Christmas Is Not for Christians

There's more road rage I hear than typically at other times of the year. There's also more suicide. People actually commit more suicide because of the stress and the loneliness that people often feel around this time. So, it's a mixed bag, but for those who really love Christmas, and some believe it's the greatest spiritual holiday there is, these people never really consider it's wrong to keep Christmas, I don't think. How could it possibly be wrong? Are we not celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ? Are we not promoting family togetherness?

Are we not promoting giving and forgiving at this season of the year? Isn't this the season to be jolly? What could possibly be wrong with a little egg nog and some mistletoe and that sort of thing? Can we determine really how God views this holiday? Is that a valid question? Can we look into the Bible and determine how God would view this holiday?

Because I believe that is obviously the most important question. How does God look at this festival? What are its origins? How did Christmas celebration begin? Does it even matter how Christmas began? Does the Bible say anything about Christmas? And what support can we find in the Bible for the celebration of this most popular religious holiday of the year? Is Christmas really for Christians? Is Christmas really for Christians? So let's begin by talking about the origin of the Christmas celebration. Maybe it's been a while since we've covered this here in Lawton.

I don't know that I've ever given a sermon here in Lawton about the origins of Christmas, so it may be quite a while since you've actually heard a lot of this. I'm sure you've done your own studies to some degree, but let me share some things with you that I researched in regard to Christmas.

First of all, historians tell us the Christmas celebration came from very questionable origins. If you… I mean, there are pretty much an agreement on this. William Wash, who lived from 1854 to 1919, summarizes the holiday's origins and practices in his book, The Story of Santa Claus. He says, We remember that the Christmas Festival is a gradual evolution from times that long antedated the Christian period. It came long before the Christian period, long before Christ was ever born. It was overlaid upon heathen festivals, and many of its observances are only adaptations of pagan to Christian ceremonies.

And that's how many people look at Christmas. In fact, many people understand the origins of Christmas, but they still continue to keep it. I mean, that doesn't stop them. I'd like to read from a book, Four Thousand Years of Christmas. Probably a lot of you have heard of this book. Of course, Christ has only been... He died about 2,000 years ago, roughly. And this talks about 4,000 years of Christmas.

So something was going on before Christ came, because how could there be 4,000 years of Christmas? The book is also subtitled, A Gift from the Ages. Four Thousand Years of Christmas, A Gift from the Ages. It says, This charming story of our Christmas traditions carries us around the globe and through the millennia in search of the ancient customs that have become part of our modern-day celebration. Along the way, we discover decorating with mistletoe began with the mysterious rituals of pagan druids.

Exchanging gifts for the 12 days of Christmas started among Bronze Age Babylonians. Decking the halls with lighted candles and lamps was originally part of the Saturnalia Festival, celebrated by Romans every December. This romantic narrative reminds us that the joy we share each year comes from traditions that people have celebrated since the dawn of civilization.

Now, civilization goes back a little farther than 4,000 years. So, you could probably say nearly 6,000 years of Christmas when it really gets right down to it. But it's called 4,000 Years of Christmas, and it's a book to be read by the entire family. So, at first, I thought this was a book against the celebration of Christmas, but soon I realized, no, it gives you all the history, but it still stands up for Christmas.

So, how could pagan practices, practices of the druids and of the Babylonians, who were all, of course, very pagan, festivals like Saturnalia, how could these pagan practices become part of the most major of church celebrations? What were these heathen festivals that lent themselves to Christmas customs over the centuries?

Let's talk about some of the ancient origins of Christmas customs. During the second century BC, the Greeks practiced rites to honor their god Dionysus, who's also called Bacchus, which is the Latin name for the god of wine, Bacchus. There's a celebration that comes from Bacchus called Bacchanalia, similar to Saturnalia, but it's Bacchanalia. It spread from the Greeks to the Romans to Rome, the center of the Roman Empire. Quoting from Wash, the book I mentioned earlier, it was on or about December 21st that the ancient Greeks celebrated what are known to us as the Bacchanalia, or festivities, in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. In these festivities, the people gave themselves up to songs, dances, and other revels, which frequently passed the limits of decency and order. Because of the nocturnal orgies associated with this festival, the Roman Senate suppressed its observance in 186 BC. It took the senators several years to completely accomplish this goal because of the holiday's popularity. Suppressing a holiday was unusual for the Romans, since they later became a melting pot of many types of gods and worship. Just as the Romans assimilated culture, art, and customs from the peoples absorbed into their empire, they likewise adopted those peoples' religious practices. So, it was quite extraordinary that they actually took a stand against Bacchanalia. That just tells you how decadent it had become.

In addition to the Bacchanalia, the Romans also celebrated a holiday entitled the Saturnalia, which was held in honor of Saturn, the god of time, which began on December 17th and continued for seven days. These also often ended in riot and disorder. Hence, the words Bacchanalia and Saturnalia acquired an evil reputation, so they became known even to many people in regard to being a wicked festival. The reason for the Saturnalia's disrepute is revealing, in pagan mythology, Saturn was an ancient agricultural god-king who ate his own children, presumably to avoid regicide, which is murdering the king. So, instead of being murdered later on by his sons, or his children, he presumably ate them. Saturn was parallel with a Carthaginian bale, whose brazen horned effigy contained a furnace into which children were sacrificially fed. It is true that these things did happen in ancient times. Now, that was from William Sansom, a book of Christmas that was dated from 1968, page 44, a book of Christmas. I'd like to quote from Gerard and Patricia Del Rey from the Christmas Almanac, which was written in 1979. This is from page 16. Notice the customs surrounding the Saturnalia. All businesses were closed except those that provided food or revelry. Slaves were made equal to masters or even set over them. Gambling, drinking, and feasting were encouraged. People exchanged gifts, called strenae, from the vegetation goddess Strenia, whom it was important to honor at midwinter. Men dressed as women or in the hides of animals and crowds in the streets, candles and lamps were used to frighten the spirits of darkness, which were considered powerful at this time of year during the pits of wintertime. At its most decadent and barbaric, Saturnalia may have been the excuse among Roman soldiers in the East for the human sacrifice of the king of the rebels. That's from Gerard and Patricia Del Rey.

Now, both of these ancient holidays were observed around the winter solstice. The solstice is the day which is the shortest day of daylight. So that's what the solstice is. So the winter solstice would be the shortest period of daylight. The summer solstice would be the longest period of daylight. So it was around the winter solstice that they did a lot of this revelry. Quoting from Tom Flynn and his book, The Trouble with Christmas, written in 1993, page 42, from the Romans also came another Christmas fundamental, the date, December 25th, when the Julian calendar was proclaimed in 46 AD, it set into law a practice that was already common dating the winter solstice as December 25th. Later reforms of the calendar would cause the astronomical solstice to migrate to December 21st, but the older date's irresistible resonance would remain. So initially it was kept on December 25th, and that's when they dated the winter solstice, but then later they moved it to December 21st, and now that's the beginning of winter. December 21st is the day that we acknowledge as the beginning of winter, but December 25th was a date, as it says here, it had a lot of irresistible resonance. In other words, it didn't go away. December 25th is still around, it's still a very important day in many people's eyes. So why was this date significant from the Christmas almanac again? The time of the winter solstice has always been an important season in the mythology of all peoples. Now this is real important that you understand this, because this is at the core of why people were having these festivities in the dead of winter. The sun, the giver of life, is at its lowest ebb on the winter solstice. It is the shortest daylight of the year. The promise of spring is buried in cold and snow. It is the time when the forces of chaos that stand against the return of light and life must once again be defeated by the gods. At the low point of the solstice, the people must help the gods through imitative magic and religious ceremonies. They were a very superstitious people back thousands of years ago, and they were living in the frozen north, and they desperately wanted the sun to come back. Sunday was a day of sun worship. That's how it got its name. That goes way back to the beginning of time. I'm sure not too shortly after Adam and Eve. So they would have these religious ceremonies, and they would try to influence the gods, the pagan gods, gods of the sun, of the moon, of the stars. They would try to somehow influence them through the revelry, crazy thinking for sure. Eventually, the sun would come back. So I guess they thought they must be doing some good through their revelry. Plus, they wanted to do it anyway.

So the sun begins to return in triumph. The days lengthen, and though winter remains, spring is once again conceivable. Now we can have hope that the spring will come. For all people, it is a time of great festivities.

They're rejoicing that the sun is going to come back. During the days of the Apostles in the first century, the early Christians had no knowledge of Christmas as we know it.

They would have had some knowledge, I'm sure, of the Roman observance of Saturnalia.

The other pagan observances around them, people keeping Saturnalia or Brachanalia or some of festivals such as that, were keeping the customary feasts of the Lord.

The Bible taught that. It didn't teach anything about keeping Christmas and Easter and worshiping the sun or the moon or the stars. So they were diligently, or at least to some degree, keeping the feasts of the Lord. Let's go to Deuteronomy 12, where we read some instruction here in the Bible that really does apply today, although many people certainly do not want to apply this scripture to Christmas. Hebrews 12, verse 29. The instruction here to those who were going to be going into the Promised Land shortly, the children of Israel, here it says, When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, they were going to go into the Promised Land, they were going to kill or kick out all of those people that were living there, and you displaced them and dwell on their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.

You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. So what is he saying? He's saying, You are not to worship the Lord your God in the way that the heathens or the pagans worship the false gods of the sun, the moon, the stars, nature, and the sea, and every other natural thing, things that God created, they would worship. They had these pantheon of gods that they worshiped. They were very superstitious in so many different ways. They wanted protection from the god of the sea. So when they were out in boats and in ships, they wanted protection so they would worship the god of the sea, or they would pray to the god of the sea to protect them.

And on and on it goes, You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way for every abomination to the Lord. Abomination means a detestable action, according to my margin here. Any detestable action to the Lord which he hates, they have done to their gods. For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods, which I mentioned already. There was animal sacrifices going on in conjunction with some of these festivities that they were having. Again, superstitious beliefs that if they sacrificed one of their children, then the gods would be favorable to them. Agricultural gods or different types of gods would bless them. And that was the thinking of the heathens and the pagans. Verse 32, Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. But of course, we know that the Israelites did go into idolatry. They were punished greatly. They went into captivity because of their Sabbath-breaking and because of their idol worship. So they also adopted these gods. They didn't listen to the warning that God was giving them here. Now, over the following centuries, new humanly devised observances such as Christmas and Easter were gradually introduced into traditional Christianity. So in the beginning, when Jesus Christ was here and Paul and Peter and the apostles, they weren't keeping Christmas and Easter. They weren't keeping Saturnalia or Brachanalia. They understood that those days were pagan. They were keeping the Sabbath. They were keeping the high days, the holy days of God. But over the following centuries, then Christmas and Easter also had pagan origins that go way back thousands and thousands of years.

They were gradually introduced into traditional Christianity. History shows that these new days were forcibly promoted while the feast days of the apostolic times were systematically rejected. In 2 Timothy 4, there's also a warning given here by Paul in 2 Timothy to the people of God, warning them about lies that would rise up and people that would infiltrate. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word and be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering, and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and they will be turned aside to fables or to lies. That's exactly what Christmas is built upon. Fables and lies and Easter is built upon fables and lies. And so the people of God were warned about this, and yet some allowed themselves to be deceived and no doubt adopted these heathen pagan practices. In John 4, 24, you don't need to go there, but it says, God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. God hates a lie, and he hates liars, and he hates people who are lying like that. They have to change and repent.

So Christmas, and I'm reading now from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the 15th edition, page 499 under the article Christianity, Christmas, the purported festival of the birth of Jesus Christ, was established in connection with a fading of the expectation of Christ's imminent return. I think this is interesting because what was happening, Christ didn't come back right away, and there were faithful people who continued to be faithful, even though Christ was not returning. There are faithful people today who continue to be faithful, even though Christ has not yet returned nearly 2,000 years later. But there were also some who were going to be seduced by these things, and they would start turning to other things. So it's interesting that the Christmas celebration shifted Christianity's focus away from Christ's promise return to his birth. That's part of what was going on during this time, during the first few centuries. Christ was not returning. They were looking for Christ's return. And then, of course, Constantine and that whole pagan approach that he had toward syncretism, mixing the paganism that he was so steeped in with Christianity.

And they came up with this idea that Christ was born on December 25th. It just happened to be the time of the saturnalia, the brachanalia, the winter solstice.

So the message of Jesus Christ and the apostles, the gospel of the kingdom of God, was soon lost for the most part. And the Christmas celebration shifted the focus away from Christ's promise return to his birth. But, of course, the Bible says nothing about doing such a thing. It doesn't tell us when Christ was born. There's probably a good reason for that.

We were not to observe the birth of Christ. So let's talk about how the Christmas date was set from Gerard and Patricia Del Rey's book.

They say, saturnalia and the calends or the new moon were the celebrations most familiar to early Christians. So December 17th through the 24th and January 1 through 3rd.

But the tradition of celebrating December 25th as Christ's birthday came to Romans from Persia.

Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock, according to those who believed in this cult, mystery religion, called Mithra.

The Persian god of light was born out of a rock on December 25th.

There's a lot of parallels when you stop. We'll talk more about some of the parallels.

Christ is known as the rock. Mithra was born out of a rock on December 25th. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults. In the 3rd century, around 274, the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Deus Invicti Solis, which I probably bushed that very badly. That's in Latin. It means the day of the invincible sun.

The day of the invincible sun was established on December 25th in the year 274 AD. So this is more than 200 years after Christ's death. Then along comes the unchristian, the pagan emperor Aurelian who established the day of the invincible sun on December 25th.

Now Mithra was an embodiment of the sun. Again, it's the god of light, right? So it's the embodiment of the sun. Sun worship. No doubt this goes all the way back to Semiramis, to Nimrod. That's another story that I'm not going to go into today. It goes way back.

In every culture, it seems that there was some adaptation of this sort of pagan festivals that Satan was using to counterfeit the creation, even the flood of Noah. All of these events that are in the Bible and that are prophesied even for later, Satan has tried to counterfeit so that people are thrown off guard and deceived. So it is believed that the emperor Constantine adhered to Mithraism up to the time of his conversion to Christianity.

There's lots of stories about how evil Constantine was. There were no fruits of repentance that could be seen from what I've read about Constantine. It was not a true repentance. It was, frankly, an attempt which actually worked quite well to bring in all the pagan peoples that were keeping Saturnalia and Brachanalia and the different festivities like that. Ishtar and the goddess of Ishtar. The Ishtar goddess was a female goddess that people worshipped as well. These things were adopted into Christianity. That way it was much easier to get people to accept Christ. Did they accept the true Christ? The true Christ who said he was the Lord of the Sabbath.

Is that who they accepted? Did they all start keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath as Christ did? Is that what we see when we look at Christianity? The high days, the holy days of God that Christ instituted? The one who became flesh, who was initially the Word and the Creator of all mankind and created a man and then rested on the Sabbath day? Is that the true Jesus Christ that people are worshipping when they keep Christmas? So this Mithra was an embodiment of the sun. It became Rome's latest official religion when Aurelian accepted Mithraism in the day of the invincible sun. And then along comes Constantine after him. No, actually Constantine would have been before him. No, Constantine was after him. Aurelian would have been before him in 274, and Constantine was after that, sometimes in the 300s. So Constantine was no doubt instrumental in seeing that the major feast of his old religion was carried over to his new faith. This was a quote from the Christmas almanac, 1979, page 17. So although it is difficult to determine the first time anyone celebrated December 25th as Christmas, historians are in general agreement that it was sometime during the 4th century, sometime in the 300s, when it actually started to be called Christmas. And it may not even have been called Christmas then, but Christians were beginning to keep these festivals. This is, of course, an amazingly late date. Christ died in 31 AD. So this is an amazingly late date. It's 250 years later, almost 300 years later. In fact, it was probably at least 300 years later.

Now Christmas is being observed in Rome, the capital of the Empire. Its origins cannot be traced back to either the teachings or the practices of the earliest Christians. There's nothing in the Bible. There's nothing from true Christians that proved they were keeping this day. The introduction of Christmas represented a significant departure from the faith once delivered.

And Jude 3 warns that we are to stick to the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. So there was a completely different type of Christianity. People became known as Christians back during the time of the first century, but there's a huge difference between a Christian of the first century and a Christian in the third century or the fourth century because Christianity had been infiltrated by Satan the Devil. It's really not that hard for us to see that happening, is it? When we look back, even at our modern history in the Church, our former affiliation, as we often refer to it, where a lot of people are keeping Sunday now and keeping Christmas, keeping Easter. So it's really not that much of a stretch for us to understand how this could happen.

Okay, let's talk about some European influences.

Is this as late as I think it is? I think it is pretty late. Okay, let's just actually forget about trying to cover too much more since we started at 2 o'clock.

Oh, we started at 2.30. That's right. Good. I thought I didn't think I'd talk that long.

I mean, I know I'm pretty windy, but I lose track of time. But yeah, usually we start at 1 o'clock here. We started on the half hour this time. All right, well, we're good for a little while.

Got a little more time. All right, let's move on. Let's talk about some European influences on Christmas customs. Although Christmas had been officially established in Rome by the 4th century, another pagan celebration later greatly influenced the many Christmas customs practiced today. That festival was the Teutonic Feast of the Twelve Nights, celebrated from December 25th to January 6th. This festival was based on the supposed mythological warfare between the forces of nature, specifically winter, which was also referred to as the ice giant, which signified death, versus the sun god who represented life. The winter solstice marked the turning point. Up until then, the ice giant was at his zenith of power. After that, the sun god began to prevail. Now, I'm reading from a book entitled The Christian Calendar by L. W. Cowie and John Gummer, 1974, written then, page 22. So, this was a Teutonic festival of the Twelve Nights up in the frozen north country, the sun god representing life, the ice giant signifying death. As Christianity spread to northern Europe, it met with the observance of another pagan festival held in December in honor of the sun. So, there were a lot of festivities going on around this time. This time, it was called the Yule Feast of the Norsemen, which lasted for twelve days. So, the twelve nights, the Teutonic Feast of the Twelve Nights, the Yule Feast of the Norsemen, they're very much the same, lasted for twelve days. During this time, log fires were burnt to assist the revival of the sun. Today, we have Yule logs that are burnt in the fire, and then, I guess, they save a part of the Yule log to start the next year's fire. I think that's part of their custom. I never did it myself. So, during this time, log fires were burnt to assist the revival of the sun. Shrines and other sacred places were decorated with such greenery as holly, ivy, and bay. And it was an occasion for feasting and drinking. So, this time of year, we do see quite a bit of holly, don't we? Deck the boughs? Yeah, we talk about holly, we talk about mistletoe, we see wreaths on the door. You know, things haven't changed a whole lot. 4,000 years of Christmas?

More like 5,800 years of Christmas, probably. Okay, equally old was the practice of the Druids, the cast of priests among the Celts of ancient France, Britain, and Ireland to decorate their temples with mistletoe, the fruit of the oak tree, which they considered sacred. Among the German tribes, the oak tree was sacred to Odin, their god of war, and they sacrificed to it until St. Boniface, in the 8th century, persuaded them to exchange it for the Christmas tree, a young fir tree adorned in honor of the Christ child. So, this was, okay, we're talking about the 8th century now, but it's interesting because the Bible says something that sounds an awful lot like a Christmas tree to me. Let's read Jeremiah 10, and let's be honest with ourselves and ask ourselves. I think we don't have any problem being honest because we all believe this.

But in Jeremiah chapter 10, I mean, you probably wouldn't want to take this to your neighbor and ask them to be honest, but I can get away with it here. Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 1, Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Eternal, Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Now, of course, this was written long before the 8th century AD. This was written long before Christ's birth, you know, long before hundreds of years before this was written. Do not learn the way of the Gentiles, the pagans, the heathens. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. Okay, we're talking about astrology, the worship of the sun, the moon, the stars. The Gentiles are dismayed at them. Again, they're very superstitious people. For the customs of the peoples are futile, for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe. They decorate it with silver and gold. Okay, we're talking about a tree taken out of the forest, brought into the home, decorated with silver and gold. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. Now, we want it to stand upright so it won't topple over. They are upright like a palm tree, an evergreen tree. And they cannot speak, and they must be carried. In other words, they can't walk on their own, they can't talk on their own, they're not really gods, they're not really living, they're dead. They must be carried because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.

Inasmuch as there is none like you, O Lord, you are great, and your name is great in might, who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your rightful due, for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. A wooden idol. A tree that you bring out of the forest, and you may bow down before it and put your gifts underneath it. They are altogether dull-hearted and foolish. A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. Silver is beaten into plates. It is brought from Tarshish and gold from Eufaz, the work of the craftsmen. And at the hands of the metalsmith, blue and purple are their clothing. They are all the work of skillful men. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation. So it's basically saying that God is not happy with these pagan, heathen festivals. He says, do not be dismayed. Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. And yet, what have we done? In a Christian nation, supposedly, here in the United States, we're doing the same things they did thousands of years ago in worship of false gods.

It says in verse 11, Thus you shall say to them, the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom. You know, God is not happy to be mocked like this. God is the ever-living God. He tells us how we ought to live our lives. He doesn't leave it up to us to make these types of decisions. There's a way that seems right to a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. And that's what we're talking about here. These things will lead to death. But when we reject them and do the right thing, it's just one thing that we're doing. There are many other things that we have to do as well, of course. We can't think that we're in good stead just because we don't keep Christmas. There's more to life, of course, than that. This is just one sermon. This is just one topic. But it is an important one because we're so saturated with it. And our children are saturated by it. And they need to have a good understanding of why we don't keep Christmas and why we don't haul Christmas trees into our living rooms, and we don't decorate them with gold and silver tinsel.

So you be the judge. Is that describing a Christmas tree practice or not? I mean, it sure sounds like it to me. So these heathens were worshiping the sun god. We are told to worship the true son of God, not the sun god, not the S-U-N son, little gee god. But we're to worship the true son of God who reveals himself in the word of God. Again, Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath. Christ is the one who implemented the Holy Days and told his people to keep them. The annual Holy Days. He told them when to keep them and how to keep them. And he did not talk about any of them being observed on December 25th.

Also, old religious customs involving holly, ivy, mistletoe, and evergreen trees were merely dressed up in Christian attire. We should keep in mind that Christ warns us not to beware of things that masquerade as something they are not. Matthew 7.15 says, beware of false prophets who are wolves in sheep's clothing.

And again, God does not take lying lightly. And yet, what do we tell our children about good old Saint Nick? Good old Saint Nick who seems to be immortal. In fact, did you know that there's a book that's being written now and should come out next Christmas? I'm sure you're going to wait to get it. It's called The Immortal Santa Clause. I think that's what it's called, and it's written by none other than Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is writing a book entitled The Immortal Santa Clause. And it does speak of a God, doesn't it? You know, Santa Clause, he knows if you're sleeping, he knows if you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good. So who else would be able to know that other than a God? And not only that, he's a fat old boy coming through a chimney and somehow surviving the fire at the other end and then making it all around the earth in one night. So, you know, he does have a lot of immortal elements, supposedly.

There's actually a publication entitled Santa Clause Another God. It's a publication of the Roddenstaff Publishers. It shows that Santa Clause is indeed a mythical being who is elevated and is thought to possess supernatural powers like the gods. Again, he can see everything. He knows all about you and what you've been up to. So Santa Clause, there's a lot more could be said about St. Nick. And I mean, there's so many books out there that I could keep going on for at least another hour. I don't think I need to do that. I got you started. You can read more. This is a pretty neat little book. It's very, again, it's not against Christmas, but it's very open about St. Nick and some of the things, some of the festivities that clearly came from pagan origins. But frankly, they just don't care. Even though God does say not to learn the way of the heathen and not to allow yourself to be deceived and not to embrace lies.

In Matthew 15, 9, Christ said, In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. Certainly Sunday worship and keeping some of these annual holidays instead of God's holy days would apply. This is supposedly the most sacred of all the festivities, Christmastime, and Easter is right behind it. All your Easter bunny eggs and other pagan festivities that are involved with Easter as well.

As true Christians, we certainly must not be deceived by Satan and this world regarding the celebration of Christmas. It is important that we don't keep Christmas. It is important that you don't keep Christmas and that you set an example for your children that it's wrong to observe these days. Christ was born roughly 2,000 years ago, but a pagan celebration in the wintertime around December 25th has been kept for thousands of years, long before Christ. So let's continue, of course, to set a good example. It doesn't mean we have to throw it in people's faces, because frankly, that really doesn't do any good anyway. Be friendly neighbors. You know, you don't have to bring persecution upon yourself unnecessarily. It will come naturally by virtue of the fact that you don't do a lot of these things and people realize it and they see it and they think you're strange, but you know, they forget about it too. You know, I tell people, well, we don't keep Christmas, but the next year I get a Christmas card and people tell me Merry Christmas and you know, it doesn't seem to faze them all that much. So, I mean, I think we should certainly be upfront and honest if people ask us about why we don't keep these days and we should tell them as much as they want to hear. And you can tell when they don't want to hear anymore that it's time to shut up and not say anything more because it's not going to get anywhere. Only God can open their minds to the truth and we're better off, frankly, not trying to force people. I used to keep Christmas. I thought it was a great day. I mean, I don't blame people. If their minds aren't opened, then they're going to do it. If they don't have a calling of God or and God doesn't begin to convert their minds and change their thinking, then they're going to keep Christmas and believe they're doing God a service. And it's a wonderful, healthy thing to do.

So we need to use balance, of course, when it comes to Christmas. I mean, we should not engage in it. Don't get involved in it. People shouldn't think, oh, they keep Christmas.

You know, I shouldn't see any lights when I drive by your house. No, I don't think we do that. But the bottom line is, Christmas is not for Christians.