If you really loved someone, would you celebrate the
person with reminders of a past rival for your affection? Are many (believers)
guilty of dishonoring Jesus (Yeshua) in this way?
Editor's Note: This article is from a Christian magazine, not a Messianic Jewish publication. God bless them for teaching truth! We recommend The Good News to our readers. |
by Gary Petty, The Good News, PO Box 541027, Cincinnati OH 45254-1027 GNmagazine.org |
Imagine a
woman giving a gift to her husband on his birthday. Only it isn't his birthday.
It's the birthday of an old boyfriend. And the gift is something she used to
give that other person. It would be natural for the husband to doubt the genuineness
of her love!
If someone really loved you and was trying
to do something you would appreciate, it seems like he or she wouldn't throw in
your face such reminders of an old flame!
But Christmas is doing this very thing with
Jesus—supposedly honoring Him when this birthday and celebratory elements were
formerly used to honor false gods!
If
you're like most people you'd say that you observe Christmas because it's a way
of showing love to Jesus Christ. Maybe you attend midnight mass or a church
service on Christmas morning. Your children might partici-pate
in a play pretending to be Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem. Perhaps a
Nativity scene or a giant plastic Santa Claus adorns your front yard.
To many, Christmas is a time of friends and
family, the smell of freshly baked cookies and the excitement of children
around a decorated tree, tearing the wrappings from gifts.
But is there more to the story? Let's look
at another side of Christmas from the website Witchology.com, which bills
itself as "a research and education provider specializing in the areas of
Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Magic (Magick) and the
Occult." It says this regarding Christmas:
"What is the Pagan secret that
Christianity has tried to keep from you? The truth about Christmas is that it
is not Christmas at all. It is the Winter Solstice, a Pagan holy day observed
around the world and since time immemorial from the Native American tribes, to
the Norsemen, to the ancient Romans, and today by modern Pagans, Witches and
Wiccans."
The startling fact is that the information
about the origins of Christmas on this witchcraft-promoting website is actually
true! Christmas cus-toms are rooted in paganism.
Jesus Christ wasn't even born anywhere near December 25.
Yet most people respond to this information
with something like: "I know there are some pagan and secular customs
incorporated into Christmas, but these customs were Christianized. In this way
we choose to show love toward Jesus."
But it's time to ask the really hard
question that few want to face. Could observing Christmas actually be
dishonoring Jesus?
Let's
go back in time to the first Christians who lived in the ancient city of
Corinth. Like most ancient seaports, Corinth was known for its multicul-turalism, lucrative busi-ness
opportunities, religious diversity and seamy pleasures. The city's name spawned
a Greek verb meaning "to practice fornication." Corinth was an
economic powerhouse of around half-a-million people, a mega-metropolis by the
standards of the day.
The majority of people in Corinth were pagans.
They worshipped the traditional Greek and Roman gods and goddesses or
sacrificed in the temples of one of the various "mystery religions."
One of the most magnificent Corinthian temples stood on a high hill looming
above the city. It was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, employing
1,000 temple prostitutes.
As people from this pagan-Greek background
converted to Christianity, some naturally continued to practice some of their
old customs. It would have been easy for them to see these pagan rites as celebrations
imbued with a new Christian spirit honoring Jesus.
The
apostle Paul wrote to these early Christian in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21:
(20) But I say, that the things
which the Gentiles (pagan nations) sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not
to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. (21)
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils. You cannot be
partakers of the Lord's table, and the table of
devils.
Think
about what Paul (Rav Sha'ul) is saying. You want to be a follower of Jesus
Christ (Messiah Yeshua). You believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
Are you willing to go where the Bible takes you?
Satan and his demons are not fairy-tale
creatures. They are real.
Demons are angels who rebelled against God and, after their rebellion,
now embody all that is evil. In another letter Paul wrote that Satan is
"the god of this age," as quoted in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
In whom the
god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ (Messiah), who is the image of God,
should shine unto them.
We
can't escape Paul's logic. Paganism isn't harmless— it is the worship of demons and the false god of this
age!
Let's
read a little more from Witchology.com about the origins of Christmas:
"One of
the eight Sabbats [pagan festivals] of Witchcraft, this season, known as Yule,
the great annual festival of Saturn, the Saturnalia, of Pagan Rome, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti [Day of the
Birth of the Unconquered Sun] of the Mithras cult, the Winter Solstice is a sacred time in the Pagan calendar
(emphasis added throughout).
"What is
the Christmas secret? What are the facts Christians would rather you did not
know? We set our clocks by it, we celebrated a Millennium because of it, but
the shocking truth is it did not happen. The birth of a boy under remarkable circumstances
to humble parents in a stable in Bethlehem did
not happen on the 25th of December, 1 A.D."
Again,
the website is correct. The truth is that the prophesied Messiah Jesus Christ
was born of a virgin named Mary just as the Old Testament prophets foretold,
but again it was nowhere near December 25—which even at that time was a major
pagan celebration in several ancient cultures.
The problem with the modern Christmas
celebration is that its origins have little to do with the real Jesus Christ.
This isn't hidden knowledge. With just a little research online or in a decent
encyclopedia, anyone can learn that the Yule log, mistletoe, the Christmas tree
and even the date of Christmas are rooted in paganism and not the Bible.
Is your response to this information,
"It doesn't matter since I don't use the Christmas tree to worship
Scandinavian gods but to show love to Jesus Christ"?
Let's go back to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
10: "The things which the Gentiles [pagan nations] sacrifice they
sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with
demons. You cannot drink the
cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons."
We are forced by the Scripture to ask a
hard question: How much are you willing to drink the cup of the Lord's table and the cup of the table of demons and conclude that
it doesn't matter to Christ?
At the beginning of this article I talked
about a woman repackaging a celebration of an old boyfriend's birthday and
presenting this to her husband as his
birthday party on the same date—even though it isn't his birthday. Pretending
it's someone's birthday and giving him a party that recalls a wrong past
relationship isn't exhibiting love or respect, is it?
Then why do you believe that you are
showing Jesus love and respect when you do the same thing to Him by throwing a
party originating in paganism and pretending it's His birthday?
The
Gospel of Luke records a conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. The
Samaritans were an interesting people. They claimed to worship the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but rejected many of the teachings of the Old Testament.
They refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem and mixed pagan customs with
the worship of the true God.
When Christ's disciples later came to
Samaria to preach the gospel, as recorded in Acts 8, they found a man named
Simon. This Simon was a sorcerer who claimed to worship God by using the rites
and customs of worshipping demons.
As Jesus confronted the Samaritan woman
with the reality of who He is, He told her, "The hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for
the Father is seeking such to worship Him"
(John 4:23)
But the hours comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.
Again,
Jesus Himself said that
"the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth." Let
that sink in. Part of the truth here is that Scripture says we are not to try
to honor God the way people formerly honored false gods (Deuteronomy 12:29-32):
(29) When the LORD thy God shall
cut off the nations from before you, wherever you go to possess them, and you
succeed them, and dwell in their land; (30) take heed to yourself that
you not be snared by following them, after they are destroyed before you, and
that you enquire not after their gods, saying, "How did these nations
serve their gods? Even so, I will do likewise." (31)
You shall not do unto the LORD thy God, for every abomination which the LORD
hates they have done for their gods; for even their sons and their daughters
they have burnt in the fire to their gods. (32) Whatever I command you,
observe to do it; you shall not add to, nor take away from it.
Isn't
it time for you to question the legitimacy of paganized Christianity? Isn't it
time to stop wrapping Jesus up in the trappings of the ancient pagan
Saturnalia, Mithras and the gods of ancient Scandinavia and instead to seek to
worship Him and the Father in
spirit and truth?
It's
never easy to examine beliefs and practices that you've accepted all of your
life. But we have to ask if God wants something different in your relationship
with Him.
God is reaching out to you to worship Him in
spirit and truth. Let's strip the pagan customs from our worship of the great
God and His Son Jesus Christ and honor Them the way
They direct in the Bible!