If It Were'nt for God, I'd be an Atheist

Christmas has come and gone. We had a good time, we put up a tree, bought presents, made sure we got cards to the right people, had friends over and had a time of it.
What was it all for?
Celebration of Christ's birth.
And why do we celebrate Christ's birth on December 25th every year?
Did Jesus ask us to?
That's one of the questions I stick in the same catagory as, why such a big hoopla on January 1st 2000? What's so significant about the anniversary of Jesus turning 3 years old (as the true historical date of His birth is around 4 BC)? And if it was important that we celebrate His birthday, why were we never given an exact date -- other than somebody's arbitrarily picking the date of Winter Solstice (a Roman pagan holiday) for the occasion, and then miss-guessing the year...?
Many believers in Messiah don't celebrate Christmas, and they give excellent reasons for their stand. A couple of them are linked to this web site.
So why, you ask, did we celebrate Christmas?
In my case, as I'm surrounded on every side by wonderful believers in Messiah of the more traditional sort, and as I haven't received a direct personal word from the Lord regarding Christmas, I think that the waves that would result from my refusal to celebrate would be more destructive than creative. Romans 14:5ff is applicable here.
So, we celebrated Christmas simply because everyone else was celebrating, and we didn't want to miss the fun.
Apart from that, it's hard for me to take Christmas very seriously, especially when we're not commanded in the Bible to celebrate it, nor even given enough information on how and when to celebrate it.
Especially when there are a number of feasts that are described in the Bible in great detail with instructions about how and when to celebrate them, that we totally ignore.
Why do we pay so much attention to so-called Christian holidays that the Bible doesn't even mention, and so little attention to the Jewish feasts that are mentioned?
Are we afraid of being 'under the law'?
Then why are we virtually under the law regarding Christmas, Easter and other holidays?
The answer to that is, because of a religious system which, it seems, could go on propagating itself whether God existed or not.
Whether God shows any signs of life or not, hymns are sung and sermons are preached every Sunday, Christmas happens at the end of the year, people get upset when you spell it 'Xmas' because you're 'taking Christ out of Christmas', and the coloured eggs and Easter bonnets come out around April or so.
More Christians are sure of the necessity of celebrating Easter, than are absolutely sure that Jesus did, in fact, die on the cross around 2000 years ago, and rise again three days later.
Is God pleased with a system that can go on without any action on His own part, run by people who aren't 100% sure of the resurrection, and even less sure of the Sinai experience?
Personally, I believe He's more pleased with a self proclaimed Atheist. That's what I understand from Revelation 3:15 anyway. If you can't be hot, it's better to be cold.
Why celebrate the resurrection if one doesn't believe in it? If anything is essential to the Christian message, it's the resurrection of Jesus.
I've told my friends, if you want to stop me being a Christian, all you have to do is prove conclusively that 2000 years ago, Jesus didn't actually and physically die, and then rise again from the dead three days later. In order for us to gain power over sin through the born again experience and be thus enabled to live the Christian life, it was necessary for the death and resurrection to actually happen physically to Messiah. An inspiring story of human goodness triumphing over evil just won't do.
Some of my friends have talked about discoveries that are supposedly suppressed by the Catholic church, such as the actual nature of 'the Holy Grail', or something about a grave somewhere in France closely guarded by the Knights Templar, containing the body of Jesus who actually grew to an old age, or something like that.
My answer is, why suppress it?
If there is proof to the effect that Jesus didn't actually die and rise again from the dead, I want to be the first to know. I could then stop wasting my time with this 'Christianity' thing.
If Jesus is still a corps, then so is all this stuff about 'church' and Christian religion. Moreover, it stinks to high heaven - literally. Religion without a living Lord being the central driving force is a stench in God's nostrils. The only thing that should keep the honest conscientious person around the church scene is the presence of Jesus.
So what would I do if they disproved the resurrection?
Probably convert to Judaism and study to become a rabbi. At least they have a living God. I'd probably go Lubbavitch Chavad. They seem to have the most personal experience of any non-Messianic Jewish group I know of (also linked on this site).
...Unless someone also proved that God didn't actually give the Torah to Moses at Mt. Sinai 1500 years before that -- another vitally important event.
The reason why the death and resurrection of Jesus fits into the scheme of things, is the Exodus and the Sinai experience. That (and perhaps you could add, the call of Abraham) is what set the foundation for the other to happen. The two are what I would call the most important events in history.
What I find remarkable is how both events are recorded.
Even if Moses didn't write the whole Torah, as some claim, someone had the audacity to say, 'All of our forefathers witnessed the Exodus, and heard God's voice thunder from Mt. Sinai, and saw His glory in a cloud over the congregation' (I heard this reasoning from an Orthodox rabbi, by the way).
Why did that take such audacity?
Because anyone who heard or read such a statement could simply go to any corner of Palestine, and asked any elderly gentleman of the Hebrew race, 'Did this really happen to your forefathers?' The answers one would get from the various tribes and villages of Israel would say whether there was substance to what was said or if it was simply a made up story.
If it didn't really happen, it would certainly conflict with their oral tradition.
To try to fabricate a story like the Exodus would be like telling all non-native Americans that their forefathers really arrived in North America on alien spacecraft. Even without school textbooks, most families know how their grandparents or their great grandparents arrived in North America. Some date it all the way back to the Mayflower. Some to the slave ships. Most of them also know which country they originated from, so how could anyone put a story over like that and have it uniformly believed throughout the whole nation?
Apparently someone managed to pull it off in ancient Israel -- either that or God really did appear to them in Sinai.
Regarding the resurrection of Jesus, Paul had the same audacity. He stated in I Corinthians 15 that Jesus, after his resurrection, was seen by 300 people, most of them still alive. All the reader had to do was go and find several of them and ask. Some of the Corinthians, whom he was addressing were beginning to doubt the resurrection, and where there's doubt, someone's bound to check out the source.
So, Paul either knew something, or he was stupid.
So, back to the issue of Christmas, and the other so-called Christian holidays. At least, the Jewish holidays, largely ignored by the Christian community, celebrate the vital role of the Exodus and the Sinai experience, and the actual presence of God in the midst of the congregation of Israel.
What about Easter?
I think we were originally meant to be celebrating Passover, which is the Jewish feast during which Jesus was crucified and resurrected (actually He was resurrected on the feast of First Fruits, a few days after the Passover meal).
But isn't Easter the Christian version of Passover?
No. One of the popes decided that he didn't like the idea of Christians following the Jewish lunar calendar (it was too 'Jewish') and replaced it with that of an nearby date on the solar calendar of what used to be a Roman pagan holiday of - you guessed it - 'Easter'. The thing is, we Christians hated the Jews so much that we'd rather be pagan than Jewish, so that's why we, today, don't celebrate the Lord's resurrection on Passover, but on a pagan holiday, complete with rabbit eggs.
Maybe that's why we ended up with such an empty religion...?

Parable of the Vinyard -- revisited

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that was a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And behold, he found members of Modern Pentecostal Churches and large Vineyard
Churches and Word of Faith Churches, and behold, some were disciples of Peter Wagner, and others of Loren Cunningham and of Rick Joyner*, yea some had been to Toronto, and others to Pensacola.
And when he had agreed with the labourers for a shilling a day, they said unto the householder, 'Surely, we shall bring in the whole of this great harvest from thy vineyard, for we have the strategy and thou hast given us apostolic authority and prophetic vision*
And he said unto them, 'Good on ya, mate', and sent them into his vineyard
And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing in the marketplace idle: some were Roman Catholics fathers and nuns and some Anglican vicars, and others from tradition churches; and he saith unto them, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?'
They, answering, saith unto him,'Behold, we are satisfied with the way things are, and want to just carry on with our religious observances'.
And he breathed on them, and said, 'Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you.'
And they went their way rejoicing that they had a part in the great harvest
Again he went out about the sixth hour, and behold, he found Orthodox rabbies standing and discussing Torah, and he saith unto them, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?'
They answered him, saying, 'We are waiting for Messiah to come'.
He said unto them, 'Behold, I am come.' And immediately, their eyes were open, and they, likewise, went rejoicing into the Vineyard.
And the ninth hour, he went again and behold, he found homeless street children, and drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes and men of the Mafia, and behold, among them were also Neo Nazis, and Fundamentalist Jihad warriors, even one who grieved for he had missed his flight to the World Trade Centre.
And he saith unto them, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?'
They answered, saying, 'We are the poor and the downtrodden and have been robbed of our inheritance by the imperialistic western establishment.'
He said unto them, 'Behold, I am your inheritance'. Then, their eyes were opened, and they went rejoicing into the Vineyard.
And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing. Behold, these were pedophiles, and traffickers in child prostitution; also with them were former ministers of great churches and television ministries who had fallen into deep sin and had become a stumbling block to many by their fall; yea many others also, who
ought to have had a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the depths of the sea, but instead were standing idle in the market place.
And he saith unto them, 'Why stand ye here all the day idle?'
They say unto him, 'Because no man will hire us. Behold, we are despised even by the worst of sinners. Surely we are not worthy to even look upon, let alone work in any man's vineyard.'
But as the householder looked upon them with compassion, they began to weep.
He said unto them, 'Behold your sins are forgiven. Go ye also into the vineyard, and sin no more.'
And when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, 'Call the labourers, and pay them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.'
And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a shilling.
And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received every man a shilling. And when they received it, they murmured against the householder, saying, 'These last, that were the worst of sinners, and have spent but one hour, thou hast made equal unto us, who are the trailblazers and missionary statesmen who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat with our intercession and strategic level spiritual warfare, yea, we have both planted and watered but they only came for the harvest.'
But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a shilling? Take up that which is thine, and go thy way; it is my will to give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? or is thine eye evil, because I am good?'

The Blessings of Ishmael

This is something I felt impressed some time ago, and may now be a timely word, in midst of the current intense pressure to hate the enemies of Israel and of the western world.
We know, from the following passage that we are to bless the descendants of Abraham, if we are to be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV):

Now the LORD had said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

We've always assumed that that applies to Israel, which primarily, it does. But there's another angle as well, which I believed we've missed. To an extant, the promise to Abraham also includes Ishmael (the Arab nations), as the following scriptures indicate. The following passages don't pronounce as profound a blessing on Ishmael as on Isaac, but if you want to look at the other side of the coin: What about the rest of us? On what other nation on earth has God pronounced any blessing at all at it's very beginning? The only blessing we have is the privilage of becoming spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham by faith (not that it isn't the greatest blessing, by far). But read the following for yourself, and see if you don't think it behooves us to honour the children of Ishmael?
God's word to Hagar as she fled from Sarah, while pregnant with Ishmael (Gen 16:9-12 NKJV):

The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your
mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." Then
the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply
your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not
be counted for multitude." And the Angel of the LORD
said to her:
"Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has heard your affliction.
He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

God's word to Abraham regarding Ishmael when promising the birth of Isaac (Gen17:18-21 NKJV):

And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live
before You!" Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall
bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac;
I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant, and with his descendants after him. AND AS
FOR ISHMAEL, I HAVE HEARD YOU. BEHOLD, I HAVE BLESSED
HIM, AND WILL MAKE HIM FRUITFUL AND WILL MULTIPLY HIM
EXCEEDINGLY. HE WILL BEGET TWELVE PRINCES, AND I WILL
MAKE HIM A GREAT NATION. But My covenant I will establish
with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time
next year."

God's word to Abraham when instructing him to send Ishmael away (Gen 21:12-13 NKJV):

But God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing
in your sight because of the lad or because of your
bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to
her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
YET I WILL ALSO MAKE A NATION OF THE SON OF THE
BONDWOMAN, BECAUSE HE IS YOUR SEED."

God's word to Hagar regarding Ishmael, after leaving Abraham's household (Gen 21:17-18 NKJV):

And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of
God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her,
"What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the
lad and hold him with your hand, for I WILL MAKE HIM
A GREAT NATION."

...Not just one blessing, but four!
Even if the children of Ishmael have not been honouring the children of Israel, as commanded, what is our response? If our two elder brothers, both of whom we are to honour, get into a fight, what do we do? Does honouring one mean we must dishonour the other? That can be a bit of a dilemma. The world says, "My friend's enemy is my enemy," and then joins one side against the other. In the kingdom of God, of course, Jesus told us to love our enemies. "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6), may mean to pray for peace between the two sons of Abraham, which can only come through the Prince of Peace.
Now, what if, in the mean time, one of those two sons drives a jet plane into your office building...?