Most Americans will celebrate Christmas.
According to Pew Research, 9 out of 10 people will celebrate the holiday. That’s a huge number, but while most of us will celebrate, only 55% of us observe Christmas as an expression of religious devotion. For nearly half of us, Christmas is simply a cultural holiday of good tidings, office parties, and family gatherings.
The secularization of Christmas, however, didn’t happen in a vacuum. Again, Pew Research reveals only 57% of Americans actually believe the biblical narrative of Christmas. Almost none of the “religiously unaffiliated,” known as the “nones” believe the Christmas story at all, but interestingly enough, only 76% of professing Christians believe the historical events of Christmas actually happened.
That’s not all. According to another recent study by LifeWay Research, 30% of Americans consider themselves born-again Christians, but only 15% of those surveyed strongly agreed with basic Christian beliefs. So while all kinds of people are celebrating Christmas, an increasing number of nominal Christians claim a cultural loyalty to Jesus while walking away from the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”SkwGf” via=”no” ]According LifeWay Research, 30% of Americans consider themselves born-again Christians, but just 15% of those surveyed strongly agreed with basic Christian beliefs.[/ctt]
At first glance, nones and nominals seem like they are worlds apart. For example, nones are generally more politically liberal, while Christian nominals are more conservative. Nones deny Jesus as a historical figure worthy of worship, and nominals affirm him. Nones seldom go to church, but nominals attend church more often. Nones give no thought to hearing “Happy Holidays,” while nominals hold fast to “Merry Christmas!”
The research does not tell us everything, however, but what seems clear is that nones and nominals are more alike than they are different. They both like the idea of Christmas. Both will celebrate with religious symbols or not. Both will sing Christmas songs both sacred and secular. Both will purchase and exchange gifts and mail off the obligatory Christmas cards. Both prefer Christmas, and yet at the end of the day, neither bow to Jesus as Lord.
In the greatest sermon ever preached Jesus said,
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name? ’23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers! ’ Matthew 7:21-23
That’s a humble reminder that not everyone who waves the banner of Christ is a Christian. Not everyone who jumps on the train is true. And not everyone who shouts “Merry Christmas” seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”2mskp” via=”yes” ]Not everyone who shouts “Merry Christmas” seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.[/ctt]
Instead of embracing Christian nominalism as a victory for religious freedom, Jesus condemned nominals out of hand because it is in our day just as it was in his that nominalism rejects Jesus’ Lordship and ultimately produces a secularism that undermines his kingdom work. We might be tempted to assume that a Little Jesus is better than no Jesus at all, but the real Jesus didn’t think so. He called out the nominals as false prophets dressed as sheep, but inwardly “ravenous wolves.”
On the other hand, Jesus had compassion for the crowds who were coming to him because they were as sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36). Jesus had never seen Pew Research but he knew that those who were closest to the things of God had never truly embraced God, and as a result were leading those who were far away from him to run the other direction. Their half-righteous language, their self-protecting politics, and their bumper sticker religion had left the crowds “weary and worn out.”
So Jesus made a regular practice of engaging the nones with compassion and the nominals with condemnation. Many of us still get that backwards.
We shout “Merry Christmas” in the face of the nones without ever considering where they are with God, how we can serve them, or how we might kindly engage them in a Gospel conversation that the Spirit of God could use to move them from death to life. We shout down their “Happy Holidays” in public while failing to pray and cry out to God for them in private. We plaster our social media accounts with “Merry Christmas” without ever giving or serving or advocating so that the least of these among us can actually experience joy in Jesus.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”gTOYW” via=”yes” ]So Jesus made a regular practice of engaging the nones with compassion and the nominals with condemnation. Many of us still get that backwards.[/ctt]
It’s easy for nominals to bemoan the unbelief of the nones they failed to win. Rather than repenting of falling short and crying out to God for mercy, nominals simply increase the volume of judgment. They double-down on their nominalism insisting on outward compliance rather than seeking God for inward transformation. On one occasion Jesus described the nominals as “white washed tombs,” adorned with religious beauty on the outside, but absent of life on the inside (Matthew 23:27).
Devoted Christians must promote religious freedom in every sphere of life both private and public. Even when that freedom is limited, threatened, or unduly governed, we should continue to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with an unrelenting, Spirit-empowered boldness. Although it is foolishness to some, the Gospel is still the power of God to save (1 Corinthians 1:18). The research, however, reveals what we have known for a very long time: simply shouting “Merry Christmas” makes no one’s Christmas very merry.
