Christmas Traditions (Part 2: Is Christmas Pagan?)

Introduction

Attention:

Has someone ever attacked one of your favorite things?

Back when I was a teen, my favorite band was Skillet; I thought they were so cool

But then suddenly, people that I knew became to call them the “Nickleback of Christianity”

As a panhead, I always felt personally offended by this

Well, another one of my favorite things is Christmas, and it is under attack too, people people keep saying that its pagan

That’s what we are going to talk about

Need:

The reason that you need to hear this is that our celebration of one of the most important events in human history is being attacked

Lots of people, especially in the Atheist community, claim that it is stupid and silly for Christians to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25

There are lots of rumors about this going around, and it is leaving a lot of Christians confused!

You need to know how that you can CONFIDENTLY celebrate Christmas and not be ashamed about it!

Body

The Question: Is Christmas Pagan?

Truth #1: Christmas is not celebrated in the Bible

This might seem simple, but its important for us to establish this

Christmas is not celebrated in Scripture

However, the event that Christmas celebrates is! The event of the Word becoming flesh.

In fact, this Wednesday, we will see that there was a very big celebration at the coming of the Messiah in Matthew 2

But there is not a “holiday” based on this, and December 25 itself bears no special significance Scripturally speaking, which leads us to our next point

Truth #2: We don’t know when Jesus was born

I know, I know; this might be disappointing for some of you to learn

But the reality is that there is no way to know for certain the exact time frame of His birth

So, then… where does the idea of it happening on Dec 25 come from?

Before we talk more about that, this next truth gives us an important caveat:

Truth #3: Origins only go so far

Before we discuss any of the main arguments for or against Christmas, I think that we can go ahead and ask this question

If we were to figure out that Christmas had pagan roots, how much would that even matter?

An article that I read from Crosswalk.com phrased it this way; “The Gospel not only transcends culture, it transforms it.”

If something that used to be bad can’t be used for good, where does that place us?

We all apart from Christ are deserving of eternal death. But for those of us who have truly accepted Him, he has brought us from death to life

We have been restored by the power of the Gospel

Who’s to say that a Holiday that started off with paganistic intent can’t be redeemed for good?

And maybe this was actually an effort to get people to stop celebrating the pagan things; maybe they were trying to replace something bad with something good

You can’t get too obsessed about the origins of stuff; the days of the week are based off of paganistic things

If you say “yesterday was Thursday. I had a good Thursday” should I say “oh my gosh, you celebrated Thor?” (and not of the Hemsworth variety)

At the end of the day, days are just days! Check out what Paul has to say about it:

Romans 14:5-6 “In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.”

Romans 14:5-6

Romans 14:5–6 (NLT)

In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day do it to honor him. Those who eat any kind of food do so to honor the Lord, since they give thanks to God before eating. And those who refuse to eat certain foods also want to please the Lord and give thanks to God.

Now, this verse isn’t talking about days associated with paganism, but there is a relevant principle that emerges here:

Its not the origins of something that matters; its what you do with it that matters.

With that said though… It’d still be helpful to know about the origins of Christmas, so let’s move along!

Truth #4: There are two main explanations regarding the date of Christmas

Explanation 1: Saturnalia and Sol Invictus

According to this view, the reason that Christmas is on December 25 is because of its connection with these two events.

Saturnalia was a celebration that happened Around December 17-23

This worship the sun God Saturn, and it involved human sacrifice and all sorts of other forms of immorality

So that’s one thing, but supposedly Sol Invictus has an even stronger connection, as it allegedly happened on December 25

What is Sol Invictus, you ask?

Well, apparently it was another pagan Holiday for celebrating the sun (Sol Inuctus was the name of the entity; this was treated as its birthday)

But there is a problem with this; We aren’t even exactly sure what this thing is

What we do know is that this was a Roman thing

Supposedly, the Roman emperor established this day to mark the end of the winter solstice

But the main problem with it is that the earliest evidence for it comes from a vague reference in a 4th century document, and that document happens to also give Dec 25 as the date for Jesus, so we can’t conclude from that document that Sol Invictus came before.

Also, none of the early church fathers mention it

In fact, there isn’t even a suggestion that Jesus’ birth was set at the time of pagan holidays until the 12th century

And they weren’t against the idea of trying to “Christianize” other pagan things, so if that’s what they were trying to do with Christmas, they probably would have mentioned it.

And then, centuries after that, you had post-Enlightenment scholars start spreading the idea that we took Christmas from Sol Invictus

So.... is it possible that this is where it came from? Sure; it is possible that after Constantine turned Rome into a Christian nation, people tried to take some of those pagan holidays and Christianize them. (and some of the resources that I read hold to this, even the Christian ones; the general idea under this thinking is that they were trying to get them to start celebrating the true “Light of the World.”).

But if you are asking me how likely this is, I’d say that it’s pretty low (at least in comparison to the other option)

And what is the other option, you ask? Let’s take a look at it.

Explanation 2: The Belief that Jesus was conceived on March 25 or April 6

There is a second explanation, albeit a rather strange one.

For some reason, there was a belief that a prophet would die on the day that he was conceived

This idea developed around the same time in both the east and the west

Where did it come from? Well, that’s hard to say

They may have been borrowing from ancient Jewish traditions that stated that “the most important events of creation and redemption happen at the same time of year.“

So the thought process is this: in the west, people believed that Jesus died on March 25, and in the east, they believed that he died on April 6

And, sense they believed that the day that Jesus died also corresponded to the day that he was conceived, the thought is that he was born 9 months after that (the length of the pregnancy)

If you were an April 6 person, you’d think that Jesus was born on January 6

But if you were a March 25 person, well… that’d be December 25, wouldn’t it?

Obviously, there is absolutely zero Scriptural merit to the thought that Jesus died on the same day that he was conceived

But is it possible that Christmas developed from the presupposition of this idea? Most certainly!

So, here’s what I’ll say in closing about this part in particular: there is no way to know for certain the exact origin of the date.

Even evangelical Christians are divided on this; some think that there is more evidence for the Conception/Death Date view, but others think that there are equal evidence for both

My personal opinion is that it seems like there is more evidence for the 2nd explanation than there is for the first

But if I figured out that the first were true, I wouldn’t stop celebrating Christmas because of it

As Mike Winger puts it; A day is a day. Its what you do with it that matters

Truth #5: Jesus’ birth is always worth celebrating

There is never a context in which it is wrong to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior

In fact, take a look at what Scripture has to say about this:

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”

Isaiah 9:6–7 (NLT)

For a child is born to us,

a son is given to us.

The government will rest on his shoulders.

And he will be called:

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace

will never end.

He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David

for all eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies

will make this happen!

Here’s the practical takeaway for us; never let someone say that you can’t celebrate the birth of your Savior!

This is a beautiful thing worth celebrating, and don’t let anything that anyone else says get in the way

You can celebrate Christmas with confidence!

Conclusion

So know, when someone tells you that Christianity is a Christmas holiday… how are you going to respond?

What should you do with the information that you’ve gathered today? Begin thinking about this as we move on into small group time

PRAY

Small Group Questions:

What is one thing that you learned about Christmas today that sticks out to you? Why is that?

Why is it that Christmas is under attack in our society? How should the Christian respond to this?

If someone were to tell you that Christmas is a pagan holiday tomorrow, how would you respond to them?

Reread Isaiah 9:6-7. How does this passage shape your perspective of Christmas?

What can you do to spread the truth about Christmas this year?