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Answering questions about Christmas
On his radio show earlier this week, Dr. Albert Mohler fielded questions about the wise men, whether Christmas traditions are biblical, the virgin birth, the meaning of the term “Christmas,” and the Christian response to Santa Claus. It’s a good podcast to listen to while walking the dog or while traveling over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house. (Just be careful that the little ones aren’t listening during the Santa Claus part!)
Topic: Religion, WorldMagBlog
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back to top10 Comments to “Answering questions about Christmas”
I like Santa Claus (and lots of other fantasy: elves, hobbits, gnomes, imps, magic, wizards, dragons, trolls, superheroes, etc.), but I’ve never wanted to teach my sweet children that Santa was real at a young age, wondering when I’d tell the truth later. Santa is a great story, like the princess and fairy stories my girls love, but why in the world would I tell them some of those stories are real when they aren’t? It would taint all of the fantasy we enjoy together.
BTW, the Easter Bunny is just stupid.
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I agree, PhilW, the Easter Bunny is kinda stupid. I even thought so as a kid.
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Good program. This fits in well with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decree this week that parts of the Christmas story are legend, which is actually true.
I hadn’t heard of the movie “Kite Runner”. I’ll have to add it to my Netflix list when it comes out.
Regarding Christmas traditions, Dr. Mohler mentions numerous traditions that are well known, such as:
- No innkeeper
- The number of wise men is unknown, but there were 3 gifts.
- Date of Christ’s birth is unknown, etc.
He says Christmas trees are not in the Bible, which is true, though the tree decked with silver and gold mentioned in Jer 10:3,4 sounds remarkably like one.
“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” Jer 10:3,4
Speaking of silver and gold I have one question though: The sponsor for this program was the gold broker “Superior Gold Group”. Why do gold brokers always advertise on Christian radio? Does it have to do with fearing the end time collapse of the world monetary system? Doesn’t buying gold sound a lot like laying up for ourselves treasure on earth?
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Why do so many who call themselves christians lie to their children about ‘Santa’?
Do Muslims celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection during Ramadan? Do Hindus say the Shema on their festivals? Why is it that ‘christians’ promote a false works-based, omniscient, omnipresent idol (Santa) at the same time as they say they are celebrating Jesus’ birth?
Jesus is omniscient, not Santa, and it’s a good thing He doesn’t judge us according to how ‘naughty or nice’ we are, or we’d all be toast. Thank God for His grace!
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Oh man,
You are going to hate me for this and I’ve said it before, but I just can’t stop myself. When you remove all the Thee’s and Thou’s from the story, all of a sudden, it sounds really different.
A long time ago, in another land, a supernatural spirit being made a very young, unmarried girl “with child” possibly using “Godpower” or other arcane means. A lessor spirit being who may or may not have had wings like a bird appeared to a young man and told him the child will be the son of this “king supernatural being” and he was to deceive others into believing the child was his.
In the meantime, the local king, through “mystical means” was informed another king was going to be born. This worried him so much, he ordered his soldiers, who probably also lived in the area to go around and kill all new born baby boys, some of whom might possibly have been fathered by said soldiers. The soldiers performed this grizzly task without protest, but just before this happened, another spirit being who may or may not have had “wings” told the young couple to go to another land and escape this slaughter.
In another land, three really smart guys learned, though the study of the occult, that this king was going to be born. Unfortunately, these “occult” means are no longer available to us. They followed an “arcane” light that suddenly appeared in the sky, which no one else noticed, to where this baby was going to be born. They followed the light to an animal barn where the baby lay in a feeding trough. How they knew which building to go to is unclear so it’s possible the magic light moved to just over the barn.
It seems they traveled possibly “thousands” of miles to bring the baby perfume and other things that “smelled” good and then left, telling no one where they went or what they did. How these events were recorded is unclear. After this, except for one short story when the child was about 12, very little is known about this future king until he approached “middle age”. It seems he lived with his mother and was a carpenter. However, it’s unclear exactly what, if anything, he ever made. Nothing from that time exists today.
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You are going to hate me for this and I’ve said it before, but I just can’t stop myself…
Ever heard of wisdom, RDean? You aren’t threatening anyone. You are simply exposing exactly how much you know. We don’t hate you; we pity you.
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. Prov 17:28
A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. Prov 18:2
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From whence do we get the “wisemen’s names”:
Caspar, Baltasar and Melchior??
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#6: You are simply exposing exactly how much you know.
Thank you.
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Rdean,
In a day we celebrate infinity arriving in a feeding trough. Zechariah will have his tongue loosed to sing. Shepherds will go catterwauling through the town about angel choirs at odd hours of the night and probably be taken for drunk farm hands by those who’d rather mock what they don’t understand. The pretense of cleverness was as common in those “primitive” times as it is now. And there will be those who, like Herod, plan to kill Him the first chance they get. Try not to be one of those who in his repetitive protests is not actually offended by Christians, but rather by Christ Himself, and as a result winds up on the wrong side of the story.
Happy Christmas, RDean.
SG
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If you care *seriously* about the infancy narratives in the gospel, skip bible-hack Mohler and read:
The Birth of the Messiah by Raymond Brown
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