Merry Christmas! in 2018
This post is about the so-called War on Christmas and its apparent resolution in 2018. This is what has been said about it but I can only agree in the most limited sense, as hopefully the rest of this post will make clear.
I live in Canada so my information about the States is second-hand but there's a saying here that when the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. I believe this saying is true and it is certainly true in this instance. My experience working a retail meat counter over the Christmas season in 2018 is that something has really changed. Whereas in past years people were hesitant to say Merry Christmas, this year everyone is saying it and with a certain relish: people are delighting in the freedom they feel to say something that after all is quite ordinary and traditional: Merry Christmas!
Canada is a very PC (politically correct) country. People are very afraid to say anything that might be socially incorrect. Views that challenge the dominant public narrative are primarily ignored rather than debated. I heard of Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor who became known for speaking up against government-compelled speech particularly in the matter of transsexual pronouns, NOT from the news where I live near Toronto but from youtube and even after I became familiar with his thought, I still had not heard him spoken of on the news and I also had the impression that most Canadians had never heard of him. He's one of the most prominent Canadians on the world stage at present and, at least until recently, he has been almost unknown in Canada. In fact, the first time I heard mention of him on a Toronto conservative radio talk show, the caller was berating the host for not having mentioned him. And as I said, this was a supposedly conservative show. Why would they not have trumpeted Jordan Peterson's views to the public? Because they are part of the Canadian cultural machine and the position that we should be individually free to speak as we choose is an opinion that the entire cultural machine in Canada opposes.
Because of this oppression we experience as Canadians, it came as a relief tinged with a certain joy at the opportunity to subvert the will of our cultural commissars by saying Merry Christmas this year. And there is no doubt about it; the contrast from past years was nothing short of striking. Everyone was saying Merry Christmas!
But here is the deeper issue. This isn't a conservative blog and I'm not a Christian conservative--I'm just a Christian, period. It doesn't really matter whether you say Merry Christmas or Happy Kwanzaa if you don't believe on the name of Jesus Christ. It matters whether you have repented to God with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of this, I do see a connection between the suppression of Christian traditions around Christmas with the greater attempt to remove the people from the True God and Christ altogether. This is what the Psalmist wrote about:
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." Psalm 2:1-3
And so there is some truth to a banner like this one:
The oppressive influence of PC in the air of public spaces comes from the prince of the power of the air and it works to restrain evangelism. Christians wonder whether they even dare to say Merry Christmas and thereby invoke reference to Christ in a culture that fervently opposes His claim to be the only way to the Father (John 14:6). We know that the world hates Jesus Christ because He testifies of it that its works are evil (John 7:7). The sons of obstinate unbelief (Eph 2:2) are trying to create a utopia that leaves no place for Him: Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected (Luke 20:17-18). They do not accept His testimony of this present evil world because they are of the world and they hear spirits not of God, marshalled under the antichrist spirit, instead of Jesus Christ (1 John 4:1-6). We approach once again the generation of Jesus' time on earth, the generation upon which Jesus said all the righteous blood shed upon the earth shall come (Matt 23:35-36):
"There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men." Prov 30:11-14
Therefore, insofar as the recognition of Christmastime as a Christian holiday stops this influence and opens a door to evangelism, Christmas is worth public defense. And because the evil influence of PC is spiritual, I believe it is the Holy Spirit restraining it and allowing this opportunity for the wise to win more souls. I think this about the presidency of Donald Trump generally, that his presidency represents a reprieve from the advance of wickedness and rot in Western societies by the grace of God. And I suppose this is the place to say that I believe Dan 4:17 and that it is the Most High God who has granted this reprieve and chosen Donald Trump for this purpose according to His own will.
And of course the true reprieve would come if the people repented to God with faith in Jesus Christ en masse! So I will say, if the war is not on Christmas but on our 'religion', then the right response is to be to defend our religion--not Christmas. Defend what is truly under attack. And this defense ought to involve a mighty counterattack of evangelism! And since I don't want anyone to become discouraged, I will say that I believe this is occurring, especially on the internet. There is a great deal of excellent Christian music, apologetics, and preaching. The defense against Islam appears particularly strong. Ministry work is marginalized and kept out of the mainstream but that is the way the approved ministers of God have always been treated since the days of the apostles:
"By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2 Cor 6:8-10
But note that even though it is kept out of the limelight, it is not unknown by the public! The ministry work is well known.
The War on Christmas being in fact the War on Christianity at Christmastime, it isn't really over but a battle has been won, by God's grace. This will only signal a change in the Enemy's strategy, however. If Merry Christmas becomes lastingly acceptable, as we will see in future years, then what Christmas signifies must be changed. For the antichrist spirit to advance its agenda, Christmas must become more about Santa and revelry and business (Mark 4:19) and counterfeit religion, so that after its true meaning has been choked and obscured, Merry Christmas will barely even matter. And of course we can all see that this has been going on slowly but surely for many years.
However, while doing my Christmas shopping this year, I came across a Santa's village in the mall, complete with Santa receiving the little children. I had been concentrating on my own thoughts and I came upon the structure suddenly and took it all in at once and with surprise. Of course, such things are not unfamiliar to me but this one had a much more impressive look to it. It looked like someone believed in it. Like an idol and how the manufacture of the idol is described in the Bible: such a serious, intense process because the people making the idol are investing themselves into the work. They believe in what they're making. The Bible talks about idols as made of silver and gold, precious metals and the work of craftsmen (Psalm 135:15, Deut 27:15, Isaiah 44:9-20). So when I see this year for the first time, Santa's throne room looking more like a shrine than a plywood set to deceive seven year olds, I see that the devil is employing another device to distract attention away from Christ at Christmastime, giving the children of stubborn unbelief another way to avoid believing the truth.
I live in Canada so my information about the States is second-hand but there's a saying here that when the US sneezes, Canada catches a cold. I believe this saying is true and it is certainly true in this instance. My experience working a retail meat counter over the Christmas season in 2018 is that something has really changed. Whereas in past years people were hesitant to say Merry Christmas, this year everyone is saying it and with a certain relish: people are delighting in the freedom they feel to say something that after all is quite ordinary and traditional: Merry Christmas!
Canada is a very PC (politically correct) country. People are very afraid to say anything that might be socially incorrect. Views that challenge the dominant public narrative are primarily ignored rather than debated. I heard of Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto professor who became known for speaking up against government-compelled speech particularly in the matter of transsexual pronouns, NOT from the news where I live near Toronto but from youtube and even after I became familiar with his thought, I still had not heard him spoken of on the news and I also had the impression that most Canadians had never heard of him. He's one of the most prominent Canadians on the world stage at present and, at least until recently, he has been almost unknown in Canada. In fact, the first time I heard mention of him on a Toronto conservative radio talk show, the caller was berating the host for not having mentioned him. And as I said, this was a supposedly conservative show. Why would they not have trumpeted Jordan Peterson's views to the public? Because they are part of the Canadian cultural machine and the position that we should be individually free to speak as we choose is an opinion that the entire cultural machine in Canada opposes.
Because of this oppression we experience as Canadians, it came as a relief tinged with a certain joy at the opportunity to subvert the will of our cultural commissars by saying Merry Christmas this year. And there is no doubt about it; the contrast from past years was nothing short of striking. Everyone was saying Merry Christmas!
But here is the deeper issue. This isn't a conservative blog and I'm not a Christian conservative--I'm just a Christian, period. It doesn't really matter whether you say Merry Christmas or Happy Kwanzaa if you don't believe on the name of Jesus Christ. It matters whether you have repented to God with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of this, I do see a connection between the suppression of Christian traditions around Christmas with the greater attempt to remove the people from the True God and Christ altogether. This is what the Psalmist wrote about:
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." Psalm 2:1-3
And so there is some truth to a banner like this one:
The oppressive influence of PC in the air of public spaces comes from the prince of the power of the air and it works to restrain evangelism. Christians wonder whether they even dare to say Merry Christmas and thereby invoke reference to Christ in a culture that fervently opposes His claim to be the only way to the Father (John 14:6). We know that the world hates Jesus Christ because He testifies of it that its works are evil (John 7:7). The sons of obstinate unbelief (Eph 2:2) are trying to create a utopia that leaves no place for Him: Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected (Luke 20:17-18). They do not accept His testimony of this present evil world because they are of the world and they hear spirits not of God, marshalled under the antichrist spirit, instead of Jesus Christ (1 John 4:1-6). We approach once again the generation of Jesus' time on earth, the generation upon which Jesus said all the righteous blood shed upon the earth shall come (Matt 23:35-36):
"There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men." Prov 30:11-14
Therefore, insofar as the recognition of Christmastime as a Christian holiday stops this influence and opens a door to evangelism, Christmas is worth public defense. And because the evil influence of PC is spiritual, I believe it is the Holy Spirit restraining it and allowing this opportunity for the wise to win more souls. I think this about the presidency of Donald Trump generally, that his presidency represents a reprieve from the advance of wickedness and rot in Western societies by the grace of God. And I suppose this is the place to say that I believe Dan 4:17 and that it is the Most High God who has granted this reprieve and chosen Donald Trump for this purpose according to His own will.
And of course the true reprieve would come if the people repented to God with faith in Jesus Christ en masse! So I will say, if the war is not on Christmas but on our 'religion', then the right response is to be to defend our religion--not Christmas. Defend what is truly under attack. And this defense ought to involve a mighty counterattack of evangelism! And since I don't want anyone to become discouraged, I will say that I believe this is occurring, especially on the internet. There is a great deal of excellent Christian music, apologetics, and preaching. The defense against Islam appears particularly strong. Ministry work is marginalized and kept out of the mainstream but that is the way the approved ministers of God have always been treated since the days of the apostles:
"By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2 Cor 6:8-10
But note that even though it is kept out of the limelight, it is not unknown by the public! The ministry work is well known.
The War on Christmas being in fact the War on Christianity at Christmastime, it isn't really over but a battle has been won, by God's grace. This will only signal a change in the Enemy's strategy, however. If Merry Christmas becomes lastingly acceptable, as we will see in future years, then what Christmas signifies must be changed. For the antichrist spirit to advance its agenda, Christmas must become more about Santa and revelry and business (Mark 4:19) and counterfeit religion, so that after its true meaning has been choked and obscured, Merry Christmas will barely even matter. And of course we can all see that this has been going on slowly but surely for many years.
However, while doing my Christmas shopping this year, I came across a Santa's village in the mall, complete with Santa receiving the little children. I had been concentrating on my own thoughts and I came upon the structure suddenly and took it all in at once and with surprise. Of course, such things are not unfamiliar to me but this one had a much more impressive look to it. It looked like someone believed in it. Like an idol and how the manufacture of the idol is described in the Bible: such a serious, intense process because the people making the idol are investing themselves into the work. They believe in what they're making. The Bible talks about idols as made of silver and gold, precious metals and the work of craftsmen (Psalm 135:15, Deut 27:15, Isaiah 44:9-20). So when I see this year for the first time, Santa's throne room looking more like a shrine than a plywood set to deceive seven year olds, I see that the devil is employing another device to distract attention away from Christ at Christmastime, giving the children of stubborn unbelief another way to avoid believing the truth.
