Can a Christian Celebrate a Secular Christmas?
Can a Christian celebrate a secular Christmas? This is a good question and one that deserves an honest answer. This week I read the following, “If you don’t talk about Jesus at Christmas time, you miss Jesus. If you do not sing those scriptural songs focusing on Jesus, you miss Jesus. You might have grown up in a church where “Christmas” was a “Jesus-free” day.” These were some accusations leveled against some brethren by a well-known preacher in our brotherhood. In this article, I wish to set the record straight on how it is rather simple to celebrate a secular Christmas and it not be a “Jesus-free” day. I contend that no day is “Jesus free” for a New Testament Christian.
First, this brother accuses the church “of not knowing what to do with Christmas. They celebrate it in their homes, but avoid it at all costs in church.” I contend that the preachers who preach the whole counsel of God know what to do with Christmas. Preachers must correct false notions, including those surrounding Christmas. Paul records, “Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). I know of at least four other preachers off the top of my head who address this issue in a sermon or in writing every year, this is to reprove. With that being said, the same preachers speak of the virgin birth, the prophecies, and the actuality of the birth of the Savior throughout the year; that is Biblical preaching. At this time of year, we seek to reprove the error taught about the birth of Jesus and point to the purpose of the Lord taking on flesh.
To assert that if we avoid the appearance of celebrating Christmas as a church holiday, then somehow we fail to celebrate Jesus is a false dichotomy. Simply, I can celebrate Christmas in my home with my family in a pure non-religious fashion and still celebrate Jesus every day of the year. We are Christians, Christ is part of every day of our lives. We pray in Jesus' name every day of the year, We praise the name of Jesus every day of the year. We are thankful to our Father in Heaven for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus every day. Please explain better how I have to celebrate a false man-made tradition to celebrate Jesus?
Next, it was claimed that while the world is paying attention to the Savior, we as Christians want to help them understand more about him. How should we do that? By following along with a false narrative created by an apostate group to compete with pagan celebrations? Should I gear my sermons around the Christmas story to help the world understand Jesus more? Could I not teach them more about Jesus by doing what it is I do every week, “preach Christ and Him crucified?” Brethren, if your preacher is only preaching Jesus on the Sunday before Christmas, there is a problem. If he never mentions the manifold wisdom and glory of His plan to save man through the seed of woman (cf. Gen. 3:15), then you have a bigger problem. I do not think this is the case of preachers who do not preach the birth of Christ in late December.
This last Sunday I chose to preach about the Christian at Christmas. In the sermon, I addressed the misconceptions about Christ’s birth, the actuality of when Christ was born, the origins of the religious holy day of the Christ Mass, and whether it is okay or not to celebrate Christmas. These sermons are needed because many well-meaning brethren have the idea that to reach the lost at Christmas you have to make the “Christmas” story your sermon topic. This is simply not the case. We preach Christ every week. I do not need a manmade religious holiday to help. I have 66 books that preach Christ and there is not one Sunday that Christ is not in my sermon. I fear it will not be long until those in the “mainstream” will be advocating for Advent, Fat Tuesday, and Ash Wednesday.
The idea that brethren avoid Christmas because they are afraid of it being too secular is strange, to say the least. New Testament Christians celebrate a secular Christmas because other than the Lord’s Day there are no holy days in our religion. There is no Lord’s Day that is elevated over any other (remember this at Easter time). Thus, one must conclude that since no man has the authority to proclaim any religious holy day, then all holidays are secular. Secular Christmas is not only good, but it is the only appropriate way to celebrate this day. The term secular is defined as something having no connection to religion. In the Lord’s church, we would say there is no scriptural proof. If the Holy Spirit did not reveal that the church is to celebrate the birth of Christ and all the religious origins are made from apostate groups, then there is no way that this holiday can be recognized as an authorized holy day for God’s people.
Frosty the Snowman, exchanging gifts, Christmas cookies, and the like are great clean secular traditions. We celebrate many good clean secular holidays in our nation. None of them are about Christ. The Fourth of July in the United States is a secular holiday that we keep that way and that is fine. To equate not preaching about the birth of Christ and not singing “Joy to the World” to missing Jesus is baseless.
To embrace the religious holiday of Christmas is to embrace a false doctrine. We preach about Jesus in so many ways on so many days, why do some of our brethren take a page from the religions of man this time of year? We are different, and that is a good thing. We are called to be different. The holy ones of God have always been different. Would it not stand out more that we are not like the rest of the religious groups one might come across? Our sermons on December 24, 2023, would be better off focused on teaching the strangers how much the God of Heaven loves them and what they need to do to become a child of God.
Grace and Peace,
R.D. Beavers
