(Kent E. Heaton Sr.)
Folklore
is defined by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary as,
"Traditional customs,
beliefs, tales, or saying, preserved unreflectively
among a people;" Someone
has said that if you tell a falsehood long enough,
it will be become truth. Of
course it will always remain false - it is only
the perception that has changed
into truth. Truth always stands and no
matter the forces that batter
against it, truth will always be in contrast to
untruth. Truth is older
than untruth because the untruth is based upon the
misuse of truth. Truth will
always stand, untruth will always fall.
Folklore has a way of
creating this falsehood or untruth. Folklore is a
strange combination of little
bits of truth intermingled with tales created
by man (many times to make the
story more imaginative). Many aspects of
folklore are harmless and merely
diversions created by vivid imaginations.
Before the miracle of
television, families would sit around the radio and
journey through the theater of
the mind. Even before the radio, story
tellers were a vital part of
every family, passing down a heritage of life's
experiences. While these
parts of our lives are important and harmless in
their nature, one such story has
greatly affected our world and our
relationship with God. Is
it truth, untruth or folklore?
Christmas
is celebrated this Sunday as it is the 25th of December. Now I
know that you are thinking,
"Well here comes another one of those
anti-Christmas articles and I
don't understand how anyone could not celebrate
the birth of Christ." I
understand those feelings and agree it takes some
explaining to do. I would
ask you to do one thing first: hear some simple
and humble observations
concerning this day that the religious world
celebrates as the day Christ was
born. I know that your honest heart will
want to be concerned about these
observations that are presented today. What
we are talking about is the day
Christ was born and if this is important to
you, then I know you will want to
consider these observations.
The
Bible does teach about the birth of Jesus. In Matthew 1 & 2 and Luke 1
& 2, we find his birth
recorded. Matthew tells us of the announcement to
Joseph that a son was to be born
whose name shall be Immanuel. Luke fills us
with wonder at the rejoicing of
the "multitude of the heavenly host praising
God." Jesus is born in
a manger in the city of Bethlehem and the shepherds
visited him there. Matthew
tells of the visit of wise men from the East and
how they found the young child,
Jesus.
There is
much to rejoice about the birth of this little child. As the angel
told Joseph in Matthew 1:21,
"...and you shall call His name Jesus, for He
will save His people from their
sins." Gabriel tells Mary in Luke 1:32,33,
"He will be great, and will
be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord
God will give Him the throne of
His father David. And He will reign over the
house of Jacob forever, and of
His kingdom there will be no end." How
wonderful the birth of Jesus is
and truly we can sing, "Joy To The World."
Christians should be filled
with wonder and joy that "God so loved the
world, that He gave His only
begotten Son." With these facts I know that you
and I would agree. These
things are true and the Bible bears record of such.
How do
you feel about the story of Jesus' birth? Is it not a wonderful
story given to us by God to tell
us the birth of His Son? The only way we
would have any knowledge of His
birth is by the revelation of God. This
story is very special because it
is given to us by God. We know very little
about the childhood and young
adult life of Jesus. God did not reveal these
things to us. We know that
Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and men."
We are told of three events in the life of Jesus:
when he was a small infant,
when he was eight years old and when he was
twelve. Other than that, we
know nothing. All we know about Jesus is summed
up in just over three years of
his 33 years of life and nearly all of that
was when he was an adult. Can
we not say that just this small sampling of
Jesus' life as told of His birth
would not be sacred to God? Because He has
revealed this story to us, it
should tell us how very important it is in the
mind of God. But God did
not tell us one very important fact - the date of
Jesus' birth.
Have you
ever wondered why God never told us what day it was? Peter wrote
in 2 Peter 1:3, "As His
divine power has given to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness."
Paul in writing to Timothy said in 2 Timothy 3:16,
"All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Why is it that God did not
tell us the date of Jesus' birth? Because God
did not want us to worship that
day. Everything we need to know about
worshipping God is found in His
Holy Writ. He did not tell us the date of
Jesus' birth. It is common
knowledge that December 25 could not be the birth
of Jesus. Historians and
religious writers alike know Jesus was not born on
December 25. Consult your
encyclopedia and you will find statements such as,
"It is impossible to
determine the exact date of the birth of Christ, either
from the evidence of the gospels,
or from any sound tradition." December 25
was established as the birth of
Christ by Bishop Liberius of Rome in 354 AD.
The dating of Christ birth
is from the folklore of the Roman Catholic
Church. But it has been
believed for so long that people accept it as fact
today (when in fact it is not).
Does this pain your conscience before God to
be celebrating a day that God
never told us about?
Consider
the elements of the Christmas
story. The story of the birth of
Christ is very special to God as
I know you would agree. If we want to be
thankful and rejoice at the story
of His birth, we should use the Bible as
our guide. In every
"manger scene" found today, the baby Jesus is in the
manger with the shepherds,
animals, Joseph, Mary and three wise men
surrounding Him. The wise
men did not see Jesus in the manger! If the story
of Jesus' birth is important to
you and you recognize how important it is to
God, you will agree the wise men
never saw Jesus in the manger. Matthew 2:11
says, "And when they had
come into the house (not the stable), they saw the
young Child (not new born infant)
with Mary His mother..." By the account in
Matthew 2 we can easily
understand that Jesus was close to two years old when
the wise men came to visit.
That three wise men came to see Jesus is also
unfounded by the story given to
us by God. We do not know the number and
must leave it at that.
The
story of Jesus' birth on December 25 is not based upon the Bible. If
you are honestly seeking to
follow the teachings of God in His inspired word,
you will agree that celebrating Christmas
as the birth of Christ is only
folklore and not truth. The
story has been told for so long the 25th is His
birthday and the wise men visited
Jesus at the manger - that many people
today believe it to be true - do
you?. How do think God feels about men
mixing up the story of His Son?
Some say to "Keep Christ In Christmas"
when
Christ was never there - man
created a folklore. Can you be honest about the
story of Jesus' birth? If
you truly want to worship God as he would desire,
examine the events of this week
with the Bible. Practice the truth instead
of following after folklore.