Christmas
Almost every year, at this time of the year, there are Christians on both sides of the argument on whether as Christians we should celebrate Christmas at all. It is not my intention to open up that again; rather to point out one element I believe Spurgeon got right.
Looking down through history, at the Reformers and most of the Puritans I notice the majority view seemed to be against it.
Mainly because of their angst against the Roman Catholic Church "mass" and they believed it to be in violation of the RPW (Regulative Principle of Worship). Jumping ahead to the 1800's and reading about CH Spurgeon's view on Christmas. He seemed to have a love hate relationship with it. Earlier on in his ministry, he was not against it, in fact he often wished his congregation a happy Christmas. However, as the years went on, he seemed to be more and more against it.
He did however believe that Christmas was not going away anytime soon and preached very strongly how we should use it as a platform to preach the Gospel.
I am including a link to an article, that I believe shows his views.
http://thecripplegate.com/charles-spurgeons-love-hate-relationship-with-christmas/The last paragraph especially.
Personally speaking, I am not set one way or another; but I am convinced Spurgeon was correct about using Christmas as a platform for evangelism.
Tom
