It is pointed out to those who wish to avoid using the word Christmas, that XMAS does not suffice as a replacement since the x in Greek is supposedly short for Christ. I don't know if that is the origin or not of the xmas shorthand. As I recently posted, I'm not overly scrupulous about using Christmas and used xmas a lot in the past; we are to speak so as to be understood and Scripture gives us some leeway as James Durham points out, which I also recently remarked on and have posted on in the past. However, note his qualification at the end. Maybe Dec25mass will suffice instead of xmas if one wants to avoid the term?
"II. For the second, seeing it gets this name to be called the Lord’s day, it may be questioned here concerning our manner of speaking of days, calling the Lord’s Day Sunday, the next day after it Monday, etc., which has the first rise from superstition, if not from idolatry, some of them being attributed to planets, as Sunday and Monday; some of them to idols, as Thursday, etc. But to speak to the thing itself, look to the primitive times, we will find Sunday called the Lord’s Day, and the days of the week by the first, second, third, etc. But the names of days, being like the names of places and months, folks must speak of them as they are in use, and scripture warrants us so to do. Acts 17:22, Paul is said to stand in the midst of Mars hill. Acts 28:11 speaks of a ship, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. So, March, January, July and August, are from the idols Mars and Janus, or derived from men that appropriate more than ordinary to themselves. And though it was ordinary to Christians in the primitive times to call this day the Lord’s day among themselves, yet when they had dealing with the Jews, they called it the Sabbath, and when they had dealing with the heathen, they called it the Sunday. And so, though it be best to speak of days as scripture names them, yet it is agreeable with scripture to design or denominate them as they are in use among a people, especially where no superstitious use is in naming of them." James Durham, Commentary on Rev. 1:10.
"II. For the second, seeing it gets this name to be called the Lord’s day, it may be questioned here concerning our manner of speaking of days, calling the Lord’s Day Sunday, the next day after it Monday, etc., which has the first rise from superstition, if not from idolatry, some of them being attributed to planets, as Sunday and Monday; some of them to idols, as Thursday, etc. But to speak to the thing itself, look to the primitive times, we will find Sunday called the Lord’s Day, and the days of the week by the first, second, third, etc. But the names of days, being like the names of places and months, folks must speak of them as they are in use, and scripture warrants us so to do. Acts 17:22, Paul is said to stand in the midst of Mars hill. Acts 28:11 speaks of a ship, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. So, March, January, July and August, are from the idols Mars and Janus, or derived from men that appropriate more than ordinary to themselves. And though it was ordinary to Christians in the primitive times to call this day the Lord’s day among themselves, yet when they had dealing with the Jews, they called it the Sabbath, and when they had dealing with the heathen, they called it the Sunday. And so, though it be best to speak of days as scripture names them, yet it is agreeable with scripture to design or denominate them as they are in use among a people, especially where no superstitious use is in naming of them." James Durham, Commentary on Rev. 1:10.
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