Christmas...Christ's birth or Saturnalia reborn?

I’m one of the odd minority of Christians that don’t keep Christmas. You could call me a literalist when it comes to reading the Bible. I believe it actually means what it says. While I have no particular problem with people wanting to acknowledge or celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ…I don’t believe it should simply be a continuation of a pagan holiday. While there is no evidence that Christ or His disciples ever celebrated His birth, it is mentioned prominently in the Gospels. Of course most modern Christians don’t actually seem to have read the Bible as the ‘traditional’ story of Christ’s birth doesn’t fit the facts as presented in the gospels.

December 25^th is a day that was recognized for centuries before the birth of Christ as the pagan celebration Saturnalia. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman celebration held in honor of Saturn, one of the Titans. Saturn was the father of Jupiter, the Roman version of the Greek god Zeus. The practice predated the birth of Christ by over 200 years.

The early Catholic church, in trying to make converts, adopted many pagan holidays, practices and places of worship and simply stamped the name Christ on them. From that practice we have the saying: “When in Rome do as the Romans do”. That is the very opposite of what the God of the Bible commanded His people to do. God’s people were not to worship Him the way other nations worshiped their gods. God’s people were commanded to never do what pagans do.

In the centuries since Christ many other pagan practices were folded into the celebration that came around the time of the Winter Solstice. Celtic and Nordic practices added what became Santa Claus, the Yule log, the Christmas tree etc. These things are all clearly documented in history books, and even the Catholic Encyclopedia, for anyone who cares to research them. None of these things has anything remotely to do with Christ. Modern Christians observe the ‘Christ-mass’ because it has become tradition…and because it feels good. Knowingly or unknowingly those that observe the day do so on the authority of the Catholic church and NOT on that of the scriptures.

I believe the Bible is abundantly clear that Gods people are NOT to worship Him they way pagan nations worship their gods. The story of Cain and Able clearly shows that God will not accept forms of worship that He doesn’t command. And, Christ himself warns His people that they worship God in vain when they substitute traditions for Gods commands.

It is easily argued that Christ was not born in the middle of Winter in Israel. He was likely born in the Fall according to scholars. He was probably born in the year 4 BC and not the year ‘zero’...as there was no year ‘zero’. The scriptures say wise men came from the East bearing three types of gifts. It doesn’t say there were three wise men. While Mary, or more correctly Miriam in Hebrew, bore her child in a stable, he wasn’t there when the wise men came to visit. His name incidentally was Yeshua…not Jesus. (There is no ‘J’ sound in Hebrew.) Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua and means ‘savior’. Christ means messiah, a title His followers gave Him later. So His birth name would have been ‘Yeshua ben Yosef ‘or ‘Joshua the son of Joseph’. All these are facts that most modern Christians don’t really even care about. They are more interested in the ‘feel good’ tradition.

It is also most often overlooked that during this ‘feel good’ time, there are more suicides than at any other time of year. More people suffer from depression than any other time of year. And, families tend to go into debt buying gifts for their children this time of year. Children have been conditioned to expect gifts at this time of year regardless of their parent’s ability to pay for them.

People think of this time of year as the time to show love and good feelings towards others. People who would normally ignore the homeless, and other disenfranchised people in our society, do ‘feel good’ things for them this time of year. The homeless, and everyone else, need to eat every day but it makes those more well off feel good to feed the homeless on that day. The Bible says to show love and good feelings every day of the year…to all other people but, as has been pointed out, what the Bible actually says is not really relevant to people who observe Christmas. Saving up for this one holiday, during the middle of Winter, tends to make people feel ‘burned out’ from the stress later. That’s what this holiday is about really…stress. Every year Christ is talked about less and less. But, retailers love it…because it makes people feel good!

Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Mark 7:7)