A Christian is someone who trusts in Christ and follows Him. Which means a Christian should hold dear those things which clearly are of Christ, and reject those things which only pretend to be. Those of us who have been fortunate to receive the Gift of Eternal Salvation most likely understand that not everyone or everything that masquerades as being of Christ actually is. A good example of this is the “Christmas” holiday, which is looming on the very near horizon.

A true Christian is not one who accepts false teachings of false churches at face value. A real Christian understands that evil is at work at every turn, and that those who intend to lead us away from Christ will no doubt put on the mantle of the Lamb of God in order to lead people to believe that they are of Him. These entities, with their nefarious intent, are indeed the wolf in sheep’s (or in this case, lamb’s) clothing.

Few people today realize that the celebration of “Christmas” on December 25th has roots in pagan tradition. The modern Christmas celebration clearly has a pagan origin, and that is something that true Christians should not ignore. The ancient Babylonians celebrated the feast of the Son of Isis, the Goddess of Nature, on December 25. Parties with gluttonous drinking and eating as well as gift giving were traditional parts of this feast. The Romans called their winter holiday “Saturnalia” which honored the God of Agriculture and they dubbed the entire season “Dies Natalis Invicti Solis” (or the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun). In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were started long before the participants in those pagan rituals had ever heard of Christ.

In the year 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25, despite the day’s pagan significance. From the authoritative Biblical descriptions, historians believe that Christ’s birth probably occurred in September, about six months after Passover. We know almost certainly that Jesus WAS NOT born in December, since the Bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night, which would be nearly impossible due to the harsh winter conditions of late December in the region.

So, since the Bible doesn’t explicitly say what day Christ was born, why is it so important that the generally accepted celebration date appears is wildly incorrect? Does it matter that Jesus wasn’t born in December yet people still celebrate his birth on December 25th?

Of course it matters.

Think of it this way: your loving earthly father’s birthday is in February, yet you decide that you will begin to celebrate his birthday in June. If you’re celebrating his birthday on a date that is nowhere near his birthday, are you in fact celebrating his birthday at all? Not only that, but let’s say that the date you decided to celebrate your father’s birth is actually the birth date of an infamous mass murderer, and you specifically CHOSE that date BECAUSE of that fact. How do you suppose your father would feel?

How do you suppose God our Father in Heaven feels about people supposedly celebrating His Son’s birth on a day that belonged to pagan rituals? How would Christ feel about it?

Remember what we’re told in Jeremiah 10:

“Thus saith 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.”

Don’t take part in these pagan traditions, don’t learn the way of the heathen. And don’t buy the old argument that the date was chosen as a way to “overwrite” the pagan history with a new, Christian celebration. If that were the case, any valid reason to celebrate Christianity could have been chosen for that date. The catholic pope, in choosing to declare that celebration of the birth of Christ occurs on a major pagan holiday, has for centuries forced followers of the catholic church (the Church of Rome) and other false Christian religions to unknowingly continue to glorify a pagan tradition.

If you feel the need to celebrate any sort of winter holiday, then celebrate the beginning of the new year — but leave Jesus Christ out of it, because we all know (and so did the king of the roman church when he developed this evil plot) that Jesus wasn’t born anywhere near December.

I received a wonderfully uplifting e-mail from a visitor to my site. It was from a woman who had grown up in the catholic church, and was so deeply caring about her religion that she was actually considering becoming a nun. Later, she began to more closely examine the teachings of the church of Rome and found that there were some key differences between the sacred Word found in Holy Scripture and what the so-called “church” was teaching her. I was joyful to see her say that, after spending time with the Scripture and with others who asked her questions about the catholic church, she found her way OUT of the darkness and into God’s wonderful Light.

That’s right, she rejected the false church, the church of Rome, the catholic church, and has joined God’s One True Church and has now converted to Christianity. She has gone from catholic to Christian just as I have and as has been told her in my catholic Christian story. She concluded her e-mail to me with this statement on the so-called catholic church:

“I see such hypocrisy and wonder how I fell for it. I understand how I did.
I praise God that I have a gift, though”.

I, too, praise God for Him sending this woman exactly what she needed in order to escape the clutches of a false religion.

As you probably know, I receive dozens and dozens of e-mails daily and I can’t necessarily respond to every one individually. I get many messages of thanks and good wishes, and sometimes I get e-mails from people who want to argue. I know that I have the Holy Spirit to guide me when it comes to Holy Scripture, so I do my best to guide those who are still lost and try to insist that my “interpretation” (I don’t interpret Scripture, it isn’t meant to be interpreted) is wrong — when I know, because I have The Comforter with me, that the message I get out of the Gospel is from the author Himself.

Today I received another joyful e-mail from someone who has visited my site:

It is not through my words, but through the power of the Holy Spirit that stories of repentance like these occur all the time. Through the Grace of God these people’s eyes are opened and when they Trust in Christ Alone they are able to escape the clutches of a false church and move from darkness into God’s wonderful Light. I am so very joyful that this man’s wife is now a part of Christ’s One True Church.

Indeed, I echo this e-mailer’s closing statement: all praise, honor, and glory to God.

I get lots of beautiful e-mails from people who read my site and share my witness with others in need of help to find their way into God’s wonderful light. As you can imagine, I get a lot of e-mail from catholics, members of the church of Rome, who attempt to defend their organized religion despite the overwhelming amount of Holy Scripture which plainly shows that their church does not behave in the way Christ’s One True Church would behave. Those of us who have placed our Trust in Christ Alone for our Eternal Salvation read the Holy Scripture with the counsel of the Holy Spirit and so we are completely enlightened to the meaning of God’s Word.

Sometimes the meaning of His Word is harder to grasp for those, like practicing catholics, who are probably not Saved.

One of the e-mails I received from a catholic who professes to be a Christian made reference to the catholic practice of confession and communion, explaining that he knows he has received Salvation after receiving the communion wafer (a coin-shaped piece of unleavened bread, nothing more) on Sunday. Confession on Saturday, communion on Sunday, and he has his Salvation. Of course he also believes that if he should fall into sin on Monday his Salvation is then lost, he has fallen away, and he can then “repent” again and renew his salvation through another round of confession and communion.

Saved on Sunday, lost on Monday. Saved again on Sunday, lost again on Monday.

Is this the inevitable cycle that a so-called catholic Christian must endure under God’s Salvation plan? Obviously not. First, it doesn’t even make sense that God would give us a Gift only to take it away from us again, then give it back and take it away, over and over again. That action alone destroys the entire concept of the “Gift” of Eternal Salvation. A true Christian ignores the phony teachings of a false man-made church and understands that a free “gift” is something that is given without conditions — if you must “do” something to earn a gift or keep a gift, then it isn’t a “free gift” at all, is it?

Romans 5:16
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

God’s free Gift is Christ’s Sacrifice for our sins… ALL of our sins!

But here’s the part that catholics generally don’t like to hear when they talk about gaining and losing, gaining and losing, gaining and losing Salvation. To do so is impossible, and the Holy Scripture tells us that in complete clarity:

Hebrews 6:4
For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Even if you believe, as catholics usually do, that Salvation can be gained and then lost, Hebrews 6 should tell you in no uncertain terms that it is IMPOSSIBLE to renew yourself unto Salvation because you would be attempting to crucify the Son of God again, unto yourself, which — as the Holy Scripture states — means you would be trying to publicly disgrace Christ Himself.

Christians who have Trusted in Christ Alone for their Salvation and put aside the false teachings of man-made religions further understand the full meaning of Hebrews 6:4, which is that is that man cannot lose his Salvation because he could never, ever, crucify the Son of God again.