Christmas: Pagan or Holy?
(Have mercy on me, it has been a long time since I have written a long, grown up post so don't pick on the form but the substance;)
A friend of mine Adam Bernay, who is a messianic rabbi, recently did a post on why we shouldn't celebrate Christmas (warning, it is on MySpace). I must say that I don't agree with his main premise (that we shouldn't celebrate Christmas) at all. He has issue with Christmas in 2 ways and I will address them both. First, Christmas is founded in paganism and not Christianity. The second is that we should celebrate Hanukkah instead.
In dealing with Adam's first point, I agree that many of our Christmas traditions are derived from pagan celebrations but it doesn't matter. Now I am very blessed to attend a church with a very wise senior pastor (with his own blog). When I stumbled upon this blog entry I dashed off an email for some references from a sermon Pastor Jan had given on this very subject last Christmas(I think). He pointed me in the direction of Saint Augustine and his concept of Egyptian Gold. Here is a basic summary based on a translation I found, God commanded the Jews to take gold and silver from Egypt when they left. The Jews then turned around and used these materials in the Tabernacle to worship the one true God. All things were God's to begin with and we can claim them as such.
I feel that as long as our hearts are pure in the worship of Christ that we can claim these traditions (tree, December 25th, etc) as our own. Let us take some of this principle a little farther. The prophesy Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was fulfilled by the commands for the Roman (heathen government) census. How about the crucification of Christ? It was only through others outward sin (that physically put Christ on the cross) that Christ died for my sin. Does the pagan involvement nullify the good? You could say that since pagans and their beliefs were involved it negates all of the Christianity or Godly effects of these things. But that would mean that we are thinking that there are 2 separate worlds, one for the Christian and one for all others.
Pastor Jan pointed out that this fortress mentality limits God by employing a pagan duality theory. This is the theory that things were created to be inherently evil. The contradicts scripture(Genesis 1:31) blatantly so to believe that you can't celebrate Christmas without it partaking in the paganism is actually a return to the ancient pagan worldview.
The second issue dealt with celebrating Hanukkah instead. I simply ask why can I only celebrate one of them? Hanukkah is a great holiday that shows God's love, control and strength. I love it, my husband loves it, my kids love it. But it isn't a celebration of Christ's birth. Considering that the birth of Christ is mentioned so many times in scripture, if they were a joint holiday I think we would have noticed in the text.
I leave you with the scripture that brought me peace about these things when I was refusing to call Easter, Easter(and it was one Pastor Jan mentioned too).
Colossians 2:16-18 (New International Version)
16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
A friend of mine Adam Bernay, who is a messianic rabbi, recently did a post on why we shouldn't celebrate Christmas (warning, it is on MySpace). I must say that I don't agree with his main premise (that we shouldn't celebrate Christmas) at all. He has issue with Christmas in 2 ways and I will address them both. First, Christmas is founded in paganism and not Christianity. The second is that we should celebrate Hanukkah instead.
In dealing with Adam's first point, I agree that many of our Christmas traditions are derived from pagan celebrations but it doesn't matter. Now I am very blessed to attend a church with a very wise senior pastor (with his own blog). When I stumbled upon this blog entry I dashed off an email for some references from a sermon Pastor Jan had given on this very subject last Christmas(I think). He pointed me in the direction of Saint Augustine and his concept of Egyptian Gold. Here is a basic summary based on a translation I found, God commanded the Jews to take gold and silver from Egypt when they left. The Jews then turned around and used these materials in the Tabernacle to worship the one true God. All things were God's to begin with and we can claim them as such.
I feel that as long as our hearts are pure in the worship of Christ that we can claim these traditions (tree, December 25th, etc) as our own. Let us take some of this principle a little farther. The prophesy Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was fulfilled by the commands for the Roman (heathen government) census. How about the crucification of Christ? It was only through others outward sin (that physically put Christ on the cross) that Christ died for my sin. Does the pagan involvement nullify the good? You could say that since pagans and their beliefs were involved it negates all of the Christianity or Godly effects of these things. But that would mean that we are thinking that there are 2 separate worlds, one for the Christian and one for all others.
Pastor Jan pointed out that this fortress mentality limits God by employing a pagan duality theory. This is the theory that things were created to be inherently evil. The contradicts scripture(Genesis 1:31) blatantly so to believe that you can't celebrate Christmas without it partaking in the paganism is actually a return to the ancient pagan worldview.
The second issue dealt with celebrating Hanukkah instead. I simply ask why can I only celebrate one of them? Hanukkah is a great holiday that shows God's love, control and strength. I love it, my husband loves it, my kids love it. But it isn't a celebration of Christ's birth. Considering that the birth of Christ is mentioned so many times in scripture, if they were a joint holiday I think we would have noticed in the text.
I leave you with the scripture that brought me peace about these things when I was refusing to call Easter, Easter(and it was one Pastor Jan mentioned too).
Colossians 2:16-18 (New International Version)
16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
Labels: Christianity
posted by NerdMom at
3:10 PM
2 Comments:
Dear Jackie:
I was hoping this was going to be a rebuttal on your part. Instead, you've basically ignored the points raised in my blog.
However, I'll answer your points:
On the issue of the Egyptian gold, God gave a direct commandment to take the Egyptian gold. He gave no such commandment with Christmas trees. In fact, AFTER this DIRECT commandment to take the Egyptian gold, He gave us a DIRECT commandment NOT to take on pagan practices (Exodus 23:20-24), and also gave us a DIRECT reference to the paganness of the Christmas tree (aka Asherah pole) in Jeremiah 10:1-5.
We weren't given the option to change their names and make them our own! God KNEW the temptation would be to compromise! But He doesn't give us the out!
As for the Crucifixion... God created the sacrifices. It's not a pagan thing. It's a Temple ritual.
As for the pagan duality theory, I never said THINGS were CREATED inherently evil. There's nothing inherently evil, for example, about a pine or fir tree (even though I am allergic to them). Rather, it is what WE DO WITH THEM that is inherently good or inherently evil! If ACTIONS cannot be held as inherently good or inherently evil (which would be a response to the argument I'm actually making, rather than what you did, which was a response to an argument I didn't make), then if I feel that if I don't like a person, it's alright if I go kill them, because murder is not INHERENTLY evil. However, Scripture is abundantly clear: outside of a criminal duly convicted by a court of law or killing in a just war, killing is MURDER. Remember, God commanded the Israelites to kill SPECIFIC pagans. We can't take that as a license to go out and kill all pagans, willy-nilly.
You make the point that Hanukkah is not a celebration of Messiah's birth. I never said it was. Messiah was born on the first night of Sukkot, and we should celebrate it during Sukkot.
Finally, as for Colossians 2:16-18, we seem to have gotten the impression that calling sin sin is "judging." That is not what is meant in Scripture by judging. Judging is to set yourself up to directly judging the actions of people as sin and passing sentence when you are not in that position is judging. I am not in that position over you. I don't go out and tell people whom I have no spiritual authority over, "You're sinning," even without passing sentence. Heck, I don't even do that with people I HAVE spiritual authority over. But if what I posted is "judging," then anytime a pastor or rabbi gives a sermon on morality, they are judging. If you starting keeping, oh, Litha, the pagan festival of the Summer Solstice, wouldn't you expect your pastor to say SOMETHING about that being wrong?
Or as long as we do it "in Jesus' name," does ANYTHING go, because then it ceases to be evil? That's what you really have to ask yourself. How far does this argument go? If two homosexuals profess "Jesus as LORD" and go to church every Sunday but remain in their homosexual relationship, is that fine because they've redeemed it somehow by professing Christ? You may think that's stretching the argument, but it's where the logic leads.
By
Rabbi Adam J. Bernay, at 8:58 PM
Once again my comments won't fit in the little box. Look for my next post on the subject.
By
NerdMom, at 5:02 PM
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