For quite some time I have questioned the increased secularization of Christmas – even among those that identify to be Christians. Earlier this week, while picking up a few items from the local Wal-Mart, I overheard a conversation between the cashier and the customer in front of me. Although both ladies were discussing their church’s women’s Bible study group, one said that with all the things she has going on with her family and in-laws, she really didn’t have time to attend the church functions. Then what she said next really left me puzzled – “It’s not like I don’t regularly go to church; I’m just taking the week off because Christmas is about family and God understands…”
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard Christians justify their lack of attentiveness to the things of God with those words, “and God understands…” I have heard it used to justify lack of church attendance, worship, personal Bible reading time, or anything else that they do not have the sincerest desire or determination to do. The apostle Paul wrote, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1); I often wonder how God sees our “God understands…” defense of our choice to forsake those things of God that are not convenient, that requires our best efforts and determination. I often wonder if that excuse weighs out against God’s warning to man through the prophet Isaiah: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Still thinking about that conversation between the customer and the cashier, I wonder how anyone could get to the point – especially someone who openly talks about their church attendance and activities – where Christmas is no longer about observing and celebrating the birth of our Savior but about “family.” Christmas has quit being an holy observance but has now become just another family get-together for many. Christmas is no longer regarded as a sacred and holy day as it once was but has become common, increasingly secular, and many Christians simply accept the demands placed on them by the humanist philosophy that seems to dominate Western civilization. In fact, billboards have sprung up every Christmas holiday season since 1997 proudly offering a purely humanist viewpoint of Christmas with the demand that Christians must be tolerant of their viewpoint:
Somehow, there are many Christians that have become willing to accept the ridicule and scorn against celebrating Christmas as a Christian observance and have adopted the humanist ideals that it is more about family and celebrating the season. Unfortunately, on these Christians (and the humanists they follow) have become blind that the manger in Bethlehem was in the shadow of the cross on Golgotha. Even at his birth, Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8c). Without the cross there is no need for a manger; for the apostle Paul understood this quite well: And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous (Romans 5:11-19).
While we celebrate Christmas with our families, it is not the family that should ever take center stage. By placing families as the main focus of Christmas, we are not only forsaking the intention behind the observance of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are making a holy observance into something common. Within the Old Testament, there were some stern warnings on turning what was sacred and holy into something common or profane: And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the LORD (Leviticus 22:15). Although this verse is referring to the portion of the offerings that God had allotted for the support of the high priest of Israel, it is clear that this is a warning to keep the things of God pure and free from the contamination of sin. The prophet Ezekiel wrote: And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean (Ezekiel 44:23). When we claim that we set aside Christmas to worship the birth of Christ and we turn it into something else, we place ourselves under judgment: When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee (Deuteronomy 23:21). So my response to the customer at Wal-Mart, no, I do not think God understands, much less approves of, her decision.
Within the Jewish teachings, each holy day observance is to be done as a family; for orphans, widows, homeless, and poor, those that have are always to invite them to celebrate and observe the holy day within the love of a family. Make no mistake about it, while Christmas is a time for celebration with our families, it is also time where the family comes together to observe the day that our Lord Jesus Christ – the Messiah – was born. After all, without Christ there would be no Christmas.
