Take your Bible and turn with me in
the New Testament to Luke chapter 2.
A few days ago, I had the privilege
of reading this passage in Israel, in Shepherds
Field, right outside of the little town of
Bethlehem.
And it came to pass in those days
that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made when Cyrenus
was governor of Syria.
And all went to be taxed, every one
into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee out
of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto
the city of David, which is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and lineage
of David, to be taxed with Mary his
espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was that while they were
there, the days were accomplished that she should
be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him
in a manger because there was no room
for them in the inn.
A powerful passage of Scripture.
It introduces to us in Luke's Gospel the
fact that God's only Son came to this
earth.
Wrapped in flesh, he invaded this sin-sick
world that we might have hope in a
hopeless situation.
That we might have help when no one
else can help us.
Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and
man.
There is hope today because Jesus is alive
forevermore.
I submit to you this morning that there
are some facts in our world that need
to be reviewed.
I've written some of those facts down so
that we might look at them together.
Fact number one is this.
God is God and always will be God.
No negotiations, no compromise, no politically correct makeovers.
Our human approval is not a condition of
his eternal being and unlimited power.
God is God.
Fact number two.
God had a Son who took upon himself
the flesh of humankind and for thirty-three
and a half years lived on this earth.
And John 3.16 declares, For God so
loved this world that he did give that
only begotten Son.
Third fact.
Jesus is the sinless Son of God.
He's not half God and not half man.
But he is all God and all man.
And because of that, he is a mystery
to the world and he is a very
present help for me and for you in
our time of need.
Jesus has identified with the problems of our
life.
He's identified with the days that don't go
very well.
He's identified with human suffering and sickness.
He's identified with loneliness and heartache and despair.
And because of that, I have hope today.
Jesus is aware of my condition and my
location and my situation.
He's a God that cares.
He's visited this earth.
Fact number four.
Jesus was born on this earth and he
did have a date that he was born.
Now, Brother Paul, I can't tell you that
it was December the 25th because I don't
know.
But I can tell you this much, that
Jesus was born.
How do you know that, Brother Ralph?
I just read it to you, Luke chapter
2.
I don't have to have any other proof
other than the inerrant, infallible Word of God.
And Galatians chapter 4 and verse number 4
says, In the fullness of time was Jesus
Christ brought to this earth.
Fact number five.
His birth date probably was not December the
25th.
As the gentleman, Mr. Bassam, wrote earlier in
his article, he said we probably hijacked that
from the pagans 2,000 years ago.
December the 25th.
If we find shepherds in the field keeping
watch over their flock in the Middle East,
it was probably in the springtime or in
the fall.
Not in the winter much.
December the 25th, however, could have been a
date of conception.
And one theorist has written, if Jesus was
conceived on December the 25th, this would make
his birth nine months later.
And that would correlate with some of the
wonderful festivals of Israel in the month of
September.
And the feast and the sacrifices and the
offering of the first fruits that would fulfill
biblical foreshadows and types.
Fact number six.
The date of celebration is not our concern.
It doesn't matter to me if it was
July the 4th Jesus was born.
I'm just rejoicing in the fact that he
was born.
The date is not what we're worshipping.
We're worshipping the Son of God who came
to this earth to provide eternal life for
each and every one of us.
The fact that Christmas is in crisis is
a testimony to the fact of a sin
-sick society.
The very fact that all of a sudden
the world has turned on the Christmas celebration
is a testimony of the fact that we
do not want to be associated with anything
to do with God or His Son.
It's a testimony of a society and a
culture that's trying to move away from any
God-consciousness, any God-knowledge, any...
And does it not remind you of the
book of Romans where it talks about they
didn't even want to have God in their
thought process?
I wonder if we're not talking Christmas in
crisis, that we're talking of a greater problem
and a greater battle than we ever even
imagined.
The secular humanists and the pagans and the
uneducated, unaware, politically correct crowd are pushing an
agenda to take Christmas and Jesus away from
our society.
And once again, we're seeing the power of
a vocal minority in leading a silent majority
into cultural change.
In the past few weeks, the Christian Law
Association has been handling calls from concerned Christians
all across the country.
A high school teacher in Pennsylvania was told
by the school principal and also by the
school district superintendent that he could not include
any religious music in the Christmas concert.
Now, let me make sure I'm following this
story.
We're going to have a Christmas concert and
we're going to be celebrating a Christmas holiday,
which is recognized as a federal holiday in
the United States of America.
And if we're having a Christmas holiday and
a Christmas break and a Christmas concert, and
yet, but when we get to the concert,
we cannot sing any Christmas carols because they
may mention the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Then we have a great big problem in
our society.
Because what we're doing is we're saying we
don't want Jesus in any part of our
life.
The teacher was almost fired for standing up
and saying that it was not legally correct
for the principal or the superintendent to block
them from singing Christmas carols.
Several weeks of CLA negotiations, the teacher was
then allowed to present some religious songs as
a part of the concert.
In South Carolina, an office called CLA to
see if they could play Christmas carols at
the office Christmas party.
We're going to have a Christmas party, but
we can't have a Christmas carol at the
Christmas party because his name is in the
song.
In Florida, police officers were told they could
not use religious decorations at the police station.
Many city, state, and county governments do not
realize that the Supreme Court has ruled that
public displays have just to mix with them
a secular display and any nativity scene is
allowed, any picture of Mary and Joseph and
baby Jesus is allowed.
All they have to do is to mix
in with it a secular celebration for the
side of Christmas, which would include Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer.
And the Grinch that stole Christmas.
The absurdity of where we are is almost
unbelievable.
Some want to blame this struggle over Christmas
on the loony left or on a liberal
plot to ban Christmas.
I view the struggle as more than a
political agenda.
It is a spiritual battle that has gone
on for decades and centuries.
It's the classic struggle that began in the
Garden of Eden on light and darkness, on
truth and a lie.
And in this hour, right before our Lord
comes back, the devil would love to take
away from children and teens and young adults
any semblance, any reminder that somewhere in time
there was a Savior born that can take
away the sins of mankind.
It's a struggle over righteousness.
Christmas is in crisis, but the reason Christmas
is in crisis is because the church of
the living God is in a crisis.
The light is going out at the house
of God.
We are reducing the house of God to
religious entertainment.
And we're taking our church services and substituting
success by saying, if we have a crowd,
we're having church.
But a crowd doesn't make church.
We're substituting the fact that if we are
blessed materially with property and real estate and
buildings, that that is the approval of God.
But ladies and gentlemen, that does not mean
God's approval.
We desperately need to see revival and a
renewing of the heart in the local church
and getting back to biblical holiness on the
people of God.
And if there was revival in the church,
then Christmas would not be in a crisis
in America because people would be letting their
light shine before men.
Only because our salt has lost its edge
and our lights are smothered by the materialistic
things of this world is the reason that
Christmas is in crisis.
We have bowed our hearts, we have bowed
our homes, and we've bowed our houses of
worship to the gods of materialism in America.
Instead of serving the true and living God,
our kids know more about video games than
they do the God of this universe.
With each passing day, we wander farther and
farther away from our spiritual roots and we
find America's moral fiber, it lies torn to
shreds with the pleasure attitude of this day.
I want it.
I'm going to do it.
But it's against the Word of God.
It doesn't matter.
It makes me happy.
It makes me feel good.
Well, it shouldn't happen this way.
I don't care.
I'm going to do it.
And that pleasure attitude, my way is more
important than God's way, has caused us to
see even in evangelical circles, even in fundamental
Bible-believing churches, we've seen the departing of
the power of God.
Off our singing, off the preaching, off the
teaching, and off the living of God's people,
even at the house of God.
The crisis in Christmas is only symptomatic of
the crisis that's in the local church in
America.
Even Christians in a church each week don't
want any discomfort that would come with taking
a social stand.
Or, God forbid, that we would stand up
for righteousness and have to suffer a spiritual
warfare or a spiritual battle for doing what
was right.
Let someone else pray.
Let someone else go on visitation.
Let someone else be a teacher or an
assistant teacher in a class.
Let someone else go to choir practice and
sacrifice personal time to fill a chair in
the choir loft.
I'm maxed out.
I've got all I can do.
I've just got to take care of me.
Ladies and gentlemen, we've pushed ourselves to the
comfort zone while the cause of Christ goes
begging.
Christmas, yes, is being attacked, but I'm afraid
many of the attitude of Christian people across
our country is, oh, yeah, I heard about
that.
That's just too bad.
Maybe someone should call the pastor, or maybe
someone should call a Christian radio station or
TV station.
I heard about that Christmas being banned in
a lot of places, but you know what?
I'm really covered up this week.
I wish I could help, but you know
what?
I'm so busy I can't even get back
to church on Sunday night or Wednesday night,
let alone be concerned that Christmas is being
eradicated.
I told the kids, I told them last
night, make sure you pray before you go
to sleep.
I don't have time to come in there
and pray with you or read the Word
of God, but you kids do that.
Make sure you take care of yourself spiritually.
That's bad, you know, Pastor.
I heard Christians are allowing Christmas to be
taken away.
The problem we're facing, church, is that Christians
are in crisis.
We have a form of godliness, but we
deny the power thereof in our everyday lives.
And if we were living as close to
the Lord as we should, and if we
were being sought in light to the community
like we should, there wouldn't be a Christmas
in crisis today because the world would know
where we stand and what we're facing as
a society.
John Gibson of Fox News has just written
a book.
It is called The War on Christmas, and
he says that it's worse than a crisis.
He said it's an all-out war to
get rid of Christmas, that Christmas would disappear
from our culture.
Some observers state that the attack on Christmas
is part of a secular progressive agenda that
wants to remove any religious reminders so that
if we get rid of Christmas and we
remove other spiritual reminders in our society, they
have a four-point agenda as secular progressives
that they could then accomplish on American society.
Number one, that narcotics would be legalized, that
we would be like several countries in Europe
where there is no narcotic restriction, that we
would be a nation of drug users constantly
seeking a higher high, constantly trying to go
a little further than the last smoke of
marijuana or the last line of cocaine or
the last puff on the crackpot or the
last experimental mix of meth and Phenobine, that
we could just become a nation where any
drug that we want to do to make
ourselves in a drunken stupor would be okay.
That would be number one.
Number two, that we would go into a
culture and a society that euthanasia would be
accepted.
We've got a big problem.
We don't have enough workers to pay for
Social Security.
You see, 15 years ago, we started aborting
the workers that would be producing today.
20 years ago, we started killing the workers
that would be working today.
And we've averaged killing a million, 500,000
workers every year in this country for decades.
Now, all of a sudden, we don't have
enough money to take care of the old
people, to take care of the Medicare and
the Medicaid and the nursing home and the
doctor bills.
What are we going to do?
Oh, I'll tell you what we can do.
We can put the old people to sleep.
We can eradicate the medical bills.
If you're no longer able to be productive,
if you can no longer hold down a
job, if you can no longer take care
of yourself, why don't we just give you
a shot and put you to sleep?
After all, we've been practicing this for decades.
We've been killing babies a long time.
And if we can get rid of any
God consciousness on this culture and society, then
it won't be such a problem to put
your grandmother or your daddy to sleep when
he can't be productive anymore.
And then we can balance the budget, and
we can solve the Medicaid problem, and we
can solve the Social Security problem because we're
killing off the nonproductive members, the mentally and
emotionally and physically handicapped and the aging.
We can put them all to sleep and
get them out of our partying ways.
Number three, the next agenda of the secular
progressive is they want gay marriages and the
reporting of such unions between two men and
two women to become commonplace and accepted in
the community.
That it's not a big deal.
Two men are getting married.
Two women are getting married.
And according to the secular progressive agenda, this
would be a step in the right direction.
The fourth part of that agenda was that
abortions could be performed at will, at any
time, regardless of the age of the baby,
from conception to right up the day before
the child was to be born.
I tell you, Christmas is in crisis, but
it has a lot more to do with
the condition of the local church all across
America.
We've got a generation of children that know
nothing about the things of God or the
power of God.
We desperately need a revival at God's house.
On December the 13th, 2002, in Sacramento, California,
a first-grade teacher with 24 years' experience
along with two other teachers were told that
the use of the word Christmas in the
classroom or in written materials was now prohibited.
The teacher, who had for over 20 years
been presenting during the month of December a
program in her first-grade classroom entitled Christmas
Around the World.
That year, that teacher and two others were
instructed that not only can you not have
a Christmas party or a Christmas carol, but
you can't even say the word Christmas.
The word Christmas is banned in the classroom.
And in any written material.
On January the 14th, 2003, in Westfield High
School in Westfield, Massachusetts, some students had to
file suit against the school officials claiming their
constitutional right to free speech was violated when
the principal stopped the teenagers from passing out
candy canes at school that had a Christmas
message that included a plan of salvation.
That the Christmas cane, the candy cane, was
a great tool for telling about the love
of Jesus Christ.
The website Grinchlist.com states that they see
a growing intolerance for the term Christmas in
American culture.
Christmas is an endangered holiday in public spaces.
Scripps Howard News Service and the University of
Ohio conducted a survey recently of 1,001
people.
Listen to their results.
45% of those responded said they knew
someone who does not believe in God.
They interviewed 1,001 people and 45%
of those interviewed said I know someone that
does not believe in God, but they still
celebrate Christmas.
11% said that they believe most people
focus on the birth of Jesus Christ at
Christmas.
Out of 1,001 people, only 11%, a
little over one-tenth of all the people
said the meaning of Christmas was the birth
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What about the rest of that survey group?
87% said the holiday was less religious
than it used to be.
I submit to you this morning, ladies and
gentlemen, that Christmas is in crisis.
But the reason is that the churches across
America have gone out of business.
We've substituted a social gospel for saving grace.
And we're not educating the children and the
teenagers of America on even the very basic
Bible truths that we grew up with.
I didn't think I would ever say it
as an adult in my own country, but
there's truly a famine for the preached Word
of God in America.
It's embarrassing.
We've got other countries sending missionaries to America
because we have gotten so far from God.
A Christmas CD produced for the Royal Hospital
for Sick Children in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The hospital banned the CD from distribution because
one of the songs mentions baby Jesus.
The decision was reached by the hospital board
because it fears it could offend people who
belong to a faith other than Christianity.
If it went to every child in the
hospital, it could offend those who are not
Christian, said a spokeswoman for the hospital.
You say, well, that was Edinburgh, Scotland, and
they banned the CD because it said baby
Jesus.
Well, what about Target and Walmart in America?
The biggest retailers we have in our country
who said this year they will not use
Christmas in any of their advertising.
They'll only use Happy Holidays.
No Merry Christmas because they don't want to
offend someone with the word Christmas.
What about Coca-Cola Bottling Company who for
74 years has had Santa Claus on a
Coke bottle or on a carton advertising Christmas
time?
But all of a sudden, ladies and gentlemen,
there's such an outcry for Christmas that now
we're banning Christmas trees and poor old Santa
Claus is getting banned right along with baby
Jesus because he makes people think about Christmas,
the spirit of giving, and God gave His
only begotten Son.
You see, in our winter fest this year,
Coca-Cola will now use the polar bears
instead of Santa Claus.
Simple, minor changes, but the culture is being
altered right in front of us.
You see, the Christmas party is now the
holiday party and the Christmas tree is now
the community tree and the Christmas lights are
now the winter lights and the Merry Christmas,
well, that's been changed to Happy Holidays.
According to Gallup Poll, 84% of the
United States of America, the citizens of our
country, 84% of this population claims to
be Christian.
84%.
I just want to ask one question.
Who is Christmas offending?
Would it not be a greater offense to
ban Christmas when 84% of the population
celebrates that religious holiday?
Are we not a Christian nation that was
founded on Bible principles?
Is that not the basis of our founding
fathers?
Did we not establish this is a Christian
nation in its very first days of being
born, first months and first years?
Is there not a myth concerning separation of
church and state that Thomas Jefferson, when he
was writing his letter, it was not in
the Constitution of the United States, but he
was writing a letter explaining to the Danbury
Baptist Association he was actually quoting back part
of the pastor's message so he could connect
to the people.
But by the time the secular media gets
through with it, there's a great wall of
separation of church and state.
Our founding fathers never intended for God to
be out of the government.
They intended for the government to be out
of the local church.
That's what they intended.
They never one time meant to throw God
out of America's life.
And while we're asleep at the helm on
our watch for this generation, we're throwing the
baby out with the bathwater because trying to
be politically correct, we're damaging our very nation,
its culture, and I believe its survival as
a Christian nation.
Christmas is not in a crisis.
If 84% of our nation are professed
Christians, then I submit to you the crisis
is in the Christian community.
This morning, I would like to give you
a homework assignment.
I believe that we should still celebrate Christmas.
And I'm going to the printer tomorrow to
have a new round of bumper stickers printed
up.
Do you remember those that said we still
pray?
Well, we're going to get some new ones
that say we still celebrate Christmas.
I believe that doing nothing contributes to the
attempt to remove Christmas from our culture.
84% of Americans say they are Christians.
With Christmas in crisis, I will endeavor to
help preserve and restore the celebration of Christmas
by the following methods.
Here they are.
Number one, according to the scriptures, I will
pray for our nation and for our leaders
on the local, state, and federal level.
God said in His Word for us to
pray for those who have authority over us.
They're responding to pressures from small groups.
They need to respond to the pressure of
a holy God when we pray that they'll
keep the morals and values of our land.
Number two, I will place, listen to me
carefully, I will place, or I will plan
to place a nativity scene in my home
or and in my yard.
God, the last time I checked, you still
owned your yard.
So stick a nativity scene up in the
yard.
Number three, I will purchase Christmas cards with
a religious theme, with a picture, or a
scripture verse, so that my friends and family
know that I understand the real meaning of
Christmas.
Number four, I will put up a Christmas
tree.
A Christmas tree.
You say, well, there's a verse in the
Bible.
Yeah, that grove verse has nothing to do
with a Christmas tree.
It's when they cut down trees and made
them into idols.
A Christmas tree is evergreen.
That's life eternal.
It's the tree of life.
A Christmas tree has lights on it.
Jesus is the light of the world.
On top of it is a star, the
star of Bethlehem.
You want to guide your family and guide
your life, you follow Jesus, the light of
the world.
Underneath the tree are gifts.
The wise men came to the birth of
Jesus and they brought gifts, symbols of adoration
and worship.
At the end of this month, we take
up a birthday offering for Jesus.
We say, match your best gift for a
human and give a gift for Jesus.
We're going to put on paying off the
debt of this beautiful new building.
We always do something special because it's symbolic
of a gift.
But the greatest gift was the gift that
God gave when Jesus became the salvation for
lost men.
And then the gift under the tree, that
old rugged tree, when Jesus died on the
cross and He said, I'll take your sin
debt, I'll take your hell, and I'll take
your death so you can have life eternal.
My life I give to you so you
can live.
That's the gift of the cross.
And that's the symbolism of the gift.
You say, well, Brother Ralph, doesn't Christmas have
pagan roots?
Of course it does.
It's been that when the Christian church came
along, they tried to come with something that
2,000 years ago to try to change
all the symbolism of those that were practicing
the witchcraft and stuff in the communities.
And they said, one way we'll do that
is we'll show the community we've been saved
and changed by the power of God and
we'll have a different celebration at the same
time.
And you know what it amounts to?
Is those old things got baptized.
Amen?
Old things have passed away.
All things have become new.
And to prove my point, why is the
world even trying to block the celebration of
Christmas, even a Christmas tree, unless they know
it reminds them of the real meaning of
Christmas.
Number five.
Speak out.
Tell the store manager where you shop.
Ask for the address of the home office.
Get a phone number, an 800 number.
Go on the website.
And with a kind, and I emphasize, kind
conversation or kind letter of concern, as a
Christian, you are offended that they're not using
Christmas in their marketing.
Christmas is not allowed in their store.
They don't have up a Christmas tree.
They don't even allow the Christmas colors because
they're red and green and the red represents
the blood of Jesus Christ and green represents
life eternal when your sins have been placed
under the blood.
On the screen, you'll find those stores that
have already said this year, 2005, Sears, Target,
Kohl's, and Walmart, they will not use the
word Christmas in any of their advertising.
I think someone should call them and say,
you're worried about offending someone.
This is a sacred religious holiday for me
and my family.
You've offended us.
84% of the population that we are
seeing Christmas banned for our children.
Number six, call your radio stations, secular and
religious, and request that Christmas carols and Christmas
songs be played during the month of December.
Traditional Christmas programming, call your TV station and
say, when you run those little banners up
there and you're putting happy holidays, how about
putting up Merry Christmas for me?
You're leaving me out.
I'm a Christian.
Let your TV station know and that you
would also like to see traditional Christmas programming.
That would be something for our children.
Number seven, wish people a Merry Christmas everywhere
you go.
When you check out the store, when you
pay for your gasoline, you can say, Merry
Christmas.
There's not a law yet against saying Merry
Christmas.
Not Happy Holiday, not Wonderful Winterfest, but Merry
Christmas.
Let's review our homework.
Number one, pray.
Number two, nativity scenes.
Number three, Christmas cards.
Number four, a Christmas tree.
Number five, speak out.
Number six, radio, TV, newspaper.
Number seven, wish people Merry Christmas everywhere you
go.
Christmas is in crisis, but it's only in
crisis because the church is in crisis.
And the church is in crisis because Christians
have been too busy to be concerned.
Thank you so much for spending these few
minutes with us today.
Some of you are watching this program on
a cable system.
Some of you are viewing it on a
broadcast network.
And some of you are watching in the
privacy of your home on a DVD or
a VHS tape.
I just want to take a moment and
speak to you from my heart and tell
you that I am very concerned about what's
taking place in our culture and in our
society.
Christmas is under attack.
Christmas is in crisis.
And if good people do nothing, then evil
will win.
And I believe that it's more than political
correctness that we're facing.
I believe it is a classic struggle between
good and evil, darkness and light, to have
Christmas taken away from our children, our grandchildren,
our teens, and our young adults.
I believe it's an attempt from the dark
side, the evil side, of the religious world
to actually remove any remembrance of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
If we do not remember that He was
born, then we would forget as a society
that there's even a Savior.
It would go along with nihilism, that sense
of hopelessness that's on our young people and
on our young adults all across America.
It would also go along with the rapid
increase we're seeing in violent crime, because there's
no right, there's no wrong, and there's no
compassion.
There's no loving Christ to be a part
of their life.
I believe we have a problem in the
country.
And I believe we have a problem in
the community.
And yes, I believe there's a problem in
the home.
And we need to get back to the
basics of honoring the Lord.
And one of the goldmine standards for our
culture and our society are religious holidays that
remind us of the fact there is a
God, and there was a Son of God
named Jesus who came to this earth.
Would you please take time to write down
our mailing address?
We would like to send you the seven
-step action plan on how you can personally,
individually, make a difference in your church, your
community, your school in helping keep Christmas in
our culture.
Also, we would like to give you information
about how you might have some of the
new bumper stickers that say, We Still Celebrate
Christmas.
Just write down our web address or the
800 number.
Some of you prayerfully support us every month,
every week.
Thank you so much.
We could not do the research and the
programming and the distribution on VHS, DVD, audio
tapes, the Internet programming, and then the broadcast
programming without your kind love and support.
Please remember us when you pray and let's
work together by Christmas in a crisis that
will make a difference and keep Christmas in
our culture.