Fw: Christmas and Easter
"G Turner" (gturner@im3.com)
Mon, 15 Mar 1999 00:06:06 -0500
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>>Dave responds:
>>Well, this brings up a question I have. Are Christians to celebrate
>>Christmas and Easter since both of these had "pagan origins"? I know
>>of some Holy Ghost filled people who celebrate Christmas and exchange
>>presents. So it is either right or wrong since it has pagan origins.
>>It's one thing to compare the Catholic Church with paganism, but what
>>about Apostolics who celebrate Christmas?
>
>
>Yes indeed Dave:
>
>Christmas and Easter are without question, part of our contemporary
>Apostolic heritage. Our heritage draws these two holidays from Roman
>Catholicism. It's only part of the baggage our movement carried out
>of Catholicism, and ultimately, paganism. Aside from our view on the
>rightness of observing these holidays, we inherited them from Roman
>Catholicism. It's part of our spiritual "DNA" code that most
>Christians take for granted; its written deeply into our assumptions
>of what it means to practice Christianity. Yes, Oneness
>Pentecostals owe Catholicism for Christmas and Easter.
>
>So what about Christmas and Easter? Most Apostolics I know observe
>both with a zeal not unlike other Christians. God was manifest in the
>flesh, and we usually hear that story at Christmas. He purchased His
>church with His own blood and rose again; and we hear of that at
>Easter. But the first apostles observed neither of them. The first
>apostles had never heard of Christmas or Easter. Nearly 1,600 years
>after the Lord's execution, the editors of the King James Bible
>substituted the term "Easter" in Acts 12, for what is still there in
>the Greek: The Passover. It is the Passover the first apostles
>observed: " For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
>Therefore let us keep the feast..." (1 Cor. 5)
>
>Do the historical origins of Christmas and Easter negate the meanings
>we pour into these holidays as Apostolics? No. I was gloriously
>baptized in the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday in 1978, after the
>proclamation of the gospel story: the death and resurrection of the
>Lord Jesus.
>
>Do the historical origins of Christmas and Easter dilute our bold,
>fundamentalist-like claims to experience and practice Christianity as
>the first apostles? Possibly so. Today, practitioners of "Earth
>Religions" also known as wicca and witchcraft, openly boast THEY are
>the real origins to the familiar customs of Christmas, Easter, and
>Halloween. Your web browser and search engine will lead you to the
>proof rather quickly. The witches "wheel of the year" gave us many,
>if not all, the customs of Yule (Christmas), Ostara (Easter), and
>Samhain (Halloween). Modern witches speak with pride, of how
>Catholicism took their holidays, and "Christianized" them. The
>Catholic church poured new meanings into the familiar customs of the
>pagan holidays. A witch recently asked all Christians; she knows
>why she uses the familiar decorations to celebrate the holidays....WHY
>DO YOU? (Christians). Unlike Christmas and Easter, I haven't heard
>anyone blaming Jesus for Samhain. (Halloween)
>
>Imagine yourself for a moment as a practitioner of wicca. You may be
>the nice 16 year old girl down the street, or you may be the
>20-something D.I.N.K.'s couple in suburbia. And the folks down the
>street have no idea you are a practicing witch. You're something
>different, but you are part of middle America. Very likely, you are a
>spiritual young person. You celebrate darkness as light. You know the
>power of occultic spiritual gifts. You know how Catholicism has taken
>your truly ancient ways and "Christianized" them. You know of the
>burning times, when witches and anyone in their way were executed by
>the "church". But your neighbors are Christians. They celebrate some
>of your holidays; they even use your pagan symbols and decorations.
>They claim to be the "real thing", like the "original" Christians,
>followers of the apostles. To you, how valid are these Christian's
>ardent claims to be "Apostle like" of the Bible? (Assuming you even
>know anything from the Christian Bible.)
>
>Beloved, my points are as follows:
>1) Part of our spiritual heritage, our "DNA", our church economy,
>comes from Roman Catholicism in the form of Christmas and Easter.
>Christmas and Easter do not come from the Bible. Christmas and
>Easter are not Biblically Apostolic. Jesus really is not the reason
>for the season; we only blame it on Him.
>
>2) Observing Christmas and Easter as a modern Apostolic Pentecostal
>does not make one a Roman Catholic. Nor does having a Christmas
>tree, et. al., make one a pagan witch. However, willfully continuing
>to practice the usual and customary ways of these holidays may detract
> from our claims to be "Biblically Apostle-like". Our society is
>increasingly pagan. If we continue to claim Apostolic power and
>authority, but cling to pagan tradition for tradition's sake, the
>pagan will see us as counterfeit.
>
>3) Of all groups, it's ironic that Oneness Pentecostals would allow
>the story of Matthew 1&2, and Luke 1 & 2 to become entangled with
>pagan culture. The story of Matthew and Luke is that of the
>incarnation; it's an extremely powerful story; God himself comes to
>us as a man; prophetic gifts are involved in the story; real angels
>appear in huge numbers; et. al.....God was manifest in the flesh!
>Mixing this story with the festival of the winter solstice serves to
>reduce the incarnation in the minds of popular culture, to level of a
>fairy tale.
>
>4) This is not a call to abandon Christmas or Easter on legalistic
>grounds. It is a call to take spiritual and historical inventory of
>who we say we are. And this is not a call to a new litmus test of
>orthodoxy; many false religions (cults) do not observe Christmas or
>Easter. It is a personal decision of reflection and evaluation. My
>family has not abandoned the Yule season. Some of our close
>associates have done so, and I have great respect for them because of
>it.
>
>Yes indeed, the first Apostles did have "holidays", which God himself
>instituted, which teach of things to come. Just as God had an
>appointed time or "holiday" for His Spirit to be poured out upon all
>flesh ("And when the day of Pentecost was fully come") He had an
>appointed time or holiday for when Christ was offered as our
>sacrifice. It's called Passover. The Passover story teaches us
>about the very death of Christ into which we are baptized. The blood,
>...the atonement, ...who is saved from the passing of the death
>angel,...all of deadly serious events central to our faith, are
>addressed in the Passover story.
>
>In contrast, Easter mixes the central elements of Christianity with
>pagan fables. These are the same fables and traditions that pagan
>spirituality embraces to this day. The witches of today still
>celebrate their season of rebirth with colored eggs. It is a fact of
>history, that Roman Catholicism sought, with great violence and
>bloodshed, to stamp out the Lord's Passover, and replace it with
>Easter. Furthermore, Easter is man's celebration of the resurrection.
> Passover is the Lord's way to "shew the Lord's DEATH till he come."
>The Passover story is the story of our Lords death: "...Christ our
>Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast..."
>However, there was problem in mixing the elements of the Passover
>story into the pagan spring holiday, and thereby "Christianize" it.
>Paganism's Spring holiday of Ostara is a time of rebirth, rebuilding,
>and the earth coming back to life. The resurrection of Jesus fits
>rather well. The problem with Passover is the DEATH, the sacrifice,
>the atonement, the blood being applied, the leaving in haste, the
>remembering of the bondage of sin in Egypt, et. al.....NONE of these
>elements of Passover fit into the pagan spring fertility rites, and
>rebirth. Passover falls on the appointed day in the Biblical
>calendar. Easter is the first Sunday, after the first full moon,
>after the Spring equinox.
>
>Oneness Pentecostals of all people, should note the significance of
>any subtle de-emphasizing of the death, the sacrifice, the atonement,
>the blood being applied at the altar of sacrifice, the leaving Egypt
>in haste, et. al... Is this part of the reason Passover was so
>violently stripped out of the church in history? Passover's main
>theme is the teaching that "without the shedding of blood, there is no
>remission of sin". Easter's main theme is rising from the dead.
>Yes, we as Apostolics are likely to observe the Lord's Supper at
>Easter. We likely recount His death and atonement at Easter. This
>is not a legalistic call to abandon Easter. This is not a call to put
>a new bondage of Passover Observance on God's church. This is not a
>call to become Jewish wanna-bees. It is an invitation for further
>study. More importantly, It is a call to examine WHO WE SAY WE ARE.
> And it is something else, which is a bit beyond the scope of this
>article....:
>
>The Lord's Passover is less than three weeks away. What would happen
>if you and your close associates came together at home under the full
>Passover moon (yes, that's part of God's clock) for prayer,
>fellowship, bread and wine? You will know that this is the very
>night, THE very night that the cry went out of Egypt. This is the
>very night the Lord last ate the meal with his disciples. This is the
>very night the crucifixion begins to unfold. And there is something
>ancient and deadly serious in the substance surrounding all this, and
>you may very likely sense that in your Spirit. And may the Lord give
>you and the church with you, a special visitation!
>
>Lord, give us a fresh edge for the next generation!
>
>That's enough for now brothers, until next time, I am
>Sincerely yours,
>
>Glenn Turner
>gturner@im3.com
>
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