Grace and peace, Saints.
Well, another Christmas is upon us, and, again, millions of people will be spending money they don’t have to buy presents they can’t afford for people who neither appreciate nor need them. The line between the haves and the have nots will become broader and bolder, and children all over the world will remember why they always hated Christmas, as, arguably, no other time reminds people just how poor they really are like Christmastime.
I can remember when I first came to Germany (as a civilian) back in December 1998 about a month before Christmas and about a week before the birth of our first child. My wife and I had gone to the shopping mall to “window shop.†The mall was teeming with cheery people and screaming children and the smell of cookies, cakes, and pies, and other baked goods filled the air. I was more grateful about being reunited with my then girlfriend than I was about the approaching Christmas season, because she and I had been separated for about six months prior to this. As we walked hand in hand, perusing all the beautifully decorated confectionaries and stores and bakeries with all their cakes, chocolates, pies, cookies, on display for all to see, it suddenly dawned on me that as beautiful as all of this was, none of it was free. Everything these stores had to offer cost money. And if you didn’t have the money to buy any of these things, then you were out of luck.
That was my situation: my wife and I were flat broke. And the better the food smelled, the more beautiful and sparklier the decorations were, and the happier the people looked, the broker I felt. And the fact that my wife was with me did not help matters at all. In fact, it made things worse.
To her credit, my wife is a very cheap date. She just doesn’t ask for much. But one thing she loves is roasted walnuts. And the time my wife most loves roasted walnuts is during the Christmas season. Now, roasted walnuts are always available somewhere in Munich year-round, but during the Christmas season, roasted walnuts are prolific. Everywhere you turn, there is someone selling roasted walnuts. Everywhere you walk, there are bags of roasted walnuts somewhere on display. And every five minutes, you are bumping into someone eating roasted walnuts. AT Christmastime, roasted walnuts are literally everywhere.
So you can probably appreciate my chagrin as we passed store after store, confectionary after confectionary, and nut stand after nut stand, while the smell of roasted walnuts wafted through the air. But the only thing I have in my pockets is lint. My wife, as I said, is a cheap date, and she is understands that if I don’t have the money to get her what she wants, there is nothing I can do. But, like me, she also understands that she is a cheap date. And she knows that as a woman, she deserves a lot more than I offer her. So, when my wife wants roasted walnuts, she gets roasted walnuts.
This day, however, there was absolutely nothing I could do. I was flat broke. So broke, in fact, that I couldn’t even pay attention. So broke, that if it weren’t for the lint in my pockets, they would have been completely empty. So broke, that if I had passed one of those Santa Clauses on the street corner ringing his bell asking for donations, he might have had a problem. Yes, I was that broke. And that wan “That’s OK baby†smile on my wife’s face didn’t help matters at all.
All this came back to me a couple of weeks ago, when I went to the mall and saw all the beautiful decorations, nativity scenes, and all the candy and baked good vendors situated in the center of the mall thoroughfare. And again this week, as I watched a news story on “Christmas stress,†and the fact that most people are highly relieved when Christmas is over, with its hustle and bustle of shopping for presents, decorating the house, and sweating over a hot stove cooking dinner for dozens of family and friends, not to mention the traffic jams and crowded airports that characterize the Christmas travel season.
When I considered this, I realized that Satan was at the bottom of it. Who else, but Satan, that old serpent and the father of lies, would take Christmas—the greatest day in the history of the world—and twist it, pervert it, and profane it, by turning it into a day that poor people dread, “middle-class†people regret, and rich people profane. Satan hates Christmas, not because the name of Jesus is glorified that day, because you and I know that that is certainly not the case. Satan hates Christmas because Jesus was born that day. And if Jesus had not been born, then Jesus could not have died. And it was Jesus’ death and the shedding of His blood that set you and me free from the curse of sin. The Bible says:
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, [Jesus] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that though death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil;Â
“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage†(Hebrews 2:14-15).â€
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Satan is a defeated foe. He has been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, as Christians, are also conquerors through the blood of Jesus. Satan has no power over us except that which has been granted him by the Lord Jesus, and that for our perfection and His glorification. Satan is not happy about this at all. Of all days, Satan hates Christmas more than any other day. He would like nothing more than to wipe that day from history and from memory forever. He cannot, however, so he ops for the next best thing: to profane Christmas; to twist it, pervert it, and, above all, commercialize it. Christmas, for most, is not a day to celebrate the birth of our Savior, but a day to celebrate wealth. If you have money, you celebrate Christmas. If you don’t have money, you dread Christmas. This should not be.
To illustrate how perverted Christmas has become, I ask you a question: Where did Christmas presents come from? Did you know that the practice of giving and receiving presents is Satan’s perversion of the story of the wise men of the East, who came to visit the family of our Savior and gave presents to the young child Jesus? Listen to Scripture:
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“And when [the wise men] where come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.â€
Did you see that? The wise men gave gifts unto Jesus. Why? Because they knew that Jesus is God Almighty in the flesh, and that He was born for one reason and one reason only: to die for the sins of the world. That’s why.
Why, then, do we give each other gifts? Did any of us die for the sins of mankind? No, we did not. Then we ought not to be giving each other gifts, should we?
We don’t give gifts to each other in our house. That’s for birthdays.
Let me ask you another question: Where did the custom of Christmas trees come from? Did you know that it is an ancient pagan custom? Hear what the Bible says:
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“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
“They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
“They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good†(Jeremiah 10:3-5).
Of particular interest is verse 5, which addresses the fact that the Christmas tree cannot speak nor move, and that one must not be afraid of it. This would appear a very strange thing to say, unless you understand that, in those days, the Christmas tree was an idol. It represented Nimrod, who was called “The Oak†(because of his great stature and strength) and was symbolized by trees. Silver and gold are representative of the sun and the moon, which represent Nimrod and Semiramis, who were both deified as the Sun God and the Moon Goddess, respectively.
People would erect the tree in their homes, deck it with silver and gold, and make their petitions of it. If they wanted something, they would write their petition on a piece of paper and attach to the tree, or, in the case of material things, they would fashion a model of the desired object and set it under the tree. Â
And get this: the star, which people set on top of the Christmas tree, represents Semisramis, in her aspect of the ancient Phoenician fertility goddess, Ashtoreth, who, according to the Bible, was symbolized with a star. Listen to this:
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“Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god, Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them†(Acts 7:43).
Moloch is another name for Nimrod, and Remphan is an “Egyptian goddess of the moon.†That would identify Remphan with Isis, who was also the Egyptian goddess of the moon. By now, you should know that Remphan is really Ashtoreth, who is really Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod.
We don’t have a Christmas tree in our house: that’s for idolaters.
And by now everybody knows that Santa Claus or Sankt Nikolaus, is an old European folk character, which went house-to-house accompanied by a demon called Krampus (sometimes there were two such creatures), of which elves are merely a symbol. And everybody was scared of him.
We don’t recognize Satan Claus in our house: that’s for pagans.
See what Satan has done? He has completed perverted and distorted the true meaning of Christmas and turned it into something that only the rich and pagan can relate to. What a shame!
I said all that to say this: What people call Christmas is not really a celebration of the birth of our Savior. Christmas, as the world celebrates it, does not glorify God: it glorifies Satan. Satan hates Christmas, so he does his level best to destroy what should merely be a day of gratitude and joy that Jesus came into the world to take away our sins.
So, If you are not where you would like to be financially this Christmas, don’t worry. If you have not been invited to Christmas dinner with friends or family, don’t worry. If you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend with whom to cuddle up in front of a Christmas fire, don’t worry. If you are in a tent in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, or any of the other trouble spots in the world, far away from family, don’t worry. If you don’t have a “Christmas tree,†don’t worry. If there is no snow where you live, don’t worry. If you are just plain alone this Christmas, don’t you worry. Christmas is about none of these things.
Christmas is not about those who have; Christmas is about those who don’t have. Christmas isn’t about the rich; Christmas is about the poor. Christmas isn’t about those who have many friends; Christmas is about the friendless. Christmas isn’t about the ‘beautiful peopleâ€; Christmas is about the unlovely. Christmas is not about the popular; Christmas is about the unpopular.
Though Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, it was the poor, the unloved, the downtrodden, the outcast, the unpopular, the friendless, the lonely, and the unlovely that he most had in mind when He died. For if look at the people with whom Jesus most identified during His earthly ministry and whose houses He frequented, you will find these people. That’s why Satan most hates these people, and seeks most to destroy Christmas in their minds.
Remember: Christmas is not about you. Christmas is not about me. Christmas is not about your family. Christmas is not about my family. Christmas is not about Santa Claus, nor is it about Christmas trees and presents. Christmas is about one thing and one thing only: Jesus Christ.
Now, if you don’t know what Jesus did for you on the cross at Calvary, you cannot truly appreciate Christmas. Therefore I urge you to take a few minutes and learn something about the Man Jesus and what He did for you. Then, if the Spirit moves you to do so, consider making Jesus your personal Savior. Then you can celebrate the precious few Christmases we have left to honor the birth of our Savior and Lord.
Have a blessed, safe, and grateful Christmas!
The Still Man
