CHRISTMAS AND THE MEMORY HOLE

CHRISTMAS IN RUSSIA

 Less than a century ago, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin outlawed Christmas. Russians could be sent to Gulag in Siberia for erecting an illegal Christmas tree. The celebration has never been the same in Russia since.

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY

During the Nazi regime, they sought to eliminate Christmas. Among the most important part of the elimination was the celebration of the winter solstice. The Nazis attempted to move the date of Christmas to the solstice instead and mounted large performances and community bonfires that supposedly drew on pre-Christian celebrations. They also tried to redefine St. Nicholas as Wotan, the ancient Germanic deity.

As the years went on, Nazi attempts to take over Christmas intensified. The Nazis rewrote the lyrics of “Silent Night” to remove all attempts to religion or Christ. They distributed Advent Calendars for kids filled with propaganda and militaristic imagery. They even tried to rewrite Handel's Messiah. Mothers were encouraged to bake swastika-shaped cookies. Even the familiar star that topped millions of Christmas trees was replaced by a sunburst that looked less like the Star of David.

 CHRISTMAS IN CHINA

Christmas in Mainland China is not a public holiday and is not related to religion at all. It’s more of a novelty day like Valentine’s Day, rather than a religious celebration.  

Christmas is celebrated in North Korea, but not with the same fanfare as in other countries. North Korean celebrations don’t look anything like the Christmas we know in the West. Christmas is seen as an exotic foreign holiday in this country. There are no Christmas trees, no decorations, and no traditional activities like carol singing. Instead, North Koreans celebrate the day by going to outdoor performances or gathering for family dinners.

CHRISTMAS IN NORTH KOREA

In recent years, there has been some change in the way Christmas is celebrated in North Korea. Some people have started to put up decorations, such as pine trees and lights, in their homes and on the streets. It’s not uncommon to see Christmas trees in the capital city of Pyongyang, although the decoration is still very limited.

Christmas is not an officially recognized holiday in North Korea, so there are no national celebrations. However, some religious communities, such as Catholics and Protestants, are allowed to celebrate Christmas in a limited way. There are churches in Pyongyang, and priests and imams can visit them on Christmas Day.

But these celebrations are more muted than in other countries. Church services are limited to under two hours and worshipers are forbidden from singing Christmas carols or speaking out against the North Korean government. They are also forbidden from taking photos or making videos inside of churches. 

CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA

At the lighting of the national Christmas tree by the President and his wife, it was the continuation of a 100-year old tradition. During the President's remarks, he stated the theme at the White House of this year's "Holiday," was,  “Magic, Wonder, and Joy.” 

You can read the rest of his remarks by going to White House.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/11/30/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-national-christmas-tree-lighting-2/. When you get there I challenge you to find the words, "Jesus," "Christ," "manger," Bethlehem," "angels," "shepherds," "Joseph," or "Wise Men." Those words and the story in which they appear have been put down George Orwell's Memory Hole at the White House.

In a school district in Pennsylvania,  "A memo initially sent to drivers at Wallingford-Swarthmore School District demanded they remove any decorations associated with the holiday, citing a need for 'inclusivity.'

“If you have decorated your bus with anything specific to the Christmas Holiday or any other decorations relating to a specific religion, please remove them immediately,” a copy of the memo obtained by Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) reads. “'In addition, employees are instructed not to wear clothing related to Christmas or any other religious holiday.”

We see the result of all of the above in the following poll: 

"A Lifeway Research study finds 9 in 10 U.S. adults say they celebrate Christmas, including many non-Christians. Overall, 91% of Americans celebrate the Christmas holiday, unchanged from2  010.”

"Yet only 22% indicate they could “accurately tell the Christmas story found in the Bible from memory. A plurality of U.S. adults (31%) say they could tell the story but may miss some details or get others wrong. Another quarter (25%) could only give a quick overview and 17% say they couldn’t tell any of it.

“Almost half of Americans do not think they could share the Christmas story somewhat accurately from memory,” asserts Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Of all the Christmas programs churches offer in December, possibly the most important is simply reading the biblical account of the Christmas story itself.” 

The summation of the saga is this: a dictatorship will not and cannot tolerate an authority higher than itself. The Incarnation must be Memory Holed.

 

 

 

 

HATERED OF THE JEWS IN THE CHURCH TODAY

 There is and should be a deep concern on the part of American Christians for our nation in view of the virulent 4,000 year-old hatred of Jews exploding in our country today. This spiritual aberration is a cancer in the college campuses such as the Ivy League schools along with MIT et al. We see frenetic demonstrations, endless mindless chants ("From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free."). We saw students in a high school in San Francisco rampaging through the halls yelling and chanting antisemitic slogans, the same students who probably can't even spell Palestine. 

True to form, the United Nations has once again placarded its long-lasting hatred of Israel: "The United States was looking increasingly isolated on the world stage on Tuesday after a resounding vote at the UN general assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

"Cheers and clapping echoed around the general assembly chamber in New York as the emergency vote was announced. A thumping 153 member states out of the 193 total membership backed the resolution, with only 10 including the US, Israel, and Austria voting against, and 23 – including the UK and Germany – abstaining." (from a news report)

"Cease fire" means, "Israel, stop fighting and let them kill you." The 153 countries were opposing a nation the size of New Jersey. They gang up and condemn Israel day after day, year after year.

BUT WAIT!

Antisemitism is in American churches too. These churches promote antisemitism by teaching something called "Replacement Theology." This theology infects seminaries, scholars, books and journals. If you are in a church and you've heard from your Sunday school teacher or your pastor that God is finished with the Jewish people and that the church is now the “new Israel," if you have heard , "The covenants God made with Israel (the Abrahamic, the Palestinian,, the Davidic, and the New Covenants) are no longer valid," then you're sitting in and supporting an antisemitic church that has robbed Israel of her God-given promises.

Adherents of replacement theology believe the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel. So, the prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are “spiritualized” or “allegorized” into promises of God’s blessing for the church.

HOW IN THE WORLD?

How could the early leaders of the church read the promises that God had made to Israel and justify this replacement? They found that they could do so only by spiritualizing the promises, that is, deliteralizing them. This method of interpretation allowed them to replace Israel as the beneficiary of God’s unfulfilled promises. The words of these early Christian leaders reveal their theology of replacement.

Here is a sample of writings from the first 300 years of the church. The Epistle of Barnabas, written around A.D. 100, states that the Jews have no further claim to God’s promises:

Take heed now to yourselves, and not to be like some, adding largely to your sins, and saying, “The covenant is both theirs and ours.” But they thus finally lost it.

Irenaeus, writing around A.D. 180, said, “They who boast themselves as being the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are disinherited from the grace of God.”

Origen, the most prolific writer of the early church (c. A.D. 250), grounded his Replacement Theology in allegorical interpretation. For instance, when explaining that Jesus was sent to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” he argued that the lost sheep are not Jews, who are “carnal” Israel, but Christians, who are “heavenly” Israel.

John Chrysostom preached the same message in the capital city of the Roman Empire in A.D. 387:

It is because you killed Christ….It is because you shed the precious blood, that there is now no restoration, no mercy any more and no defense…. You have committed the ultimate transgression. This is why you are being punished worse now than in the past….If this were not the case God would not have turned his back on you so completely.

 

John Calvin,  a follower of Augustine and a leading figure of the Reformation, viewed the Old and New Testaments as continuous, with the Church inheriting the promises made to Israel. Luther was so done with the Jews that his 80+ page rant against them was quoted favorably by Hitler and his propaganda master, Goebbels. Luther infected Germany with Jew-hatred.and later came the Holocaust in his native land.

When you hear your pastor or Sunday school teacher tell you that God is through with the Jews, it's time to go and take your wallet with you. Period. Why? Because to stay involves complicity with those who are gouging God's eye: Zechariah 2:8: "For the Lord of armies says this: “After glory He has sent me against the nations that plunder you, for the one who touches you, touches the apple (lit. "pupil") of His eye.

The covenant God made with Abraham began in Genesis 12:1-3, it's concluding words are still in effect, "Those who curse you, I must curse." Be careful America, you are treading on the thinnest of ice. 

 

 

THE FUNERAL OF MRS. JIMMY CARTER

 Funeral services for former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died at the age of 96 on Nov. 19, continued Tuesday, Nov. 28 in Atlanta, Ga. A tribute service at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University took place from 1:30-3 p.m.

An interesting historical footnote arose when it was revealed that all of the living First Ladies were invited and in attendance. As would unfortunately naturally follow was a report and in one case, a critique of what the ladies were wearing. The critique, as would be expected, was written about former First Lady Mrs. Donald Trump who was called out for wearing a light gray coat. (It seems out of place to obsess over one's sartorial choice rather than the life of the deceased but that's the name of the game in the jungle that is politics.)

Various family members eulogized their mother, their grandmother as did various friends and a former employee who became a fast and loyal friend of Mrs. Carter. They praised her tireless work for various causes and the energy she brought to her husband's political campaigns as well as the crushing heartache she and the family felt when her husband went down to defeat in his quest for a second term. 

Music was in abundance at the service but there was one piece of music that should never have been at the service nor at any meeting of the church. How it got into the proceedings should be an insult to Christians everywhere but it seemed to be accepted as normal and A-OK with the congregation and the hosting church. 

It's a song by John Lennon, he of the Beatles fame of decades long ago. The lyrics speak for themselves: 

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No Hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people
Living for today
Ah, ah, ah-ah

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Yoo-hoo, ooh-ooh

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
Yoo-hoo, ooh-ooh

 

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.

It's a song that denies heaven and hell; a song of globalism; a song of communism (no private property) and a song of irrational idealism in a fallen world that will never be able to get back to Eden apart from the 2nd Advent of Christ.

Who chose that song? I don't know. Who approved of that song's being sung in that church? I don't know. But you and I do know that it's a song that conveys humanism in ever note. "Imagine" is a foolish song devoid of wisdom and cannot help but be such because "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The author had no fear of the Lord which, by definition is a positive response to God and His Word.

 

 

THE NIGHTMARE OF JOHN BOOKMAN

John Bookman is the beloved pastor of the First United Church of Cannon Ball Run and on this Sunday night he was feeling mighty proud of himself for the sermons he'd preached, one in the morning service and the second one that evening. He was feeling his sermonic oats that day as he witnessed 15 people walk the aisle as the choir sang "Just As I Am," seven times during the invitation period. 

He'd concluded the two stem-winder preaching sessions with his standard invitation calling on those who wanted to be baptized and join Cannon Ball run to come forward; those who wanted to rededicate their lives to Christ to come forward; and those who wanted to make a profession of faith to change their geographic location and come forward. For those wanting to make a profession of faith and be saved that day, he'd given them a special set of instructions.

He told them that salvation was free but it would cost them everything. John didn't seem to notice the lack of logic in that statement but he'd heard his idol of a preacher say it, so it must be true. Rev. Bookman then went on to say to those wanting to be saved that they had to work up a feeling of sorrow for their sins, then turn from their sins and then give their lives to Christ and then the "free gift" of heaven would the theirs. 

John enjoyed the evening and couldn't wait for Monday morning when he would file his report of the attendance, the number of new members, the number of rededicates, and the number of those who were saved that day at Cannon Ball. As he filled out the forms to turn into the denominational headquarters, he enjoyed his usual surfeit of four slices of pizza and later, a slice or two of chocolate cake. 

It was getting near his bedtime, so he got ready to hie himself off into the arms of Morpheus and within fifteen minutes or so, he was sound asleep. And that's when the Reverend John Bookman dreamed a dream. 

He dreamed that he was watching a woman carrying a water pot and heading toward a well, and lo, and behold, Jesus was there. The dream was so real that he heard their conversation between Jesus and the woman, a conversation all about regular water and what Jesus called, "Living water." He heard Jesus telling the woman that one sip of that living water He was offering would render it no longer necessary to drink again.

It was then that what Bookman overheard really interested him; it was that this woman was immoral to the core. She had been divorced by not one, not two, but five husbands. He was astounded to hear that the man she was now living with wasn't her husband but that he and she were in a seriously immoral situation. 

And this is where his dreamed turned into a nightmare. Jesus didn't command her to feel sorry for her sins. Jesus didn't tell her to break off the relationship with her current boyfriend. he didn't tell her to turn from her sins which were no doubt plentiful. He didn't tell her to give her life to Him from that day forward. There was none of that in Jesus offer of salvation by faith as symbolized by the one drink.

The Right Reverend jerked awake in a cold sweat, grabbed his Bible and went into the den to read John 4 and all about that immoral woman and what Jesus said to her. He read it over and over but he couldn't find, "repent" in there anywhere; he couldn't find "turn from your sins in there either. Nor did he find, "give you life to Me," in the text. 

The Reverend John Bookman didn't sleep much that night. The shock was great. Could his idol have theological feet of clay? He went to I Corinthians 15 to read it with fresh eyes and found that the gospel contained none of works requirements he's been insisting on; instead, he found the gospel to be simple:faith alone in Christ the Son of God who died for John's sins, rose from the dead and offers eternal to anyone, anywhere who trusts His finished work for that eternal life.

 Bookman's entire system of theology had just fallen apart and great was the fall thereof. But after that dream, he began to learn that salvation is offered absolutely free.

THE IRRATIONAL HATRED

 If you were to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, you would find a picture there, a picture of the rabid Jew-hater, Martin Luther. "Among the Protestants’ founding fathers, Martin Luther was particularly anti-Semitic. His writings were precursors of twentieth-century National Socialist texts. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Julius Streicher gladly quoted from Luther’s works, even if he never recommended the physical destruction of the Jews. Luther did, however, advise "burning synagogues in honor of God and Christianity," confiscating Jewish books, and expelling Jews from Christian countries. 

In 1985 the World Federation of Lutheran Churches, embarrassed and in disdain of the above material, distanced itself from these statements of their founding father.

Luther recommended a seven-point program for dealing with the Jews. He wrote: 

Let me give you my honest advice. In the first place the synagogue should be burned and what doesn’t burn must be covered with mud. This must be done in honor of God and Christianity so that God can see that we are Christians and we do not just have patience or approve that his Son and Christians will be publicly subjected to lies, curses, and slander.

In the second place, their houses must be broken down and destroyed. They must be housed in stalls like Gypsies so that they are aware that they are not masters in our country as they proudly declare, but poor prisoners as they incessantly complain before their God. Third, their books must be taken away. Fourth, their rabbis must be forbidden to give lessons on punishment of death. Fifth, they are not to be allowed to move freely. Let them stay at home. Sixth, they should not be allowed to take interest. The money one takes from them must be devoted to helping a Jew who is baptized. Seventh, they must be put to work very hard.

Luther ends by saying: “Honorable rulers and noblemen who have Jews in your country: if this advice doesn’t suit you try and find something better so that we all will be liberated from this unbearable, devilish burden, the Jews.”  He also accuses the Jews of wanting to kill Christians, of ritual murders, and  of poisoning wells. (From The Jewish Center for Public Affairs)

Another of the leaders of the Reformation, John Calvin, played his antisemitic card, although not with the bombastic language as Luther. Calvin wrote of the Jews, calling them ‘mad dogs,’ ‘beasts,’ and "animals."  

This irrational hatred of the Jews, only because they are Jews, makes no sense whatsoever. To see those engaged in their fury against the Jews is to see people who appear to be possessed by some supernatural beings. 

But wait a minute. It makes perfect sense when you read Revelation 12 and learn that behind all the fury is "the god of this world," Satan himself. But why is Satan on a rampage against the Jews? 

We find the answer in prophecy.

The Old Testament prophets declared with clarity that God has a future planed for His ancient people, the Jews. This plan has to do with the Second Coming of His Son who, Scripture says, will fulfill God the Father's plan to institute a Kingdom on earth for 1,000 years (Revelation 20);

This Kingdom was promised to the Jews in the eternal and unconditional covenants God gave them. And it is as a result of those promises that we find the reason for the rampages of Satan against the Jews throughout history. Satan is the "prince of this world" and the Bible says the entire world lies "cradled in his arms."

One thing Satan does not want to give up is his kingdom he assumed at the fall of man. Therefore, if he can annihilate the Jews, wipe them off the face of the earth, that will destroy the fulfillment of God's covenants with Israel. The promises to the Jews of a kingdom under the rule of the Messiah will then be rendered null and void. Christ will not rule from Jerusalem over His people and the world..

How widespread is this Jew-hatred? As of October 7, 2023, a satanic rage against the Jews exploded in England, France, Australia, and America. Tens of thousands poured into their streets for hours and hours of demonstrations against the Jews. 

College campuses erupted in rages against the Jews, calling for their deaths to the extent that in American universities, Jews had to go into hiding for their own safety as they did at Cornell. We get this report from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Today, Jewish and Israeli MIT students were physically prevented from attending class by a hostile group of pro-Hamas and anti-Israel MIT students that call themselves the CAA. This is after students from the CAA harassed MIT staff members in their offices for being Jewish and interrupted classes in the past few weeks. All of this has occurred with no clear response from the administration. 

"With each passing day, MIT admin’s silence makes Jewish and Israeli students feel unsafe at MIT. Many Jewish students fear leaving their dorm rooms and have stated that they feel MIT is not safe for Jews. This message is compounded by the public and private warnings of Hillel and many faculty that Jewish students should not enter MIT’s main lobby today, November 9th, 2023."

It was only a few years ago that this would have been unthinkable in these countries, especially in America. But Satan never sleeps. The egg of antisemitism has been hatched all over the world.

We're not only seeing this rage in universities but we saw it also in high schools as witness the parading of the students in San Francisco chanting, "From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free!" A slogan of code words calling for the extermination of the Jews. 

This is where Zechariah 12:3  has something to say to and about America: The Bible predicts a future event in which antisemitism will reach its zenith under satanic direction: "It will come about in that day that I [God] will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely ^[c]injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it."

Did you catch it? There's America in the Bible. America is included in that one word, "all." All the nations of the earth will unite against Israel just before the 2nd Advent of Christ. But Jerusalem will once again prove to be a stone, an immovable stone that no one ever has or ever will be able to move. God's promises will stand sure.,

What we're seeing today is move after move, strategy after strategy of Satan as he tries to ensure his "head will not be crushed" and that his kingdom will remain. All his strategies will be futile. 

What we are seeing today is Satan's age up close and personal.

 

THE ARREST OF A MAN IN ENGLAND

  "A shocking cell phone video purportedly shows a police officer in the United Kingdom explaining how an army veteran was arrested over an anti-LGBTQ post he reshared online that had caused someone 'anxiety.'

"The video was recorded by actor and leader of the British Reclaim Party, Laurence Fox, who shared a meme on social media showing pride flags altered into the shape of a swastika. He said the meme was meant as a commentary on the authoritarian nature of LGBTQ and transgender activists. 

"I don’t understand. I posted something that he posted," Brady said. "You come to arrest me. You don’t arrest him. Why has it come to this? Why am I in cuffs over something he shared, then I shared?" 

"Because someone has been caused obviously anxiety based on your social media posts," the officer responded. 'That’s why you’ve been arrested.'" (From "The Daily Mail")

"‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" is a famous line from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. A man, a military veteran, posted something that "caused anxiety" in someone is handcuffed and under arrest? In the United Kingdom? What in the world is going on? Something is rotten in the United Kingdom. (The arrest causes anxiety in me et al.)

The arrest occurred 4,148 miles from me. Should you and I worry? Yes, because whatever is rotten in England soon smells on our shores. And this brings us to Paul's causing Demetrius to feel "anxiety" because of the gospel: "About that time a major disturbance occurred in regard to the Way.  For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing considerable business to the craftsmen;  he gathered these men together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, 

'Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all.  Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of ^[Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.'

"When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began shouting, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

Earlier, we read about the anxiety Jesus' message caused: "Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds."

 And later, "The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him." Then we read about Stephen's theology/ history lesson to the Sanhedrin and how much anxiety he caused: "Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.  But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;  and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'  But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.  They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!'  Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them!' Having said this, he ^[ak]fell asleep."

The gospel of grace causes anxiety and anger because it's inherently offensive in the hearing of fallen man: The message of the gospel is, "You can't fix yourself." "You are accountable to your Creator." "You are dead in trespasses and sins." "Your good works are as filthy rags." It opposes the hubris of fallen man and cuts him down to size.

It is one small step across "the Pond" into America, where, to slide down the slippery slope only a few feet before we see our posts, our witnessing, our sermons, our writing, our handing out tracts causing "anxiety" and the cuffs are out.  

We need to listen to what Paul wrote to Timothy: :"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction."

 

 

ESCAPING OUR ATTENTION

 There's something going on in the Gospel records that can be overlooked if we're not careful. Let's take a look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

It doesn't matter what Gospel record you choose to read, you find the same overlooked event happening. You'll notice the power of the Word of Christ. For example, He often confronted demonic beings. These unclean spirits are the angels we designate as "fallen" because they took part in Satan's rebellion as recorded in Isaiah's five "I wills." (Isaiah 14:13-14). Their Luceriferian assignment is to snatch away the gospel from the lost lest they believe and are saved. (Luke 8:12). 

During these confrontations, Jesus issues commands to them: "Shut up! Come out of him!" (Mark 1:25). In the famous incident in Mark 5, Jesus orders the unclean spirit, "What is your name!" and the demon obeys by telling Him. It's at this time that Jesus tells them to enter the swine and they obey. These two incidents will suffice; you can read about other interactions with the spirits and Jesus commands to them.

When we read further in Mark's record, we read of Jesus' issuing this command to the wind of a Sea of Galilee gale: "Hush! Be still!" (Mark 4) The winds obey and immediately they became perfectly calm. 

But reading further in the divine records, something very much different occurs. On several occasions, after Jesus heals someone, He issues the same order to them: "Tell no one." For example, in Mark 7:36, after healing a deaf mute, we find this: "And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it." 

Then we read about the egregious case of disobedience when Christ healed a leper: "Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. ⁴³ And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, ⁴⁴ and He *said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that ^[a]Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but ^[b]stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere." (Mark 1)

Now we come to the escaping-our-attention-part. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, forces the wind to obey Him; He forces the demons to submit to His commands. But in the instances given above, He commands but does NOT force obedience. The question is, "Why?" 

The answer is that free will exists and Christ will not violate it. In the Gospels, we see the active opposition to Jesus' Person, work, and claims of Christ mushrooming. But He doesn't stop it, although He could have. 

In the most important issue that faces any human being, "Who do you say Jesus is," the unforced choice is yours--is He the Son of God who did for all your sins, past, present, and future? Did He rise from the dead? Is He the only one you trust for eternal life? God does not predetermine your choice. You choose to have nothing to do with His Son and He will let you have your go your way apart from Him. But remember, Hell will be locked from inside.