Posted December 24, 2008
Christmas is both colorful and popular. But it's also a contradictory term. Here's why.
Christmas is a combination of two separate words—Christ and Mass. From the Catholic perspective, "The Mass is described as the most powerful prayer on earth. That is because it is the Prayer and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ the 'Lamb of God' on Mount Calvary nearly two thousand years ago. His sacrifice is made present on the altar under the appearance of 'Bread and Wine' (http://www.threeinonegod.com/mass.htm ).
To both Catholics and Protestants the Eucharist (Communion for Protestants) represents the body and blood of Jesus—that is, His death —through the taking of bread and wine. Also, both Catholics and Protestants teach that Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ. But it also suggests the death of Jesus Christ through the literal meaning of its name, Christ-mas(s) or the Mass of Christ, giving conflicting meanings to the very term Christmas.
Though the vast majority of professing Christians accept the notion that Jesus was born on December 25th, both the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. and secular history indicate that Jesus was actually born in either late September or early October.
Alexander Hislop, a Presbyterian theologian who belonged to the Free Church of Scotland addresses this issue in his book first published in 1858, "And first, as to the festival in honor of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. How comes it that that festival was connected with the 25th of December? There is not a word in the ScripturesThe divinely inspired writings of both the Old and New Testaments. The term Scripture is used in the New Testament to refer to both the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-45) and the new apostolic writings accepted as inspired (2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 5:18). about the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when He was born. What is recorded there, implies that at what time soever His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time that the angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night in the open fields [see Luke 2:8]. It was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October” ( The Two Babylons (1959 edition), p. 91).
Another biblical conflict is that God condemns the adoption of pagan customs and celebrations as an acceptable means for worshipping Him (Deuteronomy 12:28-30). The prophet Jeremiah also writes, "Thus says the Lord: 'Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple'” (Jeremiah 10:2-4).
Christmas observance did not originate in the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ.. Even The Catholic Encyclopedia candidly admits that Jesus and His disciples never kept Christmas and that it was added as a gentile holiday, a clear departure from the early Jewish-Christian festivals (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Early Christian Feasts , 1967, Vol. 5, p. 867).
Christmas is a Catholic adaptation of the ancient Mid-Winter Festival which was observed in pagan Rome under the name Saturnalia . Secular history confirms its pagan origin. The book Man, Myth & Magic explains:
"Christmas has its origin in two ancient pagan festivals, the great Yule-feast of the Norsemen and the Roman Saturnalia. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery. However, the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favor to be abolished, and the [Catholic] Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed it should be preserved in honor of the Christian God. "It was only in the 4th century that 25 December was officially decreed to be the birthday of Christ, and it was another 500 years before the term Midwinter Feast was abandoned in favor of the word Christmas" (1983, Vol. 2, Christmas, p. 480; emphases added).
The alleged meanings of Christmas are contradictory as well as contradictory to the scriptures. Jesus Christ can set us free from such confusion. He has promised, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Jesus explained that it is possible to worship God in vain by following manmade traditions (Matthew 15:19)
