Was Jesus Born on December 25?
Probably most people believe that he was. What does the evidence show?
Why not examine the subject of “Christmas” in an encyclopedia? It likely will show the origin of Christmas, and how the date December 25 was chosen as Jesus’ birthday. Each year many publications are presenting this information. The following comments are from magazines published just last December.
Frontier, a publication of Frontier Airlines, observed: “To the early Christians, birthdays were a pagan custom. It was unthinkable to celebrate one’s own birthday, much less the birthday of Christ. It was sacrilege to even suggest that a Divine Being had a birthday.
“In the next 300 years this attitude began to change, and in 354 A.D., the Bishop of Rome declared December 25 to be the anniversary of the birth of Christ.”
These Times, an Adventist publication, noted: “For some time before the coming of Christianity, December 25 was a time of pagan celebration . . . Emperor Aurelian (A.D. 270-275) quickly capitalized upon the heathen worship of the sun and, in the year A.D. 274, officially declared December 25 as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun . . . In A.D. 354, two years following the end of Saint Julius’ reign, the new Roman bishop, Liberius, ordered all his people to celebrate December 25 as the correct day of Christ’s birth.”
Yes, December 25 was adopted as Jesus’ birthday from pagan celebrations, as U.S. Catholic explains: “The Romans’ favorite festival was Saturnalia, which began on December 17 and ended with the ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’ (Natalis solis invicti) on December 25. Somewhere in the second quarter of the fourth century, savvy officials of the church of Rome decided December 25 would make a dandy day to celebrate the birthday of the ‘sun of righteousness.’ Christmas was born.” The article continues: “It is impossible to separate Christmas from its pagan origins.”
When learning these facts about Christmas, how have some been affected? The World Book Encyclopedia observed under “Christmas”: “During the 1600’s, because of these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America.”
It should not be surprising, therefore, that informed Christians today do not celebrate Christmas.