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sermonette: Crazy or Christmas

Truth in Christmas
Ronny H. Graham
Given 25-Dec-10; Sermon #1025s; 17 minutes

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Quite a number of years ago, um, I was talking to somebody about Christmas and back when I was bold and would get into these conversations that I really had no business getting into with the world. I told someone that I did not celebrate Christmas, and this person's reply was, What? Are you crazy? And then just this last year we moved into a new neighborhood and Um, our neighbors wanted to welcome us to the new community. They brought, came over with all sorts of gifts. And began talking to me and Allie and um the man and his wife were walking around our house and the lady says, where is your Christmas tree? Where are all your decorations? We had tried to be discreet and graciously accept their gifts, but being discreet was over. This lady was stunned. Her first response was, What? You do not believe in God? I'm sure that we've all experienced things like this before. But she had never heard such a thing. They did not stay much longer, and I think as they drove away she said, I'll pray for you. If you would turn over to Don 424. John 4:24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. When we worship God, we must worship in spirit and truth. Is there any truth in Christmas? And what is this Christmas spirit and where does this spirit come from? My normal reply to someone who asks me why I do not celebrate Christmas anymore is, Well, why do you celebrate Christmas? And if it's Christ's birthday, why do you give presents to everyone but Christ? Most of the time they will say that's crazy, that doesn't make sense. They're giving in Christ's name, they would say. And I do not remember if it was the same person who called me crazy. But I did ask him, Have you ever heard of going to a birthday party and exchanging gifts with everybody but the birthday person? Now to me this is a logical question. But to people in the world it just doesn't make sense. So let's look at some of the things that people use in the celebration of Christmas and let's see who's crazy. Just to start with the definition of Christmas, I pulled out my first dictionary I came to in my, my library in my office, which was the Harper's Bible Dictionary. And it reads, Christmas is defined as the anniversary of Christ's birth, celebrated by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike on December 20th. The first celebration of Christmas on December 20th was in Rome in AD 336. It is by no means certain that Christ was born in December. Now this is a Bible dictionary, but not one scripture was given. To prove support Christ being born in December and of course we know that he was not. In the same dictionary, I looked up the word feast. Now in contrast, There are scripture after scripture mentioned in this dictionary from Leviticus Numbers, Deuteronomy about God's feast, and it, it lists them. It lists all the scriptures and of course, we know God's feasts have certain days of the month. The duration of these feasts and how we are supposed to keep them. There is no truth offered in Harper's Dictionary to support the observance of Christmas, and certainly no command in the Bible to support it either. So this should tell us which spirit. Christmas comes from, and it's not God's. Now one of the more obvious lies or non-truths associated with Christmas is Santa Claus, even though adults know that it's a lie. They say it's OK, it's all in fun. The modern portrayal of Santa. is that he listens to children's wishes and then brings gifts to the good children. These gifts are said to be made by elves and delivered by flying reindeer in a single night to the entire world. Now, let's ask some logical questions again. We did not come into the church until I was about 15 years old, so I had a few years where I believed in this character. And you know, I do not remember one kid in our neighborhood who did not get something. If you think about it, what does that sound like? I know that all the kids in my neighborhood were not good. I was probably one of them. Does that sound a little bit like once saved, always saved? Can we see just a glimmer of this false doctrine being portrayed in the personage of Santa, being taught by Satan to our children at a very early age? Boy, Satan is so clever. How about toys being made by elves? Well, that's, that's a given. I never saw made by elves on any of my toys. Of course, unless they live in China. Now this is truly laughable. But we top it off with flying deer. I've hunted deer all my life, and I do not know how I would kill them if they could fly. It's not easy. Our daughter Lacey in school was actually um Persecuted, I would say, because she went around in the 2nd grade telling all the other 2nd graders that Santa was fake. She had to stand in the corner for standing up for the truth. One more thing about Santa. And this one actually comes from the Celtic feast Samhain. Some of you might recognize this as the Feast of the Dead or Night of the Wild Hunt or Halloween. But just like Santa, the dead roam the earth from dusk to dawn, and food and drink is left out for these visitors. And candles to guide them to your house. Now the threshold time for this feast is midnight. Or at the time when the feast is half over. So another question, when did the death angel begin his journey on Passover? Are those who celebrate Christmas using Santa Claus, inviting the death angel right into their homes to influence their kids with his gifts? Old Nick or Old Saint Nick, another name is another name for the devil. Those who might think that Satan's going to come roaring up looking like a A werewolf bearing fangs going to suck their blood, better think again. He is so very clever. This spirit once again In the form of Santa is not from the God of heaven and certainly not one shred of truth here. Incidentally, one of the symbols used in the Samhain festival is poisonous herbs. Did you know that mistletoe is poisonous? It's not a herb, but it's poisonous, and it's also a parasite plant, meaning that it gets its sustenance from another host plant. Now, I have quite a long paragraph to read on the legend of the mistletoe. and listen carefully. This one is, is quite intriguing. For its supposedly mystical power, mistletoe has long been the center of many folklore. One is associated with the goddess Frigga. The story goes that mistletoe was the sacred plant of Frigga, goddess of love, and the mother of Baldur, the God of the summer sun. Baldur had a dream of death which greatly alarmed his mother, for should he die, all life on Earth would end. In an attempt to keep this from happening, Frigga went at once to air, fire, water, earth, and every animal and plants, seeking a promise that no harm would come to her son. Baldur now could not be hurt by anything on earth or under Earth, but Baldur had one enemy, Loki, God of evil, and he knew of one plant that Frigga had overlooked. In her quest to keep her son safe, it grew neither on earth nor under the earth, but on apple and oak trees. It was lowly mistletoe, so Loki made an arrow tip of the mistletoe. Gave it to the blind God of winter, Hodder, who shot it, striking Baldur dead. The sky paled and all things in earth and heaven wept for the sun God for 3 days. Each element tried to bring Baldur back to life. He was finally restored to life by Frigga, the goddess, and his mother. It is said that the tears she shed for her son turned into the pearly white berries on the mistletoe plant, and in her joy, Frigga kissed everyone who passed beneath the tree on which it grew. The story ends with a decree that who should ever stand under the humble mistletoe, no harm should come. No harm should befall them, only a kiss. A token of love. It sounds like once saved, always saved again. Now listen to this last paragraph. What could be more natural than to translate the spirit of this old myth into a Christian way of thinking and accept the mistletoe as the emblem of that love which conquers death? Its medicinal properties, whether real or imaginary, make it a just emblematic of that tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations, thus paralleling it to the virgin birth of Christ. What could be more natural? Is this anything short of blasphemy? One final quote from this article, and I quote, Whether we believe it or not, it always makes for fun and frolic at Christmas time. Even if the pagan significance has long been forgotten. It's OK to be pagan as long as it's fun. Jesus Christ conquered death by living a sinless life and was killed for it and resurrected by God the Father, not some parasitic, poisonous plant that lives like a welfare recipient off the host of something else. Again, no scripture, no truth, but we can definitely see from which spirit this comes. Probably the most widely used. Uh, implement in the celebration of Christmas is the Christmas tree. Now this is another quote that I, I got from this actually same website. It's the Holidayspot.com. Numerous Christmas traditions have been derived from the earlier pagan celebrations. The Christmas tree has its origins in the practice of bringing a live tree into the home, so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm during the cold winter months. Bells were hung in the limbs so you could tell when an appreciative spirit was present. I do not know what happens when an unappreciative spirit comes in. Food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat, and a five-pointed star, the pentagram, symbol of the five elements, was placed atop the tree. Another idea is that a monk was preaching in Germany. In the 7th and 8th century, concluded that since the tree had a triangular shape, it represented the Trinity, another false doctrine. Someone else decorated a tree in Latvia in the 1500s with roses. This was associated with the Virgin Mary. Does any of this have anything to do with Christ? And now this last one, I came across while studying for this sermonette. I had never heard it before, but it's, it's really, it's, it's just alarming. I do not know how else to put it, but it's again another paragraph I have to read here. This one is the Amanita muscaia mushroom. Commonly known as the fly argaric mushroom is another symbol of Christmas. Though not as popular as the Christmas tree or the baby Jesus, it is well known in those nations where Christianity is the dominant religion. The symbol, however, has little to do with Christianity. That's a true statement. It has historically been proved that Christmas, despite being a Christian holiday, owes most of its symbols and icons to shamanism, an occult philosophy of the tribal people of Northern Europe in a pre-Christian era. The Amanita muscaria found a place among the various rituals practiced by these people. The mushroom is thought to contain hallucinogenic compounds that when used is believed to give illusionary experiences that many ancient people mistook as transcendental visions. Incidentally, one of these drawings in an ancient Peruvian vessel shows a divine messenger offering a sacred mushroom to a ruler seated on a throne. Inscribed below this is Tiaanak. It's an Aztec word that when literally translated stands as flesh of God. Now all these supposedly divine associations of the mushroom and also the fact that it is found to grow at the base of a pine tree makes it believed to have made it a symbol for Christmas. The idea gained further strength in 1970 when in his book The Mushroom and the Cross, this is actually a real book. I looked it up. I did not believe it. Author John Marco Allegro indicated that Christianity and Judaism are based on a cult that worshiped the Amanita Muscaria. And Jesus Christ Himself was the personification of the Ammon Amida Mosca. Jesus Christ is a personification of a mushroom. A mushroom is a fungus. That grows on decaying wood. How can men possibly associate this with Jesus Christ? Deanie looks like the wrong spirit here. Absolutely no truth. Let's go to Amos 5. And verse 1 if you would. Amos 5 and 1 and also verse 21. Hear this word which I take up against you, this lamentation, O house of Israel. I hate verse 21. I despise your feast days. I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Now this verse certainly pertains to The holy days that God laid out for Israel and their profaning of these days. But if you take your feast days, it also includes men's instituted days such as Christmas. One of the popular signs on churches these days is Keep Christ in Christmas. But he was never in it. There is no truth in Christmas, therefore, God hates it. It is obvious, brethren, that Christmas is a pagan festival, and we can clearly see and understand it. But we must face challenges every day. Where we have to test the spirit and the things which come our way, and the way we do that is truth. God's spirit and truth cannot be separated. If you do not have the right spirit, you will not have truth, and if you do not have truth, you will not have the right spirit. I did not use all of the symbols of Christmas. There is many more that we could explore. But you know, I do not think I'm crazy. And I'm thankful that we do not celebrate Christmas. If you would please, one more scripture back in Psalms. Psalms 33 and verse 4. Psalms 33 and verse 4, for the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth. Christmas has no truth of God in it. Therefore, it is not God's work.

RHG/aws+/

 

 

Sermon Topics

False Gospels

Jesus Christ's Return

Life after Death

Repentance

Resurrection

The Gospel

The Kingdom of God