rolandtroves.blogspot.com
Last December a well-respected and highly influential pastor in Nigeria stated that Christmas is idolatrous, thus bringing to the fore again the endless argument about the origin of Christmas. I do not respect the pastor less for that view - I am one of the millions who have been greatly blessed through his ministry. However, I feel inclined to use this forum to make my case for Christmas. I will proceed by asking the following questions and attempting to answer them as best and as honestly as I can. I will then proffer my opinion on the subject.
1. Did the date, December 25, have an idolatrous association predating Christ?
2. Was Jesus born on December 25 or any other day in December?
3. Did Jesus command us to celebrate Christmas?
4. Did the early Church ( from the Ascension to 70 AD ) celebrate Christmas?
5. Does Christmas itself have an idolatrous origin?
Q Did the date, December 25, have an idolatrous association predating Christ?
A The honest answer to this question is yes. December 25 was the day when the ancient Romans celebrated the rebirth or reborn of the Unconquerable Sun ( Sol Invictus ). Sol is the Latin for sun, while the Greek word is Helios. Simply put, the date was the occasion for celebrating the sun god ( Shamash, to the ancient Mesopotamians ). This event was preceded by the Saturnalia, a Roman festival honouring the fertility god, Saturn. This involved days of revelries terminating on December 23.
Q Was Jesus born on December 25 or any other day in December?
A No. Historical facts suggest that Jesus was likely to have been born between September and October.
Q Did Jesus command us to celebrate Christmas?
A No, Jesus did not command us to celebrate Christmas.
Q Did the early Church ( from the Ascension to 70 AD ) celebrate Christmas?
A No, there is no biblical record stating or even suggesting that the early Church celebrated Christmas.
Q Does Christmas itself have an idolatrous origin?
A No, Christmas itself does not have an idolatrous origin. The name Christmas is a combination of 'Christ' and 'mass'. The word mass derives from the Late Latin 'missa', meaning dismissal. Empirically, however, it has come to assume a celebratory denotation. In summation therefore, Christmas, which probably started some 200 years after the birth of Jesus, was then, and still is, the celebration of Christ. It was around 529 AD that Emperor Justinian declared Christmas a public holiday.
The Christians who argue against Christmas do so not because they don't know the meaning of the word, but simply because they view it as a compromise idea concocted by the Romans in an attempt to unite the pagans and Christians in their empire. But however subtle or elaborate that compromise may have been, I believe it is incontrovertible that Jesus was and remains the central focus of Christmas.
After Naaman was healed of his leprosy, and resolved to serve the God of Israel, he expressed one of the characteristic worries of a new convert.
But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my
master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning
on my arm and I bow there also - when I bow down in the temple of
Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this. [ II Kg 5:18 ]
Prophet Elisha's response in verse 19 to this worry was: 'Go in peace'. Now why did he give Naaman such an answer? Because the prophet understood that even when Naaman was forced to bow his head to Rimmon, he was bowing his heart to God.
When we pretend to understand all the principles of godliness, we miss very important messages from God. Becoming too fixated on what December 25 meant to the ancient Roman pagans has made some Christians to miss the message of Jesus in Mark 2:27, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath'. The Roman pagans had no monopoly on December 25. In a quest to make the glory of God fill the earth, the Church of Jesus had a divine prerogative to redefine that date, and with the instrumentality of a Roman Emperor, it did. The way the ancient Israelites redefined the land of Canaan when they possessed it. I believe we will do well as a Church to recognize the redefinition of December 25 as a victory for believers in Christ.
Since we do not know for sure the actual date of Christ's birth, we are at liberty to choose a date to commemorate that glorious event. Jesus didn't have to command us to do that, we do it to demonstrate that we love Him, that we understand the eternal significance of His birth, and that we are grateful to God for it. Your loved ones don't need to wait for your request before organizing a birthday party for you. The early Church did not celebrate Christmas in their time because the Church was still in its formative years, trying to fully define itself and its role in those tumultuous times of the Roman Empire.
The anti-Christmas group in the Church of Christ who hold services on Sunday have either chosen to ignore or are probably unaware of the fact that Sunday itself used to be a pagan Roman holiday. They called it 'dies solis'. that is sun's day. If this anti-Christmas group has nothing against holding church services on Sunday, why then is it wrong to celebrate Christ's birth on December 25?
I make the same argument for Easter, the occasion when we commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That time of the year corresponds with the time when the ancient Babylonians held festivities honouring their god, Tammuz, who was brought back to life by his mother, Ishtar ( pronounced eesta, the name from which Easter was derived ). Again I ask, If we have no problem whatsoever holding services to worship our God on a day ( Sunday ) originally dedicated to celebrating the sun god, why should we hesitate to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus at a time
( Easter ) devoted in ancient times to honouring Tammuz?
I end by repeating these words of Christ: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.***
Sources: rcg.org; wikipedia.org; encyclopedia mythica ( www.pantheon.org );
thefreedictionary.com; the Good News ( UCG.ORG ); www.straightdope.com.
Wednesday 8 January 2014
Wednesday 1 January 2014
FORGIVENESS IS EARNED
rolandtroves.blogspot.com
In social interactions we sometimes offend and are offended. That is why those who teach values in society taught us to say 'sorry'. Being sorry of course presupposes that we realized that we have offended; that we are remorseful. But being sorry and actually saying we are sorry could be as far apart as the South Pole from the North Pole.
When we offend or hurt someone, it is not enough for us to feel sorry or remorseful about the offence. We need to take the crucial step of telling the offended party that we are sorry. Saying we are sorry implies that we seek forgiveness from the one we have offended. Some people will even go further by actually asking for forgiveness. But whether or not we ask for forgiveness, sincerely saying that we are sorry for our offence is usually sufficient to earn us forgiveness.This has long been the moral and biblical prerequisite for forgiveness. It is therefore baffling to see that urging someone to forgive those who wrong them has now
been reduced to psychobabble.
The following are some relevant scriptures.
So they sent word to Joseph, saying "....Now please forgive the sins of the servants
of the God of your father". When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
[ Gen 50:16 - 17 ]
If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands.....
He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock.... the priest will
make atonement for him..... and he will be forgiven. [ Lev 5:17 - 18 ]
Aaron .... said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have
foolishly committed. [ Num 12:10 - 11 ]
When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have
sinned against you, and when they pray....and confess your name and turn from
their sin....then....forgive the sin of your servants.....[ II Chr 6:26 - 27 ]
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain.....if my people.....will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
[ II Chr 7:13 - 14 ]
.....I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have
committed against you. [ Neh 1:6 ]
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your
great compassion blot out my transgression. [ Ps 51:1 ]
But unless you repent, you.....will all perish. [ Lk 13:5 ]
If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against
you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent',
forgive him. [ Lk 17:3 - 4 ]
From a purely biblical point of view therefore, it is very disturbing when someone is being asked to forgive somebody for an offence they are not sorry for. To be sure, forgiveness is not a light switch that the aggrieved party can simply flip on or off at will. It is something that can only be evoked by repentance. Forgiveness is the reward of repentance.
The question arises: How do I forgive someone who offended me long ago and with whom I no longer have any contact whatsoever? Unless a part of you perceives in any way that the offender, with whom you no longer have contact, now feels remorse for what he did, you will not be able to forgive him. Or the question: How do I forgive someone who is dead? The simple answer is, you can't. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it, beside letting God heal your wounds and moving on with your life.
How can you honestly say you have forgiven someone who robbed you blind and is boasting to his friends about his prowess, while you languish in financial misery? How do you forgive a faceless arsonist who made all your belongings to go up in flames? Granting forgiveness is not a cosmetic act. Indeed there are offences that people commit for which repentance is not sufficient atonement. They will still need to do what is called restitution. This is a form of restoration which involves giving back what we have wrongfully taken.
Your inability to forgive in the absence of repentance is not something God holds against you, as the common practice seems to suggest. God does not expect you to grant forgiveness where there is no repentance. If God cannot forgive us unless we repent, how can we be expected to do otherwise? The emotional turmoil we sometimes feel because of the hurts we suffered in the past is not partly or wholly brought on by our inability to forgive the ones who hurt us. It is simply because the hurts are emotional wounds which need time and therapy to heal.
If the offenders endeavour to summon the courage to send you a message or even come to you to tell you they are sorry, in such a situation, that becomes part of your healing process. If not, you will find your healing through other means. There are different kinds of drug for an ailment. Don't let anyone bully you, through whatever guise, into granting forgiveness that has not been provoked by repentance. That is not in your power to do. ***
In social interactions we sometimes offend and are offended. That is why those who teach values in society taught us to say 'sorry'. Being sorry of course presupposes that we realized that we have offended; that we are remorseful. But being sorry and actually saying we are sorry could be as far apart as the South Pole from the North Pole.
When we offend or hurt someone, it is not enough for us to feel sorry or remorseful about the offence. We need to take the crucial step of telling the offended party that we are sorry. Saying we are sorry implies that we seek forgiveness from the one we have offended. Some people will even go further by actually asking for forgiveness. But whether or not we ask for forgiveness, sincerely saying that we are sorry for our offence is usually sufficient to earn us forgiveness.This has long been the moral and biblical prerequisite for forgiveness. It is therefore baffling to see that urging someone to forgive those who wrong them has now
been reduced to psychobabble.
The following are some relevant scriptures.
So they sent word to Joseph, saying "....Now please forgive the sins of the servants
of the God of your father". When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
[ Gen 50:16 - 17 ]
If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands.....
He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock.... the priest will
make atonement for him..... and he will be forgiven. [ Lev 5:17 - 18 ]
Aaron .... said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have
foolishly committed. [ Num 12:10 - 11 ]
When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have
sinned against you, and when they pray....and confess your name and turn from
their sin....then....forgive the sin of your servants.....[ II Chr 6:26 - 27 ]
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain.....if my people.....will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
[ II Chr 7:13 - 14 ]
.....I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have
committed against you. [ Neh 1:6 ]
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your
great compassion blot out my transgression. [ Ps 51:1 ]
But unless you repent, you.....will all perish. [ Lk 13:5 ]
If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against
you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent',
forgive him. [ Lk 17:3 - 4 ]
From a purely biblical point of view therefore, it is very disturbing when someone is being asked to forgive somebody for an offence they are not sorry for. To be sure, forgiveness is not a light switch that the aggrieved party can simply flip on or off at will. It is something that can only be evoked by repentance. Forgiveness is the reward of repentance.
The question arises: How do I forgive someone who offended me long ago and with whom I no longer have any contact whatsoever? Unless a part of you perceives in any way that the offender, with whom you no longer have contact, now feels remorse for what he did, you will not be able to forgive him. Or the question: How do I forgive someone who is dead? The simple answer is, you can't. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it, beside letting God heal your wounds and moving on with your life.
How can you honestly say you have forgiven someone who robbed you blind and is boasting to his friends about his prowess, while you languish in financial misery? How do you forgive a faceless arsonist who made all your belongings to go up in flames? Granting forgiveness is not a cosmetic act. Indeed there are offences that people commit for which repentance is not sufficient atonement. They will still need to do what is called restitution. This is a form of restoration which involves giving back what we have wrongfully taken.
Your inability to forgive in the absence of repentance is not something God holds against you, as the common practice seems to suggest. God does not expect you to grant forgiveness where there is no repentance. If God cannot forgive us unless we repent, how can we be expected to do otherwise? The emotional turmoil we sometimes feel because of the hurts we suffered in the past is not partly or wholly brought on by our inability to forgive the ones who hurt us. It is simply because the hurts are emotional wounds which need time and therapy to heal.
If the offenders endeavour to summon the courage to send you a message or even come to you to tell you they are sorry, in such a situation, that becomes part of your healing process. If not, you will find your healing through other means. There are different kinds of drug for an ailment. Don't let anyone bully you, through whatever guise, into granting forgiveness that has not been provoked by repentance. That is not in your power to do. ***
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