The Christmas Spirit is a False Spirit

By The Late Apostle Bishop S.C. Johnson

One of the earliest references we find for elevating the 25th of December as a holiday was in the sixth century B.C. by followers of a pagan religious sect called Zoroastrians. This pagan cult was founded by Zoroaster about 500 B.C. in the Medes and Persian Empire. They celebrated the 25th of December by a ceremony of washing themselves with supposed holy water, burning of incense and chanting what they termed sacred music. This was in adoration of the sun. They approximated the date of the winter solstice marking the return of the sun from his long journey south of the equator, believing it to be, somewhat, the birthday of the sun and thought this day signified the revival of the sun's lifegiving benefits to man. We find this celebration carried over hundreds of years afterwards in the late Roman Empire since the sun worshippers of Rome conducted ceremonies to the sun called Brumalia following the Saturnalia (December 17th to 24th) celebrating the shortest day in the year and the new sun or the beginning of the lengthening days. It can plainly be seen that there is no scriptural reference to this date or season since it finds its roots in pagan sun worship; thus clearly showing, the celebration of the 25th day of December was practiced at least 500 years before Christ was born. Therefore, we see that Christ's birth had nothing to do with this date.

This sun worship was too deeply entrenched in the custom of people to be set aside by the backsliding Christians of the Catholic church.

They united the birth of Jesus with the celebration of the sun. The pagan festival to the sun during the late Roman Empire, with its riot and merry making, was so popular that so-called Christians were glad for an opportunity to indulge in it without change of spirit and manner. This festival took great hold of the people and in the 16th century when the so-called Prostestant revolution or reformation was at its climax, while denouncing some of the Catholic practices, they yet clung closely to this pagan festival. Here again is the influence of the heathens or pagans and Jeremiah warned God's people to "Learn not the way of the heathens." You must remember that the Christmas festival was not celebrated until all of the Apostles died and error crept into the church. Now, in 800 A.D. we found an organization weak and backslidden from the truth, and as pagan as pagans themselves.

They tried to combine Zacharias' statement of the month or the day of the event with the "sixth month" mentioned in connection with the annunciation to Mary. This has given no assured results. Hippolytus seems to have been the first to fix Christ's birth on December 25th. By calculating nine months from the annunciation or conception, he arrived at December 25th as the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no evidence that our Lord's birthday was celebrated during the Apostolic Age or early Apostolic times. An uncertainty existed at the beginning of the third century. Hippolytus and others favored January 2nd, Clement of Alexandria May 20th, while others, according to Clement, fixed the date on April 18th or 19th and March 28th, thus proving that no Christmas festival had been established much before the middle of the century. The earliest records of the recognition of December 25th as a church festival is 836 A.D. in Rome.

Chrysostom stated that the celebration of the birth of Christ "according to the flesh" was not inaugurated at Antioch until about 376, that this festival, approved by himself, was opposed by many. It was celebrated in Alexandria as early as 482; in Jerusalem church it was celebrated January 6th.

The uncertainty of all these dates discredits the computation set at December 25th. Also, we should remember that Constantines, the pagan Emperor of Rome had declared himself ruler both of the Roman Empire and head of the so-called church; and eleven years after he had declared and organized the Catholic Church, one of the biggest errors that hatched out of those liars' mouths was the Christmas celebration. Another thing to remember is that before Constantine's reported conversion, he was a member of this same sun worshippers' cult, and he did everything he could to unite his pagan and so-called Christian subjects.

Santa Claus came from the German pagan "good elf" of the forest who was said to give gifts. He is associated with Saint Nicholas, a Catholic Bishop who dressed in a long robe, had a white beard, and gave gifts to the children in his parish who had been good. We get the name from the Dutch settlers in America when trying to pronounce Saint Nicholas in English.

So you see the entire Christmas festival has derived from either the pagan or Catholic worship, both are one and the same. It cannot be found anywhere in the Bible and anyone is a liar if he says it can be found. I defy any preacher anywhere in the world to prove by the scripture that it is right to celebrate Christmas. I am persuaded to say along with Jeremiah, "Learn not the way of the heathen...for the custom of the people is vain."