Christmas

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to Grace To You, where we unleash the word of God verse by verse.

Wait, wait, that's not right. Take off, you can't say that.

Take off. My name is Mike Abendroth and this is not Grace To You. This is Doug McKenzie. This is... No Compromised Radio Ministry. By the way, Steve, people can get the old shows, all 700 and some of them on iTunes under No Compromised Radio, or they can go to Facebook, rnocompromisedradio .com.

And they can burn them all to one CD. Oh, that's not true. Well, I guess they could try. You'd have to have some massive compression.

That'd be MP1000 format. I just got a free book the other day from Christian Audio Books. It was something about Pearl Harbor. One of the Japanese bombers or leaders got saved. And once a month, if you sign up, you get free books from Christian Audio.

Nice. I think people should do that. Speaking of free, you should call up 1 -800 -55-GRACE and get on Grace To You's mailing list. Free MacArthur books. How's that sound? I can't say enough about that.

I mean, it is the best deal About free or about MacArthur? Well, about either one. I mean, I can't believe that everybody's not on that list. If you're listening to this show and you're not on the list, you are missing the boat.

Where did that phrase come from, missing the boat? I think probably somebody missed the boat. That's just my guess. What did they say before boats? Maybe missed the subway or something?

No, you missed the palm frond. You missed the limb, because they would swing from limb to limb.

Missing the boat is pretty obvious. I thought you were going to say they're swinging from limb to limb, the missing link.

I mean, do you have any idea how much it costs, say, to go from England to the United States, back on a sailboat back in the old days, one of the big kind of cargo ships? And then if you pull up as the ship's pulling out, they don't come back for you.

If you come up to the wharf there as it's pulling out, they don't come back.

So that's missing the boat. Okay, now I think I finally have that. Okay, good. All right, today we're going to Do you have any questions I can clarify? I do, but We need the mute button. Here's what I'd like to do today, Steve.

Since this is a few days, five days, six days before Christmas on December 20th, what can a Christian do when it comes to Christmas celebrations, redeeming Christmas, family devotions, what to do or say about a tree, things today about Christmas that will help our listeners assess and or reassess how they celebrate Christmas?

Definitely can't have a tree. I mean, that's a pagan thing. We all know that that goes directly to the winter equinox or whatever it is. And it's a pagan tree.

Well, Steve, I did find an old quote Although we have one in our living room. I did find a quote. Let me tell you the quote first and then I'll tell you who said it. You can guess. No, you know what?

This is going to be a guessing game. I'm tilting it now so Steve can't see. Burl Ives. We used to talk about theological content on Tuesdays. We have no superstitious regard for seasons and times. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas.

First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, Christmas, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English. And 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 it's not of divine authority. Last quote, Steve. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering it at all.

Can I rule out a few?

It was not a Pope. I'm going to guess it wasn't the original Mr. Macy who started the department store. He's out too. I'm going to say it was some kind of Puritan. Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon. Well, yeah.

I guess a pseudo-descendant of the Puritans.

Do you think he ever sang Jingle Bells and had some peppermint schnapps in the background?

You know what? I can guarantee you he did not sing Jingle Bells. Because it wasn't written when he was alive. And I think I can verify that if you'll allow me to use Google.

I'm certain it's true and I can prove it if you give me a couple minutes. Well, what about this whole idea of Christmas? Well, first of all, let's start big picture and then work our way towards smaller pixels.

Whether a Christian May Not Celebrate Christmas

Hey haters. Steve, would it be appropriate for a Christian not to celebrate Christmas? So have their own conscience and they just decide, you know what? It's like any other day, we're not going to celebrate it.

I think that's fine.

I mean, I do think it is a matter of conscience. You know, I mean, especially like, let's say I decided, you know, as a family, we weren't going to do it because I just wanted us to remember that the whole idea isn't about gifts and all the things that people get caught up in.

You know, it's certainly not about OC spraying people so that you can get the Xbox set up. You know, all these things that people get caught up in, but it really is a time to just focus and celebrate the birth of Christ, even though I can virtually guarantee he wasn't born in December.

What if you want to get a tree and then sing Otonabum?

I think that is fine.

For the customs of the peoples are delusion because it is wood cut from the forest. The work of hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold. See, burlipes, silver and gold.

It's Isaiah. Jeremiah. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not totter.

See, it's like a Christmas tree. Yeah, Isaiah says almost the same things. You know, they make, they make, they cut things from wood. They make things from, yeah, same, same basic principle. But yeah, I mean, if I worship the tree, I would totally agree.

But I cannot think, even before we got saved, I can't remember one Christmas morning where I got up and said, okay, kids, before we open those presents, a quick prayer to the tree. We thank you, O Christmas tree.

We never said that. We exalt tree. We exalt tree. Now there is a song, O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree. I know, Otonabum, I think. Yeah, so yeah, I guess you could worship it if you.

All right, Steve, I read one commentator and he said, evergreen trees, because of their ability to remain green throughout the winter season, when most other forms of vegetation are dormant, have long symbolized immortality, fertility, sexual potency, and reproduction, and were often brought into homes and set up as idols.

And I don't doubt that. The only thing I would say is we favor that kind of tree in our house because they smell nice.

Well, you know what? That's better than the limberger tree that they sell in other countries.

Yes, way better. Well, I mean, you know, I'm not going to argue against the pagan roots of a Christmas tree because I think that's provable. I think it's demonstrable, but it's really beyond the point.

You know, if by having, look, there are pagan roots to just about, to a lot of things. I mean, I would argue there are pagan roots to television.

What about today. Is Monday, isn't that moon day? Yes, it is.

Pagan roots to, let's see, Thursday named after the God of thunder, Thor. You know, I mean, you can, you know, January named after Janus. On and on and on it goes. March named after Mars, the God of war.

I mean, you can name all kinds of things and we don't boycott them just because of that. It always comes back to one issue for me. What is, what's the intent of the heart? It's always a heart issue.

What are you really doing? Steve, I think when I work through these issues with my family and as king of my own family, I do what I please. When I think about family issues, I don't want to be fundamentalistically narrow and say, do you know what?

There's overtones of paganism when it comes to the tree, because if I want to then be consistent, can I in fact, can I not in fact find pagan influences in even the construction of the Old Testament tabernacle?

You can see other things that were constructed. Pagan idols constructed their tabernacle in a similar way. There too, therefore the tabernacle is bad because it's got some little holy of holy places like the pagan tabernacles did.

I mean, it can all get quite foolish. And ultimately what do we have to think about? Well, we can either talk about the pagan roots of a Christmas tree or we can go, well, you know what? Let's see, why does that tree even exist?

Because God caused it to exist. I mean, in other words, God gave us all things. We can use them within reason, however we want to. And as long as we're not creating an idol or worshiping an idol or, you know, using it in some way to do anything other than generically celebrate Christmas, I don't see what the problem is.

Did the shepherds celebrate the birth of Christ? And so therefore, isn't that a good thing to celebrate where it doesn't have to be on the calendar, but we can say we are very thankful for the incarnation of Christ Jesus.

I'm personally very thankful. I mean, you know, if Jesus didn't come to earth, we'd be in a world of trouble because we'd still be, we'd have no hope of forgiveness because he wouldn't have lived a perfect life in our place.

He wouldn't have died a sacrificial death and he wouldn't have been raised on the third day. So we'd have some real problems. Listen to what I found, Steve. The pagans had a temple. Israel had a temple.

Pagans had a priesthood. Israelites had a priesthood. The pagan priests had vestments. Levitical priesthood had vestments. Pagans used incense in worship. Israel used incense in worship. Pagans offered sacrifices of animals.

Israel did too. They had spring and fall harvest feasts the pagans did. God gave Israel spring and harvest feast. Pagans had water cleansing. So did Israel. So if you're going to try to pull out the card, I don't mean you, Steve, but other people, pagan origins, Christmas, sun god, I don't know, moon god, victory of the sun god festival in the pagan Babylonian world, Saturnalia.

I think it's not a sin to cut down a tree, put it in your house and put some presents under there. And then here's what we do, Steve, and talk about redeeming this whole issue. Does the Bible say that Jesus died on a tree?

And the answer is yes. Christ redeemed us, Galatians 3, from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree. So what we do in our family is we say, Jesus didn't die in an evergreen tree.

That's not my point. But Jesus died on a tree. Can you imagine the maker of the universe, the eternal ineffable God who's made everything, allows himself to be crucified on a tree that he made. And we walk through the whole thing about substitution and atonement.

Why can't we do that? We can do that. We should do that. I mean, what is better than, you know, on Christmas, even though it's kind of a made-up holiday or whatever, than to really talk about what took place?

I think that's great. Well, to me, any reason to party is a good reason for me. Think of Luke 2. Do not be afraid, the angel said to them, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. So we're not trying to make a Hallmark holiday. We are saying that the incarnation of Christ Jesus is cause for celebration.

Formally, informally, it is a good day to remember that God, who is a spirit, cloaked himself with humanity, and now is seated at the right hand of God with that same glorified, cloaked humanity. Amen.

That's a great thing. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them on December 25th.

Yeah, that's a slight addition to the text, an amendment.

Whether Santa Should Be Part of Christmas

Well, Steve on No Compromise Radio today talking about Christmas. Now, what would you say to someone who said, you know, Santa is just the word Satan rearranged? Now, to me, it's a truth. You can't get around that.

That is actually true. I'd say, well, isn't that special?

Steve is full of all kinds of Saturday Night Live deals today.

I mean, I just don't, there's, what can you say? I mean, people want to find the worst in everything, and I think it really does get back to, you know, how much of a fight and fundee are you? I mean, I think it's okay to be upset by some of these things and to go, okay, you know, we shouldn't teach our children to believe in Santa.

Okay, okay, okay, fine, fine, fine. But there's no real harm in these things. I don't allow my adult children to walk around believing in Santa, you know? I mean, it's kind of, I just think sometimes we can go just overboard on fighting against the world, holding the world out, and really kind of losing sight of what the main thing is.

Steve, we talked about this in pastoral ministry just a short time ago. When I meet someone and they say, do you know, we still let our kids believe in Santa, go sit on Santa's lap, do this, that, and the other.

I think the old me would say, that's sure stupid. Maybe not out loud, but maybe out loud. Now I think as you learn and grow, and as you become a person who sits under the word of God and begin to think biblical terms, biblical theology, you'll probably say to yourself, you know, I probably not, I shouldn't probably lie to my kids.

See, for me, Steve, it's a matter of, I'm not going to lie to my kids, and then the kids get older and go, Santa's like God. It's just made up in my dad's mind. So I tell my kids from very early on, there's no such thing as Santa.

This is why people do it. It's mom and dad. We give you the gifts, and then you can have somebody really to thank. But when we meet other kids who say they believe in Santa, let's just cool down the jets, because if we're right, and of course we are right, they'll get to where they need to be.

So when you meet a couple and they let their kids trick or treat, or they let their kids go to Santa,.

I just think they'll learn. They'll grow. They'll figure it out. We never lied to our kids about anything except for the tooth fairy.

Well, my only lie regarding the kids and the tooth fairy was I said the tooth fairy was going to give them a $5 bill, and I think they got a nickel.

Well, you know, inflation and all that. No, I mean, I understand what you're saying. I think that people just get kind of too concerned about that, you know, about the whole Santa thing. And I agree with you.

You know, I mean, is it wrong to lie to your kids? Well, yeah, I guess it's probably not the best, but I just think it ultimately leads to just a certain fundamentalism if that's how you view everything.

If you just go, well, we're not going to have a tree because it has pagan origins. We're not going to have anything to do with Santa because it does have pagan origins. I mean, all these things have pagan origins.

Okay. Even Christmas itself. Why isn't it December? Probably they stole it from pagans. It's one thing after another.

The whole thing is pagan. So what are you going to do? All right. How about this, Steve, on No Compromise Radio? Let's not compromise. When we have coming up, and this Sunday is going to be Christmas day, what would you say to the parents who say to their family, do you know what?

We already went last night to the Christmas Eve mass. Oh, sorry, service. We already went to the Christmas Eve service and sang Silent Night and all that. And there was a 10 minute little message. We're not going to go Sunday morning to the worship service because, well, we went last night and we have our traditions and our Christmas traditions.

We go to grandma's house and we do this and we eat our figgy pudding and we do this, that, and the other. And so we're not going to go to worship on Sunday. What do you tell them?

I would say you are missing the boat, you know, and this is where my anti-fundamentalism thing really goes in the opposite direction, because this isn't a matter of fundamentalism or non-fundamentalism.

This is a matter of the Bible. Christ comes first. And if you're going to put Christ second in Christmas, then you really are messing things up. And Sunday morning, as a family, we go to church. Why? Because that's what the Bible says that we do.

We gather together with the saints. We don't forsake the assembly of the saints. We gather together to worship our risen savior, to serve one another, to become better equipped for the work of ministry.

That's what we do on Sunday. That's what Sundays are. Sunday is not a day that we take off just because it happens to fall on December 25th. We don't stop worshiping Christ so that we can celebrate Christmas.

I agree. And if you're a dad and a leader of the family and you say, you know, Sunday morning, we're just not going because we're going to do presents and other stuff, I just think, I just have two words for you on No Compromise Radio.

Dopey. Dopey. I was going to say, grow up. Listen, the God of the universe. If you're a Christian, Christ the son has died for you. And God, through his word, has summoned you to his presence with other Christians that live by you on Sunday.

And so when you get the summons from the king to come and be in his presence and to worship him and to speak well of him and to hear from him through his proclaimed word, I think you ought to go. There's no good reason short of a health reason and you're home because you're sick or you're giving bone marrow to your son in the hospital, short of some of those reasons that are quite obvious.

But if the reason is we have our Christmas tradition, I think you probably should figure out if Satan is an ammogram, an allogram, ammogram for, pajamagram.

A pizzagram, whatever it is, telegram.

That just drives me batty. Oh, we went on Saturday night and we're going to be late to grandma's house if we go to church. Well, do you know what? You can do whatever you want 168 hours of the week. And for those two hours of the week, God has called you.

He's ordered you to go and worship. Now you say, that's pretty legalistic. Well, never mistake obedience for legalism on No Compromise Radio. Preach it.

I mean, and you know what? You said something earlier that I think is just, it bears something you were driving at. It bears kind of repeating. You know, if we're going to celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas, we need to reflect not just on his birth, but on his whole life, the whole reason he was here, that everything, all of it, and our salvation.

I mean, that is a day for rejoicing, but every day is a day of rejoicing. But how can you set that aside because Christmas happens to fall on a Sunday and just say, you know what? We've got to have, you know, in our house, we have stuffed French toast on Christmas morning.

And, you know, we have a bunch of things that we do. All the dogs get brand new nylon bones to eat. And, you know, we have all these things that we do. Well, so what? It's Sunday and we go to worship a risen savior.

How about getting all your stuff lined up, all the kids' clothes, and getting breakfast ready and everything else, and you wake up at seven o 'clock, open up a couple of presents, drink some Pete's coffee to the glory of God.

You can do that, can't you? Yes, you can. To the glory of God, and open up a couple of presents. And then instead of now dad leading a private devotion about what Christmas really is, I found that always fascinating, Steve.

I try to say to my kids, we're going to sit down, we're going to read the Bible, we're going to understand who Jesus really was and what he's done, why is Christmas important? Then we'll open the presents.

I don't think they ever heard a word I ever said. They're like, okay, okay. Is he almost to the present part? Totally, and so then you go to worship service and you're teaching your kids something. This is the most important event of our week, of our life.

It's the first day of the week and we go. I never ever, and I know the same is true for you, Steve. I never want my kids to ever ask themselves a question on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Are we going to church today?

Yeah, what a terrible question. What are we doing this morning? They know, and again, short of being in a country where it's illegal to meet and then we have to do some daddy's the pastor at the local house church.

But we're going to have a worship service and if it's a snow day, then I guess, I guess I'm the pastor at home.

Yeah, it's a snow day. What do you know? I mean, you sing and you pray and you preach and you worship.

See, this is just, I thought, insightful. John Chrysostom, 347 to 407. I think he was known as Golden Throat. He was, because chrysos is gold and stoma, where we get the word stomach, but there's an opening to get into the stomach and that's called your mouth, it's golden mouth.

Say stoma. Yeah, there you go. Soma stoma. And because he was a good preacher. That's right. He advocated December 25th as the date that Jesus was born.

Well, you know, can't blame the guy for trying. I thought that was pretty interesting.

He claimed that December 25th date was supported by the actual census tax records of the holy family when they registered in Bethlehem.

I guess his guess is as good as ours. Yeah. See, I always went for April 15th, tax day. I thought that was, that was a.

What else could you do on Christmas day to redeem that? This year, it's going to be easy. Go corporately worship Christ Jesus, the risen savior. Go tell him on the mountain. Yes, what else could you do?

Could you get around the dinner table and sing a few Christmas songs together? Absolutely. I thought we like to do that. Could you read some of the Matthew passage or some of the Luke passage, is it add?

Yep. Could you, what else could you do? Would it be, would it be Christian to drink alcohol on Christmas?

Okay, well, where is that mute button?

You're just looking at me and I'm thinking, I've got to fill an hour and 20 seconds. Steve, in the remaining time, I'll give you the whole an hour and not hour. I'm in a minute. I'm in a minute. We're now down to a minute and five seconds.

Tell us the Christmas story. You've got a minute, go.

The Christmas Story: Incarnation, Obedience, Death, and Resurrection

The Christmas story. Well, it starts before the foundation of the world. God sent his son, the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ to earth. We would read in John one that he took on an additional nature, human body.

Came in the flesh. He lived among us. People saw his glory. They saw his wonders, his miracles. But the Christmas story to me, really, it is a message of God's love, but it doesn't just end with Jesus being born because if he was just born, nobody's going to heaven.

He had to live a perfect life because we never would. He had to obey for us. And then he died in our place and was raised in the third day. And really, that is the Christmas message right there.

Well, we want you to believe that message. Repent from your sins. Turn to Christ Jesus with faith and believe in him as your substitute because that's our desire at No Compromise Radio. If you have any questions about that, write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Merry Christmas.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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