Christmas and Christians

By Nick Bibile

Christmas was promoted in the Christian East as part of the revival of Catholicism following the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced to Constantinople in 379, and to Antioch in about 380. The feast disappeared after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned as bishop in 381, although it was reintroduced by John Chrysostom in about 400.

In the first place, Christmas is not a Bible doctrine. If our blessed Lord had wanted us to celebrate His birthday, He would have told us when to celebrate it and how to celebrate it. But Christ never told anyone to celebrate His birthday. Furthermore, we know from the Bible and from church his story that the apostles and the early church never celebrated Christ's birthday. In fact, there are only two birthday celebrations recorded in the Bible; and each of them is connected with murder. The Bible tells us in Genesis 40:22 that on one of Pharaoh's birthdays he murdered his chief baker while a big celebration was going on. The other birthday celebration recorded was that of Herod, when he had John the Baptist murdered. Christmas is never mentioned in the Bible.

Jesus was not born in December 25^th. The shepherds were in the fields taking care of their flocks on the night Jesus was born. As the shepherds were watching their sheep, the message came to them of the birth of Jesus.

It's a well-known fact that December falls in the middle of the rainy season in Palestine, and the sheep were kept in the fold at that time of the year. The shepherds always corralled their flocks from October to April. They brought their sheep from the mountainsides and the fields no later than October 15 to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. So the birth of Christ could not have taken place at the end of December. No one knows the exact day when Jesus was born, but in all probability He was born sometime during the first part of October.

Where do you suppose Christmas originated? Certainly not with God! Christmas started with the sun worshipers during the time of Nimrod, the man who supervised the building of the tower of Babel. And that's another reason why I don't celebrate Christmas. The heathen celebrated Tammuz's birthday according to the very example he set for them. He was the world's greatest lover of women, strong drink, dirty jokes, and other sensual fun. It is said that he loved everybody and everybody loved him. And it was December 25 that all the pagan religions celebrated the birthday of Tammuz, the sun god.

Just take the word Christmas itself and break it down. What does it mean? The mass of Christ. The mass is a prayer that's read or sung for the soul of a dead person. Born-again Christians don't have anything to do with masses, and yet multitudes of professing Christians will say "Merry Christmas," never realizing that when they do this they are actually mixing the precious and holy name of Christ with idolatry.

Ezek 20:39 “As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

Christmas (let me repeat it) is a Roman Catholic holiday. We got it from the Catholics, and they got it from the pagans. It was on December 25 that the pagans of the Roman Empire celebrated the birthday of their sun god. After Constantine, the Roman emperor, won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, he forced all the pagans of his empire to be baptized into the Christian church. Thus, baptized pagans far outnumbered the true Christians.

If December 25 were truly the birthday of the blessed Son of God, the world would have nothing to do with it! Even in non-Christian countries like Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Roman Catholics celebrate Christmas. In Luke 16:15, Christ made this remarkable statement: "….that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The world is married to the idol of Christmas. In fact, more people get drunk at Christmas than at any other time of the year. There are more big parties and more selfish spending than at any other season. Doesn't that prove that it's not of God?

The world loves Christmas, but it hates Christ. Many are excited in the flesh celebrating Christmas but if you talk to them of the gospel they get upset. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”(John 18:36)

Romans 14: 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The exchanging of gifts, the Christmas tree, the singing of carols, and Santa Claus are all of pagan origin. These all crept into the church during or after the Fourth Century. Without question, the most important part of Christmas for most people is buying and exchanging gifts. Exchanging gifts has nothing to do with Christ's birthday.

It is under the antichrist's reign that the last and greatest Christmas celebration shall take place.

Revelation 11: 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.

You may say "Didn't the wise men give gifts to Jesus?" They certainly did, but they didn't give them to one another. And their gifts were not birthday gifts, because the wise men did not come to visit Jesus until He was nearly two years old (see Matthew 2:16). The shepherds came to visit Jesus at His birth, but the wise men came to see Him nearly two years later.

Did you know that giving gifts to a king was a common custom in the Far East? That's the reason why the wise men brought gifts to Jesus-because He was born to be King of the Jews. But they were not birthday gifts. So there is no connection between Christmas and the birthday of Christ, in this respect.

You may say, we celebrate our birthdays and then why not celebrate Jesus birthday on a particular day even its not on December 25^th isn’t that a good idea?

Answer: As we know Jesus birthday was never celebrated by the apostles or the early Church. We celebrate his death and his resurrection. For the sake of the argument, let’s say you want to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. It’s his birthday, what will you give to him? He is the owner of the universe, you can’t give anything to him, but he is the one who has given us life and showed us the way of eternal life, he is the greatest gift from God. What does Jesus require from you? Love and obedience.

John 14: 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous English Baptist gave a sermon on Christmas and here is a small quotation

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING,

DECEMBER 24TH, 1871,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you

good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you

is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the

Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe

wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” —

Luke 2:10, 11, 12.

WE have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sailor sung in Latin or in English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural.

Spurgeon went on to say, “Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men’s superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of his dear son.

Today Christmas is a commercialized industry. It’s a moneymaking business. The departmental stores and businesses look for Christmas, as this is the season they make a profit. The world is flocking to the stores to buy gifts, however they refuse to hear the message of Christ on sin, the wrath of God, salvation, holiness of God and the gospel message.

As Christians we should not walk according to the ways of the world, we should be separated unto our beloved Savior. Do not be tempted to the ways of the world as the ways of the world is in opposition to the ways of Christ.

Romans 12: 1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Matthew 18:7 Woe to the world for temptations to sin.

When you are truly separated unto Christ the world will hate you.

John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

As Christians we do celebrate the birth of our Savior into this world. As we don’t know what day he was born, we do celebrate our beloved Savior everyday in our prayers, adoring him and thanking him for saving us from sin and the wrath of God, giving us eternal life. We also celebrate our Saviors coming into this world on every Sunday when we gather together as a body to adore him and worship in spirit and truth. This is our true celebration to the Lord as we can only celebrate him in worship and giving praise to him.

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Mat 2:10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

This is the true celebration where we can now worship God. We were under sin, enemies of God, slaves to sin, in darkness on our way to hell, but God in his mercy redeemed us saved us through Christ and now we have liberty to worship him in spirit and truth.