Below is an article written for our annual Christmas catalog.
The Merry Invasion
It is common for Christians to complain about how secularists have declared war on Christmas. Now it is quite true that they are at war with Christmas, but it is not true that they declared the war. What they are doing is fighting a defensive rearguard action. God is the one who declared war, and God is the one who invaded.
I mean, think about it. What are we celebrating at Christmas? We are celebrating the moment when the second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word of God, came down from Heaven, and was born in our midst. God in Heaven became God with us . . . Immanuel.
True, centuries before, unbelief had declared war initially. God had said not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and our first parents went ahead and did it. That was long past, long ago. Since that time, our entire world had been run by the principalities and powers. With only a few exceptions here and there, the loyalty to these celestial powers was overwhelming and complete. A certain equilibrium had been reached, This was the dark planet, the silent one.
But then God broke what the principalities had thought was a working truce, and a small baby boy was born to a virgin at Bethlehem. The first to notice—after the sheep and the shepherds—was King Herod. Unrighteous men on thrones are always wary about stories and rumors of once and future kings. A scepter will rise from Israel. A star will rise out of Jacob. Wise men will see it, and they will come a long distance. And Herod attempted to do what men in his position have always attempted to do—he sought to kill the baby boy.
So there is your war on Christmas. There really should be small carved soldiers, Herod’s troops, as part of our average Nativity sets. But Herod was—it should be recognized—acting defensively. He was responding to a challenge, and it was a real challenge, a true challenge to his authority—and all authority like it.
People who want to rule that way—whether they be tetrarchs, kings, presidents, prime ministers, or chairmen of a great assembly of European bureaucrats—have never liked the thought of that baby in that manger. It unsettles them. And for good reason, frankly.
– Doug Wilson
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Have a merry Christmas!
Excellent thoughts!