The Tree that was ever of a heathen worship, has now become the Christmas Tree (Jeremiah 10 : 1 – 5) If we would ever be convinced that we are now living in the time of the end, let it be always remembered the prophetic word of the prophet Amos when he said : “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid ? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it ? Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” – Amos 3 : 6, 7. Those secret things from the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets, from the book of Revelation, and from Jesus’ own parables in the New Testament, have all now in this time of the end been interpreted for us in the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. And since the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY contains all the rules of implementations of the Basic Law of the Ten Commandments, that we are to implement all the rules to get rid of doing any wrong with the Law of God. Let all the rules of implementation of the Law be carefully studied and then obeyed, that we may be deemed worthy of salvation provided for us in the coming kingdom in the Palestine. “T r u e r e l i g i o n means living the word in your practical life. Your profession is not of any value without the practical doing of the word.” -- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 127 “The most eloquent sermon that can be preached upon the Law of Ten Commandments is to do them. Obedience should be made a personal duty. Negligence of this duty is flagrant sin. “ – 4 Testimonies, p. 58. “I was shown that merely observing the Sabbath and praying morning and evening are not positive evidences that we are Christians. These outward forms may all be strictly observed, and yet true godliness be lacking.” -- 1 Testimonies for the Church, p. 305. The Israelites as the chosen people of God We should know that the Israelites have been appointed of God as His chosen people ever since after the time of Noah the prophet. Due to the rebellion of the descendants of Noah after the flood, the people no more believed in the message of Noah that God would no more carry out His plan to punish the world by a flood. Due to the rebellion of the people of the time, they began to build a very large structure of the tower of Babylon. They were of the thought that the building would enable them to escape to the higher grounds should the flood come again the second time. When they were busy to carry out the work in the field, the Lord God then created in them several languages to break their communications with each other, even to confuse them in all fields of activities of building the tower. So was the building work then stopped, and no more heard of it for good. It was then the early beginning when the people of the world had been divided into nations, tribes and so on, each with their own language that differs from each other up to this time. And the consequences follow that war happened in many places even up to this very moment from small scale skirmishes up to the world wide wars of the past. Just at that occasion the Lord God had made His choice to appoint the Hebrew nation to be His only people from among all the nations and tongues and peoples of the world to represent Him and His Law on earth. And then to them were entrusted His Law of the Ten Commandments and the Testimonies as the Rules of Implementation of the Law, to be kept in their midst. Even the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer of the world had ever since been entrusted to be born in their midst for us. Moses had ever been born in that great nation, and he was authorized of God to receive the Law of the Decalogues right from His hands on the Mount Sinai. So he was the only one authorized of God to have documented the Law of the Ten Commandments and its Rules of implementation along the first 2.500 years history of creation up to his own time. Moses the prophet lived sometime in about 1500 years before Christ. His name was very well known for the books he wrote, namely: The Genesis, the Exodus, the Leviticus, the Number, and the Deuteronomy. As a normal human being, he should have to die on this world of sin, but he was then resurrected and taken to Heaven by the Lord God Himself. Some 1000 years later after the life time of Moses, we will have Jeremiah the prophet. Prophet Jeremiah lived sometime between 600 – 500 years before Christ. He was with the Jewish kingdom, which was defeated by the kingdom of Babylon in 587 B.C. In his prophetic message written to all the people of God he said : “Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel : Thus said the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. “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 an ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; and 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 born, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them ; because they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. “ – Jeremiah 10 : 1 – 5. In the time of prophet Jeremiah, the heathen were known of their culture that one cutteth a tree out of the forest, which was the work of the hands of the workman with an ax. They deck it with silver and with gold, and they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not. They were always dismayed at the signs in heaven, and the tree that was put to stand upright in their midst, will be made a part of their worship to their god to withstand calamity of any kind. The Lord God seemed to have inspired prophet Jeremiah far enough beforehand to warn all of His people, both those living in the time of the prophet, even up to those now living in this time of the end, that we are not to take with us any kind of tree cut out from the forest to have them decorated by any means for worship as a Christian service to the Lord of Israel. Let it be understood, therefore, that the culture of cutting a tree out from the forest to have it decorated, either with gold and silver, or by any other kind of marked ornamentation, for the worship of the Lord Jehovah, are strictly prohibited in the word of God. Such acts are not allowed to be taken as a means of Christian worship, neither in the New Testament era nor in this time of the end. Trees which were ever decorated with gold and with silver in the time of prophet Jeremiah were means of the heathen worship of the people, who were always dismayed at the signs in the heavens. Even Christmas as the day to commemorate Jesus and His birthday was never before commemorated by Christians who were left behind when Jesus returned to His Father in Heaven in the year 31. The exact and definite day of Jesus’ birth was never documented for us by any of those apostles of Jesus in the New Testament. Whereas the S A B B A T H D A Y, as national day of the heavenly Kingdom for to commemorate the Lord GOD as Creator of the whole universe, Who created our heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day, which is in the Decalogues placed as the fourth commandment of the basic Law, to be observed for ever and ever by His people ever since the beginning. The apostles of Jesus ever said : “And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews : who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Christ. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. “AND THAT DAY WAS THE PREPARATION, AND THE SABBATH DREW ON. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT. “Now upon THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.” --- Luke 23 : 50 – 56; 24 : 1 – 3. “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews : And Paul, AS HIS MANNER WAS, went in unto them, and THREE SABBATH DAYS reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” – The Acts of the Apostles 17 : 1, 2. “And he reasoned in the synagogue EVERY SABBATH, and persuaded the Jews and Greeks.” – The Acts of the Apostles 18 : 4. Whereas the commemoration of the Passover as those stipulated in the law of Moses to oblige people to reminisce the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bond, has been succeeded by the Lord’s supper, that is the service of Holy Communion by the Lord Jesus Himself, to commemorate His death on the Calvary to redeem men and women of their everlasting death penalty. To this the servant of the Lord said : “The Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread : and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat : this is My body, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Cor. 11 : 23 – 26.“ -- The Desire of Ages, p. 652. It is very clear, therefore, that the Christmas festival and the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday has nothing to do with any rule of Christian worship. And that is the reason why we may be sure that those who are in the habit of commemorating Christmas every year, they are just the people who are always transgressing the commandments of the Law of God deliberately., and never of the habit to observe the Sabbath of the fourth commandment of God, according to His will as those stipulated in the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. Such are just the same people, for as often as they eat the bread, and drink the cup, to show the Lord’s death unworthily till He come (1 Cor. 11 : 24 – 26.), they would have eaten and drunk d a m n a t i o n to themselves. The Festival to commemorate Christmas was originated in Europe. The Christmas tree was then becoming un-separated part of the Christmas commemoration After the apostles of Jesus era had passed, and after the heathen nations in Europe embraced Christianity and received Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, then the birthday of Christ in the Palestine became more and more imminent to be observed. But since the exact date of Christ’s birth was not known, then the people preferred more to choose December 25 to correspond to the date of the rebirth of the sun. The man Christ was then more and more promoted to the fore to be worshipped. And this is the beginning when Christ’ s birth was so exalted to be observed every year as an un-separated part of Christian religious worship. Let us follow here below the origin of the whole story of the Christmas as narrated in the history books here below : “Christmas, is a Christian festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. The name derives from the Old English Christes Maesse, or Christ’s Mass, and the present spelling probably came into use about the 16th century. All Christian churches except the Armenian Church observe the birth of Christ on December 25. This date was not set in the West until about the middle of the 4th century and in the East until about a century later. The Armenians follow the old Eastern custom of honoring Christ’s birth on January 6, the day of the Epiphany, commemorating in the West chiefly the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus , and in the East, Christ’s baptism. (See Epiphany) Some churches hold their most elaborate festivals on January 6, and in parts of the United States this date has been celebrated as “Old Christmas” or “Little Christmas.” Origins of Christmas. The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the “rebirth of the sun.” Northern European tribes celebrated their chief festivals of Yule at the winter solstice to commemorate the rebirth of the sun as the giver of light and warmth. The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration. It is held by some scholars that the birth of Christ as “Light of the World” was made analogous to the rebirth of the sun in order to make Christianity more meaningful to pagan converts. Many early Christians decried the gaiety and festive spirit introduced into Christmas celebration as a pagan survival, particularly of the Roman Saturnalia. They considered the birth of Christ a solemn occasion. But almost from the past, Christians have generally regarded Christmas as both a holy day and a holiday. For Christ’s birth brought a new spirit of joy into the world, and from the first recounting of the story of Nativity, man has fashioned endless variations --- not only in words, but in arts, song, dance, and drama --- and has even created special symbolic holiday foods. Customs of all lands have been added through the centuries, making Christmas today the greatest folks festivals in the world.” -- Encyclopedia Americana, Book 6, p. 666. Let the above historical facts be carefully followed, and we could have truly understood that just the descendants of those heathens of the time of prophet Jeremiah were the ones, who, after their conversion into Christianity, had established Christmas and its decorated tree for the first time in Europe. They were the ones converted into Christianity through the message of the Gospel brought to them by those Christians after the time of the apostles. They had received the message of Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem mankind from the eternal death penalty, and they fully believed in Jesus as their personal Savior. However, as well as the nominal Christians of today , who are not as yet deeply rooted in the faith in Jesus and His sacrifice to uphold the Basic Law and the By Laws of His Testimony on this earth of sin, they were not as yet fully delivered from their tradition and culture of paganism. Customs of all land have been added through the centuries, that the tradition of cutting trees from the forest to be decorated for worship had now been added into the modern time worship of Christianity. And now Christmas and all its added customs of all land, have become un-separated part of the celebration to commemorate Jesus and His birthday that fall coincidently with the rebirth of the sun on December 25. So Christmas today has been made the greatest folk festivals in the world. Which one should be commemorated : The birthday of Jesus (the Christmas), the day of His death, or the day of His resurrection ? The servant of the Lord, Mrs. E. G. White said : “T r u e r e l i g i o n means living the word in your practical life. Your profession is not of any value without the practical doing of the word.” -- Testimonies to Ministers, p. 127. True religion means living the word in your practical life. It means that the word of the Law must be obeyed. If only the Law that obliges us to commemorate and celebrate the day of Jesus’ birth was ever before provided us in the Old Testament, Jesus Himself would have shown us the way of how to commemorate and celebrate the day of His birth, such as how He gave us the way to commemorate the day of His death up to the time He comes back. But from the fact, however, there is no single statement found in the Bible to oblige us to commemorate and celebrate the day of His birth, nor the day of His resurrection, after He returned to His Father in Heaven. The question is why ? Let it be understood that the main purpose of Jesus to come to this world is to redeem it from the power of Satan. As well as other worlds in the universe with people of the kingdom of heaven each with their own king respectively, so is our planet which was at the beginning of creation had Adam as its king. Due to Adam’s fall in sin that resulted in the loss of the planet into the hand of Satan, and that Adam should have died the eternal death ever since the day of his fall, the Lord God and Jesus should have taken a measure to prevent Adam and this planet from falling fully into the power of the Enemy. That is, the Lord Jesus would have taken the burden to bear Himself the eternal death penalty from men, and to deliver the whole world from Satan power. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3 : 16. And since the process of redemption had just accomplished at the time of His death, and not on the day of His birth, then the servant of the Lord Mrs. White should have warned us in the following words : “Christ did not yield up His life till He had accomplished the work which He came to do, and with His parting breath He exclaimed,. “It is finished.” John 19 : 30. The battle had been won. His right hand and His holy arm had gotten Him the victory. As a Conqueror He planted His banner on the eternal heights. Was there not joy among the angels? All heaven triumphed in the Savior’s victory. Satan was defeated, and knew that his kingdom was lost. “To the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, “It is finished” had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ’s victory.” -- The Desire of Ages, p. 758. The success of Christ mission to the earth in the past had just accomplished at the time when with His parting breath He exclaimed “It is finished.” Just ever since was the work of Jesus to redeem us successful. And then again we are guaranteed by the Lord, that the eternal life would be ours if only we would live anew the life of obedience to the Law, similar to that of Adam and Eve before their fall in Eden. Why is the day of His death should be commemorated ? Since our salvation is not decided at the day of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, Palestine, nor at the day of His resurrection. But through a process of redemption that had just accomplished by the Lord at the time He uttered, “It is finished” before He died upon the Cross of Calvary. Then it is the only day of the very momentous history in the year 31 that should be remembered and commemorated by all those Christians up to this time of the end. And to that end Mrs. White said : The Passover was ordained as a commemoration of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. God has directed that, year by year, as the children should ask the meaning of this ordinance, the history should be repeated. Thus the wonderful deliverance was to be kept in fresh in the minds of all. The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was given to commemorate the great deliverance wrought out as the result of the death of Christ. Till He shall come the second time in power and glory, this ordinance is to be celebrated. It is the means by which His great work for us is to be kept fresh in our minds.” -- The Desire of Ages, pp. 652, 653. “In the last Passover our Lord observed with His disciples, He instituted the Lord’s Supper in the place of the Passover, to be observed in memory of His death. “The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages.”-- The Faith I Live By, p. 300. The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper was instituted by the Lord Himself to succeed the ordinance of the Passover. It was instituted for the Christians of all ages to commemorate His suffering to deliver all repentant sinners from eternal death. “This ordinance is not to be exclusive, as many would make it. Each must participate in it publicly, and thus bear witness : I accept Christ as my personal Savior. He gave His life for me, that I might be rescued from death.”– The Faith I Live By, p. 302. Mrs. E.G. White further said : “The salvation of men depends upon a continual application to their hearts of the cleansing blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord’s Supper was not to be observed only occasionally or yearly, but more frequently than the annual Passover. This solemn ordinance commemorates a far greater event than the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. That deliverance was typical of the great atonement which Christ made by the sacrifice of His own life for the final deliverance of His people. ………………………………… ………… Unspeakably precious to them was the thought, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.” -- The Faith I Live By, p. 302. How should we prepare ourselves for the Supper The servant of the Lord, Mrs. E.G. White, again warned us in the following words : “Who can distinguish the tares from the wheat ? ‘Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. ’For whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” 1 Cor. 11 : 28, 27, 29.” -- The Desire of Ages, p. 656. THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY itself has divided God’s people into two main categories : the wheat, or the five wise virgins on the one side, and the tares or the five foolish virgins on the other side. And since the statement in Revelation 14 : 4 has met its fulfillment now in this time, then even those of the wheat or the five wise virgins themselves are again to be divided between the pure wheat of those candidates of the 144.000 elects of God on the one side, and the chaff of those wise virgins with guile in their mouths on the other side. And all these separations are to stay up to the time of the purification of the Church, to meet the fulfillment of the prophecies of Ezekiel 9, Isaiah 66 : 16, 17, and Malachi 3 : 1 – 3. The above statement by the servant of the Lord Mrs. White obliges us to distinguish between those wheat categorized ones in the Church on the one side, and those of tares categorized and the chaff categorized ones on the other side. In other words, let us be able to distinguish between those wise and foolish virgins in the church and those wise virgins without guile in their mouths on the other side. Due to the fact that only those wise virgins without guile in their mouths or the wheat categorized ones are allowed of the Lord to participate in His Supper, let us be fully convinced that now those wheat or wise virgins without guile in their mouths in the Laodicean Church would have been a special company with a specific identity of those 144.000 elected saints of God in the future. They could always be identified from their seeing eye to eye, having the same mind, and speaking the same things up to their deliverance to the Kingdom in the near future in the Palestine. Thus it is, that the Christians who are not as yet in the habit of keeping the Sabbath holy according to the fourth Commandment of the Basic Law of the Heavenly Kingdom, and even those Sabbath keepers of the Laodicean Church, who are not as yet willing to justify the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY as the Rules of implementation of the Law, let them all stay away from the Lord Supper. “He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” 1 Cor. 11 : 28, 27, 29.” -- The Desire of Ages, p. 656. The Lord Supper in the time of Jesus, wherein He and His disciples had taken part, was indeed a model example to all Christians of all time to imitate. The Supper was arranged not at the beginning of His mission here on earth, but just when His mission was about to close. After the disciples were fully fed doctrinally by the Lord Himself and after all of them be warned of the things to come they were facing, then it was time for them to participate in the Supper of the Lord. The result ? The fact was that the Supper brought great blessings to the eleven, whereas Judas was then fell from the grace of God. Judas eateth and drinketh unworthy, not discerning the Lord’s body that he eateth and drinketh damnation to him. How do Christian Churches today commemorate Jesus and His birthday (the Christmas) The last end time prophet of the Lord, Bro. Victor T. Houteff who lived up to 1955 had ever said : CHRISTMAS OBSERVANCE And Christmas Gifts “While to a multitude of Christmas-observers, Christ means scarcely more than any ordinary man of fame, to an even greater Christmas-observing multitude of “not-at-all-Christians,” He is but a storied figure by which to conjure holiday revelry; although they meaninglessly lip His name in conventional acknowledgement of the supposed origin of the religious occasion of the season ! Thus to many, like a light in the darkness, stands out the fact that Christmas is not , in reality, observed to the honor of the Savior, but to the glorification of a heathen custom and to the gratification of the carnal heart. Consequently, “altogether-Christians” cannot therefore consistently participate in celebrating the Christmas myth. Indeed, to do so is openly to set at naught the Word of God, for “thus said the Lord”. Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 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 need 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 : 2 – 5. And the traditional gift – exchanging which is part and parcel of the spirit of Christmas-observance, is a jealousy breeding custom, all too often only cankering the receiver’s heart and emptying the buyer’s pocket book. Thus while it goads one multitude to display of pride, even luring them into revelry, debauchery, and immorality, it drives another, the multitude of poor, either to envy or discouragement, or to both, also not infrequently to despair, and sometimes to insanity – even to committing murder and suicide. The whole Christmas institution consequently being but a species of heathen worship that is demoralizing the nations, the Lord’s servants will invariably shun the exchanging of Christmas gifts, shun the evil attendant upon the occasion‘s pretentious spirit and spurious humanitarianism. Christians cannot, indeed, take part in its unholy traffic of gift-trading and reveling, and at the same time be “altogether – Christians.” “Who would not fear Thee, O King of nations ? for to Thee doth it appertain …… They are vanity, and the work of errors : in the time of their visitation they shall perish. For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord : therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.“ Jeremiah 10 : 7, 15, 21. Exchanging Christmas gift, however, is not the only evil breeding custom : another no less evil, is the custom of exchanging Anniversary Gifts.“ – Victor T. Houteff, Christ’s Greetings, Tract no. 13, pp. 5 – 8. C o n c l u s i o n Christ was born in the midst of His own chosen people, the Jewish nation. The twelve tribes kingdom of Israel were first divided into two kingdoms: the ten tribes kingdom of Israelites was first lost the war to the Assyrian in 721 B.C. They were then ever since be scattered into the entire world, and through assimilation with many nations they now had lost all their identities. The Jews of the two tribes kingdom were first defeated by the Babylonian kingdom in 587 B.C. Later when the Babylonian was defeated by the Medo-Persian Empire, the Jews were again permitted to rebuild their Jerusalem under the sponsorship of Cyrus and then Darius, kings of Medo-Persian. As soon as after His baptism by John the Baptist, He then went out from one place to another to teach the people. So was Christianity first born with Jesus Himself as the Author of the religion. Whereas the Pharisees and the leaders of the people, were still embracing their own teaching of Judaism. And as the people were fully trusting to their leaders, they were the guys who denied Jesus ever since the beginning that led up to His crucifixion and died in the year 31. However, there is a very important statement from the Savior that is so meaningful for us to keep in mind, when He said : “HE THAT IS NOT WITH ME IS AGAINST ME; AND HE THAT GATHERETH NOT WITH ME SCATTERETH ABROAD. WHEREFORE I SAY UNTO YOU, ALL MANNER OF SIN AND BLASPHEMY SHALL BE FORGIVEN UNTO MEN : BUT THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN UNTO MEN. “AND WHOSOEVER SPEAKETH A WORD AGAINST THE SON OF MAN, IT SHALL BE FORGIVEN HIM : BUT WHOSOEVER SPEAKETH AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST, IT SHALL NOT BE FORGIVEN HIM, NEITHER IN THIS WORLD, NEITHER IN THE WORLD TO COME.” – MATTHEW 12 : 30 – 32. Those statement above had met their fulfillment after Jesus’ return to Heaven. When the Spirit of Early Rain was poured out to the earth upon the 120 disciples of Jesus on the day of the first Pentecost, they were all empowered to proclaim the gospel with more power than ever before. They were even having the ability to speak in foreign languages. And how is the result ? Three thousand souls were converted in only one day of the Pentecost. And then many more were added unto them every day later after that. From the fact that gospel proclamation of the time (in year 31) was still limited to only the Jews in the Palestine, let it now be understood that most converts of the people would probably have ever been implicated in sin against Jesus’ personality. Either by uttering words of blasphemy right against Him ever since He was yet arraigned in the Pilate hall, or by giving their voices of approval to the execution of Jesus to die on the cross. Just then in year 34 which was identified by the death of one of the disciples of the Lord named, STEPHANUS, who was stoned to death by the Jews, then was the Jews, even the whole house of Israel, formally lost their status as the chosen people of God. And then ever since religion of Christ began to be proclaimed unto the entire world, even unto all the heathen of the time of Jeremiah, and their posterity in Europe and elsewhere. No wonder now when all the festivals to commemorate Christ and His birthday, had their origin in Europe, and not in the Palestine. And the consequence is unavoidable that the tree cut from the forest in the time of prophet Jeremiah has now become an un-separated part of the Christmas festivals in the world, to be called Christmas tree. * * * * bible-prophecies.org
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 09:33:43 +0000
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