The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1967

• by Rev. John I. Patton Here is a ti111e/y artic·/e for tl1is sec1so11 <Jf the yec1r. It is re1Jr i11t e(/ IJ.}' per1,1is- sio,1 fro,11 t/1e Good N ews Broadcaster . OP)' r (ql,t "C", 1965, hy T/1 e (/(J(J<I Ne..,vs Broaclcasting Association, Inc. a Each Chri t,ma ea on we receive letter from earnest o-'1 '""'hri tian who are disturbed over on1e pha e of hri t- 11a celebration. Thi is under tandable the real meaning )f the eason is lost to many people, covered up as jt i '>Y commerciali m,, frivolity, and in ome ca es, even de– lauchery. Thi i not the whole tory, however. There ~ ire stil l many who u e Chri itma in a way t,ha,t ho nors ~. CJod and that help to pread the gospe l me aige . One of the main objections ome believers rai e with , ·egard to the celebration of Chri tmas ha to do with the late of its observance. They point out 1thait we do not <now the day 0£ t,he year on which Chrii t was born. Thrut ' s true and i one reason why n·ot all Christian group ;elebrate Chri stma on December 25. Let u n,ot lose ,ight of the fact, however, that Chri t was born, and to ~ :elebrate His birth at anytime in the year hel 1 ps to keep he fact of it before the world . Even the ~ate, December 25 hot1ld not be brushed 1side as having no basis in fact. A J ewis,h Christian )cholar of a past generation, Dr. Alfred Edersheim h·as his rather interesting note in his book, Jesus the M essiah. t-fe says, "There is no adequate reason for questioning the 1istorical accuracy of ithis date (December 25). The ob– ections generally made rest on grounds, which seem to ne hi storically untenable . . . a curious piece of evidence ;omes to us from a J ewish ource . . . the ninth Tebheth s marked as a fast day, and it i added, that the reason ·or this is not sta,ted. Now, Jewish chronologis ts h ave ·ixed on that day as that of Chri st's bir,th, and it is re- narkable that between the year s 500 and 816 A.D. the i5th of December fell no les than 12 times on the nin1th febb eth. If the ninth Tebheth or 25th of December was ·egarded as ithe birthd-ay of Christ, we can unders tand he concealmen,t about it..." (Vol. 1, p. 187). Thi s is not conclu ive proof that December 25 i the ;orrect date, but it should make us realize that it n1ay 1ot be as arbitrary a date a some of us have thought. . Still another area of controversy is the yearly isst1e >f a Christmas stamp by our government. Stamps fea– uri n,g a holly wreath and a Christmas tree are two ex– tmples. Holl y and evergreen trees have become associ– Lted with hri stmas in the minds of many becau e of heir wjdespread use at that season though there is no 3iblical basis for them. This year the religious theme hat has been chosen is the angel G ab rieJ. The des ign is .aid lo be taken from a water color pai nting by a Bo ton trti st. She is said to have u ed as her mode l an antique ew ngland weathervane that pi ctured ab riel in flight , ,Jawing his horn. The e nlarged version of the tarnp ve saw dep1cts a rather feminine looking angel. Regard– ess of that , however, abr,iel did have an actu al part in he hri stn1as story. He wac; th n1cc; enger of God who nnounced to Mary that ~lie had been choc;en of od to )ring forth Jesus who wot1ld be the world's Recleen1e1 nd future Kir1g. Another ource of co11trove rsy is the spelling of hri t– na vlith a capital X followetl hy th "m s." M,111y feel HE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST that in thi <; way hrj st has been clropped oul of hrist– n1a entirely. Thi s is not neces ari ly the case. "X ,, t1<;ed in thi s fa 1 h ion is the Greek Jetter "chi" and i the fir~t letter in the G reek word for Chri&t - Chi-r-i- -t-o- . Th is was how the use o f "Xn1 a " began, though not everyone Lt ing thi shor,tened form for Chri tmas know thi s. During the very ear ly centuries of the Ch ri ti an era. the fir t two Jetter of hri t ' name were comn1only used a1nong Chri sti an a a monogran1 testi fy ing to th eir faith in the Lord. The capital le tter "X" and the capit al letter " R,, ( writt en like our capital " P"), are the fir t two le tter of Chri t,s name in ~he Greek. on1etimes " P" was vvritten thro11gh the cente r of the "X " a nd often appeared th ait way on the graves of hri tians. Th i~ was partict,– larly rt. rue of tho e buried in the catacon1bs. , ometi me) the fir t letter of the Greek alphabet and the la t which are u ed as names of ot1r Lord in Reve lation I : 7 - the Alpha and t he Omega-were added to indicate that Chri ~1 was the~beginning and the e nd of all thing . Remember that our Lord's name , "Chri t' ' or "Chri stos " signifie the "anointed" and i the New Te ta– ment equivalent of ,the Old Te tament word "Me. iah,' The monograim "XP' is to be fo11nd on the coins of Con- tantine the Greait and of a number of hi ucce or. . Since we are on rthe subject of monogram he re, an– other very popular one with the Christians in the earl)' centu·ries is wort,hy of pecial note. In the day when Christianity was outl awed and hri tian were per e– cuted they sometimes ideniti.fied each other by wea ring a mal I articl e th art pelled out the Greek word for fi h or was the figure of a fish itself. This pictorial monogram carried the mes age of ,the go pel in it name. The Greek word for fi h i expressed in the fo ll owi ng way in E ngli h- I- H-TH-U- . These five letter.. are initial of five word which in the same order of e– qt1ence expres "Je us-Chri t-of God--the on- nv– iour. " In this way, by either wearing the letter of the word or just the imple pictt1re of a fi h the Chri\1 ia1 \ carried with then1 the gospel tory. Thi would do more than help to identify thc111 tL) other Ohri tia11 . It mt1 t have al o given then, a talk.ing po int on many occasion with tho e f other religion~ who wou ld wonder what the n1onogram n1cant. Thi leads u to ugge ,t that in tead f letting pre cnt trends in the celebration f Chri tn1a <.i i tt1rb 11 ti 11- necessarily, that we, a hri tian , begin to tak.e ~l{1- vantagc of . on1e of the thing in hri tn1a\ that point to Chri t. For e an1pl , the " ' n1a " co11ld hccon1c a . 11l1- ject of conver ation lead ing 11p to a pre cntatic)n of tl1c go pe l. We do n t n1ean to ttgge t that \,\\_; <;ho11lti t1~c it in o t1 r writing. B11t when othe1 \ 1), 1 t tt\ t~1kc a\l- vantage of it to point th 111 t hri~t. h1, '" \u1el\ J)tC f crable to a cri ti c1 n1 of the pr "iCnt c.lcl1t1 cnt ~nt anlf sect1l ari,,ltion of tht: celebration of t)trr l l)tc.t'" l)irtl1 that might drive awa)' a potcntittl Ct)l1\' trl tl the h1 '" tian fiaith. he pt tttr' of (3al)tie1 l)t1 th~ l1ri s t111a stan1J) co111,I also l1c tt . ei a. a pt)1nt ()( \Vif11' ss. I t tt s l)tt ' 111.., 011r ()pr1ortt1nities in the ~ 111att ~rs tl1is l1ristn1as s 'asc,11. DECEMBER 1967 PA<,E 9