Oh, Not So Holy Night!
I do NOT enjoy bursting the bubble of Christians, but once I learn a truth, I’m obligated to share it. You are free to disagree with me if you like, but research and search the Scriptures to either prove me right or wrong in your own minds, hearts, and conscience. I don’t answer to GOD for what anyone else does in their relations and worship of YHVH GOD, I only answer to Him for myself and my actions. I have to do what I’m led to do, based on the truth YHVH reveals to me through Scripture, revelation (Rhema’s), and what I can discover based solely on historical facts. Believe me, this was NOT an easy decision for me to make.
It was one man about 1700 years ago that decided in order to coaxed the pagans into this new state religion called Christianity, it was best to adopt their pagan practices, "baptize it into Christ," the Pope Julius I said. That gentile pope found nothing wrong with slapping a Christian name on a pagan practice, because those gentile clergy hated everything about the Hebrew Scriptures. Many of them wanted to dispose of the Hebrew Scriptures entirely, but if not for the Grace of GOD, we would never have even had them in our Bible today. In those days, when the Bible was inaccessible by the common man, because the corrupt Roman Church had made it illegal for common man to have access to that which GOD wanted read by every man, the people were deceived into believing that these clergy were vicars for Christ and infallible when it comes to revelation from GOD. The roots of Christmas actually comes from pagan celebrations to the fertility gods of the pagan, and once, I learned of just how offensive the whole Yuletide season was to GOD, I just could not enjoy doing it anymore. We still give them gifts, because to take that away just seemed too cruel, however, I do not call them Christmas gifts, I call them, "end of the year," gifts. I answer to GOD for what I know, as do you.
GOD had prescribed certain religious observations to Him in the Torah in the book of Leviticus. Many of them we cannot observe to the letter of the law, because there is no centralized Temple any longer. Some Jewish holidays such as Purim and Hanukkah are not commanded of GOD, but are man's celebrations of GOD's deliverance of His people. Hanukkah was was referred to as the Festival of Lights, and the gift giving aspect of it came out of the Jews wanting a gift-giving excuse as the Gentiles had. Back before Christmas was established, it was a Jewish tradition based on the celebration of the Maccabees defeat of Antiochus IV of Epiphanes. Even Jesus honored that Festival of Lights in John 10:22, as he went up to the Temple in the winter to acknowledge the deliverance of GOD’s people from a tyrannical murderous ruler. I am not saying that all man's traditions are bad, but what I am saying is that copy-cat worship is not something GOD is okay with, as stated in many places in the Hebrew Scriptures, in particular Deuteronomy 12.
Every time I mentioned this conviction to someone, I get the same argument that I used to give, that we are honoring the birth of Jesus, even though we know for a fact it did not happen on December 25th. GOD’s definition of idolatry is any time His people adapt the religious practices of the false gods of the pagan nations into their worship of Him. Now, someone who is truly adept at the New Testament will bring up Romans 14, when Paul declared one man’s unholy day an another man’s acceptable holy day. At least, I would have, and did, until I read the Scripture more closely and studied the Hebrew Scriptures as they were meant to be studied and understood. I am surely not going to poo-poo your celebration of Christmas, but in good conscience, I can no longer observe it in the intent of which it was given, knowing what I know about GOD now. What you choose to do with your knowledge is between you and GOD, and what you choose to ignore as possibly offensive to GOD is again, between you and Him alone.
This realization of the offense of Christmas to GOD hasn’t been easy for me to accept either, because I love those traditional Christmas songs from “Last Christmas,” to “Oh Holy Night.” My children and I used to belt out our favorites with my speakers jacked up to full volume as we danced around the room, having the time of our lives, doing what we do every Christmas. It was a difficult decision, and I miss the fun of it. Sometimes, we have to sacrifice the traditions of men to prove our loyalty to YHVH GOD, like Jesus said in the Bible. With GOD, it is always a heart thing, and never a performance thing, so celebrating a pagan’s traditional worship to their pagan gods is essentially the same thing eating foods sacrificed to idols. Paul said that if they knew the food was sacrificed to an idol or a false god, it was strictly forbidden, then in essence us knowing that celebrating Christmas is essentially the same sin. When I learned the absolute truth about this and saw it in black and white in the Torah, which means instructions, not LAW, by the way, I just could never see Christmas the same way ever again. It went from a sacred event in my mind to a very unholy season, and for the rest of my life, I just cannot perceive it as a joyous event if the LORD says in Scripture that it is an abomination to Him.
What I thought for five decades was worship, now I know was an offense. We are responsible for what we know at the time and what the LORD teaches us, when we are taught it, not before. Revelation from GOD is progressive, so we are only guilty of sinning when we are shown what we do is a sin. There are unintentional sins in which we will not be held guilty of, and then there are the outright rebellious sins we know to be wrong, in which we will stand and give an account.
I just can’t do it anymore, knowing what I know, now, because my conscience before GOD won’t let me. I would rather offend man, even though it’s NOT what I like to do, than to risk offending GOD. I teach my children the truth, now, and some day, GOD will convict them of His Revelations when they are ready to obey Him fully. As I advise all parents of adult children, they are not your children when they are adults, they are GOD’s, and you have to give them back. They now become just your offspring and any advice or counsel you want to give them must be sought out by them, not offered freely or oppressively, because you are not their mommy anymore. You do not answer to GOD for what they do as adults. You are only obligated to the LORD for teaching them what you do know while they are still under your stewardship. When the LORD teaches us new things, it’s because we have come to him to seek new things to be taught. He never oppresses a man into morality, it is always a choice on our part out of the love in our hearts for Him. For that is your bodily act of worship, and the only kind of sacrifice he wants from us.
For you information only, I always revisit this wonderful teacher this time of year, and every year, I'm more convicted that celebrating Christmas is offensive to GOD. David Pawson The History of Christmas Part 2 is here David Pawson The History of Christmas Part 2
