Questions and Answers

We at Beyond Today use the Bible—the written Word of God—as the basis of our teachings. Therefore, it is not up to us to judge people—it is God’s Word that does so. Notice what Jesus said: “The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). The word that Jesus has spoken is the entire Bible, as He was the living Word through whom the Father acted and spoke even in Old Testament times.

Our position on not celebrating Christmas is not motivated by a divisive spirit, but by a strong desire to obey the Word of God and be unified with Him. We genuinely desire to share the blessing that comes from following Him the way He wants to be followed. And as you’ll read below, His instructions on how to worship Him simply do not square with Christmas and its traditions.

Since Christmas clearly has pagan roots and its symbols revolve around the worship of foreign gods, we should avoid celebrating it and instead focus on the holy celebrations of the Bible.

Anyone with access to the Internet can easily learn the origins of Christmas and its associated customs, such as the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, kissing under mistletoe and celebrating on Dec. 25. These have nothing to do with true biblical Christianity and everything to do with the worship of other gods.

For example the website Witchology.com, which bills itself as “a research and education provider specialising in the areas of Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Magic (Magick) and the Occult,” says this regarding Christmas:

“What is the Pagan secret that Christianity has tried to keep from you? The truth about Christmas is that it is not Christmas at all. It is the Winter Solstice, a Pagan holy day observed around the world and since time immemorial from the Native American tribes, to the Norsemen, to the ancient Romans, and today by modern Pagans, Witches and Wiccans.” The witches behind this site are quite right about the pagan origins of Christmas.

God specifically commands that His people not get mixed up in or follow the false religious practices of other people. Note His clear instructions in Deuteronomy 12:30-31:

“Do not fall into the trap of following their customs and worshiping their gods. Do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ You must not worship the Lord your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods” (New Living Translation, emphasis added).

This passage deals with more than just not sacrificing sons and daughters to pagan gods. That practice was merely one of the worst examples among all the abhorrent things done in the false religions of the world. God tells us that whatever He commands is what we are to do: “So be careful to obey all the commands I give you. You must not add anything to them or subtract anything from them” (Deuteronomy 12:32, NLT 2015).

This is a serious matter, and that is why the apostle Paul wrote: “The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20-22, New International Version).

Paul was pointing out the origin of pagan worship in the demonic realm (compare Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:37) and warning Christians against involvement in pagan practices, as in the other scriptures quoted above. 

Since Christmas clearly has pagan roots and its symbols revolve around the worship of foreign gods, we should avoid celebrating it and instead focus on the holy celebrations of the Bible.

For example, Jesus celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2, 8, 14). Some think these days are only for the Jews and argue He only kept them because He was a Jew. But we see in 1 Corinthians 5:8 that even the gentile (non-Jewish) Christians in Corinth were told by Paul to observe another biblical festival—the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Here he said, “Therefore, let us keep the feast.”

It logically follows that since Christ kept these festivals and the Church in the time of the apostles kept them, we should keep them too. If God outlined special days of worship in the Bible, why would we even consider using religious holidays that human beings, deceived by demons, celebrated to worship other gods?

And consider it from one more angle. Imagine a woman giving a gift to her husband on his birthday. Only it isn’t his birthday; it’s the birthday of an old boyfriend. And the gift is something she used to give that other person. It would be natural for the husband to doubt the genuineness of her love—in fact, it would be highly insulting! If you really loved someone and were trying to do something he would appreciate, you would never throw in your face such reminders of an old flame.

But Christmas is doing this very thing with Jesus—supposedly honoring Him when this birthday and celebratory elements were formerly used to honor false gods!

If we want to honor God, we can’t presume to just take it on ourselves to invent whatever way we think we should honor Him or blindly follow common tradition. We must read and follow what His Word says. Christmas (and Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and others), with its pagan origins and traditions, simply does not square with the calling that Christians have to be a holy people who follow God above all.