Five Things Every Believer Should Know About Christmas

Here are five things every Believer should know about Christmas:

1. Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible. You can read the entirety of Scripture and you will not once come across 'Christmas.' Luke 2 and other places give some details of the birth of the Messiah, but without question this didn't happen on December 25 or even in December. You will not find the events of Christmas celebrations in Scripture, even by a different name (at least in a positive light). It just isn't there. Take a moment to consider the wisdom of basing a considerable block of your faith on something other than the word of God. What did the Messiah say about building your house on sand?

2. Many of its traditions are expressly prohibited by Scripture. This includes bringing a Christmas tree into your home to decorate (Jeremiah 10:2-4), the traditional Christmas ham (Leviticus 11:7), many nativity scenes (Exodus 20:4), and more. Does it make sense to try and worship YHWH by doing things he tells us not to? What does it say about us if we aren't willing to follow some basic instructions from him?

3. Scripture does not tell us to celebrate Christmas. Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to celebrate Christmas or even the Messiah's birthday. If this had been something the Creator wanted us to do, he would have told us! Yahusha had many chances to throw himself birthday parties, but we don't see that. The Disciples could have preached on celebrating Christmas, but they didn't. However, Leviticus 23 gives us the details on seven set apart times of YHWH that we are to observe, and we can see these honored by both the Messiah and the Disciples.

4. Christmas predates the birth of the Messiah by centuries. There is a reason so many cultures and faiths celebrate Christmas, because it's not a holiday that is rooted in Scripture. The December 25 Christmas holiday has a long history of honoring the sun god or other pagan gods around the time of the winter solstice. So no, this isn't something that started out as a nice little way to honor the Messiah's birthday. This is something that originated from faiths against the Living God. While YHWH certainly could choose to redeem it, according to Scripture that is not how he handles things of pagan origin. One such example would be 2 Kings 10:27, when rather than 'redeeming' a perfectly usable temple of ba'al for his own glory he had it made into a public toilet. Here is a good article on Christmas predating the Messiah.

5. The lies of Christmas undermine faith! In our culture, children are told stories of beings they don't see but who do nice things for them. Santa brings presents, the Easter bunny gives candy, and the tooth fairy leaves money under pillows. In time children are let down (Or devastated. These things can hurt.) with the truth...that these are just lies. How does that impact their faith in the Messiah, whom they also can't see, but supposedly loves them and will give them eternal life? I don't think we can emphasize enough how confusing and detrimental these lies are to faith. Even if your children know Santa isn't real, what are the implications for their faith when they find out Christmas isn't in the Bible? It's frustrating and confusing to realize that the Christian faith isn't based on following YHWH's commandments, and if we don't believe we should do as YHWH instructs in one area, why would we in another? 

Those are a few of the reasons why I decided to stop celebrating Christmas. For more on what it's been like to walk away from a beloved and ubiquitous holiday please see this post.