The Plain Truth About Christmas – The Season And The Day Series

Christmas is coming!

But where did Christmas originate? Was Jesus born on December 25th? If Christmas is the chief of the Christian holidays, WHY do so many non-Christians observe it?

The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ. It came to the Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church. And where did they get it? NOT from the Bible - NOT from the original apostles who were personally instructed by Christ - but it gravitated in the fourth century into the Roman Catholic Church from paganism.

Notice how specific God’s warning to Israel in Deuteronomy 12:29-31 was, and why; “29 The Lord your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, 30 and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.” 31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.”

Christmas is not a command of God—it is a tradition of men. Whenever Christians longed for true spirituality and returned to the Bible as their source of all practice and belief, one of the first things they did was to forsake the unscriptural Christmas celebration. Examples include:

• In England in 1644, parliament banned Christmas, calling it “the Profane Man’s Ranting Day”.

• In America, “In 1659, Massachusetts passed a law fining anyone caught celebrating Christmas

If Christmas were really of God, the world would hate it! But the same sinners who hate Christ, love Christmas. The biggest thieves, drunkards, liars, adulterers and hypocrites love Christmas. They love the parties, the festivities, the carols and the feasting and the merriment, but they hate everything that is truly spiritual.

The establishment of December 25 evolved not from biblical precedent, but from pagan Roman festivals held at year’s end. It occurred each year around the beginning of winter, or the winter solstice. This was the time when the sun had taken its lowest path across the sky and the days were beginning to lengthen, thus assuring another season of growth.

Those festivals included the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24) culminating into Brumalia of December 25th, in honour of Saturn, god of agriculture. The planet Saturn was later named after him because, among all of the planets, with its rings and bright red colour, it best represented this god. His birthday was celebrated on December 25.

The Brumalia, celebrated Sol— the sun god, who was apparently also born on 25th December. He was celebrated and worshipped because heat from the sun was required to allow for planting and growth of crops. He was worshipped in this dead-of-winter festival so that he would come back (he was the “sun”) and warm the earth again so that spring planting could occur.

Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan custom, encouraging the waning sun-god as he reached the lowest place in the southern skies.

In Babylon's "Mystery" system of idol worship, the sun was called "Baal. This is how he is referred to in most of the scriptures.

Virtually every civilization has a fire/sun god. The Greeks named him Kronos, as did the Phoenicians—but they also called him Saturn. The Babylonians called him Tammuz (as Nimrod, resurrected in the person of his son). The Persians called him Mithra. The Druids called him Molech or Baal.

Saturnalia (today re-incarnated as Christmas season) was a rowdy time. In Rome, the Saturnalia was the most vile, immoral feast that ever disgraced that pagan city. It was a season of license drunkenness and debauchery. It was a festival of merrymaking. They enjoyed it! The spirit of revelry prevailed, and the entire city wantonly indulged in the filthiest sorts of immorality imaginable.

Isn’t it plainly obvious that though its name has been changed, the same spirit of merriment is present in our modern day Christmas celebrations? There is no doubting the fact that Christmas is the day of feasting, dancing, and the most drunken, immoral time of the whole year. Is this the way to celebrate the birthday of Christ?

Any liquor salesman would tell you that more alcoholic beverages are bought, sold, given, and consumed at Christmas than at any other time of the year.

That fact alone assures me that Christmas is not of God! If it were, it would be a time of holiness and repentance, of drawing closer to God and turning from sin. It would be a time when true spirituality and godliness abound. Instead, just the opposite is true. How God must grieve over the brazen sin of polluting His holy name with this abominable filth.