The Danger of Christmas - When the Symbols Replace the Savior

Christmas becomes dangerous when the symbols grow larger than the Savior they were meant to proclaim. Mangers, music, gifts, and traditions can quietly replace worship if they are detached from the cross and the gospel. Families must come back to the full story of Christ—from incarnation and humiliation to death, resurrection, and kingship. True joy is found not in the celebration itself, but in the Savior it points to.

Christian schools promise safety, but safety is found only in obedience to God's design. When education separates knowledge from character and learning from obedience, it produces pride rather than wisdom. Scripture calls parents to teach diligently as they sit, walk, rise, and lie down. True education is not measured by information transferred, but by lives shaped in the fear of the Lord.

The data is sobering: abortion support is rising, abortion pills are becoming normalized, and even self-identified evangelicals are divided where clarity should reign. This is reminiscent of Judah's collapse after Josiah - top-down reform without grassroots doesn't save a nation. Christians need to stop hiding behind soft language, speak plainly about murder and the 6th commandment, and seek cleansing through the blood of Christ.

Australia wants to ban social media for kids under 16, school shooters' parents face 180-year sentences, and Western governments increasingly act like surrogate parents. Kevin and Bill ask the big question: who actually has God-given authority over children—parents, the state, or the child himself?

Spiritual drift is rarely dramatic—it's quiet, subtle, and often unnoticed until you've drifted "900 miles" from where you started. Kevin and the dads talk honestly about the warning signs: selfishness, prayerlessness, skipped family worship, and hearts more drawn to entertainment than to Christ. They walk through anchors and rhythms—daily Word, prayer, Lord's Day, honest confession—and share practical ways to shepherd sleepy, distracted families back to spiritual alertness and joy in Christ.

If America's centralized systems crack, is that only bad news? Kevin and Bill compare our moment to the collapse of Rome and the so-called "Dark Ages," when the gospel quietly discipled Europe for centuries. They explain how centralized power devalues the individual, feeds elitism, and makes it easier for principalities and powers to capture education, media, and law. Then they sketch a biblical alternative: family economies, local churches with real jurisdiction, and a nation of millions of obedient households instead of one towering state.

Is Social Security just neutral math, or a moral issue for Christians? Kevin Swanson and Josh Schwisow open Matthew 15, 1 Timothy 5, and the example of Jesus on the cross to show that God assigns elder care first to children, grandchildren, and the local church—not the state. They expose Social Security as an unsustainable Ponzi scheme propped up by birth implosion and political denial, and then cast a hopeful vision for families, diaconates, and congregations that tithe, give, and prepare to care for their own widows when the system cracks.

Why are 62% of Gen Z now favorable toward socialism and a third open to communism? Kevin Swanson and Danny Craig trace the pipeline: professors who are 9:1 Democrat, K–12 "nanny state" schooling, trillion-dollar welfare, and a faux "capitalism" that quietly rewards the ruling class and squeezes the poor and middle. Then they flip the script and outline how to raise children who fear God, reject statist dependence, embrace family economy, work hard, and overflow in generosity instead of entitlement.

Were the "Dark Ages" really dark—or were they the centuries when the gospel quietly transformed Europe? Dr. George Grant walks through monks, missionaries, market towns, and parish churches, showing how Christendom slowly replaced pagan slavery with a culture of worship, work, freedom, and learning. Kevin and George then ask what today's Christians can learn if we want to see that kind of patient, courageous culture-building again.

The dads confront the modern "gentle parenting" movement head-on, arguing that its rejection of authority, restraint, and negative consequences has produced fragile families and weakened churches. Looking at Eli, David, and their sons, they show why Scripture insists that love includes rebuke, chastening, confession, and consistency. They discuss how to discipline without anger, how to correct while maintaining relationship, how to set wise family rules, and why children thrive inside clear boundaries. A needed re-alignment of grace and truth for Christian fathers.