Why We Celebrate Christ's Birth - Pastor Patrick Hines Podcast

[@elizabethclawson8278]

Fantastic Biblical teaching and preaching! We always enjoy having access to these supplementals throughout the week. Thank you for continuing to allow God to use you in this way to minister to others.

[@LensFromNorthEast5338]

Thank you

[@johnking9161]

Patrick, I love 99% of your videos, but this is the 1% that I don’t love. Just because the continental Reformed and a lot of early church celebrated holy days not in the Bible does not mean that we can. The Scottish Reformed have always rightly viewed these Holy days as inventions of men that ought not to be forced on the Saints. The Sabbath is the only Holy Day and all other Man Made Holy Days are an attack against the God Ordained Sabbath. Just to be clear I am not saying that private celebrations are sinful because of Romans 14. I am just referring to Public Worship. Public worship on days that are not the sabbath are lawful and good l, but they are not Holy.

[@reformedpresbyterianpulpit6745]

Thank you for this comment. I know the Sabbath is the only holy day God gave us. Many years ago I read Gillespe and other Puritans and C. Matthew McMahon and even Brian Schwertley on the evils of Christmas and other man-made holy days. It certainly made me uncomfortable with all things Christmas / Easter / Thanksgiving related for a couple of years. That stopped when I read "Worldly Saints" by Leland Ryken which is about the Puritans. I was actually still "ok" with celebrating Christmas (not on the Sabbath Day worship or anything like that), because the Puritans and their modern followers on this particular issue *never* discussed what particularly they were reacting against. It is hard to identify something as sin when nothing more specific than "you shouldn't keep Christmas" is actually said. Ryken fills in that gap. And I would *certainly* agree with what the Puritans were opposing - wicked Roman Catholic excesses and practices. Read especially chapter 11 of Ryken's book. He writes: "A lot of mischief has been done by debunkers of the Puritans who do not inquire into the context of certain Puritan practices. For example, when we hear that some Puritans were opposed to the celebration of Christmas, we do not stop to ask exactly what they opposed. We assume that our own Christmas observances are what Christmas has always been and that the Puritans were fanatical for rejecting such a wholesome thing." Ryken, Leland. Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were (pp. 187-188). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition. There has never been a moment in my life that I did not understand or believe that the Sabbath Day was and is the ONLY holy day sanctioned by God. My celebration of the birth of Jesus has nothing whatsoever to do with that Holy Day of Worship on Sunday. Nothing. But seriously, please get Ryken's book and read chapter 11 - and learn. Look specifically at what the Puritans were condemning. That is a *very* significant detail. The strong opponents of all things Christmas, Easter, etc. have NEVER actually told me specifically what it is they are opposing and why is it unlawful according to the Word of God. Blessings,

[@reformedpresbyterianpulpit6745]

Here's another good quote from Ryken on this issue: "Governor William Bradford did not allow New Englanders to celebrate Christmas day as they had been accustomed (simply as a holiday), but he was not opposed to Christmas in principle. He wrote in his Log-Book, “If they made the keeping of it a matter of devotion, let them keep [it in] their houses, but there should be no gaming or revelling in the streets.”1 A genuinely religious Christmas was obviously not objectionable. What, then, were the Christmas practices to which the Puritans objected? An English observer painted this picture of the activities practiced under the Lord of Misrule at Christmas time: Then march this heathen company towards the church and churchyard, their pipers piping, drummers thundering,…and in this sort they go into the church (though the minister be at prayer or preaching), dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs over their heads…with such a confused noise that no man can hear his own voice. Then the foolish people, they look, they stare, they laugh, they…mount upon forms and pews to see these goodly pageants." Ryken, Leland. Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were (p. 188). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.