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honor Christ's birthday, because JESUS WAS NOT BORN DECEMBER 25, OR
EVEN IN THAT TIME OF THE YEAR! Nowhere does the Bible tell us to
celebrate Christ's birthday. Only PAGANS celebrated birthdays, and
THE BIBLE CONDEMNS THE CHRISTMAS TREE WITH ITS PRESENTS ON IT---see
Jeremiah 10:1-4!
Now consider carefully what the Bible says about the wise
men giving gifts. It is in Mat. 2:1-11: "Now when Jesus was born
in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there
came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He that
is born King of the Jews?'" Notice, these wise men knew, and
exclaimed, that Jesus was BORN KING. "...and when they were come
into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and
fell down and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their
treasures, they presented unto HIM gifts."
Why did they present HIM with gifts? NOT BECAUSE IT WAS
HIS BIRTHDAY---for Jesus was already born before they started their
journey. It was now DAYS after His birthday! And they did not
EXCHANGE gifts among themselves!---no, they gave their treasures
and gifts TO CHRIST! But WHY?
Yes, WHY? Here's the answer, from the Clarke Commentary,
Vol. 5, page 46: "The people of the east never approach the
presence of kings or great personages, without a present in their
hands. The custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still
prevails in the east." There's the answer! The wise men were not
instituting some new custom for Christmas time---for Christmas was
never heard of until generations later. They were following an
ANCIENT CUSTOM of presenting gifts to a KING whenever---no matter
what day---they came into his presence. Just like the Queen of
Sheba brought gifts to King Solomon!
No, dear Co-Workers, the custom of trading gifts back and
forth is NOT CHRISTIAN---it has NO BIBLE AUTHORITY---it was never
done by the apostles or the TRUE Church of God in apostolic days
while it had the guidance of God's Spirit! Instead, IT IS A PAGAN
CUSTOM, which TAKES GIFTS AWAY FROM CHRIST AND HIS WORK!
Christmas has become a COMMERCIAL SEASON, stimulated by
every kind of ADVERTISING, to take money away form the WORK OF GOD,
and put profits into the pockets of store owners, salesmen and
manufacturers and jobbers and the commercial world. It is a custom
of modern "BABYLON," and God calls His people to COME OUT of
Babylon!
CO-WORKERS! In JESUS' NAME, and by HIS AUTHORITY, I now
come to you and appeal to you---DON'T LET THE PRECIOUS WORK OF GOD
LOSE OUT IN THIS CRISIS!
Finally, it is VITAL that you understand both The PLAIN
TRUTH and the NET-WORK situation. We simply didn't have enough
money to get the October number out on time---it was about three
weeks late. The November number is all printed, but we lack
sufficient funds to get it from the printers. We have had to
cancel the December number altogether, and IF you Co-Workers
respond, we hope to get the January number out on time---but there