January 2015

  Another comment: “I think it’s unavoidable in our society and personally I love Christmas – a special time when we have loads of opportunities to talk about the very name of Christ.  And yes, we can give presents to those we love at any time, so why not at Christmas too?  Also the whole issue of Santa has never been an issue for us as a family.  But we still love Christmas and as for attending church on Christmas Day- if Christians can’t celebrate the Incarnation then who can?  We know it’s not the actual day of His birth, but we should be celebrating the Incarnation.  I think it’s amazing that the God if the universe should come to live on earth – God with us- so I think we should take the opportunity to celebrate and remember and remind people that Christ came and lived among us, it blows my mind!”…

  Another one: “The issue is…so many of our ‘traditions’ are pagan…and we have a liberty to do all things, so long as they are done to glorify Him. The tradition of gift giving we always attribute to the gifts of the wise men who visited Jesus to give Him honour and praise.  As with all things it is why you are doing what you are doing, and your heart behind it, you can never go wrong if you put Him first in all things.  The wise men gave gifts to Jesus and not each other, I see nothing wrong with giving gifts to each other and telling our children about the greatest gift of all that was given to mankind, what we must avoid is becoming like the other cults that segregate themselves from the world, for the wrong reasons. Ultimately, Christmas or celebrating the birth of Jesus as a yearly tradition is not mentioned in the bible, it is not something we are commanded to do, neither is it something we are prohibited from, it is an area we have liberty in, and as I have said, if we putting Jesus first then nothing else matters….what we must be careful of is legalism, we must ensure that we do not become pharisaical in that we create so many hedge laws to protect us from breaking laws, that we lose sight of who we worship and the freedom He has given us to do so.”

  And then another who talks about applying it to “Christian liberties”, and a few have said that to me.  Here’s what he said: “I now know that Christmas is celebrated by US who believe in the birth of Christ.  All of my life I have believed this.  There are Christians who try to find fault with our worship are doing so religiously.  They mean well but they need to search scripture on what we are allowed to do and not.  I have recently been reading 1 Cor 8, and Romans 14 on our liberties.  Also Colossians 2.  In other words what these scriptures tell me is this: If what I do is done in faith, it is not sin.  If what I do bothers the weak in faith, I should not do it.  Okay, now I am allowed to worship my Lord every day and any day I so choose, and I do on December 25th.  I don’t care if that was the actual day of His birth.  That is not an issue…”

  What is the best way to respond to the argument about Christian liberties in relation to the scripture references he quotes from?  I really want to respond to him, and make him think more about it…

  I really want to “get my head around this” this year, and I want to honour God and please Him, not just go along with things.  It’s when Christians who I consider to be sound and solid do it, that’s when I think, maybe I could be going “overboard” by not celebrating it.

England