What You May Not Know About Christmas

Today’s article (see below) will allow a bit of a father’s pride to show through.  It was written by my daughter.  She had done her own research with the intention of drawing her own conclusions and explaining why she believed what she believed to her friends.  She then sent it to me to edit and criticize… I asked for permission to send it out on my “Jottings”

Christians that study scripture will rapidly find themselves in a dilemma.  What can we participate in and defend?  For example, only a light reading of scripture reveals that the nativity scenes pass on a sorely mistaken view of what actually happened the night our Lord was born. As the ACLU attacks their placement in public places with a view to attacking Christianity… Our dilemma is, how do we defend Christianity without defending what is not really Christianity?

There is a certain joy that comes with watching your children come of age and establish families of their own.  That joy runs even deeper as you watch them choose Christian spouses and then establish Christian families.

Yours in Christ,
Jerry Blount

-----------------------------------------------------

What You May Not Know About Christmas...

What does the Bible say?

I don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday- the reason being that the Bible doesn’t tell me to. Under the Old Law, God was very specific about the holy days He wanted observed. He told what event was to be remembered, what should be taught, how and when to observe the celebration. Today… we aren’t under the Old Law anymore (refer to Hebrews 8-10), and God radically changed the way worship occurs in the New Testament. The only way we are commanded to remember Christ with a ceremony today is the Lord's Supper which we observe every Sunday. (1 Cor 11:23-26, Ac 20:7). The New Testament church did not celebrate the birth of Christ in any special way. If Jesus wanted us to celebrate His birthday, He would have told us to celebrate it, when and how to celebrate it. God has given us all instruction about life and godliness in the scriptures (2 Peter 1:3, 2 Timothy 3:16-17). It’s not my place to add in any religious holidays or observances that God didn’t command (Rev. 22:18).
 
 
When was Jesus born?

         No one knows the date Jesus was born! Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 describe Christ’s birth. December 25th, or any Roman or Hebrew equivalent is not mentioned! What we do know is that the shepherds were abiding in the fields, watching over their sheep at night (Luke 2:8), which wouldn’t be the case in December. “It's a well-known fact that December falls in the middle of the rainy season in Palestine, and the sheep were kept in the fold at that time of the year.”3 (Refer to Ezra 10:9-13, Song of Solomon 2:11, which show winter as the rainy season and shepherds could not be out on the cold, open fields at night with their sheep.)

Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience

Today in lieu of my writings I am sending the declaration pasted below.  As you can see, several religious leaders of our country are now calling for civil disobedience as our government has begun trying to silence churches.  The writers included Orthodox, Catholic, and various evangelical groups.  In my estimation this is rather unprecedented.  Apparently 150+ people were involved in it. It was at 180,000 people by Sunday.  Today, it has grown to over 230,000.  It is very long… but it is very well done. You’ll be glad you read it.

You’ll read below of the government trying to force churches to participate in homosexual marriages, abortions etc. Their normal weapon is the IRS.  I personally believe that all churches would be better off if they weren’t tax exempt.  It just muddies up the picture when a church is beholden to the government for anything!

As you will see below, the government is now trying to use that exemption as a weapon to cow the churches into silence.   John the Baptist lost his head crying out against Herod’s adultery.  If we lose our tax exemptions over crying out on behalf of the unborn, the weak and the elderly…. So be it!

Yours in Christ,
Jerry Blount

----------------------------

Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
Drafted October 20, 2009
Released November 20, 2009

Preamble
Christians are heirs of a 2,000 year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.