November - and already the cash registers are ringing up sales for Christmas. What are they celebrating?
The satanic rituals of Hallowe'en have now passed. But since late September Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, Christmas advertisements have been promoted on television and in stores. That's the commercial side of the festival.
One third of humanity is preparing to celebrate - though perhaps reluctantly for many - the birth of Jesus Christ. Ignored, of course, is the overwhelming scholarly evidence that the Saviour was not born at that time of year! You will find the evidence for that - and for the clear pagan connections of December 25 - in any comprehensive encyclopedia.
For most Westerners, and even for many professing Christians, Christmas is simply a secular holiday. We are carried along on a wave of commercial enterprise into which the church buys its lucrative way. Christian magazines and charities join the bandwagon and carry advertisements for Christmas cards and trinkets, children's Christmas stories, Christmas events etc.
For many it's the one time of year to darken the door of a church! Pastors, priests, ministers, lay-readers conspire to maintain the fiction that Christmas marks the birth of Jesus. That has to be serious deception! For no serious journalist or scholar can make a connection between late December and the birth of Jesus.
Bible Celebrations
The birth of Jesus and its consequences has to be the most significant event since creation. The eternal God became flesh and entered into our world. Strange indeed if we didn't take note of it. Yet the Scriptures don't highlight the date of his birth, though they describe the events in glorious detail. They don't say 'Jesus was born on ....' We're left to figure it out for ourselves.
The only modern Christian festival that can be linked to the Scriptures is Pentecost, in early summer. Not Christmas, not Easter, not any 'saints day'. Yet God has given us clear guidance as to when He seeks our presence in worship. Apart from the weekly Sabbath - and that is not Sunday - God has set aside specific festival days annually when He formally fellowships with us. (Though we can, of course fellowship with Him at any time, day or night.)
These festival days are of great significance, in figure spelling out the divine plan. It's a plan that has been all but lost to Christians. And at the heart of every part of that plan is Jesus Christ. [Request the free booklet God's Holy Day]
Immanuel
Writing of Jesus, the apostle John tells us (John 1:14): "The word became flesh and dwelled among us". This gives a clue as to when Jesus was born. He 'became flesh' - that is, was conceived in the womb of Mary. And nine months later he began to 'dwell among us'.
No ordinary baby, this, for God's messengers told Joseph: "His name shall be called Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us" (Matthew 1:23).
'Dwell' (Gk skenoo) is significant. It's related to the Hebrew sukkah - a temporary dwelling, a tent. When Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness, God instructed: "You shall dwell in booths (i.e., succoth) seven days..., that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths" (Leviticus 23:43). During the seven days of the 'Festival of Tabernacles' - in autumn - they went to Jerusalem and lived in booths which they constructed from branches (v.40 and Nehemiah 8:15-16). It was to remind them of His care for them during a time of wandering and their temporary existence 'under canvas'.
Indications of Scripture are that Jesus was born at this very time of year. Sheep were being tended in the high hills around Jerusalem (unlikely in late December. The city is 2500 feet above sea-level). It's generally accepted that Jesus lived thirty-three and a half years - being crucified in early spring at the time of Passover, (eg John 18:39) - and consequently born in autumn.
Divine Symbols
Many Christians are perfectly aware of the 'pagan symbolism' that has gathered around a 25th December celebration of Jesus' birth. They are largely associated with sun worship, for anciently it was then that the sun was 're-born' - beginning its long climb from the dark depths of winter.
By contrast, the Biblical festivals are appointed by God Himself as a signpost for His plan of salvation. Indeed you - if alive at the return of Jesus as King of kings - will have no option but to observe them.
For example, Jesus will ordain that the Festival of Tabernacles be observed by all who survive into the millennium:
"So it shall be that all who are left from all the nations that came up against Jerusalem shall go up as often as once a year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts and to celebrate the Feast of Booths [i.e., Tabernacles]. But if anyone of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King there will be no rain upon them" (Zechariah 14:16-19)
Adverse weather will encourage the rebellious and unthankful to think twice about failing to attend!
Referring to the time following the return of the King of kings, the prophet Ezekiel writes: "They shall observe my rules and my regulations at all my festivals, and they shall maintain the sacredness of my Sabbaths (ch 44:24).
Life Is Temporary
This festival - Tabernacles - clearly represents a temporary existence and on many levels. It's a human condition that will extend throughout the millennial reign of Jesus and his saints.
On the larger canvas Tabernacles represents the grand sweep of temporary and physical human life since Eden - until all that is imperfect and temporary is consumed in a 'lake of fire'. (The thousand years of the 'millennium' itself is represented by the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.)
Applying it personally to his own death. the apostle Peter wrote: " Knowing that shortly I must putt off this my tabernacle..." (II Peter 1:14). And Paul: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Corinthians 5:1-3). Note the contrast between the earthly body - temporary, and the heavenly - eternal
Jesus, too, 'tabernacled' among us for a short lifetime of temporary existence. How appropriate that he came among us at the autumn festival season.
And the Father is at present 'tabernacling' in heaven, eventually to leave there and dwell on earth (Revelation 21:3) - a time foreshadowed by the 'eighth day' of the autumn festival.
All humanity is 'tabernacling' in decaying flesh. So far in human existence no-one has avoided 'folding his tent'. We all die! [read James 1:9-11, Hebrews 9:27] But thanks to Jesus Christ - his birth, and his death and resurrection and his continuing intercession on our behalf - we can put on a new and eternal spirit body.
This is what we ought to celebrate. And at God's prescribed and appropriate time. Not at the 'birthday' of the sun god!
[For further background you are invited to request a copy of the articles The Feast of the Nativity and After the Resurrection]
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Volume 6 No. 6, November/December 2002. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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