And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephesians 5:11
Introduction:
1.It is extremely confusing and embarrassingly inconsistent to see those who position themselves as defenders of the faith, to suddenly, at this time of the year, desert their post, join hands with enemies of the cross of Christ and become the defenders of Catholic CHRI$T-MA$$.
2.Many will valiantly cry out against the Roman Catholic System. They blast “the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17) all year long, then, as the year comes to a close, you see them embracing Rome’s biggest, most blasphemous, fleshly, lying abomination of them all, CHRI$T-MA$$.
3.In his efforts to defend CHRI$T-MA$$ one of our present day penman wrote. “The would-be defenders of the faith make better use of the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ and Hislop’s ‘Two Babylons’ than they do the Bible,” (Christmas by Herb Evans). Well, my friend, what could you use to document your defense, promotion, embracing and contending FOR CHRI$T-MA$$? Please send us any Bible verse that sanction and endorse this abomination of the earth.
4.These CHRI$T-MA$$ defenders remind me of those who supposedly fight alcohol and the booze industry, and yet eat at places where intoxication beverages are sold, or buy groceries and gas at booze joints. The Bible designation for such is “hypocrites”.
5.The CHRI$T-MA$$ crowd, in their debate defense of this annual orgy of materialism and flesh cannot use their favorite debate weapon, which is, “Oh, the Catholics do that.” CHRI$T-MA$$ is Catholic! They can’t deny that, or produce one Scripture in favor of their own practice. They must pull another rabbit out of their hat. Their next strategic move is to classify those who do not observe CHRI$T-MA$$ with extremists, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Herb W. Armstrong and Calvinists. The deceptive picture is painted that only a few little ignorant nobodies who don’t know the difference between a cult and a church rejects this celebration. It is interesting to note that in 1919, Dr. Ironside, pastor of Moody Memorial Church (Chicago), taught his congregation that “Such a festival came under the condemnation of Galatians 4:9-11, and should have no place in a Christian church.” (Romanism vs. Apostolic Christianity, Helgerson).
“For a long time, the Puritan influence prevailed in America. Not until the 19th century did the observance of CHRI$T-MA$$ begin to become popular in America. This is due to the immigration from Europe by folk who practiced this tradition.” (ibid)
So while the debaters vainly beat the air in their efforts to justify themselves in their allegiance to the unfruitful works of darkness, let us proceed to consider the Antichrist CHRI$T-MA$$ from the following three aspects:
1.THE CATHOLIC CHRIST-MA$$
A. The name is Catholic.
“Christmas – Annual festival kept on December 25 in commemoration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. The old English form Cristes-Maesse, i.e., Mass of Christ, is first found in 1038. The observance of Christmas as a Christian festival dates from the 4th century.” (Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 254)
“Christmas (i.e. the Mass of Christ) was not among the earliest festivals of the church.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
B.It is Catholic blasphemy.
The Catholic mass is blasphemy! The Christ-Mass is double blasphemy. You may ask, “Why do you say that?” Just think about it for a moment.
The Catholic mass requires the crucifixion of Christ again and again as the priest lifts the wafer host and prays for its consecration. They claim that the wafer becomes the literal flesh of Christ and the intoxicating wine turns into His blood. Christ is offered a regular sacrifice for sins by their claims. This is blasphemy because the Bible says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14) “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” (Hebrews 9:28a)
To use the term, Christ-Mass, is to imply that Christ was a sinner and has to be offered for His own sins. That is a double blasphemy at least. For it is written, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22).
No wonder Pastor Helgerson warns in his Romanism vs. Apostolic Christianity, “Christmas is not of the Lord. We ought to avoid even the use of the term so far as possible. Furthermore, it ought not to be observed by an informed Bible believing church any more than the Muslim Feast of Ramadan.”
C. Before the Fourth century there was no such celebration among Christians, but there was among heathen.
“After Constantine became the Emperor of Rome, he forced all pagans of his empire to be baptized into [his favored] Christian Church. Thus baptized pagans [soon] far outnumbered the true Christians.
“Since the church worshipped the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, when the 25th of December rolled around and the pagans wanted to worship Tammuz, their sun-god, Constantine knew that he would have to do something. So, he had [his] church combine the worship of Tammuz with the birthday of Christ, and a special mass was declared to keep everyone happy [and drunk]. Thus, into the ‘Christian’ church pagan worship was brought and called Christ-mass.” (The Message of the Christian Jew)
The Babylonian mother-child religion was wrapped in a Christian name and the heathen loved it. So did the Catholics. Thus we have CHRI$T-MA$$.
II. THE COMMERCIAL CHRI$T-MA$$
A. The liquor stores are stocking up for the big CHRI$T-MA$$ rush. The street decorations go up earlier each year. Many towns have candy sticks, trees and wreaths up well in advance of Thanksgiving now.
In the article, “The God Man Has Made” there is a picture of a man in a business suit who is labeled commercialism, with an old tire pump and he is inflating the god of CHRI$T-MA$$.
B.Japan: “Though Christians number only approximately one-half of one
Percent of the population, more and more of the city people celebrate
Christmas. The stores foster it because gift-giving increases sales and
because the Japanese are naturally gift-givers. And since one of the tenets
of the Buddhist religion is to be polite to other gods, there is no religious
barrier.
“To many who celebrate with gift and greeting, Christmas means no
more than the celebrating of the birthday of a great man. Japan, like the
United States, is a prosperous country, and as a country becomes
prosperous, Christmas tends to become more commercial.” (Christmas
Here & There)
C. “If all the stores closed and no one could buy anything and all parties
were outlawed, the spirit and celebration of Christmas would be appreciably diminished… the only time we buy in frenzy is that period
between Thanksgiving and December 24th.” (Ft. Worth Star Telegram)
III. THE CHRISTIAN CHRI$T-MA$$
This is a misnomer of the worst sort, but sad to say the $$ signs do get into Christmas realms. “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:10
There is a lot of compromise among Christians when it comes to CHRI$T-MA$$!
A. There is the compromise of conformity. The celebration of CHRI$T-MA$$ by a Christian is conformity with the world. CHRI$T-MA$$ is not of God. It is not based on the Word of God. It is a religion of Satan, the god of this world, and yet many Christians go right along with it. They don’t want to appear to be odd balls. They don’t want to go across the grain. They want to get along with the world. If you are going to get along with this world you will just about have to bow to its CHRI$T-MA$$ god.
B. There is the compromise of silence. Many know that CHIR$T-MA$$ is wrong; that it is of a pagan origin; that it is a blasphemous lie from start to finish, yet they keep silent on the subject. These are your politician pulpiteers and pew warmers. They won’t jeopardize their position or standing in the community or church. They like to identify with both crowds. These are fence straddlers.
C.Then there is the compromise for money. Some will write tracts, articles, and books in defense of the CHRI$T-MA$$ tree because of their supporters. $upport might be hindered if they said it was wrong.
Some radio and TV ministries depend on the CHRI$T-MA$$ money to keep them going. Any ministry that is dependent upon CHRI$T-MA$$ dollars is on spiritual shaky ground. When Bible believing Christians depend on CHRI$T-MA$$ dollars they are at a low ebb of faith. A ministry dependent on CHRI$T-MA$$ gifts to keep going is like a preacher boy depending on his wife to work and put him through college. Both demand compromise of the Bible for dollars.
Conclusion:
- Emphasis on December 25th as the birth date of Christ is a satanic strategy to deceive concerning His eternal existence, and His deity. Satan would love to keep Him in a manger. Satan majors on sentiments and emotions related to the babe in the manger and gifts to children in the propagation of his CHRI$T-MA$$ LIE.
- Emphasis on Christ’s birth in December is to deceive concerning His purpose for coming to earth. Most people’s knowledge of and interest in Christ stops at the manger.
- Christ went all the way to Calvary, and died for the sins of the whole world. He arose from the dead after three days. Has Satan detained you at the manger? No one is saved from their sins at the manger. Go on to Calvary, in accordance with the Scripture!
-By Raymond Blanton
(DH Editor)