By: Dan Clements February 3, 2009
February 3rd on my radio show ‘BACK TO BASIC’ we swerved into the subject of what brought our economy to the place it is at today. As always some conspiracy theories came to the forefront of the discussion, and after we weeded through them, we got down to what I see as the nuts and bolts of the problem.
Jesus tells us in Mathew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Do you understand what Jesus is saying here? YOU treat people the way you want to be treated! Wow what a concept! Can this really be applied to Wall Street? Can and should we have free market capitalism with a moral standard? Should free market capitalist use a Christian value system to do business by? I say an emphatic YES!
I will be the first one to defend publicly traded companies against the government setting salary caps, and dictating how and where a company spends its money. On the other hand, I will be the first to criticize a publicly traded company for doing irresponsible things with the share holder’s money. What I see with the CEO’s and executives of a lot of the companies traded on Wall Street is a sense of entitlement that is vastly over rated. What these folks project to the rest of the country is that I deserve all the perks I can get, no matter how much they cost the company.
Ok, I agree that there is not a magic formula to figure out how much a CEO or executive is worth, and they for the most part have a specialized skill set to be able to run or help run a company, however when the salaries and perks run into the multi millions of dollars, you need to step back and ask is this too much? Now we are talking about publicly traded companies that have stock holders that actually own the company. My question is where are the voices of the stock holders when it comes to directing the board of directors? As a share holder, when you receive in the mail a notice of a vote about the stocks you own do you read it and vote, or turn over your vote to a proxy to vote for you? I think the lazy voter syndrome has hit Wall Street at last, and we always get what we vote for.
Now lets talk about Mathew 7:12 and apply it to what is happening on Wall Street. A lot of banks and financial institutes were buying and selling a lot of paper that in the end wasn’t worth the ink and time it took to create it. The question that should have and still needs to be asked is would I want some one to sell me this financial vehicle? Remembering that as a CEO or executive, will this benefit my share holders? As a CEO or executive, am I looking out for the best interest of others or am I chasing after the all mighty dollar at any cost no matter the risk?
As a CEO or executive are my interactions with the political process above board? P J O’Rourke once said “as long as buying and selling is controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold will be legislators.”
As a politician, do you always govern in the best interest of those who put you in that position? Remember that it is only by the consent of the governed that you are in government in the first place.
As a citizen, do you depend on the government for your daily bread, even though you could supply your own daily bread? Do you realize that by taking from the government, you by proxy are stealing from other productive citizens? I’m not talking about folks who can’t fend for themselves; I’m talking about folks living off the government dole, who could otherwise support themselves, but refuse to do so. (And I’m not talking about government employees; they are a whole other story.) These folks need to ask themselves if they would like someone stealing from them. The answer is most likely they would not like that.
Whether you are a CEO, a politician, or an ordinary citizen, we need to always ask ourselves if what we do in life, or how we treat other, is the way we want others to treat us. Do we live by the golden rule or do we let gold rule us? Think about it!
Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Monday, February 16, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What is Socialism anyway?
By Dan Clements 01/13/2009
On my show today ‘BACK TO BASIC’ a discussion ensued in the chat room about what socialism is. Too many people try to define socialism to their own likes. My listeners know that I define words and ideas from a standard source. If we are talking about the Bible, I use the Bible. If we are talking about the U.S. Constitution, then we go to the founding documents. If we are talking about political ideologies, we need to go to an encyclopedia or dictionary to define these terms.
First let’s define what socialism is. Merriam Webster defines socialism as
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
Ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods is what this country is heading for if we don’t do something now. Most people don’t realize that what president G W Bush and the U.S. congress did in 2008 was a text book example of socialism. Anytime a government involves itself beyond regulation and oversight and injects itself into the day to day operations of the free market, picking winners and losers, it takes a step toward control of the free market and attempts to use social control of production and distribution of goods. This is exactly what is happening in America.
Healthcare was brought up on the show and this is a perfect example of the government attempting to control the distribution of goods and services the healthcare industry has to offer. There is not one example outside of the military, where government intervention into the free market has been a success as most people define success. And if we continue down the path that we are on now, our healthcare system will be no better than any other country that has socialized medicine.
The problem with socialized medicine is that the government first gives healthcare away, and then when the cost gets to high then they need to start rationing healthcare and picking and choosing the winners and losers, literally in life’s lottery!
And the only way the government can give us all healthcare, is to tax ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ so they can have the money to buy the votes of those citizens who think it’s a good idea to live off the backs of others.
If you want healthcare in America, go out, work and either get healthcare as part of your benefit package, or pay for it out of pocket. You say you can’t afford healthcare out of pocket? Then look at your finances and prioritize. Do you need to take that 2-3000 dollar vacation each year? Do you need to trade in your car every year to keep up with the Jones? How often do you eat out? The bottom line is if you really wanted healthcare, you would find a way to get it.
From my point of view, socialism is about control and staying in power. Through socialism, votes are bought by promising to take care of people in their daily lives. Socialism looks at the country as an entity in and of itself. It fails to see a country as a group of individuals.
When you as the government give to the citizens, something they can go and earn on their own, you diminish the whole not only on a national level, but on an individual level because we as a people stop learning from failure. Socialism does not allow failure; it seeks to take failure out of the equation of life. It’s like giving someone the wrong treatment for gangrene, if not treated and taken care of it will kill the whole body not just a limb! If we are not allowed to fail and learn from our failure, we will die as a people, because we will not know how to handle true diversity. Socialism is gangrene to any country and must be removed or the country will die!
We need to get back to the U.S. Constitution and start allowing Americans to fail and learn from that failure. Sometimes this can be hard to let people fail, but without the incentive or possibility of failure, we stagnate as a people and then die as a country!
Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
On my show today ‘BACK TO BASIC’ a discussion ensued in the chat room about what socialism is. Too many people try to define socialism to their own likes. My listeners know that I define words and ideas from a standard source. If we are talking about the Bible, I use the Bible. If we are talking about the U.S. Constitution, then we go to the founding documents. If we are talking about political ideologies, we need to go to an encyclopedia or dictionary to define these terms.
First let’s define what socialism is. Merriam Webster defines socialism as
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
Ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods is what this country is heading for if we don’t do something now. Most people don’t realize that what president G W Bush and the U.S. congress did in 2008 was a text book example of socialism. Anytime a government involves itself beyond regulation and oversight and injects itself into the day to day operations of the free market, picking winners and losers, it takes a step toward control of the free market and attempts to use social control of production and distribution of goods. This is exactly what is happening in America.
Healthcare was brought up on the show and this is a perfect example of the government attempting to control the distribution of goods and services the healthcare industry has to offer. There is not one example outside of the military, where government intervention into the free market has been a success as most people define success. And if we continue down the path that we are on now, our healthcare system will be no better than any other country that has socialized medicine.
The problem with socialized medicine is that the government first gives healthcare away, and then when the cost gets to high then they need to start rationing healthcare and picking and choosing the winners and losers, literally in life’s lottery!
And the only way the government can give us all healthcare, is to tax ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ so they can have the money to buy the votes of those citizens who think it’s a good idea to live off the backs of others.
If you want healthcare in America, go out, work and either get healthcare as part of your benefit package, or pay for it out of pocket. You say you can’t afford healthcare out of pocket? Then look at your finances and prioritize. Do you need to take that 2-3000 dollar vacation each year? Do you need to trade in your car every year to keep up with the Jones? How often do you eat out? The bottom line is if you really wanted healthcare, you would find a way to get it.
From my point of view, socialism is about control and staying in power. Through socialism, votes are bought by promising to take care of people in their daily lives. Socialism looks at the country as an entity in and of itself. It fails to see a country as a group of individuals.
When you as the government give to the citizens, something they can go and earn on their own, you diminish the whole not only on a national level, but on an individual level because we as a people stop learning from failure. Socialism does not allow failure; it seeks to take failure out of the equation of life. It’s like giving someone the wrong treatment for gangrene, if not treated and taken care of it will kill the whole body not just a limb! If we are not allowed to fail and learn from our failure, we will die as a people, because we will not know how to handle true diversity. Socialism is gangrene to any country and must be removed or the country will die!
We need to get back to the U.S. Constitution and start allowing Americans to fail and learn from that failure. Sometimes this can be hard to let people fail, but without the incentive or possibility of failure, we stagnate as a people and then die as a country!
Dan Clements is a member of the Constitution Party and the host of BACK TO BASIC a Christian/political internet talk show. You can listen to Dan live from 10am-12 noon EST. M-F at www.blogtalkradio.com/dan-clements and www.constitutionalwarrior.com
Thursday, December 11, 2008
THE CHRISTMAS QUESTION
Bill Dilks
Introduction:
1. “What to do about Christmas?” A problem that is facing New Testament Christians.
2. In beginning to study this problem, let’s realize what we need to do as far as our religious practice. For us to practice something relating to the spiritual:
a. The practice must be given as a command to be obeyed; a principle to be kept; or a precept to be practiced.
b. We must therefore be given enough information by the word of God to do the will of God, lest we practice tradition for tradition’s sake.
3. What follows is an attempt to show from scripture what our practice and attitude should be towards Christmas......
I. The Question Concerning the Date — December 25th.
A. Under the Jewish system, specific dates were given to observe special days along with instructions concerning what to do on those days. See Leviticus 23:4-44. In the New Testament the teaching and practice of Christians meeting on the first day of the week to worship together is documented in Acts 2:42; 20:7; I Corinthians 11 - 16:2.
B. Do we have enough information concerning the birth of Jesus to determine the date from Matthew 2 and Luke 2?
1. Dionysis Exiguss (6th century monk) gave us the B.C. - A.D. dating system. However, this system is at least 4 years off since according to Matthew 2:1 Jesus was born BEFORE Herod died. Herod died in 4 B.C. Also take into account the fact that there is no time reference to date the birth of Jesus from the death of Herod.
2. The census in Lk. 2:1
a. Recent discoveries have shown that there was a census taken every two years for a 14 yr. period for tax purposes.
b. It is however interesting to note that this action fulfilled the prophecy of Micah 5:2 concerning the location of Messiah’s birth.
3. The wise men - Matthew 2
a. The problem concerning Mary’s purification and the consecration of Jesus, see Luke 2:22-24.
• According to Lev. 12, Mary had to be purified and Jesus dedicated 40 days after his birth.
• Mary and Joseph offered the LESSER sacrifice of 2 doves (Luke 2:24) and not lamb, see Leviticus 12:6-8. They made the lesser sacrifice because they could not afford the lamb. How could they not afford a lamb if they had already received (according to tradition) gold, frankincense and myrrh?
• The conclusion is that they didn’t have the money to offer a lamb 40 days after the birth of Jesus because the wise men had not yet arrived.
b. The Killing of the Children by Herod - Matthew 2:16
• “Two years and under” - If Jesus was just an infant when the wise men came, why kill toddlers?
• “According to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men” - Why the time reference? Could it be that the star appeared and led the wise men to where Jesus was after His birth with the star appearing on the night when he was born? (An interesting sidelight on the star is that it lead them to Herod..only after they consulted God’s word in Micah 5:2 did the star lead them to Jesus.)
c. Where they met Jesus - “In the house” - Matthew 2:11
• Tradition says 3 wise men met Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a stable in Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born.
• Scripture points out: Mary and Joseph were too poor to afford a lamb as a sacrifice 40 days after Jesus was born (thus not having yet received the gifts of the wise men). The wise men cannot be numbered although they brought three types of gifts, see Matthew 2:11. They met Jesus with Mary and Joseph in a house.
• Conclusion: even if we could date when the wise men came to Bethlehem, the star appeared, the children killed by Herod, etc., it would not and could not give us the date of the birth of Jesus.
4. The shepherds - Luke 2:8
a. Shepherds came in from the hill region and corralled their flocks from around October 15th to around the middle of March.
b. An interesting note on this is that they may have been watching over lambs and sheep raised for sacrifice in the temple. If this is the case, what a parallel!
5. Conclusion: all material in scripture leads away from December 25th, even to the point of not even giving the exact month, let alone giving an exact date.
C. Where did December 25th come from?
1. The Roman Catholic church started celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th in the 5th century.
2. The context of the date:
a. December 25th coincides with the winter solstice.
b. With this in mind, most pagan cultures calculated this as being the time when all gods related to the sun (Mithra, Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, Tammuz) were born.
c. In Rome this time was called the “Saturnalia” where a great feast was held and gifts were exchanged in celebration of the birth of the sun.
3. What happened in the 5th century was that the Roman church adopted a pagan practice and set a date from it.
II. A Possible Answer
Note: the following is from “Babylon Mystery Religion” pp.160-162 by Ralph Wilson. Although I can’t agree with everything he says, he does make some interesting points on when Jesus could have been born.
A. Dating Back
1. The ministry of Jesus lasted about 3½ years.
2. The ministry of Jesus ended in the spring during the Passover - John 18:39.
3. Jesus began His ministry shortly after He turned 30 - Luke 3:23.
4. If Jesus died in the spring, and had a ministry for 3½ years, and started that ministry shortly after He turned 30, then a more reasonable time for His birth would be in the early fall.
B. Contrast to the Birth of John the Baptizer
1. John was born about 6 months before Jesus.
2. Zacharias, John’s father, was serving as a priest in the course of Abia in Luke 1:5-13. According to 1 Chronicles 24:10 and the Jewish calendar, Zacharias would have been serving in the Temple (besides on the major feasts) from June 1-8. He would have been obligated to serve the following week which was Pentecost. Soon after this, he left to meet Elizabeth and she conceived John (Luke 1:23-24). If you add about 9 months to this you arrive with John’s birth sometime in the early spring. Add six more months to this and you have Jesus being born sometime in the early fall.
C. Other proof:
1. Taxation (see Luke 2:1-5), which was the reason for the census, took place in the fall after the harvest. Also, there would be no reason for Mary to go with Joseph except that she wanted to go and attend the Feast of Tabernacles with Joseph in Jerusalem.
2. “No room in the inn” (Luke 2:7). This phrase seems a little unusual if you realize that everyone had to report to their own city for the census, which would have meant a shifting of people, but not to the extent of overcrowding This phrase in Luke does however have meaning if one realizes that during the Jewish feasts Jerusalem (according to the Jewish historian Josephus) swelled from 120,000 to over 2 million. The overflow from this surge of people would have spilled over into Bethlehem. This would happen only in the fall and in the spring.
D. Conclusion: although this evidence is not what I would call conclusive, it does seem to logically point to Jesus being born in the early fall and not in December. Note that no specific month or date can be given.
III. A Definite Conclusion: since no exact date, even an exact month, can be arrived on as to the date of the birth of Jesus, then it would be pure speculation to arrive at a date, pure tradition to make religious practice of celebrating that date, and finally, it would be a definite addition of man’s will to God’s will in celebrating that date.
IV. Two Ways of Dealing with the Holiday Season...
A. The Ba-Humbug Complex - premise: it would be wrong to do anything remotely associated with Christmas.
1. Scriptural arguments
a. The keeping of days is mentioned in Galatians 4:8-11 and Colossians 2:16-23, but it needs to be stated that the days mentioned refer to those kept by the Jews under the law. If we wanted to assign religious practice to Christmas, then this argument would be valid.
b. Jeremiah 10:1-5 refers, as some have thought, to the Christmas tree. The context is, however, talking about making an idol. The background of the Christmas tree was in worship of the Scandinavian god Odin, but there is a great difference between an item of household decoration and an item of worship!
2. Contextual arguments
a. Since the word “Christmas” meant Christ’s Mass and “Holiday” meant Holy day, then we cannot have anything to do with them. There Is a problem with this line of reasoning. . . if we eliminate all words that come from such a background, then how will you rename the days of the week since just about every name came from a Roman god. What I’m trying to say is that in the course of time certain words denote something different from what the original intention denoted. One would do well in taking a close look at I Corinthians 8- 10 for the way we need to view matters of this sort.
b. Well, some may argue, if you say that you can’t observe this time in a religious context, then why have anything to do with it at all. This argument pivots on the concept that if people decide to put up a Christmas tree, decorate the house, send out cards, and exchange gifts, then I can’t do it because they do it. Some actions are wrong in themselves (sin), some actions could be called questionable, and others just fall into the realm of opinion. When we take a look at our actions, we need ask ourselves what is our attitude in doing that action. If we assign no religious importance to this season, but choose to celebrate it as a family holiday, then what would be wrong with December 25th as opposed to July 4th or the last Thursday in November?
B. An Alternative Complex — premise: we can use this as an opportunity to reach others and to encourage and build up the church and our families.
1. A principle in the book of Acts: Paul preached in the synagogues (see Acts 9:20) and related to the Greeks in Acts 17 from the point of their “unknown god”. In each case Paul took advantage of the situation and the inclination of the people for things spiritual. If anyone had an inclination to be spiritual in today’s world, it would be at this time when the world would be thinking of the birth of Christ. We need to be careful to be thinking about trying to fulfill the great commission more than filling a gift list!
2. We need to keep priorities right. Answer the following:
a. Do you spend more time trying to cultivate a “Christmas Spirit” over letting the Spirit bear fruit in your life?
b. Does your giving and attendance and work for the church drop because of other obligations?
c. Do you find yourself trapped into giving gifts under compulsion instead of giving freely with love?
d. Are you motivating your children to be good because Santa is watching or because Jesus wants them to be good?
3. Our motivation needs to be right in this. There is no reason why we can’t make this a time of togetherness and love, but the proper perspective needs to be in operation: we are servants of Christ who put the will of God and His kingdom FIRST (see Matthew 6:33).
Introduction:
1. “What to do about Christmas?” A problem that is facing New Testament Christians.
2. In beginning to study this problem, let’s realize what we need to do as far as our religious practice. For us to practice something relating to the spiritual:
a. The practice must be given as a command to be obeyed; a principle to be kept; or a precept to be practiced.
b. We must therefore be given enough information by the word of God to do the will of God, lest we practice tradition for tradition’s sake.
3. What follows is an attempt to show from scripture what our practice and attitude should be towards Christmas......
I. The Question Concerning the Date — December 25th.
A. Under the Jewish system, specific dates were given to observe special days along with instructions concerning what to do on those days. See Leviticus 23:4-44. In the New Testament the teaching and practice of Christians meeting on the first day of the week to worship together is documented in Acts 2:42; 20:7; I Corinthians 11 - 16:2.
B. Do we have enough information concerning the birth of Jesus to determine the date from Matthew 2 and Luke 2?
1. Dionysis Exiguss (6th century monk) gave us the B.C. - A.D. dating system. However, this system is at least 4 years off since according to Matthew 2:1 Jesus was born BEFORE Herod died. Herod died in 4 B.C. Also take into account the fact that there is no time reference to date the birth of Jesus from the death of Herod.
2. The census in Lk. 2:1
a. Recent discoveries have shown that there was a census taken every two years for a 14 yr. period for tax purposes.
b. It is however interesting to note that this action fulfilled the prophecy of Micah 5:2 concerning the location of Messiah’s birth.
3. The wise men - Matthew 2
a. The problem concerning Mary’s purification and the consecration of Jesus, see Luke 2:22-24.
• According to Lev. 12, Mary had to be purified and Jesus dedicated 40 days after his birth.
• Mary and Joseph offered the LESSER sacrifice of 2 doves (Luke 2:24) and not lamb, see Leviticus 12:6-8. They made the lesser sacrifice because they could not afford the lamb. How could they not afford a lamb if they had already received (according to tradition) gold, frankincense and myrrh?
• The conclusion is that they didn’t have the money to offer a lamb 40 days after the birth of Jesus because the wise men had not yet arrived.
b. The Killing of the Children by Herod - Matthew 2:16
• “Two years and under” - If Jesus was just an infant when the wise men came, why kill toddlers?
• “According to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men” - Why the time reference? Could it be that the star appeared and led the wise men to where Jesus was after His birth with the star appearing on the night when he was born? (An interesting sidelight on the star is that it lead them to Herod..only after they consulted God’s word in Micah 5:2 did the star lead them to Jesus.)
c. Where they met Jesus - “In the house” - Matthew 2:11
• Tradition says 3 wise men met Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a stable in Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born.
• Scripture points out: Mary and Joseph were too poor to afford a lamb as a sacrifice 40 days after Jesus was born (thus not having yet received the gifts of the wise men). The wise men cannot be numbered although they brought three types of gifts, see Matthew 2:11. They met Jesus with Mary and Joseph in a house.
• Conclusion: even if we could date when the wise men came to Bethlehem, the star appeared, the children killed by Herod, etc., it would not and could not give us the date of the birth of Jesus.
4. The shepherds - Luke 2:8
a. Shepherds came in from the hill region and corralled their flocks from around October 15th to around the middle of March.
b. An interesting note on this is that they may have been watching over lambs and sheep raised for sacrifice in the temple. If this is the case, what a parallel!
5. Conclusion: all material in scripture leads away from December 25th, even to the point of not even giving the exact month, let alone giving an exact date.
C. Where did December 25th come from?
1. The Roman Catholic church started celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25th in the 5th century.
2. The context of the date:
a. December 25th coincides with the winter solstice.
b. With this in mind, most pagan cultures calculated this as being the time when all gods related to the sun (Mithra, Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, Tammuz) were born.
c. In Rome this time was called the “Saturnalia” where a great feast was held and gifts were exchanged in celebration of the birth of the sun.
3. What happened in the 5th century was that the Roman church adopted a pagan practice and set a date from it.
II. A Possible Answer
Note: the following is from “Babylon Mystery Religion” pp.160-162 by Ralph Wilson. Although I can’t agree with everything he says, he does make some interesting points on when Jesus could have been born.
A. Dating Back
1. The ministry of Jesus lasted about 3½ years.
2. The ministry of Jesus ended in the spring during the Passover - John 18:39.
3. Jesus began His ministry shortly after He turned 30 - Luke 3:23.
4. If Jesus died in the spring, and had a ministry for 3½ years, and started that ministry shortly after He turned 30, then a more reasonable time for His birth would be in the early fall.
B. Contrast to the Birth of John the Baptizer
1. John was born about 6 months before Jesus.
2. Zacharias, John’s father, was serving as a priest in the course of Abia in Luke 1:5-13. According to 1 Chronicles 24:10 and the Jewish calendar, Zacharias would have been serving in the Temple (besides on the major feasts) from June 1-8. He would have been obligated to serve the following week which was Pentecost. Soon after this, he left to meet Elizabeth and she conceived John (Luke 1:23-24). If you add about 9 months to this you arrive with John’s birth sometime in the early spring. Add six more months to this and you have Jesus being born sometime in the early fall.
C. Other proof:
1. Taxation (see Luke 2:1-5), which was the reason for the census, took place in the fall after the harvest. Also, there would be no reason for Mary to go with Joseph except that she wanted to go and attend the Feast of Tabernacles with Joseph in Jerusalem.
2. “No room in the inn” (Luke 2:7). This phrase seems a little unusual if you realize that everyone had to report to their own city for the census, which would have meant a shifting of people, but not to the extent of overcrowding This phrase in Luke does however have meaning if one realizes that during the Jewish feasts Jerusalem (according to the Jewish historian Josephus) swelled from 120,000 to over 2 million. The overflow from this surge of people would have spilled over into Bethlehem. This would happen only in the fall and in the spring.
D. Conclusion: although this evidence is not what I would call conclusive, it does seem to logically point to Jesus being born in the early fall and not in December. Note that no specific month or date can be given.
III. A Definite Conclusion: since no exact date, even an exact month, can be arrived on as to the date of the birth of Jesus, then it would be pure speculation to arrive at a date, pure tradition to make religious practice of celebrating that date, and finally, it would be a definite addition of man’s will to God’s will in celebrating that date.
IV. Two Ways of Dealing with the Holiday Season...
A. The Ba-Humbug Complex - premise: it would be wrong to do anything remotely associated with Christmas.
1. Scriptural arguments
a. The keeping of days is mentioned in Galatians 4:8-11 and Colossians 2:16-23, but it needs to be stated that the days mentioned refer to those kept by the Jews under the law. If we wanted to assign religious practice to Christmas, then this argument would be valid.
b. Jeremiah 10:1-5 refers, as some have thought, to the Christmas tree. The context is, however, talking about making an idol. The background of the Christmas tree was in worship of the Scandinavian god Odin, but there is a great difference between an item of household decoration and an item of worship!
2. Contextual arguments
a. Since the word “Christmas” meant Christ’s Mass and “Holiday” meant Holy day, then we cannot have anything to do with them. There Is a problem with this line of reasoning. . . if we eliminate all words that come from such a background, then how will you rename the days of the week since just about every name came from a Roman god. What I’m trying to say is that in the course of time certain words denote something different from what the original intention denoted. One would do well in taking a close look at I Corinthians 8- 10 for the way we need to view matters of this sort.
b. Well, some may argue, if you say that you can’t observe this time in a religious context, then why have anything to do with it at all. This argument pivots on the concept that if people decide to put up a Christmas tree, decorate the house, send out cards, and exchange gifts, then I can’t do it because they do it. Some actions are wrong in themselves (sin), some actions could be called questionable, and others just fall into the realm of opinion. When we take a look at our actions, we need ask ourselves what is our attitude in doing that action. If we assign no religious importance to this season, but choose to celebrate it as a family holiday, then what would be wrong with December 25th as opposed to July 4th or the last Thursday in November?
B. An Alternative Complex — premise: we can use this as an opportunity to reach others and to encourage and build up the church and our families.
1. A principle in the book of Acts: Paul preached in the synagogues (see Acts 9:20) and related to the Greeks in Acts 17 from the point of their “unknown god”. In each case Paul took advantage of the situation and the inclination of the people for things spiritual. If anyone had an inclination to be spiritual in today’s world, it would be at this time when the world would be thinking of the birth of Christ. We need to be careful to be thinking about trying to fulfill the great commission more than filling a gift list!
2. We need to keep priorities right. Answer the following:
a. Do you spend more time trying to cultivate a “Christmas Spirit” over letting the Spirit bear fruit in your life?
b. Does your giving and attendance and work for the church drop because of other obligations?
c. Do you find yourself trapped into giving gifts under compulsion instead of giving freely with love?
d. Are you motivating your children to be good because Santa is watching or because Jesus wants them to be good?
3. Our motivation needs to be right in this. There is no reason why we can’t make this a time of togetherness and love, but the proper perspective needs to be in operation: we are servants of Christ who put the will of God and His kingdom FIRST (see Matthew 6:33).
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