As a child I loved this holiday. I loved the lights, the colors, the aspect of getting gifts, time off from school was always a bonus, spending time with my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and just the festiveness of the holiday season itself. All that changed when I was saved and started to notice a few things.

Although there is an intriguing duality about the holiday there is too much tradition that clouds peoples minds and as such, the facts concerning the holiday are lost and people seem far to complacent with the tradition to question it.

Fact: the bible does not mention when Jesus was born. Fact: the wise men were not on hand when Jesus was born. Fact: The wise men found Jesus as a young child not a baby. Fact: no gifts were presented to Jesus on the night He was born. Fact: when the wise men found Jesus, He was in a house, not a manger. Fact: only the wise men presented Jesus with gifts when they found Him, and there is no scriptural evidence in the least to indicate that they arrived on His birthday with the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The wise men knew that they were honoring a King, that is the reason for the gifts, not a birthday present. Fact: there is no mention at all in the bible of any birthday celebration for Christ, ever.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Jesus Christ is not praise worthy, he is far more praise worthy then every Christian since time began past, present, or future can offer simultaneously. In fact my concern is that people are following a ritual that goes back to a time when there was no Christmas. In fact our modern Christmas evolved from pagan customs and rituals, and that is not how you honor a King.

I have a book called Keeping Christ In Christmas and I am going to use some of the material from the book to prove my point.

First off though I want to mention one of the foundation’s for my distaste for this holiday. Colossians 2: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

In A.D. 350, Pope Julius 1 declared December 25th the official date of Christ’s birth, and in 529 Emperor Justinian declared Christmas a public holiday. There was no bible teaching to base their decision on, in fact as I will show, it was based purely on paganism.

The December date for Christmas was not arbitrary but was a calculated decision that reflected the importance of winter solstice festivals for the non-Christian cultures in Europe and Asia. To abolish these festivals in favor of only Christian forms of celebration would have been political suicide so it became clear to church leaders early on that rather than trying to beat the non-Christians, it would be wiser to join them. Thus the church incorporated deep-rooted pagan traditions into Christmas worship and celebration.

There are a few things I would like to point out about the paragraph above. One is the fact that the modern Christmas celebration was conceived by the Catholic church, more for political reasons then anything else. Second, if you noticed, the paragraph above mentions the non-Christian cultures . Catholicism is in itself a non-Christian culture. How can a non-Christian culture set up a religion for another non-Christian culture? How do deep rooted pagan traditions ( some of which are still with us) honor the birth of Christ?

December 21 winter solstice featured ceremonies to pacify the sun and convince it to return. After the solstice the shortest day of the year the days got longer again and magnificent celebrations were held in honor of the sun’ s return.

Saturnalia was observed December 17th-24th and was a combined celebration of different events, among them Saturn’s triumph over Jupiter. candles were used to scare away the darkness and celebrate the sun and light. There were giving of gifts, done in honor of the goddess of vegetation, Strenia.

The use of December 25th was a remnant of the Mithraic religion. Mithra, the god of light and wisdom, was said to have been born from a rock on December 25th In the 3rd Century, before Constantine became Emperor, Emperor Aurelian declared December 25th the day of the invincible sun.

For many people, incorporating Mithraic rites into the celebration of Christmas was easy to justify. Jesus represents hope and light. So rather then celebrating the sun, people would be celebrating the SON of God in other words the birth of Christ replaced the birth of the sun as cause for celebration.

This is the birth of the holiday known as Christmas. Over the years it has under gone transformations to make it more acceptable, but it is a holiday that is founded in paganism and had nothing to do with Christ at all. How does a tree celebrate the birth of Christ? How is mistletoe a part of Christ’s birth? What does Santa Claus have to do with the Christ child? How can Christians over look the origin of this holiday with all the paganism that is symbolic in most aspects of this holiday?

We as Christians do not need all the holiday trappings associated with this holiday to worship our Savior Jesus Christ. In fact we are to Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 So by this Christians are to be continually in prayer and that would also mean giving thanks for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We don’t, or shouldn’t t need one day out of the year, with pagan origins, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we should be doing it all year long in our hearts, prayers, and family bible studies.

Christians should want to do away with the paganism of this holiday. 2 Corinthians 7:1 states Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

A person can change his clothes and look respectable, but it is what is on the inside that determines if a man is respectable or not. It reminds me of the verse used in Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead mans bones, and of all uncleanness. To me, The celebration we go through every year is a whited sepulcher and the history behind it is the dead men’s bones and uncleanness. Christmas outwardly seems fine and happy and good, but it's history is not.

Christ's life from birth, to death, to resurrection, and everything in between, should be celebrated in our everyday lives, continually, joyfully, and faithfully. Why let tradition determine when and why we celebrate our faith?

I do not recall Jesus following tradition. As a matter of fact didn’t  Jesus preach against the following of tradition in Matthew 15:3, and Mark 7:9,13?

Jeremiah 10:2-4: "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."

According to the LORD in the verse above, Christians are not to learn the way of the heathen, their customs are vain.

C.H. Spurgeon, in the Treasury of David, on Psalm 81:4, wrote, "When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, 'Is this a law of the God of Jacob?'"

Jesus taught us to follow the laws of God. We are taught to pray continually, we as Christians are told in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:6 Jesus was not consulted when this holiday came about. It was a conglomeration of pagan traditions merged into one seemingly respectable holiday that would be universally accepted. To me, it is reminiscent of the ecumenical movement that most Christians are opposed to.

To reiterate, I am a Christian. I am born again and I have acknowledged the miracles of Christ and have even brought a few people to be saved by Christ. I know that without salvation, there is no getting to Heaven and I acknowledge Jesus as my Personal Lord and Savior.

I stated that because it is not so easy to write all this. Christmas is a major, and very established tradition in my family and it plays a big role in most peoples families because it has been around for so long. But I honestly believe that the traditions are more important then the faith to most people.

I have also wondered if some churches are kind of backed into a corner as far as Christmas goes. If a visitor went to a Christmas service in my church and my Pastor was giving a sermon similar to what I am writing and there were no traditional trappings such as a tree, the lights, angels, nativity scene and etc I believe it would affect the attendance of the church because people do follow this ritual every year. I think even some of the church regulars might be offended because it would not be a traditional church service.

I do know for sure though that Jesus never did what was fashionable and he never catered to what people wanted to hear. He rebuked many people and set a lot of things straight. We need to follow the same example and be honest about our traditions and I think we all need to examine what holiday celebrations we follow and why.

Since my salvation I have been bothered by the Christmas season because shortly after my salvation I did some research into the holiday and was abhorred by my findings.

I have also had many reservations about some Christian churches like who put up traditional Christmas decorations. Since my initial research, I know the symbolism of the decorations on the trees as well as the symbolism of the tree itself. TO ME it never seemed right to preach the birth of Christ, and the miracles associated with it, while a tree sits in the background and the day is being celebrated on a traditional pagan holiday.

This is a problem I wrestle with yearly and it does not help that my wife and kids want the tree, the lights, the ornaments and some of the traditional trappings of the holiday.

Most Christians that I know do not let their kids celebrate a traditional Halloween with the demon masks and vampires, witches and such because it is a very pagan holiday. Halloween itself is not honoring to Christ, it’s origins involved human sacrifice. And yet even some Christians in one form or another capitulate and let their kids celebrate Halloween in some form, why?

It makes no sense to me to celebrate Christmas when the traditional celebration itself is of pagan origins. The exact date of Christ’s birth was excluded from Biblical history for a reason. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 We know Christ was born, and we know why Christ was born. When He was born is not important, that He was born, and followed His Fathers will in all things. That is what matters.

I can even get in to the whole origins of the Catholic church. I firmly believe that the Catholic Church is the Great Whore mentioned in Revelations 17 and the Catholics are responsible for the melding of the pagan rituals to give us our modern holiday. I refuse to see how this all works together for good to them that love God.

If true Christians, followed the bible and simply put aside all the pagan traditions and nonsense and simply praised Christ in their daily lives, then Wal-Mart would be in a pretty sad state in December. As it is now it is shiny beads and shallow flattery for the most part, at least in my opinion.

Why is it that you only hear about miracles on this time of year? Does God only perform miracles during the Christmas season?

Christmas is also about guilt. Kids are expecting presents, toys, bikes, dolls, and etc and the parents are expected to deliver, and if they can not fulfill their child’s expectations of “Santa” visiting, then they tend to feel guilty for being a bad parent. Christ wants that?

What about those TV. specials about the sunken eyed mother crying because she lost her job and can not provide for her family? Toward the end of the movie all her friends and maybe a church member, has instigated some act to make things all better by the end of the movie. Does this kind of thing only happen at Christmas? Can mankind be counted on to be at it s best only on the Christmas season ? If the mother was struggling all year long, where were her friends then? Why didn’t  they help the rest of the year? Why do those movies showcase a women, or family at the end of their rope AT CHRISTMAS? To try to showcase God's good will, or man’s sterling humanity? So again, God and good natured people only help out during the Christmas Season?

People commit suicide daily, but it is a fact that the suicide rate jumps drastically around the holiday, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. Some people do not have much to be thankful for, and for others the pressure of Christmas is simply overwhelming. This is not how God meant for us to celebrate the birth of His Son.

Psalm 23 describes how God intended for things to be for us. Now look at how things really are. God does not let us down, we let Him down. I can’t believe that this traditional Christmas is how we are to worship the birth of the planets Savior.

Now, 2nd Corinthians 6:14-18 says Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness. 15. And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel ? 16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I shall be their God, and they shall be my people. 17. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 18.And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

The verses above are very specific, as are the other verses I used from the bible to support my position. Why would the Lord use such specific wording if he thought it was okay for us to decide on our own, the spiritual path we think we should take? We have specific instructions from the Lord, people just choose to do what they think is best and incorporate the bible when it suites them.

Last question: If Christmas is just for fun, or if Christmas does not mean now what it did in times past, at least concerning the paganism, then when and how did all these pagan rituals, which comprise Christmas, become acceptable to God, thus becoming okay for us in the modern times to practice?

 

 

 

 

Children should be learning to give the gift of thanks and praise daily, not just giving God a quick nod on this token holiday.