Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a wonderful time for millions upon millions of people worldwide as we celebrated the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But it was not this way for everyone. Some folks who claim to be Christians absolutely hate Christmas and make it absolutely clear that if you celebrate this day, you are the antichrist – or something even worse.
These are Pharisees and cultists who look down upon and condemn all believers who dare to even say the word Christmas. They have become unhinged cultists who spend their entire Christmas season attacking others as they celebrate the birth of Jesus.
I have dealt with far too many of these kooks over the years. They insist that Christmas is some demonic, pagan event that we should stay a million miles away from. And they will pronounce anathemas on anyone who does not fully buy their senseless agenda.
I have written on this often before, offering the biblical and historical reasons why these cultists are dead wrong. Here are four of them for example:
It is happening again: it is the day after Christmas, and I find myself writing once more on this topic, instead of simply enjoying it! This is because some believers seem to think we are sub-par Christians – or worse – for daring to celebrate the birth of the Messiah. These folks can roughly be put into several camps (that sometimes overlap):
-One is the nonsensical ‘Christmas is pagan’ mob, pushed by zealots who usually know nothing about history or theology (or common sense). They seem to relish in their ignorance and inability to think straight. You usually cannot reason with such folks, and it is often not worth trying to.
-Another group consists of out and out Pharisees and religious “purists” who have a holier-than-thou attitude, condemning everyone who dares to take a different stance on this. Of course Jesus had the harshest of words for the Pharisees, and so should we. They need to repent of their ugly and diabolical attitudes and ask God for a bit of grace and humility.
-And another group can be the ‘my religious tradition does not approve,’ outfit. Their particular theological or ecclesiastical heritage does not, or did not, approve, so they will stick with that, no matter what. That is fine, but I am not beholden to, nor bound by, these particular traditions and pet peeves. I will stick with Christ and Scripture on these matters, and not be enslaved to any one Christian camp or tradition here.
We find some of these folks making a stink every year at this time. While most of us just want to enjoy Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Lord, some of these folks just want to argue. My short reply to them is this: if you so dislike Christmas and don’t want to celebrate it, fine – don’t. But stop attacking and hating on us who do.
But here I want to briefly mention a comment I received at this site a few weeks ago. It was a response to a post I wrote six years ago called “Difficult Bible Passages: Jeremiah 10:3-4”. It has to do with the ludicrous claim made by some of these judgmental ‘believers’ that this passage has to do with Christmas trees! I kid you not! I said this in part in the piece:
This should be so patently obvious that there really should be no need for an article like this. But clueless Christians and fightin’ fundie Pharisees are always with us unfortunately. So I need to spend time – perhaps a waste of time – in stating the obvious.
Creating an idol and bowing down before it to worship it as a god is wrong – always. That is certainly obvious. But this has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas trees. First of all, I am not aware of one single Christian on the planet who has ever bowed down and worshipped a Christmas tree, proclaiming: ‘You are my god – I worship you!’
Moreover, the idolatrous Israelites sought instruction from these lifeless gods, as verse 8 indicates. Again, I am not aware of anyone ever putting up a Christmas tree in order to gain wisdom or guidance! If however such a person does exist, he or she is as much of a nutter as those who try to claim that this verse is dealing with Christmas.
Also, we are dealing with a blatant case of anachronism here. If you don’t know what that means, it may be time you did! Simply put, it involves reading something of the present into the past where it does not belong. As one online definition puts it: “the action of attributing something to a period to which it does not belong.”
Um, earth calling Scrooges: there were no Christmas trees back then. And it may surprise some of you to learn that there were no Christmases back in his day either! Jeremiah lived around six centuries before Christ. The first Christmas may not have occurred until some three centuries after that. So no, Jeremiah was NOT writing about, nor concerned with, something that started to take place a millennium later. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2019/09/29/difficult-bible-passages-jeremiah-103-4/
So let me get back to this comment that arrived recently. I must say it is one of the saddest things I have read. The guy said this:
The passage is talking about idols being worshipped that is correct but he also says do not follow the ways of the nations and for the practices of people are worthless! I think a lot of Christians like yourself is missing those key words and I myself tested my wife on this Christmas and tree subject and when I threw out her Christmas tree she stopped talking to me for a whole week. Then she explained how when she sees all the lights and thinking on how our daughter won’t be celebrating Christmas this year hurts her and she’s been depressed over it and that’s why she was ignoring me. Then she said that she will just go over her friends house to celebrate Christmas with the kids and I can do whatever I want but she won’t be home. Then she later asked can we have the tree and just put blue and white lights on it? I told her no and she got mad again. Later she said she would do anything I wanted to do and she would follow me. So my whole thing is, I think we a lot of Christians who worship these trees and really think Jesus was born on Christmas when the Bible doesn’t give us his birthday. So I myself won’t follow the ways of the nations or practice what people practice! Our job is to follow God and God alone and that’s what I’ll do. You can have your Christmas and that’s between you and God and the same way I won’t participate in Christmas or any worldly thing is between me and God and everyone else who things one day is better then the next that is between them and God. No man knows everything and we should talk down on others for having different interpretations then each other.
The saddest thing here is how he treated his wife and kids. Given his purist Pharisaism, the only thing I keep wondering is this: Are his wife and children still with him or has his distorted views of his own unblemished spirituality driven them away from him for good? We may never know, but my heart sank when I first read his comment, and I shot up a prayer for his poor family who are on the receiving end of his self-righteous arrogance.
No wonder Jesus reserved his most severe condemnations for the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees. They thought they were so pious and holy and righteous, but they were nothing of the sort. The problem with this sort of self-righteousness is that those who are consumed by it cannot see that they in fact are. They are convinced that they are such wonderful Christians.
As I have so often said, if some folks do not want to celebrate Christmas, that is fine – they do not have to. But when they treat their family members and loved ones like dirt, and go on search and destroy missions to attack anyone who does enjoy celebrating the birth of Messiah, that is NOT fine.
8 Replies to “How To Destroy Christmas – And Your Family”
Good post. This needed to be said. Many of the Christmas haters have been influenced by the book “The Two Babylons” which has been completely discredited by knowledgeable theologians who have studied the ancient languages and have diplomas from known, accredited and respected universities. All of us need to be careful about what we read and believe. Thanks Bill for steering us in the right direction, and Merry Christmas!
Many thanks Joan.
It is true that the Bible doesn’t give us Christ’s exact birthdate. But it does give us the story of the Annunciation, when Mary accepted the will of God for her, and the story of Christ’s birth, and also what it all means (see the first chapter of John’s Gospel). I am so sorry for this man, who refuses to celebrate this ultimate miracle, God with us.
Thanks Katherine.
The Old Testament calendar is replete with festivals and feasts for His people to remember and celebrate the provision, mercy, deliverance and goodness of God.
Christmas is a commemoration recognised all around the world to celebrate that God left the richness of heaven and humbled himself to be our saviour.
Of course the god of this world would like this snuffed out and as with Easter, he uses confusion and obfuscation to deceive even Christians into not celebrating Gods Love, Mercy and Deliverance.
Yes quite right Shane.
You are correct Bill, there are still some Pharisees, and Sadduces today when it comes to Christmas. I don’t think the Jehovah Witnesses, some Seventh Day believers and orthodox religions recognize 25 Dec as Christmas as it’s not the right time of the year for Jesus’ birth. The Bible doesn’t say whether Jesus or anyone celebrated their birthdays. I don’t even know if people in Jesus’ day had calendars but relied on the temple priests to tell them when the festivals were. It will be a sad day if Christmas is taken away from us as it is a reminder to people that our saviour was born – all the trees etc are just decorations to show what time of year it is, not an idol. I love most of the Christmas carols that go with the season. The days of the week are named after gods or caesars but we haven’t got rid of them so we just have to put up with all the pagan stuff that goes with Christmas and Easter. We are fortunate to be able to worship Christmas and Easter at all, as Christians in persecuted countries usually cannot.
I believe that it makes no difference whether you want to celebrate Christ on his birthday or not it still happened.
Good post. This needed to be said. Many of the Christmas haters have been influenced by the book “The Two Babylons” which has been completely discredited by knowledgeable theologians who have studied the ancient languages and have diplomas from known, accredited and respected universities. All of us need to be careful about what we read and believe. Thanks Bill for steering us in the right direction, and Merry Christmas!
Many thanks Joan.
It is true that the Bible doesn’t give us Christ’s exact birthdate. But it does give us the story of the Annunciation, when Mary accepted the will of God for her, and the story of Christ’s birth, and also what it all means (see the first chapter of John’s Gospel). I am so sorry for this man, who refuses to celebrate this ultimate miracle, God with us.
Thanks Katherine.
The Old Testament calendar is replete with festivals and feasts for His people to remember and celebrate the provision, mercy, deliverance and goodness of God.
Christmas is a commemoration recognised all around the world to celebrate that God left the richness of heaven and humbled himself to be our saviour.
Of course the god of this world would like this snuffed out and as with Easter, he uses confusion and obfuscation to deceive even Christians into not celebrating Gods Love, Mercy and Deliverance.
Yes quite right Shane.
You are correct Bill, there are still some Pharisees, and Sadduces today when it comes to Christmas. I don’t think the Jehovah Witnesses, some Seventh Day believers and orthodox religions recognize 25 Dec as Christmas as it’s not the right time of the year for Jesus’ birth. The Bible doesn’t say whether Jesus or anyone celebrated their birthdays. I don’t even know if people in Jesus’ day had calendars but relied on the temple priests to tell them when the festivals were. It will be a sad day if Christmas is taken away from us as it is a reminder to people that our saviour was born – all the trees etc are just decorations to show what time of year it is, not an idol. I love most of the Christmas carols that go with the season. The days of the week are named after gods or caesars but we haven’t got rid of them so we just have to put up with all the pagan stuff that goes with Christmas and Easter. We are fortunate to be able to worship Christmas and Easter at all, as Christians in persecuted countries usually cannot.
I believe that it makes no difference whether you want to celebrate Christ on his birthday or not it still happened.