null
  Loading... Please wait...

Christ-Mass (Christmas) = Devil Mass

 

Please scroll down for SWRB Newsletter

 

reformation-loan-5k-to-3m.png


Christ-Mass (Christmas) = Devil Mass

Posted


"Christ-Mass"(Christmas) = "Devil Mass" (Free Puritan and Reformed MP3s, Videos, Books, Etc.)


" Christmas was not celebrated by the apostolic church. It was not celebrated during the first few centuries of the church. As late as A.D. 245, Origen (Hom. 8 on Leviticus) repudiated ...the idea of keeping the birthday of Christ, "as if he were a king Pharaoh." By the middle of the 4th century, many churches in the Latin west were celebrating Christmas. During the 5th century, Christmas became an official Roman Catholic holy day. In A.D. 534, Christmas was recognized as an official holy day by the Roman state.The reason that Christmas became a church holy day has nothing to do with the Bible. The Bible does not give the date of Christ's birth. 


"The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ ... Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts; Origen, glancing perhaps at the discreditable imperial Natalitia, asserts (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) that in the Scriptures sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday ... The well-known solar feast, however, of Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date. For the history of the solar cult, its position in the Roman Empire, and syncretism with Mithraism, see Cumont's epoch-making "Textes et Monuments" etc. ... Though Rome gives three Masses to the Nativity only, Ildefonsus, a Spanish bishop, in 845, alludes to a triple mass on Nativity, Easter, Whitsun, and Transfiguration (P.L., CVI, 888)." - From  The Catholic Encyclopedia .


 

Westminster Confession Of Faith Color Graphic

In 1899, the General Assembly of the PCUS was overtured to give a "pronounced and explicit deliverance" against the recognition of " Christmas and Easter as religious days." Even at this late date, the answer came back in a solid manner: 

"There is no warrant in Scripture for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holydays, rather the contrary (see Gal. 4:9-11; Col. 2:16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."



"The  regulative principle of worship  has clear implications for those who want to promote the celebration of Christmas.  The Regulative Principle forces those who celebrate Christmas to prove from Scripture that God has authorized the celebrating of such a day. This, in fact, is impossible. " - From the free online book 

Christmas  was accurately depicted (by the Puritans - ed.) by such names as the Profane Man's Ranting Day, the Superstitious Man's Idol Day,  the Papist's Massing Day , the Old Heathen's Feasting Day, the Multitude's Idle Day, and Satan - that Adversary's - Working Day.-  X-Mas : The Biggest Pagan Holiday/Holyday of the Year by Dr. Scott Johnson


Christ-Mass (Christmas) Condemned By Christ (2/3) Puritan & Reformation Teaching On Roman Catholic (Antichrist)/Pagan Holy Days (Easter Too) by Greg Price (Free MP3)


Cotton-Mather-Color.gif

COTTON MATHER

1. In the pure Apostolical times there was no Christ-mass day observed in the Church of God. We ought to keep to the primitive Pattern. That Book of Scripture which is called, The Acts of the Apostles, saith nothing of their keeping Christ's Nativity as an Holy-day. The [Cent. 2.] Centuriators, and many others take notice that in the first Ages of the New-Testament Church, there were no stated Anniversary Holy-days among Christians. Easter was kept a long time before the Feast of the Nativity, and yet the Apostles never ordained that, as [Lib. 5. c. cap. 22.] Socrates (the most excellent of the Ancient Ecclesiastical Historians) does truly observe. Had there been the least hint of any such day observed in the primitive times, learned Vossius would have told the world of it. One [Voetius in Disput. de Nativ. Christi. p. 22.] saith of him,  Si pergama dextra defendi possunt etiam hac defensa fuissent . But he acknowledges that the Feast of Christ's Nativity was not kept in the first nor yet in the second Century. After Prelatical writers have said all they can say, Chemnitius [Contra Conc. Trial. part. 4 de Festis. p. 262.] his words will be found true.  Anniversarium diem Natalis Christi celebratum fuisse, apud vetustissimos nunquam legitur . The most Ancient writers speak not the least word concerning the celebration of Christ's Birth-day.

2. The word Christ-mass is enough to cause such as are studious of reformation to dislike what shall be known by a name so superstitious. Why should Protestants own any thing which has the name of Mass in it? How unsuitable is it to join Christ and Mass together? i.e., Christ and Antichrist. But what Communion has light with Darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial? 2 Cor. 6:15. Some of the Jesuits [So the Rhemists.] have advised that endeavours should be used to keep up their old terms and names, such as Priest, Altar, Christ-mass, Candlemass, and the like, hoping that by means thereof in time the things would follow the Names whereby their memory is preserved.

- Increase Mather's Testimony Against that Prophane and Superstitious Custom of Christ-mass Keeping.


Christ-Mass (Christmas) Condemned By Christ (3/3) Puritan & Reformation Teaching On Roman Catholic (Antichrist)/Pagan Holy Days (Easter Too) by Greg Price (Free MP3)


Samuel-Rutherford-Color.jpg


SAMUEL RUTHERFORD

"And next in particular, concerning festival days findeth that in the explication of the first head of the first book of discipline it was thought good that the feasts of Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, with the feasts of the Apostles, Martyrs, and Virgin Mary  be utterly abolished because they are neither commanded nor warranted by Scripture and that such as observe them be punished by Civil Magistrates. Here utter abolition is craved and not reformation of abuses only and that because the observation of such feasts have no warrant from the word of God. " -  The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland , December 10, Session 17, 1638, pp. 37-38 (on the Puritan Hard Drive )

 


George Gillespie Larger Graphic

GEORGE GILLESPIE

George Gillespie, one of the Scottish Commissioners at the Westminster Assembly, in his classic defense of Reformed worship, Dispute Against English Popish Ceremonies (on the Puritan Hard Drive), waxes eloquent on this matter, including festival days among those "ceremonies that are unlawful, because they sort us with idolaters."  He writes,


by communicating with idolaters in their rites and ceremonies, we ourselves become guilty of idolatry; even as Ahaz, 2 Kings 16:10, was an idolater, eo ipso, that he took the pattern of an altar from idolaters. Forasmuch, then, as kneeling before the consecrated bread, the sign of the cross, surplice, festival days (like the Christ-Mass [Christmas] - ed.), bishopping, bowing down to the altar, administration of the sacraments in private places, etc., are the wares of Rome, the baggage of Babylon, the trinkets of the whore, the badges of Popery, the ensigns of Christ's enemies, and the very trophies of antichrist, -- we cannot conform, communicate and symbolise with the idolatrous Papists in the use of the same, without making ourselves idolaters by participation. Shall the chaste spouse of Christ take upon her the ornaments of the whore? Shall the Israel of God symbolise with her who is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt? Shall the Lord's redeemed people wear the ensigns of their captivity? Shall the saints be seen with the mark of the beast? Shall the Christian church be like the antichristian, the holy like the profane, religion like superstition, the temple of God like the synagogue of Satan?


What About Celebrating A Secular Christmas? by Greg Price (6 Free MP3s and PDFs)


John Calvin Color Graphic

JOHN CALVIN

All human inventions ( like the Christ Mass [Christmas] - ed,) which are set up to corrupt the simple purity of the Word of God, and to undo the worship which he demands and approves, are true sacrileges, in which the Christian man cannot participate without blaspheming God, and trampling his honour underfoot. - John Calvin on the Puritan Hard Drive 


Calvinism, or the Sovereignty of God, in Worship (Free Online Books Against Arminianism In Worship)


"The Romish Church, in opposition to the word of God, has a great multiplicity of annually returning sacred seasons. The 25th day of December is one of those seasons; at which time, originally, a heathen festival was held. 'This day was next baptized into a Romish mass for the birth of Christ.' The truth is, the day of Christ's nativity has been irrecoverably lost. Had this date been designed for special religious veneration, its date would have been preserved in the Holy Record, and a divine command given for its proper observance. The absence both of the date and command, makes it as clear to us as a sunbeam, that the natal day of our Saviour, even were it known, should not be honored by any religious observance whatsoever." - " Christmas," from The Associate Presbyterian Magazine, February, 1879.


FREE SWRB (ONLINE) BOOK: Foundation for Reformation: The Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW, God's Sovereignty Over Worship, Against Arminianism In Worship) by Greg Price

Greg Price Graphic


GREG PRICE


"Christmas. This is the name of the day on which is wont to be celebrated the idolatrous Romish sacrifice of the mass, in honor of the birth of Christ. As nearly as can be now ascertained, the day was first set apart for this purpose by the authority of the bishop at Rome, toward the close of the fourth century, or early in the fifth. ... We do not acknowledge the authority of its appointment. If the religious observance of Christmas was divinely enjoined upon us, or if we had evidence in the writings of the apostles, that they observed it, or that they taught the churches which they established to do so, then we should feel ourselves obliged to observe the day. But as Protestants, we long ago abjured the authority of the Pope of Rome, and we still utterly repudiate his right to legislate for us, either over our consciences or our conduct. It was an essential principle of the Reformation, which we hold to have been sound, and the only principle which could have been safe, to reject every thing which appeared manifestly to be of human contrivance, and thus to carry the church back, both in its doctrines and its practices, to the incorrupt simplicity of the apostolic times." - "Christmas," from The Reformed Presbyterian magazine, January, 1851.


Why Is Reformed Worship So Important? (1 of 2) The Puritans, Covenanters, Reformers & The Regulative Principle Of Worship (RPW) by Dr. Steven Dilday (Free MP3) 

An excellent introductory treatment of classic Reformed teaching about the regulative principle of worship (or what is sometimes called "the Scriptural law of worship"). Contrasts biblical Reformed teaching about worship with Lutheran, Roman Catholic, etc., errors and superstitions.


The Protestant Reformation was a conflict over many critical issues. Of all the issues contested between Romanists and Reformers, no issue was more crucial than the question of  true worship John Knox  displayed a preeminent concern for worship. Throughout his ministry, the Reformer proclaimed the  scriptural law of worship : all forms of worship (and all religious ceremonies) must possess clear scriptural warrant, if they are to be admitted as valid means of worship. This concept has subsequently been called   the regulative principle of worship ,  because it regulates our approach to God in worship. -  Kevin Reed, Introductory Essay to John Knox's True and False Worship (Free SWRB Book, Online)


A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Sacrifice of the Mass is Idolatry (1550) by John Knox (Free Online SWRB Book)


 

John Knox Color Graphic

JOHN KNOX

The matter is not of so small importance, as some suppose.  The question is, whether God or man ought to be obeyed in matters of religion? In mouth, all do confess that only God is worthy of sovereignty. But after many -- by the instigation of the devil, and by the presumptuous arrogance of carnal wisdom and worldly policy -- have defaced God's holy ordinance, men fear not to follow what laws and common consent (mother of all mischief) have established and commanded.  But thus continually I can do nothing but hold, and affirm all things polluted, yea, execrable and accursed, which God by his Word has not sanctified in his religion. God grant you his Holy Spirit rightly to judge.  John Knox, Works VI:14 cited in John Knox, True and False Worship, emphases added (Free Online Book)


History-Westminster-Assembly-of-Divines-Hetherington.jpg But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture. - Westminster Confession of Faith, Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day, Chapter 21:1, 1647, Original Edition.

But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  - Matthew 15:9 (KJV)


How The Church Of The Apostles Was Hijacked By Rome (A History Of Apostasy And The Growth Of Antichrist) by W.J. Mencarow (Free MP3)


If it be asked, then, by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts, and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz.,  a knowledge first, of the right way to worship God; and secondly of the source from which salvation is to be sought. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain .

 

- War Against the Idols , p. 198, citing from John Calvin's On the Necessity of Reforming the Church (free online book) , or on the Puritan Hard Drive (book [PDF] and audio [MP3] versions), emphases added.


War Against The Idols: The Reformation of Worship From Erasmus to Calvin by John Calvin and Carlos Eire (Free MP3)


John Owen Color Graphic


JOHN OWEN

The principle that the church hath power to institute any thing or ceremony belonging to the worship of God, either as to matter or manner, beyond the observance of such circumstances as necessarily attend such ordinances as Christ Himself hath instituted , lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars, that have for so long a season spread themselves over the face of the Christian world.  

 

- John Owen, quoted in Instrumental Music in the Public Worship of the Church by John Girardeau (emphases added), on the Puritan Hard Drive .


CALVIN ON SEPARATION FROM FALSE WORSHIP (non Regulative Principle Worship) and WORSHIPPING PRIVATELY IN YOUR HOME

 

Sola-Scriptura-Regulative-Principle-Worship-Schwertley.jpg

Q. What is the Second Commandment

Ans. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image, &c.

 

Q. What is the meaning of this Commandment?

Ans. That we should worship the true God with true worship: such as God hath ordained, not such as man hath invented.


- John Cotton, Milk for babes. Drawn from the breasts of both testaments. Chiefly for the spiritual nourishment of Boston babes in either England: but may be of like use for any children (London, 1646), pp 2-3, emphases added.


Puritan Worship Series by Greg Price, John Calvin and Others (57 Free MP3s)


I will punish them that serve me otherwise than I have commanded, not sparing the chief that the people may fear and praise my judgements.

- Note from the Geneva Bible (retype set and searchable on the Puritan Hard Drive) on Lev. 10:3, after "fire went out from the Lord" and killed Nadab and Abihu for violating the regulative principle of worship (RPW).

 

The Papacy is the Antichrist by J.A. Wylie & Others (Free Reformation MP3s, Books & Videos)


But alas! Satan envied our happiness, brake our ranks, poisoned our fountains, mudded and defiled our streams; and while the watchmen slept, the wicked one sowed his tares: whence these divers years bygone, for ministerial authority, we had lordly supremacy and pomp; for beauty, fairding; for simplicity, whorish buskings; for sincerity, mixtures; for zeal, a Laodicean temper; for doctrines, men's precepts; for wholesome fruits, a medley of rites; for feeders we had fleecers; for pastors, wolves and impostors; for builders of Jerusalem, rebuilders of Jericho; for unity, rents; for progress, defection. Truth is fallen in the streets, our dignity is gone, our credit lost, our crown is fallen from our heads; our reputation is turned to imputation: before God and man we justly deserve the censure of the degenerate vine; a backsliding people, an apostate perjured nation, by our breaking a blessed covenant so solemnly sworn. Yet, behold! when this should have been our doom, when all was almost gone, when we were down the hill, when the pit's mouth was opened, and we were at the falling in,  and at the very shaking hands with Rome; the Lord, strong and gracious, pitied us, looked on us, and cried, saying, "Return, return, ye backsliding people; come, and I will heal your backslidings."  - Andrew Cant, THE NATIONAL COVENANT: EXHORTATION AT INVERNESS in  The Covenants And The Covenanters  by James Kerr, on the Puritan Hard Drive

 

Beauty Of Gospel Worship John Owen.jpg

For God is not worshiped of us, but when it is his will to accept our worship: and it is not his will to accept our worship, but when it is according to his will.  - William Perkins,  A Golden Chain, or the Description of Theology

 

SHUNNING UNLAWFUL WORSHIP BY JOHN CALVIN (FREE MP3 AUDIO BOOK)

 

SOLA SCRIPTURA AND THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE OF WORSHIP BY BRIAN SCHWERTLEY (Free Book)

 

Against Antichrist's Innovations In Worship (Free Reformation MP3s, Videos & Books)

 

Reformed Worship & Singing the Psalms (Free MP3s)


Dr. Steven Dilday: HISTORY OF HOLY DAYS (CHRISTMAS, EASTER, CHRISTIAN SABBATH, JEWS, etc.), IDOLATRY, ICONOCLASM, etc., The History of the Service of Song: Real Reformation, Faithful Worship And Praising The Lord Jesus Christ Through Songs by Dr. Steven Dilday and a collection of some of Dr. Dilday's most important messages at Sermonaudio .

 

All-Questions-Are-Theological-Facets-Of-Grace.jpg

From Facets of Grace

  

The Corruption of Worship and the Rise of Antichrist In History Was Prophesied In the Book Of Revelation by Dr. Steven Dilday, John Calvin, John Knox, Greg Price, John Owen, W.J. Mencarow, George Gillespie (Westminster Divine), William Perkins, et al. (Free Puritan and Reformed MP3s, Videos & Books)


"Christ-Mass"(Christmas) = "Devil Mass"