Why Not Keep Christmas?

Some time ago, I went in to get a haircut. Typically, you know, we have to do every six or seven months. You know, the older you get, the less often you have to get your haircut. But it just doesn't seem to grow as fast for some reason. And the barber lady cutting my hair asked, How's my Christmas going? Now, we all have had that kind of thing happen to us. And ever mindful that she was carrying scissors, I was a bit reluctant to say about how he was doing.

But I decided I was going to be daring that day, and I told her what I was really thinking. I told her I had not kept Christmas for 40 years. I'm sure I was a real killjoy to her.

And I said, because of what the Bible says and because of what history says about it. And I said, look, you take away the commercialization. What do you really have? And you know what? She agreed with me on it. A lot of people do anymore. They have the slogan, Put Christ Back into Christmas.

Of course, they don't know. He was never in Christmas to begin with. But I began to give her some Christmas history. I told her about the Roman pagan custom associated with Mithraism and the sun god that was actually celebrated on December 25th. And I asked her, did you know that? And how it wasn't, in fact, the date of the birth of Jesus Christ anyway. And how Christ was probably born about September or October. He gave her reasons for that. And then I said it wasn't even observed in the American colonies at the beginning of the United States.

Because it was viewed as immoral to observe Christmas. No, most people don't know that because oftentimes during the Christmas season, people tend to imbibe a little bit too much and they get drunk. And that was considered a morality in the colonies to begin with. Not only there, but in England beforehand. And I explained to her it was the merchants who established Christmas in the United States to make money.

You know, you see the big rotund, fat, red-suited individual? That was created by the merchants, the advertisers. Everybody knows that they can't get down a shimmy. I mean, they'd look like a mechanic if they did. And you wouldn't want somebody to look like a coal miner, would you? Standing in your living room eating cookies. Anyway. But anyway, I was shocked that she agreed with the things that I said. I was amazed that she was. And I decided I would leave well enough alone, and I encouraged her to study the subject on her own. Well, brethren, why don't we observe Christmas in the Church of God?

I mean, everybody's doing it out there. I mean, you walk up and down the streets and go to the marketplace, and everybody's doing it. And, you know, the standard answer that all of us give is because it's pagan. That's why we don't do it. I think we need to say a little bit more about, you know, Christmas than just it's pagan.

We need to give people some information. I was given a set of Encyclopedia Britannica's up in the Oakland area by one of the elders up there. And I looked up the word Christmas in that old Encyclopedia Britannica. And this is what it says about Christmas. It says, The earliest indication of the 25th of December with the birthday of Christ is in a passage otherwise unknown and probably spurious of Theophilus of Antioch. And it says A.D. 171 to 183. So we're looking at 140 years after Christ, in fact, was crucified.

It says, Preserved in Latin. And it says to the effect that the Gauls continued that as they celebrated the birth of the Lord on the 25th of December, whatever day of the week it might be, so they ought to celebrate the Pasha on the 25th of March when the resurrection befell.

And so the Gauls were the ones who first brought this December 25th forward, according to, again, the 11th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. The next mention of the 25th of December is by Hippolytus. And this is around 202 A.D. And it was a commentary on Daniel 4, verse 23. Jesus, he said, was born at Bethlehem on the 25th of December, a Wednesday, in the 42nd year of Augustus. This passage also is almost certainly interpolated. In any case, he mentions no feast. And it says, Nor was such a feast congruous with the orthodox ideas of that age. It says, as late as 245, Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ, as if he were a king-feral.

See, birthdays were associated with Egyptian pharaohs, and they were observed by that. And Origen says, it's contemptible that we would even observe the birthday of Jesus Christ. Then it says, the first certain mention of December 25th in the Latin is a Latin chronographer of A.D. 354, first published entire by Momsen. Here again, no festal celebration of the day is attested. No, Encyclopedia Botanica goes on. I'm just quoting different passages of it. The grounds on which the church introduced so late as 350 to 440, a Christmas feast, till then, is unknown.

Did you get what he says here? They did not introduce Christmas until 350 to 440 A.D. Now, you can do the numbers. Christ was crucified in 31 A.D. And all those years later, 300 years later, they are doing a festival to his birth. In Britain, the 25th of December was a festival long before the conversion there to Christianity.

Again, this is what Encyclopedia says. In 1644, the English Puritans forbade any merriment or religious services by an act of Parliament. They made a law against it. On the grounds that it was a heathen festival in order that it be kept as a fast. And it says that Charles II revived the feast, but the Scots adhered to the Puritan view. So that's what the Encyclopedia Botanica says, 11th edition.

Now, they've changed that in the editions that are out now. When I first started studying the Bible, one of the first subjects I studied was Christmas. Whether or not you should do it. I remember the year that I began to view Christmas as pagan was after one year my parents refused to put a tree up.

I was going to be a good Christian boy, so I went out and I cut a Christmas tree. We're going to have a Christmas. Anyway, I may have been 16 years old at that time. I set the tree up in the living room and tensiled it. It looked awful. But then the following year, I did not do it. I did not observe it. I had studied into Christmas enough that I realized it was something I shouldn't do. When I was first studying, I came upon a book entitled, 4,000 Years of Christmas.

Now, again, do the arithmetic here. 4,000 years of Christmas. Which title reveals enough to us, doesn't it? It shows that Christmas had originated in paganism 2,000 years before Christ ever came along. If you tell others this, they tend to say, well, yeah, it came from paganism. But we don't celebrate it the way the pagans did, but we do it to honor Jesus Christ. How do you answer that objection, rather, when people say it that way? And they inevitably will. The first thing we have to realize is that under the New Covenant, unlike many people feel in the Protestant world today, the Old Testament is not done away.

The Old Testament laws are not done away. In fact, the laws of the Old Testament are important to our salvation today. Even the Apostle Paul told Timothy that he should study the Scriptures because he said it will make you wise under salvation. You couldn't have salvation unless you have the Old Testament Scriptures and what the Bible tells us.

And even when we look into the New Testament, the Bible tells us that in fact the Old Testament, what was recorded in the Old Testament, was for our example. In fact, it says in 1 Corinthians 10, you can just write these down, in verses 11 and 12, that all these things happen to them, those of ancient Israel, as examples, and as written for our warning upon whom the ends of the world have come.

So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. In Romans 15, in verse 4, tells us, for whatever things were written before was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort, it says other scriptures might have hope.

So the Old Testament is very much, brethren, in force for us today. And when people say, well, we just do it to honor Christ, well, what does the Bible say about it? It's a grave mistake to ignore instructions God gives in the Old Testament. And this has, in fact, been done by the Protestants and the Catholics for centuries now. And what it has done is kept them in the dark and blind so they could not see the truth.

They couldn't see the reality of what the Bible says. Let's go to Deuteronomy 12 here. I think we should very much go to this. When God was instructing ancient Israel as he was bringing him into this new land, he knew that there would be many temptations for them. A lot of temptations for us in our time as well, aren't there? But here in Deuteronomy 12 and down in verse 29, let's read what it says. And when the eternally your God cuts off from before you, this Deuteronomy 12, verse 29, "...nasons 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." You know, Israel's problem has been all the time, it seems, that they wanted to mimic the other nations that were around about them.

And it says, "...after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods." Now, why not? He goes on to say, saying, how do these nations serve their gods? He says, I also will do likewise. And isn't this what, in fact, has been done in Protestantism and Catholicism, for that matter? That they've looked at how others have done things, and they've mimicked that. If you don't believe that, I encourage you to go, you know, to the Vatican, and just walk through St.

Peter's Cathedral, and you will see things that, you know, if you really know what the origin of them are, you'll understand that they came from pagan religions. And it was syncretized on into Catholicism, and the thing about it is that oftentimes the customs are carried right over into Protestantism as well. But going on, notice verse 31, "...you shall not worship the Lord your God, the Eternal your God, in that way." Moses recorded here, "...for every abomination to the Eternal which he hates, they have done to their gods.

For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods." You know, the Moloch, you know, the outstretched arms of the idol that they worship, with a fire in it, putting children, you know, in the arms of that god, in burning their children. They have done this. But notice, go on in verse 32, "...whatever I command you, be careful to observe it." Whatever I have told you to do, you be careful to do it.

"...You shall not add to it, nor shall you take away from it." Brother, how clear can you get? It's amazing sometimes. People read things that are so clear, and yet go ahead and they proceed to walk forward and do whatever they want to do. They don't, of course, you know, follow God's way. So the admonition, brethren, to ancient Israel is don't follow the world. They don't add to what I've given you or take from it.

That's what God said. And so when somebody says, well, we don't do it that way to Christ today, we don't keep it the way the pagans observed it, we do it to Christ. Again, you look at what the Scripture says and what could be clearer. Let's go over to Jeremiah 10. I think every young person here in this audience knows Jeremiah 10. In Jeremiah 10, over here, notice a custom of what, in fact, I did when I was a teenager.

Wind of the forest, cut down a tree. But notice here, we'll read just four verses of this. But Jeremiah 10 and verse 1, hear the word which the eternal speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says, Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven. They look, of course, to the Sotheac. And they, in fact, oftentimes perform functions and do things according to their horoscope, what it would be. In fact, this has been done by presidents of the United States, this very thing, following the Zodiac and following the horoscopes, to make decisions about when things should be done and when things should not be done.

So it says, Don't learn the way of the Gentiles. And don't worry about, of course, the signs of heaven. For the customs of the people are futile. They're futile. They're useless. For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen. With the axe they decorate with silver and gold.

They fasten it with nails and hammers so they will not move or topple. And so, it sounds like a modern-day Christmas tree. Excuse me. Although when you read it through this chapter, it is an idol that is carved out of wood that is decorated. But it's the same principle that is here as well. I had a friend of mine, by the way, that began to keep Christmas.

And he had to send me that little tidbit. He said, this is a wooden idol that was created. Somehow he thought that would convince me to observe Christmas. It's the same principle. You know, you put the pencil on it, you decorate it up. It's an immovable object. And it is for those that did it was something involving worship. And this was done, by the way, two thousand years before Jesus Christ ever came along. Two thousand years. And of course, four thousand years since. And so, today, again, things are done like this, surrounding the Christmas tree in our time.

A question I would have for somebody who says, well, we just do it, you know, to honor Christ. Has God somehow changed his mind about this? Has he determined that since it's been done for so many centuries, has he determined that Jesus Christ, yes indeed, could be honored by setting up an evergreen tree and putting a pencil of gold and silver on it?

Can you baptize, brethren, as it were, paganism and make it Christian? That's what, in fact, the universal church thinks. You can cleanse it. You can clean it up.

You know, there is not a solitary scripture, a solitary example of that ever being done in the Bible. It just is not done. And, you know, you can't clean up something that is pagan. You simply cannot do that. You know, does God really want us, brethren, to come up with new and unique ways to worship him aside from what he has commanded us to do? Is that what he wants? Or has the Bible said, in fact, that is not what he wants? That's not what he desires. Because these things are the things that are vain, brethren.

In fact, the Bible tells us this again, even in the New Testament, it says, do not conform to the world. But it goes on to say, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. What we're doing should be new and different than what the world is doing. And, you know, if you obey God, it is new and different, isn't it? Because that's the thing that is furthest from the minds of most people. You know, God doesn't want us to be conformed to pagan custom. Let's go to Matthew chapter 15 again in the New Testament over here. This is one of the favorite scriptures that Mr. Armstrong used to quote about the traditions and the customs of men.

But here in Matthew chapter 15 and down in verse 7, let's notice here, here it begins. It says, hypocrites welded Isaiah prophesy about you. Talk about the scribes and the Pharisees saying, These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. And isn't this what is being done even with the Christmas custom? They're teaching for doctrines, the teachings of the church, those things that have been created by human beings.

And it, of course, has been applied in many ways in religion. Over in Colossians chapter 2, let's notice this. Colossians chapter 2, humanly devised customs, brethren, are called vain by Jesus Christ.

You know, would God be pleased, brethren? Would He be pleased with human customs to worship Him while ignoring the Holy Days? You know, God commands the Holy Days, and people ignore it. Would God then be pleased with somebody who creates something to worship God? Well, of course He would not be.

God would say, wait a minute, didn't I tell you to keep the Sabbath? Wait a minute, didn't I tell you to keep the Feast of Tabernacles? Didn't I tell you to observe these things? And why haven't you done it? Why haven't you carried through? You know, what kind of parent would we be if we told our kids what to do, and for their own good, that they learn how to follow instructions? And then they came back and they said, well, I know Mom and Dad, you asked me to do this, but instead I decided I was going to do this. How would you react as a parent? Well, you would correct your child, wouldn't you? You know, how would that kind of a mentality fly in the marketplace? You know, if one of your children or my children got a job working for a company, and the boss says, I want you to do this, and they go and do the exactly opposite thing, well, I think you know they'd be fired in a heartbeat. Let's go to Colossians 2 here in verse 16 over here. It says, so let no one judge you in food or in drink. Here he was talking about here with Gentiles that were observing Jewish food laws, or as they would have been viewed, you know, by other Gentiles. He said, don't let anyone judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath. It says, which are a shadow of things to come. But the substance is, it should be, you know, the body of Christ, or the, but the body of Christ, let the body of Christ judge you. Let the body of Christ, the church, in other words, point you, in which way you should go in terms of the truth. But notice here, talking about the festivals and the new moon and the Sabbath, it says, which are a shadow of things to come. They picture something.

When we walk, we have, we cast a shadow. The shadow leads to us, because we make the shadow. In the Holy Days, brethren, picture things that are to come in the future, the reality of things that are going to happen in the future. Holy Days help us to worship God.

And Holy Days help us to have an outline of the Master Plan of Salvation for all of mankind. In other words, it gives us the things to come for the future. When I ask you, what does Christmas foreshadow?

You're noticeably quiet, because it doesn't foreshadow anything.

It doesn't look forward to things to come of anything whatsoever. Let's notice what it says in verse 18 here. It says, let no one cheat you of your reward. And, you know, if we embrace the things of the world, we're being cheated out of the reward that we could have. Taking delight in false humility, or worship of angels intruding into those things, which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

People in the world, again, are pretty cocky, you know, about what they do.

There have been people, of course, through the ages of the church have been that way. Sometimes, they get too big for their britches, you know, as my mother used to say. She'd say, Buster, you're getting too big for your britches, you know. And then, oftentimes, people get too big for their britches. But pagan holidays are simply satanic counterfeits that have been foisted off on people. And Satan's ministers want to appear, the Bible says, as angels of light.

They want to appear to be righteous of angels of light who love God while they reject what God has commanded.

Like Satan, they don't want to obey God.

But they want to be viewed as ministers of God.

They want to be viewed as ministers of light who love the Lord. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 11, and notice what it says over here. 2 Corinthians 11.

So, brother, it's important for us to not be taken in by what we see in the world.

It's like the newest pope, you know, when he came into office.

He tried to really woo people by his humility.

Most people are not aware he's a Jesuit.

And one of the main goals of Jesuits is to bring Muslims into the church.

And I'm talking about the Catholic Church, but there's a lot of things behind that, you know, that we need to be aware of.

But, you know, appearing as an angel of light, as somebody who's very kind, very gentle, very humble.

2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14.

Here Paul says, And no wonder for Satan himself has transformed himself into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves and the ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

You know, we have, brethren, the responsibility to judge, based on Scripture, what is right and what is wrong.

We don't have the job of judging other people. We don't have the job of judging the world.

You know, God's going to do that. And we don't have to do that.

One thing we do have a job to do is judging ourselves, what we're doing individually.

We don't want to allow ourselves to be deceived, you know, by the religions of this world and the ways of this world, the pagan customs and so forth.

We need to keep ourselves free of the spots and blemishes that are in this world.

We are betrothed to Christ and must abstain from the world and the things of this world.

To get involved in the things of this world is a form of spiritual fornication, which, again, goes against the betrothal we have to Jesus Christ.

You know, God is going to hold the world responsible for what it does.

He's sown them up right now in ignorance so he can have mercy on them, but he's going to hold them responsible in the future, brethren.

Of course, Satan has deceived the entire world.

He's blinded the minds of people, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them.

And people have been deceived by the teachings of pagan customs and all other types of things that are out there.

You know, Satan is a master counterfeiter.

And if you think you've got it all figured out, you know what Satan the Devil does?

He just manufactures more counterfeits. That's what he does.

You think about it. If it was a toss-up between the true church and the false church, and you have the Bible, and you had to make a decision based upon what the Bible says, it'd be pretty easy, wouldn't it?

But what happened, you know, during the Reformation period is what the devil did. He pulled a fast one.

He multiplied the counterfeits.

So today there are about 1,200 or 1,400 different denominations.

And there are all kinds of religions, all kinds of ideas that are out there.

And, you know, finding the truth of God, finding the church of God, is like finding now a needle in a haystack.

You can search and search, you know, on your own. You can do it all your life.

And I've known of people that it seems like they're always searching, but never finding.

But if God is leading you to the church, you will find it.

You will see the church of God.

And that's why we're here. That's why God has brought us here.

But Satan deceives people through the customs, the traditions of this world.

Like I say, we don't have the job of judging the world. God is the judge of the world.

But God is judging us today.

You know, we're told in 1 Peter 4, in verse 17, that judgment is upon the house of God today.

So God is judging us right now today.

And it goes on to say that if the righteous scarcely be saved, you know, all of us are going to get into the kingdom by the skin of our teeth.

Where do the ungodly and the sinner appear?

We know that God has a plan of salvation, and there is a second resurrection, and there will be an opportunity for people in the future.

But God is judging the church today.

That judgment is upon the house of God today. So we need to be careful what we do in this life. The race is on, brethren. It's been on.

You know, it's on right now for Hannah and others that have become baptized into the church.

And our lives are being judged by our merciful Father.

And, you know, there have been some curveballs that have been thrown at us here in this end of the age.

We've had a number of things that have been thrown our way that we did not expect.

And so we didn't glide on into the kingdom of God, did we?

I remember when I was first called and baptized in 1968, I thought Christ was going to come back in about four or five years.

Wouldn't have been long to wait for the return of Jesus Christ.

Of course, never realized it was going to be much more than that.

And we still don't know, do we, when these things are going to come, the fruition.

But we know that it will.

And the race is on again for us, and we're being judged.

And God is using the curveballs that have been sent our way to train us to be kings in the world tomorrow.

He's beginning to develop our character, that minefield out there that we go through.

He's helping us through those experiences we have and those difficult things that we go through to build that character to groom us as future kings.

So that with the character of God, we can stand and make it through the trials that we have to go through.

Over in Revelation 2, let's notice in Revelation chapter 2 over here, John is writing about Pergamum, or Pergamos as it's referred to here as well.

But in Revelation 2, down in verse 14, let's notice here, there was a problem in the church at Pergamos. Notice it says, but I have a few things against you.

Because you have, there are those who hold the doctrine of Balaam.

Now all of us know who Balaam was. He describes it here. He describes it here. Who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

Remember the whole account with Israel in that time with Balaam, you know, who would skirt on the edge of the cliff, as it were, of what was right and what was wrong. And he used that to get Israel in trouble.

But notice it says, thus you also have those that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

And he says, repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against you with the sword of my mouth. Interestingly, you know, the word Nicolaitan, in looking it up in Young's Concordance, it means followers of Nicholas, Nicolaitan.

And it says in Young's, Nicholas means conqueror of the people.

In other words, this was somebody who rose up in the midst of God's people.

Now, whether his name means anything or not, you know, apparently that was part of what he did.

Smith's Bible dictionary says his name means victor of the people.

It goes on to say in Smith's, Nicholas, well, in Young's, Nicholas, according to Young's Concordance, was a proselyte of Antioch.

And one of the seven disciples chosen to serve tables.

So he was among the deacons that were selected, remember, by the apostles in the early church.

Nicholas, and you can go look it up if you want to, and the book of Acts and his certain names there.

He goes on to say, we cannot be absolutely certain these are one and the same.

Whether his name had any significance at all is unclear, but it's clear that he was followed by certain of the church into practices contrary to doctrine.

So here somebody rose up, who was a part of the church. He may have been, in fact, among those seven, was a deacon and a leader in the church at that time.

I'm sure progressing beyond that.

And here he was, and he had people that were following him.

And these people apparently existed side by side with the true people of God.

This is the early church.

Smith's Bible dictionary says this about the Nicolaitans.

A sect mentioned in Revelation 2, 6, and 15 whose deeds were strongly condemned.

There were people that were sort of skirting on the edge all the time.

They may have been identical with those who held the doctrine of Balaam.

They seemed to have held that it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication in opposition.

The teachers of the church branded them with a name which expressed their true character.

The men who did and taught such things were followers of Balaam.

They, like the false prophet of Paithor, united brave words with evil deeds.

In times of persecution, when the eating and not drinking of things sacrificed to idols was more than ever a crucial test of faithfulness, they persuaded men more than ever that it was something indifferent.

This was bad enough, but there was not a yet worse evil. Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts, they brought the impurities of these feasts into the meetings of the Christian church.

So, in other words, it's a trickle that turns into a flood.

Now, the point, brethren, of this is that God was against His people. What He was involved with such people is this.

Following idolatrous, people that were involved in the pagan system of the world at that time, and He's just as against it, for His people to fellowship with such people today, at least to get involved with them.

So we must not, brethren, let false ideas, false things, creep into our lives and to creep into the church as well.

You know, we're commanded, in fact, in 2 Corinthians 6, to separate from idolatry.

Satan has always tried to entice God's people with wrong customs. Always tried to do that. And he wants us to blend in with the world so that there's no distinction.

You know, it seems like there's an homogenization of people in the world.

Sexually, there are those who would like us all to be one sex, basically.

And that is basically anything goes.

There are those who would like us to be all one religion.

And we'll do anything to make that come to the pass.

They'd like to be one government.

There's a push in that direction, but it's a push toward evil.

It's a push away from God's way of life.

So we have to be careful not to be polluted, brethren, by the idolatry of our modern day in this world.

Now, the Bible says that bride is arrayed in white.

What would you think if the woman you were going to marry, your bride, was dressed in white, but as she walked closer, you could see their dress was all wrinkled, and it had dirt and other things on it. What would you think about such a woman as that?

Well, it would show she really didn't have much concern for the sanctity of the marriage and the importance of what she was about to enter into.

The same is true for us, brethren.

God wants us to keep unspotted from this world and this society.

In fact, it says in the book of James, chapter 1 and verse 27, Pure religion and undefiled is this before God, to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, those that are helpless in other words, that need our help, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. The word unspotted means unblemished physically and morally.

And Vine says, free from contamination.

We can be contaminated.

Up in the Camp Verde last week, we had a message about pollution in the world.

And the analogy was given by Mr. Horrier was about spiritual pollution, that is out there. And really, we're talking about the same thing, aren't we?

Now, as soon as you say, well, you know, you should not observe Christmas, people are going to say, well, you observe Thanksgiving.

What's wrong with keeping Thanksgiving? Or what's wrong with keeping 4th of July?

Well, in the church, we observe Thanksgiving.

It's something we participate in because, you know, we can thank God, you know, on Thanksgiving Day for the blessings that He gives to us and He pours out upon us.

In fact, when it was instituted in the United States, Abraham Lincoln gave a decree about thanking God for what the nation had enjoyed, what God had given us that we did not really deserve as a people.

How about 4th of July? Why don't we observe the 4th of July?

Again, it's just a national holiday, in that case, for the celebration of the beginning of the United States, of the Constitution of that time. And it doesn't interfere. It doesn't interfere with God's plan.

So, brethren, you know, then, of course, people are going to say, well, why not celebrate Christ's birthday if you can keep the birth of the nation?

It seems like the people come at you, you know, no matter what you say to them.

Because celebrating Christ's birthday is an act of worship. But only God, brethren, can determine for us how He wants to be worshipped.

Only God can do that. We don't have that right.

Deuteronomy 12, 29 tells us, don't add to or take away.

And so we don't do things the way the world does. In fact, in the Bible, there is not one scripture or allusion to one scripture where the birthday to Christ was ever observed.

So, brethren, let's remember these things.

And let's make sure that we are staying away from the customs of this world and this society. We do keep, of course, God's holy days. We do not keep Christmas. We do not keep Easter or Valentine's Day or, God forbid, Halloween.

Because they're a hodgepodge of pagan customs which the Bible condemns and hates.

We do not observe the things of this world, but we do.

We do keep and observe God's commanded holy days, mention in the Bible, which teaches how God's wonderful plan of salvation is going to come to fruition, not only for us, but the entire world. And we should be very thankful for the fact that even though we are against the traditions of the world, God's word and His law and His plan are for all of mankind.