Happy holidays or Merry Christmas?
Which of the above greetings is correct? To be quite honest, I really don’t care what your choice is, but then again, I don’t care much about being politically correct either. I realize that as a Christian I can call it whatever I want. Is Dec. 25 the actual birthday of Christ Jesus? Most likely not! Does it matter? No!
There are many that want to celebrate Dec. 25 as the birth of Christ, yet some who just enjoy the “holiday season” with all of the sights and sounds of Christmas, feasts with the family and exchanging presents, with no thought of Christ. That’s OK by me; I really don’t care what you do with the day.
Now before you get on your religious high horse, let me again say; that first, Dec. 25 is most likely not the time of Christ’s birth. Second, no where in the scripture are we given instruction to or example of celebrating Jesus’ birthday. Third, like most of the world, I really don’t care what you do; I have the freedom to choose to celebrate the birth of Christ or just to have a “happy holiday.”
You might think, “How can you as a minister say such a thing?” It’s really rather simple. Again, there is no command or example in the Bible to do so, but there is a scripture that deals with our freedom to choose to do so if we wish. In Romans 14:5-6, Paul writes, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Should Christmas then be an official church holiday? In my way of thinking, no. It is not in the Bible and all of us don’t even have the same opinion about it. Do we have the right to celebrate it if we want to? Yes!
Yet Paul cautions us in Romans 14:22, “Blessed is the man that does not condemn himself by what he approves (or says is good)”. You see Romans the 14th chapter deals with problems between brethren who are having faith problems. The brother with the weak faith had not yet grown to the point where he understood that everything we do is to the glory of God, therefore doing certain things, such as “keeping holy days,” would cause him to stumble in his faith.
So, even though I don’t care what you do or say about this holiday, because it will not affect my faith, yet for some it may. So, be careful of what you “approve,” so you “do not condemn yourself.” Do I have a problem with our world, our schools, our town counsels, and our federal government telling us that we cannot remember Christ in any way or even mention his name in certain places? You bet I do!
I’ve made my choice, but you are responsible for your own choices. For me, I’ll just close this by saying that I wish each of you a Merry Christmas!