Esimagbele
Members of God’s Kingdom Society, GKS, comprising about 10 groups in Lagos Zone, recently gathered at their Service Hall in Olodi Apapa, Lagos, to celebrate the church’s Freedom Day, the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ, Who according to their belief, was born in October. At the end of the service, GKS Station Minister, Brother Timothy O. Esimagbele explained the significance of the occasion and sundry issues. Chris Irekamba reports.
What is Freedom Day celebration all about?
We are commemorating the auspicious death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was born into this sinful world over 2000 years ago in the month of October. The occasion is for stocktaking, that Jesus Christ came into this world for a reason, which is that He shed His blood to redeem us from our sins, because man at a time, fell from God’s favour due to sin of disobedience. When God Almighty created man, He did not create him to die. He created man a perfect being to take care of the beautiful Garden of Eden, and He provided all his needs. God Almighty, Who knows from the end to the beginning, gave man laws to guide him.
But along the line, man failed to keep God’s laws, and that was why the death sentence was passed on him. And so, from that time, man started having problems because of sin. He had to labour before he can eat and things like that. But God Almighty is a merciful and loving Father, Who would not want man to continue in this condition, which was why He sent Jesus Christ into this world to redeem us from our sins. By that, He manifested one of His attributes, the attribute of love as contained in John 3:16, ‘for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.’ So, it is in appreciation of the goodness of God in sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ into the world that we gather like this every year to show our appreciation to Him.
Why does your church have an entirely different view on this matter?
We are saying Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity and anything that has nothing to do with God’s work, cannot be said to glorify Him, as He has nothing with paganism. 2 Corth 6:14-18 says, ‘what agreement has the temple of God with idols and there is no concord between Christ and Satan the devil. There is no agreement between light and darkness.’ And so, because of this, God, Who inspired St. Paul to make this statement, says ‘we should come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing’ because anything that has to do with idol worship is unclean. God says when we do that, He will receive us as His own children and He will be our God. If you go into history, Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity. It is in honour of the god of the sun, who was the one born on December 25, which is why activities of that day tell you the origin of what they are celebrating and on that very day, too. You see display of various things such as masquerade, drinking and getting drunk. This cannot be in honour of God Almighty or His Son Jesus Chris, because Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace and He has nothing to do with idol worshipping. So, any one involved with idol worship cannot be said to be doing so to the glory of God, as He has nothing to do with paganism.
You cannot be doing evil and claim you are doing it to God’s glory. Long before Jesus Christ was born, December had been a long-standing period for pagan worship. So, it is Christians who baptised that day and decided to bring pagans into Christianity. During that period, you see a display of unholy acts by people claiming to be celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, it is not everything that you do you or say that glorifies God. But any good thing that glorifies God; things that answer to His righteousness, and are in accordance with His Will, we should do it to His glory.
You mentioned drinking as part of evil people do on that day. But don’t members of your church also drink?
The Bible does not condemn drinking, but when it becomes excessive, when people get drunk; that is when it becomes a sin. For instance, Galatians 5:19-21 says ‘drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. Also in 1 Tim 5:3, the Bible says, ‘take a little wine for the sake of your stomach.’ So, drinking is not a sin, only when you do it in excess.
So when was the Lord Jesus actually born?
We limit ourselves to what is revealed to us. For instance, in Deuteronomy 29:29, the Bible says: ‘the secret things belong to God and things that are revealed are revealed to our children and us. Jesus Christ stated in John 3:11 that we should speak what we know and what we can testify. By God’s grace, we have been able to prove both from the Bible and history that Jesus Christ was born in the month of October and not December, as is being claimed by many Christians.
For example, churches celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in April, but with this, they are confirming what we at Kingdom Society know, that Jesus Christ was born in the month of October because it is generally believed among churches that Jesus Christ lived for 33 and a half years. He was baptised at the age of 30 according to Luke 3:21-23. Then He celebrated four Passovers before He was killed. You can see examples in John 2; 5; 6; 12 and 13. The last Passover was the one He celebrated, when He took the memorial supper with the Apostles. So, if we take for purpose of argument that He was born in the month of December, then His 33rd birth anniversary will fall in December, then six months later, He was killed.
But why don’t churches celebrate His death and resurrection in June? But because He was killed in the month of April at the time of the Passover feast, which was always celebrated in the month of the Jews known as Nisan or Abib, which corresponds with our April, it shows, therefore, that Jesus Christ was born in October, because His 33rd birth anniversary will fall in the month of October then six months later, if you add six months to October you would arrive in April being the time He was actually killed.
So, the churches celebrating His birth and resurrection in April is helping us to advertise that what we have been telling the world is the truth about His birth.
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