Posted on 12/24/2012 6:24:09 AM PST by DouglasKC
Nearly everyone in American likes Christmas. For many children and many adults it's all about the presents. For others it's an opportunity to see family and extended family. For some it's much needed time off from work. Some view it as a way to share with others. And for some it's a religious celebration.
However there are some that stop celebrating Christmas when they become Christians. This sounds strange and indeed it is strange in today's society where Christmas seems to be so tightly ingrained in both America and Christianity. But this has not always been so. A little bit of research will show that Christmas was once outlawed in many parts of America primarily due to religious influence. Even as a religious celebration it was a relatively minor day celebrated primarily by Roman Catholics. Yet over the last 150 years or so it has become a major holiday for just about everyone.
The corporate world has exploited these feelings for commercial gain. They have encouraged and fostered the “Christmas season” for maximum financial benefit. Commercials run non-stop for toys, games, jewelry and other products. The rise of corporate greed has become the reason for the season.
Writing or talking about not observing Christmas tends to engender hostility, resentment or even rage. Getting called “Scrooge” or “Grinch” are common insults by the non-religious. Being accused of belonging to a cult is one of the insults tossed out by the religious. Corporate big wigs, environmental tree huggers, atheists and Christians are all united in their defense of Christmas.
Yet there are a number of sound biblical reasons for Christians to not observe Christmas. In this article we'll look at some of them. The objective is to be pro-God and not anti-Christmas. And it really is good news to see the benefits that can come from following biblical instruction rather than man made traditions.
Long before the traditions of Christmas became associated with Christianity God warned against them:
Jer 10:2 Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
Jer 10:4 They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.
The Lord knows that these types of things eventually lead to people not worshipping Christ. It's no coincidence that over time as Christmas has become more popular worship of Christ has become less popular. With all the gifts, distractions and fables why would anyone need God?
Paul warned Timothy against these common fables that take root in popular culture:
1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
1Ti 4:6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.
1Ti 4:7 But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.
“Profane” is a word derived from temple worship. It originally meant any area where those who weren't religious walked. It means much the same thing today. A profane fable would be one which has taken root in common culture. The best example at this time of year are the fables of Christmas such as Santa Claus.
God warns us again and again about the dangers of mixing up religion with popular culture:
2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
Christmas yokes together die hard atheists with devout Christians. God created holy days that lead people to the Lord. Ignoring biblical holy days in order to worship on man made holidays will always lead others away from, not toward, the Lord.
My family will be worshiping tonight in our church, looking very forward to it.
God is good!!!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, be safe!
It is interesting that nowhere in the New Testament is there any mention of the 1st century believers celebrating the birth of Jesus and yet all the disciples continued the traditional Jewish feasts.
Yes it is. In fact Paul instructed gentiles to keep the feasts of the Lord:
1Co_5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul was referring to the days of unleavened bread. And the greek is clear that the Paul is talking about celebrating the feast of the Lord.
No way.
(Which is not to say I approve of what the world has done with it.)
Personally, being out of work and with my wife leaving to seek a divorce this year and with my nearest family 2,000 miles away, I have had time to assist the Salvation Army with their Christmas Kettle Campaign. So much more rewarding to know how this money will be spent and knowing some of the people it will help.
THAT is a REFLECTION of what Christmas is about and what He called the second most important commandment. Immanuel, God Is With Us
Joyeux Noel, Buone Feste Natalizie, Feliz Navidad, Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova, Froehliche Weihnachten! In whatever language, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Personally, being out of work and with my wife leaving to seek a divorce this year and with my nearest family 2,000 miles away, I have had time to assist the Salvation Army with their Christmas Kettle Campaign. So much more rewarding to know how this money will be spent and knowing some of the people it will help.
THAT is a REFLECTION of what Christmas is about and what He called the second most important commandment. Immanuel, God Is With Us
Joyeux Noel, Buone Feste Natalizie, Feliz Navidad, Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova, Froehliche Weihnachten! In whatever language, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I used to go all out for Christmas before i came to believe in Christ, now in general it seems pagan, just like Easter bunnies and eggs.
I’m a member of a religion that gets bashed by protestants like no other yet in the next 24 hours I will be in church more times then they are all year.
That Jeremiah passage has NOTHING to do with the Christmas tree. It describes the making of a wooden idol (the work of a workman).
The concept described there occurs over and over in the prophets. It ALWAYS describes the folly of making idols.
Merry Christmas everyone.
There's no difference. A Christmas tree is an idol. It represents something other than the living Lord. People bow down and offer gifts to it (the place presents under the tree) and children receive bounty and blessings from it (they receive the gifts from the mythical entity that leaves them there.)
I know you'll say that people don't REALLY believe this...but neither did the majority of pagans really believe the stuff they did. They just went along with it because it was the custom of the day. Same thing today.
The whole point is that these are ancient practices, condemned by Christ because they draw people away from God. Clearly they have.
Thanks for demonstrating the outlandish silliness of the anti-Christian cultish Christmas haters. Nobody "offers gifts" to a Christmas tree, and nobody in their right mind thinks that the tree gives them gifts back.
Your argument makes as much sense as it would for me to argue that your computer is an idol -- obviously, you're bent over it doing your idolatrous obeisance (typing), and you expect some sort of reply from your god (response to your post) when you're done, therefore it's clearly an object of idolatrous worship.
Perhaps you stopped reading after this line, but you missed the rest of my post. I'll repeat it:
"I know you'll say that people don't REALLY believe this...but neither did the majority of pagans really believe the stuff they did. They just went along with it because it was the custom of the day. Same thing today.
The whole point is that these are ancient practices, condemned by Christ because they draw people away from God. Clearly they have. "
A lot of people do whatever the anti-Christ society expects and always find a way to disguise their surrender as self righteous superiority.
The Watchtower dolts have been denying the deity of Christ and spewing garbage about Christmas since they began, but I never thought I'd see people who claim to be Christian agreeing with the same flung dung and lies as a way to hide their own surrender to the anti-Christ crowd. Basically, all this noise boils down to a way for people to go along to get along in an increasingly anti-Christian society. Those who accept this rationalization or any other as their excuse to stop celebrating Christmas as the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ are in essence denying Christ because the thugs and faggots tell them to.
People pushed back, hard, over the issue of "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" and they got results. Now, here comes the subtle approach to doing the exact same thing, ending the prominent society wide celebration of the birth of Christ. This bogus trashing of Christmas just shows that when the majority of folks are accustomed to going along to get along, it's easy to neutralize them with appropriately packaged lies to keep Christians from even resisting the anti-Christ minority.
I hope none of those who surrender and no longer celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ aren't such hypocrites that they'll still have the gall to sing, "Onward Christian Soldiers" after they've rationalized doing exactly what the anti-Christ scum told them to do.
DouglasKC,
I have no doubt regarding your sincerity and love for God and that you are trying to please Him, but I have to question some of your conclusions as to the meaning of some of the passages you have quoted.
For example, the Jeremiah 10 chapter is clearly talking about cutting down a tree, and fashioning it into a wooden idol, oftentimes covered with gold or silver plating:
“Do not learn the way of the Gentiles;
Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven,
For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are futile;
For one cuts a tree from the forest,
The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
4 They decorate it with silver and gold;
They fasten it with nails and hammers
So that it will not topple.
5 They are upright, like a palm tree,
And they cannot speak;
They must be carried,
Because they cannot go by themselves.
Do not be afraid of them,
For they cannot do evil,
Nor can they do any good.”
Verses 3, 4, and 5 are clearly talking about a workman, skilled in woodwork, cuts down a tree, takes the wood and fashions it into a statue of one of the many god the ancient peoples worshiped.
Jeremiah is mocking the whole idea of idols and the worship of idols - he’s saying, “Look people, and idol is nothing but a piece of wood cut from the forest, fashioned into a statue by a carpenter, covered with gold or silver plating, secured to the floor because this ‘great and powerful god’ might tip over - further,” Jeremiah exclaims, “this ‘god’ cannot even move by itself - it must be carried in order to travel!!”
So, Jeremiah is NOT speaking in any way about a tree brought in whole into a house and adorned with silver or gold “tinsel” or glass ornaments of some kind. The KJV language, if you don’t read the entire context, can make it sound like a Christmas tree, but if you read the entire passage, it’s speaking of using the wood and fashioning it into some type of statue that represents some pagan god.
Nowhere does it say what kind of tree is even being cut down - this could be an oak or a sycamore or anything else, not just an evergreen tree. A Christmas tree is NOT an idol in the sense that Jeremiah is speaking of. Sure, people can miss what Christmas is supposed to be about, people can use ritual or traditions without knowing the true meaning - but that’s not necessarily the same thing as turning the Christmas tree into a idol that is prayed to and worshipped.
Next you use the following passage, “1Ti 4:7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.” Then you make the following statement:
“Profane” is a word derived from temple worship. It originally meant any area where those who weren’t religious walked. It means much the same thing today. A profane fable would be one which has taken root in common culture. The best example at this time of year are the fables of Christmas such as Santa Claus.”
Ok, I can agree with you that there are a lot of cultural traditions and stories that have become connected with the Christmas season and could be seen as “profane” in the sense that they take away the focus from Christ – Frosty the Snowman, and, even the modern view of Santa Claus.
However, even in the tradition of Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, there is a Christian origin to the story of St. Nicholas. Again, much of the history of the St. Nicholas story is quasi-legend because we just do not have solid historical documentation.
But, there is the possibility that a person named Nicholas existed, who decided that on Christmas Eve, he would anonymously give gifts of food, clothing, or even money to the poor in the area he lived. Tradition says his motive for doing so was because he wanted to show God’s love and example in the giving of gifts, knowing that he could never match the Gift God gave in His Son, but still, giving for the sake of others was a Godly example he wanted to follow. Of course, all of this is legend and cannot be supported by documented fact. Still, the tradition is not anti-Christian or anti-God is it? Nowhere does the original story say that St. Nicholas is magical or that he should be the focus. If there really was such a person and assuming that the story is factual, is it his fault that what he did has become the commercial icon of Santa Claus of today? I don’t think so.
I do agree with you that for many people, especially in the U.S., the modern version of St. Nicholas/Santa Claus has taken the place of the true meaning of Christmas, but it doesn’t have to be that way does it?
Next, you respond to Sailorman that Paul instructed us to “keep the Jewish feasts” just like 1st century Christians. However, if you look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 5, that you quoted from, in full context:
“5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul is talking about living sexually pure, morally pure, Godly lives. Paul refers to the example of the Jewish Passover, where each family was to clean out all traces of leaven from the home and only use “unleavened” flour for the feast. In other words, Paul, in context of the guy living with his father’s wife, is saying that Believers in Christ need to clean out the sinful practices (the old leaven) from their lives and “observe the feast”, that is live one’s Christian life as a Godly, sexually and morally pure (unleavened bread of sincerity and truth).
As to what Paul taught regarding observance of Jewish feasts and festivals he says in Colossians 2:
“16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”
So, DouglasKC, as I said before, I think you are very sincere and want to please the Lord, but you are mistaken about observing all the Jewish customs and feasts of the Old Law. Paul addresses this issue in the entire book of Galatians. I will focus on one particular chapter from Galations – chapter 2. Paul tells the Christians at Galatia:
“11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”
Paul confronted Peter about hypocritically living as though he were still under the Jewish Old Testament laws and customs when some Christians entered the room they were eating in. These particular Jewish Christians believed that we were supposed to still follow all the Jewish laws and customs of the Old Testament. Peter, not wanting to offend them, withdrew from sitting with Gentile Christians (who were physically uncircumcised) and sat with the these Judeo-Christians.
Paul becomes angry with Peter and publicly rebukes Peter’s hypocrisy by pointing out that Peter knew that following the OT Law could not save us (that would include ALL the feasts, holy days, as well as circumcision) yet Peter acted as though he still believed he had to live by the OT Law when he withdrew from sitting with the Gentile Christians.
Don’t you see how this applies to following, as Christians, all the Old Testament Laws and rules? I’m not saying that Paul says we don’t follow God’s moral law as given in the Ten Commandments, but all the laws about what to eat, not what to eat, the festivals, feasts, etc., do nothing in regard to holy living before God. If a Christian wants to observe Passover, that’s fine as long as we realize it’s fulfillment in Christ, but observing the Passover is NOT required for holiness before God – it has nothing to do with our salvation.
One last thing, you mention how Christmas was outlawed in some states in Colonial America. You are exactly right – particularly in the New England Puritan era. But, the opposition was more from some of the customs rather than from a Scriptural dispute. It was the partying, drunkenness, overeating, idleness (taking the day off from work), etc. that was associated with the celebration of Christmas that was objected to – not the idea of celebrating the birth of Christ per se.
In conclusion, I think Christmas can be a wonderful opportunity to point to a lost and dying world of the unspeakable humility that God demonstrated in incarnation of Himself as a human baby – born to die for our sins, but raised to life in victory over sin and death. Those are all things to rejoice in and proclaim. The customs of evergreen trees, the red holly berries, the lighted candles are all symbols that were taken over by Christians long ago. Symbols that now signify God’s everlasting life, the blood of Christ, the Light of the World that is Christ – even St. Nickolas’ story of giving in following God’s example of selfless giving – all can be a great witness.
We don’t have to participate in commercialism in order to celebrate Christmas. Put a Nativity scene in your front yard – remind the world what Christ-Mass really means.
Douglas,
I *did* read your whole statement and it is still silly.
No one (I repeat - NO ONE) attributes the gifts to the tree. No one bows down to the tree. No one worships or even honors the tree. You are TWISTING SCRIPTURE.
That’s why tags are so important on presents. Further more, the use of ‘Santa’ in place of St. Nicholas, a true secular corruption, masks the point that we associate the giving of gifts with Nicholas of Myra because of his great charity to those in poverty (even though he was poor as well).
We raised our kids (now all grown) knowing the St. Nicholas was a real man who lived long ago and loves Jesus.
In our family this morning we stressed to our little granddaughter that we give gifts because of the great gift that God has given us in Jesus.
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable Gift.
Happy Nativity, Douglas. May you be blessed!
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