Why we do not celebrate Christmas?

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What major reasons does World's Last Chance have for not celebrating Christmas?

Here are our 4 major reasons for not celebrating Christmas:

1. Jesus wasn't born on or near December 25

Most experts agree that December 25 has nothing to do with His birth. The first reason why Christ could not have been born in December is found in a fact mentioned by Luke relating to those shepherds who were "living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). There is no way any shepherd would be found keeping his flocks outside at night in the kind of weather (very cold and rainy) that is know to exist in and around Bethlehem in December. Such weather argues strongly against the birth of our Lord on December 25, as the weather would have prevented the shepherds to be out in the fields attending their flocks.

Furthermore, there is no logic at all for the administratively skilled Romans to undertake census during the coldest season of the year. Luke informs us that our Lord was born in Bethlehem because his parents needed to register for the Roman census. It makes much more sense to conduct such senses when it is most convenient for the people to travel around, and not be hampered by severe weather conditions. Thus, precludes any birth of Christ on the Month of December.

2. Christmas is not mentioned in the whole New Testament

No where in the whole New Testament do we have a single recorded instance of Christians celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25, or on any other date. Yet the New Testament does mention several details about His birth. More importantly, there is no command by our Lord or our heavenly Father to celebrate His birth. While it is true that celebrating the birth of Christ is not condemned in the Bible, but the absence of any recorded instance of such celebration in the New Testament should not be overlooked or ignored. In addition, it is a proven fact that the early Christian church did not celebrate the birth of Christ on Dec 25 or on any other date.

"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ... the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt." (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911 edition)

3. Christmas is a PAGAN festival and has nothing to do with Christianity

The 25th December was anciently celebrated as the birthday of the invincible SUN god, (variously know as Tammuz, Mithra, Saturn, Adonis or BAAL) long before our Lord was born in Bethlehem. It is interesting to note how December 25 became the birth date of Christ. Historians Gerard and Patricia Del Re state the following:

"The tradition of celebrating December 25 as Christ's birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults, and in the third century the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Day of the Invincible Sun, on December 25.

"Mithra was an embodiment of the sun, so this period of its rebirth was a major day in Mithraism, which had become Rome's latest official religion . . . It is believed that the emperor Constantine adhered to Mithraism up to the time of his conversion to Christianity. He was probably instrumental in seeing that the major feast of his old religion was carried over to his new faith" (The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p. 17).

The pagan origin of Christmas can be further seen with the many customs associated with it--Christmas lights and candles, Santa Claus, Santa’s Elves, The Christmas tree, Holly and Ivy and Mistletoe and the Yule log. These traditions have nothing to do with the birth of our Lord, but have their origin in ancient pagan festivals..

We cannot avoid concluding that Christmas is rooted in ancient religious customs and established by the Roman Catholic Church to ease the pagan converts' transition to Christianity. Today Christmas is driven by commercialism, and the original celebration of Christ's birthday is today more regrettably replaced by the tradition of Santa Claus.

4. Christmas is a Roman Catholic institution: sufficient reason to reject it

As with Sunday worship origin, Christmas is the child of the Roman Catholic Church.

"The festivals of Rome are innumerable; but five of the most important may be singled out for elucidation -viz., Christmas-day, Lady-day, Easter, the nativity of St. John, and the Feast of the Assumption. Each and all of these can be proved to be Babylonian." (The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hyslop, page 91)

"... within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. How, then, did the Roman Church fix on December 25th as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of the Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed ... Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition. That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, 'about the time of the winter solstice.'" (Ibid. page 93)

Participation, therefore, in Christmas would be another way of paying homage to the Beast of Revelation, something that will be most displeasing to our heavenly Father. His people should never be found endorsing any institution which is pushed and promoted by the anti-Christ