In today’s pagan world, the obese man of blubber- the mythical santa claus is
more popular than Jesus Christ. When you ask the average American about the
meaning of Christmas, it is more about spending time with family, giving and
receiving gifts, peace on earth- which all are fine. However the only correct answer about the meaning of Christmas is worshipping the birth of our coming King. As it
turns out, the original celebration of December 25 was not about celebrating the
birth of Jesus, but was believe it or not, the celebration of another pagan
holiday. So here is another example of history repeating itself.
Prior to Christianity being legalized by the Roman government, December
22nd or the winter solstice was a time of was a celebration called Saturnalia.
Saturnalia was a pagan celebration of the worship of the sun. By the 4th
century however nearly half of the population
were Christians and it was now the de-facto religion of the Roman Empire.
The edict of Toleration (312 AD) was given when emperor Constantine legalized
Christianity. It important to realize that up until this time, the celebration
of Jesus’ birth didn’t occur. The date of December 25 was never associated with
His birth. The early Christians didn’t celebrate Christ’s birthday- they were
far more interested in the death and resurrection of Christ). The date of
December 25, was officially proclaimed by the church fathers in 440 AD- the 5th
century. Therefore this ‘Christmas’ holiday was introduced to the world 400
years after Jesus was born. and it wasn’t until the fourth century that
Christians became interested in Christ’s birth date.
Why December 25? –
What’s the big idea??
Now that the Christianity was the official religion of the Roman
Empire, they apparently decided to begin to distance themselves from pagan
holidays. One of those pagan traditions was called Saturnalia. Saturnalia was
an annual celebration occurring on the winter solstice, which occurred annually
on December 22. Now that this holiday of worshipping the sun was about to be
purged, it was convenient to repackage this pagan worship from December 25 to
instead worship the birth of Jesus. That’s what the government did. The first
recorded mention of December 25 is the calendar of Philocalus (354 AD) which
assumed Jesus' birthday to be Friday December 25, 1 AD. This re-branding of
Christmas should not be a surprise, because this is exactly what happened with
Easter as once again, we have re-packaged Passover when Jesus was crucified and
re-branded that event as Easter with that pagan Easter bunny. Political
correctness was around even back then.
When was Jesus
born? Biblical View
The Bible never mentions that Jesus was born on December 25, in
December or even in the winter for that matter. As mentioned above, the
December 25 day for Christmas was introduced some 400 years later after the
birth of Christ as a political move to garnish support from the people. If
December 25 was not when Jesus was born then when? We don’t know his exact date
of birth, but we do know the season when He was born.
Prior to the time of Jesus’ birth the Bible mentions that the
flocks were in an open field, According to Luke:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night- Luke 2:8.
Luke 2:8 records that “there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” This indicates that Jesus was not born in winter (when shepherds didn’t sleep in the fields with their sheep), but in the warmer months. These flocks did not occur after October because it was too cold.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that Joseph and Mary would have
undertaken the arduous journey to Bethlehem in the winter months for the census
(Luke 2:1-4), when the roads throughout Judea were often impassable. According
to Matthew:
As the Companion Bible points out: “Shepherds and their flocks would not be found ‘abiding’ in the open fields at night in December (Tebeth), for the paramount reason that there would be no pasturage at that time. It was the custom then (as now) to withdraw the flocks during the month Marchesven [October-November] from the open districts and house them for the winter.”
By using a combination of scripture and mathematics, we can trace back certain key dates from when the temple was destroyed on August 5, 70AD by Titus this same Roman Empire that several hundred years later legalized Christianity, by counting backwards to the birth of John the Baptist.
Merry Christmas and God Bless!
Kevin Parnella