Xmas
So what's the real story behind reducing "Christmas" to "Xmas?" Is it simple shorthand, an atheistic ploy to rid the world of Christ-mas, or something far more sinister? The answer may be less offensive than you think. R.C. Sproul shares what X-mas may actually mean.
Excerpt:
"First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ."
"We don’t see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God."
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/x-christmas/
Excerpt:
"First of all, you have to understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a shorthand symbol for the name of Christ."
"We don’t see people protesting the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God."
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.ligonier.org/blog/x-christmas/
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