The Pagan Roots of "Christmas"

(Article for publication week of 12-25- AD 2014)

 "Thus saith the LORD, 'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work  of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not' " (Jeremiah 10:2-4).

We have shown you in previous articles that Christmas is not Christian, first because it is not even mentioned, much less commanded in the scriptures, and secondly because it is a "mass" of the Popish co-called "church." The Romanists claim that there is a real and propitiatory offering of our Lord in the mass, therefore true Christians should be repulsed by such mockery of our Lord's offering Himself  "once for all" (Hebrews 10:10). This week we shall show you that "Christmas" is entirely pagan in its roots.

First of all, let us consider the observance of the Christ- mass on December 25. Nowhere in scripture do we read of the day, much less the month that our Lord was born. Most learned men, like Bishop Ussher generally agree that our Lord was not born on December 25. So where did men get the idea to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25, if it is not stated in scripture, nor in secular history? The fact is that this date was chosen because the heathens before the advance of "Christendom" celebrated the birth of the sun god three days after the winter solstice. In the pagan Roman Empire the celebration was known as "saturnalia." The wretched practice began in the Babylonian Empire, and similar celebrations involving the worship of the sun were practiced throughout Europe, the mid-east and other places.

This is a good place for us to reflect upon the grace and goodness of God that moved Him to send the gospel to our benighted forefathers. Our European ancestors were as vile a race as any other until the light of the gospel shined upon them. As far as we know (only the LORD knows infallibly) ALL our ancestors before the first century lived and died in spiritual darkness and are in hell now. How thankful we should be that the Lord sent His gospel to us Gentiles! Only a remnant of Gentiles have been saved, but before the first century we have little hope that any of our ancestors were saved. Our ancestors in the British Isles and in Western Europe were all a sorry lot of idolaters. While they knew God by creation and conscience, they became vain in their imaginations and worshipped and served the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:18-25).

All over the old pagan Roman Empire the sun was worshipped and December 25 (as the heathens observed that the days were getting longer)  was a day of debauched revelry as our heathen forefathers celebrated the birth of the "sun god." The burning of lights, the cutting down of evergreens, the yule log, the mistletoe were all practiced in the filthy debauchery of the Saturnalia. (You can look this up for yourself in any standard encyclopedia.) With the rise of popery, Constantine-ism and the union of "church" and state (the true church has never been united to the State) these heathen practices were assimilated into the "church" which began to be centered in Rome by the fourth century. So the pope and his followers declared that the saturnalia would continue as an observation of the nativity of Christ and that a special "mass" would be said on December 25. They disobeyed my text in Jeremiah 10 and learned the way of the heathen to get the heathen to "join the church." "Christmas" is not Christian, but is a "demon holiday" rooted in popery and heathendom and should be rejected by believers in Christ.

True Christians delight in the Incarnation of the Saviour every day. "The Word was made flesh" (John 1:14)! As my dear Brother Jeff Pollard once put it, "the Son of God became the Son of Man that sons of men would become sons of God!" But we should reject every man -made form of worship, and every practice that is extra-Biblical. "Learn not the way of the heathen."