Praise God Thank you Pr.Doug as a young couple with one son. I Thank God for calling me and my husband just this year 2020 to follow him and now I and my husband a on ready class of baptism. Following up on this Journal is giving me hope to and faith to my unbelief..Am not a SDA believer but I praise God if it's a choice to marry a SDA believer..Please put us in your prayer list not too loose hope but stand firm in our faith to except God in our life.
From AA page 162…the laying on of hands offered no new grace or virtual qualification to Paul or Barnabas…it was an acknowledged form of designation to an appointed office…a recognition of authority in that office…So, I would assume from that – in marriage it makes no difference whether or not a Pastor lays his hands on you – for God has acknowledged your commitment to each other and Him
Pastor Doug—–at 25: 35———–their eyes were restrained – not by God – but by their own discouragement and gloom , and they had not looked at Christ closely…DA 795 Also it was late in the day and were occupied by the mountainous road they were walking, so they were occupied with the terrain 25.50….So, there are times when we need to say – we don't know rather than attempt to offer an answer that sounds intelligent but is incorrect…it is the same idea as with Mary at the tomb – she thought she was talking to the Gardener but it was Christ – and why – her eyes were full of tears and did not look closely on His face..John 20.15
I like these 'question and answer' segments because it really provides a time to get into the heads of these men that wish to preach the gospel. Problem is however, that some of the responses they provide causes me to wonder where they pull their information from. I don't subscribe to EGW for personal reasons and I feel that rather than reach back to a person like her I would rather look into historical events and then couple that with what the bible says. Anything short of that is "firing from the hip" and that is a dangerous position to have, especially when speaking of scripture and truth.
With that being said, I would like to respond to this person who asked the question; "Is celebrating Christmas a sin because of the pagan origins?" I'm rather surprised that Pastor Ross gave the response he did…You, a Pastor worrying about "cultural differences" when it comes to Christianity!
First and foremost, there is only ONE GOD, His Son and the Holy Spirit. It does not matter what your "cultural" feelings are! We are Christians and to worry ourselves about offending anyone for celebrating Christ Birth is absurd and does not speak highly of our faithfulness to Him. How many of us celebrate our own families birth, that of a friend, a neighbor and even the 4th of July; the Birth of our Nation…Yet we babble and argue over the day that Christ, the King of Kings, our Savior was born?
Before we run to conclusions on this particular day why don't we first look at where some of this malarkey came from…So, Mailin Teorey of St. Paul Minnesota, allow me to share with you the real reason why people argue over a day.
Some of the most charitable people I have ever met are 'Messianic believers' (a blend of Jewish and Christian faiths). So what I am about to say is not against them but against a radical group of people that are searching for anyone to entrap. Both Muslims and Judaizers (Christians who teach it is necessary to adopt Jewish customs) are incessant in affirming that if one observes Christmas and Easter, then that person is a Pagan, no different than the idol worshipers from Egypt or Babylon. You should understand that this is not a modern idea but one that goes way back!
One such group was the Athinganoi. They stressed that Saturday Sabbath should be observed rather than Sunday rest day, that Easter was a Pagan holiday, and that the icons of the Catholic Church were idols. Of course Messianic believers would champion this idea but when you dig deeper into their ideology you will find that they were a very dangerous cult! They believed the the Old Testament took precedents over the New, to the point the they denied the existence of Satan because, according to them, he was not mentioned in the books of the Prophets, and believed that Judas was "among the saved"
Why is this important? Because it is a trend that sinks deep into theology, which places the Jew over the 'Gentile;' that views the Trinity as Pagan; they see ALL OTHER Christians as inferior and calls Christianity a False Religion. Do we see that happening today? Yes, in over time!
It is this group of people that will fabricate and believe all sorts of False Historical Narratives that are fantastical at best! It is the same group of people that say that when Constantine came to power, he murdered millions of "original believers" forcing them to go underground, and that what they believed were not revived until within our lifetime. This lie that Constantine slaughtered believers and turned the Church into some hybrid Christianity/Paganism is one that parallels the Islamic view that states that all the original followers of Christ were Muslims who were forced to go underground by the Catholic Church and that the true teachings were not completely revived until Muhammad arrived on the scene. Interesting, both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have the same belief!
Two of the groups that use this theory the most: Muslims and Judaizers. They look upon anyone who celebrates Christmas and Easter as Pagan and tell you that prior to each of those seasons to impress upon you how "Pagan" they really are!
To put it bluntly, anyone who insists that we not celebrate Christmas is a cult. Anyone that argues that Jesus was not born on December but in October or September are nothing more than the followers of a cult. Luke 2:13-14, Luke 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:8, God has the heavens, the shepherds, the wisemen celebrating Jesus' birthday, including Paul who said "to remember" and celebrate Christs' birth.
of course the oldest reference proving Jesus was born on December 25th, is in the Apostolic Constitution, written down by the first generation followers of Jesus. It was written down from "reference by the FIRST Generation Followers of Christ". It pointed to Clement Romanus (70AD) the person mentioned by Paul in Philip. iv. 3, one of the most distinguished Roman Christians as primary source of the constitution which stated: "Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month" (The month of Kislev). The Hebrew calendar begins March-April in Nisan so its ninth months roughly comes to our 12 month, December!
Diocletian A.D. 244-311, Nicephorus wrote an ecclesiastical history where he reports Diocletian's destruction of a church on Christ birthday, filled with worshippers celebrating the Lord's Nativity": At Nicomedia (a city of Bethenia) when the festival of Christ's birth-day came, and a multitude of Christians in all ages had assembled together in the temple to celebrate the birth-day. Diocletian the tyrant, having gotten an advantageous occasion whereby he might accomplish his madness and fury, sent men thither to enclose the temple, and to set it on fire round about, and so consumed them all to ashes, even twenty thousand person." Ecc. Hist. 1.6"
Yes, "Virginia" there is a Christmas and that day lies on December 25th…As I have said before and will say over and over again, search before you decide what is fact and never, ever take anyones word for what you have been taught! Celebrate Christs birth with humility and celebrate it with zeal praising Christ on His day
Will we possibly be tortured or beheaded for our faith?
Praise God
Thank you Pr.Doug as a young couple with one son. I Thank God for calling me and my husband just this year 2020 to follow him and now I and my husband a on ready class of baptism. Following up on this Journal is giving me hope to and faith to my unbelief..Am not a SDA believer but I praise God if it's a choice to marry a SDA believer..Please put us in your prayer list not too loose hope but stand firm in our faith to except God in our life.
From AA page 162…the laying on of hands offered no new grace or virtual qualification to Paul or Barnabas…it was an acknowledged form of designation to an appointed office…a recognition of authority in that office…So, I would assume from that – in marriage it makes no difference whether or not a Pastor lays his hands on you – for God has acknowledged your commitment to each other and Him
Pastor Doug—–at 25: 35———–their eyes were restrained – not by God – but by their own discouragement and gloom , and they had not looked at Christ closely…DA 795 Also it was late in the day and were occupied by the mountainous road they were walking, so they were occupied with the terrain 25.50….So, there are times when we need to say – we don't know rather than attempt to offer an answer that sounds intelligent but is incorrect…it is the same idea as with Mary at the tomb – she thought she was talking to the Gardener but it was Christ – and why – her eyes were full of tears and did not look closely on His face..John 20.15
I like these 'question and answer' segments because it really provides a time to get into the heads of these men that wish to preach the gospel. Problem is however, that some of the responses they provide causes me to wonder where they pull their information from. I don't subscribe to EGW for personal reasons and I feel that rather than reach back to a person like her I would rather look into historical events and then couple that with what the bible says. Anything short of that is "firing from the hip" and that is a dangerous position to have, especially when speaking of scripture and truth.
With that being said, I would like to respond to this person who asked the question; "Is celebrating Christmas a sin because of the pagan origins?" I'm rather surprised that Pastor Ross gave the response he did…You, a Pastor worrying about "cultural differences" when it comes to Christianity!
First and foremost, there is only ONE GOD, His Son and the Holy Spirit. It does not matter what your "cultural" feelings are! We are Christians and to worry ourselves about offending anyone for celebrating Christ Birth is absurd and does not speak highly of our faithfulness to Him. How many of us celebrate our own families birth, that of a friend, a neighbor and even the 4th of July; the Birth of our Nation…Yet we babble and argue over the day that Christ, the King of Kings, our Savior was born?
Before we run to conclusions on this particular day why don't we first look at where some of this malarkey came from…So, Mailin Teorey of St. Paul Minnesota, allow me to share with you the real reason why people argue over a day.
Some of the most charitable people I have ever met are 'Messianic believers' (a blend of Jewish and Christian faiths). So what I am about to say is not against them but against a radical group of people that are searching for anyone to entrap. Both Muslims and Judaizers (Christians who teach it is necessary to adopt Jewish customs) are incessant in affirming that if one observes Christmas and Easter, then that person is a Pagan, no different than the idol worshipers from Egypt or Babylon. You should understand that this is not a modern idea but one that goes way back!
One such group was the Athinganoi. They stressed that Saturday Sabbath should be observed rather than Sunday rest day, that Easter was a Pagan holiday, and that the icons of the Catholic Church were idols. Of course Messianic believers would champion this idea but when you dig deeper into their ideology you will find that they were a very dangerous cult! They believed the the Old Testament took precedents over the New, to the point the they denied the existence of Satan because, according to them, he was not mentioned in the books of the Prophets, and believed that Judas was "among the saved"
Why is this important? Because it is a trend that sinks deep into theology, which places the Jew over the 'Gentile;' that views the Trinity as Pagan; they see ALL OTHER Christians as inferior and calls Christianity a False Religion. Do we see that happening today? Yes, in over time!
It is this group of people that will fabricate and believe all sorts of False Historical Narratives that are fantastical at best! It is the same group of people that say that when Constantine came to power, he murdered millions of "original believers" forcing them to go underground, and that what they believed were not revived until within our lifetime. This lie that Constantine slaughtered believers and turned the Church into some hybrid Christianity/Paganism is one that parallels the Islamic view that states that all the original followers of Christ were Muslims who were forced to go underground by the Catholic Church and that the true teachings were not completely revived until Muhammad arrived on the scene. Interesting, both Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have the same belief!
Two of the groups that use this theory the most: Muslims and Judaizers. They look upon anyone who celebrates Christmas and Easter as Pagan and tell you that prior to each of those seasons to impress upon you how "Pagan" they really are!
To put it bluntly, anyone who insists that we not celebrate Christmas is a cult. Anyone that argues that Jesus was not born on December but in October or September are nothing more than the followers of a cult. Luke 2:13-14, Luke 2:20, 2 Timothy 2:8, God has the heavens, the shepherds, the wisemen celebrating Jesus' birthday, including Paul who said "to remember" and celebrate Christs' birth.
of course the oldest reference proving Jesus was born on December 25th, is in the Apostolic Constitution, written down by the first generation followers of Jesus. It was written down from "reference by the FIRST Generation Followers of Christ". It pointed to Clement Romanus (70AD) the person mentioned by Paul in Philip. iv. 3, one of the most distinguished Roman Christians as primary source of the constitution which stated: "Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month" (The month of Kislev). The Hebrew calendar begins March-April in Nisan so its ninth months roughly comes to our 12 month, December!
Diocletian A.D. 244-311, Nicephorus wrote an ecclesiastical history where he reports Diocletian's destruction of a church on Christ birthday, filled with worshippers celebrating the Lord's Nativity": At Nicomedia (a city of Bethenia) when the festival of Christ's birth-day came, and a multitude of Christians in all ages had assembled together in the temple to celebrate the birth-day. Diocletian the tyrant, having gotten an advantageous occasion whereby he might accomplish his madness and fury, sent men thither to enclose the temple, and to set it on fire round about, and so consumed them all to ashes, even twenty thousand person." Ecc. Hist. 1.6"
Yes, "Virginia" there is a Christmas and that day lies on December 25th…As I have said before and will say over and over again, search before you decide what is fact and never, ever take anyones word for what you have been taught! Celebrate Christs birth with humility and celebrate it with zeal praising Christ on His day