25th of December, is the day the world calls “Christmas.” So today we want to take a closer look at that word “CHRISTMAS!”
The Bible declares, “Beware (watch out) lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8, KJV).
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.
But the big question is: 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!
Is the word “Christmas” found in the Bible? No! It is not found anywhere in the Bible. Now, if Christmas is not Scriptural, where then does it come from? Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion.
In the year 325 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine tried to do away with paganism so that he can make Christianity the major religion in the world.
Prior to that time, the biggest festival in the land was that called Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the time the sun stands still.
This festival was to honour Saturn, the god of the sun. Because Constantine wanted to make Christianity the most powerful religion on earth, he incorporated this heathen festival into the Roman Catholic Church. He slammed the Roman Catholic holiday on the pagan holiday so that it will be easier for people to convert to Catholicism.
A pagan is anyone holding religious beliefs that contradicts the Word of God. It means a heathen, an idolater, and an infidel. Pagans worshipped the Sun.
At this time, the Sun is in a very specific position in the Sky. Saturn is the Roman god of harvest and reaping of the hay. The word Saturday was named after his name Saturn. Sunday is named after the Sun.
So, Constantine thought saying, “Since everyone is already celebrating it at this time, let’s make it the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.”
So, Christmas is actually the celebration of Saturn (the sun). People celebrate Christmas on December the 25th because it was a pagan sun-worshipping holiday that the Roman Catholic Church incorporated in order to convert the heathens to Catholicism.
This is exactly why you should not celebrate this Christianized pagan holiday. It is a Roman custom catholicized by the Roman Catholics. God forbids it because it is a heathen festival. It is idolatry!
And idolatry has terrible consequences:
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 (Ps. 78:58).
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 (Ps. 78:63).
g) Even the priests from such families die in such a miserable way that their widows could not mourn them (Ps. 78:64).
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 caesarian section – sometimes with the surgical cuts inflamed and difficult to heal (Hos. 9:11).
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 (Hos. 9:12).
j) God’s angry visitation due to idolatry continues even to the bones of dead men and the survivors of that family (Jer. 8:1-3).
These people worshipped idols contrary to God’s warnings (Deut. 4:19, 14).
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)
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