Articles
Who Needs Christ During Christmas
Perhaps you have heard of the group called the American Atheists who are currently running an ad on an electronic billboard in Times Square that asks, “Who Needs Christ during Christmas? Nobody.” Last year the group erected a billboard in Times Square comparing Jesus Christ to Santa Claus, declaring the story of Christmas to be a “myth.”
Christmas aside, the overall goal of atheists is to remove anything connected to God, Christ, the Bible, and Christianity from society in general. Why? Atheists do not believe in God. They reject God. They are anti-God. And they are anti-Christ. David rightly declared, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 53:1).
Of course, as a New Testament Christian (Acts 11:26), I am no atheist. I believe in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit with all my heart. I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, all of it (2 Tim. 3:16-17), including all that is revealed within its pages about the birth of Christ. And I love to hear and read the story of the birth of our Savior (Luke 2:1-20).
However, I do not believe in celebrating Christmas as the birth of Christ. I’m sure that sounds confusing to some. My reason for not celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas is completely different from the reasoning of atheists. They don’t believe Jesus to be the Son of God, the Christ, and Savior of the world. I do (John 3:16; 20:30-31). They don’t believe in obeying the gospel of Christ to receive salvation from sin. I do (Rom. 1:16; Mark 16:15-16). They don’t believe in following His teachings throughout life. I do (John 14:15; Rev. 2:10).
Here are a few key reasons why I do not observe Christmas as the birth of Christ. (1) Christ never instructed His followers to observe His birth on Dec. 25th or any other day (Matt. 28:18-20; Col. 3:17). (2) Christ’s apostles never instructed churches and saints to observe a special day for the birth of Christ (Acts 2:42; I Cor. 4:17). (3) Christ did instruct His disciples, however, to observe a memorial of His death (Matt. 26:26-28; I Cor. 11:23-26). And the early church did so upon the first day of the week (Acts 20:7). (4) The Bible says not to add or take away from it (Rev. 22:18-19; I Cor. 4:6), and we do not want to be guilty of doing so.
Again, for a group of Christians not to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ may sound quite strange to you. But if the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God, our perfect standard and guide, our source of authority, not to be changed in any way – should we not then only believe and practice that what the Lord Himself authorizes His followers to do?
Who needs Christ during Christmas? I don’t know about you, but I believe we all need Christ all of the time!
