Celebrating Christmas - an abomination?


Through a friend of my wife - it has been brought to my notice that there are Christians who think that celebrating Christmas is an abomination in God's eyes. There are those who hold to Arthur Pink's views on Christmas

Pink's main arguments as far as I understand them are:

(1) There is not a word in Scripture which tells us to celebrate Jesus' birth

(2) That the date of Christmas is a pagan festival and most people who celebrate Christmas - do so without any thought for Jesus

(3) That Christmas (Christ Mass) is a Roman Catholic celebration and therefore an abomination

(4) That Christmas cards are an abomination to God (even if they have a verse of God's word inside) because God's word forbids unholy mixtures

I am not sure if the argument belongs to Pink, but there are people also arguing that Christmas trees are an abomination to God - because "when we are kneeling down to put presents under the tree - what do we think we are kneeling down to?"

Discuss!

Comments

Dawg said…
Man -

I don't see it Neil....I really don't.

#1 - There is not a word in Scripture which tells us NOT to celebrate Jesus' birth.

#2 - I'm not a pagan and the 25th of December is just a day. I am not celebrating the 'day', I am celebrating the birth of Christ.

#3 - See above.

#4 - What? Even after reading Pink's problem with it I still don't see it.


I see a lot of legalism and pharisee-ism in these issues that Pink has presented and no freedom to celebrate the birth of Christ.

I don't worship December 25th...I don't worship a card...I don't worship a tree.

I worship the true living God who took on flesh and dwelt among us!

Merry Christmas Neil!
December 24, 2008 at 6:22 PM
Question of Identity said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
December 24, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Question of Identity said…
Above deleted because I made a grammatical error
December 24, 2008 at 6:46 PM
Question of Identity said…
Wayne

I am with you. For me Christmas is a time to worship Jesus and an opportunity to spread the gospel. I have written a polite e-mail to my wife's friends saying that I can't for the life of me see the problem with celebrating Christmas.

Of course the same argument that Pink raises would have to be attributed to Easter if he was being consistent - especially since a lot of secular (Pagan?) celebration goes on around Easter. Also, as far as I can think of, whilst Jesus tells us to remember his death, I am not sure we are commanded to celebrate the resurrection.

But we do celebrate the resurrection, because without it His death would have been futile. So too I believe we can celebrate His birth - since without His incarnation neither of the above could have taken place.

Worship is about what is going on in the heart and if we choose on Christmas day to make this a day of worship of Jesus, a time to remember the incarnation then to me that can surely only be pleasing to God.

Have a most God blessed Christmas Wayne!

Neil
December 24, 2008 at 6:47 PM
00 said…
The only Christians that I know who have a problem with Christmas also feel the same way about Easter. Some are "anti" Christmas and Easter while others simply think that we shouldn't celebrate them, while not necessarily 'hating' either holiday (if that makes sense).

I think that the first and second point are the most important to me. God never tells us to make any sort of 'big deal' out of the birth of Jesus. To simply say that He also doesn't tell us *not* to make a holiday out of it is bad logic/reasoning, IMHO. I don't believe that God has to tell us every single thing that He does *not* want us to do. When I go to McDonald's I simply tell them what I want...I don't also go on and on about everything that I *don't* want.

Regarding #2, the whole reason that the church started celebrating Christmas was to try to get pagans to join the church. They were not interested, and had the winter soltice (sp?)...so the Christians basically 'made up' Christmas so that the pagans could become Christians and still have their party. We are very far removed from that now, to where that's not much of an issue for most Christians, but even so, I do think that its origins are important. To me it's sorta like how some churches try to make Halloween a Christian thing now, while other Christians practically have a heart attack at any positive mention of Halloween. Who's to say that in 200 years Halloween won't be thought of as a major Christian holiday throughout the world?

If as a Christian you believe in 'sola scripture' and like to go on and on about how horrible tradition is (and especially the Roman Catholic Church) then it makes sense to me that those same people would be anti-Christmas. If on the other hand as a Christian you believe that tradition is important and has a place within the church, then I would suppose that you would be all about Christmas. I think that a lot of it has to do with your view of Scripture and the place of tradition.

Regarding Easter though, to me it makes more sense for Christians to simply celebrate Passover then 'make up' another holiday. If you read the story of Passover, it's so obvious that it's foretelling of Jesus.
December 25, 2008 at 7:38 AM
Anonymous said…
We love Christmas and the traditions that surround it.

It is a great thing for all people and it is a terrific opportunity to share Christ with the loney, the hurting, the lost.

Thanks!
January 2, 2009 at 5:44 PM
Anonymous said…
Yeah Im with all of you. Arthur Pink is a great author but he is wrong here. Calling Christmas an abomination sounds like something a mid 20th century fundamentalist would say. And we don't want to be those people. Cool blog. I'll be following weekly.

God Bless
January 6, 2009 at 10:33 PM
Question of Identity said…
Thanks Danny

And a warm welcome to you!

Look forward to hearing from you.

Neil
January 7, 2009 at 5:38 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
January 10, 2009 at 9:32 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where does the ability to love come from?

Perhaps a silly and too basic a question, but I wonder if you have sat and thought about the question: "Where does the ability to love come from?" There is a new film out about Charles Darwin's life and of course his theory of evolution. The theory (and that is all it is!) describes a dog eat dog existence - where only the fittest survive. In all this the theory fails to address the existence of love. I'm thinking about the type of sacrifical love that we see clearly in the life of Jesus Christ. The type of love that on a good day we might manage to emulate. The Bible of course is absolutely clear about the source of love. Dear friends (says John) let us love one another, for love comes from God. And more clearly goes on to say: God is love! In the New Testament there are 3 words for love: Philia (family loyalty) Eros: (physical intimate love) And Agape: (sacrificial, life transforming, Christ like love) All these are gift from God but it is the th
Read more

Hedonist in the Making

Image
The other day I saw a young girl (about 6 yrs old) wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed: "It's all about me ME ME!" This young girl is a hedonist in the making. Little does she know of the prison she is building for herself. Little does she know of Satan and his cohorts who are all too willing to help her. The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure is the only thing that is good for a person. Hedonism can be conjoined with psychological egoism - where people are motivated only by their self interest. Isaiah observed this attitude in Israel: "Let us eat drink (and be merry)" you say, "for tomorrow we die!" How sad that there is a real potential for this child to finish up like this:- All this only reinforces the importance (and high calling!) of children's outreach in the church. It was Bill Wilson of Metro Ministries and founder of Kidz Klub that said: "It iseasier to build boys and girls then to repair men and women" . How
Read more

A Bible Believing Repentance Seeking Evangelising Arch-Bishop

Image
John Sentamu is a Bible believing Arch-Bishop with tremendous gifts in evangelism. From past experience I know that he preaches the need for repentance and I was pleased to read that last week hundreds of people committed their lives to Jesus Christ following an invitation by the Archbishop of York at the Church Without Walls National Gathering in Scotland. John Sentamu said, "The National Gathering was a tremendous event. I was thrilled and excited to see so many people come forward and commit their lives to Jesus Christ." We need to pray for him and his work. When John came into office a couple of years ago now, he said that his mission was to give the church the confidence back to evangelize this nation. He is doing a good job!
Read more