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The Observance of the Birth of ChristDear brothers and sisters in Christ, Not long ago I heard one sermon, listened to one tape, and read one article regarding primarily the celebration of the birth of Christ, a celebration commonly called Christmas. All three lessons were by brethren who were opposed to the observance of Christmas as the birthday of Christ. I have heard several other tapes and sermons during my life which were similar in nature. Indeed, I used to be of the same persuasion, and have even taught the same views myself. I used to refer to the end of December as that time of year when nothing we could do was right: celebrating the birth of Jesus was wrong and joining forces with the unbelievers in not celebrating it was also wrong. But several years ago, I saw some things that I had not seen before, and I now hold a different view. I fear that there are many truths that are being overlooked, and that, if we continue going down the road we seem to be traveling, we will soon be on the verge of ignoring and even disobeying many truths contained in the Word of God. Perhaps we are already there. Please, brethren, consider the things that I have to say here regarding the observance of the birth of Jesus Christ, the most significant birth to ever take place on the face of the earth. The Creator became one of the Created. There has been no other birth like it in significance and importance. Even the birth announcement was given by the angels of God. It was proclaimed to shepherds and wise men alike. God Himself was involved in the conception. The story of Mary and Joseph is a wonderful story, and the fact that the world did not have room for the baby Jesus is a great lesson for us to this day. Yet, how often are these things taught in our churches? If my memory were completely accurate, I probably could count on one hand the number of sermons I have heard in all my life from our preachers and teachers regarding the birth of Jesus other than in a negative sense. It is almost never touched, I suppose for fear of someone thinking that we believe in celebrating Christmas. What kind of a lesson are we teaching when we refuse to teach on one of the most significant events in the history of the human race, one which is certainly taught in the Holy Scriptures? The Bible is not quiet on the subject, but we often are. If we are going to "Speak where the Bible speaks", we are going to have to teach on the birth of Christ from time to time. There are several arguments put forth by those preachers and teachers who have spoken out against the observance. I believe that they can all be shown to be worthless, pointless, or simply wrong. I also believe that it can be shown, by the Scriptures, that to NOT observe the birth of Christ may be, in some cases, a sin. Also, please note that, since I have been on both sides of this issue with equal fervor and conviction, I must retain the right to change my mind yet again. I'm still in the learning phase of my life, and do not see any hope of progressing beyond it.
It has been well documented on numerous occasions that Jesus was not born on the 25th of December. I will not dispute this. But does it really make a difference? If we could determine the correct date, would it then be right to observe His birth? If anyone knows when Jesus was born, please tell the rest of us so we can get the date right. If you don't know, why argue about it? (Actually, I don't believe that the date is important at all, one day will work as well as another, but to completely ignore the fact that He was born simply because we do not know the right day is a mockery to common sense.) So, if we don't know the correct day, then pick a day, and I cannot see any reason why it could not be the same day as the one the world observes. We certainly cannot tell them any better day than December 25. And it fits very well into our culture.
Some say that we should not observe Christmas because of its origins. I will not dispute what they say about the pagans and their celebration of the winter solstice, and the Pope setting the date, etc. That is probably all true, but does it really matter? The communion service was based on the Jewish Passover feast; we do not refuse to commune simply because we are not Jews nor because we do not observe the Jewish Passover feast. Baptism was based on the Jewish washings; we do not refuse to baptize believers simply because the cermonial laws are no longer of any use. We do not refuse to acknowledge the planets, months, or days of the week simply because they are named after pagan gods. None of these origins bear any weight on the current meanings and definitions of those various things. We always apply current meanings to our words unless we clarify what we are doing first. If we do not make a disclaimer, it is rightly assumed that the words should be taken in their current meaning. Christmas is this way. We should recognize that its current usage is as the birthday of Jesus, nothing more. Those who are enemies of the cross certainly recognize this principle. Some Jews celebrate Chanukah (or Hanukkah). Some people of African heritage celebrate Kwanza. Some Moslems celebrate Ramadan. I doubt that any of these alternate celebrations at this time of year are an attempt to get people to stop thinking about the winter solstice. Though their supporters would possibly deny it, it seems to me that they are attempts to substitute something in the place of Christ. Why would anyone who knows Jesus Christ help them divert attention away from Christ? NOTE- In the interest of fairness, I must point out that, recently, I have learned a lot more about Kwanza and Chanukah than I ever knew before. There are some good truths taught in the Kwanza celebrations, but I heard nothing about Jesus, only about God and human achievement. And Chanukah, the Jewish festival celebrating the victory in 165 B.C. of the Maccabees over Antiochus Epiphanes and the rededication of the Temple at Jerusalem, and the miracle of the one day's worth of oil that lasted for eight days predates Christmas and was even observed by Jesus Himself. (John 10:22-23) I believe that the devil has blinded us to many things regarding the celebration of the birth of Christ. I do not understand why we cannot rejoice that the Lord has won a victory and turned something that was originally the devil's into something that is beautiful, and honors Him. The origins of Christmas as it is celebrated today in houses of worship around the world are in Bethlehem, almost 2000 years ago. People all over the world know and recognize that fact. Please don't call that which is good, evil. We readily recognize the transforming power of Jesus Christ on the lives of Christians, but some people are reluctant to acknowledge that Christ can also transform customs and traditions.
Not His Birth"
Even though I used to make this same statement, it now shocks me
every time I hear it. It makes me wonder what other aspects of the
life of Jesus we can ignore simply because we are not commanded to
remember them. Can we really ignore that significant portion of the Bible
which concerns itself with the birth of Christ simply because we are
not commanded to remember His birth? (Is it possible that the Lord would
waste so much space on something that was insignificant? Would the
Holy Spirit really record something that He didn't want us to
remember? The thought is absurd.) Look up references regarding the
incarnation of Christ - you may be surprised how many there are. If
we insist on not remembering the birth of Jesus, we will have to
leave out a great portion of the Bible. Consider the following verses:
You cannot teach on any of those verses (and a host of others as well, several in the Old Testament) in any depth at all without remembering His birth. And besides all of that, we ARE COMMANDED to remember Him when we celebrate the communion in Luke 22:19, 1 Cor. 11:24, 1 Cor. 11:25 ("... this do in remembrance of me.") "Remembering Him" must certainly include remembering His birth. Phil 2:7-9 "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:" His lowly birth and exalted end is a great lesson in humility. Please don't fail to teach this lesson to your hearers. Remember His birth on this sin filled earth, and how He lived here, and how He died here, and how He's coming back here. Should we remember His birth? Certainly. The shame of it all is that the remembrance tends to only come around once each year. And besides all of this, we certainly recognize the fact that we remember more than just His death when we also emphasize His resurrection as the promise of our own. To over emphasize the death and underemphasize the birth (incarnation, enfleshment) is to lean toward one of the oldest identified heresies, Gnosticism. The Gnostics denied the incarnation, maintaining that the Christ only appeared to be flesh and dwell with us. It is important to emphasize His birth in order to stop this heresy if for no other reason.
To them it is Christ's mass." So what? Even if they are observing the day in a non-Christian manner, that should not keep us from observing it in a Christian manner. In fact, we should rejoice that they, and many other peoples all over the world, are recognizing Christ in any way. Look at Phil. 1:18 "What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." (KJV) There's a great lesson in that for all of us. Instead of our trying to get them to stop celebrating the birth of Christ, we should be showing them how it really should be done. You may have noticed that the Catholics also practice communion, baptism, confession, singing, and several other things which we also practice, but in a different way. Christmas could be like that.
Many people have worshiped Mary, the mother of Jesus. We believe that this is wrong - she should not be worshiped. But there is something here in the scriptures that bothers me about the way that we refuse to honor her in order to not go overboard and worship her. Look at these verses: Luke 1:28 "And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." Luke 1:42 "And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Luke 1:48 "For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed." My question is this - when are we going to call Mary blessed? She definitely was, and it was stated that all generations would recognize that fact, but I cannot remember ever having seen it in any of our churches. I am not pleading for worship of Mary, or singing songs to her, or praying to her or anything of the kind. But I am pleading for us to recognize her rightful place in the history of the world, and point out the example she set in obedience and humility. She was obviously something very special, and a good example for women today. There is no better time to do this than during the Christmas season.
To not observe the birth of Christ is to join ranks with the atheists and unbelieving Jews. Christmas without Christ makes it a pagan holiday, dedicated to greed and covetousness. Put Him into Christmas (as well as every other day in the year) and make it a time of rejoicing and celebration, and victory for the forces of good. There should never be a day, not even December 25, in which we remove the Savior of the world or His influence from it. Personally, I doubt that it is possible to just sit it out and ignore it, even if we tried. It is an integral part of our culture and society. Most employees are given that day off with pay. The preachers have the Preacher's Study to take the place of Christmas, but the fact that it is always during Christmas week is acknowledging the significance of the week. Why not have it the second week of December, or any other week? (Please, don't take me seriously here. I am not suggesting that it actually be moved to another time. It is fine right where it is. I am only pointing out that it is never changed because it is convenient to have it when it is because it is what it is - the week of Christmas.)
Earlier I said that the devil had blinded us to many things regarding Christmas. Why do I say that? Ask yourself these questions:
Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing.
It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth Long lay the world in sin and error pining Til He appeared and the soul felt it's worth A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn Fall on your knees O hear the angel voices O night Divine! O night when Christ was born O night Divine! O night, O night Divine! If you must say YES to any of those questions, then you need to join me in celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, for James 4:17 says "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." This is why I said earlier that it may be a sin to not observe the Lord's birth. In fact, the reason we need to put Christ into Christmas is even stronger than that. In Josh. 3:10 in the Old Testament, we read "This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites." (NIV) This is an example of how the forces of the Lord's would conquer the forces of evil. In the New Testament, we are instructed in Romans 12:21 to "overcome evil with good." We are being disobedient to God if we are willing to concede that December 25 belongs to the pagans. We should fight to put Christ into every day. There is plenty of opposition all around us. The pagans are out in full force, denying God fearing people their right to express their beliefs during the Christmas season, claiming separation of church and state. Where are we in this battle? Whose side are we on if we sit by and leave Christ out of Christmas? How are we ever going to overcome evil with good if we concede defeat?
Lest I leave you with the impression that I feel it is always a sin for us to not observe Christmas, let me assure you that such is not the case. I believe that observing or not observing Christmas is optional, like observing or not observing special Jewish days, or the eating or not eating of meats. This seems to be what Paul is saying in Romans 14:5 - "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." (NIV) What I am attempting to do here is make the case in favor of the observance of Christmas as the birth of Christ so that those of us who do observe it can do so with a clear conscience and not have to hide it from our brethren who cannot observe it with a clear conscience. Now, if those who still are opposed to its observance will just acknowledge that it is optional and that we have a right to celebrate it if we so choose, we will have made significant progress. It is not my intention with this essay to browbeat or criticize anyone. I think that the bottom line must be that we have a liberty here to observe the day as well as to not observe the day (Romans 14:5), but whatever we do, we must do it unto the Lord. I would like to persuade everyone to observe the day as a day of celebration for the wonderful events being remembered by a great portion of the world on that day, and a day of discussion for things concerning the life of Christ. We usually have no problem observing our own birthdays with celebrations of some type. Our own birthdays are certainly not as important as far as the world is concerned as the birthday of Jesus Christ. We should at least set aside some time to reflect on Him and the significance of His birth. It is a beautiful story that has all but gotten lost in our churches. Some way, some how, the story needs to be restored and retold, again and again. Please don't be offended when I close by wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas. Sincerely, and for the cause of the glorification of Jesus Christ,
Gary D. Fancher The Internet URL for this document is <http://www.flash.net/~safe-gfancher/birthofj.htm>. This document was last revised on the third day of January, 1999 years after the first Christmas.
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