To the Editor:
(Re: “Celebrations praise God”, page 7, Feb. 24 Advance)
I understand Irene Jorgensen and to some extent agree with her. Commer-cialized Christmas is a disgrace — we fully agree on that one. Also, Irene wrote in love, with passion.
My concerns?
1. Historically, when religion ruled the state, persecution followed. Consider the Dark Ages and Inquisition times. Mere baptism of adults, possessing the Bible or asking for mass to be in a native language resulted in many “heretics” being tortured, imprisoned or burned at the stake.
2. Both Sunday worship and Christmas were instituted and enforced by popes and their secular lackeys. There is an orchestrated effort for a universal Sunday law being installed and enforced in Europe and North America. Once this happens and the pope decides I am a heretic to be burned at the stake, will my opponents strike the match or defend my religious freedom?
There is a story in the Old Testament when one king decided to build an altar and sacrifice on it. Yahweh did not like it, and sent a prophet to rebuke this king. After doing so, the king ordered the prophet to be captured, stretching his hand against the prophet. His hand withered. Then he begged the prophet, who prayed, and God restored the king’s hand. The prophet refused the king’s overtures and left.
Today, we don’t bother with Old Testament festivities, do we? Instead, Christianity adopted Easter instead of Passover, added Christmas, and changed the Sabbath for Sunday. Big deal, one might argue. Well, there were many trees in the Garden of Eden, yet the Creator forbade Adam and Eve to eat from one tree only. Was it a “big deal”? For Satan and Eve it was not. For Yahweh it was.
Once I asked a Canadian evangelist, “If we don’t bother with God’s prescribed celebrations, why do we bother with our own?” He replied, “Good question” — yet he still celebrates Christmas.
The same goes for the Sabbath: What’s the big deal? Well, if it matters to God, it matters to me. I know all too well that there is more chance of persuading atheists than most churchgoers.
What has been engraved by tradition sticks. For me, it’s following the Bible instead of manmade tradition. I would rather go with the Bible and explain it to my Maker instead of going with teachings of men and have no excuse.
One curiosity: Samuel Bacchiocci, a non-Catholic, studied in the Vatican and successfully defended a thesis in front of six Roman Catholic scholars that there is no biblical basis for replacing Sabbath with Sunday.
A parting question to Roman Catholic priests: Why is there celibacy in the Roman Catholic church for the past 900 years when the Bible clearly warns that forbidding to marry is cleaving to seducing spirits and teachings of demons? (1 Tim. 4:1-3)
Many Catholic priests would never become pedophiles if the church allowed them to marry just as apostles were married. Most of these priests desired, I am sure, to faithfully serve God and fellow humans. It is this un-biblical overwhelming burden that derailed them.
This is about what is right, not who is right.
Vladimir Certik
West Creston