Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

Jeremiah 10: 1-4:
Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! This is what Yahweh says: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles (Pagans), and do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile. For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with an ax. They decorate it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. 

Jesus’ birthday was undoubtedly not around the winter solstice at all, and therefore definitely not on December 25^th. Through studying Zechariah’s priestly rotation and Elizabeth’s conception of John, we can deduce that Jesus was born sometime in September. So what exactly are we celebrating on December 25th?

It is an established historical fact that Christmas originated from pagan traditions that were reformulated into a holiday claiming to celebrate Jesus’ birth that the Catholic Church adopted thousands of years later in an attempt to win Pagans over to Christianity. I think many people today know that, but what most may not know is that this goes back as far as the very first king of Babylon, Nimrod (Genesis 10: 8-12). King Nimrod was known as the sun god, his wife, Queen Semiramis, was known as the moon goddess, and they had a son named Tammuz (More on this trio in the list of References below).

Tammuz died at a relatively young age, and his birth began to be celebrated on December 25^th, in honor of him. The Pagan tradition included cutting down a young evergreen tree as a way of commemorating the early death of Tammuz, because Queen Semiramis said that an evergreen tree appeared overnight where his blood had fallen. The wild boar that killed him made its way into the celebration, as well, by the participants all eating ham, which of course, Christmas is known for today. This celebration, over time, transformed into Saturnalia for the Pagans of Rome, which was the biggest celebration of the year. They gave gifts to each other, and even lifted the laws to allow widespread drunkenness, gambling, and public sex in honor of the agricultural god, Saturn (Source: Britannica “Saturnalia”). Saturn was known to the Greeks by the name of Cronus (Kronos), and he was known for riding in a chariot pulled by flying dragons, much like Santa and his sleigh pulled by reindeer.

On a side note, the reason why Saturn and Cronus and others like them are known by different names in different regions is because when the Tower of Babel was broken up, the result was many new languages all at once (Genesis 11:7), and these gods had different names in each of the different languages. For example, Nimrod was known as Osiris in Egypt. Semiramis eventually made herself a fertility goddess and was known by many names: Inanna, Ashteroth/Asherah (1 Kings 18:19 and Judges 2:13), Venus (in Rome), Aphrodite (in Greece), Artemis (to the Ephesians, as mentioned by Paul in Acts 19), and Ishtar, among others. Not surprisingly, she is responsible for the Pagan fertility practices associated with Easter, such as painting eggs.

Getting back to Saturn and Cronus, both were recipients of child sacrifice (See “Human Sacrifice” and multiple others referenced below), as this is how the Pagans ensured that they got a good crop, no different than the child sacrifices to the god Moloch in the Bible (Leviticus 18:21).

This practice of human sacrifice is still alive and well today through undeclared births with Wiccans (Pagans) and human trafficking with Satanists, as declared practice in the Satanic Bible and confirmed through thousands of testimonies, including a detailed 38-minute testimony from the producer of the Hunger Games, and documentaries such as Out of the Shadows (*Feel free to email me for evidence of Satanism and human trafficking if you are not already familiar with it, as this topic can be highly censored on the Internet). Not so coincidentally, these sacrifices happen primarily on October 31^st and December 25^th. Throughout history, the child to be sacrificed was placed on the lap of the statue of the god or placed in its hands, much like we place our children in Santa’s lap or hand them to him, often against their will. According to Diodorus Siculus’s Bibliotheca Historica, “There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire” (Salisbury 228).
And let us not forget the cookies and milk that we leave out for Santa: “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven (Semiramis), and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, making me angry” (Jeremiah 7:18).

The Bible tells us that false gods are demons (1 Corinthians 10:20-22). Accordingly, we should heed the words in 1 Corinthians 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.” Another warning is found in Deuteronomy 12:29-32: “When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in 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? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination 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. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

We have to step back and really ask ourselves why we are celebrating Christmas if it is filled with things that our God hates and that make him sad. So if all of the other things are not enough to persuade a person that Christians should not be celebrating Christmas, I will make one last appeal to your heart with a parable:

Imagine you and I are best friends. We spend a lot of time together and we love each other. However, I love clowns and you hate clowns. You hate them so much that the thought of them makes you nauseous; they make you cringe. You want nothing to do with clowns. Now, pretend it is November, and your birthday was in July, but I want to celebrate you because I love you, so I come up to you and I say, “Hey, friend! Guess what? I’m going to throw you the best birthday party ever! It’s going to be so much fun! You’re going to love it! It’s going to be a clown party! Everyone’s going to be dressed as a clown! I got the red clown noses for everyone to wear; I even got you a clown cake!”

Now, come back to reality and tell me, who is that party for? Is it for my friend (you), or is it for me? We have to ask ourselves this question with Christmas. If we are celebrating our Savior with things that make our God sad, who is the celebration really for? Is it for Him, or is it for us?

References:
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Cronus”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cronus. Accessed 7 December 2023.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Saturn”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturn-god. Accessed 6 December 2023.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Saturnalia”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 Sep. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturnalia-Roman-festival. Accessed 2 December 2023.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Theories of the Origin of Sacrifice”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/sacrifice-religion/Theories-of-the-origin-of-sacrifice. Accessed 1 December 2023.

“Cronus.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 November 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronus.

Griffin, Annette. “Who Was Semiramis, the Wife of Nimrod?” Bible Study Tools, 7 December 2023, https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/who-was-semiramis-the-wife-of-nimrod.html.

Higgins, Andrew (2005-05-26). “Carthage tries to live down image as site of infanticide”. Post Gazette. Archived from the original on September 18, 2009.

“Human Sacrifice.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 December 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice.

“Nimrod, Semiramus, and the Mystery Religion of Babylon.” Finding Hope Ministries, 1 December 2023, https://findinghopeministries.org/nimrod-the-mystery-religion-of-babylon/.

Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Auct. F. 4. 16: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/18d5fff5-f69c-4fcd-bcfc-e5b4f35b7d4e/surfaces/03a1733d-8190-4bb2-b54c-b76958fae9bb/

“Relics of Carthage show brutality amid the good life”. The New York Times. 1 September 1987.

Salisbury, Joyce E. (1997). Perpetua’s Passion: The death and memory of a young Roman woman. Routledge. p. 228.

“Saturn Devouring His Son.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 November 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son.

***Thanks for reading! For more information on God’s appointed holidays, or Holy Days, please read https://www.lcg.org/beliefs/new-testament-church-kept-holy-days-bible .***