The Christmas season is upon us as we shuffle off to busy stores to purchase presents for our loved ones in hopes that we can see the joy on their faces as they receive gifts that they will treasure for at least a few weeks before moving on to something newer.
The yards all around town are attaching strings of lights to their otherwise mundane homes. Inflatable Santas, reindeer, nativity sets, and the occasional Grinch fill yards and give off a pleasing glow when the darkness of night surrounds us.
Christians around the world are gearing up for Christmas plays, cantatas, and likely a reading of Luke chapter 2 as Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year.
“Jesus is the reason for the season!” some might say, as a reminder that this is the time to celebrate the birth of the Savior, rather than the consumerism that plagues our secularized society. We hand out gifts, because the “three wise men” gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus as a young boy. We put up a Christmas tree because the Lord incarnate would eventually grow into a man who would die on a tree.
Yet, because we can no longer have nice things, an increasing number of Christians go out of their way on social media to “enlighten” us on the Pagan origins of December 25th. Oh, the horror!
Did you know that when you sit around the Christmas tree, you’re actually forming….A PENTAGRAM!!
Did you know that December 25th is around the winter solstice (the longest night of the year) and pagans worshiped Saturn (Saturnalia) and the sun (Yule) at this time by, get this, giving gifts, singing, and decorating fir trees?
Sound familiar?! You’re practically a Devil worshiper if you take part in Christmas festivities on Dec. 25th, heathen!
Now, you might be picking up a hint of facetiousness here. Your astute observation is correct.
I do recognize that pagans did these things at this time of year. However, modern Gnostic Christians – and I do not care if you are a Catholic or a Bible believing Baptist, if you obsess over this stuff and flaunt your “special knowledge” (gnosis) and use it as a cudgel with which to bash other Christians, you are a Gnostic in spirit – go absolutely apoplectic over this stuff.
Here is the thing: Christians can celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ whenever we feel like it. And we should!
The “world” often gives families days or even weeks off from work and school in late December. Why not take advantage of it? If your entire family can gather together and worship Jesus on December 25th, TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY AND DO IT!
For many people, this is the only time of the year in which to do so – especially with school aged children (including college) having an extended vacation afforded to them.
It also presents a FANTASTIC opportunity to witness to lost family members who might be at these gatherings as the reason for Christmas can be expressed explicitly in religious terms.
The same cannot be said for July 4, Memorial Day, or other typical holiday gatherings. Christmas and Easter are the best we’ve got.
Imagine being the curmudgeon who rejects family and goes out of their way to trash the most famous and celebrated Christian holiday in the entire world, just so you can flex your gnosis about the pagan history of the season.
Christians who trash Christmas are actively working against the rest of us who seek to invite people to one of the most attended Sunday services (Easter being the other) of the entire year. Even secular people feel drawn to going to church at Christmas, but you Gnostics would rather we all stay home, I suppose.
In rejecting Christmas, you are doing more damage to your testimony than those of us who put up a tree will ever do.
I also hate to break it to you, but pagans worship a lot of things, on a lot of days, using a lot of tools and symbols. They have done so for a very long time across many cultures around the world. If you refuse to do anything Christian using these tools on those days, then you might as well stop being a Christian at all.
Or, you can do the rational thing and do Christianity wherever and whenever possible.
Colossians 2:16, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:”
1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
Galatians 5:13, “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”
You see, the Bible gives us an out. We can do ALL things to the glory of God. We can use our liberty to serve one another. We can “Christianize” a pagan “holyday” as a means to completely overshadow the wicked practices and replace them with Christian interpretations that point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
This has been done for centuries, and the world has been better for it.
So relax, enjoy your family and days off, and take the opportunity, not to destroy, but to build a foundation of Christianity in someone’s life this season.
Simmons' Opinions 