Christmas,
Syncretism, and Presumption
by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
a
minister of Church of the Great God
&
James
Herschel Lyda
Anderson
Chapel COG
Christmas is a festival that has been added. It
is syncretism, (the combination of
different systems of philosophical or religious belief or practice) blending a practice from
paganism into the stream of Christianity. Only the revelation of
God shows how He will be worshipped, and He will not be served in imitation of other gods.Dec
23, 2020
In 1980, the host of a Columbia, South
Carolina, radio talk show invited the pastor of a large Baptist church onto his
show to discuss Christmas and some of its customs. The clergyman admitted to
the pagan origin of Christmas, but said that it “really did not matter”. ?
On the same radio station, in the weeks
before Christmas, a syndicated commentary, "The Customs of Christmas," aired daily. During one of these,
the narrator said, "There is almost nothing about Christmas in the Bible
except the actual story from the book of Luke."
These are significant admissions about the
origins of the biggest holiday of the year. However, we should expect such
admissions because Christmas presents an excellent illustration of the
perversity(being perverse, especially willfully persisting in
actions that seem contrary to good sense or your own best interests)
of human nature. Americans claim, generally, to have sprung from
Judeo-Christian roots, and both Jews and Christians profess to get their ideas,
customs, practices, and teachings from the same book, the Bible. Yet we
find most Christians—and even some Jews!—celebrating Christmas, a festival that the Bible nowhere mentions. Or
condones
Years ago, the editors of Newsweek produced a montage of
pictures showing how people in various parts of the world celebrate Christmas. One of the most striking, featured
holiday decorations was in Japan. The
normal trappings, banners, and lights were taken to the extreme limits of
gaudiness. Thousands, probably millions, of lights had been strung up over some
city streets or on the sides of buildings. Santa Claus and his reindeer flew
among the lights and banners. It was a visual confusing mixture of light and
color. We might expect this in France, Spain, or Germany, because these nations
“claim” to be Christian, but not in Japan, an Oriental nation whose major
religion is Shintoism! They too have been caught up in the "spirit of the
holidays" of drunken revelry, raucousness and wild sexual
activity, or behavior leading to it.
Christmas is a worldwide phenomenon. It
is not restricted to Israelite countries, or to the "Christian"
nations of the world. We see vestiges of its presence in every corner of the
world, no matter how far removed from Christian influence. When we take an honest
look at its global appeal, we find that the real interest in it is commercial
rather than religious. They most often dismiss or ignore the religious factor.
Like the Baptist preacher said, can we
afford to dismiss it so glibly? Is Christmas really all that innocent? Can we pass it off by saying,
"Oh, it really
doesn't matter all that much"? Should we be so careless to paganize God?
Some excuse it with trite statements
like, "It's what you have in your heart, the ideals, the teaching, that
counts, not the actual practice of it." Now this may sound reasonable
because, after all, we want to glorify God in every aspect of our lives.
Does not Christmas glorify the newborn Christ? Although God does not mention
Christmas in His Word, is it not something that perhaps we ought to do? On the
other hand, does God give us better reasons not to add it to our worship of
Him?
Zeal Without Knowledge
The apostle Paul describes a general Israelitish
characteristic—one still in evidence—in
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted to the righteousness of God.
Are modern
Israelites or Christians who
celebrate Christmas really deceived? Is the deception so strong that they cannot see
it? Interestingly, a commentator writes that "they being ignorant
of" (verse 3) could be translated into "for they ignoring," which
gives Paul's thought a different sense. When one is ignorant, he just does not
know; someone may have withheld knowledge from him, on the other hand, when a
person ignores knowledge that is readily available, but he turns his back on it,
woe unto him.
A self-deceived person is ignoring truth rather than ignorant of it, and if that is Paul's emphasis,
it makes this Christmas question much more serious. It means that people are accountable
for what they are doing, and therefore, they will pay more for it than if they
acted in ignorance.
Most Americans know that many of the
Christmas traditions have no connection with Christianity. Almost every year,
articles on the origins of various Christmas customs appear in the newspapers,
especially in the larger cities. The authors of these articles cannot trace any
of the "modern" traditions back to the Bible because most of the
customs came from pre-Christian traditions in Germany, Norway, Russia, Holland,
Babylon and other nations. Thus, people cannot claim that such knowledge has
been withheld from them.
In Romans
1:18-20, Paul asserts that things involving
God's existence, power, and nature are clearly seen, but mankind suppresses or
ignores the truth. What God wants man to know, man willingly ignores and
suppresses through the addition of beliefs, customs, and traditions that cloak
the truth. The truth is still there, hidden behind a screen of falsehoods that
most christians never attempt to remove.
Theologians call this process syncretism.
According to Merriam Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, syncretism is
"the COMBINATION of
different forms of belief or practices." Syncretism could describe other fields, like
philosophy, but scholars use it almost exclusively in religious contexts. Syncretize, the verb form of the word, is
very revealing. It means "to attempt to unite and harmonize especially
without critical examination or logical unity." Those who syncretize will
frequently attach one belief or practice to their religion without trying to
find out whether it is proper to do so or not.
Using
Christmas as an excuse, men have added FOREIGN BELIEFS AND PRACTICES to the
worship of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. They have combined
pagan ideas, beliefs, and practices with Christianity without examining whether
God approves or not.
This implies presumption by the
syncretizer. Presumption is
"an attitude or belief dictated by probability." Facts play little
part in presumption, just probability and likelihood. Its first synonym is
"assumption," followed by "arrogance,"
"boldness," "impertinence" and
"imprudence." Presume,
its verb form, means "to undertake without leave or clear justification; to
expect or assume especially with confidence; to suppose it to be true without
proof; to take for granted."
As we begin to combine the concepts of syncretism, presumption,
and all the people’s characteristic of misguided zeal without knowledge, we
will see why a holiday like Christmas has become and remains a practice in the
modern World of today and tomorrow.
The beginnings of the true belief in
Paganistic teachings of God and Christmas began in ancient Babylon.
Two key figures in the origin
of Christmas are Nimrod, also known as
Baal,( Gen 10:8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
Ge 10:9 He
was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the
LORD.) He was a great grandson of Noah, and
his mother-wife, Semiramis, also known as Astarte,
among many other names. Nimrod, known in Egypt as Osiris, was the founder of the
first world empire at Babel, later known as Babylon
(Genesis 10:8-12; 11:1-9). 8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9
He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as
Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and
Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11
Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city
Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
11:1 ¶
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a
plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them
throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us
a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 ¶
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children
of men builded.
6
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is
one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing
will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may
not understand one another’s speech.
8
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
From ancient sources such as the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and
records unearthed by archeologists from long-ruined Mesopotamian and Egyptian
cities, we can reconstruct subsequent events.
After Nimrod's death (c. 2167 BC), Semiramis promoted the belief that he was a god. She claimed that she saw a
full-grown evergreen tree(the Christmas tree) spring out of
the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new life for
Nimrod. On the anniversary of his birth, she said, Nimrod would visit the
evergreen tree and leave gifts under it. His birthday fell on the winter
solstice at the end of December.. The Pope set it up for December 25, roughly
the birthday of the Sun. Nimrod was the God of the Sun. It was called the
Saturnalia. Pope
Julius I chose December 25, 336 AD as the
date when Christmas was to be celebrated in an effort to adopt and absorb the
traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. It was First
called the Feast of the Nativity,
the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth
century, around 700AD.
Jer. 10: 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. around 600BC. A pre-Christian Christian Tree?
Does this sound like the birthday of
Jesus Christ, the man child born to God. Keep worshiping Christmas and it’s
pagan traditions and pay for it at the judgement.
Many historical sources show that Christmas was
not observed by Christians from Christ's time until about AD 300. Saturnalia (December 17-24) and Brumalia (December 25) continued as
pagan celebrations by the Romans well into the fourth century.
During the fourth century, the emperor
Constantine "converted"(this is questionable) to "Christianity"(Catholism)
and changed Sabbath keeping from the seventh to the first day of the week. Sunday was the day he
had worshipped the sun as his god. This made
it easier for the Romans to call their pagan December 25th winter solstice
festival, in which they had celebrated the birth of the sun god, the birthday
of the "Son of God."
The celebration of Christmas started in Rome about 336, but it
did not become a major Christian festival until the 9th century.