Tis' the Season

 

Let's discuss Christmas, the beautiful celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday. The holiday is characterized by sparkling lights, presents under the decorated tree, family gatherings, yule logs, and decorations of holly and mistletoe. It's a magical time of year! When we think of Christmas, it's not just a secular holiday but a celebration that has deep roots in the Bible. It is, after all, the birthday of Christ, the son of God. Though the holiday has been secularized, it is still a celebration of a deity. However, it is not the deity people may think it is.

Most people are aware that December 25th is not actually Christ’s birthday because the Bible does not tell us the date of His birth outright. The Bible does indeed give us clues, but it does not outright say when it is. In fact, the clues and internal evidence point to an early fall birth rather than a mid-winter one, so how did we end up with the cold and snowy date of December 25th for His birthday? Well, it doesn’t come from the Bible. Rather, the season of His birth more closely aligns with a certain festival season declared in Leviticus. This Fall holyday season perfectly aligns with the general time of Christ’s birth and makes a lot of sense when you line it up with the rest of the Bible, but we still aren’t told a specific date. How did we end up with December 25th being connected to Christ then? Simply put, it was an effort by Christians to blend paganism with Christianity to make it more appealing to those who were already pagans, similar to today, where Churches will change their beliefs or service in order to appeal to a broader crowd, rather than preaching a message that inspires others to change themselves to become like Christ.

I was talking to someone, and they asked me if I kept Christmas. I replied that I did not, and she asked why. After I responded that it was because it was not Christ’s birthday and had nothing to do with Him, she told me about a message she had heard about the meaning of all the decorations and customs surrounding Christmas and how they pictured Christ. After I was silent in response, she said, “Well, if you think about it, you’ll see that Christmas is actually about Christ.” The problem with human reasoning is that it gets us into all kinds of trouble and frequently puts us at odds with God. I say we ditch Christmas and return it to the pagans where it belongs. Many pagans are probably cheering at that since they are the ones who invented Christmas in the first place (look up Saturnalia).

So, if Christmas is not Christ’s birthday but a pagan festival, why celebrate it? In the Bible, we are not told to celebrate Christ’s birth. The life event we are told to memorialize is His death on the cross, also known as Passover. As Job said, the day of death is better than the day of birth. Our birth is a blank slate; it is our death that defines us. 

Worse than this, though, why try to connect Christ with something pagan? It seems to me that this would be offensive to Him, akin to trying to dress our wife in our old girlfriend’s clothing and perfume cause we miss her. God has something to say about this very thing. 

Deuteronomy 12:29-31 CSB "When the LORD your God annihilates the nations before you, which you are entering to take possession of, and you drive them out and live in their land, 

30 "be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, 'How did these nations worship their gods? I'll also do the same.' 

31 "You must not do the same to the LORD your God, because they practice every detestable act, which the LORD hates, for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

1 Corinthians 10:20-22 CSB No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! 

21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord's table and the table of demons. 

22 Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? 

Leviticus 20:23 ESV And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

Should we really be using pagan days to claim worship to our God? It would seem that that would be quite foolish indeed. Our entire goal and mission as followers of Christ is to please Him by becoming like Him. Blending paganism with our worship is not the way to do this! That is not the way at all.

Galatians 1:10 NKJV For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Romans 8:8 NKJV So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1 Thessalonians 2:15 NKJV who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men,

1 Thessalonians 4:1 NKJV Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;

We are going to take a look at one much-loved aspect of Christmas: the Christmas tree. A tall, decorated evergreen idol that people bring into their houses and put offerings under in the form of presents, and call the worship of God. Well, it is the worship of a god, but not the one they think they are worshipping (again, look up Saturnalia and the history of Christmas). That’s precisely how the pagans of Israel’s day used to worship: under every green tree. Jeremiah even describes a Christmas tree in one place.   

2 Kings 17:10 ESV They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

Jeremiah 10:2-4 ESV Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, 

3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. 

4 They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. 

So much for tree worship! Don’t even get me started on Santa Claus! The original was not the jolly fellow we have today; rather, he was more of a demon character. Not very Christ-like!

The closer we look at the shiny wrapping paper of Christmas, the more cracks we see that reveal the ugly paganism underneath. As children of God, we should not worship Him in the same way as the pagans. Instead, we should worship Him as He commands us on the days He has sanctified. We must turn away from our sinful ways and from false idols and seek repentance. We should return to the One who has set us free, for He is a jealous God and is not pleased by us using our old girlfriend's perfume on Him. We must seek how we can please Him, and blending paganism is not the way.

If you would like more information, my brother Brett has written an in-depth article on the history of Christmas. 

https://buildingonthefoundation.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-most-mysterious-holiday-rest-of-story.html

https://buildingonthefoundation.blogspot.com/2022/12/is-new-years-day-pagan.html