Transcript
A (0:01)
Welcome to breakpoint, a daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. Is Christmas a pagan holiday? Tis the season for memes and skeptics and even some Christians who claim that it is that Christ is not the origin of Christmas, that the trappings of trees and presents and celebrations are really incompatible with Christianity. A very helpful video in the what would you say? Series tackles this question from a theological and historical perspective. Here's a clip from the video. Is Christmas a pagan holiday?
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Here are three things to remember. Number one Christmas is rooted in scripture and it's always been about Christ. The accounts of Jesus birth in Matthew and Luke were written in the first century. No serious historian believes that Jesus Jewish disciples were copying some pagan tradition when they told this story. Even before the Church settled on the date of or the word Christmas was invented, the reason for the season was right there in the Gospels. When we read the accounts of Jesus birth in the Gospels and sing carols about him and show our gratitude to God for giving us His Son by giving to others, we are doing what the very earliest Christians would have done. In fact, the song that became the very first Advent hymn is Mary's Magnificat. You can find it in Luke chapter one, Number two. The date of Christmas probably has nothing to do with pagan festivals. No one is exactly sure when Jesus was born. Sometimes people claim that December 25th was chosen as the date of his birth because it coincided with a Roman feast day. But this theory has actually fallen out of favor with many historians. In fact, according to the Biblical Archaeology Society, we don't have evidence of Christians adopting pagan festivals in the third century, at which point in time dates for Christmas were established. Thus, it seems unlikely that the date was simply selected to correspond with pagan solar festivals. A more convincing theory is that the early church simply calculated December 25th as Jesus birthday because it was nine months from the day they believe to be the date of his conception and death. March 25. For instance, St. Augustine wrote, For Jesus is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day he also suffered. But he was born, according to tradition, upon December 25th. In fact, it wasn't until the 12th century that any writer even suggested the date for Christmas was influenced by a pagan festival. Number three. It's okay to adopt and redeem some pagan traditions. The origins of decorated trees, yule logs, mistletoe, and other seasonal trappings aren't exactly clear. Historians think they were traditional to parts of Europe in even before Christianity arrived. But just because a tradition has pagan roots doesn't mean Christians can't enjoy it. The cross that sits on top of many of our church steeples and hangs around many necks was a Roman tool of torture before it was transformed into a symbol of eternal life by Christ. Several months of our year are named after Roman deities in the very days of the week, like Woden's day and Thor's Day are named after Norse gods. Yet Christians still use calendars. Christ is Lord of all. He created pine trees. He's not trapped by the ways that pagans thought of them long ago. Even the idea of Santa Claus is based on a Christian saint. As long as these traditions don't distract us from the true meaning of Christmas, there's nothing wrong with Christians using them to celebrate Jesus birth.