Question:Do You Celebrate Christmas?
Donald Bohanon:No.But I don’t view those who practice it as somehow evil and incorrigible.It’s a celebration done in ignorance in many cases,not necessarily an indictment of character.Both good and bad people alike celebrate the custom.
In fact at one point I celebrated it myself and it was very hard to stop acknowledging it because I loved everything about it.Getting together with family and friends.The big dinners with turkey,dressing,cranberry sauce,sweet potato pies and many other Christmas delights.The music and movies.Getting sloshed/liquored up on the day.The gifts,etc,were all things about Christmas I grew to love and delighted in participating in.Just talking about it brings back wonderful memories.
But once I began to study scripture and realized it was a pagan religious practice that God condemned I had to make a choice.Did I fear and love God more than the Christmas celebration?And if so I would have to follow God’s instruction as it related to the issue.
Not to mention the 25th of December is not Christ birthday.By all accounts Christ was born somewhere between late August and late September or early October.Neither does God command anywhere in scripture to celebrate the birth of Christ.But God does specify the specific days he requires that we as Christians worship on.
Also taking into account the fact I eventually realized Santa wasn’t real neither were many fictional characters associated with the Holiday.I was truly saddened when I realized it was a pagan practice that had so many holes in it that didn’t add up.And if I was going to follow God, Christmas celebration couldn’t be a part of the plan.It was tough though.But you live through it and realize it’s not that bad and on top of that you save a lot of money.
These things convinced me it wasn’t real and more importantly God condemned the practice and or celebration.But I don’t look down on others who do follow it because I know how difficult it can be to stop acknowledging it,even when all the evidence suggests that it’s a pagan practice…Jeremiah 10:2-4
That’s a decision those who truly desire to follow God and his instruction must make themselves.It’s not mine to make for them.But I know it’s difficult because it was difficult for me.It will take study,investigation and prayer, to make the right decision.
But I don’t slam those who celebrate it I just provide the truth and it’s their decision to make.But if you truly desire to please,follow God and the truth,there is really only one conclusion to come to. And that is It’s a pagan custom that has been handed down from generation to generation and it’s still practiced today. I don’t celebrate it but much of my family still do.
Jeremiah 10:2-4
King James Version (KJV)
2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.