Dear Refiner's Fire...

I was reading your articles on Christmas & Easter and found them interesting and disturbing. I am a Christian of several years now who grew up with the customs of Christmas and Easter in my home. I was taught to observe the "Christian" aspects of these holidays in my younger years. As a teenager I went to live with my father who is an adamant atheist and rejected anything to do with almost all holidays and especially Christmas. I was free to celebrate Christmas as I saw fit. My stepmother belonged to the Church of Christ which does not acknowledge Christmas as Jesus birthday but, would celebrate it as a secular holiday, mainly because I wanted to. I never had a true belief in God/Jesus until my late twenties. As Christian I whole heartily embraced again the "Christian" aspects of these holidays.

I now have a 5 year old daughter that I am earnestly trying to bring up in the Christian faith. We (my husband & I) have tried very hard to show her the "Christ" in Christmas. This is one of her favorite holidays as I am sure you can imagine. How would you go about explaining to her at this age why we would no longer be celebrating these holidays. Could this not damage her trust in us as the purveyors of truth in her world. Would she not wonder if her parents could be deceived once, couldn't they be deceived again. Couldn't this cause her to even question her own faith in something she is not able to see but trusts is there because, she trusts her parents and they tell her it is there. Even if we waited till she was old enough to understand, are we not accountable for the "truth" once it has been revealed to us. The article has raised some serious questions for me and although I can see the symbolism has pagan roots; I have difficulty seeing the idolatry if we are not personally assigning that symbolism to the object.

I would be interested in your opinions.

Our Response....

Most Christians, unfortunately, are not like you and your husband, who are trying to keep the TRUE meaning of Christmas and Easter alive. The original intent of both of these holidays was honorable. Unfortunately, Satan managed to corrupt them by inserting Paganistic ideas in order to detract from the true meaning and, consequently, the secular world, including atheists, "celebrate" Christmas and Easter - concentrating, of course, on the Christmas trees, sparkling lights, Santa Claus, and egg-laying bunnies. With this in mind, Messianic Jews and Gentiles choose to stay away from man-made holidays that have their roots in Paganism and offer up to a Holy God something that has been tainted by the enemy. Unlike our man-made holidays, God's original Biblical feasts have never been tainted.

It is the opinion of The Refiner's Fire that, once we know about the Paganism that's been incorporated into Christmas and Easter, we should simply stop celebrating these holidays because (1) Christmas and Easter are nowhere to be found in the Bible; (2) God named specific feasts complete with an outline of when they were to take place, and how they were to be celebrated, and (3)Christmas and Easter are not listed among His feasts. People keep forgetting that before Jesus, God put to death those who offered "strange fire" (Leviticus 10:1).

Today, people are still not listening. It seems to be easier to convince ourselves that Jesus "did away with" the Law and therefore we are free to do as we please. However, that is a "church" misinterpretation. Jesus did NOT do away with the Law; He came to fulfill it. God told us in the Old Covenant that His Word would stand FOREVER. Forever did not end when Jesus came.

Back to your original question: If I had a small child and wanted to continue the Christmas and Easter traditions, I would simply tell him or her the truth about the original intent of these holidays: Christmas came about as a result of people wishing to honor Jesus' birthday, even though He wasn't born on the 25th of December. God never told us the exact date (however, judging from what the Bible says, He was probably born on the first day of Sukkot/Feast of Tabernacles), and that's why "man" decided on Dec. 25th. Let her know that God's greatest gift to the world was His Son, who gave His life for us so that we could live eternally with God in heaven. It might be a good idea to have the whole family make "crafty" gifts with their own hands, and get everyone involved in doing some kind of volunteer work (such as feeding the homeless or visiting people in nursing homes) to show the true spirit of Christmas. This way there is a heartfelt spirit of giving and receiving that has some real meaning behind it, and you are actually DOING for others, as opposed to running up credit cards at the mall and getting all stressed out - not to mention that, by doing for others and loving each other, you are serving God. I would also tell her that many people don't know, or don't care about the "real meaning" of the holiday, which probably hurts God's feelings, because He loves to be worshipped by His creation. You don't have to tell her about the Pagan stuff until she gets a little older, and eventually, she can make up her own mind about whether or not to continue the Christmas/Easter tradition. I would make sure, however, that she knows how God feels about "strange fire"....

(One thing I always disliked about Christmas and Easter was that parents lie to their children about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. These guys simply don't exist, yet parents knock themselves out to pretend that they do. One of the Ten Commandments is Thou Shalt Not Lie. It doesn't say you can lie when it's convenient, or that it was "just a little lie" which doesn't really count -- lying is lying, and sin is sin, no matter how great or small. I remember when I was a kid and found out that there was no Santa Claus, I was really upset at having been lied to by my parents. As a matter of fact, that was when I realized that parents weren't perfect, which truly disappointed me. If they could lie about a stupid thing like Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, then what other lies had I been told, and could I ever trust them again?)

I would also begin teaching my child about God's Biblical feasts. God's feasts have never been tainted, and they are totally about God! You can find out all you need to know about His feasts in books such as "God's Appointed Times" from Messianic Jewish Net.

While it's fun to nurture your child's fantasies and imagination, honesty is always the best policy. Kids ain't stupid and they can see right through some of the things we say and do!