We know that nothing but the holy Ghost will change a heart and make a person right with God. In the meantime, let’s be thankful for the things sinners have that keep them from acting altogether like beasts. Let them believe that Christmas brings good will and peace to men. Let them experience the gratification of giving presents. So what, if we know that Christmas has nothing to do with Christ? God is using that holiday, and other such things, to encourage sinful people to try to be good and to prevent them from giving expression to the wickedness that is in everyone’s heart who has not been cleansed by Christ.
The truth of the gospel has always been absent from this culture, but the culture’s increasing rejection of such things as Christmas and Easter is resulting in the rise of gross immorality and godlessness. Men without Christ are better off with Christmas than they are without it. God uses man’s religions for the good of His people who are still living in this dark world. He restrains the cruelty of man with those ceremonial things. To use such things for our good is the work of God, and we should not meddle in it, any more than we should meddle with His work of putting whomever He will into public office. You do not want to live in a wicked world like this one without the restraining influence of false religion.
God’s wise servants offer His answer – life in the Spirit – to sinners who have begun to feel a hunger for God’s kind of righteousness and are seeking it. God has not anointed anyone among us to destroy the very things He uses to control the depraved spirits of men. If we interfere with His work and destroy what He is using for good, we will have only made life in this miserable world unnecessarily more difficult for His people, and for everyone else.
To paraphrase Paul (1Cor. 8:1), “So what if we know the truth about Christmas? Knowledge will puff a person up! Only what is done in love will edify.” It is sad to watch saints who go on a crusade every fall to destroy Christmas, and every spring to destroy Easter, because they know about the pagan origins of those two holidays. They have become so proud of what they know! So what if such holidays have pagan origins? This whole world has pagan origins. What’s next? Attack New Year’s Day? That holiday, too, has pagan origins. Child of God, back off. Leave God’s business alone. He is using all such things for your good. Let Him do it, and be thankful for them!
