HomeARC ML 1063
THE SPIRIT OF XMAS!--By Father David DFO1063 12/12/80
--My Opinion Of Christmas Shopping!
1. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY ANY CHRISTIAN, ANY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY WOULD REALLY ENJOY TAKING THEIR CHILDREN INTO THE BIG CITY & its filth & its vice & its corruption & its disease & its materialism & its worldliness just to shop! Why would you want to take them to town except to litness & witness & sing & give those poor people the Message of the Gospel? Otherwise I'd think you'd want to get out of the city as fast as you can, as far from it as you possibly can!
2. --AND CERTAINLY NOT JUST TAKE YOUR CHILDREN INTO THE BIG CITY ON A SIGHT-SEEING TRIP or a window-shopping trip or a shopping trip & to corrupt their pure minds with materialism & all kinds of toys & to see the abundance of things that the World dotes on, unless you yourself are in love with the World & worldly things & just "things" period, & love to dote on those sickening things & all that materialism & all that tinniness of Christmas, for example, that you find in the stores!
3. WHY THE HELL DO YOU WANT TO BESMIRCH YOUR CHILDREN WITH IT? Why do you want to take them through all that & defile & pollute their pure minds with such worldliness of this World & its wickedness & take them in contact with those dirty filthy wicked diseased people & demon-possessed people & people with evil spirits?--Why do you want to take them in to the public & shopping & the city at all unless it's strictly for litnessing witnessing?
4. I CERTAINLY CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU SHOULD WANT TO TAKE THE CHILDREN TO THE SUPERMARKET & to the super-shopping centers just to fill their minds with that corruption & all those toys & things & things they can't have & parading it before them to show them what the World is full of & what a sickening mess it is & how many things they don't need!
5. DO YOU TAKE THEM THERE TO TRY TO GIVE THEM AN APPETITE FOR IT? Do you take them there to try to give them a desire for the World & its things & its foolishness? I just don't understand why we want to take our children to town! I don't understand why some of you insist on taking the poor little children, dragging them through the streets of the big city & in & out of the shops & stores in contact with all kinds of diseased demon-possessed people & germs & every contagious disease!
6. --AND THE WORST MOST CONTAGIOUS DISEASE OF ALL--MATERIALISM!--Seeing all the stuff that they would like to have but can't afford to buy, therefore perhaps encouraging them to murmur in their hearts that they can't have it & wish they had & wish they were in some other kind of work making more money so they could have'm. I just don't understand taking children to town except to litness & witness! (Maria: Even if they could have it, perhaps they shouldn't have it, it wouldn't be good for them to have it.) Yes, even if you could afford it, why should they have it? They don't need it & most of those toys, their interest lasts for about a day & that's it.
7. I THINK IF PARENTS HAVE TO GO TO TOWN TO CHOOSE NECESSITIES FOR CHILDREN or you have to take your children to town to try clothing or shoes on them, I can understand that sort of thing. If you have to go in & you've got to go shopping for absolute necessities such as clothing & shoes or hats or whatever to try them on your children to see if they fit, well, that's understandable, that's an absolute necessity & I'm sure the Lord will bless you for it & protect you & try to keep you from the foul pollution & contamination of this evil World!
8. BUT TO TAKE'M TO TOWN JUST TO GO SHOPPING & SIGHT-SEEING & LOOK AT ALL THE TOYS & THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS & all the things that they can't have & shouldn't have & don't need, even if they can have, just for the so-called pure delight of Christmas shopping, that's a worldly pleasure & a worldly perversion & I just hate it!
9. I THINK THE COMMERCIALISING OF CHRISTMAS BY THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH IS BLASPHEMOUS, it's hypocritical, it's anti-Christ & it's polluting our children's minds with the wrong meaning of Christmas, the wrong purpose of Christmas, the wrong things for Christmas & it's another one of my pet peeves like the Christmas trees & some other worldly perversions!
10. DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, WE HAVE OUR CHRISTMAS TREE & I think Christmas trees are for children, & if you want to have it that's up to you. It's pretty, & little kids enjoy it as a toy, but to keep uppermost in their minds the true meaning of Christmas, I think instead of a Christmas tree, a manger scene is far more acceptable & with far greater meaning.
11. THE NATIVITY SCENES AS THEY CALL THEM, I THINK ARE FAR MORE FITTING DECORATIONS FOR CHRISTMAS, far more beautiful & with far greater meaning for our children. I think for us to have a manger scene & a animals & Mary & Jesus & Joseph & the Shepherds & the Kings & all these things--I think that's enough decoration & enough toys for illustrating the meaning of Christmas. I think it's enough & certainly far more meaningful than stupid silly Christmas trees & their baubles & other kinds of ridiculous toys & gifts etc.
12. I THINK "WHATSOEVER WE DO IN WORD OR IN DEED WE OUGHT TO DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD" (1Cor.10:31; Col.3:17.), & sometimes I've been very sorry that I got into this Christmasy business & "Christmas spirit" of Christmas trees & its decorations & baubles & away from the true meaning of Christmas. Where's our nativity scene? Where's our manger scene? Where is our real meaning of Christmas, huh? Well, I'll tell you, we've got'm. We have a Christmas tree but we've got a manger scene right underneath it, in fact we've got a couple of'm here in our house at Christmas time so the children don't forget for a minute what is the true meaning of Christmas!
13. THE CHRISTMAS TREE ITSELF EVEN CAN BE MADE TO SYMBOLISE THE BEAUTY OF LIFE & LIVING. In Wintertime the evergreen, even in the midst of death & decay, is sort of a symbol of everlasting life. It's a symbol of eternal living in spite of Winter & all that's deal around, the evergreens survive & stay ever-green & continue to be living & green & beautiful all Winter long.
14. IF YOU CAN GIVE THE CHILDREN SOME MEANING FROM THE CHRISTMAS TREE LIKE THAT, that it's a symbol of life & eternity & eternal life in spite of death, etc. and that the decorations that you hang upon the tree are like the gifts God gives to us & hangs upon us & gifts God gives to us & hangs upon us & adorns us with, if you can see it's all symbolic of spiritual things & gifts, etc., well then maybe you can give the Christmas tree some meaning.
15. BUT OTHERWISE, IF YOU DON'T HAVE A POINT IN IT OR ANY MEANING FOR IT OR YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN IT or why it's there or why we decorate it as we do, you certainly wouldn't want to tell them the basic original historical meaning, & that is that it's Druidism & Druid-worship & the worship of spirits in trees which was the Druid ceremony & which has continued in our Christmas tree in Christianity!
16. THE CATHOLICS & THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH SIMPLY TOOK IT OVER--since it was already an existing celebration & existing symbol to the heathen & the Druids--they cut down the tree & decorated it with gifts because it was their god & they worshipped it & it was supposed to be inhabited by the spirit of their god. Well, if you can do it for the same reason, if you can chop it down, bring it in the house & decorate it as a symbol of your God & the Spirit of your God & everlasting life & His gifts of the Spirit, fine! Otherwise it's still just an old Druid practice & Druid worship & animism & the worship of the spirits in the trees! So what are you going to do? Are you going to give it real meaning or not?
17. I GOT SO FURIOUS AT CHRISTMAS TREES WHEN MY LITTLE CHILDREN WERE VERY SMALL & I was a young radical religious fanatic, that I abolished the Christmas tree from our home & Christmas celebration & even Christmas altogether for awhile. I refused to celebrate Christmas because it was a heathen holiday & I refused to do any Christmas shopping or give gifts at Christmas because it was the commercialised worldliness of the Devil!
18. I JUST WIPED IT OUT ALL TOGETHER & TRIED TO GET RID OF IT IN OUR FAMILY & I infuriated my school superintendent & the school & almost got fired by speaking against Christmas & refusing to have a Christmas tree in our school room & turning all the kids against Christmas & Christmas trees until we got complaints from the parents about it--Much less Santa Claus! I would hardly even mention Santa Claus because that was so totally utterly heathen & ridiculous, it was obviously un-Christian & un-Christmas!
19. BUT I THINK MAYBE I WENT TO THE EXTREME IN THOSE DAYS & went almost too far to where I didn't even want to celebrate the birth of Christ at all because it had been so corrupted & polluted & perverted. However, as you grow older you become a little more moderate & understanding & boarder minded, & Mama Eve & the children began to sneak Christmas trees in at Christmas.--Ha!
20. THY BEGAN WITH A LITTLE TINY ONE ON A TABLE ABOUT TWO-FEET HIGH & it got bigger every year, like the camel's nose, with a few more decorations. At first I finally relented & decided, "Well, you can have one little tiny Christmas three on the table & one little string of lights & that's it!"--But kind of like our Fast Day soup, the tree grew & grew & got bigger & bigger & more & more decorations, like our soup seems to get thicker every Fast Day until I'm not so sure it's soup anymore, it's not quite so liquid, it's more like mush or stew!
21. GOD BLESS OUR DEAR COOKS WHO ARE TRYING TO BE EXTRA GOOD TO US so we don't have to fast too much. Well, if it at least is a simple way of preparing the meal & saves time & gives more time to Bible study & prayer & rest etc., well fine, I don't care how thick you make it. At least if it's a reminder that it is our Fast Day & that we're supposed to rest & give time to prayer & devotions & Bible study, etc., well, PTL, I don't care how thick you make it.
22. THE SAME WAY WITH CHRISTMAS: NO MATTER HOW BIG THE TREE GROWS & the more it gets decorated, if you can constantly make it a reminder of Jesus, the Evergreen Tree of the Spirit, of Jesus the Everlasting Eternal God of Heaven & of Jesus & His gifts of the Spirit hung upon us continually, not just at Christmas, & our everlasting evergreen eternal life,
23. IF THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS DOESN'T GET LOST IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE SOMEWHERE & its decorations & all the gifts & the buying & the Christmas shopping, if somehow you can manage to make the true meaning of Christmas & Christ & Jesus & His birth still shine through & make it still primarily a celebration of Jesus' birth & Christianity & a true Christ-mas, well then fine! PTL! I'm all for it, the more it glorifies Jesus! The more it extols Christ! The more it symbolises the evergreen of eternity & eternal life in the midst of death, great! PTL! Hallelujah!
24. BUT IF SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE IN THE GROWTH OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE & all of its decorations & Christmas shopping & gifts for each other we have lost the true meaning of Christmas & the true symbolism of the tree & the genuine Christ-Spirit of Christmas & we have lost Christ out of Christmas & He's become drowned in all the confusion of this World & its worldliness & its Christmas shopping & its filthy wicked downtown Devil's marketplace, then I think it would be almost better to completely abolish Christmas celebration entirely than to have it so perverted & contorted and twisted and polluted and corrupted to where it drowns out the real meaning of Christmas & the true spirit of Christmas & the genuine celebrating of what it's really supposed to be all about--Jesus!
25. TO DRAG OUR POOR CHILDREN THROUGH THE MUCK & THE MIRE & THE FILTH OF THE CITY & Christmas shopping & all of it worldliness & materialism & contamination with disease & devils & demons & covetousness & greed & selfishness & teach them that to have this kind of a spirit & enjoy going downtown Christmas shopping--for what?--To me that's a corruption!--To me that's a perversion!--A pollution!
26. TO ME IT'S A MISLEADING OF OUR OWN LITTLE ONES to drag them through all that mess down there will all those messy people & the danger of contagious diseases & devils & demons & materialism & "thing" worship & covetousness & greed & selfishness & desire for the things of this World! It's a love of the World, & you're to "love not the World neither the things that are in the World", for he that loveth the World certainly hasn't got the love of the Father! (1John 2:15.) "For the love of the World is enmity toward God!" (Ja.4:4.)
27. IF YOU LOVE ALL THAT CHRISTMASY MATERIALISM OF DOWNTOWN & ITS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING, then there's something a little wrong with you! There's something a little bit perverted about your tastes & desires & your spirit & your spiritual character if you really love those "things" there & love to go down there & wallow in that mire & lick up that vomit along with the rest of the World!
28. SO MAY GOD DELIVER US FROM THAT KIND OF "SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS", the Devil's own kind of celebration & the Devil's own kind of worship & corruption, & I sure as Heaven hate to see our kids dragged through it & corrupted by it & contaminated by it & their very health risked by it as well as their spirits perverted by it!
29. SO MAY GOD DELIVER US FROM CHRISTMAS SHOPPING & THAT KIND OF EVIL SPIRIT which is not the Christmas spirit but the spirit of the Devil & his World & the god of this World & its worldly things & all of its filth & corruption & pollution & vileness! I just don't like it & I hate to see our children dragged downtown through it & through its gutters & its filthy streets its diseased people & its wicked vile characters & all of its worldliness!
30. I JUST HATE THE CITY! It's like dragging your children through a cesspool, through a cancerous sore on the body politic! The only good excuse in this World we ever have for going downtown is to litness & witness & try to save those people out of the muck & get'm out of there, for God's sake, not to drag them back down in or drag our pure innocent beautiful little children through all that horror! May God spare us from it!
31. I HATE CITIES & I HATE THEIR WICKEDNESS & THEIR WICKED PEOPLE & THEIR MATERIALISTIC THINGS & all of their worship of man & Mammon! I despise'm, I hate them, I stay as far away from them as I possibly can except when I have to go there on business or I have to go there for some reason that just is unavoidable!--And I certainly don't take my children with me if I can possibly help it! I don't like to drag them to the market or the supermarket or the huge shopping centers & the monuments & temples of the gods of this World!
32. THEY ARE MONUMENTS TO MAMMON! They are the temples of the Devil & his worldliness & his things, & I just despise having to get into it myself unless you have to go down there to buy something that you really have to have & there's no other way to do it. And as I say, about the only excuse I can see for dragging children through it is that you're going to buy'm clothes or shoes or hats or gloves or something that you've got to have'm there for to try on & fit, etc.--& of course, the one good reason, to litness & witness to the lost!
33. SO MAY THE LORD DELIVER US & OUR CHILDREN FROM THIS WORLDLY CHRISTMAS-SHOPPING SPIRIT! It's a horror & a hell on Earth as far as I'm concerned & I hope our children never catch the disease of enjoying the temples of Mammon & the monuments of the Devil & the fellowship of this filthy World, in Jesus' name, amen! That's all I've got to say about it, and you can take it or leave it! Don't take any of my kids through it unless you have to!
34. PERSONALLY I'D CALL IT THE SPIRIT OF XMAS & NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS & I hate to have our kids go downtown to the big city & the shops & the market places of this abominable World & catch the spirit of Xmas from the rest of them that & have that contagious horrible disease, which is most of the people downtown!
35. WHAT ARE YOU DOWN THERE FOR? Have you got the spirit of Xmas instead of the spirit of Christmas? I don't know why you'd want to risk your children's lives taking them into the big city & all that traffic & danger, danger of accident & disease & all the rest of it! I don't know why!
36. HERE COME OUR CHILDREN, THE ONES WHO OCCASIONED THIS LITTLE TAPE I JUST MADE & they're all dressed up to go to down & you're going to do what? (David: Buy a Christmas tree & another little baby Jesus.) Where did you say you were going? What did you just say? You said, "We're just going shopping." (David: We're going to buy a Christmas tree.) What did you say first? You said, "We're just going shopping." (David: We're going to town.) "We're going to town," & he said, "We're just going shopping."
37. THEY CAME IN ALL DRESSED FOR THEIR SHOPPING TRIP TO TOWN & all hepped up ready to go & it's all planned & all that & blah blah! We ought to let them just go down & wade through the filth & the muck & the mire of the big city & the Christmas shopping & get a good bellyful of it so they'll get so sick of it they'll never want to go again!
38. (MARIA: WERE YOU GOING TO EXPLAIN IT TO THE CHILDREN?) Well, I want them to hear the tape. Why should I start & say it all over again? (Maria: Well, just simply, for the children.) That's simple enough, why not? They can listen to this & see how I feel about it. My idea was to have them all sit down & listen to this before they go, it's quite early enough. (Maria: Alfred & Margie need to go now, but you don't mind staying back with Sara, do you David? You can do something interesting here. See Daddy, they're good children, they don't mind.)
39. I'D LIKE FOR THEM & SARA TO SIT DOWN & LISTEN TO THIS. (Maria: OK. Do you want to listen to the talk Daddy made on it?) (David: Yes!) I just talked about half a hour on it already & why I don't like for you to go to town amongst all those wicked filthy dangerous people! I just don't see any point in it. I think it's a horrible place to go! (Maria: Amen!) A horrible place to drag children to unless they have to go to be fitted for clothes or shoes or hats or gloves or something like that, or especially for litnessing. But I don't see why they should have to go down & get dragged through all that just for a Christmas tree! (Maria: Right! David, do you want to take the tape to Sara? And then & you can think of something exciting to do!)
40. WELL, JUST GO TELL ALFRED, IF THEY MUST GO, THEY MUST GO, BUT I DON'T WANT'M TO TAKE THE CHILDREN, & Sara can make her own choice. I don't want them to go down to that hell-on-Earth of a mess of a filthy city! Has he ever dragged them down there before? (Maria: Have you gone downtown with Alfred & Sara before?) (David: Yes, I think so.) (Maria: You've gone to the supermarket, but have you gone into town?) (David: No, I don't think so.)
41. I DON'T EVEN THINK IT'S SAFE FOR OUR CHILDREN TO GO TO TOWN, considering how I feel about it! I haven't even got the faith for it, & "whatsoever is not of faith is sin"! (Ro.14:23.) And considering how I feel about having them go to town, I think I would be afraid for them to go to town just for shopping, afraid that the Lord might let something happen to them when I'm absolutely against it!--And I mean it! (Maria: You wouldn't want to go in that case would you, David? Because you wouldn't have the faith for it either, would you?)
42. IT'S LIKE GOING DOWN & WALLOWING IN THE DEVIL'S OWN MUD & MUCK & MIRE & SEWAGE & GARBAGE--FILTHY! The only good excuse for going to town with children is to litness & witness, & we can't because of security & our position. So, I'm sorry, I hate to be a joy-killer & a wet blanket & stop their fun, but I just don't think that's good clean fun! I think it's filthy dirty fun to have to go to town & mingle with all those filthy dirty people that have all kinds of demons & diseases!
43. I JUST HATE TO HAVE OUR KIDS TAKEN TO TOWN UNLESS THEY HAVE TO FOR CLOTHING FITTINGS OR SOME SUCH. I just think it's dangerous, I think it's dirty, I think it's devilish & I think, to say the least, it's unnecessary that they should have to be dragged through all of that, especially to buy a Christmas tree of all things! So that's how I feel about it. (Maria: Can you remember that David? Three D's!)
44. DANGEROUS, DIRTY & DEVILISH!--AND DAMNABLE, THAT'S FOUR! (Maria: And doubtful, ha!)--And very dubious & doubtful! (David: That's five.) (Maria: That's 6.) And diseased, seven! (Maria: Oh my, do you want me to write them down for you?) And disgusting! (David: That's eight!) (Maria: Oh my! Listen to Grandpa, Davida. Dangerous, dirty...) Devilish. (Maria: Doubtful.) Dubious. (Maria: Can you remember any others, David?) And disgusting & diseased! (Maria: Did we put damnable?) Damnable!--Eight! (Maria: How many is that, can you count'm?) (David: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.)
45. ANTICHRIST!--AND "EVEN HE IS THE EIGHTH" IT SAYS IN THE BIBLE, THE DEVIL! (Rev.17:11.) Well, Antichrist doesn't begin with a "D," so you can't exactly add that one, but I'm saying since there are eight of them it must be anti-Christ! Ha! That's the way I feel about taking kids to town shopping unless you have to fit them for clothing or something. I don't think it's a good idea to give them that kind of a perverted appetite for that kind of materialistic worldly things & all the junk that they don't need & all the Devil's own stuff that they shouldn't have! (Maria: And you don't want a perverted appetite, do you David?) (David: No.)
46. PTL! THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT IT! I'm sorry, but I don't like you children to have to go to town unless you absolutely have to in order to buy clothing & fit you for your clothing or your shoes or gloves or hats or something like that, unless there's some reason you've got to go to town or you've got to go to the dentist or the doctor. Thank God you hardly ever have to do that!
47. I DON'T THINK YOU SHOULD TAKE CHILDREN TO THE CITY FOR ANYTHING IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY HELP IT EXCEPT LITNESSING & WITNESSING, & there they're having to soil their clean pure innocent hands with the mire & filth of this World in order to drag a few poor lost souls out of the muck & the garbage & save them from the city--save them from it, & get them out of it--not to stay in that hogwash & that filth & that vomit of the dogs of the city! That's the way I feel about the city! But in that case we can trust the Lord to protect them. That's the way I feel about the city & Christmas shopping! Sorry. God bless you. In Jesus' name, amen.--Amen?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
