A Right Christmas – Edwin Stepp & Robert Boraker vision.org

The early Christian Church didn’t keep Christmas. Christ wasn’t even born in winter. However, a solar feast commemorating the Persian god Mithra, whom the Romans also worshiped, was historically observed on December 25th around the winter solstice. Gift-giving and unrestrained revelry were also features of the Roman Saturnalia, another solstice festival that anchors modern Christmas traditions.

Roman emperor Constantine saw the tension between emerging Christianity and the people’s pagan traditions as a threat to the empire’s stability. Non-Christians would not relinquish their celebrations easily, so it was more convenient to incorporate those holidays into the church’s practice. Pagans agreed to be considered Christian as long as their customs did not have to change. It was an accord of political and cultural convenience.

Christmas was considered a drunken revel well into the 17th and 18th centuries, and was outlawed by Pilgrims and Puritans in England and America. Unable to quash the festival, leaders eventually conceded to merely redirect the festivities to less offensive practices. Ultimately, it was American capitalism that transformed this pagan orgy into a ubiquitous global holiday of hearth and home. Christmas is big business.

Christmas’ pagan and anti-Christian roots are well known. The day is corrupt and the stories told to Children about it are lies. The paradox is that Christ said He came to establish truth. He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven”. It is more important to Christ that we understand and do God’s will, instead of whatever we might enjoy. Christ established that God does not want to be worshiped with half-truths, myths, legends and human traditions.