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Christmas and the Lord's Day

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by Herald, Dec 21, 2011.

  1. Herald

    Herald New Member

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    I hope this doesn't appear self-serving, but I would like to post a short essay I wrote on my blog, The Spurgeon Blog:

     
    #1 Herald, Dec 21, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 21, 2011
  2. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    I'm with you on this. No matter what, Christmas is a cultural observance and to cancel the gathering of worship for a cultural holiday just makes no sense to me.

    At our little church (30 adults each week), we will most likely have my family (4 adults and 2 kids), another family (2 adults, 2 kids) and possibly a single mom and her son. That's all. But we will meet anyway and celebrate the Savior on Christmas morning. It means that our personal Christmas will not be celebrated that day and we're still figuring out what to do but church is more important than our morning casserole and opening gifts in PJs. We'll live without that this year. LOL
     
  3. Martin

    Martin Active Member

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    ==I think this is an important issue. However I also believe it is one that can easily get blown way out of proportion. We are only talking about one Sunday. If a church re-schedules for Saturday night or at a different time this Sunday there is nothing Biblically wrong with that. In fact, I see no Scriptural command to that church "must" meet on Sundays (Col. 2:16-17, Rom 14:4-8). While the church meeting on Sunday is and should be the norm, there is nothing wrong with a church altering it's schedule one day out of the year. Some churches may need to make schedule changes due to a large part of their congregation being gone Sunday morning. Others may wish to make schedule changes to help volunteers who have children.

    We must avoid the temptation to make our tradition law. The Bible does not say worship must be at 11:00am Sunday morning, 7:00pm Sunday and Wednesday evenings. Those are times/schedules we have made for a variety of reasons. We must also keep in mind that some people are unable to attend church on Sundays due to work schedules (nurses, police officers, etc). Are they in sin for attending Sunday nights or Wednesday nights instead of Sunday morning? Of course not.

    My point? Stay balanced.
     
  4. glfredrick

    glfredrick New Member

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    Really? We're discussing this?

    Gal 4:4-6 (ESV) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

    We celebrate Christmas every Sunday because God sent into this world, at a point in history that was a real day, in a real place, His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That someone, early in the history of the church decided to affix a date to that one day is really a non issue. We also affix a date to Resurrection Sunday, and that is just as real an issue. Just TRY to keep me from worshipping Christ on either Christmas Day (even if it happens to fall on Sunday) or Easter Sunday (more properly called Resurrection Day). The attempt to keep God's people away from other of God's people on a day when we worship is nothing more than a divisive tool of Satan!
     
  5. Pastor David

    Pastor David Member
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    Good article.
     
  6. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    There truly is nothing new under the sun.

    De Greef's Writings of John Calvin:

    Reportedly Saint-Andre told the congregation that in taking the the Lord's Supper on [a non-Sunday] Christmas Day they had received the Devil, not Christ. (Calvin to Farel, 27 Jan. 1552)

    For this, he was run out of Bern. Geneva welcomed him and he was soon ministering alongside John Calvin there.

    Lovely.
     
    #6 Jerome, Dec 22, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 22, 2011
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