The Truth about Christmas

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The Truth about Christmas

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All the Bible verses quoted in this article are from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted

“For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men…” (Mark 7:8a)

Introduction

Every year in December, God’s people around the world joyfully celebrate Christmas. “Christmas” is a shorthand for “Christ’s Mass.” When people refer to Christmas, they are referring to the event of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, coming into the world, being born as a human to die in place of sinful humanity. Through Christ’s substitutionary death, God forgives and cleanses the sins of those who accept His sacrifice. By being forgiven and cleansed from sin, believers are given the right to become children of God, receive eternal life, and inherit God’s kingdom (John 1:12; 3:16; Revelation 21:7). This is the significance of the Christmas event.

However, the celebration of Christmas is neither taught by the Bible nor was it observed by the early Church. In fact, the theologian Origen in 245 AD rejected the celebration of Christmas. He argued that the Bible only mentions the celebration of birthdays for sinful individuals, such as Pharaoh and Herod (Genesis 40:20; Matthew 14:6). According to Origen, Christians should not celebrate birthdays [1]. Nonetheless, by the early fourth century, the Roman festival celebrating the birthday of the Sun God infiltrated the Catholic Church, transforming into Christmas and being interpreted as the celebration of the Lord’s birth. Christmas brought with it all the pagan myths and rituals into the Church. Over time, more and more pagan myths and customs merged into Christmas. Today, Christmas is universally recognized as the celebration of the Lord’s birthday and has become a major holiday celebrated by many denominations in the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical churches, and even in Buddhism.

In reality, the term Christmas has no relation to the Lord’s birthday, and December 25th is not the date of His birth. Therefore, let us seek the truth about Christmas with a heart searching for truth, so that we may always worship our Lord “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

Christmas and Merry Christmas

The Bible does not record, and no one knows for certain, the exact birthday of the Lord Jesus. Based on details in the Bible and external historical sources, biblical scholars speculate that Jesus was born in early autumn, between the last week of September and the first week of October, and between the years 7 and 4 BC. For over the first two hundred years, the Church was unaware of the celebration of the Lord’s birth, let alone the so-called Christmas! So, what is Christmas? How did it infiltrate the Church? What should the Church’s attitude be toward Christmas?

Based on historical and Church history documents, we know the following events:

  • December 25th was a Roman festival celebrating the birthday of the Sun God, including Sol (the Sun God) of the Romans, Elah-Gabal (the Mountain God) of the Assyrians, and Mithras (the God of Justice) of the Persians. This festival was called the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun” (Latin: Natalis Solis Invicti) [2].

  • In 274 AD, Roman Emperor Aurelian officially adopted the worship of the Sun God, built a grand temple to the Sun in Rome, and decreed that the entire empire should celebrate the Sun God’s birthday on December 25th [3].

  • Around the same time, the Church in Rome transformed the celebration of the Sun God’s birthday into a celebration of the Lord Jesus’ birthday and called it “Christ’s Birthday” (Natalis Christi) [4], [5]. A Christian wrote to argue as follows: “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it” [6].

  • In 350 AD, Pope Julius I instructed the Catholic Church to celebrate “Christ’s Birthday” on December 25th each year [7].

  • By 1038, for unknown reasons, “Christ’s Birthday” became “Christmas” in English [8], and to this day, it has become the international term for December 25th. Except for some Islamic countries, other nations around the world recognize Christmas as an official national holiday.

Why is the celebration of the Lord’s birth called Christmas instead of “Christ’s Birthday”? Christmas is a shorthand for “Christ’s Mass.” The term “Mass” is used by Catholics to refer to the ritual of offering a victim to God. Thus, “Christmas” means “Christ being sacrificed and offered to God.” Page 537 of the Catholic Encyclopedia defines “Mass” as follows: “In Christian law, the supreme sacrifice is the Mass. The supreme act of worship necessarily includes the offering of a victim to God, performed by a worthy person, such as a priest, and the destruction of the victim” [9]. Catholic priests perform the “Mass” daily to worship God. When they perform the “Mass,” they “sacrifice Christ” to offer it to God. Therefore, Catholics believe that after the priest recites the prayers, the bread and wine [10] transform into the true body and blood of Christ. In this sense, Catholic priests “kill” Jesus every day at the altar, then eat His “true” flesh and drink His “true” blood, with the remainder locked away in the cupboard for sacred items.

In reality, the Lord Jesus died on the cross, not on an altar. The body of the Lord Jesus is the temple (John 2:21-22), so there is no need for an altar where Catholic priests place His body. When people in ancient times killed the Lord Jesus, they destroyed the Temple of God, committing a sin they were unaware of! The Lord Jesus prayed to God the Father to forgive them (Luke 23:34). Now, Catholic priests performing the “Mass” continue to “kill” Jesus, destroying the Temple of God, and committing a sin knowingly, as their own theological documents affirm! The Scriptures state that the Lord Jesus’ death was sufficient once and for all, as He declared “It is finished!” on the cross (John 19:30; Hebrews 7:27), not a daily repetition through what is called “the Holy Mass,” which cannot save anyone, since Catholics are taught that after death they must still suffer in purgatory for the sins committed during their lifetime!

The crucifix of Catholics depicts a person being crucified because, for Catholics, the Lord Jesus must die each day in the “Mass” ceremonies. The Catholic crucifix represents death and humiliation, symbolizing the terrible punishment reserved for criminals. Such a crucifix cannot be called a “holy cross.” The Lord Jesus compared His death to a seed being sown and His resurrection to the seed growing into a plant (John 12:24). The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, tells us: “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory” (1 Corinthians 15:43). Therefore, the crucifix with the body of a condemned person is a symbol of disgrace. Today, the true believers of the Gospel use the image of an empty cross to remind us of the event of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection. The emptiness of the cross invites us to crucify our old selves on it to be co-crucified and co-resurrected with Christ. This is also the meaning of the Lord Jesus’ call to everyone: “And He said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

The theological viewpoint that killing (destroying) a victim to offer a sacrifice to God is entirely unbiblical. On the contrary, this is a perspective of pagan religions. From ancient times to the medieval period, the practice of human sacrifice, followed by the consumption of the sacrificed person, was common among nearly all ethnic groups worldwide. In modern times, this practice still exists among semi-primitive tribes in the tropical forests of Africa, South America, and Borneo in Asia.

The story of God telling Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering was merely a test of Abraham’s faith, not a condition or ritual of worship to God. When Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53), He was speaking symbolically. We know this because He compared Himself to the manna from heaven, and during the preparation of the Passover meal, He likened His body to unleavened bread and His blood to the grape juice. It’s similar to a military officer pointing to a map during a briefing. When he points to the map and says, “This is the river we need to cross, this is the hill we will set up camp on, and this is the enemy fort we need to capture,” it does not mean that all the symbols on the map turn into a real river, hill, and fort. Jesus often used symbolic language in His teachings: “I am the vine, ye are the branches. I am the way. I am the door of the sheep. I am the bread.” Certainly, He never turned into a vine, a road, or a door. Similarly, the bread and grape juice never turn into the real flesh and blood of Jesus. After the Lord Jesus took the cup of grape juice, gave it to the apostles, and said, “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood…” (Matthew 26:27-28), He continued, “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). This proves that the grape juice remained grape juice, and if the grape juice remained grape juice, then the bread remained bread.

Our physical life is sustained by food and drink. We must receive food and drink into our bodies through the actions of eating and drinking physical sustenance. Our spiritual life, which was lost due to sin, now needs to be revived and preserved by receiving the saving power and eternal life of God. Thus, we also need spiritual food and drink. Our spiritual food is the body of the Lord, and our spiritual drink is the blood of the Lord.

The Lord’s body was broken to bear the punishment for our sins. To be forgiven, we must accept the Lord’s substitutionary death. The act of eating the Lord’s body symbolizes accepting His death in our place for the forgiveness and cleansing of our sins. The act of drinking the Lord’s blood symbolizes accepting eternal life through God’s promise, as life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:14; Deuteronomy 12:23). We never actually eat the literal flesh and drink the literal blood of the Lord. Similarly, we never literally walk on Jesus because He became the way, nor do we walk through Him because He became the door!

The term “Mass” and the sacrificial “Mass” (transliterated from the Latin “Missa” into “Mi-sa” in Vietnamese) are completely rejected by Reformed and Protestant Churches, such as Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. This is because Reformed and Protestant believers only perform a ritual called the Lord’s Supper to remember the Lord, according to His instruction (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25). For Reformed and Protestant believers: the bread remains bread, and the grape juice remains grape juice; they are symbols of the Lord’s body and blood, reminding God’s people of Him.

Remembering the Lord means remembering His painful death due to humanity’s sins, loathe sin and its consequences, and fully repent and forsake sin. Remembering the Lord means recalling the new covenant He established with humanity using His own blood, a covenant that lasts forever. This new covenant is: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We can point to a photograph and introduce it to a guest by saying, “This is a picture of my father. Whenever I look at this picture, I remember my father!” However, we never equate the photograph with our father, nor do we venerate and serve it as we should our father. Our father does not dwell in that inanimate photograph.

However, every year, during the Christmas Season, Reformed and Protestant believers join Catholics and pagans in cheerfully wishing each other “Merry Christmas!” which means “rejoicing over the death of Christ.” Christ died an incredibly painful and humiliating death for all of humanity. It was the saddest event in the history of the universe. There is no joy in the death of Christ. Imagine the scene where Jesus prayed earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops like large drops of blood. Recall His heartfelt words: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Try to place yourself in Jesus’ mindset when He cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” The Bible never instructs us to “rejoice over the death of Christ”; it tells us that His crucifixion was a “public disgrace” (Hebrews 6:6). Therefore, how can we “Merry Christmas,” rejoicing over the death of Christ? Rejoicing because He was publicly humiliated?

Conclusion

“Christmas” means “the killing of Christ to offer as a sacrifice,” a term reflecting a theological error of the Catholic Church. Using it to name the celebration of Christ’s birth is even more erroneous. “Merry Christmas” means “rejoicing over the humiliation and killing of Christ.” Only the Pharisees and scribes of old would have joyfully said to each other, “Merry Christmas!” after succeeding in pressuring Pilate to kill the Lord Jesus. For years, we have blasphemed by cheerfully wishing each other “Merry Christmas!” without knowing. Now we know. Let us together confess this sin to the Lord and eliminate this blasphemy. Let’s remove hymns that contain “Christmas” and “Merry Christmas.”

Since no one knows the exact date of the Lord Jesus’ birth; since the Bible does not instruct us to celebrate Christmas; and above all, since Christmas has entirely become a celebration of Christ’s death, God’s people should neither organize nor participate in it.

May God grant us a desire for sanctification and the strength to sanctify ourselves and the Church so that we may worship God in spirit and in truth!

Timothy Christian Huynh
Priscilla Christian Huynh
12/16/2007

Notes:

[1] Origen, “Levit., Hom. VIII”; Migne P.G., XII, 495; quoted by Natal Day, The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festival_of_the_birth_of_the_Unconquered_Sun

[3] Jack Finegan, Myth & Mystery: An Introduction to the Pagan Religions of the Biblical World, Baker Academic (September 1, 1997), page 211, 212.

[4] Michael Grant, History of Rome, Prentice Hall; 1 edition (January 1, 1978), page 391, 392.

[5] C. W. King, Gnostics and their Remains Ancient and Mediaeval, Kessinger Publishing, LLC (May 31, 1942), page 119.

[6] “Christmas”. Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions.

[7] http://www.didyouknow.cd/xmas/xmashistory.htm

[8] The Online Catholic Encyclopedia: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm

[9] “In the Christian law, the supreme sacrifice is that of the Mass. The supreme act of worship consists essentially in an offering of a worthy victim to God, the offering made by a proper person, as a priest, the destruction of the victim.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, R.C. Broderick, 1975 ed., Nihil Obstat, Richard J. Sklba, Censor Librorum. Imprimatur, Archbishop William E. Cousins, Milwaukee, WI.

[10] Catholics use grape wine in the Mass. Some denominations within the Reformed and Protestant Churches also use grape wine in the Holy Communion. Matthew 26:29 records the words of the Lord Jesus, indicating that the drink used in the first Holy Communion established by the Lord Jesus was “fruit of the vine,” which means grape juice, similar to how sugarcane juice is extracted in Vietnam.

[11] The Reformed and Protestant Churches view the bread and grape juice used in the Holy Communion as symbols to remember the Lord, except for the Lutheran denomination (part of the Reformed Church), which, although it does not believe the bread and grape juice transform into the actual body and blood of Christ like the Catholics, believes in the presence of the Lord in the bread and grape juice.