Should Adventists celebrate Christmas?

Author:
ngel Manuel Rodrguez
Should Adventists celebrate Christmas?
Every year I receive letters or phone calls asking whether it is correct for Adventists to
celebrate Christmas. The uncertainty is usually based on the absence of any biblical
information about the date of Christs birth, and on the conviction that December 25
has been associated with a pagan festival. Let me provide some historical information
about the celebration of Christmas and say something about its significance.
1. Christmas and Adventists: Before I comment on the question, let me clarify that Adventists
are not, nor should we be, against Christmas. Why would we be against a period of time
when Christians remember the birth of our Savior? However, since this festivity is not
ordained by Scripture, we dont consider it to be binding on believers. We recognize only one
holy day, the Sabbath; and we keep it holy in obedience to our Creator and Redeemer.
2. Christmas and History: It is well known that the term Christmas is derived from the old
English word Christmesse, which means Christs Mass. The term originated during the
Middle Ages from the practice of having a midnight Mass on the eve of December 25 to
celebrate the birth of Christ. In other languages it is called Nativity (Latin, natalis) or
Holy Nights (German, Weihnachten).
The history of this Christian feast remains unclear. Historians have indicated that the nativity
feast began to be observed by Christians during the fourth century. Some Christians
calculated it based on the death of Christ taking place on March 25. It was then speculated
that He must have been born nine months before on December 25. Others placed the birth of
Jesus on March 25.
But the most common explanation is that Christmas is somehow connected with the Roman
cult of the Invincible Sun (Latin, Sol Invictus), the rebirth of the sun, which was celebrated on
December 25. This could explain the importance of lights during the celebration of the
Nativity, although light is also associated with Christ in the Scriptures (e.g., Luke 1:78, 79).
It is therefore common to hear it alleged that Christians adopted and adapted a pagan feast.
This is possible, but its difficult to demonstrate from available historical evidence.
3. Christmas and the Believer: We should acknowledge two facts: First, we do not know
why God, in His providence, chose not to preserve for us a record of the day of Jesus
birth. There is no need to speculate about this. Second, the fact is that the Christian world
celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25. We cannot change this, and there is no reason
to try to change it. Attempts to reject the feast are based on the absence of biblical evidence
and its possible connection with a pagan feast. Therefore, we should leave this matter to the
conscience of each individual.
Having said that, let me state again that there is absolutely nothing wrong with selecting any
particular time to meditate and reflect on the incarnation of our Savior. I would suggest that
during Christmas we could spend time thinking about the mystery of the Incarnation. It is a

mystery in that it testifies to the fact that the Son of God became flesh (John 1:14). The
Creator became a creature in order to save us from the power of sin and death.
The Nativity can also be understood as Gods gift to the human race; in His Son, God gave us
the most precious gift He could bestow on us. He was the bread of heaven freely given to us
by our heavenly Father (John 6:48-51).
But the Nativity is also a time of proclamation. That night angels proclaimed to shepherds the
good news: Do not be afraid. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you
(Luke 2:10, 11). We should join our voices with that of the angels and proclaim once more
throughout the planet the glorious news of peace and freedom from fear and through Christ,
the Lord. Christmas provides an excellent opportunity to remind the human race that the
Child born in Bethlehem is coming soon.
Copyright:
Copyright Biblical Research Institute General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Date:
12/10

Is Christmas pagan, Christian or just convenient?

Roman, early Christian history reveal roots of
December 25 celebration
Andrew Willis |
Is the celebration of Christmas on December 25 really a pagan custom that early Christians
borrowed?
Atheists often mock Christians for celebrating a "pagan" festival and some Christians decline
to celebrate Christmas, while others argue that regardless of its origins, Christmas is a good
evangelistic opportunity. Who is right?
To answer that question we need to go to North Africa at the end of the 3rd Century.
In AD 284, Diocletian became emperor. Under his rule, the early Christian church suffered
some of the harshest persecution in its history. Many Christians, including some church
leaders, renounced their faith in the face of persecution. Later, with the abdication of
Diocletian, persecution stopped in the West and Christians returned to a life of peace and
security. This left one problem: should those Christians who gave up their faith under duress
be allowed back? Could the leaders who left be allowed to take office again?
Following their Savior's example, the church said "yes," giving them the chance to start over.
In North Africa, however, there was a movement in the church that rejected this idea. There,
Christians believed that if members who'd turned their back on their faith were allowed back,
it would contaminate the church. They were concerned with the purity of the church and
wanted to avoid any pagan influences. This group became known as the "Donatists," named
after their leader Donatus.
What does this have to do with Christmas? The Donatists celebrated the birth of Jesus on
December 25. This group, who were studious in their avoidance of anything that even
resembled compromise with the world or hint of paganism, was following an old tradition of
remembering the birth of Jesus on the same date most Christians still celebrate today.
So where did some get the idea that celebrating on December 25 has pagan roots?
Some claim Christians borrowed the day from those who celebrated the winter solstice. But
the solstice is actually a few days earlier than Christmas. Some suggest that it's because of the
Saturnalia festival, but that runs from December 17 to 23.
Others claim it corresponds with sun worship, citing the festival of "Sol Invictus"
(Unconquered Sun) that Emperor Aurelian instituted on December 25 in AD 274. However,
upon closer examination, this was not a traditional day of sun worship. The two sun temples

in Rome celebrated their feasts on August 9 and 28, and even that had fallen into neglect by
the time of Aurelian. By then, the new sun god Mithras was growing popular.
Although long thought of as a development of eastern sun worship, historians now believe
Mithras worship to be a Roman invention -- a cult created by and for the imperial
bureaucracy. But even Mithras did not have any feasts associated with solstices or equinoxes
until a hundred years later.
So it appears that Aurelian, who was hostile to Christianity, picked a date with no pagan sun
worship and created one. Why? Some suggest that he was trying to create a pagan alternative
to another festival on that day to help unite his empire. That other festival was the celebration
of Jesus' birth. In fact, in spite of Aurelian's declaration, there is no record of celebrating Sol
Invictus on December 25 until AD 354/362, much later than the Christian celebration in
Africa and elsewhere.
It was only in the 17th and 18th Centuries that secular enlightenment scholars started to
suggest that Christianity had borrowed the date of Christmas from pagans.
Yet this leads to another problem. We know from the accounts of Jesus' birth in the gospels
that it was unlikely he was born in December, so why had the church chosen to celebrate it
then?
The answer is twofold: the date of Jesus' death, and Jewish tradition. For early Christians,
celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was very important. The church worked
hard to determine the date of this events, a calculation made more difficult by having to work
out which year it was, and which calendar to use -- Jewish or Roman. After much research,
the church in the West and Africa settled on March 25 as the date of Jesus' crucifixion.
This was important in determining the date of Jesus' birth because in Jewish tradition it was
thought that prophets died on the same day as they were born. This idea may seem strange to
us, but was understood and accepted by the early church. Jesus was different from the
prophets, however -- his life didn't start at his birth, rather it began when the angel spoke to
Mary. This is why early Christians celebrated the annunciation (or announcement to Mary
that she was carrying the child) on March 25. Add nine months of pregnancy and you arrive
at a birth date of December 25.
Today, we know Jesus wasn't born on Christmas day, but the church choose to celebrate it on
this day. Even though they didn't know the real date of Jesus' birth, early Christians -following Jewish traditions -- choose a date to celebrate the fact God loved the world enough
to send his Son as a baby.
This date had no connection to pagan gods or ideas -- these were invented years later.
So how should Seventh-day Adventists respond to Christmas? First, we should understand
that it is not a pagan festival "borrowed" by Christians. Rather, it is a very early Christian
memorial. Second, we should focus our attention on the event it celebrates and witness to the

world about our Savior. Finally, following the example of Adventist Church co-founder, Ellen
G. White, we can use this opportunity to respond to the needs of the world around us.
--Andrew Willis is a course tutor at the Adventist Discovery Centre, the Voice of Prophecy in
the United Kingdom. Reprinted with permission from British Union Conference News.