Glory to the Newborn King
PrintThe following is an excerpt from the Nov-Dec 1997 World Ahead magazine published by the original Global Church of God. It presents a vivid word picture of how Christmas must look to God. The article was written by Thomas E. Robinson.
"...But let's look at this another way. Consider once again the Old Covenant marriage between Christ and Israel. He 'put her away' or divorced her, and later died at His crucifixion. Now resurrected, Jesus is in the process of making a New Covenant with Israel (Jer 31:31,) of which the New Testament Church, the 'Israel' of God (Gal 6:16) is the forerunner. This spiritual Israel is being cleansed of false religion and sin to once more marry Jesus Christ (cf. Eph. 5:22-32; Rev. 19:6-9.) Only this time she will never again turn aside from her Husband.
With all this in mind, think what it would be like for God if His true Church were to celebrate Christmas. Imagine that you are a kind, giving man married to a woman who's been having an on again, off again affair with some evil guy named 'Nick.' She has engaged in all kinds of perverted sexual experimentation with him and has even let him kill your children in celebration of his birthday. After many failed attempts to change her conduct, you finally divorce her.
Years later, the wounds have begun to heal. Your wife returns and seems to be truly repentant. She begs your forgiveness and asks if the two of you can start all over. Your heart melts and you take her back. Yet no sooner have you done so than your wife says, 'Honey, I know you haven't asked me to celebrate your birthday, but I'd really like to. And since I don't know when it is, I'll just pick a day. Ah, I know - I'll keep it on Nick's birthday. I'll go find all the decorations I used to put up for him when we killed the kids. Oh, it'll be great It'll be wonderful. Just you wait and see.'
Yes, it sounds ludicrous - it's supposed to. Yet isn't this almost how it is? Of course, the woman here knew what the decorations and the birth date represented in the past - just as did those religious leaders who 'intentionally Christianized' the Saturnalia. But today, many professing Christians don't know the true origin of Christmas - at least it's more heinous aspects. This, however, cannot be used to support Christmas celebrations. For, as mentioned earlier, God does know. He remembers it all.
To continue the above analogy, let's say that, years later, celebrating your birthday when Nick was supposedly born had become a tradition among your extended family. So basically, you are never allowed to forget what happened. They may not understand how it came to be, but you have to relive it in your mind year by year! You wish they would stop. And even though you've explained it to some of your family, they have turned a deaf ear. They've enjoyed using this day to honor you - and they're going to keep doing so. In their mind, you must give your approval - you've got no choice. You see, it's not about how you feel - it never was. It's about what they want. And what they want is their time-honored tradition.
...This Satan inspired holiday does NOT bring glory to Jesus Christ. In fact, He abhors it. ... Are you determined to shove Christmas in God's face this year again, telling Him He needs to get over His 'hang-ups' about it? ..."