Merry X-Mas

Is using "X-mas" as a shorthand for "Christmas" taking Christ out the holiday? Many people have answered yes to this question and are quite worried. In fact, I discovered a Facebook page entirely devoted to this very concern: Its CHRISTmas.. Not Xmas... Why would u take Christ out of His holiday!?!?! 

Now, I am in no place to speak to anyone’s intentions. It is possible that we have people running around and randomly replacing "Christ" with the letter "X," though this seems like a strange and somewhat underused letter in the English alphabet to select. Nevertheless, though such dastardly motives are possible, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this common designation dating back to the middle ages. "X" is actually a shorthand for Christ. Let me explain: the Greek letter Chi looks very much like our English letter X. And, the Greek word for Christ is Χριστός. Notice that the first letter in this word is a Chi. It looks like an X, does it not? Mystery solved, Merry X-mas.

Are you still not convinced? Very well, below I have provided a copy of a letter originally penned in 1804 by the English Baptist theologian Andrew Fuller. Notice how he spells Christmas:

 

Thoughts on Easter

Why is it important that Christ’s resurrection actually occurred in history, rather than simply a story that brings one a sense of hope? If Christ has not been raised, then we are spiritually dead—but, he has been raised, though. This Easter morning we were reminded that Christ is risen, and that he is the giver of true life. The apostle Paul says it thusly:

¹There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  ² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  ⁶ To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  ⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.  ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  ⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:1-11