift at Christmas as a part of a bargain to
receive one. Those who give only at a time of a celebration of idolatry
certainly are only doing so to the abhorrence of the Almighty. How much
more then are they mocking God and making themselves abominable to Him,
who send gifts to one another at such a time in a presence of honoring the
birth of His Son? And what account shall those Christians give to our God
in the day of judgment, who have annually spent hundreds and even
thousands of dollars upon Christmas presents out of their abundance and
yet have given little or nothing to support gospel work in our land or in
the needy mission fields?
The godly wise men from the east gave their gifts to
the child Jesus Himself - not to one another or to their friends. They
gave to Him from hearts moved by the Holy Spirit. Their gifts were a part
of their worship of the new found Messiah. Neither were their gifts common
trinkets but presents of great value showing their hearts true love for
their Lord. They did not bring to the Christ child presents that they
might receive from Him something in return. O how far removed from those
first gifts to the child Jesus is the modern cheap knick knack giving of
the fickle throng of Christmas revelers who annually submit themselves to
all the festive responsibilities of gift purchasing, which is only a
burden grievous to be borne!
5. The world and Christmas. Here is one thing which,
if it were the only thing, would prove to me that Christmas celebrating is
not of God. It is this; the world which hates Christ and His blood
atonement for sin, respond as one man at that time to revel and feast and
celebrate.
If in reality December 25th was a date set by God to
remember the birth of Jesus, the world would not have anything to do with
it. There would be absolutely no response by the rank and file of mankind.
Witness how the world does not regard the Lord's Day which is of God. But
the world DOES regard and love Christmas, therefore it is not of God. "For
the natural man receiveth not he things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor.
2:14). Then how can an obedient child of God, or a church or a gathering
of Christians, follow Papal Rome and the drugged and reeling world in
their abominable idolatry and sin of Christ-mass festivities?
Those who despise the Gospel of God's grace will go
to any length to celebrate a false tradition about His Son's birth. Those
who hate the doctrine of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus alone, are
filled with great zeal to promote programs, to play Santa Clause, to adorn
their dwellings with wreaths and trees and say "Merry Christmas" to
everyone they meet. Proud sinners, self righteous sinners, immoral sinners
with a character black as midnight, morally virtuous sinners with hard
impenitent hearts, refined and well educated sinners seeming to know
everything but Christ as Savior, religious sinners with a lofty heady
profession - all, all with one accord join hands in the gay hilarity of
Christmas following the old Mother Harlot, ignorantly imagining they are
doing honor to a Savior they neither love nor know nor care to know.
During Christmastide men and women become foully
drunk on "Christmas present" liquor and perpetuate every kind of social
vice, and criminal debauchery. In wild "Christmas parties" young men and
women willingly sell their bodies to evil and their souls to Hell around
the beribboned and wreathed "Christmas gifts" of champagne, brandy, wine
and beer. And thousands of others who would not get drunk commit the
abominable sin of gluttony like some gorging carnivorous animal. And in
these the name of Christ is used in vile cursing, vulgarity and blasphemy
by men and women, boys and girls who lie deliberately about "St. Nick" and
"Santa Clause" and love a "Merry Christmas." Dear Christian, can you help
to betray Christ with these pagans, by going with them in their religious
riots? Can you sell Christ to the ungodly world for a pagan Christmas like
Judas did for his 30 pieces of silver?
6. Christmas Programs and Literature. Please read
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 2, then Luke, chapter 2. By doing so with care
any thoughtful reader can see at once that Christmas songs, books, cards
and programs are not scriptural. For in most of these we find in one way
or another, misrepresentations about the shepherds, the wise men, the
star, the child, the stable, etc.
Let us begin to solve this problem by stating that
nowhere in God's Word are we informed how many wise men there were.
Neither does scripture state that they followed a star to Jerusalem. Most
certainly they knew the way there. Being wise men they knew how the
Prophets foretold that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. When they
came to Herod to learn the whereabouts of the new born Christ, it was
sometime after His birth. No one in Jerusalem seemed to know where the
Child was. So the same star they had seen before at the time of His birth,
now appeared and led them to where the Child was. When the wise men found
the Lord Jesus He was no longer a tiny babe but a child living in
Nazareth. Joseph and Mary had already returned from taking Him up to
Jerusalem, which took place when Jesus was 41 days old (Lev. 12:1-4).
Therefore the wise men never saw the Savior until He had been brought back
to Nazareth from the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:39). They could not
possibly have seen Him before, because immediately after their departure,
when they had seen the Savior, Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt with Him
and remained there till Herod was dead (Matt. 2:14-15).
It was not the wise men but the shepherds who came
to visit the babe Jesus in His manger cradle in Bethlehem. They followed
no star either as they did not even see one. They were informed of the
birth of their Messiah by the angel of the Lord (Luke 2:10). Our country
teems with covetous men who have made the Christmas season a profitable
one indeed for themselves. And through their misrepresentations of the
Bible the land abounds at the same season with all sorts of literature,
cards, books and programs of celebrations, which utterly confuse the facts
written in God's Word about the birth of Jesus. Shepherds and wise men,
angels and stars, stable and manger, manger and house are misrepresented.
The visit of the shepherds and the wise men are confused, so that the
whole story of the birth of Christ becomes a distorted combination of
truth and error.
Long ago King David said to a carnal generation like
ours, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?"
(Psalm 2:1)
7. God's Judgment. One more point we dare not
overlook concerning Christmas. The very source of Christmas equipment
condemns the tradition. Until World War II nearly all Christmas goods were
stamped "Made in Germany" or "Made in Japan." Thus these very goods, used
by England and the United States to pollute the worship of God and make
whole nations to sin, came from the very countries God used in bringing
His judgment of war upon us. How did such poor nations finance so great a
war? By selling us the fruit of their cheap labor among which Christmas
goods played a major role. Ought we to regard this as a mere coincidence?
Ought we not rather to see the threatening of God in it? NO COUNTRY IN ALL
HISTORY HAS TURNED TO IDOLS AND THEN PROSPERED SO LONG! The national fear
and unrest, the ominous rumblings in the various world councils, the low
standard of morality, the universality of open sin, along with the
wickedness of idolatry and unbelief, all point to one great event we may
soon see come to pass, the fall of our nation. FOR IF THE SIN OF ROMAN
CATHOLIC PAGAN IDOLATRY IS NOT NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED AND CONFESSED AND
FORSAKEN WE CAN ONLY LOOK FOR NATIONAL DOOM. If it is increased and
developed and our nation goes on with her open idolatry, her legalized
gambling, her mountainous liquor corruption, her disregard for the Truths
of the Bible, her desecration of the Lord's Day and the maintenance of
pagan festivals, all which are backed by the Roman Catholic Church, we may
be sure of one thing, The Lord's anger will not be "turned away", but "His
hand" will be "stretched out still" (Isa. 9:17).
"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a
reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34)
"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Ex.
23:2)
8. Perhaps some well-meaning but untaught Christians
will say, "We only keep Christmas to give the children a good time." Let
me give you some questions to consider.
(1) If you are a Christian how can you teach little
ones to delight in and love a Christmas tree which actually is a pagan
symbol of sun and serpent worship?
(2) How can you before the all-seeing eye of God
tell your children the lie about Santa Clause and his reindeer? You should
read Rev. 21:27. Do you think that the God who holds our destiny in His
hand will preserve the freedoms of our future generations if we make them
a nation of liars?
(3) How can you have a brazen boldness to tell your
children you are a Christian, and then connect pagan idolatry to the birth
of Christ?
(4) How can you help a bewhiskered clown dressed
like a dunce, who is hired by some commercial establishment to lie to
children all day long, betray your own trusting child into a maze of
falsehood to save your face before Christmas idolaters?
(5) How can you expect your children to have any
confidence in whatever you teach them, when they find you have lied
deliberately to them for years about Christmas and Santa Clause - and
during those years you punish them for telling untruths?
(6) Does not your heart smite you as you think of
them growing up in servitude to the pagan observances and celebrations of
Rome, instead of the real truth of the gospel of Christ?
(7) how can you have the shameless boldness before
God, to teach your children paganism and the Word of God at the same time?
Do you expect that God will spare a people, whose chief delight is to make
a mock of the birth of His Son?
(8) Does not your conscience accuse you as you
combine the story of our adorable Savior with the Roman heathen idol, the
Christmas tree of Baal-Berith?
(9) How can you expect your children to believe you,
that they must worship Christ alone, if they see you indulge in an annual
festival which had its beginning among the devil worshippers of ancient
Chaldea?
(10) How can you expect your child to believe your
witnessing to him about Christ when he finds out you have been lying to
him about Santa Clause and his reindeer, etc.?
(11) Do you believe that a festive season that not
only came to us through Rome from Babylon, but in itself is a system of
perpetual lying to little children, is of God?
(12) Can you teach your children to honor the Lord
and the Lord's Day and then help them engage in honoring a heathen god,
Baal-Berith, a Christmas tree and all the God-dishonoring observances
connected with it?
(13) How can you tell your children with a clear
conscience that you are a child of God yourself when they annually watch
you celebrate a Romish Christmas, and lie to them like a child of the
devil?
"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them"
(Matt. 7:20).
"Train up a young child in the way he should go;
when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6)
Conclusions for your Meditation
It may be you saved up money to buy Christmas gifts
and cards and decorations and a tree. Be sure, this is not pleasing to
God, fellow Christian. Let me suggest to you what should be done if this
is the sad case with you.
Do not spend what God has given you on temporal
gifts. Do not contribute to the "good cause" of supporting Romish
Christmas entertainment in your church. Do not buy an expensive tree with
its ornaments and decorations, like the Christ-hating world does. Dare to
leave them all behind for Christ's sake.
Instead of all this, take what God has given you and
send it as a gift to the Lord to some needy missionary in a dark and
foreign land. Think awhile on those poor of the earth, those millions of
souls who have heard never the glad tidings of Christ for lack of support
of real Christian missionaries. Can you use what the good Lord has given
you to celebrate like the idolatrous heathen, instead of giving in order
that those same poor heathen in awful darkness might hear the Gospel and
be saved?
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25:40)
I have no desire to discourage one honest soul. But
I have witnessed this Christmas festival of sin creeping as a deadly
thing, coiling it's slimy and glittering idolatries slowly and surely
around the feeble church of God as a part of Rome's program to strangle
the true worship that remains. And I have found most of those who know
Christ as Lord and Savior totally unaware of the truths about Christmas.
And few are the voices raised in protest of this paganism, for the honor
of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Savior.
Therefore I have revealed to you the truth as God
has shown it to me by His Word and by history and existing facts. May He
make it a word in season to you. It is my hope and prayer that every
Christian who discovers he has erred so exceedingly as to partake of
Rome's Christmas, will turn again to the God of all grace and in
contrition, utterly and forever forsake all that pertains to this
Christ-dishonoring sin of Babylon. It is my desire to see, not only the
souls of men saved, but the children of God walking in obedience to Him.
The Apostle John said, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children walk in truth" (3 John 4).
Christians are commanded to be holy (1 Pet.
1:15-16). They are to be living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). They are to
utterly forsake idolatry (Ex. 20:5). They are told to walk in the Spirit
and not fulfill the fleshly desires (Gal. 5:16). They are told to stand
fast in the liberty of Christ (Gal. 5:1). They are commanded to grieve not
the Spirit of God (Eph. 4:30). The Apostle said we believers ought to walk
as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6). Christ Himself said we should be perfect as
our Heavenly Father is (Matt 5:48). Jesus told us to set our affections on
things above where He is (Col. 3:2). In Christ we are new creations (2
Cor. 5:17). By His grace we have come from the hole of the pit (Isa. 51:1)
to Mount Zion, the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, into
the Church of the firstborn whose names are written in Heaven (Heb.
12:22-23). By God's Grace we have been brought from the terrible darkness
of death (Eph. 2:1) to the light of life (John 14:6, John 8:12). We have
been saved from eternal death by the blood of His dear Son (Rom. 5:9). We
have been bought with a price most precious (1 Pet. 1:19). We are not our
own any more but His (1 Cor. 6:20), and now in Christ we are temples of
the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16).
Reader, do you now see why faithful John said
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21)?
And can you pastors see now why you should faithful
warn your flocks against the idolatries of the mother of abominations?
Can you not see what terrible hypocrisy it is to
hold out the Word of God in one hand to the souls of men, and welcome the
heathen Christmas customs of Rome into your midst with the other?
You who would not think of honoring Rome's "Lady
Fatima," are you annually welcoming Rome's Christ-mass into your own
church?
And you pastors to whom has been committed the care
of God's flock, do you not care if our church and nation drift on to
disaster? Dare you stand in you pulpit between God and your people and yet
not raise your voice against those idolatries which have caused America to
be weighed in the balances and found wanting? O Pastor watchmen, can you
not see that God will require this nation's blood of your hand if you
refuse to heed the handwriting on the wall, and if you allow Babylon's
idolatrous pageantry and revelry to prosper in the Church of God for whom
Christ dies?
TO MY FELLOW BELIEVERS IN CHRIST
"Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry" (1 Cor. 10:14)
