The Origin of the Christmas Holiday | Rev. Mathew Oommen

 

Dear Church Family,

 

Christmas means Mass of Christ.  It is a celebration of Christian churches – the birth of Christ – on December 25.  It came to non-Christians and Protestants from Roman Catholics.

 

How did this holiday originate?  Not from the New Testament; not from the Bible; not from the original apostles.  It came in the 4th Century into the Roman Catholic Church from paganism.  Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church.  It was not instituted by Christ or the apostles or by any biblical authority.   It was picked up afterwards from paganism.

 

Jesus was not born on December 25. Luke 2:8 clearly indicates that shepherds were in the field on the night of Christ’s birth.  Usually shepherds were not seen in the fields in the winter season.  Therefore, Jesus was probably not born during the winter.

 

The Roman world had been pagan.  Prior to the 4th Century, Christians were few in numbers and they were persecuted by the government.  After conversion of Emperor Constantine, who made his profession of Christianity, people accepted Christianity without real Christian conviction.  So the church became pagan.  Those people had grown in pagan customs, the chief of which was the idolatrous festival of December 25.  It was a festival of merry making.  Since the people enjoyed these pagan customs, they continued the same customs and festivals in the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The real origin of Christmas is from ancient Babylon, King Nimrod.  Nimrod was the real founder of the Babylonian system.  He built the Tower of Babel.  He organized the first world kingdom.  The name “Nimrod” means, “he rebelled”.  Nimrod was evil.  It is said that he married his own mother.  After Nimrod’s untimely death, his so called mother-wife propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit-being.  She claimed that a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from the dead tree stump which symbolized the springing froth of new life from the dead Nimrod.  On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it.  December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the origin of the Christmas tree and the celebration of Christmas on December 25.  Pagans took the idolatrous festivals and systems into the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The mistletoe was used by the ancient pagans at the festival because it was sacred to the sun.  Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun god for its healing power.  Yule log is really a sun log.  Yule means “wheel”, a pagan symbol of the sun.  The lighting of the fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan customs encouraging a waning sun god as he reached the lowest place in the southern sky.  The holly berry, mistletoe and Yule log are relics of pre-Christian time paganism. 

 

Santa Claus, however, is not a creation of pagan birth.  He’s real character.  St. Nicolas was a bishop of Myrna in the 4th Century.  There was a feast in his honor on December 6 and it later was moved to December 25th.

 

In this modern era, Charles Dickens in 1843 wrote a play about Christmas, but Puritans believed celebrating Christmas as a sin.  Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, popularized the modern Santa Claus.

 

As we celebrate Christmas on December 25th in the 21st Century, let’s keep in mind, this date and much of the customs were celebrate actually have a pagan, not a biblical, origin.

 

By Pastor Mathew Oommen