What's Wrong with Christmas?

Christmas Day, as most people know (or should know), is not the actual birthday of Christ. The day came from the rival pagan festival, Saturnalia, a Roman celebration of the god, Saturn, around the winter solstice (December 25 on the Julian calendar) and the rebirth of Mithra, the sun god. In order to celebrate the birth of the Son of God (sorry, it's an English pun, so it wasn't in their minds) while covering their practice (since it wasn't quite legal) and in order to contravene the pagan nature of it, they chose this time and incorporated (read "subverted") many of the practices of the time with the idea of "redeeming the culture".

Santa Claus is the product of the tale of Saint Nicholas, a 4th century bishop, who saved some children from slavery by dropping some money down the chimney that fell into socks left there to dry.

Christmas trees appear to be from a story from the 4th century of a missionary named Saint Boniface. Facing the druidic Germans who believed in spirits in their mighty oak trees, he felled one in defiance. The tree fell on a small fir sapling. The sapling was undamaged, so he pointed to it as "the Christ tree". In the 16th century these trees were decorated with various colorful items. Martin Luther is credited with being the first to light a Christmas tree. Seeing the stars twinkling through tall pines on his way home one evening, he put candles on the tree at home to show them the glory of God's handiwork.

Holly, oh, by gosh, by golly, originally was part of the pagan belief that it had special magical powers to withstand the demons of winter. It did, after all, remain green when everything else died. Christians adopted it because the sprigs of red berries symbolized the blood Christ shed, and the thorny leaves symbolized the thorn of crowns He wore.

What's wrong with Christmas? Well, it's all there, isn't it? And I could go on and on. There is no doubt that Jesus was not born on December 25th. Sorry to let anyone down who thought so. It's not true. It's also quite certain that many things we see as traditional Christmas practices today are of pagan origin. The Puritans of England and early America outlawed Christmas due to its pagan origins. I mean, how can any true believer condone this kind of nonsense? Trust me ... look around a little and you'll find websites pounding their pulpits saying just this.

And then I read Paul's comments on food offered to idols. Is it pagan in origin? There is no doubt. But Paul says that it is of no real consequence. Just because pagans saw it as religious -- as "offered to gods" -- did not make so. "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience." Now, of course, Paul was saying not to do things that offend the conscience of weaker brethren. But I have to ask how far that would go? As I said before, there's very little that doesn't offend someone's conscience. I can offend someone by simply reading my Bible if it's not King James 1611 edition. So how far does that go?

And when you think about it, how much of every day living is tinged with sin? Cars are used to transport drugs. Should we stop using cars? Guns and knives are used by murderers to kill. Should we stop using knives? Buildings are used by prostitutes to do their work. Should we stop using buildings? Is there any validity to the concept of "redeeming the culture", of taking what is used for sin in the world today and converting it to godly use?

What's wrong with Christmas? Sure, there's a lot. But I wouldn't wish to suggest that it's in the traditions of Christmas. I'd suggest that it's in the hearts of those who celebrate it. Is it a celebration of Christ or a celebration of self? If the latter, no amount of "non-pagan" solemnity will make it any better. But I'm all for celebrating the coming of our Lord and Savior.