Give An Expensive Gift Here And There, Get Wasted And Party On The Most Unholy Day Of The Year

Christmas is not a Bible doctrine. If our blessed Lord had wanted us to celebrate His birthday, He would have told us when to celebrate it and how to celebrate it. But Christ never told anyone to celebrate His birthday. Furthermore, we know from the Bible and from the church that the apostles and the early church never celebrated Christ's birthday.

In fact, there are only two birthday celebrations recorded in the Bible; and each of them is connected with murder. The Bible tells us in Genesis 40:22 that on one of Pharaoh's birthdays he murdered his chief baker while a big celebration was going on. The other birthday celebration recorded was that of Herod, when he had John the Baptist murdered. I personally believe that God purposely records these two birthday celebrations to warn and to teach us - and to show us that the Lord has no pleasure in birthday celebrations or anniversaries.

The Bible is God's complete and final revelation to man, and it tells us everything we need to know for our spiritual lives (see II Timothy 3:16). We don't have to go outside the Bible for anything. God's Word tells us how we're to worship, how we're to give money for the support of the Lord's work, how to evangelize the lost, how to observe the Lord's Supper, and everything else pertaining to the Christian life. But not once in the Bible does God tell us to celebrate Christmas! We're told to remember the Lord's death, but nowhere are we told to celebrate His birth.

God's people are supposed to be Bible people. We're supposed to live by the teaching of God's holy Word. So the very fact that Christmas is never mentioned in the Bible is sufficient reason for us not to have anything to do with it. But that's not all.

Christ was NOT Born On December 25.

Notice:

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night... And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us" (Luke 2:7, 8, 15).

Don't miss the point: The shepherds WERE IN THE FIELDS taking care of their flocks on the night Jesus was born. As the shepherds were watching their sheep, the message came to them of the birth of Jesus.

It's a well-known fact that December falls in the middle of the rainy season in Palestine, and the sheep were kept in the fold at that time of the year. The shepherds always corralled their flocks from October to April. They brought their sheep from the mountainsides and the fields no later than October 15 to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. So the birth of Christ could not have taken place at the end of December.

Luke 2:1, 3 tells us that at the time of the birth of Jesus it was decreed that ". . . all the world should be taxed... And all went to be taxed every one into his own city." This couldn't have taken place in the winter. Caesar Augustus, the ruler of Rome, would certainly not call for such a taxing in the depth of winter. Travel at this time of the year is extremely difficult; hence, it would be virtually impossible for everyone to comply with the decree if it had been given then. The Lord himself testified to the rigors of traveling in winter, for He told the people to pray that their flight at the end of this age would not be in winter (see Matthew 24:20).

No one knows the exact day when Jesus was born, but in all probability He was born sometime during the first part of October. We can be reasonably sure of this because His earthly ministry lasted three and a half years, and He was crucified on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, which corresponds to our April (see John 19:31; Leviticus 23:5). If we go back three and a half years to the time when Jesus was 30 years old-when He began His public ministry-we come to the month of October. This was probably the month when our blessed Lord was born into the world.

However, let's remember that it's not the date of Jesus' birth that's important. The important thing is that He was born and that He died for our sins. We're not worshiping a helpless infant lying in a manger. We're worshiping a risen and exalted Christ who has all power in Heaven and in earth (see Matthew 28:18).

Where do you suppose Christmas originated? Certainly not with God! Christmas started with the sun worshipers during the time of Nimrod, the man who supervised the building of the tower of Babel. Thousands of years before Jesus was born, the heathen in every country observed December 25 as the birthday of a god who was called the sun god. Semiramis, the widow of Nimrod, was his mother. She claimed to be the queen of heaven. And she had a son who was supposed to have been born on December 25; his name was Tammuz.

According to all the heathen religions of that time, Tammuz had a miraculous birth; and for centuries his birthday was celebrated with feasts, revelry, and drunken orgies. The heathen celebrated Tammuz's birthday according to the very example he set for them. He was the world's greatest lover of women, strong drink, dirty jokes, and other sensual fun. It is said that he loved everybody and everybody loved him. And it was December 25 that all the pagan religions celebrated the birthday of Tammuz, the sun god.

This is all clearly brought out in Alexander Hislop's great book, The Two Babylons. Any reputable encyclopedia will also verify these facts.

Some will say, "We can't help it if we were born into a pagan world. We can't help it if we were reared and steeped in pagan doctrines and customs." Oh, yes we can! Christ said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." There is only one righteous thing that you can do with these pagan holidays, and that is to repudiate them and have no part in them. The virgin birth of Christ is a blessed fact, but the Xmas celebration is a wicked and ungodly thing.

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