The Church has been here for give or take 1,979 years and will continue to celebrate the greatest gift of all time, namely the gift from the Father of His Son, that who so ever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Now, I could care less if those outside the Church celebrate this gift on 12/25 or not, but i do find it interesting that this “pagan” charge resonates with those who continually attack the Body of Christ.
The reason it does i guess is that it plays into their narrative that the Church went apostate in the 2nd century and had to be restored in the 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th century ( depending upon what “group” you belong to )
The Church will continue to proclaim the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus until He comes again, just as she has been doing for 1,979 years, whether BB or anyone has a “problem with it” or not. deal with it.
Who's "attacking" the Body of Christ? I am a member of that body - deal with it.
If, however, you want to actually discuss the subject of this thread - whether or not the celebration of "Christmas" has pagan roots or not, just simply say so - no need to get defensive about it.
Like I said, I do not have a problem with the holiday. If it actually WAS the celebration of the birth of Jesus at the start, it would be fine, too. But we know that it was not something the first Christians noted and it took several hundred years for it to start being seen that way. We have no mention of Jesus' birthday being celebrated when he was physically here on earth nor do we have any mention of it from the Apostles. I think the celebration of the light coming into the world with the birth of Christ is worth celebrating, but it was his death and resurrection that deserves the MOST, of course. There can be no denying that there were many ancient customs around that time of year and that many of them found their way into the Christian religion either by chance or purposely. I think we can ALL agree that the rampant consumerism and greed factors have diminished whatever spiritual purpose intended when Christians started observing it. It's up to us to continue the correct reason for the season and do whatever we can to not allow the amazing grace of God who gave us the unspeakable gift of eternal life through His Son to be lost in the shuffle.