(By Crystal Holmes)

Christmas is PAGAN! That’s right! Christmas is PAGAN! It most certainly DOES NOT commemorate the birth of Christ! And, I can prove it!

*Unless otherwise noted, my emphasis is in bold in all quotations.

1. Christmas Pre-Dates Christ!

Christmas actually pre-dates Christ by centuries – though it was not called Christmas during that time, the celebrations were essentially the same. You see, Christmas is just another winter solstice festival. The winter solstice is the shortest day – or the longest night – of the year.

Wikipedia, in the article “Winter Solstice”, notes, “Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.”

The sun ceases to decline in the sky at the winter solstice, and it resumes its ascent and days grow longer after the winter solstice. Many cultures feared that the sun would go down and days would only continue to grow shorter and shorter until the sun disappeared altogether. So they begged the sun to return to them, and when he did, they celebrated his rebirth. The concept of the rebirth of a sun god is present in nearly all cultures.

William Sutton, in his book “Antichrist 666”, writes, “In the Babylonian and Assyrian legend, Nimrod died in his prime leaving a queen named Semiramis. At his death, Nimrod according to legend, became immortal, and his spirit flew up to the sun and took possession of it. Hence, he became Beel-saman, ‘Lord of Heaven’. After Nimrod had died and became the Sun God, Semiramis his queen [the biblical ‘Queen of Heaven’] became pregnant, she claimed to be a virgin, and after Nimrod’s death, according to legend, begot a child by Nimrod’s spirit coming down on her from the sun. She proclaimed to her subjects that her husband’s spirit entered into her womb through a sunbeam and begot the legendary god-child Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14), he was born December 25.”

Tammuz was the Babylonish name for the Persian god Mithra (or Mithras). He was always the life-giving sun in human form, and went by many names in different cultures, such as Bacchus, Hercules, Dionysus, Attis, Osiris, Horus, Krishna, Yi, Quetzalcoatl, Balder, etc. All of these legends say that their god the sun was born on December 25 when the days begin to get longer.

Interestingly, Christmas was NOT celebrated by “Christians” until the fourth century. The early Christians who LOVED the truth wouldn’t ALLOW pagan practices in the church. Alexander Hislop, in his work “The Two Babylons”, writes:

“Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord’s birth cannot be determined, and that 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.”

The apostles – the FOUNDERS of the New Testament church – the men who KNEW Christ face-to-face and were sent by Him to spread the gospel and teach others around the world NEVER KEPT CHRISTMAS! Nor did the people they taught! It was NOT in the early church! Even the Catholic Church concedes that Christmas was not a part of the early church’s practices.

“Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts….” (Catholic Encyclopedia, “Christmas”)

The early Christian Church did not even MENTION Christmas, let alone keep it! Did Jesus tell them to keep His birthday? NO! Did the apostles keep Christ’s birthday? NO! Did even Paul keep Christ’s birthday? NO! Don’t you think that if Christmas SHOULD be kept, it would be in the Bible SOMEWHERE? Yet, it is nowhere in the New Testament, and NOWHERE in the early church! It wasn’t until the FOURTH CENTURY – 300 years AFTER Christ – that they started keeping this festival honoring a false god! Hislop affirms that this practice was ADOPTED from the pagans by the Roman Catholic Church:

“How, then, did the Romish church fix on December 25th as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and LONG BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA ITSELF, A FESTIVAL WAS CELEBRATED AMONG THE HEATHEN, AT THAT PRECISE TIME OF THE YEAR, IN HONOR OF THE BIRTH OF THE SON OF THE BABYLONIAN QUEEN OF HEAVEN; and it may fairly be presumed that, IN ORDER TO CONCILATE THE HEATHEN, AND TO SWELL THE NUMBER OF THE NOMINAL ADHERENTS TO CHRISTIANITY, THE SAME FESTIVAL WAS ADOPTED BY THE ROMAN CHURCH, giving it the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to MEET PAGANISM HALF-WAY was very early developed.”

Christmas exists today SOLELY because the Catholic Church wanted to keep PAGANS happy! They adopted their customs and their rituals and “baptized” them to make them “holy”. ALL they cared about was how many people they had in their church! It was for POWER that they compromised the truth! Should Christ be CHANGED, and ADDED TO, and CORRUPTED with the worship of pagan gods, just so that HEATHENS can be more comfortable and the church can have more “members”? I should say not!!

2. In What Season Was the TRUE God Born?

Was YOUR Lord – the TRUE God – born on December 25? Would HE be associated with pagan rites and false gods? Would He – the light of the world – be born during the LONGEST NIGHT of the year? NO! The TRUE Jesus Christ was born in the spring. Consider the facts that point to this conclusion.

Winters in Jerusalem were always rainy and snowy

Song of Solomon 2:11. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

Ezra 10:9. It was the ninth month on the twentieth day of the month….

The ninth month corresponds roughly to our November-December. And, it being the 20th day of the month, it would be middle to late December, which is when Christmas is celebrated. Notice the weather during this season:

Ezra 10:9, 13. …and all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain…. it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand without….

Psalm 147:16-17. He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?

Caesar had called a census of the people of Israel (Luke 2:1). He would not do it during the cold and rainy season because that would make travel difficult. It would be insane to demand hundreds of thousands – even millions – of people to tromp through freezing mud and snow for days – possibly even a week or more – just to register their household and pay their taxes. A better time to do it would be the spring or the fall, when they were already traveling to Jerusalem for the holy days anyway. The scriptures note that traveling to Jerusalem for the feasts was the custom of Jesus’ parents (Luke 2:42). Even Christ told His followers to pray that their flight was not in winter (Matthew 24:20).

So, do you think that shepherds would be watching their flocks in the fields in this weather? NO! Yet, the shepherds were watching their flocks in the fields when Christ’s birth was announced by the angels (Luke 2:8). During the winters, when people were not able to stand outside because of the cold and rain, shepherds would NOT have been out in the field with their sheep. They would have kept their sheep in the corral, and they would have stayed inside where it was warm!

Adam Clarke concurs: “It was a custom among the Jews to send out their sheep to the deserts, about the passover, and bring them home at the commencement of the first rain: during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As the passover occurred in the spring, and the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole of the summer. And as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could he have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact, which casts considerable light upon this disputed point.”

Christ is called the Lamb of God. Lambs are born in the spring, when the weather begins to warm up. Christ is also the first of the firstfruits. In God’s holy day plan (Leviticus 23), the firstfruits were offered in the spring. So, Christ was born in the spring – not in the fall or in the dead of winter!

The courses of Abia and John’s birth as well as the historical dating of Herod’s madness and death also support a spring birth for Christ. You can also know the exact month, day, and year of Christ’s birth – see my forthcoming article “When Was Jesus Christ Born?”

3. “But JESUS is the reason for the season!”

No, He isn’t! People who say this in spite of the fact that Christmas is a pagan festival just want to continue in their rebellion against God. They don’t want to be subject to Him. They don’t want to obey His laws. They want to continue in their own carnal, fleshly lusts. Jesus was not born during the middle of winter, and ALL the festivals kept during that time honor a false god, the resurrected SUN God! Jesus is not present in your home, church, school, or workplace if you keep Christmas! You have turned your back on God’s law, so He will turn His back on you and avoid being with you!

2 Chronicles 24:20. …because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.

Like it or not, God CANNOT STAND this abominable season! He’s not the REASON for the season. He was never in the season to begin with! HE SAID HE HATES THE SEASON!

4. “But it’s for the children!”

Let’s think about that. Part 1 showed that Christmas pre-dates Christ and honors a false god. Your keeping Christmas is a violation of God’s law. And you WANT to lead and teach others to keep this LIE? You WANT to heap God’s judgment on yourself for promoting falsehood? Don’t you know that those who TEACH others bear a greater condemnation if they are wrong than their followers do?

James 3:1. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

And would YOU want Christ to say that it would have been better for you to have drowned than that you made a child commit idolatry and sin against God?

Matthew 18:6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Hosea 4:6. …seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

God says that because you HATE His law and would rather do something that He hates “for the children”, He will FORGET YOUR CHILDREN!! HOW IS THAT HELPING THEM?!? IT ISN’T!!

Before you say, “It’s for the children”, you’d better think about these things and about how God will judge you for continuing to break His law and for teaching others to do the same. If you continue to keep Christmas and teach others to do the same in spite of the evidence, then you are a proud God-hater!

Romans 1:32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

5. “But there’s no commandment that says we SHOULDN’T keep Christmas!”

Actually…there is. Not a direct, “Thou shalt not keep Christmas” command because the pagan festival honoring the rebirth of the sun had a different name back then, but you can see it described, and CONDEMNED, in the Bible! Christmas honors a false god according to all historians, which is a violation of the First, Second, and Third Commandments. Besides that, God says you should not learn the ways of the heathen! BUT, this is what the Catholics did when they LEARNED how to keep Christmas from the Babylonians, and THEY have taught YOU to keep it today!

Jeremiah 10:2-3. 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….

WHICH customs? ANY customs that are heathen are condemned here. BUT, God is condemning a specific custom here. Can you guess which one it was?

Jeremiah 10:3-4. …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 with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Wow, does that sound like any holiday YOU observe?? Does that sound like any custom you keep? Notice that this verse talks of the pagan custom of cutting down a tree, standing it up, and decorating it JUST LIKE PEOPLE DO EVERY YEAR AT CHRISTMAS! This tradition was present CENTURIES before Christ! God said this custom – like many others the pagans had – was VAIN! It was EMPTY and POINTLESS! And since it is vain, it will not save you, and neither will your Christmas-keeping god save you!

Jeremiah 2:28, 11:12. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? …go, and cry unto the gods unto whom [you] offer incense: but they shall not save [you] at all in the time of [your] trouble.

God says to NOT learn their ways or inquire after their gods. You are to be SEPARATE and HOLY. How can you do this when what you are doing every winter is an ABOMINATION to God?

Deuteronomy 12:30-31 (BBE). …do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did. Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods….

You are NOT to do what other people do to their gods to God. He HATES what they do! EVERY abominable thing that the mind of Satan has concocted they have done to “please” their gods! But YOU, if you are going to be of God, must keep the commandments of God. And you MAY NOT ADD to them! This includes ADDING Christmas!

Deuteronomy 12:32 (BBE). You are to keep with care all the words I give you, MAKING NO ADDITION TO THEM and taking nothing from them.

God says you are to MAKE NO ADDITION to His law! Yet the Catholic Church ADDED Christmas! The Encyclopedia Britannica (1949, “Christmas”) says,

“CHRISTMAS (the ‘Mass of Christ’) …The exact day and year of Christ’s birth have never been satisfactorily settled. When the Fathers of the Church in AD 340 decided upon a date to celebrate the event, they wisely [?!?] CHOSE the day of the Winter Solstice, which was firmly fixed in the minds of the people, and which was their MOST IMPORTANT FESTIVAL.“

The Catholic Church – the INVENTORS of Christmas – ADMITTED to BORROWING pagan customs! They wanted to continue in the drunken revelry and sex orgies of the winter solstice festivities while appearing “Christian”! They wanted to call Jesus Lord while IGNORING what He said to do!

And if YOU celebrate Christmas, YOU are a partaker with them – the WHORE OF BABYLON, which shall be thrown down and found no more (Revelation 18:21)! You are FORNICATING with Satan – the ENEMY of God! And you can be CERTAIN that God HATES YOU! And because you have rejected the knowledge of the truth, YOU WILL BE DESTROYED AND GOD WILL REJECT YOU!

Hosea 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: BECAUSE THOU HAST REJECTED KNOWLEDGE, I WILL ALSO REJECT THEE, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.