Posted on 12/21/2002 11:21:49 AM PST by DouglasKC
Christmas Before Christ?
The Surprising Story
Most people know the Bible doesn't mention - much less sanctify - Christmas. Does it make any difference as long as it's intended to honor God and bring families together?
by Jerold Aust
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"I don't think you should tell kids that there is a Santa Claus," he said. "That's the first lie you tell your children." Instead, "tell kids that Santa's a character we made up to celebrate a time of the season." Otherwise "when kids get to be 5 ... they realize their parents have been lying to them their whole life."
Earlier in the year the Arts & Entertainment cable television channel aired a program about Christmas titled Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas. The promo for this program read:
"People all over the world celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. But why is the Savior's nativity marked by gift- giving, and was He really born on that day? And just where did the Christmas tree come from?
"Take an enchanting journey through the history of the world's favorite holiday to learn the origins of some of the Western world's most enduring traditions. Trace the emergence of Christmas from pagan festivals like the Roman Saturnalia, which celebrated the winter solstice."
These two programs addressed the fact that Santa Claus is fictitious and that Christmas and its trappings emanate from pagan Roman festivals. By no means are these the only sources of information about the background of Santa Claus and Christmas.
Is there more to these ancient traditions and practices than meets the eye? And, more important, does it make any difference whether we continue them?
Celebration of the sun god
It may sound odd that any religious celebration with Christ's name attached to it could predate Christianity. Yet the holiday we know as Christmas long predates Jesus Christ. Elements of the celebration can be traced to ancient Egypt, Babylon and Rome. This fact doesn't cast aspersions on Jesus; it does, however, call into question the understanding and wisdom of those who, over the millennia, have insisted on perpetuating an ancient pagan festival that has devolved through much of the world as Christmas.
Members of the early Church would have been astonished to think that the customs and practices we associate with Christmas would be incorporated into a celebration of Christ's birth. Not until several centuries had passed would Christ's name be attached to this popular Roman holiday.
As Alexander Hislop explains in his book The Two Babylons: "It is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord's birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance" (1959, pp. 92-93).
As for how Dec. 25 became the date for Christmas day, virtually any book on the history of Christmas will explain that this day was celebrated in the Roman Empire as the birthday of the sun god. Explaining how Dec. 25 came to be selected as the supposed birthday of Jesus, the book 4000 Years of Christmas says: "For that day was sacred, not only to the pagan Romans but to a religion from Persia which, in those days, was one of Christianity's strongest rivals. This Persian religion was Mithraism, whose followers worshiped the sun, and celebrated its return to strength on that day" (Earl and Alice Count, 1997, p. 37).
Not only was Dec. 25 honored as the birthday of the sun, but a festival had long been observed among the heathen to celebrate the growing amount of daylight after the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The precursor of Christmas was in fact an idolatrous midwinter festival characterized by excess and debauchery that predated Christianity by many centuries.
Pre-Christian practices incorporated
This ancient festival went by different names in various cultures. In Rome it was called the Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. The observance was adopted by early Roman church leaders and given the name of Christ ("Christ mass," or Christmas) to conciliate the heathen and swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity.
The tendency on the part of third-century Catholic leadership was to meet paganism halfway-a practice made clear in a bitter lament by the Carthaginian philosopher Tertullian.
In 230 he wrote of the inconsistency of professing Christians. He contrasted their lax and political practices with the strict fidelity of the pagans to their own beliefs: "By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals [the biblical festivals spelled out in Leviticus 23], once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians" (Hislop, p. 93).
Failing to make much headway in converting the pagans, the religious leaders of the Roman church began compromising by dressing the heathen customs in Christian-looking garb. But, rather than converting them to the church's beliefs, the church became largely converted to non-Christian customs in its own religious practices.
Although at first the early Catholic Church censured this celebration, "the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favor to be abolished, and the Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed, it should be preserved in honor of the Christian God. Once given a Christian basis the festival became fully established in Europe with many of its pagan elements undisturbed" (Man, Myth & Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion, and the Unknown, Richard Cavendish, editor, 1983, Vol. 2, p. 480, "Christmas").
Celebration wins out over Scripture
Some resisted such spiritually poisonous compromises. "Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition. That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin" (Hislop, p. 93).
The aforementioned Tertullian, for one, disassociated himself from the Roman church in an attempt to draw closer to the teachings of the Bible.
He wasn't alone in his disagreement with such trends. "As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ as if he were a king Pharaoh" (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Vol. 6, p. 293, "Christmas").
Christmas was not made a Roman holiday until 534 (ibid.). It took 300 years for the new name and symbols of Christmas to replace the old names and meaning of the midwinter festival, a pagan celebration that reaches back so many centuries.
No biblical support for Santa Claus
How did Santa Claus enter the picture? Why is this mythical figure so closely aligned with the Christmas holiday? Here, too, many books are available to shed light on the origins of this popular character.
"Santa Claus" is an American corruption of the Dutch form "San Nicolaas," a figure brought to America by the early Dutch colonists (The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Vol. 19, p. 649, "Nicholas, St."). This name, in turn, stems from St. Nicholas, bishop of the city of Myra in southern Asia Minor, a Catholic saint honored by the Greeks and the Latins on Dec. 6.
He was bishop of Myra in the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian, was persecuted, tortured for the Catholic faith and kept in prison until the more tolerant reign of Constantine (ibid.). Various stories claim a link from Christmas to St. Nicholas, all of them having to do with gift-giving on the eve of St. Nicholas, subsequently transferred to Christmas Day (ibid.).
How, we might ask, did a bishop from the sunny Mediterranean coast of Turkey come to be associated with a red-suited man who lives at the north pole and rides in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer?
Knowing what we have already learned about the ancient pre-Christian origins of Christmas, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that Santa Claus, too, is nothing but a figure recycled from ancient pagan beliefs.
The trappings associated with Santa Claus-his fur-trimmed wardrobe, sleigh and reindeer-reveal his origin from the cold climates of the far North. Some sources trace him to the ancient Northern European gods Woden and Thor, from which the days of the week Wednesday (Woden's day) and Thursday (Thor's day) get their designations (Earl and Alice Count, pp. 56-64). Others trace him even farther back in time to the Roman god Saturn and the Greek god Silenus (William Walsh, The Story of Santa Klaus, pp. 70-71).
Was Jesus born in December?
Most Bible scholars who have written on the subject of Jesus' birth conclude that, based on evidence in the Bible itself, there is no possible way Christ could have been born anywhere near Dec. 25.
Again we turn to Alexander Hislop: "There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of [Jesus'] birth, or the time of the year when He was born. What is recorded there, implies that at what time soever His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time that the angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night in the open fields ... The climate of Palestine ... from December to February, is very piercing, and it was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October" (Hislop, p. 91, emphasis in original).
He goes on to explain that the autumn rains beginning in September or October in Judea would mean that the events surrounding Christ's birth recorded in the Scriptures could not have taken place later than mid-October, so Jesus' birth likely took place earlier in the fall (Hislop, p. 92).
Further evidence supporting Jesus' birth in the autumn is that the Romans were intelligent enough not to set the time for taxation and travel in the dead of winter, but during more-favorable conditions. Since Joseph's lineage was from Bethlehem, and since he had to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, and since his expectant wife Mary traveled with him, it would have been nearly impossible for Joseph and Mary to make the trip in the winter. As recorded by Luke, Mary delivered Jesus in Bethlehem during the time of census and taxation-which no rational official would have scheduled for December.
What difference does it make?
The Bible gives us no reason-and certainly no instruction-to support the myths and fables of Christmas and Santa Claus. They are tied to the ways of this world and contrary to the ways of Christ and His holy truth. "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles," God tells us (Jeremiah 10:2).
Professing Christians should examine the background of the Christmas holiday symbols and stop telling their children that Santa Claus and his elves, reindeer and Christmas gift-giving are connected with Jesus Christ. Emphatically they are not! God hates lying. "These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren" (Proverbs 6:16-19).
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Recommended Reading Does it matter to God which days and customs we celebrate to honor Him? Why do so many of our holidays have strange customs sanctioned nowhere in the Bible? Many people are shocked to discover the origins of most popular holidays. They're also surprised to find that the feast days God commands in the Bible-the same days kept by Jesus Christ and the apostles-are almost universally ignored. Be sure to request your free copies of the booklets Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep? and God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind. |
Christ reveals that Satan the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44). Parents should tell their children the truth about God and this world's contrary and confusing ways. If we don't, we only perpetuate the notion that it is acceptable for parents to lie to their children.
Can a professing Christian promote a pagan holiday and its symbols as something that God or Christ has approved? Let's see what God thinks about people using customs and practices rooted in false religion to worship Him and His Son. We find His views clearly expressed in both the Old and New Testament.
God specifically commands His people not to do what early church leaders did when they incorporated idolatrous practices and relabeled them Christian. Before they entered the Promised Land, God gave the Israelites a stern warning: "Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them [the inhabitants of the land],... and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'
"You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods ... Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (Deuteronomy 12:30-32, emphasis added throughout).
Many centuries later the apostle Paul traveled to and raised up churches in many gentile cities. To the members of the Church of God in Corinth, a city steeped in idolatry, Paul wrote: "... What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God ... Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.' ... Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God"
(2 Corinthians 6:14-17; 7:1).
Instead of allowing members to rename and celebrate customs associated with false gods, Paul's instructions were clear: They were to have nothing to do with them. He similarly told Athenians who were steeped in idolatry, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
God alone has the right to decide the special days on which we should worship Him. Jesus Christ plainly tells us that "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). We cannot honor God in truth with false practices adopted from the worship of nonexistent gods.
Jesus said: "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:6-7). With God no substitutes are acceptable. It makes no difference that Christians mean well when they observe Christmas. God is not amused or pleased.
The knowledge of how to honor Almighty God, who made us, preserves us and gives us eternal life, has been made available to you. Will you honor God or follow the traditions of mankind?
Trying to prove a negative is an informal fallacy.
Now, concerning the Bible. I am an atheist who has read it. Your God (Jesus) did give a message to the seven churches. Also, it was your Jesus Christ who defined what the Church was - - 'Where ever two or more of you are gathered for my namesake, there shall I be in your midst...'
These instructive statements are hardly a representation to advocate the modern idolatry of current traditions surrounding Christmas...
Trying to prove a negative is an informal fallacy.
It is also an informal fallcy to say becuase it cannot be proven, it must be true. Fallacy of accident. You are also not immune to it, sir...
I see no written prohibitions from athletic competitions as there are prohibitions against traditions resembling Christmas celebrations activities.
Besides that, Paul himself used numerous athletic terms and analogies in his letters. Odd that he would use athleticism so much if it were prohibited.
My question to you is this: Do you believe that it is permisssible to practice that which was banned due to idolotry?
Evidently not people trying to read their own half-baked opinions into the Scriptures. Nor the whacked-out West Texas website 2sheep sent me to to "prove" C.S. Lewis was a Satanist.
I don't know where you got the idea that I was trying to use the absence of celebrating Christmas in the Scriptures to prove that it must be celebrated. I merely pointed out the serious logical flaw of saying that if celebrating Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible then it must, ipso facto, be a sin. That's the kind of faulty thinking that evidently passes for logic with 2sheep, ALS, and DouglasKC.
Besides, one could make a very good argument that the angels singing songs of praise, the wise men bearing gifts, and the sheperds coming to worship was indeed the first celebration of Christmas.
That is a mis-characterization of my statement. The absence of instruction to either celebrate it or not to celebrate Christmas as it is currently practiced is not an advocacy to do so.
I really care not how it is seen from a point of sectarian perspective. I think both sides of this discussion have, in certain respects, engaged in tactics of condemnation rather than a persuit of expressing conviction of belief.
With that said, I also see this as a good natured debate among friends and political allies about philosophy, theology and it is intellectual stimulation. We need this to develop tactics that will defeat our common enemies. Just keep it friendly. Heated, but friendly. At the end of the day, we should all be able to sit down and have a beer together and tell jokes or unite in war against those who would destroy our freedom to discuss such topics.
We did not say that! Your saying we did is a lie. Stop changing what people say and then accusing them of what you think they say because you don't understand.
The Marxist propaganda technique of the Hegelian Dialectic promotes unity that forsakes truth. What you suggest is that and is just the opposite of what the Bible says to do. The Bible says to "come out and be separate" from evil and from spiritual whoredom. It says to reprove, rebuke, but ultimately to reject hereticks and whoremongers (which in this case would be spiritual whoremongers). It says of the form of godliness crowd..."from such turn away." It also says when they do not receive you, dust off your feet and leave.
None of that allows for unity with unbelievers and those preaching another gospel, for those are not brothers, they are false brethren. Because the church as fallen away, most churches preach apostacy. Globalists promote apostacy and ecumenism and hate the true gospel of holiness and obedience. See 122 for many links and more on the Heglian Dialectic which attempts to drive Christians to the lukewarm center of compromise and consensus. It is also called Diaprax and is related to the Delphi Technique.
2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Co 6:16 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 will 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,
Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
2Ti 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; 11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
Mr 6:11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. 12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
39 -- "Show me where He changed, please. Chapter and verse." -- by 2sheep in response to me saying that Christmas is now a Christian day of celebration.
95 -- "The point being that Christmas is the primary season (not even a day) that has replaced God's Holy days." by DouglasKC.105 -- "God's holy days are enumerated in Exodus 34" by DouglasKC154 -- "If His birthday was such an important event, why did neither He nor any of his followers observe it?" by ALS187 -- "Neither Christ nor His apostles or the 1st church participated in these pagan practices .... The two biggest events of the year for modern 'christians' are not kept by any christians in the bible." by ALS
You did well Dallas. Hey Marvin! Dallas knows you are homeless and live under the bridge and would probably ask you into his home but you probably smell bad, have a drug habit etc. so merry christmass and stay under the bridge. Enjoy the socks buddy!
Sorry Dallas, I understand but just couldn't help saying that.
Here are two sites re C.S. Lewis and another one which is related to these issues. Let others decide whether they are "West Texas wackos" or whether you are:
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings ~ Berit Kjos re friendship with C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings: Paganism, Christianity or Syncretized Christianity? ~ re C.S. Lewis
Conforming the Church to the New Millennium & redefining Christianity ~ Berit Kjos
I have spent a lot of time putting things together...scriptures, links, etc. You have either not read that or you have chosen to not believe any of it. You asked more questions about sun god worship which is clearly exposed in the Too Long in the Sun link I posted above in #15. You deny and then stamp your foot like Jezebel demanding more proof to dissuade you of your Unbelief. while you accuse others falsely. Just as He promises to do to those who receive Him and hear His voice, the Holy Spirit streams scriptures through my head of what I could say, but says...to what effect is it to continue a fruitless conversation with someone who resists truth and continues in Unbelief.
If you are having sex with a woman in the dark and think it is your wife and then you turn on the light, open your eyes and see it is another woman...you are a whoremonger and adulterer. If you continue without repenting, you are worse. GET OUT OF BED WITH THE WHORE! REPENT! Same principle applies to strange gods and false doctrines.
Here are some thing you might look up:
The L~rd went around healing people. The Bible doesn't mention specifically the healing of gall bladders, migraine headaches, thyroids, legs growing longer, high blood pressure, heart conditions and so on. It speaks specifically and often of those He healed who were DEAF, BLIND, DUMB and LAME. There is a huge spiritual picture there! Consider it!
2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Did you or did you not type those things that were attributed to you? If I have misunderstood the reason(s) for not celebrating Christmas, then what are the reasons?
Shoot, you could have just written a few words in large, bold, flaming red text, poasted a picture of Nimrod carrying a supposed Christmas tree, waxed eloquently on Ishtar and Santa Claus, and blamed the thunderstorm Dallas had the other night on George W. Bush reading one of C.S. Lewis' satanic books, then denying that you really meant any of that stuff. After the past couple of days, I'm used to reading posts like that.
I checked the history on my computer. It says I have never been to that site. I know nothing about that website. It wasn't me that sent those links to you. The only ones I know of about Lewis are what I posted above. You are wrong again.
Bye.
Whatever you say.
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