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Christmas Reconsidered

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You can tell by the amount of vitriol from the other reviews that there's a tremendous amount at stake here! What the "turn and burn" Catholic haters don't realize is you can't simply write off 1500 of Christian history. The ideas that Christian holidays are simply Pagan holidays are the product of overzealous protestants (and I'm not Roman Catholic by the way) and poor scholarship. The 19th century was notorious for bad scholarship concerning folklore and religious matters. This attitude of "Christian Holidays = Pagan Holidays" is what's fueling the Wiccan and Neopagan explosion. People are figuring (erroneously) that Christians simply stole the Pagans religion. I challenge every Christian reading this to buy 10 copies and give them away.

The simple fact of the matter is, historians like Professor Ronald Hutton of Oxford have discovered that many things thought to be Pagan in Christianity are actually not.

We don't know when Christ was born. There are three reasons the ancient Christians decided to celebrate Christ's birth on Dec. 25th. One reason was the Roman Empire recognized Dec. 26gth as day as the birth of Mithras. In protest, persecuted Christians began to celebrate the birth of Jesus on the day before. Good for them! Let us continue to celebrate it on this day if for no other reason than Pagans can't push us around! Another reason Christians derived this day to be the birth of Christ is that Jewish tradition held that a prophet died on the day he was conceived. Since we know Christ was crucified during Passover, which is close to March, counting down 9 months would take us to December. The third reason (and perhaps the most important) was that the Jewish festival of C'hanukka was celebrated for the very first time on what would hae been the equivalent of Dec. 25th on the Western calendar. C'hannuka is a festival of lights. We Christians too, celebrate Christmas with many lights. Christmas is simply our C'hanukka, just as Easter is our Passover. Christians should celebrate Christmas for these three reasons if nothing else.

I imagine the Jack Chick types think the Jesuits "got to Woodrow", and that's to be expected. It takes an extreme amount of courage to admit you're wrong, and Woodrow had courage. It also took courage to face the lions down.

One of Ralph's best books yet, Christmas Reconsidered silences the hateful rhetoric from the anti-Christmas crowd. This rhetoric is less concerned about "truth" and more concerned about passing judgment on Christians who choose to exercise their liberty based on Romans 14 to keep days that they deem fit to keep. Ralph Woodrow pleads for sanity and reason in the X Mas debate, especially for those who use psuedo-research to show that X Mas was "pagan." Rev. Richard Lee

First, let me say I am not a Roman Catholic or part of the "conspiracy". Jack Chick readers will be disappointed.

I became a Wiccan in my teens because of the things people like Hislop were writing! Eventually I learned the errors of these views...but not until many years later when I was in my 30's. I don't think people realize one iota how damaging and erroneous it is to paint the Roman Catholic Church as a Pagan religion. You can't seperate 1500 years of Christian history from Catholicism. It's like taking flour out of bread. The truth is many of the customs in Catholicism that overzealous Christians, Athiests and Neopagans try to lable as Pagan actually arose during the Christian era, and were not continuation of Pagan practices! You should also read "Stations of the Sun" by Professor Ronald Hutton.

Christmas (Christ Mass) is not a Pagan religion. The early Christians calcuated that the first Chanukka was celebrated on Dec. 25th by the Western Calendar. They were celebrating it as ealry as the 2nd Century, before Christianity was legalized in Rome. If you read the story of the first Chanukka in the historical book of I Maccabees, you'll see it arose over a Jewish priest who REFUSED to be a Pagan! Christians also remember Christ's birth because of a Jewish tradition that held a prophet died during the ninth month after his death. Since Christ died around March, counting down nine months puts it at December.


I applaud Mr. Woodrow for writing this book. It took great courage to admit he was wrong. I hope will strive to make people aware of the truth.
The rest of the Christians who have adopted the Jack Chick/Hislop mindest (and even Chick celebrates Easter and Christmas!) need to realize this too.

Being willing to see if i missed anything with regards to Easter and Christmas, and the thought process of celebrating them or not, and seeing a few comments on the Internet about how "brave and bold" Mr. Woodrow was for turning his position around, i purchased several (5 or so) of his newest booklets. After reading through Brother (yes i said Brother) Woodrow's booklets of "Easter Is It Pagan" and "Christmas Reconsidered" i've reached the following conclusion. Brother Woodrow is using the famous "straw-man argument methodology" that writers, salesmen, speakers, and even magicians utilize. When i entitled this "slight of hand" i didn't mean that Mr. Woodrow was being purposefully deceptive, i meant he moves the reader from their grounded truth and the reader can end up worrying about the detailed scarecrow. You bring up something interesting, focus on it INSTEAD OF the plain truths, and eventually folks forget the plain truths they held dear. A straw-man (scarecrow) was put in the fields and gardens so those who came looking for food, became distracted by the straw-man and either left the area or concentrated on the straw-man. Hopefully, leaving garden and fields alone was the achievement. In addition to straw-man usage ALL throughout the booklets, Mr. Woodrow leaves out many things defined by dictionaries and encyclopedias CONVENIENTLY, and only posts the parts which support his opinion that Easter and Christmas are simply godly holidays. He often goes back-and-forth, sometimes saying "no pagan connection, no harm" and then "let's assume it COULD be pagan, what harm now??"

The God of Israel (and Jesus therefore) has made it clear, it's a "no-no" to mix OR REPLACE His Holidays (religious) with other's invented/created/inherited/derived holidays. Brother Woodrow is distracting from, or side-stepping, these issues. Brother Woodrow takes you through straw-men single-sided arguments such as word histories and even emotional stories of the celebrations of Christmas and Easter. Our God doesn't ignore mixing religious holidays (or any syncretism!!) of other nations/peoples with His Holidays, and He MOST DEFINITELY DOESN'T like you to use a secular-based holiday instead/over-top of His Appointed Times/Holidays (Holy Days). There is no way around this. God expects you to do the BEST YOU CAN with what you know (keep learning of HOW to pursue & please & obey Him & HIS CHOICES OF HOW we are to worship & love Him) in following His Instructions.

I wrote these (items below) down in both booklets, in case anybody ever picks them up and reads them, to help people QUIT LOOKING AT THE STRAW-MAN and instead keep reading/searching from a firm foundation of Biblical Truth and Patterns. Hopefully these help others if i post them here, to think thru things.

1. if a practice (pagan/non-pagan words or traditions) arises that replaces the LORD'S Appointed Times, Practices,Observances & Words (instead of, in lieu of, similar but separate from...), GOD forbids it!
2. if a term today comes from words that are NOT pagan in nature or ritual or origin, WHO CARES!
3. if a term today comes from words that ARE PAGAN in nature, & you are NOT practicing or doing them (any of their associated rituals), WHO CARES!
4. if a term today comes from words that ARE PAGAN and rituals or honor is somehow showed to it (extended from it, & whether in ignorance or intentional) and practiced, GOD CARES!!
5. Questionable origins can be debated (perhaps), but replacement holidays CANNOT. Association can be debated, & ignorance too, but NOT merging or replacing!
6. We are NOT to follow the FALLEN WAYS of the nations (around us).
7. We are not to knowingly speak the names of the "false gods" out of our mouths knowingly, or present before the God of Israel, in ANY honoring/worshipful/celebratory way.
8. Linguistics & superstition are NOT the focus, it's practice that has religious ties (PRACTICING IT/HONORING IT SOMEHOW) that's the focus and the issue at hand.
9. We are to be Holy people, and Holy simply means "set-apart," in word and in deed, the BEST WE CAN. We aren't to take in the habits of others with regards to religious holidays, and look similar to them while saying "praise God!"

Hope this helps you or others. Please do not waste your monies on these two booklets by Brother Woodrow about Easter and Christmas being "harmless" and "okay" and "Holy and acceptable to God." At the SAME TIME, please be gentle with the Brethren who don't have any CLUE about the origins and replacement days they are observing, you will only cause needless division if you bark at them. Lead by example, in ALL obedience to the God of Israel, don't hit others over the head with the Bible. The Holy Spirit is well equipped to do any convicting <smile>.

Finally, if you don't understand that Believers in Jesus the Nazarene (Yeshua HaNatzeret)were taught by the Master that they need to Have His testimony of being our Salvation (spiritually now, physically to come!) AS WELL AS THEY NEED TO obey His commandments (we need to obey the Torah/Instructions of the God of Israel), then you will struggle with the whole idea of following God's instructions in these areas. Some searching on the Internet for what it means to have the testimony of Jesus (Yeshua)and keeping the commandments of God, will help you out. Just use maturity, and avoid immaturity when doing so.

Grace and Peace to you in our Beloved Messiah,
Fredrick Murphy

1) One of the best points the author makes is that Christians need to look at the fruits/results/outcomes of any given practice. What are the fruits of a specific position on the practice of Christmas? There is no doubt that Christmas time can produce great spiritual fruit in bringing people to Christ and in contrast it destroys families and childhoods when families neglect the celebration of Christ's birth. Paul taught that we should adjust our lives and practices to bring people to salvation. That's what he did even if it meant following old Jewish customs he didn't fully believe in. Saving people was his top priority and that happens in a process.

2) Also it is arguable that Christ was CONCEIVED in December and born in September. So, if you want, you can think of December as the time of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and also the same month as the visitation of Gabriel to Mary. Big things likely occurred at the time of December. That is worth celebrating.

3) We have to consider the use of symbols and how they are recycled by all traditions in general. There are lot of s symbols that we use that are not Biblical, but rather traditional. That's OKAY. It doesn't make us evil to have holidays, which brings me to my final point. Our civilization has set aside the end of the year to celebrate Christ.

4) People tend to reject Christmas because it is not in the Bible as a celebration. However, Christians who are hardline literalists about everything in the Bible or NOT in the Bible are all hypocrites for the precise reason that they all do things in their religions that are NOT in the Bible. They have practices that are part of their religion, but not precisely laid out in the Bible. For example, worshipping in a building rather than a home. Using hymn books. Having church offices and administrators. Youth programs. Religious retreats and camps. All of these addendums are not in the Bible, so why do we do them? Because they produce good Christian FRUIT.

That is the main point of celebrating Christ's birth, to bring people to a knowledge of their Savior. Look around you. Do you see any anti-Christmas churches gaining far more converts, having far more miracles, bringing more families together? No. We can celebrate Christmas and keep all of the concerns of authenticity in perspective.

I think the author achieved his purpose which was just to provide a simple response on this issue. This isn't a deep scholarly work. It's just some good ideas. If you are worried about this issue or have questions, this is a nice place to start.

Ralph Woodrow is an Evangelical minister and speaker, who has written such books as Great Prophecies of The Bible, Divorce and Remarriage: What Does the Bible Really Say?, Reckless Rumors, Misinformation and Doomsday Delusions, Easter: Is It Pagan?, Noah's Flood, Joshua's Long Day, & Lucifer's Fall: What Really Happened?, and others.

He wrote his book Babylon Mystery Religion, Ancient and Modern supporting the arguments of 19th century writer Alexander Hislop (see his The Two Babylons - Alexander Hislop), but has since changed his views, as recounted in his book The Babylon Connection?.

Similarly, in this 1994 book he indicates that he no longer accepts his previous rejection of the celebration of Christmas. He states in the first chapter, "Is Christmas simply an ancient pagan festival to which the name of Christ has been falsely attached? Is it wrong to attend family gatherings at Christmas? Is the giving of presents wrong? Should parents take children out of school lest they take part in a Christmas play? Did Jeremiah forbid the use of a Christmas tree? Should we avoid 'Santa Claus' in the shopping mall---like he was Satan incarnate? ... Like it or not, Christmas is a long-established holiday on our calendar. It would be readily acknowledged on all sides, that to spend years trying to have Christmas removed from the calendar would only be wasted effort. So the question is, What do we do about Christmas---where do we draw the line?"

Here are some quotations from the book:

"When Luke mentioned shepherds abiding in the field, did he seek to convey what time of year it was, or WAS NOT---or might these words suggest something different: that these shepherds were very poor, living in the field with their flock? They may have been without shelter for their flock or houses for themselves---regardless of what season it was." (Pg. 39-40)
"But even if Jeremiah's subject had been actual tree worship, what bearing would this have on our subject? At the Christmas season, thousands of people have a Christmas tree, but I am not aware of any of them worshipping it." (Pg. 48)

May I establish that God's Word to mankind is good for yesterday, today and forever? And may I establish that God's Word is perfect, complete and has His stamp of approval on it? And may I establish that the examples of the assemblies of God/the bride of Christ/(c)hurch which are depicted for us in the New Testament scriptures falls into the above two catagories?
If so, please consider the following school of thought.
Scriptural soundness/simplicity for a christians' individual life and group life is really the only solid ground we can find in the world, whether today or when the church started. Humanism and other forces have slowly but surely weaved their way into almost every fiber of true christendom. The early church was obviously dynamic. They were daily and constantly 'going out', 'going out', 'going out'. Not 'coming in'. Their only routine 'coming in' was a weekly meeting for the saints to worship. They did not expect the lost to seek them out. They went looking for them. What could please Satan more than for christians to become introverted and expect sinners to come to them for salvation or wait for a once-a-year dose of "Christmas".
Regarding the birth of Jesus, there are no instructions, traditions or institutions set forth for christians to observe or celebrate the birth of Jesus. Obviously it is a paramount event in the history of man. But the advent of a major religion combining the pagan celebration of sun worshippers and the birth of Jesus into a major, so-called "Christian" holiday is one more opportunity that Satan uses to detract from the spread of the gospel of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is a subject which can and should be proclaimed most anytime throughout the year for His glory. This has no date or frequency associated with it other than what the Spirit urges. A conclusion is that it is not OK to let anything out-do, hold a higher priority or be more publicised than the gospel of Jesus, including an annual "Holiday" in honor of His birth.
In conclusion, based on my opening two sentences, if the early christian groups (assemblies of God, [c]hurches)didn't do it, then the saints of God of today have a responsibility to reject rather than be anxious to join in with an obviously scripturally unfounded, traditionally accepted humanistic event which does more harm than good, according to statistics.

For all the religious rhetoric in justifying what is not biblical, the annual celebration of Jesus birth, resurrection, and keeping Sunday are nowhere to be found instructed in the Bible. Nor are the also pagan notions of immortal soul, going to heaven (when you don't die), and a triune Godhead.

Those who observe this unbiblical package of paganism do not practice the religion instructed in the Bible, nor do they represent the one and only religion of the Creator God, contained in it.

I believe anyone writting about the religion of the Bible should first read it, then if they believe contrary to it, disclose that and admit to a theology that has its origins elsewhere.