Christmas, Why not Keep it?

By James R. Faulkner

Reasons we don't keep Christmas:

(1) Pagan Origin and God tells us not to take pagan days and worship him, it is an abomination to him.

Deuteronomy 12:29 - 32 (NRSV) ²⁹When the LORD your God has cut off before you the nations whom you are about to enter to dispossess them, when you have dispossessed them and live in their land, ³⁰take care that you are not snared into imitating them, after they have been destroyed before you: do not inquire concerning their gods, saying, “How did these nations worship their gods? I also want to do the same.” ³¹You must not do the same for the LORD your God, because every abhorrent thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods. They would even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. ^32£You must diligently observe everything that I command you; do not add to it or take anything from it.

What does Santa Clause have to do with the birth of Christ? Nothing!

What does the Christmas tree have to do with the birth of Christ? Nothing!

What does the Christmas tree have to do with paganism? Plenty, let’s look it up in the bible:

Jeremiah 10:1 - 5 (NRSV) ¹Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the LORD: Do not learn the way of the nations, or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³For the customs of the peoples are false: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan; ⁴people deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. ⁵Their idols^£ are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good.

What does December 25^th have to do with the birth of Christ? Nothing!

What does December 25^th have to do with paganism? Plenty, look it up the pagan words: Saturnalia and Brumalia in the encyclopedia.

What does exchanging gifts have to do with the birth of Christ? Nothing?

Exchanging gifts is indeed, in the bible, but not where most people think it is. Most people think that at Jesus birth, that gifts were exchanged. Not so, let’s look into it.

Matthew 2:11 - 12 (NRSV) ¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Notice, it does NOT say it was Christ’s birthday and it does NOT say they exchanged gifts either! Yet, that is what false ministers try to teach and tell you. That is because these false ministers do not know why they GAVE Christ gifts. Notice that they knelt down and paid him homage and gave him gifts. Why? Because they knew he was born to be a king and that they were coming before royalty, it had nothing to do with his birthday. If this scripture isn’t where gifts are exchanged, then where is it? We have to go all the way to the book of Revelation:

Revelation 11:10 (NRSV) ¹⁰and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth.

Now, we need to look into the rest of the story here. Who are these people that exchange presents and what are they celebrating by doing it?

Revelation 11:1 - 13 (NRSV) ¹Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, ²but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. ³And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.” ⁴These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in this manner. ⁶They have authority to shut the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. ⁷When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, ⁸and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically^£ called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. ⁹For three and a half days members of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb; ¹⁰and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth. ¹¹But after the three and a half days, the breath^£ of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. ¹²Then they^£ heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them. ¹³At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Amazing isn’t it? Who brought this pagan custom of exchanging presents into the Church anyway? The Roman Catholics brought this pagan custom in. Looks like we have found the Whore that will ride the Beast, God puts his finger right on her, doesn’t he? He that has eyes, let him see.

(2) Christmas is not in scripture, it is not a command or doctrine of God, it is a tradition of men. The word Christmas does not appear in the bible in any translation that I know of. It was not kept until centuries after the Church was born on the day of Pentecost. Why doesn’t the world celebrate the birth of the Church? We KNOW when it occurred, on the feast of Pentecost, clearly in scripture, but mostly ignored by the world.

(3) Christmas promotes breaking God's commandments:

· By telling children that Santa Clause is real, when adults know this is not to be true. We should not be calling evil good – telling a lie is evil and we should not be calling good evil – telling the truth that Santa Claus is not real. The bible speaks about calling evil good and good evil in:

o Isaiah 5:20 - 25 (NRSV) ²⁰Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! ²¹Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight! ²²Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, ²³who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights! ²⁴Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. ²⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse in the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

· By having children be good for Santa instead of for God and Parents the commandment for Having No Other Gods is broken and the commandment for Honoring your Father and Mother is broken. Putting a fable, Santa Claus, in place of those who really should have the honor, God and Parents.

· By shopping on the Sabbath for Christmas gifts this commandment is broken. Instead of Remembering the Sabbath Day and Keeping it Holy, those who keep Christmas tend to forget the Sabbath and Shop on the seventh day of the week to keep this vain tradition of exchanging gifts. Is this true? As you go to church between Thanksgiving and Christmas, where are all the people headed in the world? To Church or Walmart, Kmart and the Malls. Putting their vain traditions of men above the commands of God.

There is a punishment for doing these things, not a reward. God is not happy with this custom, he is angry. One thing is obvious, the world doesn’t really care what God thinks and continues to do what they want to do.

(4) Christmas trades the truths and commands of God, his Sabbath and Holy Days, for vain traditions of men.

It is not enough to say we worship God and then do our own will,

God expects us to do his will.

....parable of two sons on told to go work, says no, but later

repents and goes and does it,

the other son says sure I'll do it, but doesn't do it.

Who did the Father's will? The one who obeyed what he said, or the

one who said he would but didn't.

Christmas, why not keep it? Because it has pagan origins, because it promotes lying, because it trades God’s commanded holy days for vain traditions of men. The real question is not “Why don’t we keep Christmas?”, the real question is why do proclaiming Christians not keep God’s commanded Holy Days and instead keep vain traditions of men? The reason is in the bible:

2 Timothy 4:3 - 4 (NRSV) ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

What is the result of trading God’s commanded truths with vain traditions of men, like Christmas, Easter and Sunday worship?

Matthew 15:1 - 9 (NRSV) ¹Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” ³He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? ⁴For God said,^£ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ ⁵But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’^£ then that person need not honor the father.^{£ 6}So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word^£ of God. ⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said:

⁸ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

⁹ in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

Let me modernize this scripture a little bit by putting in some more up to date terms in:

Then Catholics and Protestants came to a true minister of Jesus and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the Church elders? For they do not Keep Sunday, or Christmas or Easter.”

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy and these are the appointed festivals of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them.’ But you say that whoever keeps Sunday as the Lord’s day or Christmas and Easter as God’s Holy days has no need of the Sabbath or the Holy Days of God. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

I believe, They worship Jesus in vain.