Bullets From The Bible 12-12-17
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The most wonderful time of the year. There are Christmas trees, gift giving, special religious gatherings, songs celebrating the birth of Christ, and Santa Clause. Christmas is a religious holiday, right? As such surely we have Biblical commands and examples to support all of these religious festivities...don’t we? Is Christmas in the Bible? Is the birth of Christ something that was celebrated in New Testament times?
I realize I am going to sound “unchristian” for saying this...and have been called such before. However Christmas has nothing to do with the Bible or Biblical teaching. Christmas is not a holiday talked about in the Bible and we are never told to religiously celebrate the birth of Christ. We are told to recognize and reflect on the death of Christ every first day of the week (1 Cor 11:23-29, Acts 20:7), yet we have no Biblical authority to celebrate the birth of Christ or Christmas as a religious holiday.
So where did Christmas come from? Why December 25th? Why all of these different traditions that are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible?
The Romans had a holiday called Saturnalia that took place on December 25. This holiday was on the shortest day of the year and was to celebrate and worship the return of the sun. This holiday was often accompanied by feasting, exchanging of gifts, decorating houses with greenery and lights, and other well known traditions.
It was not until the 300’s AD that Christians celebrated Christmas and not until the 500’s AD that the Roman Catholic Church began commanding it to be celebrated. The reality is that Christmas is a holiday that Christians began celebrating because they wanted to participate in the Pagan festivities of the Romans and the whole time call it a Christian holiday.
Now...I am not against giving of gifts and such, yet we must realize that we have no Biblical authority to celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday.
Consider the words of Christ in Matthew 15:7-8, “‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. [9] And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
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Wow.
Despite being massively surprised by this. ... I know truth when I hear it.
I've always enjoyed christmas because it affords me time to hang out with family. :) ... so I'm fine with this.
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I also love this time of year because of family, time to relax, and etc. yet the holiday holds no religious significance to me.
