Christmas?

(2Corinthians 6:17-18) “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Today is a day where I can honestly say, I did not want to deal with the subject of Christmas, it is a day that traditionally is a holy celebration acceptable amongst western civilization like no other day throughout the year. Today is a day that even devout Christians will not dare to ignore, but the question of is it right or wrong I was hoping to avoid, I feel I must confront! We have been so hood-winked by this celebration, that I believe we have displeased our heavenly Father with this celebration as we run with the heathen locking hands in merriment because we have been blinded by a lie and a tradition of men. We have run with unbelievers and therefore entered into idolatry. Lets us examine some of the facts and see if we have understood anything pertaining to this holiday festivity.

The bible teaches that all things are lawful but not all things are expedient, so because Christ has paid the price for sinners and broke the enslaving hold that the law had on us (believers) and we are now not under law but under grace. We must never believe that we will be justified by works, if we begin to reason like this then we undermine the work of the cross and our great Saviours sacrifice. (Romans 11:6) “But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.” And, (Galatians 5:4) “Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.” So we must clearly understand that we can never be justified by works, however that does not mean we must ignore the issues of life, anything that counters the truth should be addressed. If we are not willing to stand up and be counted who will plead the Christians plight! I agree there are bigger issues to address but today is a day that Christians often err by running with the masses, nearly everyone celebrated Christmas and many, if not most, have no idea of this day’s origin.

"Where did Christmas originate? Was it from the Bible or paganism? What is the real origin of Santa Claus—mistletoe—Christmas trees—holly wreaths—and the custom of exchanging gifts? Many are concerned about putting “Christ back into Christmas.” Was He ever there?"

The Reindeer, holly wreaths, decorated trees, mistletoe, season’s greetings, seasonal music, and Santa Claus are all associated with this holiday. These all bring warm feelings to those who celebrate it.

"All of this is supposedly centered on the worship of Christ. Surely the Bible instructs us to do all this—right? The answers will shock you! They surprised me as I was brought up with this tradition in our family and in fact I love it as I was the beneficiary of gifts, why would we not want to celebrate a day like Christmas?" Everyone is made to feel wanted and special, but to what extent are we willing to go to fulfill our dreams. We include so many traditions on the back of the birth of Christ. We include a man in a red suit with reindeers bearing gifts, how ridiculous is this concept, and what does he have to do with the birth of Christ? God has declared that He will not share His glory with another and yet we feel that we know better than Him and force His hand as we except Santa Claus, what rubbish! Forgive us please Father, for we have sinned!

“The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

“(Matt. 15:9) Christ said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” Christmas is not a command of God—it is a tradition of men. “Christ continued, (Mark 7:9) “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Every year, throughout the world, on December 25th, hundreds of millions do just that!” I understand that Christ was addressing Jews with their traditions, but the principal remains the same. The western world has made Christmas a man centered tradition and therefore the principle of what Christ said in the books of Matthew and Mark is now applicable today with the Christmas celebration.

When we act like the world we do not depict the instruction that Paul asks us to illustrate with our lives, “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing;” He is addressing believers, if we look to the context of this chapter we see reference is made to avoid unequal yoking and then the chapter concludes with “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

So the question we must ask ourselves is do we touch any unclean thing when we celebrate Christmas with the world? You know how I feel about today, but that is my view what will yours be?

A lot more could be said proving that today is not God centered and that Christ was not born today and the proof is clear for all to see if you wish to make a study of it.

It cost the Lord His life to save us, all who believe on Him, please let us not water down that great sacrifice, may we remember His death today and how He saved us from ultimate destruction where we should have been condemned to the Lake of Fire with Satan and his angels. Forget the reindeers and the red suited man, Christ and Christ alone must only ever be exalted and praised.

Signing off

Tyrone