“God so loved the world…” that He drowned it.  How is that a loving act?

Sincerely,
Flooded With Emotion

Dear Flooded With Emotion,

Because God loved the people of the world – not the physical planet.  The Great Flood of Genesis 7 was an effort to give mankind a second chance.  God took the last righteous people on the planet and saved them from the corruption of a completely wicked generation (Gen 6:5-6).  God saved the eight people of Noah’s family through those floodwaters (1 Pet 3:20).  The rest of that generation was beyond redemption, so God (in His infinite love) saved those who could be salvaged.

(This question is a follow-up to “Happy Humbug”)

I received your answer and thank you.  My question… you said there is nothing wrong with celebrating christmas as a family holiday, but it is wrong to teach it as a biblical holiday.  If it’s wrong to teach it as a biblical tradition, then why would God approve of it?  Also, if this is a tradition that the Romans made because they worship the god of Saturn, then I know God would not approve because He is a jealous God and says not to worship any other gods but Him (Ex 20:3).

Did you know that more people commit suicide around christmas than any other holiday… because people are afraid that they will not have the right present or won’t have enough money to buy one?  And every year, your family expects you to get them a gift or material of some sort, and if you don’t, they get mad and angry at you.  Christmas is not about Jesus; it’s all about money and profit.  When people get up on December 25^th to celebrate Christmas, the first thing they do is run to the presents and materials.  They don’t bow down and thank God for what they already have.  This is a holiday that brings more hate than it does love.  Why?  Because God does not approve of it.

Sincerely,
The Grinch

Dear The Grinch,

We have many holidays that don’t have biblical origins.  Memorial day, Valentine’s Day, and Thanksgiving are all examples of non-biblical holidays.  If Christmas is treated as a voluntary holiday with presents, jovial family get-togethers, etc. – then there is nothing wrong with it.

However, if people are using Christmas to worship Saturn (which is highly unlikely nowadays) or treating it as a biblical necessity, then it is certainly wrong.  Your other concerns about Christmas are issues of greed and love.  God makes it clear that He hates it when we are fixated with material things (Lk 16:13).  The way many people treat the holidays is indicative of a growing dysfunction in our culture.  Many people forget that our lives consist of more than our possessions (Lk 12:15).

Why does the church not teach when Christmas first started?  They only teach that it’s Jesus’ birthday.  But they don’t teach who actually started Christmas.  Everything that I have been studying about Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus; it’s all about money.  When I type ‘what is Christmas’ into a search engine, Santa Claus is the first thing that is shown, not Jesus.  Congress was actually started on December 25^th, 1870, and America decided to make that the Christmas federal holiday.  Jesus was never born around December.  All my life, I have been told lies about Christmas.  Can someone out there tell me the truth about Christmas?

Sincerely,
The Grinch

Dear The Grinch,

Many people believe Christmas to be a spiritual holiday, but the Bible never commands us to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25^th (the truth is, no one knows when Jesus was born, but it was most likely in the spring or summer because the shepherds were out – Lk 2:15).  Christians are commanded to remember Jesus’ death every first day of the week (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 11:24-25)… we are never commanded to remember His birth on an annual basis.  Christmas is not a biblical holiday.  There is nothing wrong with celebrating it as a family holiday, but it is wrong to teach that there is a biblical foundation to it.

Christmas can be traced back to the Roman pagan holiday of Winter Solstice (also known as ‘Saturnalia’ because it was in worship of the god, Saturn).  As Catholicism tried to integrate itself into a pagan Roman world, Christmas was instituted by Pope Julius I on December 25^th as a way to assimilate the pagans into a Catholic worldview.  In short, Christmas has never been a truly biblical holiday; it is a manmade tradition with no bearings upon your salvation.

Hello, I watched a program on TV about this small African tribe.  The people of this tribe were amazingly kind and welcoming, but they didn’t even know we have been to the moon or of Jesus.  They believed in different gods, and they were brought up that way from birth.  Their whole tribe is kind of separated from the rest of the world.  There has to be hundreds of these same kinds of situations out there; what happens to these people when they die?

Sincerely,
Hermit Helper

Dear Hermit Helper,

What God does with the African tribe that is isolated from society is between Him and them.  We know that God doesn’t hold people accountable for things that they cannot do (2 Cor 8:11-12).  We also know that He says all mankind is without excuse because the Creation speaks of His greatness (Rom 1:20).  We also know that God has a certain expectation that we will seek Him out (Matt 7:7-10).  All of these principles must be balanced out when considering the fate of isolated peoples.

Ultimately, the Lord is judge… a righteous one (2 Tim 4:8).  The Lord doesn’t desire any of the wicked to perish (Ezek 18:23).  He will fitly and properly judge all mankind.

CAN ANYONE PLEASE ANSWER ME THIS: Is there a pre-tribulation rapture?  Before the seven years of tribulation???  I would highly appreciate if you could e-mail me and also post it on here for everyone else.  God bless.

Sincerely,
Rapt Attention

Dear Rapt Attention,

The word ‘rapture’ means ‘caught up’ in Latin.  The term ‘rapture’ is used to describe an event that many think will take place right before the days of tribulation in Revelation.  The problem with this theory is that it is wrong.  There will be a time when all christians will be caught up into the air to be with Christ – the end of time (1 Thess 4:14-18).  The book of Revelation doesn’t describe events in the future; it describes events in the past.  The book of Revelation deals with problems that the church was to “shortly” see come to pass (Rev 1:1).

Furthermore, the tribulation taught by many denominations is based off of a misinterpretation of Matthew chapter twenty-four.  Matt 24 is dealing with the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jewish temple that would happen in 70 AD.  If we carefully pay attention to the context, Jesus is talking about the Jewish temple’s destruction, not a worldwide trial thousands of years in the future (Matt 24:1-2).  Jesus specifically said that the tribulation would occur within that generation’s lifetime (Matt 24:34).

There will be a day when all the faithful are caught up to meet Christ in the heavens.  The day He returns (Acts 1:11), all mankind will be judged at the same time (Jhn 5:28-29).  In that great day (Jude 1:6), the whole world will be burned up with fire (2 Pet 3:10-12).  There will be no post-tribulation, pre-tribulation, semi-tribulation, etc.; there will only be the great Day of Judgment (2 Pet 3:7, 1 Jn 4:17).

According to the history of the “Church of Christ,” God used certain men to “restore” the New Testament church in the early 1800′s.  Where was the true New Testament church before then?  Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18).  What happened to the church, and where was the truth it was responsible for preaching before God restored it?

Sincerely,
History Buff

Dear History Buff,

Your question brings up a common misconception.  Most churches of Christ in America can trace their roots back to a movement in early American history commonly known as ‘the Restoration Movement’.  It is called the Restoration Movement because those spearheading the movement wanted to restore worship back to the ways of the New Testament.  They wanted to go back to the Bible for all of their answers and practices.  This is exactly what the Lord calls us to do (1 Cor 4:6, Josh 1:7, Jhn 14:6, Rev 22:18-19).

The misconception is that these were the first men to do this.  That is a myth.  America is not the first country to contain people who wanted to go back to God’s Word for all that they said and did.  Even within the Bible, we see people seeking to restore Bible-based worship.  King Josiah found a copy of the Law and told the people to return to God (2 Kgs 22:10-13).  Jesus told the Jews to go back to the Scriptures and understand what God was telling them (Mk 12:24).  Jesus warned against making traditions that usurped the authority of the Scriptures (Mk 7:10-13).

The church has never been destroyed, and throughout many, many ages (including the darkest ages of Catholicism), there have been people who have sought to honestly and humbly serve God.  The Restoration Movement in America is merely one story of people that have sought to put God’s Word back into its rightful place.  The Bible is the seed of the church (Lk 8:11).  When a group of people commits itself to do what the Bible says – no more and no less – a church is formed.  Many of these congregations in America use the name ‘church of Christ’ because it is a Biblical name (Rom 16:16), and it is a recognizable name to other christians who are looking for faithful churches… but make no mistake, the Restoration Movement in America wasn’t the first (and it won’t be the last) group of people that wanted simple Christianity.