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"Should we celebrate Christmas?"

"Should we celebrate Christmas?"

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Pastor Peter Jeynes

Should we celebrate Christmas?

October 1 is the date the first Christmas decorations go up in supermarkets. Yes – Christmas is the highlight of a supermarket's financial year; it isn't a religious holiday! Christmas is designed to get those last few pennies out of our pockets and get us to focus even more on 'things'.

There are conflicting views on whether Christians should celebrate Christmas. "But Christmas is all about Christ!" Don't you believe it? A certain professor from South Africa can show that the Christmas tree is pagan and that the festival is all about the worship of pagan deities – and that Christians should have nothing to do with any Christmas celebrations. The message from some is that we shouldn't celebrate Christmas. It is all about pagan worship. We, perhaps, should stand for the truth though the heavens fall. 

“In 1851, Pastor Henry Schwan of Cleveland appears to have been the person responsible for decorating the first Christmas tree in an American church. His parishioners condemned the idea as a Pagan practice; some even threatened the pastor with harm.”1

However, here is another view of Christmas, published in the Review and Herald, December 9, 1884: "On Christmas, so soon to come, let not the parents take the position that an evergreen placed in the church for the amusement of the Sabbath-school scholars is a sin, for it may be made a great blessing. Keep before their minds benevolent objects. In no case should mere amusement be the object of these gatherings. While there may be some who will turn these occasions into seasons of careless levity, and whose minds will not receive the divine impress, to other minds and characters, these seasons will be highly beneficial. I am fully satisfied that innocent substitutes can be devised for many gatherings that demoralise."

What an excellent approach! I guess that Ellen White was fully aware of the pagan origins of Christmas and Christmas trees but addresses the subject of Christmas very positively. Ellen White continues, "Christmas is coming. May you all have the wisdom to make it a precious season. Let the older church members unite, heart and soul, with their children in this innocent amusement and recreation, in devising ways and means to show true respect to Jesus by bringing him gifts and offerings..."

"In every church, let your smaller offerings be placed upon your Christmas tree. Let the precious emblem, 'evergreen', suggest the holy work of God and his beneficence to us; and the loving heart-work will be to save other souls who are in darkness. Let your works be in accordance with your faith... Let there be recorded in the heavenly books such a Christmas as has never yet been seen, because of the donations which shall be given for the sustaining of the work of God and the upbuilding of his kingdom." (Review and HeraId, December 9, 1884.)

Many Christian people objected to Christmas – particularly Christmas trees – from the middle of the 19th century onwards. They based their objections on the following verses: "For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers. So that it will not topple." (Jeremiah 10:3-4, NKJV.) The context of this text is that the prophet Jeremiah had to cope with his people, who mixed pagan worship with true worship. Idols made of wood, metal and stone were brought into regular worship. True worship was mixed with instruments brought in from paganism.

(Incidentally, we do the same today. For example, we use an organ to accompany our singing. Organs were borrowed from the concert halls of the 19th century. People in some parts of Scotland still recognise a church organ as of satanic origin.) Jeremiah objects to this mixed-up worshipping in two ways. In Jeremiah 10, he addresses the people mixing up worship by firstly mocking them. He points out the error of their ways using comedy, sarcasm in this case.

Then he takes a slightly different tack. Jeremiah now teaches us how to teach people. "Thus, you shall say to them: 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.' He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion." (Jeremiah 10:11-12, NKJV.)  Jeremiah's idea is to counter the false with the true. Some might create idols, but Jeremiah says, "Let's counter that by worshipping the true God."

I understand that Ellen White is teaching us the same method. We should set out to do special things during the Christmas season, but we should do those things in the right spirit. We should not mock people's understanding of Christmas. Instead, we should be setting out to correct people's understanding of who God is.

When everyone is worshipping the gods of consumerism and the stomach – and representing this by putting up trees – and decorating the homes with lights and symbols of love – we should be showing people what God is really like.  We should not do that by getting angry and argumentative with people. We should not be putting people down by attacking their activities. We should be lifting God.

How do we demonstrate who the true God is?

We should not do it by abstaining from worship opportunities – we should be doing the real thing. "Even Christmas, the day observed professedly in honour of the birthday of Christ, has been made a most effective means of turning the mind away from Christ, away from his glory. If Christmas is kept at all, it should be kept in a way that will be in harmony with its significance." (Review and Herald, December 9, 1890.)

What, then, should we do?

We can't escape from Christmas. We could go around muttering bah humbug under our breath. We could point out all the sins and failings of the world – or we can do as Jeremiah and other prophetic voices suggest: point people to God and Jesus Christ.

If you have a tree – use it to collect money for God's cause. You could send money to Adventist Frontier Missions. You could give money to ADRA. You could help a friend in need. If you do buy presents – buy ones for your friends that at the very least help them rather than add to clutter. You might be able to buy a gift that helps them to know Jesus better.

Or you could do as Corby Seventh-day Adventist church did. They hosted several Sunday-keeping churches on a Christmas-day Sabbath a few years ago. The idea was partly at the suggestion of the hall owners – the Anglican church in Corby. They wanted the only church to be open on Christmas day to be open for all. The guests observed a little of our take on Christmas – the church pointed people in need of Jesus in the right direction. There was food, and there was a joy – there was Jesus.

In other words, we don't have to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We can find the good in the season – and use it to point people to Jesus.

1 lakewoodobserver.com/read/2011/12/13/Americas-first-Christmas-tree