Mfonobong Inyang: What is The Meaning of “Merry Christmas”?

Christmas is a very exciting time for communities of faith around the world, and over time, although the central message may seem to have been lost in the shuffle, owing to the plethora of events. Christmas means the mass celebration of Christ as a gift to humanity; Jesus as the fullness of the Godhead that incarnated as a man. Paul gives us a simple summary of the sequence of Jesus’ time on earth: “He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world and taken up into heavenly glory.” Beyond the Nativity story, I will share some thoughts to provide more context, especially for contemporary commentators who espouse various ideas on the topic. These aren’t just didactic, they are apodictic – just dey with me.

Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi

Jesus’ earthly experience was so consequential that it shaped the very concept of time and civilisation to this day. These frames of reference B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (in the year of our Lord) were used to situate events. For example, if something happened or someone was born 600 years before Jesus walked the earth, it would be recorded as 600 B.C. If the same event happened 2025 years after Jesus walked the earth, it would be recorded as 2025 A.D. Why is this even important to state? Propaganda! Some people would rather you reject the evidence of your own eyes and ears. Some people always use pseudo-arguments to try and explain away God – let me share some famous examples.

There is a technique in philosophy known as reductio ad absurdum; it’s basically establishing proof by highlighting a contradiction in logic. For instance, some people claimed that human beings evolved directly from apes. In the last hundred years, I have neither read nor seen chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans that have evolved into human beings. Have you? Are there similarities between humans and apes? Yes. Are we direct descendants of apes? No! The superior argument for me would be that God created human beings in His own image. Another example is the Big Bang theory; it postulates that the universe’s origin story started from a giant explosion in space. Question: Going by the law of entropy, how can the chaos caused by that singular bang create this impeccable level of order? Riddle me that.

The teleological arguments are evidently superior to me; the simple submission that God created the heavens and earth. God is the cause, and the cosmos (a Greek word which describes the universe as an orderly and harmonious system) is the effect. Where there is a design, there must necessarily be a designer – whether some people choose to acknowledge that designer as God, a higher power, some supreme being or just creator, it’s almost inconsequential. The calibration of the human body alone is an engineering marvel: do you know that it’s well-documented in scientific literature that the average human brain contains an average of 86 billion neurons? The reason why fingerprints are so critical to tech operations and forensics is that of the billions of human beings alive or dead, no two persons have the same minutiae or ridge patterns. Don’t even get me started on the complexities of DNA.

Nicole Muller, in her classic song, My Redeemer Lives, asked a powerful question many years ago: “Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?” That wasn’t just a religious retort; it has scientific implications. You see, if the sun were to be too close to the earth, it’s not just that the average temperature of the earth would jump from the current average of fifteen degrees Celsius to about fifty degrees Celsius. The increased heat and radiation would certainly make Earth uninhabitable for most life forms. We would have a hotter and drier climate, which would cause more heat strokes, sunburns, dehydration and a spike in cardiovascular diseases. Plus, the increased gravitational pull would cause extreme tidal effects and ultimately disrupt the Earth’s orbit. What are the chances that all these intelligent and meticulous systems are happenstance? John lets us know that Jesus is the Word in the beginning who created all things. True science points to God; even the man considered as the greatest scientist of all time, Albert Einstein, submitted that he was “enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene” and he “unquestionably” accepted the historicity of Jesus.

Alius Jesus?

What was the devil’s original sin? Hubris made him delusional enough to attempt to usurp God. What was his next best plan after the first one failed? Creating parallel systems to God. Fast forward to when Jesus walked the earth, he saw how people venerated Jesus as God, followed him for days with much dedication just to hear him teach, and his disciples were willing to die for him – he coveted that worship. When Jesus said he would build his ecclesia and the gates (operations) of hell could not stop it, that was a layered statement. One of the ways the gates of hell assault the ecclesia is to create parallels of it. Ecclesia is a Greek word that is loosely translated as “governing council”, established to further the will of God on earth – so it’s not surprising to see the proliferation of political ideologies that use religion to mask their real agenda. 

Paul was familiar with these strategies, and he accordingly put the Galatians on notice: even if someone claiming to be a follower of God or an angel that claims to be from heaven appeared to them with another message that is different from the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he should be anathematised. Over time, many people have tried to cosplay Jesus so badly – some have gone as far as curating their origin story and doctrines to appear as similar (or parallel) as possible. All the prophets pointed to Jesus; from Moses, Abraham, David, and Isaiah – this is why Jesus would say something like, “Abraham saw my day, and he was glad”. Again, Paul insisted that no foundation could be laid other than that which has been laid by Jesus Christ.

Paul was not fascinated by titles; even as a chief apostle, the Berean believers interrogated his submissions to know whether or not such claims were consistent with the gospel. This is a very critical reference because if you find yourself in any place where God is being professed, but the message or person cannot be interrogated based on sound scriptures, just know you have been introduced to a cult. He was not fascinated by claims of divine encounters; he was quick to point out that even the devil presents himself as an angel of light. The angel Gabriel, who appeared to Mary, professed Jesus to be the Son of God. Paul was particular about the inerrancy and sanctity of the gospel; his primary concern was Jesus and the implications of what he did for those who believed. 

The Anti-Christ

Whilst Paul was one of the most consequential apostles not just of his day but also in the entire Body of Christ, we cannot dismiss that he was also an intellectual. Given his background in law, he understood the rudiments of making his case: factual foundation (collation of evidence, testimonies of credible witnesses and clarity of narrative), legal strategy (reference to extant laws, conventional legal thinking and anticipation of opposing arguments) and presentation (logical calibration of facts, compelling arguments and establishing credibility). In his second letter to the saints at Corinth, Paul describes a warfare that is as spiritual as it is ideological. It reads in part: “…every thought to the obedience of Christ”. John took it a step further by describing such a thought or spirit that doesn’t recognise Jesus as God in the flesh as anti-Christ.

One of the many profound insights that we can safely extrapolate from the chapter is that Anti-Christ is primarily a thought, ever before it is a supposed repdigit or some dark personality. Even the phraseology is intentional; one could presuppose that “anti-Christ” and “pro-devil” effectively mean the same thing – six and a half a dozen. However, his choice of words highlights the emphasis of that ideology – it’s defined by what it is against more than what it represents. In other words, it’s not a stand-alone ideology – it has to attack another ideology to gain relevance or oppose other people’s claims to validate its own.

If you clock this, then you will understand why, like clockwork, some people throw up certain pedestrian arguments during Christmas. Suddenly, you will hear that Jesus didn’t really come to the earth, debates about the colour of his epidermis would spring up from nowhere, and some would even assert that, based on their research, he was just one of the prophets. This is not just rage-bait; this is a calculated assault on faith. I wrote extensively about this last Christmas; you should look it up. Where propaganda fails, they resort to violence. This is why terrorists attack other people during the celebration of their own faith or culture. 

I mentioned this in an essay last month, that phrase from Paul’s epistle to the faithful at Ephesus that it is rendered in Latin as “adversus insidias diaboli” – meaning that the real contention isn’t with human entities but against agendas and organised evils which continually oppose faith by violent force and occasionally through fraudulent or pseudo submissions. Paul was a menace when it came to exposing the strategies of the devil; this is why he would always punctuate his submissions by saying things like, “that you may know”. Bro was so effective at what he did that some people bound themselves by a religious oath to neither eat nor drink until they unalived him. Sounds familiar, right?

The Man Christ Jesus

When a person is perceived to be humble, we say in a manner of speaking that such a person is “down to earth”. How then do we describe the decision of God to leave his residence, which is the unapproachable light, to walk amongst mortal men? What is the word that describes the act of divinity choosing humanity? When the Creator elects to reside with the created, is that normal? Typically, religion is man’s pursuit or attempt to reach God. At Christmas, we celebrate God reaching out to man through the gift of Jesus. Paul uses a very interesting phrase, “the man Christ Jesus” – God in human form. God didn’t just come to save man; He became a man. Jesus could only be effective in his role as high priest if he was God enough to redeem and man enough to relate. Hence, the manager is only significant because it ultimately leads to the cross; the prophecy had become reality, the word had become flesh.

There are key imperatives about Christmas. It’s no surprise that Jesus, being the lamb that was slain from the foundations of the world, had to be born in a manger; the gist about the unavailability of rooms was just a cover story. In types and shadows throughout the Old Testament, he was the Lamb of God used for sin offerings. When he eventually came in the flesh, John pointed to him as the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. In the Garden of Eden, he was referenced as the seed of the woman. Isaiah would be more specific by saying a virgin woman shall conceive a son. Many years later, the angel Gabriel would bring the message of the Immaculate Conception in the Annunciation to a certain Mary in Nazareth.

Christmas is much more than the festivities; it is the acknowledgement of God becoming a man by the name Jesus. It’s about commemorating the prophecies and promises about salvation becoming a person. It’s about the love of God, which caused him to gift the world his best. So when someone wishes you a “Merry Christmas”, just know that’s a loaded statement.