By Ezekiel Kimosop
This question always arises during the Christmas and Easter seasons as atheists, scholars and Christian skeptics write long articles in leading newsletters in which they question the legitimacy of this age-old Christian traditions.
While I agree with the view that there is no express command in the New Testament Scriptures that compels believers or Christian communities to celebrate Christmas or Easter, I disagree with the notion that the celebration of these events is unbiblical or ungodly.
Let me qualify my statement below.
It is instructive that the Bible does not have specific commands for every instruction or prohibition, and neither does it describe every issue known to man today by specific words or terms.
For example, Evangelical and Pentecostal church traditions forbid their faithful from consuming alcoholic beverages, tobacco, cigarettes and addictive narcotic drugs of various descriptions, yet there is no express prohibition for such items in the New Testament Scripture!
So if [God forbid!] that one faithful came to church one Sunday morning with a bottle of Vodka or puffing a Fidel Castro cigar and sat in the pews while arguing that alcohol or cigarette smoking are nowhere mentioned or expressly prohibited in the Bible, how would the minister handle that kind of situation?
The argument that there was no specific mention of the celebration of Christmas or Easter by the New Testament Church [assuming that this claim is biblically valid] is no reason for discarding these noble church traditions at the click of the finger!
Here is why...
Most of the Christian traditions that we observe today were developed by the church over centuries of Christian practice.
Some of the traditions that we observe today do not even appear in the New Testament Scriptures yet we consider them godly! How do we justify them?
The New Testament Church practices captured in the Bible are silent on any other celebrations besides the Lord's Table and Baptism.
It is however instructive that the church never had everything right at ago! It methodically developed doctrines and practices over the centuries, even as it discarded others along the way.
We can observe from Acts 6 that some church offices were possibly inaugurated by default or under some emergency of sorts! They were later carefully reconstituted with clear guidelines for the church (1 Timothy 2:8-15, 3:1-13; Titus 1:6-7).
Notice further that the requirements for those proposed to serve tables were possibly overstated so that Stephen, an evangelist by calling, was mistakenly assigned to serve tables as a deacon.
Stephen was shortly thereafter martyred while doing what he knew best: preaching the word of God. He was preaching the word of God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, yet this ministry was the preserve of the apostles!
Now back to our Christmas and Easter issue...
Just as pointed earlier, one does not require to a specific biblical command to discern that a particular thing or practice is permissible or prohibited.
We need to appreciate the holistic nature of the biblical Scriptures when read in their passage contexts and in truth.
To my knowledge no such word as "Christian wedding" or "church wedding" exists anywhere in the Bible, but few Christians would doubt that church weddings are legitimate biblical practices for the church community if we accept that Genesis 2:22-25 and other relevant Old Testament Scriptures speak into this practice.
My guess is that if we went by the "letter of the law" approach, such practices would definitely be open to debate.
The Pharisees had a penchant for reading the letter of the law and ignoring the spirit of the law and Jesus often rebuked them for their hollow religious legalism (see Matthew 23:23 on the teaching on the tithe].
There is no manifest error with Acts 12:4 regarding the use of the word Easter in the KJV as alleged.
Leading Bible translations such as NAB and the NKJV 2007 editions render the same word as "Passover" which carries the same meaning as Easter.
My view is that it is inappropriate to conclude that there was a translation error in the above scripture without any exegetical evidence.
The mention of Easter or Passover in this verse is significant in showing that Passover took a new meaning when Christ, the Passover Lamb, was offered at Calvary.
It is therefore regrettable that some Bible teachers choose to rubbish these holy commemorations by falsely declaring them unbiblical or unchristian!
It is instructive that the 2nd to 4th century church era is collectively understood as the early church period which ended after the 4th century when the Roman Catholic Church subverted the word of God by creating a religious dynasty that advanced teachings and practices that contradicted the authority of Scripture.
The Roman Catholic Church ruled the Christian sphere for nearly 1,000 years, teaching heresy and persecuting the true church until late 1400s when resistance to its cultic and apostate reign arose from reformers such as John Calvin and Martin Luther.
By late 1500s to mid 1600s, the Reformation began to take shape until the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church were totally rejected by the Protestant Reformation.
Now back to our Christmas and Easter issue...
I find no evidence in the Bible to suggest that the celebration of Christmas or Easter is sinful or that it violates any passage of Scripture.
I regret to state that the conclusion carried in the article which opposes the Christmas and Easter traditions is based on arguments advanced by New Age Bible teachers and has no biblical merit at all.
The argument that Christmas or Easter are reserved for the gathering of friends and that these two occasions "have lost their original religious significance" is decidedly false.
The people of this world may have their own idea about Christmas or Easter but this in no way implies that the church should discard these important celebrations!
If anything, we should retrace our lost convictions on these and other important Christian traditions that have been discarded.
While Christmas relates to the celebration of Christ's incarnate birth, the Easter celebration reminds us of the suffering that Christ endured for our redemption and His triumph over death through His resurrection and ascension to heaven.
To blot out the two celebrations from our Christian calendars, under the pretext that they are not commanded by Scripture is, in my considered view, sacrilegious and a great dishonor to our Risen Lord!
Now as regards when Jesus was born, I agree with the author that Jesus may not have been born on 25th December. However, dates aside, the commemoration of His birth is significant to the true followers of Christ.
Those who insist on dates other than the traditional December 25th are at liberty to celebrate on any date(s) that they consider to resonate with their convictions.
Let me conclude by saying that Christmas and Easter celebrations are close to the hearts of those who love the Lord.
Those who chose not to celebrate these seasons are at liberty to do so. However, any attempt to discredit these important Christian calendar dates by appealing to church history is hollow and futile!
Both celebrations are biblically legitimate and nothing concerning their celebration or commemoration by the church community violates the Scriptures.
THE DANGER OF NEW AGE DELUSION IN MODERN BIBLE TRANSLATIONS
Now, away from the Christmas and Easter debate, I wish to observe that it is sad that in this day and age, many legitimate church doctrines and practices are under a steady barrage of arsenal from the enemies of the true church who masquerade as Bible theologians but are guided by a revisionist agenda.
These false teachers have targeted and discredited traditional biblical values so that sections of the Western church has bowed to their evil concepts such as feminism, gender equality, gay rights, relativism, and many other false and unbiblical concepts.
It may only be a matter of time before the enemy's agenda spreads across the global Christian communities, including Africa!
These opponents of biblical truth have even revised the Holy scriptures to agree with their concoction of falsehoods and their evil concepts are now creeping stealthily into modern Bible translation editorial panels.
A number of modern paraphrase Bible translations have departed from the fidelity of passing on the truths contained in the biblical Scriptures.
By resorting to contemporary thought rather than the timeless truths contained in the original manuscripts of Scripture, these "translators" have done an interpretation mess rather than a faithful translation of the word of God.
It is now feared that in the next few decades, the word of God, as we know, it may be lost to succeeding generations, thanks to the evil forces that seek to pollute the Scriptures in order to conceal the authority of God's voice in His word.
It is no wonder that Paul instructed Timothy to commit to faithful men all the teachings he had learnt from him so that they too may teach others (2Timothy 2:1-2).
Sadly, this generation of faithful men is steadily declining in numbers even as false teachers take center stage in the "gospel enterprise industry".
God will however preserve His remnant in all ages of human civilization even as Christ shall tarry. It is this remnant that will always stand out to be counted.
[ This article was revised on 5th August 2019]
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