One Day Esteemoth More Than The Others

There are some really good Bible help websites out there. How many of you actually use the internet in your Bible study? Any of you ever do that? A fair number of you. There are some really good sites out there. You do have to be aware of what you're getting when you go online, but there's one that my wife and I have found particularly helpful. It's called GotQuestions.org. It's not perfect. We'll see that in a moment here, but it's really helpful. As I say, these websites can help us, but we have to be aware of where they might trip up. When we come to GotQuestions.org and we ask it the question, should a Christian keep Christmas? This is how GotQuestions.org answers that question. It says, the debate about whether Christians should celebrate Christmas has been going on for centuries. There are equally sincere and committed Christians on both sides of this issue, each with multiple reasons why or why not Christmas should be celebrated in Christian homes. But what does the Bible say? Does the Bible give clear direction as to whether Christmas is a holiday to be celebrated by Christians? It continues, whether to celebrate Christmas in traditional fashion is a personal decision. As scripture states, and I quote, this is all in their quote, one person considers one day more sacred than another. Another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day a special does so to the Lord. That's Romans 14 verses 5 through 6. So whatever Christians decide, continuing in the article, whatever Christians decide to do regarding Christmas, their views should not be used as a club with which to beat down or denigrate those with opposing views. Neither should one's views be used as a badge of honor, including pride and inducing pride over celebrating or not celebrating Christmas. End quote. It raises a few interesting questions, doesn't it? Does the Bible address which holidays to observe and which days not to observe? Does Romans 14, 5 and 6, oh I'm sorry, I am, I meant to welcome all our visitors today and those of you online, it's a pleasure to have you with us. So does Romans 14, 5 and 6 give Christians free reign to decide which days to keep, whatever days we please to keep? And is sincerity enough to justify observing Christmas? I mean, if you're really sincere, your heart's in it. So today what I'd like to do is I like to answer these questions. I'd like to walk us through the basic proofs for why we don't observe Christmas. So let's roll up our sleeves and let's see what God's Word has to say about the topic. But before we dive into the actual proofs about Christmas, whether we should keep it or not, it'd be good just to take in briefly the history of Christmas. Now there's, it's got a long history, like a couple millennia, maybe two and a half millennia, but which is a clue it predates Christ, and it draws from many different pagan cultures. I'm going to be focusing not so much on those other ones, but the origin of Christmas.

So while it's not mentioned in the Bible, and it's not commanded in the Bible, the Bible does talk about Jesus Christ's birth. It also talks about his circumcision. It also talks about his baptism. It also talks about turning water to wine. And we have not decided, and the Bible hasn't told us, to keep any of those days. But we do, for some reason, have this celebration of his supposed birth on December 25th.

But it's just because something is mentioned in the Bible does not mean that we are obliged to observe it and mark it on a calendar. So again, December 25th, Christmas, it's not in the Bible. Nowhere can you find it there. And Jesus's birth was actually nowhere near December. The shepherds were still tending their flocks out in the field, and that wasn't winter.

You wouldn't do that. And also, we see that the exchange of presence that is commonly observed also is not in the Bible. So if it doesn't come from the Bible, then where does Christmas come from? What is its origin? An answer to this question will help us answer the questions that I asked above.

So let's turn the pages of history back to see the very first mention of Christmas. This isn't necessarily the first observance of Christmas, but it's the first mention of Christmas. So I'm going to quote a quote that quotes another quote. Don't get confused. So I quote here, in an old list of Roman bishops compiled in AD 354, so this is mid 4th century, these words appear for AD 336. 25 December, Natas Christus in Bethlehem Judea. That's my best at the Latin.

That means December 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem. This day, December 25th, 336 is the first recorded celebration of Christmas. End quote. So here in Rome, AD 336 is the first ever mention of this holiday. It had never been mentioned before. It didn't originate in Palestine, and it didn't exist at the time of the Apostles. Instead, it came from the pagan city of Rome 300 years after Jesus's death. However, the interesting thing is that before Christmas was even mentioned, it had already existed for quite a while, but under different names. The origin of Christmas is generally tied to two Roman festivals. I used to think it was just one, but it's actually tied to two.

The first is Saturnalia. That doesn't surprise us. We've heard this story many times before. Saturnalia was celebrated between the 17th of December and the 23rd of December. This dates back to 497 BC. Just a hint, that means before Christ. That also gives us a hint as to the fact that it has nothing to do with his birth. It was celebrated to mark the end of the harvest season. The second holiday is Saul Invictus, which is the god of the invincible sun, sun as in the sky. That was celebrated on December 25th. It wasn't Saturnalia that was on the 25th, it was Saul Invictus.

It was instituted in Rome in 274 AD, and that commemorated the winter solstice. Now, the Romans were continually trying to perfect their calendar to make sure that the solstice, let's see, the equinoxes and the solstices didn't walk, that they stayed put. So all the seasons stayed the same. So while for them the solstice was on the 25th of December, they had since tweaked the calendar to make it almost always on the 21st.

So that's why it says it's about the solstice, but it occurs on the 25th. So it was from these two back-to-back holidays, pagan holidays, that Christmas inherited several of the traditions that we see today, such as the exchanging of presents, the merriment and the lights that we see associated with it, and a few others. But also interesting is to note that the idea of celebrating the birthdays of gods was also a pagan thing. You don't see that in the Bible, but here we have a birthday of a God, Jesus Christ, supposedly, and we all think in our society we're trained to think that, well, for us to market, if it shows up in the Bible, we should mark that day, because after all, in the world, everyone marks his birthday anyway.

It's not a surprise to us. But that idea did not exist before these pagans had instituted this idea of having a birthday celebration for their God. I'm just going to quote to you from a website called thecollector.com. It says, in the Greco-Roman religion, it was common to celebrate the Dias Natales, the birthday, of the gods, usually determined by the day their temple was dedicated. Celebrating the birth of Christ seemed like a natural extension of that tradition. So the celebrating of the birthdays of the gods is a pagan thing.

It isn't a biblical thing. And it's only in the light of this pagan practice that celebrating the birthday of Christ even makes sense. And it makes sense to us. I mean, it could make sense to us. We can accept it just by virtue of the fact that in our society, we typically mark birthdays. All right, so let's move on and see how these two pagan festivals, how they came to take on the name Christmas.

How did that happen? How did they come to be known as a Christian festival? I'd like to quote from an article. It's from pagan Rome to the mall Santa. From pagan Rome to the mall Santa, it's on the website BCworld.org. I quote, during this era in the fourth century, many Romans converted to Christianity from paganism.

Aligning Christian celebrations with familiar dates helped ease the transition. When it says aligning, it's talking about co-opting. So there's already a pagan day on this date celebration, so they would co-opt that celebration and rebrand it. For example, Emperor Aurelian promoted Dias Natalis Solas Invicti, the birthday of the invincible God, invincible son, rather, on December 25th, to unify the emperor empire under a solar deity.

By assigning the same date to Christ's birth, the church repurposed this cultural event for Christian worship. That is repurposed. Co-opted.

The first recorded mention—and I cited this just a few moments ago, but it's in this article as well—the first recorded mention of December 25th as the date of Jesus's birth appears in a Roman calendar, not a Hebrew calendar, and a Roman calendar, 336 AD, shortly after Christianity was legalized by the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. This reflects the church's efforts to organize its calendar. Not God's calendar, not the Hebrew calendar, organize a completely separate church calendar. This reflects the church's efforts to organize its calendar as Christianity gained prominence in the Roman Empire. End quote. So, Christmas came into being—Christmas, under that name, came into being as part of an effort to Christianize a pagan empire.

The citizens could observe the same feast that they used to, that their grandpa used to, and but now it was Christianized. Now they had different names. Now they had Christian names.

So there in a nutshell we have the birth of Christmas, how Christmas came to be. And this is in the early fourth century, when pagan festivals were repurposed to be Christian.

And history shows this day to be nothing more than, as I said, a rebranded pagan festival.

However, even with no biblical foundation, the Christian world is drawn toward Christmas.

If you do a quick search on the internet, the lions share of all sites you will see, you will say, yes, of course we should celebrate it. Yes, of course we should celebrate it. Yes, it's got these these other dubious beginnings, but yes, we should celebrate it because, you know, it's family. It's good. It's warm. It's joy. So we can look on the internet and we'll see that the vast majority of arguments will be for the keeping of Christmas. There's a lot of good that they see coming from observing the day. And so they expend a lot of effort trying to encourage people to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. What's that? A Wizard of Oz reference.

Yeah, my wife is South African and I've had to educate her over the decades that the Wizard of Oz is deeply entrenched in American culture.

But we won't go into that now. So for me personally, having listened to these arguments for decades for the keeping of Christmas, I've never once seen the point raised.

I've never seen the point even considered in the Christian world. What days does God command us to observe? I've seen a lot of arguments for, you know what, it's such a good thing. It's happy family time and we can reflect on God. I've seen a lot of arguments for that, but I've never seen the question raised, except in the Church of God, what days does God say we should observe? So for our point number two, the first point was history. Second point, let's look at what days does God command us to keep? Let's turn to Leviticus 23 verse 2. Leviticus 23 verse 2.

Like I say, you'll see a myriad of voices urging that these non-biblical days be just brought on alongside our beliefs. However, in Leviticus 23, we discover something that's virtually unknown and virtually entirely rejected by the Christian world. And that point is that God has his own feasts. And he lists all these his feasts, as you all know, in Leviticus 23. But before he lists his feasts, the introduction he gives to his feasts is right here in verse 2. Leviticus 23 verse 2. He says, speak to the children of Israel and say to them concerning the feasts of the Lord. Not the pagan feasts, not the Christian feasts. These are the feasts of the Lord. They belong to someone. Which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. What days does God claim? They're not rebranded pagan feasts. These were gods from the institution of them, from the very beginning. So, while the Christian world is looking for ways to pull in other feasts and call them Christian, God says, no, I've got my own. Thank you very much.

So, in man's rush to observe his own days, this point never sees daylight.

Let's turn now to Exodus 31 verse 13. It's one of my favorite scriptures. Exodus 31, 13. Another huge point that the Christian world misses is that God's feast days serve several purposes. And one of those purposes is that they are intended to point out who God's people are.

Exodus 31 verse 13. Speak you also to the children of Israel, saying verily, my Sabbath you shall keep. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord that does sanctify you. So, while the world is looking for ways to justify observing non-biblical days, such as Christmas, they completely miss that God commands us to observe his days. That's one point. And they also totally miss that God would not even recognize them as being his people because they bear the wrong sign. They don't bear the wrong sign. They don't bear the Sabbath sign that they are God's people. So God questions tells us that whatever... and by the way, I'm not trying to pick on God questions. It's a great sight, but they get a few things wrong sometimes. But they say whatever a Christian decides to do, fine with them. However, we have to ask the question, why would a Christian even consider adding new holidays, new worship, if they haven't even started doing what God has told them to do, keeping his own days? Where does God and what he says fit into their priorities?

So God has his own feast days, and those days are like a beacon, like a flag. They say, here lies God's people.

So Christmas, however, does not identify us as being gods. It identifies us as belonging to another God. All right, so let's move on. Let's review another reason why Christians shouldn't keep Christmas. For our point number three, let's look at whether God appreciates innovation and worship. I was speaking just before services about some things that we witnessed back in the Worldwide Church of God, back in the 1990s. The Worldwide Church of God, we sprung from the Worldwide Church of God, but that's another story, that history. But back in the 1990s, Worldwide Church of God was in the process of adopting worldly Christian festivals such as Christmas. And they justified it by claiming that they were just practicing innovation in worship. It sounded like a good idea. I mean, who can argue with innovation? Innovation's a great thing, isn't it? And so their observance of Christmas was just part of that innovation.

And to be clear, the Worldwide Church of God was not the first to employ that idea. Maybe the first to employ that terminology, but not the idea. In fact, as early as 2,000 years ago, we see Christians also practicing innovation and worship. I'm going to read to you from an article off the website. It's called The Archaeologist, and it's entitled, Is Christmas a Pagan Ripoff?

It says, to truly understand—I'm quoting here—to truly understand the origins of Christmas, we need to distinguish between two possibilities. A synchronistic copycat—synchronistic means it happened at the same time—a synchronistic copycat or a deliberate rejection, one or the other.

But their motivation was not—I'm sorry—early Christians did indeed adapt and Christianize some pagan festivals. There's an admission. But their motivation—all right, so we can start to see, well, is there a difference between motivation as far as God's concerned and the actual practice? But they adapted and Christianized some pagan festivals, but their motivation was not to mimic paganism, but to transform it. Christmas, as a celebration of Christ's birth, did not necessarily begin as a pagan festival, even if it happened to fall on the same date as Saturnalia and Sol Invictus. It's just happenstance. End quote. Now, I'm sorry, the quote I did choose was interesting, but it's also a bit confused because he does contradict himself a couple times. Adopting and transforming a pagan festival is clearly not the same thing as rejecting it. So he had a few contradictions in here, but it's still a muddled way of thinking that we see oftentimes in proofs to observe the day. So he says, the author says, that these Christians didn't mimic these pagan rites, but they did transform them, meaning that they kept the bulk of the festival, they changed the name, polished it up a bit, and Christianized it, and declared that they're not worshiping Sol Invictus or Saturn, but rather Jesus.

What is being described here is merely fourth-century innovation and worship.

Follow me to Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10. We'll read the first three verses. So can a Christian practice innovation and worship? Is it okay for us to just pick and choose religious practices from other beliefs and then just transform them? Innovate new religious practices. So again, let's look at what God thinks of this idea of innovation and worship. So here we are in Leviticus 10. This is the story where God had chosen two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, to perform priestly duties. However, it seemed that they also decided to improvise a little bit within their responsibility. So let's read Leviticus 10 verses 1 through 3.

Leviticus 10 verse 1, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censor, and they put fire in, and then they put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is that the Lord spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh to me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. I can hardly imagine how Aaron must have felt, because he just saw his sons killed, and he was told to hold his peace. It's not entirely clear what these men did wrong, but what is clear is they did something that God didn't command them to do. They were innovating in worship, and God killed them on the spot.

Let's look at another case. This is another time where man tried to make it up as he went.

Now, the story starts in... we're not going to turn here, because this spans a few chapters. The story starts in 1 Samuel 4, when the Philistines defeated Israel, and they captured the Ark of the Covenant. And you remember that did not go well for the Philistines. I mean, they had all kinds of plagues on them. And so they started to recognize that, guys, you know, we should get rid of this Ark and see if things get better for us. So at the end of seven months, the Philistines said, enough. They took the Ark, put it on an ox cart, attached two milk cows up to it. And there's a bit of reasoning here. The milk cows would not have wanted to leave the bleeding of their calves. So this was a test. If this cart wanders off and stays wandered off, then that was gone, because a cow, a milk cow, is not going to abandon its calf. So they hooked it up to two milk cows and let it just wander off into Israel.

Now, Israel found the Ark. And they parked it at the home of Abinadab, who was a Levite. And it sat there for 20 years. Then King David became King of Judah. And he organized an effort to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem. We see this taking place, and again, don't turn here yet, in 2 Samuel chapter 6, where Abinadab and his two sons helped load the Ark onto a cart so they could transport it back to Jerusalem. Now let's turn to 1 Chronicles. We'll look at chapter 15 verses 11 through 15. 1 Chronicles 15, 11 through 15.

So as this procession approached Jerusalem, one of the oxen stumbled. And as it stumbled, it shook the Ark. And Uzzah, one of Abinadab's sons, put up his hand to stabilize the Ark.

And God killed him. Boom. Dead.

This shook King David. He couldn't imagine why God would do such a thing since they were only bringing it back home again.

So by the time we get to 1 Chronicles 15 verse 11, the priests had obviously done their homework. They studied the book of Numbers, and they saw how they were supposed to transport the Ark.

And here in 1 Chronicles 15, 11, this is where David explains, where they got it wrong, and what they needed to do now. So verse 11, 1 Chronicles 15, 11, And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, and Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Abinadab.

Verse 12, And he said to them, You are the chiefs of the fathers of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that ye may bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it in Jerusalem.

Verse 13 is the key. He says, For because you did it, not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us.

That's when he killed Asa. For that we sought him not after the due order, yet didn't follow the directions.

Verse 14, So the priests and the Levites sanctify themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. And in verse 15 we read that, And the children of the Levites bear the ark of God upon their shoulders, with staves through the rings on the sides of the ark, as Moses commanded to do in the word of the Lord.

So all along, God never intended that the ark be moved on a nachskar. It was to be transported only on the shoulders of the priests. Nothing else.

A man lost his life here because they tried a more convenient way to move the ark, because they innovated in their worship, and God didn't like it.

So let's come back to this statement about the ancient Christians who adapted and Christianized these ancient pagan festivals.

Does God like it when we practice innovation and worship?

Just snazz it up a bit.

Put some polish on something that we found out in the world and start observing it. Does God care how we choose to worship Him?

God didn't seem terribly impressed with Nadab and Abba by you when they offered incense their own way.

They got a bit clever, and He killed them on the spot.

And then when David didn't read the instruction book and found a convenient way to transport the ark, again, did God appreciate David's innovation?

No.

And I'm not trying to make light of this or fault David too much, but still, you've got to read the instruction book. God killed Uzzah instantly. So we as Christians can't practice this idea that we heard back in the 90s in the worldwide Church of God, the innovation of worship.

We can't practice that.

We have to follow the instruction manual, the Bible.

The pagans have their festivals, and those feasts identify who the God is of the pagans, of the pagans, and God has His festivals. And He says, these are my feasts.

These days identify who are mine, God says.

And when we follow God's word, it keeps us from doing something clever, thinking that somehow we're worshiping God.

So, no, we don't practice innovation and worship.

So let's move on to another look at Christmas observance. And let's look at this from another perspective.

I quoted earlier from the website, the archaeologists, where it stated that early Christians did indeed adapt and Christianize some pagan festivals.

But their motivation was not to mimic paganism, but rather to transform it. So, is it okay to take a good look at the beliefs of those around us, and find something that we might want to observe ourselves? Is it okay to look around? So, in this point number four, let's look at what God says about looking around for other beliefs to observe.

We've already seen that God doesn't put up with it when we make things up as we go. But when it comes to adopting foreign beliefs, God gets even more explicit.

There was that quote at the very beginning, where God questions asked, does the Bible actually say anything about this? Well, yes, it does. It does. Throughout the Old and the New Testament, God tells us, His people, to set up a wall between our beliefs and the beliefs of those outside. So, let's turn to Deuteronomy 12, 29-32. This always takes me back because it's my first memory scripture.

Deuteronomy chapter 12, it's 29-32.

This took place 40 years after God gave Israel the covenant, and God came back to this topic. He was reviewing Deuteronomy as the second giving of the law. He's doing a lot of reviewing with Israel. This is what I taught you before. He's telling it again.

So, He says, He came back to a topic that was stressed several times, and He told them to stay away from the beliefs of other people.

So, let's read verse 29, Deuteronomy 12, 29. And when the Lord your God shall cut off the nations from before you, whether you go to possess them, and you succeed them and dwell on their last. And you succeed them and dwell on their land.

He says in verse 30, Take heed yourselves not to be snared by following them.

After that they'd be destroyed from before you, and that you inquire not after their God, saying, Well, how did these nations serve their gods?

I'll do likewise.

Verse 31, He says, You shall not do so to the Lord your God. Don't be looking around and seeing, Huh, well, that's an interesting way of worshiping God.

I think it has some certain spiritual significance to me. I want to adopt that. God says, You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abomination to the Lord which he hates. And it doesn't have to be as far as this. He talks about burning their sons and their daughters in the fire to Molech, their God. It doesn't have to be as evil as that.

Just the fact that we're borrowing from some other belief system is enough to make God a bit perturbed with us.

So He says, You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abomination to the Lord which he hates. Have they done to their gods? For even their sons and daughters, have they burnt in the fire to their gods? What things, soever, I command you?

Observe to do it.

You shall not add thereto, nor diminish from.

This is also, there are a couple times here we kind of touch on how the Church of God establishes doctrine.

Doctrine is established on Scripture.

We do not add to. We do not take away from.

We have certain traditions that we observe.

We're very careful in the Church not to make those traditions at the level of doctrine. It's an interesting topic, actually, but it's not my topic for today.

So God says, don't look. Don't look around. Don't see what looks shiny and new.

Don't be curious. And certainly don't adopt the beliefs of other peoples.

We shouldn't even inquire as to how they worship their God.

Much less, adapt and transform those ideas.

And from God's perspective, it doesn't matter that it was someone else. You know, here we, when we see people observing Christmas, it is so far removed from Saturnalia and Sol Invictus. It's so far removed from that. It doesn't matter that it was someone else that took it and transformed it. And here we see it out there now. It doesn't matter to God. He still says, don't. Don't look around and see how the people today do it.

But some, let's go to Exodus chapter 34.

Exodus chapter 34, we'll read verses 14 through 16.

Exodus 34, 14 through 16. The fact that this holiday is all around us, and that we don't have to go back to pagan Rome to import it into our belief system, it doesn't change a thing. God just says plainly, don't. So whether we're talking about Christmas, whether we're talking about New Year's, I think it's easy for us to almost observe New Year's as just being, well, hey, it's just changing calendar one year to the next, and what's the harm? Well, it's also a pagan festival. So whether it's Christmas, New Year's also a pagan festival. Valentine's Day, also a pagan festival. It's believed to have descended from, inherited from, Lupercalia, I think is what it was.

Easter or Halloween. All of these days are borrowed from the pagans.

I did a sermon once years ago where I quoted some...

What was it?

Not the pagans, it was a...

These were people who observed these other days, not Christian days, but they observed these very same holidays and the solstice celebration. They said, we want it back. I said, let's give it back to them.

So anyway, but we could stop at where I was in Deuteronomy 12 and the rest, but when we look at Exodus 34, verse 14, God adds to this. He says, for you shall worship no other gods for the Lord, whose name is Jealous.

We can miss that. We can miss that point. He is a jealous God. And this very passage here is an illustration of how jealous he is.

Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice to their gods, and one call you, and you eat of his sacrifice, or whatever that translates into any kind of modern-day observance, because we don't necessarily have sacrifices to gods today.

In verse 16, he says, And you take their daughters to your sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make your sons go a whoring after their gods.

God says, I am so jealously guarding your beliefs that I don't even want you marrying among them, because then you bring... you have a mixture of ideas, and it's very hard to resist that, especially being a young couple.

So our God is jealous, and we don't get into the practice of poking around and seeing what looks like a cool idea to celebrate.

Okay, so let's come back to the God Questions article I was quoting at the beginning.

In that article, they quoted from Romans 14.

Romans 14.5 and 6. And we could just as easily be citing Colossians 2, 16, and 17, because the same argument applies. But they use this verse, Romans 14.5 and 6, to say that we can observe whatever we want. It's a personal matter.

It's all a personal decision.

So for our point number five, let's look to see whether Romans 14, 5 and 6, is actually saying that whatever holidays we choose to keep, it's all just a personal decision.

And like I say, you can also put down Colossians 2, 16, and 17.

So anyway, let's turn to Romans 14, 5 and 6.

Now, I'm going to have to agree with the Apostle Peter.

He spoke of Paul's writings in 2 Peter 3, 16, and he said of Paul's writings, he said, in them are some things hard to be understood.

And when I look at a confusing passage, a difficult scripture, I'm often not—this is my personal approach, and I find it saves me a lot of grief. I still have gray hair, but it saves me a lot of grief even so. I find it's a whole lot less bother for me to find out what that difficult scripture is not saying than to try to prove what something that is unclear is saying, because there as well can be speculation.

Sometimes we can make educated guesses. So just so you know, I'm not trying to say what this passage does say, but I'm going to prove what it doesn't say.

So keeping what Peter says about Paul's writings in mind, some things are hard to be understood. Let's read Romans 14, 5, and 6 and see, is it really saying that we can observe whatever day we please?

So Romans 14, 5, it says, One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike, that every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Verse 6, So basically it's saying that some people regard a day to the Lord, but others don't.

But is this also saying that in the end the choice is ours, that we can observe Sunday, we can observe Christmas, or whatever? It's all up to our personal whim.

Is that what this is saying?

Well, it doesn't actually say that.

It says that some will regard a day to the Lord and others not. It doesn't say what days it's talking about.

It doesn't say anywhere that it's talking about pagan days, that some regard pagan days to the Lord. It just doesn't say that. So again, we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of how the Church of God establishes doctrine. This is officially, when it comes to—look, I can read this and it's clear what it says—but what it means, especially as regards holiday observance, there it is not clear. It's a vague scripture, and we do not in the Church of God establish doctrine on vague scripture. Now, we could try to discern from the context. We could read the chapter and see what days Paul was speaking of, but the context doesn't mention days. It talks about what we eat, but the context has nothing to do with days. Nothing to do with days we worship.

So when we examine what the chapter is discussing, it's not talking about holidays. So again, these are two vague verses, and we have to conclude that these—I'm sorry, we could conclude if we're not being careful that these two verses give us the freedom to just follow our whims. But if we did that, we would be taking our own personal desires and projecting it onto this verse.

We have to be really careful not to do that. So if we notice a verse is actually vague, it isn't explicitly saying what we think it is. We need to be careful not to project our beliefs onto it. That's also why I'm careful to explain what a difficult scripture doesn't say, as opposed to trying to say, I know better, I know the history, so I don't actually know the history that well. A lot of us—the culture is a deep thing to probe, and that's pretty far back. So I don't—I tend to go for, let me prove what it doesn't say. So we could end up projecting ideas onto the passage that are not supported by the context. So in the end, it would be dishonest for anyone to use Romans 14, 5, and 6, or Colossians 2, 16, to justify observing any days whatsoever. Now, we could go a bit further, and we could show that this passage is definitely not giving Christians carte blanche to observe whatever days they want. So for our point number six, let's look at how shocking a change it would have been for Christians in that period of time to have just dropped God's Sabbath and feasts, and just say, you know, just with the stroke of a pen, we're not doing it anymore. Let's take a moment and understand the mindset of the Jews and Palestine at this time. This is another way to understand what these two verses are not saying. Often when we talk about Christmas observance, we're often talking about pagan history. We're not going to do that here. We're going to look at a different history, and this is a history that others don't take into account when they're talking about observing Christmas. And they try to say that Paul was just casually terminating the Holy Day worship. So let's go back several hundred years before Paul wrote. The story here is, surprise, surprise, neither Israel nor Judah obeyed God.

And God said that they did not, he says explicitly, that they did not observe his statutes and his judgments, but he really zeroed in on the Sabbaths. And when God talks about Sabbath, plural, he's talking about the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths.

So follow me to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 13 will read verses 15 through 18. Nehemiah 13, 15 through 18. So continue with the history. By the time we get to 722 BC, God had had enough.

So he sent Israel into captivity with Assyria. And God says explicitly why he did this. And if you want to put it in your notes, you'll see it in Ezekiel 20 verses 12 and 13, where God says explicitly why he did this. Ezekiel 20, 12 and 13. I'm not turning there. Now we come to Judah, the southern kingdom. In 586 BC, it was now Judah's turn, and for the same reasons.

But not long after Judah was taken captive, God brought a portion of the Jews back to Palestine.

Now these Jews knew exactly why they went into captivity. They knew. So when we pop back into history, let's observe this scene from 5th century BC, Jerusalem, and see what Nehemiah, what stuck out in Nehemiah's head. This is after the return from the captivity. Nehemiah 13 verse 15. In those days saw I, this is Nehemiah speaking, saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves, lading asses, also wine and grapes and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

And I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. So Nehemiah remembered why this all happened. And he said, there dwelt men in verse 16 of Tyre, also therein which brought fish and all manner of wear and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.

Then I contended with the nobles. They should have known better. The nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do and profane the Sabbath day? Verse 18. Did not your fathers thus? He knew why this happened. He's saying, we don't want to go back into captivity again. Did not your fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and the city? Yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. So Nehemiah saw that Judah was getting lax about the Sabbath. And then he reminded them exactly why Judah went into captivity.

You see, that captivity changed the Jews. Israel was kind of a lost cause. They lost the Sabbath. They had Jeroboam's sin changing the the Holy Days. They kind of lost all identifying signs, but not the Jews. The Jews were touched by this captivity. So from the time of captivity on, there was this growing determination to never ever defy God again. They were ever aware of the consequences of having violated God's law. Let's look at examples, a couple examples of this that shows up in the New Testament, where they were trying to prevent their people from ever violating the law again. I'm going to just read to you this. It's very brief, and you'll recognize it immediately. Then return they to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath's Day journey. Where is that commanded? It doesn't appear anywhere, but here in the New Testament, post-exile. It's interesting because there is no command that says how far you could walk on the Sabbath. There are other prohibitions, no commerce. It doesn't talk about how far you can walk. You see, the Jews knew that when God took them captive, his biggest beef with them was the Sabbath, and they never wanted to go back into captivity again. So what they did was to keep them from ever breaking the law again. They built a fence around it. They built a hedge around the law so you could never even get close to breaking the law. They created new laws around God's law to protect God's law. So in the case of the Sabbath Day journey, they were trying to keep Judah from ever violating the Sabbath again. And they did the same kind of thing with God's command not to marry. I read from Exodus 34 where God commanded not to marry those in the surrounding nations, not to copy their beliefs. So we see in, again, I'll just read this to you, Acts 1028. It's briefly, it's quickly read. In Acts 1028, remember this is where where God lowered the sheet with all kinds of reptiles and unclean animals before Peter, and he said, kill and eat.

And this is, here we can see again, this hedge that they built around the law. Okay, reading to you from Acts 1028. And Peter, this is Peter is, it's sunk into Peter why God did this, why he said kill and eat. He said to them, you know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or to come to one of another another nation. Unlawful, an unlawful thing. But God has shown me that I should call, not call any man, common or unclean. Now he says it's unlawful. That's not in God's law. That was added to protect Judah from ever getting too close to the Gentiles. So they could not even keep company. It was seen to be an odd thing that Jesus was talking to this Samaritan woman. She even mentioned to him, why is it that you a Jew are talking to me?

Again, that's the exact same thing. The Jews added these two rules and others as well. There's the washings and the rest to keep from breaking the ceremonial law, to keep them from ever violating the law again. They didn't want to go into captivity again, so they put this hedge around it.

So, let's say for a moment that in this context, that Paul just decided to casually say, eh, you know what, whatever day you please. You don't need to keep the Sabbath. You don't need to keep the Holy Days. You can keep whatever pagan days you wish. These people knew when they went into captivity, they weren't going back again. This would have unleashed an earthquake in that society if Paul had been suggesting what Christians say today. I say Christians in quotation marks, who are trying to say that it's a-okay to observe Christmas. It would have unleashed an earthquake in Jewish society. In that society, in the New Testament, God never repealed his his holy days, never repealed the Sabbath, and if he had done so, it would have been, it would have had to have been in neon lights up in the sky for them to have just said, you know, you're right. I won't do it anymore. I'll keep those days. So, there is no way that Romans 14, 5 and 6 could possibly have been saying that dropping the Sabbath to observe the holy days would have been a-okay with God. Now, I'm covering this from a few different angles. There's a lot, there are a lot more ways, and we'd probably all fall asleep if I'd covered them, to prove that we cannot just observe these days. So, by looking at biblical history, we can understand that that culture would not have allowed this to happen, not without handwriting in the sky. There's one last thing that I'd like to address here, and my final point here. I ask in the beginning, is sincerity enough to justify keeping Christmas? If we do it with a pure heart, if we do it in the worship of our God, is that enough to justify, to say it's okay? So, let's look at my seventh and final point, at whether keeping Christmas with sincerity would please God. Now, up until this point, we've discussed a few things. Let me just review what we've gone over, reasons why we shouldn't do this, okay? We looked at, God has his own face, he doesn't need any others. We looked at that God does not want us innovating in worship, he doesn't want us to adapt and transform. We've seen that God says explicitly that we should not look around at other beliefs. We've seen that Romans 14, 5, and 6 doesn't grant us the right to follow our whims, whatever days. The context does not support it.

And then finally, what we just went through is that the Jews of Paul's day would not have allowed him to just casually, with the stroke of a pen, do away with the holy days. So that is the body of evidence I'm presenting to show that we can't observe this day. But what if the person observing Christmas is really doing it with a pure heart? What if the person is really just wanting to express his love to his maker for having given us Jesus and the like? Could a Christian observe Christmas as long as he did it with a sincere heart? Let's turn to 2 Samuel 6. We'll read verses 5 through 7. We're returning actually to the story of Azza and the Ark. This we did not read. I referred to this incident, but we didn't read it. This is where I was talking about transforming pagan holidays. But let's look at this particular incident from a different angle.

So the story is that David wanted to move the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, as we discussed earlier. And they put the Ark on an ox cart, and they started on their way. After 20 years of absence from Jerusalem, this was a joyous event. David was dancing and singing.

What David did, he did with a sincere and a pure heart and with all his heart.

The Ark was finally coming home. So 2 Samuel 6, 5 through 7, verse 5, 2 Samuel 6, 5, and David and all the houses of Israel play before the Lord on all manner of instruments, made of firwood, even on harps and on saltries and on timbrels and on cornets and on cymbals.

And when they came to Nahun's threshing floor, Azza put forth his hand to the Ark and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Azza, and God smote him right there on the spot for this error. And he died by the Ark of God.

The moving of the Ark was a moment of absolute joy and pure sincerity.

So what if David and Azza were actually completely sincere when doing this with a completely sincere and pure heart? Would God overlook this and instead respect their intent? Clearly, He didn't. He killed him on the spot.

We've just gone through five points previously, each showing that God doesn't want to celebrate in pagan days. So what about it then? Could we observe Christmas? But just to make sure that, look, I've got a pure heart. I'm doing this to God, not to the tree, not to the observance, not to the... I'm doing this to God with a pure heart. Can we do that? Does sincerity change anything as to how God sees this issue? And the answer is no. Even if we're sincere, we cannot observe Christmas or New Year's or Valentine's Day or Easter or Halloween, you name it. All of these descend from other belief systems.

Okay, so let's just wrap this up now. We looked at the Got Questions explanation. Again, it's an excellent site. I'm not trying to pick on them, but we looked at how they explained that it's quite fine to observe Christmas. It's really a great thing. Everyone benefits, and you'd see the exact same explanation anywhere else you'd look. But the fact of the matter is it's not a biblical day. It's just a celebration of Roman gods that's just been rebranded, stamped on Jesus Christ's name, changed things ever so slightly. The Christian world bends over backwards to find excuses to observe the day, never considering what God says on the topic.

When it comes right down to it, the real lesson for Christians concerning Christmas is that God wants as big of a gulf as possible between us and the beliefs of the people around us.