Most Christmas customs have pagan origins, and December 25 falls in the middle of the Roman Saturnalia, which Roman Christianity hijacked and syncretized along with many other pagan customs. God never commands a celebration of His birth on any date; instead He instructs the commemoration of His death, which is observed through the Passover. Christ was never in Christmas to begin with. Defenders of Christmas try to minimize this embarrassing fact by arguing from John Chrysostom's calculation that Zacharias' second priestly course fell on the Day of Atonement, placing Jesus' conception on March 25 and His birth on December 25. Chrysostom, however, overlooked that every priestly course also served during Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Corrected, the math places Zacharias' first course in late spring, John's conception in mid- to late June, and Jesus' conception in December, so that His birth fell during the fall holy day season. John Piper represents the broader Protestant defense: roots are so far gone that present meaning no longer carries pagan connotations, just as the word Sunday no longer evokes sun worship, so Christians should simply sanctify the day and honor Christ. This is a plain acceptance of pagan customs on the grounds that a better meaning has been laid upon them. No man has authority to sanctify anything; only what God sanctifies in His Word matters, yet such thinking rests on what people redeem from the culture rather than on what God has set forth.

Jeremiah 10:2-3 describes carving and setting up a tree as a custom tied to the signs of heaven, and it accurately describes the Christmas tree of today, which is likewise a custom connected to the winter solstice. That people do not normally link Christmas with the solstice does not change its pagan origin. Although the passage applied to idols in Jeremiah's day, the book is primarily prophecy written for the modern world, just as Jeremiah 7:18 also describes hot-cross buns for Easter and Ezekiel 8:16 pictures worship much like sunrise services. Cutting down and setting up a tree is called the way of the Gentiles (heathen, KJV), and God commands His people not to learn or follow that way. The passage therefore shows that using a tree in this manner is idolatry, which breaks the commandment against idolatry in Exodus 20:4-6. Honoring God through any idol or icon makes one guilty of breaking that commandment.

Christmas has no biblical or righteous foundation and is built on paganism. Scripture gives no birth date for Jesus, and calculating from Zacharias's priestly course points to late September rather than December 25. The holiday's roots lie in Saturnalia, the Roman week of lawlessness, drunkenness, sexual license, and ritual murder of a victim on December 25. After Constantine, pagans were allowed to keep their festival by relabeling December 25 as Jesus' birthday, replacing the celebration of Sol Invictus, with little change in practice. This violates the command of Deuteronomy 12:30-31 not to inquire after the gods of the nations and worship the LORD in their way. Christmas trees, mistletoe, and Santa Claus were likewise imported through syncretism. Santa blends Saint Nicholas with the Germanic god Woden, later shaped by Irving, Moore, Nast, and Coca-Cola advertising. December 25 was also the winter solstice, a day of sun-god worship long before Christ, including Egyptian celebration of Horus' birthday and observances among Mesopotamians, Greeks, and Persians. Commercialism compounds the problem, and the supposed worship of Christ rests on fabrication. People cannot make the unclean clean or the unholy holy.

Christmas is a bundle of contradictions, and most people know it. Jesus could not have been born near the winter solstice, and in the early fourth century the Catholic Church merged the Roman Saturnalia with a celebration of His birth to ease converts into Christianity. Other elements are equally pagan or unbiblical: "Yule" derives from a pagan midwinter festival, the Yule log recalls the heathen practice of driving off evil spirits with solstice bonfires, and Santa Claus blends Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, and Saint Nicholas, then was popularized by Coca-Cola's marketing, with no basis in the gospel narratives. The common reply that Christians should simply live by Jesus' teachings is self-contradictory, since Jesus taught honesty (Matthew 19:16-18; Exodus 20:16; Matthew 5:37). Honoring Christ on a day that is not His birthday, with customs drawn from paganism, is therefore a lie, and the Devil is its father (John 8:44). The slogan "Put Christ back into Christmas" is likewise absurd, since He was never in it, and Scripture nowhere commands or suggests commemorating His birth. Meanwhile professing Christians keep days God never enjoined while ignoring the Sabbath, Passover, and God's holy days. Christmas persists despite these known facts because human nature deceives itself into justifying what is enjoyable and beneficial, so truth does not matter.

Christmas lacks any biblical authority and is fundamentally unbiblical, so Christians defending it against secular critics are defending the indefensible. The coincidence of Christmas with the winter solstice is treated as no accident, and the date has no scriptural support: neither Matthew nor Luke gives a birth date, and December is the start of Palestine's rainy season, when shepherds would no longer have been in the fields at night. Majority opinion places Jesus' birth in the autumn, near the Feast of Trumpets or Tabernacles. Traditional nativity details also fail biblical scrutiny. Scripture never says there were three wise men, since the number comes from the three gifts, and they arrived when Jesus was a young Child in a house (Matthew 2:11), not a newborn in a manger. Mark and John say nothing of the birth, because His ministry, death, and resurrection matter more than His infancy. The real issue is truth, not political correctness. Keeping a false holiday in Jesus' honor is a lie, and lying is sin (Exodus 20:16; Revelation 21:8; 22:15). He is honored instead by obedience to His commandments (John 14:15; 15:10).

Christmas is a self-centered gift to God, like the gun Bobby's parents gave their suicidal son, offered without any thought to whether it pleases Him. Its pagan origins and the deliberate coincidence of its date with the solstice celebrations are well known, yet defenders grow belligerent when questioned and assume that because it is meant to honor God, He must be honored. Scripture shows otherwise. God condemns worship aids borrowed from paganism as idols, and Jesus says true worshipers must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Christmas contains little truth. Jesus was not born in the dead of winter, since shepherds would not have been in the fields (Luke 2:8). The wise men came to a child, not an infant, and brought gifts to honor a King, not to celebrate a birthday. The early church never celebrated His birth, and no divine instruction exists to do so. The Bible instead commands an annual commemoration of His death at Passover. Christmas is the kind of aimless conduct inherited by tradition from which Christians were redeemed by Christ's blood (I Peter 1:18-19). Paul likewise feared for the Galatians, who kept days, months, seasons, and years from their pagan past, the weak and beggarly elements of demonism (Galatians 4:9-10). Honoring the Son with a celebration of falsehood is thoughtless and self-centered, since every falsehood required His death as payment, and repeating it yearly only adds insult to injury.

Christmas customs that look beautiful and harmless are descended from ancient pagan rites, and they have nothing to do with Christ. Evergreens such as holly, ivy and mistletoe were fertility emblems in pre-Christian winter solstice ceremonies, when people believed decorating with them helped carry the diminished sun through a critical period. Mistletoe was sacred to the Druids, and kissing beneath it comes from the idea that it represented the oak's genitals and guaranteed a fruitful union. Decorating a Christmas tree survives from pagan tree veneration, and Jeremiah 10:1-5 condemns such practices. The lights, including Yule logs, candles and tree lights, come from the northern European Yule festival, when sacred fires were lit as sympathetic magic to ensure the vigor of the reborn sun and to ward off evil spirits that people feared. Even giving dolls to children comes from the Roman Saturnalia, when dolls were given and sold at a fair. The Roman scholar Varro thought they represented original human sacrifices to the infernal god, whom the Greeks and Romans called Cronus or Saturn, identified with the Phoenician Baal, to whom firstborn children were sacrificed. Israel likewise sacrificed to Molech and Baal (Jeremiah 19:1-6; 32:35). Satan, the master deceiver (II Corinthians 11:14), uses attractive trees, lights and dolls to make his deceptions seem harmless. Keeping these customs casts God aside for Satan, breaks God's law, risks eternal life, and conforms a person to this evil world. Even secular researchers recognize Christmas as a pagan festival.

Christmas, as celebrated today, is steeped in pagan origins that predate Christianity. The date of December 25 has long been associated with sun worship across various cultures for millennia, and its timing and trappings bear no connection to the actual birth of Jesus Christ. In the early fourth century, the Catholic Church merged the Roman winter solstice festival, Saturnalia, with a celebration of Jesus' birth to ease the transition for new converts. The term "Yule," another name for the season, directly refers to a pagan midwinter festival. Even the tradition of the Yule log traces back to heathen practices of using bonfires to ward off evil spirits on the winter solstice night. These well-documented pagan roots raise questions about the legitimacy of associating such customs with the worship of God. Despite this, the Christmas tradition persists, largely because human nature justifies self-contradictory practices for the sake of enjoyment and perceived benefits, often disregarding the truth of their origins.

Many people are well aware of the tainted origin and history of Christmas, yet this holiday flourishes in the materialistic Western world, spreading its revelry globally. Despite widespread information on the Internet, in magazines, newspapers, and newscasts revealing its non-Christian background, Christmas remains a quagmire of deceptive traditions marked by a syncretistic blend of pagan rites and Christian themes. Historical sources indicate that Christmas was not observed by Christians from the time of Christ until about AD 300. Saturnalia (December 17-24) and Brumalia (December 25) persisted as pagan celebrations by the Romans well into the 4th century AD. During this period, the emperor Constantine, upon his apparent conversion, changed Sabbath keeping to the first day of the week, aligning with his prior worship of the sun god, thus facilitating the transformation of the pagan December 25th winter solstice festival into a celebration of the Son of God. Christmas is characterized by decadence, lying, greed, cavorting, drunkenness, gluttony, and murder, offering no true worship of God and Jesus Christ. The practice of gift-giving during Christmas, often justified as mirroring the gifts given to Christ, stems instead from ancient pagan customs of gift exchange, not from the historical context of the wise men presenting gifts to honor a King much later than His birth. Such practices turn people's hearts away from God, reflecting a mixture of idolatrous customs with worship that God has historically condemned, as seen in warnings to the Israelites against adopting the ways of surrounding nations.

Where did the celebration of Christmas originate? It did not come from the Bible or the early apostles but gravitated into the Roman Church from paganism in the fourth century. Historical authorities, such as the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1911, reveal that Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church, with the first evidence appearing in Egypt, where pagan customs centering around the January calends merged into Christmas. Encyclopaedia Britannica confirms that Christmas was not instituted by Christ or the apostles but was adopted from paganism later on. The Encyclopedia Americana notes that a feast for Christ's birth was established in the fourth century, and by the fifth century, the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, due to the lack of certain knowledge about the actual date of Christ's birth. How did this pagan custom infiltrate the Western Christian world? The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains that the date of Christmas was influenced by the pagan Brumalia on December 25, following the Saturnalia, celebrating the shortest day of the year and the 'new sun.' These pagan festivals were deeply entrenched in popular custom, and Christians adopted them with little change in spirit or manner, despite protests from some Christian preachers against the frivolity of the celebration. With the rise of Constantine in the fourth century, who placed Christianity on equal footing with paganism, masses of people in the Roman world began accepting Christianity while retaining their pagan customs, including the December 25th festival. The influence of pagan Manichaeism, identifying the Son of God with the physical sun, provided an excuse for pagans to call their festival the birthday of the Son of God. The real origin of Christmas traces back to ancient Babylon, stemming from the Babylonish system founded by Nimrod, grandson of Ham. After Nimrod's death, his mother-wife, Semiramis, claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang from a dead stump, symbolizing Nimrod's rebirth, and on each anniversary of his birth, December 25th, he would visit the tree and leave gifts. This is the origin of the Christmas tree. Semiramis became the Babylonian Queen of Heaven, and Nimrod, under various names, became the divine son of heaven, forming a false Babylonish system of worship that spread worldwide under different names and guises. During the fourth and fifth centuries, as pagans accepted Christianity en masse, they carried over these customs, cloaking them with Christian-sounding names. Customs such as the holly wreath, mistletoe, and Yule log also have pagan roots. Mistletoe was considered sacred to the sun among ancient pagans for its supposed healing powers, and kissing under it was part of revelry celebrating the winter solstice. Holly berries were sacred to the sun-god, and the Yule log, meaning 'wheel,' symbolized the sun. The Encyclopedia Americana states that holly, mistletoe, and the Yule log are relics of pre-Christian times, directly tied to paganism. The use of Christmas wreaths is believed to trace back to pagan customs of decorating buildings during feasts coinciding with Christmas, and the Christmas tree itself originates from Egypt, predating the Christian era by a significant period.

Christmas, as celebrated on December 25 by most churches, has no basis in Scripture for commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual date of His birth remains unknown, and there is no evidence of the nativity being celebrated before the third century. Unlike God's commanded feasts, which are detailed with specific months, days, and durations in Scripture, Christmas lacks any biblical authority or endorsement. Instead, its origins are rooted in pagan practices, evident in traditions like the Christmas tree, which trace back to pre-Christian rituals of bringing live trees into homes for wood spirits, adorned with bells, food, and pentagrams symbolizing the five elements. Other historical accounts link the tree to unrelated symbolic interpretations, none of which are supported by the Bible. God warns against adding to His instructions, as seen in Deuteronomy and Revelation, and expresses disdain for human-instituted feast days that mix worship of Him with pagan elements. Christmas, therefore, does not reflect the truth of God's Word and cannot be considered a work of His Spirit.

The celebration of Christmas carries deep pagan origins, evident in the names and traditions associated with the holiday. Yule, derived from the Old English word géol, refers to a twelve-day winter festival of feasting, drinking, and sacrificing observed by Germanic peoples in northern Europe, linked to the Norse god Odin, known as Yule Father or the Yule One. The term jolly, often tied to Santa Claus, stems from Yule, while Yuletide denotes the season of this festival. Yule is also associated with the pagan Wild Hunt, a supernatural event led by Odin, thought to signal catastrophe or a soul's descent into the underworld, and with the Anglo-Saxon Modranicht, an all-female fertility rite on what is now Christmas Eve, possibly involving sacrifice. Traditions like the Yule log, eating ham as the Yule boar, and singing carols on Christmas all trace back to this Germanic festival. Similarly, Noël, derived from the Latin natalis meaning "of the birth," connects to the Roman winter festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the Day of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun, celebrated on the winter solstice, which in pre-Christian times fell on December 25. This date's alignment with a traditional calculation of Christ's birth suggests an appropriation of the pagan festival into Christian observance. A sermon by Augustine of Hippo indicates a need to distinguish the Christian celebration from its pagan predecessor, emphasizing a focus on the Creator over the created sun. These historical roots reveal how Christmas intertwines with ancient pagan customs and festivals.

Is there any truth in Christmas? What is this Christmas spirit, and where does it come from? There is no truth offered in Harper's Bible Dictionary to support the observance of Christmas, and certainly no command in the Bible to support it either. This should tell us which spirit Christmas comes from, and it is not God's. Christmas, defined as the anniversary of Christ's birth, is celebrated by Protestants and Roman Catholics on December 25th, with the first celebration recorded in Rome in AD 336. It is by no means certain that Christ was born in December, and no scripture supports this date. One of the obvious non-truths associated with Christmas is Santa Claus. The modern portrayal shows him listening to children's wishes and bringing gifts to good children, made by elves and delivered by flying reindeer in a single night. This concept lacks any basis in truth. Santa, also called Old Nick or Old Saint Nick, shares a name with the devil, and this spirit is not from the God of heaven. Additionally, elements of Santa are linked to the Celtic feast Samhain, where the dead roam the earth, and food, drink, and candles guide them, raising questions about inviting a dark influence into homes. Mistletoe, another Christmas symbol, is tied to pagan folklore involving the goddess Frigga and her son Baldur, the god of the summer sun. The story describes mistletoe as a plant used to kill Baldur, later becoming a symbol of love and protection under which no harm should befall, only a kiss. This myth is translated into a Christian context as an emblem of love conquering death, paralleling the virgin birth, yet it lacks any scriptural basis and appears as blasphemy. The pagan significance is dismissed as fun and frolic at Christmas time, revealing a spirit far from God's truth. The Christmas tree originates from pagan practices of bringing a live tree into the home for wood spirits to keep warm during winter, with bells hung to signal their presence, food and treats on branches, and a pentagram atop as a symbol of the five elements. Other associations, like a triangular shape representing a false doctrine of the Trinity or decorations linked to the Virgin Mary, have no connection to Christ. This clearly shows a pagan foundation devoid of divine truth. Another alarming symbol is the Amanita muscaria mushroom, known as the fly agaric, tied to Christmas in some traditions. It owes its origins to shamanism and occult practices of pre-Christian Northern Europe, believed to induce hallucinogenic visions mistaken for transcendental experiences. Its growth at the base of pine trees and supposed divine associations led to its symbolic connection to Christmas, with some even claiming Christ Himself was a personification of this mushroom, a fungus growing on decaying wood. This association is utterly devoid of truth and reflects the wrong spirit. Christmas is a pagan festival with no truth of God in it. Therefore, it is not God's work. If there is no truth, there cannot be the right spirit, and God's spirit and truth cannot be separated.

Christmas, like many religious festivals in the so-called Christian world, has origins deeply rooted in pagan traditions. A common thread running through these celebrations is their direct appropriation from pagan festivals, often intertwined with themes of fertility and sun worship. Satan has deceived the world into believing that observing these pagan days, including Christmas, is in worship of the Son of God, when in reality, it is tied to the worship of the sun. The historical figure Nimrod, a mighty hunter and king after the flood, and his queen Semiramis, are central to these pagan origins. After Nimrod's violent death, Semiramis bore a son and convinced the people that this child was Nimrod reincarnated, establishing a worship of the mother and child that spread worldwide under various names like Tammuz, Adonis, Bacchus, Osiris, and Baal for Nimrod, and Astarte, Isis, Venus, and Ra for Semiramis. Ancient rituals show women weeping for Tammuz and other sun deities, reflecting a widespread cult of sun worship. This worship is linked to Christmas through the date of December 25, which under the old Roman astronomical calendar was the winter solstice, a significant time for sun worship. Many sun deities such as Mithra, Osiris, Horace, Hercules, Bacchus, Tammuz, and Indra are said to have been born on this date. During the twelve days surrounding the winter solstice, ancient societies engaged in unrestrained celebrations, marked by drunken orgies and a suspension of rules. When the church re-emerged in history in the third century, it had appropriated much from paganism. Followers of Mithra, another name for Nimrod as a sun god, celebrated the birth of their deity on December 25, worshipped on Sunday, and held rituals akin to a Lord's Supper. Historical accounts note that sun worshippers, upon converting to Christianity in the second, third, and fourth centuries, carried remnants of their old beliefs into their new faith. Pope Leo in the fifth century complained of worshippers in St. Peter's turning away from the altar to adore the rising sun, indicating the persistence of sun worship influences. Christmas, falling on the date of a popular sun god festival in Rome, exemplifies how these pagan elements were integrated into Christian practice, blurring the lines between ancient idolatry and the worship intended for God.

The church has long addressed the pagan origins of Christmas, highlighting its roots in ancient, non-Christian traditions. This concern extends to the recognition that such holidays, though Christianized, carry elements of Babylon's wicked ways, which God warns His people to avoid. The voice from heaven urges, "Come out from her," emphasizing that true followers should not partake in these practices to escape the associated punishments.

Christmas, with its deep-rooted pagan origins, traces back over 4,000 years to Mesopotamia, where it began as a festival renewing the world for another year. This celebration included the twelve days of Christmas, bright fires, likely the yule log, gift-giving, carnivals with floats, merrymaking, clowning, mummers singing and playing from house to house, feasting, and church processions with lights and song, all marking the arrival of a new year long before the birth of Christ. Ancient customs from Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans became integral to Christmas celebrations, with early Europeans hanging fur sprigs and winter greenery to renew life and protect against cold Arctic winds, and burning yule logs even before learning of the Christ child. The ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a week-long event of drunken revelry, role reversal, gift-giving, and human sacrifice in honor of Saturn, with December 25th marking the day the sun was at its lowest ebb. Around 375 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine imposed a form of Christianity on his empire, yet the church fathers faced an invasion of pagan customs as Saturnalia's habits proved too strong to abandon. Despite initial prohibitions, the church eventually incorporated the merriment, greenery, lights, and gifts of Saturn into the celebration of the Babe of Bethlehem, allowing pagan Romans to become Christians while Saturnalia persisted. During the Middle Ages, ancient Roman customs were maintained and augmented by heathen rites of the Teutonic peoples, adding the yule log from sun worship bonfires and mistletoe, a parasite symbolizing sex worship in Druid rites, to the festivities.

Satan's counterfeit 'holy day' Christmas is steeped in pagan origins that deceive many. The term yule, meaning infant or little child in Chaldean, was tied to the ancient Babylonian celebration on December 25th, known as Yule Day or the birth of the promised child day. This day marked the birth of the incarnate sun, depicted as a baby child redeeming a world in darkness, central to the Babylonian belief in the Sun god, also called Baal, as the chief deity. Tammuz, worshipped as the god incarnate or promised baby son of Baal, was seen as the savior of the world. Various elements associated with Christmas, such as the Christmas tree, decorations, gift-giving, and festive foods, carry pagan connotations that trace back to these ancient practices. Satan cunningly uses these celebrations, particularly targeting our children, to perpetuate guilt and tradition, drawing even God's people into these customs. Many feel compelled to observe Christmas for the sake of their kids and grandkids, despite knowing its pagan roots, as Satan exploits human love for family to maintain participation in these deceptive 'holy days.' God calls His people to separate from such pagan activities, recognizing the subtle and powerful ways satan works to ensnare through familial bonds and societal pressures.

Christmas, with its widespread celebration across the globe, reveals a striking incorporation of pagan origins into Christian practice. Despite its absence from biblical texts, this festival is embraced not only by Christians but also by some Jews and even in nations far removed from Christian influence, such as Japan, where Shintoism predominates. The global appeal of Christmas often prioritizes commercial interests over religious significance, a fact that many dismiss or ignore. The pagan roots of Christmas are acknowledged by some clergy, yet often shrugged off as harmless. However, this syncretistic inclusion dilutes the purity of God-given religion, leading to a broader tolerance of practices not sanctioned by Scripture. God explicitly warns against adding to His worship traditions of the heathen, as seen in Deuteronomy 12:29-31, emphasizing that such additions hinder the journey to His Kingdom. Historically, Christmas was integrated into Christianity not as a reflection of true faith, but as a strategic move to win converts from paganism, a deliberate grab for power. Far from promoting the true God, Christmas has led people away from the truth, embodying a tradition that Scripture, in I Peter 1:18, says we are redeemed from. This festival, lacking divine authority, stands as part of a world that opposes God's way, and continuing to observe it, despite knowing its origins, is to practice a lie, contrary to the clear commands in Scripture not to add to or subtract from His Word.

The pagan origins of Christmas are easily researched in any good encyclopedia, which shows that the timing and trappings of this celebration long predate Christianity. December 25 has been a focal point of sun worship for many millennia. The pagan origins of this day are so well documented that the real question is what business Christians have in trying to Christianize something that has been blatantly anti-God from the very beginning. Christmas involves replacing the true worship of God with a false one. The Bible does not specify when Jesus Christ was born. More importantly, the Bible does not give any instruction in celebrating His birth, nor any example of the first-century church doing so, nor any indication that the celebration of birthdays is pleasing to God at all. Even this idea has come from paganism rather than from God's Instruction Book for mankind. Human nature has the rebellious proclivity to do only what it wants to do even when told by God Himself to do things differently. On one pole are the secularists who believe the lie that God should not be a part of their lives. On the other pole are the Christians who believe the lie that syncretism is an acceptable form of worship. In either case the trail of lies indicates who the real holiday spirit is.

Many Christmas customs derive from pre-Christian heathen pagan idolatrous traditions and practices. Santa Claus originates from a fourth-century Saint Nicholas of Myra known for piety and generosity. The true biblical story of Jesus' birth has been syncretized into a non-Christian festival obscured by a wrong date and a phony crèche scene.

Christmas has a non-Christian background as a syncretistic blend of pagan rites and Christian themes. Two key figures in its origin are Nimrod, a great grandson of Noah, and his mother and wife, Semiramis, also known as Ishtar and Isis. Nimrod, known in Egypt as Osiris, was the founder of the first world empire at Babel, later known as Babylon. After Nimrod's death, Semiramis promoted the belief that he was a god. She claimed that she saw a full-grown evergreen tree spring out of the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new life for Nimrod. On the anniversary of his birth, which fell on the winter solstice at the end of December, she said Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts under it. A few years later Semiramis bore a son, Horus or Gilgamesh, whom she declared to be Nimrod reincarnated. With a father, mother and son deified, a deceptive, perverted trinity was formed. Semiramis and Horus were worshipped as Madonna and child. As the generations passed, they were worshipped under other names in different countries and languages. During the time between Babel and Christ, pagans developed the belief that the days grew shorter in early winter because their sun-god was leaving them. When they saw the length of the day increasing, they celebrated by riotous, unrestrained feasting and orgies. This celebration, known as Saturnalia, was named after Saturn, another name for Nimrod. Many historical sources show that Christmas was not observed by Christians from Christ's time to about AD 300. Saturnalia (December 17-24) and Brumalia (December 25) continued as a pagan celebration by the Romans well into the fourth century. In the fourth century the emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and changed Sabbath keeping from the seventh to the first day of the week. Sunday was the day he had worshipped the sun as his god. This made it easier for the Romans to call their pagan December 25th winter solstice festival, in which they had celebrated the birth of the sun god, the birthday of the Son of God. The birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the Invincible Sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome. Only in the fifth century did the Roman Catholic Church order that the birth of Christ be observed on December 25, the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, the sun god. They renamed this day Christmas. In AD 596 Pope Gregory I dispatched the monk Augustine to England as a missionary. The Pope had decreed that whatever pagan practices were not of themselves evil should be blended with Christianity. In Britain the 25th of December was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity. When the Normans invaded England in 1066, they introduced other pagan ceremonies into the English celebration of Christmas. By the early 1700s German and Dutch settlers had brought the pagan custom of the gift-bringing St. Nicholas and the Christmas tree with them. Christmas was primarily celebrated in their settlements. German mercenaries, fighting on the British side in the War of Independence, raised Christmas trees in their camps. In 1823 Santa Claus acquired national fame in the United States as a result of a poem. In 1836 Christmas first became an American legal holiday in the state of Alabama. Soon one state after another legalized this pagan festival. Today the U.S. celebrates this 4000-year-old festival as a national holiday with gift-giving and riotous, unrestrained feasting and drinking, in a manner similar to the celebrations in the ancient world.

The date of December 25 to celebrate Christ's birth was chosen to conform to the old pagan Roman holidays called Saturnalia and Brumalia. The ancient Romans kept these holidays around the time of the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. The Roman emperor Aurelian fixed December 25 for the winter solstice holiday in AD 274. Early Christians adopted this day for their Christ-mass so that they would be less conspicuous in the observance of their holiday. Most scholars believe that the birthday of Jesus was never known and that the December date was chosen solely for convenience. The earliest known observance of Christmas on December 25 was the year AD 336 in Rome. Almost everywhere in Europe the period around the winter solstice was celebrated with lights to celebrate the increase of sunlight to come and with greenery usually evergreens to represent the coming of spring and eternal cycles of growth. At the Saturnalia festival Romans would present each other with sprigs of holly as gifts for the holiday. When Teutonic tribes began to usurp power from the Romans in Europe they brought their Yule or winter feast traditions with them. The Yule log and wassailing are two of these traditions. The origin of the Christmas tree is usually traced to Saint Boniface who in the eighth century persuaded the Teutonic tribes to abandon the worship of the sacred oak of Odin a remnant of Druidism and to confer it instead on the fir a more appropriate symbol of Jesus and eternal life. Trees however have been used in pagan idolatrous worship for many thousands of years. Numerous references to this can be found throughout the Old Testament. Surprisingly Christmas was not celebrated in New England until a hundred years ago. The Puritans were suspicious of its pagan origins. Likewise Charles II abandoned the practice of Christmas in England in 1644.

Many elements of Christmas celebrations such as erecting Christmas trees, burning yule logs, hanging mistletoe, and putting up twinkling house lights have no biblical foundation and hail from paganism. Santa Claus blends the fourth-century Saint Nicolas with old Germanic and Scandinavian traditions that probably have their roots in Odin worship, and his eight reindeer likely derive from Odin's eight-footed horse, Sleipnir. One theory holds that December 25 is borrowed from Roman paganism, particularly the Saturnalia festival kept in late December. In 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, on December 25. From the mid-fourth century on, Christians deliberately adapted and Christianized pagan festivals, and this change is blamed on Constantine, who converted in AD 312.

Christmas traces its origins back to ancient Rome. The Romans observed a winter festival called Saturnalia marked by gift giving and feasting near the winter solstice around December 21st. A few hundred years later the Germanic people contributed yuletide. Yuletide added evergreen trees and lights to overcome darkness and evil spirits. This was a 12-day celebration starting around December 20th and ending near the modern New Year. Yuletide marked the return of the sun. As Christianity spread through Europe the Catholic Church could not stop its members from observing these pagan traditions. The church therefore blended in the concept of the birth of Jesus Christ the Son on December 25th. Santa Claus is modeled after Odin the god of the Norse people. Christmas lights stem from warding off evil spirits.

Many people today equate sincerity and zeal with truth, yet they reject the knowledge God provides and establish their own forms of righteousness. This pattern appears clearly in the widespread observance of Christmas. The holiday originated as a syncretistic blend of pagan rites and later Christian themes. Romans continued celebrating Saturnalia from December 17 to 24 and Brumalia on December 25 well into the fourth century. In 274 AD the emperor Aurelian dedicated a temple to the sun god and proclaimed December 25 the birthday of Sol Invictus. During the fourth century the Roman church assigned the birth of Christ to this same date, renaming the old feast Christmas. Historical sources confirm that no observance of Christ's birth occurred among Christians from the first to the fourth century, and Scripture itself neither commands nor records any such celebration. The customs surrounding the day further demonstrate its pagan character. Gift exchanges, emphasis on a mother and child, and the winter-solstice festival all derive from pre-Christian practices rather than from biblical instruction. These traditions distract from the Father-Son relationship Scripture emphasizes and promote self-gratification through drunkenness, gluttony, and materialism. The resulting increase in crime and moral disorder reveals the spiritual source behind the observance. God explicitly forbids adopting the worship customs of other nations and adding to or subtracting from His commands. Because Christmas rests on falsehood rather than truth, sincere participation in it constitutes zeal without knowledge and leads participants to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting to the righteousness God has revealed.

People return to Christmas after leaving God's church because they prioritize human reasoning and personal desires over divine truth. A Protestant writer acknowledges that Christmas customs carry pagan roots, including the ancient midwinter celebration of a mother goddess with a child, trees, and mistletoe, which produce spiritual confusion, yet she defends the holiday by claiming it can still honor God's sovereignty when observed with proper motives. This position contradicts itself, for the date of December 25 originated in Roman pagan festivals such as Saturnalia and Brumalia, later aligned with the winter solstice and the birth of the sun god Sol Invictus under Aurelian and Constantine. The Roman church adopted this day in the fourth and fifth centuries, renaming it Christmas while retaining the idolatrous practices. Scripture demonstrates that God hates lying and finds mixtures of truth and falsehood abominable. Christ identifies Himself as the one who bears witness to the truth, and only those who love truth hear His voice. Paul warns that those who suppress the truth exchange it for the lie and worship the creature rather than the Creator. Jeremiah condemns trusting in lying words while mixing pagan rites with worship of the Lord, and Revelation depicts Babylon's cup filled with abominations. Such syncretism destroys truth, as seen when Aaron proclaimed an unauthorized feast to the Lord or when Israel inquired after the ways other nations served their gods. Christmas therefore turns hearts from God by encouraging the works of the flesh—greed, drunkenness, and self-gratification—while God's holy days produce the fruit of the Spirit. True worship must begin with God and rest solely on the revelation of His inspired Word rather than human traditions. Adding or subtracting from what God commands violates His explicit instruction and separates worshipers from Him.

Christmas originated through the syncretism of pagan practices into Christianity. Two key figures in its origin are Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah and founder of the Babylonian empire, and his mother and wife Semiramis. After Nimrod's death around 2167 BC, Semiramis propagated the belief that he had become a spirit being, claiming that a full-grown evergreen tree sprang from the roots of a dead tree stump to symbolize his new life. Semiramis and Nimrod were worshipped as the first mother and child deities, with their names varying across cultures as Isis and Osiris in Egypt, Fortuna and Jupiter in Rome, and Venus and Pan in Greece. Pagans and sun worshippers developed the belief that shorter days meant their sun-god was departing, leading to a celebration of unrestrained feasting and orgies when days lengthened. This festival, known as Saturnalia after the sun-god Saturn (another name for Nimrod), ran from about December 17-24, with Brumalia on December 25. No Christians observed Christmas from the time of Christ through the fourth century AD. During the fourth century, after Constantine claimed conversion and shifted worship to Sunday, the Roman Catholic Church assigned Christ's birth to December 25, the date of the pagan feast honoring Sol, the sun-god. In AD 596 Pope Gregory I instructed that pagan practices not inherently evil be blended with Christianity. By the fifth century the Roman Catholic Church mandated observance of Christ's birth on December 25. This blending continued through later centuries, incorporating fertility ceremonies and other pagan elements, until Christmas became a legal holiday in the United States in 1836 and spread as a national festival marked by feasting and drinking. Traditions such as the Christmas tree, representing eternal life, and round wreaths, symbolizing the self-renewing sun, persist from these origins, as do customs like giving dolls that once represented human sacrifices to Saturn or Baal. The account presents Christmas as a direct result of compromise that syncretizes biblical truth with error, producing confusion and a distorted system of belief. It illustrates how seemingly minor accommodations weaken convictions and lead to greater departure from the faith once delivered, urging separation from such mixtures to preserve the simplicity of devotion to Christ.

Christmas is not found in the Bible but was an early Catholic Church absorption of the widespread heathen winter solstice festival, the Roman Saturnalia, which fell on December 25 under the old calendar before the calendar drifted. That festival originally celebrated the rebirth of the sun, when days began lengthening again. Church leaders assigned Jesus' birth to this date without any authority or proof, hoping to ease the conversion of pagan multitudes by putting a Christian face on an existing holiday. Celebrating it as the Savior's birthday is therefore called an extravagant lie. Scripture points instead to an autumn birth. Shepherds were still keeping flocks in the fields by night (Luke 2:8), which was unusual in the rainy winter season. John the Baptist's birth, six months before Jesus, can be placed in spring by the priestly course of Abijah (Luke 1:5). The census (Luke 2:1-5) was best conducted after the harvests and during the fall festivals, when people could travel to their home cities. The exact date, however, is not ultimately significant. What matters is why Christ came and who He is, and the world's yearly picture of a baby in a manger is woefully inadequate.

Christmas is not commanded in Scripture, and Christ says nothing about memorializing His birth annually; the Bible teaches that the day of death is more important than the day of birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1), and Christ's death matters more for salvation than His birth (Romans 5:6-21). Christianity's acceptance of Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and similar unbiblical practices is blamed partly on Nicolaitanism, which Christ hates (Revelation 2:6, 15). Nicolaitanism is traced to Nicolas of Antioch, a Hellenist from a syncretistic, multicultural city, whose teaching on contempt for the flesh evolved into a Gnostic, antinomian philosophy that treated physical conduct as irrelevant. Revelation 2:14-15 links it with the doctrine of Balaam, which promoted idolatry and sexual immorality, as the same lawless heresy under different guises. This antinomian spirit, a Hellenistic influence, removed God's law as a pillar of Christian life and opened the church to pagan practices. Both Catholicism and Protestantism are shaped by it, Protestantism more so through its rejection of lawkeeping as legalism. The Worldwide Church of God's doctrinal changes illustrate the pattern: after abandoning the Sabbath and God's law, it began worshiping on Sunday and encouraging Christmas and Easter. Christ warns that this lawlessness will persist until His return, and the remedy is holding fast to God's truth and commandments.

Christmas is cited as one of two prominent examples—alongside Easter—of practices with clear pagan origins that gradually infiltrated the worship of the Protestant world, illustrating how the broader theme of tolerance toward sin has been advanced within professing Christianity. At one time, the Protestant world refused to allow practices rooted in paganism to enter its worship of God, recognizing that Christmas and Easter, along with other pagan customs, were unacceptable deviations from biblical standards. These observances were first permitted only in small ways, but over time they became so thoroughly embraced that they are now celebrated with the same enthusiasm the pagans themselves once displayed. The situation has reversed so completely that those who keep Christmas now expect tolerance from others, and even regard the rejection of such festivities as the deviation needing to be excused. This shift is presented as a case study in how something as blatantly pagan as Christmas could be accepted by a professing Christian world that claims to worship Jesus Christ, despite both biblical and secular evidence proving that such claims about the holiday's origins are false. The explanation offered is that Satan, working through unbelieving and deceived men, has gradually eroded the seriousness of sin over a period spanning more than a century. His strategy involved undermining the importance of God to human life while simultaneously softening attitudes toward sin, with attacks launched not only in churches and schools but planted earlier at the source—in seminaries and universities that trained the pastors and teachers who would later shape congregations and students. The acceptance of Christmas is thus tied directly to the larger issue of tolerance being twisted to resemble love. Worldly churches are described as making worship accommodations to pagan beliefs and practices, such as Christmas, in order to attract attendance and increase income, without recognizing that in doing so they are effectively "dancing with the Devil." This accommodation is framed as incompatible with genuine biblical love, since true love cannot make sin—including the incorporation of pagan customs into worship—appear to be an acceptable deviation from God's standards. The pursuit of God's love and the acceptance of worldly practices cannot be reconciled, since God and the world move in fundamentally different directions. Ultimately, the embrace of Christmas exemplifies the broader danger of multiculturalism's takeover of morality, where all values are treated as equal regardless of their source. Just as sin is a deviation from God's standards, so pagan practices like Christmas represent a deviation from proper worship, yet both have been normalized under the guise of tolerance. The warning drawn from Colossians 2:8 against being cheated "through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men" applies directly to this development, reinforcing the call to resist a tolerant, compromising approach to worship and morality that ultimately serves as a step into the world rather than an escape from it.

Christmas appears within a broader discussion of Israel's fifth sinful cause for God's judgment in Hosea 8: the construction of false altars. Hosea had already shown Israel's folly in seeking help from man rather than God; now he exposes the folly of trying to secure blessing through elaborate shows of religious devotion that God never authorized. In Hosea 8:11, God condemns Ephraim for multiplying altars, altars that became occasions for sin rather than true worship, since God had appointed only one altar, at Jerusalem, where He would accept sacrifice. Multiplying altars, or setting up worship contrary to that single authorized place, was itself a multiplication of sin. These altars were false not necessarily because they were dedicated to another god outright, but because they wrongly added human invention and ceremonial tradition to Israel's worship, thereby corrupting true devotion to God. This pattern is drawn forward as a direct parallel to modern professing Christianity. Churches, symbols, and holidays claiming to represent God and Christ but lacking scriptural authorization are identified as the modern equivalent of Israel's false altars, since they follow the traditions of men rather than God's instructions. Among the pagan-origin symbols listed as adopted into supposedly Christian worship are the crucifix, the fish, Christmas trees, yule logs, rabbits, eggs, and the sun. Christmas itself is specifically identified as descending from the ancient pagan festivals of Brumalia and Saturnalia, in which the rising of the bright sun was worshiped as being reborn, yet this observance has been renamed after Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is characterized as hypocrisy and apostasy, the same charge leveled against ancient Israel, which multiplied false worship while believing it was honoring the true God. The broader point drawn from this is that Israel's guilt in Hosea's day was not outright rejection of God in favor of foreign deities, but a more subtle corruption: continuing to claim His name while worshiping Him through humanly devised rituals and forms He never sanctioned. Just as Aaron's golden calf was intended by him as a representation of the Lord's strength yet became functional idolatry, so professing Christian holidays such as Christmas, along with Easter and Halloween, are presented as instances where people believe they honor God while actually perpetuating pagan worship under a Christian label. The excuse that one views such observances "from a Christian perspective" is rejected as insufficient before God, who does not accept hypocrisy and deceit in worship. This discussion is tied to the chapter's larger theme that Israel's forgetting of God, described in Hosea 8:14, produced these five specific sins, including false altars, and that this same pattern of hypocrisy and apostasy is repeating in the modern Israelitish nations. Since God's response to ancient Israel's corrupted worship was judgment and punishment, the same consequence is anticipated for nations today that persist in similar unauthorized religious practices, including the observance of Christmas as a pagan-derived tradition wrongly attached to the worship of Christ.

When Nancy and I began questioning our Catholic upbringing and searching the Scriptures for truth, we discovered that many customs of mainstream Christianity were not biblical practices but traditions of men, unpleasing to God. One of the clearest examples of this was Christmas. As we studied Jeremiah chapter 10, we came to understand that the Christmas tree custom described there was pagan in origin, and upon recognizing this, we stopped putting up a Christmas tree. However, we continued observing Christmas itself for another year before fully removing it from our practice, illustrating that our understanding and obedience grew gradually rather than all at once. This experience with Christmas was part of a broader pattern in which Nancy and I, still spiritually unlearned and without the guidance of an organized church group, began applying truths as we came to understand them. Around the same time we discovered Easter was likewise a pagan custom and stopped observing it. We were led, through a friend affiliated with the Worldwide Church of God, to booklets and study materials that revealed these traditions conflicted with God's ways, along with the warning that once such truths were known, we became responsible to act on them. This recognition regarding Christmas and Easter served as an early step in a larger journey toward keeping God's Sabbath and eventually being baptized into the Body of Christ. The account of abandoning Christmas customs functions within a larger testimony of how God guided Nancy and me, even before we had a relationship with Him through His Spirit, entirely by His own initiative and sovereignty. Just as He led Israel through the wilderness, testing them and providing for them so that they would know it was not their own power but His hand at work, God was quietly and providentially moving us toward obedience, using ordinary circumstances, friendships, and even our own confused reasoning to draw us to greater faithfulness. The eventual rejection of both Christmas and Easter observance stands as tangible evidence of this process: as we came to recognize the pagan roots of these customs, we responded in obedience, however imperfectly and gradually, and God continued to bless and correct us as we grew. This part of our story reinforces the sermon's central theme, that God individually and providentially shapes each of us for eventual inclusion in His Family, working through trial, testing, and progressive understanding. Just as the Israelites were tested and taught to associate their blessings with obedience to God's commandments, our early recognition of the pagan customs surrounding Christmas and Easter marked a formative stage of maturing awareness, teaching us to distinguish God's truth from the traditions of men and preparing us for deeper commitments, such as Sabbath-keeping, that would follow.