So the last few Christmases there has been this major battle about keeping Christ in Christmas. And here we are again--Christmas time and lawsuits. I'm not going to lie or beat around the bush: I don't really think its an important cause to join. Hear me out. (Or read me out, however its I think its ironic that we as Christians are trying so hard to keep something in Christmas, that wasn't there to begin with. Some of you may have heard of the pagan roots of Christmas? Let's face it. its true. Christ was "implemented" so the religious leaders of the day could ease their consciouses about celebrating a worldly festivity.
This post is not about Christmas and its roots. Its not even about my beliefs concerning wishing people a 'Merry Christmas'. Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, who cares. Not the point. I'm not attempting to say 'peace, peace where there is no peace'. That's not my personality or conviction. I definitely believe in Christians beings trend setters and boldness for the Gospel's sake. My point is -- Christians should pick greener hills to die on. I say, we be a little more careful about choosing our battles. I acknowledge that those who use 'X-mas' are often purposely trying to remove Christ from their vocab. Those fighting against keeping Christ in Christmas, are opposing Christianity. But lets clarify something. Christmas is not the gospel. Keeping Christ in Christmas is not the epitome of Christianity. . We got along fine with out it before, and if its taken completely out in the future, we'll get along fine with out it again. (Maybe we'll even get along better without it, but maybe thats a post for another day). Suppose it just wasn't meant to be? You may direct all hate mail to kaylenelise@yahoo.com or feel free to comment. Happy Holidays! ;)
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Great post! I totally agree. Just as I wouldn't want someone from a different religion to make me (or my future children,) say something about their "god," we should not be causing a gigantic stink about our great big God. If anything, that won't show people what we are all about!
Just reread that and it doesn't really make sense... but I think you know what I mean!
Yes, I'm pretty sure I know what you mean. And yes, our reaction to this issue is a testimony to the world! Are we going to make a stink about Christmas, and ignore more important issues? Granted, I don't think its wrong to speak out as a Christian for what you believe in, but if you've got the podium, use it for something thats worth your while--God's while.
You know, I was going to post on this very thing within the next couple days...but you nailed it! ;) I say "amen" to everything you said!
And...something Tozer said relates, he says that God needs no defenders.
Thus, God doesn't need us to defend keeping "Christ" in Christmas.
Anyway, better stop rambling. Thanks for posting this!
you just said everything that has been in my head...yesterday my sister read something to me in our paper..some lady was complaining about the school using the term "winter break" instead of "christmas break". there are better things to be defensive about than the word "christmas". (o; you are so right♥
*and i only use "x-mas" when i am too lazy to write out "christmas". (o:
Amen, the truth is spreading .
The world is taken over by paganism.
The world even keeps the Pagan Sabbath ,Sunday and many try to justify this using The Bible.
The music industry ,the movie inudstry the churches,the governments ..Its all paganism.
Paganism was the beginning of death of the Christian church.
Satan realise that the blood of persecution were like seeds more christian came up.So how can i destroy them ? what he did was made void the truth of the gospel of Christ. If you cant beat them Join them this was the originator of this catch phrase. May God help us as we discover the Bible truth alone..Old Truths are coming back. and as in the Reformation. Christians who abide by Bible truth will suffer the wrath of persecution from Papal Rome.
Reformers are we no more ,We are now called evangelicals. There is nothing to protest about anymore.
I was thinking about the same thing recently, but your post is a lot more succinct than all my rambling thoughts and words. We are kidding ourselves to say that Christ was ever IN Christmas--as Americans know it.
Completely agreed! You put my thoughts into words.
Although, I still enjoy this scenario at the store check out:
Clerk: Happy holidays.
Me: MERRY CHRISTMAS to you too! :) Wink wink!
I totally agree...
Melinda, thanks for linking to this and for your comment-- thats neat you were going to post about the same thing!
Alexis, I'm sure there are others that use 'x-mas' that way. I know I did before I thought about it-- there's nothing sacred to me about the word Christmas.
Royalblood, its true, many of our traditions are rooted in paganism. What a glorious day when we will see all things clearly and for what they are without the world's philosophy and influence. Makes one thirst more for the "pure milk of the Word."
Laura, whether or not its succint is open to opinion. I was just hoping I wouldn't confuse people.
Kate I hear ya! :)
Stephy thanks for the hit and comment. glad you agree. honestly wasn't sure if I would get much feedback like that.
Loved reading your and Melinda's thoughts on this! If only the Church today would get its (eh, for lack of better words) panties in a wad about, oh, I don't know, the LACK of true Biblical teaching rather than things like this! It so irks me, that we can have false teachers in our churches, leading hundreds of thousands of people astray and no one says "Look! A wolf in sheeps clothing!" because that's judgemental but they'll fight tooth and nail about "keeping Christ in Christmas." You know why? Because it requires no intelligence regarding the scripture. And I don't mean super whiz intelligence, but rather simple spirit led intelligence that comes through reading the Word for yourself.
/deep breath\
I think I'll politely step down off this soapbox and pass it on to the next person. Thanks for posting this, though!
"More succint." It's relative. :)
You know, I'd never really thought about this quite this way, but it's so true. Christians should definitely choose their battles a little wiser, instead of going all overboard for one cause, and completely overlooking other more important things.
VERY interesting Christmas post :) I really enjoyed reading it, and pondering on it :)
LeAnna, I think you bring up some good points. I liked what you said about being Spirit led. its something thats not always safe to assume that people are striving to live by. Maybe it was being a little bit of a Scrooge to pick on the Christmas issue, but there's other things that hit me wrong about how the Church prioritizes.
Ultimately sharing and living the Gospel should be our priority, and if these smaller things fall under that? good. If not? Lets let them be.(call me narrow-minded, I don't care) There is *no* reason to let a holiday steeped in paganism to represent to the world who we are.
Laura- ;)gotcha.
Abbie, That's exactly what I was trying for. Food for thought. I'm still chewing on it too. Like, how does this play out in other areas of life?
I could not agree more. However, the only reason why Christians celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus' birth, even though, it is a true fact that Jesus was not born on Christmas Day and Christmas was a pagan holiday. The fact of the matter at this day and age is that the virgin birth is celebrated on Christmas Day. The true meaning of Christmas, I mean that in the sense of the one absolute truth about Christmas, is ultimately found in the virgin birth. Absolute truths are non-existent in pagan rituals and customs, which leads me to believe that the ultimate absolute truth about Christmas is the virgin birth. With what we have to deal with today, it is safe to say that the true meaning of Christmas is the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The true meaning of Christmas carries a lot of weight, because the preview of the Gospel is found in the babe lying in a manger, but I agree with you, that the word "Christmas" is not a hill that we should die on. The Gospel, the virgin birth, and the deity of Christ are hills that we should die on; and hopefully, by the grace of God, we will continue to defend those truths until our final breath. I hope that that all makes sense. God's richest blessings to you.
In Christ,
Joshua :)
P.S. Thanks for entering in my giveaway. I also really like your blog. Keep up the excellent work. :)
Hey Joshua, thanks for visiting and sharing your thoughts! I understand Christians' reasoning for celebrating the holiday, and though I don't agree with all (most?) of them, whether they do or don't celebrate probably isn't a "a hill to die on" either.
There are many things that have an element of 'absolute truth' that I am convicted to have nothing to do with. some Books, some media,(some holidays??) -- Our culture and the god of this world effectively use these things to infiltrate Christians' lives by combining truth with lies.
I agree-- as our minds are inevitably turned to Christ's birth this season, the defendable points are The Gospel, the virgin birth, and His deity (and yet complete humanity!).
Wow, thank YOU for having the giveaway of such a great book! That book really helped focus my heart on purposeful living for the glory of God. God bless you too!
Hello Kaylene- My name is Maddie from latmaddie.blogspot.com and it's funny that I found your blog when I did because I was just thinking this morning about starting a "The Bible in a year" reading plan this coming january. I read about your reading the Bible in 6 months challenge and I would love to try it with you! I hope doing this will bring me closer to God and strengthen my relationship with Him. Thank you! -Maddie
Maddi, we would love to have you join us! I look forward to hearing how it goes for you and pray you are draw ever closer to Him by reading and meditating!
I completely agree! This is a very well said -written- (lol!) article/post. :-)
And as to celebrating Yeshua's birth- why not celebrate it during Sukkoth? It can be proven from Scripture that this is when He was born.
Anyway...
Blessings and Happy Chanuka!
KallyLyn
You have echoed what my family believes so well.
I wish that I knew more people like you. So many of the people I know seem to more interested on how the supreme court votes on religious issues then they are what they are doing to love those around them. They seem more worried about girls being immodest and dating then they are people being unsaved.
Maybe we should all start a group of some kind to talk about what battles we should pick, and to encourage one another.
Sarah
Huh, should have read this earlier. It's good to know I'm not the only one who has been having second thoughts about the campaign to "Keep Christ in Christmas". You requested that hate-mail be emailed to you, however I'll just jot it down here. I agree that Christmas is not the gospel, however it is an excellent opportunity for Christians to share the Gospel. It's quite true that the festival of Christmas has its roots in satanism and has more recently been whored out to commercialisation however I think we shouldn't take our our just cynicism too far. Paul said that he was all things to all men if by some means he might save some. I believe that if Paul were with us today he'd join right in with the "traditional" celebration of Christmas, using it as a chance to share the gospel with people.
As for the "Keep Christ in Christmas" campaigners, I think they're getting it wrong, and they are creating a stumbling block for unbelievers which is other than Jesus Himself. I think these people want to see some sort of legislation protecting "Christmas", they get really offended when someone says "Happy Holidays", and they think Santa Clause is the anti-christ.
Or are we just a generation of cynics? Who knows. Happy Holidays!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Andy,
Agreed as far as Christmas being a great opportunity to share the Gospel. I'm not sure what Paul would have done. Maybe he would have gone along with it, in order to have opportunity to witness, but I don't think he would have claimed it to be a Christian holiday-- so more than likely his celebration would be different than the average. It might bother some people for me to draw this comparison, but frankly, Halloween is also a great time to witness, and its more often acknowledged as a non-Christian (even satanic) holiday. I will "go along with it" only to the point of handing out candy with a gospel tract.
-- I will confess to cynicism about commercialism as well-- So maybe I'm just an all around scrooge about the day. ;)
Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks for sharing them!
Anonymous, thank you for your insight. keep the feedback coming and let me know what kind of posts you would like to see in the future, so I can keep "progressing"!
PS... Mind revealing a name? 'twould make my day. :)
Sorry about taking so long to respond to your comments, guys. Didn't intend to.
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