A Merry Christmas to All!

 A Merry Christmas to one and all!

The Absurd and Fanciful Excuses the Churches of God Come Up With To Not Keep Christmas

Redfox has great patience to sit and read through the drivel that the Philadelphia Church of God prints as if it were well researched and educated theology.  Ive never been lucky to get past the first two pages. This time he has highlighted the fraudulent booklet printed by the PCG: The Truth About Christmas.

He writes:

It is important to understand that the reasons presented by HWA for abandoning Christmas are wrong and often quite badly misinformed. Both booklets, for instance, insist that Christmas is a continuation of the Babylonian religion deifying Nimrod and Semiramis. It is never admitted in either booklet that this idea comes from Alexander Hislop's book, The Two Babylons, which was made in the 1850s. It was an anti-Catholic polemic designed to vilify the Catholic Church and the Papacy. That book has been proven to be nonsense.

As Bereans Did has done great work in documenting just how absurd and fanciful many of the justifications for shunning Christmas are. Here is some of what As Bereans Did has said on this matter.

Over the years, As Bereans Did has done some great research on Christmas. Like "The Plain Truth About December 25th" which makes the case about why the December 25th date likely did not originate in paganism after all. "Jeremiah 10 and Christmas Trees" which makes the case on why Jeremiah was referring to idol worship, not Christmas trees. "On Nimrod and Christmas Trees" part 1, part 2 and part 3, which make the case on how the origin of Christmas Trees has been distorted. "Nimrod's Birthday Was January 6?" which makes the case that the claims on Nimrod's birthday are faulty. And "Quotes Before Christmas" which makes the case that most of the claims the COGs make about Christmas' pagan origins are based on questionable research. And we haven't even found the time to explain how winter was a great time of year for sheep to be in the fields of Bethlehem (see point 5 of the linked article). 

So there is no good reason for a Christian to shun Christmas. In fact this teaching in effect served mainly to socially isolate HWA's followers from mainstream society in order to make them socially dependent upon the group of HWA's followers. The abusive way this teaching has been used to isolate followers from family and friends is just one of many persuasive reasons why the COG groups are often identified as cults.

HWA's Christmas ban was also a way to get more money from his followers who no longer spent money on Christmas, as HWA obliquely reveals himself in his booklet.

But I can say by years of experience, as I believe most pastors and ministers can say, that when the month of December rolls around, nearly all professing Christians forget to give gifts to Christ and His cause [HWA's group, Radio Church of God renamed in 1968 as Worldwide Church of God] almost altogether. December often is the most difficult month to keep Christ's work [HWA's cult] from dying. People are too busy trading gifts back and forth among themselves to think of Him and His Work [HWA's cult], it seems. Then, in January and even into February it seems they have to catch up from what they spent for Christmas, so they seldom get back to normal in supporting Christ and His Work [HWA's cult] before March. (HWA, p. 19.)

That is the real reason HWA banned Christmas. Herbert Armstrong wanted more money.

You can read and follow Red's blog here:  No Good Reason to Ban Christmas for Christians: Reading PCG's Plagiarized Denunciation of Christmas