We live in a time when evil rules. Satan, the God of this world, Rev 12:9; rules by propaganda, lies and deceit John 8:44;
However within the world there are islands where the truth of Bible Doctrine holds evil at bay to the extent that the inhabitants adhere to it. The USA is presently one of these islands.
Evil however is relentless in it's attack and never slows down it's assault through it's use of propaganda lies and deceit and it even takes up beachheads within the island from which to mount it's assault and erode the shores of the island away.
Evil preaches tolerance under the guise of fairness and equal privilege until it consolidates power and then it suppresses all opposition and establishes tyranny.
This is what is occurring in the USA today where the media and the socialist secular humanists who are in positions of power and influence have been almost completely overtaken by evil and have become the point of the spear in the attack against every category of truth and freedom that our nation was founded upon.
The propaganda that they are using is enhanced by the use of verbacide where over time in order to promote their evil agenda the definitions of words are changed. This has happened to the definition of the ritual of the Christian celebration of Christmas.
The failure of American pastors to rigidly adhere to the standards of orthodox, conservative Bible teaching has led to their failure to consistently properly interpret and illuminate their congregations regarding the true meaning of Christmas has enabled this verbacide.
The socialist secular humanists, who are satan's useful idiots for the promotion of evil have created a new definition for Christmas that emanates from the dark side of morality with the result that Christmas has been transformed from focus on the reality of Jesus Christ's birth into a pagan ritual that demands the production of human good and evil.
Fifty years ago the Christmas season came with an annual chorus from those who insisted that Christ be put back into Christmas. This plea was probably motivated at least initially by the idea that the celebration had become over commercialized. Business establishments could hardly get past Halloween before the Christmas decorations went up and the Christmas catalogues were sent out.
But amidst all the hoopla at least there still remained some vestiges of the core spirit of Christmas. Jesus Christ was still recognized as the real reason for the season. The hustle and bustle to give presents to others was a means of illustrating and celebrating God's gift of His Son for our salvation and it was the underlying motivation for the "Merry Christmas." greeting.
However, commercialization was not the culprit in the removal of Christ from Christmas. The culprit is the political correct secular humanists who have replaced the celebration of the birth of Christ with the hollow altruism of doing good and pseudo philanthropy.
Today Christocentric decorations are banned from the Public Square and even public discussion. Employees are told that they may not wish fellow workers or customers a "Merry Christmas" but must instead use "Happy Holidays."
Public schools are required censor any music that has a Christian theme and displays may not contain any idea of the Nativity.
The verbacide of the socialist secular humanists has transformed Christmas into a ritual where people seek to eradicate world hunger, feed the poor, and promote world peace through Satan' s primary objective, internationalism.
The reality is that Christmas is the celebration of when Jesus Christ, second Person of the Trinity, without ceasing to be undiminished deity, was united with true humanity by means of the Virgin Birth.
The result was one Person with a divine nature including all the attributes of deity, and humanity but without the genetically formed OSN or the imputation of Adam's original sin.
The Virgin Birth is therefore the central event in human history because it marks the moment that God entered directly into human history by taking on the essence of man. It was the moment God became incarnate.
The term "incarnation" comes from the Latin compound word "incarnare" in plus caro, that literally means "in the flesh." Christmas Day marks the moment of the Virgin Birth when undiminished deity and true humanity entered into the devil's world by means of the Person of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union.
John writes about it in John 1:14; "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us."
December 25th is the time the church has chosen to celebrate this event. The focus of Christmas should be Christocentric; meaning that it is to be centered on Christ with emphasis on the Virgin Birth, the Incarnation, the hypostatic union, and impeccability.
Christmas is when Jesus is celebrated as the Messiah whose mission was to prepare His true humanity to become a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the entire world. It is a celebration that. provides Christians with the platform to communicate the gospel of salvation
Because of this the celebration of Christmas has come under the duplicitous assault and has been hijacked by Satan, the evil one, with his verbacide, propaganda and deception where the emphasis of the Christmas celebration and it's focus on Jesus has been replaced by the need to be careful not to offend anyone with truth and the performance of human good works that benefit humanity.
All of this is being done in an attempt to obscure the truth. John 14:6; John 3:16; Acts 16:31; John 8:32; so that Satan's tyranny can be established and maintained.
Divine good is produced in the soul of the believer and includes thought, decision, and action. These thoughts, decisions, and actions are divine good if and only if they are based on Biblical concepts, principles, and doctrines circulating in the individual believer's stream of consciousness and executed by means of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Phil 2:13;
Human good that is produced in the soul of both believers and unbelievers also includes thoughts, decisions, and actions. These thoughts, decisions, and actions are human good if they are produced by the believer out of fellowship and are based on human energy and motivated by human viewpoint.
All production by an unbeliever, whether it is thought, decision, or action, is always human good. The unbeliever may produce a category of human good called establishment good by conforming to establishment truth as it relates to volition, marriage, family and nationalism.
Some of these principles are revealed in Exod 20:12-17; that describes how to be a good citizen by obeying the law.
God's Word encourages believers to perform divine good but for this to be the case they must be led by God's Word that is resident in their souls and under the influence, direction, and power of God the Holy Spirit.
Unbelievers are encouraged to perform establishment good in any way they might be led in their own volition from the inventory of ideas that they have acquired.
The doing of good has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas because Christmas is the celebration of the Virgin Birth of Christ and His incarnation that is the basis for God's forgiveness of sins 2Cor 5:21; that provides potential for reconciliation or peace with God 2Cor 5:20; and eternal salvation 1John 5:13;
All other applications are nothing more than satanic camouflage wrapped in pretty packages topped with colorful bows that are nothing but a distraction from the real meaning of Christmas and this is what is being emphasized these days in the secular "celebration of "Christmas."
Unfortunately too many mainline, denominational churches and too many who consider themselves to be Christians have fallen for this. So when Christmas time comes around it is simply thought of as a good time. A kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.
It seems to be the only time during the year, when many people seem to universally open their shut-up hearts and express any consideration for others. This idea is captured in Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" where unfortunately the false gospel of "salvation by character" that is readily accepted is also presented.
Some of the symbols of Christmas that the politically correct secular humanist socialists still permit for the moment are the Christmas tree and Santa Claus.
Charles Follen popularized the Christmas tree in New England and its original symbolisms contained ideas that do teach the doctrine of the Incarnation.
The evergreen Christmas tree represented the eternal life of Jesus' undiminished deity. Its lights pointed to Jesus as the Light of the World. Coming to this Light would result in eternal life for the believer. The tree itself taught the principle of the cross, the tree on which Christ would die for the sins of the world.
But these ritual concepts are only known to those who are taught the reality. Consequently, the Christmas tree is widely accepted as a substitute for a nativity scene. If the truth ever becomes widely known it will also be banned as an acceptable "holiday" decoration for the public square.
The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" that was written by Clement Moore in 1822 is a story about a charitable Asian bishop that has been transformed into the myth of Santa Claus.
Santa became an old elf who works his magic every Christmas Eve, bringing gifts to little boys and girls, but of course "only" good little boys and girls. This of course perpetuates the evil of the satanic lie of salvation by good works rather than salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
The poem describes a believer who was actually motivated to perform acts of charity as a response to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ but transforms him into an unreal, mythical figure, who is supposed to inspire us to be good and to be nice to one another.
The motivation for being nice that is presented in the poem is not motivation from one's reciprocal love for God that goes on to motivate unconditional love for others 1John 4:19; but instead promotes the false motivation of being "good' and being nice so because there will be a payoff at the end of the year.
Then there are Christmas carols that present the false idea of a humanly created "peace on earth and good will toward men" in the devil's world by using a truncation that creates a mistranslation of Luke 2:14;
Peace on earth is impossible until Jesus Christ returns at the Second Advent and He informs us, in Matt 24:6-7; that there will be wars and rumors of wars as nation rise up against nation until He returns.
The impact of Christmas is not peace on earth but is actually war Matt 10:34; because His coming into the world as celebrated by Christmas was God advancing His war against the evil ruler of this world by personally sending His Son so there will not be peace on earth among men or nations until the Lord Himself imposes it by force.
There will never be lasting and meaningful good will among men except among believers who have enough doctrine in their thinking to parlay their reciprocal love for God into unconditional love for people.
Putting Christ back into Christmas has a long way to go in this country and if it happened it would still be of no use if it does not stress His Incarnation and ignore the fluff.
Individual believers however can choose to put Jesus Christ into their own Christmas one believer at a time and you will have your next opportunity as we celebrate Christmas this week.
In whatever way God the Holy Spirit leads you in thought, decision and action this Christmas, the principles of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ need to be fresh in your mind so your application will be reality and not simply ritual.
In order to do this we must first recall the definition of the hypostatic union that defines the person of Jesus Christ as one person with two natures, divine and human, inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, this union of God and Man in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ is both personal and eternal.
The word "hypostatic" is derived from the Greek word "hupostasis" that means "nature, essence, or substance"
We see this word as it relates to the hypostatic union in Heb 1:3a; He (Jesus Christ), Who is the shining forth "apaugasma" (radiation; or transmission) of the Father's glory "doxa" the exact image or precise equivalent or representation ("character") of God's nature or essence ("hupostasis").
This verse indicates that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity. In His divine Person He possesses the exact equivalent of the divine attributes possessed by God the Father as indicated by the Greek word "character."
Scripture also reveals that at the virgin birth our Lord took on the exact likeness of mankind. Phil 2:7; but He deprived Himself of His privileges "kenoo "taking the form of a servant (true humanity), having been born in the likeness of man (without an old sin nature like Adam was before the fall)
By means of the Virgin Birth that we celebrate at Christmas, God became incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ and entered into the world in hypostatic union.
The confirmation of the hypostatic union of undiminished deity with true humanity in the Person of Christ documented in John 1:1; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The prepositional phrase "in the beginning" is the Greek "en arche" that refers to eternity past. The "beginning" has to do with the moment the universe was created. John is informing us that the Word already existed when the universe was created. Therefore, this can be translated "In eternity past."
Next comes the imperfect active indicative of the Greek verb "eimi" that means "to be" The imperfect denotes linear action in the past, the active voice, The Word produces the action in eternity past, the indicative mood is a declarative statement of fact.
"Logos " that means "word; thought; language; or system of thought." is the ancient Greek word that was used for the principle that controls the universe. The Greek philosophers rationalized that there must be a source for the ability to think. The real you is what you think and the ability to think is unique to the human race.
John uses Logos to emphasize that the only way anyone can understand God is to have the capacity for thought. He presents God as "Logos". If infinite God is to manifest Himself to finite creatures He must reveal Himself to them. He must come to them because they cannot come to Him. Rom 3:11;
John 1:1; that revelation begins with thought and then personally through the Incarnation. Logos therefore refers to the eternal thought of God that is now revealed in the hypostatic union of the person of Jesus Christ. John goes on to write that this "Logos" was with God, and again we have the imperfect active indicative "eimi"
"In eternity past the Word always existed, and the verb describes the eternal association that "The Word" had with God, the prepositional phrase: " pros Theos" means "face-to-face with God." The word was face to face with God.
From the first two clauses we learn that the Logos has always existed and that "Logos" has always existed with God. Finally we learn that the Logos has always existed as God. Again we have the imperfect active indicative of the verb "eimi."
In eternity past, Logos always existed, Logos always existed face-to-face with God, and the Logos always existed as God.
The mission for his unglorified humanity was to execute the prototype spiritual life so He could arrive at the cross impeccable and become a qualified substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the entire world.
This is the true message of Christmas and it is summarized in Luke 2:11; "Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
v12 "And this sign is for your benefit: you shall find a baby wrapped in death cloths, lying in a feeding trough."
This passage is found in the hymn "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" composed in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley.
Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men appear, Jesus our Immanuel here.
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."
Merry Christmas.