Well, I have always been for any excuse to have a celebration. The birth of our Lord and Savior is a pretty good one.
Exactly. We don’t have a Biblical mandate to celebrate our own birthdays either, but we all do that. I feel there is no wrong in celebrating the best birthday on earth - that of the Lord Jesus. I understand all that concern about it being a “catholic” holiday and it being celebrated on a day that was actually a pagan holiday. But people misunderstand that it was the catholic church’s attempt to convert a pagan holiday into one that honoured God. They were trying to replace the bad with the good. Another point is that for centuries, the “catholic” church was the church that descended from Christ’s disciples. We can banter back and forth about how wrong the Catholic church is and how wrong the Protestant churches are. For one, I don’t think that God is at all offended that we would want to celebrate Christ’s birthday - I believe He probably wishes we did so in a way that was a lot less “consumerist” and self-centered as it has become. Celebrating His birthday in a way that truly seeks to put Him first and honour Him and provide for those considered “the least of these” would truly bring Him great joy. And not only that, it would get the attention of the world who is looking for something more to this life. Right now, the world doesn’t think we truly have the answer. We have failed the world.
I have nothing against anyone who chooses not to celebrate Christ’s birthday for various reasons such as the one in this article. But I think we are missing more important, more key issues. The times are winding down to the final hour. Who knows for sure if we are the final generation, but we are certainly coming close. Our churches here in the West are exactly the Laodicean church in Revelation chapter 3. We are foolish, “pitiful, blind naked and poor” and also “neither hot nor cold” . I worry that too many of our churches and their members are going to find themselves in the group that the Lord addresses with “I never knew you” on the day of judgment. Let us focus on a genuine, purposeful effort to really know Christ personally and to make Him known for the good God that He is - because the world needs to know.