stephen2
Puritan Board Freshman
I don't celebrate Christmas but I also have no problem being given the day off from work, or remembering Christ's birth on that day. I also thoroughly enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, even though it is not commanded in Scripture.
I've seen it as an issue of not binding consciences and requiring religious exercises on these days. Am I mistaken?
I tend to look at it the same though our family does celebrate (and enjoy!) Christmas (including lights and tree, etc.). I think that we have to recognize how different it was at the time that Gillespie was writing. It was in those days treated as a holy day and people were expected to treat it as such. The puritans rightly responded by saying that it was wrong to bind them to obedience to a day that God had not given them. I just don't know that there are all that many situations where people are actually expected to sanctify the day. In fact, I don't know all that man situations where people even set out to sanctify the day. The Catholics certainly carry on as they have for centuries, but for most people Christmas is something altogether different. How many in the Church even know that the word stands for Christ mass?