A Jolly Folly? - Allan J. Macdonald

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in the first instance at the historical basis for Christmas in Europe, from the pagan customs of the Roman Empire through its evolution in the new empire of the Roman Catholic Church. We shall then examine the development of Christmas down through the centuries. A chapter on New Year will examine how it has evolved in tandem with Christmas. Next we shall consider the evolution of Christmas in Britain, particularly from the Reformation to the present day. Then we shall reflect upon the source for all the familiar customs still practised today in much of the world—the great Victorian Christmas.

      Having placed the whole issue in its historical context, we shall then contemplate the practical significance for the Christian, both in a social and religious context, including extensive reflection upon the Regulative Principle of worship. Reasons given by Christians to justify their endorsement of Christmas are considered and finally, we will draw a conclusion on the issue and pose some thought provoking questions. Sprinkled throughout are various excursuses, on Mithraism, Lutheranism, and Zurich and Geneva.

      Historical Basis in Europe

      Declension in the Church

      What is Christmas and where did it come from? To answer that question, we have to ask another one—what is Christianity? It is something very personal. The first man, Adam, was representing all mankind when he sinned and lost his personal relationship with God. Yet God in his grace took the initiative and in the person of his beloved Son and by his death on the cross, he atoned for the sins of all of Adam’s descendants whose hearts he would subsequently open, whereby they would personally see and confess their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (see, for example, Nicodemus in John 3). Now personal responsibility is very important to note, if we are going to understand something of the concept of Christmas. Jesus and his apostles predicted repeatedly that the church would go bad—that people would come to believe a lie rather than the truth (Matt 7:15; Rom 16:17, 18; 1 John 2:18, 19; Jude 3, 4, 12). It happened! See Gal 1:6–8, written c. 50 AD. We know that Polycarp (c. 70–155 AD), a disciple of John and leader of the church in Smyrna, went to Rome shortly before his martyrdom there, in order to counteract prevailing heresy.

      By 400 AD the New Testament doctrines respecting sin and salvation were being reinterpreted in the most influential part of the church. In a significant measure, true Christianity was being displaced by “Churchianity.” Instead of the apostolic teaching that Jesus died for the individual person who subsequently believes personally in him (justification by faith), it began to be taught that Jesus died for the church, so that to know God, be saved and get to heaven, a person had to be part of the church and to believe with a general/catholic faith that there is remission for the sins of the church. The new doctrine would eventually teach that at a person’s baptism the Holy Spirit infused grace into them and justified them, thus beginning a process of increasing or decreasing justification, dependent on the good or bad works performed by that person throughout their life (this see-saw of justification was even seen as continuing after death and became formulated in the doctrine of purgatory). So with a denial of the final definitive authority of Scripture, the clergy could formulate autonomous doctrines and worship as long as the new teaching had the blessing of the Pope and/or consensus of the church hierarchy. The result of this autonomous authority was a progressive corruption of worship and doctrine. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was replaced by human merit, sacerdotalism (human priests acting as a mediator to God), and works of righteousness. Doctrine always affects worship so, not surprisingly, worship degenerated into the gross, blasphemous idolatry of the mass, Mariolatry, saint worship, prayers for the dead, and so on.

      During the early church period there were four centers of the faith—Jerusalem and Antioch in the east, Alexandria and Rome in the west. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the church at Rome gradually took over the wealth and influence of the emperors, even adopting some of their methods of administration. Eventually, Rome sent emissaries to all of the other churches, calling upon them to submit themselves to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, to whom was granted the title of “father” or “Pope.” So the church in Rome was not concerned so much with pagans coming to an inward personal faith in Jesus, only that they joined the church and so became Christians outwardly through baptism. To encourage pagans to do this, the church allowed them to keep their old non-Christian traditions, gave them different names and called them Christian festivals! With the church’s degeneration, it also began to become liturgical, with growing emphases on outward material matters as opposed to inner spiritual truths. Church leaders’ dress-code, supposed locations of certain biblical events and their supposed dates assumed an importance that was void of any biblical warrant. Paul’s warning to the Galatians was to avoid legalism. He sought to counter the plausible arguments of the Judaisers that, if adopted, would have resulted in a good-works religion, with a practical syncretism of following both Jesus and Judaism.

      Some may not advocate as emphatically as their forefathers, that in 2 Thess 2:7, Paul’s “mystery of lawlessness” is referring to the Roman Catholic Church, which came to prominence with the demise of the Roman Empire. However, the fact is that in Rome, Christianity was taken under the protection of the sovereign and an unnatural connection was formed between church and state, which subsists to the present day in so many countries around the world. What was this but a recurrence to the “weak and worthless elementary principles” (Gal 4:9) under which the church was placed in its minority? Roman Catholicism was simply Satan’s attempt to return to Judaistic Israel of old. What is all the pomp and ceremony that have been introduced by the Church of Rome but an imitation of the Roman Emperors and before that, the Tabernacle worship? The splendid edifices are but imitations of the Jewish Temple. The ecclesiastical dignities that are so highly prized are but an imitation of the emperors and the institution of the Jewish priesthood. The same is true of the robes which distinguish the clergy, together with the titles they have assumed. As the power of the Roman Empire waned, the power of the Christian church waxed. The church, especially the Western church, also adapted the remnants of the Empire for its own purposes. Greek, the language of the gospels and the early church, was abandoned in favor of Latin, the language of the Western Empire. Bishops adopted the imperial purple, a color that they wear to this day. They also adopted secular symbols of power like the staff and mitre. They took to wearing special rings, which people would be expected to kiss. Each took over a diocese, which had been the jurisdiction of a Roman governor, previously set up by Diocletian (245–316 AD). Similarly, imperial provinces became the jurisdictions of metropolitans. Church ritual was borrowed from imperial court ritual, and church architecture from imperial architecture. Basilicas were originally secular buildings, large rectangular halls with columns down the side and an apse at one end. The emperor sat on a throne in the middle of the semicircular apse surrounded by his officials. Similarly, a judge would sit in the center surrounded by assessors. These basilicas were converted into Christian churches, and soon new basilica churches were being purpose built. Now a bishop sat in the apse, his throne (cathedra) at the center of a semicircle of his clergy. The apse of many high modern churches is a reminder of this arrangement. A modern day bishop still sits on a throne, called a cathedra, and the church in which he keeps his throne is thus known as a cathedral church. The thrones are now generally moved to the side, their original position now being occupied by the altar, but the bishop and his subordinates still wear their imperial court robes, a contemporary fashion from two thousand years ago. In the Western church, clerical robes are modeled on courtly robes from the time of Constantine, while in the Orthodox churches the vestments worn by bishops are the same as those once worn by the emperor in church.

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