I agree that in the past we have gone overboard concerning things with a pagan past, including Christmas.
I'd like to share with you an experience I had several years ago regarding the church and the story of the birth of our Savior. I was preparing questions for a game of Bible Baseball for our Youth Opportunities United (YOU).
The questions are designated as singles, doubles, triples and home runs depending on their difficulty. I was looking for a question that would make a good single. I decided to ask what gifts the Magi brought to the baby Jesus.
Having grown up observing Christmas I assumed that this would be an easy question. Imagine my surprise when none of our YOU members had any idea what the answer was.
In thinking about it later I realized the reason was that the church and many parents never read to their children the scriptures dealing with Jesus' birth.
Why? Because of the strong association between those scriptures and Christmas. I thought at the time, and more so now, that it's sad that parents should feel guilty about reading the story of our Savior's birth in the Bible to their children.
To feel we are somehow sinning by reading a portion of the Bible is tragic indeed. If anyone has not read Ralph Woodrow's booklet Christmas Reconsidered, I would highly recommend it.
[Copies are $4 each, postage paid, or $2.50 each for five or more copies. Send orders to Ralph Woodrow, Box 124, Riverside, California, 92502-0124.]
After reading his booklet I realize that there is another valid point of view concerning the observance of Christmas as a celebration of the birth of our Savior. And that above all we shouldn't judge others as sinners who choose to use Christmas for that purpose.
Warren D. Wilson
Pastor
Clarksburg & Parkersburg, West Virginia
[ Worldwide Church of God | Worldwide News | December 5, 1995 ]
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