The Reason for the Season
By Nell Stevenson, Ontario

Editor’s Note: In a way, I love the feeling of Christmas, a time when goodwill and loving spirit seem a little more prevalent in people and despite the commercialism of the season, church attendance, hymns and carols seem to make many Christians more aware of the Lord Jesus Christ. In reality, we are fully aware He was not born on December 25th and that the celebration of His Presence amongst us has been totally diluted by the insane spending and party atmosphere encouraged through ingrained practices, intensely promoted by various forms of media. Unlike Ms. Stevenson, few of us have considered the season with much perception, but in reading her article, we should certainly sit up and take notice.

Sparkling lights, evergreen trees decorated in silver and gold, mistletoe and holly, gifts under the tree, crowded malls and good old Santa Claus all help to usher in our favourite season of the year. Many weeks of planning and shopping and scheduling will culminate in family dinners, gift exchanges, candlelight services and midnight mass.

For a month or more, shopping, food, and festivity are at the top of the agenda because “tis the season to be jolly”.

But, where is Christ in all this?

Millions are spent on parties and wines and home decorations. Tons of gifts and food will be collected for the “less fortunate,” who can’t afford to participate in the traditional celebrations. Santa Claus, offshoot of the revered Roman Catholic Saint Nicholas, does not come to the poor. Even the average well-to-do parent is hard pressed to meet his/her children’s expectations of the jolly elf; so disappointment, debt, stress, loneliness, depression and suicide, though not advertised, are also very real signs of the season.

Where is Christ in all this?

Christians of all denominations eager to promote the “spirit of Christmas,” join in the traditions because all is well as long as we keep the Christ in Christ-mas.

As a sincere Christian have you ever asked yourself, as I have,” What’s it all about, this season we call Christmas?” Why the big deal about Dec. 25th?

It does us well to look into these things so we don’t “perish from lack of knowledge”.

As far back as 1250 B.C, it was already a big deal. You can guess that it had no relevance to the birth of Christ who was born some time in late September. No, that day was the birthday of the “unconquered sun,” a feast for the pagans of the time to honour Baal-Birith. In the book of Judges Chapter 8: we can find reference to this very abomination.

It was a Babylonish festival season similar to ours called “Yule.” There was merriment and gift giving. The Yule log in the hearth represented Nimrod cut down by his enemies. The evergreen tree set up the next day symbolized his rebirth and deification. Gifts to the deities were laid at the foot of the tree. Wax candles, a prominent feature in Babylonish worship, were put on the tree and lit to honour their gods-Adonis, Venus, Bacchus etc.

That in a nutshell is the unhappy truth about heathen tradition we are perpetuating. Then as now it was in conjunction with the winter solstice of Dec.22nd, the shortest day of the year. From then on the day’s light begins to slowly increase and hence the connection with the sun’s rebirth and festivities to glorify the sun.

The Bible reminds us to keep holy the Lord’s Day and none other. We have no biblical mandate to celebrate Christ’s birth, so, should we keep Christ in Christ-mas?

What exactly are we celebrating on the 25th of December, that day chosen by the Roman church to Christianize the pagan festival of the sun? What is this “mass of Christ” that Protestants who otherwise reject the Mass are happy to celebrate?

“Christ-mass” The very word is an invention of the Roman church and on Dec. 25th we unwittingly unite to celebrate the Mass, the sacrifice of the new law. Christ is the sacrificial victim crucified anew and offered as an un-bloody sacrifice. At the consecration the priests drink from the cup the blood of Christ. The faithful receive Christ by eating the bread wafer, believed to be the actual body of Christ. These things are not Scriptural and date back to the un-bloody sacrifices offered to Baal and Ashteroth, the sun god and the queen of heaven. These idolatrous pagan practices began in Babylon with the rebel Nimrod over 2000 years before Christ’s birth and have been allowed to infiltrate into the midst of God’s people and into His church to this very day.

There is no place for Christ amid this idolatry of Babylon. “Christmas” is not a biblical word! Christmas is not Scriptural! Saying “Merry” Christmas is like saying “Merry Crucifixion”. How bizarre!! Can these words even pass our lips now?

The Lord’s Supper and the Mass are totally different in origin, meaning and practice. Can we as Christians honestly celebrate the pagan festival of December, in which the name of Christ has been joined to the Mass in a blasphemous union called Christmas? How Satan must rejoice at seeing Christians participate in this counterfeit religious system with all its revelry and the evergreen tree as one of its revered symbols. Why has the very clear warning of Jeremiah 10 not been emphasized from the pulpits? “Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: one cutteth a tree out of the forest…They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.”

For the sake of fun and fitting in with society, will God’s people, the “salt of the earth” continue to perpetuate these pagan traditions and lies for the next generation?

Now that we know the reason for the season we may want to begin a new practice and sing in July or September? “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare him room!” “O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel!”

We need no other reason to sing these wonderful hymns of worship but to celebrate the Lord’s Day each week any season of the year.