| My family always has a Christmas tree every | | | | December.Secondly, Luke 2:1,3 tells us that at the |
| year because it was the popular thing to do. We | | | | time of the birth of Jesus Christ it was decreed |
| have ornaments, holly wreaths, presents and | | | | that, "all the world would be taxed...And all went to |
| everything else that goes along with the | | | | be taxed, every one into his own city." This |
| Christmas celebration. I know it was borderline but | | | | couldn't have taken place in the winter. Caesar |
| in that everyone liked it so much and it's | | | | Augustus, the ruler of Rome, would certainly not |
| supposed to be in honor of our Lord's birthday I | | | | call for such a taxing in the depth of winter. |
| went along with it all these years. This year I | | | | Travel at this time of the year is extremely |
| have looked at the weight of Scriptural evidence | | | | difficult; hence, it would be virtually impossible for |
| that has caused me to reconsider how harmless | | | | everyone to comply with the decree if it had |
| and good this holiday is. Just where in The Bible | | | | been given then. The Lord Himself testified to the |
| does it tell us not to celebrate | | | | rigors of traveling in winter, for He told the people |
| Christmas?Christmas Not a Bible DoctrineIn the | | | | to pray that their flight at the end of this age |
| first place, Christmas is not a Bible Doctrine. If our | | | | would not be in winter (Matthew 24:20).No one |
| blessed Lord had wanted us to celebrate His | | | | knows the exact day when Jesus Christ was |
| birthday, He would have told us when to celebrate | | | | born, but in all the probability He was born |
| it and how to celebrate it. But Christ never told | | | | sometime during September. We can be |
| anyone to celebrate His birthday. Furthermore, we | | | | reasonably sure of this because His earthly |
| know from the Bible and from church history that | | | | ministry lasted approximately 3 1/2 years, and He |
| the apostles and the early church never | | | | was crucified on the 14th day of the month of |
| celebrated Christ's birthday.The Bible is God's | | | | Nisan, which corresponds to our April (John 19:31, |
| complete and final revelation to man, and it tells | | | | Leviticus 23:5). If we go back about 3 1/2 years |
| us everything we need to know for our spiritual | | | | to the time when Jesus Christ was 30 years old - |
| lives (II Timothy 3:16). We don't have to go | | | | when He began His public ministry - we come to |
| outside the Bible for anything. God's Word tells us | | | | the month of September. This was probably the |
| how we're to worship, how we're to give money | | | | month when our Lord was born into the |
| for the support of the Lord's work, how to | | | | world.Origin of ChristmasThousands of years |
| evangelize the lost, how to observe the Lord's | | | | before Jesus Christ was born, heathens in every |
| Supper and everything else pertaining to the | | | | country observed December 25th as the birthday |
| Christian life. But not once in the Bible does God | | | | of a god who was called the sun-god. Semiramis, |
| tell us to celebrate Christmas! We're told to | | | | the widow of Nimrod, was his mother. She |
| remember the Lord's death, but nowhere are we | | | | claimed to be the queen of heaven. And she had |
| told to celebrate His birth.God's people are | | | | a son who was supposed to have been born on |
| supposed to be Bible people. We are supposed to | | | | December 25th; his name was Tammuz.According |
| live by the teaching of the God's Holy Word. So | | | | to all the heathen religions of that time, Tammuz |
| the very fact that Christmas is never mentioned | | | | had a miraculous birth; and for centuries his |
| in the Bible is sufficient reason for us not to have | | | | birthday was celebrated with feasts, revelry and |
| anything to do with it. But that's not all.Christ Not | | | | drunken orgies. The heathen celebrated Tammuz |
| born on December 25The second reason I not to | | | | birthday according to the very example he set |
| celebrate Christmas is that Christ was not born | | | | for them. He was the world's greatest lover of |
| on December 25th. Notice:"And there were in the | | | | women, strong drink, dirty jokes and other |
| same country shepherds abiding in the field, | | | | sensual fun. It is said that he loved everybody |
| keeping watch over their flock by night." Luke | | | | and that everybody loved him. And it was on |
| 2:8Don't miss the point: the shepherds WERE IN | | | | December 25th that all the pagan religions |
| THE FIELDS taking care of their flocks on the | | | | celebrated the birthday of Tammuz, the |
| night Jesus Christ was born. As the shepherds | | | | son-god.This is all clearly brought out in Alexander |
| were watching their sheep, the message came to | | | | Hislop's great book, "The Two Babylon's". Any |
| them of the birth of Jesus Christ.It's a well known | | | | reputable encyclopedia will also verify these |
| fact that December falls in the middle of the rainy | | | | facts.It's plain to see, isn't it, that Christmas is a |
| season in Palestine, and the sheep were kept in | | | | pagan holiday that came out of old pagan |
| the fold at that time of the year. The shepherds | | | | Babylon.Christmas: A Catholic HolidayThe fourth |
| always corralled their flocks from October to April. | | | | reason I not to celebrate Christmas is because |
| They brought their sheep from the mountainsides | | | | Christmas is a Catholic holiday. Why should I steal |
| and the fields no later than October 15th to | | | | Christmas from the Catholics? They got it from |
| protect them from the cold, rainy seasons that | | | | the pagans, and I'm happy to let them keep |
| followed that date. So the birth of Christ could not | | | | it.Notice what Encyclopedia Americana has to say |
| have taken place at the end of | | | | about Christmas and Catholicism. |