Does Christmas really commemorate the birth of the Son of God? Or is it the birth of the Sun that is honored? The New Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar,January 6 in the Egyptian) because on this day, as the sun began its return to the northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun)."

"The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday throughout the Roman and Greek worlds was the pagan sun worship -- Mithraism ...This winter festival was called' the Nativity' -- the 'Nativity of the SUN'," (Frazer, GoldenBough,p. 471)

"We do not know its beginning...we do not really know when the Christ Child it venerates was born; or the time and place when Christmas was first celebrated: or exactly how it was that, over the centuries, a bishop-saint of Asia Minor and a pagan god of the Germans merged to become Santa Claus. "Although the Christmas story centers in the Christ child of Bethlehem, it begins so long before his coming that we find its hero arriving on the scene after more than half of the time of the story has gone by....Christmas began there [Mesopotamia], over four thousand years ago, as the festival which renewed the world for another year. The 'twelve days' of Christmas, the bright fires and probably the Yule log; the giving of presents; the carnivals with their floats; their merry makings and clownings; the mummers who sing and play from house to house, the feastings; the church processions with their lights and song all these and more began three centuries before Christ was born.And they celebrated the arrival of a new year." (Earl W. Count, 4000Yearsof Christmas, pp.11,18)-

"Saturnalia and the kalends were the [pagan]celebrations most familiar to early Christians, December 17-24 and January 1-3, but the tradition of celebrating December 25 as Christ's birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults, and in the third century [274] the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Day of the Invincible Sun, on December 25." [Gerard and Patricia Del Re, The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p. 17]

"For that day [25th of December] 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 worshipped the sun, and celebrated its return to strength on that day. The church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery, the lights, and gifts from Saturn and giving them to the Babe of Bethlehem"(Earl W. Count, 4000 Years of Christmas, p.27)

"Christmas is a very old holiday. It clearly started as a celebration of the passing of the winter solstice, and the start of the sun's return journey from the north to the south ...The ancient Romans observed this time with a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and it was called Saturnalia...When Emperor Constantine decreed Christianity as the new faith of the Roman Empire, early in the fourth century, the Christians gave the holiday an entirely new name and an entirely new meaning." [Joseph Gaer,Holidays Around the World. Boston: Little Brown, 1953. p133.]

"During Saturnalia, everyone feasted and rejoiced,work and business were for a season entirely suspended, the houses were decked with laurel and evergreen, visits and presents were exchanged between friends, and clients gave gifts to their patrons. The whole season was one of rejoicing and goodwill, and all kinds of amusements were indulged in by the people." [J.M. Wheeler, Paganism in Christian Festivals.]

[A writer in 1633 said,] "If we compare our Bacchanalian Christmasses and New Year's Tides with these Saturnalia and Feasts of Janus, we shall find such near affinity between them both in regard of time (they both being in the end of December and on the first of January), and in their manner of solemnizing (both of them being spent in revelling, epicurism, wantonness, idleness, dancing, drinking, stage plays and such other Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian Festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them." [Ashton, A Right Merrie Christmas, p. 6]

QUESTION: Can you take a pagan festival - abhorred by the God of the Bible, and whitewash it and call it acceptable in God's sight?  "…the golden calf was built and the celebration declared a ‘feast to the Lord.’...The people had declared a celebration to honor God that he did not recognize as being in his honor." (Richard Rives, Too Long in the Sun,PartakersPub., 1996, pp.129-130.)  Can you "make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?"

Christmas, by name, intent and origin, is clearly not connected to the 'birth of Jesus Christ' but to pagan gods.  Will you hold onto a lie OR the truth?

About idols, the Bible says: Jeremiah 10:2-4  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

PAGAN ROOTS

Is the root of present day Christmas customs "holy and acceptable" to God or is the root "corrupt and abominable" to Him?  Romans 11:16  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

Luke 6:43  For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

You may have read about the connection of Christmas/Saturnalia customs in other publications. Let us examine THE ROOT of the Christmas trappings briefly. Truly the customs of the people are vain and they learn their way from the heathen ...

Yule Logs

"The ceremony of the Yule log, like so many of the oldest Christmas traditions, was thoroughly pagan in origin." [Frankand Jamie Muir, A Treasury of Christmas. Glasgow: William Collins,1981.p59.]

"The Yule Log tradition comes to us from Scandinavia, where the pagan sex and fertility god Jul, or Jule (pronounced 'yule'), was honored in a twelve-day celebration in December. A large, single log (generally considered to have been a phallic idol) was kept with a fire against it for twelve days, a different sacrifice to Jul being offered in the fire on each of the twelve days."[Holidays and Holy Days, by Tom C. McKenney]

"The Yule log was originally an entire tree, carefully chosen, and brought into the house with great ceremony. The butt end would be placed into the hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room. The tree would be slowly fed into the fire and the entire process was carefully timed to last the entire Yule season." [The History of Christmas]

Evergreens / Ivy / Holly

"The tradition of bringing holly and ivy, or any evergreen, into the house is another Christmas practice which goes back to the Romans." [Frank and Jamie Muir, A Treasury of Christmas. Glasgow: William Collins, 1981.p62.]

"Christmas incorporated many other pagan customs. Holly and ivy, for instance, sacred to the ancient gods Saturn and Dionysus, were believed to have magic power against evil." [The Mystical Year. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, no date. p121.]

"Many other Christmas decorations used today were once pagan symbols. The Romans used flowers and leafy boughs in their rites. Records show that the Saxons used holly, ivy, and bay in their religious observances." [TheNewBook of Knowledge. New York: Grolier, 1979. p291.]

"The use of evergreens was so closely associated with the garlands of pagan days that in many of the early Church celebrations they were forbidden." [Alfred Carl Hottes, 1,001 Christmas FactsandFancies. New York: A.T. De La Mare, 1954. p15.]

"The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christmas era." (Frederick J. Haskins, Answers to Questions)

Mistletoe

"Mistletoe was always known to have played an importantpart in the rituals of the Druids, and consequently, was never really accepted by the Church."[Frank and Jamie Muir, A Treasury of Christmas. Glasgow: WilliamCollins,1981. p63.]

"The Druids gave the world the tradition of hanging mistletoe in the house." [The New Book of Knowledge. New York:Grolier,1979. p291.]

"The idea of using evergreens at Christmas also came to England from pre-Christian northern European beliefs. Celtic and Teutonic tribes honored these plants at their winter solstice festivals as symbolicof eternal life, and the Druids ascribed magical properties to the mistletoe in particular." [The Encyclopedia Americana International Edition. NewYork:Grolier, 1991. p666.]

Christmas Trees

"Some authorities maintain that its [the Christmas tree's] origins lay in the pagan worship of vegetation." [Frank and Jamie Muir, A Treasury of Christmas. Glasgow: William Collins, 1981.p64.]

"The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm tree. In Rome it was the fir. The palm tree denoting the pagan messiah as Baal-Tamar (Judges20:33)[Baal-Tamar = lord of the tree (palm)~kh], the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith [Baal-Berith, meaning "lord of the covenant"--another false title that resembles the true~kh]. The mother of Adonis, the sun god and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as "the man of the branch" and this accounts for the putting of the yule log into the fire on Christmas Eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning" (AlexanderHislop, The Two Babylons, p.97)

"Even the Christmas tree, which came into common use only in nineteenth-century Germany, is perhaps a throwback to a great tree from Norse mythology that was named Yggdrasil." [The MysticalYear.Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, no date. p121.]

"The Christmas tree is the symbol of the spirit of the Yuletide in many homes. The custom came from Germany and dates to long ago when primitive people revered trees -particularly evergreens." [The New Book of Knowledge. NewYork:Grolier, 1979. p291.]

Today, some will say that the Christmas tree is; to them, a symbol of eternal life.  Yet the tree is dead, cut off from its roots.  A branch or tree cut off from its root, is a symbol of death and not life; as Christ explained in John 15:1-8.

Gift Giving

"The idea of giving presents goes back to the Romans."[Frank and Jamie Muir,A Treasury of Christmas. Glasgow: William Collins, 1981. p84.]   "The custom of presenting friends with gifts at Christmas dates back to the time of the ancient Romans."[Everymans Encyclopedia. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1967.p1,672.]

The wise men gave their gifts to Christ, but did not exchange gifts with each other. The gifts presented to Christ were to a king, because of his royalty, and not because of his birthday: "He was a king, and the people of the East never approached the presence of a king without a present in their hands" (Adam Clarke Commentary, Volume 5, Matthew 2:11, page 34).

"The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians from the Pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows." (Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol 12, pages 153-155)

"The giving of presents at this time of year has beena custom that has quite naturally lingered through the ages from the Saturnalia and Kalends celebrations when garlands of flowers, candles and dolls were presented as symbolic gifts to bring good luck and prosperity for the future. Although the early Christian Church turned its nose up at pagan rituals, its members saw that they were missing out on the present-giving and cleverly decided to adopt the practice in remembrance of the gifts brought to the infant Jesus by the kings and the shepherds." [Gyles Brandreth,TheChristmas Book. London: Robert Hale, 1984. p100.]

"Because gift-giving was so essential a part of the pagan celebrations [of Saturnalia], the early Church frowned upon it as sternly as upon other and more questionable New Year celebrations." [Christina Hole, Christmas and its Customs. London: Richard Bell, 1942. p25.]

"The practice of exchanging presents at Christmas stems from the ancient Roman custom called Strenae. During the Saturnalia, Roman citizens used to give "good luck" gifts (strenae) of fruits, pastries, or gold to their friends on New Year's Day." [Colliers' Encyclopedia. NewYork:P. F. Collier, 1991. p404.]

Its all pagan. Not one lick of it originated in Christianity. So can you exchange the lie for the truth?

CHRISTMAS: FOR THE KIDS?

Okay, by now, some will argue for the “keeping of Christmas” on the ground of “giving the kiddies a good time.” But why do this under the cloak of honoring the Savior’s birth on a date when it did not occur? Does the Bible tell you to "give a good time" to your children or teach them God's truth?

3 John 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Can they not 'have a good time' if they are not LIED to? Then WHY promulgate the Lie?

What about "Santa"?  How many 'Christian' parents have bore false witness to promulgate this myth? Santa is neither Real nor Christian. So this is another lie.

"He is the patron of storm-beset sailors (for miraculously saving doomed mariners off the coast of Lycia), of prisoners, of children...which led to the practice of children giving presents at Christmas in his name and the metamorphosis of his name, St. Nicholas, into Sint Klaes, or Santa Claus, by the Dutch. It should be noted though that the figure of Santa Claus is really non-Christian and is based on the Germanic god Thor, who was associated with winter and the Yule log and rode on a chariot drawn by goats named Cracker and Gnasher." [The Catholic Pocket Dictionary of Saints.]

Is it okay to break God's laws to give the kids "a good time"?  If you are a Christian ... you know the answer you must give.  Additionally, you do NOT need a pagan holiday as an excuse to buy someone a gift (not expecting reciprocity). You can surely give your children gifts any other time of year - good gifts - not tainted by pagan holidays or lies. Do not use weak reasoning to deny the truths you have learned.

CHRISTMAS: IS IT FOR CHRISTIANS?

Who is it that celebrates “Christmas?”  Arthur Pink wrote: '"The whole “civilized world.” Millions who make no profession of faith in the blood of the Lamb, who “despise and reject Him,” and millions more who while claiming to be His followers yet in works deny Him, join in merrymaking under the pretense of honoring the birth of the Lord Jesus. Putting it on its lowest ground, we would ask, is it fitting that His friends should unite with His enemies in a worldly round of fleshly gratification? "'

Exodus 23:1-2  Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.  Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment:

Many different peoples of a variety of religions, or even of no religion at all, celebrate Christmas. It would be a lie to say that Christmas is just for "Christians."  The secular world also shares the same holiday. As we have learned, Christmas was observed before there were any Christians! Why is it then necessary take His holy name and unequally yoke it with what takes place at that season of carnal pagan celebrations?

"Does any Christian reader imagine for a moment that when he or she shall stand before their holy Lord, that they will regret having lived “too strictly” on earth? Is there the slightest danger of His reproving any of His own because they were “too extreme” in “abstaining from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11)? We may gain the good will and good works of worldly religionists today by our compromising on “little (?) points,” but shall we receive His smile and approval on that day? Oh to be more concerned about what He thinks, and less concerned about what perishing mortals think." [Arthur Pink]

The Mass of Christ, the pagan customs and the entire celebration are NOT Christian. They have NO connection to Jesus. Will you be a friend of the world? James 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Romans 12:1-2  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

It is easy to just conform to popular opinion; but it takes much grace, diligently sought from God, to be TRANSFORMED in your mind. A Christian is called to deny oneself, to take up the cross, and follow a Christ rejected by the world.  Can YOU be faithful enough to reject the pagan inventions of men? Can you "love the truth" and "put away lying"? God so loved you that He sent His Son to die for your transgressions of His holy law. Is it too much for God to ask you to put away the pagan observance of Christmas? Can you be faithful in this small thing?

Matthew 25:23  His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

In the day of judgment, let us be able to say as David did in Psalms 119:101  I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.