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annual solar festival, now in full
swing? How would tbe churcb dea l
with this awkward situalion where
the Roman emperor, having re–
cently sanctioned Christianity as the
state religion, ruled over an essen–
lially non-Chrislian empire? It was
one th ing for the Christianized em–
peror to forego the purely pagan
December festiva l himself. But to
get the Roman populace at large to
cease observing this solar festiva l
upon admittance to the church was
another matter.
The re ligion of the sun, very pop–
ular as reftected by its ever-increas–
ing number of adherents , was
bound to chall enge, even threaten
the existence of Christianity. How
would the Christian church cope?
A Remarkable Transformation
The church at first tried to inftuence
Constantine to abolish this solar re–
ligion with its December 25 festival.
Constantine - a born sun worshiper
himself - refused , claiming that the
fes tival was too popu lar among his
yet unconverted subj ects to eradi–
cate outright.
F urthe r consulting with Con–
stantine, the church pressured him
to pass a law by which all slaves in
Rome would be given their freedom
if they would accept Christianity.
This inducement resulted in the
masses lining up for baptism into
the Christian religion. lt was hoped
that such a measure would prevent
these baptized heath ens from ob–
serving pagan festivals, particular!y
the December 25 festival dedicated
to the solar divinity.
The scheme backfired. The hea–
then element within the church con–
tinued to adhere to its own
Sol
in victus
religion. The masses still
joined the heathen element each
December 25 in celebrating th e fes–
tival of the unconquerabl e sun. It
was just too popular.
The First Christmas
The church found itself in a di–
lemma. lt obviously was no t willing
to give its carte blanche a pproval to
a festival dedicated to a hea then
deity. On the other hand, the church
did not wish to appear ungrateful to
Constantine for his endorsement of
Christianity as the officia l religion of
th e empire.
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1976
With the passing of time, a com–
promise was reached. The Romans
were allowed to continue celebrat–
ing their December 25 festival
minus the solar deity. Instead ,
Christ was substituted for the un–
conquerable sun. lt was an attempt
to trans fer the devotion of the
masses from the heathen sun god to
the true sun of righteousness, Christ.
The solar winter festival was given a
Christian dressing. The
Sol invictus
was " deposed" and Christ was now
" honored" on that day. Beginning
with A.D. 354, the December 25
date now belonged to Christ alone.
Once Rome had accepted the De–
cero ber date for Christ's " birth," the
festival quickly spread to the rest of
the Roman Empire. Constantinople
accepted the Christmas festiva l in
A.D. 380, parts of Asia Minor in
382, Alexandria, Egypt, around 430,
and Jerusalem about 440.
The Early Church and Christ's Birth
The ea rly Christian church had a l–
ways been against celebrating the
birthday of its Savior. Although
there was speculation as to the time
What's thematter
withChristmas?
Sure, Christmas is commer–
cialized. The last-minute rush
can be hectic and bother–
some. But is that the real prob–
lem? Does it matter that the
Bible doesn't sanction the ob–
servance of Christmas? Or that
many of the trappings of the
day come from non-Christian
sources? A free booklet, The
Plain Truth About Christmas,
holds sorne surprising revela–
tions. For your free copy, write
to The Plain
Truth at the
address near–
est you. (See
addresses
inside front
cover.)
of the year Jesus was born - espe–
cia lly in the third century - the cel–
ebration was never kept as a church–
sanctioned festival for the lirst 300
years.
Two basic concepts prevented the
eh urch from commemora ting the
birthday of its founder for so long a
time. The exact date of Jesus' birth
is nowhere revealed in the Bible and
so was probably never known to the
church. The New Testament no–
where records that Jesus observed
his own birthday or that his dis–
ciples observed it.
The second reason why the Chris–
tian church refrained from observ–
ing Christ's birth was their belief
that it was wrong, even sin, to do so.
In A.D. 245 , the church father Ori–
gin felt that it was a sin even to
think of keeping Christ's birthday.
In pagan Rome, festively com–
memorating the day of one's birth
was an exclusive right reserved for
the gods, although sometimes mere
mortals took this prerogative upon
themselves, as in the case of sorne of
the ear!y Roman emperors. Since
the Romans indulged in the keeping
of birthdays for whatever deity they
worshiped, the early Christians un–
derstandably shied away from ob–
serving birthdays.
But this aversion in keeping a
birthday festival to Jesus lessened as
the centuries rolled by - until cir–
cumstances in the fourth century
prevailed upon the church to reluc–
tantly obse rve Christ's " birthday."
The Roman bishop responsible for
introducing the first ever Christmas
in Rome was Liberius.
The Inevitable Compromise
It was a lways inevitable that the
popular December 25 festival of the
non-Christia n Romans wou ld re–
ceive ecclesiastical sanction. Here is
how it developed .
Once the New Testament apostles
had left the scene, the Christian
church of the second century no
longe r observed the biblical festiva ls
tha t Jesus, his discip les, and the
apostl e Pa ul kept. These fes tiva ls
were labeled as Jewish and dis–
carded by the church, wh ich, espe–
cially during the second century
A.D., observed no strictly biblical
festivals whatever.
(Continued on page 41)
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