Why Do We Celebrate Christmas on December 25th?

This new episode of CORE Christianity was prerecorded. Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25th? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity.

Well, Merry Christmas. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. As always, you can post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, and you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Will in Wildwood, Missouri. Will, welcome to the program.

What's your question? Hey, Will, can I follow up right there? So when you're talking about looking for his direction, not just with ministry but vocation, are you thinking of maybe pursuing a call to the ministry, or is it something separate?

Well, something separate. Just what should I do with my life? I mean, I know I'm on this earth for a reason, even vocationally. You know, just looking for his will.

I've tried everything my way. I want to make sure I'm living in God's will, and that's what I'm searching for right now. Well, first, I love that.

I love that, Will. First, I want to just say a prayer for you then that the Lord would grant you wisdom as you pursue his will for your life. Father, I lift my brother up to you, and God, I thank you that he desires to honor you, that he wants to follow you with the decisions that he makes, Lord, with what he pursues in terms of his career, just the day-to-day life that he wants to please you. And so would you, God, guide him? Would you make it clear to him as you work in his life, as you open doors, use circumstances, Lord, just to illuminate the way, and that he would have confidence, Lord, as he follows you, as he seeks you, that he is living according to your will and according to your word. Bless him and be with him, I pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. When we talk about the will of God, we talk about it a couple different ways. One, you have God's revealed will, his preceptive will, we sometimes say, and that's the will of God as we find it revealed in scripture, in his law primarily. What is it that God requires of us? What is it that God calls us to do? It's obedience to his revealed will, to his law. I think this is what Paul in the book of Ephesians is getting at when he said in Ephesians 5 verse 15, look carefully then how you walk. And of course, the word walk there is just a figure of speech.

It's just how you live your life, the sort of day to day. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So there's this category of wisdom.

Let's not be foolish. Let's let our minds be shaped by the scriptures, by the wisdom that's revealed in God's word, by the law of God, and as that is washing over us every single day, I think our hearts are shaped so that we make decisions that are in accordance with the word of God, with God's revealed will. We also know that God, he's decreed all things from eternity past. We don't know God's secret will, we might say, his will of decree. We can't climb into heaven and see exactly what God has destined for my future specifically.

We only know what he's revealed to us in his word and so we strive to live according to that revelation. My encouragement to you would be this. Recognize, Will, that you have some freedom here. This is where the category of biblical wisdom comes in as you seek to honor the Lord. It's very clear to me based on your question that you want to honor the Lord. Meditate on the scriptures, on God's word.

Be sure that you're getting good fellowship from the body of Christ, also wisdom from the people around you. You may find that there are a number of options that are before you, opportunities that the Lord places before you. It's not a question of sin or not sinning.

It's just, do I choose this job or that job? When you're weighing those decisions, you ask yourself questions like, well, what's going to allow me to provide for my family, to honor the Lord, to pursue the things that I believe God has called me to, that he's placed on my heart? There's freedom there to do that, to pursue those things so long as you're not disobeying God's revealed will, his law. Strive to live according to what God has revealed in his word. Know that there's freedom there. As you're doing that, you can rest in the fact that you are indeed walking according to the will of Almighty God.

May God direct your steps. Oftentimes, he uses people. He uses circumstances. He'll open a door and close another door. That's one of the ways, I think, that he guides us.

It's not always that we just have the clear answer right before us. As God brings these circumstances about in your life and as God directs your own heart and your own desires, I would say, just make sure that you're following the word. If you're doing that, you can't be outside of the will of God. God bless. I love Will's earnestness and his commitment to following God and putting him first in his life. That is just so encouraging, especially in this day and age when so many people aren't doing that. So great, great counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

We're coming up to the end of the year. And if you believe in this ministry, if you listen to Core Christianity and believe in what we do, we want to let you know that we are listener supported. We don't receive money from a particular church or denomination. We count on people just like you to keep our program on the air. So if you're thinking of maybe at the end of the year giving a charitable gift to a ministry, we would ask you to prayerfully consider giving one to this ministry.

Yeah. Let me just say how encouraged I am by the feedback we've been getting about this broadcast. People's lives are truly being changed and there are many who are growing in their understanding of the Christian faith, who are growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

There are false doctrines out there that are being challenged as people ask questions. And I pray that you've been blessed by the work that we do here at Core Christianity. And if you have been blessed, would you consider sending us a one-time gift here at the end of the year to support this ministry? We want to see the Lord glorified and we want to see people come into a deeper relationship with Christ and a deeper understanding of the truth.

And you can partner with us in that. And so again, consider sending a gift to this ministry, Core Christianity. And we praise the Lord for your encouragement, your support, and your partnership in the gospel. If you'd like to make a year-end gift, the easiest way to do that is to go to corechristianity.com forward slash donate. That's corechristianity.com forward slash donate. And any amount would be appreciated towards keeping this ministry on the air. Well, let's go back to the phones. We have Byron on the line from Granite City, Illinois.

Byron, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? Yes, this is something I've been struggling with. I just got out of the military and I just relocated into my in-law's home with my wife and daughter. But I feel like I'm being deceitful because they don't know that we've been married. And my wife also doesn't want them to find out just any particular way. She feels like she has to walk on eggshells around her mom. So I'm just wondering how I should deal with this because I feel like it interferes with me being able to witness to them.

I feel like I have to cut a lot of it short. So question, Byron. So you're living there right now with them under the roof, but they don't know that you guys are married. So they think you're not married but living together. Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah. Well, I would say, yeah, it would really make it quite difficult to be able to witness to them, to talk about Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, grace. If they think you're... I mean, they would just view you as a hypocrite, it seems to me, right? Like you confess these things or you claim to believe these things, but you're not even married and you're living with our daughter, that kind of thing. So I think there needs to come a point where, I mean, you have to be honest, right? You don't want to live in that deception.

It's just also not a good witness, a good look. Because if they know you're a Christian, that you confess that you're a Christian, but you're doing things that are contrary to the word of God, well, that brings reproach on the truth. And so I think talking to your wife and having a very honest conversation with them is the best way forward. You need to be honest with them, ultimately, for Christ's sake. Wanting to honor the Lord and wanting to make sure that you're not putting yourself out there as someone who's just living in this relationship that is essentially fornication because there's no marriage.

And I don't know all the details behind why your wife doesn't want to have that conversation, why she doesn't want them to know that you guys are married. But I think taking a step back and saying, I mean, just having a really honest conversation and one, maybe even confessing like we've been deceitful, own it, repent of it. I mean, that's one of the best ways we can be good witnesses to our family.

I think about this with kids all the time. One of the best ways I can share the gospel with my children and be a good witness to them is by repenting before them, by confessing when I failed, when I've sinned, and saying, Daddy needs grace, too. And there's a gospel that's big enough for your daddy's sins. And when we sin, we go to Jesus.

And I'm going to model that for you. And essentially that's what you're doing is you're saying, look, we haven't been totally honest. We've been deceitful. We are married. And so we want to say that and we want to ask for your forgiveness because for us the most important thing is honoring Jesus. That's the most important thing. And frankly, I think that would be the way to move forward in terms of being a good witness. Now, that might create other problems.

They might get really upset that you guys are already married. And so there's going to be, I think, some conversations that are going to have to happen and some healing that probably is going to need to take place. But that can only happen through honesty. It doesn't get better if we continue to keep the deception going.

In fact, it usually only gets worse. And so I think talking to your wife, praying about this, and then strategizing how to move forward in bringing this into the light. And it's there that we are good witnesses for Jesus.

It's not in concealing and hiding. And let me just, Byron, pray for you right now that God would help you in this. Father, be with Byron, be with his wife, with their family, with his in-laws. I pray for a peaceful resolution in one Lord that honors you, one that glorifies you, and helps him to be the good witness that he wants to be. Lord, I'm sure that this is just a load on him, a weight on his shoulders as he struggles with feeling like a deceiver, Lord. And so I pray that as he comes into the light, as they're honest, that that load would be lifted, that he would experience your grace, your presence, your mercy. And that his in-laws would have soft hearts and an open heart, Lord, to them.

And that ultimately this would all glorify you in Jesus' name. Amen. And hey, Byron, thank you for your service as well. God bless you and your family this Christmas season.

Yeah, Byron, we do appreciate you so much. What a complicated situation. I mean, he did the right thing.

They got married and yet they don't want to... Maybe it's because his mother-in-law missed the wedding and she wouldn't really be very happy about that. Yeah, you don't know. But I just think as a general rule, things don't get better when we're in the darkness, when we're deceiving. When we're trying to keep the peace by being deceptive, it only gets worse. And so you have to rip the Band-Aid off and repent and be honest. And it's there that healing begins to take place. That's so true. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Want to hear from one of our listeners named Maria, who left us a voicemail. If Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th, why do we celebrate his birthday on that day? Why can't we not celebrate his birthday on the day of his birthday or the date that has been maybe concluded or known factually of when he was born? I hear many different things about because there was no shepherds out in December in Jerusalem, Jesus' birth could not have happened in December. So why do we celebrate it December 25th? Why not on the actual day of his birth? Thank you. God bless.

Hey, thank you and God bless you as well, Maria. I mean, there's debate about the actual day. In fact, there has been debate about this since some of the earliest days in the history of the Church. There's a whole tradition in the Church, I think rooted in Scripture, that takes basically the time of John the Baptist's birth.

We can sort of trace that out when you think of his father, Zechariah, his service in the temple, when that would have been, when John the Baptist was conceived, when he was born, and then put that together with when Jesus was conceived, when he was born. So there's this whole sort of tradition that takes that information and then builds a case that Jesus was born in December around the time of the year that the birth of Christ is celebrated. But there is a lot of debate, and as I said, Christians have fought about this for a number of years. Personally, Maria, I think that what we need to focus on is not the day, right? We as Christians don't have holy days. We have the Lord's day, Sunday, where we gather together for worship. That's the day of worship that's been given to us, but we don't have these religious festivals, these days that are holy days like they did under the old covenant. That's not a part of the new covenant.

So it's not the day in particular that matters. It's what took place in the Incarnation. It's the fact that God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, assumed humanity so that we might be redeemed, so that our fallen nature might be restored and healed. This is what the Church has said for 2,000 years, what the Church Fathers wrote hymns about, the fact that God has restored humanity through the Incarnation.

He came as a man so that he might stand in our place and heal our disease of sin and redeem us, forgive us. So that has to be what we focus on. I think when we get into these fights about the specific day, we can begin to miss the forest for the trees, if you will. We can begin to lose sight of what is really important. Isn't that the problem this time of year? People losing sight of what is really important. It isn't all of the tinsel and the stress that comes with buying gifts and family and being around the table. So many of us, we finish the holiday season, Christmas is over, and we are just exhausted, tired.

Why? I think it's because we're so consumed with the things that we shouldn't be focused on around this time of year. What we need to focus on is what Christ has done for us to redeem us, coming down from heaven to earth to grant us rest in him, to restore us. Boy, if we meditated on that more, if we focused on that, I think we would come out of this season refreshed and energized. So there is debate about the specific day.

There is a case to be made from scripture that it was in December, but I don't think that's the main thing. The main thing is God the Son came to earth for you and for me, who for us men and for our salvation, as the Nicene Creed says, came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation. Praise God for that. God bless. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Let's go to John, who's calling in from Texas. John, what's your question for Adriel?

Hello, Pastor. My question is right along with the debates. What's your view on the Calvinist-Arminian debate, and does it really matter? Yeah, not controversial at all, John. I'm just getting right to it.

I love it. My view on the debate about Calvinism and Arminianism, well, let me just say this. My view has evolved over the years. Obviously, when I first became a Christian, I wasn't exposed to any of those things.

I assumed at that time that basically I was a fairly decent person. I remember thinking, boy, thank God that I came to Jesus, that I discovered this. I sort of felt like salvation was something I stumbled upon.

You're walking down the street, and you see a $100 bill, and you pick it up, and you just feel so fortunate that you were the lucky one who was walking down that street in that moment, and you found that $100 bill. That's sort of how I thought of salvation. I'm blessed.

I'm glad I discovered this. But more and more, as I studied the scriptures, as I searched the scriptures, I realized actually I'm not in as much control as I think that I am, that God is the one who is over all things, that it wasn't even so much the fact that I was the one who was seeking after God. On the contrary, I was rebelling against him. It was that God was pursuing me as he does with sinners and drawing me to himself. I think that this is something that you see throughout the scriptures.

The psalmist said in Psalm 65, I believe it's verse 4, Jesus is the man you choose and cause to approach you that he may dwell in your courts. As I was studying the scriptures, John, more and more, I found myself affirming the truth that God is sovereign. Now, mankind is still responsible. I am responsible for when I sin. We're responsible creatures before God. We have been ever since the beginning of creation, so we're not like robots out there who are coerced to do certain things and forced to sin or forced not to sin.

No, that's not the case at all. That's also not what Calvinism teaches. That would be more of a caricature of that view. No, it's the realization that we are responsible creatures created by God with responsibility, but that if it wasn't for the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, we would be lost. Even faith itself is a gift that God gives. Ephesians 2, this is a gift that God gives to us so that we might know him and love him.

I would say, look, it isn't so much the titles that we want to get caught up in, Calvinist or Arminian. We want to search the scriptures and we want to ask the question, what do the scriptures teach? It may be that what the scriptures teach challenge us, challenge something that we've been raised to believe in the church or something that we just assumed. That's what I found for myself, John, is that as I studied the scriptures related to God's sovereignty, related to doctrines like the doctrine of predestination and election. You can read about it in Ephesians 1 or Romans 9.

I was challenged. I had before too high a view of myself and not a high enough view of God and his grace, his goodness, his glory. I think that this is really important, not the titles, what the scripture teaches. I would encourage you to continue to dig into the scriptures. If you're curious about the passages of scripture that speak to God's sovereignty and salvation, as I said, the doctrine of election predestination, the verses that I already mentioned, Ephesians 1, Romans 9, John 6, these are places that you can go. I would just say, what does the scripture say?

Let it shape your thoughts as you hear about these debates. Let the scriptures shape your thoughts. I think what will happen as you go to the text of scriptures, you'll see more and more how small we are as creatures and how great God and his grace is. That's what's on display throughout the Bible. Appreciate your question and may God bless you, brother. Hey, John, thanks so much for calling in. Great question, as Adriel said. It's a complicated one, but a great response there, Adriel.

Appreciate that. This is Core Christianity. Just a reminder that if you are planning to do any end of year giving, we would love to receive a gift to keep this ministry continuing on the air for another year. The easiest way to do that is to go to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash donate, and you can make a gift of any amount. We really do rely on our listeners to keep Core Christianity going. Well, let's go to Ed, who's calling in from Liberty, Missouri.

Ed, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor. My question is, is Seventh-day Adventist, is that a cult? And the reason I ask, our son, me and my wife, we've been married 45 years, we're a assembly of God, and our son got married about 15 years ago and married into Seventh-day Adventist, and he's been rebellious to us ever since.

So that's my question. Is the Seventh-day Adventist a cult? You know, with Seventh-day Adventists, I think that there is somewhat of a spectrum, so whereas the Mormon Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, those are very clear cults, and there's some basic uniformity in terms of belief and practice and piety. False.

I mean, it's false. I think there's a little bit more of a spectrum among Seventh-day Adventists, so that you might have some that are more far out there and others that maybe are a little bit more orthodox, but there are some significant concerns that I have about the doctrines among Seventh-day Adventists, some of the things that they believe and teach. But let me give you just a piece of good news, Ed, and that's that the Lord is able to save us in spite of even our sins, our failures, and even our weak understandings of the truth. And so I think getting to the heart of the Gospel is so important when we have conversations with friends and family members who go to churches that are unclear about things like the Gospel. Get to the Gospel. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus and how are you saved? If your son understands that, if he gets that right, then I think you can have a great amount of hope, Ed.

And so I would say focus on the main things. Focus on Christ, focus on the Gospel, focus on the free forgiveness of sins, the grace of God opening the Scriptures together. And as you do that, I think you can be encouraged as you continue to have conversations with him and pray that if he isn't a church that is really out there, that the Lord would reveal that to him and bring him back into a more faithful representation of the truth. God bless you and Merry Christmas. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.