X is For Keeping Christ in Christmas by Bob Jones

 

Some have labelled its use, blasphemy. For others it’s just Greek to them.

For people like you who use and care about words, what do you think of the word, Xmas? I think the term is about keeping Christ in Christmas. As a pastor, I’ve had interesting (some very emotional) reactions when I talk that way or certainly when I preach using that term.

But before I explain my thinking, a little context.

There is a prevalent Christian cultural myth that the use of the word Xmas stems from a secularizing tendency to de-emphasize the religious tradition of Christmas. The use of Xmas in advertising and conversation is the culprit. You’ve heard the lament, “Xmas?! Now they’re taking Christ out of Christmas.”

History

• In 1957 the use of X in Xmas was dismissed as “the unknown quantity” by the Church League of America.
• In 1966 a conspiracy theory around the use of Xmas was that “Jewry influenced the United Nations to outlaw the name of Christ.”
• In 2019, one of the most well-known Christian leaders in the world declared that using the term “Xmas” was the result of a war against using the name of Jesus.

Have you seen the 2024 cryptocurrency exchange that goes by the name, XT? Some see that as a mockery of Christ.

Nevertheless, the term's usage dates to the 16th century, and corresponds to Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Church of England and Episcopalian liturgical use of various forms of the chi-rho monogram. In fact, the word Christ and its compounds, including Christmas, have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years. In many manuscripts of the New Testament, 'Χ' is an abbreviation for Χριστος.

It's Greek To Me

The 'X' comes from the Greek letter Chi.

The Chi Rho, one of the earliest forms of the Christogram, is formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos) in such a way that the vertical stroke of the rho intersects the centre of the chi.

Enough Greek, OK (which is from the Greek, Ola kala meaning “all good”)?

My preferred words are Christ and Christmas. I only use Xmas to make a point.

The term, Xmas, is not a hill to die on. It’s a hill to light a light on. Somebody ultimately important to us said, you are the light of the world. Even a misunderstanding around the use of a word can be used to draw people to the Word rather than get up in arms and defend “our rights.” A Christian’s lead step is always love, or service, never power.

If you got this far in my final post of 2024 and you feel some level of frustration, anger, disbelief, or disappointment with me, I’m not sorry. I am grateful for you. You are my brothers and sisters.

In this day and age, everything is polarized for some advantage. Let's focus on Jesus. Remember the words of Bonhoeffer, "When Xt calls a man he bids him come and die."

More power to ya. 

 

Merry Christmas! Christ is glorified!

May 2025 be the best year of your life. Amen.

Bob writes at REVwords.com

Behind the Words by Bryan Norford

I’ve always been fascinated by the ability to use language to express an idea in various ways. Before I became interested in writing as an author, I was involved in preparing technical and professional documents. I found language could be used to produce authentic sounding documents (whether or not they were authentic!) by the use of words that had not only a dictionary meaning, but also carried inferences understood by the culture—professional or communal.

A couple of examples come to mind. The expression “that’s unacceptable,” seems to carry authority beyond personal opinion. Also the word “discriminate” has lost its discriminatory ability because advocacy groups for human rights commandeered it to connote their agenda. I’m sure you can think of others.

Obviously, this has implications for both fiction and non-fiction writers. Authentic writing depends not only use of the right word and ruthless deletion of unnecessary words, but also on word order. Strunk and White admirably demonstrate this by rearranging Thomas Paine’s sentence: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Other arrangements they suggest don’t carry the same emotional impact, but the reason is hard to define:

Times like these try men’s’ souls.

How trying it is to live in these times.

These are trying times for men’s souls

Soulwise, these are trying times.

This is where craftsmanship and art combine in the classics that we admire, but which deflate our own confidence. We doubt we will ever reach such sublime heights, yet we are continually constrained to try. Such is the nature of writing. Like life, perfection is seductive; its empty promise will never stop us trying, but always leaves us lamenting our poverty.

But we are fortunate to write in English. English and the other Germanic languages are descendants of Greek (recall the expression: “The Greeks had a word for it”?). So English has a wealth of words few other languages on earth can boast, providing every nuance necessary for effective, accurate writing. Would my passion for writing have been as dynamic without the English language? Possibly not.

However, the biblical languages have certainly enhanced it. A common response to even an elementary knowledge of Greek or Hebrew, is that it opens up the Scriptures afresh. In the Old Testament, for instance, the Hebrew faith formed part of the everyday Hebrew language. Thus, it was not possible to differentiate physical life from the spiritual. The connotations of God’s love and faithfulness were in every expression of love and faithfulness between humans.

In the New Testament, the Greek language had every word necessary to transmit the Christian faith. What is even more remarkable, the Holy Spirit used the “Dick and Jane” Greek of John’s Gospel to communicate sublime truths of the faith as effectively as the classic Greek used by the author of Hebrews. Furthermore, Paul took words from the Greek language and infused them with Christian truth providing “crossover” meanings to aid evangelism in his day.

If I have understood the depth of God’s love and actions for me in procuring salvation, it has been the meaning built in to various words critical to the Christian faith. The Australian theologian, Leon Morris, in his book, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, researched the words: redemption, covenant, blood, propitiation, reconciliation and justification from the original languages. His work gave me a depth of understanding that drew me into a clearer and deeper permanency of my relationship to Jesus Christ, and greater assurance of my eternal security in God’s provision.

It is no accident that God has communicated to us by the written word. Not only does it provide a permanent record of God’s care for His people, it does so in a way that is relevant to every generation. His gift of writing for me and those He called into this ministry is simply an extension of His desire to communicate His love beyond ourselves.