His Highest for Our Lowest | Randy Roberts 11-28-20 (part 1 of 5)

What is the key message of Christmas? In a world concerned with upward mobility and success, what might the incarnation of Jesus suggest to us?
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[@georgedgomes]

Truly blessed by this message. God bless you.

[@debwebber9133]

Thank you pastor Roberts I was very moved very touched it was a wonderful wonderful sermon thank you so much God bless you stay safe you and your family many many blessings

[@theway5563]

A message of the world. Not a message for the times in which we live. For itchy ears. So sad.

[@ethelineewers5480]

Thank you Pastor for this message God bless you 🙏

[@Annieh-ii5jx]

Randy, did you go to SMC/SAU? I remember your name from somewhere.

[@sheac.sagpaey3679]

I thought Adventists don't believe the "Christmas"??

[@seekertruth3577]

Seems like the SDA church has changed over a period of time.
For your perusal find below a number of interesting statements I've copied and pasted.
“Practically everything Protestants regard as essential or important they have received from the Catholic Church… The Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in … observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.” - Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5, 1950.
“In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchanging of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and central Europe. Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edit. Vol. II, p. 903).
"Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the HEATHEN, at that precise time of the year, in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed." Ibid, pg 93
It is beyond doubt that Christmas was originally a pagan festival. The time of the year and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. Isis, the Egyptian title for the "queen of heaven," gave birth to a son at this very time, about the time of the winter solstice. The term "Yule" is the Chaldee (Babylonian) name for "infant" or "little child."
This pagan festival not only commemorated the figurative birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but it also was celebrated (on December 24) among the Sabeans of Arabia, as the birthday of the "Lord Moon."
In Babylon, where the sun (Baal) was the object of worship, Tammuz was considered the incarnation of the Sun.
"In the Hindu mythology, which is admitted to be essentially Babylonian, this comes out very distinctly. There, Surya, or the Sun, is represented as being incarnate, and born for the purpose of subduing the enemies of the gods, who without such a birth, could not have been subdued." Ibid pg 96
"According to a Roman almanac, The Christian festival of Christmas was celebrated in Rome by A.D. 336. During the 4th century the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted.
"The traditional customs connected with Christmas have developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan agricultural and solar observances at mid-winter. December 25 was regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. . . The ecclesiastical calendar retains numerous remnants of pre-Christian festivals- notably Christmas, which blends elements including both the feast of the Saturnalia and the birthday of the god Mithra." Encyclopedia Britannica,1976 edition; Micropedia II, pg 903, Macropedia 15, pg 1063.
Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).
The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”
Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice-the return of the sun-and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 AD, after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak-some would say its worst moments-in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”
Human tradition is not the scared scripture. It is simply human tradition. These religious leaders were false teachers because they ignored the sacred scriptures and taught their traditions as divine truth. Jesus rebuked them for their false teaching. Later they killed Him.