Where Did Christmas Come From?
“We have paid no attention to this day in the Advocate. We have no idea that the 25th of December is the anniversary of our Saviour’s birth, but that Christmas is purely a Popish festival, and we think the sooner Protestants cease to adopt Papal customs, the wiser and better they will be.”
We heartily agree with our contemporary: we believe that Christmas is purely a Popish festival, and we think that Protestants ought to have nothing to do with Papal customs. Yet we are sorry to know that the greater portion of professed Protestants, do follow the customs of Rome. Since our neighbor professes such a dislike for Popish customs, we have thought that a little comparison of Christmas and Sunday might not be amiss. We shall show that both are Papal institutions, having been borrowed, like all other customs of the Romish Church, from paganism.
Concerning the origin of Christmas, McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia says:
“The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of New Testament origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the New Testament, or, indeed, from any other source. The Fathers of the first three centuries do not speak of any special observance of the nativity.... ‘The institution may be sufficiently explained by the circumstance that it was the taste of the age to multiply festivals, and that the analogy of other events in our Saviour’s history, which had already been marked by a distinct celebration, may naturally have pointed out the propriety of marking his nativity with the same honorable distinction. It was celebrated with all the marks of respect usually bestowed on high festivals, and distinguished also by the custom, derived probably from heathen antiquity, of interchanging presents and making entertainments.’ At the same time, the heathen winter holidays (Saturnalia, Juernalia, Brumalia) were undoubtedly transformed, and, so to speak, sanctified by the establishment of the Christmas cycle of holidays; and the heathen customs, so far as they were harmless (e.g., the giving of presents, lighting of tapers, etc.), were brought over into Christian use.”
Chambers’ Encyclopedia says:
“It does not appear that there was any uniformity in the period of observing the nativity among the early churches; some held the festival in the month of May or April, others in January. It is, nevertheless, almost certain that the 25th of December cannot be the nativity of the Saviour, for it is then the height of the rainy season in Judea, and shepherds could hardly be watching their flocks by night in the plains....
“Not casually or arbitrarily was the festival of the nativity celebrated on the 25th of December. Among the causes that co-operated in fixing this period as the proper one, perhaps the most powerful was, that almost all the heathen nations regarded the winter solstice as a most important point of the year, as the beginning of the renewed life and activity of the powers of nature, and of the gods, who were originally merely the symbolical personifications of these. In more northerly countries this fact must have made itself peculiarly palpable, hence the Celts and Germans, from the oldest times, celebrated the season with the greatest festivities. At the winter solstice the Germans held their great Yule-feast, in commemoration of the return of the fiery sun-wheel; and believed that from the twelve nights reaching from the 25th of December to the 6th of January, they could trace the personal movements and interferences on earth of their great deities, Odin, Berehta, etc. Many of the beliefs and usages of the old Germans, and also of the Romans, relating to this matter, passed over from heathenism to Christianity, and have partly survived to the present day.”
Prof. J. G. Müller, the author of the article on the worship of the sun, in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, after mentioning that the sun was worshiped by the Persians, under the form of Mithras, which finally became the Sol Deus Invictus of the Romans, says:
“The Mithras-worship even exercised its influence upon the fixing of the Christian Christmas-festival in December. As the new birth of the sun-god was celebrated at the end of December, so, likewise, in Christ, the new Sun, in the field of spiritual life was adored.”
The Encyclopedia Britannica, after mentioning the obscurity in which the origin of the Christmas festival rests, says:
“By the fifth century, however, whether from the influence of some tradition, or from the desire to supplant heathen festivals of that period of the year, such as the Saturnalia, the 25th of December had been generally agreed upon.”
Another item pointing to the heathen origin of Christmas is the fact that the mistletoe, which was regarded by the ancient Druids with the highest veneration, has always been, especially in England, a favorite Christmas decoration. McClintock and Strong’s Encyclopedia (article Christmas) says that the dressing of houses with mistletoe on Christmas day is “a custom probably as old as the Druidical worship.” Druidism, it may be remarked, was the worship of the ancient Britons; it was allied to the Baal or sun worship of the Phoenicians, and, like it, was accompanied by human sacrifices.
Bingham, in his “Antiquities of the Christian Church” (book 20, chapter 4), gives the following account of the status of Christmas in the ancient church:
“As to the manner of keeping this festival, we may observe that they did it with the greatest veneration. For they always speak of it in the highest terms, as the principal festival of Christians, from which all others took their original. Chrysostom styles it the most venerable and tremendous of all festivals, and the metropolis and mother of all festivals.... and we may observe that the day was kept with the same veneration and religious solemnity as the Lord’s day. For they had always sermons on this day, of which there are many instances of Chrysostom, Nazianzen, Basil, Ambrose, Austin, Leo, Chrysologus, and many others. Neither did they let this day ever pass without a solemn communion.
“Finally, to show all possible honor to this day, the church obliged all persons to frequent religious assemblies in the city churches, and not go to any of the lesser churches in the country, except some necessity of sickness of infirmity compelled them to do so. And the laws of the State prohibited all public games and shows on this day, as on the Lord’s day.”
If it be asked how the Christmas festival came to be adopted by the church, we can answer only in the following words of Dr. Killen’s in the preface to his “Ancient Church”:
“In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect. The bishop of Rome, a personage unknown to the writers of the New Testament, meanwhile rose into prominence, and at length took precedence of all other churchmen, rites and ceremonies of which neither Peter nor Paul ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions.”
Is Christ Honored by Christmas?
The Christmas season is the occasion of making gifts one to another, but the richest gifts Christ has given to the world in Himself, that the world through Him might not perish but have eternal life. Gifts and offerings should be brought to Christ. The most precious gift of all is that of giving Him your heart without any reserve. How acceptable to Christ would be such an offering! Give to Jesus your whole heart, for Him to write His image and superscription upon it, and to send His beams of righteousness into it to be sent to the world through the living agent.
The message of mercy Jesus brought from the Father was to save the perishing. The Father collected the riches of the universe, laid open the resources of His infinite wisdom, and gave all into the hands of Christ to give to men. What more could God do to convince men there is no love but the love of God revealed in His Son? The happiness of man consists in loving God and in keeping His commandments, giving the best and most holy affections to Jesus Christ.
We should be filled with thanksgiving that Jesus came to reveal the Father. He rolled back the cloud of thick darkness, the hellish shadow of Satan which intercepted between man and God, and revealed Him to the world as light and love. He stands before the world as the representation of the Father. “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He was the express image of His person. The perfections of God are seen in the excellencies of Christ. His divinity was clothed with humanity, that He might speak to the human heart and place His divine impress upon the soul.
When Christ was born and laid in a manger there was a wonderful movement in heaven. All the worlds that were created through Jesus Christ were watching with intense interest His reception in the world. They saw that no preparation had been made among His nation to receive Him, and angels of heaven came to the plains of Bethlehem and proclaimed the advent of the world’s Redeemer. The plains of Bethlehem were peopled with the heavenly host, who sang anthems of praise to His glory.
The wise men from the east were guided by the heavenly angels, which appeared to them as a luminous star, and when they found Jesus they brought unto Him costly offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But the enemy has misplaced and turned into various channels in selfish gratification the offerings which should come to the Lord’s treasury. Means are being diverted from the true purpose God designed, and, from the lesser up to the extravagant gifts, they flow to finite beings, to gratify selfish indulgence. If all the rivulets from children and youth and from members of the church were to flow in the proper channel, as the Lord designed they should, there would be a supply in the treasury, the real needy would be blessed, and the hungry fed, and the naked clothed. The Lord’s own entrusted gifts would flow back to their original Source in thank offerings, in sin offerings, in trespass offerings, and in gratitude offering for the great immeasurable gift of the Son of God to our world.
Why are children and those of mature age educated to put their inventive powers to work to contrive gifts for one another, while the Lord God of heaven, who has made the gift of Himself to the world in His only begotten Son, is left out of the question? How the Lord is dishonored in the celebration of Christmas! How He is robbed, both of talents of means and of thanksgiving and praise which should well up in every heart and flow forth from every voice! Let the thank offerings come in, small and large; let God’s treasury be well filled.
Jesus is the Gift to the world, and everything should be conducted in this channel—to make known Christ to the world, to send to every tongue and nation the knowledge of His salvation, His invitations of mercy, His adorable love. But the devil’s work is to intercept the rays of light coming from the Father to our world and set them to flowing in human channels, to indulge and gratify earthly desires, to please the vanity and to glorify the creature rather than the Creator. ......
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