I am setting aside our usual Bible study to take up this topic in these last two assembly talks before the holiday begins.

1 ’Christmas’ was unheard of amongst Christians for some 300 years after Christ’s ascension.

‘Christmas’ is but a ‘christianising’ of a pagan mid-winter feast by the ‘church’ that had already largely departed from simple Bible religion. Like a farmer dresses up a few old sticks as a ‘scarecrow’, a make-believe man. That is what ‘Christmas’ is. A mere make-believe celebration of the birth of Christ.  It was the 1300s before the very name ‘Christmas’ appeared. The ‘Saturnalia’, a Roman pagan feast, began on 19 December and lasted for the best part of a week. Morality and restraint were abandoned.  We can easily see that is what takes place at this time of the year in the name of celebrating the birth of Christ!

2. The chief centres of these celebrations are not where Christ is honoured. 

Pubs, dance halls, parties etc., are places where the name of the Lord is blasphemed and the Law of God despised and rejected! That is how it is in such places 12 months of the year and it does not change at this time of the year!

3. Law enforcement agencies are required to take special action to restrain lawlessness during these celebrations. 

Drunk driving, disorder and fighting on the streets, shop-lifting and stealing are rampant.  This cannot be of God!  This is very different from the scene we read of in Luke chapter 2. There we have heavenly and earthly praise to God, 13-14, 20. Nothing contrasts more with the modern ‘Christmas’ scene than this.