Why Christians Condemn Abortion but Support the Death Penalty

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Christians are sometimes called “hypocrites” when they oppose the killing of babies while at the same time also support the death penalty for convicted murderers. The argument says that if Christians (and like-minded people of other beliefs) were consistent in their “pro-life” belief they would oppose all killing. Those who promote this argument think themselves quite clever that they have uncovered this supposed flaw in the logic and reasoning of people who are pro-life. They might be considered clever, except for overlooking one important thing: Justice.

The argument for the hypocrisy of people who are in favor of pro-life policies can be somewhat convincing to some people who don’t consider all the issues involved. The argument is so appealing that some pro-lifers actually do begin to oppose the death penalty for convicted murderers. This, however is not really what their opponents want. No one cares that murderers are spared the death penalty for a life imprisoned. What the critics of pro-lifers really want is for people to support abortion so that they may live an adulterous lifestyle without having to deal with the consequences.

The single reason why pro-life supporters are in favor of killing murderers, but not babies, is justice. This is not some cruel “social justice” which twists right and wrong to achieve a desired outcome, but real, true, justice where the innocent are spared and the guilty are punished. Unborn babies are innocent of any crime, and are deserving of life, while properly convicted murderers have, by their crimes, forfeited their right to life. It is that simple. This is the consistency of the Christian (and like-minded) arguments. We do not believe it is right to kill the innocent, but it is right to punish lawfully convicted murderers for taking the lives of innocent people.

Daniel was condemned to die in the lions’ den but God kept him from all harm.

The Biblical basis for the support of a lawful death penalty is found in many places in Holy Scripture. God sanctioned a proper administration of death penalty justice shortly after the great flood when He told Noah and his sons, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” This is further confirmation of the authority which God gave Adam before the fall into sin to rule over the administration of the earth. In the creation account in Genesis 1, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” As God rules over all creation, man (who was made in God’s image) is given authority to rule over the earth in God’s place. This is done in accord with God’s Law, of course, which is perfectly good and right. Even though the perfect image of God was corrupted in us by the fall into sin, God still gives mankind authority on earth to administer justice to curb man’s murderous sinful tendencies. Man is not given authority to make up his own rules which oppose God’s laws. That is, by definition, injustice, and not justice. “Social justice” is just another example of injustice, not justice, because it not only makes distinctions which God does not make (such as a multiplicity of “races” rather than the one created by God, and a multiplicity of “genders” rather than the two created by God), but because it also picks winners and losers based on arbitrary characteristics rather than on the merit and worthiness of the individual apart from any unrelated characteristic.

The Holy Bible also reinforces God’s allowance of a death penalty in the laws for the Israelites that God gave Moses after the Exodus from Egypt, and in the directions that God gave to Joshua 40 years after the Exodus to take the Promised Land and destroy the pagan peoples living there. Some allowances were made for mercy, however, as in the case of the Gibeonites (see my article on God’s Promises) and a select few others. The merciful nature of God is shown in the fact that God does not say that the authorities of all nations must execute murderers in every instance, but can determine how it is carried out according to their laws. God, Himself, spared the murderers Cain (though he was unrepentant) and King David (who was repentant after confronted by the prophet Nathan).

Here I would also point out the qualifications that I have noted above regarding the capital punishment of convicted murderers. It is important to note that God does not sanction vigilante justice. It is not given to individuals to determine who should die for their (supposed) crimes. The death penalty is only to be carried out by the proper authorities after a proper trial where evidence is given and justly considered. This is good in that the earthly authorities can carry out justice in support and recognition of the sanctity of life, but it is not good when wicked authorities sometimes misuse justice by killing the innocent or by letting the guilty get away with murder. In 1 Kings 21, King Ahab stole Naboth’s vineyard after wicked Queen Jezebel had a couple false witnesses tell lies about Naboth so that he was falsely accused and put to death. God later arranged that Jezebel died a just (and shameful) death, but Ahab was spared the indignity of his evil wife’s death because he humbled himself and repented before the Lord.

God blessed Adam and Eve with children, and told them to multiply and fill the earth. From them come all people on earth.

Likewise, God’s desire for the protection of babies both before and after birth is well attested in Holy Scripture. At the creation of man in Genesis 1 Scripture says, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” It is a great blessing that God gives children to parents to care for and to raise. It is only man’s sin which complicates the conception of new life and new people on the earth. Sinful man despises God’s gift of marriage and so engages in illicit intimacy apart from marriage, and despises the miracle of life which results according to God’s blessing. Bastard children who are unwanted by their parents (though not unwanted by God, nor unwanted by childless families looking to adopt) are still a blessing from God and deserve care and protection and love.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14) When Jesus said this His disciples had thought that His time was too valuable to waste on children as if they were worth less than adults. Jesus, however, corrected them. God loves children no less than adults, and there is much about a childlike faith that adults would do well to emulate. In Luke 18:17 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” It is quite telling that while Jesus exalts children and a childlike faith, the world despises children and wishes to kill them in order to satisfy their selfish desires.

In Jeremiah 7:30-31 God tells the prophet, “The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire – something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.” Here God is very clear that He detests abortion and infanticide. His people’s idolatry has led them to kill their children, and God strongly rebukes them. Not only did God NOT command nor allow the killing of children, but such wickedness never even entered His mind. It is not that God lacked imagination, but that children are a blessing from God, not a curse. This wickedness of the people of Judah was one of the contributing reasons why God sent the Babylonians to conquer and destroy Judah and take the few remaining survivors into captivity. The only reason why God allowed some to survive was on account of His promise to David that one of his descendants would be the Messiah who would redeem the world from this gross wickedness. Since God does not change forever, may He have mercy on those societies which mercilessly practice abortion and infanticide. God does have mercy, but his patience has its limits, and those wicked societies will face God’s wrath and destruction if they continue in sin without repenting (and that includes the United States of America).
 

John the Baptist worshiped Jesus before either was born. Babies deserve protection from conception.

On the other hand, God shows the value of even the smallest people when He told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Here God not only states that He knew Jeremiah and had a purpose in life for him before he was born, but God states that He is the one who formed Jeremiah in the womb. Children are not “accidents” at any time, but they are formed according to the blessing that God gave Adam and Eve at the beginning. From the moment of conception, children are precious to God and it is not up to us to decide whether they should live or die based on the whims of their parents, or worse, just on the wicked desire of the mother or father apart from the wishes of the other.
 
Now, just because I noted above that babies are innocent of any crime and not deserving of death any more than any other innocent person, that does not mean that they are without sin. King David wrote in Psalm 51:5 “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Remember that although at the time he wrote this David had committed terrible sins worthy of temporal punishment, he was still the man who God chose to be the ancestor of the promised Messiah. Jesus was, and is still, known as the “Son of David”. If the great King David, whose descendant is the world’s savior, was sinful from the time of his conception, then we are no better. Babies in the womb need Christ’s salvation just as much as the most revered and respected adult. This is why when Jesus instituted Holy Baptism in Matthew 28 He told His disciples to baptize and teach “all nations” which includes everyone, even infants. This is why the Christian church has baptized infants as well as adult converts from the very beginning. This also carried on a similar practice to the Old Testament Israelite practice of circumcising the baby boys on the eighth day after birth. Even babies need the redeeming power of God to be saved. Christ’s practice of Baptism replaced the practice of circumcision and made it universal for boys and girls, and men and women. 
 

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5-6)

Jesus once called a little child and had him stand among His disciples and He said, “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5-6) We do children no favors by aborting them in the womb. Not all aborted children will go to heaven. Many aborted souls will be in hell to torment their murderers. Some aborted children may be in heaven. Just as the infant John rejoiced in the presence of Jesus in Luke 1:41, though both John and Jesus were still in their mothers’ wombs, so some unborn children may believe. The Holy Spirit calls all people to faith, and some may believe, even though they may not yet be fully formed. We also do them no favors in depriving them the joys (and the struggles) of life as believers in this sinful world. 
 
Christians are not hypocrites for trying to save the lives of innocent babies, while at the same time calling for the just punishment of convicted murderers. Christians are not opposed to giving some time for the guilty murderer to repent (such as the time to conduct a fair trial), because Jesus died to pay for the sin of murder as well as all sins. Because Jesus died for all people, there is no reason why the murderer should not be forgiven and receive eternal life, yet, in order to uphold the value of life in our societies, those who wrongly take life forfeit their own. The repentant murderer may die confident that his sins are forgiven by Christ, but for order and justice here on earth, it is sometimes necessary to put people to death for their crimes.

The Problem with Sexual Politics

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God instituted marriage at the creation of Adam and Eve. Sin made marital relations a struggle.

Sexual politics is the idea that men and women must compete for power in order for there to be equality or justice or fair treatment and the like. There are so many problems with sexual politics that I hardly know where to begin. I will start with the most obvious, though it is so often ignored that we think it is less obvious than it ought to be. Sexual politics is an oxymoron, which is to say it is a phrase which contradicts itself. Sexuality is naturally intimate and personal, and politics is naturally public and common to all. When you try to combine the private with the public what results is chaos, confusion, and insanity.

Sexuality is a gift from God for the purpose of strengthening the marriage bond between a husband and his wife, and for the purpose of filling the world with people through procreation. The sexual act is so personal and intimate that if God had not blessed it and made it pleasurable for both husband and wife, then no one would ever engage in it, and if that were true, and had sin also never entered the world, then the entire world population would still only be two people, Adam and Eve.


The problem with sexuality is that sin has perverted our use of God’s good gift, and turned a wonderful, intimate, private act into a selfish, filthy, perverted, public spectacle. When people give in to the devil’s temptations then we pervert God’s good gifts, and turn them into wicked things. Any use of sexuality apart from the normal use in natural marriage is a misuse of God’s gift which is forbidden by God’s Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”). God forbids such acts because, as Scripture says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18) God’s commandments are all given for our good to forbid us from doing things which hurt ourselves and others, and God’s commands encourage us to do things which are good for others and ourselves.

The devil’s temptations to sexual sins promise to give us physical pleasure without the lifelong commitment required in marriage. The tragic consequences of sexual sins are that they interfere with, and destroy, our relationships with one another, especially relationships between men and women. Sexual sins also ruin the sinner’s view of himself or herself because one who commits sexual sins is sinning against one’s own body as noted above.

Romantic ideas about marriage are neither Biblical nor sustainable. Marriage is a lifelong commitment.

Sexual politics turns relationships between men and women into struggles for power. These power struggles are the opposite of loving and are never beneficial for anyone concerned. Even if you “win” the power struggle you lose much more, including friendship, respect, cooperation, companionship, assistance, help, comfort, fidelity, and more. True love is concern for someone else over your concern for yourself. Holy Scripture’s “Golden Rule” is a good guide as to what true love is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Power politics (especially when applied to the two sexes) are all about what is good for me, not someone else, and that is, by definition, selfish and unloving. No one will think well of you if you gain power for yourself, but everyone will think well of you if you care for others above your own self interest.

Feminism is a main contributor to the problems of sexual politics. Here I will only briefly mention the problems with feminism because it is a topic so broad (pun intended) and complex that it could fill many whole books. Feminism is fundamentally Marxism for women. Especially as it has developed, feminism is completely power politics. Sexual politics is just one troubling aspect of feminism, of which there are many more. Twenty-first century feminists completely reject the ideals of the original feminists. They still can talk a good “equality” game, but hardcore feminists are all about domination, and frequently sneer at the suggestion of equality. Also, don’t even mention accounting for women’s needs and desires for protection in marriage and motherhood. There are many prominent feminists who hold to the idea that a woman has the right to murder her own children, or she isn’t a real feminist. This is so ridiculous that it shouldn’t need comment except for those who advocate for such barbarism with vehement sincerity.

The Holy Family is a good example of a loving family.

Another problem with the politicizing of sexuality is that it objectifies the pleasure of intimacy and that makes it inherently selfish. When sexual intimacy is based on selfishness then it leads quickly to all kinds of perversions. If someone views sex in political or selfish terms, then all that matters to that person is how he (or she) feels personally. All kinds of sinful perverted acts can make a person feel pleasure if they don’t care at all about the person with whom they are engaging. This leads people to seek their “pleasure” in adultery, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and all kinds of violent perversions including rape and more. There is no end to perversions if someone only cares about the momentary pleasure of sexual stimulation.

Sexual politics also directly leads to murder in many cases. There are news stories every day about murders of passion where the betrayal of a spouse, or an uncaring lover, leads someone to murder. Also the selfishness of sexual politics leads to the most common cause of death in America – abortion. When children are conceived through selfish acts, those children are seen by their parents as unwanted burdens, and the easiest way to eliminate the consequences of one’s selfish actions is to commit murder. No civilized society in the world allows the murder of children in the womb, but such is the wickedness of the human heart that so many societies, though they may be advanced in many ways, allow the barbaric practice of pre-natal murder of children. There is no such thing as a truly unwanted child. There is always someone who is willing and able to care for children otherwise “unwanted” by their parents. Truly civilized societies support and maintain structures and organizations who will protect and provide for the most vulnerable of the victims of sexual politics and the sexual revolution.

Husband and wife are not faceless, generic partners. They are individuals committed to one another for as long as they both shall live.

The problem of gender confusion is a somewhat surprising development and outcome of this topic and it really has made sexual politics absolutely crazy in the second decade of the 21^st century. One hopes that sanity will soon prevail, so that gender confusion is just a passing fad, but for now those who combine sexual politics with gender confusion are getting otherwise rational people to do some truly insane things. In some states boys who obviously and falsely claim to be girls have been allowed to participate and have been declared champions in girls sports. Obviously that doesn’t work the other way – girls or women who falsely claim to be male will never prevail at a high level, even when they take body-destroying performance enhancing drugs which would immediately disqualify a boy or a man in the same sport. Men are being allowed in women’s and girls’ private places such as locker rooms and toilet facilities, and this has even gotten so bad that on this issue the President of the United States (Barack Obama at the time) openly expressed his ignorance of the difference between boys and girls even though young children know that this difference exists and is obvious even with casual (not intimate) observation.

Marriage is related to the tree of life because through marriage (ideally) the next generation is born and raised and taught how to be good people.

Related to gender confusion is the idea of homosexual marriage. Homosexuality is probably the origin of much confusion in sexual politics because it replaces the natural complementarity of the sexes with the sameness of the perversion, and tries to pretend that there is no difference between intimacy with the same and intimacy with someone who is sexually complementary. This confusion has also gone to high levels when a slim majority (5-4) of ignorant ideologues on the United States Supreme Court ruled (“Obergefell v. Hodges”) that the States had to allow marriage between people of the same sex. The five justices of the majority were ignorant in this decision because they not only ignored over two hundred years of precedents where the states each made their own decisions about marriage laws, but they also ignored thousands of years of precedent where marriage was only between a man and a woman (or men and women in some cases). The foolish majority ignored all scientific information and common sense that men and women are made for each other. But most importantly for the context of the Supreme Court, they ignored the fact that the United States Constitution and all its amendments do not give the Federal government nor the courts the authority to regulate and redefine marriage.

I always enjoy 50th Anniversary parties. They are always celebrations of life and commitment, and show how loving parents produce good children and grandchildren.

I have to wonder if, because of Obergefell v. Hodges, my marriage to my wife (who is the opposite sex to me, in case there is any confusion) is still legal! There is no definition of marriage in the constitution and there doesn’t need to be because it is obvious to anyone who cares that marriage is between a man and a woman of opposite sexes. But now the Supreme Court has given a “legal” definition of marriage, and it only acknowledges marriage between people of the same sex. Natural marriage does not fit that definition. Already people are losing their jobs and/or being prosecuted (“Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” for example) for maintaining that true marriage is only between one man and one woman. I remain married to my wife, and will continue in my marriage as long as we both shall live, as I promised, whether or not is is legal for us to do so in this crazy world of sexual politics, but you can see the crazy insanity which results when sexuality is inserted in the political process (no pun intended, honestly).

It is interesting to note the societal fallout which began in the United States shortly after the death of Hugh Hefner. Hefner helped popularize the sexual revolution when he founded the porn magazine Playboy in 1953. Very soon after Hefner died in 2017 we started to hear about women complaining that they had been raped by men in positions of power, but had been afraid to speak out for years in some cases. Some high profile Hollywood actresses started the “me-too” movement to encourage other women to come forward and publicly expose the wrongdoing of powerful rapists and sexual abusers. The timing of the emergence of the “me-too” movement was interesting from a Spiritual perspective, as if whatever demons that influenced Hugh Hefner (and other pornographers) suddenly lost much of their fear-making influence on sexual abuse victims once Hefner died.

King Herod's broken family caused the holy family to flee to Egypt and the death of all the children in Bethlehem.

The nature of power politics (with the “help” of Marxist feminism) is such that the “me-too” movement is being turned from an honest search for justice into a weapon against innocent men in power. The most obvious of these was the unsubstantiated (and literally unbelievable) allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The woman who made the accusations against Kavanaugh was a California Psychology professor who appeared to have been under the influence of hypnosis (or something) so that she would appear to believe the lies she was telling, but it did not help her to give any information which would be believable to objective outsiders. The end result of the attempts to defame Brett Kavanaugh is that his opponents opposed him simply because he is a man, and some of the most radical feminists want to believe that to be a man is equal to being a rapist even when it is not true. Here is a good lesson: if your ideology requires you to lie or dismiss the truth in any way, then it is a false ideology and pursuing it is a waste of time.

The growth in the popularity of pornography and the politicizing of sex has led to the breakdown of the family in affected societies. Since the family is the fundamental foundation of society and civilization, once it has begun to crumble we see the signs that the societies under this destructive influence have also begun to crumble. This is most evident in the United States of America, and in some European countries as well as China (with its one-child policy and enforced abortions). In the USA sexual politics has actively encouraged divorce and the destruction of families. Our prisons are full of fatherless children from broken families. Instead of reversing the breakdown of families which lead fatherless children to lives of violence and crime, sexual politics spurs its adherents to work harder to destroy the foundational structures of society and civilization.

It is somewhat strange that although the USA and some other Western countries have moved to embrace destructive sexual politics, like homosexual marriage, which have never been seen in the history of the world, the push for polygamy is late to the game. Polygamy has been known for thousands of years, and although the lack of enforcement of adultery laws has made the practice of polygamy (or at least, adulterous promiscuity) common, but the legal status of polygamous marriages is still not recognized. We see polygamous marriages in the Holy Scriptures, even among some of the most prominent patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob. Isaac was monogamous and loved Rebekah, his wife, but he seems to be an exception. The Scriptures don’t really condemn polygamy outright, but rather simply define and describe marriage as between one man and one woman for as long as they both shall live. The Scriptures also often show the dysfunctional outcomes of polygamy. When asked about the topic of divorce, Jesus (in Matthew 19) teaches about what God intended for marriage since the very beginning. Divorce was never God’s intention, but because of man’s stubborn sinfulness God allowed divorce in some circumstances (with strict limits) in order to mitigate further sin. Christ’s teaching in Matthew 19 also answers the objections of those who falsely claim that Jesus never forbade same sex marriage. If Jesus taught about God’s institution and blessing of natural marriage when asked about the practice of divorce, then there is no reason to assume he would have taught otherwise when asked about same sex relationships.

God blessed the first marriage and He still blesses marriages even of unbelievers.

It is no small thing that the first two people God created on earth were a husband and his wife, who became the ancestors of all people. The perfect relationship between the two didn’t last too long before they were at odds with one another. They fell into sin before their first child was conceived. When God confronted Adam about the guilt of his sin, Adam referred to Eve as “The woman you gave me” (Genesis 3:12), which was a far cry from “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23) which means Adam originally considered his wife to be the best part of him. Yet, even after the fall into sin, there was forgiveness, and Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people (Genesis 3:20). God foretold the problem of sexual politics with His words to Eve in Genesis 3:16, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The problem here is not that the man would rule over the woman, but that she would desire to rule over him, but would not be able to do so. Also, the sinfulness of the man’s rule would also cause problems. Women aren’t the only cause of problems in this world, only about half, by my calculations.

Abraham was not the perfect husband but God still blessed him and Sarah with a son who became the ancestor of our savior, Jesus.

It might come as a shock to the sexual revolutionists that Christians are not opposed to sex, but have very healthy attitudes about sex and a proper use of sexuality, and are not hesitant to talk about it at all. It is just that Christian attitudes about sex are in many ways opposite of the revolutionists. When it comes to sex, Christians talk about marriage and intimacy and commitment and faithfulness and love and compassion. It is not about selfish pleasure and technique or any of a number of perversions. Now, it is true that you may find some folks who purport to be Christian who follow the revolutionist party line and speak of sex in terms of perversion, and pleasure, and technique, and politics, and the like, but we call those people heretics. Just because someone claims to be Christian doesn’t make them Christian. If they renounce the clear Scriptural teachings then they are heretics at best, and unbelievers at worst.

Despite the false teachings of Christian heretics, the Holy Scriptures give a consistent view of marriage and sexuality throughout all the books of the Bible. God instituted natural marriage when He created Adam and Eve and blessed them when He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) This did not change after the fall into sin. Sin only brought sinful behavior into the equation which God forbade when He gave the Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit Adultery.”) The Sixth Commandment affirms natural marriage as good for all people, especially parents and children. Also the Levitical laws for the Israelites affirm natural marriage, restrict divorce, and condemn unnatural relations. There are also New Testament admonitions in favor of natural marriage and against perversions which gratify the flesh over and against God’s institution of natural marriage. God gave these laws and admonitions because strong laws and societal norms favoring natural marriage are what is best for a stable society, and happy productive citizens. This is confirmed by the best scientific research. One may find some research reports which say otherwise, but those have either been shown to be inaccurate, or seriously flawed in their testing procedures or data gathering or manipulation in some way. God’s word remains true and good no matter how much sinful people might wish otherwise. God created people in His image originally and blessed them subsequently. We are always ill served when we act against God’s ways and according to the ways of our own wicked imaginations. God knows what is best for us, and we would do well to live according to God’s directions.

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See also my article on “The Problem with Democracy”  

See also my article on “The Problem with Socialism”

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Is Christmas Offensive?

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Christmas is the celebration of God’s gift of a savior to redeem us all from our sins

In a Pennsylvania town near Gettysburg, a family was asked to remove a Christmas decoration from in front of their house which prominently displayed the name, Jesus, because one of their neighbors described it as “offensive.” Is Christmas offensive?

I suppose there are many ways to answer this, but the truth is that yes, Christmas can be offensive to some, but the reality of Christmas celebrates the least offensive event in all of history.

First, there are people who misuse the name of Jesus only as a vulgar exclamation. If they see the name of Jesus as vulgar, then they would certainly see His birth as offensive. However, those who only use Christ’s name as a curse word are misusing it, and any offense they give or receive at the name of Jesus is their own fault, and not something that Jesus Himself is responsible for.

Likewise, there are people who would never use Jesus’ name as a vulgar exclamation, or as a curse, and in fact see themselves as good people, and who still might be offended by Christmas. Jesus is God who became incarnate as a person because that was the only way He could redeem us from our sins. Those “good” people who don’t admit to being sinners are offended that the birth of Jesus shows that they aren’t nearly as good as they think they are. They think they don’t need a savior, much less do they think that God Himself had to die to save them from their sins. They think that if God had to die for sinners, it must have been for “other people” who are worse than them. The birth of Jesus offends them because it puts them in the same category as people they despise nearly as much as Jesus.

The temptation to idolatry is the most common temptation that we face. We usually think of idol worship as bowing down to a man-made statue or some kind of false god. However, the most common form of idolatry is to think of one’s self as god. This, in effect, was the temptation which seduced Adam and Eve when they were still in the Garden of Eden. If this temptation corrupted Adam and Eve when they were still innocent, we, who are already corrupted by sin, are much more likely to fall for this temptation and see ourselves as our own god. Wherever this is true, we see the true God as a rival and we take offense at Him in His person, and in His word and works.

Mary heard the word of God and she believed.

In reality, the coming of God into our world as Jesus Christ was the least offensive thing ever to happen in the entire history of everything. At first it was known only to Mary when she heard and believed the words of the angel, Gabriel. Then Mary went to visit her elderly cousin, Elizabeth, who was the recipient of a slightly lesser miracle, but one which was just like the gift of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 21. Elizabeth (and her unborn child) rejoiced the moment she heard Mary greet her (see Luke 1:44).

After three months, when Mary went back to Nazareth and told Joseph the news, he did not rejoice. He was rather offended. He had been faithful and chaste and knew that he had not fathered any child, so when Mary shows up pregnant, he assumed that she had been unfaithful. This was a logical (though wrong) assumption. Ever since the creation of Adam and Eve, all people have been conceived the same way. No virgin, before or since, had ever become a mother. Matthew 1:19 tells us that Joseph had made up his mind to divorce Mary quietly, so as not to put her to shame, but I am sure that in their conversations that day there was more than a few tears shed by both Mary and Joseph. Such was the supposed offense.

That evening and angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” To Joseph’s credit he believed the word of God from the angel, even though it was essentially the same thing that Mary had told him earlier which he did not believe. The offense that he had presumed from Mary was so great that he couldn’t bring himself to believe her, at first, because she had every reason to lie if she was, in fact, unfaithful. Yet, when Joseph heard God’s word from the angel, he repented of his disbelief and kept Mary as his wife and continued to refrain from intimate relations with her until an appropriate time after Jesus was born.

The actual birth of Jesus was also most inoffensive. Joseph and Mary had to travel South to Bethlehem to comply with a decree from Caesar Augustus about registering in a census. Even though the Davidic dynasty of kings had ended several hundred years before the days of Joseph and Mary, there were likely many, many Jews of that day who could trace their ancestry back to King David. Remember that David’s youngest son and heir, Solomon, alone had 300 wives and 700 concubines, and surely also fathered more than his fair share of children, though the Scriptures don’t tell us how many children came from these arrangements. Even acknowledging that over the years some of David’s descendants may have lost track of their ancestral line, there surely was quite a crowd that was coming to Bethlehem to register for Caesar’s census. Yet, the birth of the Son of God didn’t put anyone out the night He was born. Instead, Mary and Joseph apparently stayed in a barn (or its equivalent), and placed the newborn baby Jesus in a manger as his first crib. This humble birth was the very opposite of offensive.

Joseph protected his family by taking them to Egypt until the death of Herod

That same night after Jesus was born, angels from God appeared to shepherds near Bethlehem and told them the good news about the birth of God’s Son, and they weren’t offended at all and came and worshiped Him. Likewise, when the Magi saw the star, and interpreted it to mean that a king was born to the Jews, they came to worship Him. However, they logically assumed that the new king was born in Jerusalem and first went there to find the royal baby. King Herod was not a descendant of David, nor a Jew, nor a Levite, nor even a descendant of Israel. When Herod heard about the birth of the King of the Jews, he took offense. Herod didn’t want a Jewish king. He wanted one of his sons (one whom he hadn’t yet killed) to succeed him as king, not a descendant of Judah born in Bethlehem. After the Magi left town without even saying goodbye and identifying the newborn King of the Jews, Herod sent soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the baby boys younger than two years.


The murderous insanity of Herod shows the tragic foolishness of taking offense at the birth of Jesus. Yet it also reminds us that we shouldn’t be surprised when people take offense at this wonderful event.


The birth of Christ is such an important event in human history that when the Roman empire became a Christian empire after Constantine legalized Christianity, they eventually made an effort to count the years from the birth of Jesus. They likely weren’t perfect in this, and we now believe Jesus was born around 3-4 B.C. as we count the years. The description of the years as B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini – year of our Lord) also offends people who don’t recognize Christ as Lord and they would rather describe the years as B.C.E. (before the Christian era, or before the “common” era) and C.E.

Jesus was rejected in Nazareth

Besides the birth of Jesus, people took offense at Jesus many times during His ministry. Luke 4:16-30 records the first time Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth after He was baptized by John and had endured 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, He read an appointed reading from Isaiah and then said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” The men who heard this took offense at His words and took him out and intended to throw Him off a cliff, but this was not His time to die, yet, so He somehow miraculously and gently didn’t let them do Him harm and “passing through their midst, he went away.”


John 5 tells of a time when Jesus healed a crippled man on a Sabbath day, and the Pharisees took offense at this. They ought to have rejoiced that Jesus had mercy on this poor man who had been crippled for 38 years. Instead, they were offended that Jesus broke their man-made laws about Sabbath work. They were also offended that such a great miracle would draw the people’s respect and admiration to Him instead of them. Jesus was not breaking God’s laws about the Sabbath because as He told those who were offended, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” They also took offense at this because He was calling God His Father, and showing Himself equal with God. Though they ought to have recognized the evidence that Jesus is God, they instead sought to kill Him.

The idolatrous Jewish priests took offense at Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Some hard-hearted people even took offense at the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11). John 12:9-11 tells us that the chief Priests intended not only to kill Jesus, but to kill Lazarus as well because on account of this wonderful miracle many Jews were going away from their false teaching and following Jesus. They saw Jesus as a threat to their authority among the people and so they were offended.

The bottom line of Christmas is that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Sinners who resent being reminded of the truth are offended by this. On the other hand, sinners who recognize their desperate situation and see the hope and comfort in God coming to save us from our sin rejoice in the birth of Jesus along with His life and death and resurrection from the dead.

This past year (2017) was one of the most painful years that I have ever experienced. You know it is bad when a broken leg (and subsequent recovery and rehabilitation) was not the worst thing that happened. Yet, the blessings of Christ and His forgiveness and salvation were a comfort to me in sickness and in health, in pain and in pleasure, in sorrow and in joy.

May the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won for you give you joy and peace and all blessings this Christmas season. May you never take offense at Christ or any of God’s work to redeem you and make you His beloved child. Merry Christmas.