Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!
All of you sing to it—
The well the princes sank,
Dug by the nobles among the people,
By the lawgiver’s word, with their staves.”
Then Christians sang this song:
“little Christmas tree, no one to buy you, give yourself to me ,you’re worth your weight in precious gold you see, my little Christmas tree”, written by someone named Karl Ruhmann. They also sing “oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree”, Written in sentimental fashion by another German guy!
They call them carols: ‘festive songs, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character’. Interestingly, none of these two songs even mention Christ, except in the word Christmas…which means what again? "Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's mass". It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038, followed by the word Cristes-messe in 1131. So, for over a millennium Christianity was cool without Christmas. Now they talk about putting Christ back into Christmas as though he was always in it. Nowadays you can ‘witness’ for Christianity (not for Christ), by lighting a Christmas tree or saying, “merry Christmas”! Nowadays you can spend loads of cash on baubles, light up the neighborhood, go to parties, make it your once or twice per year visit to the church building while celebrating Christmas but not Christ).
The Lord told us himself how we should remember and celebrate him. We say, “nay Lord, that’s not enough” we need trees, logs, baubles, etc.! that’s the way the heathen celebrated their deities, why can’t we celebrate our Lord the same way? God says, “Behold I send my messenger before thy face”. We say, “OK, Lord, but we also like the jolly fat ghost in the red suit who haunts the North Pole, with his imps”.
As it was said of Saul and Jonathan, how are the mighty fallen!
As was said of Ephraim, Christendom is a half-baked cake!
Today Franklin Graham says, in effect, that part of the evidence that “never in my lifetime have we had a president willing to take a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith than Donald Trump has’’ is that the president lit a humongous Christmas tree in Washington and said “merry Christmas” instead of “happy holidays”! I have been saying happy holidays for decades, so I guess I have never taken a strong out spoken stand for the Christian faith...hopefully I take a stand for Christ! surely Franklin Graham knows better, or does he? God does not have grandchildren and the gifts of God, such as evangelism are not inherited from father to son, from Billy to Franklin.
At the ceremony Mr. Trump said “each one of us is a child of God. That is the true source of joy this time of year”! the true source of joy apparently is not that Gods son was coming into the world, but that each one of us is a child of God, wow! Is this what is passing for Christianity these days, supported by Franklin Graham and his cohorts?
The fact is that each one of us is not a child of God! We become children of God by new birth. The Lord said to the religious men who were challenging him “you are of your father the devil”. Each one of us is not a child of God, some of us are children of the devil. “This is how the children of God's and the children of the devil are distinguished: No person who fails to practice righteousness and to love his brother is from God”.
The president has also said in the past that “he has never had anything to repent for!” yet Megachurch pastor and televangelist Paula White, who is a spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, says he is a man of repentance and she has heard him do it. Given her pastoral role, White said in Nashville during the Religion News Association conference that she would never disclose the details of what he repented for in private conversations with her. But she declared him a man of faith”. The man said he has never had anything to repent for but she declares him a man of faith and said that she has heard him repent. “If thou shalt believe in thy heart and confess with thy mouth” has been changed to “you may say publicly that you have never repented but if your spiritual adviser says you did it privately then you are indeed a man of faith”!
Europe has given us Yule log, Christmas tree, Easter bunny, Easter egg, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, elves, and “black Pete” … (y’all Negros know about black Pete?) to enhance Christianity, I suppose! No wonder some folks identify Christianity as a European religion! It collected a lot of superficial and unscriptural trappings there in Europe over the centuries. It took root there first; more than anywhere else in the world, but the Europeans “repackaged it” to the point that many folks think when they become Christians they are accepting European culture becoming, in effect, little Europeans. I understand “Christian” originally may have meant “little Christ” but to many today it implies “little European-style believer”!
In a few months the white house and the Christian churches can have Easter egg hunts, running with some mythical bunny. I suppose it is to “catch the bunny and put it back in Easter!”
Makiliwè Colin Younge
December 4, 2017