The Attack on Christmas

Christmas. Now, who would attack such a wonderful time of year? And why is it occurring more today than ever? What’s happened? Let’s explore the attack on Christmas, and on Christianity in general.

For much of the past 1,800 years, most of the Western world was heavily Christianized. Many people, if not most, believed in the Bible as the authority in the culture. Then there came a subtle attack, so much so that most Christians missed it. It was the idea that man could determine the truth about origins and history apart from the Bible. Here is a summary of what started to happen in the late 1700s and early 1800s in the West.

Beginning about 200 years ago, the Bible was increasingly being left out in discussions about origins and early earth history. When God’s Word is left out, however, God is left out. So man, by default, became the authority. This shift away from the Bible ushered in the religion of humanism, where man was elevated to a position of authority above God in society. Forms of humanism today include atheism, agnosticism, and evolutionism.

When God’s Word is left out, however, God is left out. So man, by default, became the authority.

As a result, more and more secular scientists pushed the supposed age of the earth back further and further to millions of years (and eventually billions of years), as opposed to the Bible’s chronology of only a few thousand years.

Today, the accepted secular belief is that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that the universe is 13–14 billion years old! This is remarkably different from the Bible’s record of about 6,000 years for both the earth and universe, as based on the Word of God’s seven-day creation week and the genealogies from Adam to Christ.

Building on this idea of a vast time period for the age of the earth, Charles Darwin popularized biological evolution. In his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, Darwin, and then others, disseminated the idea that man evolved from animals over millions of years. Rather than being supernaturally created by God, humans were the result of the process of molecules-to-man evolution, they argued.1

Man’s opinions were elevated above God’s Word.

Since the 1800s, we have seen God and His Word under relentless attack, especially in Genesis. Secular humanists have also demanded the removal of God and His Word from virtually every area of public life. In its place, they insert their own religion of secular humanism, which treats man as supreme in authority above God. America has thus seen:

1. Secular universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc., which were founded as Christian institutions) become humanistic schools, as well as many Christian colleges
2. The Bible removed from public schools
3. Prayer and creation taken out of these same schools
4. The Pledge of Allegiance and its phrase “one nation under God” removed in some public places
5. Increased attacks on the U.S. motto “In God we trust”
6. The removal of the 10 Commandments displays from public places
7. Attempts to force an acceptance of the sins of homosexual behavior and abortion upon Christian institutions (and even churches).

Secularists and the Attack on Christmas

With these kinds of anti-Christian attacks, did we really believe that even Christmas would be spared by the secularists? Today, conflicts surrounding Christmas include: refusals to allow staff to say “Merry Christmas” but “Happy Holidays” instead in government offices, public schools, stores, etc.; the forced removal of Nativity scenes from public places (and even from some private places); writing X-mas instead of Christmas;2 and even claims that Christmas was originally a pagan idea!3

Yes, as the influence of secularists has grown, there has been an attack on Christmas. Even if Christians choose not to celebrate it (but no Christian should judge another regarding this festival4), they should be at least equipped to defend the historicity of the account of Jesus coming to earth (e.g., as recounted in the book of Luke and elsewhere in the Bible).

AiG has produced a new book, The War on Christmas, that provides answers concerning a host of issues and misconceptions surrounding Christmas. The book also presents the gospel, which sometimes seems lost even in many churches during Christmas.