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The
Word of Truth Ministries | |
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We
so Easily Dismiss the Things of God [Mat. 15:6] |
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Some time ago, I was having final discussions with a student as the semester came to an end. She said something I thought absurd, so I snickered at it. She said that she and her husband were celebrating Christmas and that they celebrate Christmas by having a birthday cake for Christ and wishing him happy birthday on Christmas day. That idea seems so biblically absurd I snicker even now--a birthday cake for Jesus on December 25, Christmas? I said to her, as a matter of fact, that Jesus was not born December 25 or near it; he was probably born around September-October, and that can be discerned through a reading of the conditions found in scriptures and a study of climatic conditions during September-October and contrast those conditions with the climatic conditions of December-January. Furthermore, December 25th was celebrated long before Jesus was born; a study of rituals and practices of Zoroastrianism and other pagan religions will show that December 25th was a pagan day and ceremony. Before I could go on, she had dismissed these truths as unimportant and not to intrude on her conformity to some customs of this world, even though she persisted that she was a Christian. The tragedy is that she probably is today's typical Christian: one willing to use any tortured reasoning and rationalization to justify living as they want to live outside of God's Word and still call themselves saved/Christian to take away their reproach. [Isa. 4] She is one of millions who have a mindset and mental gestalts that allow her/them to dismiss any truth of God that is inappropriate at a certain time and situation and still call herself a Christian while they engage in the affairs of this life quite freely as non-Christians do. Some years ago, Kate Chopin wrote a short story called, The Story of An Hour. In that work she created a wife who received the news that her husband had been killed in a train accident, and as she reflected on him, she thought about how she had loved him sometimes. Of course, that was Chopin's way of saying she did not love him--only at certain times did she love him. That is the way many Christians are today: they love God when it is convenient for them; they obey God when it is convenient for them--sometimes! Isaiah Chapter Four, verse One says that these Christians are like seven women who take hold on one man, but they wear their own clothing, eat their own bread, and drink their own wine. They just use his name to take away their reproach. They love God sometimes; when His Word does not intrude into their behavior. How easily we put away God's Word in want and obedience to our desires, traditions, and our frame of reference! We want Him to love us all the time, but our love for him is only when it conforms to our fleshly and worldly desires. We want what God has not said we can have; it is a part of the old nature of man, the carnal nature. The great Apostle Paul said that the carnal mind/nature is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be. [Rom. 8:7] But instead of acknowledging this truth and putting that carnal nature from us, we try to make God's word conform to our worldly behavior. But His ways are not our ways. [Isa.55:8] The Christmas tradition is most potent in this society, and Christians everywhere are marching with the world in this pageant that is of the world. Indeed, Xmas is correct, for there is no Christ in Christmas, nor has there ever been. But in spite of this truth, many Christians have hardened themselves with a plethora of human rationalizations to assuage their wrong behavior and make them feel they are not in violation of God's Word, as they go lock-step with the world. But as they perform mental and conscience gymnastics with the Christmas and other pageants, so they do with other truths of God's word. Three rationalizations often used Reverie is not real thought; it is as birds fly. We have thoughts coming in and out of our minds all the time; those flighty thoughts are what Robinson called Reverie. The second form of thought is not really thinking either, but it is the way most people behave. Rationalization is the process of having preconceived ideas about a subject and using logic to justify those positions and ideas. Such a person is not thinking at all; he is justifying a position already arrived at. The Final way of thinking that Robinson argues is Creative Thinking. He contends that this form of thought is real thinking. This process is when we allow the facts and the governing criteria to dictate the conclusions we reach about a subject. An example of this is when an honest Christian comes to a topic of theology or a serious question about God's word or some aspect of his/her behavior and that person has arrived at no preconceived decision or pre-concluded assessment about a subject but is willing to allow the word of God to dictate his thoughts and conclusions on the topic. That is real thinking; that is truth seeking; and that is ethical behavioral choices. How many of these type of thinking people are in the church or among the ministry? Many have determined their own counsel and will not be influenced or mandated by God's word. [Mat. 15:6] How tragic is that state of unrighteousness. The problem with them is that they will linger in that state of self-delusion so long that they will hate truth and a lie and a deception become normal to them; then God shall send them a strong delusion that they will believe a lie and be damned because they have not received the love of the truth. [2thes. 2:11] The Children's Rationalization This rationalization places the supposed good of the children over the word of God. But no children are ever harmed by knowing the truth about Christmas. Furthermore, of the 6.2 billion people around the world, the vast majority of them are not Christmas and do not celebrate Christmas. They are not harmed by the absence of Christmas in their lives. They are not ostracized. Christmas is American traditionalism, so why pretend it has something to do with the birth of Christ? To be more specific, it is the height of American commercialism and materiality, and that is all it is about. Many children are emboldened with knowing the truth of December 25, and the aspects that go along with Christmas as not being a part of Christianity. We need not do as the heathen do with all the pomp and circumstance of this pageantry called Christmas. [Mat. 6:7--in prayer or anything else] We are children of God who are supposed to know the truth and be free by that knowledge. When I came to Christ and discovered the truth on this and many other matters, I simply taught my children the truth as I knew it without compromise. They accepted that because I was the head of my house and it was enlightened teaching their friends did not have. They were not deprived, injured, or harmed for life. They became the doctors, lawyers, bankers, sheriff deputies, marines, college graduates and stable people they are today. Many of those children whom parents dismissed the word of God for the supposed good of their children are in prisons and some are even dead! Usually the concern for the children's well being is not about the children but about the parents. My brother used to buy his children train sets because he always wanted those sets when he was a child; so at becoming a man with children he bought them what he always wanted--this is called projection; a parent projects what he/she wants onto the child. This children's argument is little more than a rationalization for Projecting.** Bible doesn't say we can't celebrate Christmas
argument Of course, the Bible does not mention Christmas by name; were it to list all the pagan holidays and ceremonies that men regard, those things would dominate holy writ. On the other hand, the Bible is replete with such scriptures as, love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. [1John 2:15-17] This type of scripture cover such foolishness as the pageant of Christmas. The Apostle Paul told the Galatians, and by extension he told us, that he was afraid of them because they observed days and times and seasons and years, and in so doing, he felt that he had bestowed labor in vain on them. [Gal 4:10-11] I know that feeling! Lest you fail to understand this scripture, he is chiding them for regarding ceremonies that were under the Law. And if he so spoke words of chastisement for going back under the Law, what do you think he would say about Christmas, a purely heathen custom bastardized and called a Christian day? It isn't doing any harm argument God's people are a peculiar people. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people zealous of good works, and we show forth His praises and glory. [Titus 2:14; 1Peter 2:9-12] We do not behave as others behave, stooping to the beggarly elements of this world--we are strangers and pilgrims down here. This earth is not our home; we look for a city to come, whose builder and maker is God; therefore, we have set our affections on things above and not down here on this earth. Our minds are supposed to be transformed into the mind of Christ. [Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:2; Phil. 2:5; Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:2] When we become so involved with the distorted things of this world as this world calls those things of Christ, we allow the world to distort our king and become complicit in their distortion. Jesus gave us an observance: that is to remember the price he paid to free us from the bondage of the flesh, the world, and the devil. He said as often as we do that remembrance act we do remember his death until he comes. [Luke 22:11;1Cor. 11] The things that the world does are done by too many Christians and given lip service to justify behavior unbecoming a saint of God. Jesus said that we will know the truth and the truth will make us free. Why go back to the beggarly elements of this world once you are free? [John 8:32] If you want to remain in bondage, no amount of words used can make what you want to do right with God. Be careful, however, that you not dismiss the Word of God and make it ineffective by or for your tradition or the traditions of men. For if you persist in so dismissing God's word, He may send you a strong delusion to make you think you are correct; then no amount of preaching and teaching will get you to see the truth again, as is the case of far too many ministers and Christians today. There is the danger in dismissing the truth of God, as you show that you love God sometimes. That danger is permanent blindness and death. [] ___________ ** This process is a psychological process called Projecting. When we feel, suspect, think, or desire something and we attribute it to others, but it is really our feelings, desires, etc., and not theirs even though we say it is.
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