Why We Don't Celebrate Christmas (Part 3) - Practical Tips, Objections

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Why We Don't Celebrate Christmas (Part 3) - Practical Tips, Objections 1. What about receiving a gift from a family member around the time of Christmas? A. Again, it depends on the circumstances. i. If the gift(s) is given on or near Christmas, wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper, and accompanied by a “Merry Christmas” greeting, this would obviously be unacceptable. Such gifts must be refused. ii. If, for instance, it is a (non-Christmas) calendar sent to you in the beginning of December with no wrapping paper and no Christmas greeting, and if the person who sent it to you knows you do not celebrate Christmas and in his or her heart is not giving you a Christmas gift, then it is fine. My mother does this every year, and I have no problem with it. iii. If your parents send you several gifts (or even more than one) in December, you should strongly suspect that they are doing so for Christmas because most people do not send someone multiple gifts for no reason. In such a case, you should most likely decline the gifts and tell them to not send any more in the future or they will be thrown away or returned. B. Discernment is necessary on this one. C. If you decide to accept a gift near the end of the year, just make sure that the giver knows in no uncertain terms that you do not celebrate Christmas, and that you can with a pure conscience accept it without a question in your mind (Rom 14:22-23; 1Ti 1:5, 19; 2Ti 1:3). 2. What about giving or receiving gifts on New Years Day? A. Some Christians who do not celebrate Christmas choose to give gifts to their children on New Years Day or New Years Eve. B. While this may not technically be celebrating Christmas, a Christian should ask himself, “if there was no Christmas, would I be giving gifts to my children on New Years?” i. If the answer is “no,” then Christmas is the reason for giving gifts on New Years, in which case New Years has become Christmas under a different name, and therefore it should not be celebrated. ii. If the answer is truly “yes,” then it would be okay to give gifts on New Years. However, such a Christian should do some serious soul-searching and ask himself why he has chosen to give his children gifts on New Years. While performing this introspection, beware of the all-too-common practice of self-deception. C. I have been at the home of Christians over New Years when they were giving their children gifts; and to me, it looked just like Christmas morning without the tree. D. Beware of postponing some Christmas festivities by a few days in order to find a loophole in the law. II. Answering arguments for celebrating Christmas 1. “You celebrate Thanksgiving and other holidays, so why can’t you celebrate Christmas?” A. Celebrating non-pagan, secular holidays is fine. i. Jesus attended the feast of the dedication, otherwise known as Hanukkah (Joh 10:22-23). a. This was a national holiday in Israel which celebrated the cleansing and rededication of the temple when the Maccabees defeated  Antiochus Epiphanes who had taken control of the temple and polluted it with idolatry. b. “Hanukkah; [HAHN-uh-kuh; ‘dedication’]. The eight-day festival celebrating the completed cleansing of the defiled Temple in 164 B.C. after the victory of Judas Maccabaeus over the Seleucids in 167 B.C. The festival is mentioned only in Jn. 10:22, where it is called the ‘Feast of Dedication.’ Hanukkah is still celebrated annually by the Jewish people. Today it is called the Festival of Lights, commemorating the story of the flame which burned for eight days in the Temple lampstand despite the fact there was only one day’s supply of oil.” (Hanukkah, The Revell Bible Dictionary, p. 468) c. Jesus attending the Feast of the Dedication would be akin to Americans celebrating Independence Day. ii. Celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday is also fine because it is not a pagan holiday, nor is it a “Christianized” holiday which is part of our religion or worship of God. B. What about other holidays which have pagan origins such as Valentine’s Day, etc.? i. Whether or not a holiday has pagan roots is not what determines whether a Christian can celebrate it, but rather if the holiday has been incorporated into the worship of God (Deut 12:29-32). a. Valentine’s Day originated in paganism, but it is not incorporated into the worship of God; therefore, it doesn’t fall under the same scriptural censure as Christmas and Easter. b. I personally do not celebrate Valentine’s Day, and I do not recommend that church members do either, but I cannot forbid it as your pastor. ii. Paganism has seeped into our culture in many areas. iii. The names of the days of the week and some of the months of the year are named after pagan gods (see series on Pagan Names - https://pastorwagner.com/holidays/#pagan-names). a. Is it wrong for Christians to call the days of the week or months of the year by the names of pagan gods? b. The issue comes down to whether doing or saying a thing is an act of worship or honoring God or not. c. Using pagan names for the days of the week or the months of the year is not an act of worship. d. Many Bible characters in both the Old and New Testament were named after pagan gods (see Pagan Names series). e. Using the pagan names for the days of the week and months of the year is no more an act of worship of pagan gods than is calling Daniel, Belteshazzar; Hananiah, Shadrach; Mishael, Meshach; Azariah, Abednego; Hadassah, Esther; and Apollo, Artemas, Hermas, Hermes, and Zenas by those names which were given to them after the names of pagan gods. iv. Celebrating Valentine’s Day or other holidays which are said to have pagan origins is not an act of worship of God, but honoring the birth and death of  Christ by keeping the pagan holidays of Christmas and Easter is, and therefore it must not be done. 2. “You celebrate other peoples’ birthdays, so why can’t you celebrate Jesus’ birthday?” A. It is not wrong for a man to celebrate his own birthday. i. There is no prohibition of birthday celebrations in the Bible. ii. Just because there are examples in the Bible of the wicked celebrating their birthdays (Gen 40:20; Mat 14:6) doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to do so. The wicked do all kinds of things that are lawful to do. iii. It appears that Job’s children celebrated their birthdays (“his day”) (Job 1:4 c/w Job 3:1-3). iv. Job offered a sacrifice for them in case they had sinned during the feasting and cursed God in their hearts (Job 1:5), but it does not say that they sinned by celebrating “every one his day.” v. Therefore, I see no Biblical reason why a Christian cannot celebrate his or another’s birthday. B. What about celebrating Jesus’ birthday? i. If a person wanted to set aside a day of the year to remember the birth of Christ, there would be nothing wrong with that (see next section on Romans 14). ii. But to celebrate Jesus’ birth by celebrating a pagan sun-worshiping holiday which God hates is another thing altogether. iii. Furthermore, who celebrates someone’s birthday by giving everyone gifts except he whose birthday it is? 3. “Romans 14 says that we have liberty to celebrate any day we want to the Lord, so celebrating Christmas is fine.” A. Appealing to Romans 14 is a common objection offered by professing Christians who want to celebrate Christmas despite knowing that it is a “Christianized” pagan holiday. B. They say that we are at liberty to esteem one day above another as long as we regard that day unto the Lord (Rom 14:5-6). i. They claim that they esteem December 25th above other days and celebrate the birth of Christ on that day to the Lord. ii. They say that we should not judge them for it (Rom 14:10, 13). C. There is a fatal flaw in this argument. i. One verse of scripture cannot be interpreted by isolating it from the rest of scripture. a. No verse of scripture is to be privately interpreted apart from the rest of the body of scripture (2Pe 1:20). (i) Private – 1. Withdrawn or separated from the public body (ii) Interpretation n. – 1. a. The action of interpreting or explaining; explanation, exposition. b. To be properly understood, a verse must be compared with other verses in the Bible that weigh in on the topic under consideration (1Co 2:13; Isa 28:9-10).  ii. The liberty to esteem one day above another is not the liberty to practice idolatry on that day “to the LORD” (Exo 32:2-6 c/w Neh 9:18 c/w 1Co 10:7 c/w Act 7:41). iii. It is not the liberty to worship God the way that the heathen worship their gods on that day (Deut 12:29-32; Jer 10:2-4; 1Co 10:20-21). iv. Romans 14 also gives Christians the liberty to eat whatever they want, to the Lord (Rom 14:6 c/w Rom 14:2-3). a. However, it does not give them the liberty to eat blood unto the Lord, because eating blood is elsewhere forbidden in scripture (Act 15:20, 29; Act 21:25; Gen 9:4; Lev 7:26-27; Lev 17:10; Deut 15:23). b. Just as Romans 14 does not permit a Christian to eat blood because eating blood is elsewhere prohibited in scripture; likewise, Romans 14 does not permit a Christian to celebrate a “Christianized” pagan holiday because doing so is prohibited in scripture. D. What is Romans 14 condoning? i. Romans 14 permits a Christian to set aside a particular day and regard it to the Lord. a. This could be selecting a particular day to spend thinking about God’s provision and praising Him for it. b. This could be celebrating the anniversary of one’s baptism or of the founding of one’s local church. c. This could even be selecting a day in the beginning of September and remembering the birth of Christ on that day by reading the account of His birth in the Bible and spending time in prayer thanking God for sending His Son into the world. ii. As has already been stated, Romans 14 is not condoning celebrating a pagan sun-worshiping holiday with a Christian name. 4. “Colossians 2:16 says to not let anyone judge you in respect of an holyday (holiday), so Christians should not let someone judge them for celebrating the Christmas holiday.” A. Col 2:16 is referring to Jesus taking away the law of Moses when He died on the cross and abolished it (Col 2:14 c/w Eph 2:15 c/w 2Co 3:6-14). i. The Pharisees had been infecting the Gentile churches and trying to bring them under Moses’ law which was a yoke of bondage (Act 15:1, 5). ii. Paul and the other apostles had contended with them and determined that the Gentile Christians did not need to keep the law of Moses (Act 15:2, 7-11, 19-20). iii. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13), was writing to Gentile Christians in the church at Colosse and telling them to not let anyone judge them concerning ordinances of the law of Moses ― which was abolished by Christ, and which Gentiles were never under in the first place ― including meat and drink (the dietary law), holydays (the Old Testament feast days), new moons (Old Testament feast days – Psa 81:3-4), and sabbath days (only given to Israel – Exo 31:12-17) in Col 2:16. iv. Those things in the law of Moses were a shadow of Christ (Col 2:17), and when Christ came, they were fulfilled and done away with.  B. Col 2:16 is telling Gentiles to not let anyone judge them for NOT KEEPING JEWISH HOLYDAYS which were fulfilled and taken away by Christ. C. Col 2:16 is not telling Gentiles to not let anyone judge them for KEEPING the “Christianized” pagan holidays like Christmas and Easter. D. Using Col 2:16 to justify the celebration of Christmas and to condemn those who judge one for doing so is the pinnacle of Biblical ignorance and wresting of the scriptures. III. How should we celebrate the birth of Christ? 1. Since God has not commanded us to celebrate the birth of Christ, then there should be no formal celebration of it. A. Creating a formal celebration of it would be do-it-yourself religion by inventing a celebration that we think God might like. B. This would be adding to Jesus’ commandments, which is forbidden (Mat 28:20). 2. There is, however, a way to celebrate the birth of Christ Biblically. A. We can do this every day by honoring Jesus Christ and showing our love for Him by keeping His commandments (Joh 14:15, 21). B. This includes believing on Him, repenting of our sins, and being baptized in His name (Act 2:37-38). C. This includes making our best effort to always obey Him and do what He says in His word (Luk 6:46). D. When we do this, we honor Jesus Christ who was born into this world to be our Lord and Savior.