IN 1925 the Reformed Presbyterian Synod declared:— “The religious observance of Christmas, Easter or of Lenten fast and self-denials has always been discountenanced by our Church” (Minutes of Synod, p. 93). In view of the fact that Christmas and Easter are now so generally observed by other denominations, we may well ask why has the Reformed Presbyterian Church sought to maintain an attitude of protest against these observances?
The Scriptures make it plain that the Word of God is to be the guide of the Church in instituting her ordinances of worship. “What is not commanded in the Word of God is forbidden.” This is the Scriptural law of worship. Israel was severely chastened when she added to or diminished from the ordinances of worship which God had appointed. Speaking in his day, John Owen, the great British theologian declared that a disregard for the Scriptural law of worship “lies at the bottom of all the confusion, blood, persecution, and wars that have for so long a season spread themselves over the face of the Christian world.”
For the religious observance of Christmas and Easter there is no divine authority whatsoever. The Spirit has inspired a silence in regard to the date of Christ’s birth. No such custom as the Christmas idea was found in the early centuries of the Christian Church. The same may be said in regard to Easter. The only memorial of the resurrection that has divine authority behind it, is the observance of the Christian Sabbath. Believers have no more authority for the observance of Christmas and Easter than Jeroboam had for setting up altars and groves at Bethel. When the service of worship was opened at Bethel, the prophet of the Lord was present to testify against it as a rival to the worship which God had appointed at Jerusalem. In observing Christmas and Easter, believers are walking in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
The Israelites were commanded to destroy the heathen altars and groves and in no case transform them for the worship of Jehovah. But the Church of Rome has always followed the policy of adapting heathen ritual for the service of Christ. She claims the power to pour the spiritual meaning of Christianity into the religious festivals and ceremonies of Pagan peoples.
December 25th was the date of the greatest of all feasts among sun-worshippers. It celebrated the winter solstice, the birth of the new sun. Rome adapted this Pagan service into her ritual and said that on this date the Church would observe mass and partake of a festival in celebration of the birth of Christ.
In like manner, Easter, a feast observed by Pagans to celebrate the return of Spring, was adopted by the Church of Rome and devoted to the celebration of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Rome purposed that, by thus decking herself in the garment of Paganism, she would popularise Christianity and sweep the heathen into her fold. It is true that by this union the offence of the cross is made to cease, but the knowledge of the way of life in Christ is thereby made to become obscure. The joining of Christianity with Paganism in the common observance of certain festival days as memorials of leading events in these two opposite religions has resulted in profound and endless confusion.
When Jeroboam set up the altar at Bethel he not only separated the ten tribes from the divinely-appointed place of worship, but he also divorced them from the saving principles of truth underlying Israel’s religion. He did not arrange for the observance of the Passover Feast, which embodied the basic principles of the Jew’s religion, but chose the popular feast celebrating the ingathering of the harvest. He changed the time of the feast from the seventh to the eighth month, but was careful to hold it at the time of the full moon, that its gladdening light might rest upon the service. He cast out the Levites from acting as priests and appointed priests from the other tribes in Israel. He used the groves and high places for worship. And he brought in heathen priests.
A similar course is followed by Churches that observe Christmas and Easter. In these services divine authority and provision is set aside to give place to that which is of human origin. In spite of any efforts to the contrary, these religious observances result in celebrations which are made attractive by the sensuistic elements that enter into them, and call attention to the events in the life of Christ in such a way as to leave these events unassociated with the saving principles which underlie Christian faith. In these observances we note: (1) If Psalm-singers decide to join in the religious observance of Christmas, one of the first acts is to cast out the Psalter, for there are no Christmas songs in it, and the hymn-book, with songs of human composition brought in. (2) Congregational singing, the right of each believer to join in the service of praise, must go, and the singing be left to a select group with voices trained to furnish a musical festival in the celebration. During the “Dark Ages,” the singing in religious celebrations was monopolised and commercialised by professional choristers. Congregational singing was unknown. It took the Reformation to restore this gospel privilege to the people. (3) Pageantry takes the place of the preaching of the Word. Church plays of the nativity of Christ were introduced by the Church of Rome in the eighth century. She also developed Passion plays for the Easter celebration. This pageantry, like the picture and images of the Church of Rome, is full of fascination for the carnal mind, but fails to reveal the saving principles of the Gospel that underlie these great events. Pageantry is popular to-day in Modernistic Churches, because Modernism ignores the underlying principles of the Christian faith. The making known to the world of the doctrines essential to salvation, such as original sin, the Virgin Birth of Christ, the vicarious atonement, repentance unto life, and saving faith, depends not upon pageantry, but upon the use of God’s appointed means—the preaching of the Word. (4) Giving according to man’s inclination takes the place of that which has the approval of God’s Word. Unbelievers, as well as believers, go to great lengths in giving gifts at these seasons. But, some may ask, what about the gifts of unbelievers? And is the “community tree” acceptable unto God? In response, we ask, will God have respect to the persons and gifts of people who reject the gift of His Son? The Scripture says that unto Cain and his offering God had not respect.
When King Saul substituted a sacrifice for obedience to God’s command, he was severely rebuked. God had commanded him to wipe out a heathen tribe and to utterly destroy their substance. But Saul saved the best of the substance as “an offering unto the Lord.” This unfaithfulness and presumption cost him his crown. And the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. His fate stands as a permanent warning to God’s people. In the face of the increasing evidence of lack of power and the sense of the loss of the Spirit’s presence in the Church to-day, should we not be anxious to know if she has been unfaithful in doing the thing which God had commanded her to do, and presumptuous in doing the thing which He had not commanded. According to the direction of the Great Commission, the Church is commanded to go forth with the gospel, which is the sword of the Spirit, and destroy the heathen religion, together with all the religious festivals attending it. The command is, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Nothing is said in the commission about sparing the best of the Pagan festivals and transforming them to the glory of God. Will not the Church experience a new consciousness of divine power and the presence of God’s Spirit resting upon her when she returns to the faithful preaching of the gospel and the zealous maintenance of her God-given memorials, and discontinues the religious services that have been derived from the heathen, and which she has presumptuously sought to transform and present as an “offering unto the Lord?”
(5) In the Easter celebration, the resurrection of Christ is linked with the vernal rejuvenescence of earth. By this Satanic device, Nature is exalted to a level with grace in revealing the character of God, while the supernatural is brought down to a level with the natural. The result is that Christianity loses its significance and power. Development in this line may be gradual, but it is inevitable. When the Easter service is introduced into the Church, the pulpit is supplied with an abundance of flowers for the occasion. These are made the basis for at least a short service. Like Modernism, the flowers give a message concerning the goodness of God, but are silent concerning sin, the atonement, and the supernatural in the resurrection of Christ, and other saving principles of the gospel. Complaints may be heard that the Easter message given in the distinctively Modernistic pulpit has had to do entirely with the flowers. In the open-air services held on the high places, the popular theme is “the resurrection of nature.” In the famous Easter service on Mt. Rubidoux in California, the reading of the poem, “God of the Open Air,” for many years has taken the place of a sermon. The heart of this poem is found in these lines, a prayer by the author: teach me to confide, and live my life and rest.”
The spirit of this poem is such as tends to devitalise Christianity and develop Paganism. It leads to the deifying of nature, and idolatry. Wherein is the fascination in the religious exercises of the Christmas and Easter celebrations? Why are they regarded with such fondness by the world? What is there in these services that so inflames the minds of those who join in them? Is it the manner of religion that is born of the Spirit, or is it the spurious type that is born of the flesh?
Is it not the fascination in these services, for the most part, to be found in the popularity of the type of religion that accompanies them, and the sensualistic elements that enter into them, and furnish a festival to the sensibilities of the natural man? Many have been led to realise that, in yielding to the fascinations of the colourful and sensational programmes of these religious celebrations, they have been enticed, and have yielded to the solicitations of the Scarlet Woman, and have been guilty of a season of spiritual fornication. Participation in these unauthorised and unwarranted Church festivals does not increase respect for the authority of Christ, but rather tends to diminish it. It does not increase respect for the ordinances of Christ’s appointment, but it does create a passion for religious services of man’s device.
After Israel started to walk in the ways of Jeroboam, her history was summed up in three words, apostacy, idolatry, captivity. To-day we see a Protestantism that is walking in the way of the Church of Rome. We see a Protestantism that has lost its protest and is in bondage. In bondage to the belief that “the glorious gospel of Christ is played out, and that its original power is gone, and it needs for its success to be supplemented by arts of man’s device.” In bondage to the observance of “days, and months and seasons.” In bondage to a sensualistic type of worship, and to emotionalism. In bondage to a growing lack of conviction or courage in standing in defence of the great principles of the gospel that secured for the world the Protestant Reformation. In bondage to an unbelief that is leading in the way of the lost tribes toward Babylon. Let us hope that the reactionary groups of to-day are the heralds of a coming great reformation. Although lightly esteemed in the eyes of the large apostate Protestant bodies, these small groups are striving not only to proclaim a sound gospel, but also to purge the Christian worship of the gross corruptions that have come into it. As a pastor of one of the groups expressed it: “The Christmas services in the Churches to-day represent the unknown Christ. If the world is to be saved there must be the preaching of the saving principles of the gospel.” On the bill-board of another of these groups was the sermon topic, “Christmas of Romish and Pagan Origin.” The expression of another church worker was: “Not Santa Claus But Satan’s Claws.”—Old Paths.