Our
Lord Jesus – The Reminders of Him - Thanksgiving and Christmas
For most Christians, the Holidays of Thanksgiving (in the
United States) and Christmas are two of the three highlights of their annual
remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The other major annual observance is the
Spring weekend that marks His Crucifixion, death, burial and Resurrection.
Regrettably, that latter observance (often called “Easter”) has been co-opted
by commercial / secular interests even more so than the two which are the focus
of this post. I will address that third observance further in a future post.
The name “Thanksgiving” speaks directly to the purpose of
that observance. Christians and others are encouraged to remember and “give thanks”
to the Holy God who saw the early settlers of the United States through their
perilous journeys to the new land and their survival during that difficult
first year. Since then, we are to personalize and “give thanks” to our Father
and Lord Jesus Christ for the many blessings they have bestowed on us, our
families, our Nation, and other members of the Body of Christ. (https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/thanksgiving-prayers-blessings-of-gratitude.html#google_vignette ; https://www.gotquestions.org/body-of-Christ.html
)
Many non-Christians use the observance of Thanksgiving to
make a reference to a generic “God”, or they worship a Deity differing from
Christians. Their beliefs do not agree with Christian beliefs. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is not
only the Son of God, an integral part of the Triune Godhead (Father, Son and
Holy Spirit), but also the physical manifestation of the Invisible God. (Isaiah
9: 6; John 1: 1-3, 14; John 14: 6-11; Colossians 1: 15-19; https://www.gotquestions.org/image-of-the-invisible-God.html ) In the United States, commercial / marketing and
other secular interests have to a large degree undermined the earlier focus on the
True God. They have redirected many people’s interests to spending money by making
purchases of “gifts” to be distributed at the soon-to-follow holiday observance
of Christmas, and otherwise.
As Christians approach and celebrate the Christmas “holiday
season”, we have been further redirected away from the “reason for the season”,
the observance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Commercial / marketing interests
continue to target Christians and others to focus on purchasing “gifts” to
demonstrate their “love for their family and others” rather than their Creator
who made their existence possible.
I raise these points about these special “holidays”
because under the influence of the Enemy, these intended “Holy Days”
have been reduced to mere “holidays”. As “Holy Days” and as noted in the title
of this post, they were intended to be “annual reminders” of what our Lord
Jesus Christ has done for us, and continues to do to bless us. But to date, the “god of this world” has been highly
successful with his distractions to keep man’s focus away from the True God. (2 Corinthians 4: 4)
Recently through the media, Christians and others have been
further distracted from reading the Scripture / the Holy Bible to study God’s Word
about our Lord Jesus. One major example is the attempt to “personalize” the
Lord by using the developing technology of “Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate a hypothetical picture
of the Lord’s face. (https://www.christiantoday.com/article/according.to.artificial.intelligence.this.is.what.jesus.looked.like.if.the.shroud.of.turin.is.authentic/140850.htm
)
In an even more recent and controversial media release, a
church in Switzerland has been reported to have also used “AI” to enable a
person to have a conversation “with the digital avatar” of the Lord Jesus. The
conversation takes place inside a confessional booth, with the avatar projected
on a computer screen. The advice given by the avatar is said to be “based on
scripture”. https://www.today.com/news/ai-jesus-christ-switzerland-controversy-rcna182980
Even so, many, if not most Christians and Bible
students and others should recognize the dangers of looking for guidance from
an “AI Avatar” of our Lord Jesus.
It may sound simplistic, but as we are now fully in these
“last days”, please look to the words of our Lord Jesus as revealed in our Holy
Bible, the Book of Matthew, Chapter 24. The entire Chapter is relevant, but I
draw your special attention to these early Verses Three through Five:
“ And as
he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying,
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming,
and of the end of the world?
4 And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many
shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”
We as Christians will continue to face distractions and mis-leading
/ deceitful guidance pushed by the Enemy. Our role is to recognize what is
truth and how to share the true word of God (the Holy Scripture) with others as
ambassadors for our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5: 20-21)
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment