CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE: 2nd Week of December (Part 4)

CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK: I will getting into the Scriptures hard and heavy in about two more posts. Before I start the defense using Scriptures I have wanted to lay out the foundation that keeps many people from receiving illumination and revelation concerning doctrinal truth. One of the problems I have experienced within the body of Christ is that we are all teachable as long as someone teaches what we already believe.

Many Christians already have their mind made up pertaining to what they believe concerning the doctrine of seasons, feasts, and holidays. These beliefs may have been passed down from family members, from a church or denomination, or come from their own personal experiences. In any of these examples, the doctrine established typically has an emotional bond associated with it. Those holding to these doctrines may not be able to produce a Scriptural basis for what they believe or why they believe it, but they are unwilling to change due to the emotional or mental bond. What they hold to may be nothing more than meaningless erroneous ideas all the way to demonic practices, all of which were picked up somewhere in their Christian walk. This emotional or mental bond is sometimes expressed verbally as an intellectual argument, but lacks the ability to be substantiated with Scriptures or historical facts.

Although Christians cannot Biblically or historically substantiate their doctrine and belief in their Christmas traditions, many are quick to verbally attack those who teach the Biblical truth concerning the birth of our Lord. I have been called a religious fanatic and a cult leader, among other names, because of my Biblical stand against the feast of Christmas. I had Christian brothers separate themselves from me and disfellowship from me because of my stand. It was not that I was preaching or teaching them in an effort to draw them away from practicing Christmas. The separation came because I would not join in their celebration.

That is the way it is with the flesh. If everyone around us does not participate and endorse in what we are doing than the easiest thing to do is to eliminate them from the equation. It happened to John the Baptist, to Jesus and to the disciples. It works like this. First, there is the attempt to discredit the message. If one cannot discredit the message then comes the attempt to discredit the messenger. If one cannot discredit the messenger, the next step is to remove the messenger from the circle of friends and activity. Watch this process as you read the gospels with John, Jesus and the disciples versus the kings and religious leaders.

The challenge for the week is to do historical background on the Christmas feast that is celebrated in December and the actual original feast tied to December 25th. Investigate how Christ's birth got tied to this feast and what religious group made it happen. (Who gave us the current holiday we celebrate on December 25th). And ask why it was outlawed for so long here in America. All of this can be found on your Google search engines or your encyclopedia. More later.