Forgetting Christmas: The Greatest Story Never Told

A friend posted something today on the social media that caught my attention. It concerned a rather disturbing fact: one half of all Russian young people know nothing about their own nation’s murderous Communist past, including the Gulag, the crimes of Stalin, and so on.

I chipped in by saying that just as worrying is the likely fact that probably a full three quarters of Australian and American young people don’t know about this either. The dumbing down of our young people, including their blatant historical illiteracy, is a huge worry indeed.

Being ignorant of one’s own history is a recipe for disaster – as history proves. But of course we will never learn the lessons of history if we do not know history. So things will simply get worse as more and more people are cast adrift from their own past, and any knowledge of it.

A similar situation was recently reported on in the UK concerning Christmas and what it means. It seems that far too many young people there today have no clue what it is about. They are as clueless about their own Christian heritage as most Russians are about their own Communist heritage.

Here is how one news report ran with the story:

A survey has found that as many as two out of five British millennials do not know that Jesus Christ is the baby in Nativity scene displays. The survey, carried out by research company OnePoll on behalf of Hotels.com, found that 39 percent of 2,000 Britons aged between 21 and 38 did not know the baby’s identity. A similar amount, or 37 percent of respondents, also did not know about Joseph and Mary, Jesus’ earthly parents.

The poll, which examined a number of other questions regarding family and Christmas, found that less than 10 percent of young people were able to name the gifts by the three wise men in the story, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Six percent said that they believed the story of Santa Claus was somehow linked with the Nativity.

“Of course I know about Jesus and Joseph and Mary, although I’m not too sure what the three wise men were doing or the Angel Gabriel for that matter,” said one of the respondents, 29-year old Craig Munro. “It is shocking that some people in my age group don’t know the story of the Nativity, but time moves on and some traditions go out of the window I suppose,” he added.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/2-in-5-british-millennials-dont-know-jesus-is-the-baby-in-the-nativity-dont-know-joseph-and-mary.html

As I and others have stated so often, the West is by and large the product of the Judeo-Christian worldview. If you know little or nothing of that worldview, you will know little or nothing of yourself and your place in the world today. The vital importance of history – and of knowing your own history – cannot be overstated.

Let me offer three trenchant quotes to make this point:

“The first battlefield is to rewrite history… Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily persuaded.” -Karl Marx

“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots”. -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” -George Orwell

Exactly. That is why history matters. Fail to learn it and we simply repeat its mistakes. As Thomas Sowell once put it, “One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again.”

But let me return to the shocking findings of UK youth. Jonathon Van Maren recently offered some commentary on the land that forgot Christmas:

This should not come as a complete surprise due to the fact that a minuscule 6% of Britons can be classified as practicing Christians, and with the exception of a small remnant, Christianity is nearly dead in England. One of the greatest Christian empires in the history of the world is now populated by men and women who do not even know that the Christmas story is about the birth of Jesus, or that His parents were Mary and Joseph. This amnesia is simply staggering to consider.

Many people do not yet understand the enormity of this loss. Primarily, the loss of Christianity is the loss of an essential faith. Secondarily, it is a cultural loss that robs Western civilization of one of its foundational stories and eliminates a fundamental part of Western identity. To be unaware of the beliefs that motivated prior generations for over a thousand years is to be cut off from our own history in an extraordinary way. It is to ensure that we simply cannot understand why things happened the way that they did, and to be crippled in our ability to analyze the present and plan for the future.

It is also a stark reminder that civilization is an incredibly fragile thing. Who would have believed, only a few decades ago, that it would be possible for the children of the West to be ignorant of the Christmas story? To not believe in the historical accuracy of the Bible, or the fundamentals of Christianity—that is one thing. But to be incapable of identifying the Child in the manger as Jesus? That is something else. That is not simply skepticism. That is fantastic ignorance.
https://thebridgehead.ca/2018/12/21/2-in-5-uk-millennials-cant-identify-baby-in-bethlehem-christmas-story/?fbclid=IwAR2FPCu-J0xBm-fzqJLs96RJOSZi6ysMMln9-7MRHTEcKo8-qrqsW0yqqIU

To lose a knowledge of Christmas and what it means is to lose everything we have built and developed over the centuries in the West. As Winston Churchill once said, “The greatest advances in human civilization have come when we recovered what we had lost: when we learned the lessons of History.”

It is no surprise that all over the West we seem to be going backwards. As we become increasingly ignorant of our own history, we become increasingly open to bad ideas and even dangerous, totalitarian ideas. All the tyrants and dictators understood that.

But let me offer a few concluding quotes for all those who have no clue who this baby was and why he matters so greatly:

“Maker of the sun, He is made under the sun. In the Father He remains, from His mother He goes forth. Creator of heaven and earth, He was born on earth under heaven. Unspeakably wise, He is wisely speechless. Filling the world, He lies in a manger. Ruler of the stars, He nurses at His mother’s bosom. He is both great in the nature of God, and small in the form of a servant.” -Augustine

“Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Oh, the wonder of Christmas.” -Charles Spurgeon

“The exciting quality of Christmas rests on an ancient and admitted paradox. It rests upon the paradox that the power and center of the whole universe may be found in some seemingly small matter, that the stars in their courses may move like a moving wheel around the neglected outhouse of an inn.” -G.K. Chesterton

“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. . . . If the thing happened, it was the central event in the history of the earth.” -C.S. Lewis

“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” -Ronald Reagan

“It is impossible to conceive how different things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did … for millions of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it. It is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold numbers of ways, have been so grasped by the child who was born, so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived, that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him.” -Frederick Buechner

Merry Christmas

[1391 words]

19 Replies to “Forgetting Christmas: The Greatest Story Never Told”

  1. Disappointed last night watching ‘Carols by Candle Light’ because there were no actual carols, only so-called ‘Christmas’ songs, about reindeers and Santa Clause and tinsel and snow. So I went to bed and read the Christmas story again. Our world isn’t moved any more by the maker of the universe coming to be with us as a helpless baby – yet he wasn’t really helpless was he? No, we Westerners have lapped up all the benefits he gave us and thrown out the benefitter, Jesus. We must awaken the multitudes who sleep, cause them to arise from the dead, and Christ will give them light! Eph 5:14

  2. The way much of Europe is heading, I wouldn’t be surprised if say 50 to 100 years or so down the track that it will be Islamic based holidays that will be the primary holidays on the Calendar in many countries in Europe.

  3. Merry Christmas Bill and family.
    You are a blessing to Australia as sadly Australians become increasingly anti- Christian.
    My deepest prayer is a return of Scott Morrison to PM next year after the Fed election . This may appear slim but with God all things are possible. I fully expect we are heading into a global recession if not depression in 2019 so having a foolish and inept labor Government in control would be catastrophic. Ukraine and Israel as separate Nations could also be heading for war in the not to distant future.
    Our faith remains in a loving God whatever comes.

    Rest and take it easy Bill in preparation for another highly challenging year. God bless
    Philip

  4. Great article Bill. One of my favourite questions when opportunity arises is to ask young people why this year is 2018. Jesus must’ve been rather important to split world history in two! Another question is to ask about the origin of the word holiday.
    Thanks for all your hard work this year Bill. May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and looking forward to your articles next year.

  5. Thank you Bill for your many inspirational articles.
    Our family wishes yours much joy this Christmas.

  6. Oh well Bill, I’m not at all surprised that the so-called Millennial generation has no idea who Jesus Christ was and is, or that Christmas is the actual celebration of his birth. Christmas is now so highly commercialised and Santa Claus pushed to the forefront of it all, Christianity can’t get a look in. It is also terribly disturbing that we have now created a world fundamentally without hope as we eat oursleves into gluttony and drink ourselves stupid, all just to obliterate the sense of hollowness foisted upon the population by those who would say there is no God or Jesus Christ. But I like to think of a little recitation done by the actor Gregory Peck several years ago, where he told of the baby born in a manger, hiding from Herod’s soldiers and who grew to be a carpenter and ultimately was crucified. But his life and the effect he had on all subsequent generations, was profound. It reached down for nearly two thousand years and I say, if just one man, whether you believe in Him or not, can have that effect, His truth will never die.
    God bless you Bill and your family. Have a holy Christmas.

  7. It’s pretty terrible, isn’t it? And here, when youngsters realise how much history there is about Britain, some become absolutely fascinated; they just aren’t taught these things fully in school. When we have organisations like English Heritage pushing the narrative that we should all be proud of our “muslim heritage” then I know we’ve lost the plot. It has to be one of, if not the most, wicked deception techniques ever permitted to happen on Earth. We old uns (and not so old) have a huge task ahead of us, to revitalise the truth of our history and teach it again to the youngsters.
    Best wishes to all “down under”, for Christmas and let us look forward to a bright New Year.

  8. It seems millenials are pretty hazy on baby Jesus, because both they and their parents’ generation consider having a child to be a lifestyle choice, rather than accepting it as a natural result of being married.

    Surely the “shock finding” about the millenials’ ignorance of Christmas, is partly due to their parents’ and teachers’ failure in their duty to educate those in their care. These “millenials” and their parents were quick to tell us that “love is love”, but fail to realise that if you truly love someone, you will love to tell them the truth.

    Thanks Bill, for another year of excellent articles, and best wishes for MMXIX A.D.

  9. Thanks ever so much Bill for your time and effort in giving us your wonderful website. It is an inspiration to my faith. You teach me so much. A day wouldn’t be the same without my daily visit to your incredible intel, links.

    Christian Love,

    Paul Titterington. (UK)

  10. Great article Bill. As someone has said, “The thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history.” Merry Christmas to you & your family Bill.

    Regards
    Leigh

  11. Dear Bill, Thank you for this informative article. I am not a bit surprised by the invincible ignorance of many of my compatriots. De-Christianisation was happening when I lived over there fifty years ago. Now the little Methodist chapel in my village which had a thriving, vibrant congregation when I was a child is now boarded up and empty.It is terribly sad! However, the English people have no one else to blame but themselves because of their apathy.

    As a Catholic Christian I battle every year to keep the event of the birth of Jesus Christ at the forefront of my family’s mind with Nativity scenes, carols,Christian films, the spirit of goodwill etc etc but it is far from easy.As Elizabeth says Christmas is highly commercialised, nauseatingly so I would say. As for Santa I think there is a place for him but not to the extent the MSM promotes him for their own ulterior motives which must be to replace the Christian message completely.

    History teaches us that this is what happens because old traditions have to be replaced by new ones as people love their traditions.That is why the early Christian Church gradually replaced the celebrations of the winter solstice of pagan societies with the holyday [holiday] of Christmas [Christ’s Mass]. A very sensible and natural thing to do no matter how the Jehovah’s Witnesses view it. They don’t celebrate Christmas.They like to tell you that the Catholic Church only started with the Emperor Constantine. It was not known exactly when Jesus was born unlike His Crucifixion which happened during the feast of the Jewish Passover.

    Thank you also for your website with its wonderful informative articles which I read regularly and to your many correspondents who never fail to contribute some very useful comments. I wish you all a Happy New Year. God Bless you all.

  12. Gods blessings for the new year to come Bill. Keep up the good work! a brother from a far, The Netherlands.

  13. Luke 18:7 & 8 – Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He continue to defer their help? 8I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” If indeed these are the last days, we must expect this falling away, however with the internet, I am astounded at how curiouslity escapes this generation ! When i was in those years, and even now, I want to know what, where, how, why and when. May Holy Spirit give us the zeal we need to speak the words of life when death seems to reign without opposition. Lord Jesus, quickly come!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: