Christmas in Not a Pagan And it is Biblical!
1. Celebration of Jesus’ birth on the 25th of December is not idolatry: There are many Christians who do not celebrate Christmas even opposed to such celebrations just like those religious crowd during Jesus days. When Jesus was born, Babylonian wise men came from the East to worship the Savior. You would have thought that the religious leaders would have gone to see Jesus, but instead they informed Herod of the whereabouts of the little Baby Jesus so Jesus could be murdered. The religious leaders knew where Christ was to be born yet they did not go to see him. Isn’t this just like the religious world today who oppose celebration of Christmas and who have declared war on Christmas? They claim the name of Christ, but their hearts are so far away from God.
Phil. 1:10 says that “For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives.” There is clear instruction to Christians to stay away from those that distort the truth of the gospel resulting in splitting the unity of the church (Romans 16:17).
You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice. (Exodus 23:2). Peter the Apostle states: But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies… (2 Peter 2:1). And of course, Jude4 also states: For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness.
However Jesus also never told us not to celebrate His birth. Paul specifically prohibits getting involved with the pagan festivals .Paganism is a worship or sacrifice offered to an idol to demons or false Gods. But Christmas is worshipping true God because Jesus Christ is a true God. 1 Timothy 3:16 says: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. God tells us not to adopt the practices and lies of false religions (Jeremiah 10:2-3) like Halloween etc Satan is at constant work stealing the true meaning of Christmas and has been replaced as a Happy Holidays or calling chrismas as paganism. If we say that our Christmas has originated from pagan then what about the technology we have today all the modern facilities we have today. Is it all biblical or Are we following each and everything biblically in every area of our life in everything? We don’t even question whether they are biblical or pagan and why do we have to question about the day reserved to praise, rejoicing and worship our Lord Jesus Christ?
Every society in which ever country they live have many man made holidays like Mother’s Day, Father s day, labor day, black Friday , Martin Luther king, Columbus day, Valentine’s Day etc etc to remember the event . They are all not biblical either and not mentioned in the scriptures either and we all have do not have any problem with that but we have a problem if there is a day set to worship our God our savior Jesus Christ? Christ is the mighty God, a Great God and Savoir, As King of kings and Lord of lords which says in scriptures.
2.Confusions of Christmas: 25th of December has been set aside to honor And glorify Jesus Christ .Satan has deceived and created many confusions among people regarding Christmas has perverted Christmas day as a pagan day . We do not need to compare everything with dates and question about each and every dates and timings such as when the 10 commandments was given? When Christ was conceived? when God spoke to people which day which time? Nowhere in the Bible has given dates for early events like Creation, the flood and the exodus from Egypt. It is not necessary that we must and ought to know all dates in order to celebrate Christ. It’s irrelevant. If God wanted us to know the exact date and time I am sure He could have told us plainly.
Jesus says that Satan “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44). We must remember what Gods says: You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you. (Deuteronomy 6:14). That means we are not to worship false Gods but there is nothing wrong in worshipping Jesus Christ. Is there any verse for not worshiping for our Lord Jesus Christ ? Jesus Christ was God’s Christmas Gift. Romans 8:32 states, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, With deep gratitude for this Gift, the apostle wrote, ” Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).
3.Christmas is not associated with pagan sun worship: Most of them accuse that Christmas has the roots of pagan worship associated with birth of the Sun god, Mirtha and many non Christians and pagans worship the sun God. We do not need to compare and think like pagan. Even though the 25th December also celebrated by pagans and might have pagan roots but we as a Christians also celebrate the same day as birth of our saviour so we have biblical roots of celebration. Let the pagan celebrate in pagan way and we Christians celebrate in Christ’s way. We have to make every attempt to Christianize the popular pagan celebrations. There are 2 types of the spirits- the holy spirit which is of God and Evil spirit- which is of demon. The Holy Spirit ALWAYS comes to us in Jesus’ name. This is what John 14:26 says,” But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”
As a Christian believer we should not have split opinions on the same subject which is double minded which God says to avoid and we as believers do not have to think like the heathen. Just because the pagans celebrate their God on the same day its not necessary that we should also think and act like them. Our attitude should be Christian and we can celebrate our God Jesus Christ. And 25th of December is celebrated by the entire world in different ways. Every soul in the universe will ultimately bow on their knees before Jesus and confess Him as Lord (Philippians 2:10) Hebrews 13:8 declares, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
First of all, the birth of Christ is biblical, so one cannot make a case by calling Christmas non-biblical. Jesus Himself celebrated a holiday that corresponds to Christmas. Jesus celebrated Hanukkah (John 10:22)or also called as Feast of Dedication or festival of lights which is not in the Old Testament. As Christians, we can celebrate Hanukkah rededicate our lives to Christ and acknowledge Him as the perfect and true light of this world and to remember God’s wonderful miracles. Hanukkah is celebrated even to this day by Jews and some Christians.
Christmas affords believers with a great opportunity to exalt Jesus Christ. The shepherds glorified and praised God for the birth of Jesus the Messiah. They rejoiced when the angels proclaimed that in Bethlehem was born a Savior, Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). The babe laid in the manger that day is our Savior, the “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Matthew 1:21; Revelation 17:14).
We should take advantage of that openness to witness to them of the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ. Christmas is chiefly about the promised Messiah who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Christmas is wonderful opportunity to share this truth.
4.The Sun is a good symbol of Christ: December 25th was a pagan feast for pagans and holy feast for Christians which is called Natalis Invicti, which means “Birth of the Unconquered (Sun),” the Calendar also names the day as that of natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae: “Birth of Christ in Bethlehem Judea. The Nativity Scene calls our attention to the prediction in Micah 5:2-5 of the place of His coming – Bethlehem. The Sun represents the hope of Malachi 3:1 and 4:2 that the Sun of Righteousness would arise both as Judge and with healing in His wings. The Angels represents the fulfillment of the Prophetic hope as Jesus’ Birth was announced to Joseph and Mary in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38.
Sun is not just related to pagan worship infact it is also related to biblical symbol as well. The sun represents Jesus, His gospel, and His righteousness. “The Lord God is a sun.” Psalms 84:11. (Malachi 4:2.) Without Jesus there is no salvation (Acts 4:12). More than anything else, Jesus wants His church to overflow with His presence and glory. He created spiritual light. The purpose of the Heavens was to declare the “glory of God”, to reveal the person and plan of the Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is described as the light of the world in John 8:12, John 9:5, Matthew 4:16, Matthew 17:2, John 3:19-20, John 12:35-36, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:14. Ironically the light of the world is sun. John 1:3-8 says “through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. Without the Sun nothing would grow and we’d all be dead. So sun can be compared to Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ our life is dead.
Also we know that there is Biblical significance of Sun-day as the Lord’s day. Some of them are After Pentecost Christians met on Sunday(Acts 20:7), Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday( Mk 16:9; Lk 24:1,13,21), The Holy Spirit first fell upon the disciples on a Sunday( Acts 2:1-4). We do not have to think like the pagan world but we can think biblically. God did not create sun just for pagans but for everyone. Here I am not saying that
