August 2007

I was driving an ex-minister friend of mine to a Sunday service when he turned to me and said, “So what’s your doctrine of gambling?” He had just won a lottery and was wrestling with his conscience. Many Christians wrestle a little with Christmas. Should we celebrate it, after all it is a pagan festival. Yes, but it’s a great time to witness to unsaved family and friends… and so on. So then, what is my doctrine of Christmas?

In a previous article in Joy! I stated that I love Christmas because it is a time when the world remembers Jesus and comes to bow down before him. My research reveals that the Magi knelt before Jesus and presented their gifts on the 25^th December 2 BC. However, in this article I would like to take the word Christmas and draw out a different doctrinal line.

The word is a composite of Christ and mass. ‘Christ’ comes from the Greek Christos meaning ‘anointed’. Christ is ‘the anointed one’. ‘Mass’ is from the Latin missa meaning ‘dismissal’. The word occurs in the final liturgy of the Eucharist (Holy Communion, Mass). So, a literal meaning of Christmas would be ‘The anointed ones dismissal.’ Are you confused about where I am going with this? Just bear with me.

Disciples of Jesus Christ are called Christians. This means that we are the ones who believe in and worship the anointed one. It also means that we too are anointed ones. Jesus expressed something similar when He said “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5) but then also said “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). John wrote, ‘But you have an anointing from the Holy One…’ (1 John 2:20).

When He dismissed His first disciples, Jesus told them to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation…” (Mark 16:15) and “…go and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20)

So, perhaps much of the spirit of Christmas has to do with going into the world in the name of the anointed one, Jesus the Christ. Instead of gathering just as families around a roast turkey, perhaps we should invite the lonely unsaved to join us. Christmas is a depressing time for many people because they have neither faith nor family. Instead of shunning Christmas, as some do, I suggest we embrace its true spirit.

The Christmas day church service has always presented me with a challenge. For over twenty years, I have faithfully preached the Gospel on Christmas day. The ‘anointed ones’ nod approvingly and the rest brace themselves and successfully resist for another year. I ask myself, “Why not do something different this year?” What if we had a turkey lunch in the church building with the members serving the invited guests? Or, what would it be like to load the gathered congregation into busses and go into a poor suburb or township to distribute gifts, love, and an anointed message of hope? Now these are not very religious ideas are they? Perhaps we should just dismiss them – we could call it ‘religare missa’, religious dismissal.

My doctrine of Christmas is an understanding that 25^th December has to do with Christians getting out into the world, and the world acknowledging Jesus the Christ.

The Secret

Leave a Comment / Articles, Blog, My Blog, Published Articles / Christopher Peppler

“Pssst! Let me tell you a secret”

It seems that there is a secret on everyone’s lips nowadays. Some, like the ‘The Secret Message of Jesus’, are interesting if a little controversial, but the latest ‘secret’ is just offensive. An Australian TV producer and a number of positive thinking ‘gurus’ have collaborated to produce a high profile book and DVD called ‘The Secret’. In their promotional material they claim that ‘The Secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will be.’ Now where have I seen a phrase like that before? O Yes, in Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty”. Hmmmm!

First there was Theosophy, then Christian Science, then Napoleon J. Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, then Positive Confession, and now… The Secret. It seems that what the promoters claim to herald in as a new era for humankind is just a super slick remake of a concept that is as old as humankind itself.

The ‘great secret of life’ turns out to be what the authors term The Law of Attraction. Simply put, the idea is that the universe is a great magical mirror that reflects and transmutes the thoughts we project onto it. It converts thoughts into things. The way we achieve this mind-magic is by applying the Law of Attraction. This ‘law’ states that whatever we think, consistently and with feeling, will materialise in our lives. Think rich and you will attract riches to you, a gift from the universal Genie. The promoters claim that ‘the law of attraction will give you what you want, every time.’ Well, well… and I thought that there was no such thing as a ‘free lunch’!

The whole thing just doesn’t stand up to reason let alone biblical revelation. However, what is most offensive to me is that it is a blatant attempt to remove God from our thinking, to turn the focus from giving to inwardly directed self-gratification, and to position sinful humans as creative ‘gods’. The Bible has a name for this, ‘the secret power of lawlessness’ (2 Thessalonians 2:7). It is just that ancient old lie of the devil, ‘you can be as God’!

What is equally offensive to me is that Christians, disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, are falling for this rubbish. No, dear fellow believer, we cannot just replace the word ‘universe’ with ‘God’ and then accept The Secret as truth. God is not impersonal and undiscriminating! God is not a magic Genie that gives us whatever we think of! Why pick through a plate of poisoned food in order to find a wholesome morsel? We have a banquet of truth before us, the written Word of God, the Bible.

1 Corinthians 2:12 says “We have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us”.

What has he given us? Well He has not given us the magical power to turn thoughts into things so that we can have more. No, He has given us His Spirit so that we can give more, now and eternally!

If you are interested in being privy to a secret then here is the real secret…’No one can deny how great is the secret of our religion: He appeared in human form, was shown to be right by the Spirit, and was seen by angels. He was preached among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, and was taken up to heaven.’ (1 Timothy 3:16) That’s Jesus! That is a real secret!

You will find a lot about truth and the real secret of life by reading my book Truth Is the Word. You can even download a FREE version in pdf format HERE