Sword of the Lord Publishers, MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE 37133

"Best wishes for a happy Christmas." May yours be the joy of loved ones about you, of presents that represent loving thoughts. May you have the beautiful Christmas cards from those who are away, and the gifts under the Christmas tree. May the Christmas table be loaded with good things to eat. Yes, we wish you a happy Christmas.

But far more important than these pleasant trappings and customs of Christmas is that you have the Christ of Christmas and His joy. So we wish that the green of the Christmas tree may picture eternal life springing up in your heart. May the lights strung there by loving hands picture Christ, the Light of the world, shining in your heart.

May the joyful message of the angels given at the first Christmas ring in your heart, a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord. Shepherds, wise men, the holy family - you may be as happy as any of them, and I pray that you may be, at this glad season.

The Christmas joy does not depend on the outward trappings of Christmas. You may be lonely, poor, and cold, neglected by the children, forgotten by your friends, yet may have the glad Christmas joy in your heart as Paul had, shut up in prison cells at Rome! Be sure to open your heart and let the dear Lord Jesus make it a happy Christmas time for you. These messages are about Him and the purpose of the book will be fulfilled if readers open their hearts and homes to the dear Lord Jesus, born in a stable, laid in a manger, who then grew up to die on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to be our ever-living Savior.

In His dear name, happy Christmas!

I LOVE THE Christmas season. I find great joy in preaching on the Christmas themes of the angels, the shepherds, the manger, the virgin birth, the wise men. I have great joy in the Christmas carols. There is a joyful, happy note of worship in our home, and thank God, in my heart, through the Christmastime. I love the gathering together of my loved ones and family for Christmas. I love to give gifts, and I rejoice to be remembered by my loved ones and friends. I love the Christmas season.

Perhaps my own feeling is colored somewhat by the fact that, for many years, I have been away from home most of the year, but at the Christmas season, when churches and groups of churches do not want revivals, I have been at home with my family. That makes it extra precious to me.

It makes me sad that many people do not enjoy Christmas. Some devoted Christians feel sour, cantankerous, and full of objections about Christmas. To them I would say in the words of Scripture, that if you regard the day, regard it unto the Lord. And if you do not regard the day, Christmas, then be sure that you are Christian about it and do it as unto the Lord. But let nobody be judging and criticizing others for honest, worshipful, spiritual, and loving attitudes about Christmas.

Actually, no one knows exactly when Christ was born. The Bible does not say. There are no other trustworthy sources from which we can learn when Christ was born. So, some people think it is therefore wrong to observe Christmas. But that does not necessarily follow. I knew a little girl born on February 29, leap year. Now would it be wrong for that little girl to observe a birthday on the last day of February on other years when February had only twenty-eight days? Or would it be a sin for her to observe her birthday, or for others to observe her birthday anytime except on leap year. No, the important fact was not the precise date, February 29, but that another year had gone by for which people should praise God, and the little girl had grown a year older, and that fact ought to be recognized by those who loved her.

Would you say that it is wrong to have Thanksgiving day on a certain Thursday in November, when not all of our blessings have come on that day? Or would you say it is wrong to set a more convenient day if all of us should agree that it was proper and convenient to have a national day of thanksgiving? Whatever the day, it is still right for people to agree on a time when we would publicly thank God and officially, as a nation, express our gratitude to the Father of Mercies for all of His goodness to us. The important thing is not what day of the calendar, but whether or not we honor God on the day.

We are told that Christmas comes from Christ's Mass, that it was instituted by Catholics, and that therefore good Protestants ought not to observe it. That objection seems a little foolish to me. Nearly all of the names we have we inherited from heathen people. Many of the names of cities, towns, counties, and rivers in America are Indian names. But when we see the Susquehanna River, or Shawnee, Oklahoma, or Comanche, Texas, we are not thinking about the Indians, and the names have no connotation of heathendom. Names mean what they mean, no matter what the origin.

I shall not go into the argument pro and con, but it is not well proven, I think, that Christmas was a former heathen holiday. But if it were, that would not change the fact that heathen people did something on every day, and we cannot do away with all the days that heathen people used, whether for worship, or for ceremonies about sowing, or about reaping, or about the solstices, or the new moons. We use the same Sun that heathen people worshiped, and we love the Sun rising and Sun setting, though we do not have the heathen ceremonies about that. This argument is not important.

Some have even said that the Bible forbids the use of Christmas trees. A woman called my attention to Jeremiah 10:3, 4, thinking it referred to Christmas trees. That Scripture says:

For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

But does that Scripture talk about the Christmas tree? Not at all. It speaks of an idol made out of wood, covered with silver and gold. The next verse says:

They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be carried about, because they cannot move. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

The idol is not a real god; it cannot see, nor hear, nor do good, nor bad. So verse 8 below says that the stock [or idol] is a doctrine of vanities. And the rest of the Scripture tells how elaborately and expensively the idol is made out of silver and gold, and dressed in purple. And then verse 10 tells us: But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God. Verse 11 says: The gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth, even they shall perish from the Earth.

No, the Bible does not forbid Christmas trees.

It is true that heathen people have sometimes worshiped trees. They have also worshiped animals, worshiped the wind, worshiped the ocean, worshiped the Sun. But there is no worship of idols in setting up a green Christmas tree as a decoration, as a symbol of joy and gladness.

Is there harm in decorating the house with holly, mistletoe, or other evergreen? No more than decorating the house with pumpkins, and oak leaves, and cornstalks at Thanksgiving time! No more than decorating graves with flowers on Memorial Day. Flowers are suitable for the springtime. The pumpkins and corn and autumn leaves are suitable for the fall season. In midwinter there are few flowers, so it is most natural that the evergreens should be used to decorate the home. Surely God is not displeased if we pay attention to some of His natural beauties.

It is true that a great many people do not honor Jesus Christ at Christmas. I think they greatly sin. Some people drink more liquor during Christmastime than at any other time in the year. That is a sin. Many business people think of Christmas only as a time to make money. In this they are wrong. Sometimes even Christian people tell the lie about Santa Claus and deceive little children with a heathen legend, when they could tell about the dear Lord Jesus. I think that is wickedness. A lie is always wrong and always hateful to God. Deceit is the poorest possible way to honor the birth of the Lord Jesus. I do not believe in having Santa Clauses at Sunday School or church services unless everybody understands that it is only a little parody, it is only play-acting. Certainly to deceive little children with a lie about Santa Claus is a sin. No Christian ought to condone it. Here the truth is so much better than a lie. We should tell people that the dear Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Yes, people often dishonor God at Christmas. I am sorry they do. I hope no Christian who reads this will grieve God by such sins.

But we should not turn Christmas over to Satan and wicked people because some sin at Christmas.

Should we abandon Sunday because it is often misused? On the Lord's day there is more drunkenness than on any other day of the week. There is more revelry. Should Christians, therefore, count the Lord's day the Devil's day and give it up? Certainly not! There are a great many people who teach that baptism is essential to salvation. They give more honor to the water than to the blood of Christ. That is wrong. But should we, therefore, disobey Jesus Christ about baptism because some others have overstressed baptism and made it a false doctrine?

The second coming of Christ has been a greatly-abused and perverted doctrine with many. False cults have greatly perverted the doctrine of Christ's coming. People set dates. They speculate on signs. Should the rest of us honest Bible Christians, then, ignore the clear Bible doctrine of Christ's imminent second coming because the doctrine has been abused? Certainly not!

Nor should we ignore the Bible doctrine of the fullness of the Spirit because many people associate it with talking in tongues and with sinless perfection.

Just so, we would be very foolish if we turned Christmas over to Satan and worldlings. If the world has a Christmas of revelry, let us make it a day of Christian love and fellowship and a day honoring to Christ. Let us make much of the Christmas story in the Bible, of Christmas carols, of Christian love and fellowship.

Do other people make giving of gifts a mere form? Well, it does not need to be so for Christians. Christians can give gifts that really express love. They can make the gifts the response of an honest heart. We can send greetings with Scripture verses and with holy admonitions on them.

Is it wrong to have a day of rejoicing? Is it wrong to feast and to send portions to others? No indeed! When the remnant of Israel went back to the land of promise from the captivity in Babylon, under Nehemiah, the law was read and explained, and the people wept. But it was not a time for weeping, but a time for rejoicing. The wall of Jerusalem had been rebuilt. The gates had been hung. The city had been restored as the city of God, and the worship had begun. So let us listen to the plain commands of the Lord in such a case, as given in Nehemiah 8:9, 10:

And Nehemiah, who is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said unto all the people, 'This day is holy unto the Lord your God; mourn not, nor weep.' For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Then he said unto them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto those for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

And we are glad to learn in verse 12 below:

And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.

If Israelites would honor God by having a day of joy and feasting and of sending portions to others because the Wall was rebuilt, and the gates were set up, and the worship established, then Christian people today do well to have a day of rejoicing over the birth of the Savior and to send portions to one another and to make merry with spiritual joy!