Member training from Dec 11 2023 on the false traditions associated with Christmas that serve to undermine our focus on the Savior.
TRANSCRIPT
So Pam’s going to give us the opening prayer. Our Father in Heaven,
as we gather together tonight, we’re so grateful for this opportunity and for the
technology that allows us to share our lives. We’re grateful for Becky being willing
to present and for the information that she has. We pray that our spirit would be
with her, with us as we hear, as we strive to know truths I think so we’re
important in our lives at this time we thank you for our savior and we say this
in his name Jesus Christ Amen, thank you sir.
What’s Pam’s last name? Clinch. Thank you
And Yeah, thank you Pam. All right. Yeah Carmen it I wouldn’t I thought maybe we
wouldn’t have time but Becky says we have time and she’s the one presenting so
We’ll defer to her. So if you’ve got, if you have the minutes ready, ready, they’re
right now. Okay. Okay.
Now I’ve got to widen the little goody here.
Okay, opening pair was offered by Francie Gwynne. These are the minutes for December
the 4th, 2023, Ben made an announcement that the December 8th gathering location fell
through. He reminded us about Bootcamp the next Friday.
He gave website updates, annual and lifetime memberships being offered now. Kate King
is a new member and asked about his exposure to the enemies.
Bobby asked to turn Ben in and Ben reported that a lawyer had watched a video
wants to help Ben with these these illegal moves that were perpetrated on him.
The lawyer said that the case is winnable. Alan said that a can of worms was
opened up in this particular situation. is they expected you to just go along and
don’t ask questions that why is the most intolerable, untolerated question.
Micah reported that he was at Ben’s house during the invasion and they wouldn’t let
him leave. Alan Arthur Arthur said that the police are notorious for these kinds of
things. Ben’s going to get with that and and get organized with him.
Ben said it’s important to hold people accountable.
Ben talked about the podcast that very day and we need to make them as unpopular
as possible. Jump and Jay talked about there’s a precedent law for no -knock
warrants, okay, made a mention that they’re all there will be unindicted co
-conspirators. I really like that.
>> She has liberty. And we talk about his book. >>
And then said there are fake Liberty legislators,
let
me look here,
talked about the legislators can detain forced vaccinations, quarantine examination and
can force treatment and
Um, there’s a tool to look up these particular legislators in every state,
they’re setting the groundwork to have the complete control of the people Pam Allen
talked about a video about Dr. artists and, uh,
Francy Gwynn, such she saw the video and talked about the receptors in the venom
that is used. Pamela Allen again said it’s 30 times worst.
Ben said it’s a giant deception no matter the methods. Democrats and Republicans have
combined to enforce these things. We need to decide now to resist and it will be
easier to say no. The closing prayer was offered by Kate King.
And I’m
ready. Okay, wonderful. Thank you.
We will, there’s one more thing I wanted to do before we turn the time over to
Becky. I appreciate Becky willing to put this together for us. She’s put a lot of
hard work into it. And I think it’s An important message for us to to get into
you know, I think maybe some of us will be like Okay, this is a little bit of a
humbug for this time of year Maybe but I think it’s an important for us to be
able to overcome false traditions But before I do that Dang it.
Um, hold on. I was gonna share my screen. I’m gonna do it, but I got out of
The thing I was supposed to be in before I did that. Okay.
Here we go. So, Wayne is a new member. He’s on tonight with us,
joining with us, and I want to share something with you real quick. We’ve developed
a relationship where we’re kind of doing some swapping of, we’re going to be sharing
some of his articles on our website and linking to have people read the entire
article over at his.
We’ve known each, well not maybe never in person Wayne we’ve never met but we’ve
been talking to each other for many years now and I’ve really appreciated a lot of
the research that Wayne’s done and the the information he’s put out there he’s a
former special agent if I remember correctly with the FBI. I’m going to do a quick
screen share with his website Justice for All. This article right here is one that
he did where he mentions and he talks about you go further down, he gets into what
happened to me. But if you go to his website and you go through and you can see
a lot of the investigations that he’s done and different topics that he’s covered
before,
I think it’s worthwhile for all of us to have another place that we can go to to
get good research and good background information on what’s going on. on so wanted
to point that out to you and you’ll be seeing more links to it on our website as
as time moves on so any any corrections or anything you want me to anything you
want to add to that Wayne no no ben thank you and i’ll be silent for the most
part only we couldn’t stand by and watch you swatted by the uh the corrupt uh utah
county so uh just following the corrupt corrupt FBI’s after they had murdered
Robertson down there in your dark alley so that’s all I’ve got to say there’d be a
lot more but thank you Ben for all you’ve done and we followed your lead in a lot
of things so drive on. Okay thank you Wayne appreciate that. Alrighty so with that
we will turn the time over to Becky and Becky I’ve already given you permission to
do your screen share. So the floor is yours.
Alrighty.
Okay.
All right. So this is going to be, there we go.
This is going to be part two of the satanic faults tradition. So if you guys saw
my last presentation, you might know what this one’s gonna be about already.
So right off the bat, I’m gonna give a warning disclaimer that what you’re about to
hear may be a little disturbing for some. So if you have small children, you may
want to put them in another room for a bit.
And then, okay, so we’re going to, I want to start off with some questions that we
need to ask ourselves before, because like I said, this may be hard for some
people.
So, the first question is, do you lack a set of beliefs or do you think you have
a full set of beliefs?
Number two, do you think that these beliefs are consistent with scriptural teachings,
because a lot of times, you know, we think we have the same belief as what’s
taught in scriptures, and then when we really go and study them, we find out that
we have been wrong. And number three, are you open to learning new insights or
being proven wrong? So,
false “False Traditions,” Hebron C. Kimball says, “Were the false traditions of past
and present generations thrown off entirely, it would be much to the advantage of
this people and of the human family. Jesus Christ could not teach his disciples as
freely and as publicly as he otherwise would, had he not been bound from the same
cause. The inhabitants of the whole earth are coded over,
as it were, with false traditions which form an almost impenetrable barrier to the
shafts of truth. So we know,
for those who are LDS and have read the Book of Mormon, We know the Book of
Mormon talks a lot about the false and foolish traditions of our fathers,
right? And that’s what Tiber, see Kimball is saying here that, I mean, even says
Jesus Christ could not teach his disciples freely because they themselves had
traditions that they had been given by their fathers that were blocking them from
receiving the truth.
So we know, and I use this one in my last presentation, that there’s always been
an agenda to blur the lines between good and evil, to initiate the world into the
occult and accept the things of Lucifer.
So, inquiring minds want to know, should those who claim to be followers of Christ
celebrate Christmas?
Many followers of Christ celebrate this day, a day intended to highlight Him in the
same manner secular cultures celebrate the false gods of commercialism and self
-indulgence. And we see that a lot in our culture today where,
you know, the commercialism of it all and the self -indulgence, You know, we just
celebrated Thanksgiving, and what’s the next day right after Thanksgiving?
It’s Black Friday. And I know we’ve all seen the videos and the news articles of
where people are trampled, getting things for Christmas, and it just, it gets to be
a really– – Price like seeing. – Yeah, we’re so thankful for all the things that
we’ve been with, and we’re going to go out and basically trample people to get
materialism. So we’re self -indulging ourselves.
So you’re probably wondering, what does this have to do with liberty? I mean, we’re
here on the tree of liberty society thing, or what does Christmas have to do with
this? And hopefully by the end of this, when it’s all wrapped up,
you’ll see the connection of it all.
So and as followers of Christ, we should be set apart from the world. We shouldn’t
be doing what the world loves. And it’s quite obvious that people across the board,
you’ve got Christians, you’ve got
atheists, Buddhists, I mean they basically all celebrate Christmas. So there was a
minister in England back in 1871 by the name of Charles Spurgon and he was very
influential in the Christian world over there and this is what he had to say about
Christmas. He said, “Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical
arrangement called Christmas first because we do not believe in the mass at all.
And you can go do some research on what the mass in Christmas means. It’s a
horrific history of what that all entails. He’s all but abhorrent,
whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English. And secondly,
because we find no scriptural warrant, whatever for observing any day as the birthday
of the Savior and consequently its observance is a superstition because it’s not of
divine authority. So he’s saying we cannot find any indication in Scripture that we
are commanded to celebrate Christ’s birth or even that we should celebrate His birth.
He goes on to say, “It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men as to
observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every right in Rubik, “Is this
the law of the God of Jacob?” And if it be not clearly so,
it is of no authority with us who walk in Christian liberty.
So if we had leaders of a modern Christian church echo his words today,
he would most likely be called a Scrooge or a legalist. Many Christian leaders have
taught about putting Christ back in Christmas and focusing on what’s true and
important, but do these efforts make a difference? And is this holiday really worth
saving anyway? These are questions we should ask ourselves. Now on the day of our
founding fathers, this is what they had to say. So in May 11th,
1659, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in their court, they passed a law that said,
“To the great dishonor of God and offense of others, it is therefore ordered by
this court and the authority thereof, whosoever shall be found observing any such day
as Christmas or the life, either by forebearing of labor, feasting,
or any other way upon any such account, as aforesaid, every such person,
so offending shall pay for every such offense, five shillings as a fine to the
county. They, it was illegal in America for almost 211 years.
And that’s fine. That’s five shillings would equate to our time now. It would be
between like 48 to $50 per offense.
So in America, it was illegal until the mid 1800s.
And the first state to legalize it was Alabama in 1836, and then it was declared a
federal holiday in 1871. So you can see for over 200 years that Christmas was
illegal and against the beliefs of Americans.
Okay, so I want y ‘all to understand that We haven’t always believed this way.
We were just like everybody else and we absolutely loved Christmas. Our hearts were
110 % into it and we did pretty much all the traditions that everybody else does.
So, this was my Christmas tree and this was my pride and my joy.
I collected these Thomas Kincaid Santa Claus’s for years, spent thousands of dollars,
plug his ears.
And every ornament to go with it, he actually found these large giant pine cones
that I put in it. So, I mean, we absolutely loved it. I had the Thomas Kincaid
Christmas Village, the whole collection. We had Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus,
the advent calendar, we had a chess set specifically for Christmas that we don’t,
the kids absolutely loved it. And then we had the train that would go around the
bottom of the Christmas tree.
So we did the traditions, you’ve got the Christmas Eve jammies that our family did.
And yes, you’re seeing right, we have two minions in our family here.
(laughing) (laughing)
So where did Christmas begin? Because it definitely isn’t biblical,
you can’t find it, and Christ and his Apostles didn’t celebrate it. So it all
started with Constantine.
And
He grew up, he was a pagan for most of his life. And he was the first emperor to
convert to Christianity. His mother was a Christian. And so he converted in 312 AD.
And then he declared tolerance for Christians in 313 AD because before him you have
emperors like Nero who were doing horrific, horrific things to the Christians.
If you’ve ever heard of the Roman candles, the Roman human candles, you’ll understand
the horrors that the Christians went through in Rome until Constantine came along.
And then in 325 AD, he not only produced and brought forth the Nicene Creed,
but he also that’s when Christmas was started by him where he tried to take
paganism and Christianity and mix them together.
So December 25th, whose birthday is it really? Because it is someone’s birthday.
So we have Nimrod. He was an ancient Babylonian. He was the great -grandson of Noah
and he is the first human sun god and he was born on December 25th.
He was the first human to be deified and he and his wife Ishtar had a son named
Tamuz and he was also born and he is also worshipped and celebrated on December
25th. So this is whose birthday December 5th really is and they are sun gods.
So here is a chart that I found that lists a bunch of other sun gods listed
throughout different cultures. You’ve got Greece, Nepal, India, Egypt. You’ve got
Greece in there actually a couple of times. They really loved their pagan gods.
You’ve got Phoenicians, you got Persia, and of course Babylon and if you look at
those dates they all predate Christ every single last one of them and they were all
celebrated on December 25th
so we’re going to talk about some Christmas symbols now so we have the eight
pointed star that everybody equates oh it’s the star of Bethlehem right the one that
was above Christ when when he was born. Well, this star actually predates the star
of Bethlehem by over a thousand years. So it also represents the pagan sun disc or
solar wheel of the sun god bell, which is also known as Nimrod.
The origins of the Christmas tree.
I would encourage you, if you want, to pull out your phones and put into Google,
“What is the Tree of Namrod?” And it will pop up images of Christmas trees.
So that is what it was called back in those days. It’s considered to be magical
because it stays green all year. And this picture you’re seeing here was actually an
artifact that they found in ancient Babylon.
And the pine cones are a symbol of fertility.
The tree represents the Melgenotilia and the Christmas ball ornaments that we put on
the tree. Well, I think you can figure out what those probably represent.
So, we have this tradition of silver and gold at the time of Christmas,
and we find a scripture in Jeremiah that speaks specifically about this. It says,
“Thus sayeth the Lord, ‘Learn not the way of the heathen.’ I find it interesting
that the Lord starts out with this.” So he’s telling us exactly what this is all
about. For the customs of the people are vain. For one cut at the tree out of the
forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe. They deck it with
silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not.
Now if you’re anything like me or Scott, whenever We hear the term silver and gold.
I’m sure we all can say that we want to be Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Movie of
when we hear a burl live, sing a famous song. ♪ Silver and gold ♪ ♪ Silver and
gold ♪ ♪ So much more ♪ ♪ I see ♪
♪ Silver and gold ♪ ♪ Preparation ♪ (audio cuts out)
(singing in foreign language)
– Stalger, right?
Scott and I were talking about how this was like one of the biggest highlights a
Christmas time for us when we were kids is we’d you know that show comes on every
year and we didn’t miss it one single year and we were so excited to sit down and
watch it.
So we’re going to go on to Santa Claus.
So Santa Claus is tied to Nimrod Odin who is the Scandinavian sun god,
who also is Santa Claus.
And the Scandinavian god is a god of magic, of death, of wisdom, and poetry.
And here we see that here’s this ancient
artifact found in Nineveh back in 2000 BC. And we can see that there,
here’s this man who has a long beard holding a reindeer with the nevergreen tree,
who they considered immortal. And he was a giver of gifts and he was celebrated
every December 25th. And then this other picture depicts the Victorian,
What they pictured Santa Claus at and he has the exact same things as what the
Ninevites Depicted way back when
so here’s another picture of Odin and I found this one really interesting that he’s
He’s sitting on a horse with eight legs and That represents that’s where we get the
reindeer. It almost looks like it’s an AI generated horse. Right.
But the other interesting thing that hit me when I saw this is what he’s wearing
and of course the color of the horse that he is riding. And we read in revelations
about what Christ will be wearing and riding when he comes.
So the similarities are like exact.
So we’re going to go over some of the things that,
you know, the similarities between Jesus Christ and Santa Claus. The first one is,
is Jesus Christ, as we read in Isaiah in Revelation, that he has a beard and his
hair is white and like wool. Santa Claus has the exact same thing.
Number two, Christ, as we’re told Matthew and a DNC will come as a thief in the
night. Well, Santa Claus, he gains access into a home like a thief in the night.
That’s still your cookies. Yeah, that’s still your cookies.
Number three, how do you say it? Omniscient. So Christ is omniscient,
he’s all -knowing,
and so is Santa Claus. He knows if you’ve been bad or good all year long.
Christ is a giver of gifts, and he is the ultimate gift that he gave to us.
Santa also gives gifts. Christ wants little children to come into him.
Santa is a giver of gifts, and wants little children to come to him. Christ is a
righteous judge. Santa judges whether children are good or bad.
We know that in the time of his birth he’s referred to as the Christ child.
Chris Kringle means Christ child.
“Christ is the Lord of hosts. Santa is a Lord over hosts of elves,
which are druidic demons or tree spirits.
We are told to come boldly to the throne of grace to get to receive help in time
of need.
Children are taught to approach Santa’s throne and ask him for anything they want,
Christ is absolute truth and Santa is an absolute lie and a myth and a fable and
we’ve all been taught that you know even Satan will tell 99 truths and one lie and
we can see here that thing on this list about Christ is absolute truth, but yet
there’s the one lie on Santa side. So we see the similarities that they depict
Christ and that Santa’s just like him. So the definition of Old Nick in the Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic religions means he’s the chief spirit of evil and the
adversary of God, the tempter of mankind and the master of hell. The synonyms are
Beelzebub, the devil, Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, Satan, and the tempter.
So old Nick literally means Satan.
So some of the other Christmas traditions that we do is, you know, we all say
Santa says ho, ho, ho. Well, where this tradition really comes from is back in the
16th century, when Satan was being announced into a play,
they’d have plays, and this is how Satan would announce that he was entering the
stage. He would use this exact term.
The mistletoe is connected to drunken orgies, and that’s why we kiss under the
mistletoe.
And then the 12 Days of Christmas actually comes from the Feast of Saturnalia, which
was 12 days long. And there’s a lot of history in that feast that I would
recommend going and learning about.
So the elves, Santa’s little helpers, they are so cute and adorable. And like on
Root off the red nose reindeer, you know that you can hear the little song that
they sing and they’re helping to make the toys for all the children to bring them
joy and this when When I was studying and learning all of this stuff and I shared
it with my family I had a daughter. She was about 16 or 17 year olds and this
part was the most disturbing for her
So the truth about the elves is they’re actually called Krampus and they’re dark
helpers and what these Krampus do is they’re the ones that punish the bad children
by either whipping them, drowning them, eating them, or taking them to hell.
And this tradition started back in Germany and Austria and it is still celebrated
today. This is a modern day Krampus, and they have parades that there are hundreds
that participate in, and it is a big to do. And for me personally,
this looks like walking into Halloween.
It’s just, it’s terrifying. And so just in case you Think I’m photoshopped these or
did some crazy and I’m making this up I did I found a video on YouTube that goes
into the history of it all Been real quick. Can you guys see this up top?
Just
Helpers is the thing I can see at the top. Okay, so you can’t see all my okay
for some reason Make sure when you share your screen again Like I don’t know when
you did originally that you click on the boxes of sharing audio if there’s audio So
if you didn’t check those boxes, you might have to unshare and then reshare
Can you not hear me? No, I’m for the video
Okay, did you hear this the silver and gold? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we saw that so never
mind. You’re good. Yeah, okay But you might want to Click optimize video.
Okay, because that’s probably what was choking the stream there Okay.
All right, so now you’ll have to like stop share real quick Okay, stop share and
then share and make sure you click the box that says Now
where’d my screen go?
Did you share your, well, maybe I’ll share your PowerPoint.
Where’s my PowerPoint? That’s what I lost.
So when you click, when you click on the share button, you’ll be able to choose
that window.
Can you see it?
Can you see it in here, Ben? I just see you.
You haven’t shared your screen yet. Share the PowerPoint. There it is.
Okay, I lost the main thing. Sorry. I’m not technical savvy.
Sorry.
Maybe if you log out And then lock in. Can you see it now?
I see your PowerPoint on the edge. I see global news.
Okay, all right, got it. Yeah, yeah, you’re good. Here we go.
Unsere Masken sehen es eigentlich Krampusmasken und betreuten eigentlich das Böse.
Und die werden durch den Bercht eigentlich vertrieben.
Der Krampus ist der Begleiter vom heiligen Nikolaus, der bestraft eigentlich die bösen
Kinder. Und da gibt es noch die Bercht, Das sind nur in die Raunechse unterwegs,
also das ist ein bisschen jenergertes eine und die dreimögliche Wind aus.
Weil es einfach ein Homa ist dabei sein zu dürfen, wir kommen aus Kärnten, haben
wir weiter reisen hinter uns und es ist einfach im München ein Homa zu laufen.
Die ist halt uns sehr wichtig und das gehört dazu. Es ist mega cool, ich finde
dies ja das erste Mal hier, ich kenne es auch überhaupt nicht. Und es ist mega,
dass wir so ein Witz erleben und es ist auch schon echt witzig. Das muss man schon
sagen, macht schon viel Spaß. Just seeing the different variations on campus, it’s so
fun in the different sized bells and the anticipation of hearing them before you see
them, it’s incredible.
Das Besondere, er ist ein absoluter Krampus -Fan und das haben wir ihm seit zwei
Jahren versprochen. Aufgrund Corona ist es er nicht gegangen und jetzt ist es heuer
die Premiere von ihm vom Krampuslau.
And so after this prey during the day, these crampus stay out in the streets at
night and they go around and they whip people with those willow branches or whatever
they have in their hand and it’s just, I mean, I don’t know about you, but as a
kid, I’d rather take the lump of coal than have this come into my house to take
me ’cause I was naughty all, yeah. At least there’s some benefits to coal, it keeps
you warm.
So, Is Christmas about Christ’s birth? And is this what God and Christ think?
So for the last, I think it’s been about 15, 20 years they really started come out
with this picture with Santa Claus kneeling at the manger of the baby Jesus.
And in Mark, it says, “How be it in vain, Do they worship me?
Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men, for laying aside the commandment of
God, ye hold the traditions of men. And he said unto them,
full well you reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own traditions.”
So here God is telling us that we are worshiping him in vain because we do it
with our traditions and not what God has told us in the way that we are to
worship Him.
So what are some definitions of worship? You’ve got adored reverence, revere,
venerate, to honor or show reverence for as a divine or supernatural power,
and to prize above everything else. Well, what’s idol worship definitions?
We’ve got a person or a thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. Same
words, right? Any person or thing regarded with blind admiration,
adoration, or devotion, and an image or statue or thing that is regarded as equal
to or greater than God. And I think
we can say that Santa Claus has probably hit that. So is Christmas really about
Christ’s birth? Or is it about do we spend more time fretting over our Christmas
trees and our presents and the decorations? And I know we’ve all driven by homes
that look like this. I mean how much time and money was spent in this and I’m
sure that somewhere in there There’s a nativity scene, so it’s okay. You know,
they’ve got Christ in there, so it’s about Christ, right? And you know what?
We looked at our own lives. How much time and effort did we put into Christmas
that was all about the trees, the decorations, and the presents? How much time did
we really spend on Christ. So again, the definitions of worship.
The scriptures say, “Ye shall do my judgments and keep mine ordinances to walk
therein. I am the Lord your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy,
for I am the Lord your God. Ye shall fear every man as mother and as Father,
and keep my sabbaths, I am the Lord your God, turn ye not unto idols,
or make to yourselves molten gods, I am the Lord your God.”
Here he says, “Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinances, that ye commit not any one
of these abominable customs, which were committed
that you need to plial not yourselves therein. I am the Lord your God.” So this is
being written in this is Moses telling the children of Israel.
So he says these abominable customs which were committed before you.
So he’s telling them these things were done before you guys even existed and I’m
warning you about them. They may look a little different
And, but you’re going, he’s kind of warned him, you’re going to do the same things
that Nimrod and the Tower of Babel and all those people did. And again,
he’s telling us, I’m the Lord, your God, you need to worship me.
Here again in Deuteronomy, he’s given them that they need to throw the altars down,
break the pillars, burn their groves and hewed down the graven images of their gods
and destroy the names of them out of that place. This is what he’s giving his
instructions to when they go into the promised land that he has given them. This is
what they are to do. And he says, “You shall not do so unto the Lord your God.
Don’t take what they had before and bring it and give it to me. Completely destroy
everything they had and did.” Says, “You shall not do after all the things that we
do here this day. Every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.” I hear this a
lot that, well, Christmas isn’t pagan to me. That’s not what it means to me.
God doesn’t care what it means to us. We’re not to do what we think is right in
our own eyes. We need to look at what God tells us.
He goes on to say, “When thy Lord shall cut off the nations before thee, whether
thou goest to possess them, and thou succedest them, and dwellest in their lands,
take heed to thyself, that thou be not snared by following them after that they be
destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying,
How did these nations serve their gods? Even so, will I do likewise? When he gave
the instructions to Moses to take the children of Israel, he told them to wipe out
everything, buildings, men, women, children, the cat, I mean, animals, just everything,
their trees. He needed them to wipe it clean. And why? ‘Cause he knew if they had
anything left of what the heathens did, that they would inquire after it.
He says, “Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God, for every abomination to the
Lord, which he hatheth, have they done unto their gods, for even their sons and
their daughters they have burnt in the fires to their gods.”
So basically if they take the traditions of the heathens and they try and
Christianize it and make it cute and fun and innocent, the Lord is saying,
“Don’t do that, don’t take any of it.” That is not how I’ve asked to be worshiped.
He says, “Whatever, what things so ever I command you, observe to do it.” Our very
first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Christ was asked,
“Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” And Jesus said unto him,
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
So is Christmas really about Christ’s birth, or is it about the trees and the
presents and the decorations? Should we use these things, Christmas trees,
elves, reindeer to celebrate Christ? That’s not to say that God doesn’t,
that he’s totally against holidays and celebrations, it’s just the opposite. We are
never instructed to celebrate Christmas, but God does tell us to celebrate several
holidays in the Bible, which we find in Leviticus 23. And what’s amazing about these
biblical holidays is that they’re all about Christ, and they completely and totally
focus on Him. So if we truly want a holiday to celebrate the gift of Christ.
We already have seven that come straight out of the Bible.
We need to remember that Satan’s greatest weapon is man’s ignorance of God’s word.
Jeremiah, speaking of our day, says, “O Lord, my strength and my fortress and my
refuge in the day of affliction. “The Gentile shall come unto thee from the ends of
the earth, and shall say, ‘Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things
wherein there is no profit.'” Wilford Woodruff speaks exactly on this.
He says, “We must lay aside our selfishness and our false principles that we have
imbibed and that have been taught to us from our infancy,
in order that we may obtain the blessings and power of God. Speaking of the
gathering in the last days, when they would come together, wake up from their
drowsiness, get to understand principle and see their true position,
they will say, surely our fathers have inherited lies and things wherein there is no
profit. And it is truly so, for we can already say that our fathers have inherited
lives, and we have inherited many of their traditions. Brigham Young says we are not
capacitated to throw off in one day all our traditions and our pre pre possessed
feelings and notions, but have to do it a little by little. It is a gradual
process, advancing from one step to another. And as we lay off our false traditions
and foolish notions, we receive more and more light. And thus we grow in grace.
And if we continue so to grow, we shall be prepared eventually to receive the Son
of Man. And that is what we are after.
Ezra T. Benson says, “When shall we be fully delivered from the eruptions of the
world and from the influence of the false traditions of our fathers, which our
fathers have taught us? The sooner we can overcome these and follow faithfully and
to the letter, and to the letter, the instructions of the Holy Spirit,
the better it will be for us as individuals and as people. So as we can see,
Christ and the Apostles never celebrated Christmas. This is a holiday that was
invented centuries later, but they did celebrate the biblical holy days.
The biblical holy days, in addition to the weekly Sabbath day, remained central
practices of the faith of the Apostles long after the resurrection of Christ and you
can find these in the book of Acts. The Apostle Paul even instructed the Gentile
Christians at the Church of Corinth to observe Passover and that’s found in 1
Corinthians. In addition to the holy days in Leviticus 23,
Christ celebrated another holiday, one that occurs right around the Christmas season.
The Gospel of John records to a wint to the temple for the Feast of Dedications,
which is Hanukkah. Hanukkah is an amazing celebration that commemorates the
rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. – Hey, Becky. – We not only remember,
what was that? – Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to make sure that
what you’re saying now isn’t supposed to be on the screen.
Is that you’re still on Ezra T. Benson, correct? – Yep. – Okay, sorry, thank you.
– You’re fine. So we not only remember the victory of the Maccabees, but also the
victory we have in our Savior. He took back our personal temples from the enemy and
dedicated us to God. The Hanukkah season is all about a righteous group of believers
who refuse to turn away from God’s ways. A message desperately needed in our modern
culture of compromise. As we’ve seen, we have tons of options when it comes to
holidays celebrating our Savior. And contrary to Christmas, these holidays have a
basis in the Bible and the lifestyle of the apostles. With any of the man -made
holidays, we need to ask ourselves, “Is it biblical? Is it of God?” Clearly
Christmas is not a biblical holiday. We don’t need Christmas to celebrate Christ, the
birth of Christ. We can do that every day in our thoughts, our words, and our
deeds. It’s a tragedy that biblical holy days have basically been replaced by
holidays like Christmas in the lives of most believers.
So God and Christ are waiting for us. Christ stands at the door ready for us to
open it and let him in. Now, how is this all tied to liberty?
Well, we’re told in the scriptures that where there is liberty, there is God.
We can all see and we all understand and know that we have lost most,
many, if not most of our freedoms already, and it is continuing to happen.
It isn’t, is that not why most of us are here in the Tree of Liberty Society is
we want to learn what we can do to regain those lost freedoms.
Our nation has become a godless nation. And in order to build Zion,
which is our only refuge from what is coming. And to have the son of man return,
we must be living lives that are solely dedicated to God. And to do this,
we must worship him in the way he has commanded, and when he has commanded.
So I got a few minutes left is and do you have anything you want to add or there
any questions? I don’t have anything to add but I think that was fantastic and I
appreciate the work that you put into that but since we do have some time it’d be
good to open it up to questions that people might have you can either unmute
yourself or put it in the chat but I you know that’s fantastic thank you. I have
something to add.
Wow.
This was very impressive and what’s comes out in this to me over the last 20 some
years since my divorce. Christmas has had less and less of a meaning to me that it
just doesn’t seem like what it used to be and I was like you earlier Every year
my wife and I would spend, you know, four or five thousand dollars on Christmas
every year, and I could never wrap my mind around why we were doing that.
And then after the divorce, it started to, I looked at it with a different light,
like, what are we doing this for? This is about making companies rich. This isn’t
about celebrating Christ or his life or his mission. And so I like the way you
presented this. this was very well done. It was amazing and I’m so glad I’m here
tonight. Thank you. Thank you. I also want to make a comment about Hanukkah.
My son and his family, they do Hanukkah and they love the stories. They teach their
boys the stories, but they were talking about it the other day because it’s the
season right now. And when the enemy came and desecrated the temple,
they went to the Maccabee son. They killed the father and they went to the son and
they told him that if he would sacrifice the pigs in the temple and he would
desecrate, he would be a part of their trashing the Lord’s plan and his place,
that they would give him all honor and glory and save him and he said, “No.” and
so they went to the next guy and promised him all of that and he went to the
temple and the Maccabee guy went and slayed it. I can’t remember how the words are
but he went immediately with Hoover and slew his fellow Jew to keep him from
desecrating God’s stuff. Right. They loved that because immediately He stood up for
what was wrong and righted the wrong, even though it cost them all of that,
and then there was this miracle of Hanukkah, so I might not have told that very
well, but you get it.
Yeah, the story of the Maccabees, I highly encourage people to go read it because
it’s so much should be our story that
We stand up and immediately like that. It was, it was instant. The guy grabbed a
sword and he stabbed that guy and killed the guy that was gonna do the sacrifice.
And then he went and killed the Greek soldier too. – He grabbed the sword from the
soldier. – So yeah, and then after this, I mean, this family was on the run and I
think it was, there weren’t very many of them. I think started out I want to say
eight which is like okay Noah started out with eight so you know you see this
pattern through scriptures but I mean it was it was a small crowd and they and
then they just started gathering people who could see you know that’s what they
needed to do and and it they were at war with I mean here is basically the
largest nation on the earth at the time the biggest army And here’s this family
going up against the impossible odds, right? And three and a half years,
which I also find interesting, and they defeated the Great Army and took back God’s
temple and dedicated it back to Him, cleaned it out and dedicated it.
May I make a comment really quick? So I was just gonna say I think also symbolism
is so critical, right? I mean for me an inverted five -pointed star means something
to me the rainbow means something to me a Christmas tree Also means something
similar to what Brigham Young thought of it. And I think at times this conversation,
which I agree with every single thing that you’ve presented tonight, Beck, and I
think you did a fantastic job with it,
I would just also say that the little bit of research that I’ve done into this
particular topic, I have
an understanding that individuals that I greatly respect, whether that was Joseph
Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, all celebrated Christmas.
And to me, that creates a bit of a concern, especially with these type of messages
about what it has become, somewhat of what a five -pointed inverted star means. It’s
adorned on the Salt Lake Temple that was designed by Brigham Young. And I think
certainly symbols as a and can be understood from a multitude of purposes,
right? I choose to agree with the, and of course,
it’s the carol of the 12 days of Christmas, right? Where the true love would be
Christ, that the two turtledoves were the Old and New Testament, that the three
French horns stood for faith, hope, and love, that that the four Coimbers were the
four Gospels, that the five Golden Rings were the five books of the Old Testament,
that the six Gisa lanes stood for the six days of creation, that the seven swans
of swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, that would be piety,
knowledge, fortitude, fear of God, counsel, understanding, and wisdom, that the nine
ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Spirit that I think we’re all familiar
with, that the eight maids in milking were the eight beatitudes.
The ten lords of leaping were the ten commandments.
And of course, the 12 drummers drumming symbolize the 12 points of belief in the
Apostles Creed, which I’ll read here because I think it’s so beautiful. It says, “I
believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus
Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary, he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died
and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended
into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to
judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic
Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of body
and the everlasting life. I mentioned all this because, again, I think these
symbolisms are so critical as it relates to how God creates and Satan imitates.
And I’m not chastising anyone to believe or do Christmas if you stop by my house
right now. I don’t have a tree here and we’re not planning on doing a tree. But I
mention this just because I think it’s also critical to understand. Sometimes
symbolism has been right? Like, to me, the rainbow will always mean something
amazing, you know, that promise it was given. And again, what a theft that has been
committed for that to, you know, now represent this heinous union of this LGBT mafia
that goes on today. But that doesn’t mean I have any less affiliation and love for
the true meaning of that. So I guess I would just echo everything that you’ve said
as being true and accurate and just wanted to maybe point out slightly because I’ve
also been affected by thinking, man, I guess I should adopt a new creed because
Brigham Young played the role of old Santa Claus and would point to,
Yeah, maybe I can’t follow somebody who celebrated that but I think if as I’ve
looked into the meaning of it Just like these other things I’ve alluded to probably
spoke too long, but wanted to at least get that out there
I have comments. Thank you. If I could yeah, I have not my last Christmas that I
celebrated in the traditional way with Gifts and with decorations was the Christmas
of 2005. That was the last time and the Lord gifted me with a special experience
that nothing could touch. I could not get from that new experience by anything else.
The feeling, I could not get it through Christmas and I totally abandon.
I don’t listen to the music anymore and I have never ever been so satisfied with a
decision as I have with that one. When Christmas of 2006 was coming up,
I just knew that I could not duplicate anything.
So it’s doable. It’s doable. And tonight at family home evening,
one of the young men there, one of the residents here where I live, he says,
“Well, you’re ready for Christmas. And I says, I’m always ready.
That’s what I say. So do it, everybody. You can do it.
You just, it’s just a decision. That’s all it is. It’s just a decision.
Go. I’m done.
Ben, did you want to officially end it? And then we can. Yeah, we should have a
closing prayer and then we can have open form so let’s go ahead and do that and
I’m gonna ask um see here who would I like to ask I would like to jump in Jay
would you be willing to say the closing prayer for us please.
Sure thing. Awesome thanks.
Our father in heaven we’d be grateful for This day and this organization which we
are able to participate in and and Father, please help us to continue to be able
to strengthen
in the principles of liberty in ourselves and with those that we associate with and
and be
Mighty in thy sight and plus us all with thy spirit and we’re grateful for the
beautiful place in which we live and we say these things in the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen. Amen.
