What Fellowship Hath Christ with Belial?

~ Sherry

The following discourse was presented as a sermon to the congregation of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Beaver Falls, PA on December 22, 1991. It was not an easy message to preach. It is never easy to re-examine practices and patterns of thinking that have been presumed and taken for granted for a lifetime. It is especially difficult when these practices are associated with intense emotional feelings and are bound up with deep-rooted family traditions. Such is the case with the subject of Christmas. To even call into question the annual celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ is inconceivable for most modern Christians. That anyone would even suggest that Christmas and its festivities have no warrant in the Word of God and should therefore be dismissed from the practice of God’s people seems the height of foolishness to our generation. The question which must be asked is, “Why?”

If the celebration we all know as Christmas is to be zealously upheld by the Christian Church, what is the reason? Do the Scriptures prescribe this annual Holy Day? Did Jesus Himself institute a yearly commemoration of the day of His birth to be kept by His disciples to the end of the age? Do the Scriptures even provide us with the date of our Savior’s birth?

All practices and patterns of thinking must be subjected to the scrutiny of the Word of God. If we are unwilling to lay our personal views on the table beside an open Bible, then we are indicating more than we may think about our openess to conform our lives to the teaching of Scripture. This sermon seeks to examine one of our most cherished traditions by the light of God’s Word. The question of the propriety or impropriety of any practice must always be decided on that basis alone, and never on the basis of subjective emotion. Emotion has often led well meaning people down the wrong road. God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. May God grant us the courage and character always to be willing to submit our personal viewpoints, on every matter of faith and life, to the scrutiny of His unerring Word.

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13 thoughts on “What Fellowship Hath Christ with Belial?”

  1. FTA: If God’s Word can be shown to refute the contents of this message, then I will gladly and obediently retract every phrase. But if, by God’s standard, the message stands, then we are all bound to respond to it in humility of heart and consistency of behavior, lest we be guilty of the sin of being found hearers only of the Word and not doers. Therefore, I would humbly request that you give careful consideration to the contents of this sermon, as you would any other, and imitate the character of the noble Bereans, examining the Word of God to see if these things be true.

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    1. I just finished reading it again. He makes excellent points against the Lord’s children adding an unholy celebration to the pure worship of Him. Its dangerous to do! Its wickedness and it demotes the authority of God’s Word…and isn’t Jesus the Word? As I have said many times, How can we worship the Lord with our disobedience?

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        1. Oh, I do that often! LOL!~

          I went to his Facebook page but not much going on over there either.

          Oh well, that was a very good and informational sermon. I’m glad I found it and that its part of my blog here.

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  6. Questions: If you set up the pagan X Mass tree in the church because you don’t believe there is any harm to you and your fellow believers, will you stop the practice when a former Wiccan comes to Christ Jesus as her Savior and joins your church? Or will you wound her conscience and spoil her rewards from God by your selfishness in letting her believe that some of her Wiccan practices and tokens are OK for her to hold onto? In witnessing Christ before Wiccans, do you think they will see how set apart from them you are during the X Mass season? Or will they see you as imitating them (which is what you really are doing)?

    1 Corinthians 10:32 (KJV)

    Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles (of which some are Wiccans), nor to the church of God:

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