Still Not Saved

(Article for publication week of 1-1-2015)

 

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20). What an awful condition- not saved! My text exposes at least two categories of my readers. First there are many of you who are not saved, but you think you are. You have had your wounds slightly healed. You made a little profession, or walked an aisle or did something religious, but you have had no saving change worked in you by the Holy Spirit, nor do you have any experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though you are quite comfortable and at peace, you have a false peace and are after, all unsaved. Then there are a few of you who know you are not saved. You have sat under the gospel; you have read the Narrow Way; you have talked of the things of the Lord with your believing friends and relatives; yet you are unsaved. What an awful thing to be unsaved! You are under the power of darkness and outside the kingdom of Christ. If you die today you will be cast down to hell!

Now my dear unsaved reader, I pose a question for you. Why are you not saved? Why do you remain on the road to eternal perdition? Well, it is not because you have not been warned. If this is the first time you have ever read the Narrow Way, you have already read enough to be warned of the wrath to come. Some of you have been reading the Narrow Way a long time and you have been warned over and over. There are few of you who have sat under a faithful ministry (for there are still a few faithful ministers here and there even in this benighted day)and you have been warned of your dangerous situation many times. Most of you cannot say you are unsaved because you have not heard of Christ and His saving power. Nor are you unsaved because of any unwillingness in Christ to save you. The dear Saviour has sweetly proclaimed, "him that cometh to me I will in  no wise cast out," and "come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Christ is willing to save all who will repent and come to Him by faith. Nor are you unsaved because your case is too hard for the Saviour. He is mighty to save and has saved, and still saves the vilest of the vile. Nor are you unsaved because God's people have not prayed for you. There is some unsaved child out there whose parents wet their pillow with tears for you every night. There are many of you out there that I pray for regularly. The fact is my dear unsaved reader, you are not saved, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SAVED! You are not saved because you love your sins more than Christ. You are not saved because you are unwilling to renounce your righteousness and receive the imputed righteousness of Christ by faith. You are unsaved because you do not want to be holy. You are unsaved because you love the world and the things of the world and you are unwilling to part with the world. When God casts you down into the everlasting fires of hell where the fire is not quenched and the worm dies not, it will be your own fault! All the blame will lie at your unsaved feet because you have refused Christ and His tender mercies.

Now I have another question for you- will you ever be saved? All I can tell you is that it looks mighty bad for some of you. You had rather hold on to false profession than admit you have been deceiving yourself and the Church all these years. The scriptures do not give us much reason to hope for those who like Felix are waiting for a more convenient day. The scriptures do not give us much reason to hope for those who like Agrippa are "almost persuaded." If you have wasted all the favours already shown to you, why do you suppose that more gospel labour will profit you? Some of you were raised in a Christian home and you have left home unsaved and by your actions have publicly declared against your parents and the Saviour they love. Why do you think you will ever be saved? Well, only the Lord knoweth infallibly if you will ever be saved, but I urge you now to fall on your knees and repent of your sins and cry out to the Saviour and beg Him to save you. He might do it.

The Pagan Roots of "Christmas"

(Article for publication week of 12-25- AD 2014)

 

"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 gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not' " (Jeremiah 10:2-4). 
 

We have shown you in previous articles that Christmas is not Christian, first because it is not even mentioned, much less commanded in the scriptures, and secondly because it is a "mass" of the Popish co-called "church." The Romanists claim that there is a real and propitiatory offering of our Lord in the mass, therefore true Christians should be repulsed by such mockery of our Lord's offering Himself  "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10). This week we shall show you that "Christmas" is entirely pagan in its roots.

First of all, let us consider the observance of the Christ- mass on December 25. Nowhere in scripture do we read of the day, much less the month that our Lord was born. Most learned men, like Bishop Ussher generally agree that our Lord was not born on December 25. So where did men get the idea to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25, if it is not stated in scripture, nor in secular history? The fact is that this date was chosen because the heathens before the advance of "Christendom" celebrated the birth of the sun god three days after the winter solstice. In the pagan Roman Empire the celebration was known as "saturnalia." The wretched practice began in the Babylonian Empire, and similar celebrations involving the worship of the sun were practiced throughout Europe, the mid-east and other places.

This is a good place for us to reflect upon the grace and goodness of God that moved Him to send the gospel to our benighted forefathers. Our European ancestors were as vile a race as any other until the light of the gospel shined upon them. As far as we know (only the LORD knows infallibly) ALL our ancestors before the first century lived and died in spiritual darkness and are in hell now. How thankful we should be that the Lord sent His gospel to us Gentiles! Only a remnant of Gentiles have been saved, but before the first century we have little hope that any of our ancestors were saved. Our ancestors in the British Isles and in Western Europe were all a sorry lot of idolaters. While they knew God by creation and conscience, they became vain in their imaginations and worshipped and served the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:18-25).

All over the old pagan Roman Empire the sun was worshipped and December 25 (as the heathens observed that the days were getting longer)  was a day of debauched revelry as our heathen forefathers celebrated the birth of the "sun god." The burning of lights, the cutting down of evergreens, the yule log, the mistletoe were all practiced in the filthy debauchery of the Saturnalia. (You can look this up for yourself in any standard encyclopedia.) With the rise of popery, Constantine-ism and the union of "church" and state (the true church has never been united to the State) these heathen practices were assimilated into the "church" which began to be centered in Rome by the fourth century. So the pope and his followers declared that the saturnalia would continue as an observation of the nativity of Christ and that a special "mass" would be said on December 25. They disobeyed my text in Jeremiah 10 and learned the way of the heathen to get the heathen to "join the church." "Christmas" is not Christian, but is a "demon holiday" rooted in popery and heathendom and should be rejected by believers in Christ.

True Christians delight in the Incarnation of the Saviour every day. "The Word was made flesh" (John 1:14)! As my dear Brother Jeff Pollard once put it, "the Son of God became the Son of Man that sons of men would become sons of God!" But we should reject every man -made form of worship, and every practice that is extra-Biblical. "Learn not the way of the heathen."

Is Christmas Christian?

(Article for publication week of 12-18- AD 2014)

 

"For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).

Last week we showed you that the Christmas observance is a demon holiday because it has not been commanded by the Lord. The scriptures are completely silent regarding the Christ-mass (its real name). The Second Commandment forbids us to worship God except as He has prescribed. Christmas is completely man-made and is nothing more than will worship (Colossians 2:22-23).

This week we will show you that the very name of "Christmas" (Christ-mass) is repulsive and thoroughly anti-Christian having been instituted by the Romish so-called "church." As we have shown, the observance of the birth of Christ was not commanded by our Lord, nor His Apostles. In fact we do not even know the exact month, much less the day that our Lord was born. December 25 was decreed as a Christ "mass" by the pope of Rome in the fourth century, much too late to be of scriptural authority. It is indeed a mass of the so-called Roman "church" (the followers of the pope are not a church, but the Great Whore of Babylon). No true Christian can ever observe the "mass" for it is anti-Christian and denies the very gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The pope and his followers claim that in the mass there is a real offering of the body and blood of Christ. Moreover they claim that the mass is propitiatory and makes satisfaction for sin. Furthermore they claim that their "priests" can change bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ by incantations. In case any of you have cozy feelings for the pope and Roman Catholicism, you need to know they have never repealed the Council of Trent, in which they decreed anathema against all who preach justification by faith alone. The Council of Trent further pronounced anathema (eternal damnation) against all who deny the mass to be a real offering of Christ as a propitiation for sin, and the superstition of transubstantiation. (Thank God the pope does not have power to eternally damn anyone.) In other words the Roman Catholic "church" claims that when their priests give their communicants a piece of wafer, and they themselves drink the wine (for they ignorantly deny the people the cup) that the bread and wine is literally changed into the body and blood of Christ. Therefore the mass is anti-Christian for it denies the very gospel of the atonement made by Christ for His people.

Contrary to the Romish lie of the "mass", the scriptures plainly declare that Christ has saved His people by ONE offering, as our text says (see also Hebrews 1:3; 9:28; 10:10; and Matthew 1:21). The Lord Jesus Christ by His atoning, substitutionary, vicarious Death put away all the sins of all His people for all time. His triumphant declaration from the cross was "it is finished!" We are redeemed by the blood of Christ, not by the elements of the Lord's Supper, which are commemorative, not propitiatory. I was once blessed to hear a former Roman Catholic "priest" who was converted to Christianity preach the gospel. It was our text this week  (Hebrews 10:14) that the Lord used to convert him. When the Holy Ghost taught him the truth of Hebrews 10:14, he shouted out, "he doesn't need me, for Christ has done it all!" God saved him and he is now preaching the true gospel.

Christians may have nothing to do with any "masses", including the so-called "Christ-mass." Is Christmas Christian? Absolutely not! Christmas is an idolatrous invention of the Mother of Harlots. It is thoroughly anti-Christian, and as Pastor L. R. Shelton, Sr. so powerfully said, a "demon holiday." Come out from among them, and be ye separate, all you who profess the name of Christ.

Christmas- A Demon Holiday

(Article for publication week of 12-11- AD 2014)

 

" 'Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate', saith the Lord, 'and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you' " (II Corinthians 6:17). We have entered into that season of the year when the professed church enters into a strange alliance with the world. Instead of separating from the world as we are commanded, the professed church goes right along with the "Christ-mass" (its real name as we shall show). Time was when Baptists and Protestants generally did not observe the "Christ-mass." In fact the observance of the "christ - mass" was forbidden by civil statute in many Christian communities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "Christ-mass" is not a Christian observance, but is rather as I say in my title, a "demon holiday", and all the "holy water" in the world will never make the practice Christian.

First of all there is not a single scripture that authorises the observance of Christmas. The Second Commandment forbids us to worship God except as He has commanded. Man- made worship is will worship (Colossians 2:22-23), and is not a matter of indifference, but a great sin before God. I challenge you to search the scriptures and you will see that the Bible is silent on the subject of "Christmas." Neither our Lord nor His Apostles ever commanded us to set aside a "holy" day to observe the day of His birth. The scriptures do not give us the date of His birth, and we can be very certain that if the Church was supposed to have a celebration on that day, the scriptures would have given us that information. Most sound authorities generally agree that Christ was not born on December 25th. Bishop Ussher believed He was born in the Fall, probably September, but even that learned man could not prove absolutely the exact Day of the Birth of Christ. The truth is that God has only commanded us to keep one day holy, and that is the weekly Sabbath (the first day of the week since our Lord's resurrection). It is notable that many people who will break the Sabbath all year long, will insist on having a day off on the 25th of December (and nowadays sometimes the whole week). As our country and state and county has accepted man made "holy days", they have at the same time desecrated the Holy Sabbath.

Some will try to argue that Christians are free to practice anything not specifically forbidden by the scriptures. This reasoning (known as the "normative principle" as opposed to the "regulative principle" as believed by our Protestant and Baptist forefathers) has brought in a flood of iniquity and has turned the church house into a playhouse for the devil and his crowd. This unscriptural reasoning has brought into the "church" house rap music, rock music, dancing, super bowl Sundays and who knows what all. The professing church has everything except the gospel of the Lord Jesus. All of these things, as it has been with the "Christ-mass", have been advocated in the name of attracting people to church and keeping the interest of the "young people." The fact is the Church will always be a boring place for unregenerate people, and adopting unscriptural, or extra-biblical practices only fills the "church" with unregenerate people, which is the case today.

I borrowed my title this week (it is not plagiarism if you cite your source)from the Late L.R. Shelton, Sr. pastor of First Baptist Church of Algiers, Louisiana. He has a well known message entitled "Christmas- A Demon Holiday" that you would do well to hear. The sermon is in print and can be found on the website of Radio Missions. Lord, willing I will have some more on the subject, but let me urge the true people of God to separate from the world, including the so-called "Christ- mass."