“Some Tough Questions About Christmas”

#1 How Does Santa Get Into Your House if There is No Chimney or If There is a Fire In The Fireplace?

Well, ok that is not the kind of tough question I’m talking about…. I am talking about the apologetics of Christmas Theology. Things like the Virgin Birth, Origins of Christmas, How Many Wise men, when Jesus was really born, etc...
Ok, here we go again:

Q: What are the Origins of Christmas?
A: The roots of Christmas as a celebration go way back even before Jesus was born in a manger. Huh? It had a lot more to do then with the seasons of the year than a specific person’s birthday. For example: in the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice, (the day that represents the shortest amount of daylight during the year), actually coincided with December 25th. The decline of sunlight leading up to the Winter Solstice and the then increasing sunlight each day after that was reason enough for the people to create a day to celebrate that Winter was at least half over.

In the Roman Empire, during the time of Christ, the holiday had come to be known as Saturnalia. The Romans tried to do away with the holiday without success and eventually in the 4th century the Roman church tried to convert it into a “Christian” holiday by re-naming it “The Feast of the Nativity”. Western Culture still celebrates this tradition. We just call it Christmas.

Q: Why do we use a Christmas Tree at Christmas?
A: One of the main centerpieces of the celebration of Saturnalia was the use of “evergreen” branches and trees. There was a common belief that the evergreens had a special power to overcome death and stay green all year long that other plants and trees lacked. People believed that they needed to surround themselves with this power at a time of year when darkness and cold were increasing. Other cultures associated the evergreen with fertility and new life.

It is falsely believed that the “Christmas Tree” was referred to in the Book of Ezekiel as an artifact of pagan Christmas idol worship. It is important to know that the Ezekiel passage proceeded the use of Christmas trees and the writer of the passage was making reference to a person who would go to the forest to cut down a tree in order to fashion it into an idol specifically for idol worship un related to a specific holiday or celebration. The ‘wood craftsman’ would actually tool the tree down in a way that it no longer even looked like a tree.
Tradition holds that the first person to actually decorate a tree at Christmastime was Martin Luther by placing candles on its branches in order to create a “glow” from within his home to the outside passersby.

Q: Were There Three Wise men?
A: Actually the place we get this idea of there being three Wise men at the birth of Christ, is from a song. “We Three Kings Of Orient Are”. Words & Music: John H. Hopkins Jr. 1857. Hopkins actually wrote this carol for a Christmas Pageant at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

The assumption is made that since scripture talks about three gifts that there must be three wise men or kings. Actually, if these men were travelling as far as it is presumed, there would more than likely have had a large entourage - More than three people - Scripture tells us what we need to know, there were three gifts: Gold, Incense and Myrrh. The Gold would obviously have served as money to appease a potential King such as Jesus, the Myrrh and incense would also be proper gifts for a King based on common customs of the day.

Q: What about the virgin birth was that just a myth or is this even really possible?
A: Well, it is indeed an unbelievable event that took place. In fact there are miracles throughout the Bible that are without human explanation except to say that with God, all things are possible. The fact remains that in God’s perfect plan for the redemption of fallen man, there had to be a “perfect” sacrifice and it had to be once and for all. Not something that had to be done over and over again, like the priestly sacrifices of the Old Testament, and not something that could ever be replicated by anyone past, present, or future. It had to be a God thing.

You may ask that if God was able to do all things, then why didn’t he just let Joseph be the father. Well, you see that goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3 with the “Fall of Man”. The “seed” of humanity is passed from the man. And it is in that seed that sin nature is also passed along. It is by one man that sin entered the world. –Adam. This is why Jesus was born without that sin nature. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit – God – Who is without sin. In other words, Mary had to be a virgin so that this sin nature could not be passed on to Jesus. If Jesus was born of Joseph’s seed, at best all He could have been was just a “Good” man; but, since He was born of God’s seed He was perfect, blameless, and capable of serving as the “once-and-for-all-sacrifice” for all who would believe.

I believe it would take more faith to believe that God would allow sin to serve as a perfect sacrifice for sin. This would be against the nature of God and would prove that God is not perfect. This would have to assume that God had to attain His Godhood, meaning that someone or something gave it to Him also meaning that someone or something was greater than God.

Q: Was Jesus really born on December 25th?
A: There is really no way of knowing the exact day that our Lord was born. It would make sense that it was less likely to be in the middle of Winter or a cold month, based on the Biblical account in Luke 2. Since the Shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks and the fact that it was at night would be contradictory to normal ranging practices in the Middle East. Shepherds may have been at the bottom of the food-chain worker-wise, but they weren’t that dumb to be sleeping outside in the middle of December. Some experts surmise maybe late September or even April by other accounts. Furthermore, the year of Christ’s birth was also unlikely to be year “0”. It was likely later than our modern day calendar implies.

The point is that whether is December 25th or February 29th, the point is that we celebrate His birth on a fixed day every year and we all look forward to it with incredible anticipation.

Q: Should Christians Celebrate a Holiday that is all about Commercialism and has Pagan roots?
A: I believe we can and in this modern day I believe we should. In light of the fact that Commercialism is at its zenith with sales, shopping mall door busting, and with Santa Claus on every street corner, and every television show, we now, more than ever, need to celebrate the Birth of Christ at Christmas all the more.
We could hand it over to the money-makers and greedy store owners, and literally the world, but I would encourage you to continue to see Jesus as the reason we celebrate Christmas.

So Finally, Yes! We can and do celebrate Jesus as Lord throughout the rest of the year, but since Christmas seems to be about “giving”, then lets talks about the greatest gift of all. The birth of God’s own Son who was born to die as a sacrifice; a gift that we could never earn. God gives us His Son as the Ultimate gift our gift back to God is our acceptance of that gift by giving Him “Our Heart”.