CHRISTMAS MYTHS

“But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

On Monday night I attended the Christmas Dinner for Assemblies of God ministers from the “Central Massachusetts Section” which was held at First Assembly of God in Worcester. The food was REALLY good and the desserts were FANTASTIC. I had lemon meringue pie for dessert which is one of my favorites.

We had nice music and fellowship and overall a very good time. Pastor Barry Risto of Winchendon was in charge on “games”. One of them was a exercise of 20 multiple choice questions about Christmas (based on what the Bible actually says). In the Assemblies of God, December is “credential renewal time” for ministers. Barry kidded that if we did badly on this quiz we could lose our credentials. Well, let’s put it this way...it’s a good thing it was just a game! We actually competed by tables. Each round table probably had around 6-8 people seated around it. Our table did “OK” but we didn’t win. One table got a perfect score, but not us! Some of the questions were pretty easy, such as one which asked which Books of the New Testament tell the story of Jesus’ birth. The answer is Matthew and Luke. Some were not as easy. One asked what an “angelic host” was. It’s actually an army of angels. Our table got that one right but some got it wrong. One question asked about angels singing at Jesus’ birth. In fact, the Bible never says the angels sang at Jesus’ birth...it only says they “SAID” this or that. Still another question asked how many angels spoke to the shepherds. Our table said “A multitude” and got it wrong. It was ONE angel. Well, Pastor Rob Woods of Marlboro insisted we were wrong about “a multitude” and Pastor Woods was proven correct! Another question asked what city Joseph came from. Our table answered “Nazareth” but the correct answer was Bethlehem. (I’m still not sure if I agree with that one.) There were also questions about the Magi. Our table knew that they were NOT kings; rather they were religious astrologers. Our table also knew that the exact number of Magi who came to see the child Jesus is not known. Tradition says it was 3 and tradition even gives them names, but that’s TRADITION and not the Bible.

If you haven’t read it lately, check out the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke. You may be surprised at some of what it says (such as that the Magi went to the HOUSE where Jesus was; and that it nowhere says Jesus was “born in a manger”.)

Everybody answered correctly that Jesus was NOT born on December 25. I guess because we got that one right we can all remain credentialed Assemblies of God ministers!