When the next holiday comes, it might be good for all believers to ask themselves, if they are doing what God told them to do, or are they following human tradition.
It doesn't matter to me whether it was Christ's birthday or not, what matters to me is that He never told us to celebrate His birth.
Everyone who lives outside the womb had a birth, but only One was crucified for the sins of others, died and rose from the dead, that was Christ Jesus.
God never told us to have a day set aside once a year for His resurrection either.
He instituted the Lord's Supper to celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
We have no need of another holiday for His resurrection because His Lord's Supper was for that. Christ never gave us exact dates for when to celebrate His Supper, except to say, "whenever you meet together." No church today is obeying this, because they are not doing it every time they meet. Many churches are doing it once a month and even once a year, and it is left at an obscure time so that most do not show up for it.
Exact dates are not the issue in our celebrations, it is about the celebration itself. We must ask the question frequently when we are growing in the Lord..."Did Christ tell me to do that?"
I do not judge anyone who chooses to celebrate the birth of Christ or the resurrection on the traditional man made holidays, the people I know, think of Christ when they do. However if we are indulging in all the other trappings of the worldly part of these holidays, then perhaps we should examine our own hearts.
The Easter Bunny and Santa have no place in the lives of believers. Egg hunts and visiting Santa at the mall flies in the face of Christ. As believers we should leave these practices alone, leave them to the pagans who love to pretend things that are not true and even confuse children, leaving them feeling about Christ the way they feel about Santa.
When we teach children to love Santa, we are giving them a view of God that is monstrously incorrect. The whole idea of Santa stems from a good works standpoint.
Santa gives you good things if you are "good enough." Christ tells us that we cannot earn heaven by good works, we must place our trust in Him.
Santa tells the children if they don't rob, steal or cheat and do their home work they are worthy of gifts. Christ tells us to desire spiritual wealth and joy rather than happiness.
Everything about the doctrines of Santa, demeans the doctrines of Christ. The devil did a bang up job when he presented a false god for the children to love. AS the children grew up, they had a hard time giving up all their fluffy feelings about Santa and passed them on to their children. Now we have an entire culture, adults included who love to wish Santa were real, in other words.....a false god.
When we ponder and fondly look at a Santa, wishing he were real, talking about him, pretending he does things for us, we have a god in our hearts. Many parents don't realize that they are teaching their children during the week that we love our god Santa, and going to church on Sunday hearing that Jesus Christ is the only God.
Which god will a child choose when he sees that happy jolly fellow who gives them toys and candy, comparing him to the God who died for our sin, expects our trust in Him and commands holiness?
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