And man, at war with man, hears notrnThe love-song which they bring; —rnOh hush the noise, ye men of strife,rnAnd hear the angels sing!rnThe Christian era has been a mere “two thousand years ofrnwrong?” Wliat, then, is the purpose of Christmas? It is our opportimityrnto “hear the angels sing.” Wliat do they sing? “Peacernon the earth, goodwill to men from heav’n’s all-gracious King.”rnThe final verse reflects the Unitarians’ intense postmilleunialrnUtopian vision for America:rnFor lo! the days are hastening onrnBy prophet bards foretold.rnWhen with the ever circling yearsrnComes round the age of gold;rnWhen Peace shall over all the earthrnIts ancient splendors fling,rnAnd the whole world give back the songrnWliich now the angels sing.rnIf the deluge of worldwide bloodshed during the “Christianrncentury” did not drown the manifest-destiny, Unitarian dreamsrnof the unfolding “age of gold” in America, surely the WorldrnTrade Center bombing of September 11 did. Yet the gospel ofrnAmerican Unitarian Christianity and its Christmas remain thernsame. Figgy pudding in hand, Christmas is still a time of proclaimingrnsaccharin peace and goodwill—not because of thernbirth of the Incarnate Son of Cod, who Himself “fs our peace,”rnby virtue of the stripes He received at the hands of Roman soldiers.rnJust “peace and goodwill”—a mantra for postmodern, deracinatedrnAmerica.rnWhen we celebrate the comingrnof Christ-the-mere-moralexample,rnwe are celebrating thernspirit of Antichrist.rnIt is odd that, of all people. Unitarians (such as the ReverendrnSears) took to the robust celebration of “Christmas.” Unitarianism,rnafter all, draws its very name from its denial of the Incarnation.rnFurthermore, the New F.ngland Puritans —that primordialrnsoup Irom which Unitarians arise—loathed Christmas,rncalling it “diabolical.” In their minds, it was a shameful,rn”popish” innovation from which the Church must be purified.rnIt was a crime to celebrate Christmas in Puritan Massachusettsrnuntil 1681. But the hyperrahonal, Socinian devolution of Puritanismrnthat occurred in New England during the middle of thern18th century, which produced both evangelicalism (tliroughrnthe Great Awakening) and Unitarianism, also marks the beginningrnof the modem American incarnation of Christmas.rnToday, American Christians lament the fact that, by andrnlarge, wc have “taken Christ out of Christmas.” However,rnChrist has never really been part of Christmas in popular Americanrnculture, because the Incarnation has either been paidrnmere lip service (as is so often tlie case among evangelicals) orrnbeen completely rejected (as is the case with the “liberalrnchurches” that later took the name “Unitarian”). This low regardrnfor the Incarnation can, in fact, be traced back to the AmericanrnPuritans.rnThat the Puritans had a low regard for the doctrine of the Incarnahonrnmay seem, on the surface, to be a scandalous charge.rnIndeed, when the “liberal churches” (as the Puritans dubbedrnthem) began to declare openly that the idea that God became arnMan was irrational, the few remaining churches in New Englandrnthat held to the old ways broke fellowship with the liberalsrnand refiised to exchange pulpits with them. Wlicn the Puritans’rnown Harvard College began teaching Arian C’hristology to itsrndivinity students, the true Puritans left and fonned a new schoolrnat Andover.rnThe Puritans who came to the shores of New England tornform the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 16′?0’s and 40’srnbelieved that the work of the Reformahon was left incompleternby Martin Luther, the Church of England, and even JohnrnCalvin, and they sought to purge the Church of the “leaven ofrnRome.” They also rejected the organic, ineaniahonal understandingrnof the Church, declaring that neither apostolic successionrnnor the Sacraments (as genuine means of grace) are identifyingrnmarks of the Church but innovations added to the purernChristianify of apostolic times.rnUnlike Catholics in Maryland, Lutherans in New York andrnPennsylvania, and their own Anglican neighbors, the Puritansrndid not celebrate Christinas. Certainly, they did know how torncelebrate: They were fond of commemorating ever^’thing (includingrnthe first Thanksgiving of their neighbors in the PlymouthrnColony) with grand feasts and copious quantities of ale,rnbrandy, and rum. But traditional Christian holidays were unaeeeptable,rnperverted, popish. Pure reason clearly perceivesrnthat the Bible never tells us to celebrate Christmas or any otherrnChristian holiday—in fact (they pointed out), we arc orderedrnnot to respect times and seasons. (That St. Paul had Jewi.sli festivalsrnand Sabbaths in mind seems to have slipped past them.)rnThe Puritans thought they were restoring primitive Christianity.rnInstead, they were reviving old heresies while, at thernsame time, paying homage to pure human reason as the meansrnby which man distills the truth of God both from the book of naturernand biblical revelation. 1 he New England divines werernnot the traditional curmudgeons they are now portrayed to be:rnThey were young, innovative, and foolish, thinking that Christianityrn(unlike Christ) is not incamational. In their brash austerify,rnthey failed to learn the lesson of the central fact of Christianify:rnthat God works through real, physical means.rnPuritan sermons do include indirect references to the Incarnation,rnbut little mention is made as to its importance in therngrand scheme of salvation or its effect on the everyday life of thernbeliever. Wliat counts is an authentic conversion, followed byrnthe living of a godly life. I’he Puritans eliminated the popish innovationrnofpericopal readings—the biblical lessons proscribedrnfor each Sunday of the Church year. They also eliminated thernChurch year. In doing so, they removed the check and balancernthat kept the sermon focused on the events surrounding the life,rndeath, and resurrection of the Incarnate Christ. Thus, theyrnwere free to preach abstractly, esoterically, and at length onrnProvidence, the identifying marks of true believers, and “religiousrnaffections,” rather than, say, the siguihcancc of the Annunciation,rnthe NaHvify, or even the Cro.ss of Christ.rn18/CHRONICLESrnrnrn