I agree that celebrating Christmas is not malicious, but instead misguided. Imagine you were an ancient Israelite and began celebrating an annual feast to God that He had NOT commanded, but rather had been handed down as a tradition through your family. This feast day through the generations had become very worldly and encouraged fleshly desires including greed, covetousness, drunkenness, and other ungodliness. When confronted by your brethren, you would exclaim “Oh not me, I know its not an REAL feast day. I’m just enjoying the festive atmosphere they have here. It makes me feel happy.” I guarantee you that this man’s brethren would be concerned over any of their own who were being enticed and finding pleasure in these annual feasts. They would also be concerned by any brethren who were approving of such feasts due to their own participation. The same is true of Christmas today and I’m very concerned about my brethren who are enticed to participate in these annual celebrations and give their blessing of approval through their own participation. It sends the wrong message to other Christians as well as outsiders who are no doubt observing our behavior.
These things start out innocently enough, but our example can have a huge impact on future generations. As Christians, we need to take our faith more seriously. We also need to take our ministry and influence on others more seriously. The Bible says that when you become a Christian, you are a slave to Christ and no longer a slave to your own desires (1 Corinthians 7:22). We are now free, but for the purpose of doing HIS will. That means whatever we do, we do ONLY the things He commands (Colossians 3:17). Celebrating worldly holidays because it makes us “feel good” is not the fruit of a spiritual man, but the fruit of a fleshly man. We are to be reminded that we crucified the old man and that the new spiritual man feels good when He is serving God.
You can tell a lot about what is in a person’s heart by the things that they value. When you value the good feeling of secular holidays and make it a part of your family tradition, you’re sending a message to everyone around you about what you value. You may be a Christian who knows that Christmas has no real religious significance because it is not found in Scripture (see my previous post). You may have decided to celebrate Christmas anyway as a “non-religious” holiday. I think this is a terrible mistake. From the perspective of an outsider (non-Christian), you appear just like everyone else who is celebrating it. They don’t know that you think any differently about it or how you’ve justified it in your mind. From the outside, it appears that you approve of the secular holiday. You’ve diminished your influence to educate people and instead disguised yourself to blend in with the rest of the world (Matthew 5:13).
Instead, be a shining beacon of Truth in the world (Matthew 5:14-16). The world is full of darkness and confusion. Who will be the true Christians willing to take a stand and show the true Light of God in every aspect of their lives? Who is willing to be transformed, no longer conformed to this world? Who will dare to love the Lord God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength(Luke 10:27)? Who will love their neighbor enough to show them something different in your life than what they see everywhere else in the world? Do you love God more than the happy good feeling you get from a secular holiday? Compromise your faith no longer….get out there and show the world something different! Show Christ living in you!
I know this sounds radical, but I understand this to be the Way of Christ as outlined in the Scriptures. And I know that some of you will not have ears to hear these things. My hope is that this will be edifying and encouraging to those who do have ears to hear. And remember, we can’t fall in love with the things of this world if we want God’s love in us (1 John 2:15-17).
Involvement in Christmas is an area of personal conviction that in my opinion cannot be bound on others as a matter of doctrine. No doubt the idea of including the secular “Christmas” holiday as part of worship is not in question as it has not been authorized by God, but rather participating non-religiously. Family gathering and sharing of gifts, time, and meals are in no way wrong. 1 Cor 8:7 talks of things that are not inherently sinful nor are they matters of doctine but are rather left to the individual to discern their conscience. We are to be sensitive to our brethren who may not choose to participate in any number of secular holidays but conversely those who choose to not participate should not condemn others based on their conscience. We are all required as Christians to abstain from all appearance of evil and be ready to teach all those who are willing to listen regarding the word of God, but I also think we need to be careful not to usurp the authority of God by adding additional restrictions not outlined in scripture Rev 22:18.
The dilemma of Christmas. What should a Christian do? It is true that “Christmas” or the celebration of the birth of Christ is not found in the Bible…but neither is the internet which is being used here to communicate truths and opinions. The internet is known to be a great source of deception and temptation and yet it is deemed appropriate, even encouraged here as a vehicle to preach. Hmm….
While there is not a directive to observe or celebrate the birth of Christ, neither is there a prohibition. Perhaps this is the kind of matter that Paul was discussing in Romans 14.
“One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thank to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:5-12)
Just because the practice might become distorted may not necessarily mean it should be terminated. Christians are able to mess up anything…even the ordinances directly instituted by God. The Apostle Paul had to address the manner in which the Corinthian church was abusing the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11: 17-34). Thankfully the solution was not to do away with the Lord’s Supper but instead was to correct the church and call it to a more disciplined practice.
Personally, I am fully convinced in my own mind that I am not offending the Lord nor leading others astray as I celebrate Emmanuel, the truth that “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son.” (John 3:16) So I will proclaim without reservation “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people!” (Luke 2:10)
First let me say that I wouldn’t want my view to cause division among brethren. I certainly don’t want to bind on brethren what the Scripture has not bound.
Please allow me to address some of your comments. You assert that celebrating Christmas is like using the internet because neither is mentioned in Scripture. While similar arguments are often used, I do not believe that this is a fair comparison, but rather a logical fallacy. Let me clarify that this article is about whether Christians should participate in secular Christmas, not as a religious celebration. I said that I believed there is a danger of conforming to the world and setting a bad example for others in that we are showing our approval of a misguided secular holiday with a thin religious veneer. I believe that Christians have a responsibility to be a good example to others (1 Timothy 4:12). Also, we do not need to give any outsider a reason to speak against us through our participation and approval of worldly man-made holidays (Titus 2:7). The internet, however, supports the command to preach and teach the gospel much like a song book supports the command for us to sing. We must ask what is an aid versus an addition. The Christmas holiday is an addition because we were never commanded to celebrate the birth of Christ. Even celebrating it non-religiously shows our approval of the holiday to outsiders.
You then appeal to the fact that there is no prohibition of Christmas so it must be OK. This logic is also flawed and you misunderstand the nature of Scripture. The purpose of Scripture was not provide an exhaustive list of everything we CAN’T do. However, it does give us a list of everything that we are expected to do. If your child was sent to the store with twenty dollars and was only told to bring back a gallon of milk, but returned with both milk and candy, you’d have a similar situation. You would say “I didn’t give you authority to buy the candy.” The child would then reply “I know, but you didn’t tell me NOT to buy candy.” Is the child justified?
Next, you are taking Romans 14 out of context. The jews who were becoming Christians were trying to bind the jewish feast days on their brethren…particularly their gentile brethren. Paul is instructing them that the feast days are not important. I don’t see how you can use this to justify keeping feast days like old covenant jews. Besides, this is a manufactured holiday, not even one commanded feast day to the jews by God in the old covenant.
You then compare the Lord’s Supper to Christmas and argue that we must keep both even if they become corrupted. This too is flawed. The Lord’s Supper was a commanded memorial given by Jesus. Any corruption can be corrected by returning to the teaching in Scripture. Christmas (celebration of Christ’s birth) has no basis in Scripture so cannot be defended or restored from corruption by Scripture.
You say that you are fully convinced that you are not offending the Lord. I’d like to remind you that our feelings cannot always be trusted, but we must rather look to Scripture to determine what pleases God. God has always been specific in the way that He wants to be worshipped. We are not given the authority to worship God in whatever manner seems right in our own eyes.
“There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” –Proverbs 14:12