Christmas day has always been an annual festival celebrated by Christians across the world. Christmas season is characterized with the fun of various music, new attractive clothes and shoes, fireworks, decorations, feasting, exchange of gifts and so on.
But, I became uneasy when I read through the Bible without locating any verse that points to the Christmas festival. No verse in the Bible mentioned the birthday of Jesus to be 25th December. No verse in the Bible instructs Christians to celebrate the birthday of Jesus.
I had noticed a lot of ‘mixed-up’ in the Christendom and promised myself not to be a ‘zombie’. I don’t want to be carried away by the popular doctrines or practices in the church, but to be secured by the Word of God in the Bible.
I was shocked when I discovered the origin of Christmas!
What is Christmas?
Christmas is a word created by the Roman Catholic. It means ‘mass on Christ’s day’. History explained that the gospel of the Roman Catholic is completely different from the gospel of Jesus.
Roman Catholic gospel echoes more of Virgin Mary and idolatry practices. Everyone who watches Pope Francis during the Christmas Eve mass will agree with me that catholic embraces idolatry worship. Pope kissed a statue of Baby Jesus to kick off the mass in st Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican City.
Exodus chapter 20 verse 4 and 5 says: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.”
Origin of Christmas
In the 4th century CE, the Roman Catholic Church had the intention to win the souls of large populace of the pagans. So, the church leaders decided to Christianize the famous pagan party called the Saturnalia festival.
Saturnalia festival is a pagan celebration for the birthday of ‘Unconquered Sun’.
This celebration involves wild parties, exchange of gifts and feasting in the temples of the ancient Rome.
The leaders of the church welcomed the pagans and their festival into the Christendom. And the population of the church rose, but the leaders could not stop the pagan festival. So they named the last day of the one week Saturnalia festival – December 25th as the birthday of Jesus Christ.
You may care to know that the first Christmas day was celebrated in the pagan style of singing naked in the streets (this had been refined to modern caroling), drinking, sexual indulgence and all other forms of unclean practices. The Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents and Santa Claus are modern ways of representing the ancient pagan rituals.
Ancient records show that Christmas has no origin from God or Jesus Christ. I would love to quote a part from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church… Pagan customs centering round the January Calends gravitated to Christmas”.
According to Britannica.com, “December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221. And one widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the “day of the birth of the unconquered sun”.
Celebration of Christmas
Our parents, various organizations, and the government always play a big role in the joyful celebration of the Christmas festival. So, we never thought of checking the Bible, if the Lord had asked us to celebrate His birthday.
I am sure that the writers of the Bible wouldn’t have skipped the birthday of Jesus if it was celebrated. If you are a Bible-believing Christian, I implore you to search through the scriptures and find out if the genuine children of God should partake in the celebration of Christmas.
The celebration of Christmas has no honor to Jesus, because it was the tradition of men. Matthew chapter 15 verse 9 says: “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
I am not comfortable with the Roman Catholic church who refused to take away idols from their church. And the obedience to human law that established Christmas festival was obeyed to the letter.
Jesus says in Mark chapter 7 verse 7 and 8: “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men–the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
You might say: “oh! I love the fun of Christmas, but I don’t take part in the pagan practices”. Well, I want you to understand the truth that the origin of the Christmas festival is not from God but the sun-worshipers.
This practice of Christmas is synonymous to a particular generation of the Israelite who thought their idolatry lifestyle is normal. But when the Book of the Law was read to remind them about the righteous way of the LORD, they wept and amend their ways. You can read the details in Nehemiah chapter 8.
I want us to trace our steps backward to confirm from the Bible if we are doing what is right by celebrating Christmas.
Christmas festival appears to glitter like gold, but is it truly gold?
