2. Christmas is not Pagan (History)

when scripture fails to reveal any evidence that Christmas cannot be celebrated the anti-christmas crowd turns to history and attempts to show that Christmas traditions descend directly from Pagan practices therefore that means they're evil and must be avoided so we do not mimic Pagan practices but there is not a lot of good reasoning behind this the basic argument is pagans did X Christian practice Y which means something different is similar to X therefore Y is evil if you just look at this reasoning you will see how terrible it is simply for the fact that harmless practices

whatever they appear to be are not immoral it is the motive behind the practice that is the real problem for example let's say you're having a bonfire with your friends or a church group and someone came over and told you to stop simply for the reason that pagans have used bonfires in their practices the obvious reply is but we are not setting a fire to worship a pagan God we're just enjoying time around a fire together see just because something looks similar to a pagan practice that doesn't mean that is what someone is actually doing

so if a pagan can use a bonfire and it doesn't mean a Christian cannot then why would it matter if pagans have decorated pine trees another thing to remember is if you really think you can't decorate with anything a pagan may have used for their worship then you need to follow through and take down any pictures you might have up of your parents or your grandparents because many pagans worship their ancestors so using the logic of the anti- holiday crowd anytime you hang up a picture of your ancestors you are mimicking Pagan worship of ancestors

in reality and I think we can all agree if you hang up a picture of your grandparents that doesn't mean you're worshiping like a pagan did and the same applies with Christmas decorations just because they possibly were used by pagans that doesn't make them evil in fact there are many things Believers in God have used that have also been used by pagans and if you just look at the examples you can see how ridiculous it is to reject Christmas traditions just because it may have come from paganism take a look at this it is a

six-pointed star and when people see it they think of Judaism the Star of David or the nation of Israel well that is true but the same shape is also used in paganism and may have been used in ancient Egyptian sorcery does that mean this means pagan merer is at work of course not just different groups using the same symbol it is the meaning we put behind the symbol not the symbol itself and the simple fact that just because a pagan may have used something that doesn't taint it forever but there are even better examples closer

to home for example Jesus is referred to in the New Testament as king of kings but this phrase actually comes from pagans who used to call the kings of Babylon and later the king of Persia the King of Kings so here we have a clear example of Christians taking a phrase directly from paganism and applying it to Jesus now some may object that Jesus is the original King of Kings so technically the pagans stole it from the true God and I would reply that is exactly my point every symbol or object pagans have used was

originally created by God for good so if the New Testament writers can use this phrase even though it was applied to Pagan Kings then we can also use things that pagans have used in the past and there is no sin in doing so let's look at an even bigger example it has been commonly known by Scholars that the Book of Proverbs took heavily from an Egyptian Book known as the instruction of amop this would mean King Solomon read a pagan book of wisdom and took direct sayings from it kind of put some context on that

verse that says learn not the ways of the Heathen that the anti- holiday crowd loves to take out of context so much but does this mean the Book of Proverbs is evil of course not King Solomon simply found wisdom where it was and preserved it for his people to read as well just because it was originally written by a pagan that doesn't mean it is evil or that it cannot be learned from Solomon seemed to think it was okay and there is nothing wrong with taking something a pagan rotary used and learning from it and

just because a pagan may have used a tree for a ritual that doesn't mean Christians cannot use one for a holiday tradition no one is worshiping the tree or using it in any type of ritual this type of behavior of reclaiming things that were once used by pagans actually comes from scripture itself 1 Corinthians 15 says for he must Reign until he has put all enemies under his feet The Last Enemy to be destroyed is death for God has put all things in subjection under his feet but when he says all things are put in

subjection it is that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him when all things are subjected to him then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all Paul said Christ will reign until all things are subjected to him early Christians saw a part of this being practices and objects pagans use as well if a pagan used something to honor a pagan God Christians could claim it for Christ and subject it under him a good example can be

SE in this Obelisk at the Vatican Courtyard conspiracy theorists love to point out it as a pagan symbol and this proves the Catholic Church worships the devil but they do it well ignoring the history behind it the Obelisk was originally moved to Rome by Caligula in 37 ad in 1586 Pope syus rededicated it as a symbol of humanity reaching up to Christ the Pagan dedications were replaced and a cross was added to it you can read this in a real scholarly source likewise even if Christmas traditions Are pagan we don't have to worry we can

simply be reclaiming them for Christ and using them for good but is there any actual evidence Christmas traditions Are pagan well despite the popular myth you might be surprised to find out there is no real evidence to connect Christmas traditions to paganism the biggest issue that comes up is the date of December 25th I can't tell you how many people I hear claim this date was Ed for Pagan reasons even some pro- Christmas Christians buy into it first as we already stated even if the date was selected to overtake a pagan holiday it can just

be seen as a time when Christians work to reclaim this day for Christ but it actually wasn't a common argument is Christmas was placed on December 25th to match pagan holidays already celebrated on that day so the church could blend Christmas with Pagan Customs the leading candidate is the holiday of Soul EV victus but the problem is the earliest inscription of Sol of victus doesn't mention the day it was celebrated it was not until around the middle of the 4th Century that anyone dated solo victus to December 25th so it is equally possible pagans moved

their celebration to December 25th to compete with Christians who were in power by this time in fact scholar Thomas ta says it is more likely the Roman Emperor aurelan placed Sol EV victus on December 25th to compete with the growing rate of Christianity rather than the other way around another attempt is to claim Christmas was meant to be blended with the Festival of saturnalia but the fifth century author macrobius says saturnalia was celebrated 14 days before January began which works out to December 17th he also says the festival would last a Max of only 3

days so it was not actually celebrated on December 25th some attempt to try and use the Festival of brilia but this ran from November to December 17th so again this was not celebrated on December 25th and therefore we have no evidence the date of Christmas was selected because of pagan holidays all other references to Pagan deities being born on the winter solstice date to well after the 4th Century textural evidence suggests Christmas was celebrated on December 25th long before Constantine or certain Pagan celebrations in 386 ad John christim says celebrating Christmas on December 25th was

a longtime tradition the phalan calendar lists Christmas as an established church holiday Thomas T makes a convincing argument from evidence in a sermon of St Augustine which states an early heretical group called The dontist failed to keep the introduction of later Feast but clung to Traditions before their split from the church around 311 ad one of the feast they kept was the celebration of Christmas on December 25th indicating the use of this date was esta lished before the split and there is some textural evidence hpst may have said Christmas was on December 25th at the

beginning of the 3rd Century so it doesn't seem the date came from paganism and evidence suggests it was well established from the beginning of the 4th Century so where did the date come from in the days of the early church many believed Jesus would die on the same day he was conceived so if you take the time of his crucifixion and count forward nine months you get December 25th were they right to conclude Jesus was born on this day well we really don't know but the point is December 25th was not chosen for Pagan reasons

but from early Christian calculations and theories what about longtime Christmas traditions like Christmas trees Santa and Christmas Reese surely these come from paganism well if they were I've not seen any evidence of it and vague similarities don't cut it reading actual history books reveals we are not sure where the Christmas tree came from some say it originally came from St bonfice when he cut down the oak tree dedicated to Thor when he wasn't killed by lightning he pointed to the fur tree and dedicated it to Christ some Scholars think Christmas tree is more from a

paradise tree which were used in Adam and Eve plays in the 1500s the plays were typically held on December 24th there is even an account which credits the Christmas tree to Martin Luther either way the practice of decorating an evergreen tree on December 25th fth began long after Pagan rituals died out so there is no evidence of a direct link it is most likely people like to decorate the tree that could survive the harshness of winter Paradise trees were already featured on Christmas Eve it were composed of a fur tree with red apples hanging from

the branches people probably began associating the decorated tree with the holiday season and bringing an evergreen tree into your house when the dead of winter had set in with liven people's spirits and remind them of the garden of Eden Paradise that Christ came to restore what about Old St Nick surely he is a pagan representation of some sort of ancient god well no Santa Claus is an Americanized version of C Claus which is the Dutch shortened version of St Nicholas his Feast was celebrated on December 6th and he was a very well-loved Saint even after

the Protestant Reformation because of the legends of him helping children after the American Revolution many New Yorkers wanted to connect to their Dutch roots and began promoting the patron saint it was then St Nicholas was first called Santa Claus and placed in the red suit to americanize him many things were added and changed about St Nicholas to make him more Americanized and look less like a Catholic saint a few years later in 1821 the Sigh reindeer and bringing gifts from the North Pole were added it was around this time Christmas had become a drunken celebration

for men to wreak havoc around the city and many wanted Christmas to become a more family centered holiday Santa Claus the giftgiving saint was moved to appear on Christmas Eve rather than December 6th to help teach this way of celebrating Christmas so no Pagan tradition stolen here just a Dutch Saint turned into an American what about the Christmas wreath well wreaths have been used in several different cultures for several different reasons yes some were used in rituals to honor pagan gods but so what there is no evidence Christmas reath were taken from that just like

there is no evidence wedding or funeral reath or either they are just simply a popular and easy decoration to make which is why they're used in several different types of celebrations and festivals again the problem is how the anti-christmas crowd cannot separate the object from its context and how they lack the ability to realize God cares more about your heart and motive than the object in your hand if you're a Christian you believe God cleanses us as Sinners and makes us new in his presence so why can't God cleanse a calendar day a tree a

custom or anything a pagan may have touched a little more is needed than finding vague similarities to paganism or making up similarities for that matter and concluding it is a horrendous sin to even look remotely like them do some research and stop living in fear God does not lead in fear so have a guilt-free holiday and Merry Christmas from inspiring philosophy Ministries