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Showing posts from December, 2016

Hold Fast

“Any of you ready for a “Puritan Christmas”?” Andreas Köstenberger asked, in his blog, “A Puritan Christmas”. [1] Sure, I thought. But, how did the Puritan’s celebrate Christmas? Continuing to read, I was surprised to discover the Puritans did not celebrate Christmas. In fact, in Scotland, from 1580 through 1660, the Puritan’s controlled Parliament actually outlawed Christmas. When the Pilgrims immigrated to the New World, they did the same. Christmas, they had decided, was a pagan corruption of the true birth of our Savior, believing the word holiday, a combination of two words – holy and day – implied one day more holy than the next. “They for whom all days are holy can have no holiday,” [2] became their condescending response to Christmas, “…nicknaming it "Foolstide" and banning their flock from any celebration of it throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.” [3] Nevertheless, they may have a point. Consider our western traditions. Even the word, C h r i s t