Christmas Celebration: Is It Biblical?

The popularity of Christmas celebration cannot be underestimated both among Christians and non-Christians alike. However, there is a big question mark over its scriptural basis.

Firstly, the Bible provides sufficient details about the birth of Jesus including several prophecies given centuries earlier that were fulfilled when Jesus was born. Yet, the day, month and year that Jesus was born are not mentioned in the Bible despite that the Bible mentions the dates of several lesser significant events. Perhaps, God deliberately concealed the date from humans. However, all New Testament scholars agree that the birth of Jesus could not have occurred on 25 December because according to Luke 2:8, when Jesus was born the shepherds were on the field in the night looking after their flock and this might suggest spring lambing season (McGowan 2012). The month of December is wintery, rainy and snowy cold around Bethlehem (where Jesus was born) that it does not seem possible that the shepherds would be on the field in the night with their sheep instead of the sheep been corralled or caged (McGowan 2012). Therefore, the Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary and the Complete Book of American Holidays suggest that the Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus makes 25 December birthdate highly impossible, since the weather would not allow the shepherds to be in open field with their flocks in the night (UGC). According to Adam Clarke Commentary (Vol. 5, page 370, cited in Armstrong 1974), “it was ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain." In fact, the Bible itself emphasizes the miserable weather of the winter season in Israel including Bethlehem. In Song of Solomon 2:10-11, Solomon demonstrated his happiness that the winter season had gone in this way, “my beloved speaks and says to me: arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone.” In Matthew 24:20, Jesus advised the Jews, “pray that you will not have to escape [the besiege of the city] in winter or on Sabbath.” Clearly, Jesus made reference to the winter because the cold weather, the heavy rain and possible snow fall would hinder the ability to quickly flee any blockade of the city.

Also, Luke’s account in 2:1-4 that Jesus was born in Bethlehem because his parents had gone there to register in a census that Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus had directed gives credence to the fact that Jesus could not have been born in December. It was unlikely that the Roman Emperor would have requested for the census to be conducted in winter when the temperature would plunge and the roads might become virtually impassable during heavy rain and snow falls, as like Jesus’ parents, everyone had to travel to his or her hometown for the enrolment in the census. Therefore, a request for a census in winter would have been self-defeating purpose as the enrolment turnout would have been very low (UGC).

Further, it is believed among bible scholars that the 25 December might have been chosen because the Romans had their mid-winter festivities in late December and in 274 C.E. the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. The early Christians therefore purposely chose this date as Christmas to make the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world easy, since more pagans would easily accept a pagan holiday looking Christmas and the Lord whose birth it celebrated (McGowan 2012). In other words, a Christmas was a spin-off from these pagan celebrations. Chadwick (1993) has postulated that it was so easy for Christianity and solar religion to become mixed up during that period. For instance, Pope Leo the great in his mid-fifth century sermon rebuked his over-cautious flock for paying reverence to the Sun on the steps of St Peter’s before turning their back on it to worship inside the westward-facing basilica. It is interesting to note that around the time that 25 December was chosen as the birth day for Jesus, the Church in the East chose 6 January and this date is still celebrated among some Christian groups. How funny it is that Jesus could have two different birth dates despite that he was born on only one day. Although, other alternative reasons have been given as plausible reasons for the choice of 25 December as the birth date of Jesus, the reason explained above appears to be the main possible factor.

Further, it is not only Jesus and the apostle that did not discuss anything about Jesus birthdate. None of the ancient Christian writings in the first three centuries mentioned anything about it (McGowan 2012). It is the mid-fourth-century Roman almanac that listed the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs, and had the earliest mention of December 25 as the birthdate for Jesus (McGowan 2012). Augustine of Hippo in about 400 C.E. mentioned a local dissident Christian group, the Donatists, who celebrated Christmas festivals on 25 December. Thus, Armstrong (1974) advised that according to the:

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1946 edition: Christmas (i.e., the Mass of Christ). . . . Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church. . . . It was not instituted by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority. It was picked up afterward from paganism.

• The Encyclopedia Americana, 1944 edition Christmas. . . . It was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. . . ." (The "Communion," which is instituted by New Testament Bible authority, is a memorial of the death of Christ.) ". . . A feast was established in memory of this event [Christ's birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed. Besides, research has shown that many of the activities associated with Christmas celebrations such as the Christmas tree, the Santa Claus, the flying reindeer and etc. were borrowed belatedly from pagan customs as Christianity advanced into northern and Western Europe (McGowan 2012 and UGC). In fact, why Many Christians believe that they celebrate the Christmas to remember the birth of Christ, the commercial aspect of the Christmas festivity has overshadowed any religious significance of the period. In the Western world in particular, the Christmas season is used to significantly increase the retail sales and some shops open for 36 continuous hours. Further excessive drinking, drink driving and etc. increase astronomically during this period. Many people lose their lives during this period through increased road accidents and etc. I do not think that Jesus will like to be associated with celebrations that bring misery upon many families.

Equally important, the Bible explicitly warns Christians from adulterating Christian worship with paganism. Deuteronomy 12:30-32 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 stipulate clearly that Christians should not adulterate Christianity with paganism in anyway. Moreover, according to Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19, we should neither add to nor subtract from the scriptures that God has given us, otherwise God will punish us. Above all, Jesus quoting from Isaiah 29:13 instructed at Mark 7:8, 13 and Matthew 15:8-9 that we should not worship him based on the traditions and rules of men.

The question then is that if Jesus walked on this earth for 33 years, attended weddings and etc., and yet did not consider it necessary to celebrate his birthday and neither did his disciples celebrate it after Jesus had died, why do we do it? Are we saying that we know better than Jesus and his disciples? The Bible warns Christians against observing worthless festivals as indicated in Galatians 4:9-11 that “but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have laboured over you in vain. The only event that Jesus instructed that we should observe is the Lord’s super. The night before his death he had the Passover meal (now called the Lord super) with his disciples and commended them to continue to celebrate it until his return (see Mark 14:22-25). Paul emphasised the importance of that in 1 Corinthians 11:23ff. There is no other Christian festivity that either Jesus or his disciples instructed Christians to participate.

Conclusion

As indicated above, Christmas celebration does not have any biblical basis. Further, neither Jesus, his disciples nor the first three centuries Christians celebrated anything like that. Besides, the date chosen as the birth date for Jesus in all probability appears not to be authentic as Jesus could not have been born on that date based on the details provided by Luke in relation to some events that occurred when Jesus was born. Above all, there is sufficient evidence indicating that the date chosen and some of the activities associated with Christmas celebrations such as the Christmas tree all originated from paganism. In fact it is not only through Christmas that paganism influenced Christianity. There are many other ways that paganism influenced Christianity. It is against this background that Boer (1976) wrote that “there is perhaps no point at which paganism influenced Christianity more clearly and openly than in the veneration of saints. Though, Boer did not mention Christmas, his statement clearly implies that pagan practices had influenced Christianity in many spheres and Christmas celebration is certainly one of them.

Bibliography:

1. McGowan, A (2012): How December 25 Became Christmas. 2. United Church of God (UCG) - Christmas: The Untold Story. 3. Herbert W. Armstrong (1974): The Plain Truth about Christmas. 4. Chadwick, Henry – The penguin history of the church 1: The early church: The story of emergent Christians from the apostolic age to the dividing of the ways between the Greek East and the Latin West. Revised edition Penguin (1993).

5. Boer, Harry R: A short history of the early church (1976) Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan US. Joseph Annor: B.A. - Studies of Religions; Master of Business in Accounting; CPA