Part of the definition of a Demagogue, according to Wikipedia, is:
Demagogues overturn established customs of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so.
Although the term is usually applied to a political system, can it be found within spiritual circles?
And if so, how do we recognize it?
A bridge gives us passage from one place to another over a terrain or obstacle that cannot be crossed by walking or driving. In the Marines Corps, one of the things I was responsible to do was to be able to blow up bridges that gave the enemy a tactical advantage
We have a bridge that is between us and God, which has it’s entrance here in the world and leads to salvation. Like all bridges, it is composed of components that provide the support needed to allow us to cross over.
The enemy of God wants to destroy that bridge, and we need to know how he plans to do it.
Many people believe that to be humble means to be weak and ineffective.
Some are humble from self-doubt or a low self-esteem, but those who are humble in the way God wants us to be humble find that humility comes from inner strength, and as a result strengthens oneself to not feel the need to prove oneself to others.
Those who are humble before the Lord and show that humility in their relationship with others are, for my money, the ones I want to have on my side if there was trouble.
Yeshua tells a parable about tares planted in a field along with the wheat, and that the owner of the field directs his workers to wait until the entire field is harvested before separating the tares from the wheat.
What can that mean to us, today, when we are trying to talk to someone about God?
Before I was saved, one of the things that always turned me off, right away, to those “Born-Again” people was that they talked so “spiritually” about everything.
When you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you can’t relate to it, or to people who talk using spiritual terminology.
We need to take a lesson from Shaul (Paul), and talk to people in a way that they can relate to us if we want to be able to open their ears and minds to the truth of God’s plan of salvation.
I often read from postings on different discussion groups, Hebrew Roots, Messianic and Christian, of people telling others exactly what is right and wrong in God’s eyes.
Now, there are many things God tells us about Himself, but there are many things He doesn’t.
God gave us commandments, rulings, judgments and statutes (613, to be exact), but what about those things not mentioned? If God says to celebrate a certain festival, does that mean we cannot celebrate any other kind of festival? Too often I read people stating absolutely if it isn’t given by God, then whatever is man-made is wrong and against God.
My question is: “Who are we to decide what is God’s will?”
People who have been raised as Christians, no matter what denomination, cannot understand what it is like to be a Jewish person who is approached about Jesus.
Many people I have talked to in the Messianic or Hebrew Roots congregations I have belonged to tell me they haven’t heard anyone they know do or say the things I tell them about, but that’s because they have been hanging around with people who have a heart for the Jewish people, and accept their Jewish roots.
There are some very important rules you need to follow when you are talking to Jews, and if you don’t follow them you will be wasting your time.
Now, before some of you jump down my throat, please use two of the Fruits of the Spirit: patience and self-control. Read what I say (I will try to keep it short) and then jump down my throat, if you still need to.
First off, a little background…. the reason that Jews were allowed to remain Jewish when Rome controlled Judea is because they invited Rome in to help them get rid of the Seleucid kings. When the followers of Yeshua (Jesus) began to grow, they were made up of Jews, and of Gentiles (mostly Romans) converting to Judaism. However, by the end of the 1st Century, Rome had problems with the Jews and were persecuting them, but it was NOT a religious persecution. It was a political persecution because the Jews were rebelling against Roman authority. As such, the Jews following “the Way” and the newly converting Gentiles began to separate themselves from the persecuted Jews, which was to be safe from persecution. That backfired, because as they started to form a new religion, that was not acceptable to Rome, and so the (now called) Christians were persecuted; this was a religious persecution. In the 3rd Century, along comes Constantine and he converts to Christianity (now very different from Judaism) and he makes it even more separate, essentially creating modern Christianity.
That brings us up to Christmas. Constantine had a problem, which was how to make Christianity more popular to a people who have worshiped Roman gods for centuries, and most likely will not be as happy to trade them off as Constantine is. The answer: re-boot the holidays! Take the celebratory feeling that comes with their big holidays, and redirect it to a new holiday with the same feel, but make it a celebration of Messiah instead of a pagan god. This is why I don’t think Christmas is so bad- it isn’t worshiping a pagan god, it isn’t a pagan holiday, and it never was. Saturnalia WAS a pagan holiday that worshiped a pagan god, but Christmas was created to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. I believe a lot of the anti-Christmas feeling comes from the fact that it was placed at the same time as the pagan celebration. The reason for that was not to put a different face on the same holiday, but so that it would easily fit into their schedule, and that made it easy for Constantine to switch focus/worship of the population from paganism to Christianity.
Here’s the point- Christmas is not Saturnalia with a new name, it is a totally new and different celebration; Saturnalia was rejected and done away with. Just as the Golden Calf was rejected and destroyed, so too did Constantine do away with Saturnalia, and it was replaced (NOT re-instituted, but replaced!) with Christmas, which is from it’s inception a celebration of Messiah’s birth.
Now, the fact that the birth of Messiah was months earlier in the calendar isn’t relevant to the topic, which is that Christmas was never a pagan holiday. Christmas was created as a righteous memorial to Messiah, and was “timed” to occur at the same time as an old, now rejected, pagan holiday so that it would be an “easy sell” to the populace.
Therefore, I don’t see anything wrong with Christmas so long as the people celebrating it are celebrating Messiah Yeshua. If you really want to come down on someone, come down on the retail companies that have prostituted this celebration into a social event that has made gift giving more important than celebrating the birth of our Messiah.
One last note: Joseph’s brothers conspired to murder him, but Joseph later understood something that I think we need to relate to Christmas (Genesis 50:20): “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” What had been an unrighteous pagan celebration has been replaced and changed into a righteous celebration of the Messiah, who is the ultimate means of saving people’s lives. I think celebrating the birth of our Messiah, whether on the correct day or not, is always a good thing, no matter how it started or where it came from.
With the Christmas season already upon us (thanks to advertisers) there is a lot of “chatter” on Face Book regarding the pagan origins of this holiday (‘holiday’ meaning man-made, whereas ‘holy day’ is God-ordained) and how Constantine used it to bring the pagan Romans under the Christian banner, so to speak, by substituting this holiday for the pagan one.
But did you know that he wasn’t the first leader to do something like this?
Yeshua (Jesus) taught from the Torah, which was very familiar to the Jews in the First Century, so why is it, then, that we are constantly told no one understood His messages? Even the Apostles, His closest friends and followers, had to ask for an explanation.
Perhaps it was because He was teaching the “advanced” course, and they were all still just learning the basics?
