Christmas

[Davo]

December 25th we had a morning service, Sunday 26th we had a morning service but had to cancel the evening service as we could not get a preacher to come. (We do not have a pastor at present)

In 1808, Samuel Eyles Pierce came to preach at Faversham, a town about 7-8 miles from here. He walked a fair number of miles to London, then got a stage coach to Maidstone and walked 17 miles to Faversham on Christmas Eve 1808. He wrote that he preached twice the following day, 25 Dec, and three times the following day, it being the Lord's Day, and then walked to Canterbury, about 11 miles to spend the new year. Samuel was a Countess of Huntigdon preacher, but later was a baptist and consecrated the first Baptist Church in Faversham in 1818.

Have we got so caught up in the papist trivialities of the season that we forget the worship of God?

[Jerry80871852]

Many have got caught up in secularism, and feel no need to worship.

I know of some churches that when Christmas falls on Sunday they call off ALL church services.

Now we did call off evening church services a few years back when Christmas was on Sunday so that members could be with family that live quite a distance from town.

I just can't think of calling off morning worship services when Christmas is on a Sunday, after all, its all about Christ, and to do so would seem to be leaving Christ out of Christmas.

[IM4given]

Does anyone do "watchnight services" anymore on New Year's Eve? I know that the churches around here close the doors and lock up the place. Maybe that is something that has just gone by the wayside, like so many other things.

[Davo]

A few years ago, I borrowed the old minutes of this chapel http://machadoink.com/Zoar%20Baptist%20Chapel.htm About 1855 they had a members meetring on December 25th. They did not mention the word Christmas at all in the minutes.

Someone has written that Christ-mass is the one day when most denominations return to their catholic roots for the day.

The early New Englanders and many other Americans, I believe, did not celebrate the day, considering it a Papal trivia. It was only in the late 19th century with the influx od RC immigrants from Ireland and Italy that it became to be accepted. I have borrowed minutes and other documents from three Baptist Churches from 1845 onwards, and none of them used the word Christmas. It is only from the 20th century that the fesival became so importnat to our churches that it became more important to celebrate that than attend to the normal worship of the church. Our church is involved with Christmas lunches from about the last week in November for the women's meeting and all through December with various activities and have carols (most of which have some teaching error in them) all that month. We have a carol service, sometimes a fortnight before, and invite people to that. The argument used is that we get a lot of unbelievers in and can preach the gospel to them. My answer to that is "Will God bless it if you are basing your preaching on a lie. A lie that Christ was born on that day. A| lie that it was ever a Christian festival.

Spurgeon commenting on Psalm 81 verses 3 and 4 says.


Treasury of David by
Charles H. Spurgeon


Psalm 81
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher

TITLE. To the Chief Musician upon Gittith. Very little is known of the meaning of this title. We have given the best explanation known to us in connection with Psalm 8 in Vol. 1 of this work. If it be intended to indicate a vintage song, it speaks well for the piety of the people for whom it was written; it is to be feared that in few places even in Christian countries would holy hymns be thought suitable to be sung in connection with the winepress. When the bells upon the horses shall be holiness unto the Lord, then shall the juice of the grape gush forth to the accompaniment of sacred song. A Psalm of Asaph. This poet here again dwells upon the history of his country; his great forte seems to be rehearsing the past in admonitory psalmody. He is the poet of the history and politics of Israel. A truly national songster, at once pious and patriotic.

DIVISION. Praise is called for to celebrate some memorable day, perhaps the passover; whereupon the deliverance out of Egypt is described, Ps 81:1-7. Then the Lord gently chides his people for their ingratitude, and pictures their happy estate had they but been obedient to his commands.

EXPOSITION

Verse 1. Sing, in tune and measure, so that the public praise may be in harmony; sing with joyful notes, and sounds melodious. Aloud. For the heartiest praise is due to our good Lord. His acts of love to us speak more loudly than any of our words of gratitude can do. No dulness should ever stupefy our psalmody, or half heartedness cause is to limp along. Sing aloud, ye debtors to sovereign grace, your hearts are profoundly grateful: let your voices express your thankfulness. Unto God our strength. The Lord was the strength of his people in delivering them out of Egypt with a high hand, and also in sustaining them in the wilderness, placing them in Canaan, preserving them from their foes, and giving them victory. To whom do men give honour but to those upon whom they rely, therefore let us sing aloud unto our God, who is our strength and our song. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. The God of the nation, the God of their father Jacob, was extolled in happy music by the Israelitish people; let no Christian be silent, or slack in praise, for this God is our God. It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part we delight in full bursts of praise, and had rather discover the ruggedness of a want of musical training than miss the heartiness of universal congregational song. The gentility which lisps the tune in well bred whispers, or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The gods of Greece and Rome may be worshipped well enough with classical music, but Jehovah can only be adored with the heart, and that music is the best for his service which gives the heart most play.

Verse 2. Take a psalm. Select a sacred song, and then raise it with your hearty voices. And bring hither the timbrel. Beat on your tambourines, ye damsels, let the sound be loud and inspiriting. "Sound the trumpets, beat the drums." God is not to be served with misery but with mirthful music, sound ye then the loud timbrel, as of old ye smote it by "Egypt's dark sea." The pleasant harp with the psaltery. The timbrel for sound, must be joined by the harp for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for variety. Let the full compass of music be holiness unto the Lord.

Quote:Verse 3. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord. In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of the Sabbath as though it could be other than "a delight" and "honourable." Those who plead this passage will keep such feasts as the Lord appoints, but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.

Verse 4. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, "Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.

http://www.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps081.htm

Christmas was not ordained in the bible and therefore is not a Christian festival.

[Jerry80871852]

I'm not for nor against such a thing. I can see one good thing about it for a church that has many young adults, school aged children. Perhaps if there is a watch set up at church it will keep them from worldly parties while in a safe environment.

Yet it seems to me that most people that make a big ado about New Years Eve, party to celebrate the coming year be the drinkers of Alcoholic beverages. The later many of them are on the highways unfit to drive their cars. Of course at that time its a very good time for us to stay off the highways if at all possible.

Yet how can the lost look at the coming year to be such a grand thing? If they're lost, and its the year that holds their death they will have nothing but doom. As for us who have Christ as Savior, if its the year that holds our death, them for us its gain.

[IM4given]

Our watch night services always began at sunset and lasted until sunup - a very long time to be at church I know - but well worth it. It was considered to be like the time when Paul preached all night long in the NT and one of the people fell asleep and fell out of the window...there were several preachers, lots of choir music, and absolutely NO ALCOHOL! They preached about the year gone by, and about the year to come, and how we need to prepare ourselves for the Second Coming, because none of knew when it would be! Bro. Stratton could preach the Second Coming so good that as the sun arose, you could almost SEE the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse - lots of lost souls were saved during Watch Night services. Then we went home and slept. Everyone that could attend would always plan on being at church for Watch Night.

[IM4given]

"Someone has written that Christ-mass is the one day when most denominations return to their catholic roots for the day. "

Speaking of Papist Practices, how many brothers and sisters out there are still using the paganistic Gregorian Calendar? Did you know that all those months - January thru December are named after gods and goddesses? The days of the weeks are also named after gods and godesses! Doesn't this break the first commandment?

History of the Gregorian calendar
Learn a brief history of the Gregorian calendar and how the months and days were named!

The Gregorian calendar is the time table that we use today. This calendar is also known as the Solar Calendar. A Solar Year is 365.2 days in length. Our present-day calendar has changed several times from the original calendar that it started out to be.

With Romulus as the leader of Rome, the days and the months of the Roman calendar were set by the cycles of the sun and the moon. At that time, a year was considered to be ten months in length. The new year began in the Spring on March 1 and ended in December.

Numa then succeeded Romulus as the new leader and introduced a new calendar which consisted of twelve months. This calendar ended in February. Years later the new year was changed from March first to January first which is when the civil year began. The days of the year numbered three hundred and sixty-five days.

Then, Julius Caesar, the famous Roman Emperor, entered the picture and he introduced the Julian calendar. This calendar began on January 1 in the year 45 B.C.

[bold]Finally, Pope Gregory XIII brought into being his own version of the Gregorian calendar in the year 1582, and that evolved into the calendar that we use today. [/bold]

The days of the week were named as follows: Sunday was originally named afted the Sun; Monday was originally named after the Moon and was called Moonday, which evolved into Monday over time. The next day was originally named Mars Day after the Roman warrior god, but was later changed to Tiu's Day for the Teutonic warrior god. It later evolved into Tuesday as we know it today. Wotan's Day was named for the Roman god of peace, but it was later changed to Woden's Day after a Teutonic god. This day later evolved into our present day called Wednesday. Notice how the "e" and the "n" somehow got transposed over the years. Thursday was originally called Jupiter's Day, named after the Roman god of thunder and lightning. It later got changed to Thor's Day, named after the ancient god of thunder. Finally, it evolved into its present-day name. Venus' Day was the fifth day of the week, named after the Roman goddess who symbolized Spring. This name was changed to Frigg's Day after the Scandinavian Love goddess. The name finally evolved into Friday. Saturday has hardly been changed as it began as Saturn's Day, named after the Roman god of the harvest. Of course, it evolved over the years into our modern day Saturday.


The names of the months of the Gregorian calendar were derived from the names of the Julian calendar, and are as follows: January originally came from Janus, the god of beginnings. February came from a feast which was called Februa. The name March was named after Mars, the god of war. April came from the name of the Greek goddess named Aphrodite. May's name originated from the name of another goddess known as Maia. June got its name from the anicent goddess named Juno. July and August, of course, were named after Julius Caesar and his successor to the throne, Augustus. And, the final four months of the year got their names from their numerical placement in the year. As you can see, the names of the months evolved over time into their present-day names.