The origin of December 25, Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus Christ

 

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 22^nd 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 4^th 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:

 
Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.- Matthew 24:20

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.

 
To begin to understand when John was born, we start with the clue that John’s father, Zacharias, was of the priestly course of Abijah. Priests were divided into 24 courses for their service in the Temple, and they served for one week, beginning on the Sabbath (1 Chronicles 24:7-19). Zacharias would have ended his duties on July 13, 3 BC. John was then conceived, and if the birth of John took place 280 days later, John would have been born on April 19-20, 2 BC.  The Bible also points out that Jesus was five months younger than John the Baptist. This would put Jesus’ birth around September 29 2 BC.

 
So while we all celebrate December 25 as either the date that the big fat man with the beard gives presents, or the birth of Jesus, if we understand our history and our Bibles, Jesus was not born on December 25. My prayer for myself and everyone else is that we take a moment to thank God for creating us, allowing His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, for YOU [insert your name here], and pray that you recognize that and have that personal 1:1 relationship with Him. It’s only with that personal relationship with Him that you will inherit the Kingdom of God. ****NOTE: This is the most important decision you will ever make and where you spend your eternity hangs in the balance on this decision. This is not something you do as a infant, but is something you do NOW and continue to have that daily relationship. ******

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Kevin Parnella