REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIII, December 2005, Number 12
On Christmas Observance
By Rev. Rodney Miersma
From the December 15, 1975 issue of The Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The Future That Is Past - Rev. M. Joostens
It is that time of year again when we celebrate what is called Christmas. One does not forget this day because the world will not let us forget. We are shown and encouraged to buy Christmas gifts already in the middle of the summer. Christmas for all practical purposes has become a secular holiday devoid of any spiritual significance. This brings us to the question as to what really is the origin, meaning and purpose of the observance of Christmas.
The church did not always celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by observing a particular day. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that we cannot determine with any certainty the exact date of Christ's birth either from evidence in the Scriptures or from any sound tradition. Historical authorities place the time that Christmas was first celebrated somewhere in the middle of the fourth century. December 25 was chosen because, in the opinion of some, the universe was created on the vernal equinox, reckoned in the Julian calendar as March 25. Similar habits of thought would make the beginning of the new creation, the inception of the incarnation (Christ's birth), fall on the same day; therefore, December 25, the winter solstice. This date was a heathen festival day celebrating the birthday of the Mithraic Sol Invictus, the sun-god. This was the day in which the unconquered sun, after the winter solstice, broke the growing power of darkness, and began anew his heroic career.
It is easily seen then, how this heathen festival was turned into a Christian holiday. Christmas is the birthday of Christ, the Sun of righteousness, the Light of the world. Thus according to St. Cyprian and St. John Chrysostom, the church grasped the opportunity to turn the people away from a purely pagan observance of the winter solstice to a day of adoration of Christ the Lord. Although Christmas has been celebrated since the fourth century, it was not always called by that name. The word Christmas means Christ's Mass and was first used in England in the eleventh century. In German the word is Weihnachf (holy night), while the Dutch has Kerstmis (yule mass). The latter reveals a direct connection with the old heathen festival, for the word yule comes from the Anglo-Saxon geol which was a feast, particularly the feast of the winter solstice.
In light of the above facts we may begin to question ourselves as to whether or not there is any Biblical root for the celebration or commemoration of Christmas. The ancient church was not agreed on the answer and neither were the churches of the Reformation. The Puritans for example condemned the celebration and from 1642 to 1652 issued a series of ordinances forbidding all church services and festivities. This feeling was carried over from England to America by the Pilgrims and it was not until the nineteenth-century wave of Irish and German immigration that enthusiasm for the feast began to spread throughout the country. This caution is more than likely due to the fact that Scripture neither enjoins nor forbids such a celebration, and from the fear of falling into the practice of observing all kinds of holy days as was the prevalent practice of the Roman Catholic church.
What then is the meaning and purpose of Christmas observance? Does its value lie in the keeping of a day? Certainly not, for, if its value were in the keeping of the day, God in His infinite wisdom would surely have made known unto us the exact day on which Christ was born. The regarding of a day as holy in itself or better than another day is condemned by Scripture, as seen in Paul's letter to, the Galatians in chapter 4 verse 10. The Galatians had fallen under the influence of the Judaizers and were going back to the bondage of the law by observing days, months, times and years. Certainly then the value of the celebration of Christmas does not lie in the observance of the day itself.
Rather, the value lies in its special attention to one of the wonders of grace. In this case it draws attention to the wonder of God's grace with respect to the incarnation of the Word. We celebrate or commemorate the wonder of God's grace with respect to Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost. None of these would have any meaning for us if Christ first had not been born. This does not mean that we exclude attention to the incarnation at other times. No, this must be the heart of every sermon preached. Without the incarnation of the Word there is no salvation for us and no good news in the gospel. But a celebration of the birth of Christ does serve specifically to point to the wonder of the Word made flesh just as the observance of Good Friday and Easter point specifically to the death and resurrection of our Lord. So the observance of Christmas certainly has spiritual value for the true child of God.
Granted that the meaning and purpose have been established, we may distinguish various phases of such observances, first of all, in and by the church. Article 67 of our Church Order reads:
"The Churches shall observe, in addition to the Sunday, also Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, the Day of Prayer, the National Thanksgiving Day, and Old and New Year's Day."
This is a complete turnabout from what such early Reformers as Zwingli, Calvin and Knox thought. It was their conviction that festival days were not ordained by God, but were a human invention which minimized Sunday and led to paganistic celebrations and promoted licentiousness. Thus, the Synod of Dordt, 1574, discouraged the observance of all other days than Sunday. This soon changed, however. Monsma and Van Dellen in The Church Order Commentary, page 274, write:
"The Synod of Dordt, 1578, Article 75, declared in substance that it would be desirable to celebrate Sunday only according to God's ordinance. But, inasmuch as Christmas Day and the day following upon Christmas, as well as the days following upon Easter and Pentecost and in some places also New Year's Day, and Ascension Day were legal holidays by authority of the governments, the Ministers should preach appropriately on these days in order to turn a fruitless and harmful idleness (Zediggang) into a holy and profitable exercise."
Since then subsequent Synods have revised and changed the article, till it now reads as found in our Church Order which was redacted in 1914.
In this way the Church Order declares that Christmas Day must be observed by us as churches. This implies official worship services which have as their center the official, authoritative, and pure preaching of the Word of God. Other than that, our Church Order does not specify how nor to what extent we must observe Christmas. This would lead us to ask ourselves whether or not we as churches are observing this day in the best possible way, or whether there is room for improvement. We know that as long as we are pilgrims here upon this earth we are not and will not become perfect. We must strive always to better both our institutional and personal lives. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit we must seek to glorify God more and more. Certainly we must not give way to what so many churches, even those of Reformed persuasion, are doing: replacing the preaching of the Word by programs of Christmas songs and pageantry and similar ways of celebration. These programs of song are not evil in themselves and surely can be a means whereby our hearts are lifted up, but they must never take the place of the proclamation of the gospel. Christmas observance without preaching is giving way to the anti-Christ and his father the devil, who are continually trying to lead us away from the Captain of our salvation.
The same thing is true within our covenant homes and schools. We must guard against a pagan observance which is pushed upon us by every means available to the wicked world. It is indeed proper to accompany such a celebration with feasting and rejoicing and making merry. The Christian does not need to walk about on this earth with a long, sad face. He of all people is the most happy because of the loving-kindness of God made manifest to him by God's gift to His own, manifest especially in the incarnation and subsequent suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he may express that scriptural and spiritual joy outwardly as well as inwardly. To do this we do not have to join the drunken reveling of this wicked world. No, we may feast, rejoice, and make merry as long as in so doing we can always answer affirmatively the question of whether we are glorifying the name of our Lord God. Then we will not fall into the vice of licentiousness, but rather will praise God. This is the end unto which we were formed by God.
This same principle of God's glory will also govern our use of many customs that are connected with Christmas, such as Christmas trees, decorations, gift-giving, etc. The origin of most of these customs is pagan, but their origin should not have to affect our use of them. The danger of course is always present that these externals become all-important. This is the case with the world and the apostate church. All the emphasis is upon the giving of gifts, not to show the mercy of Christ, but to extol a benevolent human society governed by the notion of good works. To stay free of this horrible error we must constantly fight, instructing our children as to the real significance of Christmas. This is not always so easy to do, for our children are bombarded from every side by the ideas of the world. But we must not give up and say that it is no use, that it is hopeless anyway. This is one of the burdens which God has placed upon us to strengthen us for the battle of faith. Such burdens are always accompanied by sufficient grace to bear that burden, as only a child of God can. May we in this Christmas season exercise our Christian liberty not as the Antinomians, unto licentiousness ('that grace may abound'), but in the freedom of Jesus Christ, to glorify the name of our God by confessing the name of Jesus Christ over against the wicked world's Santa Claus.
The Future That Is Past
By Rev. M. Joostens
From the January 15, 1976, issue of The Standard BearerSee more articles by this author
It is especially at this time of year that our thoughts turn to the future. As the old and well-marked calendar is replaced by a new one sporting an unfamiliar scene, we consider the things which may come upon us in the coming year. Perhaps it is the sudden and abrupt change from the old to the new that is to blame for this. Even as a sigh expresses the thankfulness that all has gone well in the past, our souls are gripped with fear regarding the future, and various questions of what lies ahead flood the soul. Though we have arrived at the middle of this first month of the new year, reminiscences of the old and questions about the new still linger in our minds.
The future is nebulous. The future is full of all kinds of uncertainties, and though we often attempt to peer into the darkness of the future, philosophizing and rationalizing about it, the questions about the future remain to a large degree unanswered. Even an objective analysis of the past combined with a careful projection concerning the future cannot unveil the future.
This must never become a reason for the child of God to be distraught. I know that this is the tendency of the world. The world is very anxious regarding the future. They would much like to have the ability of prophetic prediction. Peering into a crystal ball, reading tea leaves or the palm of one's hand, as well as the whole craze of astrology, are only a few signs of this. But we as children of God must exclaim, "Thanks be to God." We must see His inscrutable wisdom even in this, that He has hidden from us the future. Certainly this can never be proclaimed a mistake! Most certainly our God, Who is characterized by divine wisdom, has veiled the future for us according to His all-wise purpose.
The fact that the future belongs to the realm of those things which are hidden, finds its very establishment in the perfection of God's creation. For when we speak about the future we are dealing with the concept of time, and time is a creature of God. Time is an inherent characteristic of the whole of God's creation. In the act of creating, God gave a distinct and separate existence to those things which were eternally in His counsel. That particular distinction of the creative act is the characteristic of time and space. For our purposes, we are interested only in the former. The whole creation is ruled by time. Whether we speak of things animate or inanimate, time affects them all. Wood rots, metal corrodes, chemical elements have half-lives and wrinkles mark our faces. In distinction from the immutable Creator, all things and creatures are mutable. We are constantly changing and becoming. I speak of the way I was, the way I am at the moment, and the way I will be. The past, present and future are very real segments of time for us.
Not only has God in His perfection and wisdom characterized the creation by time, but He has also withheld from the rational, moral creature the capabilities of analyzing the future. That which pertains to the future lies beyond our grasp. Our memories and history books facilitate the recollection of events which belong to the past. We are able to live and act in the present. But the future is beyond our reach.
To the future, therefore, belongs those things which are providentially hidden from view. The future is expressive of things which must yet come to pass, a time subsequent to the present. To the future belongs those things which as yet are shut up in God's counsel, to be executed before the teleological end of history. To that portion of time belongs speculation and conjecture.
It is the very nature of man to delve into that future. According to the nature of man, he desires to secure for himself the future. Man hates uncertainty. It is revolting to him to think upon things over which he has no direct control, the things which point him to his finite characteristic. The whole of the world illustrates that this is the case. Mankind will not rest until it can secure for itself a prosperous future. Man wants to secure world peace. We need hardly be reminded that today's "peace-makers" are heralded as heroes, though they seek after a false peace. They who make achievements in procuring methods to perpetuate earthly life are hailed because man wants to be certain about his life and health tomorrow. And, in as far as the great ones of this earth have fallen short of their aims, man buys for himself security for his possessions, health and life itself. As people of God, we must be careful so as not to be swept along with this carnal craving after security. It is man by nature who so strives. Man who stands outside the sphere of God's particular grace stands in the midst of this world by himself. He has no god because he rejects His Christ! He stands in his own sinful pride professing to be his own god, and in conformity with this, he thinks to be the master of his fate.
But we rejoice in quite a different truth! We are not without God in this world, but we are the children of God for Christ's sake. We confess the ever beautiful truth of Lord's Day 10, that "...we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father..." He will providentially care for us even in regard to the very minutest detail. So the Scriptures assure us, that not even one hair can fall from our heads except it be in accordance with His will. That fatherly care also applies to the future. As the uncertainties of this pilgrim journey come upon us, as fear grips the soul and questions storm the mind, then we rejoice with the Psalmist, "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee." (56:3)
He is the eternal God. Time is in His hand. The future is past! How is that so? In the first place, because all things are finished in God's counsel. In God's counsel appears not only the alpha but also the omega of history and time as we know it, and certainly from the viewpoint of the Almighty and Eternal One, every future as well as past event of history stands fixed. Not, you understand, as if God's determinate counsel is stagnant, for He is the decreeing God. But we can never interject the aspect of time into the Eternal. He sees the end from the beginning. There is no future with the "I am." But in the second place, and this is more to the point of this article, though essentially no different, all time is comprehended in Christ. We are referring to the concept of the "fulness of time." Let us consider this closely.
This particular concept is deep and not without variation in meaning. It is not our purpose to enter into the sundry arguments of exegesis, but simply to point out the central significance of Christ from a historical viewpoint. After all, we are dealing with time and specifically the future. The apostle Paul uses the phrase "fulness of time" in the two familiar passages of Ephesians 1:10 and Galatians 4:4. In the latter, his point is that Christ made His appearance in the flesh when the old dispensational era came to a close. That is to say: Christ fulfilled (made full) the dispensation of the law. Prior to Christ, Israel was under the yoke of the schoolmaster who led them to Christ. In Ephesians Paul speaks of the fulness of time as being the era of the new dispensation in which God will gather all things together in Christ. We may combine these two meanings and note that there is no history that stands in separation from Christ. All of history, as the execution of God's counsel, finds its summation in the cross and resurrection of Christ as He stands at the very center of that counsel. The result is that every moment, as well as its content or happening, is completed in Christ from a principle viewpoint.
But what does this mean concretely? This, that every historical happening or event is for the wellbeing and benefit of Christ. Oh, but there is more! For Christ is the Anointed One commissioned to stand at the head of His people. Paul tells us that He is the head and we the body. We are Christ's! Then it becomes clear to us. History from its alpha to its omega has but one function and purpose and that is to be the stage upon which God saves unto Himself a people, along the way of sin and grace. The present and past serve that purpose, but so will the future. Of that we can be certain.
We need not live with fear and trepidation in our souls. We may not! Do not misunderstand; there is a correct concern regarding proper provision for the future. But this may never turn into worry and anxiety! This is sinful. As God's children, we must daily live by faith ever trusting in our heavenly Father. Never may providing for the future violate our faith. I'm afraid that all too often on our part, a full refrigerator and a good pension plan or insurance policy detract from our faith and trust. The whole way of our pilgrim's journey unto the heavenly Canaan has been completed in Christ.
The future does not look bright. The anti-Christian kingdom is increasingly becoming realized. Questions flood the mind, fears grip the soul. What does the future hold? We don't know. Yes! We do know. It holds a pilgrim's journey upon which every obstacle has been conquered by our Lord. He was in all points tempted like as we will be. He died even as we must die. By the grace of God in Christ we will traverse the future until we receive the crown of glory. We do not walk in fear, but in His fear!
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