The Case For Christmas: No Imitations

Facing the question: Does Christmas steal from pagan sources?

Intro: Law: The rules of evidence and making the argument. You may often in the court room hear the phrase “ladies and gentleman of the jury, I will present to you why my client could not have… or why the accused is most assuredly guilty”

When Christmas rolls around: Getting into the groove of the season and then at some point you run into a family, member, friend, or neighbor that says “you know that Christmas is built off of pagan celebration practices?”

Deuteronomy 12:29-31

Let’s pretend: Suppose we did not do anything that pagans have done. However we must understand that pagans have built temples, offered sacrifices for worship, and celebrate feast days. Therefore, the text must be considered that it says in verse 31, “do not do every abhorrent thing that they have done” So when God forbid the exercise of pagan practices did he also forbid worship, offerings, sacrifices, and celebrating feast days?

God commanded Israel to sacrifice animals before him, to build a temple to worship him, and to celebrate feast days. Think about the Passover and how it came to being as a command from God to celebrate it for all time. Critics of Christmas and the hyper religious often point to passages such as Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 10:2–4 “Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations, or be dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are false: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan; people deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.” This passage is about fashioning an idol that sat under a tree for worshippers to worship in the tree’s shade the idol that is underneath it. No scholar backs that this passage is about a Christmas tree or even addresses our Christmas traditions.

Origin of the Christmas Tree; 1561 an ordinance posted in Alsace, France declared that each burgher was allowed only one Christmas tree and that his tree could be no more than eight shoes in height:—Tanya Gulevich Encyclopedian of Christmas and New years’s Celebrations p.170

This is the first reference in history to the Christmas tree.

it is not the Bible that is wrong but our interpretation without working for understanding is flawed. God redeems pagan practices in the sense that he takes what they meant for evil and makes for His glory. Think about the worship battle between Elijah and the prophets of baal. Look at the similarity. But only one God has power and authority to light up the sky and bring fire from heaven. The cross itself is a pagan tool of torture but Christians have redeemed the cross to be our symbol of victory. God takes what others have meant for evil and turns it for good!

We are forbidden to copy the abominable practices of pagan worship. These practices that harm people, commit murder, and are oriented toward powerless, lifeless idols— The main practice of the Canaanites when Israel was utilized to bring judgment down on them and took over their land were activities of worship such as child sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul cites major pagan thinkers in his speech at the Areopagus. Mike Jones from Inspiring Philosophy points out, Paul used pagan theologians to make the case for God being the unknown God among them and that Yahweh is the true God who created the universe. Paul quotes Epitomes and Erastus were stoic Athenian philosophers.

Acts 17:28 NRSV

For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’

Just because the pagans utilized a practice does not mean that Christians can’t redeem it and use it to honor God. Paul writes about eating food offered to idols. Paul declares these pagan actions are powerless. In 1 Cor. 8: 7-8

1 Corinthians 8:7–8 NRSV

It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

1 Corinthians 8:7–8 NRSV

It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

Constantine and December 25th.

“The official calendar of Julius Caesar marked [the solstice] at the 25th…The traditional pagan Roman calendar had left this period as a quiet and mysterious one, and flanked it instead with a festival of preparation and one of completion: the former was the feast of Saturn, the Saturnalia, in the days after 17 December, the latter the New Year Feast…from 1 to 2 January.” Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun. p.2

Whether Christmas trees, Dec. 25th, or even the Yule, there is exists no, zero evidence that Christians took over a pagan holiday.

No, zero events on any ancient calendar that takes place on Dec. 25th before Christian celebration of Christmas.

“King Hakon was confirmed Christian when he arrived in Norway…He had it established in the laws that the Yule celebration was to take place at the same time as it is the custom with the Christians.” Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringa: History of the kings of Norway, p.106.

Mike Jones states “that it is ancient church belief that a prophet’s death should die on the day that they were conceived. The church did its own calculations and Jesus is believed to have died on March 25th so if we count forward nine months we get to Dec. 25th.

Lexham Survey of Theology Jesus’ Virgin Birth

For the Fathers, the virgin birth was essential because it safeguarded the doctrine that Christ was the new Adam. In the third century, Irenaeus argued that because Adam “had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil,” so did “He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam [into Himself], from Mary, who was as yet a virgin.”

How do we respond to the question that Christmas is from paganism because the birth of Jesus copies other births of pagan gods such as the Egyptian god Horus?

Horus when we go back to historical, authoritative texts was not born of a woman names Mary, he wasn’t born of a virgin, Isis was his mother and was a widow of Osiris. She was not a virgin. the birth of Horus is not even close to comparison of the birth of Jesus. Over and over again those who claim Christianity is an imitator and not original needs to spend time in an actual library doing their own research.

Example after example when we go back to the sources and not just some one spouting off hearsay falls down and Christianity is strengthened.

The Importance of the Virgin Birth in the Bible:

Miraculous births are all over the Bible. Sarah, Hannah, Manoah’s wife (the mother of Samson), the Shunnamite woman (provided lodging for Elisha), each of their wombs are the sign of God’s mighty and great work within the land of Israel, God was about to renew his people.

This is the lens through which we understand the births of John the Baptist and Jesus.

Yet, Jesus’s birth is distinct from any other miraculous birth in Biblical and historical history. It is the fulfillment of the Isaiah 7:14 prophecy. It is no unique act of God that the prophet writes a “young woman will bear a son” As Justin Martyr points out in his dialogue with Trypho “Only if it is translated ‘virgin’. A virgin birth is a miraculous sign of God executed on behalf of God’s work among the people of Israel.

Why? Because God is working for our victory. When we understand that Jesus is the victory in this world and in all the universe and over all time we understand that Christ reigns.

This is our faith. Our God is the one and the only. God incarnate through the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ.

1 John 4:4 NRSV

Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The Gospel is this. Even if Christmas came from any pagan practice, God is greater and more powerful and can redeem these few things. The power of Christ within in you as a believer sealed with the Holy Spirit will keep you from sin. Just as Paul wrote, eating meat doesn’t mean you worshipped the idol it was sacrificed to. God is greater and the victorious Christ is within us. God came to this world, born of a virgin. A unique and miraculous birth that was the promise of God in our midst, that for the first time the power and presence of God would be with us and for us always is the fulfillment of the Divine Kingdom. Christ rules, and when Christ reigns we need not to be concerned.

Conclusion

We can believe the story of Christmas. It is accurate, reliable, and true. It is also unique. Christmas does not steal from any other pagan tradition or cultural practice. It is unique to the celebration of the birth of the Christ child who was born of a virgin.

Jesus reigns and has been exalted to the highest throne and rules all time and place. Jesus the one whom we will celebrate his coming and await his return is greater than any pagan practice or cultic belief. God has given us something that will withstand all criticism and accusation and we have a faith we can believe with reason and certainty.

So when someone comes up to you and asks how can you celebrate Christmas? You have been equipped. Your only response needs to be, “show me how you came to that conclusion”