Holedays: How Consumerism and Commercialism is Destroying the Holidays

For the first time in my life I am not looking forward to the holidays. This past Christmas in particular has sent me over the edge. In the past I was able to maintain the True Meaning and Reason for the Season in my heart, and embrace the traditions of the Christmas Tree, tolerate Santa Claus, and more. This year however, I find myself severed from everything except the Savior born in the Manger. The consumerism and commercialism has caused me to no longer care about the festivities. The stores and all their clammering to make sales and convince people who have said no to their children all year to say yes at Christmas and go into debt is appalling. Rather than be close to their children all year, parents choose to make up for the workacholicism and disinterest in the lives of their children with lavish gifts at Christmas.

The commercial powers that be have effectively ruined the holidays. Once upon a time Christmas Day instilled in me a sense of wonder, expectation, and delight. Now it has become an aberration and shadow of its original purpose which was to celebrate the Birth of Christ, bring families together, and give gifts out of genuine love not obligation. Now instead of a crowded Manger Scene with shepherds, we have crowded Malls with shoppers. Now instead of celebrating the birth of the Savior and true Messiah, children flock to the mythical Santa. The entire holiday has been effectively secularized, and any vestiges of the True Meaning are only on display to appease us, and convince us that the companies care about Christ and us Christians, but its all apart of the commercialism ruse to get us to spend, spend, and spend some more.

The Holidays, once called Holydays are now Holedays where people go into financial holes of debt and where the true meaning and purpose of the holidays sinks into holes of commercial shadow. My heart is bereft with grief, that Christmas my most beloved holiday has now become merely another tool for Mammon and his worshippers to earn a buck. I will still celebrate the True Meaning of Christmas, who is Christ Jesus, but as for me Santa, the Christmas Tree, and the elves and their shelves can stay at the department store. I am ready to return to the Cathedral, to the Catholic, Angelican, and Lutheran services, vigils, and masses that allow the masses of believers like myself to celebrate that Light came into the World (John 1:1-15) and that Christmas is not suppose to be a stressful search for the perfect gift, but to celebrate the Greatest Gift of God becoming a Man to save us from sin, death, and hell in the calmness of the church with candles lit, and carols sung with gladness and joy.

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Israel’s Conquest of Canaan: The Nephilim and Giants

Christianity Today asserts that the conquest of Canaan can be a “stumbling block” for believers. This probably is because of a foolish idea of comparing it to a modern conquest happening in our world. The truth is that God had Israel conquer Canaan because it was ruled by evil giants, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33). These are Anakim or Nephilim, the children of angels and human women, “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God (angels) saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These w

Dispensationalism

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was a man who did two things, he took 70th week of the Book of Daniel and stretched out to the End Times, and he was the father of Dispensationalism , a belief system that God dispenses different peoples with separate blessings and covenants. According to Darb'ys doctrine of Dispensationalism, God dispenses different covenants. There are total of seven dispensations that divide the history of man: I. Dispensation of Innocence (prior to the Fall, "Do not east of the Fruit of Good and Eve, Eden), II. Dispensation of Conscience ( You must assuage guilt and sin with blood sacrifices.) III. Dispensation of Human Government (Multiply and Subdue the world, example the Tower of Babel Gen 11:1-9, and Genesis 1:28). IV. Dispensation of the Promise (Dwell in Canaan, Jerusalem) V. Dispensation of the Law ("Obey the Law of Moses and the Prophets"). VI. Dispensation of Grace (The Church, Jesus Christ has come and died for our sins an

Jesus’ Name in Aramaic

There has been a trend to render Jesus’ name Hebrew, יֵשׁוּעַ , Yeshua. The problem is neither Christ nor his apostles, nor the Jews in 30-33 A.D. spoke Hebrew, they spoke Aramaic. A ramaic is the oldest language on earth and was the language Jesus spoke. In fact, the oldest Old Testament is the Septuagint a Greco translation around 132 B.C.E. (165 Years Before Christ)that was translated from Aramaic. The Masoretic Text, The Hebrew Old Testament most Bibles use, dates from 7th to 10th Century A.D. (Medieval Times). This translation does not cross reference with the words of Christ in the New Testament which are Aramaic and Koine Greek. If the Aramaic was what Jesus spoke, then by what name would have been called? Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Isho or Eesho, spelled ܝܫܘܥ . That is the name of our Lord in Aramaic! He would have heard his name in this dialect, “Hail Isho or Eesho!” as well as the Greek, Ἰ ησο ῦ ς , Iesous. Aramaic is disappearing, only a few people are endeavo

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