The Political Significance of Christmas
The Political Significance of Christmas
by Jake MacAulay
In their effort to make a point, those who discuss law and government and politics for a living often miss the most crucial – the most critical point of all. So, as we celebrate Christmas, this is a good time to take a deep breath and revisit first principles.
We should remember the political significance of Christmas. Now don’t get distracted by arguments that early Christians latched onto a pre-existing pagan holiday to establish the date of Christmas. That may be true, but it is a distraction from what’s truly important. The important thing is the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
The birth of the Savior is the most significant political event in human history. This bears repeating. The birth of Jesus Christ is the most significant political event in the history of the universe.
Why? Well, simply put, it is because liberty does not and cannot exist absent the acknowledgement of the Almighty, Omniscient, Living and Everlasting God of the Bible whose Son is Jesus Christ — Who created the world, entered His own creation and sacrificed His life to cover our sins and make us presentable before the Throne of Grace.
For liberty to exist in the world this acknowledgment of Christ’s authority must exist in the hearts of the people and it must be the operating principle of civil government.
If it is, then peace on earth will prevail. But to the extent that the hearts of the people are distracted and the civil government forgets that it is a ministry of Jesus Christ, then injustice, chaos, corruption and tyranny will prevail.
And the hearts of the people are, indeed, distracted from this truth; and this is no accident. It is the result of purposeful manipulation of the culture by those who control the major means of communication. The primary tool of this manipulation is the mantra of “Separation of Church and State.”
Through the ceaseless repetition of this voodoo mantra, the culture has been conditioned to consider any public prayer, or any private prayer in a public place, or any acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ, as an inappropriate encroachment of the Church. But this is a word trick and a mind trick. A prayer is not a church. An acknowledgment of God’s authority over civil government in the form of a prayer before a legislative session, or a court session is not a church. It is rather an expression of a political philosophy. And this particular political philosophy is the American political philosophy.
It is contained in the Declaration of Independence which is the organic law of these united States.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong or illegal about such an expression. Indeed, the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as the Source of Law and Government is the very first presupposition of American government. Far from violating any law, worship of or acknowledgement of the authority of the Savior of the World through Christmas Nativity displays, public prayer, Ten Commandment displays and all other forms of Christian witness are consistent with and supportive of the American View of Law and Liberty and are the essence of American government.
Publicly celebrating the blessed birth of the Savior of the World is patriotic in the purest sense and ultimately politically correct.