Christmas: Defined And Defended

Christmas: Defined and Defended What do we mean by “Christmas”? 3 senses of “Christmas” • the commercial Christmas • the cultural Christmas • the theological Christmas borrowed from Kevin Bauder, “The Three Christmases.” In the Nick of Time. December 2008 Commercial Christmas • developed in mid-19th century • promotes the acquisitive spirit • gift-giving is demanded borrowed from Kevin Bauder, “The Three Christmases.” In the Nick of Time. December 2008 Cultural Christmas • developed over millennia in the West and Middle East • promotes hearth and home and ethnic traditions • miscellaneous practices of various origins borrowed from Kevin Bauder, “The Three Christmases.” In the Nick of Time. December 2008 Examples of Cultural Christmas • garlands and wreathes • yule logs • red and green • eggnog • wassail • tinsel • trees • holly and ivy • candles borrowed from Kevin Bauder, “The Three Christmases.” In the Nick of Time. December 2008 Theological Christmas • focuses on the birth of Christ • not borrowed from paganism* • developed early in Church history* • permitted by Scripture • endangered by the other 2 Christmases borrowed from Kevin Bauder, “The Three Christmases.” In the Nick of Time. December 2008 “Christmas actually evolved from pagan traditions celebrating the winter solstice.” CBS NEWS December 25, 2018, 9:05 AM The unexpected origins of popular Christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/. accessed 17 December 2020. "Christmas is really about bringing out your inner pagan," historian Kenneth C. Davis told "CBS This Morning." According to Davis, Christmas was celebrated as early as the fourth century, suggesting that it had almost nothing to do with Jesus Christ. CBS NEWS December 25, 2018, 9:05 AM The unexpected origins of popular Christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/. accessed 17 December 2020. "In ancient Rome there was a feast called Saturnalia that celebrated the solstice. What is the solstice? It's the day that the sun starts coming back, the days start getting longer. And most of the traditions that we have that relate to Christmas relate to the solstice, which was celebrated in ancient Rome on December 25.” CBS NEWS December 25, 2018, 9:05 AM The unexpected origins of popular Christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/. accessed 17 December 2020. "So when Christianity became the of cial religion in a sense, in Rome, they were able to x this date. ... There's a little discrepancy about it but there's no question that the fact that it was celebrated in Rome as an important day with gift giving, candle lighting, and singing and decorating houses really cemented Christmas as December 25.” CBS NEWS December 25, 2018, 9:05 AM The unexpected origins of popular Christmas traditions fi fi https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/. accessed 17 December 2020. What is the problem with saying “event B occurred after event A. Therefore, event A caused event B.”? post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy Every time the rooster crows, the sun comes up. Therefore . . . “The idea that the date was taken from the pagans goes back to two scholars from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. William J. Tighe. “Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind December 25.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, 2003. “Paul Ernst Jablonski, a German Protestant, wished to show that the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th was one of the many ‘paganizations’ of Christianity that the Church of the fourth century embraced, as one of many ‘degenerations’ that transformed pure apostolic Christianity into Catholicism.” William J. Tighe. “Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind December 25.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, 2003. “Dom Jean Hardouin, a Benedictine monk, tried to show that the Catholic Church adopted pagan festivals for Christian purposes without paganizing the gospel.” William J. Tighe. “Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind December 25.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, 2003. "In ancient Rome there was a feast called Saturnalia that celebrated the solstice. . . . And most of the traditions that we have that relate to Christmas relate to the solstice, which was celebrated in ancient Rome on December 25.” CBS NEWS December 25, 2018, 9:05 AM The unexpected origins of popular Christmas traditions https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-unexpected-pagan-origins-of-popular-christmas-traditions/. accessed 17 December 2020. Historical question: Was the feast of Saturnalia celebrated on December 25? “Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December.” — Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia. accessed 20 December 2020 25 December 274 A.D. fi The day Emperor Aurelian dedicated a temple to Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) and made it the of cial religion of the Roman Empire. fi Was 25 December celebrated as an of cial church holy day (“holi-day”) before 274 A.D.? No. Christmas (December 25th) is a feast of Western Christian origin. In Constantinople it appears to have been introduced in 379 or 380. But did Christians recognize 25 December as the day of Christ’s birth prior to 274 A.D.? Yes. But not because they were necessarily interested in establishing Christmas as we know it. What were ancient Christians looking for when they established 25 December as the date of Christ’s birth? The calendar date of Christ’s death. Integral Age theory “December 25 was rst identi ed as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date.” (bolding mine; Encyclopedia Britannica) fi fi https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas. accessed 18 December 2020 “Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa, by the time of early church leader Tertullian had xed on Friday, March 25, 29 A.D. [as the date of Christ’s death]. . . . Tertullian lived from 155-220 A.D.” Al Perrotta. “Calculating Christmas Day.” fi stream.org. 18 December 2019 “In other words, at least 50 years before Aurelian established December 25 as a pagan festival, Christians widely scattered east to west had established December 25 for Christ’s nativity.” Al Perrotta. “Calculating Christmas Day.” stream.org. 18 December 2019 “December 25th as the date of the Christ’s birth appears to owe nothing whatsoever to pagan in uences upon the practice of the Church during or after Constantine’s time. It is wholly unlikely to have been the actual date of Christ’s birth, but it arose entirely from the efforts of early Latin Christians to determine the historical date of Christ’s death.” fl William J. Tighe. “Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind December 25.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, 2003. “The pagan feast which the Emperor Aurelian instituted on that date in the year 274 was not only an effort to use the winter solstice to make a political statement, but also almost certainly an attempt to give a pagan signi cance to a date already of importance to Roman Christians.” fi William J. Tighe. “Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind December 25.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, 2003. Problems to Avoid Re: Christmas • abandonment of the theological Christmas based on erroneous history • enslavement to the idolatry of commercial Christmas ESV 1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Problems to Avoid Re: Christmas • abandonment of the theological Christmas based on erroneous history • enslavement to the idolatry of commercial Christmas • distraction by the cultural Christmas https://getoutwithkids.com.au/christmas-lights-melbourne/ ESV 1 Corinthians 6:12 "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. ESV 1 Corinthians 10:23 "All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up. Does Scripture permit gift-giving? ESV Matthew 2:11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Does Scripture permit gift-giving? ESV Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ESV 2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! Hymn # 236: What Child Is This?