“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7: 14 KJV).
Christmas is an annual celebration held on the supposed birthday of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I say “supposed” because no one knows the exact date of Jesus’ birth. There is no data in the Bible by which we can determine the exact date.
There are all manner of calculations used to explain the reason for making December 25 as the date of Jesus’ birth. One is the Plan of the Ages. By complicated and fantastic calculations, the creation of the world was estimated as beginning March 25, so Christ, the Paschal Lamb, the new Creation, had his conception on March 25 and December 25 as the date of His birth.
Another one is by other unsubstantial reasoning from the Gospel stories. The conception of John the Baptist is placed in September, and so Christ’s in March and thus his nativity in December.
But December 25 has more connection to pagan religion and festivals than anything Christian. The pagans celebrated Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24) and Brumalia (Dec. 25) rejoicing the end of the winter solstice and the birthday of the unconquered sun. Almost all the heathen nations regarded the winter solstice, which occurs at about this time, as a most important point of the year. These nations celebrated the beginning of renewed life and activity of the powers of nature and of the gods, who were originally merely the symbolical personification of these powers.
It’s also very unlikely that December 25 was the birthday of Christ because shepherds did not keep their sheep in the fields in December due to the rain, snow, and the obvious lack of pasture. And Caesar Augustus would not have been a very wise governor to impose a tax on the citizens, and make them travel to their hometown to complete the census, in the dead of winter when travel was almost impossible. Neither was there any uniformity in the early church of observing the nativity of Christ. Some celebrated this festival in May, April, or January.
The exact date of Jesus’ birth isn’t important, or the Scriptures would have revealed very clearly when He was born. Jesus never told us to remember His birth, but He did tell us to remember His death (Lk.22:17-19; 1 Cor.11:23-26).
Sadly, for more and more people, Jesus is just a ceremonial deity, someone they recognize at Christmas and Easter and ignore the rest of the year.
The authentic Christian celebrates the birth of Jesus every day, for they know had He not been born, died on the cross, rose from the grave, and ascended to the Father, there would be no gift of eternal life for sinners. We would not have victory over sin, a hope for the swift return of Jesus, and a future residence in Heaven.
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gifts (2 Cor.9:15).
