Christmas, That Pagan Festival

While attending Bible class at a church we visit when on Christmas holidays in Colorado, one lady asked about the twelve days of Christmas. She wondered if it were Biblical or some tradition. Since that was not the main topic, I said in class that it was merely a tradition. What I did not have time to say is that the whole business of Christmas has its roots in paganism. May I refer you to a pagan website without offense? I do this only because the site has a fairly decent summary of how we believers in Jesus came to celebrate his unknown date of birth on December 25.
Here's the website: Astrology on the Web. The article: Yule – the Wheel of the Year. The author, Mike Nichols, lifts up some very interesting points. Examples include:

• the holiday of Christmas has always been more Pagan than Christian, with its associations of Nordic divination, Celtic fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism.
• the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of the year. It is the winter solstice that is being celebrated, seedtime of the year, the longest night and shortest day. It is the birthday of the new Sun King, the Son of God—by whatever name you choose to call him.
• in 320 C.E., the Catholic fathers in Rome decided to make it December, in an effort to co-opt the Mithraic celebration of the Romans, the Yule festival of the Saxons, and the midwinter revels of the Celts.
• if one wishes to use the New Testament as historical evidence, this reference may point to sometime in the spring as the time of Jesus’ birth. This is because the lambing season occurs in the spring and that is the only time when shepherds are likely to “watch their flocks by night”—to make sure the lambing goes well.
• for over three centuries, no one knew when Jesus was supposed to have been born! December 25 finally began to catch on. By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work or public business (except that of cooks, bakers, or any that contributed to the delight of the holiday) was prohibited by the Emperor Justinian. In 563, the Council of Braga forbade fasting on Christmas Day, and four years later the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Read the website for further historical information, not, however, for illumination about theology and the answers to life's questions through astrology. Permit one final comment on the thinking of the church fathers who adapted to the prevailing pagan culture by proclaiming December 25 as the date for celebrating the birth of Christ.

Some of those church fathers believed that Christ, in the perfection of his life, lived a perfect (complete) number of years. Therefore, the date of his death ought to be the date of his conception. Some early astronomers strangely reckoned that Good Friday was on March 25 in the year 34 AD and so the feast of the Annunciation of the Angels to Mary was March 25. Count forward exactly nine months and you have the Nativity of Christ on December 25.

I find it quite interesting that the Biblical authors, the apostles and their disciples, did not deem it critical to provide us these dates. The closest we can come to any dating of the birth of Christ is Luke's statement:

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register."

Why such neglect? The simplest answer is that the date is not the important point to be made. The significant fact is that . . .

". . . when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba,Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir" (Galatians 4).

In Christian freedom we are permitted to celebrate this important fact anytime we choose. You may even decide that you don't want to get caught up in the pagan aspects of Christmas. Historically many Christians, like the Puritans, opted not to celebrate Christ's birth in December. Or you may decide that such celebrations and traditions can be useful for the instruction of children and others and opt to include them in your worship schedule. The critical factor is the celebration of the Good News. Christ was born of Mary; he lived, died on the cross and rose again. All this was for us so that we may now claim our full rights as sons and daughters of God and heirs of life eternal.

Christmas Swords

Sylvia loves the Hallmark channel on TV. Last night I glanced at the movie playing while going about some other tasks. The story was about a blended family that was having trouble adjusting. Their problems went on for the required two hours before they were wondrously resolved and the family, plus grandparents, sat down for Christmas dinner, filled with thanksgiving and smiles. They thanked the Lord for their First Christmas together.

How nice, I thought.

This same week a friend asked me why Jesus would ever advise someone to sell his cloak and buy a sword. The reference is from Luke 22. Jesus and his disciples were gathered as if they were a family for the Last Supper before he was crucified. It was the Passover.

During the meal the men started quarreling about which among them was considered to be the greatest. Jesus pointedly reminded them they were thinking and acting like the politicians of this world. He was conferring on them a kingdom in which things were quite different. In Jesus' kingdom the greatest are those who serve, even as he, their king, came among them to serve.

Then he turned to Peter who was considered the leader of the group and told him he had prayed for him. Peter, quite unaware of his own vulnerability, promised to follow Jesus even into death. This was a promise he was totally unprepared to keep, as events would soon show.

At this point Jesus changed the topic. He asked them to recall how they never lacked anything while following him. When he sent them on a mission they always had food and shelter. They all agreed. But now it was all to change. No longer would things go so smoothly. With what was to happen to Jesus they would soon be in grave danger. Now they had better take a purse of money and carry a bag with clothing. Moreover they had better be prepared to defend themselves, even if it meant doing so with a sword. And, if they couldn't afford a sword, well, they had better sell their cloaks and buy one.

The reason I quote these two incidents, one from TV-land and the other from the Bible, is to point out that we followers of Christ are advised to ask ourselves what's going on when the world likes us and welcomes with open arms our celebration of the Savior's birth. By the world I refer to all who reject Jesus' claims to being Lord and Savior, God and man in one person. This crowd hates him, because he challenges everything about their way of life, their greed, pride, selfishness and idolatry. He calls them to turn away from all this, admit to it and humbly accept what he and he alone can give them, God's forgiveness and eternal life. Because they cannot and will not, they hate him and all of his followers. World-wide persecution of Christians continues unabated in our day.

Eight days after his birth Jesus' parents brought him to the temple to be circumcised, as the laws of the Covenant required. 33 days later they returned to complete the purification rituals for mothers who had given birth. While there an old man by the name of Simeon came up to them and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, pronounced a blessing upon them and the Child.

Then he said something most peculiar to Mary:

"Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too" (Luke 2).

What was this sword? It was the sword wielded by the Romans. Under the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, the government pronounced Jesus guilty of sedition and sentenced him to death upon a cross. This was the sword that pierced Mary's heart, for she was unable to stop the vicious murder of the Son she had born.

The warning in all of this is clear. Let us not get too caught up in the syruppy mess the world around us calls Christmas. This Child whose birth we Christians celebrate is the same One who, a little over thirty years later, was despised, rejected and murdered by the very world he came to rescue from judgment and eternal death.

Shepherds and Signs

We've been attending a new mission congregation some 40 miles from our house. The folks in that little church are very excited about what they're doing. This weekend some of the few teens sat for hours as a live Nativity scene beside the church building the congregation is renting. As I looked at their patient witness I thought back to that first Christmas and the shepherds. To mind came the words of the angel, "This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:11). It's that sign thing that intrigues me. Are we (non-shepherds) still able to follow signs? And how do we know a sign when it comes along?

Diane S. Dew has a very extensive list of Bible verses referring to signs and wonders. She claims that a sign is the same as a miracle and a miracle is something our science cannot explain. I realize, however, that such a view may be too simplistic. Signs and miracles are not necessarily the same thing. I suggest that you study her list and draw your own conclusions about signs.

The Scriptures are clear that we are not to follow the example of many Jews in Jesus' day by demanding signs. When they pushed him for signs --though he'd already given them many -- he replied that they were spiritually and ethically diseased, wicked and evil. Their motives were entirely messed up. They would get nothing from him but the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was vomited out of a fish's belly after three days. This was a reference to Jesus' own upcoming resurrection.

The point is clear. We don't go around looking for and demanding signs in order to believe. Our Lord gives us signs when and where He decides we need them. They point the way. In fact, for believers in Jesus, signs are the very norm of our lives. They're always with us. They always accompany us, precisely because we're under His care and guidance.

This is to say that Jesus shows us the path we are to take, day by day. He is the gentle and good Shepherd who leads us. The signs show us where to go, just as they did for the Christmas shepherds. With eyes of faith wide open we see Him pointing out the path we are to take and why we are to trust Him. We follow because we know He is leading. We hear His voice and pin our hopes on Him.


That must have been one of the several reasons why the angels told shepherds to follow the sign leading them to the Savior. As shepherds they knew about leading and following. I only pray that our hearts are equally open to the leading of the Good Shepherd this Christmas and throughout the year before us. "Savior, like a shepherd lead us . . ."