Ramon Arias | December 3, 2012
I want to establish from the beginning that I am not coming in opposition to celebrating Christmas nor have a hostile anti-holiday spirit of the fictional character Grinch that is used to make reference to any individual who opposes the Christmas time celebration. I know Christmas is a time for special celebration among the approximately 2.1 billion Christians and sympathizers in the world who celebrate the birth of Christ.
What we need to consider is not even the date of Christ’s birth that continues to be in great dispute; the real issue is his birth and its relation to the human race. If Christ’s birth and life was to create a cult around his personality based upon mystique, mythical and half-truths and to build different types and sizes of buildings representing the many denominations such as Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, Evangelicals, Pentecostals and other branches of Christianity that make up this approximately 2.1 billion believers, then the work is being accomplished around the world and we cannot expect any significant changes for the betterment of humans and their social institutions.
Please hear me out; my assessment is not a pessimistic one. Just look at the American continent from Alaska all the way to Argentina, including the Caribbean nations which proclaim to be Christian, even Cuba with its Marxist social and economic ideology. For five hundred years Latin America has been celebrating the Christian faith big time during Christmas and Easter but nowhere is true progress to be found in their history social development, liberty and financial stability in spite of the vast richness of their land and oceans. We cannot say that Christianity as they know it has been a positive factor in their lives otherwise Cuba would have never turned to become a Marxist state, nor Nicaragua for a time which followed in their footsteps and now Venezuela along with other socialist nations in the continent. Now the Chinese are making tremendous inroads in Latin America to establish a stronghold and they are very successful because Latin America has seen the financial progress of Marxist China.
Many times I have pointed out to U.S. government officials, businessmen, churches and other institutions that Christian America lost a great opportunity to influence the Latin countries for the better at the turn of the 19th century. Latin America then was under the crown of Spain and Brazil under the crown of Portugal. When they saw the English colonies overthrow the most powerful armed forces of the world to gain their independence it ignited a fire throughout the Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations to be free people, and they accomplished their independence as well. However, nothing really changed for them in their social development since they kept their original vision of Christianity, politics and economics. And this is where American Christians failed to positively influence the newly born independent nations.
The colonists had a different foundation when in 1620 the Pilgrims, later the Puritans followed, came to establish a new brand of society. As they left England for the New World they brought the most valuable document with them, the Geneva Bible. History now acknowledges their positive and profound impact, in spite of the revisionist American history, that legacy’s foundation is still there if we could only have the same vision and determination to unearth what makes people and nations great.
I hope you can see that a nation or a continent may claim to be Christian but that does not necessarily mean that they are building upon the legacy of Scriptural knowledge and wisdom. If they were they would not be standing at the crossroads of history. The non-Christian biblical worldview has been taking over the world for centuries and apparently there’s nothing that can stop their well-oiled machinery to continue implementing their vision filled with half-truths, myths and lies. Their brand of worldly wisdom and knowledge is in full gear to propagate their agenda; as a result this nation and the world are suffering greatly.
In America, this coming Christmas could be another meaningless one unless we understand what many generations ago understood with an open heart and mind. What did they understand? They understood that the Bible is not a religious book. The Bible is a practical guidebook for people of all walks of life. Once again the individual life as well as those of their family and social institutions can be restored. It was the knowledge and wisdom found in the Bible that shaped what became the United States of America in civil government, law, education, the economic system of free enterprise, the value of life and private property, community responsibility for the less fortunate neighbors, the correct interpretation and implementation of science, it is the foundation for liberty and so much more.
This is why Jesus was born into the world, to make men and women of all ages better citizens and their culture a system to be desired by all onlookers. This is something not only to celebrate but to shout it from the roof tops.
Almost 800 years before Jesus was born Isaiah the social reformer/prophet announced to the unrecognized and corrupt Israeli society the birth and purpose of Jesus’ appearance on earth:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isaiah 9:6–7).
Christmas is one of the most hated holidays by atheists, liberals or progressives, socialists and Marxists and we can expect once again their fight to take away as much as they can from Christians celebrating the birth of Christ. For Christians, the celebration in itself is not the real issue, rather to understand, embrace and recommit their lives through a renewed covenant accepting the Lordship of Christ and to the faithful representatives of his government here on earth as it is in heaven. God will never accept human government that violates His standards for living and no human can bear Christ’s titles as revealed by Isaiah.
Any Christian that does not understand Christ’s government in his or her life, in the culture and determines to celebrate the birth of Christ as another celebration will be nothing short of a meaningless Christmas, not so for those who understand and live under God’s government.
The meaninglessness or meaningfulness of Christmas is not an event it is a lifestyle here and forever more!