By Raleigh Perry
BUFORD, Ga. | Is December 25th really the birthday of Jesus Christ?
Perry
Probably not. There is nothing in the Scriptures concerning the actual birthday of Jesus Christ. The birth came well before December 25th became the “data” of Christ’s birthday. It may seem a bit strange to you and might really cause you to call me absolutely wrong. If you read about the birth of Christ in the book in Luke 2:8-12, it states that the shepherds were in the fields with their flocks. Christmas, or just winter, even in Israel, is a bit cold. The shepherds would not have their flocks in the fields.
At the time of Christ, it is true that the Christians were thrown to the lions or other vicious animals where they would be killed. However, there was a plethora of other “Miracle Religions” at the same time. Christianity is, in fact, a “Mystery Religion.”
The persecution of Christians really happened, but the persecution of the others took place also. The main problem was that each of these many other religions, along with Christianity, were all small in number. The only way to stop the persecutions, many of them, combined with Christianity, was more for the purposes of making the groups bigger in an attempt to stop the persecutions.
Of these other religions was one that was basically the religion of most Roman soldiers. That was Mithraism. The decision of these various religions to combine became a reality.
Mithraism was also a relatively large group but not large enough to escape or avoid persecution. Mithraism had a particularly weird initiation that the Roman soldiers had to go through. Basically, they were to stand in a pit that had a large iron grate over it. A bull would be placed on the grate and was slaughtered which made the blood go through the grate covering the soldiers with blood. I would equate that with the Christian concept of “Washed in the blood of the lamb,” but I would not swear about that.
Part of their religion involved the birthday of Mithra and that birthday was December 25. It was agreed to by the Christians that they would adopt that date also. According to Wikipedia, “the date was first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 AD, although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded.” Actually, though, the birthday of Mithra is the date accepted by Pope Julius I. That suggests that it was over 300 years after the birth of Christ that the birthday was “established.”
Although that date was accepted it was not the only thing accepted by the Christians. That was a belief of other “Mystery Religions.”
December 25 was also celebrated by the Romans’ religion as their celebration of Saturnalia, a date on which the Romans exchanged gifts and feasted, so there were precursors to the date accepted today as December 25. While the Roman Mithraites were the soldiers of the men in the military, the females worshiped the Great Mother Earth goddess and were not allowed in Mithraism. As a matter of fact, both Christmas and Easter are on, or about, seasonal changes. This is true for all of the other gods, and gods I have not mentioned.
Putting all these studies together, Christ may not have been born in December. But that really is unimportant. The key point is that he was born, lived 33 years, was killed and rose from the dead to sit at the right hand of God.
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