For all my friends and family who are about to celebrate the christ-mass holiday (handed down to us by the roman catholic church) here is a teaching I found at therefinersfire.org/christmas_is_unbiblical.htm It echoes my every sentiment and agrees with my biblical understanding concerning this matter. Please please read this and consider the truth if the matter from G-Ds perspective. Shalom I personally love the sights and sounds and smells of Christmas. But I also know its got nothing to do with God, and so I dont celebrate it. Why? Its a man-made holy day steeped in paganism, which is an offense to YHWH (Yahweh, God the Father) and His Savior - who was born on the first day of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles); not on December 25th. If you are ready to get serious about God and wish to start worshipping Him according to what the Bible says, then please read on. - Shali Christmas is okay? Since when? Where in the Bible do we find this man-made word that originated as Christ-masse from the Catholic Church? Where are we told to chop down trees and decorate them? For those who insist were doing it for Jesus or because its fun for the kids,Idlike to remind you that the sons of Aaron thought they were doing God a favor, too,when theydecided to add incense to their sacrifices smoke (Leviticus 10:1-2; Numbers 3:4; Numbers 26:61).Since YHWH is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), why would He be tolerantof paganism today? YHWH amply warned us against the incorporation of pagan concepts: Deuteronomy 12: 28 Obey and pay attention to everything I am ordering you to do, so that things will go well with you and with your descendants after you forever, as you do what ADONAI sees as good and right. 29 When ADONAI your God has cut off ahead of you the nations you are entering in order to dispossess, and when you have dispossessed them and are living in their land; 30 be careful, after they have been destroyed ahead of you, not to be trapped into following them;so that you inquire after their gods and ask, How did these nations serve their gods? I want to do the same. 31 You must not do this to ADONAI your God! For they have done to their gods all the abominations that ADONAI hates! They even burn up their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods! 32 Everything I am commanding you, you are to take care to do. Do not add to it or subtract from it. (CJB) Jeremiah 10: 1 Hear the word Adonai speaks to you, house of Israel! 2 Here is what Adonai says: Dont learn the way of the Goyim,dontbe frightened by astrological signs,even ifthe Goyim are afraid of them; 3 for the customs ofthe peoples are nothing. They cut down a tree in the forest; a craftsman works it with his axe; 4 theydeckitwith silver and gold. They fix it with hammerandnails, so that it wont move. 5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, it cannot speak. It has to be carried, because it cannot walk. Do not be afraidof it - it can do nothing bad; likewise, it is unable to do anything good! While the above Scripture isnt talking about Christmas trees per se, we can certainly see the resemblance! We also need to remember that God used to put people to death for gross disobedience, or worshipping Him with strange fire: Leviticus 10: 1 But Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aharon, each took his censer, put fire in it, laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before Adonai, something he had not ordered them todo. 2 At this, fire came forth from the presence of Adonai and consumed them,so that theydied in the presence of Adonai. The Prophet Daniel gave us an end time prophecy which reveals the seriousness of changing Gods Word. Here he is speaking of what the Antichrist will do: Daniel 7: He will speak words against the Most High and try to exhaust the holy ones of the Most High. He will attempt to alter the seasons and the law.... What are the seasons and the lawthat Daniel talking about? Gods Torah,our Divine Instructions in Righteousness, and His AppointedTimes:The Seventh Day Sabbath and the Feasts! And who is speaking words against the MostHigh today? Those who insist His Torah is a curse! Check out this scripture: Revelation 11: 10 The inhabitants of the earthwill gloat over them and will celebrate bysending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. Whats it got to do with our topic of Christmas? Well, the inhabitants of the earthwillgloatoverthe death of the two witnesses and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented thosewholive on the earth. A future event? Possibly. But this illustrates the inspiration in our common age forthe inhabitants of the earth to be exchanging gifts -which also happens to be a yearlyritualfor Christmas - where everyonegives each other gifts! The three Wise Men gave gifts to YESHUA, not each other! Speaking of the three wise men - The Gospel of Matthew is the only one of the fourCanonical gospels to mention the Magi. It reveals that they came from the eastto worship the Mashiyach, born King of the Jews. Although the accountdoes not tell how many they were, the three gifts ledtoa widespread assumption that theywere three men. In the East, the magi traditionally numbertwelve, but their identification as kings in later Christian writings is probably linked to Psalms 72:11, May all kings fall down before him. The fact is, many Christians have never bothered reading the Old Testament. The first five Books are known as Torah (which contains YHWHs Divine instruction to mankind) withoutwhichwe would have no blueprint for moral,holy living. Yet, for some reason Christian have allowed MANs limited mindset to get in the wayofGods Word, and come up with all sorts of reasons not to obey God. Following are some excuses Christians use to absolve themselves of any responsibility to obey God: It doesnt matter if we call the Saviorbyhis proper name, or the Father for that matter. To us, God is Jesus. It doesnt matter when we celebrate the Saviors birth as long as we celebrate it. We knowYeshua was born at Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles, which falls during the September/October timeframe on our Gregorian calendars) but we can celebrate his birth any old time. He doesnt mind. (To thoseI would ask, Are sheep kept out inthe fieldsinlate December?....If not,weve gotthe WRONG date and are guilty of lying!) Gentile Christians dont have to botherwithTorah, as evidenced in all of Pauls writings....(To which I would ask, So, why was Paul caughtbeingTorah observant 29 years AFTER the death ofYeshua? See Acts 21:23-24. Since Yeshua was completely Torah observant, and all of His Apostles were, too, what makes Christians think theydont have to be?) Regardless as to how many excuses one can concoct, wrong is wrong! Why? Because the bottom line is: The wise men didnt exchange gifts with one another which blows a hole in the gift exchanging thing amongChristians at Christmas time. The guy with the frankincense didnt trade with the guy who had the gold, or with anyone else; they all brought gifts to Yeshua. Where is Yeshuas gift today? How many people even THINK about our Savior on Christmas? Perhaps the few who attend church on ChristmasEve,but the rest of the world couldnt care less. Even atheists celebrate Christmas.... In light of the above, what makes us think we today have the right to disobey YHWHs command not to engage in paganism?
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:06:02 +0000