People in general, and perhaps most Christians in particular, remain puzzled at these more “sensitive” Christians who abstain from celebrating Christmas. Why do they avoid participating in this exciting event?
Consider the nativity display that was advertised in Sunday’s Red Deer LIFE newspaper for Mount Calvary Lutheran Church. If the displays at this church are anything like what we saw in the ad, then you’ll see Jesus as a babe descended from a variety of peoples and cultures.
For instance, you might see an American Indian Jesus and even a Jesus whose parent carries a Taoist symbol in his hand.
Christmas, at its root, is an attempt by Christians to Christianize a pagan holiday. False ideas inevitably come in when we attempt to make a holy thing out of something that is essentially unholy.
A false Jesus in the nativity display is just one example of heresies that creep in at Christmas. Many of these displays are, no doubt, beautifully carved artifacts. But for the love of artistry, Jesus is trivialized and misrepresented.
Jesus was born a Jew. And he should be presented as a Jew, not because Jews are better people than the rest of humanity, but because Christians should honour who Jesus was and is.
In the excitement of Christmas, Christians will find themselves praising some work that blends Christ with another religion, like Taoism for instance, which does not even believe that God is a personal being!
When Jesus is set in a non-Jewish context, this tends to teach that he will fit into your world-view instead of you having to fit into his.
For salvation from lying, thieving, adultery, etc., the consequence of which is everlasting punishment, you must turn from your sins and place your confidence in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Jew, for he alone has made satisfaction to God by his perfect life and sinless death. This faith excludes every other way, or religion.
If Jesus were to show up at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, he would kick the displays over just as he overturned the money-changers’ tables in Jerusalem. And careful Christians will shun any false representation of who their Saviour is because of what he did for them on the cross.
They will commemorate his death, like the Bible commands them to do, and not his birth instead, about which there is no command in the Bible to celebrate.
Mark Gaboury
Red Deer