{"id":7463,"date":"2016-08-16T23:34:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/christmasobservance-of\/"},"modified":"2016-08-16T23:34:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:34:07","slug":"christmasobservance-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/christmasobservance-of\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTMAS,\nOBSERVANCE OF"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Savior, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Samuel Johnson<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>Christmas is coming! Quite so; but what is \u201cChristmas\u201d? Does not the very term itself denote its source \u2013 \u201cChrist-mass.\u201d Thus it is of Romish origin, brought over from Paganism. But, says someone, Christmas is the time when we commemorate the Savior\u2019s birth. It is? And who authorized such commemoration? Certainly God did not. The Redeemer bade His disciples \u201cremember\u201d Him in His death, but there is not a word in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, which tells us to celebrate His birth.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>Arthur Pink<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. \u201cSuperstition\u201d has fixed most positively the day of our Savior\u2019s birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred \u2026 It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the Church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>Western Church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: 18.0pt;line-height:normal'>\u2026 Probably the fact is that the \u201choly\u201d days were arranged to fit in with the heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December \u2026 Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal'>When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then.<\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:normal'><i>C.H. Spurgeon<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Savior, because there is danger that what may be done on any &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/christmasobservance-of\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;CHRISTMAS,<br \/>\nOBSERVANCE OF&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}