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What About
Christmas?
 This was a Pagan festival day long
before it was observed and named “Christmas” by the Christian world. It was the Chaldean festival in honor of the birth of the son of the “Queen of heaven”, or
Astarte. It was observed among all Pagan nations on the 24th or the 25th of
December. It has nothing in common with the birth of Jesus, an event which most
probably took place sometime between April and October, for the shepherds were
out in the fields at night when the angels appeared to them announcing the birth
of our Lord; and it is well known that it is not the custom for shepherds in
Palestine to remain with their flocks at night after October on account of the
cold rains, nor did they go out again until after the rainy season, commencing
in September or October and ending in Spring. Also, at the birth of Jesus every
woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city to which they belonged, and
some, as Joseph and Mary, had to journey a distance. Christ’s word in the
gospel, “Pray that your flight be not in winter” (Matt. 24:20), show that travel
in the cold, rainy season of winter was attended with much discomfort and
therefore not a time likely to be chosen for such a taxation when women and
children would have to travel and be out in the open.
With the Christian church no such festival as Christmas was never heard of til
the third century and it was not till the fourth century was far advanced that
it gained much observance. It came into practice like Easter and other feasts of
the Roman Church calendar when the Roman church began taking over heathen feasts
and giving them Christian names. Over all the Pagan world a goddess mother and
her child were objects of worship in different countries,
having different names, but all bearing the stamp of the original system of
idolatry inaugurated in Babylon. This goddess, almost universally called the
“Queen of heaven” the “Mother of the gods,” also often styled “the
Virgin” and “Our lady,” had different personal names. Worshipped by the Romans
as Venus and the Ephesians as Diana (Acts 19:29) and called by the Greeks,
Astarte, she is constantly referred to in the Old Testament as Ashtoreth (in the
plural Astaroth) but more commonly in the King James version “grove”, 1 Kings
11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13; 1 Samuel 31:10; 2 Kings 21:7; 2 Chron. 33:7; Judges
6:25-30; 1 Kings 16:33, etc.) She is called the “Queen of heaven” in Jer. 7:18;
44:17-28.
Her child was claimed to be the reincarnation of the Sun-god after his
meritorious death. He was claimed to be the promised “Seed of the woman” (Gen
3:15). His name Zoroaster means “seed of the woman” and his constant emblem was
a branch. Therefore, his birth was celebrated with great festivity. He is
constantly pictured on the ancient monuments as a child in his mother’s arm,
both wearing a circle around their heads, just as is common today in pictures of
Mary and her child. This circle around the hieroglyphic representation of the
sun and also the ‘Seed of the woman.” We find this child and sometimes the
mother represented in the idolatrous imagery as the destroyer of the serpent.
“Yule” is the Chaldee name for an infant.
The Pagan Anglo-Saxons, whose
idolatrous system was borrowed from Babylon, called the 25th of December on
which they celebrated their feast in honor of the birth of this child, Yule day,
long before they came in contact with Christianity or the name Christmas was
given to it by the Roman Church. When Nimrod was deified he was worshipped in
the ancient Babylonian system of idolatry as the great Sun-god incarnate.
According to their system the Sun was the supreme god. Incarnate in the person
of Nimrod, worshipped under the name Tammuz, he met with a violent death claimed
to have a certain meritorious value . A lamentation in memory of this death was
celebrated in all Pagan countries, also among the idolatrous Jews (Ez. 8:14). He
again re-appears on earth reincarnate as the child of the Queen of heaven. This
birth which took place, according to the idolaters, soon after the winter
Solstice, was celebrated in all the pagan world on or around December 25th, with
much drunkenness, hilarity and obscene revelry.
The boar’s head the goose and yule cakes that are a standard dish for Christmas dinners in many places, are
often seen pictured on the ancient monuments in connection with this god and
they had a special place in their drunken festivities in honor of his birth. The
cross always used by the Pagans on the cakes was the sign of Tammuz, the cross
being the old form of the letter “T”. The initial letter of Tammuz.
The great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory by a violent death,
was symbolized in the idolatrous imagery as a huge tree stripped of all its
branches and cut down almost to the ground, with a great serpent, the idolater’s
symbol of the life restorer, entwined around it, and the new born re-incarnate
god was depicted as a palm tree, the symbol of this new born god, shadowing
forth under this figure of the evergreen the supposed perpetuity and everlasting
nature of his power, now that after having fallen before his enemies he
re-appeared triumphant over them all. Therefore, at Pagan Rome the 25th of
December as elsewhere was observed as the “birthday of the unconquered Sun.” The
Yule log (symbolizing the great god cut down by violent death) was thrown in the
fire at evening and the evergreen tree loaded with gifts (symbolizing the
re-incarnate god victorious and giver of all divine gifts to man) were common in
these Pagan festivities in honor of the birthday of the re-incarnate god.
Burning candles, originally made of beeswax, so common in connection with the
Christmas tree, has also its origin in Ancient Babylon from whence it became
world wide in all the old idolatrous systems. When Nimrod was deified, as the
Sun-god he was regarded not only as the illuminator of the material world, but
as the enlightener of the souls of men and the revealer of truth. The word for
“bee” in Chaldee signifies also “word” so the honey bee as well as the lighted
beeswax candles were used as symbols of this Pagan god worshipped as the
revealer of spiritual light to man. It was one of the peculiarities of his
worship to have lighted wax candles on his altars continually. They were also
lighted by the Pagans on the eve of his birth and kept burning during all the
time of their festivities. When Nimrod was deified at Babylon as the Sun-god
incarnate his wife, Semiramis was also deified and worshipped as the “Queen of
heaven” and “Mother of the gods.” This system of idolatry spread throughout the
ancient world.
Therefore, we always find the female goddess associated with the
male god, who is first in his incarnation the husband, and then in his
reincarnation the son the goddess. They were worshipped under various names in
different countries. In Egypt the god was called Osiris, the goddess, Isis. In
the old Testament the male divinity is commonly called Baal (Baalim in plural)
which means simply lord or master, and the female divinity, always associated
with him, Ashtoreth (Astaroth in the plural) generally translated “grove”. In
many passages of the Old Testament we find the two mentioned together. (See
Judges 2:13;1 Sam. 7:4; 12:10; 1 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 21:3-7; 23:4-7, 15.) The
Ammonites call him Molech or Milcom (Compare Jer. 19:5,6 with 2 Kings 23:10; 1
Kings 11:5,7).
Both the date of celebration and many of the customs connected
with the festivities of December 25th called Christmas are borrowed from the
ancient Pagan festival in honor of the birth of the child of the “Queen of
heaven” and the Christmas tree with its gifts and burning candles is none other
than the old Pagan symbol of Baal. So abominable in the eyes of the Lord was the
worship of Baal, that He cast Israel out of their land because of it. How then
can any God fearing and blood-bought child of God allow such an abomination to
ever enter his home?
Surely if the Lord desires us to observe His Birthday He would have said so, and
made known the exact day. The fact that God has not commanded the celebration of
the birth of His son is sufficient reason for any devoted child of God not to
have any part in such practice. When one thinks of the revelry that goes along
with it in which the worldly world and the religious world join hand in hand,
the more clear it is that the faithful believer’s path should be in separation
from it all, as much as Daniel when he purposed in his heart that he would not
defile himself with the King’s meat. Associating frivolity and mirth with the
Son of God is monstrous when His mission to earth is considered, vis,. to die in
awful agony that a sinful world might be redeemed. What must all this
merry-making by this world that crucified His only begotten Son, be to God? What
strange thing to be keeping the birthday of One not trusted in! When Jesus was
born in the world, the rulers were troubled and sought to put Him to death. Now
, the many are kissing Him, like Judas, pretending to honor Him on His birthday
but without love in their hearts for Him.
There is one day given to the church of God- “the first day of the week” (Acts
20:7) - and our Lord has distinctly told us to remember Him in His death for us,
in the breaking of the bread and drinking of the cup, saying, “This do in
remembrance of Me,” but He has not told us to remember Him in His birth, and
there is a meaning in all of this. We could have no connection with Christ in
the flesh. The corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die, or abide alone
(Jon 12:24). The gospel begins with the death of Christ: “Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day
according to the scriptures” (1Cor.15:3,4). And not only so, the believer has
died and risen with Him on new ground. “Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ”
(Col. 2:20); and “if ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above”
(Col. 3:1).
We, as Christians, should rejoice, ever, that Christ was born into the world to
save sinners, but let us not blaspheme His Holy Name by associating His
incarnation with the fables and follies of Paganism, or the superstitions of
apostate Christendom with its “Santa Claus” (St. Nicholas, Roman Catholic
saint)_ and its gaudily decked Xmas tree. The question may be asked, what harm
is there in telling the children of “Santa Claus?” Now honestly consider: Can
“Santa Claus,” a mere myth, a fable having its origin in Roman Catholicism, that
idolatrous system, be owned of God? This “Santa Claus” is taught by parents to
have the very attributes of God Himself. Parents talk of him as of a living
spirit who sees and knows when boys and girls are disobedient, and who is able
to travel though space, from north to south, east to west, in a few brief hours
of time.
Christian, you are teaching your child the first principles of idol
worship; and telling an untruth yourself when you teach this wicked tale of
“Santa Claus.” Do you say, it is such a nice story for them, they are so little
and must have their pleasure too? No doubt it is nice, and most agreeable to the
flesh, or the world, whose god is Satan, would never relish it or commemorate it
from year to year as it does. Some will argue for the ‘keeping of Christmas” on
the ground of “ giving the kiddies a time”. But why do this under the cloak of
honoring the Savior’s birth? Why is it necessary to drag in the His Holy Name in
connection with what takes place at that season of carnal jollification? Is this
taking the little ones with you out of Egypt (Ex. 10:9,10), a type of the world,
or is it not plainly a mingling with the present-day Egyptians in their
“pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb. 11:25)? Scripture says, “ train up a child
in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov.
22:6, to bring up children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph.
6:4).
Do we ever give the children “a good time” when we engage in anything upon which
we cannot fittingly ask the Lord’s blessing?
Some who are faint-hearted, shrink from withholding from their children what
they think would give them pleasure, but how much better to instruct our
children in the truth that they might early know Him and grow up to live lives
devoted to Him in separation from all that is not of Him, thereby directing
their steps in the only path where true pleasure is to be found.
There is usually more involved and more dishonor done to the Lord in current
practices than we think. Devotedness to the Lord leads to the keeping of His
words regardless of what other may do or say.
No one acknowledges the supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures to direct in
all questions of doctrine and practice will have any fellowship in Xmas
celebrations after his attention has been called to the matter, unless he does
it deliberately in self will.
May there be close adherence to the Word of God with us, realizing its
importance for God’s glory and our blessing, believing that the omissions of
Scripture are of importance as well as its statements. A heart for Christ and
humble submission to that which is written will result to God’s glory, and our
greatest blessing (Isa. 66:2; John 14:21). Oh, Christian, turn from the world
and its holy (idolatrous) days, touch not the unclean thing: associate not the
birth of the Holy Son of God with the fables of Paganism and apostate
Christendom. Hear His pleading voice, “Be ye separate, O my people.” Consider
well, as before God to whom you must surely give an account, are you endorsing
the very principles of idol worship, and teaching your little ones to do the
same? May God enlighten you, and give you strength and purpose of heart to
cleave to the Lord alone.
This tract was written by Donald F. Maconaghie and can be obtained in tract form through the Conversion Center, Inc.
PO Box 31688 Raleigh, NC 27622-1688. A donation of 15 cents per copy and some to
cover the shipping is suggested.
Links to related articles on
Christmas holiday origins:
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