Should christians celebrate christmas?

What is this feud about the celebration of Christmas being right or wrong? It is disturbing when within the Christian fold there is contention as to celebrating Christmas or not to. I read an article that points to four reasons “true” Christians don’t celebrate Christmas.

The questions that bothers my heart as regards this are: does this mean those who celebrate Christmas are not true Christians? What exactly is the gospel? What makes one a true Christian?

The reasons provided on the platform not to celebrate Christmas are the following:

·        Jesus was not born in December

·        The only event Jesus specifically instructed was His death not His birth

·        No historical evidence that early Christians celebrated the birth of Christ

·        The root of Christmas can be traced to Pagan Rome

The question about the birth of Jesus will lead to an unending argument as the scripture did not categorically give the date of His birth. The scripture made it clear that Jesus had existed even before the world began, He is the word and He is one with the Father who is a Spirit. We can easily come to a conclusion without argument that Jesus is a spirit. His birth had been before the advent of the word, "birth". Looking for his birthday date is same as looking for that of God and the Holy Ghost.

He is born in your life the day you give your life to Him. The first birth which is of water brings you into the world while the second birth which of the Spirit brings you into the Word. It’s a spiritual reality that everyone shares as a believer as such there was no importance drawn to the exact date Jesus was born. So, if I decide to celebrate Him July 1^st of every year, it’s left to me. The question that should bother the heart of anyone who is interested in my salvation should be who am I celebrating and not when I do it.

The literatures records some reasons on how December 25 became popular across the world. A source believe it originated as a substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Another source records that when Emperor Constantine came to power in 306AD and converted to Christianity in 312AD  Christianity become the state religion, which made Pope Julius1 in 350AD replace the pagan holiday for Mithra with Christmas.

From what is described above, something is common to both account, the interest of Christ at heart. Spreading the influence of Jesus and ending the reign of idol worshiping with the consciousness of Christ. Agreement of a particular date that breeds unison among those who profess Christ.

If there is no place in the bible where wedding anniversary and some other as this which is celebrated today and recognized in churches is validated, I don’t feel there is a need for special injunction from Jesus to celebrate His birthday as any man so desire.

Paul gave a perfect answer to issues as this which can be classified as non-essentials;

“Some think that Christians should observe the Jewish holidays as special days to worship God, but others say it is wrong and foolish to go all that trouble; for everyday alike belongs to God. On questions of this kind everyone must decide for himself. If you have special days for worshiping the Lord, you are trying to honour him, you are doing a good thing…” Rom14:5-6

So, how does celebrating Christmas make a Christian an untrue one?

Two things should be the uttermost concern of the church in looking into any issue and to see if it’s an essential.

1.     Does this take away the salvation of a man?

2.     Does this affect the relationship of the man with God?

Anything apart from these two are irrelevances the devil has thrown to the church to divert expanding the gospel to church doctrines (Human organisations). They are issues to be left to individual to decide, not church or pastor. Such is referred to as non-essential.

If you so feel to celebrate Christmas, do joyfully, as long you are celebrating your Saviour. If you don’t feel to celebrate it, please don’t reject the greetings of those who do and don’t spread the message that condemns the feeble heart of young ones in the faith. (Rom 14:1-6)

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Olufemi Ibitoye
@toyeolufemi