Prophecy Today reproduces here a popular and thought-provoking article first published three years ago
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I confess to having very mixed views on Christmas. I celebrate it in the sense of giving cards & a few small gifts to relatives and friends and enjoying a special family dinner on Christmas day. Christmas does serve in a beautiful and unique way to bring families together (although, conversely, it’s also the loneliest time of year for many).
I do also enjoy seeing my local town centre being lit up with seasonal lighting to help counter the dark winter nights. And there are a number of Christmas carols and choral pieces that deeply move me - ‘Silent Night’ gets to me every time.
I always find myself getting notably rattled when I hear of (increasing) attempts by secularists to ban nativity plays from schools, or Christmas trees from public spaces (see this week’s News and Views). And I refuse to buy Christmas cards that avoid any mention of ‘Christmas’ in case some are offended (they aren’t!) – wishing ‘Happy holidays’ or ‘Festive fun’ instead.
And yet …..
I've long had deep concerns over the celebration of Christmas. Concerns that fail to subside from one festive season to the next. Here is some of my reasoning …….
Where in the Bible?
There is no mention of Christmas in the Bible. This may seem an obvious truth, but it carries real significance. Jesus never celebrated his own birthday, nor did he instruct his disciples to do so. Thus we have no real idea what day, month or even year Jesus was actually born (although there are a plethora of popular theories).
We can and should marvel at the incarnation. But Christmas itself is not a scriptural celebration.
Only two of the gospel writers give any details of Jesus’s birth, and their accounts are intriguingly dissimilar. Paul barely refers to the birth of Christ at all in any of the 13 letters attributed to him. We can and should marvel at the incarnation. But Christmas itself is not a scriptural celebration.
Many respond by insisting the Bible clearly refers to that ‘first Christmas’, the birth of Jesus. But the nativity of Christ is very distinct from the celebration of the supposed anniversary of his birth, which is what Christmas is. Historically, it appears that Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated till several hundred years after Christ's birth.
Opportunity to share the gospel?
Many Christians defend Christmas on the grounds that it provides good opportunity to share the gospel, usually through people attending a carol service. But none of Jesus’s disciples, nor Paul, saw the birth of Jesus as a point of direct gospel witness. Their invariable focus was on the significance of his death and resurrection. Indeed, we have been given instructions from both Jesus and Paul, to commemorate, not Christ’s birthday, but his sacrificial death.
The focus of most Christmas services is a baby in a manger, with all the sentimentality that goes with that (and the plethora of add-on myths that attend the retelling of the nativity story). We observe the same in many carols. We need to be clear – Christ is not a baby in a manger - he's the risen, glorified Son of God.
Christ is not a baby in a manger! He's the risen, glorified Son of God.
I feel the mood of Christmas tends to inoculate against the gospel message. Most folk attending a carol service have no desire to hear a call to repent and invite Christ into their lives. They tend to be interested purely in the sentimentality of the occasion (not least their child/grandchild’s performance in the nativity play).
What they are likely to hear are incredible accounts of supernatural activity – a teenage girl impregnated by the Spirit of God; a trio of kings following a night-star to a specific location; heavenly angels conversing with shepherds. While in no way seeking to dismiss the reality of these events, what average non-believer in this secular age is going to be convinced by these that God exists and that Christianity is for real? Such stories – not least when enacted by young children in a nativity play – are probably more likely to confirm to them that the biblical message is 'mythical'.
Just ask yourself, how many people do you know personally who have been converted to Christ through attending a carol service or other Christmas event? Such individuals do exist of course (thank God for them), but the exception tends to prove the rule.
Everything stops for Christmas
Christmas can be a distraction in other ways too. Prayer meetings – as well as other activities that have God’s blessing upon them – are often cancelled for weeks on end. Arranging to meet your pastor can also be notoriously difficult in December.
Right up to the mid nineteenth century, most evangelical leaders desisted in marking Christmas.
Right up to the mid nineteenth century, most evangelical leaders desisted in marking Christmas. This was true in England, Ireland, Wales and, not least Scotland, where evangelical heroes like Samuel Rutherford, Robert Murray McCheyne, Andrew Bonar and scores of other divines, rejected Christmas. These days the very opposite is true, most church leaders going out of their way to staunchly promote the season. Has the Church (yet again) been guilty of buying into the prevailing culture?
Santa the god of mammon
Humans have chosen, from time immemorial, to brighten the darkest days of the year with mid-winter festivities. From its earliest days, Christmas has fallen slap bang in the middle of such pagan festivities. As such, their influences have become profoundly intertwined with Christmas celebrations over the centuries. Christmas celebrations and pagan festivities have for long been quite inseparable – being meshed together in seamless syncretism.
Christmas has continued to expand year by year into the monstrous thing that it is now – consuming the nation for most of November and December (and the commercial world for months prior to that).
Christmas is predominantly a ‘pagan’ festival. It always was, and always will be. And boy do the ‘pagans’ know how to celebrate it!
The season is largely ruled by the god of mammon (personified by Santa Claus). It’s a time for giving – or rather, exchanging – often unwanted and impractical gifts. A time of hyper self-indulgence, with the UK currently spending a whopping £20 billion on itself annually.
Many believers declare that it’s time to put Christ back into Christmas. But we’ve been saying that for decades, yet nothing seems to change. Perhaps that’s because it won’t. Whether we like it or not, Christmas is predominantly a ‘pagan’ festival. It always was, and always will be. And boy do the ‘pagans’ know how to celebrate it! Put Christ back into Christmas? Some say he was never in it in the first place.
Matter of conscience
David Pawson recounted how, in an attempt to understand more of God’s character and holiness, he and three or four others once spent time before God, asking if there was anything He particularly hated. The one thing they particularly felt God impress on their spirits was – Christmas.
Some can be quite vociferous in declaring their support for Christmas, scoffing at those who desist. Sadly, there is a strong stigma attached, so many prefer to keep quiet.
At the end of the day, Christmas is not a ‘salvation issue’ and believers should never be divided over it.
At the end of the day, Christmas is not a ‘salvation issue’ and believers should never be divided over it. Celebrating Christmas, or not, has to be a matter of personal choice (see Romans 14:5). I continue to hear what others have to say on the topic, noting a friend's comment just the other day that "God is surely not churlish enough to fail to take pleasure in us remembering Jesus’s coming into the world, poorly though we may execute that remembrance".
Perhaps what each of us needs to do is get before God and ask Him His opinion (how many of us have ever done that?), at the same time being humbly considerate of those who conclude differently.
Meantime, I’ll probably go on loving certain aspects of this festive season, being thoroughly sceptical of others, and going out of my way to utterly avoid the rest!
