Would Jesus Observe Christmas?

Christmas is widely considered the foremost Christian holiday-the beautiful celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. But does Jesus Himself look at it that way? Would He join in the festivity, receiving the observance in His honor? Or is His actual assessment quite different?

photo caption Are Christmas and its traditions biblical? Do they fit with biblical principles? Was this holiday a practice of the early Church? Is it something Jesus would have embraced?

by Mario Seiglie

Millions of people see Christmas as "the most wonderful time of the year." But does Jesus Christ, whose birthday it supposedly celebrates, see it that way? It's an intriguing question. And if He came back to the earth today, would He participate in this celebration, accepting it in His honor? Is there a way we can know?

Jesus said He came to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37)-and He declared God's Word to be truth (John 17:17), stating further that Scripture, which testifies of Him, cannot be broken (John 5:39; John 10:35). To arrive at religious truth, we must examine any idea in light of what the Bible says. As the apostle Paul instructed, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21, emphasis added throughout).

Are Christmas and its traditions biblical? Do they fit with biblical principles? Was this holiday a practice of the early Church? Is it something Jesus would have embraced?

The roots of the holiday

There are so many religious customs we take for granted. Just because they are ancient or popular doesn't make them right. But it takes courage to stick to the ones that are biblically sound!

The word "Christmas" itself shows its man-made origin-having to do rather with the Roman Catholic mass of Christ. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia: "The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038, and Cristes-messe, in 1131 . . . Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church" ("Christmas," online edition).

The mass itself goes back to pagan mystery rites rather than being a reenactment of Christ's sacrifice, as claimed. Moreover, the holiday itself did not originate with Jesus or His followers but came from pre-Christian pagan observance.

Jesus was not even born in the winter. The Bible says His birth took place when the shepherds were still out in the fields at night tending to their flocks (Luke 2:8). Yet Christmas occurs on December 25, when the temperatures in Israel can plunge below freezing.

As Adam's Clarke Commentary points out: "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" (note on Luke 2:8).

How was Christmas established on December 25 ? British church historian Henry Chadwick explains: "Early in the fourth century there begins in the West (where first and by whom is not known) the celebration of December 25th, the birthday of the Sun-god at the winter solstice, as the date for the nativity of Christ" (The Early Church, 1967, p. 126).

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church further notes: "The popular observance of the feast [Christmas] has always been marked by the joy and merry-making formerly characteristic of the Roman Saturnalia and the other pagan festivals it replaced. It developed considerably in England in the 19th century through the importation of German customs by the Prince Consort (such as Christmas trees)" (1983, p. 281).

Does it really honor Him?

God specifically warned that His people were not to adopt pagan religious practices in honor of Him and that He would not accept such worship (Deuteronomy 12:29-32). And Jesus did not do away with God's law in this regard.

Jesus warned people about thinking they were honoring God while keeping human commandments and traditions in place of what God has commanded, declaring: "In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men . . . All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:7-9).

And He also warned: "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" (Matthew 7:21-23). Lawlessness in the Bible simply means violating or disregarding God's laws (1 John 3:4).

Christ was always careful to obey the Father's commandments. He said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:10). He told His disciples, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

We do not see in the New Testament that the apostles celebrated Christ's birth. That was not one of Jesus' teachings, nor did His apostles teach it. Likewise, Paul later warned the Christians in Colossae against following traditions and commandments of men: "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using-according to the commandments and doctrines of men?" (Colossians 2:20-22).

A biblical festival Jesus and His followers did observe

Remarkably, there is in the New Testament a feast which is part of God's laws and which Jesus said we should keep in His memory-and it was not Christmas.

He explicitly told His disciples about keeping the Passover in His honor: "Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God' [meaning He will keep it again with all His believers when He returns] . . . And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me'" (Luke 22:15-16, Luke 22:19).

Passover, on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar (in spring in the northern hemisphere), was one of God's seven annual festivals listed in Leviticus 23. Jesus and the early Church observed all of these biblical worship times.

Regarding church history, few are aware of the great conflict that took place between those who observed the New Testament Passover and those who later began keeping what became known as Easter Sunday, another man-made holiday (falsely labeled Passover then and in various languages today). This controversy started in the second century and continues to this day.

Around A.D. 190, we have an extraordinary letter preserved about this controversy. It was from Polycrates, the bishop at Ephesus, writing to the Roman bishop Victor about the Christian Passover.

Polycrates states: "We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia [Ephesus' province in western Turkey] also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints.

"Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis . . . and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and . . . fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr . . . All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith" (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, chap. 24, Verses 2-6).

Tragically, it was Victor of Rome's man-made celebration of Easter Sunday that prevailed in most of the Roman Empire, and later, another man-made feast was imposed by the Roman church-Christmas.

Chadwick readily admits regarding the shift from Passover to Easter: "Victor of Rome's intervention turned out to be successful in the sense that his view was eventually to prevail . . . But there can be little doubt that the Quartodecimans [or Fourteeners, those who observed the Christian Passover on the 14th day of the first Hebrew month, as instructed in the Bible] were right in thinking that they had preserved the most ancient and apostolic custom. They had become heretics simply by being behind the times" (p. 85).

Thus, those who observed Passover on the 14th, who were actually keeping what Jesus had commanded, were labeled "heretics" because they did not go along with man-made festivals! These faithful Christians formed God's small, persecuted flock (Luke 12:32). They simply did not give in to the threats of the church in Rome. Polycrates' reply to Victor of Rome was, "I . . . am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘We ought to obey God rather than man' [Acts 5:29]."

This is still the right answer in facing this issue today.

Christ told us to worship God in spirit and truth

Jesus foretold how His future followers would worship the Father following two key principles-using God's Spirit and following biblical truth. He said: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24).

In effect, Christ said true Christians would receive God's Spirit and would be led to the truths He taught. He stated, "But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name" (John 14:26, Easy-to-Read Version).

Moreover, we are to worship God not only though His Spirit being in us, but also by obeying His biblical truths-not man-made ones. As Psalm 119:151 proclaims, "All Your commandments are truth" (Psalm 119:151).

Remember, many man-made feast days are just pagan substitutes for the God-instituted feast days found in your Bible. The counterfeit feasts help conceal the glorious truths and meanings of God's feasts.

Who is the ultimate author of these fraudulent teachings? It is Satan, the archdeceiver. As Paul explained, "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

In sum, would Jesus Christ compromise with God's law through participating in and endorsing man-made feast days originating in pagan worship? The answer from the Bible is a resounding no!

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