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Should Christians Observe Christmas?
Bible study on Christmas.

Since we are individually accountable to the Lord, we must individually make decisions concerning religion and religious practices. To simply allow others, in essence, to make decisions concerning our religious beliefs and practices is to blindly put our trust in the fallible human race.

Church practices surrounding the observance of Christmas throughout the United States is varied. Some churches have adult drinking parties in their buildings while others have no festivities. Some individuals observe Christmas as a religious command from God while others believe that saying the words "Christmas" and "Santa Clause" is sin.

I remember the first time I informed someone that the word "Christmas" was not in the Bible - he did not believe me. This person had participated in many church services observing Christmas and heard verses read from the Bible. He had assumed that Christmas must have been instituted by God and was in the Bible. But the fact is that the word "Christmas" appears no where in the Bible nor was it an ordained church observance by an inspired apostle.

If you have not researched the origin and history of Christmas to determine your position, you can reference any good adult encyclopedia. The date of Christ's birth has been disputed throughout the centuries alleging dates in practically every calendar month. It is improbable that Christ was born in the winter since shepherds were living in the fields keeping watch over their flocks (Lk. 2:8); therefore, many popular dates hold that the birth of Christ must have been sometime other than December.

The exact date of Christmas (ie. the mass of Christ) was finally set in A.D. 440 as December 25th. This date was chosen to replace the pagan worship of sun gods and the winter solstice festivals throughout much of the world. For several centuries, history records that Christmas was observed in the Catholic Church solely in religious church services. But as the practice spread, pagan practices such as trees, lights, decorations, mistletoe, giving presents, yule logs, and merrymaking originating from sun worshipping were mixed with Christmas traditions. Therefore, many Christmas traditions, as they exist today, ironically predate Christianity and the birth of Christ.

Well, you must answer this question for yourself: Should Christians observe Christmas? For me, I am not going to add holidays or observances of any type originating from men and pagan sun worshipping to the worship of the church. This includes the observance of Christmas as well as other holidays such as Halloween. Apart from the church, I personally observe Christmas as any other national holiday - no different from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, or St. Patrick's Day. In this rests my liberty: I may personally observe anything good and moral unto the Lord (Rom. 14). But the minute I make my liberty part of the work and worship of the Lord's church thereby transgressing the doctrine of Christ (I Cor. 4:6; II Jn. 9), I worship the Lord in vain - "teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9).