His contemporary, fellow Reformer, and friend Philip Melanchton said, “One is an interpreter, one a logician, another an orator, but Luther is all in all.”  Church historian Philip Schaff wrote that “Luther observed no strict method.  He usually followed the text, and combined exposition with application.  He made Christ and the gospel his theme…He had an extraordinary faculty of expressing the profoundest thoughts in the clearest and strongest language for the common people.  He hit the nail on the head…He disregarded the scholars among his hearers, and aimed at the common people, the women and children and servants.  ‘Cursed be the preachers,’ he said, ‘who in church aim at high or hard things.’  He was never dull or tedious.  He usually stopped when the hearers were at the height of attention, and left them anxious to come again.  He censured Bugenhagen (a pastor in Wittenberg) for his long sermons, of which people so often and justly complain.  He summed up his homiletical wisdom in three rules:- ‘Start fresh; Speak out; Stop short.’”

Schaff then adds a footnote that gives a more literal rendering of Luther’s dictum:  “Get up freshly; Open your mouth widely; Be done done quickly.”  (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol 7, first published 1888, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 491.)

Newton positioned himself as a Christian, though he denied the Trinity and remained a “closet Arian.” Despite his errant theology, Newton was helpful in the cause of Christianity against burgeoning Enlightenment thought which sought to discard belief in God. Historian Roy Porter writes, “What was crucial about Newton . . . was that . . . Newtonianism was an invincible weapon against atheism.” (Roy Porter, The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlighenment, 135-36).

The researches state the importance discovering Newton’s teenage letters: “Though we are lucky to have a substantial collection of second- and third-hand accounts of Newton’s early years, only a very few manuscripts in his own hand, dating from his boyhood and undergraduate years, give a more direct insight into his personal world.”

“Written for the centennial of Dooly County Campground, A Tabernacle of Living Water begins in 1874 with the vision of circuit rider George T. Embry, who felt he was called of God to build a Methodist campground in the wilderness near Vienna, Georgia. . . . Embry wondered why his horse kept pulling farther upstream. Deciding to investigate, the circuit rider allowed the horse his head. Sparkling cascades of water tumbled over the rocks here at the ford on Pennahatchee Creek three and one-half miles northwest of Vienna, Georgia. The coolness of the water was an inviting contrast to the hot sun of summer 1874, but still the horse went farther. On the south side of the creek, they came to a large spring bubbling out from under a rocky hillside. A pool of clear, pure water was formed several steps from the creek and made a small branch before the water flowed from the spring to the run of the stream.Drinking the unusually cool, sweet water, Embry experienced a thrill of excitement mixed with awe. Conscious of the guidance of God, George T. Embry, Sr. felt impelled to explore further. He climbed the slope on the north side of the creek and came to a high, flat area which he knew would remain dry. The breeze cooled him as he stood beneath the beautiful old trees. He knelt for a searching meditation. . . . But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14.“

“Baptists of the South and the faith community of Southern Baptists after 1845 originally did not attach much significance to Christmas. The holiday is not recognized as a special day of worship in any of the historic Baptist confessions, allusions to it are rare in Baptist history volumes before the 1880s, and the holiday possessed an association with worldliness and even paganism in the minds of many Baptist ministers. Such opinions can still be found among some Baptists today who voice, ‘The New Testament does not command us to celebrate a festival commemorating the nativity.’”

“After the Civil War, Southern Baptists began a slow process of incorporating Christmas themes and activities into their church programs and services.”

“Nevertheless, according to Southern Christmas historian Emyl Jenkins, the people of the South had a long tradition of celebrating the holiday as a popular festival to honor the birth of Christ. At a time when Christmas was slow coming to New England (Boston did not celebrate Christmas until 1856), Southerners had made it a legal holiday in most states beginning with Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana in the 1830s. Southern communities and families observed the holiday with great enthusiasm. Included in these celebrations were distinctive regional customs such as the popular consumption of pork (over poultry); the broader use of almost anything green in nature for decorations besides holly, evergreens, and mistletoe; discharges of firearms; fireworks; and bonfires. These celebratory activities took place alongside more thoughtful observances of the Lord’s nativity.”

“It is probable that while most Baptists in the South before the Civil War largely downplayed the observance of Christmas in their churches, they participated in Christmas activities with their families and in their communities. These Baptists exercised their Christian liberty about special days that Paul cited in Romans 14:5-6 and found festive but temperate activities and customs to celebrate the birth of Christ.”

“After the Civil War, Southern Baptists began a slow process of incorporating Christmas themes and activities into their church programs and services. One reason for this was the growing popularity of Christmas during the Victorian Era. Churches sang carols, implemented Christmas-themed nativity plays and holiday events staged for and by children, and created a series of sermons based on the Matthew and Luke accounts of the birth and early childhood of Jesus as valid means for proclaiming the Gospel and teaching the doctrine of the incarnation to all ages of Believers. For instance, in 1867 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Basil Manly Jr. wrote a letter to his children relating how his church’s Sunday School program celebrated the holiday with a decorated tree and the exchange of inexpensive gifts. Manly specifically stated that this custom had only taken place in his church after the Civil War, and the letter itself bore evidence of the growing tolerance for Christmas activities in church programs.”

Basil Manley Jr.

“A second reason for the embrace of Christmas in Southern Baptist culture was the influence of missionary Charlotte Digges ‘Lottie’ Moon. In 1887 she wrote a letter to the Foreign Mission Journal suggesting that Southern Baptist women set aside a season of prayer and giving to international missions. She pleaded that the “week before Christmas” be chosen. ‘Is not the festive season when families and friends exchange gifts in memory of the Gift laid on the altar of the world for the redemption of human race, the most appropriate time to consecrate a portion from abounding riches … to send forth the good tidings of great joy into all the earth?’”

Lottie Moon

“In Moon’s famous letter she noted in passing that Christmas celebrations in Baptist life still largely unfolded among ‘families and friends,’ but that would soon change. In 1888 the newly founded Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) took up the challenge and began collecting a Christmastide offering through women in Southern Baptist churches. By 1889 the Annual Report of the convention reported that ‘Christmas envelopes’ were distributed in the churches. The Foreign Mission Board in the Annual Report of 1890 acknowledged that it had published ‘Christmas literature.’ In 1897 the convention thanked the WMU “for the sum of all these Christmas offerings.” Over time the Southern Baptist embrace of a Christmastide offering to support missions made it respectable to incorporate additional Christmas themes in Southern Baptist churches.”

“After Lottie Moon’s death, the WMU Christmas offering was renamed the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the early 20th century Southern Baptist observance of Christmas in the churches included the promotion and support of foreign missions alongside overt and public activities that celebrated the birth of Christ. As the 20th century lengthened, Baptist churches joined other Christian faith groups in America that celebrated Christmas in the church services with special music, holiday events, Christmas-themed sermons that began after Thanksgiving, and the giving of gifts and candy to children in the Sunday School programs. Nevertheless, the centerpiece of Southern Baptist holiday activities remained the promotion of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for the support of foreign missions.”

“By the late 20th century and early 21st century the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches had fully incorporated celebrations of the birth of Christ into its culture. Large suburban churches produced elaborate Christmas programs to honor the nativity and also proclaim the Gospel. In addition, many of these same large churches also began incorporating Advent season activities into church worship with the inclusion of Advent wreaths and candles, sermons preparing the local churches for the upcoming Christmas holiday, and events on Advent like “the hanging of the greens” in the church sanctuary.”

“In 2008 the annual Convention passed its first Christmas-themed resolution when Southern Baptists resolved to ‘affirm the use of the term Christmas’ instead of referring to more generic terms for the season like ‘holiday’ or ‘winter solstice’ in public life. The opening line of the resolution that proclaimed that “Christmas celebrates one of the most holy events in Christian history” would have shocked Baptists in an earlier era who saw a disconnect between the Lord’s nativity and the popular Christmas holiday. Baptists had experienced a gradual embrace of Christmas that first tolerated and later advocated many aspects of the holiday.”

“In 2011 one aspect of the Southern Baptist observance of Christmas has remained constant since the late 1880s — the Christmas offering advanced by Lottie Moon for the proclamation of the Good News to the world at large. Support of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is one of the best ways that Southern Baptist Christians can support the nativity angels’ vision for ‘peace on earth and good will toward men.’”

Some readers might also be interested to read Dr. James Parker’s position on the Santa Claus question in the December/January edition of Southern Seminary’s The Towers.

When I was about 13-years-old, I realized that Santa Claus wasn’t real. Imagine my surprise when about 3 years ago [c.2002], I realized that he was.

Upon becoming a teenager, I first became conscious that things which have basis solely in tradition were foolish and not worth believing in or preserving. Mythological stories like a man named Santa Claus who leaves presents for children every Christmas Eve were not “real” because my definition of reality was dependent only upon things that have physical matter. I trust my mental prowess must have common to most young philosophers my age. Because we realized the impossibility of one man to fly around the world in a sleigh pulled by 8 tiny reindeer (plus Rudolph on the foggy nights), we philosophers concluded that Santa Claus or any other fantastic idea of Christmas magic or myths is not a tradition worth believing in.

I grant that the evidence accumulated against Santa Claus’s existence cannot be ignored. There are confirmed accounts of houses that lack presents on Christmas morning (not even a lump of coal). There are eyewitness reports that the job of Mr. Claus has been filled by some well-meaning parents who don’t even bother wearing a red suit or cap whilst practicing their deception. Most parents will probably admit that Santa not only leaves presents under the tree, but also sales receipts in their wallets. But I believe it is folly to conclude that Santa Claus does not exist based upon the fact that he is not acknowledged in some homes.

In 1897, a little girl named Virginia wrote to the editor of the New York Sun asking if it was reasonable to believe in Santa Claus when all her friends told her it was foolish to do so. The editor responded by writing that indeed it was not only tolerable to believe in Santa Claus but encouraged her to do so.  He explained that her friends had been “affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age.” The same words could have easily come out of the mouth of C. S. Lewis, who was fond of mythology even before he ever came to faith in Christ or wrote his Narnia books. But as a young man, Lewis had once renounced any notions of faith or mythology in favor of atheism, skepticism, and materialism. Many years later, in Surprised by Joy, he reflected upon this time of his life and remarked: “Nearly all that I loved [poetry, beauty, mythology] I believed to be imaginary; nearly all that I wanted to be real, I thought grim and meaningless.”

C. S. Lewis the atheist wanted to believe in myth and meaning, but he couldn’t because he thought that reality must be defined in terms of the physical or material alone. Myth is imaginary and is therefore not “real” as he then understood it. Lewis sought for meaning and beauty, but his struggle was only resolved when he was persuaded that Christianity was the one true myth. Indeed, it was “the true myth to which all the others were pointing,” and it alone “was a faith grounded in history.”

As I reread The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and then watched the live-action movie, I was struck by the scene where the professor rebukes the skepticism of the older children who disbelieve their little sister’s claim that she visited Narnia. Alas, Peter and Susan had unconsciously bought into the secular ideas of skepticism which the editor of The New York Sun warned young Virginia about. I think most children fall prey to this skepticism around the teenage years due to the secular rationalism that says that whatever forces or beings that cannot be seen must not be real or worthy of admiration. I have many brothers and sisters in Christ who do not believe in the myth of St. Nicholas; some even accuse it of being the root of the greed and materialism that might be considered a 21st century version of Turkish delight. Some say that Santa Claus, Christmas lights, and Christmas presents distract from Jesus’ glory, and I doubt if anything will alter their thinking.

But the myth of Christmas tradition and the true meaning behind Christmas need not be in opposition to each other. I recognize that difference between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the myth of St. Nicholas. The gospel of the Christian faith has its basis in fact (making it the true myth), while the contemporary myth of Santa Claus has its basis primarily in tradition. The myth of Christmas can be traced to the charity of a real bishop who gave money to young women to aid them in marriage. His example reminds us of God the Father’s gracious gift of His invaluable Son to us when we did not deserve Him. As we celebrate the spirit of Christmas by continuing the example of St. Nicholas, we remember that any gifts we receive are but reflections of the Greatest Gift we mercifully received from the Great Giver. Christmas presents given to us in the name of Santa Claus are valuable only so long as they help us in our gratitude to the Father and our joy in the Son. If they become the chief end of the holiday, then the Christmas myth becomes meaningless and idolatrous. But when the Christmas myth points us to the True Myth, then we can rejoice in the truth while being appreciative of the traditions that supplement but never supersede it.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Here’s the table of contents, to give you an idea of what the book is about:

Foreword by Joel R. Beeke

1. Flavel, the Spirit, and Puritanism
2. A Life of John Flavel
3. Flavel’s Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
4. Flavel’s View of the Sealing of the Spirit
5. Flavel, the Spirit, and Evangelicalism

“The traditional date for the birth of Christ from as early as Hippolytus (A.D. 165-235) has been December 25th. In the Eastern Church January 6th was the date for not only Christ’s birth, but also the arrival of the Magi on Christ’s second birthday . . . Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407) in 386 stated that December 25th is the correct date . . . It is clear that Christ was born before Herod the Great’s death and after the census. In looking at the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke one would need to conclude that Christ was born of Mary within a year or two of Herod’s death. In looking to some of the other chronological notations in the Gospels, the evidence led to the conclusion that Christ was born in the winter of 5/4 B.C. Although the exact date of Christ’s birth cannot be known, either December 5 B.C., or January, 4 B.C., is most reasonable.” – pp. 25-27

Many Christian parents struggle this time of year giving answers to their children about the existence of Santa. Some practical advice is given in this blog that addresses this issue.

First, should Christian parents teach their children to believe in Santa? If, by Santa, we mean a mythical person who flies reindeer, slips down chimneys, and knows when you’re sleeping and when you’re awake (I always thought that part was a bit creepy!), then no, Christian parents shouldn’t teach their children to believe in a lie. Though Santa gives gifts based on how good we’ve been all year, the heart of Christian gospel is that we’re given gifts – salvation from sin – because we aren’t good. Unlike the song about Santa, we should never encourage our children to be “good for goodness sake.”

There are, however, redeemable features of the historic person name Saint Nicholas that all Christian parents should teach their children. In an article last year in the Washington Post pastor Mark Driscoll explains that Christian parents can either reject Santa, receive him, or redeem him. It’s the redemption of Santa that’s of peculiar interest considering the historical reality of his life and involvement in Christian history & theology.

Nicholas was born in the 3rd century and became a bishop in the city of Myra (see Acts 27:5-6). He’s significant for Christian parents for two reasons.

Nicholas teaches us about the essential theological issues about Christmas, namely, Jesus’ eternal existence and incarnation. In the year 325 Bishop Nicholas attended a church Council at Nicaea which affirmed that Jesus existed eternally with the Father and thus eternally divine. The teaching Nicholas affirmed rejected the heresy of Arianism. So, through the life and ministry of Nicholas of Myra we can teach our children about Jesus’ identity as we read to them the birth stories in Matthew & Luke or about his eternal existence as the Word from the Gospel of John.

Nicholas of Myra

Nicholas was born into a wealthy family and used that wealth to bless others through his gift giving. Cheerful and generous giving is a Christ-like virtue (see 2 Corinthians 8:9 & 9:7). When Christmas in American culture feeds on commercialism, the attitude of generous gift giving can be fostered through a proper (and historical!) understanding of who Nicholas really was.

Driscoll concludes his article by stating, “In sum, Saint Nick was a wonderful man who loved and served Jesus faithfully. So, we gladly include him in our Christmas traditions to remind us of what it looks like for someone to live a life of devotion to Jesus as God. Our kids thank us for being both honest and fun, which we think is what Jesus wants.”

At the end of the day, you might not include ol’ Saint Nick in your Christmas festivities, but Driscoll’s point should be taken seriously: we should learn the good things about the historical minister from Myra while being honest with our children, and at the same time, have fun with the kids as well.

Constantine & his Bishops at Nicaea

Second, how do you break the news to the kids that Santa isn’t real? Here are suggestions.

Emphasize the biblical Christmas story and sing those wonderful Christmas carols about it! Santa is certainly no where to be found in Jesus’ birth stories in Matthew or Luke, but keeping the focus on the main purpose for Christmas – Jesus’ birth – helps derail the emphasis our culture places on Santa’s coming as the main event for December 25.

Also, besides reading Scripture & singing Christmas carols about his birth, tell the children that you’ll be getting them presents for Christmas. Here’s what you can do: tell the children you’re going to wrap their presents you bought them and then make sure they see you put them under the tree before December 25. Doing this shows the children that you were the ones who gives them Christmas joy on Christmas morning.

For more on the history of St. Nicholas, see the website at The St. Nicholas Center or the article at Wikipedia. Also, check out Matt Crawford’s blog (one of the former assistant pastors at my church) on who attended Nicaea.