BEWARE OF CHRISTMAS!

Next Sunday is the day the world calls “Christmas.” So today we want to take a closer look at that word “CHRISTMAS!” At this time of the year, people all over the world gather from far and near to their various ancestral homes to celebrate Christmas.

Season’s greetings, seasonal music, and Santa Claus are all associated with this holiday. All these appear to bring warm feelings to those who celebrate it.

Christmas is thought by most people to be the most wonderful time of the year, focusing the participants on giving, family togetherness, beautiful music and decorations, feasting on special foods and singing Christmas carols throughout the neighborhood. All of this is supposedly centered on the worship of Jesus Christ.

Did the Bible instruct us to do all these? We shall find out in a moment.

Why do people think that Christmas is wonderful? In time past, it certainly felt wonderful to me because I trusted what my parents told me. They were merely teaching me what their parents had taught them. I never questioned the true origin of Christmas!

Most people never reflect on why they believe what they believe or do what they do. We live in a world filled with customs, but few ever seek to understand the origin of those customs. We generally accept them without question. Most people basically do what everyone else is doing because it is easy and natural!

What then is the origin of Christmas? Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion.

Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on December 25^th comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely that the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the time the sun stands still, and honored Saturn, the god of sowing.

Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more uncompromising leaders among the still-minority Christian sect.

Christmas developed as a means of replacing the worship of the sun with the worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday.

The celebration of Christmas reached its peak in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry (rough, noisy and rowdy festivity).

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centering round the January calends (the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar) gravitated to Christmas.”

In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It was only sinners like Pharaoh and Herod, who made great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world that is full of troubles, sufferings and sorrows.

“And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's BIRTHDAY, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants” (Gen. 40:20).

“And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his BIRTHDAY made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; 22 And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee” (Mk. 6:21-22).

What is worth celebrating at all is the very day you were born out of this world into the Kingdom of God – the day you got Born Again.

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event (Christ’s birth) in the 4^th century.

In the 5^th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the 5^th century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival to honor “Christ.”

What about the Christmas tree? Where did you get it from and what has that got to do with Jesus Christ? And in all your churches and in most homes you have this big tree called “Christmas tree.”

The Christmas tree is directly mentioned in the Bible! Look at what God said through prophet Jeremiah: He warns you not to follow the way of the heathens, for the heathens go down to the forest and they cut down a tree, and they deck it with silver and gold.

In Jeremiah 10:2-5, God warned His children saying, “Learn not the way of the heathen…For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts 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.”

God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command! This plain description of the modern Christmas tree is clear. God directly refers to it as “the way of the heathen.” Just as directly, He commands His people not to learn the way of the heathen, calling these customs “vain.”

And when you try to tell the Christians that this is a heathen practice they tell you, “Well I don’t care, my father did it, my mother did it, my ancestors did it. So I am going to still do it anyway!”

And you are paying 30 dollars for a tree. And then the tree dries up and burns you up in the house. The business men say, “We can’t wait till the next Christmas comes.” Why are they eagerly waiting for the next Christmas? So they can squeeze out more money from you.

Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

The question is, “Who made up this lie and forced it on the church?”

The modern Christmas tree originated from Germany. The Germans got it from the Romans, and the Romans got it from the Babylonians and the Egyptians.

The following demonstrates what the Babylonians believe about the origin of the Christmas tree: “An old Babylonish fable told of an evergreen tree which sprang out of a dead tree stump. The old stump symbolized the dead Nimrod, the new evergreen tree symbolized that Nimrod had come to life again in Tammuz! Among the Druids the oak was sacred, among the Egyptians it was the palm, and in Rome it was the fir, which was decorated with red berries during the Saturnalia!” (Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs, p. 242).

Frederick J. Haskin’s Answers to Questions states, “The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long before the Christian Era.” So, the Christmas tree long preceded Christianity.

Let us now go back to the issue of Christmas. Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees” (Clement Miles, Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance, New York: Dover Publications, 1976, pp. 178, 263-271).

One additional source reveals how the Roman church absorbed Christmas into an official celebration. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1946 edition, states, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church…Certain Latins, as early as 354, may have transferred the birthday from January 6^th to December 25^th, which was then a Mithraic feast…or birthday of the unconquered SUN…

The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6^th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry, contending…that the feast of December 25^th, had been invented by the disciples of Cerinthus…”

Thus, a pagan festival, celebrated long before the birth of Christ, found its way into recognized Christianity.

Did you know that even the 17^th century Puritans of New England understood how wrong Christmas was? They actually banned its observance by law, in 1659, throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fines and imprisonment could result from being found keeping it. It was almost 200 years (1856) before people stopped working on Christmas in Boston. 

The Puritans knew its roots and labelled it “heathen, papist idolatry.”

Remember that one of Satan’s names is Destroyer (Rev. 9:11). Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal, like Satan, is the fire god who destroys and devours little children.

The “real Jesus Christ” was never in and never will be in Christmas! He cannot be put back into where He has never been. But the “god of this world,” Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), has always been in Christmas. He is its author!

The true God commands that we “must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:23-24). This does not mesh with the great Christmas and Santa Claus lies that all children so willingly believe.

1 Timothy 4:2 warns of those “speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Parents can “burn” their own children, to the point of searing them, with the Christmas deception and lie!

There is no “safety in numbers” in this world for those who keep Christmas, because Satan, who is called “the father of lies” and “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn. 8:44), has “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)! Turn to this verse and read it. Then recognize that Christmas is certainly a testimony to that great deception.

But Christ refers to His Church as a “little flock” (Lk. 12:32). Many other verses show this. This Church does not have the large numbers of the respected, established brands of the Christianity of this world.

There is another problem with the idea of “putting Christ back in Christmas,” and it is big! The “Jesus” that is the focus of this season is not the true Jesus Christ of the Bible!

Most have been taught that there is only one Jesus. But God’s Word speaks of a counterfeit, and this substitute Jesus is identifiable in history. The proof? The apostle Paul warned of “another Jesus.”

Grasp what is at stake ­ here! First, consider Paul’s entire introduction as he sets the stage for the warning that follows: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent [Satan] beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3).

Now for the actual warning in the next verse: “For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him” (2 Cor. 11:4).

The Corinthians seemed to “bear with this” without much ­ resistance.

Paul, under inspiration of the true Jesus of the Bible, was moved to record the peril of unwittingly following “another Jesus.” Consider. Most have probably never remotely considered the idea of a false Jesus for even a ­ moment—that ­ there is such a thing as a wrong, different and “false ­ Jesus” (Matt. 24:23-24) —­ called “another Jesus.”

In the past, this “Jesus” has even corrupted the thinking of true Christians. This much is plain. But the “subtilty” of how this can happen, and how it has occurred in history, is so ­ deceptive, so ­ seductive,­ that even true Christians can unknowingly slip into worshipping this ­ so-­ called Jesus. This is what was happening to the ­ Corinthians.

People can worship in ways that represent things that are far different from what they sincerely believe or intend. Bible “believers” today can think that they are worshipping the true Savior when they are really worshipping a false ­savior, another Jesus!

The entirety of traditional Christianity is actually worshipping Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal on the 25^th day of December.

The modern mother/child “Mary/Jesus” emphasis, including the worshipful adoration of Mary by millions, is a parallel with Nimrod and his mother, Semiramis, that cannot be ­ missed.

You are not celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ at all. And if you are, you are making a mockery of it. You drink more alcohol on His birthday than any other day in the year.

And you have turned the so called birthday of Jesus Christ into a commercial foolishness. Santa Claus has knocked Jesus Christ out of the top spot, and the merchants who don’t even believe in Jesus Christ are busy selling to you foolishness, making themselves richer and making you poorer for another year on the basis of a lie. And that is why they call it Xmas (Ex- mass) because you don’t really know who it is that you are worshipping.

Here is the point of what is being explained. Many speak of “putting Jesus Christ back into Christmas.” This is heard every year from thousands of pulpits and elsewhere. But the true Christ was never there! Just as a person cannot go back into a room that he had never entered, Jesus Christ cannot be “put back” into an event that He has never been in, and that He in fact hates! (Mk. 7:7.)

The truth is that the Jesus that these preachers and religionists have in mind is another Christ, one with another gospel, another spirit — the Christmas spirit — bringing totally different doctrines and teachings. Can you see the connection?

“What is the true reason for this celebration?” It is supposedly because of the “birth” of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Since the Bible did not give any specific date for the birth of Jesus Christ, you should never join the rest of the world to celebrate it on the 25^th of December. You should rather celebrate this great happening everyday of your life. That which the world celebrates on the 25^th of December is a heathen festival called “Christmas.”

What is the meaning of Christmas? Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual festival supposedly to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ (Clement Miles, Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance, New York: Dover Publications, 1976, pp. 178, 263-271).

It is observed most commonly on 25^th December (Nissenbaum, p. 3; Miles, p. 274-5) as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world (Jn. 8:44).

Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people (Addison G. Wright, Roland E. Murphy, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “A History of Israel” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary, (Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990), p. 1247), and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.

"Christmas" is a compound word originating from the term "Christ's Mass". It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038 (Miles, p. 273) followed by the word Cristes-messe in 1131, Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation of Hebrew Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), "Messiah", meaning "anointed" [29] [30] and mæsse is from Latin missa, which is the celebration of the Eucharist.

"Xmas" is an abbreviation of the word “Christmas” found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), "Christ", though numerous style guides discourage its use it has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where "Χρ̄" is an abbreviation for Χριστός).

Here is the point: Since the word Christmas is a combination of Christ and Mass, we can say that Christmas is the Mass or a religious service to mark the birth of Christ.

Listen, the service to commemorate the birth of Christ is not bad. What is bad is the Mass.  

Why? This is because Mass is an abomination to God.

Why is Mass an abomination to God? Mass is an abomination to God because it is a heathen practice that began during the reign of Emperor Constantine of Rome in 325 A.D. It is celebrated according to the Roman custom, and not according to the custom of Christ – the living Word of God.

What is Mass? Mass is the ritual of chants, readings, prayers, and other ceremonies used in the celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church.

The word mass comes from the Latin missa (“sent”). It was taken from the formula for dismissing the congregation: Ite, missa est (“Go, the Eucharist has been sent forth”).

What is the Eucharist? The Eucharist is the sacrament (a visible sign of an inward grace) of Holy Communion; the sacrifice of the Mass; the Lord’s Supper. It is the consecrated elements of the Holy Communion especially the wafer (bread) in the Roman Catholic Church.

For instance, the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, matrimony, penance (a punishment undergone for sin committed), holy orders (the sacrament of ordination), and extreme unction (the anointing of the sick by the Roman Catholic priest).

Now let us consider what happened at the opening of the Vatican II: Pope John XXIII reaffirmed his belief in the doctrines of the Council of Trent (Ad Limina Talks, p. 68). The Council of Trent maintains that Mass is “A true propitiatory sacrifice.”

In Hebrews 10:11, the Bible declares, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”

Again, let us compare what Jesus did and said when He instituted the Lord’s Supper with what the Roman Catholic priest does and says when he celebrates the Mass:

1. Jesus Christ spoke in a loud voice, so that the disciples heard Him. But the Catholic priest mutters in a low secret whisper what are called the words of consecration so that only few of those present can hear or understand what he is saying.

2. Jesus broke the bread before He pronounced the Words, “THIS IS MY BODY,” which the Catholics call the words of consecration, and by virtue of which they say that the bread is transubstantiated (A doctrine that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are changed into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ respectively) into the body of Christ.

And when He had given thanks, Jesus brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24).

But the Catholic priest pronounces these words first, and then handles the Host, to make the people think that he is breaking the body of Christ. So if the pronouncing of the words of consecration is what changes the bread into the body of Christ, the bread that our Lord broke was not so changed, and therefore was a different thing from the Host.

So if the pronouncing of the words of consecration is what changes the bread into the body of Christ, the bread that our Lord broke was not so changed, and therefore was a different thing from the Host.

3. Jesus gave His disciples a cup of wine, saying, “DRINK YE ALL OF THIS.” Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor. 11:23).

And again the Bible says, “As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you shall show (remind yourselves of) the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

It is clear that all present did eat as well as drink. But the Catholic priest alone drinks the “alcoholic” wine, and the laity eats the wafer only.

4. Jesus did not elevate either the bread or the wine. But the Roman Catholic priest lifts up the wafer, and the people worship it; you are expected to say, “My Lord and My God” when the wafer is lifted up.

5. Jesus Christ said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” But the Roman Catholic priest says, “Solemnizing and communicating in the first place the remembrance of the GLORIOUS Mary, EVER VIRGIN.”

6. Jesus did not command the bread to be carried in procession, or say what was to be done with the crumbs. But the Catholic priest carries the Host in procession in all places where the Roman Catholic religion is established. 

There is a Canon in their church, to tell what is to be done when a mouse eats or bites the “body of Christ,” another to direct what is to be done when it is lost, or carried away by the wind; another orders a Catholic priest to swallow a fly or spider if it happens to fall into the cup, unless it turns the stomach; and that if the blood happens to freeze, to wrap the chalice in a hot cloth.

But the most notable one is the one which directs that if the Roman Catholic priest becomes sick and vomits, he is to separate the potions of the Host from the rest of the vomit and swallow them again!

From the above points, it is clear that the celebration of Mass contradicts the Lord’s Supper instituted by Christ Himself. It therefore, contradicts the Word of God.

Look at some of the laws of the Roman Catholic Religion: Generally speaking, they state that the little wafer used in communion (or Mass) and wine is Jesus Christ Himself and contains His “whole divinity.” But Jesus Christ cannot be limited to a tiny wafer and most certainly not to something made with human hands. He is God. He is infinite and omnipresent.

Canon law 1 says, “If anyone denies that in the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure, or force, let him be anathema” (Canons and Decrees of the Council of tent, Original with English translation., by Rev, H. J. Schroeder, O.P., B. Herder Book Co., 1960, p. 79: Canon 1).

Canon law 6 states that the Roman Catholics must worship and adore the wafer and bow down to it (Ibid p. 80). As you can see from Canon law 6, the Catholic priest bears the wafer about in procession and everyone bows down to it as it passes and worship that wafer which is now their “Jesus.”

The communion wafer being carried in procession is called the Eucharist. The wafer itself is in the center of the monstrance, which is the “sun burst” golden container carried by the Catholic priest.

The wafer in the “sun burst” is also worshipped during Benediction which is usually on Sunday evenings. Also, a wafer is usually in a box called a tabernacle at the front (or an accessible place) of every Roman Catholic Church. People bow down before the box. When they do this, they are worshipping the wafer. Since this wafer is really not the true Jesus Christ, they are actually worshipping demons! They are worshipping the three idols of Egypt (IHS – Isis, Horus, and Sepp). This is witchcraft! It is idolatry!

These laws clearly imply that the Mass is actually a sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Rev. Alexander Hislop made some comments about this practice: “If the sun-divinity (Baal) was worshipped in Egypt as the Seed, or in Babylon as the Corn, precisely so is the wafer adored in Rome.

The Mass practiced in Roman Catholicism is almost identical to the custom of a “bloodless sacrifice” practiced in the Roman Empire during the time of the first formation of the Catholic Church. ‘Bread-corn of the elect, have mercy on us,” is one of the appointed prayers of the Roman Litany, addressed to the wafer, in the celebration of the Mass” (The two Babylons, by Rev. Alexander Hislop, Loizeaux Brothers, 1916, p. 163).

Mass in Igbo means Ichu aja (sacrifice). The Mass is considered an actual sacrifice of Jesus Christ each time it is celebrated. It is believed that each time Mass is celebrated, Jesus Christ is sacrificed afresh: He is worn the crown of thorns afresh; He is nailed to the Cross afresh; and He dies afresh.

If this were to be true, then when Mass is celebrated twice in a day, they would have sacrificed Jesus twice in a day. They sacrifice their “Jesus” over and over again each time they celebrate Mass.

But God’s Word declares that Jesus was sacrificed ONCE and for all times (Heb. 9:24-26, 28; 10:10-14).

I can imagine that because Christmas is unscriptural so many ungodly things happen in that season. You’ll notice that:

a) Many ignorant Christians become spiritually weak after the Christmas festivals?

b) Their zeal for the things of God dwindles after the Christmas festivals?

c) We have the greatest manifestations of the works of the flesh during and after the Christmas festivals?

d) We have the greatest number of all forms of accidents at this time of the year?

e) We have the greatest number of fornications and adulteries at this time of the year. The Bible says, “Because they ate and they rose up to play” (Ex. 32:6-7).

f) We have the greatest number of abortions after the Christmas celebrations?

g) We have the highest number of highway robberies at this time of the year?

h) We have the greatest cash flow during Christmas season. Thereafter, there is financial crisis everywhere especially in January?

i) We have the highest number of ritual murders especially of infants at this time of the year? Why? Because of the sacrifice to Satan at this time of the year – the satanic high days!

The Satanists try to desecrate every Christian holiday. At Christmas Satanists sacrifice mostly infant boys to Satan to ridicule the baby, Jesus Christ. And at midnight on the New Year’s Day, similar sacrifices are made to dedicate the New Year to Satan.

In view of all these, as a Christian, are you justified to join in this celebration? As a Christian, you are not supposed to join the multitude (the rest of the world) in this celebration which takes place on the 25^th of December, annually.

Why not? This is because Christmas is all about worshipping a false god which is idolatry! God does not permit His children to be part of idolatry (Ex. 20:1-5). Therefore, don’t follow the multitude to worship the spirit behind Christmas! (Ex. 23:2). Worship only the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

So celebrating Christmas dishonors Christ! He considers everything about it to be an abomination!

Jesus said, “But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9).

Christmas is not a command of God. It is a tradition of men. Christ continued, “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition” (Mk. 7:9).

Every year, throughout the world, on December 25^th, hundreds of millions of people all over the world do just that!

The believer is expected to live a life of non-conformity to the world (Rom. 12:2).

As a believer, you are in the world but not of the world (1 Jn. 15:18-19; Jn. 17:14).

As a believer, any time you desire the things the people of the world are doing, you are backsliding.

Jesus instructed us saying, “Love not the world,…” (1 Jn. 2:15-17). The believer who has made Heaven his/her goal should steer clear from worldliness in all its various forms and shapes.

What is Worldliness? Worldliness is doing things like the people of the world (like the unbelievers). Worldliness is anything that connects you to the world.

Here is the truth: Once you are worldly by any measure, you have declared yourself an enemy of God – you cannot enter Heaven (Jam. 4:4). So if you follow the rest of the world to celebrate the heathen festival called Christmas, you have an eternal problem.

Look at one of God’s promises to anyone that overcomes the world: Jesus said, “He that overcometh (the world) shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son” (Rev. 21:7).

Here is the main point: When you join in this idolatrous worship (custom), you’re simply saying that God is a liar. In Exodus 23:2 God said, “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil” (NLT). KJV puts it this way, “Follow not the way of the heathen.”

Please don’t do something just because everyone else is doing it. You must not let those people persuade you to do wrong things.  You must do what is right and fair. Beware of the negative spirit of Christmas!

Remember, celebrating Christmas with the rest of the world is idolatry.

What is idolatry? Idolatry is the worship of idols or false gods. Idolatry provokes God to anger, and causes Him to visit that sin with extreme judgment, and the consequences are left many centuries after. Idolatry produces many evil consequences in a family line.

Families with idolatrous foundations suffer the following:

a) A family with an idolatrous background suffers multiple sorrows. The sorrows of all who run after other gods will increase. In Psalm 16:4 God said, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god…”

b) Families with idolatrous foundations suffer a lot of setbacks in life. They manifest the near-success syndrome and shameful experiences.

In Isaiah 42:17 God said, “But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,’ will be turned back [hindered] in utter shame.”

Members of such families often experience failure at the brink of success. They receive promises that are repeatedly aborted.

In Psalm 97:7 God said, “Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols…”

c) The source of the curses/judgments that devastate the people of God is idolatry.

Psalm 78:58 says, “For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.”

d) A foundation of idolatry could result in premature deaths in a family. Psalm 78:62 says, “He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance.”

Some families are known to bury someone every year. The deaths in some family lines fall into a pattern. In a particular family, it was noted that people die after every seven years. In some families that is an age sealing that no one exceeds. In some families this age sealing or premature deaths occur in men, but not in women and vice-versa.

e) In some families, the men appear to be tormented by an unseen fire. They experience a tortuous life with nothing going on well for them. Some have tried their hands in virtually everything but ended up in failure or disaster.

Psalm 78:63 says, “The fire consumed their young men…”

f) In some families, ladies do not get married easily. Those who married at all experience broken marriages. Some who have the semblance of marriage are just co-habiting with men. For some few that dared get married, the kind of rejection, hardship they are facing in that marriage makes them wish that they were never married at all.

Psalm 78:63 says, “…and their maidens were not given in marriage.”

g) Even the priests from such families die in such a miserable way that their widows could not mourn them.

Psalm 78:64 says, “Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentations.”

h) In some families, their married daughters and/or ladies married into the family have so much difficulty in conception and delivery. In some families, there are no conceptions at all, while in some other families they are not able to have more than one or two children with so much difficulty. In some families, the few deliveries that have taken place at all have been through caesarean section – sometimes with the surgical cuts inflamed and difficult to heal.

In Hosea 9:11 God said, “As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird – no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.”

God pronounced this curse because of the idolatry of their ancestors in Hosea 9:10 where He said, “O Israel, when I first found you, it was finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted Me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon, they became as vile as the god they worshipped.”

i) In some families, the death of babies is very common during delivery or in latter months/years.

In Hosea 9:12 God said, “Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man.  Yes! woe to them when I depart from them!”

j) God’s angry visitation due to idolatry continues even to the bones of dead men and the survivors of that family. 

In Jeremiah 8:1-3 God said, "At that time, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2 They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. 3 Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them" (NKJV).

These people worshipped idols contrary to God’s warnings.

In Deuteronomy 4:19 it is written, “And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.”

In Deuteronomy 6:14 the Scriptures say, “Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.”

In Exodus 20:1-6 God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the  fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.”

In Deuteronomy 4:15-19 God said, "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw NO FORM when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves A CARVED IMAGE IN THE FORM OF ANY FIGURE: the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water beneath the earth. 19 And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage” (NKJV).

Jeremiah 8:3 shows God’s determination to see to the torture of the idolatrous family to the extent that those who remain would prefer death to their miserable lives. This unfortunately is the picture in many families today.

All idol worshipers shall find their place in the lake of fire.

“But cowards (those who turn back from following Christ; those who are not humble enough to accept the authority of Christ over their lives), unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, IDOL WORSHIPERS, and all liars - their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 21:8).

Beloved, I challenge you to re-examine how you celebrate the Season.

Watch out for the next edition of Good news from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor, H.O.G)) 18.12.2016.                                    

                               

 Questions for you: In view of this truth we have learnt:

1. Should a believer say to people, “Merry or happy Christmas?”
2. Should a believer receive gifts from people at Christmas?
3. Should a believer sow new dresses for Christmas?
4. Should a believer cook special food for Christmas?