I Would Like to Celebrate Christmas with Nina Grewal but…

I watched with amusement and wonder as Nina Grewal reached into her pocket and pulled out a goody bag full of tolerance, political correctness and multiculturalism and then tossed it in front of Christians, and most of us devoured her words like dogs devouring chicken bones with very little discernment of what it was we were eating.  I admit that at first I cheered…but then something didn’t feel quite right…and it was not all the extra sugar and carbs I have been eating lately…so I watched it again.
When she stated that it is “truly wonderful that all faiths can celebrate openly here in Canada.” I admittedly thanked God that as Christians we can practice our faith freely (for the most part). Then she said this, “We…rob Christians of the true meaning of Christmas…” Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Hang on one sec. Please explain to me how society has robbed us of the true meaning of Christmas? Simply because most people see it as a time to indulge in materialism, gluttony, drunkenness and a few days off of work does not mean that I been robbed of anything. It does not offend me when someone says “Happy Holidays,” just as it does not offend me when that same person does not come to church with me on Sunday and instead goes grocery shopping. I am not robbed of the true meaning of the Lord’s Day because the majority of the world sees it as just another day. Nina Grewal, do you really know the “True Meaning” of Christmas as you seem to think you do? I suspect her answer would be that Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Sure that might be partially correct, but it hardly gets to the “true meaning.”

I saw a lot of my Christian “Facebook” friends circulating the video of Ms. Grewal and cheering as if we had won some victory… “ Merry Christmas!”  “Keep Christ in Christmas!” they exclaimed…So I sat back and watched with wonderment. Now that a week or so has passed and the fervour calmed, I feel I can weigh in: I doubt that any battle has been won because of this.

Most Christians do not even know the true meaning of Christmas, so how can Ms Grewal ” join with me in celebrating Christmas” if she does not even believe the basic tenants of my faith? Simply saying, “Merry Christmas” is not joining me in celebrating.
Without trying to offend Ms. Grewal, this video appears to me to be a very subtle trick of Satan as he moves our focus off of Christ to silly battles like keeping “Christ” in Christ-mas. Imagine how happy he is that we have the victory of “Christmas.” As long as we only cheer what Ms. Grewal says, but don’t actually share the gospel with her. Satan wants us to simply smile at our perceived victory and feel good that we are not persecuted in this country… and then forget what our faith is about.

 Rev. Michael Horton, from the United Reformed Church, tried his hand at penning another chapter or two of the famous Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis. In Rev. Horton’s edition the demon is telling his protégé how to win a battle at Christmas.  I thought this was fitting here:

… You have to shift their habits of thinking from the more serious to the more trivial (without blowing your cover and provoking the opposite reaction). Affirm the second-best thing against the first-best, then the third-best against the second-best, and so on. Here’s what I mean. …

First, encourage them to take their faith for granted, by relying on what others believe….

Second, now that they have begun to take it all for granted and wear it lightly, affirm the importance of spirituality, feeling, and doing good to others. …

Third, now they’ll be ripe for an outright offensive strategy on your part. …

For example, make them deeply concerned to celebrate Christmas and Easter as cultural holidays. They really love Christmas. Puff the holiday, but add in all sort of other things that make it sentimental rather than serious. They can still have the trappings; the important thing at this stage is that they let go of what it meant. Maybe they’ll start thinking of the Enemy’s so-called “achievements” no longer as an announcement but as a philosophy for living, cultural values, and that sort of thing. Just get it out of the sphere of “Good News,” as some of them still call it. Again, there should be plenty of resources near at hand for you to use—especially look for ones that they produce themselves!

Read the entire article posted on the White horse Inn Here

Now. With all that said, I certainly do appreciate that we keep calling it Christmas. So for that I am thankful that Ms. Grewal said what she said. I am a sentimental kind of guy, even if it does not come across on a blog. But calling this day “Christmas” is not what is of utmost importance. If anyone would wish to join me in “celebrating Christmas,” yes even Nina Grewal, I would gladly celebrate with you that you have been brought of darkness by the light of world, if that is actually the case.  If not then please let me share the gospel with you.

So, since I would love to celebrate with you, let me share with you what Christmas means to me. I cannot do it justice in a blog, but here it is in a nutshell:

Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the Word of God. Scripture teaches that the Word of God is active in all things from creation to redemption and everything else. Scripture tells us:

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Adam was our first mediator before God, and he failed miserably. Since Adam was our mediator he plunged the entire human race into sin when he failed. We are all sinful. Adam’s failure was corrected by the perfect victory of Jesus Christ. In Corinthians we read:

“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man”

The Word of God, that is Jesus the Christ, took upon Himself a human nature. The Word became flesh to effect our redemption by fulfilling the role of the perfect Mediator between God and man. Jesus is the new Adam, the perfect Adam, He is our champion, our king, our representative before God, who completely fulfilled all the demands of God’s law for us and wins for us the blessing that God promised to us if we would obey His law. Like Adam, we failed to obey the Law, but the new Adam, our Mediator, Jesus, the Christ, has obeyed God’s Law perfectly for us, by living a sinless life and bearing upon himself the wrath and punishment that was intended for us. In all this He won for us the crown of redemption if we would repent of our sins and believe that Jesus has in fact redeemed us and restored us to a right relationship with God.

That is the real meaning of Christmas. So if any of you are not sure of all this, or if you want to celebrate that with me, or if you want to know more, please let me know.

Merry Christmas!