(#7)  CHRISTMAS:  What is God’s Scripturally-declared attitude concerning those who celebrate Christmas?  He commands those who truly seek Him to: “… come out from among them and be separate … do not touch that unclean thing–the Counterfeit Church–… (then) I will receive you.  Therefore … let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and embrace holiness in the fear of God.  For what relationship does light have with darkness, righteousness with evil, a believer with an unbeliever?  What agreement does the temple of God have with idols?” (2 Cor. 6:14-18; 7:1).  What is the result of not coming out of Catholicism/Protestantism? for observing the church’s heathen holidays and believing her heathen doctrines that are being exposed in this series?  God answers: “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).  Being religious has no effect on God’s Truth.  Believing that any worship of God is good is like believing that any mushroom is good.

The Apostle Paul tells us that eternal life is available only to those who “… are led by the Spirit of God.”  Only those so led, “… are the sons of God” who “live through (by emulating) Jesus Christ our Lord.”  If one is not living under the Lordship of Christ; if Christ is not one’s Lord (master, ruler), then one is not obeying God, does not belong to Him and does not know Him (1 Jn. 2:4).  Paul stressed that observing heathen holidays and obeying heathen doctrines belies one’s claim of being led by God’s Holy Spirit and proves that Jesus is not the Lord of one’s life.  Note that Paul is writing to God’s church about His church.  Peter noted that among those in the church, “only the righteous will be saved” (1 Pet. 4:18).

If God had commanded the celebration of Jesus’ birth He would not have chosen December 25th as the date on which to do so.  Due to the fact that the shepherds still had their flocks in the field at the time of Jesus’ birth proves that He was born no later than early October.  No less than 7 heathen gods were either born on Dec. 25 or were celebrated on that date.  Only one religion is known to continue the practice today–Christianity–which proclaims the birthdate of her heathen god to be her most cherished holiday.  Second in popularity is her god’s mother–Simiramus–aka “Easter.”

The church loves jolly old St. Nicholas.  To learn about this sugar daddy of a god we must return to the annals of heathenism.  The name “Nicholas” is the conjunction of two Greek words–“nicos” and “laos” which, together mean “conquerer of people.”  Note that in Revelation 2:15 Jesus identifies his followers–the “Nicholaitans”–as people whose doctrines “… I hate.”  The Counterfeit Church loves what Jesus hates.  These are those who “call good evil and evil good, who call light darkness and darkness light ….”

The winter solstice season is important to heathen sun worshipers in that it is the time when the sun (god) is at its (his) lowest relative to location and light/heat production.  In latter December the sun begins to rise higher and produce more heat and light each day.  To the heathen, this symbolizes their god’s “birth.”  The ancestors of modern Sun worshipers adopted Dec. 25th  as the “birth day” of their respective deity.  Tammuz was one such god.  At one point in their apostasy the Israelites worshiped him, even to the point of having “sunrise services” on Dec. 25th.  God reveals His attitude toward Tammuz in Ezekiel 8:14.  This god was very popular among his parishioners because he returned each Dec. 25th to leave gifts beneath trees they had brought into their homes.  Catholics observe Lent in honor of Tammuz’ early death which took place on a Friday and was followed by a supposed miraculous resurrection on the following Sunday.  Sun worshipers continue the custom to this day by observing their god’s death on “good Friday” and his resurrection on Sunday.  Ra, another popular sun god, supposedly castrated himself.  To honor his sacrifice, worshipers hung gold and silver balls on palm trees they had brought into their homes.  Zeus was sun god of the Greeks.  Not surprisingly, he was born on Dec. 25th.  Another sun god born on the appropriate day was Chemos of the Moabites.  Modern day sun worshipers follow the Roman pattern of worship.  Their god, named Mythra, was honored by the sacrifice of children whose parents laid them in his outstretched arms where they burned to death.  To drown out the screams of their dying babies, parents read lists of gifts they asked him to leave them on the night of his birth–Dec. 25th.  Today’s sun worshipers spiritually sacrifice their children by setting them on Mythra’s knee where they tell him what is on their wish list.  The god is the same, only now parents sacrifice their children to him spiritually.

A carryover from the Catholicism’s heathen past is the use of mistletoe which was extremely popular among heathen religions because of its supposed sexual and healing powers.  Kissing under a branch of the fungus was the first step leading to drunken orgies that lasted from Dec. 25 through the new year–the winter solstice.

The sun was by far the most popular god worshiped among the heathen.  Nothing has changed in that regard.  Catholicism/Protestantism is the religion of choice for approximately 50% of the world’s population.  In order to realize this truth one need only watch what takes place each sun god day (Sunday) throughout the so-called “Christian world.”  On that special day billions of sun worshipers flock to the temple of their respective sun god.

Fire has always been popular as a way to worship the sun, especially during the “yule tide season.”  Among the Druids, yule logs were laid end-to-end in a circle and set afire.  The circle of fire and light represented the “newborn sun god” who would rise higher, grow hotter and grow brighter each day.   In Revelation 18:23 we find Jesus pronouncing doom on the great whore (“Christian”) church that, along with the “Beast (a world-ruling government),” would come to rule the world before His return.  He prophesied concerning her destruction: “… and the light of a candle will shine no more in you.”  Candles and yule logs have been replaced by electric lights among those whom Satan has lured into the clutches of “Mystery, Babylon” (Catholicism) and her “harlot daughters” (Protestantism)–Rev. 17:1-5.  God commands that we come out of her and stay out.

The Lord commands us in Jeremiah 10:1-4 to “Learn not the ways of the heathen, for the customs of the (heathen) people are vain, for they take trees out of the forest … deck them with silver and gold and fasten them with hammers and nails.  Sound familiar?

The apostles spent much time warning the churches to “beware,” to “take heed” and “watch” in order not to be taken in by Satan’s false prophets who preach beautiful sermons, head vast, universal churches, perform miracles of healing and deliverance while operating under the “mark of the Beast”–the Sunday Sabbath.  They lead their congregations to observe Satan’s holidays (Sunday Sabbath, Christmas, Easter, etc.) and to reject God’s Holy Days.  By editing God’s Words they convince church people that He has lied to them, just as the Serpent of Eden convinced Adam and Eve that God had lied to them.  By rejecting God’s Words they reveal that they “despise” both the Father and the Son (Lk. 10:16).  Jesus commands those within Satan’s citadels of sin to “… come out of her so that you will not partake of her sins and receive of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4).  COVID-19 is a perfect example of the Lord’s plagues which He is pouring out on sinning man.  From experience I can assure you that being “saved” by church standards does not protect one from the plagues of God.  There is a “great gulf” separating Biblical salvation from church salvation.  They are as different as life and death.  L.J.