We worship a saviour who has given us a world to enjoy and who is leading us to a material New Creation full of things to enjoy there too. We worship a saviour who instructs his disciples not to judge one another over these things, but to enjoy his good gifts to his glory. Let’s reject gnostic Christmas and enjoy the trappings – such as we want to celebrate – to the glory of the Lord Jesus who gives us such things to enjoy.

As I’m in the Christmas mode and not in the habit of reinventing the wheel, I have been republishing some older, but nevertheless still useful, Christmas posts from previous years. One of the enduring problems within the church is a latent Gnosticism that rears its head from time to time, but almost never quite so much as at Christmas. There is a sense that only the “spiritual” things can be enjoyed (if any of it at all) whilst the material aspects, particularly the trappings, are to be shunned as evil.

As I argue below, I think this is little more than that Gnostic tendency arising. Further, I think those who would try to stop others from celebrating and enjoying Christmas fully are actively doing what the Bible expressly tells them not to do. That is to say, they are sinning. They are permitted not to join in – that liberty is entirely scriptural – but they are not free to judge or ruin the fun of those who would.

The aim of this post, I hope, is to make a case for an actually merry Christmas for those who would like to have one.

There is a gnostic streak that runs through a lot of evangelicalism. Whilst there are some who have a gnostic emphasis on special knowledge and words from the Lord, far more common is the broader dualistic material-bad, spiritual-good calculation. It essentially comes out in a kind of legalism whereby there are acceptable and unacceptable things to enjoy which, though they may appear arbitrary, are essentially held together by this dualistic approach to the world. If there is a “spiritual” dimension, then it’s alright but if it is deemed “material” without apparent spiritual element (as the beholder judges it) then it may be “worldly” or just plain bad.

Some of this, I think, is at play in the push to make every aspect of Christmas point to Christ and to squeeze every possible bit of apparent spiritual value out of Christmas. When it is coupled to a lament about the materialistic and consumeristic emphases that attend this time of year, it starts to look remarkably like gnostic Christmas. The bits where we focus on Jesus are good, the bits where we enjoy lots of food and presents are bad. Spiritual = good, material = bad. It is gnostic (or dualism) in all but name. Certainly, whatever it is, it is sub-Christian.

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