Covenant Presbyterian Church

Those familiar with Ben Hur from the movie alone will be unaware that the opening chapters of Lew Wallace‘s novel concern the journey of three men, a Hindu, a Greek, and an Egyptian, to find a child. Each man represents the pinnacle of the three leading world religions of the day. Each has found serious deficiencies in his respective religion and encountered persecution for voicing them, for seeking something better. God revealed to each of them that the truth for which they were seeking is about to be born in a person. Through a variety of circumstances, they meet in Jerusalem, and from there begin their famous trek to Bethlehem, where they find the child of promise, Jesus. One of them is present at this baby’s untimely and brutal death on the cross, where he confesses the gospel of this King in unmistakably redemptive and biblical terms. In many respect, this is the most profound aspect of the story: three men forsaking everything they have known in pursuit of the truth, the bankruptcy of the leading world systems of religion and philosophy, the unceremonious birth of the King, the Truth, the Salvation of God.
It is also the ultimate reason for the secularist hatred of Christmas. It is not Christmas trees, "Merry Christmases," and publicly displayed nativity scenes. The rhetoric of tolerance must not be allowed to hide the hideous truth. They hate the reality behind the symbol. They hate its exposure of their own wickedness, its proclamation of another King, one Jesus, and his exclusive claims upon every man, woman, and child. They attack the symbols because they cannot touch the reality. But their attack upon the symbols reveals the condition of their hearts and the nature of their goals - the tired, debunked, and fatal vision of a society dominated by man, freed from external authority, and dedicated to the pursuit of materialism and sensuality without fear of divine judgment or censorship by the Bible.
And how is the Christian to respond to this? I find myself torn between two opinions. There is a sense in which Christmas represents to me the worst of the church’s history: the introduction of non-sanctioned holidays into our worship, the attempt to infuse paganism with Christian meaning, and the current capitulation of the church to the forces of secularism. In the church, I want nothing to do with Christmas as a one-day holiday for God has not sanctioned its observance, and I do not need it. The fact that many want and need it is no sign of piety but an indication that we have lost the significance of the weekly Lord’s Day, our day of victory, joy, and rest. On the other hand, Christmas represents culturally truths I dearly cherish: the birth of the Savior of the world, the death of statism, and the hope of worldwide national submission to Messiah the Prince. I rejoice that former Presidents set aside this day in recognition of our Savior’s significance for our nation, that we are a Christian nation whose original existence and purpose is intimately, uniquely, and directly connected to him.
Thus I feel compelled to defend Christmas culturally even while I reject its intrusion into the church. This is no different from my approach to the Fourth of July, Easter, and Thanksgiving. I want no fireworks, nativity scenes, Easter bunnies, or turkeys in worship. I want them all on the plaza in Washington D.C. But I want more. I want the reality behind the symbol, for our nation to recognize that its two centuries of liberty sprang out of the Protestant Reformation, and more fundamentally than that source, from a humble manger and an empty tomb. O for a return of the day in which our nation will confess that in submission to Jesus Christ alone is national and individual liberty properly understood and enjoyed, that we must be redeemed from our sins nationally as well as individually, that Satan is as much a national enemy as a private one. I want President Bush to placard "Jesus is Lord, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the King of kings," from every federal building and for Governor Purdue to emblazon the same from the capital rotunda.
I want this not because I operate under the delusion that I should get everything I want, but because God commands it. There is no other King than Jesus Christ. He is both the Head of the Church and the King of the United States. The nation that does not submit to him will be destroyed (cf. Isa. 49:23; 60:12; Rev. 19:10-16). And so my heart is broken and afraid for our nation. I know that the kingdom of God is not inseparably tied to the United States, though this is a delusion under which some believers operate. Christ’s kingdom does not need us; we need it. And if we reject it, as we seem to be doing decisively, we will suffer. And we are: economically, politically, internationally, judicially, domestically. A nation cannot prosper unless it brings its gifts to the manger and stands in faith before the open tomb. It has not. It cannot. It will not. This is his day, not ours. The kingdoms of this earth have become his kingdom. They refuse their allegiance at the price of national destruction.
Secularism, therefore, is the enemy of survival. It does not want the removal of manger scenes, Christmas trees, and holiday greetings. It wants to crucify Jesus afresh and put him to an open shame. This is what must be recognized by the conservative defenders of Christmas. They defend this day on the basis of historical precedent, even multiculturalism - give us our day in the sun. But does it really matter if we smile smugly as we pass by a nativity scene displayed in front of city hall if the other 364 days of the year we rebel against all that manger stands for - peace with God through his atoning work, deliverance from sin, and the national peace that springs from these twin fountains?
The defeat of secularism in the west depends upon three critical factors. First, we must repent - not a few mumbled petitions but sincere, comprehensive, broken contrition, confession, and turning to God. The church alone possesses the keys of the kingdom, and she must proclaim the key with unceasing energy - repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. You, believer, must repent of your sins - the attitudes, laziness, and compromise that characterize too many of us, including myself. Second, we must expose the folly of secularism as if foreign armies were marching into our neighborhoods. Secularism is our Roman imperialism, our German Nazism, our Soviet Communism. Its aims are no different - it would reconstruct the Tower of Babel, the Roman Circus, and the German Reichstag. But it has no foundation upon which to stand and no justification for its aims - none. Its banners are pornography without censorship, the abolishment of legal consent laws, law without higher law, man without God. There is no argument in these things - simply consumption, gratification, lawlessness. And it produces statism - always has, always will. Statism always rushes into the moral void left by hedonism - every enthronement of human reason and decadence awakens to its Robespierre. And it will be no different for us. It is happening before our eyes. Secularism must be exposed in our families, our churches, our schools. There must no détente with such an enemy, for his tools are so attractive to lost men - consumerism, prurient entertainment, and mindless materialism. I plead especially with heads of households to resist and expose these things as the enemy of the family, of the nation, and of existence.
Finally, we must depend upon God. Secularism will not be defeated and our nation restored to righteousness by saying "Merry Christmas" to the greeter at Wal-Mart who says, "Happy Holidays." How trite and immature! This is God’s battle, and we are but humble instruments in his hand. The sooner we commit ourselves to seeking his face, imploring his intervention, and living in communion with him, the sooner and more certainly he will come to our aid. Resistance in little ways is meaningless unless we are willing to engage in spiritual warfare in the more fundamental ones - commitment to personal and corporate evangelism, refusing to attend churches whose services bow to the god of money, entertainment, and man-pleasing. God comes to the aid of those who take the basic duties of covenant faithfulness seriously - and to no other.
Let them burn the manger. Secularism cannot touch the reality. Every prayer banned, Bible removed, and nativity scene litigated is one more nail in the secularist coffin. The future belongs to the faithful people of God, to no other. In this light, conquer.