The Futile War on Christmas

The Master Jesus made it apparent to His disciples that the world would have an antagonist relationship with us and His teachings that we propagate. For instance, in John 15:18-20, He said “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”  These verses of Scripture are important to reflect on in light of what has manifested, in the world today, as a war on Christmas (and by extension) a war on Christianity – which is precisely what we’ll address today.
FUTILE EFFORTS TO DISMISS CHRISTMAS AS A PAGAN CELEBRATION
And now onto our main discussion, looking at the war on Christmas, and we ought to begin with the futile effort to dismiss Christmas as a pagan holiday. At the centre of this futile effort is perhaps a misunderstanding of history and the significance of the developments that took place in light of Christmas. And this then necessitates that we look at a fairly abridged history of Christmas.
In essence, in the 3rd century, the Roman Empire, which at the time had not adopted Christianity, celebrated the rebirth of the Unconquered Sun (known as Sol Invictus) on December 25th. This holiday not only marked the return of longer days after the winter solstice but also followed the popular Roman festival called the Saturnalia (during which people feasted and exchanged gifts). It was also the birthday of the Indo-European deity Mithra, a god of light and loyalty whose cult was at the time growing popular among Roman soldiers. Both of these celebrations mark the essence of pagan celebrations on December 25th during that century – which is what people who try to dismiss Christmas as a pagan holiday, typically refer to.
BUT, then, a significant development takes place under Roman emperor Constantine. Constantine became one of the emperors of the Roman empire in the year 306 A.D. Six years later, in 312 A.D., he found himself at a pivotal point in his war against his brother-in-law and co-emperor, Maxentius. According to the historian Eusebius, Constantine prayed to God and asked for divine assistance on the day before a crucial battle at Milvian Bridge.
A short time after that, in 313 AD, emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan. That Edict made Christianity legal throughout Constantine’s empire. This meant that Christianity went from being despised to being an accepted and even highly favored part of Roman society. Additionally, over the next several years of his reign, Constantine took Christianity even further. With the help of the bishops of the church in Rome, he made Christianity nothing less than the state faith of the Roman empire. As evidence of this, he lavished gifts upon Christian leaders. He made Sunday a holiday so that people, especially his soldiers, could attend church. He made Christian clergy exempt from government duty. He gave churches tax-exempt status. He even personally funded the construction of several church buildings. In Constantine’s view, his Rome and the Christian church should be as close as possible. Then, the church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25th in 336, during the reign of the emperor Constantine.
What this history reveals is, firstly, that there certainly were parallel pagan celebrations of December 25th before Christmas, but Christmas is certainly not one of them. Instead, Christmas was introduced in a time when Christianity had effectively become the faith of the Roman state under Emperor Constantine. Therefore, Christmas is not in-and-of-itself a pagan holiday – that is a gross misunderstanding of history. Secondly, based on this history, it also means that those who try to dismiss Christmas as a pagan holiday can (at best) ONLY speculate that in choosing this PARTICULAR date, emperor Constantine had the political motive of weakening the established pagan celebrations.
But, even if the selection of December 25th was aimed at weakening the prevalence of pagan holidays on December 25th, that is not inherently bad – in fact, I would go as far as saying that it is commendable. When you look at the history of the Church, God or Christianity does not try to co-exist with evil structures or evil itself. We see this for example with God Himself: in 1 Samuel 5, we learn when reading from the first verse that “After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon [their idol], fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.”
We also see this in 2 Chronicles 34 with Josiah, when you read from the third verse, the Scriptures say concerning him that, “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.” Therefore, not only is Christmas not a pagan holiday, but even if it was a strategy aimed at weakening pagan traditions, it certainly was and is an effective one. Especially when we consider how widely Christmas is celebrated today – including even in certain Muslim nations.
THE USE OF LANGUAGE IN THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS
But, those waging  war on Christmas do not keep their futile efforts exclusive to misrepresentations of history – they also use language. More specifically, those behind this war have tried to essentially remove Christ from Christmas. You see this, for instance, with efforts to replace the word “Christmas” with “X-mas”, or replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy holidays”. And much like other wars that have tried to corrupt language, for instance, that which is driven by the LGBT and trangender mafia, this dilution of meaningful and absolute language is done in the name of inclusion – EXCEPT that Christianity is the faith required to bear this burden of so-called inclusion, while the religions of the world are not exempt from respect. For instance, while they try to make people use the word “X-mas” or say “happy holidays”, they do not – HOWEVER – try to make people stop saying happy Hanukkah, or happy Ramadan or Ramadan kareem. And so, this is really aimed at disrespecting Jesus Christ and christianity.
THE COMMERCIALISATION OF CHRISTMAS: EFFORTS TO DIVERT FROM THE REASON FOR THE SEASON
Then there is also the commercialisation of Christmas. Make no mistake, Christmas is also a season where we prioritise giving – it is a time we ought to be especially conscious of our constant obligation to treat people well and be a conduit of blessings to them, which includes blessing people with gifts. This, however, is different to Christmas primarily becoming about material substance, which is what those waging a war on Christmas have tried to do: they have essentially tried to commercialise Christmas and make it about the procurement of gifts.
So, why is this a problem? Well, because it is a distraction from the ACTUAL reason for the season, being Jesus Christ. And how you note the extent of this commercialisation is how it has been made to become a worldly measure of a good Christmas celebration, so to speak. From films to store advertisements, what is often emphasised is an abundance of gifts under a Christmas tree, and whether one has committed enough good acts that warrant them receiving gifts (which perpetuates the lie that one’s actions are what make them righteous, as opposed to righteousness being a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ, as we see for instance in galatians 2:16 or Romans 3:28). Meanwhile, with the commercialisation of Christmas, children are also encouraged to write lists of what gifts they desire, while there are periods of Christmas shopping rushes across stores that have even strangely resulted in violent outbreaks over items on store shelves.
All of this is aimed at distorting from the real reason for the season – being Jesus Christ, and the celebration of the fact that he was born our Saviour King and Christ. In fact, what the commercialisation of Christmas did was to centralise Santa Clause as the famous Christmas figure, while companies centred their Christmas message on him – as is most notably seen with the Coca-Cola company.
THE DEMONIC INCLUSION OF SANTA CLAUS TO CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
But, commercialisation is not the only issue with Santa Clause. Part of the war on Christmas has manifested in the demonic inclusion of Santa Claus to Christmas traditions. Santa Claus is believed to be the child of Baldr and Hel given that he and Krampus are essentially regarded as the same being. Krampus, in central European popular legend, a half-goat, half-demon monster that punishes misbehaving children at Christmas time (which is another way that he and Santa are revealed to be the same figure).
But, then a false separation between Santa and Krampus was created. In particular, Krampus was portrayed as the devilish companion of St Nicholas. On the one hand, Krampus is believed to have originated in Germany, and his name derives from the German word Krampen, which means “claw”, and Krampus is portrayed as having drifted towards the darkness. On the other hand, Santa is portrayed as a figure that chose the light and grew to become great and powerful. However, this narrative of a powerful Santa Claus figure, was primarily driven NOT by Chrostians, and rather ancient pagans associated him with Odin. And Odin was a god in Germanic paganism and Norse mythology, who was associated with many things, including war and death.
But, whether Santa is regarded as Krampus’s sibling and companion, or Krampus himself, the demonic influence is clear for all to see, when you look at where the idea of Santa Claus came from.
BUT THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS IS NOT LOST ON US
But, the meaning of Christmas is not lost on us as Christians. We know that Christ is the reason for the season. We understand that we are celebrating that “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. And His Son, being Jesus Christ, was not a king crowned by the world, He is rather God-in the flesh who was born King, Lord and Christ to change completely the course of humanity, through making fellowship with the Father possible for us. This is why we primarily celebrate Christmas by making known the Good News of salvation through Christ to all, and giving them the Word of God through the Rhapsody of Realities, in this ReachOut world season. And so, in a world where the futile war on Christmas has been waged, the Church of Jesus Christ is championing and propagating the Truth of God.