A Christmas of Conflict

Within the Reformed Community, there are intramural debates about the propriety of the observance of days other than the weekly Lord’s Day. Continental Reformed churches, with other bodies in larger Christendom, have followed the lead of Heinrich Bullinger’s Second Helvetic Confession where it notes regarding THE FESTIVALS OF CHRIST AND THE SAINTS:

Moreover, if in Christian liberty the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord’s nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, we approve of it highly. but we do not approve of feasts instituted for men and for saints. Holy days have to do with the first Table of the Law and belong to God alone. Finally, holy days which have been instituted for the saints and which we have abolished, have much that is absurd and useless, and are not to be tolerated. In the meantime, we confess that the remembrance of saints, at a suitable time and place, is to be profitably commended to the people in sermons, and the holy examples of the saints set forth to be imitated by all.

However important our own discussions are on the topic of particular days is, it behooves us to recall that the central affirmation of Christmas – that the One who is Truly God and Truly Man has become incarnate as a Virgin Born Son in Bethlehem – is under attack worldwide not only by secularists, but by Islam as this report from CNSNews.com reminds us.

The Incarnation of our Lord which God intended for peace has become an occasion for conflict. It is time for Christendom to renew itself and renew its faith in light of such threats that we may stand strong in the day of evil (Eph. 6:10-18, especially Eph. 6:13).

To that end, we would be wise these days to make our prayer one formerly reserved for Good Friday in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

O MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

May the Living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ transform these days of conflict where the Christ child and His reign are spurned, into days of peace wherein the elect from every kindred, tribe, and nation rejoice in our Lord’s salvation wrought in history – beginning in a cradle and, culminating in His Glorious return, and with all praise being offered because peace was made possible through our Lord’s Cross and Resurrection.

Chuck Huckaby

Associate Editor

Image courtesy CNSNews.com/Julie Stahl. A banner proclaiming a verse from the Koran that denies God has a son hangs in front of the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazaret.