This Page Last Updated November 4th, 2008 (new style reckoning)
Christmas Concerns
Will the
real holy day please stand up
Among the many
misguided ideas of Christmas is the modern Santa Claus. His real life is
mocked; he is not the fat and jolly sort that Coca-Cola commercialism has
promoted him to be. St. Nicholas was known for giving gifts in stockings to the
needy, early in the 4th century. It is good to remember and follow his example
of sacrificial giving. He was a bishop who struck the heretic Arius in the face
for his blasphemies against the Son of God and His Most Pure Mother. The day of
his commemoration is about 3 weeks before the Nativity of the Lord.
Webster's dictionary
says that the word “Christmas” comes from the Middle English
“Christemasse”, from just before the 12th century, “Christ's
Mass” of the Pope’s church. I have never found any good source for
using the term “mass” today; it comes from that vast wasteland of
Papism. The Protestants have continued in erroneous inventions of Christmas
themselves. We should not even use the term “Christmas” out of
hand, unless we are certain that the temptations of such are put in check.
Matthew 12:36 ‘But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment.’ Likewise
the term “Xmas” has no good place. About 1000 years ago the Western
Christians changed the worship from bread and wine to a wafer. The Protestants
worship went worse with things like the wafer and grape juice. How anyone would
want to follow them by titling anything “mass” is beyond me. As the
Western Churches (Roman Catholics and Protestants) have been in such errors for
1,000 years there is really no way we should participate with their
terminology. Whichever way we think of it “Christmas” is a
religious concept to those who celebrate it and it is a false one. If we want
to do what is right we should not go out of our way to practice or participate
in such terms with them.
As far as designating
this holy day it is best to use the common way of expression used by the early
Church. We should not use the pagan/secular names for months or days, like
December or Wednesday. According to the practice of the Lord’s Church,
The Nativity of the Lord would be stated this year this way. “The forth
day of the 3oth week after Pentecost, in the 7517th year from Adam and
Eve.” If I have my calculations right.
The commemoration of
the birth of the Lord (more closely titled, The Nativity of our Lord) falls on
the Old Julian calendar date of December 25th. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII hired
pagans to create his New Gregorian calendar that changed existing dates by
days. This ‘out of order’ calendar of the pope is what our godless
society uses today. Now, the original and actual December 25th falls on what
most know as January 6th/7th. There are records of different dates being
recognized as the Lord's Nativity. I see the Old Calendar date as being more
correctly assigned, because those with the best judgment used it, it has been
used for the longest time and by the most people. At this present time there is
no way to come to a better conclusion. I see no good reason for recognizing
twice in a single year one holy day, so I stay with the time tested one. To mix
up holy days only sows yet even more discord among an already fouled faith of
the popes and the rest.
About the question of
pagan holidays being used by godly people. Many claim that we should not even
celebrate a day of the Lord’s Nativity due to it previously being of
pagan origin. I do not see how pagans can have a monopoly on any given day. It
certainly would be wrong to do the practices of pagans. To recognize a day of
God's plan, where His Son is given to us, is not wrong. It further shows what
God actually has done and gives us the opportunity to give Him more glory,
dedicate more time to that specific thought and make it more a part of our
life. I believe we should stop and remove any contradictory pagan practices
that the world may have previously adhered to, but we cannot remove a whole day
from the calendar just because somebody wrongly claims it is paganism. There
are so many pagan festivals that it would be a practical impossibility to avoid
all of them anyway. God set a calendar with dates of recognizing His plan for
mankind. Pagans cannot overrule what God has done. Those who say that godly
people cannot use a pagan day (which God actually made in the first place) is
missing the whole point and oppose the celebration of holy days which God
in His infinite wisdom instituted long before them.
There are also people
who question the use of Christmas trees, the Yule log, holly, mistletoe, etc. I
really do not know of any good source for the use of such items in the home. I
personally think that the trees are a waste of time and money for something
that makes a complete mess and is not easily disposed of. Till I find some good
reason to use such decorations I will not. I also think that the words of the
holy prophet Jeremiah should make us reconsider doing such things. Jeremiah
10:2-4 Thus saith the LORD, Learn ye not the ways of the heathen, and be not
alarmed at the signs of the sky; for they are alarmed at them, falling on their
faces. For the customs of the nations are vain; it is a tree cut out of the
forest, the work of the carpenter, or a molten image. They are beautified with
silver and gold; they fix them with hammers and nails. (LXX)
If somebody who
celebrates Christmas wants to give me a gift I will accept it, if it is not
overtly bad, I will then use it for what is good if I can. However, I will not
participate in that day's gift giving for the purpose of the heretics
Christmas, for that is not the time to be celebrating. It is never wrong to
give good gifts. No matter what gift I might give I think it should be helpful
and practical. I think that things made personally are best, those that are
hand crafted, or something of a spiritual nature would apply best. We should
not be expecting anything, but only be thinking of what it is we can give away
and do without.
Also, there is the
shame of all the Christmas parties before their time. This is not how it should
be at all. There is a time known as Advent, a time of preparation, where we
deny ourselves, looking forward to the feast of the Nativity of our Lord. The
time for exuberance is not before but during and immediately after the feast.
It has been forgotten that we should not celebrate early. Parties that are done
early destroy the whole purpose of having holy days in the first place. The
purpose is to make all the time we are given more spiritually profitable. Most
people understand Christmas Eve as being the whole day before Christmas. Really
the evening is the first part of the day, so the day starts with the evening.
In Genesis it is explained, “there was evening and there was
morning” (one day). So, all these Eve's should be understood as just the
evening before, which is really the first part of that one day.
There is another point
to make, about Poinsettia’s. In America they are a hybrid mutation,
man-made and the use of them comes from Papists. There is really no good
example for the way they are used nowadays. In a time when everybody works to
be so traditional they seem to be inventing. For me I simply would not even
consider having something which tries to out do God’s design, like the
development of the modernist Poinsettia. There is almost nothing left that is
the way God planned it, nearly everything is genetically altered and fake. We
truly do live in more of a make-believe world than we know. My goal is to get
away from it all somehow.
The bottom line is
this. I hope, with all tenaciousness, to keep what I have found which is good.
That would include not using the heretic terminology of “Christmas”
and not following the questionable practices of the papal calendar and not
having pagan-like decorated trees, etc. To decorate during a time when
restraint is called for (the Nativity fast) makes no sense at all. I do not
wish to be mean-spirited toward others who follow a different way, but if
others would reconsider these things for themselves I think it would be nice.
Below are pen and ink
sketches that I made of the Nativity of the Lord and the Adoration the Magi
gave to the Lord.
