Is Christmas Biblical (II)

It was emphasised that Jesus would celebrate this ordinance with his followersfinally in the New Kingdom as recorded in Matthew 26 vs 26-29 and 1st Corinthians

11 vs 23-26. Furthermore, it is written and reiterated by Jesus Christ “If  ye love me, keep my commandments.” Pertinently, the Lord Himself said … “this people draweth nigh unto me with their .mouth. and honoureth me with their lips’ but their  heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men – John 14 v 15; 15 vs 8,9.

The cosmic war of misunderstanding could be attributed to lack of interest to study the written word of God thoroughly with the aid of the Holy Spirit as do the remnants of the Millerites after the great disappointment of 1844. The Scripture is being approached casually like literal articles under the influence of the arch-enemy- Satan.

Summarily, the remembrance of Christ’s birth by believers should not be tagged  to a particular day; rather it should be part and parcel of daily living, realising the purpose for which Christ was born into this sinful world to save mankind. Celebrating or acknowledging the sacrifice paid at the Cross of Calvary at Golgotha in Jerusalem  should be performed with sober reflection and not in luxury and vain glory.

It is proved beyond all reasonable doubts that every Christmas period has become a tug of war as people would go to extreme in the name of celebration. Indeed, a lot of atrocities are being committed during this period of festivity only to gratify human desires and causing confusion and grief amongst the less privileged in the society who cannot afford to meet up with the socio-economic and welfare requirements.

This act of massive celebration is not Biblical and it is not the right manner to honour Jesus. It is rather an hypocritical system of adoration.

In 1987 for instance, during the festive mood of drinking galore on the Christmas morning at Mile 3, Diobu in the municipality of Port Harcourt, a young man in his early 30s kicked the bucket after he had taken 35cl content of local gin (kaikai). Also recently, with the spirit of Christmas, people could not exercise little patience as over 40 passengers boarded an ill-fated wooden boat that supposed to convey about 20 persons on Tuesday, 13th of December, 2011 from Eagle-Island axis of Rumuolumeni River to a nearby Mgbuodohia community. They got drowned at about 9:30 p.m. There were three pregnant women and  newly wedded groom including little children that got perished in the sad scene.

What a disaster! It is obvious that the arch-enemy (Satan) has mapped out strategies on how to fool people into celebrating blindly what does not give glory to our Creator and Sustainer of life. Therefore, real Christians should beware of false prophets and false doctrines, and of course, endeavour to maintain a level eye with the Holy Scriptures through the Holy Spirit as a personal guide (see Jeremiah 23 vs 13-21 and Matthew 7 v 15).

God’s standards of celebrating Jesus’ birth or what have you, should not be mixed up or allowed to be engulfed with the tradition of men.

Obviously, Christmas is a human institution just as the first day of the week (Sunday) was adopted to be kept holy or regarded as the Lord’s Day in place of the Biblical Sabbath (Seventh-Day) from creation – Exodus 20 vs 8-11; Isaiah 58 vs 13,14; Mark 2 vs 27,28; Revelation 1 v 10; Genesis 2 vs 1-3 et’cetera.

It should be noted that the attention of Prophet Ezekiel was drawn to the ugly practices where figurative 25 men backed the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the eastern sky as they worshipped the sun – Ezekiel 8 vs 14-18.

Nevertheless, you can agree with the Scripture that the people were worshipping the sun as their god which is contrary to the First Commandment: “… ye shall have no other gods before me”, says the Lord.  God also warned that thou shall not bow down or worship them because the Lord will not take it kindly … Exo. 20 vs 3-5.

As we are aware, Satan is strongly behind these schemings to always distract people’s attention from the truth because he has declared enmity with God and His beloved children on earth.

Finally, it is written “Choose you this day whom you will serve … God and His commandments and/or man-made creed? Joshua and his family had resolved to obey and serve the Lord of Host, while Apostle Peter and his disciples vehemently decided to obey God rather than men irrespective of whatever consequences – Acts of the Apostle 5 v 29. Therefore, he who hath ears to hear let  him or her hear, (Matthew 13 v 9).        Ominyanwa is a Port Harcourt based public affairs analyst.

Goddy N Ominyanwa