- December 25th is not Jesus’ birthday
- January 6th is also not Jesus’ birthday
- The Bible doesn’t tell us how many magi/wisemen visited Jesus
- Christmas was created to cancel out the pagan holiday - Saturnilia
- 125 AD, is the first recorded mention of a celebration of Jesus’ birth and it comes from a note from, Telesphorus, the 2nd bishop of Rome declaring that church services should be held to memorialize the nativity of Jesus (Collins, 12)
- 320 AD is the year when Pope Julius I chose December 25th as the official day to celebrate Jesus’ birthday (Ibid, 13)
- 325 AD is when Constantine made December 25th the official day for Christmas (ib., 13)
- Clement Carke’s A visit from St. Nicholas (1822 AD), also known as, The Night Before Christmas, and Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol (1843 AD) gave us our modern day Christmas celebration (ib., 100).
- Writing “Xmas” instead of Christmas is orthodox.
- The virgin birth is true.
- Jesus is the reason for the season
- Love one another and they will know we’re his disciples
If you know other historical facts, leave us a comment.
Resources
Stand To Reason Podcast. Greg Koukl. The Origins of Christmas. December 9 2007.
Collins, Ace. Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas
3 Comments
Christmas Trees are a replacement of Thor worship; tinsel was originally the entrails of disemboweled enemies.
How do you all feel about the "christanization" of non-christian holidays/traditions?
Myself - I don’t mind and actually like it, on practical and cultural synchronization levels.
Henry,
I don’t know how you are going to get around it. We come to Christ as we are, and unless you suggest that the apostles were wrong to allow the gentiles to come in as gentiles, this will involve the transformation and not the annihilation of their culture.
By the way, anyone interested in an alternative exploration of the choice for December 25th should read this article in Touchstone.