Author: Mike Wallace — “Montana Mike”
Christmas is said to be the birthday of Christ and we are all to celebrate his arrival on earth as a human being, yet no one knows the exact day of His birth. Do we realize Christmas is not only not mentioned or commanded to be kept in the Bible but it is in fact of a pagan origin? Christ’s apostles did NOT celebrate His birth. The early church did NOT celebrate His birth. Christmas was not a part of worship in the Church of Rome until the 200’s AD.
In 354 AD, December 25th was declared Christ’s birthday, and not until 440 AD did the Church of Rome command the keeping of Christmas. December 25th was already celebrated around the world by pagan cultures to commemorate the winter solstice and the worship of the “sun” god. It was celebrated in pagan ancient Persia to worship Mithraism, whose followers worshipped the sun. In ancient times, gifts were exchanged on the Roman Saturnalia, a feast to the god Saturn and was a part of the emperor worship. Persia, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece Rome, early Britain, Caledonia (Scotland), Germany, Gaul (France), Ireland and countries of the east all worshipped the “sun” god on December 25th for hundreds of years BEFORE the birth of Christ in honor of the winter solstice and the “sun” god.
Christmas is the new transformed name used in place of the worship of the sun god of ancient times. Christmas was grafted into the Roman church because the worship and merriment of the worship of the Saturnalia sun god was too powerful to overcome. Nothing about Christmas is of Christian origin and nothing of it honors God. It is an ancient pagan worship made to look like the worship of the “Son” of God in place of the “sun” god.
God is explicit in telling His people NOT to mingle with and add in pagan religion and culture to the worship of the true God. God said, “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2). As Christians, we are repeatedly told by God to keep His commandments and His days of worship (God’s Festivals are outlined in Leviticus 23) and to NOT keep any of the days of man (Deut.12:30-32). After repeating His ten commandments in Deut. 5, God says in verse 29, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”
We are to honor and obey God above all else and only God has the authority to decide what is right and wrong. We are to keep God’s days, not man’s (Deut. 4:13-14). We are not to add or mix in our days of worship with God’s days (Pro. 30:6). We must not preach another gospel (II Cor. 11:3-4). Those who do preach another gospel are “false prophets” and are in league with Satan himself (II Cor.11:13-15). If we preach and teach “another gospel” we are accursed (Gal. 1:6-8). Christians are not to go back to their prior doctrines, the “weak and beggarly” elements of man’s false pagan religions (Gal. 4:9-11). We must remove ourselves from the traditions of men (Col. 2:8). God’s Holy Spirit is to lead us, we are not to follow the lead of natural man (I Cor. 2:12-14). We should not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers (II Cor.6:14-18). Do not turn back to paganism and their false days (Gal. 4:9-11). Do not worship God in vain (Matt. 15:9 and Mark 7:7). We are to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).
Santa Claus is a lie. Going down chimneys and delivering presents is a lie. Jesus being born on December 25th is a lie. The 9th commandment says not “to bear false witness”. We are not to follow the way of the world (See Jeremiah 10:2-6 for a description of how the world worships false gods). We are not to mix God’s true religion with pagan false religion (II Cor. 6:14-18).
The truth is Jesus was born, lived a perfect, sin-free life, was crucified, and died for precisely three days and three nights. He then rose from the dead and returned to God the Father. This is what the Bible teaches us to worship, Jesus Christ in all His glory. We are not to worship Him with false gospels but we are to worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
Christmas is a pagan custom and must not be participated in by God’s family of Christian believers.
For further study of the pagan origins of Christmas see: Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Ed., “From Christ to Constantine” by M.A.Smith, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, pub. 1948. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology.
