In my last post i thanked those who read this blog. In this post, I may drive some away. The subject is Christmas, surely one of the most emotional topics that a person could tackle. Should a Christian celebrate it? The origin is undeniably pagan. It comes from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, celebrated on the 25th of December. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century A.D., the church took over this holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ even though there is no evidence that He was born on this date. Some people find in the Christmas tree an outgrowth of the Asherah poles decried in the Old Testament. ( Deut. 16:21, Judges 6:25, Micah 5:14 et. al) And I find nowhere in the Bible where we are ever told to celebrate the birth of Christ. Should we not concentrate on the things that we are told to do rather than spend so much time, energy and money on something that we are not commanded?
However, we are never told that we cannot celebrate His birth. This calls for wisdom. Romans 14:5-6 states, "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord... while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God." Three times in this chapter we are told not to judge other believers about this type of thing. ( Verses 3&4, 10, 13,)
For those who choose to celebrate I trust that your focus is on the Lord, rather than celebrating the materialism of an affluent culture. Far too many people go into debt to purchase presents, spend the entire following year to pay it off, and repeat the process over and over. We should consider using this as an opportunity to give to the poor.
The final concern in this post is with the idea of Santa Claus, an invisible, benevolent, gift giver whom children eventually learn is not real. Have we not effectively both lied to our children, and raised a barrier to believing in the true invisible, benevolent, gift giver- God Himself? Is it not preferable to say that God has chosen the parents or other relatives to bless children with gifts?
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I began to write a comment addressing some of the historical issues you raised concerning Christmas, but it got too long to be a comment. So instead I wrote my own article, partially in response to what you've written here. If you'd like to read it, here's the link: http://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/advent-could-save-christmas/
ReplyDeleteAs always, I appreciate your thoughtfulness!
Rick, A balanced approach. Some say they want to "put Christ back into Christmas". Be He was never there; such folks spend more time on other things. When Christians spend the majority of their time on Christ during the Christmas season, perhaps folks like me would enter into the holiday. That aint gonna happen. Linda and I will skip it and enjoy a winter holiday with our family and friends. Christ is still LORD!
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