The Holy Bible and Christmas Celebrations

The world celebrates Christmas as the birth of Jesus born to Mary in a cold wintry night in Bethlehem. The word Christmas can be broken into ‘Christ’, meaning Messiah the title given to Jesus and ‘Mass’, an ancient religious festival.
Today, Christmas has been associated with celebrations, gift exchanges, the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. And for those not having an in depth understanding of biblical writings, the Bible and Christmas seem almost indispensably connected.

But before plunging into any elaborate celebrations of Christmas every year have you ever wondered how the festival of Christmas originated? Can its origins be traced to the teachings in the Holy book? What does the bible say about Christmas?

Most biblical writers believe that celebrations of Christmas predate the birth of Jesus. In fact, the Apostles, the disciples and the first true believers have said or written nothing that suggest anything about Christmas as we celebrate now, in any of its forms.

To many, the Christmas celebrations have much to do with the old pagan feast of ‘Saturnalia’ that was observed during the early part of winter, that we now know as the month of December and continued till the end of the month.
In an attempt by Roman Catholicism to integrate the Church and the State around the year 313 A.D, many pagan rituals and traditions made inroads into Christianity.

According to the Oxford Guide of Ideas, Christmas has its roots in the winter solstice, celebrated anciently as the birthday of the sun and the Persian deity Mithras.

The Holy Bible indicates the birth of Jesus, but draws no conclusions with regards to commemorating his birth or the celebrations of Christmas. In fact, there are many scholars who even question the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December.

Yet some of the bible’s wordings may be used for Christmas celebrations. Most of these psalms and versus are indicative of the birth of the Messiah, used by many on their Christmas cards and gifts.
Here are a few extracts from the King James Version of the bible that reflect upon the birth of the Almighty, the reason for our present day celebrations of the festival of Christmas.

Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 11:1: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”

Luke 2:10: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

Luke 2:12: “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
The above versus embody the whole idea behind the Christmas celebrations. Let us take this festival as an opportunity to reinforce our faith in the Almighty Father!