Hoax!Hoax!Hoax!
Does it sound familiar? No it does not!How about Ho!Ho!Ho!? Yes indeed it does! And how about Santa Claus' coming to town!? Is "he/she" really coming?
Fleeting as it may seem, the particular familiar season called "Christmas" - as one of the celebrated holidays every year by most of those who profess or claim as Christians - has just passed two weeks ago since I wrote this article. Yet, facts of history plausibly proves that Dec. 25 was popularized as the date for Christmas not because Christ was born on that day, but because it was already popular in pagan religious celebrations as the birthday of the sun.
"Lacking any scriptural pointers to Jesus's birthday, early Christian teachers suggested dates all over the calendar. Clement . . . picked November 18. Hippolytus . . . figured Christ must have been born on a Wednesday . . . An anonymous document[,] believed to have been written in North Africa around A.D. 243, placed Jesus's birth on March 28" (Jeffery Sheler, U.S. News & World Report, "In Search of Christmas," Dec. 23, 1996, p. 58).
Does it sound familiar? No it does not!How about Ho!Ho!Ho!? Yes indeed it does! And how about Santa Claus' coming to town!? Is "he/she" really coming?
"Lacking any scriptural pointers to Jesus's birthday, early Christian teachers suggested dates all over the calendar. Clement . . . picked November 18. Hippolytus . . . figured Christ must have been born on a Wednesday . . . An anonymous document[,] believed to have been written in North Africa around A.D. 243, placed Jesus's birth on March 28" (Jeffery Sheler, U.S. News & World Report, "In Search of Christmas," Dec. 23, 1996, p. 58).
The Bible does not encourage any sort of celebration of Christ's birth, and to the least, does not mention of Christmas. History records no such celebration until at least several centuries later, when the Catholic Church essentially adopted the pagan midwinter Saturnalia festival and the Dec. 25 celebration of the birthday of the pagan sun god Mithra as the supposed birthday of Jesus Christ in an effort to make Christianity more appealing to pagans.
Given the difficulties and the desire to bring pagans into Christianity, writes author William Walsh, "the important fact then which I have asked you to get clearly into your head is that the fixing of the date as December 25th was a compromise with paganism" (The Story of Santa Klaus, 1970, p. 62).
As its origin cannot be traced back to either the teachings or practices of the earliest Christians, the falsehood of the celebration is totally a significant departure from the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
A good question to ask is “Are we doing something that Jesus would do and that He would support?”
Given the difficulties and the desire to bring pagans into Christianity, writes author William Walsh, "the important fact then which I have asked you to get clearly into your head is that the fixing of the date as December 25th was a compromise with paganism" (The Story of Santa Klaus, 1970, p. 62).
As its origin cannot be traced back to either the teachings or practices of the earliest Christians, the falsehood of the celebration is totally a significant departure from the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
A good question to ask is “Are we doing something that Jesus would do and that He would support?”