1 Corinthians 8:1 8 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.
God is dog spelled backward. Why is that important? For exactly the same reason that it is important to note that, in English, Santa is Satan misspelled… something I have seen on a dozen memes and read in an unbelievable number of comments in my Facebook Feed.
Not only are many Christians ignorant, many of them have, through dedicated practice, become accomplished at the art of ignoring. They concentrate on the silly and the insignificant while ignoring that which is important.
This year, more than ever before, there has been a movement of Christians against Christmas. For years, Satan sought to use ugly and nasty pagans to ruin Christmas. He was successful in removing a number of manger scenes, but he never accomplished more than that.
Then, he tried to over commercialize the holiday and make it all about money, gifts and parties. This had a huge effect on the mindset of the worldly and the pagan, but it did nothing at all to change the heart or the celebration of the born again child of God… Christians continued, as always, to worship God and remember the birth of their Savior on Christmas Day…
Recently, Satan has recruited a large number of Legalists and Judaizers, servants of Moses and the Law, to ruin Christmas for the Christian. This has not only turned out to be the most successful demonic campaign in history but the greatest recruiting tool the Judaizers have ever come across in history! Through this campaign they have been able to sever thousands of Christians from Christ and cause them to fall from grace. By the tens of thousands, they are abandoning Jesus Christ, the cross and the Blood to embrace Moses and the Law… Once free in Christ, they now make decisions based entirely on Law, guilt and fear…
Christians who have spent a lifetime free in Christ; celebrating Christmas in Christ, reading Scripture, praying and remembering the birth of their Savior are sitting at home, alone, miserable and frightened to death of dead pagans and ancient gods… They are paralyzed and useless. They have done exactly what Satan wanted them to do… they have taken the day out of the hand of God and given to him… That which they once considered to be holy… That which they had once dedicated to God is now given over to the enemy of their souls.
The first time I heard this cry to abandon Christmas, I was overwhelmed with guilt, fear and anxiety. But I know the voice of the Spirit of God… the quiet conviction that what I have done is wrong and the awareness of my need to repent and change… What I was feeling was not that… it was the screaming condemnation of the Devil…
No, Christ was not born on Christmas. No, Christmas is not in the Bible. Yes, pagans worship their gods on the Winter Solstice and yes, the Winter solstice this year, in Northern Hemisphere will be at 11:19 PM on Saturday, December 21 and that is close to Christmas. That is close enough to Christmas to make those who live in fear of ancient gods and dead pagans tremble.
What of the poor child actually born 11:19 PM on December 21st? Is he to be denied a birthday by the Law?
There are many people who do not know the date of their birth… Many Chinese orphans were abandoned by their mothers. No one knows the date of their birth. The Legalist and the Judaizer would argue that they should never be given a birthday party because if they get the date wrong, they will offend Moses… However, in fact, most of these people have chosen a date for their Birthday and they are not at all afraid to attend the party given in their honor or to receive the gifts given them. I do believe that God receives the gifts and the Worship afforded him on Christmas in like manner.
Let us speak of grace, the New Covenant and Scriptural principle…
1 Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.
There is arrogance, superiority, assumed authority and bragging to be found in abundance among the Christmas Haters… They have found new truth and, by means of that truth have gained a moral superiority that grants them the right to condemn those who celebrate Christmas, pouring guilt, condemnation and fear on their heads, demanding that they join the Christmas haters in their self-imposed misery…
But two passages of Scripture talk to the freedom of the believer in this case.
Romans 14:
2 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.
All meat in Rome (and Corinth) was sold through butcher shops attached to pagan temples. Most of it had been offered in sacrifice to pagan gods… The weak in the faith… the baby Christian could not eat it because, to him, the gods were still very real, and the meat tainted. The strong in the faith understood what Paul teaches in…
1 Corinthians 8:
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
The ancient gods and the long dead pagans have no authority over the Christian. They have no power to taint, change or ruin anything.
Paul teaches an important, New Testament truth in both Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8; that which is sin for one Christian may be perfectly okay for another. Under the New Covenant, God deals with the individual!!!
Romans 14:22 … Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.
1 Corinthians 8: 7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.
That which is not of faith is sin… That deals with food but in the same place Paul writes:
Romans 14: 5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.
This principle applies to days and to many other issues…
This can and should be applied to the celebration of Christmas. If you have the faith to celebrate it, do so. If long dead pagans and ancient gods threaten you and offend your conscience, don’t celebrate Christmas…
There is a real rule here… The fact that the fear of dead pagans and ancient gods has offended your conscience and ruined the holiday for you does not now and never will give you the right to condemn those who can, in all good conscience, celebrate Christmas and worship God on that day…
Romans 14: 10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall give praise to God.”
12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
If you cannot celebrate Christmas, suffer in silence… you have absolutely no right to judge, pound, harangue, or pile guilt on the heads of those who have found freedom in Christ…
Think about it…
David…
End Time Thinker 