Today I heard some things that made my eyebrow twitch. Christians who celebrate Christmas are sinning hypocritical pagan-god-worshipers.
This is news to me.
So anyway, I want to answer some of the criticism of Christmas that I heard.
Criticism: Christmas means "Christ's Death". It's putting Christ on the cross over and over and over, which the book of Hebrews clearly denies. Christ need be offered only once.
Answer: While I highly doubt that people mean "Merry Crucify Christ!" when they say Merry Christmas, Jesus Himself gave His disciples symbols of His body and blood, and said "do this as often as you eat/drink it in remembrance of me." Essentially Christ commanded us to proclaim and remember His death until He returns. So remembering the death of Christ is not unbiblical; rather it is right that we should do so, not only on Christmas day but on every day.
Yet many of the definitions I have seen suggest "Christmas" is "commemorating the birth of Jesus", not His death. Which leads me to the next point:
Criticism: Christmas is a pagan celebration.
Answer: Sure, as well as an increasingly secular day of spendyourmoneyandmakesomemoneyoncommercialization, but not as celebrated by Christians; to me, Christmas is a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. Not necessarily that Jesus was born December 25th; it is merely the day chosen to celebrate that the Son of God came down to earth, Love Incarnate, born in humility; that He lived a life of perfect righteousness, and made atonement for our sins on the cross of shame.
One could bring up all kinds of arguments for why Christians shouldn't have Christmas trees or eat pork (because eating pork on Christmas day has something to do with worship of pagan gods, I hear - no bacon for YOU), but none of these things matter, because this is not what Christians are celebrating. I celebrate Christ's birth. Not His birth date, His birth. The fact that He came to earth is incredible and ought to be celebrated.
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There were more objections to Christmas than that, but that's all I have time to answer today. I could get pretty fired up about this; suffice it to say that I believe celebrating the birth of our Saviour is a good thing, not a sin.
It is a time to rejoice and praise God along with the angels:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!
I've seen some articles and blog posts written by people who are basically saying "if you celebrate christmas you are a dirty, dirty heathen! and we are so much more spiritual/godly/holy/discerning/whathaveyou than you!"
ReplyDeleteAnd to them I say "WELLLLLLL that's nice, but excuse me I have to go drink some alcoholic beverages, open presents, worship the devil with friends and family and oh yeah openly mock the living God by desecrating His Name and Purpose and Being by observing a pagan holiday. Goodbye!"
Because that's what I might as well say.... that's what they think of me. ;)
I do believe that Christians ought to be careful to stay away from the craziness of commercialized junk that is in society.
ReplyDeleteThat can be done by showing restraint.
The celebration of the incarnation of GOD who took on human form to give the greatest gift He could give is something Christians should definitely, frequently, do.
Glory to God in the Highest, indeed.
Exactly.
ReplyDeleteI think the question is, can a person be whole-heartedly serving God, seeking His will, praying and reading the Word and applying it to her life, and still celebrate Christmas?
I would say yes.
^Sarah.. that's awesome. XD I almost spit my water. :D
ReplyDelete