Christmas and the Pagan Colossian Heresy

I will remember back in 1995 when our dear church went through a terrible trial. Some of the church leaders went back to believing in Protestantism, and many left our congregation and started keeping Sunday and Christmas. One of the scriptures that was used is Colossians 2, verses 16 through 17. This is a typical Protestant teaching. They use it to say, you no longer need to keep the Sabbath or the feast days. The Apostle Paul told us that in the church we are going to have tests of our faith.

There's going to be times when leaders are going to rise up and speak perverse things. And Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 19, quote, For there must also be factions, which means divisions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. So God tests the church. Who is going to be approved before God? In other words, we're all going to be tested. The bride of Christ has to show faithfulness and loyalty to God above all things. In Colossians 2, 16 and 17, it's one of those called Trojan Horse verses. Because just like the Greeks introduced that Trojan horse into Troy, and they thought it was a big gift.

But guess what? There were Greek soldiers inside of that Trojan horse. And so then at night, the Trojans were all feasting because they thought the Greeks already had given up. But some of the Greek soldiers came down from that big Trojan horse, lowered a ladder, went over there and opened the gates. And that's how Troy was destroyed. So Colossians 2, 16 and 17 says, So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon or sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Now many brethren who believed that this deception quit keeping the Sabbath and the feast days and instead started keeping Sunday and pagan holidays like Christmas, a season that is now upon us. Why did this happen? People that knew better. Well we know Satan is a very powerful and deceptive being. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 through 10, 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 through 10, he says the coming of the lawless one, notice there's going to be one that's going to attack God's law at the end time, is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with unrighteous deception among those who perish.

Why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Brethren once you receive that love of the truth, when your eyes are open and God calls and gives you that Holy Spirit to understand scripture, to discern from right and wrong according to God's word, that's when God can save us. Save us from sin, from perishing, as far as spiritual character is concerned.

And actually, as I hope to show, this very section of Colossians 2, 16 through 17, actually refers to something very different. In fact, it is the very opposite of what traditional Christianity claims about these verses. Can this be definitely proved? Yes, I believe so. As a matter of fact, some modern scholars now support this new interpretation that goes against the typical Protestant and Catholic teaching. So I want you to be familiar with these new findings in case someone comes up to you and tries to use Colossians 2, 16 and 17 to refute keeping the Sabbath or the Holy Days. So let me show you four proofs on this from the Bible.

And you can be the judge. I'm not brainwashing you or doing something. No, you look at the evidence. You decide if it is true or not. So let's begin with proof number one. The timing of the epistle of Colossians, which was when Paul was first imprisoned in Rome. So the time that Paul wrote Colossians, and he wrote Colossians 2, 16 and 17 at that time. It's very important to note here when that took place. It was during the span of time delineated in the book of Acts that Paul wrote most of his epistles.

It covers the time period which Acts chapter one begins from the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven, which we believe was in AD 31.

And from when Christ was with his disciples for 40 days after his resurrection, Acts covers approximately 30 years, the first 30 years of the church's beginning, which ends with Paul being imprisoned in Rome. It's called the first imprisonment because Paul was imprisoned the second time when he died. He was executed by the Romans. But in this first imprisonment, as we can read in Acts chapter 28, Acts chapter 28, let's go there for a moment.

It says in verse 28 of Acts 28, he says, Therefore, let it be known to you that salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him. Now, this is he's in Rome. He's in prison, but it was kind of more like a house arrest.

It says then he spent two whole years preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him because he was a Roman citizen. So he had certain rights so people could visit him, although he was confined because he was going to eventually go before the emperor and he would be acquitted at that time.

Now, it's important that it was during this period with Paul in prison in Rome that the epistle of Colossians, one of Paul's four called prison epistles, was written from Rome.

Colossians 4.10 mentions that he is there in prison. This epistle is dated around AD 62, which is a little over 30 years from the time of the beginning of the book of Acts and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Wirby's Bible commentary points out Epaphras, one of Paul's companions, showed up in Rome because he needed Paul's help. He came from the Corinthian Church.

Some new doctrines were being taught in Colossian Church in Colossae and were invading the church and creating problems. So while he was there, remember it says that he could bring people to talk with them in his rented house. And Epaphras was one of the representatives that came because Paul was still pastoring and sending epistles to all these places. It says, some new doctrines were being taught in Colossae and were invading the church and creating problems. So Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians in order to refute these heretical teachings and establish the truth of the gospel. Epaphras remained with Paul in Rome.

Colossians 4, 10 through 12 mentions his companions there.

It is notable in the book of Acts, which Luke, who accompanied Paul during this time of house imprisonment in Rome, that nothing is mentioned in Acts about any changes or abolishing of the Sabbath and the biblical feasts. You think in the 30 years, somebody would have said, well, let's start keeping Sunday or the first day of the week, or let's change our holy days now. Not everybody was doing this, keeping the Sabbath and the holy days.

This is an important factor to consider when we go into the epistle of Colossians.

For a pagan heresy had affected their congregation, and Paul writes to them to combat this erroneous teaching and exposes its falsehood with sound biblical instruction. So this is what he does in this epistle. Now, at the end of Acts, you can read it here in Acts 28, 17. What did he tell these Jewish leaders in Rome? He says, and it came to pass after three days that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when they had come together, he said to them, Man and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, that means the laws of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who when they had examined me, wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting me to death. And so how could Paul say that he still was keeping all of these things that he had learned if the Sabbath, the Holy Days, had already been abolished or changed?

He could honestly tell them, no, I'm still keeping the Sabbath. I'm still keeping the feast days. The Jews never accused them, oh, you're keeping Sunday now, or you're keeping different feast days.

And remember, this was about 30 years later.

One of the scholars that's a Protestant theologian who realized he was mistaken in the way he had taught collagions to 16 and 17. He's a professor, Troy Martin, who wrote the book By Philosophy and Empty Deceit in 1996. I'd like to quote Troy Martin. He says, in addition to 1 Corinthians, the portrait of Paul and Christian communities in the book of Acts demonstrates that Christians adhered to the biblical calendar.

Concerning feasts, Paul sails from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, which is one of the feasts of God. Acts 26, and intends to arrive in Jerusalem by the Feast of Pentecost. Acts 2016. The portrayal of Paul in Acts supplies clear evidence that Christians mark time by the segments of biblical festivals and Sabbaths. So you see, this man admits that's what the Bible teaches. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, it also acknowledges this point about Sunday not being kept at that time, nor holidays that are pagan. This is what it says, there is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, which go about 200 years into the future.

The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed.

This is clearly alluding to Colossians 2, 16, and 17, that these feasts foreshadowed future events from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, page 828. So let's go now to the second proof.

What was the Colossian pagan heresy that Paul was battling?

It's very important to note in Colossians 2 that those who were criticizing the Colossian brethren were the same ones who were teaching these heresies.

So it's not the Colossian brethren that are changing things, it's these false teachers that are coming that are trying to change the festivals that the Colossians were keeping. Another scholar who, as Troy Martin, also came to the same conclusion about Colossians 2, 16.

His name is Samuel Bakiyoki, a famous seven-day Adventist scholar.

He writes in his book, God's Festivals and Scripture and History, and our church had a lot to do with him changing his views. And he wrote this book when he realized that God's festival should be kept. He says, the statement, therefore let no one pass judgment on you, has been connected as a Pauline condemnation of the observance of Old Testament Holy Days. In spite of its antiquity and popularity, this interpretation is totally wrong, because in this passage Paul is not warning the Colossians against the observance of the five mentioned practices, eating, drinking, feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths, but against anyone who passes judgment on how to observe them. So the critics were the ones that came to try to change what the Colossians were doing. Bakiyoki continues, notes should be taken of the fact that the judge who passes judgment is not Paul, but the Colossian false teachers who impose, quote, regulations. Notice in Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2, in verse 20, it says, therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations?

These critics were saying, don't touch certain things, don't taste certain things, don't handle certain things, which all concern things which perish with using according to the commandments and doctrines of men, not of God.

These false philosophers were the ones that were trying to impose these type of regulations on food that is biblically good to eat. They were trying to make you abstain from certain things.

He goes on to say, on how to observe these practices in order to achieve rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity of the body. Let's read verse 23 here.

It says, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. So again, this is a severity of the body. Some of these philosophers that had come in were ascetics, which means they abstained from a lot of things because they thought materialism, material things were bad for you, and you've got to think of the heavenly things. He says, in light of these observations, we conclude that in Colossians 2.16, Paul expresses not a condemnation, but an implicit approval of the observance of Holy Days.

It was the deceptive teaching of the Colossian false teachers, which promoted unbiblical dietary practices and the observance of sacred times. Now, that's important, because that's what they were trying to do, too. Say, look, those feasts, no, these are not the ones you should keep, should go back to our Greek philosophy and Greek religion and start keeping those.

These were auxiliary aids to salvation, they said.

Therefore, it was the false and ascetic teachers in the epistle of Colossians who were criticizing the brethren for keeping God's Holy Days in a festive spirit while eating and drinking on those feast days. That includes the Sabbath, too. This manner of rejoicing at God's feasts is a commanded duty in the Old Testament, as we read in Deuteronomy 14 verse 26.

Deuteronomy 14 verse 26, which says about these feasts, quote, and you shall spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. That's the way God wants us to rejoice, not to have these austere looking people, these ascetic and very much abstemias and taciturn type of people. They all look so sad. That's not God's religion at all.

So let's go now to proof number three.

Let's see the connection between Colossians 2 and Galatians 4.

Remarkably, the pistol of Galatians and Colossians both record Paul's warnings about to the Gentile brethren not to revert back to their pagan festivals and other practices instead of keeping God's holy days.

In Galatians, Paul admonishes them, quote, this is Galatians 4, 8 through 11.

Galatians 4, 8 through 11. He says, but then indeed when you did not know God, because you were Gentiles, you served those by nature are not God's. But now after you have known God, the true God he's talking about, or rather are known by God, the true God knows you now and calling you. How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?

You're going backwards. You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I'm afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

regulation, Gentile brethren, we're going back to these other teachings.

And so he admonishes in the same way the Colossians. He says, and this is going back to yeah, yeah, I want to go back here to to this section to similar it in Colossians.

Paul caution caution them. This is Colossians 2, 8, 20 through 22. He says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. So here these are traditions of men. These are philosophers that have come in trying to invade this Colossian church and change their teachings. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, all this past pagan system, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. Notice one more scripture here. He says in verse 18, he says, let no one cheat you of your reward because we have that kingdom of God that's coming and Christ is bringing his reward, taking delight and false humility and worship of angels. Well, that's not biblical. That's part of this pagan traditions about worshiping angels. Intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly pushed or puffed up by his fleshly mind. As Dr. Bakiyoki says as well, quote, the Galatian observance of idolatrous sacred times was motivated not by the Old Testament feasts, but by superstitious beliefs in astral, which means heavenly influences. This is indicated by Paul's charge that their adoption of these practices was the equivalent to a return to their former pagan subjections to elemental spirits and demons.

In Galatians 4, 8, and 9, let's read that. Galatians 4, 8, and 9, it says, but then indeed when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not Gods.

And then it goes on to say, verse 11, I'm afraid for you lest I have labored for you in vain.

So I'd read that scripture before, but I wanted to touch on it.

It says, in many respects, the polemic in Galatians 4, 8, through 11 is strikingly similar, says Bakiyoki, to that of Colossians 2, 8, through 23. In both places, the superstitious observance of sacred times, pagan festivals, is described as slavery to the elements.

See, because they come in with this system, and you've got certain days that you have to observe, and they're different from the ones that the Bible tells us to observe.

So let's go to the final proof, the fourth proof, the Christmas connection with the Colossian heresy.

We can see in the epistles of Galatians and Colossians that the Gentile brethren were in danger of turning back to their false teachings and to follow local pagan sacred days.

In fact, the city of Colossae was known for its eastern mystery religions and was part of the Roman Empire. Most of the pagan festivals had their origins in ancient Mesopotamia, which is the region of Iraq, Syria, and part of Persia, including the feast that later came to be known as Christmas.

Do you think I'm exaggerating?

Let's have Professor of Anthropology Earl W. Count testify in his book Four Thousand Years of Christmas about this topic. This is a man, you know, he's not part of the church.

He's just a historian, but he does tell the truth. Now, later, he says, well, yes, all of this is bad, but we should still keep Christmas, right? But this is what he admits from his studies.

He says, Mesopotamia is the very ancient mother of civilization. Christmas began there over four thousand years ago as the festival which renewed the world for another year.

The, quote, 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires and probably the yule log, the giving of presents, the carnivals with their floats, their merry makings and clownings, the mummers who sing and play from house to house, the feastings, the church processions with their lights and songs. All these and more began there centuries before Christ was born, and they celebrate the arrival of a new year. Professor Count continues, for that day, referring to December the 25th, was sacred not only to the pagan Romans, but to a religion from Persia which in those days was one of Christianity's strongest rivals.

This Persian religion was Mithraism, whose followers worshiped the sun and celebrated its return to strength on that day. The church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery, the lights and gifts from Saturn and the feast known as Saturnalia, and giving them to the babe of Bethlehem.

It has a website, History.com.

History.com, you can go there. It mentions about Saturnalia. It says, Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Because of when the holiday occurred near the winter solstice, Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas, such as wreaths, candles, feasting, and gift giving. And you can find dozens and dozens of sources that will say the same thing. So let's go to the conclusion about these four points that I covered.

Professor Troy Martin summarizes these new findings about Colossians 2.16 and Galatians 4.9-11.

Now we have never used Colossians 2 wrongly. We understood it, but it's just that now there's a lot more historical research that makes it even clearer. So these new findings about Colossians 2.16 and Galatians 4.9-11. This is what he says in his book. The available evidence demonstrates that the Pauline communities and other early Christians adopt a biblical timekeeping scheme to avoid the idolatrous systems of the pagans around them. This is what he concludes. They are keeping God's feasts to avoid getting involved in the pagan holidays around them.

Thus, instead of disproving the Christian practice of the calendar in Colossians 2.16, a correct understanding of Paul's conception of Christian freedom supports the Christian adoption of the biblical religious calendar. When Paul refers to days, months, seasons, and years in Galatians 4.10, he is describing a pagan timekeeping system.

Since a calendar in Colossians 2.16 belongs to the Christians, the word your must be included in the English translation to render the Greek accurate.

See, Paul is saying that these critics are going against your festivals, your eating and drinking, and keeping these things.

The entire phrase should be translated in respect to your feast, new moon, or Sabbath. He continues, he admonishes the Colossians, let no one critique you by your eating and drinking or in respect to your feast, new moon, or Sabbath, which practices are a shadow of things to come.

But let everyone discern the body of Christ, who is in the body of Christ, the Church, by your eating and drinking, or with respect to your feast, new moon, or Sabbath.

Instead of being on the defensive end of a poignant critique, this author encourages the Colossians to take the offensive, talking about Paul, take the offensive and proclaim Christ to the critic by their Christian practices that the Colossians are doing.

This new understanding about what Colossians 2.16 means led Dr. Bakiyoki, an Adventist who normally doesn't keep feast days, to declare, quote, Troy Martin's conclusion that the Gentiles' conversion to the gospel involved the rejection of their pagan calendar built upon idolatrous worship of many gods and the adoption of the biblical religious calendar which has been transformed by Christ's coming, represents in my view a significant breakthrough in the understanding of the continuity between Judaism and Christianity. That's from the book The Sabbath Under Crossfire, page 255. In short, Paul's admonition to the Colossian and Galatian brethren was not to follow these false pagan teachers with their heresies and idolatrous festivities, but rather to continue, as his example shows, throughout the book of Acts to keep God's Sabbaths and feasts. He declares they are, quote, a shadow of things to come. Colossians 2.17. In other words, they illustrate vital future events in God's plan of salvation.

One last point. The apostle Paul gives a word of caution to the Colossians when discussing sensitive religious topics with others who don't understand these biblical truths.

His advice is as applicable today as it was then. Colossians 4, 5 through 6. I'm reading it from the Good News Bible. It says, be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone.

So I wanted to share this much more informative research that has been done on this topic, and why we don't keep Christmas.