Home >> Global Organizations >> Vatican and Churches

     Email   Print 

Just What Is Christmas?

Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye - 1/27/2006

“Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church … the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” – Catholic Encyclopaedia, 1911 edition.

Now that the din and vulgar, riotous, gin-soaked and licentious bacchanalian revelry of the Christmas celebrations are at last over (I hope so, really), I think there is enough sanity in the land for me to ask this very simple question, namely, what really is Christmas?

You would agree that this is a very problematic question. I would rather say what I think Christmas is not. I doubt, for instance, if anyone still pretends that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God and Saviour of mankind was born (as a man) on what is today known as Christmas Day. December 25, I believe, should be the very peak of winter, and I have often wondered how those shepherds the angels met could be out there “in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8) in the killing cold, with snow raining heavily on them. Again, after the scorching period of autumn, would there still remain any green grass in the fields?

Christmas is, without doubt, the most prominent among the several irremediably polluted children that emerged from the very unholy and ungodly marriage between a depreciating version of Christianity and (Roman) paganism many years after the death of the Apostles of Christ and the genuine Christians that took over from them. Although the pagan worship of the SUN god had gained prominence in several parts of the world long before the birth of Christ, and had permeated and gained wide acceptance in imperial Rome, it was Emperor Constantine’s Edict in 321 AD which ordered the unification of the mostly apostate Christians and pagans in the clearly abominable observance of the “the venerable day of the Sun,” that increased its influence on the Roman church. What has become clear, judging from historical accounts, is that Emperor Constantine may not have truly become a Christian as is still believed in some quarters.

An internet article I read last Saturday rehearsed what many of us already know, namely, that “The 25th December was celebrated in ancient days as the birthday of the unconquerable SUN god, (variously known as Tammuz, Mithra, Saturn, Adonis or BAAL) centuries before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem…[but] in order to win Gentile converts…the Roman Church, centuries after the Apostolic era, adopted this ancient winter festival of the SUN god and renamed it Christmas.” According to Alexander Hyslop, in his famous book, The Two Babylons (p.91), “…within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance.” This ungodly introduction signaled the commencement of great apostasy, and those who observe it, are unwittingly honouring and worshipping the devil instead of Christ, the Saviour.

In ancient Babylon, the SUN god was known and worshipped as the son of the “Queen of Heaven.” And God had clearly warned the Israelites to beware and never worship this “queen of heaven” or they would face His wrath. And when the Israelites of that time insisted that they would go ahead to worship the queen of heaven despite God’s injunction, He pronounced a severe punishment on them. (See Jeremiah 44: 17-27). Verse 17-19 contains the reply of the Israelites after Jeremiah had given them God’s warning against the worship of the queen of heaven, and Verse 24-27 contains God’s dreadful pronouncement on them because of their obstinacy.

This queen of heaven, a terrible demon and enemy of God, had always sought to get the world to worship her instead of God. She had appeared under several names in several places long before Christ was born in the flesh. In Acts of Apostles, for instance, we saw her as Diana of Ephesus, which was always identified with the Greek Artemis. As little Roman Catholic children in Catechism classes and Block Rosary meetings in those days, we were told a very beautiful story of how the “queen of heaven” had appeared to little children in Fatima in 1917. To be fair to this demon, and according to the story which became the subject of a very pleasant Igbo Catholic song, she had introduced herself truly as the “queen of heaven.” I think it was some misguided and overzealous fellows that declared her to be Mary, the mother of Jesus! And since then, in other apparitions in several other places, she has been trying to act like she is Mary, thereby drawing more worshippers. You see, humans can at times teach spirits wisdom.

In his book, The Story of Christmas, Michael Harrison reports that in “in a famous letter to Augustine, Pope Gregory directs the great [Roman Catholic] missionary to accommodate the ceremonies of the Christian worship as much as to those of the heathen, that the people might not be startled at the change, and in particular, the Pope advised Augustine to allow coverts to kill and eat at the Christmas festival a great number of oxen to the glory of God, as they had formerly done to the Devil.”

This official directive to marry pagan practices with Christian ones was given many years ago, but its influence has endured, even till today. In my village, for instance, there is a very satanic festival that was later “Christianized,” because many influential Catholics, including some Catechists and priests, insisted they would not stop participating in it. I still remember our Catholic parish priest in those days saying that if the people wanted to “prove” the feast was not satanic, they should allow him to say Mass on the day it would commence! A number of other satanic festivals have also this way become “Christianized” in many communities today. But we all know that in these feasts, nothing has changed; the people still do their thing their way in honour of the devil, though, now, in a more subtle, covert way. That is also the case with Christmas.

In fact, accounts have it that at Christmas services in Rome in those days, once the sun appeared, the people would turn back from the proceedings and worship it with much excitement, before continuing in the service. The devil is having a good laugh because he knows all of it is done to honour and worship him. Looking at how Christmas is celebrated today, there is no way Jesus Christ can be associated with it. But look into your history books or internet sources, and you will realize that the same excessive reveling and drunkenness that marked the feast of the SUN god on December 25 long before Christ was born in Bethlehem are the same unedifying preoccupations that dominate the celebration of Christmas.

In the early times, several Christians who knew the truth of the gospel opposed the introduction of Christmas, but, what influence could their voice had possibly exerted against that of great, awesome Emperor Constantine and the Papacy? (Remember the fearsome period of Inquisition, and how the late Pope John Paul 11 had to apologise for the countless atrocities and murders committed against those who had dared to oppose the contamination of Christianity with heathen practices such as Christmas!)

However, the oppositions did not die, but continued to linger, until it gathered great force again. In an article entitled, “Cosmic Christmas: Rebirth of the Sun God,” Barbara Aho reports: “In the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine designated December 25, the birthday of the Roman Sun-god Mithra, as the birthday of Jesus Christ, thereby placing the true Saviour among the pantheon of Roman gods. Constantine succeeded in drawing Christians into the pagan celebrations of Rome, which procured the religious unity needed for the success of the Holy Roman Empire. The empire dominated the world for 1,200 years until the 16th century, when the Protestant Reformers led 2/3 of Europe to break away with the Roman Catholic Church and discontinued the celebration of Christmas by reason of its pagan character. The Puritans who controlled the English Parliament in 1644 declared that no observation of Christmas was permitted, calling it ‘The Profane Man’s Ranting Day.’”

In fact, as recently as 1871, the famous preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, declared: “we have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly, we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas.” This would serve to show that it has not been long before Christmas began to gain wider acceptance today. And this should be understandable, given the depreciation that has set in as a result of people’s l growing love for pomp and revelry.

A 1983 article in the USA Today newspaper reports as follows: “A broad element of English Christianity still considered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century.” It was not until much later, when depreciation, backsliding and compromise began to ravage protestant, evangelical and even Pentecostal circles that people whose forbears had opposed this heathen feast began to return to it again.

But the depreciation is not limited to the re-adoption of Christmas. Today we hear of gay marriages, endorsement of divorce and re-marriage by churches, and several other very unchristian practices. These days some women even come to church services and even minister from pulpits dressed like prostitutes, seducing men and making them to sin while the so-called services are on, while some of the men dress like fresh escapees from lunatic asylums. Of recent, some so called Pentecostal pastors have begun donning Roman priestly robes, complete with skull caps and the mitre! Just for them to be addressed as Bishops! What a horrible period of great apostasy! (Matthew 24:12)

But God has long warned us. In Jeremiah 10:2-4, we are told: “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 workmen, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not.”

Christmas has no Scriptural backing. The Apostles did not observe it. It is a product of a heinous compromise. Indeed, no matter the good intentions that led to this unholy marriage that produced Christmas, it is still a heathen feast, in honour of the devil. When Aaron made the golden calf for the Israelites at Sinai in the Wilderness, he still proclaimed the celebration that attended its inauguration the “feast of the Lord.” (Exodus 32:5). Yet this did not prevent the wrath of God from falling upon them. The name Jeroboam, the son of the Nebat, is always accompanied with the statement, “the man who made Israel to sin,” each time it is mentioned in the Bible. The Bible said he “ordained a feast in the eight month… like unto the feast in Judah…” (I Kings 12: 32), when he wanted to prevent the Israelites from rebelling against his kingship. When the Israeli Kingdom was divided and the larger part was given to him, he had thought that if the people continued to go to Judah for worship, they might be tempted to desert him and return to the house of David. And so, he created for them an alternative place of worship. An entry in the famous Matthew Henry’s Commentary states: “Thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin, and introduced idolatry [in Israel] …Though it is probable he meant this worship for Jehovah the God of Israel, it was directly contrary to the Divine majesty, to be thus represented.”

History, someone has observed, has sufficiently demonstrated that “the point of departure for every major apostasy in Israel and Christendom involved the commingling of worship of the true God with worship of the Sun-god.” The golden calf Aaron did and the pagan worship introduced by King Jeroboam have all been proved to be in honour of the Sun-god. And so is Christmas. And God’s attitude towards them can only be the same.

Finally, I want to agree with a Scottish writer who insists that “Christmas is still a pagan festival through and through. Its change of name from Saturnalia, the birthday of the Sun god, to Christ’s Mass has not altered its true character one iota: and the evil spirit behind its celebrations still produces the deception, debt, drunkenness, misrule and licentiousness that characterized the pagan revelries of bygone days.” Indeed, all other accompaniments like Christmas tree, Christmas log, exchange of gifts, etc., are direct carry-overs from the celebration of the birthday of the Sun-god. And to leave no one in doubt as to its origin and state, Christmas has begun to gradually reassume its original name of Yule (Yuletide). Check your history books and find out the origin of this name, whether it antedates the birth of Christ in Bethlehem or not!

But the simple question is: do we need to commemorate the birth of the Saviour to obtain salvation? The answer is obvious, and it is NO! What we need to realize is that at some point in the history of mankind, a Saviour was born, and He is still today calling on all of us to quit our sinful practices and embrace the salvation He has brought us by dying a most shameful death on the Cross of Calvary because of our sins. Today He is Saviour, but in no distant time, He would become the Judge, and it will become a different matter altogether. We must embrace Him without delay in true repentance, and let Him come into our lives to give us power to live life above sin. Indeed, the decision to spend eternity either in hell or heaven is for us to individually make.( Rev. 20:15).