Do you indulge your “inner pagan” every December 25, like so many other Christians do . . . ?
I’ll explain that in a moment, but for now here's a scenario for you. You're on a road trip, Sunday comes and you want to visit a local church. You find one that you think will fit the bill—but when you enter, you discover the sanctuary’s been decorated with a rainbow.
Question: Do you leave because the church is “pro-LGBTQ”?
Another scenario. You make a new friend online and are delighted when they tell you they “believe in Jesus.” They go on to reveal that they live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and attend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They're Mormons.
Question: Do you continue to view this person as a “fellow Christian” on the grounds that you “both believe in Jesus”?
Your choices in these scenarios depend on (1) how you interpret the symbolism of rainbows and (2) how you understand the Person behind the name “Jesus.”
I’m Dreaming of a Pagan Christmas?
The same principles and logic we’d rely on in those types of situations are involved in a debate that whips up like a whirlwind every December: Is Christmas actually “pagan” in origin—and are Christians who participate in it “celebrating pagan gods”?
My response to the second part: No. And to the first part . . . ?
Well, for one thing, it’s seriously doubtful that Christmas originated as a pagan holiday.[1] But even if it did . . . so what?
Cuz here’s the thing—and we all intuitively recognize this when it comes to other issues—
Origin doesn’t determine current meaning. And—
Any symbol can have more than one meaning.
This is precisely why I started out with the rainbow and Mormonism analogies. In the first case, even though the rainbow was originally used as a symbol of God’s promise to Noah—that He’d never again destroy all life with a flood—LGBTQers now use the rainbow to symbolize sexual “diversity.” The same symbol can have different meanings—depending on the intent of the user.
In the second case, while the name “Jesus”—ultimately derived from the Hebrew Yehoshua—means “Yahweh is salvation,” and while the Bible teaches clearly that Jesus is God-incarnate, Mormonism attributes a very different, unbiblical meaning to the name and person of Christ.[2] This illustrates that the original meaning of a word or symbol can be changed (for good or bad).
Again: we all know this, even if we don’t think of it in every situation where some interpretation is required. So, if you have any doubts about the origin or meaning of Christmas, you should realize that what actually matters is the meaning you intend to express when you celebrate Christmas.
Consider it from a different angle: is there anything inherently evil about any of the trappings of the season? Is there anything evil—and I mean built in—about
Stars?
Evergreen trees?
Carols?
Gift-giving?
Burning logs?
Hanging stockings?
Fictional characters (in this case, Santa)?
Of course not! We can praise God for His handiwork in the creation of stars, for instance—or we can idolize those stars as “gods,” as is mentioned in Scripture. We can thank Him for the trees, enjoy their shade, and make legitimate use of their wood—or we can worship them (or nature at large) as idols. Such things don’t make stars and trees evil in and of themselves. If we use them for godly purposes, we remember that
. . . in the Lord Jesus . . . nothing is unclean in itself. [Romans 14:14]
[E]verything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving [1 Timothy 4:4].
Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. [Titus 1:15]
Pagan (or Simply Human) Creativity
The Scroogey super-Christians might say, “Well, that’s all well and good for natural things that God Himself created—but it doesn’t apply to pagan ideas and practices.”
Hmm . . . you sure about that?
If you're reading this, you’re using a computer or cellphone. Was that an invention by Christians? If you saw a link to this article on Facebook or Twitter, or if you just came across it randomly, was that social medium or search engine created by God’s own people? What about other things you make regular use of in your life—devices, vehicles, arts and literature, hobbies? Were they all the products of the Christian mind? Were they explicitly named and approved by God?
The discerning Christian always differentiates between an object and its misuse. Many of the ancient gods named in Scripture were personifications of natural forces; does this make natural forces “evil”? Many cultures have worshipped their ancestors as “gods” or “elevated” beings; does this make ancestors worthy of rejection instead of remembrance?
I freely admit that I make use of pagan things on a regular basis. You do too. For example, we all refer to certain days of the week as “Tuesday” (originally honoring Tiu, the Germanic god of war), “Wednesday” (literally “Woden’s day,” honoring the Norse god Oden), “Thursday” (literally “Thor’s day,” honoring Marvel Comics’—er, sorry, ancient Norsemen’s—Thor), and “Friday” (literally “Frigga’s day,” honoring the Germanic goddess of marital love).
Christians often sing “This Is The Day,” which includes the lines: “This is the day that the Lord has made / We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Well . . . unless it’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, right? Because God gave up His sovereignty over those days of the week, right?
Wait—does Satan “own” this or that day? If God can redeem a person—can’t He redeem the calendar? Can’t we use a specific day for godly purposes even if unbelievers have used the same day to celebrate their paganism?
Oh, since I just mentioned singing, I’m going to presume that you do that too, as well as enjoy listening to various musical artists. If you’re an “anti-Yuletider,” you might want to consider the following verse of Scripture:
Lamech married two women. The first was named Adah, and the second was Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the first of those who raise livestock and live in tents. His brother’s name was Jubal, the first of all who play the harp and flute. [Genesis 4:19-21]
As far as we can tell from the context, these individuals had abandoned the Creator; they’d become pagans. So, harps and flutes were pagan inventions. But here’s what God did with those inventions:
I will sing a new song to you, O God! I will sing your praises with a ten-stringed harp. [Psalm 144:9]
After the Lamb took the scroll, the four living beings and the 24 elders bowed down before the Lamb. Each one of them had a harp. Also, they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s holy people. [Revelation 5:8]
But the people of God will sing a song of joy, . . . as when a flutist leads a group of pilgrims to Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord—to the Rock of Israel. [Isaiah 30:29]
God redeemed those pagan inventions by making them instruments of His glory.
That’s in the realm of music. But God redeems other things too: coopting them for His own purposes. Circumcision was an ancient practice before it appeared among the Israelites—yet in Genesis 17:10 God commanded Abraham to use the ritual with a new meaning: to symbolize the covenant between God and himself.
God’s even willing to redeem pagan religion. Yeah, you read that right. No, this doesn’t mean He somehow makes idolatry itself “okay.” What it means is that He takes pagan ideas about creation or the supernatural and invests new meaning in them.
God did this, for example, with Canaanite poems to Ba’al—inspiring some of the Old Testament writers to cannibalize and repurpose those pagan writings to the glory of Yahweh. We see another “cultural appropriation” by God in the inspiration of Second Peter. For example, when he writes that believers in Jesus “share his divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), he’s reflecting a pagan expression. But he
evidently used this phrase to capture the interest of his formerly pagan Hellenistic readers, [and] proceeded to invest it with distinctively Christian meaning. He was an effective communicator.[3]
It didn’t matter what the origin of such language happened to be. What mattered was the new meaning attached to it once the biblical writers got ahold of it.
The same dynamic of investing a word or action with new meaning also happens in reverse. For instance, when idolatry infiltrated God’s people in biblical times, objects or practices that were once good or innocent became perverted into expressions of idolatry.
Obviously it doesn’t follow that the objects or practices themselves were inherently evil. If that were the case, we should’ve abandoned the name “Jesus” once the cults began misusing it.
The Heart of Christmas
Feel free to “indulge your inner pagan,” by which I mean: go ahead and enjoy things pagans have created. You don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying human creativity—as long as it’s being used to honor God.
When I refer to “the heart of Christmas,” most Christians will automatically assume I must be referring to Christ himself, who inspired the holiday in the first place.
But that’s not what I mean. Over two thousand years ago was the “Christmas event”—i.e., the birth of Jesus. But “Christmas” as a holiday is a human invention; it’s not prescribed in the Bible. And this or that ritual attached to it may in fact be pagan in origin. So, when I’m talking about “the heart of Christmas,” I mean the human intent behind the tradition.
In this sense, the heart of Christmas is whatever you want it to be. If, for you, it’s about Jesus Christ, then He will be the heart of your holiday. If you’re an unbeliever, or even a Christian who happens to be a shallow thinker and is overly influenced by the surrounding culture—the “heart” of Christmas will be Santa Claus, presents under the tree, turkey dinners, and time spent with loved ones. None of that is evil, but . . .
. . . it’s also not why Christmas was invented.
The way of godliness is to think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and point it in a specific direction. “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do”—including the celebration of Christmas—“do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31), “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17).
The Reason for the season.
[1] See the following resources:
Marcia Montenegro, “Christmas Is Not Pagan,” Christian Answers for the New Age (© 1999–2020; accessed 24 Dec. 2021)
Marcia Montenegro, “A Call to Reason” (Facebook post, 12 Dec. 2021; accessed 24 Dec. 2021)
Marcia Montenegro, “Christmas Myths Begone!” (Facebook post, 13 Dec. 2021; accessed 24 Dec. 2021)
Michael Jones, Facebook post, 10 Dec. 2021 (accessed 25 Dec. 2021)
Andrew McGowan, “How December 25 Became Christmas,” Bible History Daily (11 Dec. 2021; orig. Bible Review, Dec. 2002; accessed 24 Dec. 2021)
“Are Christmas Trees Idolatrous?”, Christian Research Institute (17 Mar 2009; accessed 24 Dec. 2021)
[2] See also the articles listed under the category “God” at the website of the Mormonism Research Ministry (accessed 24 Dec. 2021).
[3] Thomas L. Constable, “Notes on 2 Peter” (2021; accessed 25 Dec. 2021).