Men are likened to sheep. And sheep have a tendency to follow the crowd without questioning. Jesus however came and taught us to examine everything by God's word. The Pharisees exalted human traditions. Jesus exalted God's word. We are to live by every word of God – and to reject every human tradition that is against the Word of God (Matt. 4:4).
The battle that Jesus was constantly engaged in with the Pharisees was the age-long battle of God's Word versus the traditions of men. In the church, we are engaged in the same battle today. God's Word is the only heavenly light that we have on this earth. And when God first created light, He immediately separated it from the darkness. The darkness is both sin and human traditions. So we must separate both sin and human traditions from the pure word of God – so that there is no mixture in the church.
Christmas
Consider Christmas, which is celebrated by many as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Shopkeepers of all religions look forward to Christmas, for it is a time when they can make a lot of profit. It is a commercial festival – and not a spiritual one. Millions of dollars/rupees are spent on Christmas cards and gifts. Sales of alcoholic drinks also go up at this time.
Is this really then the birthday of the Son of God, or of ‘another Jesus'?
Let us look at God's Word first of all. The Bible tells us that there were shepherds with their sheep out in the fields of Judea, on the night that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7-14). The shepherds in Israel never kept their flocks out in the open fields at night after October, and until February – because the weather in these months was both rainy and cold there. So the real Jesus must have been born sometime between March and September. December 25 then must be the birthday of ‘another Jesus' that has been dumped on an unsuspecting Christendom by unconverted men!
Further, even if we did know the exact date of Jesus' birth, the question would still be whether God intended His church to celebrate it. Mary, the mother of Jesus, would certainly have known the exact date of birth of Jesus. And she was with the apostles for many years after the day of Pentecost. Yet there is no mention anywhere of Jesus' date of birth. What does this show? Just this – that God deliberately hid the date of Jesus' birth, because He did not want the church to celebrate it. Jesus was not an ordinary mortal whose birthday was to be celebrated once a year. He was the Son of God "Who had no beginning of days", unlike us (Heb.7:3). God wants us to recognize Jesus' birth, death, resurrection and ascension every day, and not just once a year.
An understanding of the difference between the old and the new covenants will also enable us to understand why God does not want His children to celebrate any special “holy days” now. Under the old covenant, Israel had been commanded to celebrate certain days as specially holy days. But that was only a shadow. Now that Christ has come, the will of God is that every day of our lives should be equally holy. Even the weekly sabbath has been abolished, under the new covenant. That is why no holy days are mentioned anywhere in the New Testament (Col.2:16,17).
How then did Christmas make its entry into Christendom? The answer is: In the same way that infant baptism, tithing, priestcraft, salaried pastors and many other human traditions and old covenant practices, have made their entry – by the subtle working of Satan and unconverted men.
When the emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of Rome in the 4th century, multitudes became Christian – but only 'in name' – without any change of heart. And so, they did not want to give up their two great annual heathen festivals – both connected with their worship of the sun. One was the birthday of the sun-god on December 25, when the sun that had gone down to the southern hemisphere began its return journey (the winter solstice). The other was the spring festival in March/April, when they celebrated the death of the winter and the birth of the warm summer that their sun-god had brought. They renamed their sun-god 'Jesus' and continued to celebrate their two great festivals, now as Christian festivals and called them Christmas and Easter!!
Today’s Christmas customs have evolved from times before the Christian period in Europe – and have come from pagan, religious practices, coupled with legends and traditions. The exact date and year of Christ's birth have never been satisfactorily settled; but when the fathers of the church in A.D . 440 decided upon a date to celebrate the event, they chose the day of the winter solstice which was firmly fixed in the minds of the people of those days – and which was their most important festival. As Christianity spread among the people of pagan lands, many of the practices of the winter solstice celebration began to be joined with those of Christianity.
The Encyclopaedia Brittanica (an authority on secular history) has the following to state about the origin of Christmas:
“The ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia is perhaps most closely linked with the modern celebration of Christmas. This festival happened about the time of the winter solstice and marked the end of the planting season. There were games, feasts, and gift-giving for several days, and work and business were suspended to commemorate this lively festival. In the closing days, it was common to make presents of candles, wax models of fruit, and waxen statuettes. The influence of the Saturnalia upon the celebrations of Christmas and the New Year has been direct. The fact that Christmas would later be celebrated on the birthday of the Unconquered Sun, another Roman festival, gave the season a solar background and connected it with the Roman New Year, when houses were decorated with greenery and lights and presents were given to children and the poor.”
(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Winter-Holidays)
These pagan customs originated with the Babylonian religion begun by Nimrod (See Gen. 10:8-10). Tradition tells us that after Nimrod died, his wife Semiramis had an illegitimate child, which she claimed was Nimrod come back to life again. Thus began the worship of the mother and child, which centuries later was transferred by nominal Christians to 'Mary and Jesus'.
The birthday of this child-god was celebrated by the ancient Babylonians on December 25. Semiramis was the queen of heaven (Jer. 44:19), worshipped centuries later in Ephesus as Diana and Artemis (Acts 19:28).
Semiramis claimed that a full grown evergreen tree grew overnight from a dead tree stump. This symbolised Nimrod's coming back to life, and bringing heaven's gifts to mankind. Thus began the practice of cutting down a fir tree and hanging gifts on it. And that is the origin of the Christmas tree!
God's Word Or Man's Tradition?
Behind the celebration of Christmas lies the far more deadly principle of following the traditions of men even when they have no foundation in God's Word. So strong is this power of tradition that many believers who follow the Scriptures in other areas still find it difficult to give up celebrating Christmas.
It is amazing that many believers are not willing to accept what even secular writers (like the authors of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, quoted above) have understood clearly – that Christmas is basically a pagan festival. Changing the name does not make this festival Christian!
As we said at the beginning, Jesus was engaged in a constant battle with the Pharisees over this very issue - man's traditions versus God's Word. He faced more opposition for opposing the empty ‘traditions of the fathers' than for preaching against sin. We shall find our experience to be the same, if we are as faithful as He was.
God's Word alone is our guide - and not the example of even godly men, in areas where they do not follow the Word of God. "Let God be found true even if every man is found to be a liar" (Rom. 3:4). The Bereans searched the Scriptures to check up even on Paul's teaching, and the Holy Spirit commended them for it (Acts 17:11). That is a good example for all of us to follow.
David was a man after God's own heart. Yet, for forty years, he permitted the Israelites to worship Moses' bronze serpent without realizing that it was an abomination to God. He did not have light even on such obvious idolatry. It was a much lesser king, Hezekiah, who exposed and destroyed this idolatrous practice (2 Kin. 18:1-4). We can follow godly men in the saintliness of their lives, but not in their lack of light on human traditions. Our safety lies in simply following the teaching of God's Word and not in adding to, or subtracting from it.
Do Not Judge Others
Finally : What should our attitude be towards sincere believers who celebrate Christmas?
It is important to remember that we do not become spiritual merely by not celebrating Christmas. And those who celebrate this festival are not therefore carnal believers. Spiritual people are those who follow Jesus along the way of daily self-denial and the daily infilling of the Holy Spirit – whether they celebrate Christmas or not.
So when we meet believers who celebrate these festivals, we must be gracious enough to consider that they may be ignorant of the pagan origin of this festival. And so, they are not sinning in any way when they celebrate it. On the other hand, we will be sinning, if we judge them – because we know the truth.
Since December 25th is usually a holiday for everyone and the days around it are also holidays for schools, many use this period for end-of-the-year family reunions – which is a very good thing. And since some people attend church-services only on December 25th – it is good for churches to have services on this date, so that they can preach the gospel to such people and explain to them that Jesus came to earth to save people from their sins and that He conquered death and Satan for us.
In the early days of Christianity, some Christians celebrated the Sabbath - which was a non-Christian Jewish religious festival, just like Christmas. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul therefore to write Romans 14 to warn other Christians not to sin by judging them. The same warning holds good for those who judge others who celebrate Christmas.
"Accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. Who are you to judge the servant of another? One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who does not, for the Lord he does not, and gives thanks to God. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God and each one of us will give an account of himself (alone)to God" (Rom.14:12)).
And that is the best word with which to conclude this study on Christmas.
