Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter? Part 3

In the previous post we started getting into a couple of the objections one might make against Christians celebrating Christmas and Easter. In this next post, we will continue that trend by addressing several more objections to these days that many Christians dedicate to the Lord. 

It is claimed by proponents of such a view that, in Zechariah 14:16, that the Bible says that eventually "all people" will celebrate the feasts and holy days of the Lord, specifically the Feast of Tabernacles. The only problem is that such view isolates the text from its proper immediate context, and moreover, it removes it from the context of the future kingdom that Jesus Christ will set up on this earth. 

So, you might be asking yourself, "What is the context, then, of this passage?" Well, the chapter before it is speaking of the fact that God is refining Judah through the judgment he will bring upon them by other nations. Chapter 14:1-7 is the prophet describing the judgment that God will bring upon his people of Judah. Verses 8-16 is the prophet talking about what will happen when Jesus sets his earthly kingdom up on this earth. It is speaking of future tense. Christ has not set up his kingdom, so it cannot be in our present time. Verses 17-21 is the prophet giving description of the judgment that will come upon the nations that God uses to judge his people. In no wise is this passage speaking of a mandatory feast celebration by Christians. 

This is a common theme in Old Testament prophecy: judgment, then hope. How is it possible that one could interpret this passage any other way, except they have some ulterior motive or preconceived bias.

The next objection is more so directed toward Easter. It is specifically said that most Christians assume Easter and the Passover are the same, so why not celebrate the more Biblically defined of the two, namely, the Passover. Unfortunately, this is not true. Any true Christian who is studied on the Exodus account knows that the Passover commemorates a specific event in Jewish history. It is NOT required of New Testament, Gentile believers to celebrate this event. The Passover marks Israel's deliverance from the tenth plague by painting the blood of a spotless lamb on the door posts, thereby forming an invisible cross. This one of the most explicit references (or some would say "types") of Christ in the Old Testament. Herein lies the significance to New Testament believers.

Now, what does all of this have to do with Easter? Not much, other than it foreshadowed the sacrifice to be made by Jesus on the Cross. This is my exact point too. Passover and Easter are two different holidays that remember two different events. Passover is in Jewish history, Easter is in the history of church, most-likely instituted by Gentile believers going all the way back to the 2nd Century. Easter represents the resurrection of Christ. This is not the same as Passover, that celebrates God's deliverance of Israel from his judgment on Egypt.

Some would argue that, because these traditions are from the Catholic church, that we should never endorse them. Unfortunately, this claim too is wound up in historical illiteracy. Many of the church fathers referred to the early church as "catholic" because "catholic" means unified. The Roman Catholic Church as we know it today was not established until 538 A.D., when emperor Justinian essentially "baptized" the Roman Empire, thus giving supreme authority to the church as Rome. These traditions were celebrated earlier than this date, so we say that they are not of purely catholic origin. 

One more passage will conclude this post (and subsequently, the series on this subject matter). Some try to claim that Jeremiah 10:1-5 is talking expressly about how people of God should not decorate trees because that's what the pagans did. However, again, this rendering of this passage is the result of bad exegesis. This passage is specifically speaking of those who would bow down and worship these trees. They were decorating them for the purposes of worshipping them as gods. If you see any professing Christian worshipping a Christmas tree instead of God on Christmas for sending us Jesus, you can surely remind them of these verses. Otherwise it is pointless because it simply ignores what the passage actually says. 

This is the conclusion to the series, "Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter?" Sure there are other points and objections to bring out, but time would fail to go through every single one in detail. Frankly, I do not have that much time, so I will quit while I am ahead. A final conclusion post to the series will be posted tomorrow. In it, I will outline a few passages that clearly speak in the general that New Testament believers can worship God in whatever way they choose without fear of falling into the trap of relativism.