MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Christmas is a time to celebrate the time of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ! 

A long time ago, I decided to see if Christmas was biblical to celebrate. Now, I’m not talking about the gifts, Christmas tree, and other traditions people have for the holiday. I’m talking about the celebration of Jesus’s birth. Should we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ? Does the Bible clearly say we should?

I asked several people for their comments on the question, and I got some pretty awesome results.

A fellow blogger and friend said this:

So CHRISTmas..... Well, you have probably heard the whole Christmas tree subject discussed in reference to Jeremiah 10... I think it's pretty obvious that it's talking about an idol, not a tree, but a carved wooden image. I don't think it's wrong to have a tree, but I don't particularly like the idea of it just because; it distracts from Christ,
fake trees are ugly, and real ones are expensive,
if you can't have Christmas without it, then it IS an idol, what's the point?,
and why can't we pick something like a Nativity scene instead?!

I think Christmas started up north somewhere, maybe Iceland?? When these pagan people got saved, and the Christian leaders made up a holiday during "Yuletide" (or whatever it's called, that probably isn't it! ;) called "Christmas" so that the people wouldn't want to join the pagan celebration. Of course it's hard to know because there are so many different supposed origins of Christmas that it gets confusing, as my comment is probably becoming about now...

The thing is, I don't think that the Bible clearly supports (or is against) celebrating Christmas. So, since there is no Biblical proof, I think it is up to each person to know what God is telling them they should do.
Of course we know that Jesus wasn't even born in December, but in the fall, more like around September or October, during the Feast of Tabernacles. So it's weird that we celebrate it on a totally wrong date. I guess we Christians could really be rebels and celebrate then...

ANYWAYS..... Yeah. I don't think it's wrong or right, really. Except Santa is disgusting, and too much spotlight is given to the gifts. It seems right (to me, personally) that we would want to celebrate the day that our Lord was born, just like we celebrate the day He died/rose.

This helped me determine where Christmas started from, and when is became a holiday. I looked more closely into the subject I am amazed at some of the facts I learned. I learned most of these facts at a site I used for college; http://www.history.com/topics/christmas. Like the comments above, this holiday, “Christmas” it started in Germany, and several places in Europe. Now, this day was not celebrated for Jesus, instead, it was celebrated for their pagan god Oden. The time was set to celebrate Oden, during December, because that was when the farmers would have the most meat (from cows that they slaughtered for food) and didn’t have much work to do. In Rome, they would celebrate two pagan gods, the planet Saturn, and Mithra (and infant god born from a rock). December 25^th was the day Rome, celebrated Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun.

So, this gives a little information about how the holiday got started. When Rome and Europe were celebrating these holidays, America was yet to be colonized.

This brings me to my next point. Christians did not celebrate Christmas, instead they only celebrated Easter. Which the Bible, 2^nd Timothy: 8-9, says that we need to remember Jesus’s death and resurrection. So Easter was started for the remembrance of His death and resurrection.

Jesus wasn’t even born during the December 25^th, so why do we celebrate it then? Well, Christians in the past didn’t want to celebrate pagan gods; however, they too had an abundance of food and time to celebrate. So they decided to celebrate their God, Jesus, who was born. So that’s how Christmas got started, and this I believe is glorifying the Lord in a remarkable way.

I will now share with you another comment from another friend:

I did some research on the topic of Christmas last year and did a little more now. I do think some of the parts of Christmas came from wrong origins but overall I think it's a good thing. But in the last year I've found the terrible effects of taking "Christ" out of CHRISTmas. Many companies will not allow their ads to say Christmas in it, instead it has to be "Happy Holidays." It's really sad. Below is a segment of a blog post (that never actually got published) I wrote a while ago, I don't know if I agree with it all now, but I think it's good food for thought.

"...The birth of our Lord Jesus was an amazing thing. A group of people have decided to make December 31 the day we celebrate his birth. All of the things signify something in our holiday.

·         The tree (What Jesus did on the cross)

·         Lights and ornaments (representational of the glory and wonder of what Jesus did on the cross)

·         The gifts (God gave us the gift of Jesus on his birth, the wise men gave Jesus presents, and Jesus also gave us the gift of salvation on the tree. We continue the tradition by following in the joy of giving gifts)

As for "Santa," I've heard about the "Satan" thing before and I believe it may have turned into that. The following quote illustrates what I mean.

"...Young children sometimes confuse Santa with Jesus Christ since "he knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake, and he knows if you've been bad or good . . .

The idea of gifts for good behavior can connote a "reward for good deeds" mentality which is opposed to God's gift of His Son through faith. Scripture does promise rewards for obedience."

And later on the same page:

"The Santa Clause idea originated with a man by the name of St. Nicholas who was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia in the area of present day Turkey. He went about, often at night, giving gifts to poor and needy children. He later became the patron saint of children in the Roman Catholic Church. From here the story grew and became legend in country after country with various details were deleted and added as the legend of St. Nick grew."

It's all very interesting to think about. We've never done an extensive study of it (I study things for fun all the time) but I think, in ways, it has gone wrong. But we have to remember that around the season it can give opportunity to explain to others where the "Christ" part came from, how He came to earth to die for our sins. What a gift! That should be what we celebrate over Christmas!!

This helped me get a better understanding of the “symbols” we use during Christmas. Such as: the Tree, the gifts, and the ornaments on the tree. I agree with these, however, I noticed that they also glorify the fact that Jesus died for us. So they are linked. Christmas is a way to celebrate Jesus’s Birth as a way to remember he died for us. However, I don’t think most Christians explain this part to their family during Christmas. And most of the families I know (none of you following my blog) don’t even state the fact that Jesus was born.

I will share one more comment from a good friend, and then wrap this up:

At first I thought that it was kind of a silly question!!! Of course Christmas is biblical; it is celebrating Jesus Christ and his Birth! I couldn’t think of any verse or anything though. So I started to look it up in the bible. I still could not find anything about celebrating his birthday! The only thing I found that was sort of close was “...rejoice and be exceedingly glad in His birth…”!!!
And since I couldn't find it in the bible I started to look it up on the internet!!
I found several “Ideas” about how it started … lots of mocking Christ and the “traditional” Christmas, but not much else!
About the tree being an idle… I agree with the previous comment when they said “if it’s not Christmas without it than it is an idle” . I don’t think that it necessarily distracts from Jesus, but if it does than I don’t think that it is right to have one. But I personally think that Christmas trees are so much fun and smell wonderful!!

The Lord, Jesus Christ, was born and we can celebrate his birth. Why? The Bible says to remember and think of Him in all way do. This is why I believe Christmas is Biblical. However, santa and the other things we celebrate such as elves and some of the “symbols” we use during this day, I don’t believe glorify the Lord.

Thanks so much for reading my post, I know it was long, but I learned a lot, and I know I won’t think of Christmas the same way again. Also, I know I will be thinking about Jesus’s birth, as well as His death and resurrection.

God bless,

Josiah

P.S. This post is also written here: www.dedicatedchristians.blogspot.com