Ololade Adeyanju/
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) has reaffimed its controversial statement about celebrating Christmas despite the backlash that trailed it.
The church’s General Overseer, Daniel Olukoya, had on Christmas day explained that MFM doesn’t celebrate Christmas because it is “idolatry” as it was never captured in the Bible.
Olukoya’s position had generated a lot of condemnation from Christian clerics, notably Chinenye Oluoma, a popular priest with the Catholic church.
MFM in a statement had reaffirmed its stance on the controversy and also reiterated its belief that the foundation of “Christmas is idolatry”.
The church however said it would not dispose of Christmas for that reason.
The statement reads, “Though the foundation of Christmas is idolatry, we’ll not throw away the baby and the bathwater. We don’t condemn those who celebrate. We’ll bring out the positives from the negatives by the holidays for prayers, conferences, and activities.
“We’ll hold conventions, camp meetings, or special teaching services to pray, examine scriptures and draw positives from the wrong, negative and idolatry practices of Easter and Christmas. We’ll re-teach the significance of Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.”
Aside from its idolatry claims about Christmas, the church challenged Biblical accounts that shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks when the birth of Christ was announced.
“December weather around Bethlehem is often miserably cold, wet and rainy. No shepherd in his right mind would have kept his flocks outside at night at that time of year!.
“Also, Luke 2:1-4 tells us that Jesus was born in Bethlehem because his parents came to that town to register in a Roman census. It would have made no sense to have conducted a census in the dead of winter
“The Bible nowhere tells us to observe a holiday celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth —but it clearly does tell us to do ‘communion’ in remembrance of him,” the statement adds.
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