This time of year I see article after article from Christians about why it is sinful to decorate Christmas trees, wrap presents, and sing “Deck the Halls.”
Here is an example:
Whenever I see these blog posts, Facebook articles, and YouTube videos, I always want to ask if they celebrate Easter, drive a Mazda, or use a Calendar.
Why?
Because the exact same logic people use to say that Christians should not celebrate Christmas can also be used to say that Christians should not celebrate Easter, should not drive a Mazda, and should not use a Calendar.
Here is the logic some Christians use to teach that it is sinful to celebrate Christmas:
- Christmas has roots in the pagan holiday of Saturnalia. It was celebrated with decorating trees, baking cookies, putting up lights, passing out presents, and singing songs.
- If we do these things for Christmas, then we are participating in a sinful, pagan holiday.
This is the basic logic, and some Christians occasionally find passages like Jeremiah 10:1-5 to support this view.
But let us plug the same logic in to the holiday of Easter:
- Easter has roots in the pagan holiday that celebrated Ishtar, the sex goddess. Among other things, the spring celebration of Ishtar was observed with sunrise celebrations, decorating eggs, giving candy, and cute bunnies. It reminded people of new birth and new life.
- If we do these things for Easter, then we are participating in a sinful, pagan holiday.
And how about driving a Mazda:
- The Mazda car is named after the chief Persian deity, Ahura Mazda. Even the early symbol of the Mazda line of cars (1936-1962) resembled the dual-winged image of Ahura Mazda and can still be seen in the modern winged “M” logo of the Mazda (see the three images below).
- Therefore, driving a Mazda is a tribute to Ahura Mazda, the pagan Persian deity, and is sinful for Christians. The same thing can be said, by the way, about driving a Saturn or a Mercury.
Following the Christmas logic, we also cannot use a calendar:
- All the days of the week are named after pagan deities.
- Sunday = Sun’s Day
- Monday = Moon’s Day
- Tuesday = Tyr’s Day
- Wednesday = Woden’s Day
- Thursday = Thor’s Day
- Friday = Frey’s Day
- Saturday = Saturn’s Day
And most of the months of the year are also named after various pagan deities.
- January = Janus’s month
- February = month of Februa (pagan purification)
- March = Mars’ month
- April = Aphrodite’s month
- May = Maia’s month
- June = Juno’s month
- July = Julius Caesar’s month
- August = Augustus Caesar’s month
- September = the seventh month*
- October = the eighth month*
- November = the ninth month*
- December = the tenth month*
- Therefore, to talk about the days of the week or the months of the year is to give honor to the false gods and deities after which they are named.
As long as we are at it, we should also stop wearing Nike clothes and shoes, eating Mars bars, using Venus razors, buying Hermes handbags, or investing in Janus funds. And since all the planets are named after pagan Roman deities, we shouldn’t talk about our study our solar system. We also shouldn’t visit the Statue of Liberty. And no matter what, we should definitely stay away from the Washington monument and churches with steeples since they are symbols that come from pagan rituals that celebrated the male phallic.
Do you see where all this is going? As soon as Christians start to try to avoid and condemn anything and everything that has pagan roots or symbolism, we end up having to just sit at home twiddling our thumbs. Of course, even that is fraught with danger, because as Paul himself writes, every single human being has a background that is filled with paganism (cf. 1 Cor 6:9-11). So we cannot even be around ourselves!
Yes, this has now crossed over into the realm of the absurd.
But that is exactly the point.
All these condemnations of various aspects of life because those areas of life have pagan origins are nothing but absurd.
They also deny and reject the absolute fact that our God is a redeeming God. That Jesus Christ is a redeemer. That everything in heaven and on earth has been placed under the feet of Jesus so that He is all in all. That everything can be received with joy and thanksgiving in the name of Jesus. That everything is “Yes” and “Amen” through Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.
So this Christmas season, go put up lights on your tree. Go bake cookies and pass out presents. Go drive your Mazda to your job on Monday while you wear your Nike shoes and snack on a Mars bar. And while do you do all these pagan things, give praise to Jesus because He has redeemed everything, including you and me.
So go ahead! Cut down the tree, decorate it with silver tinsel and gold ornaments, bake the cookies, hand out presents, sing the carols, and do it all with praise to Jesus Christ, who is our Redeemer!
If you want to read more about this, I have written a short eBook on the subject, titled Christmas Redemption. Get your copy on Amazon today for $2.99.
Better yet, “Hope” and “Love” Members of RedeemingGod.com will get this book for free a few weeks after signing up. Join now.
Excellent!!
Yes, I agree!
Jeremy, you always inspire me. Thank you for your scholarship and synthesis. My only disagreement with the things that you write is that you are still trinitarian instead of unitarian in your theology. However, my agreement is not necessary to my appreciation of your writings.
Thanks! So glad we can still disagree on some things and get along.
We can probably find some point of disagreement that would cause us to not get along but theology will never be one of them because, like you, I don’t consider any brand of orthodoxy to be necessary for salvation. I believe that YHWH is a just deity and a just deity would never set up an unwinnable scenario and then punish the test subject for failing a rigged game.
good one!
Theres more to the pagan holidays than what you mentioned. I dont have to celebrate Christmas or drive a masda but i do have to live by the calendar. Why would anyone want to worship or celebrate something thats not true. Christmas is not Jesus’s birthday. If you would like to tango on this subject I’m happy to accommodate but you better know your history.
Lol…get a life.
Have one and it awesome 🙂 but thanks anyway dr dolittle
any fool knows that the celebration of Jesus birth was superimposed on the Mithraic feast of solus invicta. We can still celebrate it as his official birthday just as we in the British Commonwealth celebrate the Queens birthday in June though she was in fact born in April. What we are celebrating is That he was born not necessarily When.
Great article, the JWs should read this
They wouldn’t be allowed to read it. And yes, it is a superb article! 😀
The birth of Christ, is biblical.
Just because we have a theoretical day, are we not still celebrating the birth & person of Christ?
Right. I think Jesus was born in September, but who cares?
Many thousands of years ago, ALL people were pagans, do human civilization naturally has pagan echoes mixed in with more recent celebrations. Don’t throw the Baby Jesus out with the pagan bath-water!
So you think Jesus appreciates the way we celebrate his birthday? I don’t…
And I don’t agree with how we celebrate Easter either. What does the spring celebration of Ishtar was observed with sunrise celebrations, decorating eggs, giving candy, and cute bunnies. Have to do with resurrection?
I agree with you about the calendar, but I do not follow the calendar as a religious belief or celebration, but merely a civic institution. It is not part of my faith.
I know that Easter and Christmas were pagan traditions adopted by a pagan King to help win over the Christian population of the time .
I agree!
For a number of years I didn’t celebrate Christmas. I had reservations about the pagan origins of the festivities, and I was honestly frustrated by the powerlessness I felt under the weight of tradition. So we stopped; it was hard, but I am glad we did it because it was not comfortable to do something against conscience, and it was humiliating to feel I was just doing it to avoid offending family and friends.
After I began studying philosophy I came to have some respect for some of the pagan philosophers and Hindu thinkers. I still think Christmas is pretty darn pagan (it is far more pagan than Halloween in my opinion). But I guess with all my doubts I am not so sure that everything pagan is bad. I recall being struck by a line from Herodotus; he said something like, “The only people who practice circumcision are the Egyptians and those who LEARNED IT FROM THEM.”
I no longer have enough confidence in the positions of verbal-plenary inspiration and inerrancy to deny that it is possible some aspects of the Hebrew cultus were at first pagan – human methods of honoring gods turned to honor THE God. In this position of incurable uncertainty I began to feel that it was rather unfair to keep my family from taking part in the joy of the season and taking advantage of those precious few opportunities we have to see our relatives.
I think the important thing, though, is you should never act against conscience, whether you partake or abstain. Even if the Bible is quite explicit on a matter, God sees the heart, and will it do you any good in his sight to do something you believe to be wrong?
Most would not celebrate Easter either. Not because of the name (as in the calender or trade names) but because of the worship of God thru pagan worship traditions rubber stamped by the church. In any event you come across as rather harsh to all these people who are simply picking and choosing their personal piety and liturgy traditions…as we all do. Peace. And Merry Christmas.
Yes, many do not celebrate Easter either, for the reasons you mention.
I have always felt we as believers tend to over complicate our faith. The apostle Paul said with out Christ (His death and resurrection) our faith is worthless. As Jeremy states ” That everything in heaven and on earth has been placed under the feet of Jesus so that He is all in all. That everything can be received with joy and thanksgiving in the name of Jesus”. That’s good enough for me. So we are free to celebrate His birth, death and resurrection if we wish and when we wish. Christmas can very complicated, so make it simple. Easter if its to pagan they make it Christ centered in ur family.
We are not of this world anymore but we are still part of it. So we are free to choose.
I have always observed these traditions but have felt uneasy about them and now this year have been convicted that it is not ok to celebrate these Pagan festivals’ Come out of her my people and touch not the unclean thing’. It would be easier just to continue but I would lose my peace with God as I have had conviction. So no card sending, no Christmas tree and although I had already bought a few gifts they will not be given on Christmas day. It will be hard because Christmas is everywhere and fiercely defended by most. I didn’t celebrate Halloween recently anyway but did in the past occasionally so I am not Judging others but now I must walk in obedience to the revelation I have received now about these celebrations. We have been given 7 feast days to celebrate in the Jewish calendar and I would like to know more about these. I don’t want to become legalistic but I believe God is calling His Bride out of the Harlot system and these pagan festivals are instigated by Roman Catholicism, just as the changing of the Sabbath day was too. We don’t celebrate days of week or months of year so not the same as actually making preparation for the pagan festivals and feasts.
I refuse to “celebrate” Halloween, and I have for two years now. Look at the meaning of the very word. Hallo-something that is holy. Ween-to go away from something. The definition of the very word is to go away from something that is holy. That is not what I want to do. In fact that is the complete opposite of what I want to do!!!
Christmas is something of the same to me, however I have come to realize that you must attribute everything to Jesus. Thats my biggest problem with Christmas and Easter. Who is Santa, who is the Easter Bunny? It makes me so upset that we have allowed our Savior Yeshua to be replaced and overshadowed with mythical creatures while peoples souls hang in the balance. I agree with you Jeremy in a sense, but I also agree with what Chrissy says, “I believe God is calling His bride out of the Harlot system and these pagan festivals are instigated by the Roman Catholicism, just as the changing of the Sabbath day was too.” This comment is right on, and the Catholic church is the wolves in sheep clothing.
I think the lesson to be learned here is whether you view these things right or wrong, you need to do whats best for you. If the Great I Am has placed it on your heart to reconsider these things then they should be reconsidered as whats best for your relationship with Him. Personally I know all of these things can get in they way because it distracts me from Him.
Important though we should not condemn or judge anyone! We all know what that feels like and it pushes people away from the message of the One True King!!! Don’t take your eyes off Jesus!!!!
Halloween doesn’t mean that. It is short for ‘All Hallows’ Eve’ on Hallowed Evening. So the correct spelling should be Halloee’en, meaning ‘evening’ or e’en. It is the evening before All Saints’ Day, All Hallows’ Day (hallowed like in Hallowed be Thy Name) – holy, or blesssed. So it actually is the evening before the day of all the holy ones. That’s what it means.
yes.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, ( Rom 14 ) he mentions the problem of those who were concerned about eating food connected with pagan rituals or keeping special days.
Paul’s guidance was that each should be persuaded in their own mind and act according to their faith and conscience, but also in accordance with respect and consideration for the fellow Christian’s conscience.
In other words, I have little interest in Santa Claus or Easter bunnies, but I don’t berate my fellow believers or accuse them of anything if they think these are harmless cultural trivia. If they wanted my opinion I might explain respectfully, but otherwise I say nothing.
Perhaps it is interesting to look at some of the personal names in the early church recorded in the NT ,
Stephanas ( the pagan Olympic games laurel wreath ) Apollos ( god of music and sun ) Aquila ( the eagle, the Roman animal emblem ) Narcissus, Hermes, Nympha, Olympas, Artemus, Fortunatus, all derived from pagan mythology. There is no indication that these Christians had the urge to change their names.
In Romans 14 speaking about symbolic acts, Paul makes the remarkable statement that nothing is unclean of itself, only if one thinks it is unclean, is it unclean.
Paul’s conclusion is that the key to our behaviour over symbolism is a matter of faith and we will all be accountable for ourselves to God, not accountable for other people’s behaviour. In other words; make up your own mind.
I think Neville has provided a very good case for individual choice based on scripture. As Jeremy points out we are covered by Christ
I agree with Jeremy that the point is not on the origin. Christmas has been redeemed by Christ and everything else that was pagan related. I will celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas and I am buying presents and anticipating to receive presents in honor and remembrance of the greatest gift we have been given by God.
“Do you see where all this is going? As soon as Christians start to try to avoid and condemn anything and everything that has pagan roots or symbolism, we end up having to just sit at home twiddling our thumbs. Of course, even that is fraught with danger, because as Paul himself writes, every single human being has a background that is filled with paganism (cf. 1 Cor 6:9-11). So we cannot even be around ourselves!”
How about the fact that Jesus was not born at this time of the year, since there is no biblical significance at this time of the year…and Passover and Unleavened Bread is rooted in the biblical record.
“4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.” (Romans 14)
I am just stating it does not follow the biblical record, and Jesus was very emphatic about following the rules that God give through Moses, not adding or subtracting.
Did you read the book?
most who don’t (no longer) recognize Christmas also skip the traditional Easter. Additionally, they may have a note in their Bible about the mistranslation of Pascha or “Passover” as-if “Easter” in Acts 12:4.
There are some who no longer celebrate traditional holidays because they just want to be on that bandwagon. After awhile, these folks tend to ‘fall off the wagon’. Men and women of genuine conviction about it won’t make a cause out of it. They may try to warn you, while their purpose does not depend upon whether you annually kneel at a tree or give the Easter Bunny a place at your house.
The Greco-Roman calendar and days-of-week functions as a language component. Consequently, it doesn’t require a sacrifice (such as a purchase or special time devoted to its unique meaning). When we say or write ‘November’, it is to accomodate the language of the people who use that language label.
Amen!
I no longer trust the Saturnalia explanation. Here’s why. In 210 AD, Tertullian described the practice of celebrating the birth of Christ on Dec 25 or Jan 6. This would predate any Catholic usurpation of a Roman holiday.
It was a common belief that Christ died on the same day of the year as his conception. Adjusting the Jewish calendar to the Roman, Passover falls in late March or early April. Birth follows nine months after conception. Thus, we have a late December or early January birth.
It’s a interesting explanation. The Saturnalia coincidence is not the only one, just the superficially obvious one.
I’ve argued elsewhere for a December conception and September birth. But none of it really matters.
Yeah, if we only had the resources to expend on this kind of non sense and this was our biggest problem we’d be doing okay. #NoTimeForContrivedDrama Thx for posting and addressing this.
How about having a statue of Mary in the house or any other form of idols?
WAS a pagan holiday. No more. MERRY CHRISTMAS.
That’s absolutely correct!
I read a commentator once who put forward the idea that Jesus was born on the feast of Rosh Hashanah ( also known as Yom Teruah ) the Jewish New Year. The thinking behind this is that the holy Jewish feasts pointed to the Messiah, such as the Passover for His death and resurrection, and Shavuot for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.., so the New Year was the day of His birth.
The commentator also put forward that since Yom Teruah is announced by the blowing of the trumpets ( it is known as the feast of trumpets, actually shofar or rams horn ) then Jesus appearing again could happen on Rosh Hashanah because Paul wrote about Jesus and the resurrection appearing at the sound of the trumpet.
I am not sure what we can make of all that, It seems to make sense that the Messiah would appear at the New Year. Jesus said that He had come to announce the year of the Lord’s favour.
But it doesn’t give any guidance to dates because Rosh Hashanah like most of the festivals is a ” movable feast ” (like Passover or Easter which occur on different dates each year ) usually between mid September to early October, I think according to moon phases.
What we do know is that the Kingdom of God is at hand and that the Kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. The times and seasons are in God’s hand. As the bible says about Jesus birth ” in the fullness of time ” .
I started this the other night – so good!!! It is great to understand the history behind everything and I fully agree at the redemption power of Christ. Even to culture.
I am glad you are enjoying it. I only wish it was longer. Maybe someday I will expand it.
Hello after my last post I have done prayerful research and this year I will celebrate Hanukkah instead of Christmas. If there is a new moon on the 1st December then Hanukkah falls around same time as Christmas and New year. Hanukkah although not one of the ordained 7 feasts that were observed as of the law given to Israel it is one of the celebrations that was observed by Jesus and recorded in the Bible. . Therefore this year it falls on the 24th Dec to the 1st January and will make for me a smoother transition from celebrating Christmas to celebrating Hanukkah. Every year it falls on a dates covering 8 days within Nov/Dec . Everyone must be sure in there own hearts and I am now that Hanukkah is the celebration for me. I am not celebrating any of the feasts in a legalistic way it is just for me that Christmas does not sit right and I can not find anywhere in the Bible that tells me to celebrate Jesus Birth only to take wine and break bread in remembrance of His Body broken for us. Hanukkah is a lovely simple celebration of light over darkness and of God’s miraculous provision. The enjoying of special foods and the giving of gifts can still be done as can decorating of the home with the lighting of special candles and prayers . This will be my first year of BREXMAS and I will no doubt meet with much opposition but as we all have agreed we must be sure in our own hearts and do that which we can without conscience. I am not saying that any of you should not observe Christmas as a religious celebration but for me I can’t do so in good conscience anymore, therefore, I may be the weaker amongst you so lets agree to have differences that are not ultimately a deciding matter of our salvation.
FYI one of the “proofs” that the Earth is flat is that Genesis does not state that God created the planets, therefore they (the planets) must be demons.
Hebrews 11:3 – Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God
I was in a local shop yesterday and I saw a large display for selling Christmas cards.
Down towards the bottom of the display there was a small section with the heading ” Religious “.
Happily they were thoughtful enough to cater to that small section of the customers who might think that Christmas had anything to do with ” religion”.
One year, in the children’s section at my local library they had a display of books with Christmas stories. I went to the counter and told the librarian that they had missed putting up a copy of the best story about Christmas. She was puzzled as to what that might be, so I told her; The Bible. She still seemed confused.
They didn’t have a Bible , so I went out and bought one for the library.
I know this is very late considering when you wrote this article, but I have been doing a lot of research on this topic and am still not 100% sure how I feel about it. However, one thing I never thought about before but heard recently is the fact that, yes, God does redeem. However, to redeem something means to buy back something that once belonged to you and there is only evidence in scripture of God redeeming people – not practices or things. We cannot say that God redeems everything because not everything belongs to Him – by His choice. For example, idol worship never belonged to God because He condemns it and it goes against His character, so we cannot say “God’s okay with me worshipping this ________ instead of Him because He can redeem anything and use it for His glory.” This was an argument I used often to rationalize various practices that I now recognize are unscriptural and separating me from God.
I am not saying your conclusion that celebrating Christmas is okay for Christians is wrong at all. I am just hoping maybe someone can gain new insight about God’s redemption, in the same way I did when I first heard this.