Chapter 11:
Our loyalty to the Kingdom affects how we regard its avowed enemies. Among the most ardent of these are some who were once Christians, but have become "apostate", which means "those who stand away from." Why would any Christian do such a thing? The underlying cause is almost always pride: just as Satan urged Eve to "better" herself apart from her Creator (and without consulting her husband first, which might have scotched the plan), Satan urges us all to be self-centered and independent. He wants us to chafe at the submission that God’s Kingdom involves. If we listen to him, we may come to feel that God’s rule is oppressively restrictive.
Now in reality God’s Kingdom gives the most freedom overall compared to any other form of government; but it doesn’t permit wild partying, loose living and so on (Gal 5:19-21). Those who try to bring such things in are admonished first (1 Thess 5:12-14), then corrected severely if necessary (Titus 1:5-13; note there who is appointed to do this reproving), and expelled as a last resort (Titus 3:10, 11 and 1 Cor 5:11-13). Some of such ones are so hardened in pride that they begin an angry campaign to destroy with vicious slander those who so "humiliated" them. Others do not do that, but neither do they back down from their ideas at odds with scripture, continuing to seek at every opportunity to turn the congregation to following them (2 Peter 2:1-3). Those who are loyal to the Kingdom must know the truth well enough that they can identify such deviousness and not give it an audience. —Prov 13.20, 1 Cor 15.12 and 32-34, Col 2:6-8, Titus 3:9.
At Romans 16:17-19 we are warned: “Keep your eye on those who cause divisions and occasions for stumbling. . . and avoid them. For men of that sort are slaves not of Christ, but of their own bellies, and by smooth talk and complimentary speech they seduce the hearts of guileless ones. . . I want you to be wise as to what is good, but innocent as to what is evil.” Like Satan with Eve, apostates can be slick. We tend to be fair-minded, to hear troubled people out, and they take advantage of that. We may imagine that we can turn them around if only we could reason with them. But bear in mind, that has already been tried, at length, before they were expelled. Until proven otherwise, we should loyally respect those older men as competent and fair judges (see Deut 16.18-20.)* (More on this in the next chapter.)
There is no need for us to study in detail the warped reasoning of our opposers in order either to help them or to defend against them. "Wisdom is proved righteous by its works," Jesus replied when he was falsely accused. He was not going to play their wicked game and be drawn into a war of words. —Matt 11:19.
At 2 John 8-11 we read: “Look out for yourselves, that you do not lose the things we have worked to produce. . . everyone that pushes ahead (that is, does not remain in the teaching of the Christ) does not have God. . . If anyone comes to you and does not have this teaching, never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For he that welcomes him is a sharer in his wicked works.” This applies to anyone who has left the truth and is now coming back, not humbly, but to sow doubt or dissension, to draw off disciples after himself, or to defend his error. This is an active apostate. We would not receive him to hear his message; we would not warmly greet him. We would give him no encouragement in his mission at all. In Bible times a greeting was not a mere nod in passing, it was a whole welcome ceremony in itself. This person would not get that from us.
Jehovah is the “happy God,” and he wants us to enjoy life as well. He gave Israel three major festivals in the year, and one purpose of these was “to appear before Him with rejoicing” in gratitude for all His blessings upon them that year. (Deut 16.9-16) We too should rejoice before him, celebrating the blessings we receive as well. But we must take care to do so in the way that is pleasing to him. To this end he advises us about things to avoid, things that may seem fun at first but which lead to unpleasant ends. Our first reaction might be a puzzled “why not?”, but since our earnest desire is to please Him, we listen carefully and comply. In time we acquire a sense of his feelings about things, we gain ability to judge whether something would meet his favor or not. A child only asks, “is it fun?”, but an adult has learned to ask, “is it right?”
Jehovah is the God of truth. He cannot lie. There is no falsehood with him at all, nor will he countenance falsehood being promoted in his name. The vital importance of truth is prominent throughout the Bible. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” Jesus said. When the Samaritan woman at the well asked him how to properly worship God, he replied “the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth . . . the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him . . . those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.” —Ps 31:5, Titus 1:1, 2, John 8:31, 32; 4:23, 24.
Falsehood and ignorance are often compared to darkness, while truth and knowledge are like light. John tells us: “God is light and there is no darkness at all in union with him.” He then goes on to say: “If we make the statement ‘We are having a sharing with him,’ and yet we go on walking in the darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.” (1 John 1:5, 6; see also John 8:12 and 3:19-21.) Strong words! How important is truth to you, especially truth about matters of faith and worship?
Falsehood, whether unintentional or deliberate, is a contamination. If you had a big stain on your clothing but did not know of it, would that prevent others from noticing? Hardly. Would you appreciate it if a person kindly brought it to your attention, or would you be angry at them? And after you learned of it, would you proudly display the stain to all, trying to pass it off as the latest fashion, or would you change clothes as quickly as you could, and wash the dirty garment? Likewise with any imperfection in our worship: when God kindly alerts us to something that needs to be made clean, we will loyally act quickly to do so. We will not make excuses or drag our feet.
With this fundamental in mind, let us inspect some of the popular holidays of the world. The world has a calender full of celebrations, some religious, others political. Of these, Christmas is surely the most popular. Ostensibly a Christian celebration of the birthday of Christ, even atheists and pagans enjoy it. Surely that must please God, right?
On closer look, however, we find that it is built on a foundation of paganism and falsehoods. First, it is widely admitted that the date is wrong. Jesus was born in the fall, around early October by our calender. The Bible writers were not inspired to give us the date, which itself should tell us that it is not important for us to know or observe. We can deduce it approximately, this way: Jesus was to minister for three years and six months, then give his life for us. The date of his death is recorded precisely: the same day as the feast of Passover (by our reckoning, the next day, but by Jewish reckoning, the day began at sundown and ran to the following sunset). This was by Law Nisan 14th, or 14 days after the new moon closest to the spring equinox (Lev 23.4, 5). (On our solar calender this varies between late March and early April; it is invariable on the lunar calender.) Jesus therefore began his work 6 months (and 3 years) earlier when he was baptised by John the Baptiser. Luke (3.23) says he did this when he was "about thirty years old." By God's Law, a Levite would begin his priestly service at the age of thirty (Num 4.3), so we could assume Jesus would have begun his priestlike ministry on his thirtieth birthday or soon thereafter, but not before then. This would place his day of birth in late September or early October (by our months), or close to the Day of Atonement. This approximation fits with Luke's account that places shepherds with their flocks out in the pastures that night, something highly unlikely in late December.
So December 25th (or January 6th, as some prefer) is false; it is not Christ's birthday. Why, then, was it chosen? Well, December 22nd is the winter solstice, or shortest day of the year. Pagans who worshipped the sun were very relieved each year when their god began to revive or be reborn, when they measured the days beginning to lengthen again. It was the birthday of the invincible Sun! So by the 25th it was time to party, and they partied hard, pretty much like many do Christmas today. Christianity, when it was new and pure, would never mix anything touching on devotion to false gods with worship of the one true God. “What sharing does light have with darkness?” Paul wrote. “What agreement does God's temple have with idols? . . . Therefore get out from among them and separate yourselves, and quit touching the unclean thing.” Paul was even inspired to discourage Jewish converts from continuing to observe the holy days once so special to them: and these had been days ordained by God! How much more so, then, would Christians have been expected to leave behind days devoted to false gods! (See Gal 4.8-11, Col 3.16, 17.) Yet within a generation, the congregations began drifting into spiritual infidelity. They began to reason that any belief in Christ is better than none, so why not allow new converts to hold on to their popular (fun) pagan holidays? It fills the cathedral (and the coffers) so what's the problem? They had utterly lost spiritual sight of how God and Christ feel about it. They whitewashed the infidelity by saying it was now to celebrate the birth of the Son. But saying it doesn’t make it so.
So should we move Christmas to October? Actually, we have no reason to believe Jesus desires us to celebrate his birthday at all. God’s Law for Israel did not include any birth-date celebrations, nor was it customary for Jews to do such. So neither Jesus nor his parents ever observed his birthday with any ritual. Nor is there any mention of such attention being given by any of the apostles or the early congregations. All devotion was directed toward honoring his teachings, his death and his glorification, not his infancy. Where, then, did such an idea come from? Again, from paganism. Birthday celebration has long been widespread and very important among ‘the nations that do not know God.’ In ancient times it was done for mystic or religious reasons; today it is principally an excuse to have a party. The Bible mentions only two birthday celebrations, both by ungodly men. Both are marred by untimely death; it is in fact a servant of God, John the Baptiser himself, who is murdered at Herod's party. Could God be trying to tell us something here? —Gen 40:18-22, Matt 14:6-11.
We should not have to continue, but there is so much more. Would you like to be known as a liar? Do you think it is fun to be misled, deceived, played for a fool? Then why would you ever do that to your innocent little children? Do you have them believing in Santa? That this jolly old fat man living at the North Pole keeps a list of all the nice and naughty kids, and rewards them with toys (or not)? This is wrong on so many levels it is hard to begin. First, whose shoes does that put Santa into? Is it not the true God who is “the rewarder of those who seek him”? (see also Job 34.11, Rev 22.12.) How would He feel to see you putting a fictitious man in His place? And as you know, "Santa" rewards kids according to how rich their parents are. Does God do that? The true reward is so much more than the cheap baubles and playthings so typical of Christmas. To encourage in children such eager anticipation of so much, face it, JUNK, so cruelly misleads them that it is a crime. Do they really regard the holiday as being about Christ? Or is it the motherlode of all goodies? We all know of children who become very demanding in their expectations and very upset when they are not met, as well as the tendency to jealously compare their gifts with what others got. Ah, the spirit of Christmas! —compare Phil 3.8, Matt 6.19-21.
And of course, you know they will discover the truth about Santa after a few years. Sure they forgive you, but do they ever forget that you lied, you led them on, you let them devoutly believe and trust in this falsehood? What else were you lying about? And that church that hosted the jolly old elf, what else is it lying about? Is God just another false trust? Children need to learn that not everyone is trustworthy, but do you really want to teach them that way? What do you think God would have you do? —2 Cor 7:8-11.
What else about Xmas is false? People say, "we need to put Christ back into Christmas," but he never really was in it. Such often forced saccharin sweetness, such blatant commercial exploitation, such a burden of obligation to gift people you hardly know and don't even like! Why don't we just have a holiday and call it "Be Nice." We could all be nice to one another that day and do things for each other and sing together. Then we could be ourselves the rest of the year. See anything wrong with that picture? What would God have us do? Do we need a holiday to get along? To gather the family? To give gifts from our heart to people who are not expecting them? To receive a gift without feeling pressure to give one in return? We should do that anytime, all the time.*
What about the much-touted power of the holiday to inspire peace? We see it in time of war; sometimes it brings about a whole day of ceasefire. Then the next day, back to the slaughter. Compare that to the power of God's truth: Micah 4:1-4. “But it reminds people of Jesus,” some protest. “It has to be good.” Remember, Satan can present himself as an angel of light. He even will do good deeds to gain his victim's trust. Does that mean there is no problem? Whatever "good" that Christmas accomplishes is outweighed by the end result: God's wrath at the adulteration and perversion of the truth.
Of course, most people get that day off work, so it may be a convenient time to gather with friends; and the seasonal discounts may make splurging (and giftgiving) seem opportune. Nevertheless, conscientious Christians would avoid even the appearance of evil, of imitating paganism, of adopting a semblance of its festivals or celebrations, covering it up by merely calling them by another name, or by not calling them by name. We do not even start down that road, setting up a "ersatz-Christmas" of our own. By pointedly doing our rejoicing on our own schedule, we declare our freedom from the world.
So the first holiday we examined fared quite badly. With this beginning it should come as no shock to learn that there really are no holidays dictated by the world or by popular custom that meet the standards of purity in worship and belief. Easter, perhaps the second most important observance in Christendom, is supposed to honor Christ’s resurrection. Surely that is an event to memorialise. But what do inflatable plastic rabbits have to do with it? How does stringing plastic eggs on bushes honor Him? These are recent accoutrements, but the traditional trappings, while less gauché, have no more real connection to Christ than they do. Once again, they were borrowed directly from pagan festivities that the apostate church decided to adapt to make "conversion" easier. The pagans were celebrating the return of Spring. Nothing wrong with being happy about the end of winter! But of course they credited their fertility gods and goddesses and did things to encourage their idols to be fruitful. That's why the rabbits and eggs. The goddess most prominent in these was called Astarte or Aphrodite by the Greeks, Ashtoreth in Canaan and in the Bible, Isis in Egypt, Ishtar in Babylonia. (The Romans called her Venus.)* So celebrating Easter is really honoring Ashtoreth. If you need any clues as to Jehovah's opinion of that, see 1 Kings 11.4-11.
True Christians know that they cannot honor their Lord by offending him. (Takes no genius to figure that out, does it?) Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I am commanding you." (John 15.14) He expects us to be "no part of the world." In prayer to his Father he asked: “Sanctify [cleanse] them by means of the truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17.16, 17) Easter has about as filthy an origin as can be found. It has no place in Christian devotion. Has the truth set you free yet?
“But, but,” some may be spluttering. “The church sanctified, cleansed, this paganism by washing it in the Truth of Christ!” Sorry, it doesn't work that way. We are "washed" of sin by faith in Christ, but we also leave the sin behind and practice it no more. “If we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left,” rather, we should be in fearful expectation of God’s wrath, says Paul at Hebrews 10.26, 27. Is service to false gods (or the rituals thereof) sin? Jehovah's warning to Israel is our answer: “Watch, and you must obey all these words that I am commanding you, in order that it may go well with you and your sons after you to time indefinite, because you will do what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah your God. When Jehovah your God will cut off from before you the nations to whom you are going, to dispossess them, . . . Watch out for yourself for fear you may . . . inquire respecting their gods, saying, ‘How was it these nations used to serve their gods? And I, yes, I, will do the same way.’ You must not do that way to Jehovah your God, for everything detestable to Jehovah that he does hate they have done to their gods . . . Every word that I am commanding you is what you should be careful to do. You must not add to it nor take away from it.” —De 12.28-32; see also 1 Cor 10.18-22, 1 Pet 1.14-16.
Naming a pagan festivity after the true God does not make it acceptable to Him. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Law, the people waiting below got impatient and asked Moses’ brother to craft them a god to lead them. So Aaron made a calf idol and told the people: “This is your God who led you out of Egypt. . . There is [to be] a festival to Jehovah tomorrow.” Notice he got the Name right, but the god very, very wrong. But the people were happy! “The people sat down to eat and drink, then they got up to have a good time.” They had quite a celebration, with music and dancing and no doubt a lot of laughter. But how did the True God view this? He said to Moses: “Your people have acted ruinously . . . they are a stubborn people . . . let my anger blaze against them, that I may exterminate them!” Although He did not do that, when Moses hurried back, what he saw made him so angry that he threw the stone tablets of the Law down and shattered them. Them he demanded the people take a side: For the true God, or for the false god they had made. No, they could not have it both ways. Those who stuck by falsehood paid with their lives. Clearly, it was very serious then, and it has to be just as serious today, for with God, there is no softening of standards. God is watching what choice you are making now that you know how he feels. Do you love him enough to make the right choice? (Read the full account at Exodus chapter 32. See also James 1:17.)
Yes, we should rejoice before our God for his blessings. “For, indeed, Christ our passover [lamb] has been sacrificed. So let us keep the festival, not with old leaven, neither with leaven of badness and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” “You were once darkness, but you are now light in connection with the Lord. Go on walking as children of light, for the fruitage of the light consists of every sort of goodness and righteousness and truth. Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord; and quit sharing with them in the unfruitful works that belong to the darkness.” —1 Cor 5.7, Eph 5:8-10.
Earlier we mused that the Bible's negative portrayal of birthday celebrations might mean that they too are not for God's people. Of course we are happy to be a year older, considering the alternative. Yet one day is really not above another; we are happy to be a day older too, each day. Still, there is scriptural precedent for commemorating significant events annually. The first annual Israelite festival, Passover, was in memory of their deliverance from slavery. On a personal level, there are many events we could reasonably hold in fond memory: our wedding, our baptism, a graduation or other achievement, the birth of a child, even sad events such as the death of a loved one; really any significant beginnings and endings. If we choose to remember these with some sort of observance, that is a personal decision. As a date, they are significant to us and at most a few other persons. But as God’s children we include Him in all our life, so we would want any observance to be pleasing to Him as well. We would never bring in the customs and rituals of the world that derive from paganism, for example, special cakes with candles, ritualistic greetings and songs, or obligatory gift-giving. Many feel that their birthday entitles them to gifts, and they become quite annoyed if these do not meet their expectations. So birthdays (and like customs) have promoted unseemly self-centeredness. Anytime a gift is given, it should be from the heart; no gift should be demanded or required on a special day as "proof" of love. (See Rom 12:2, 3.) If you want to privately take note that your child has become a year older, that is your business, but you should not oblige anyone else to make a fuss over it. Really we should make our children feel special every day of the year, without encouraging them to think more of themselves than is proper. Picking out the birthday as if it needed special ritualized attention has no support in God’s word. Since that idea comes from pagan astrological beliefs, which are both false and offensive to God, it would be disrespectful to Him for us to be governed by them. Christians find better ways to be happy with their children.
Coming soon:
Respecting a sacred symbol
The Kingdom of God by its very nature implies an authority structure calling for some degree of organization and submission. Is the Kingdom entirely in heaven, or should there be an authority structure, a heirarchy, an organization of Christians on earth? The next chapter takes up this question.