Is Christmas Harmless?

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Christmas is popular and profitable, but is it really holy and harmless?

Source: Photos.com

Christmas is the most entertaining Christian holiday of the year. With Christmas songs wafting throughout the mall, a red-suited benign Santa hearing children's pleas for toys and evergreen trees sparkling with bright lights, Christmas is a captivating holiday. But is it harmless?

I have asked Christians why they keep Christmas if they know that Dec. 25 was not the date of Jesus' birth. "It doesn't really matter whether Jesus was born on Christmas. How harmful could it be to honor the birth of our Savior?" Sound irrefutable?

Is Christmas really harmless to Christians?

First, what is a Christian?

If you profess that you're a Christian, you're saying that you follow Jesus Christ. Christ says that a true Christian follows Him, no matter the cost (Luke 14:26-33 [26] If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
[27] And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
[28] For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
[29] Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
[30] Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
[31] Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
[32] Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
[33] So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

See All...), is a living sacrifice for God (Romans 12:1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
See All...), thinks and acts like Jesus did (1 John 2:6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
See All...) and obeys all Ten Commandments (1 John 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
See All...).

If Jesus never instituted or kept Christmas, never taught His apostles to observe it, never promoted Santa Claus or the Christmas tree—plus the fact that the Bible condemns such observances borrowed from paganism (Jeremiah 10:1-9 [1] Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
[2] Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
[3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
[4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
[5] They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
[6] Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
[7] Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
[8] But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
[9] Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

See All...) — how can Christmas be considered a Christian holiday, and why would you want to observe it?

Even the government-recognized church didn't accept the term Christmas for 800 years! "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" (Richard Cavendish, Man, Myth, & Magic , 1983, Vol. 2, p. 480).

Fact: True Christianity and Christmas observance constitute an oxymoron.

The greatest con ever

Early clerics wanted to make converts of pagans who kept the ancient, pre-Christian Midwinter Feast. "The festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favour 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 honour of the Christian God" (Richard Cavendish, Man, Myth, & Magic, 1995, Vol. 3, p. 418).

This masterstroke swelled their ranks, in effect whitewashing pagans as nominal Christians. Therefore, Christmas, supposedly the mass of or for Christ, comes to us from early church clerics in order to Christianize the masses.

Very merry profits!

Today, a Merry Christmas is cleverly driven by merrier profits. Modern business has taken over the Christmas season, promoting the Christmas holiday as Christian while it tugs at your heart and lifts your wallet. Purdue University professor Richard Feinberg found the Christmas season produced at least 75 percent of yearly profits for the businesses he studied in 2004. Christmas holiday shopping totals nearly half a trillion dollars in America.

Christmas question revisited

Let's revisit the original question: Why do so many keep Christmas despite the fact that it doesn't mark the birth of Jesus?

Over 2 billion Christians accept Christmas as if it were based on biblical truth. But despite its widespread popularity, it still remains a counterfeit holiday that God condemns (Deuteronomy 12:29-30 [29] When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
[30] Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

See All...).

Christ on Christmas

Consider the viewpoint of Jesus regarding following human traditions instead of observing the religious customs taught by the Bible: "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
See All...).

Surely you don't want to engage in vain worship by observing Christmas, which allegedly celebrates the birth of Christ but is actually a pagan holiday with humanly devised customs that have no value in God's plan.

I encourage you to check into the real meaning and origin of this time-honored tradition. Order our free and freedom-giving booklet Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Observe? It can help set you free from slavish subservience to the long-standing customs of the Christmas season (John 8:32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
See All...) and will introduce you to Bible-based Holy Days that will help you worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
See All...).