By Lisa Grace
I attend services with a
congregation that observes the seven festivals mandated by God. Even the prophet Isaiah
mentions these will be observed in heaven.
Unfortunately, there are
several festivals (and many more if you include such commonly observed days as
the Lent season or Epiphany) or holidays we celebrate: Purim, Hanukkah,
Resurrection day (commonly called easter the English translation of the pagan
goddess ishtar.), Christmas, weddings, dedication days, baptisms, etc., that some say we shouldn't celebrate.
Many legalistic Christians
like to fall back on the prophet Jeremiah 10:1 - 6 where Jeremiah is talking
about following the custom of worship of false gods. ( Hear ye the word
which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn
not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the
heathen are dismayed at them. 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. Be not afraid of them; for
they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.)
So the tree is neither good
nor evil, and cutting it down is a waste of time. I think this is why many have
migrated to plastic ones.
Since the Jewish religion
sacrificed animals, he couldn't use that as an example of how not to worship
heathen gods, so he picked one the Jewish people did not do at the time, which
was the cutting down and decorating of trees to the false gods. He goes on in
further verses making it clear these trees can do neither good nor evil, and
that these false gods will be forgotten, Jer 10:10 Thus shall ye say unto
them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall
perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. which they have been
forgotten.
For the last four hundred
years or so though, Christmas trees have not been associated with false gods,
but have almost exclusively come to signify the promise in Christ of life
everlasting. Instead of taking these verses out of context, read the whole of
Jeremiah starting at the first chapter, and it becomes clear it was about the
Jews turning away from God, and you can see time and time again how Jeremiah
laments the Jewish people chasing after pagan gods.
Taking Jeremiah out of
context is a perfect example of how legalism can be used by Satan.
Let's look at what Jesus did. Did Yeshua (Jesus)
celebrate other traditions not ordained (like the seven) by God in the Torah?
Yes.
We know He celebrated at
weddings, the festival of lights: Hannakuh, and Purim. We know He attended dedications,
and was all for baptism (He even had one Himself when He was thirty, and was
dedicated Himself at the temple eight days after His birth as was the custom.) Therefore we can conclude Yeshua (Jesus)
was all for observing traditions that included and honored God.
What about His birthday and resurrection?
I run across legalistic
Christians who seem to think celebrating these momentous occasions is wrong, or
even a sin. They go as far as to say the celebrations of these events are
pagan, but are they?
Let's look at Biblical proof.
First from the word of Yeshua Himself. The Lord's Prayer offers the first
proof. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew
6:9-13 KJV).
So was Yeshua's birth celebrated in Heaven? Yes.
Luke 2:9-17: And, lo, the
angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them: and they were sore afraid. And the
angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you;
Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as
the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to
another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to
pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste,
and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had
seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this
child.
Then in Luke 2:20: And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
We are to celebrate, share
and make known to all people OUR SAVIOUR is Born! The angels even describe how
He will be dressed, in swaddling clothes lying in a feed trough! Certainly the
angels were commended by God to release that tidbit of information because He
wanted the Saviour found, worshiped, and praised. What kind of witness are we
if we ignore His birth, the one the angels were commanded to come down and
reveal to us through lowly shepherds? Is this news we keep to ourselves?
1) The angels rejoiced at his
birth.
2) The angels were commanded
to give the message and then told the shepherds to make the birth of the Savoir
known to all people.
3) Christmas is the
celebration and time to make known to all people the birth of our Saviour.
How does Satan (the adversary) use legalistic
Christians to pervert the news of the Saviour's birth and the celebration of
the news we are to spread?
The timing we celebrate
Many legalistic Christians
say we shouldn't celebrate on December 25th because it falls so close to the
winter solstice (December 21st in 2013, 2014, and 2015), which was commonly
used to worship pagan Gods.
The truth is—any day is just
as good as any other because we do not know what date it was. And if we
followed God's calendar, the lunar cycle, the date would change from year to
year anyway. It's legalistic to get caught up on a date since it wasn't revealed
by God, it is not the "date" that is important to Him. There are
plenty of times dates are revealed in the Bible.
The fact is, we do not know
exactly what day Yeshua was born on. We can trace back what day he died on.
However, the Jewish calendar, (God's calendar) is a lunar one, which means it
does not follow closely the Roman one which is in common use today.
Yes, Yeshua was not born in
the winter. The fact is we do not know what day or month He was born in. We can
narrow it to a season. Roman tax season, which would be April, May or June.
So yes, the middle church
picked a date close to the winter solstice to celebrate the Lord's birth. The
winter solstice is not on a set date, it changes according to the
movement of the sun. It fell on December 21st, 2013 and will fall on December
21st again in 2014. Sooo if you're going to be *legalistic* be aware that
Christians are not celebrating it on the pagan celebration day, but four days
later.
If Satan can get legalistic
Christian to forsake celebrating our Lord's birth, and spreading the joy and
peace they were commanded to, then Satan wins. Silencing the church is a work
of Satan.
Pagan Elements are Integrated into Christmas
This is the most common
argument used against celebrating our Lord's birth.
Who made creation? God.
Who said it was good? God.
What perverted it? Satan,
sin.
Romans Chapter 1 is a
powerful treaty against those who know God and see the works of His hand, then
pervert it, and become "the inventors of evil things" Romans 1:30.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when
they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
fourfooted beasts, and creeping things
That is what pagans do.
They take the creation and
make it into the creator, or assign God's creations unholy meanings and
attributes they have never had or were not intended to have.
By saying, "Well, trees were
used for pagan purposes so we can't use them now to honor God" is
ludicrous. The earthly Ark of the Covenant was made from a tree, so was the
cross! A Christmas tree should do the same thing, be a reminder of our Awesome
God. Satan stole it for a time with the
use of pagan gods who are now forgotten BUT God takes back His creation to be a reminder of His
ultimate sacrifice. If God did it by
using trees for the ARK and the cross, we should take back His creation and use
it for the purposes it was intended for: to scream there is one true God, He is
magnificent, and worthy to be praised, and remembered for His humbling Himself
to be born of an unwed mother, born in a lowly borrowed barn, and lain in a
feeding trough among cow and sheep food.
As Christians we can stand
firm and boldly profess that the creation is God's handiwork. If we don't he
will replace us with stones! (Keep reading to see what I'm referring to.)
Pharisees were the equivalent of the legalistic
Christians we find today.
In the book of Luke we come
across an impromptu gathering of Yeshua's followers. They were so happy their
Saviour and King was here they threw an impromptu parade and celebration for
Him. Waving fronds, lining the road with their cloaks. They were showing their
love, joy, praise, and respect for their King. (Just like we do at Christmas!)
And what did the Pharisees say to Jesus about this
impromptu celebration?
Luke 19: 39: And some of the
Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
Interesting point here, the
Pharisees admitted (by calling them disciples) that they were doing His will.
What was Jesus' answer to the legalistic Pharisees?
Luke 19:40 And he answered
and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones
would immediately cry out.
Praising the one true God is never wrong. This can not
be stated enough. If you are rebuking someone from worshiping the one true God,
you just might be legalistic.
What should Christians do?
1) Use every opportunity to turn
people back to God.
2) Remove pagan elements from
your celebrations. There's no need for a Santa Claus or an Ishtar bunny. Bring
the celebrations back to what God intended. Celebrating Jesus' birth,
resurrection, baptism, sacrifice.
3) If you are legalistic,
think about Jesus' admonishments. If someone is using an opportunity to praise
God, do not be a stumbling block. Praise God even louder, instead.
Satan will use legalism as a
tool to turn baby Christians away, and fool weak believers into thinking their
righteousness is anything more than filthy rags. Remember, Eph 2:8-9 It is by
grace and faith alone, salvation is a gift of God. Law is a mirror to
condemn, and you can bet that's what legalistic Christians are using the law
for, to condemn others. But when they do, the mirror of the law is condemning
them.
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