Holidays or Holy Days

I'd like to begin by reading two messages that came to me in personal correspondence recently. And they both are regarding the keeping of Christmas. And people that actually know that Jesus was not born December 25th, but feel they are still justified in observing Christmas. Number one, you know I don't agree about your reasons not to have Christmas. I think what you said is wrong. Tell me, do you have anything else to do than to think why we would not celebrate Jesus? If you could give me Jesus' real birthday, which you can't, then leave us alone about celebrating it the 25th. At least most people that don't believe do honor Him on this day. My sister sent this to me, and it makes me sick how you say we should not celebrate His birthday. Thanks, Sandy. That's not my wife.

So this person feels we should get off their case and let them have Christmas on the 25th if they want to. Well, the second one that wrote said, I unsubscribe to your magazine because of your failure to observe Christmas. Whether you celebrate it in the way most Americans do or not is irrelevant, but all of God's children should honor His Son's birth. We born-again Christians know that Jesus was not born on this day, and we also know about pagan gods and why they wanted us to stop celebrating Jesus. We celebrate our children's birthdays and bestow gifts on them. That's what Jesus did and does for us 365-366 days a year, 24-7.

He bestows His precious gifts on us, and He is not legalistic as you appear to be on this issue. And if you believe that we are going to hell for honoring this day, that is something wrong. There is something wrong with you. There is power, power, wonder-working power in His blood. We are not honoring idols. We are truly thanking Him for His birth, death, and hallelujah, His resurrection. God doesn't mind that we give our loved ones gifts once or twice a year and be generous to the orphans and widows and the hungry and the homeless, as long as we make sure our loved ones know the reason for the season and that we are salt and light in this world. If God truly wants us to stop doing anything He doesn't want us to do, His arm is not shortened, and the Holy Spirit is awesome in convicting us. I love the Christmas season and to hear the worship songs, blessing, and giving glory to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Christmas is here to stay. The rapture is soon coming, followed by the tribulation and then the Lord's 1000-year reign, a new heaven and earth, and we will reign with Him forever and ever. Please celebrate Christmas on any day or days or all year long. We get so legalistic that God created us. He knows the beginning, the end, and everything in between, and He loves us anyway. What an awesome, awesome God! I say this every day, even though I love Him and the trials I go through and learn from, I still say, Your will, Your way, I belong to You, I love and adore You, and even so come, Lord Jesus. So both of these people feel very sincerely that Christmas, even though December 25th is not the birthday of Christ, that we should celebrate Christmas.

Many people do recognize that Christ was not born on December 25th, and yet they do feel, as these two individuals, that it would be okay to celebrate Christmas. Well, what about the celebration of Christmas? Is it okay?

Is it wrong to set aside a day for celebrating Jesus' birth, even though we don't know when He was born? Well, maybe we could set aside a day in July just to be different than everybody else, maybe August or maybe May or some other time of the year. This person here seems to say that that would be okay to do. And according to the reasoning of, to go just a little bit further, is it so wrong to... what's so wrong about putting up a Christmas tree or exchanging gifts or putting up Christmas lights or listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies? You know, if we use human reason, as these two individuals do, then we might feel that it's not all that wrong. There's a warm feeling by people in this world toward Christmas, and even non-religious people have a certain reverence toward Christmas. But human reasoning is not our guide, and it can lead us astray. Twice in the Bible we read as Proverbs 14, 12 and 16, 25 that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Twice. There's a way that seems right to humans. The end is the way of death. If we want the truth about Christmas and whether or not we should observe it, then we must go to the Scriptures. It is in the Scriptures that we will find the true answers to whether or not we should observe Christmas. I want to read you the answer I sent to this one lady, Sandy. Thank you for your recent message concerning the celebration of Jesus' birth.

Please allow me to make a few comments. This is me writing to her. Thank you for your recent message. Please allow me to make a few comments which I believe will be helpful to you. First, since God's Word does not give us a date for the birth of Christ, and since neither Jesus nor the early church observed Christmas, it seems clear that God did not intend for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Instead of celebrating His birth, the Scriptures instruct us to commemorate His death once a year on the Passover day. It is by His death that our sins are forgiven. The Scriptures instruct us to commemorate His death not to celebrate His birth.

Next, consider how December 25th came to be accepted as the date for the celebrating of the birth of Christ. The origin of Christmas goes back to ancient times, thoroughly grounded in pagan traditions and celebrations involving the worship of the Son. The great false church tried to take these customs and turn them into a Christian celebration for Christ's birth. But God forbids us to use abominable pagan practices to worship Him.

And Jesus warned about a vain worship laying aside the commandments of God that followed the traditions of men. We should come out of such worship and be separate from the false religious beliefs of this world. Consider also that we are commanded not to add or to take away from the inspired Scriptures. Instead, we are to follow Jesus' instruction to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And we should strive to live by these inspired words, neither adding tune or taking away from them. We encourage you to make a comprehensive study into Christmas and prove whether or not God really wants you to celebrate this day.

Study verses in the Bible and also read articles about Christmas in encyclopedias and other sources. We have a booklet that will be very helpful in your study, Holidays or Holy Days, Does It Matter Which Days We Keep? It will explain more about the origin of Christmas and other traditional holidays. I also recommend reading our booklet, God's Holy Day Plan, The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.

This booklet explains the seven annual holy days that God commands Christians to keep. Jesus and the early church kept the seven biblical holy days and we should follow their example today. Well, that's the answer we sent. You see, we don't want to alienate this a person, but try to influence or sway them to word more study and looking into the Scriptures and searching out the truth on this subject as well as others. Well, I don't know exactly how this answer will be received, but I sent a similar answer to a similar question back in November and the person wrote back and said, thank you very much.

I will do some studying and looking into it. I will send for the booklets that you suggested, the one on Holidays or Holy Days and the one on God's Holy Day plan. So this is an opportunity for us to go beyond Christmas to say, hey, there are seven biblical holy days that you should look into. If you want to really observe the days that God commands, then do some studying to the holy days of the Bible.

So who knows? You know, if God is opening hearts and minds, then they will begin to understand. They will begin to see. So I hope and you can pray also that God will bless these, that once they receive our answer, they will be willing to make changes.

Well, you know, this world is very steeped in the observance of these festivals, such as Christmas and Easter. But it's very easy to look in secular history and to find out that these days do have indeed a pagan origin and that at one time, these the festival we call Christmas involved ancient peoples, pagan peoples, worshiping the sun at this time of the year. Let me just read to you from the World Book Encyclopedia. Scholars do not know the exact date of Christ's birth. For more than 300 years, people observed his birthday on various dates.

In AD 354, Pope or Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the people to celebrate on December 25. He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it as the feast of Saturn, celebrating the birthday of the sun. Christians honored Christ instead of Saturn as the light of the world. For many years, people observed Christmas as a religious festival only, but they gradually adopted more and more customs unrelated.

In England during the middle ages, Christmas became the merriest day of the year. Celebrations eventually became so rowdy that the Puritans in England did away with the observance of Christmas by law in 1643.

Christmas today affects most industries because of the millions of people who buy products of all kinds as gifts. Manufacturers often begin planning the next year's Christmas sales as soon as the holidays are over. In most department stores, children can tell Santa Claus what they want for Christmas. They wait in long lines to climb the sparkling throne where Santa sits in his red and white suit. The whole area looks like fairyland with large colorful displays of the latest toys. Merchants sell more of almost every kind of product during the Christmas season than any other time of the year. Stores in the United States depend on Christmas shoppers for one-fourth of the sales they make during the entire year. This article is sometime back. I'm not sure if it's completely up to date, but a high percentage of the sales made by department stores for Christmas. So it's not difficult to find things of this type that December 25th has its origin as the Saturnalia where the Romans celebrated this. It was a celebration of the worship of the sun. You can certainly very easily find that in Encyclopaedia. Another Encyclopaedia article is from Collier's Encyclopaedia. It is impossible to determine the exact date of the birth of Christ. The choice of December 25 is probably influenced by the fact that on this day the Romans celebrated the Mithraic feast of the sun god and that the Saturnalia came at this time. The indications are that the church in this way grasped the opportunity to turn the people away from a purely pagan observance of the winter solstice to a day of adoration of Christ the Lord. Thus, during the Middle Ages, the festival became the most popular one of the year, celebrated in church and in the home with a blend of pagan usages and Christian devotion. That's what we have today, a blend of pagan usages and Christian devotion that people try to attach to Christmas.

I have several newspaper articles also. You probably would not have any trouble collecting some over the years. This one goes back to a paper from Gastonia in December of 2003, and it brings out that many of the much beloved Christmas folkways have secular or pre-Christian origins rather than biblical ones. And that in AD 320, Pope Julius I set December 25th and Emperor Constantine, a recent convert, soon made the feast permanent. The idea was to imitate and compete with Rome's orgiastic Saturnalia, which celebrated the passing of the year's shortest day. So they threw a big party. Now the sun would begin to come back towards summertime. It was a part of their sun worship that they had every year at this time. Another newspaper article that came out a number of years ago is that Roman Emperor Constantine, a Christian convert, issued an edict of toleration, making Christianity legal in the empire. That was 313 AD. Around 350 AD, Pope Julius I set December 25th to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Until then, notice scholars had picked every month in the year for Christ's birth. They were only about 300 years after the time of Christ, and they still didn't have any idea what month of the year Jesus was born. No one was sure, but December 25th coincides with a pagan feast to celebrate the winter solstice. It was called Saturnalia by some Romans, and it was a time for merrymaking and giving gifts. It was called the birthday of the unconquered sun, just a part of ancient sun worship that developed pretty soon after the flood.

It was called the birthday of the unconquered sun by the followers of Mithras, which was also big among the Romans. Most Christian churches went along with this date, and so December 25th became thoroughly entrenched in Western false Christianity as the day of the birth of Christ. You can read many other sources, including our own article in the Good News magazine, the November-December issue of the Good News magazine on page 26 and 27 and 28. There is an article about Christmas, the surprising truth, and it just shows that 400 years before Christ, the Mithraic religion centered on the Persian sun god Mithras and celebrated the foundation for the Christmas celebration. There are quite a number of quotes, including from the Golden Bough, showing that Christmas goes back to ancient pagan worship.

So be sure to read the article in the current issue of the Good News magazine.

Well, when was Jesus born? Let's ask ourselves a few questions about this since Christmas centers on the birth of Christ, and he was not born December 25th. When was Jesus born? Well, let's go to Luke chapter 1 and read verses 1 through, well, on down quite a number of verses in Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 and beginning in verse 1. We may have a little idea, actually. We know that he was not born during the cold of winter. We'll establish that beyond the doubt, but we believe that it's very likely that Jesus was born in the fall of the year. It's very likely. And so that doesn't mean we should start celebrating his birth, though. Try to pick a date. We'll get to that in just a moment. Let's go to Luke chapter 2 and verse 1. It came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. It was a census. This census first took place while Carineus was governing Syria. And so all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. He was with child with Jesus. Look at all that God went to to see that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. There were prophecies in the Old Testament as to where Jesus would be born. So God arranged for Caesar Augustus to have a census that pulled Joseph and Mary down to Bethlehem so that Jesus Christ would be born where he was supposed to be born. Verse 6, So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Verse 8, Now there were in the same country shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. They were still out at night. Behold, an angel of the Lord stood, and the glory of God was around them. They were afraid. The angel said, Be not afraid, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this is a sign that they find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. And so after the angels had gone, they said, Well, let's go to Bethlehem. They were just outside and maybe a few miles away anyway, not very far. Let's go to Bethlehem. And they came and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

They apparently came even perhaps even that very, very night and found where Jesus was. But, you know, the shepherds never kept their sheep out during the winter. And scholars recognize that Jesus could not have been born in December because the shepherds would always have brought their flocks in. And they certainly would not be out past about September at night. They might be out a little bit longer during the daytime with their flocks, but they were out in the fields with their flocks at nine. And they may again have stayed a little bit longer to be out during the daytime, but not at night. Let me read from the Harmony of the Gospels by Robertson on the birth of Jesus.

He says, Few subjects have excited as much interest as the date of the birth of the Savior. The Christmas festivities and the natural desire to make that the birthday of Jesus caused this widespread interest in December 25th.

Not only is it impossible to determine with any degree of certainty the day of the month, but the time of the year also is equally uncertain.

The day of the chief thing that appears proved is that December 25th is not the time, since the shepherds would hardly be in the fields at night with the flocks. Which were usually taken into the foals in November and kept in until March. The nights of December would scarcely allow watching in the mountain fields, even as far south as Bethlehem.

And besides, the long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem would hardly be made by Joseph and Mary in the winter, the rainy season.

And it's not very likely that Caesar Augustus, who wanted to get a good census, would call a census in the middle of a cold, wet winter. More likely, he might even associate it with the fall Holy Days, and where people would be traveling. Many would be coming to Jerusalem, and we feel that indications are that Christ was born indeed in the fall of the year. And, of course, this harmony of the Gospels goes on to say, if one might hazard an opinion, it would be that the birth of Jesus occurred in the summer or early in the fall. So it could have been late in the summer or early fall, near the time of the fall Holy Days. Not only that secular source, but Adam Clark's commentary has this comment. It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts about the Passover in the spring and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain.

As the Passover occurred in the spring and the first rain began in the month that answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. Consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December when no flocks were out in the fields, nor could he have been born later than September as the flocks were still in the fields by night.

On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up.

Feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable doubt upon this disputed point.

Many people see this logic and this proof. Hey, the shepherds would not have been out there in the fields in the cold weather.

Jesus was not born in December. He was born at a warmer time of the year, very likely in the late summer, early fall season of the year. Okay, well, since we know and even a chance and this harmony of the Gospels that backs up in a late summer, early fall, let's just choose a date, then, and celebrate the birth of Christ. What about sometime early late August or early September? Shall we do that? You know, God does not give us that authority to choose a date arbitrarily. We wouldn't know what date it would be, but these people that rode in felt like you just choose any day you want to. No, we can't do that. God does not give us the authority to establish something that is not in the Scriptures.

The truth is that God does not want us to celebrate the birth of His Son.

He has carefully seen to it that that date has not been preserved.

We just don't know when Christ was born.

I want to ask a what-if question.

But what if God and the Bible did command the birth of Christ to be celebrated?

You know, number one, He will give us the birth of date. He will let us know. Lo and behold, on the sixth month of the year, some date on toward the end of it, perhaps, Mary and Joseph had come to Bethlehem, and lo and behold, Jesus was born. And they couldn't find any room in the end, so they laid Him in this manger. You know, if we would be given, it would be a simple matter, really, wouldn't it? For God to have included that in the Bible. Maybe the seventh month of the year, and you know, a little bit after Trumpets, even. Lo and behold, Jesus was born. They're in Bethlehem. It would have been a simple matter for God to have given us the date. So if God commanded us to keep or to celebrate the birth of His Son, He would have given us the date, the right date to do it. And He would have instructed us on how to observe the birth of Jesus.

Maybe it would, if He had decided to have us celebrate the birth of Christ, then it may be a day that no work would be done. It may be an annual Holy Day. It may be a day that of rest and a day of worship and even a day of a holy convocation.

So it would be a day then in which to worship God, a most solemn day, if God had us to do it.

Something there would not be, there would not be any, it would not be called Christmas. Christmas means the mass of Christ, Christ mass. It would not have the name Christmas.

It would not have any association or Santa Claus with it coming down a chimney. There'd be no reindeer that fly through the air. There'd be no Christmas lights. There'd be no gift exchanging. There'd be no commercialism associated with it. Think of how different a celebration of the birth of Christ would be if God commanded us to do it.

But the truth is God has not given us a date for the birth of Christ, and He does not command that we observe the birthday of Christ.

We have individuals, though, that want to say that it is okay, but that's going along with the world. That's going along with the traditions of this world.

That's using human reasoning. But Jesus said we are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

John wrote at the end of Revelation, we must not add to, and we must not take away from the Scriptures.

Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 that all Scripture is inspired of God.

So we're not supposed to add the birthday of Christ, a celebration that is never commanded in the Bible. We're just not supposed to do it.

And we certainly cannot take, then, a pagan festival like Christmas has its origin in pagan practices and somehow use it for the nativity of Christ. Let's go to Deuteronomy 12. God forbids us to worship Him in this way. We can't take this pagan festival where the ancient people worship the Son and somehow turn it into a celebration that is Christian and acceptable to God.

Brethren, that's exactly what happened in 1995.

It began to be said that it's okay to take a pagan festival. But many of God's people did not go along with that. Not at all. They saw right through it. Not everyone, though. Some people went along with it. In Deuteronomy 12, verse 29, When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods, even burning their sons and daughters to fire to their gods. Therefore, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it. So, brethren, we cannot take a pagan festival like Christmas that has its roots in ancient sun worship. You know, you can read a lot in the Bible about sun worship. In the Old Testament, a lot of verses, a whole sermon just about could be required to read all the verses about sun worship in the Old Testament. A lot of verses about the worship of the sun, and certainly Christmas and Easter were a part of that. Now, we can't take those practices and use them to worship God. Let's go to Mark 7. We cannot use the traditions and the customs of this world to worship God. In Mark 7, verse 6, Jesus answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me. It is possible to worship Christ. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Certainly Christmas and Easter would be the commandments of men. It's expected of us to do that, to observe Christmas. A number of years ago, when our children were small, we lived in a neighborhood where our children would play with other children in the neighborhood. And one of our children told one of the neighborhood children that we did not observe Christmas. Well, this got back to the parent of the child. And the parents came back at us and said, What? You don't believe in Christ? You see, not to observe Christmas meant to them not to even believe in Christ. We believe in Christ very much. We just don't believe in Christmas as far as a celebration for his birthday or something that we should be involved in. So the commandments of men become something that, or traditions, can become like commandments of men. Teaching us doctrines, the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. And in this instance, the washing of pictures and cups and many other such things you do. And Jesus said to them, All too well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. The modern application of that is to reject the Ten Commandments, to reject the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and keep Sunday and keep Christmas and Easter, and keep the traditions and the customs that have been passed on down. And thus, called a vain worship of Christ.

Now, people are sincere about it. They are deceived, just thoroughly deceived. And the Scriptures certainly indicate that this world is deceived by Satan the Devil.

Let's turn to 1 Peter 4. You know, could this be talking about something like Christmas? It is possible. We got some verses in the New Testament that show that some of the idolatries and some of the reveling that was going on, it could certainly be at the Saturnalia. It could be that same time of the year as Christmas. And let's read verses 3 and 4. 1 Peter 4, verses 3 and 4. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties. A lot of that that goes on at Christmas time. An abominable idolatries. Just wonder if it doesn't kind of fit into that kind of revelry at Christmas time. In regard to these, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation speaking evil of you. Let's also turn over to Revelation 2. Revelation chapter 2 and in verse 6. To the Ephesian church, they had this going for them. This you have that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Who were the Nicolaitans? Well, we'll find them again in verse 15. The Pergamos church was allowing the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Well, what was the doctrine of the Nicolaitans? Look it up in a Bible source and Pelubics Bible dictionary says, as far as the Nicolaitans they held, it was lawful to commit excesses of the heathen. They believed it was okay to get involved in this partying of the pagans around them. Get involved in their parties and their abominable idolatrous.

It was lawful to commit excesses of the heathen, mingling themselves in the orges of idolatrous feasts. They brought the imperatives of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian church.

Brethren, we don't want Christmas brought in here. That would be bringing in the orges of idolatrous feasts or something that goes right to ancient, has its roots in ancient sun worship.

Not just as an indulgence of the appetite, it goes on to say, but as part of a system supported by a doctrine, as part of their religion even, the Nicolaitans, that it was okay to commit all these excesses. It was acceptable worship to God. So this church in Pargamas was allowing that type of thinking in the church. Brethren, this world has turned from sound doctrine to fables. This modern world is involved in ancient pagan sun worship and doesn't even know it.

The festival is associated with sun worship, but they don't realize it. There are many verses in the Bible that condemn this ancient sun worship.

Satan the devil certainly makes it look right, though. You know, people look at it like the two that wrote in the personal correspondence. They are sincere. Hey, lay off. You say that Christmas is wrong and we have to stop doing it.

And they say nothing doing. We believe it's right. We're doing it to Christ. We realize He wasn't born December 25th. We realize it goes back to ancient pagan customs. We do it to Christ and they feel justified in doing it. It's human reasoning and also deception by Satan. But Satan makes the truth look very appealing. Let's notice in 2 Corinthians 11.

He doesn't make it look unattractive. In Christmas, he has all the bright lights.

And of course, the children who are very influential in a family and in society, he has the children involved in it because they get something. They get gifts. Satan has his way of working and making it look very attractive.

In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 4, If he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. Some of the Corinthians were not very strong spiritually. Paul gets into the subject of false apostles. And skipping down to verse 13, as far as the false apostles, he says, such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

Well, they claim to be the apostles of the ministers of Christ. And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Satan doesn't come as an angel of darkness. None of his churches or ministers say, well, you know, we're the church of Satan. We're ministers of Satan. No, we're the ministers of Christ. We're the church of Christ. Well, verse 15, there's no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into the ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

But Satan inspires this world to make it appealing, make it attractive. And so people have a warm feeling toward Christmas. Even non-religious people go along with it. There's this music. Everything is appealing. There's the bright lights. Satan knows how to make something look attractive. He knows how to deceive the world.

And so the people are dut. I was myself. I hung up my stocking. And my parents told me about Santa Claus. It was around 15 or 16. God began to work with me, and I began to understand the truth about it.

Brethren, we believe in the real Jesus, not the false Jesus. We believe in His miraculous birth by His mother Mary, while she was still a virgin. We believe in the life and the example and the message of Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom of God. We believe in the biblical holy days that Jesus kept, and which the early church also kept.

The early church did not keep Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines, just nothing in the Bible about the early church keeping those days. The early church kept the seven biblical holy days.

The Scriptures admonish us to commemorate the death of Jesus, not His birth.

And also, not His resurrection, either. There's no instruction about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus or His birth.

That's all added to in a false Christianity.

It is by the death of Jesus, then, which we commemorate at the Passover that our sins may be blotted out. And at the Passover each year, we commemorate that death for our sins. Well, I hope all of us will certainly take time to review the material in this booklet, Holidays or Holy Days. That's the title of the sermon this afternoon. Holidays or Holy Days. Does it matter which days we keep?

Also, read the article in our current issue of the Good News magazine about Christmas.

No, we cannot take Christmas and make it right.

But I've had more questions to come to me this year about that than any other year. We cannot take Christmas, a pagan holiday, to worship the Son and somehow make it a day to worship and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It just doesn't work. Second Corinthians chapter 6, final scriptures.

We are to come out of all this religious deception and have no part in it and not touch it.

But sometimes it's not easy because people are always saying to you, Merry Christmas! Have you completed your Christmas shopping yet?

The song leader over in Charlotte said he had a good response for that. Have you completed your Christmas shopping? And he said, I tell them, yes, I completed my Christmas shopping 24 years ago when he stopped keeping Christmas. Well, you know, we live in this world and constantly we have Christmas parties. Sometimes there is the exchanging of gifts. We have to face all of those things, be wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove, not get involved in it. At the same time, we have to live in this world. We have to let people know sometimes where we stand. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 14, go along with any of the customs and traditions of this world. God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore, verse 17, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclaimed and I will receive you. So we must come out and be separate. How about our young people here? Are you willing to come out and to be separate? Are you willing to be different than others? There is that strong urge and I think young people especially have trouble, that strong urge to fit in, that strong need to conform with what others are doing. It's not easy to stick out as being different. But that's what God has called upon us to do, including our young people.

Yes, we may have to explain to others politely why we do not observe Christmas. We do not get involved in Christmas parties or exchanging gifts. Family members have to be notified so that they understand where we stand on Christmas. But we certainly do have to handle the way this world is coming at us with its false religious teaching about the so-called birth of Christ. I'd like to conclude with two paragraphs from our article on Christmas Before Christ, A Surprising Truth. Let's conclude by reading these two paragraphs near the end.

The big question is, are you ready to begin following the real Christ? Of course, this is written to people in the world. We understand. Yet it's good for us to have a sermon explaining the origin of something that is all around us. It's good for our young people also to have a sermon so that they understand. So the big question is, are you ready to begin following the real Christ? In times past, God overlooked the ignorance of men. But today, He commands all men and women to repent of ungodly activities, including observing man-made religious holidays.

If you are coming to understand that Christmas does not represent Christ, then you should take a stand and avoid its observance. That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? You should take a stand and avoid Christmas observance. Why stumble between the truth and error? Why not start following the true Christ and His biblical teachings?