Christians That Celebrate Christmas: Worthy of Being Condemned?

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Christmas?

Copyright© 2013 πίστις

With Christmas right around the corner I see an increasing trend that really disturbs me, people attacking those who celebrate Christmas. You would think I am referring to those of the secular world who see Christmas as an unwanted intrusion of God into what otherwise would be a great holiday.

Sadly I am not referring to those folks, I am speaking of other Believers in Christ.

Lets go back for a moment to the secular world. I try not to disparage unbelievers, but I do take exception to some of their practices as related to Christmas. Christmas for some is nothing more than an excuse to throw a party and get drunk. Others will stop at nothing to get “the deals” in the stores including pushing and shoving, even hurting others. These actions are deplorable.

For yet others, Believers and unbelievers both Christmas is a time of painful memories: a recent loss of a loved one, a divorce, or maybe a job loss. For all of these folks we should be praying, especially for those not saved in Christ that they may come to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and in so doing find healing for their painful wounds.

Why do some who believe in Jesus find it necessary to attack other Believers who celebrate Christmas? This is so wrong…

While true that the Bible does not tell us to celebrate the birth of Yeshua, still there is nothing wrong with doing so.

Romans 14:5-6 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. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord…

This could be no clearer for us…in other words celebrating a day (Christmas here) or choosing not to celebrate it, either choice is allowable and acceptable.

While discussing our differences on Christmas or Easter etc. is fine, attacking one another is completely unacceptable behavior.

Romans 14:10 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.

Romans 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another…

Whether or not you realize it, if you attack another Believer for celebrating Christmas, you are passing judgment on that person. You are in effect condemning him or her because of their actions that you believe to be wrong.

I implore all my brothers and sisters in the Lord, please do not attack and condemn your own family members…the body of Christ, because their choices differ from your own. Whether you choose to celebrate Christmas, or you choose to not do so…either choice is acceptable. Whatever your choice is, do so unto the Lord.

No Believer in Christ should be attacking another for any reason let alone over an inconsequential matter. Instead let us all bless one another and be praying for each other.

If we as Believers in Christ are truly not of this world…and we are not, then what business do we have acting like the world does?

In this ever changing chaotic world we live in, with things becoming worse all over, shouldn’t we concentrate on loving one another, forgiving each other, and extending the hand of fellowship to each other?

Give the gift that keeps on giving…encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ; let them know that you love them. Pray for them unceasingly…in so doing these things we are fulfilling Christ’s command; love your neighbor as yourself.

May the love of the Lord fill your heart to overflowing.

May His peace be intertwined with your spirit.

Love to all in Christ
Greg

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Categories: INSPIRATIONAL ARTICLES, THE WORD OF GOD FOR TODAY

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10 replies

  1. I am one of those that ‘attack’ Christmas. Not necessarily attacking a particular day that believers wish to celebrate as the birth of Christ (though I would have picked a different day that is not so closely related to a pagan holiday). It is the statement that Christians use about Christmas that gets to me. In other words, ‘the real meaning of Christmas’ as so often used by believers to point to Christ is sad. As I’ve explained to some of my friends, to choose a particular day to celebrate the birth of Christ is not ‘wrong’. There is nothing wrong with it. To state that Christmas as celebrated is celebrating the birth of Christ there is something wrong with this.
    1. I simply chose to celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th (or any other day) regardless of his actual day of birth and remember his arrival to earth… Nothing wrong there.
    2. I celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because that is the real meaning of Christmas… Something wrong there simply because that is not the real meaning of Christmas. It is simply a lie.

    As for Romans 14, that chapter does not stand alone in scripture but is to be further analyzed with Colossians 2:16-17, I Corinthians 3:1-2; chapter 8 and chapter 10. What is being spoken of here are ‘proper’ Old Testament holidays and not pagan holidays. As for pagan holidays, the proper passage of scripture to be used is I Corinthians 10. Also, one must remember what a ‘weak’ brother is. This is a baby Christian that should not continue to be a baby. A weak brother is something that you should NOT want to be and is something that stronger brothers should bring you out from. This was Paul’s main problem with the Corinthian believers in that they ‘remained weak’ or ‘babies’ when they should have already been eating meat. The ‘not judging’ a brother that wishes to celebrate days is out of love for that brother and ‘patience’ to allow that brother to grow out of his ‘weakness’. This does not refer to simply allowing the brother to stay in his ignorance but to bring a brother out from his ignorance (I Corinthians 3:1-2).

    • Your time would be better spent dealing with things that truly matter.
      The date that Christmas is observed means nothing, it is only the day that has been set to do so and has nothing to do with the day Christ was actually born.
      What do we in the Church care of what any “pagan” celebration means? Not to be rude to anyone, but we of the Church who celebrate this day do so celebrating Christ. Your #1 & #2 statements come very close to contradicting themselves. All of you that hold this view seem to make the same mistake; that is the wrongful assumption that we are incorrect in stating that the meaning of Christmas is Christ. If people believe the true meaning (to them) of Christmas is Christ, then for them it is so…as I said previously, what have we to do with any “pagan” nonsense? I think you would do well to remember that God looks at the heart, stop judging by outward appearance.

      A weak brother? I think you are sadly mistaken.

      If I were to spend time with Believers that believe in their hearts that it is wrong to celebrate Christmas, then I would do as they do and not celebrate it.

      Note that Romans 14 is written in present tense, not past.
      Romans 14:21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

      God bless
      Greg

      • Hello Pistis (Greg),

        Of course my time would be better spent doing something else and I do many other things also. I simply decided to comment on this subject because it is a topic that begs discussion. I assume you posted this so that you may receive feedback from others both pro and con? Is my assumption wrong?

        As for the date of the celebration of Jesus birth meaning nothing. I would agree but, let me ask you? By whom was it set and under what circumstances? Would it be proper to also state that I should celebrate the birth of Jesus somewhere towards March or April? What made December 25th so ‘special’? This brings me to statement 1 and 2 of mine. To take any day and say ‘This is the day I chose to celebrate Christ’s birth not knowing when it actually occurred’ is a GOOD statement. It can be ‘any’ day inclusively any day of the year. To incorporate pagan rites and rituals and claim it as a Christian holiday gets awful close to what the Corinthians were doing in I Corinthians 10.

        As for caring about pagan celebrations, your statement begs the question of what should be done with the following biblical passages: I Corinthians 10 (whole chapter especially verses 14-23); II Corinthians 6:16; I Timothy 1:3-4; I Timothy 4:1-8; II Timothy 2:15-18. Just to mention a few that points to a separation from falsehood to truth, specifically to what is biblically based.

        On your statement starting with “All of you that hold this view…” onward to the rest of the paragraph, you are telling me to look at a person’s heart with regard to the celebrations that they hold. Before I cut that a bit, I will first state that I don’t beat anyone across the head for celebrating Christmas. But to withhold facts concerning same and simply exchange a truth for a lie (in this case, historical facts concerning the holiday in question) begs close scrutiny with Romans 1:18-25. What I assume that you are implying is a subjective manner of faith, if I am correct when stating ” If people believe the true meaning (to them) of Christmas is Christ, then for them it is so…”? If this is so, then there is no one that needs to believe in Jesus Christ because, in their hearts, they believe as they believe and God ignores any falsehood that they believe because their heart is in the right place? God seeks those that worship Him in spirit (heart) AND IN TRUTH.

        Now, do I believe that Christians celebrate Christmas? Certainly! They are no less saved (assumption inclusive that they are children of God) than I am, being one that refuses to celebrate it. In most cases, I would have to treat them as a weaker brother (though that idea doesn’t really match the scripture in Romans 14).

        In reference to Romans 14:21 – You must first assume that, by teaching the truth of God, I am the cause of a brother to sin against their conscience. Tell me, is this what truth (of any kind) does? It is quite the opposite. Truth should set someone to not stumble, offend (place a stumbling block in front of), or make weak. The contrary is true. Falsehood makes a brother stumble, offend and make weak. This is why we would curb what may lead someone against you that is ‘neither here nor there’ until we are able to proclaim truth. This is not a statement to accept people’s actions, or thoughts without any proclamation. This is to curb yourself until such a proclamation can be stated. It definitely does not mean that you should accept a lie or withhold truth from others.

        Now, is the proclamation of any truth, whether deemed offensive by the listeners or not, a statement of judgment against those that hold to a contrary view? Not necessarily. My objective is to make my listeners grow in knowledge and wisdom and not necessarily have them believe that I am damning them to hell. That is not my objective. Nevertheless, to withhold information, inclusively a probability that God may damn them, is not necessarily the right thing to do either. It really depends a lot on the listener’s point of view. If a listener feels offended from hearing what truth is (any truth), does that mean that the speaker should stay quiet? Acts 4:1-20.

        Raul

        • Comments are fine. Stating the truth is good too. 🙂

          I guess it strikes me as a little bit ludicrous that people make such a big deal out of Christmas.

          This I have to say is a little over the top:
          f this is so, then there is no one that needs to believe in Jesus Christ because, in their hearts, they believe as they believe and God ignores any falsehood that they believe because their heart is in the right place? God seeks those that worship Him in spirit (heart) AND IN TRUTH
          I think you know what I was referring to…and worshiping the Lord on Christmas is no falsehood. This gets carried to far.
          You would have to treat most as the weaker brother? That is ridiculous.

          I think I was pretty clear in what I said. You keep mentioning paganism…I have nothing to do with that though you are correct in saying that Xmas originated with that.

          But you are entitled to your thoughts!
          God bless
          Greg

  2. This is a really good blog post Greg! I’ve been attacked by other Christians who say the very same thing. I’ve even heard of a Pastor who doesn’t put a Christmas tree in his house because of that one Bible verse that says, “Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.”

    I totally agree with you, we should be standing together not judging one another. Thanks for your bold stand, Greg!

  3. Either the Mass is correct or it is not and if not then the 1st Century Christians would not have practiced Christ Mass as they did not even fast on the same day as the pagans. They seem to have been a bit more picky and of course, the L word, than these days. Every year I hear Christians decrying the greed, mall madness, the Santa thing etc and yet as long as we let those things compete with us we are a part of the problem.

    We are to be people of truth and the truth is that this date was assigned as a form of “seeker church” in order to make the pagans more apt to come to the Church and in the end it harmed the Church more than it converted pagans.

    Why not base our day, if we must do so since are are called to remember His death and not His birth, on the time we can derive from Scripture via the time Zacharias was at the temple? A biblical research into anything is always good. Then let’s drop all the hooha and make it all about Him. After all, we are celebrating His birthday.

    Meet in the morning for prayer, evern a prayer breakfast and then go out and do things for Him as a present, feed the poor, visit the sick, do prison evangelism, repair some fences, paint a house, etc. Then come back to Church and praise God for what has been done and maybe take up an offering for a missionary or some charitable issue. After that, observe the Lord’s Supper, sing a hymn and go home rejoicing. His birth was simple, bad accomondations, no trees, no presents, a few guests, no lavish meals, no competing god called Santa and nothing but starlight and good music. Maybe we have been doing it all wrong.

    Romans 14 and 15 are often misused. Paul called out the differences between the strong and the weak and then said for the strong to sacrifice their liberty to keep the weak from falling. So, even if you want to call the Non-Christmas folks the weak you are called to sacrifice for them until they attain your level of strength/knowledge/wisdom or whatever you may think you have.

    The pagans have pretty much dominated the so-called holy days and they want to remove Christ from it, though He may have never been a part of it in the first place, so dump the hooha and do something better. While we are at it, let’s dump the Easter thing as well and celebrate the Passover Lamb as Scripture calls Him. Let’s seek to not practice a holiday filled with craziness and do the Christian Sedar so as to not punch the Jews in the nose by bias and provoke them to envy as we show the proper appreciation for our Jewish connection while showing forth Jesus as Messiah, not a Goy god on a man created holiday instead of the one God picked out for His Passover Lamb. We are so bogus to say we seek truth and we reformed while hanging on to silliness like this.

    Even if you want to cling to Romans 14, 15 you still have some issues, but as Paul told the carnal Corinthians, there is a better way to exercise yoru gigts and to worhsip. You can do as you wish, but the Church has done a lot of things that we have had to correct over the last two thousand years. We have a few more besides our holy days.

    How did the Jews fall into idolatry and end up mixing the true God with the pagan stuff? Sex, for one thing, but it may also have started with adopting small, fun and seemingly harmless stuff so as to be open and inclusive, etc and etc until the theology and doctrines mingled into something God could no longer stand and He sent them off to exile and judgment.

    Overall, things are not lookimg good for us either and if you can’t figure out earthly things that might not be the most wholesome or holy things to do what makes us think we have any of the deep stuff done pat? Jesus did not chastise the Pharisees for tithing the mint, anise and cummin, but for the neglecting of the weighter things. It was a lack of balance and now we have cast off the mint and anise in the name of liberty and grace making us unbalanced as well. Little stuff? Does the Word not say that it is the little foxes that spoil the vine? Andrew Murray tells of a girl who could not get the peace and filling that she desired until she tossed a rhinetone barett in the trash. In this age, she would have been counseled that she was being legalistic and to walk in the grace wherein she was called and she would have stayed unfulfilled.

    That girl got what she needed by giving up a small thing and the early saints turned the world upside down even though they were too legalistic to fast on the same day as the pagans. If they were wrong and we are right we should have far better results than they had and we don’t. Maybe we are doing quite a few things wrong, but we are not willing to sacrifice any of iur sacred cows to find out. Just saying.

    • Hi Sarge,

      There is in my mind anyway no competition. The problem is when Believers attack other Believers because their belief system does not line up with their own. What others make of Christmas and Easter does not particularly matter to me.

      Again…the day does not matter. That is getting into legalism…what matters is Jesus, period.

      Your suggestions on what to do are great!

      If you got the impression that I think the non-Christmas folks are the weaker brother and sister, then maybe you should reread what I wrote and my comments here. They are in NO way weaker than I nor did I imply they were…I was labeled in that way. I am fine with those who do not celebrate Xmas…I’m not fine when these same folks attack me and others for doing so. I also mentioned in a comment that if I was with those who do not celebrate Xmas…I would do nothing as well out of respect for them.

      If one reads Romans 14…you will see the language is present tense. That means it applies to today, not just past Feast days.

      No one in the Church has everything “down pat” least of all me. There is no sacred cow here either. The main idea of this post, the whole idea is that it is wrong for a Believer to attack another over their beliefs. I see way to much of this and it is about a whole lot more than Christmas.

      God bless Sarge
      Greg

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