Can we be certain that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th? The Bible gives no exact date for His birth, so why celebrate on a date tied to pagan traditions? 🎄
The first recorded instance of December 25th being celebrated as Christ's birth comes from a Roman calendar in AD 336, long after it was used to celebrate Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (the “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun”). This date is speculated to have origins in ancient Babylon (approx. 2000 BC), marking the birth of Tammuz, and is celebrated after a woman’s typical gestation period following the pagan fertility festival of Easter. By aligning Christ’s birth with this pagan festival, we risk blending the worship of God with sun worship, which the Bible condemns (Romans 1:25).
Let’s also remember the abominable practices described in Ezekiel 8:16-18, where the people were worshipping the sun in God’s temple—an act of rebellion against God. As Ecclesiastes 1:9 reminds us, “There is nothing new under the sun”, and such practices persist even today.
Additionally, Jeremiah 10:2-5 warns against the customs of the nations, such as cutting, fastening in place and decorating trees with silver and gold—practices still reflected in today’s December 25th tradition. This mirrors an ancient pagan ritual that elevates the tree to the status of an idol.
In Deuteronomy 12:29-32, God specifically commands His people not to adopt the worship practices of other nations, emphasizing that worship must align with His word in Bible scripture, not with man-made traditions.
If you love the LORD God, flee from this pagan festival and don’t justify it for the sake of family. Jesus said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37 ESV).
We are commanded to worship God in spirit and truth. If the world or your family opposes you, rejoice, for your reward in heaven will be great. As they persecuted the prophets, so they will persecute you. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, to Him be the glory, now and forever.
The Apostles knew Christ, thousands of people knew who He was, Christianity blossomed rapidly while the Apostles were still alive. Early Christianity would have known when to celebrate the birth of the Lord.
"But the earliest record is 300 years later" all the records are three centuries later, every writing we have is 300 years after Christ. The Church was underground and persecuted before that point, no earlier documents have survived.
It's like saying "Are we sure those people in 2024 actually knew when the Declaration of Independence was signed?" There are still people alive with familial stories and direct connection to the event. It's not possible to have mass tricked the entire United States into the wrong date in a such a short period of time.
The same would have been true in 330 AD. If what was written in 336 AD was wrong, it would have been immediately disputed in 337 AD, and we would have an actual record. Instead we have pure consensus for 1700 years of recorded history.
But is there not a connection between what is written in the bible and the dating?
We know the Annunciation is celebrated on March 24th, and they just added 9 months flat to arrive at Dec 24th.
We know John the Baptists Birthday is celebrated on June 24th and Mary visited Elizabeth on the day of the Annunciation and Elizabeth was said to be exactly 6 months pregnant.
Also, the book of Chronicles talks all about the 24 priestly divisions and when each would serve based on the lunisolar calandar. Zacharias is talking with Gabriel in the temple about Elizabeth being able to have a baby 9 months before June 24th...
Zacharias would have been in charge of Sukkot in 2 BC and I am fairly certain in you check the lunisolar calandar, Sukkot started on Sep 24th in 2BC.
Yes if you know at least one of the dates, the other two can be inferred.
I believe this is where the original argument came from, neither date is actually in the Word, and since the inference between the dates is in exact months, one or all dates "must" be fabricated.
Unfortunately for the doubters, this simply illuminates that there are actually three dates in the Christian tradition of the third century that must be proven false to dismantle the 25th of December.
Yes, there are many who want to connect Christianity to something Pagan, like the OP. Historical record is clear that the December festival of note was Saturnalia and that was over long b4 the 25th and as noted, the Emperor was pushing BACK against already existing Christian celebrations when he essentially fabricated his own 'Pagan Christmas."
I wonder if praying or bowing or singing means Christians are Pagan... cuz well... Pagans bowed and sung and prayed...😆.
"Early Christianity would have known when to celebrate the birth of the Lord."
They chose not to celebrate this event, rather other things, like Easter.
Celebrating birthdays was the emperors and kings to laude themselves, ordinary people didn't celebrate birthdays until modern times. At the time of the apostles, to celebrate Jesus' birthday would be a different meaning than today.
Got any evidence for that? They celebrated many events throughout the year, not just the resurrection.
And the King of Kings? The entire concept of the gift giving is because of the magi who came and celebrated his birth, as well there were heavenly hosts singing in the sky for the shepherds. Celebrating the birth of Christ is in the scripture itself. You'll need to provide some pretty strong evidence that early Christians did not do so.
This is a pointless argument since the known celebrations of Christmas go back significantly farther than "modern times." Ordinary people were celebrating Christmas 17 centuries ago for absolute certainty. Whether they celebrated their own birthdays is entirely moot.
Your "argument" is pointless.
Here's some information on pagan celebrations of birthdays. https://1stcenturychristian.com/Birthdays.html
Nice of you to completely sidestep and ignore everything I said while doubling down. Comes across as very loving and Christian of you.