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to, in an open trust, knowing that
they will be told the truth. You can't
buy that commodity. There's no com–
mercialism or materialism involved
with it. l t is the opposi te of hypocrisy.
And despite the fact that you cannot
buy it, it costs absolutely nothing.
T he truth is that commodity which is
most missing in today's world, and it
truly is the sourcc and power of free–
doro-
"the truth
SHALL
make
YOU
free."
6
XMASTREE
BEARSBAOFRUIT
Another reason 1 don't keep Christ–
mas is a logical, cause-and-effect
reason. 1 look around me and it
doesn't take too much intelligence or
research effort on my part to deter–
mine that the fruits of the Christmas
tree are heavily seasoned with bitter–
ness and violence, depression, de–
pravity and debt.
The Book my Maker gave me says
that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit
and a bad tree cannot bear good
fruit. When 1 look at this Christmas
tree, 1 see a great deal of bad fruit.
l t's a paradox. At Christmas time,
when millions of families are drawn
closer together, at least in physical
proximity, it is also a fact that simul–
taneously more people are depressed,
deep in debt, discouraged, drunken
and dying during tha t time than any
other month of the year.
The. FBI says, "The peak montbly
rate [for murder and manslaughter]
a lmost invariably occurs in Decem–
ber. This may have something todo
with the approach of Christmas,
wbich leads to an unusually large
number of family rows . . . ' Peace on
earth,' we say, but it looks very
doubtful that we really mean it at
Christmas. Not when families are
suffering such heavy crime statistics.
On a week for week basis more
people commit suicide during this
holiday season than any other period
of the year."
A policeman writes, "1 have been
an officer for over 19 years ... we
get more calls from neighbors to go
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1979
out and settle fa mily fights on
Christmas Eve tban any other night
during the year, including New
Yea r's. You walk into a house that is
gaily decorated, the tree is aglow,
beautifully wrapped gifts a re under
tbe tree and the husband and wife
are tbrowing tbings at each other.
The kids are crouched in the corner
seared out of their wits."
A leading neurologist says, "There
are certainly more depr essions,
suicida! gestures, críes for help at
Christmas than at any other time."
Overeating, hives, crying jags, dis–
honesty, sexual deviation, playing
with your neighbor's wife, plain or–
neriness, a peak in highway acci–
dents, and family murders are among
tbe fruits of this season's tree.
Personally, for me, l thank God
tbat tbe Cbristmas tree is not in my
borne to bear tbese bad fruits.
7
XMASDEMANDS
INTELLECTUAL
DISHONESTY
Beyond just plain lying to our chil–
dren, coming up with reasons why we
keep these holidays produces a prime
example of either a bad case of intel–
lectual blinders or outright intellec–
tual disbonesty.
It doesn ' t take great, in-depth re–
search to find out that the roots of
Christmas-and for that ma tter
every
so-called Christian holiday on
the calendar-are
not
found in the
Bible, which is the handbook from
the Creator. A little further basic
researcb in encyclopedias will force a
person to eitber rebel against the die–
tates of commercial society--<>r com–
promise bis inteUectual honesty.
Take the
Catholic Encyclopaedia,
for insta nce, under the article
"Christmas."
lt
plainly tells us that
many early church father s con–
demned the keeping of this baptized
Saturnalia and that it was not an
acceptable " Christian" holiday unt il
well into the fourth century. Even
after that it goes on to show that
many outstanding leaders in the his–
tory of that church as well as a pope
or two have condemned the practices
of that season. It continues explain–
ing that even the Parl iament of Eng–
land declared the holiday illega l at
one time. l t states very plainly that
there is no
Bible
precedent for ob–
serving the birthday of Christ.
It
plainly points out tbat nobody
really knows wben Christ was born–
that "respected autborities" can be
found who place tbe birth of Cbrist in
almost
any
month of tbe year . Fur–
ther than tbat it plainly explains that
if tbere is any
one
month when the
birth of Christ could
not
bave oc–
curred it would be
December.
And on
and on and on ...
To think that in the light of all the
information which is readily avai l–
able any individual would continue to
celebrate tbis festival seems to me to
be blatant intellectual dishonesty.
8
CHRIST NEVERWAS
IN CHRIST-MASS
' 'Let's put Christ back into Christ–
mas," sorne say when they notice the
commercialism. Yet this saying is of
itself asad commentary on the entire
subject. When you put all your re–
search together, looking at the Bible,
looking at the readily available refer–
ences in your public library and per–
baps at tbe books on your own shelf,
you can quickly see that the true
J esus Christ of Nazareth who lived in
Galilee nearly two thousand years
ago never was in Christmas.
As you progress througb a short
study, you realize that His name was
put into Christmas and accepted as
the heart of the story of Cbristmas by
about the fourtb century. You realize
tbe name of Christ was used and
applied to this custom. But tben, of
course, you realize tbat the name of
Christ was prophesied by Jesus Him–
self to be preached and associated
with the deception of
the many
as
one of the signs that would precede
His coming and tbat He Himself
gave t his prophecy to His disciples in
Matthew 24. As your study goes fur–
ther, you realíze tbat many attempts
at reform were made at various times
17