Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?

 

Several years ago, in a documentary called “Religulous” (clever, right?), Bill Maher claimed that most of the story of Christ, especially the parts about His birth, were cribbed from pagan mythology. After all, Maher claimed, the Egyptian God Horus was born of a virgin on December 25th, was baptized, had twelve disciples, performed miracles, and ultimately died and rose again. Christianity, said Maher, is nothing but a cheap knockoff.

The problem is, as numerous critics have pointed out, Maher’s claims are complete nonsense. No original source material backs up his description of Horus or, for that matter, of Mithras or Krishna, two other deities Maher claims early Christians copied.

As ridiculous as “Religulous” is, some of its same claims about the origins of Christian holidays remain and tend to surface most at Christmas time. For example, how and when did the Church determine that date of December 25th? Was it to compete with the Roman festival of Saturnalia? And what about trees, and gifts, and lights? Where did all of that come from? And, what about those pagan stories that resemble Christ, of sons of the gods and “corn kings” who die and rise again?

Recently, historian and long-time friend of the Colson Center, Dr. Glenn Sunshine joined Shane Morris to talk about these things on the Upstream podcast. Glenn is a favorite teaching faculty of the Colson Fellows and, I can assure you, he is no Grinch. During his conversation with Shane, Dr. Sunshine answered some of the core questions about Christmas.

For instance, Sunshine argued that December 25th was not chosen as the date for Christmas in order to co-opt a pagan solstice festival. More likely, it was based on an ancient Jewish belief that people are conceived on the date of their deaths. Since Christ died on or around March 25th, some Church Fathers believed that Christ must have been conceived on that day and born nine months later … December 25th.

Was this Jesus’ actual birthday? No one knows, of course. Still, the choice to celebrate Christ’s birth at the end of December reflects a “sacramental” view of reality, which Christians have held through the ages.

In this more “enchanted” view of the world, one that held sway in the Early and Medieval Church, nature itself was understood to have signified the life of Christ. The visible death of winter—the withering of the leaves, the dormancy of the ground, and the longer nights—symbolized to many Christians of centuries past the death Jesus came to die. The turning of the seasons and the increase in daylight that symbolized the dawning of the Light of the World in a manger.

Many of our traditions, like Christmas trees, probably began as symbols of life in the midst of death. Dr. Sunshine suggests that this mingling of symbols of atonement with the joyous news of the Savior’s birth can even be detected in the Gospel narratives. For instance, could those swaddling clothes be the burial cloth Joseph carried with him in case of death?

Even more, the pagan myths that atheists often exaggerate to attack Christianity, Dr. Sunshine thinks, offer tantalizing echoes of Christ in other religions. C. S. Lewis also recognized this when he wrote in Mere Christianity of what he called “good dreams,” or “those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.”

For Lewis, these echoes were not evidence of religious plagiarism, but that Christ is the “true myth,” the waking reality behind these “good dreams.” To celebrate Christmas well, focused on Christ as opposed to “stuff,” we do more than repeat old traditions. We are glorifying the King of Kings who came to save His people from darkness and make all things new.

You can get Shane’s podcast with Glenn Sunshine at breakpoint.org, and the latest “What Would You Say” video tackles this same question, “Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?” Watch it as a family, share it on social media, or with your church to help others answer this question that still stumps too many of us.

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A Couple Decide to Forgo IVF to Avoid Abortion

 

Last week, I received a stunning email from a gentleman who had, only days before, learned from doctors that he and his wife would likely not be able to conceive children. The doctor did say that in vitro fertilization could be successful in their case. The email described the couple’s decision:

“We just can’t go forward with IVF. I know it could satisfy one of the deepest desires of our hearts, but the cost is unacceptable. A little boy or girl created with our own genetic material is not morally worth the many inevitable deaths of his or her embryonic brothers and sisters.”

I’m not sure what’s more impressive: the moral conviction shown by this young couple or just how deeply they understand the moral realities of artificial reproductive technologies.

In a culture that views children as products instead of image-bearers, many Christians feel lost when faced with similar decisions. We hear from them all the time, and, while I’m grateful to be a resource for those wrestling with these issues, the Church has, too often, simply failed young couples in this area, both in communicating a theology of children and in helping them navigate the ethical challenges of infertility.

Whether from Scriptural stories – like Abraham and Sarah, Samuel’s mother Hannah, and John the Baptist’s mother Elizabeth – or from personal experience, to say that infertility is painful is an understatement, as anyone who has gone through it can attest. Even if lacking a clear ethic on reproductive technology, Christians tend to value children more than the wider culture. In this context, technology can seem like answer to the prayers of those who wish to conceive their own children but cannot. It’s understandable why pastors and fellow believers would be loath to counsel against it.

All of this made the moral clarity found in this email so stark. This couple acknowledges that their deep, God-given desire for children is more than a matter of personal preference or a choice to further their happiness. Rather, it’s an inherent part of their marriage. Yet, they’ve sought to understand the moral complexities of IVF, realizing that means are not justified by well-intentioned, or even godly, ends.

Listen to this line again: “A little boy or girl created with our own genetic material is not morally worth the many inevitable deaths of his or her embryonic brothers and sisters.” In most IVF clinics, couples consent to create more embryos than they intend to parent. They do that to increase the chances of success through various rounds of implantation. It’s a strategy built around the probability that not all of the embryos will survive. If more embryos survive implantation than desired, a so-called “voluntary reduction” is often recommended and performed.

That’s another word for abortion.

To be clear, there are fertility specialists and clinics, many of them Christian, who, while not finding IVF unethical, per se, refuse this pragmatic sacrifice of human life. Unlike a practice that has resulted in over a million abandoned embryos, subject to custody battles,or being discarded as medical waste, these clinics require that only one embryo is created and implanted at a time or that the couple will agree to implant all embryos created.

All of this is a poignant reminder that talk about Christian ethics and worldview is not some disembodied, esoteric exercise for the theologically nerdy. Like the couple that wrote to us, the real-life issues Christians face in this cultural moment have flesh-and-blood implications.

“Forgoing IVF is hard,” they wrote, “but we have peace that it is right and good.”

This couple has chosen the narrow way Jesus referred to in His Sermon on the Mount. They’ve chosen the way of Mary, who, when told by the angel that unexpected motherhood was her future, said “let it be to me according to Your Word.”

I don’t know precisely how, but I pray God will bless this couple with peace and in amazing ways for their faithfulness. I pray others, facing the pain of infertility, will follow their courageous example and do the hard work required to make the right decisions. I pray God will equip His Church and its shepherds to prepare His people to live faithfully in this cultural moment.

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A US Attorney General Says 'Merry Christmas' Devastated Her Son

 

Attorney General Dana Nessel of Michigan tweeted her concern over President Trump’s use of “Merry Christmas” this weekend, according to CBN News.

While campaigning in Georgia in an attempt to secure Republican Senator’s seats, the President told the crowd: “Let me begin by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. Remember the word? Remember we started five years ago and I said, ‘You’re going to be saying Christmas again,’ and we say it proudly again. Although they’ll be trying to take that word again out of the vocabulary. We’re not going to let them do that.”

Nessel later told her Twitter followers in response to Trump’s speech, “I remember the first time I was at a store with my son and an employee said ‘Merry Christmas’ to us. My son looked devastated and asked, ‘Are we the only people who don’t celebrate Christmas?’ I answered ‘No, and we are just as American as everyone else.’ Glad @JoeBiden knows that.”

But the now-deleted tweet brought an onslaught of responses chiding the AG for her disparagement of “Merry Christmas.”

She later tweeted, “Saying ‘Happy Holidays’ this time of year does not denigrate Christianity. It simply acknowledges and respects the great diversity of our nation and includes each and every one of us who call ourselves proud Americans.” 

A follower told Nessel in response: “Being offended is a choice. If you’re offended by an expression of goodwill, that’s a you problem. If someone wishes me Happy Hanukkah or Ramadan I just say thanks as it’s said with good intentions. Asking people of faith to not use these is telling them to hide their faith. Nope.”

Another was confused how the greetings could cause such harm. “There are only 2 holidays in December. I say Happy Hanukah to my Jewish friends and Merry Christmas to my Christian friends. I belong to neither religion, but somehow I manage these small gestures to goodwill without severe damage to my psyche.”

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China's ruling party orders teachers to establish Marxism and promote atheism

Chinese Communist Party officials have ordered primary school teachers to sign a form requiring them to teach a Marxist religious view, strengthen atheism education, and actively promote socialism, according to a persecution watchdog group. 

China Aid, a U.S.-based nonprofit that monitors religious persecution in China, reports that CCP officials recently distributed a "Teacher’s Promise to Not Believe in Any Faith" form to Longwan District School in Wenzhou in China’s Zhejiang province. 

The form, which requires each teacher’s signature, includes directives under four “publicly announced commitments.” Teachers are required to: Firmly establish a Marxist religious view; strengthen atheism education, and refrain from believing in any religion or participating in any religious activities. 

Teachers are also forbidden from teaching about religion, disseminating religious information, or engaging in such activities. But they are required to actively promote socialism and new civilization.

International Christian Concern reports that teachers who are CCP members were required to receive and sign three copies of the “Communist Party Member’s Promise to Not Believe in Any Faith.” One copy was for self-retention, and two copies to be handed in after the meeting. The filling date of all the forms was pre-filled as Nov. 30.

Schools in China are government-controlled and financed and therefore communist in ideology.

Known as “China’s Jerusalem” due to its large Christian population, Zhejiang has seen an increase in religious persecution in recent years. It’s been the target of a large scale cross removal, church closures, and the detention of pastors and church leaders. 

In 2017, the CCP tightened restrictions on faith classes in Zhejiang province, warning against the religion’s so-called “Western” ideas. Provincial governments subsequently banned minors from attending any religious-based activities or places of worship.

In 2018, more than 300 Christian children in two high schools in the region were asked to fill out a form stating that they did not follow a religion.

Children who did not comply were reportedly denied access to opportunities at school, such as being elected as class representatives for special events.

In another region, a teacher suspected of sharing her faith with schoolchildren was charged with “operating an illegal business” and sentenced to two years in prison. 

Bob Fu, president of China Aid, previously stressed that China has launched a “war” against children’s faith. 

“For the first time since the Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao in the 1960s, Chinese children are forced to renounce their faith in public by the Chinese Communist Party,” Fu said. 

According to estimates, there are 3.5 million Christian children and teens in China, he said, yet they are “forbidden” to practice their faith. 

Fu emphasized that China’s continued crackdown on freedom of thought, conscience, and religion violates Article 18 of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants.

“The international community should or must confront this,” he said. “This is a direct violation.”

On Dec. 7, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom once against designated China as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”

“The United States will continue to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution around the world, and to help ensure that each person, everywhere, at all times, has the right to live according to the dictates of conscience,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement Monday.

China is also ranked among Open Door USA's World Watch List of 50 countries where it's most difficult to be a Christian.

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COVID-19 World Seems 'Perfectly Suited for the Antichrist to Come' Says Pastor

 

Pastor and author John MacArthur told his congregation on Sunday that today’s world – with a virus spreading through every country and governments ordering citizens to stay home – seems “perfectly suited for the Antichrist to come.’

MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., and a popular author and radio pastor, made the comments during a Sunday evening service in which he discussed COVID-19, government restrictions and Scripture.

The world’s governments, MacArthur said, “have done something that's never been done in human history.” That is, they have made the issue and the response “global,” he asserted.

“Now we are a global world. And that is a setup that we've been waiting for through redemptive history since the Lord promised that there would come, in the future, an Antichrist who would have a global government,” he noted.

“This is the first time in my lifetime that we literally have such power over people globally that we can shut them down so they can't function,” he said of lockdowns. “... This suits the world of Antichrist. As you look at the book of Revelation, there's the mark of the beast, the number, and if you don't have that, you don't buy, you don't sell, you don't exist. Everything about you, they know – the people who have access to all your data. They know all of it. You can go out of existence virtually any moment [and] somebody decides that. This is the kind of world that appears to be perfectly suited for the Antichrist to come, bring a certain amount of peace, [and] the world falls at his feet.

“He is the instrument of Satan,” MacArthur said of the Antichrist. “And of course, all hell breaks loose, and in that time of the Great Tribulation, God's judgment comes – at the end of which Christ returns.”

MacArthur said he’s not predicting that “the Lord is coming soon.” But he said many of today’s events mirror those prophesied in Scripture.

“The Bible says in the End Times there will be lawlessness. And there is lawlessness [today] and an escalating lawlessness and an effort to create more lawlessness by taking restraints away,” he said. “This is a world that could find itself in such absolute chaos that the right satanic leader who promises to fix everything could be given the title of king of the world. That Antichrist, aided by the false prophet, is what we see in the book of Revelation.

“… It seems that this is the world that we never knew could exist. We have the kind of weaponry that could destroy a third of the population, a fourth of the population, as you see in the book of Revelation. We have the kind of technology that can literally erase people out of existence. So, it's just up to us to be sure that we're looking at the signs of the times.”

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Nigeria, China and 8 other countries added to list of world religious freedom violators

 

The U.S. State Department has added Nigeria to its list of "countries of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act, making it the first secular democracy to appear on the list.

In a press statement Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the State Department’s updates to the annual list of state actors that have “engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

“The United States is designating Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, the DPRK, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for engaging in or tolerating ‘systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,’” he said.  

Gayle Manchin, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, praised Pompeo’s decision to add Nigeria to the list: “We are gratified that the State Department has named 10 countries as CPCs. We particularly welcome Nigeria’s designation for the first time as a CPC for tolerating egregious violations of religious freedom, which USCIRF had been recommending since 2009.”

“Nigeria is the first secular democracy that has been named a CPC, which demonstrates that we must be vigilant that all forms of governments respect religious freedom,” she added.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom describes itself as “an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad.”

The Rev. Johnnie Moore, an international religious freedom advocate who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, recently told Fox News that the situation in Nigeria has deteriorated to the point where “thousands of churches have been torched, children massacred, pastors beheaded, and homes and fields set ablaze by the tens of thousands, with people being targeted for their Christian faith alone.”

According to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who co-wrote a book with Moore about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, titled, The Next Jihad: Stop the Christian Genocide in Africa, “there is little to no price to pay for the kidnapping, extortion, burning of churches, or for mayhem and murder of Christians. Even when police or military actually captures the perpetrators, the judiciary won’t hold deal seriously with the criminal/terrorists.”

Cooper and Moore wrote their book after traveling to Nigeria earlier this year. After meeting with dozens of victims of terrorism, they concluded that “the terrorists’ aim is to ethnically cleanse northern Nigeria of its Christians and to kill every Muslim who stands in their way.”

“It seems very, very clear to us that for various reasons, the government is failing at its fundamental responsibility to protect its citizens,” Moore said in a previous interview with The Christian Post.

“Across every facet of Nigerian society, whether the religious leader was Muslim or Christian or whether the victim was describing something that happened to them in the center of the country or at the hands of ISIS or Boko Haram in the northeast, it was really clear that everyone felt like the government wasn’t doing enough or wasn’t able to do enough.”

In addition to labeling Nigeria and nine other sovereign states as CPCs under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the State Department announced that it's also "placing the Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Russia on a Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated ‘severe violations of religious freedom.’”

A country on the special watch list does not meet all the criteria for presence on the list of CPCs but still “engages in or tolerates severe violations of religious freedom.”

While all 10 of the nations singled out as CPCs by the State Department were recommended for placement on the list by USCIRF, the organization’s 2020 annual report also recommended the designation of India, Russia, Syria and Vietnam as CPCs.

The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America expressed “deep disappointment” about the decision not to designate India as a CPC.

The addition of Nigeria was not the only change made to the State Department’s list of CPCs and special watch list. Sudan and Uzbekistan were removed from the special watch list “based on significant, concrete progress undertaken by their respective governments over the past year.”

In Defense of Christians, an advocacy organization for Christians and religious minorities in Africa and the Middle East, commended Pompeo for the CPC designations and noted that the secretary also designated the following groups as Entities-of-Particular Concern: al-Shabaab, al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban.

“We want to commend Secretary Pompeo for his leadership in advancing international religious freedom,” said IDC President Toufic Baaklini. “The designation of Nigeria as a CPC is a much needed first step in responding to the Christian genocide there. Saudi Arabia once again is deserving of its CPC designation and we encourage the Secretary to refrain from issuing the kingdom the sanctions waiver it has been receiving annually since 2006,” he added.

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Pastor gets threatened for couging and urging congregants to get COVID-19

 

A Michigan pastor who went viral for coughing and telling congregants to get COVID-19 and "get it over with," says he and his family are now being threatened.

Pastor Bart Spencer, who leads Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland, insisted he will not be bullied into wearing a mask.

“Just respect my choice and I will respect yours. I don’t ask you to take off your mask, don’t ask me to put one on. That’s legit. You wouldn’t believe the names that I’ve been called, the threats that I’ve received for something as simple as that,” Spencer said in his sermon on Sunday.

The preacher, who is an Air Force veteran, told The Sentinel that he and several of his family members, including older adults, have already been infected with the virus and recovered.

“It’s not fun, I lost my sense of taste and smell, but my bout with the flu was worse,” he said.

He explained that he has been doing in-person services since the spring with some people social distancing and wearing a mask and so far no one has died.

“We trust our people to make their own decisions,” he said. “We respect one another’s positions.”

Spencer began making headlines after a clip from a Nov. 14 sermon of him doling out his public health advice went viral.

“It’s all good, several people have had COVID. None have died yet. It’s OK. Get it. Get it over with. Press on,” he said in the middle of his coughing fit at the pulpit.

Health officials have called it a “bad idea” to deliberately get infected with the virus.

In his sermon on Sunday, Spencer said he wished the Gospel spread as quickly around the world as his clip on coronavirus did.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Gospel had that impact worldwide?” he asked.

Preaching on sin and death, he said, “The argument is not you might die. The reality is, you’re going to. I’m not a fatalist at all but I am a realist. When God said ‘it’s appointed unto man once to die’ that’s what He meant. Do you die from a heart attack? No. Do you die from cancer? Uh-uh. Do you die from COVID? Nope. Everybody dies from the same thing — sin. That’s it.”

Spencer, who graduated from Mountain States Baptist College in May 1995, said he and his wife, Suzan, started Lighthouse Baptist Church in 1997 after a career in the United States Air Force.

“We are conservative (singing from the hymn book) yet spirited in our music employing traditional style accompaniment. The salvation of the lost is the focus of our ministry with the teaching and training of the saved an inseparable part of our mission,” Spencer says on the church’s website.

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