Articles and Writings

...Good Tidings of Great Joy Which Shall Be to All People...
Luke 2:10

A Christian Perspective on Christmas
By Pastor Billy Ball
It never ceases to amaze me how that every year we seem to have another preacher come around and go to great lengths to try to discourage God's people from committing the awful sin of celebrating the birth of our blessed Lord, a time otherwise known as Christmas. Yes, I knew it was about time for another message pronouncing woe upon those who would be so wicked as to get excited about what the Word of God said would be "good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people."

What these preachers need to realize is that Christians are not necessarily celebrating Christ's birthday so much as we are celebrating His birth! And they cannot deny that His birth was celebrated, as we shall see a little later in this message.

The funny thing it that most of the time the ones who get upset are probably those same preachers who had just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, another national holiday not found in the Bible. You see, that seems to be one of their main reasons for not celebrating Christmas - "the early church didn't do it, so we shouldn't either."

I should probably remind them that there are several things which we celebrate today that are not found to be observed by N.T. Christians, things that are surely less significant than the incarnation or human birth of the Son of God. For instance, I don't read anything about early Christians celebrating their own birthdays or their children's birthdays. Have you ever done that, preacher? What about celebrating your parents' 50th wedding anniversary? What about sending a $25.00 flower arrangement to lay on a dead person's grave? Or maybe saluting a flag with your hand over your heart? What about that evil high school graduation? Oh, and I almost forgot about fireworks on the 4th of July and New Year's Day!

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You see, there are a lot of things that we commemorate that are not specifically authorized in the Word of God. But, out of all the above-mentioned events, there is only one that God chooses to place eternally in the hearts and minds of mankind. That is, "unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

So we must conclude that just because the early churches didn't do it, that doesn't necessarily mean that God would not be pleased with us doing it. We must also admit that there is no command NOT to do it either. By the way, the word celebrate,i according to Webster's dictionary, can mean several things, one of which is "to observe a day or event, with praise or rejoicing; to extol." Now, friend, do you mean to tell me that, in this mean, cruel, and cold-hearted world that is so filled with confusion, hatred, and crime, that there is something sinful about observing a day nationally, one day out of the year, to praise and extol our Lord's first advent to this sin-cursed world and to rejoice in the face that we don't have to go to Hell because of it? I believe you have way too much time on your hands or you have run out of things to preach.

Now if you want to talk about Santa Claus robbing Jesus of His glory, coming out of his closet only once a year to do so and then quietly being put away until the next Christmas, I am with you. I say, "Amen, preach it, brother." If you want to talk about the fact that too many of us Christians get in debt over our heads trying to out-give last year's gifts, I say, "Preach it, preacher." If you want to get onto us about lying to our children about where their gifts came from or how the reindeer fly all over the world in a few hours' time, blow it out, brother. I am with you, man.

But if you're going to call me a confused paganistic Baptist because each year about this time I as a Christian am reminded of what "Christmas is really all about," and I preach again and remind my church and my family of the blessed day, "this day" in which the world, sinner and Christian alike, is called upon to come back to Bethlehem's manger and do as the shepherds did in Luke 2:17, "They made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child," if you're going to call me paganistic for that, then what is Christian?

By the way, the word pagan, according to the dictionary, is "one who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity." That sounds more like you than me, my confused brother. Do you honestly thing that all these Christians who celebrate Christmas in a Christian manner are wicked for getting up on that morning, gathering around with their family in a beautifully decorated home, praying, reading the scriptural account of our Lord's birth, and then exchanging a few tokens of their love for one another? Do you think they are doing something sinful or displeasing to God?

You may say, "But preacher, even pagans celebrate Christmas." Praise God! How much more wonderful when we can get pagans to look toward the precious Son of God by celebrating Christmas. You say, "But preachers, don't you know that the Catholics started celebrating Christmas so that they could influence pagans?" Who cares why they did it? Would it make you feel better if a Baptist had started celebrating Christmas? I don't care if the devil started it; there are some things that the devil means for evil but God meant for good.

Preachers will sometimes give verses like Matthew 15:3,6 and Mark 7:8,9, which speak of Christians "transgressing God's commandment by [their] tradition." Well, here's your chance. Exactly what commandments of God am I transgressing by celebrating Christmas in the above-mentioned manner?

Am I not doing exactly what others did on that first Christmas celebration. Read Matthew chapters 1 and 2. Did you read what the wise men did? In Matthew 2:2,11 they worshipped Him! Why, they even rejoiced with exceeding joy when they saw His star. What a bunch of pagans! You might notice that the only ones that got upset about it were the Romans. You're not a Herod or a Romanist, are you? Just checking. Well, let's look at the gospel of Luke. There are a few more pagans there, too. In Luke 2:8, what is an angel coming all the way from heaven by night to tell a bunch of shepherds about? There must be something special happening on "this day." There is! Read verses 10 and 11. And then out of nowhere comes a multitude of "pagan" angels. They are the Lord's own personal choir (verse 13). The heavenly host was "praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Were they all wrong? Isn't this verse

What's the difference between the unsaved wise men, the unsaved shepherds, and the unsaved angels praising God and you and I, who are washed in the blood, using Christmas day as an opportunity to worship and adore Him? If anything, we should be more excited to tell the story than any of these were! Now notice Luke 2:18-20, "and al they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds." You see why that, because of the shepherds, angels, and wise men celebrating Christmas (not to mention Elizabeth and John the Baptist), they celebrated His birthday way before He even got here! Because of these who wisely used Christ's birth as an opportunity to tell others about Him, people began to wonder about Him.

What about Simeon in this same chapter, who, upon seeing the baby Jesus, exclaimed, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation"? Or how about Anna, a few verses below that, who, "coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem"?

Now notice Luke 2:19, "Mary pondered all them in her heart." She actually began to combine all these thingss what Christmas makes us do - ponder or think about what a Saviour we have that He would come all the way from heaven, take on a body of mortal flesh, go to the cross, and lay down His life for us. What a wonderful thing it would be if we would all use this Christmas as an opportunity to witness of the true meaning of Christmas when our little children or some poor, misguided pagan began to ask us why "this day" is so special.

Let me close by bringing your attention to Luke 2:20, "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen." Friend, shouldn't that be the way December 26th, the day after Christmas, finds us? Finally, to all of you who will continue to find fault with your brothers and sisters who perchance "esteem one day above another," please read Romans 14:5. We know how you feel about those who misuse Christmas day and who see it as another opportunity to throw a drunken party or who are more concerned with the "trimmings" of Christmas, and we feel the same way. However, I think that it is going a little too far to say we are Christianizing a pagan holiday.

How in the world could you compare what I have been talking about with Halloween or Christian Rock or ungodly TV programs? How could using Christmas, regardless of its origin, be blasphemous when it is used as a way to truly glorify God? Read it again, ponder it as Mary did, and if you still choose to regard it not unto the Lord, then God bless you. (Romans 14:6)

But regardless of how you see it, from me, my family, and all the members of the Faith Baptist Church in Primrose, Georgia.

Have a blessed and happy Christmas!

Your Pagan Brother,
Pastor Billy Ball