Why Christmas is no longer a pagan festival

In a conversation with my senior sister about Christmas, she made mention to me that they are not going to feast again on the 25th December. My inquisitive instinct, as usual, wanted to know more about this. There she explained to me that they have been taught that killing an animal on Christmas day is an offering to the god of Christmas. The moment she finished dropping every word, the apostle Paul came to my mind (how I miss him daily):

“So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many so-called gods and lords), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us closer to God: We are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do” (1 Cor. 8: 4-8 BSB).

I think the table turns against the ones who still consider Christmas as a pagan day. This is because in their conscience, the gods are still active. They believe there are other gods to whom human beings render worship beside Jehovah. This is a deception and a big sin to believe that there are other gods (Ex. 20: 3). There is ONLY one GOD and none beside Him:

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Is. 45: 5-6 NASB).

Those we have considered gods, Zeus, Tammuz, Osiris, Horus, Tano, Nyamaa, etc. are not gods in the sense of a deity. These are distortions in human morality and world views (Rom. 1: 23). This interpretation does not take away the fact that our world is populated with forces and spirits who impinge on human affairs. The point is, these spirits are not gods, and they have never been.

Of course, what we know today as Christmas used to be pagan festival, and Jesus’ nativity is not dated in the Bible. However, God has appointed Christ to be the ruler over every authority and principality (Eph. 1: 19-23), and to subject everything under His feet for God (1 Cor. 15: 27-28). God has appointed Christ that “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2: 9-11). It is Jesus who collapses the old kingdom to give way for the new kingdom of God (Matt. 3: 2; Mk. 1: 15). Christmas is one conquest of Christ’s presence in the Greco-Roman empire.

Celebrate Christ wherever His name is mentioned so that in everything He might have the supremacy (Col. 1: 18). It is Christ and Christlikness that makes Christmas Christian.