Equipping Eve: The War on Christmas

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

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Well, it's true, there is no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

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My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

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Well, hello ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benzinger, and this is the show that seeks to equip you with fruits of truth from God's Word, because we are surrounded by teaching that claims to be

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Christian, but actually isn't Christian. And we are surrounded by people who love to profess

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Christ in certain instances when it's convenient to them, when they need help, when they're in trial, when they're in tragedy, then it's okay to call out to God, then it's okay to call out to Christ, it's okay for celebrities and the public to call for prayer in the midst of a terror attack, but any other time that we speak of the

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God of the universe, no, how dare you? How dare you speak the name of Christ any other time than in tragedy?

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And so that is the day we live in, but ladies, God has given us His Word. It is true, it is inerrant, it is infallible, it is inspired, and we can know that everything in there is objective truth, and it is where we go for everything that we need to know pertaining to life and godliness, and that is what we do here at Equipping Eve.

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We look at the truth so that we can discern the error.

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A lot of people like to talk about the error, maybe just trickle a little bit of truth in at the end of their blog post or their podcast, but that's not how that works, because focusing on the error isn't going to save anybody.

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Maybe it will convince them that whatever teaching they're involved in is not good, but if they don't know where to go to find the truth, you haven't really done them a service, you've probably driven them to another false teaching.

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So that is why it is so vital that we focus on the truth, that we focus on Christ, and that we don't always focus on the error.

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We are faithful to call it out when we see it, but we do not make it our focus.

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Likewise, we do not make our focus us. And I know that sounds a little strange as I sit here basically talking to myself into a microphone so that you can hear this, but there are also

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Christian ministries where if you listen carefully, they actually spend more time talking about themselves than they do about anything else, and there are pastors like this as well.

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They get up, they tell an anecdote, and then they expound on that for 45 minutes and maybe toss in a half -used

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Bible verse here and there just so they can talk about how amazing they are and all the things that God has allegedly done in their life.

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That's not what it's about. It is not about bringing the focus to us.

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It is about bringing the focus to Christ. So ladies, I would urge you to test all things against Scripture and to listen carefully to the teachers that you do listen to, whether it is pastors on podcasts or radio shows on podcasts, because they are out there where if you listen carefully, you will start to notice that the focus is actually on something other than Christ.

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There may be a lot of truth being proclaimed, but who is being glorified? So I would encourage you to be discerning that way as well, ladies.

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And speaking of it not being about us, let's take a look at the

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Just Be Awesome calendar that we like to reference here at Equipping Eve, based on a book called

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You're Already Amazing by Holly Gerth, my little flip calendar here. We call it

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Just Be Awesome at Equipping Eve. And yesterday's entry says, Really?

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Really? Actually just when we thought maybe you were focusing on Christ, she brings it back to you, because you're already amazing, according to Holly Gerth.

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And so Holly Gerth needs a lesson in who it really is about. And it is not about you.

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It is not about Holly Gerth. It is about Christ. So ladies, as I tape this, we are approaching

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Christmas season, the holiday season. So as we approach

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Christmas season, we hear a lot of bluster about keeping

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Christ in Christmas. We hear a lot of professing Christians who get very, very angry when

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Christ is supposedly stripped out of Christmas by the world. How dare that store not say

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Merry Christmas? How dare they hang a sign that says Happy Holiday?

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Okay, let's take a step back, shall we? Let's consider this whole quote -unquote war on Christmas.

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What is it really, and who is really waging the war on Christmas?

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Now here in 2015, we've had a very weird, very pastor,

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I believe he calls himself a pastor, I would use the term rather loosely, got very outraged at Starbucks for taking

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Christ out of Christmas. So Starbucks, as many of you ladies probably know, always does their special holiday red cups at Christmastime.

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They usually bring them out around November, sometime thereabouts. And oftentimes, most years, they have little drawings and pictures on them.

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There the cup is red, and maybe there's ice skaters, reindeer, stockings, Christmas trees.

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There's just, there's nothing inherently religious about it because, let's face it, it's Starbucks. They support the homosexual agenda.

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They are an incredibly liberal company. In my opinion, they have decent coffee. You know, but aside from that, they're hardly a

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Christian organization. We all know this, okay? Whether or not you want to boycott

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Starbucks for its convictions is on you. That's a personal preference.

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But the point is, they always decorated their red cups. Well, this year, Starbucks, with very little fanfare, decided that their cups would just be plain red.

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Now, I like red. Red is my favorite color. I like the red cups.

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I think they're very nice. I like simple. Well, this pastor did one of those selfie videos because it is all about us after all.

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Seriously, don't be posting selfies on Facebook. How annoying is that? Can I take a tangent?

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I mean, really, how many selfies do I need to see of you people? No, it's just epitome of narcissism.

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And I really wish our young people especially would take a step back and look at their social media feeds.

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I know we are all guilty of being a bit narcissistic on social media and elsewhere.

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But really, the selfie is just the cram of the crop. Oh, and then don't you love when people take pictures of like their coffee cup and their

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Bible and their journal and their little devotional and it's like, oh, look how religious

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I am. It's really just another way to point back to you. It all comes back to this narcissism that permeates

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Christianity. And so, that was a tangent. Perhaps a discussion for another day.

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So, this pastor takes this little video on his cell phone and just rants against Starbucks.

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Now, as we said, Starbucks is not a Christian organization. We have no expectation that they should be

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Christian and their cups have never displayed any sort of religious message, short of having a

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Rick Warren quotes on them at one time. Which, let's face it, that's also not any sort of expression of religion because it's Rick Warren.

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So, there is no reason for Christians to be upset over this. Now, in the defense of broader

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Christianity, I think very few true Christians actually have jumped on this bandwagon. However, a couple of good articles did come out regarding this.

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And so, I thought we'd just touch base on this as we start to discuss this so -called war on Christmas.

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So, over at the Master's Seminary, Nathan Busenitz has written an article entitled

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Starbucks, Christmas, and Christians. And he describes this issue and he gets three thoughts in response to the whole red cup controversy.

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And he makes a very easy, obvious point and says, the true meaning of Christmas is not found in pictures of reindeer, snowflakes,

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Christmas trees, etc. Consequently, to remove those kinds of pictures does not constitute a war on Christmas.

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He was on, he says, how can the removal of winter -themed doodles constitute a war on Christmas when none of those doodles represented the true meaning of Christmas in the first place?

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For my part, I don't think it does, especially when the company provides an explanation for its motivation that seems entirely believable.

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It is also important to add that Starbucks is not a Christian company. Whether or not believers want to boycott Starbucks or any other business is a matter of their own

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Christian liberty. But it seems unreasonable to expect Starbucks or any other secular business to promote a consistently

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Christian worldview in the secular marketplace. Amen and amen. Busenitz goes on, his second thought is that this supposed war on Christmas should not be classified as persecution against Christians.

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Yeah, he's right. Real persecution may soon be coming to the

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American church, he says, but this is not that. When individuals like Joshua Feuerstein, who is the pastor who did this, create a firestorm of controversy over something like this red cup controversy, they unnecessarily escalate feelings of antagonism and ill will in the eyes of the watching world.

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Rather than defending Christmas, these kinds of sensational outbursts do more harm, do more to harm than help, the church's testimony to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And Dr. Busenitz's, is that how you say it?

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Dr. Nathan's third response to the red cup controversy is that a

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Christian response to the unbelieving world at Christmas time should focus on the gospel, not on a

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Starbucks cup design. The true meaning of Christmas is the reality of the incarnation, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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Born in a manger in Bethlehem, the Lord Jesus lived a sinless life and died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for sin, so that those who embrace him in saving faith might be forgiven and reconciled to God.

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That, writes Dr. Busenitz, is the true message of Christmas, that God became man so that as a perfect man he might reconcile sinful men and women to God.

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When believers allow themselves to get distracted by silly controversies about cup designs, or other things

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I would add, they can easily lose sight of what this holiday season is about. It is not about snowflakes, reindeer, and evergreen trees, it is about the reality that sinners can be saved eternally by believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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It should be our joy to share that message with the unbelieving world around us. I think

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Dr. Busenitz makes a lot of really important points that may be obvious to you ladies, and I think those

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Christians who are in the word and seek to be separate from the world will see those things and say, well yeah, duh.

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But there are those Christians who don't see it, and it takes one person to start riling them up and they jump on the bandwagon because that's what we do.

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And it is important ladies, if you come across a person like that, that you would point them back to the truth.

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And so I think Dr. Busenitz did that in a very clear, simple manner, and he makes some really important points.

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Now on that note, there was another excellent, excellent article that came out that, you know, again it's kind of, it was spawned, if you will, it was inspired by this whole

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Starbucks controversy, which is just ridiculous and not really worth much of our time, but it addresses a broader problem.

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So this article was posted on November 11th, 2015 over at the blog at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, and I do visit this blog frequently, so I do recommend it.

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And as always, we'll put a link to this article on the Equipping Eve .com,

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you can access the blog there, and that is where we put the links up that include any articles or resources that we reference here on the show.

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So this article is written by Mark Snowberger, and it's called The Displeasures of God, Shenanigans of a

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Christian Masochist. He writes, we've been hearing a lot of warnings these last few years about the coming persecution of Christians, and a look around the globe reveals that public sentiment really is turning perceptibly against Christians, chiefly abroad, but with fresh harbingers here on American soil, in relation to the harbinger of Jonathan Cahn, might

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I add. Unfortunately, he writes, these warnings have fostered a troubling response among some well -meaning believers.

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Rather than making requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity, because this is good and pleases

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God our Savior, a rather sizable group of believers have begun, rather unquietly and unpeacefully, to incite persecution by saying and doing ungodly and undignified things, which is to say they are doing something bad that displeases

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God. He says that this whole Starbucks Red Cup fiasco is the latest in a string of these efforts by such

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Christians, and he does acknowledge that he's seen hardly any

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Christians join this cause, and he's very grateful for that, but he says, still this season we'll see more than one frustrated blog post and Facebook blurb on this topic, and even a tense moment or two at the local department store between some quote -unquote

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Christian shopper and a clerk who, despite her weariness, cheerily says happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

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Dear Christian, he says, please do not do this. Note the following, writes Mark Snowberger, it is not civil society's responsibility to acknowledge

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Christmas, and you cannot force them to do so. Christianity has already tried this more than once, and it did not turn out well.

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Remember what happened when Rome baptized not only their own armies, but also the Gauls and Goths and company under duress?

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Bad move. If a store or a clerk or a gas station attendant doesn't like Christmas, you can't compel him to do so.

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It will only make him hate Christ more, and with good reason. Please stop, he says, you are hurting the gospel.

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He goes on, he says, point number two, what the world celebrates as Christmas has almost nothing to do with Christ.

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We're much better off extracting Christ from what the world does. You do realize, don't you, that when stores use

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Jesus and Christmas in their advertising, it's just a marketing ploy, right? Same with Santa Claus and decorated trees and sparkly snowflakes.

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I'm rather relieved, he says, that stores are gradually weaning themselves off the use of Jesus as cheap advertising.

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Seeing Christ associated with this selfish rumpus has long been grotesque to me, and I'm rather happy to see it end.

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So if you are agitating to keep Christ in that expression of Christmas, please stop.

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You are hurting Christ. When Christians start demanding, point number three, privileged status for their faith, then whine about being persecuted when they don't get it.

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This radically emboldens the antipathy that secular culture already harbors toward us, and accelerates the onset of true persecution.

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In 1st Timothy 2, Paul calls on believers to pray for tolerance, not for privilege.

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Christians who agitate for Christian privilege through a militant defense of Christmas in civil society are not only wrong, they also exhaust every shred of accumulated sympathy that they might otherwise receive when real persecution finally arrives in America.

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Please stop. You are hurting the church. Ladies, Mark Snowburger makes some amazing, amazing points in this article.

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Stop it. Stop expecting the world to act like the church.

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Instead, expect the world to act like the world, and you act like the church. It's your job to spread the gospel.

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If you want to say Merry Christmas to the clerk even though she is only, by rule, allowed to say

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Happy Holidays, that's okay. Do that. That's what I do. But don't get upset with her because she's been told she'll be fired if she says

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Merry Christmas. It's not a sin to say Happy Holidays, and we should not expect a secular company to proclaim the gospel, to exalt

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Christ. As Snowburger says, any mention or use of Jesus in Christmas is a marketing ploy by the world so that stupid, naive

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Christians will go, oh hey, they must be Christian. Let's go buy there because they use Jesus. They said Merry Christmas.

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Let's go shopping there. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And that's why also ridiculous are things like the annual

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American Family Association naughty or nice list. I am no fan of the

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American Family Association, and this ridiculous list that they come out with every year is case in point.

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You know, they list these retailers that, oh well, these ones, let's see, the nice ones are an

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AFA five -star rated company that promotes and celebrates Christmas on an exceptional basis or a company that uses the term

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Christmas on a regular basis, and they consider that company Christmas friendly. Then they have marginal ones that only use the word

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Christmas infrequently. Then they have the naughty stores that use Christmas sparingly, but they don't recognize it as a company.

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So those ones you're supposed to boycott, you know. So who's on the nice list? Oh, well, they got Hobby Lobby, and you think, yeah,

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Hobby Lobby, that's a Christian store. They play hymns on the loudspeaker. I'm not here to pass judgment on Hobby Lobby or the

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Green Family, but let's just say I was in there the other day and over the loudspeaker they were playing the song

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Santa Baby. So not sure how Bible Christmas friendly they truly are.

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And then you go down this list, and I see Target on the list of nice stores that use the word

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Christmas on a regular basis. So American Family Association says that Target then is okay to shop at. This is the same

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American Family Association that was up in arms a year or so ago when Target was promoting the homosexual agenda.

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And remember that Target does promote this. Target is the one that has gender -neutral toy signs.

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I'm not saying don't shop at Target. I shop at Target all the time. But do you see the inconsistency?

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American Family Association makes a big deal out of the ridiculous naughty and nice list, but then they're completely inconsistent with what they say about the same store later.

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I mean, why are you boycotting a store just because they don't use the word Christmas? Or why are you shopping at a store because they do use the word

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Christmas? It's ridiculous. It's not logical. And it comes from a lack of sound doctrine.

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It comes from margin Christianity that focuses on a me -centered gospel instead of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And so when we make a big deal out of this and say we're being persecuted because, I don't know, pick your store at Starbucks won't say

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Merry Christmas to you, that is not persecution. And as Mark Snowberger says, please stop.

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You're hurting the gospel, you're hurting Christ, and you're hurting the church. You know, another example that has come up in recent days of someone claiming religious persecution is this man in Idaho who has this very elaborate, apparently,

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Christmas display in his front yard every single year. An article at Fox News written by Todd Starnes says that this man's

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Jeremy Morris of Hayden, Idaho, loves to go all out for Christmas. His annual Christmas display includes tens of thousands of lights, a living nativity, a 22 voice choir, and a camel named

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Dolly. That sounds awful. I would not want that man in my neighborhood.

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I would do everything in my power to run him out of the neighborhood or to get him to not have his ridiculous

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Christmas display. And this man is upset because he moved to a neighborhood and the homeowners association in this new neighborhood objected to his lavish display and put

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Jeremy on their naughty list, writes Todd Starnes. They were especially upset about the religious nature of Jeremy's display as noted in a certified letter he said he received from the homeowners association board.

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We haven't seen this letter, but this man says he received it and it says that the letter read, quote,

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I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non -christians or of another faith and I don't even want to think of the problems that could bring up.

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So supposedly this is religious persecution. Attorney Scott Poorman fired off another letter on October 26 demanding that Jeremy and his wife take down their display or else face the wrath of a lawsuit.

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His letter did not mention folks who might take offense at the Christians, but he did claim the family violated a number of other rules and regulations.

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Your event will be offensive to the senses, he's right, and will interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of your neighbor's private property rights,

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Poorman wrote, and he's right. The attorney feared the bright lights, loud music, choirs, zoo animals, and are you ready for it?

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Santa Claus would cause all sorts of helter -skelter in the neighborhood. Your planned event will be a nuisance to the entire neighborhood, he wrote.

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Santa Claus, writes Todd Starnes, a nuisance? Whoever would have thought? And so this man says that the real agenda is to attack

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Christians. This is about hostility towards people of faith. I have certain religious beliefs that I hold dear to my heart, which apparently includes

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Santa Claus. He says we wanted to help people in the community and promote Christmas as the

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Christian holiday it's always been. Well then don't be annoying. Don't be so exorbitant.

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You're hurting the cause of Christ by putting up tens of thousands of lights and a choir and a camel and a

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Santa Claus running around apparently. That's not Christianity and that's not the gospel and that's not how you proclaim the gospel.

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And that, my friends, is not religious persecution. That's just common sense that you don't want that man in your neighborhood.

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And so I take the side of the Homeowners Association on that one. That is not religious persecution.

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Don't claim that it is. Stop hurting the cause of Christ by making an issue out of things that are not an issue.

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We will be persecuted more and more in America. In other countries it is already happening and has been happening.

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In America we have been very, very blessed. Do not increase the hostility toward Christians by picking a battle that is a ridiculous battle to fight, by picking a battle that is not one that is actually in alignment with the

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Scriptures. And I point you back to the verses like Mark Snowburger used in his article, like he used 1st

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Timothy 2, 2 and 3 where he was talking about how we are to make requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives and all godliness and dignity because this is good and pleases

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God our Savior. That is how we are to be as Christians.

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Not making a ruckus over things that are not doctrinal issues.

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And so who is truly waging the war on Christmas? It's these professing

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Christians who are making a deal out of things that are not biblical anyway.

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This is not a doctrinal issue. This is not a gospel issue that Starbucks won't put an ice skater on their cup.

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It's not a doctrinal issue that the clerk at the grocery store won't say

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Merry Christmas or can't say Merry Christmas. It's not a doctrinal issue that you aren't allowed to have an insane amount of lights on your house for two months.

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Those aren't doctrinal issues. It's not persecution and by causing such an uproar over such things you are not living peaceably and you are not displaying

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Christ and you are not helping the cause of Christ. You are helping to increase hostility toward him.

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Stop it. Please stop it. The people who pick these types of battles and the people who make issues out of things that are not issues do not actually have a concept of what it is to be a

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Christian and do not actually have a concept of what the true meaning of Christmas is.

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If they did, they would know better. If they were in their

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Bibles more, the Word would be refining them and refining their mind and their thought process to understand that these are not true concerns.

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And so in the last few minutes of the show, ladies, let's remember what

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Christmas truly is about. It's about Christ. Dr.

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Busenitz had written a wonderful summary saying that Christmas is about the reality that sinners can be saved eternally by believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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And so, ladies, if you turn with me to Matthew 1, a passage that you are very, very familiar with.

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Matthew 1 verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the

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Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

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But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take

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Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Verse 21.

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She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. I have a book in front of me written by James Montgomery Boyce, a man whose teachings

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I would highly recommend to you. And the book is called The King Has Come, The Real Message of Christmas.

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And Boyce writes about this passage, and especially verse 21 and following, where the angel declares that, declares to Joseph, that you will name this child

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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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And Boyce writes, the appearance of the angel to Joseph was to explain why and how Mary was expecting a child, so that he would marry her and protect her, rather than breaking the engagement quietly.

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But the message also recognized Joseph's authority and responsibility to name Mary's child.

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Joseph was told, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

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She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save their people from their sins.

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This name had also been given to Mary when the angel appeared to her earlier. And what a name this was.

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Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Jehoshua, Yeshua, or Joshua, and it means literally,

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Jehovah is salvation. So the message to Joseph centered primarily on the great work

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Jesus was to do. Jesus was to be the agent of God's salvation, and his work was to save his people from their sins, as the angel explained clearly.

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It is unfortunate, writes Boyce, that the words savior and salvation have been so watered down in our day, because to many people they convey only a fraction of what the terms actually imply.

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Unless our way of talking about salvation makes distinctions, our interpretations fall woefully short of what the angel was talking about when he said that Jesus would save his people from their sins.

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When the Bible, he goes on, talks about salvation, primarily it is talking about salvation from sin, from its penalty and power, and this is what

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Jesus came to achieve for us. If we could save ourselves, which many of the liberal understandings of salvation suggest, there would have been no need for Jesus to have been born.

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There would have been no need for his life, his death on the cross, or his resurrection. All things, ladies, which are the point of Christmas, writes

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Boyce, but we cannot save ourselves, not from sin at all, and not even very much from the social problems sin has created.

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Jesus had to come. His birth was necessary. For that reason, the promise of the angel, embodied in the name

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Jesus, is the greatest message of the entire Christmas story, and in fact of all time.

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You were to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus fulfilled that promise when he died on the cross for our sin and rose again for our justification.

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Boyce goes on and says that the name also means that Jesus is the Savior God himself, and this is undoubtedly why

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Matthew followed up on his report of the angels' words to Joseph by referring to Isaiah's prophecy of the virgin birth, and in that prophecy it declares that the

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Messiah would be Emmanuel, God with us. For it's Boyce, it is as the incarnate

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Son of God that Jesus achieved our salvation, and it is as the eternal God -man that he now represents us and intercedes for us before the

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Father. God with us, ladies. God with us.

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That's why Christ came. Boyce reminds us that Jesus is with us in joy and sorrow and temptation, in spiritual warfare, and that he is with us to the very end.

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And then he concludes and he says, quote, there are many names for Jesus.

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The Bible is full of them. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the

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Alpha and the Omega, the Ancient of Days. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the

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Anointed One, the Messiah. He is the Prophet and the Priest. He is the Savior, the only wise

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God, our Savior. He is our wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the

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Prince of Peace. He is the Almighty. He is the Lord. He is the Door of the Sheep, the

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Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, the Shepherd and the Bishop of our souls. He is the

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Lamb, the Lamb without spot or blemish, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He is the

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Logos, the Light, the Light of the world, the Light of Life, the Tree of Life, the Word of Life, the Bread that came down from heaven, the

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Spring, which if a person drink of it he will never thirst again. He is the Way, the

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Truth, and the Life. He is the Resurrection, the Resurrection and the Life. He is our Rock, our

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Bridegroom, our Beloved. He is our Redeemer. He is the

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One who is altogether lovely. He is the Head over all things, which is His Body, the Church.

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He is God with us, Emmanuel. But above all, He is

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Jesus. Jesus. We love Him for that name because His name means

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Jehovah is Salvation, and He came to save His people from their sins."

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Ladies, with that,

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I really have nothing more worth saying. There is a war on Christmas, but it's not being waged by the world, unfortunately.

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It's being waged by those who profess Christ, and so be faithful to proclaim the gospel in this time, and choose your battles wisely, ladies, and choose your battles biblically.

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And until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.

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Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a

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No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com,

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or you can check out one of our two websites, donotbesurprised .com, or equippingeve .org.