Christmas was not celebrated nor commemorated in any way bythe apostles, nor was it celebrated in the apostolic church (notfor at least the first 300 years of church history)! Suchcelebration only came into the church with the"Christianization" of pagan rites as Catholicism wasmade the state religion by Constantine in the fourth century A.D.History reveals that by about 440 A.D., the Church at Jerusalemstarted celebrating Christmas, following the lead of RomanCatholicism (see below).
Seemingly forgotten is the essential role religion played in theworld of ancient Rome. But Constantine understood. A brilliantmilitary commander, he also had the genius to recognize the needfor a union between paganism and Christianity. Hence, theBabylonian mystery religions were introduced by Constantine in313 A.D. as he tried to incorporate the pagans into the newlyconstituted "Holy" Roman Empire. The Constantine-ledRoman Church was willing to adapt and adopt pagan practices inorder to make Christianity palatable to the heathen.
Thus, pagan rituals and idols took on Christian names. Forexample, Jesus Christ was presented as the Sun ofRighteousness (Malachi 4:2) replacing the sun god, Sol Invictus.Pagan holidays were reclassified as Christian holidays(holy-days). December 25th was the "Victory of theSun-God" Festival in the pagan Babylonian world, and acelebration of the Festival of Saturn (Saturnalia), or wintersolstice, in the ancient Roman Empire. To all ancient pagancivilizations, this date was the birthday of the gods -- the timeof year when the days began to lengthen and man was blessed witha "regeneration of nature." Moreover, all the December25th' Babylonian and Roman festivals were characterized bycelebration periods of unrestrained or orgiastic revelry andlicentiousness.
December 25th was particularly important in the cult of Mithras,a popular deity in the Old Roman Empire. Robert Myers (aproponent for celebrating Christmas) in his book Celebrationssays:
"Prior to the celebration of Christmas, December 25th in theRoman world was the Natalis Solis Invicti, theBirthday of the Unconquerable Sun. This feast, which took placejust after the winter solstice of the Julian calendar, was inhonor of the Sun God, Mithras, originally a Persian deity whosecult penetrated the Roman world in the first century B.C. ...Besides the Mithraic influence, other pagan forces were at work.From the seventeenth of December until the twenty-third, Romanscelebrated the ancient feast of the Saturnalia. ... It wascommemorative of the Golden Age of Saturn, the god of sowing andhusbandry."
But, as mentioned earlier, Christianity had to be made palatableto the heathen. So the Roman church simply took the Festival ofSaturnalia, adopted it into Christianity, and then eventuallymany of the associated pagan symbols, forms, customs, andtraditions were reinterpreted (i.e., "Christianized")in ways "acceptable" to Christian faith and practice.
Thus, by giving Christianity official status, Constantine broughtinternal peace to the Empire. The pagans flocked into theCatholic places of worship, because they were still able toworship their old gods, only now under different names. Itmattered not to them whether they worshiped the Goddess-motherand her Child under the old names (Isis and Horus), or under thenames of the "Virgin Mary" and the"Christ-child." Either way, it was the same oldidol-religion.
After the Reformation, godly Protestants in Europe wereabsolutely opposed to Christmas. It was despised by the Puritansand Non-conformists in England. In 1644, when the Puritanscontrolled the Parliament, it was declared that no observation of Christmas was to be had on December 25th, but,instead, it was to be observed as a normal market-day. It wascalled "the Profane Man's Ranting Day." At that time,troops would actually break up Christmas celebrations, tear downdecorations, and arrest anyone holding a service on that day!Some who celebrated it in Europe were also thrown into prison.
America's settlers ("Protestant America") rightfullyconsidered Christmas a "popish" holiday. In fact, itwas only in the early 1800s that several founding members of theNew York Historical Society "invented" Christmas.Before then, it was illegal in colonial Massachusetts to eventake December 25th off work. Christmas was forbidden as"unseemly to ye spiritual welfare of ye community."(Christmas was banned in Massachusetts in 1659, and this lawremained for about twenty years. In Boston, public schools stayedopen on December 25th until as late as 1870!) It wasn't until1836 that any state declared Christmas a holiday (Alabama), andthen there were no more state declarations until the Civil War.The so-called Christmas customs and traditions were laterconcocted more for commercial purposes than for religious.
Quoting from a 12/23/83 USA TODAY article aboutChristmas: "A broad element of English Christianity stillconsidered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans,Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and otherdenominations brought this opposition to early New England andstrong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until themiddle of the 18th century." Henry Ward Beecher, aCongregationalist, wrote in 1874 of his New England boyhood:"To me Christmas is a foreign day, and I shall die so. WhenI was a boy I wondered what Christmas was. I knew there was sucha time, because we had an Episcopal church in our town, and I sawthem dressing it with evergreens, and wondered what they weretaking the woods in the church for; but I got no satisfactoryexplanation. A little later I understood it was a Romishinstitution, kept by the Romish Church."
Today, the very popularity of Christmas should cause theChristian to be at least a little bit suspicious of it. Anyoneand everyone can celebrate Christmas without question -- outrightpagans, nominal Christians, and even Buddhists and Hindus. If, inreality, December 25th was a date set by God to remember thebirth of Jesus, you could be sure that the world would havenothing to do with it. After all, God has commanded one day in seven -- the Lord'sDay -- to worship Him. Does the world observe it?Of course not. It shuns anything pertaining to true religion. Butas expected, the world loves Christmas, all the while hating theLord Jesus Christ (Jn. 15:18,23-25).
Notwithstanding all of the above, in the end it all boils down to this -- nowherein Scripture are we commanded to commemorate the birth of our Lord. God theFather evidently deemed it unwise to make the date known. Hence,it will always remain unknown and is not to be remembered andcelebrated. In fact, God has warned us about getting entangledwith any special days (Gal. 4:10). Notice though, that we are commanded to remember Him in His death, but no special daywas specified for this either -- "Take, eat; this is my bodywhich is broken for you; this DO in remembrance of Me" (Luke22:18,19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
To commemorate His death is Scriptural. Any day of the year willdo. To commemorate His birth is non-Scriptural, evenextra-Scriptural (Deut. 12:32; Rev. 22:19), whether one choosesDecember 25th or any other day. The apostle Paul says: "Godforbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross [not the birth] of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). Wefind no salvation in the birth of our Lord, for salvation wasonly made possible through His death. Our faith should be in thecross, not in the cradle.
Perhaps we should contemplate the words of the late CharlesHaddon Spurgeon, delivered in a Lord's Day sermon on December 24,1871:
"We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons.Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiasticalarrangement called Christmas. First, because we donot believe in the mass at all, but abhor it,whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and secondly,because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing anyday as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, itsobservance is a superstition, because not of divine authority.Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior'sbirth, although there is no possibility of discovering when itoccurred. ... It was not 'till the middle of the third centurythat any part of the Church celebrated the nativity of our Lord;and it was not 'till very long after the Western Church had setthe example, that the Eastern adopted it. Because the day is notknown, therefore superstition has fixed it. ... where is themethod in the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact isthat the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with theheathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any dayin the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was notthe day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December.... Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanksfor the gift of His dear Son."
And from Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons: Or The PapalWorship:
"That Christmas is a pagan festival is beyond all doubt. Thetime of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is celebrated,prove its origin. Those who follow the custom of observingChristmas, follow not the Bible but pagan ceremonies."
Since Christmas is not a Biblical concept, why do you supposethat when it is exposed for what it really is, people areangered? It angers Protestant people! There is agood reason why it does so. When the pagan celebration ofChristmas is rooted up, and rejected, then what has become a Protestanttradition is, in effect, being rejected! And thatis why people become angry. It began as a Roman Catholic holyday, and then it became a Protestant holy day. And if anyonedares show it up for what it really is, they face the wrath ofthe Protestant religious machine. And these days, that can bevery ugly.
In summary, there is no Biblical warrant, precedent, nor preceptfor remembrance of the day of Christ's birth as a day of specialreligious celebration. This is not to say that we shouldn'tremember Christ's birth and its significance, but for religiouscommemorations or celebrations, we must have Biblical command orprecedent. Important to remember is the early church did notcelebrate Christ's birth, but such celebration only came into thechurch with the "Christianization" of pagan rites asCatholicism was made the state religion by Constantine in thefourth century A.D. Since the Word of God does not support thetradition of Christmas, a Christian's conscience ought not -- andmust not -- be bound.
[BDM has a booklet titled "Should aChristian Celebrate Christmas?" ($2.00, postpaid).In much greater detail than the above article, the report: (a)describes the Christianization of pagan customs, symbols, andterminology associated with Christmas; (b) details the Scripturalsupport against celebrating Christmas; (c) attempts todemonstrate that celebrating Christmas does not fall inthe realm of Christian liberty; and (d) attempts to debunk theseven major rationalizations (used by pragmatic theologian andlayman alike) for celebrating Christmas. This booklet also has aresource list from which both this article and the report wereprepared.]