Christmas Traditions - Not At All Bad
A good friend of mine, John Barnett, has studied the traditions of Christmas and put together all the aspects of the historical truth. Check out his website. www.discoverthebook.org and enjoy.
Luke 1:18-19
Christmas - so full of wonder, meaning and tradition...Where did all these "things" that we now call Christmas - come from?
Let's just briefly sketch the origin and development of what we now celebrate as Christ's birth.Christmas is so full of wonder and meaning and tradition that sometimes the wonder, meaning and tradition all fused together, we're not sure where everything came from. And so, I want to just briefly sketch the origin and development of what we now call the celebration of Christ's birth. Here, I'm going to tell you is about the Pagan connection to Christmas. What we know as Christmas, began as a Pagan celebration. Don't let that make you fearful or upset or anything, it's just that it's the truth.
It was on the 25th of December that the Roman Empire and those countries they conquered celebrated Saturnalia. I'll talk about that in just a second. But, Dr. Phillip Schaff, a noted church historian relates that the ancients celebrated that day as the victory of the sun over darkness. And that's why they had it. By Roman times, the truth of God which we know is implicit in nature and reflected through their paganism had come to this form. You say, what do you mean by that?
Well implicit in nature is God's whole plan, the seasons which He instituted for a purpose. And, as Winter as death and out of death springs what? Spring and life and resurrection. And in that implicit testimony of nature is reflected through paganism, perhaps the pagan fragments of what they knew as the truth. And that was that God had promised that there would be resurrection.
The earliest book in the world, Job, says; "I know that my Redeemer liveth and I will stand in my flesh and see God", resurrection. The oldest written book in existence says that. So, paganism had incorporated this. And that is why they had such a celebration surrounding the end of the longest night the beginning of the conquest of the light, and of the sun which they called Saturnalia. Also in the Winter Solstice, the last day of the short days is the 21st. And, the start of the longer days is the 22nd of December. And, what's amazing is, the sun is the closest to the earth when the earth is the darkest. Such an amazing picture of Christ's coming. Right? He came to a world that loved darkness. And, in the darkest hour of the whole season they picked a time to celebrate that and that's when the Christians regenerated that into a celebration of Christ's coming. And, as John 1 says; "He came to His own and His own did not receive Him." And, what's amazing about that is He came to His own world. The world didn't have any trouble receiving Him, but His own people, the humans, they did not want anything to do with Him. But Saturnalia was a feast of images, giving of gifts and setting slaves free. Isn't that interesting?
The giving of gifts, images of the gods and setting slaves free. If you think about what Christmas is, it's the heralding of the greatest gift, the only one that can set free from slavery and of the true image of God. So, I think that the pagans had an imperfect and incorrect but they were reflecting some truth.
The second aspect is the Christian regeneration of this pagan celebration took place slowly. The early church celebrated two things; the death and the resurrection of Christ that was the big thing constantly. And, the reason they didn't celebrate the birth of Christ was because there was so much pagan emphasis on these celebrations of the birth of the gods and their whole cycle of their calendar. And so by 360, 330 years after the resurrection, the church finally came to the position where they said, instead of ignoring this, instead of opposing it, and this is long after the legalization of Christianity and they weren't running for their lives, they said we start celebrating the truth and make it a testimony.
By 386, Chrysostom made this statement in his Christmas sermon 1600 years ago. He said, "Without the birth of Christ, there is also no baptism, no passion, no resurrection, no ascension, and no pouring out of the Holy Spirit." He said, "So, we should not fear to celebrate the birth of Christ." Well, the tradition has grown and grown. And I think that as a church it is marvelous to celebrate the days approaching the birth of Christ, but now they have all kinds of additions that have been put on. Maybe you've heard of the term epiphany which is the manifestation which is eight days after the birth, when Christ was taken to the temple for His circumcision. The Eastern church celebrates that as an Easter Orthodox Church. But basically that though the 25th of December is most likely not the exact date of Christ's birth, it's a wonderful celebration. And, the pagan trappings have been left behind.
But, what about some of these other things we've picked up? Well, I'll talk about 12 of them just quickly. I'll name them and tell you where they came from.
1. The 25th of December is the one day of the year the pagans celebrated the triumph of light. And so, we accept the 25th. What is the ultimate triumph of light? The light of the world, John 8:12, coming into the world, Jesus Christ.
2. Evergreen trees, the pagans always loved evergreens because they were ever green. And, they symbolized eternal life to them. Well, the evergreen tree was really graced with Christian meaning when Martin Luther, on Christmas Eve, nearly 500 years ago, brought into his home a small evergreen tree with candles tied on to the branches. Now, I wouldn't recommend that. It sounds dangerous. But, he said the reason he did that is because of what Isaiah 60:13 says, and that was his proof text for it which kind of brought it into the church. Let me read you Is. 60:13. "The glory of Lebanon will come to you. The juniper, the box tree and the cypress together to beautify the place of my sanctuary." So he said I'm going to beautify this home with an evergreen tree.
3. Candles of course you know the connection there. Christ is the light of the world.
4. Holly was brought in over the years because it symbolized the thorns. And at Christmas time, we look beyond the manger toward the cross.
5. Of course red, all the different reds of Christmas are speaking of the blood and death of Christ.
6. The giving of gifts as we all know, Matthew 2, the gifts to the baby Jesus, the majesty of His life. They were honoring who He was. But also, those gifts had mirror and almost a prophetic ring as they prepared Him for His death, as in the frankincense and myrrh, having to do with the preserving of the body. As you read that Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus wrapped Him in. And it reminds us that God's greatest gift was to us in Christ. And, that our focus at Christmas, and I was speaking with someone today and they said they were at a bakery and they were talking with a person and they said that they wanted to write on a cake for Christmas Happy Birthday to Jesus. And, the baker just about dropped his frosting. Because, he said, "I've never heard of such a thing." And you know he said, "That’s probably what it's all about.
7. You've heard of the Yule log, and that's the seventh aspect of Christmas I'll share with you. The Yule log was a tradition that started in the ages of every man in the household bringing a large log into the house to burn inside for 12 days preceding Christmas. It was to be lit with a fragment of the last year's log which was carefully kept for the whole year. The reason why everyone carried it was that they were all supposed to identify with the symbolism. The reason they used a piece from the last year was to symbolize the continuous existence. The fire never stopped burning, though it really did. It symbolized warmth as the heat was generated, the unity as they all carried it, and they were all sitting around it, joy and security of endless life. And that's were the Yule log concept came from.
8. Mistletoe was taken by the Christians because in the Roman empire, families that had disenfranchisement, or they had gotten in trouble, they didn't like each other. You know, the feuds like the Hillbillies used to have. Two Roman families used to come under mistletoe and they would apologize to each other and that mistletoe made it OK to apologize. Well, it has other meanings now. Kissing under the mistletoe is the idea of two giving to one another promised relationship. It is a sign of true harmony and love.
9. Bells you know of course are the ringing out of the good news.
10. Christmas Eve - why is that so special? The church recognized that on Christmas Eve, the night before the day they celebrate the birth was actually the darkest night in human history because it was the last night before the glorious light of Christ came to this world. Out of a world of darkness came the light of lights.
11. Shepherds, what's amazing to think about with shepherds is that they were watching lambs, many of which would have been used for sacrifice in the temple. And, to that group of people watching sacrificial lambs came a group of angels that says, you're doing a good job, do you want to see the real Lamb, the ultimate Lamb, the final Lamb? You come to Bethlehem. To that group, it's amazing that the angels appeared because they were in such special ministry.
12.Christmas pie - I've never heard of Christmas pie till I started studying this, but from the fourth century onward the ancients made Christmas pie with spices in it in the shape of a manger and up through almost the puritan days that was a very common feature. You don't see it very often any more. But, they made a boat shaped pie with minced meat inside and may spices to picture the manger, the spices from the wise men, and the gift of Christ to us. Some modern additions which maybe you know about or not.
I thought it was fascinating. In 1822, perhaps the best know thing in the secular world for Christmas, Clement Moore wrote a little poem to his children. And it started out with the memorable lines "T’was the night before Christmas". And someone noticed it and it went on the syndicated through the newspapers. And now it's almost on the present. Santa Claus, who is even more omnipresent than “The Night Before Christmas” was Dutch. The Dutch called Saint Nicolas Sinter Class and it just got to be Santa Claus it's kind of a corruption of the Dutch expression of Saint Nicolas. Saint Nicolas himself is a legendary figure, supposedly an early bishop in Asia Minor. Now in the Roman Church he's the patron saint of maidens and sailors. But, the story goes, and I've read it in many history books, which is amazing. I'm not talking about Christmas history books. I'm talking about church history books. They say that Saint Nicolas was truly a bishop or a pastor of a church that heard of one of the people in his congregation that was so far into debt that the children would be sold into slavery. So he put some money into a stocking and delivered it there. And that's where the stocking and St. Nick and the whole gifts at Christmas have turned into this paganism of today.
Finally, Christmas cards, which in 1989 will be a multi billion dollar business with nearly 5 billion Christmas cards minimum crossing the country in the United States alone. And, that's the number of cards. It will cost over a billion dollars not counting postage. Isn't that incredible? Throw on another twenty-five cents a card. Those were started in 1844 by William Dobson, an artist who made kind of a spreading around of the idea of a card which was picked up two years later by two ingenious, English business men, Cole and Horsley of England. They began to commercially market these cards which the church totally opposed themselves to until the 30's. Because, most of the cards had pictures of reveling and drinking and all kinds of stuff and the Church said it was pagan. Then they had a contest to redesign the Christmas cards in the early years of our century and a lot of them came out with beautiful scenes from the manger and it just kind of became a real time for sharing the truth of Christmas. So, all those things, when you shop and run around and see everything, think of the truth behind all of that. And, don't be alarmed when someone tells you that it's is pagan to have a tree, because it's not, that it's pagan to celebrate on Saturnalia, because it's not. The church has wrestled with that ever since its existence and they decided instead of ignoring the truth that was implicit in paganism we would rather bring to full view to the whole world that truth and let them know the good news.
Luke 1:18-19
Christmas - so full of wonder, meaning and tradition...Where did all these "things" that we now call Christmas - come from?
Let's just briefly sketch the origin and development of what we now celebrate as Christ's birth.Christmas is so full of wonder and meaning and tradition that sometimes the wonder, meaning and tradition all fused together, we're not sure where everything came from. And so, I want to just briefly sketch the origin and development of what we now call the celebration of Christ's birth. Here, I'm going to tell you is about the Pagan connection to Christmas. What we know as Christmas, began as a Pagan celebration. Don't let that make you fearful or upset or anything, it's just that it's the truth.
It was on the 25th of December that the Roman Empire and those countries they conquered celebrated Saturnalia. I'll talk about that in just a second. But, Dr. Phillip Schaff, a noted church historian relates that the ancients celebrated that day as the victory of the sun over darkness. And that's why they had it. By Roman times, the truth of God which we know is implicit in nature and reflected through their paganism had come to this form. You say, what do you mean by that?
Well implicit in nature is God's whole plan, the seasons which He instituted for a purpose. And, as Winter as death and out of death springs what? Spring and life and resurrection. And in that implicit testimony of nature is reflected through paganism, perhaps the pagan fragments of what they knew as the truth. And that was that God had promised that there would be resurrection.
The earliest book in the world, Job, says; "I know that my Redeemer liveth and I will stand in my flesh and see God", resurrection. The oldest written book in existence says that. So, paganism had incorporated this. And that is why they had such a celebration surrounding the end of the longest night the beginning of the conquest of the light, and of the sun which they called Saturnalia. Also in the Winter Solstice, the last day of the short days is the 21st. And, the start of the longer days is the 22nd of December. And, what's amazing is, the sun is the closest to the earth when the earth is the darkest. Such an amazing picture of Christ's coming. Right? He came to a world that loved darkness. And, in the darkest hour of the whole season they picked a time to celebrate that and that's when the Christians regenerated that into a celebration of Christ's coming. And, as John 1 says; "He came to His own and His own did not receive Him." And, what's amazing about that is He came to His own world. The world didn't have any trouble receiving Him, but His own people, the humans, they did not want anything to do with Him. But Saturnalia was a feast of images, giving of gifts and setting slaves free. Isn't that interesting?
The giving of gifts, images of the gods and setting slaves free. If you think about what Christmas is, it's the heralding of the greatest gift, the only one that can set free from slavery and of the true image of God. So, I think that the pagans had an imperfect and incorrect but they were reflecting some truth.
The second aspect is the Christian regeneration of this pagan celebration took place slowly. The early church celebrated two things; the death and the resurrection of Christ that was the big thing constantly. And, the reason they didn't celebrate the birth of Christ was because there was so much pagan emphasis on these celebrations of the birth of the gods and their whole cycle of their calendar. And so by 360, 330 years after the resurrection, the church finally came to the position where they said, instead of ignoring this, instead of opposing it, and this is long after the legalization of Christianity and they weren't running for their lives, they said we start celebrating the truth and make it a testimony.
By 386, Chrysostom made this statement in his Christmas sermon 1600 years ago. He said, "Without the birth of Christ, there is also no baptism, no passion, no resurrection, no ascension, and no pouring out of the Holy Spirit." He said, "So, we should not fear to celebrate the birth of Christ." Well, the tradition has grown and grown. And I think that as a church it is marvelous to celebrate the days approaching the birth of Christ, but now they have all kinds of additions that have been put on. Maybe you've heard of the term epiphany which is the manifestation which is eight days after the birth, when Christ was taken to the temple for His circumcision. The Eastern church celebrates that as an Easter Orthodox Church. But basically that though the 25th of December is most likely not the exact date of Christ's birth, it's a wonderful celebration. And, the pagan trappings have been left behind.
But, what about some of these other things we've picked up? Well, I'll talk about 12 of them just quickly. I'll name them and tell you where they came from.
1. The 25th of December is the one day of the year the pagans celebrated the triumph of light. And so, we accept the 25th. What is the ultimate triumph of light? The light of the world, John 8:12, coming into the world, Jesus Christ.
2. Evergreen trees, the pagans always loved evergreens because they were ever green. And, they symbolized eternal life to them. Well, the evergreen tree was really graced with Christian meaning when Martin Luther, on Christmas Eve, nearly 500 years ago, brought into his home a small evergreen tree with candles tied on to the branches. Now, I wouldn't recommend that. It sounds dangerous. But, he said the reason he did that is because of what Isaiah 60:13 says, and that was his proof text for it which kind of brought it into the church. Let me read you Is. 60:13. "The glory of Lebanon will come to you. The juniper, the box tree and the cypress together to beautify the place of my sanctuary." So he said I'm going to beautify this home with an evergreen tree.
3. Candles of course you know the connection there. Christ is the light of the world.
4. Holly was brought in over the years because it symbolized the thorns. And at Christmas time, we look beyond the manger toward the cross.
5. Of course red, all the different reds of Christmas are speaking of the blood and death of Christ.
6. The giving of gifts as we all know, Matthew 2, the gifts to the baby Jesus, the majesty of His life. They were honoring who He was. But also, those gifts had mirror and almost a prophetic ring as they prepared Him for His death, as in the frankincense and myrrh, having to do with the preserving of the body. As you read that Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus wrapped Him in. And it reminds us that God's greatest gift was to us in Christ. And, that our focus at Christmas, and I was speaking with someone today and they said they were at a bakery and they were talking with a person and they said that they wanted to write on a cake for Christmas Happy Birthday to Jesus. And, the baker just about dropped his frosting. Because, he said, "I've never heard of such a thing." And you know he said, "That’s probably what it's all about.
7. You've heard of the Yule log, and that's the seventh aspect of Christmas I'll share with you. The Yule log was a tradition that started in the ages of every man in the household bringing a large log into the house to burn inside for 12 days preceding Christmas. It was to be lit with a fragment of the last year's log which was carefully kept for the whole year. The reason why everyone carried it was that they were all supposed to identify with the symbolism. The reason they used a piece from the last year was to symbolize the continuous existence. The fire never stopped burning, though it really did. It symbolized warmth as the heat was generated, the unity as they all carried it, and they were all sitting around it, joy and security of endless life. And that's were the Yule log concept came from.
8. Mistletoe was taken by the Christians because in the Roman empire, families that had disenfranchisement, or they had gotten in trouble, they didn't like each other. You know, the feuds like the Hillbillies used to have. Two Roman families used to come under mistletoe and they would apologize to each other and that mistletoe made it OK to apologize. Well, it has other meanings now. Kissing under the mistletoe is the idea of two giving to one another promised relationship. It is a sign of true harmony and love.
9. Bells you know of course are the ringing out of the good news.
10. Christmas Eve - why is that so special? The church recognized that on Christmas Eve, the night before the day they celebrate the birth was actually the darkest night in human history because it was the last night before the glorious light of Christ came to this world. Out of a world of darkness came the light of lights.
11. Shepherds, what's amazing to think about with shepherds is that they were watching lambs, many of which would have been used for sacrifice in the temple. And, to that group of people watching sacrificial lambs came a group of angels that says, you're doing a good job, do you want to see the real Lamb, the ultimate Lamb, the final Lamb? You come to Bethlehem. To that group, it's amazing that the angels appeared because they were in such special ministry.
12.Christmas pie - I've never heard of Christmas pie till I started studying this, but from the fourth century onward the ancients made Christmas pie with spices in it in the shape of a manger and up through almost the puritan days that was a very common feature. You don't see it very often any more. But, they made a boat shaped pie with minced meat inside and may spices to picture the manger, the spices from the wise men, and the gift of Christ to us. Some modern additions which maybe you know about or not.
I thought it was fascinating. In 1822, perhaps the best know thing in the secular world for Christmas, Clement Moore wrote a little poem to his children. And it started out with the memorable lines "T’was the night before Christmas". And someone noticed it and it went on the syndicated through the newspapers. And now it's almost on the present. Santa Claus, who is even more omnipresent than “The Night Before Christmas” was Dutch. The Dutch called Saint Nicolas Sinter Class and it just got to be Santa Claus it's kind of a corruption of the Dutch expression of Saint Nicolas. Saint Nicolas himself is a legendary figure, supposedly an early bishop in Asia Minor. Now in the Roman Church he's the patron saint of maidens and sailors. But, the story goes, and I've read it in many history books, which is amazing. I'm not talking about Christmas history books. I'm talking about church history books. They say that Saint Nicolas was truly a bishop or a pastor of a church that heard of one of the people in his congregation that was so far into debt that the children would be sold into slavery. So he put some money into a stocking and delivered it there. And that's where the stocking and St. Nick and the whole gifts at Christmas have turned into this paganism of today.
Finally, Christmas cards, which in 1989 will be a multi billion dollar business with nearly 5 billion Christmas cards minimum crossing the country in the United States alone. And, that's the number of cards. It will cost over a billion dollars not counting postage. Isn't that incredible? Throw on another twenty-five cents a card. Those were started in 1844 by William Dobson, an artist who made kind of a spreading around of the idea of a card which was picked up two years later by two ingenious, English business men, Cole and Horsley of England. They began to commercially market these cards which the church totally opposed themselves to until the 30's. Because, most of the cards had pictures of reveling and drinking and all kinds of stuff and the Church said it was pagan. Then they had a contest to redesign the Christmas cards in the early years of our century and a lot of them came out with beautiful scenes from the manger and it just kind of became a real time for sharing the truth of Christmas. So, all those things, when you shop and run around and see everything, think of the truth behind all of that. And, don't be alarmed when someone tells you that it's is pagan to have a tree, because it's not, that it's pagan to celebrate on Saturnalia, because it's not. The church has wrestled with that ever since its existence and they decided instead of ignoring the truth that was implicit in paganism we would rather bring to full view to the whole world that truth and let them know the good news.
posted by ipastorwill at 10:36 AM
2 Comments:
Thanks, Will. Love John Barnett's site.
Ronnie
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