Four Thousand Years of Christmas

t's called the "spirit of Christmas." The ringing of sleigh bells on a snow-covered night, Tiny Tim turning the heart of Scrooge, Santa Claus and flying reindeer--for many, it seems, the birth of Jesus takes a back seat to mythology, packed shopping malls and revelry. Every year, signs in front of neighborhood churches remind people to "Put Christ back into Christmas." Or, "Jesus is the reason for the season."

In his book, 4,000 Years of Christmas--A Gift From the Ages (1997), Episcopalian priest Earl Count enthusiastically relates historical connections between the custom of exchanging gifts on the 12 days of Christmas and customs originating in ancient, pagan Babylon. He shows that mistletoe was adopted from Druid mystery rituals and that the December 25 date has more to do with the ancient Roman Saturnalia celebration than with Jesus Christ.

Not surprisingly, nowhere in the New Testament do we see Jesus' disciples observing the day of His birth. In fact, as late as the third century, the early Catholic theologian Origen was teaching against the celebration of Christ's birthday.

The first-century Greek city of Corinth was filled with various polytheistic religions. Customs included temple prostitution and priests who performed sacrifices to the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods. The apostle Paul writes to these people in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21: "What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons."

Quite familiar to early Christians was the Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival celebrated during the last days of December in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Many ancient religions conducted festivals at this time of year, the time of the winter solstice, when days are the shortest, to appease the various gods to restore the sun and bring an end to winter. The Roman Saturnalia included drunkenness, debauchery and other practices diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christ.

Yet this holiday would eventually develop into Christmas. What happened to change many Christians from Paul's stance of abhorring and resisting pagan forms of worship to accepting and participating in the name of Jesus Christ?

Tremendous forces were pressuring Christians away from the apostles' original teachings to avoid mixing idolatry with the worship of the true God. Thousands of pagans, while outwardly converting to Christianity, refused to give up the rituals and ceremonies of their former religious experiences.

Dr. Count sums up this historical struggle: "To the pagans, the Saturnalia were fun. To the Christians, the Saturnalia were an abomination in homage to a disreputable god who had no existence anyway. The Christians, moreover, were dedicated to the slow, uphill task of converting these roistering pagan Romans.

"There were many immigrants into the ranks of the Christians by this time, but the Church Fathers discovered to their alarm that they were also facing an invasion of pagan customs. The habit of the Saturnalia was too strong to be left behind. At first the Church forbade it, but in vain. When a river meets a boulder that will not be moved, the river flows around it. If the Saturnalia would not be forbidden, let it be tamed."

To adopt such pagan observance, December 25, the date of the Roman Brumalia, immediately following Saturnalia, was identified as the date of Christ's birth (even though biblical evidence shows this cannot be so). This date also marked a great festival in Mithraism, the Persian religion of the sun god. In A.D. 274, Roman Emperor Aurelian declared it the "birthday of the invincible sun." In time the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became indistinguishable from the pagan sun god in the minds of hundreds of thousands of "converts" throughout the Roman Empire.

Instead of being Christ's force for change in the world, nominal Christianity was changed by the pagan world it was supposed to transform.

Dr. Count relates: "There exists a letter from the year 742 AD, in which Saint Boniface... complains to Pope Zacharias that his labors to convert the heathen Franks and Alemans--Germanic tribes--were being handicapped by the escapades of the Christian Romans back home. The Franks and the Alemans were on the threshold of becoming Christians, but their conversion was retarded by their enjoyment of lurid carnivals. When Boniface tried to turn them away from such customs, they argued that they had seen them celebrated under the very shadow of Saint Peter's in Rome. Embarrassed and sorry, Pope Zacharias replied... admitting that the people in the city of Rome behaved very badly at Christmas time."

Over the following centuries Christmas absorbed customs from German, Scandinavian and Celtic paganism like the yule log, decorating evergreen trees and hanging mistletoe.

In the Middle Ages, Christmas observances in Europe continued the excesses of Saturnalia. Penne Restad, in Christmas in America--A History, writes of the moral debate that raged: "Some clergy stressed that fallen humankind needed a season of abandonment and excess, as long as it was carried on under the umbrella of Christian supervision. Others argued that all vestiges of paganism must be removed from the holiday. Less fervent Christians complained about the unreasonableness of Church law and its attempt to change custom. Yet the Church sustained the hope that sacred would eventually overtake profane as pagans gave up their revels and turned to Christianity."

It didn't happen. Some Protestant Reformers tried reforming Christmas, but created little real change. The English Puritans waged a war on Christmas observance as unchristian behavior.

A U.S. News and World Report cover story, "In Search of Christmas," states: "When Christmas landed on American shores, it fared little better. In colonial times, Christ's birth was celebrated as a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all... Puritans in New England flatly refused to observe the holiday" (Dec. 23, 1996, p. 60).

In more modern times many Christians have become concerned about the commercialization of the day that is supposed to celebrate the birth of the Son of God. Parades featuring Santa Claus sponsored by department stores, half-price sales, incessant TV and radio commercials--Christmas has become more about the accountant's bottom line than about worshiping God.

Many people approach the Yuletide season with a vague longing for a Christmas with more spiritual meaning and less commercialism. But is our fast-paced, commercial rendition of Christmas the real problem, or is there something wrong with Christmas itself?

Christmas has become such a central holiday of American culture that it's difficult to get anyone to truly evaluate its Christian validity. You be the jury!

The facts are these: Jesus wasn't born on December 25. Christ's apostles rejected pagan ceremonies and rituals in their worship and told Christians to likewise avoid them. The early Church didn't observe Jesus' birthday. The selection of December 25 as Christ's supposed birthday was based on the dates of the Roman Saturnalia and Brumalia--a time for worshiping the god Saturn.

Most Christmas customs--decorating the evergreen tree, use of mistletoe, exchanging of gifts, Santa Claus--come not from the Bible but from pagan religions. For centuries Christianity tried unsuccessfully to rid itself of the paganism of Christmas. Throughout its history Christmas has propagated drunken parties. And the modern holiday is more about convincing children to hassle their parents to buy toys than worshiping Christ.

What is the biblical verdict? Some will say, "But we can't take Christmas away from the children." Others: "As long as it brings people to Jesus, what does it matter?" But what counts is what God says. The verdict of both the Bible and history is clear.

Earlier we saw Paul's instructions to Christians in the pagan city of Corinth. He continues his instructions in 2 Corinthians: "For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? ... Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? ...

"Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you... ' Therefore... let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (6:14-7:1).

The crucial question is, how can we put Jesus back into the season--when He was never part of it to begin with? It's a difficult question, isn't it? But it's one that's vitally important for you to answer correctly.

This article is based on the transcript of a Good News radio broadcast. Good News Radio is heard on stations across the United States. For an Internet listing of stations and times or to download radio programs, go to www.ucg.org/radio. You can also download or request the free booklet offered on this program--.