rolandtroves.blogspot.com
Last December a well-respected and highly influential pastor in Nigeria stated that Christmas is idolatrous, thus bringing to the fore again the endless argument about the origin of Christmas. I do not respect the pastor less for that view - I am one of the millions who have been greatly blessed through his ministry. However, I feel inclined to use this forum to make my case for Christmas. I will proceed by asking the following questions and attempting to answer them as best and as honestly as I can. I will then proffer my opinion on the subject.
1. Did the date, December 25, have an idolatrous association predating Christ?
2. Was Jesus born on December 25 or any other day in December?
3. Did Jesus command us to celebrate Christmas?
4. Did the early Church ( from the Ascension to 70 AD ) celebrate Christmas?
5. Does Christmas itself have an idolatrous origin?
Q Did the date, December 25, have an idolatrous association predating Christ?
A The honest answer to this question is yes. December 25 was the day when the ancient Romans celebrated the rebirth or reborn of the Unconquerable Sun ( Sol Invictus ). Sol is the Latin for sun, while the Greek word is Helios. Simply put, the date was the occasion for celebrating the sun god ( Shamash, to the ancient Mesopotamians ). This event was preceded by the Saturnalia, a Roman festival honouring the fertility god, Saturn. This involved days of revelries terminating on December 23.
Q Was Jesus born on December 25 or any other day in December?
A No. Historical facts suggest that Jesus was likely to have been born between September and October.
Q Did Jesus command us to celebrate Christmas?
A No, Jesus did not command us to celebrate Christmas.
Q Did the early Church ( from the Ascension to 70 AD ) celebrate Christmas?
A No, there is no biblical record stating or even suggesting that the early Church celebrated Christmas.
Q Does Christmas itself have an idolatrous origin?
A No, Christmas itself does not have an idolatrous origin. The name Christmas is a combination of 'Christ' and 'mass'. The word mass derives from the Late Latin 'missa', meaning dismissal. Empirically, however, it has come to assume a celebratory denotation. In summation therefore, Christmas, which probably started some 200 years after the birth of Jesus, was then, and still is, the celebration of Christ. It was around 529 AD that Emperor Justinian declared Christmas a public holiday.
The Christians who argue against Christmas do so not because they don't know the meaning of the word, but simply because they view it as a compromise idea concocted by the Romans in an attempt to unite the pagans and Christians in their empire. But however subtle or elaborate that compromise may have been, I believe it is incontrovertible that Jesus was and remains the central focus of Christmas.
After Naaman was healed of his leprosy, and resolved to serve the God of Israel, he expressed one of the characteristic worries of a new convert.
But may the LORD forgive your servant for this one thing: When my
master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning
on my arm and I bow there also - when I bow down in the temple of
Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant for this. [ II Kg 5:18 ]
Prophet Elisha's response in verse 19 to this worry was: 'Go in peace'. Now why did he give Naaman such an answer? Because the prophet understood that even when Naaman was forced to bow his head to Rimmon, he was bowing his heart to God.
When we pretend to understand all the principles of godliness, we miss very important messages from God. Becoming too fixated on what December 25 meant to the ancient Roman pagans has made some Christians to miss the message of Jesus in Mark 2:27, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath'. The Roman pagans had no monopoly on December 25. In a quest to make the glory of God fill the earth, the Church of Jesus had a divine prerogative to redefine that date, and with the instrumentality of a Roman Emperor, it did. The way the ancient Israelites redefined the land of Canaan when they possessed it. I believe we will do well as a Church to recognize the redefinition of December 25 as a victory for believers in Christ.
Since we do not know for sure the actual date of Christ's birth, we are at liberty to choose a date to commemorate that glorious event. Jesus didn't have to command us to do that, we do it to demonstrate that we love Him, that we understand the eternal significance of His birth, and that we are grateful to God for it. Your loved ones don't need to wait for your request before organizing a birthday party for you. The early Church did not celebrate Christmas in their time because the Church was still in its formative years, trying to fully define itself and its role in those tumultuous times of the Roman Empire.
The anti-Christmas group in the Church of Christ who hold services on Sunday have either chosen to ignore or are probably unaware of the fact that Sunday itself used to be a pagan Roman holiday. They called it 'dies solis'. that is sun's day. If this anti-Christmas group has nothing against holding church services on Sunday, why then is it wrong to celebrate Christ's birth on December 25?
I make the same argument for Easter, the occasion when we commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That time of the year corresponds with the time when the ancient Babylonians held festivities honouring their god, Tammuz, who was brought back to life by his mother, Ishtar ( pronounced eesta, the name from which Easter was derived ). Again I ask, If we have no problem whatsoever holding services to worship our God on a day ( Sunday ) originally dedicated to celebrating the sun god, why should we hesitate to commemorate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus at a time
( Easter ) devoted in ancient times to honouring Tammuz?
I end by repeating these words of Christ: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.***
Sources: rcg.org; wikipedia.org; encyclopedia mythica ( www.pantheon.org );
thefreedictionary.com; the Good News ( UCG.ORG ); www.straightdope.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment