– Bahing Sheep, Humming Bugs, & Gifts of the Child Christ –
(“Holy As I Am Holy”, Redemption Accomplished & Applied)
Ex. 12:24-27a “And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord…’”
“The history of man clearly shows that if sinful man is left to himself in selecting his means and modes of worship he will choose man-centered worship. A society driven by man will be drawn to entertainment, rituals and pomp. Man-made innovations, like all human vices, if left unchecked will continue to deteriorate. The church and worship are no different. Without regulation this is the direction that worship will follow. This regulation cannot come from those needing regulation but from the transcendent God; therefore God’s Word is the only source for this regulation.” (from “A Discourse on the Christian Celebration of the Papish Christ-Mass”, by Rev. Timothy P. Cotton, Truth and Way Ministries)
“The reformed answer to the question in a nutshell is Col.2, Rom. 14. The OT feast days have been nailed to the cross with Christ and we are not to reintroduce them – or anything like them into the worship of the church. The one in seven Lord’s Day is sufficient along with allowance for occasional days of prayer or thanksgiving as providence warrants; not the rote yearly anniversary days/seasons of Advent, Christmas, Easter etc.. Calvin said the Jews at least had divine warrant for their festivals; those who aped them, the papists, not so.” – Bob Suden, commenter on the OldLife [Scripture links, mine]
“…He knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.” Well, I suppose if anyone knew that secret knowledge of deep Christmas magick it would have to be this dickens of a fellow, even if his lingering contribution to the English language is similarly defined in pejorative tone of a niggardly, mean-spirited miser. Like King Manasseh of ancient Judah, his favourable repentance at the end of his life is not what has generally followed his reputation, but the longevity and extent of his misspent life prior; while, of course, “Bah, humbug!” is a memorably classic line. Scrooge, in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 19, 1843), was most probably a Puritan caricature, since it had been they who drove Christmas underground along with Ebenezer’s ‘spirit guides’. Britain had largely lost Christmas through her Puritan years of the 18th and 19th centuries, but the Victorian Era found renewed interest. Dickens joined the resurgence of Christmas fascination, as an influx of German Lutheran influence became British royalty, and the general public sought to recapture a sanitised bit of its almost forgotten Catholic traditions.
Uncle Scrooge McDuck, of course, wasn’t exactly a Dickens invention. “The richest duck in the world” was created by Carl Barks, of Disney Studios, and complained of Christmas as, “that silly season when everybody loves everyone else.” As with both the feathered and featherless scrooges, Christmas as a season of love and generous spirit is perhaps the noblest character with which Christmas remains ensconced. And regardless of any lingering bitter reputation, no Puritan Christmas humbugger is intent to rid the world of love and happiness, but rather tenderly foster such as pleases God, rather than ghostly business partners and some indeterminable spirits of Christmas past, present, and future. Commonly, the English reawakening of Christmas was not primarily on religious grounds, but as in America, and following war after war on both continents, it came with a good dose of emphasis on children and civil good will toward men. Continue reading
Calvinised Pipe 