The Christmas Story

1. Santa Claus: Selling the nonsense that people love

An obese man in a red suit from a Coca-Cola advertisement has become more popular than the tooth-rotting soft drink that he once promoted. Millions of people now like the nonsense story of a Santa Claus who lives at the North pole and travels all over the world on Christmas eve in a flying sleigh pulled by flying reindeer to deliver presents down chimneys to children who have been "good." He supposedly knows if you have been naughty or nice, but you have to write a letter to him to tell him what toys you want. Many parents think that they have to go along with all this foolishness, and claim that they do it "for the children." Many parents are forever willing to go along with all sorts of lies and nonsense "for the children" but are never concerned about providing the truth for their children.

Toys are not made at the North pole by happy elves, but rather in China by people working in factories with long hours and low pay. Since Santa Claus is a myth, parents themselves have to perpetuate the lies and nonsense they have told by dressing up like the fat man in red and buying lots of toys and other gifts with their own money, or credit cards. The buying frenzy is promoted heavily each year by greedy, lying merchants who will sell just about anything for money.

It looks like the people of this age are as much into celebrating nonsense as were the people of past ages who would worship whatever ridiculous god they made up. Why do people love such crazy ideas as Santa Claus--rather than God--knowing whether you have been naughty or nice? Do they think that Santa Claus might be easier to manipulate than God? Why do so many people just love such complete nonsense? The answer is found in the New Testament of the Bible:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:3-4, NIV).

2. Pushing Nativity scenes as a Santa Claus alternative

Each year in December, if not sooner, there is a great rush to the stores to buy things. People ask, "Have you got your Christmas shopping done yet?" The amount of buying is so great that even Pope Benedict XVI said in 2005 that Christmas festivities had been polluted by consumerism. He suggested that instead of getting carried away by all the commercialism of the season, people should assemble a "Nativity scene" in their home to get back to the "true spirit" of Christmas.

Benedict XVI is not the only one to publicly express this idea. This is the same as that boring Charlie Brown Christmas show on television each year, where Linus tells Chuck about the "true meaning of Christmas." Like Benedict, he thinks that the answer is to get away from all the shopping, and focus on remembering the birthday of someone who was lying in a manger.

Many people get caught up in whatever nonsense is going on around them. They join in without thinking about what they are doing. However, when it is pointed out to them that it is all a bunch of foolishness, some of the religious ones will then think about the matter a little bit and fall back on the idea that they are remembering Jesus' birthday. They just got carried away and forgot about it for a while, and did not know what they were doing or why they were doing it. They temporarily lost their minds and had an urge to join the maddening crowd and shop till they drop, or until their credit card limit gets exceeded. The godless types, on the other hand, don't care how foolish something is, and return to their shopping.

3. The religious angle: Ignorant hypocrites pretending to be righteous

Many people like to talk about the "true meaning of Christmas," and about "putting Christ back into Christmas." Popish persons like Benedict and cartoon characters like Linus are of this sort. This might initially sound good, but the more one looks into things, the worse the deception turns out to be. Benedict also believes in observing Sunday rather than the biblical Sabbath. And the biblically illiterate Linus now believes in the Great Pumpkin, a product of his own warped imagination. Since he spoke out so rashly against the commercialism of Christmas, he now has to hope for toys at another time from this other source.

The Bible gives a couple accounts of the birth of Jesus. One is in the first two chapters of the book of Matthew and the other is in the first two chapters of the book of Luke. Neither account tells exactly when Jesus was born. In fact, the Bible nowhere gives the date of his birth, though some things suggest that it was in the fall. It would not have been in the winter time since there were still shepherd's out in the fields watching over their flocks at night. The December 25 date, Christmas trees, mistletoe, Yule logs, etc. are not of biblical origin. The wise men gave their gifts to Jesus who was born King of the Jews. They did not exchange the gifts among themselves, or give them to their own children, or tell lies about Santa Claus bringing them.

Many Christmas songs that have been made up contain untruths. People then hear singing about the "silent night, holy night" and think it is a special time when stores should be closed and people should not work. They hear that, "Mary's boy-child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day." Even when they are told that the exact date of Jesus' birth is unknown, many people still think that it is a good thing to remember it. Actually, the Bible nowhere says to remember it. If Jesus' birthday was supposed to be remembered and observed, the Bible would have said when it was. In fact, the only two clear mentions in the Bible of anyone ever observing any birthday are the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh in Genesis 40:20-22 (at which time he hanged his chief baker), and the story of Herod in places like Matthew 14:6-11, (at which time he beheaded John the baptizer). The Bible does contain the dates (on the Hebrew calendar) of the festivals that God does want people to remember, but they usually don't want anything to do with those customs.

This brings us to the question, "Where did these things come from?" Again, the New Testament of the Bible has the answer. To repeat a couple verses, the Bible says:

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (II Timothy 4:3-4, NIV).

The Bible does not really have a so-called Christmas story. Rather, a man-made Christmas story gets read into the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus. Religious goofs and impostors like to pretend that they love Jesus so much that they want to observe His birthday. This is supposed to sound good. It is supposed to impress people. They don't want anyone asking them why they don't observe the things that the Bible commands them to, if they really love God so much. They don't like to be questioned about why they hate and reject the festivals that God did give, and that Jesus and his followers observed, and instead insist on showing their devotion by doing unbiblical, pagan-based things that the Bible nowhere says to do. Fortunately, the Bible is just full of answers. Jesus explained all about these hypocrites who reject the commandments of God and instead observe their own traditions:

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men" (Mark 7:6-7, NIV).

Almost everybody seems to watch television and be influenced by it. One cartoon show tries to give children, and adults, the impression that anyone who is opposed to Christmas is a "grinch." The truth is that the real grinches--Satan and his demons--are trying to steal God's biblical festivals from the people and replace them with unbiblical, pagan-based nonsense like Christmas.

4. SDA Church: Brain-damaged woman shoves a tree in their face

While the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church may not consider Christmas to be an "official" custom of the SDA church, most SDA's do observe it. The SDA prophetess Ellen G. White (EGW) did not understand the things that a true prophet of God would. In the early years of the SDA church she taught that there was not necessarily anything wrong with a fragrant evergreen tree at the front of the church with gifts to God on it. No doubt, she thought this was a really clever thing to say. It looks like the rock that hit her in the face in her youth led to some brain damage. While she probably did not understand the serious implications of what she was saying, you can be sure that the evil, lying spirit that was guiding her did. Thus, in her unthinking ignorance, she burdened the SDA church with unbiblical, pagan-based practices.

One year around December, an SDA minister was asking members of his congregation, "And what does Christmas mean to you?" The most memorable response was from an old man who stood up and said that when he came out of the Catholic church and put away its pagan customs he put away Christmas along with them. The surprised minister had been looking for fluffier answers, but quickly regained his composure and went on to ask the next person. Some SDAs do know the truth about Christmas, but they cannot overcome the strong, controlling influence of EGW.

One black boy from Africa ended up as a doctor and member of the SDA church in North America. SDA missionaries in Africa had come and told the people of his village that they had to renounce and abandon all their previous ways and go by the Bible and the Bible only. This he had tried to do. When he came to North America, he discovered that many of the SDAs over here had held on to unbiblical, pagan-based customs like Christmas. While telling other people around the world to go by the Bible and the Bible only, they had not done so themselves. The doctor gave a sermon about the topic, in which he mentioned that he finds that while some SDAs like what he has to say against the custom, many others do not.

Some so-called SDAs don't seem to have any idea what they are doing, and consequently make a real mess of things. One chaplain at a Seventh Day Adventist institution had come to the job from a family of Sunday-keepers. He had a Festive Favorites song book for this season that mixed together songs like Here comes Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in the first section with songs like We Three Kings and Silent Night, Holy Night in the second section. It is just not possible to take seriously such clowns who are so mixed up and full of nonsense. He tells his audiences that he loves Christmas and loves singing Christmas carols, but one individual claimed to have been told by him that he does not want anything to do with Christmas. Maybe these ministers will do anything for a paycheck. This guy was actually the son of a Sunday-keeping minister. When he wanted a job, he ended up in the SDA church for the money. Later, when he wanted sex, he took a trip to Cambodia and married a Buddhist girl.

5. COG (Seventh Day): A dead church tries to talk, but just decays more

Some people like to say that the Church of God (Seventh Day) (COG7) is still alive. After all, it had its name listed in the 1995 Seventh Edition of the Directory of Sabbath-Observing Groups. So, some people keep on insisting that there are still some signs of life within it. The problem is that most of the "activity" within the COG7 seems to be worms trying to feast on the dead body. The COG7 formerly shunned Christmas. Now, however, it has some leaders and writers who are trying to change drastically various teachings of the COG7, and bring in things like Christmas observance. The COG7 has had some pretty smooth writings in the past, with the occasional unavoidable lump slipped in from time to time, usually in one or two quick sentences that it was hoped nobody would notice or fuss about too much. Lately, however, the lumps and bumps have been increasing greatly with the amount of lies and nonsense that wicked people are trying to bring in, and could make for a rocky road ahead.

Someone named Richard Cress wrote an article called Reason on the Season for the July-August 2004 issue of the COG7's Bible Advocate (BA) magazine. In large print under the title he wrote, "The problems associated with Christmas and Easter should not keep us from celebrating Christ's birth and resurrection." And so the clever reasoning goes. This is an interesting statement, considering that they produced a booklet that suggested that it would be wrong to say we should observe the festivals that God gave in the Old Testament of the Bible, and that Jesus observed in the New Testament of the Bible, but that they don't want to remember. The Bible does not say to observe Jesus' birthday. In fact, it does not say exactly when it was, though some biblical indications are that it was in the fall. The Bible also does not really say to observe Jesus' resurrection either. In the Bible, Jesus taught his followers to remember his death until he comes. But, again, the COG7 never did want to remember all the biblical customs that God instituted. And now, it wants to bring in unbiblical, pagan-based customs that the Bible never commanded, or even allowed. In grossest darkness, the worms in this dead body try to say that such things are not expressly forbidden.

6. Worldwide Church of God: Dazzled by the Christmas lights

The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) had taught against customs like Christmas for just over fifty years while Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) was the leader. He wrote a booklet called The Plain Truth About Christmas, which can be read at a number of different Web sites. In much writing, error is not absent. HWA got much of what he learned from other people. HWA appears to have copied the idea from some other book when he wrote in his Christmas booklet that Jeremiah 10:2-6 contained "a perfect description of the Christmas tree." People now say that when they looked into it and read all of Jeremiah 10:1-16, especially in other translations, they came to the conclusion that it was actually talking about carved idols overlaid with silver and gold rather than about a Christmas tree decked with tinsel. Feeling that they have found a fault with his teachings, they then dismiss everything else that HWA wrote, and go ahead and observe Christmas. They don't stop to think that Santa Claus does not exist. They don't stop to think that the Bible does not even say when Jesus was born, much less tell anyone to observe that date. They don't want to think about where the December 25 date came from, or where the Christmas tree came from.

After HWA's death in 1986, Joseph Tkach, Sr. took over and changed virtually all the teachings of the church. Now, the WCG observes Christmas. One web site showed a picture of one of HWA's old houses now decorated with Christmas lights. Guys who remained in the WCG now find that their wives there want them to put up Christmas trees and Christmas lights. The thinking of one supposedly well-educated speaking instructor in one WCG congregation was simply that "Christmas lights look kind of pretty." This demonstration of the thinking ability of WCG members suggests that there is no hope for the WCG.