President at Omega Fire Ministries (OFM) worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman, at the special service organized to mark the 2018 Christmas Day, doled out cash gifts for the pleasure of his church members including 2000 bags of rice to go round the flock.
Speaking on the spirit of Christmas while the charity and empowerment programme went on, Suleman educated his members on the significance of Christmas and a certain error that is associated to celebrating it.
He said: “There is this misconception I would like to correct about Christmas. The first Christmas ever was celebrated by an Emperor who became a Christian. He was called Constantine. He was the first man to celebrate Christmas and the date he celebrated it was 336. And Pope Julius 1 took over from Constantine and he was the one that set aside the December 25th date for Christmas. Jesus was not born on December 25th but Jesus was born. So, we are not celebrating the birthday of Jesus but the birth of Jesus. The early disciples, the early Church celebrated Christmas on January 6th.
“There was a man who emphasized the spread of Christmas; he was St. Augustine of Canterbury. He emphasized the spread of Christmas. But Jesus was born and the Angels celebrated him, so we should celebrate him. Isaiah 9; 6; Isaiah 7; 14, Luke 2; 8-15, the Bible says ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests’. Matthew 2; 11 says ‘they gave gifts when he was born’. So, it’s our duty to celebrate the birth of Jesus. If somebody says Jesus was not born on Christmas day; December 25th, we agree. Jesus was born, and that’s what we celebrate. Let no one fool you. Study the Bible by yourself.
“The Bible is complex but it’s not so big that you cannot read by yourself. The whole Bible is 1,189 Chapters. The Old Testament is 929 Chapters while the New Testament is 270 Chapters. The whole Bible is 23, 145 Verses. The Old Testament is 7,957, while the New Testament is 31, 102. So, there is nothing big there. John 5; 39, Jesus said ‘search the Scripture for in them you have eternal life’. 2 “Timothy 3; 16 says ‘all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God’. In Job 23; 12, Job says ‘I have esteemed by words of his mouth more than my necessary food’. So, eat the words of God. Colossians 3; 16 says ‘let the words of God dwell richly in you in all wisdom’. Acts 19; 20, says ‘so grew mightily the word of God and prevailed’. Acts 20; 32 says ‘I commend you to God, and the word of His grace’. In case you do not believe in the season, I would direct you to the Scripture; Romans 12; 15, ‘rejoice with them that rejoice’. So, rejoice with us because we are rejoicing.”
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