The very title of this blog post may surprise many Christians, but God is, in fact, against the very celebration of Christmas. Obviously, the question that this statement provokes is “Why would He be against it since it’s a celebration of Christ’s birth?” I find it telling that many people will argue why they think it is right or wrong, but what we fail to ask is the question, “What does God think and feel about what we do? Does He approve?”
CHRISTMAS DIDN’T ORIGINATE WITH GOD
In the Gospels, Yeshua (Jesus) teaches, “Every plant, which My heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13), and Christmas is an example of something in the church that’s “a plant” that the Father “has not planted.” And God’s desire is that this “plant” “be rooted up” and removed from His people.
CHRISTMAS – A “CHRISTIAN ALTERNATIVE”?
The origin of Christmas predates the time of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) life and ministry. It did not begin with Him. There’s all kind of evidence that the main elements of Christmas – the tree, the yule log, the presents, the caroling, the partying, even people going out and getting drunk, etc. – all find their origin in paganism, specifically, the Roman Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra, the sun god, which was December 25. It doesn’t take that much research to discover this. Up through the 4th century, A.D., people were leaving the church to go celebrate the Roman Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithra, so in the 4th century, the Roman Catholic Church created a “Christian alternative” to the Saturnalia and Mithra to keep people in the church, and they did this by creating a mass for Christ or “Christ mass,” which is where we get the name “Christmas.” Modern churches are doing the same thing with Halloween today.
HAVE WE EVER ASKED GOD HIS OPINION?
But the one question that we never ask is, “Should we have done it?” I’ve seen many different arguments for and against the celebration of Christmas, but it seems we’re more engrossed in what we feel about the whole thing than we are about what God feels about it. After all, when have we ever stopped and asked the question, “What does God feel about what we do? Is He happy about it, or does He not approve?”
GOD GIVES US HIS OPINION
On August 17, 2019, God spoke the following prophetic message to my wife about His feelings concerning Christmas, and He wanted us to share His Word to the church at large in America and around the world:
This Christmas Spirit you have associated with Me is not of Me, says the Lord God of Israel this very day here where you are located. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I AM, I WAS and I AM coming again. Will you be ready or will you be doing life on your own accord and worshiping some other deity/god that isn’t Me at all?
I told you in My Words who I am and what I like and don’t like. Why is it people who say you love Me don’t even understand Me your HOLY GOD? Could it be that you haven’t read My Words for yourselves, or is it that you care more about worshiping the erected Christmas Tree and arraying and decking it out with all of the trimmings instead.
Woe unto you who are doing this and saying you love Me. Woe unto you who do the things that My Word/Scriptures speak against. No where does My Word tell you to worship Me as a baby in a manger or to take of the pagans ways or to pick up and worship some Christmas Spirit for the whole month. Nonsense Church People – This is your doings to please and make happy yourselves and your families. (“God’s Warning to His Church: Quit Celebrating this Pagan Day!”)
As we can see, God is not at all please with His people participating and celebrating Christmas at all. In fact, as God sees it, this celebration has absolutely nothing to do with Him at all; instead, the true focus of this celebration is on making ourselves and our families happy.
In fact, God told us through the writings of Moses that we are not to take things from the pagans and use them with Him.
Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them [pagan nations], after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. YOU SHALL NOT DO SO unto the LORD your God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Deuteronomy 12:30-32; Emphasis Mine)
How can we say that we are honoring God when we are directly disobeying God by the very thing that we are doing? Christianity tries to rationalize its annual disobedience to God by saying that God’s Law or, even, the whole Old Testament, has been “done away with;” however, God has shared with us numerous times, this is nonsense. It is the words of men, it is not His Word. God’s law has not changed, and God’s prohibition against using pagan things with Him has, likewise, not changed.
And as far as God is concerned, Christmas is a clear violation of this command given to us by Him. We are clearly taking something that the pagans used in the worship and celebration of their god, and we have “Christianized” it and brought it into the church and have been using it with Him, and He’s not pleased about it at all. In fact, in this same message, God said,
I have told and taught you in My Word how to train up your children in the ways of Me and My Father in Heaven, but you throw that aside/away to teach them how to worship this pagan deity of Christmas and what you want it to bring and to comfort you with this warm fussy feeling of the Spirit of Christmas. You say it brings love, joy, peace and kindness which are all of the fruits that I have given in My Words, but this pagan practice only is loving greed, selfishness, pride, arrogance, ungratefulness, as well as unthankfulness to say the least. All of these are from the devil and his follies/imps.
[…] Stop profaning My name and stop doing what dishonors Us, for We do not approve or appreciate that you are prostituting yourselves out to other gods and saying it is I/US that you are worshiping. […] It’s time to wake up and stop lying to yourselves that what you’re doing is okay with Me/Us because it is not and has never been so.
My First Commandment says to have only ONE GOD and to worship Him and No one else. This god that you say is Me is not Me and has never been Me or My Father God/Elohim. I AM THE ONLY GOD that you are to be serving and worshiping in your Synagogues/ Congregations and Churches this day and for always. (“God’s Warning to His Church: Quit Celebrating this Pagan Day!”)
Obviously, here, God still views Christmas as a pagan practice that’s tied to the celebration and worship of another deity, Mithra. There are many people who have been deceived into believing that by celebrating Christmas, they are celebrating Christ, but God says that the “god you say is Me is not Me and has never been Me or My Father God/Elohim.” God is not “the Christmas Spirit.” It is another Spirit that we see at this time of the year and in the Christian churches.
And not only does He see it as a continuation of idolatry, but He is appalled and disgusted by it all. In fact, more recently, on December 5, 2019, the Lord had the following to say about Christmas:
These trees and such, that you call the christmas spirit, is not of Me, nor ever has been apart of Me, says the Lord Most High of Heaven and Earth, this day. Put aside every idol, and every mention and thing of the ABOMINATIONS that you have taken up and put My Holy name to it.
I AM APPALLED and I AM DISGUSTED with you who call Me Lord/Savior and continue to try and please your own deceitful hearts into believing I’m okay with this pollution that is in your everyday midst in the stories, houses, communities and even the houses of prayer where you say that I am at. (“Such Arrogance My People / Church Have Today?”)
I can imagine many Christians are probably shocked by God’s response to Christmas, but this is not news to my wife or me. In fact, the first time that God ever spoke to her about this was back on October 31, 2015. And this is what He said to her to share with me, and then for us to tell the American church and the church around the world:
I do not want My people to be dabbling in the things which I have said were unclean and unholy. How can I, a holy God, be among the things that are unholy? My people, you are profaning My name and causing Me to want to take you and remove you from My Holy Presence. I cannot and will NOT, I say, keep dwelling among a people who do NOT covet the same holy things that I covet. (“God Says: ‘My People are Profaning My Name'”)
God has called us to be His holy people, “a holy nation.” But instead of striving to be holy, we are acting in unholy ways by embracing these pagan practices. In fact, God little later in the message continued His thought regarding our “Christian holidays”:
These wicked holidays that you are claiming to be yours are detestable in My eyes, says God Almighty. How can you not see this in the Word of God that I have given you as a manual to understand the very heart of Me, says God. I DO NOT WISH for anyone of My children to have anything to do with the things of this world. I will go farther than this, I can’t continue in a relationship with you because you are grieving the very Holy Spirit that has come to be your Helper and to be your Guide.
Don’t profane My name and say you are trying to take something bad and turn it into something good for the sake of the church. That is not true. You are doing it because you don’t care about hurting Me, says God. If you cared about Me, you would see that I detest all the things that you’re trying to push Me into. I do NOT accept what you have done, and I don’t want any more to be involved in or have you put My name to anything that is unholy and unacceptable to what My Word teaches. (“God Says: My People are Profaning My Name”)
As we can see, God does not want anything to do with any of the pagan “Christianized” holidays that we have brought into the church, and this would most definitely include Christmas. Therefore, by continuing to celebrate Christmas, we are offending God by connecting Him to paganism, which He finds horribly offensive and to be a violation of His Word.
Now I can imagine some might wonder why God feels so strongly about our celebration of Christmas, or some might not believe that God actually said this to my wife, Karen. So let me show from the Bible why God feels Christmas is so offensive to Him.
CHRISTMAS VIOLATES THE CHARACTER AND NATURE OF GOD.
There are many sources out there, Christian and non-Christian alike, who openly admit that Christmas has pagan elements and roots. In fact, there are many deities who were born on December 25th, and they were worshiped on this day. But the one most similar to our Christmas celebration is the Roman Saturnalia which led up to the birthday of Mithra, the sun god, which was December 25. The Roman Catholic Church openly admits to taking this pagan celebration, “Christianizing it,” and bringing it into the church. They will not argue this point at all.
CHRISTMAS – A DECEPTIVE LIE?
But when we go around proclaiming that Christmas is Yeshua’s (Jesus’) birthday, or that it began with Him, we are, in fact, spreading a deceptive lie. Christmas was created to keep people in the church, so they would not leave the church to go and celebrate a pagan feast and be involved in worshiping another god. Therefore, for us to go around proclaiming that “Christmas is about Christ” or “Keep Christ in Christmas” when He was never in it to begin with is, again, to promote a deception and a lie. And deception or lies are completely against the character and nature of God. God does not lie, nor does He endorse lying. And yet every year parents lie to their children about Christmas being about Jesus’ birth and about Santa Claus.
Parents will say, “but Christmas is fun for the kids.” Of course, it is. That’s how Satan draws people into things. He doesn’t use their evil side, but their good side, their fun side. But think about it. Are we legitimizing our lying to our children by saying it’s okay to lie as long as it’s fun for our children? I mean, as long as you are having a good time, is it okay to lie and violate the character and nature of God, as well as violate His Scriptures? Have we deceived ourselves into believing that by telling this lie, we are really teaching them about God and what He is like? I mean, think about it, if Yeshua (Himself) was standing right beside you, do you think that He would endorse your lying about Him when He, Himself, said, “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life” (John 14:6; Emphasis Mine)?
No, this is not teaching our children about the true God of the Bible, nor is it teaching them about the true biblical Yeshua (Jesus), but God said when we teach and participate in the Christmas season, we are teaching them about another god, another Jesus, and we are not teaching people about Him at all. You see, the biblical God and the biblical Yeshua (Jesus) are holy, and when we attach Yeshua (Jesus), our holy Lord, to a deceptive lie, we create confusion, and “God is not the author of confusion” (I Corinthians 14:33). Therefore, again, the celebration of Christmas violates the character and nature of God. And just because Christmas is “fun” and has become a “Christian tradition” does not make it right.
CHRISTMAS – PROFANES THE HOLINESS OF GOD?
And as God said to Karen, my wife, Christmas violates and profanes His holiness. Throughout Scripture, we are told by God that He is holy and, therefore, we are to be holy, for example,
For I am the LORD your God: you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy. (Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7)
And you shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that you should be Mine. (Leviticus 20:26)
For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. (I Thessalonians 4:7)
But as He which has called us is holy, so be ye holy in ALL manner of conversation [i.e., conduct, behavior]; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. (I Peter 1:15-16)
God’s standard for holiness is seen throughout the Scriptures. He has not changed (Malachi 3:6), nor has His standards changed. He expects holiness of Israel, and He expects holiness of us. And by bringing this pagan celebration into the church, we are not being holy, but we are, instead, profaning the name and the holiness of God.
Bring Christmas into the church is no different than what the Israelites did at the foot of Mt. Sinai with their golden calf, or what later Israelites did by bringing false idols into the Temple. In all three cases, we, like they, are attempting to mix God with paganism. God’s Holiness does not sanctify the pagan images, symbols, and rituals, so we are not “redeeming a pagan day or feast,” but we are, instead, profaning the holiness of God. And every time that a Christian celebrates Christmas, they are not honoring God, but they are, instead, profaning Him.
CHRISTMAS FEEDS THE FLESH.
And not only does Christmas violate the name and holiness of God, but it is a pagan celebration that feeds the flesh as God said. We are commanded to walk after the Spirit and to crucify the flesh, but instead, in this pagan “Christianized” celebration, we are doing the exact opposite. We are feeding the flesh. How? By the following:
- IT PROMOTES COVETING. We can tell ourselves that Christmas is about Yeshua (Jesus), but this is a lie. It’s not. Ask any child if they are excited about Christmas, and they will tell you “Yes!” And if you ask why, they will tell you about all the presents that they are expecting from Santa Claus. I remember as a child creating my lists of presents that I wanted, and I would spend hours going through the catalogues looking for what I wanted. Did I think about Yeshua (Jesus) at those moments? Absolutely not! Christmas, to me, and to the majority of children, if we are at all honest, is about the presents and what they are going to get.
Consequently, Christmas does not naturally promote Yeshua (Jesus). He is not the first thing that comes to mind when you mention “Christmas” to children. Instead, if anything, Christmas promotes coveting, desiring and wanting things that people do not possess. And in the Scriptures, we are commanded “You shall not covet” people or things that other people have (Exodus 20: 17; Deuteronomy 5:21). And the reason most people want the things that they do is because they see other people have it, and then they want it too.
IT PROMOTES MATERIALISM AND GREED. All anyone has to do is to go shopping and see what kinds of things are being promoted and advertised for people to buy for Christmas to see that this is true. In fact, many people complain about the fact that Christmas promotes materialism and greed, but if you go back to the Roman Saturnalia and Mithra, you will find the same thing. Materialism and greed is a natural part of the spirit of this pagan feast, so even if you call that spirit, “the Christmas Spirit,” it will always find its way out and express itself.
IT PROMOTES SELFISHNESS. Finally, the focus of Christmas is not about “giving,” but about what they will be “getting.” In fact, if most people do not receive anything for Christmas, particularly children, they feel hurt. Parents and others will say that they give to their children or other family members, but children and family are physical extensions of ourselves, so to give to them is, in fact, a way of giving to ourselves. And also, many people give with the expectation that they will get something in return. Many people even pay tithes with this same motivation. Consequently, then Christmas is a holiday that actually promotes selfishness.
CHRISTMAS VIOLATES SCRIPTURE.
In addition, Christmas violates Scripture. For example, in Deuteronomy 12, God says,
Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them [pagan nations], after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. YOU SHALL NOT DO SO unto the LORD your God: for every abomination to the LORD, which He hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (Deuteronomy 12:30-32; Emphasis Mine)
Christmas is a clear violation of this command given to us by God. We are clearly taking something that the pagans used in the worship and celebration of their god, and we have “Christianized” it and brought it into the church.
WHY CHRISTIANS CONTINUE TO DO THIS?
So if the evidence is clear that Christmas is a violation of the character and nature of God, it promotes the flesh, and it violates Scripture, then why do Christians continue to do it? When I have asked pastors this question, I have gotten one of two different responses:
GOD KNOWS WHAT’S IN MY HEART.
One response I often hear is that “God knows what’s in my heart.” Yes, God knows the human heart very well. In His Word, this is what He has to say about it:
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that EVERY IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART was ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY. (Genesis 6:5; Emphasis Mine)
The IMAGINATION of man’s heart is EVIL from his youth. (Genesis 8:21; Emphasis Mine)
The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and DESPERATELY WICKED: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9; Emphasis Mine)
Is this the heart that God knows? Yes, He knows how corrupt our hearts are, and that they are so deceitful that they will even deceive us into believing we are doing something good when we are not. This is why we need to place our trust in God and His Word, and not in our heart.
PEOPLE ARE GETTING SAVED.
The other response I often hear is that “people are getting saved.” They believe that as long as people are “getting saved,” then that is all that matters. However, what this implies, is the belief that “the end justifies the means.” And God does not support this man-made philosophy. Instead God is holy, and for God, not only the end needs to be holy, but so does the means. God will not endorse unholy “means,” regardless of the outcome. God cannot, nor will He, violate His holiness, nor will He okay us to do so in His name.
In fact, in the same August 17, 2019, message, God said this in regard to this idea:
Stop forcing Me into your pagan celebrations to bring in people to have them come to Me. My Father and I don’t need your help in this. My Father and My Holy Spirit will draw them unto Me in the right timing, not yours, My people, who say that you love Me and want to do good, not bad. (“God’s Warning to His Church: Quit Celebrating this Pagan Day!”)
Many times, people get emotionally stirred up and we get them to come forward to give their lives to Yeshua (Jesus). However, oftentimes, when the emotions subside, so does the commitment to follow Yeshua (Jesus). Rather than continuing to follow Him, they now have this “belief” that because they went forward, they now have this “automatic ticket to heaven,” even if they never go back to church, read their Bible, or pray. We need to do things God’s way, not trying to replace His ways with our own.
CONCLUSION
Christmas is not of God. It is a man-made celebration that was created to keep Christians in the church, but in doing so, they brought these pagan elements into the church as well. And one must wonder, “Why do we feel we have the need to create holidays and feasts when God gave us a bunch of them? Why do we throw His feasts out the window, and then replace them with feasts of our own making that are deeply rooted in paganism and idolatry?” What we are doing is not honoring to God, but we are profaning Him each and every year.
We have a choice. We can either listen to God and His Word, and be obedient to Him, or we can ignore God and what He says in His Word, and continue to do what we are doing, and be in disobedience and rebellion. Obedience to God and His Word brings blessings into our lives, but disobedience and rebellion only result in cursings and death.
My wife and I, as well as this ministry, Following Messiah, have made our decision. We will no longer celebrate, support, or advocate Christmas for any reason. As far as we are concerned, this pagan holiday will not be a part of our lives or our ministry, regardless of the cost. It is our prayer, and God’s desire, that you will follow our example and do likewise.
Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)
