REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIX, December 2011, Number 12
The Church's Observance of Christmas
By Prof. Ronald L. Cammenga
This month's articles were chosen with the Christmas holiday in mind. Both articles are from the Standard Bearer, Cammenga's article is from the December edition in 1991 and Engelsma's appeared in the December 2002 edition.
See more articles by this author
Also in this issue: The Sword of Christmas - by Prof David J. Engelsma
It is that time of year again when we celebrate Christmas. Radio stations air Christmas music. Storefronts and circulars advertise Christmas wares. Homes and shops are decorated for the holiday season. Christmas is observed the world over, in the United States and Europe, by Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. Even if we wanted to forget Christmas, the world would not let us.
What really is the origin of the day? What is the meaning and purpose of Christmas? What historically has been the attitude of the church towards Christmas? Ought the church today to observe Christmas in any special way?
The Origin of Christmas
Although the precise origin of Christmas is uncertain, it is certain that the early celebrations of Christmas were mingled with pagan observances. Long before Christmas became the customary day on which the church commemorated the wonder of the incarnation, the heathen world observed the day in a special way. The first mention of the celebration of Christmas occurs in A.D. 336 in an early Roman calendar. At this time various peoples in Europe held festivals in mid-December, at the time of the winter solstice. These festivals celebrated the end of the harvest season and anticipated the arrival of the new year. As part of these celebrations, the people prepared special foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift-giving.
It was not until late in the fourth century that Christmas became a Christian holiday. This took place under the Emperor Constantine who made Christianity the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire. At this time many of the pagan celebrations were assimilated into Christianity. This was true also of Christmas. The day became a significant day on the ecclesiastical calendar, the day marking the festival of Christ's birth. The priests officiated at special masses, and hence the day came to be known as "Christ-mass," or "Christmas."
This is the beginning of any special observance of the nativity. There is no evidence that the apostolic church commemorated Christ's birth in any special way or on any special day. The church fathers of the first three centuries do not either make any reference to the observance of Christmas. Undoubtedly this is partly explained by the fact that no corresponding festival was celebrated in the Old Testament, as was the case with Easter and Pentecost. The celebration of the early church focused on the death and resurrection of Christ, as is plain from the record of the Book of Acts and the fact of the church's gathering on the first day of each week, the day of Christ's resurrection, for weekly worship.
The Observance of Christmas by the Churches of the Reformation
By the time of the Reformation, the observance of Christmas had become an ecclesiastical institution. But like the other days and festivals regarded by Roman Catholicism, the observance of Christmas had become carnal and superstitious.The Reformers reacted against this abuse by abolishing the observance of special days by the church. This abolition of days included Christmas.
There were particular reasons why the Reformers rejected the observance of Christmas. In the first place, there is no indication whatsoever that Christ was born on December 25. Fact is that, from everything we read in the Scriptures, we must conclude that He was born in the warmer months of the year, probably the spring, and not during the winter. If it was winter, the shepherds would not have been spending the nights out on the open plains while their sheep grazed. Neither would the Christ-child have been warm at night in an unheated stable with only swaddling clothes for covers.
In the second place, the Reformers were moved to reject the observance of Christmas by the fact that the observance of the day was not of divine but of human institution. The observance of Christmas cannot be grounded, like the weekly Sabbath, either on direct command from God or example of the church in the New Testament. The day as a special day to be observed by Christians was instituted by the church.
The Reformers' rejection of Christmas was also motivated by their fear that the observance of special days would lead to the minimizing of the Sabbath, the God-ordained day of worship. This was not an altogether unfounded fear. This had happened in the Roman Catholic Church. Even today there are those who, although they hardly ever attend the weekly worship services of the church, feel the necessity of gracing the church building with their presence on Christmas and on Easter.
It also belonged to the reasons for their forbidding any longer the observance of Christmas that the Reformers feared the involvement of the church in paganistic celebrations. The Reformers were aware of the tainted origin of the Christmas celebration, as well as the foolishness that had become associated with its observance. They were fearful of these evil influences on the church and the members of the church.
This rejection of Christmas continued in the churches of the Reformation. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, many of them to this day, rejected all observance of Christmas. The Puritans condemned the celebration and even issued ordinances forbidding all church services and festivities on Christmas. This viewpoint was carried over to America from England by the Pilgrims.
The Dutch Reformed Churches
At first, the observance of Christmas was also rejected by the Dutch Reformed churches. The conviction that there ought not be a multiplication of man-made days in the church, and the concern that there be no minimizing of the observance of the weekly Sabbath, were strong. The Synod of Dordt, 1574, decreed that the weekly Sabbath alone should be observed in the churches and that there should be no observance of any other days, including Christmas. This same synod did decide, however, that it would be appropriate for the ministers to preach about the birth of Christ on the Sunday preceding Christmas.
Soon, however, this attitude changed. Already by 1578, the Synod of Dordt made allowances for the observance of Christmas by the churches. Monsma and VanDellen state in their Church Order Commentary:
The Synod of Dordt, 1578, Article 68, 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 (lediggang) into a holy and profitable exercise.
Rather than to see these days given over to the danger of abuse and revelry, the churches accommodated themselves to circumstances and began to celebrate these days. The people of God were called together for prayer and worship under the preaching of the gospel.
Since 1578 subsequent synods have revised and expanded what is now Article 67 of our Church Order. That article binds the observance of Christmas upon the Protestant Reformed Churches:
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.
Our Observance of Christmas
Our observance of Christmas is not merely, however, a matter of fulfilling the letter of the law of Article 67 of the Church Order. There are benefits, outstanding spiritual benefits, for the church in a sanctified observance of the day.
Although it certainly must be admitted that Christmas is not of divine but human appointment, we do not consider this an objection sufficient to abolish the church's observance of the day. Certainly the eldership has the authority to call the congregation to worship at appropriate times, whether that be a time of war, during drought, or in observance of the birth of Jesus. The authority of the elders in this matter is similar to their authority to call the church to worship twice on the Lord's Day, even though there is no express command from God that the church must worship twice on Sunday. Here the authority of the elders is controlled by that which "...tends to nourish and preserve concord, and unity, and to keep all men in obedience to God..." (Belgic Confession, Article 32).
And who can doubt the value of the church's attention being directed to the wonder of grace, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ? Even if there can be no certainty that Jesus was born on December 25, who can fault the church for calling special attention to His birth and the significance of His birth one day in the year? Neither does this mean that we exclude attention to the incarnation at other times, confining contemplation of it to Christmas. Not at all! The great mystery of godliness, the wonder of the Word made flesh, receives attention in every sermon delivered by the Reformed preacher, whether explicitly or implicitly. The church's observance of the birth of Christ is a perpetual observance, day in and day out, Sunday after Sunday.
It certainly is of practical benefit for the church to gather for worship on Christmas. Not only does this provide the opportunity for the church to call attention to the real meaning of Christmas, but it also provides occasion for words of warning against the abuse of Christmas and the corruption of Christmas by the world.
What must be at the heart of the church's observance of Christmas is the Word. The church's observance of the day must be in the official gathering for public worship. That is the prescription of Article 67. And at the heart of public worship is the preaching of the Word. Not plays and pageants, but preaching is how the church observes Christmas. But then preaching that not only on Christmas, but all through the year honors the babe of Bethlehem as the Son of God, the sovereign Savior, the King of kings.
The Sword of Christmas
By Prof. David J. Engelsma
See more articles by this author
Right celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ reckons with the sword of Christmas.
The error of the American unbeliever who waxes sentimental over the birth of Jesus as the symbol of world-peace is his failure to reckon with the sword of Christmas. The heresy of the preacher who proclaims Jesus' birth as universal grace and salvation is his rejection of the sword of Christmas. The illusion both of the liberal and of the conservative postmillennialist that the birth of Christ heralds a bright new day of earthly peace in history for Christ's followers is shattered by the sword of Christmas.
The sword of Christmas is the bloody word of history. Before Jesus is two years old, the soldiers of the empire march to His birthplace and, on account of Him, massacre Rachel's children. As soon as the church of the New Testament begins preaching the gospel of God manifest in the flesh, the Jewish nation persecutes the church. For some two hundred and fifty years, the Roman Empire attacks the Christians worldwide. When the Reformation recovers the good news of Jesus Christ, the Roman Church, the empire, and individual governments turn on those who confess Christ, harassing, imprisoning, torturing, and killing.
Still today, in Islamic nations, Muslims kill the Christians, whom they hate. Wherever the Roman Catholic Church controls the state and can get away with it, Rome continues to persecute Protestant Christians. Apostate and departing Protestant churches persecute the true church, if not with the steel sword, then with the sword of the tongue and pen. Western nations, increasingly anti-God and pro-Man, resent and ridicule those who defend chastity, oppose the state-sanctioned murder of the unborn, and confess Jesus Christ as the only Way of salvation, that is, the disciples of Christ.
The sword was Christ's own Word about His birth. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). His coming was His incarnation and birth. The purpose of that coming is division between men. The division is not amicable. It is the division of hatred, the determination to destroy, and war. The sword of Christmas is the war against the church, spiritual in nature but taking physical forms, of those who hate and persecute the disciples of Christ for their confession of Christ's gospel and their obedience to Christ's will. It is hatred of Christ by His enemies as He is present in men and women in His Word and Spirit. It is division occasioned by the truth and holiness that Christ came into the world to give His elect people in all nations and among all races.
Let Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. It is worthy of celebration. Culminating in the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, it brought us peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with the circumstances of our lives. It promises the peace of perfect harmony with God throughout the whole creation in the Day of Christ. But in our celebration let us not ignore the sword of Christmas.
The Sword in Our Family
We covenantal Reformed Christians can be guilty of this-ignoring the sword of Christmas-as regards our own family-life. We convince ourselves that the purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God is peace with God for every member of our family. Therefore, the meaning of the birth of Jesus must be lovely harmony among all the family members. Nothing may be allowed to disturb these harmonious relations. Regardless of open unbelief, bold denial of the truth, and impenitent disobedience to Christ's will, husband and wife, parents and all the children, blood relatives and the in-laws are all one happy family. Especially during the Christmas season, we insist on it. We celebrate the plowshares and pruninghooks of Christmas, the dove and olive branch of the birth of Christ. We turn a blind, if not hostile, eye to the sword of Christmas-in our family.
Did not Christ come for the peace of His people?
Is not His peace a covenantal harmony, embracing the children of believing parents in the generations?
In a world of men and women divided against each other because all are at war with God-the only union and peace of humans-a world whose most painful and destructive divisions are those of divorce and the separation of parents and children, is not the Babe of Bethlehem the Savior of the family?
The sword of Christmas in the covenant family is the cruel word of the history of the people of God. There will be Reformed husbands observing Christmas this month apart from their wife and Reformed wives observing Christmas without their husband, although wife and husband are very much alive. There will be Reformed parents celebrating the birth of Christ in the absence of one of their children. There will be children glorifying God for the gift of His Son whose father or mother does not share in the festivity, but is antagonistic, and absent.
I remember well, from the earliest days of my ministry, the hard words concerning her husband of a wife with whom I had reasoned and pleaded, in the presence of the husband, that she not divorce him: "I hate him." The cause was his conversion to Christ according to the Reformed faith, his membership in a true church, and his life of discipleship after Christ. The result for him was a life of loneliness, without wife and children, though he had both, until the day of his death.
The sword of Christmas in the family of the Christian!
That we ignore the sword of Christmas in our family is inexcusable. Christ Himself foretold it. "I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matt. 10:34-36).
The sword of Christmas will cut into the tightly woven fabric of the family of Christians, the fabric of the Reformed, covenantal family.
A son renounces the faith and abandons the church. A daughter marries a divorced man and thus lives impenitently in adultery. A daughter-in-law embraces a false gospel, joins a false church, and worships a false god. Because the relatives confess the truth, worship the true God, walk on the way that is genuine discipleship after Christ, and rebuke the sinner, the sinning loved one hates his relatives and breaks off harmonious relations, or makes them impossible. Family life is disturbed. Division disrupts the closest earthly communion. War breaks out, and the battlefield is the home.
This is painful. This is nothing less than a form of losing one's life for Christ's sake. Faithfully and willingly endured, this is cross bearing for the Christian, not merely severe suffering, but sharing something of the agony of the cross of Christ. When it comes down to it, Christianity knows only one cross. This agonizing pain and loss for the Christian who endures the sword of Christmas are not at all the atoning suffering of the cross of Christ, nor anything at all of the punishing wrath of God. But they are his sharing in the suffering of Christ at the hands of a hateful, hostile world of enemies.
Since these enemies of Christ and the Christian are members of the Christian's own household, the suffering is intense. The strong temptation, therefore, is to mute the confession of Christ, compromise the truth of the gospel, widen the way of discipleship, silence the rebuke, and treat the sinning relative as though all were well.
How often is this not done? How often is this not done among us?
And how often does not a father say in defense of his denial of Christ for the sake of keeping the love and fellowship of his son, "But he is my son"? How often does not a mother excuse herself, "But she is still my daughter, and I cannot be expected to lose my daughter"? How often does not the mother-in-law justify her tolerance, or even approval, of her daughter-in-law's ungodliness, "Christ would never require me to give up my daughter-in-law and with her my son and my grandchildren"?
As though Christ never said, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37).
Especially at the season of Christmas, the temptation to compromise our confession of Christ for the sake of enjoying the love and fellowship of a Christ-denying family member is strong. At the very time we remember the coming of the one who brought the sword, we blunt the sword that He brought, or take it out of His hand altogether.
But then we love kindred more than we love Christ. And then we are not worthy of Him.
Besides, a sword-less Christ is not the Christ of Scripture. A Christ who never causes division in Reformed families is not the Christ of Scripture. A Christ who allows the compromise of His truth, the tolerance of disobedience to His commands, and the fellowship of those who deny Him with those who confess Him, in the interests of the carnal peace of His disciples in the world, is a figment of our imagination.
Nor is the peace we obtain at the cost of our confession of Christ His peace.
Christ's peace is blessed harmony among those who together confess Him in the truth and together walk in His ways because all alike have been reconciled to God. By virtue of the covenant, Christ's peace does indeed extend to the Reformed family. But it does not necessarily include every member. One may be an enemy of Christ and therefore also an enemy of his own father, her own mother, or her own mother-in-law.
It is Christ Himself who sends this sword. It is Christ Himself who is this division in the family. Sending this sword in our family was His purpose in His incarnation and birth.
Come, let us celebrate Christmas.
Let us celebrate the blessed plowshares and pruninghooks of His peace-often as a covenant family.
Let us also celebrate the coming of the Christ by receiving and enduring, with tears, the sharp sword of Christmas-if need be, in our covenant family.
-DJE
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