Denys Nevozhai via Unsplash
John McKee delivers the December 2022 Outreach Israel News update.
a Messianic Apologetics episode, 26 December, 2021
This Calendar Year 2021 there has been a huge amount of discussion from many ministries regarding the origins of Christmas on December 25.[1] And as I have seen things play out, most of the discussions are from very large Christian ministries. Some of them are from pastors and churches which have a very large online social media presence. Some of them are from what we would label as more the “apologetics” types of ministries, wanting to explain Christian theology, practice, and custom. But discussions have also been seen from various ministries which are specialized in other areas. For example, a number of the prominent Creationist ministries have discussed Christmas on December 25th. And of course, all of this is indicative of how people are asking questions about where Christmas came from. What is the significance of December 25th? And questions are to be encouraged! We are to aim toward a Biblical faith where the holidays and the practices which we observe are consistent with the character of God as witnessed in the Word of God. I think everyone agrees on this.
The Messianic Winter Holiday Helper
This teaching, The Ongoing Christmas Challenge, is not intended to address every single aspect of the whole debate or controversy over Christmas. One of our ministry’s most significant publications, which has been with us from almost the very beginning (2003), is The Messianic Winter Holiday Helper. This resource is intended to provide a very fair-minded and reasonable approach to some of the controversies which are witnessed during the month of December.
All too frequently for many of us in the Messianic community, when the month of December arrives, we see a great deal of “Christmas is pagan!” rhetoric circulate, and this has been especially true since the rise of social media, with tools like Facebook, Twitter YouTube, Instagram, etc. We all encounter a great deal of memes—and a great deal of information or misinformation—regarding “Christmas is pagan!” Our ministry has a long-standing track record of standing against the rhetoric of “Christmas is pagan!”, because far too many evangelical Believers out there in the world—people who are sincerely born again, and who genuinely know Jesus as their Redeemer—for whatever reason or series of reasons, they think that when you say “Christmas is pagan!” you are telling them that the birth of the Messiah as recorded in the Bible (Luke ch. 2) is pagan. They think that “Christmas” equals the birth of the Lord, whereas what people who say “Christmas is pagan!” want you to do, is re-evaluate where Christmas on December 25th originally came from.
We have a consistent track record of speaking out against the “Christmas is pagan!” rhetoric. Instead, we have said that Christmas is non-Biblical. What do we mean that Christmas is non-Biblical? Where is Christmas on December 25th specified in Holy Scripture? We want people to investigate this, and to investigate this in a way which brings honor and glory to the Lord—but also is consistent with the practices of the Apostles.
So, I ask in an as constructive and positive way as I can: Is Christmas on December 25th entirely Biblical? If we can just put off to the side words like paganism, idolatry, and perhaps even the term sin—we would still have to conclude that when a number of the really significant factors are weighed, that Christmas on December 25th is error.
A number of days ago (22-23 December, 2021) I was prompted to write down a number of the critical factors which we all need to be weighing as it concerns Christmas on December 25th. Let us just assume that some of us politely decline from observing Christmas. We are not out there to unmercilessly condemn anyone or tell people that they are involved in gross idolatry—because after all there are many Christians at this time of year who are sincerely believing that they are honoring the birth of the Lord by observing Christmas on December 25th. But with an as nice, sanitized, and innocuous an approach as we can aim for—there are still factors which one has to weigh regarding Christmas, and why it is not a Biblical practice.
Number One:
Christmas on December 25th was not a holiday established by the Apostles or their Second Century successors.
If you look at the history books, or if you look at different theological tools available—from the pastor out there to the seminary student—then you are going to very quickly see that discussions of December 25th and the birth of the Messiah, and honoring the birth of Messiah on December 25th, were things not present in the world of the Apostles, or even their Second Century successors. This would include figures like Clement of Rome or Polycarp, for example. Discussions involving the birth of the Messiah on December 25th came much later, certainly by the Third and Fourth Centuries.
So, if you were to observe what many might label as “Primitive Christianity,” from the Second Century C.E., Christmas on December 25th would not be something which you would be doing. Honoring Sunday Church, i.e, “the Lord’s Day,” might be something which you would be doing, remembering the resurrection of Yeshua. Controversies associated with the first day of the week, and various religious activities, were present early in the Second Century Church. But Christmas on December 25th was something which came much later.
Number Two:
There is considerable doubt that December 25th was the birth date of the Messiah.
In saying that there is considerable doubt that December 25th was the birth date of the Messiah—please note how I did not say anything regarding what other things may or may not have been taking place on or around December 25th. But, December 25th for the birth date of the Messiah, is in considerable doubt. And while it is true that there were some less than honorable things associated in the ancient Roman Empire and other societies on or around December 25th, it is not pagan to simply suggest that Yeshua the Messiah may have been born on December 25th. In one resource which I was assigned for New Testament Introduction at Asbury Theological Seminary (Spring 2007), the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (and this is a Left-of-Center resource), there is an entry for “Christmas,” and this is what it had to say about some of the dating controversies:
“From OE Christes Moesse. Not knowing the date of Christ’s birth, the early Church sought one by combining calendrical speculations with the exegesis of biblical numbers. Several dates were suggested, including Mar. 25, Apr. 2, May 20, Nov. 8, Dec. 25, and Jan. 6. The earliest evidence, the Depositio martyrum, has the Feast of the Nativity being celebrated on Dec. 25 by the year 336 in Rome. Within a century this date was almost universally accepted” (EDB).[2]
It then goes on and says,
“A[n]…early tradition identified Mar. 25, the ‘Sunday’ of creation week, as the date of Christ’s conception (nine months before Dec. 25!) It was only natural that after Constantine had abandoned the patronage of Sol Invictus in 324, Sol Iustitiae, the light of the world, should supersede him” (EDB).[3]
Of course, there are other details which we could go into, but mainly the proposition that December 25th could have been the date of the Messiah’s birth comes from the speculation that the Messiah was conceived in the Spring—and that in itself might be associated with the idea that since the Messiah was executed in the Spring that His life began in the Spring with His conception. There is nothing particularly pagan about suggesting that December 25th was the time of the Messiah’s birth, but there are academic dismissals or doubts witnessed regarding December 25th.
There is no uniform agreement on the date of the Messiah’s birth. Some in ancient Christianity proposed a Spring birth of the Messiah. In the Messianic community, especially per some of the references in John (“the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us,” John 1:14, TLV), there are those who believe that Yeshua was born in association with Sukkot or the Festival of Tabernacles. I have seen other people associate the birth of Yeshua with Rosh HaShanah—so mainly the Fall or Autumn holidays—but there is considerable doubt that December 25th was the date of the birth of the Messiah.
We do not have to go into paganoia or be paganoid to recognize that December 25th was not the date of the Messiah’s birth. And, if you are someone who is a real stickler for details, then you would probably be a person, in seeing Christmas on December 25th, saying “Why are we doing this?” in a very matter of fact way.
Number Three:
The tradition of the tree has no basis from the account of Yeshua’s birth.
Notice what I just said: The tradition of the Christmas tree has no basis from the account of Yeshua’s birth. Many of the traditions associated with the appointed times or the moedim of Leviticus 23, actually do derive from, for example, the Passover story. Or, they derive from something seen in the actual holiday which is to be remembered. When you look at the account of Yeshua’s birth in the Gospels, and of course when you look at the topography of Israel (the flora and fauna), your response may actually be: “Why are we associating the birth of Yeshua with pine trees?”
There is no connection between the birth of Yeshua and pine trees. That is something more from Northern and Central Europe, Scandinavia and Germany. We are just trying to be accurate here. No one has said “paganoia” or “paganoid” here. What does the tree have to do with the birth of Yeshua? You go to Bethlehem and it is all very rocky; there are not that many trees at all.
As I have witnessed, you are going to encounter many different memes and many different people out there—and they are going to affluently quote Jeremiah 10:1-5. It would be anachronistic to say that Jeremiah 10:1-5 directly speaks of the Christmas tree, because Christmas trees did not exist in the Ancient Near East. You might be able to say, perhaps, that what is now the Christmas tree had progenitors or ancestors or forebearers in some Ancient Near Eastern practice. Alright, but when you actually look into the origins of the Christmas tree, it originates from Scandinavia and Germany—and if one is going to be investigating any kind of pagan religion, then one needs to be looking at ancient Germanic religions, and not necessarily investigating the Ancient Near East.
But, one of the things which can be said—and I think this is what gets a great number of Christian leaders upset and disturbed—is that Jeremiah 10:1-5 begs the question, for certain, of where the Christmas tree came from. That is what many people take away from it. Many people do recognize that Jeremiah 10:1-5 does not directly speak of the Christmas tree—but indirectly—people are asked about where the Christmas tree came from. And so again, we find ourselves back to what does the Christmas tree has to do, factually, with the birth of Yeshua. These are not inappropriate questions.
Number Four:
Christians who have opposed Christmas in history saw it as a sign of corrupt Roman popery.
Believe it or not, not all Christians have observed Christmas on December 25th. During the Protestant Reformation, there were significant figures such as John Knox, the founder of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterianism), who considered Christmas on December 25th to be a sign of corrupt Roman popery. The Puritans who came to America, here in the United States (we remember the holiday of Thanksgiving because of the hardships which they experienced in settling the New World), also considered Christmas on December 25th to be a sign of corrupt Roman popery—and they made sure that Christmas was illegal. And, there have been other groups of Christians who have considered Christmas on December 25th to be a sign of a corrupt Roman Catholicism which they want nothing to do with.
This factor often does not often get discussed sufficiently, because many people in contemporary Christianity—and even a few people in contemporary Messianic Judaism—have little or no problem with Roman Catholicism or the pope. I, on the other hand, have significant problems with Roman Catholicism and the pope—to the point where my opinion of Catholicism is basically summarized by Revelation 17 and 18. I also consider it very likely that a future pope will be the false prophet of the Book of Revelation. So, when people point out to me that there have been groups of Christians in history since the Protestant Reformation who have seen Christmas on December 25th as a sign of corrupt Roman popery, I agree with them.
Number Five:
If Christianity disappeared, Christmas would survive.
Have you ever considered for a moment, that if Christianity—which is known for celebrating Christmas on December 25th—if it all of a sudden disappeared and today’s Christians became atheists, that Christmas on December 25th would survive? You would continue to see trees and evergreen and mistletoe.
In the Star Trek universe, where pretty much all humans are atheists—not believing in God, as the Bible is considered to be a product of primitive and unenlightened humanity—Christmas is still actually observed. The 1994 film Star Trek Generations had Captain Picard in the Nexus, a sort of alternative reality, where he was at home in France and observing Christmas. His make-believe family was all giving presents to one another, but anything involving the birth of Jesus, was, of course, conveniently left out.
More to the point, would be with what is seen in the Amazon Prime series Man in the High Castle. This is an alternative history series where the Axis Powers of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan win the Second World War, dividing up the Americas. In a 2019 episode (Season 4, Episode 8: “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball”), you see what appears to be Christmas being observed—but of course this was in the Nazi part of Earth, the American Reich. Here, there are no Jews and there are no Christians and there is no Bible—but a holiday resembling Christmas is still observed, with of course, the Christmas tree and nutcrackers and the evergreen. There is a scene where two ladies go to a department store in New York City, and you see it all decked out with traditional Christmas decorations—evergreen, the tree, nutcrackers, etc. You hear the song O Tannenbaum played in the background. And what do you see? This is a holiday called Winter Solstice. Then, just to add insult to injury, all of the decorations have swastikas on them.
I think that these are two very good indicators that if Christianity disappeared, Christmas would survive. It might take on a different name like Winter Solstice or Winterfest, but it would survive. Whereas if Judaism and the Jewish people completely disappeared, Passover would not survive. Yom Kippur would not survive. So, we need to take this into serious consideration as it involves Christmas on December 25th.
Number Six:
It is socially inconvenient to not celebrate Christmas.
When any of us considers how non-celebration of Christmas is socially inconvenient, what might this actually mean? What happens when the mailman comes by your house, and sees what kind of decorations you have up? Perhaps you may actually have lights up because you are remembering Chanukah. But what if someone comes into your house, such as a repair man who is fixing something, or the delivery man who is dropping something off in your living room? How do they respond when they see that you do not have a Christmas tree? Are they going to ask a question, or are they just going to ignore it? Do these kinds of people simply think, “To each his/her own”? That is certainly one scenario.
But what do you do with co-workers, your different friends, and perhaps even your family members? This is where things get more complicated.
We will not be able to address all of the different factors involving how socially inconvenient it is not to remember Christmas. But what if you politely declined going to a certain party? What if you politely said “Happy Holidays” when a Christian person had said “Merry Christmas”? Are they just going to say “Thank you” and move on, or they going to say, “No, it’s Christmas, and we’re to remember Christ in Christmas!”?
When we recognize how not celebrating Christmas is socially inconvenient, we are not necessarily talking about those who make a big stink, and tell their friends their family members, “Don’t send me any Christmas presents any more you stupida** pagan!” Yes, our ministry has encountered people say things like this. But what about the people who just politely decline from Christmas? How tolerant, for example, are certain Christians going to be about this? Will they really permit a sincere Believer who is following his or her conscience, the same as various Reformers did, to not remember Christmas on December 25th? Or will such Christian people look at them as some sort of degenerates? There are no easy answers to some of these questions.
Number Seven:
You can say “Happy Holidays” to others and not be a jerk.
When I go out and I run errands—going to places like the post office or to the supermarket—I obviously see and encounter Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, and hear Christmas music in the background. I am not going to be a jerk when I go to these kinds of public places. I have got to go and do certain business, conduct certain transactions, and then leave. Generally speaking, people who are in business and commerce know that you can say “Happy Holidays” and that is just fine with them. As Believers, we are not required by the Lord to make every single encounter we have with people in society as a Biblical teaching moment. People often have to ask you about your beliefs and practices, and then, for a time such as the month of December, you have to decide whether you are going to say “Christmas is pagan!” and unmercilessly condemn someone in the marketplace—who you may not even know. Or, you might instead say, “I consider Christmas un-Biblical, because it wasn’t a holiday established by Jesus or some of His earliest followers. It came many centuries later.” Perhaps some, hearing that alternative, may respond with, “Oh, I need to investigate that!” Rather than be seen to condemn others, at least by saying that Christmas is non-Biblical, they may decide to look into the issue a little further.
This time of year, do not create an unnecessary, dramatic scene. There are certainly many people out there in the Hebrew Roots movement who want to make a scene, and cause problems. Speaking for myself, I do not want to make a scene. I frequently want to carry on with my business and move on. I have brothers and sisters in the Lord this time of year who are remembering Christmas, and the intention of many of them remembering Christmas on December 25th is to remember the Christ child who was born in Bethlehem two millennia ago. I have faith that if these people are to be called into the Messianic movement, the Lord will have them ask me the right questions—and hopefully I will have a constructive answer for them!
As I was looking through my library very recently, I was reminded of a book which my first cousin twice removed wrote about this time of year. My maternal grandmother’s cousin, Rev. Charles L. Allen (1913-2005), was a prominent Methodist minister in Atlanta, Georgia (Grace Methodist Church) and later in Houston, Texas (First Methodist Church). Throughout his ministry he wrote over 40 books, most of which I have in my library. One of them was, in fact, a book on Christmas.[4] When you flip through this book, written in 1957, most of it covers the birth of Jesus, what Jesus came to do in being the promised Messiah, and what Jesus did in being sacrificed for our sins. There are a few things which talk about the Christmas tree—and yes I consider them to be a stretch—but talking about Jesus represents most of what Christmas is to sincere evangelical Believers. It is a time to remember the birth of the Lord.
In my past as a Believer, I was blessed by God when I celebrated Christmas and remembered the birth of Jesus—a much simpler time when my father Kimball McKee (1951-1992) was still alive! When my father died thirty years ago in 1992, consequent of that the Lord directed our new, blended family, with Mark Huey, into the Messianic movement. The appointed times, the moedim, became our future. Christmas on December the 25th became our past. And, Christmas will hardly be a part of my future.
Now, when the month of December comes up, I do my best to moderate disputes and to stabilize matters. A significant thrust of Messianic Apologetics is to provide stability in an increasingly unstable religious world out there. It does not do you any good if you are going to make a scene this time of year, telling people to not send you Christmas presents. If you are in the Messianic community and you remember Chanukah, you can open Christmas presents sent to you at Chanukah and you can receive them as Chanukah presents. You can send Chanukah presents to your friends and your family who remember Christmas, and they can do with them what they want.
You do not have to cause an incident when particular family members ask if you can you come to Christmas dinner. It’s a dinner. Perhaps that is the only time of year you may see certain members of your family. Perhaps that might be the last time you see certain relatives, particularly those who are getting older and may not be around next year.
When I lived in Orlando (2003-2012), we would always go to Jacksonville, to my relative’s house, for Christmas dinner. We were not there for Christmas morning, but the reason we went there was to see my grandmother. We did not know how much longer she had to live, so that is why we went to fellowship with our relatives at Christmas dinner. We did not go there to remember Christmas; we went to see Grandmother.[5]
If you decline a Christmas invitation, a Christmas party, or whatever—you can do so politely. You can simply say, “No thank you. We’ve got something else going on. You have a nice holiday.” You can say something in a respectful tone, which will not close the door for there being any kind of discussion about matters of faith or matters of life in the future—because when matters of life project themselves onto you, you are going to need your extended family. Your extended family, I am sorry to say, is more likely to help you when you face a difficulty, than some of the people in your Messianic congregation or Hebrew Roots fellowship may be willing to help you.
The Ongoing Christmas Challenge
Speaking for myself, I politely decline Christmas. It does have a social price to pay if we are disciples of Messiah. Anything which we do as Believers has a social price to pay. Today, we are seeing a disturbing trend thanks to social media, because people do post pictures of what they are doing. More and more Messianic Jewish people are doing Christmas—and we are not necessarily talking about intermarried couples where one of the spouses is non-Jewish, and so they do Christmas because they have always done Christmas, and they are going to be involved with the non-Jewish spouse’s extended family. No, there are Messianic Jews who do Christmas. And, they will even wish you a “Merry Christmas” or a “Merry Messiahmas” or something like that. This is not something which is going to end positively, because it bespeaks of assimilation—the one thing which the Messianic movement was setup to fight against.
I believe Christmas to be an error. Yeshua the Messiah was not born on December 25th. More and more authorities are in agreement with how Christmas on December 25th was not something established by the Apostolic successors of the Second Century, as it came much later. There is more cause for us to consider the value of Sunday Church if we are going to practice Second Century “Primitive Christianity,” than Christmas on December 25th.
I believe Christmas to be an error. During this time of year, it will be a little inconvenient for some of you. But who is being declared and preached forth: a universal Christ or the Messiah of Israel? Yes, it is true that many people are hearing a form of the gospel or good news, but is it the good news of the Messiah of Israel who is going to return to Jerusalem and reign over this planet from Jerusalem and from Israel? Or is it of some universal and humanistic Christ of peace and tolerance—now affirming of many deviant behaviors?
I know some of you are going to think that I am too soft on Christmas. Others of you are going to think that I am too hard. So, for all of you, I do wish you a Happy Holiday season a blessed Calendar New Year of 2022—because of course, we remember that Planet Earth has completed yet another orbit around the Sun!
NOTES
[1] This has been adapted and edited from the textual transcription provided by YouTube.
[2] Ronald V. Huggins, “Christmas,” in David Noel Freedman, ed., Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 240.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Charles L. Allen and Charles L. Wallis, Christmas (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1957).
[5] My grandmother did finally pass away in 2019, after we had moved back to North Texas. Some of this is discussed in the September 2019 issue of OIM News, “Departed Family and the Sovereignty of God” by Mark Huey.
