Should Christians celebrate Christmas as a religious Holy Day?

There are at least four powerful reasons we should not celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Christ.
1. There is no scriptural authority for its observance. If we act without divine authority, we cut ourselves off from God (2 John 9).
2. We are forbidden to keep special holy days. Religious festivals and holy days belonged to the law Of Moses by which we are not to judge (Colossians 2:14-17) . The observance of such religious holy days is evidence of apostasy (Galatians 4:9-11) .
3. The only day special to Christians is the first day of the week. As Jesus rose from the dead on this day (Mark 16: 9), we remember His death each first day of the week by partaking of the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Acts 20:7) . We also contribute to the church on that day (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
4. The Lord's thoughts and ways are far different from ours ( Isaiah 55:8-9). We remember our great presidents by celebrating their birthdays and erecting seemingly imperishable monuments of stone. But the Son of God directed us to remember His death, not his birthday, not by erecting a monument, statue or cathedral of stone but by eating and drinking perishable elements - un1eavened bread and fruit of the vine (Luke 22:14-20).

 

Should Christians Celebrate Christmas as a Customary Holiday?

Does this mean it is sinful to remember Christmas as a time of exchanging presents and greetings, visiting family engaging in innocent merrymaking, and decorating? Is it wrong to observe Christmas as a customary holiday? The apostle Paul dealt with this question in principle in his first epistle to the Corinthians. The Corinthians, primarily Gentiles, had questions about keeping customs left over from their pagan heritage. One question was in regard to eating meat that had been offered in sacrifice to an idol. (1 Corinthians 8:1). Some thought that by eating the meat, even though they were not worshiping the idol, they were defiled (1 Corinthians 8:7). Paul identified this as a liberty, a practice that is allowed but not required (1 Corinthians 8:8-9). But this did not mean they could engage in idolatrous worship (1 Corinthians 10:14). To do so would be to fellowship with demons and sin (1 Corinthians 14:20-21).
Finally, sometimes they could not know whether the meat had been sacrificed to an idol or just slaughtered for sale in the meat market (1 Corinthians 11:25). Eating this meat socially was also a liberty (1 Corinthians 11:23,25,27) . These three passages (1 Corinthians 8; 10:14-22; and 10:23-33) apply important principles of the doctrine of Christ to three situations which we also face in principle. Should we observe socially customs that are rooted in false religion? (1 Corinthians 8). Should we participate in false religion? (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). Should we keep social customs if we do not know their background? (1 Corinthians 10:23-33) The answer to the first and third questions is This is a liberty. The answer to the second is This is sin.
Paul himself exemplified this principle. Although he refused to allow the Jewish Christians to bind the customs of the law, such as circumcision, on the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-2; Titus 2:3-5), yet he himself , a Jew (Acts 22:3; Philippians 3:5), observed the customs of the law when he was among the Jews (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).
The historian Luke records a most striking example of Paul following this principle (Acts 21:18-26) . When the apostle came to Jerusalem upon completion of his third preaching tour, James and the other elders informed him that the "myriads of Jews" who had become Christians were "all zealous for law." (verse 20) They understood this was not a matter of salvation, since they did not bind it on the Gentiles (verse 25 ). The law of Moses was more than a religious system; it was their national, civil law and the basis of their customs as a people. The Jewish Christians were loyal to their country and people, and thus kept "the law" (verse 24) and the "customs" of the Jews (verse 2). They thus walked "orderly" among their own people so as to receive a favorable hearing for the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). The Jerusalem elders asked Paul to take a leading role with four disciples in completing their vow, which he did (Acts 21:23-26). As this is an apostolic example recorded with no divine disapproval, it must be considered authoritative (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1; Philippians 3:17: 4:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:7,9). It by itself constitutes divine authority to keep the customs of our own people, even those rooted in religious beliefs, as a legitimate means to maintain favorable relations with one's people so as to teach them the gospel.

Actual origin of Christmas

 

The word "Christmas" comes from "Christ + Mass"

1. from the Catholic "mass"
2. term first used in 1038 AD
Date of Christ's birthday is unknown: best guess is spring of 6BC
1. year: between 4-7BC
a. Dionysius, a Roman monk, invented a calendar in 526AD
b. A year later it was discovered he made a mistake of several years
2. Month: during wars month (late spring-early fall), certainly not December
a. The shepherds were out in their fields at night
b. December too cold. Shepherds didn't leave flocks in field but corralled them
3. Day: We have absolutely no idea
a. Dec 25 was birthday of Mithra, Iranian "GOD OF LIGHT"
b. Liberius, Bishop of Rome, ordered adoption of Dec 25 in 354 AD
c. Jesus birthday was celebrated as the "LIGHT OF THE WORLD"
d. He felt this would turn the pagan feast into a "Christian" feast
4. In the year AD 274, when the winter solstice fell on December 25, the pagan Roman emperor Aurelian proclaimed December 25 as Natalis Solis Invicti, the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. In AD 354, Philocalus wrote a Christian martyrology that dates the nativity of Jesus Christ on December 25, and cites an earlier work as backup. From this we can deduce that Christmas was celebrated on the present date as early as AD 335 in Rome. It may be that Christmas was set on this day to supplant the pagan feast, or it may simply be a coincidence. Hippolytus and Tertullian, two early church fathers who lived before the Nicene Council set up our present method of determining the date of Easter, used March 25 as the date of Easter. If this is also the origin of considering March 25 to be the date of His conception, then it is possible that December 25 was calculated from March 25 (instead of the other way around) so that Christmas might be older than the Natilis Solis Invicti. However, there is no evidence dating earlier than AD 335 that Christmas was even celebrated, let alone on December 25.
5. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol VI Pg 945; Vol 7 Pg 202: "The myth of Mithra formed the origin of the cult of Mithraism, which flourished in the Roman Empire and was for a time the chief rival of Christianity.... One of be most well known festivals of ancient Rome was the saturnalia, a winter festival celebrated from December 17-24. Because it was a time of wild merry making and domestic celebra6ons, businesses, schools, and law Courts were closed so that the public could feast, dance, gamble, and generally enjoy itself to the fullest. December 25, the birthday of Mithra, the Iranian god of light and the contract and the day devoted to the invincible sun, as well as the day after the Saturnalia, was adopted by the church as Christmas, the nativity of Christ, to counteract the effects of these festivals."
6. "the Jews sent out their flocks into the mountainous and desert regions during the summer months, and then took them up in the latter part of October or the first of November, when the cold weather commenced. While away in these deserts and mountainous regions, it was proper that there should be some one to attend them to keep them from straying, and from the ravages of wolves and other wild beasts. It is probable from this that our Savior was born before the 25th Of December, or before what we call Christmas. At that time it is cold, and especially in the high and mountainous regions about Bethlehem. But the exact time of his birth is unknown; there is no way to ascertain it. By different learned men it has been fixed at each month of the year. Nor is it of any consequence to know the time, if it were, God would have preserved the record of it. Matters of moment are clearly revealed; those which he regards as of no importance are concealed." (Barnes 2:1819)
7. "Hippolytus seems to have been the first to fix upon Dec. 25. He had reached the conviction that Jesus's life from conception to crucifixion was precisely thirty-three years and that both events occurred on Mar. 25. By calculating nine months from the annunciation or conception he arrived at Dec. 25 as the day Of Christ 's birth. The uncertainty of all the data discredits the computation. There is no historical evidence that our Lord's birthday was celebrated during the apostolic or post apostolic times. The uncertainty that existed at the beginning of the third century in the mind of Hippolytus and others . . proves that no Christmas festival had been established much before the middle of the century. Jan. 6 was earlier fixed upon as the date of the baptism or spiritual birth of Christ; and the feast of Epiphany (q.v.) was celebrated by the Basilidian Gnostics in the second century . . . and by catholic Christians by about the beginning of the fourth century. The earliest record of the recognition of Dec. 25 as a church festival is in the hilocalian Calendar (copied 354 but representing Roman practice in 336. . .). In the East the celebration of Jan. 6 as the physical as well as the spiritual birthday of the Lord prevailed generally as early as the first half of the fourth century. Chrysostom (in 386) states that the celebration of the birth of Christ 'according to the flesh' was not inaugurated at Antioch until ten years before that date. He intimates that this festival approved by himself, was opposed by many. An Armenian writer of the eleventh century states that the Christmas festival; invented in Rome by a heretic Artemon was first celebrated in Constantinople in 373. ... How much the calculation of Hippolytus had to do with the fixing of the festival on Dec. 25; and how much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (Dec 25), following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24) and celebrating the shortest day in the year and the 'new sun' or the beginning of the lengthening of days can not be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence. The recognition of Sunday (the day of Phoebus and Mithras as well as the Lord's Day) by the emperor Constantine as a legal holiday, along with the influence of Manicheism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, may have led Christians of the fourth century to feel the appropriateness of making the birthday of the Son of God coincide with that of the physical sun. The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit or in manner (Schaff-Herzog. 3:47-48).

 

MYTH AND TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTMAS

MYTH #1: Christmas on December 25th is found in the Bible.
TRUTH: There is no celebration of the birth of Christ in the Bible on any day, but began through human tradition to be celebrated about 250 AD in the spring and on December about 325 AD. 
MYTH #2: December 25 is the birthday of Jesus.
TRUTH: December 25 was the birthday of Mithra, the pagan God of light. In 325 AD, Roman emperor Constantine re-assigned the meaning to the birthday of Jesus, the true God of light. The Christian meaning over
MYTH #3: Mary wanted to spend the night at an inn, but there were no "motel rooms" available because the inn was full.
TRUTH: There was no space (room) in the "upper room" of a private house because other family members had got there first, not a public inn, motel, hotel etc.
MYTH #4: Mary remained a virgin until the day of her death.
TRUTH: Although Joseph did not have sex with Mary until after she gave birth to Jesus, Mary and Joseph had many other children: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? “And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:55-56)
MYTH #5: They spent the night in a separate building like a barn where the animals were kept.
TRUTH: There was no room on the upper floor of the house so they spent the night on the main floor of the house where the animals were kept inside the house. Most ancient Jewish houses had a common area on the main floor, including a manger where animals ate and slept at night, and an upper room where everyone slept. It is possible that there was a separate barn, but this would often be attached to the house directly.
MYTH #6: There were three wise men.
TRUTH: There were three gifts, gold frankincense and myrrh. There may have been 10 wise men, we don’t know, but each of them likely brought some gold frankincense and myrrh. Since these were common currency items of value, each wise man, regardless of the actual number, brought a little of all three.
MYTH #7: The star of Bethlehem shone over the manger the night Jesus was born.
TRUTH: The wise men did not come to Jerusalem until after Mary had purified on day 33 after the birth of Jesus. It was at that point the star began to move slowly ahead of the wise men till it hovered over the place Jesus was located. This means that the star was not hovering over Jesus the night he was born. The star shone over a house, not a barn or an inn. "And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother" (Matthew 2:11). It is never called "the star of Bethlehem", simply, "His star". The shepherds were directed by an angel (not a star) to the manger of Jesus the night he was born. The star led the "wise men from the east", who traveled at least 700 km from the Persian or Babylonian area, to the house of Joseph and Mary. This trip would take at least 30 days after the birth of Jesus when you average 25 km per day travel time. After Jesus had been circumcised on the 8th day in the temple, and Mary performed her purification on the 33rd day, Jesus may have been taken to Joseph's home in Nazareth and this is where the star led the wise men: “When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.” (Luke 2:39). The star, therefore, might have shone over Nazareth, not Bethlehem. The flight to Egypt did not happen until after Mary's purification on the 33rd day. Only after this did the Magi arrive in Jerusalem. They were directed to Bethlehem, not by the star, but because Jewish authorities quoted Micah 5:2. However, the redirection of the Magi to an alternate return route coupled with the same hour of the night urgent departure, both lend weight to the star leading the Magi to the same house Jesus was born.
MYTH #8: The wise men arrived the night Jesus was born in a manger.
TRUTH: The shepherds came to the manger (Luke 2:8-10), but not the wise men came to Joseph's house. In fact, Herod orders the slaughter of the babies two years of age and younger. This means that the child would be well under two years old, in order that no error could be made in killing Jesus, but it also indicates that Jesus was older than a newborn.
MYTH #9: God wants Christians to remember and celebrate the birthday of Christ!
TRUTH: The scriptures do not tell us to celebrate the birth of Christ but to celebrate His death... and not once a year at "Easter" but every Sunday through the Lord's Supper. (Acts 20:7) 

 

Conclusion

A. (2 John 9) It is sin to promote & bind anything religious not found in the
Bible like Christmas, Palm Sunday or Easter upon others. Church shouldn't promote
B. Rom 14:5,6 If an individual places special religious significance upon a certain day and doesn't bind it on any others, that's acceptable
1. Church shouldn't promote publicly that which God has not commanded
C. We need to examine ourselves in these matters:
1. In some areas we can conform: (1 Cor 9:19-23)
2. In others we cannot:( 2 Cor 6:14-16).