“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel, the Hungarian-born American author and Holocaust survivor wrote these words which offer us a unique take on the nature of the world around us. The idea behind the quote is that to be indifferent to anything is to negate its value.
Wiesel’s words came to mind this morning while I was reading about the nature of God. According to the Bible, God has certain qualities that are core to who he is. He is absolutely Holy, all powerful, all knowing, perfect in love, and so much more.
It’s important to understand that the ancient concept of love wasn’t like ours today. We tend to see love as a feeling. Whereas, ancients saw it as a life orientation. To love another person wasn’t to have a strong emotional connection. Rather, it was to orient your life toward their good and wellbeing. One parent explained it to me recently: I love my kids, but I often don’t like them. Love goes beyond feeling. It is a way of living toward another. If we read the famous “love” passage in 1 Corinthians through this lens, it comes into greater focus: Love is patient, kind, doesn’t envy, doesn’t brag,it is not proud, is honorable toward others, not self-seeking, not easily angered, doesn’t keep a record of wrongs… nothing in the list is really about feeling passionately. It is about desiring the betterment of others over ourselves.
This understanding is important because God’s love is one area where He is set apart and unique from the ancient religions. When we look at the ancient concept of gods and the divine see petty gods who were totally self interested. They only showed interest or concern for humanity when they had something to gain. No one expected the gods to care about them. Rather, they sacrificed to them in an effort to avoid making them angry. Most cities had altars to unknown gods, to hedge their bets against missing any of them and incurring wrath. Mostly, the gods ignored people. They didn’t care how people lived, just so long as humanity didn’t annoy them.
Whereas, the Abrahamic religions followed the God who cared about them deeply. For Christians, this belief was exemplified in the truth that God became one of us to save us from our sins. Christianity grew like wildfire in the ancient world because it was the good news that God cared enough to send His Son to die, taking punishment for our sins. That concept was utterly foreign to the ancient understanding. In fact, many of the early heresies were efforts to make the church more like the pagan religions, stripping God of his personal interest in humanity.
For us today, it is easy to fall into that same trap. We can slowly fall asleep to the reality that God himself loves us and wants to know us. We can assume that he is indifferent to our lives and actions, just so long as we don’t make him angry. That version of God isn’t loving at all. He is indifferent. I would argue that the same is true of us, if we ignore Him and His efforts to know us. It is indifference, regardless of our feelings to the contrary.
In the weeks following Good Friday and Easter, we need to take the time to reflect on our own response to those events. God’s choice to send His Son to take our punishment for sins onto Himself is the exact opposite of indifference. It is love perfectly demonstrated. We are called to respond in kind, stepping away from our indifference to Him and loving Him in return.
For the church this season I am writing devotions. This morning I decided to post them on my blog as well… God bless.
Sunday — A season of preparation
Reflection —
My younger brother runs marathons. He intensely trains for them in the months, weeks, and days leading up to race day. Sometimes, those races involve particularly difficult obstacles, like running up a mountain, or in Death Valley where the heat coming off the asphalt can melt your shoes while you run. He trains accordingly: running up and down hills, lifting weights, or even working out in the sauna to increase his heat resistance. In training season, he eats a certain way to fuel and prepare his body. Paul draws a comparison between running in races and the spiritual training for our lives of following Christ. He explains that all athletes are disciplined in their training to win a prize that will fade, but that followers of Christ train for the purpose of receiving a reward that will last forever.
In the New Testament, Timothy is a young pastor who was discipled by Paul for ministry work. In Paul’s first letter to the young pastor, he includes a powerful bit of instruction: “…train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7–8) We live in a culture that is obsessed with the physical, but Paul is telling us that physical fitness is far less vital than spiritual fitness. He states that it is “valuable in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” In the ancient church, the seasons of Lent and Advent were seen as times of intensified training leading up to the big day.
The ancient church believed wholeheartedly in preparing spiritually for major spiritual events.They used the seasons like Lent (the 40 days preceding Easter) and Advent as times of preparation. God stepped from heaven to earth to save us from our sins. He did it because He loved us when we did not love Him. Preparing for Christmas during the weeks that precede it involves more than simply decorating trees and listening to Christmas music to get yourself into the spirit of the season. It is spiritual training for celebrating God’s arrival in our world.
You might wonder how we train spiritually. Everywhere you look there are advertisements for fitness gadgets and meal plans to reshape your flesh, but how do you reshape your soul? There are plenty of ways to do it and still more ways that don’t help or make things worse. Daily prayer, reading the scriptures, reflecting on God’s love for us and His work to provide our salvation, worship, fellowship with the church, serving, and many other practices are prescribed in the scripture as exercises for spiritual fitness.
One passage in particular that will inform our Advent devotions going forward is found in 1 John 4:19-21. John tells us that the reason we love like Christ is because He first loved us. He goes on to say that loving God leads to love others. This is one vital component of spiritual training. When we focus on the love of God, it results in loving others and everything that entails. We will be spending the next few weeks gazing at the love of God as a means of training for race day, for our walk with Jesus, and for eternity. Ultimately, we know what love is because of Christ. 1 John 3:16-20 tells us that Christ freely laying down His life for us. The added benefit of understanding this perspective is that it frees you to engage in training out of love for Him and a desire to be closer to your Savior, rather than out of obligation, guilt, or shame.
Scripture — 1 John 3:16-20, 1 John 4:19-21 (read 7-21 if you have time), 1 Timothy 4:8, 1 Corinthians 9:24-7, Matthew 6:31-34, Lamentations 3:22-23
Readings —
I remember visiting Indonesia and speaking with a Hindu leader and a Muslim leader. They would say, “We have different paths that lead us to spiritual fulfillment, that lead us to God.” And they said, “We respect your path. You respect our path and we will all go different ways. Together we are one and we’ll end up in the same place.”
I looked at them and I said, “Well, let me make sure I understand. You’re saying that basically you picture God at the top of a mountain and we’re all at the bottom of a mountain. And I may take one path to get to God and you may take another path up the mountain to get to God, but in the end, we’ll all eventually end up at the same place?” They both had big smiles on their face and agreed with my assessment.
I looked at them and said, “Well, if that’s the way it is, let me ask you one question: What if the God at the top of the mountain decided he was going to make his way down the mountain to us, and he came to bring us up the mountain himself?” And they said, “Well, that would be wonderful.” And I said, “That’s what the God of the Bible did. Let me tell you about who Jesus really is. It’s not about trying to find our way to God. Jesus has come to us and he says, “I am the way.”
From Radical by David Platt
A quick note on this reading — It is easy to fall into the belief that training toward Godliness is climbing the mountain. Christians often fall into this trap of believing that they can do good works and earn their way to God. It’s just not possible. God came down the mountain to us. Training spiritually doesn’t earn our way to Him. It makes us capable of knowing Him completely. — Erik
God’s ultimate goal for us, however, is that we be truly conformed to the likeness of His Son in our person as well as in our standing… Jesus did not die just to save us from the penalty of sin, nor even just to make us holy in our standing before God. He died to purify for Himself a people eager to obey Him, a people eager to be transformed into His likeness… This process of gradually conforming us to the likeness of Christ begins at the very moment of our salvation when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and to actually give us a new life in Christ. We call this gradual process progressive sanctification, or growing in holiness, because it truly is a growth process.
From Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges
Prayer Guide —
A — Take time to express adoration to God for His amazing love for you. Talk to Him about Christ coming down to us because we cannot climb up to Him.
C — Spend time reflecting on the ways you have fallen short in your walk with Jesus. In particular, reflect on the times and ways you have neglected your training for Godliness.
T — Thank God for the amazing truth that before you even confessed your sins, He had already forgiven you through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Thank Him for the incarnation
S — Pray for the coming weeks and the time of preparation you are embarking on. Ask God to help you tune out the noise and stress of the season that will draw you out of your training for Christmas. Pray for Him to reveal His love for you more completely and fully.
Reprinted with generous permission from the Big Sandy Mountaineer. If you enjoy this article, support our work by picking up a copy of the paper or (even better) subscribing to our hometown periodical. Check us out at https://www.bigsandymountaineer.com
Last week, I found a treasure trove of Big Sandy history artifacts while doing some work on my house. What started out as a cold weather attempt to protect my plumbing and insulate our 3- seasons porch rapidly turned into an adventure in local history.
For background, I need to explain that my family bought a house in town last year that many locals know either as the Brumwell or the Faber house. Before it was either of those, it was the Shamrock Hotel. In the early days of our town’s existence, the Shamrock was built.
The Shamrock Hotel circa 1911
The deed says it was in 1911, but my wife has found photos in the museum labeled 1890s that include our house. Over the course of last week, we were adding insulation under the house, and I came across more than a few items from around a century ago, many of which have led to me learning some interesting things about our town.
I’d like to share a little of what I learned and found over the next few weeks of articles.
Perhaps the coolest item of local significance that turned up under the front porch was a program book to a basketball tournament, which Adam Poole (my contractor and friend) uncovered.
The Basketball Program
When I sat down to investigate the booklet, enough of the front cover remained to determine what it was. However, there were no years printed anywhere to tip me off as to when the tournament took place. I started from the assumption that it dated to the same period as other items we came across, which were primarily from around 1900.
We had months, days, and days of the week printed in the program, which made it possible to pick out a few potential years. February 23rd only lands on a Sunday every few years. Carefully cleaning the program revealed a team roster, along with the rosters of the competing teams from Havre, Fort Benton, and Chinook. Searching a few players names in The Mountaineer archives revealed that one, Sig Moe, played for Big Sandy in 1924.
The team rosters
At the outset, I had no idea how much of a story there was behind the tattered little program.
My next step was to head to the High School to check out the class pictures in the hallway to see if I could find our basketball team. Because we were hunting for information during Christmas break, I had to get help from our superintendent to check out the class pictures.
Because basketball practice was happening at the same time, we got into the school and waited in the hallway outside the gym for Dan to arrive. We spent our time checking out the old trophies on display. I was pleasantly surprised to discover a silver cup engraved with the date: February 23rd, 1924. We had learned from the program that the silver cup was the prize that went to the winner of the North Central District Basketball Championship, and here it was!
The 1924 District Championship Cup
The program that somehow made its way under my porch is for the year we went to state! The back of the trophy was engraved with the players names. Incidentally, the silver cup sits on the same shelf as a bronze one awarded to the 1924 Big Sandy Debate Team. Among the names engraved on that cup is the coach, who appears to be the mother of Sig Moe (but more likely his aunt), our star basketball player, and Hershel Hurd, who also played on the basketball team.
The 1924 Debate Team Trophy
I have walked past that trophy hundreds of times without ever considering its significance. Even knowing a little of the story and holding the program in my hands, I had not yet begun to scratch the surface of the significance of the award.
According to the articles I encountered while researching the victory, the silver cup isn’t just a basketball win. It was also a vindication for our small town after shady dealings cost their football team a trip to state earlier that year.
When Dan arrived, I checked the class pictures and was disappointed to learn that they only go back to 1930, so I would be unable to find pictures so easily. However, the knowledge that we won district that year and a solid date made it possible for me to call up the February 28th, 1924 issue of The Mountaineer.
The bold text of the article summary: “Cheated out of Football Championship Big Sandy Comes Back Strong and Proves Continued Superiority.”
The Surprising Headline
The line struck me as odd, but didn’t prepare me for the larger story that had our town up in arms. As I read on, I would quickly discover how much more there was to the story.
Our team apparently went into the tournament as underdogs, with few believing that we could win it all. The article goes on to describe the huge turnout cheering the local boys as they returned home on the train. Coach R.E. Cameron carried the silver cup which is now on display in the High School. Each individual player came home with a small silver cup of their own for winning the district tournament.
The last game was played against Great Falls and our boys attracted a large crowd of local supporters who cheered them to victory. The turnout seems to have been both in response to our tournament success and (it seems) a grudge over the events from the previous football season.
The article covers each of the games in detail and fills more than a third of page one and continuing on page four. There is a second piece, also on the front page, detailing our team’s upcoming trip to Bozeman for their debut in the state tournament. If you’re interested in reading the game details, I will post the pages on patchingcracks.com with additional pictures. (See above)
Page four is where the story gets much crazier.
The majority of the page is devoted to the basketball championship, but much of the material is related to the football season controversy alluded to on page one. It seems clear that the win wasn’t just about basketball. It was also a vindication after the town’s football team was cheated out of a District Championship and a trip to state.
I learned this from a short, reprinted piece from the Havre paper commenting that many of the teams present for the tournament and fans were very pleased to see Big Sandy win. Many locals throughout the district were still angry that Big Sandy had won the District Football Championship and were headed to state, before the team was disqualified on a technicality!
One player was ruled to be ineligible to play after the tournament. The Havre paper goes on to speculate that the disqualification took place because larger, more influential towns were not okay with such a small town team “taking them to camp.” Many in the district believed that our football team was handily the best in the state, but was never able to prove it’s mettle.
This makes another piece that appears on page 4 particularly galling. Protests were made regarding the eligibility of our basketball team during the tournament. In addition, the paper claimed to be in possession of evidence suggesting that the protest was planned in advance and not raised until the tournament was underway.
I will write a follow up article exploring this issue, the underhanded dealings that disqualified our team in 1924, and the furor that surrounded the Big Sandy football team literally being cheated out of its first trip to state, in a year that they were favored to win it all.
It’s easy to see why Big Sandy considered that 1924 basketball win to be such a big deal. The players and the town had won a victory to right a wrong that had been dealt a few months earlier.
It’s interesting that I have walked past that dusty old cup hundreds of times and never payed it any mind. I find it heartening and exhilarating that it represents our town’s elation, not only over a tournament win, but also as a little way they could gain some satisfaction.
In a way, it makes last year’s Pioneer Football state championship – which landed 99 years after the fact – a long overdue vindication.
How can our celebration of Christmas shape our New Years Resolutions?
It is the week between Christmas and New Years. We have begun to wrap up the traditions and practices associated with the biggest holiday of the calendar year and will shortly turn our thoughts to the next set of traditions and practices. These are, of course, associated with New Years Eve and Day.
Folks will be planning their parties and wracking their brains for resolutions as to what they will be doing different to be better people next year. As a tradition, setting personal goals for the next year makes sense and I like it.
Most of us resolve to lose the weight we gained between Halloween and Christmas, save more money, read more books, or some other thing to make ourselves better. “New Year, New You” will be the motto that dominates our thoughts and advertising in the coming days.
As much as I like the practice, there is a part of me that sort of sees it as ironic. It’s a little like Thanksgiving and Black Friday. One day we gather to thank God for everything He has provided. The next, we go out before the sun is up to buy stuff we think we need. The contrast between thanking God for His provision and watching internet videos of shoppers fighting over the last item in a “doorbuster” sale is stark and sad.
Though not as extreme, this is part of what I think of when my mind turns to New Years during the week between the two holidays.
You see, on Christmas, we celebrate God sending his Son to be born a man. Jesus’ specific reason for coming to live among us was because we are fallen people. We cannot, by our own strength and will, be perfect. We always stumble and revert to sin. Jesus lived a perfect life for us and took the punishment for our sins.
The Bible teaches that those who believe in and follow Him are forgiven and made new. Our souls are cleansed from sin, and God begins the process of making us more and more like Jesus in our thoughts, words, and deeds. We learn to obey God, love our neighbors, be charitable, and everything else that comes along with being Christlike.
That is why Jesus came. That is why Christmas is such a big deal. God makes us new. We accomplish that by faith and a relationship with Him.
New Years, on the other hand, is all about resolving to try harder to be better. That’s not bad. I think that God desires that we work hard to grow and mature.
The real trick is that we become like Jesus by following Jesus. Often, folks make the mistake that they become like Jesus by trying really hard to obey the rules as best we can.
In one case, it is effort and hard work. The other involves hard work, but the change comes about not because we try hard, but rather because God changes us completely from the inside out.
To summarize my traditional New Years themed columns: Aiming to be a better person is good and New Years is a fine time to start.
The best way to accomplish it is through Jesus, who is able to change us. To celebrate God’s gift of Christ and then try by our own efforts to be like Him is similar to celebrate owning a car to get around and then proceed to push it to work instead of driving it.
Jesus is the engine that makes becoming what God made us to be possible.
This article was originally published in the Big Sandy Mountaineer and is shared here with their permission.
One of the most popular arguments you’ll encounter if you google “Why is Christmas December 25th” is that early Christians simply co-opted the Roman pagan holidays that also lands on December 25th. This post is going to dig into this idea, weigh the evidence, and offer some potential theories to explain the coinciding dates.
Didn’t Christianity steal the 25th/winter solstice from a handful of pagan holidays?
In fact, there are a few ancient pagan feasts that land around the 25th. Sometimes these days, like Saturnalia, are included with accusations that Christianity took pagan festival dates. The biggest problem with including something like Saturnalia is that it took place between December 17th and the 23rd. Though, at the time the first liturgical calendar was written placing Christmas on the 25th, the 23rd was the date of the winter solstice. There are theories that associate the observance of Saturnalia with the Solstice itself. Though, there is no ancient documentation that asserts this directly. Either way, I will not be digging into the event because Saturnalia ended several days before Christmas.
What Pagan Holiday was on December 25th?
The most substantial argument for the theory points to the co-opting of Natalis Sol Invictus specifically because of the 25th date and the “birth” aspect. Natalis Sol Invictus (birth of the invincible sun) was established as a state holiday in 274 AD honoring a pagan sun god by Emperor Aurelian.
In older scholarly works I encountered the idea that Aurelian’s mother was a priestess in the Col Invictus cult, though all of the references to this idea are immediately dismissed as likely fiction based on the utter lack of supporting evidence.
In terms of the December 25th date, the emperor made Sol Invictus the official religion of the emperors, built a temple in his honor, and ordered 30 public games be held every year. The winter solstice was chosen for Natalis Sol Invictus based on the belief that the days got longer after the solstice because Sol Invictus began to claim victory over the darkness. I’ve read that Romans burned candles at night in an effort to aid Sol Invictus in his fight. Though, I get the sense that later scholars argue this based on the Saturnalia practice of candle lighting during their festival rather than based on early sources.
What is Sol Invictus?
Sol Invictus was a relatively new religion in Rome at the time of it’s adoption by Aurelian. It was only introduced around 25 years earlier. This is important for later discussion of the theory. Though, the religion itself originated in Syria and is one of several examples of sun god worship from the area. It is possible that the Roman version is an amalgamation of the Syrian religions.
There is a school of thought that says that Sol Invictus and the Mithras mystery religion blended together early on. It is hard to find dates or solid sources for this assertion, as Mithraism did not produce any written works at all. Most of what we know about the religion is based on excavating temples devoted to the faith. Frankly, the lack of specifics has led to a lot of (sometimes wild) conjecture about Mithraism. I tend to look at its mention with a lot of skepticism as a result.
But don’t Christmas and Natalis Sol Invictus land on the Winter Solstice?
The answer isn’t as obvious as you might expect. They fall on the winter solstice on the calendar system we currently use. When Aurelian set the date for the celebration on the 25th, it was after the solstice.
At this point it is necessary to take a moment to address the weird issue with that pops up in relation to the Julian Calendar and how its inaccuracy skews the discussion somewhat.
The Julian Calendar, so named because it was proposed by Julius Caesar as a reform of the old Roman Calendar, took effect in 45 BC and remained the standard until it was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. The issue with the Julian Calendar is that the days are .0075 too long. This results in the calendar gaining a day every 128 years.
Today the Julian calendar is about 13 days ahead of the more commonly used Gregorian.
For our discussion the discrepancy is relevant because it resulted in the Winter Solstice changing dates on the calendar. By the time the Depositio Martirum was created to document the Christian liturgical calendar, the solstice was on the 23rd. When Natlis Sol Invictus was established as an official holiday, the solstice landed on the 24th.
Why did Aurelian establish the holiday and make Sol Invictus the emperor’s deity?
Much of the reasoning behind Aurelian’s move was to strengthen his position as emperor and encourage unity. Aurelian’s reign took place during a chaotic time in Roman history. Quite a few scholars agree that he was attempting to unify the empire through religious revival. His efforts were aimed at breathing new life into pagan religions, which were in sorry shape among the average citizen.
Will Durant’s Caesar and Christ, describes the integration of paganism into every facet of society as well as the plethora of temples, holidays, and associated community norms. He then goes on to say “Despite these appearances the ancient faith was diseased any the bottom and at the top. The deification of emperors revealed not how much the upper classes thought of their rulers, but how little they thought of their gods. Among educated men philosophy was whittling away belief even while patronizing it.” He goes on to describe how Greek and Roman poets mocked the gods in their work and the common men simply didn’t fear the them. This doesn’t mean that the population abandoned the temples or fortune tellers. Rather, much of the ritual observances were observed primarily out of superstition. Everyone consulted the signs and made sacrifices, but there was little in the way of devotion.
Elsewhere Durant connects the phenomena to the popularity of Judaism in the Roman world. Despite it being illegal to evangelize, the Jewish faith attracted large numbers of adherents and converts, which are typically known as “God fearers” in jewish writings and the Bible. Arguably, the same reasoning applies to Christianity which was growing rapidly despite it being illegal and actively persecuted.
By adding a new religion to the Roman Empire and filling it with enormous pomp and spectacle, Aurelian hoped to unify the nation under their pagan heritage. He was personally devoted to the Sol Invictus cult, which would explain his choice.
‘Did Christians adopt the day of Sol Invictus and why?
I’m going to go ahead and say that they did not adopt the pagan holiday. My reasoning will be laid out in the rest of this post. As to why they would do it, the theory that the church coopted the pagan festival did so because of it’s popularity among pagans. The theory itself doesn’t appear until the 1800s.
Most supporters of this position support some variant of the belief that Christianity and the story of the life of Jesus adopted other religious traditions and beliefs in order to create Christianity. The underlying assumption is that the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus are fictional, late creations. Full disclosure: I don’t agree with this perspective. Archeology and ancient documentary evidence stand in strong contradiction to the idea that the church was invented from whole cloth after the 2nd century. It’s a nonsense position.
Another version of the theory is that Christians simply adopted Roman Pagan days in order to make it more palatable to pagans who Constantine forced to convert. It is also sometimes that the adoption of the holidays made it easier for pagans to convert.
Finally, there are scholars that suggest that Christians took the dates of pagan holidays for their feast days because it made it possible for them to observe their celebrations without raising the ire of their neighbors or the government.
Is there any evidence supporting the arguments that Christians adopted pagan days?
There are no actual documents, neither primary or secondary sources, asserting that any of the stuff preceding section took place. As best I can tell the idea that Christianity simply took on a pagan holiday began with the fact that the earliest mention of December 25th was in the codex that contained various calendars from the ancient Roman Empire. The codex, which is called the Chronograph, dates to around 354 AD and contains the Depositio Martirum. Because they have no earlier mentions of the date, the assumption is that the church started celebrating around that time.
In terms of arguments, this one is not particularly compelling for several reasons. The first is that the Chronograph, is also the first time we find Natalis Sol Invictus documented as being observed own December 25th. This means that the same argument could be applied in the reverse with exactly the same amount of evidence to support the conclusion.
The second reason the argument lacks strength is that it ignores the the extensive documentary evidence that the early church was very careful to avoid any associations with paganism or idolatry. Early Christians did not attend public games or any festivals.
The 1st century church struggled with whether or not believers could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols, lest it be perceived as paganism. Many of the documented battles with heresies, beginning with the late 1 century on, deal with attempts to integrate the mystery religions into the church beliefs and practices.
The culture of the early church simply did not have the sort of attitude
that would allow them to change to make it easier for pagans to convert. To summarize: not only is there no evidence that they integrated paganism for popularity sake, the truth is quite the opposite. There is tons of evidence that they did not.
Any arguments about Constantine making Christianity the official religion or altering the holidays to attract pagans are utterly lacking in any basis in reality. Constantine converted and made the church legal. He did not force the faith on empire. Further, the early church fathers did not suddenly become different people with the Edict of Milan. There is also no evidence that he tampered with the liturgical calendar.
My thoughts on the coinciding dates:
Though this is certainly not an exhaustive treatment of the matter, I will offer final points regarding the coinciding dates. I encountered some interesting arguments suggesting that it was possible that Aurelian actually adopted the December 25th date based on the growing popularity of Christianity.
The reasoning goes that Aurelian chose the date to blunt the impact of a significant Christian feast day. Durant described the decline of paganism in the ancient world as well as the growth of Judaism (which did not evangelize) and Christianity (which was illegal outright).
Christianity did not need to adopt paganism to attract followers, as it was attracting them despite everything that was done to stop it. Ancient paganism, on the other hand, was not growing. Aurelian sought to create a pagan revival to staunch the bleeding and prop up the old faiths specifically to create stability.
Further, adopting pagan practices was out of character for the early church, but it was quite common for ancient pagan religions to adopt pieces of other faiths. Though, as compelling as this argument is, it is inferred based on events rather than received from primary or secondary sources.
Further, we know that around 325 AD the Council of Nicaea adjusted the official calendar to recognize that the winter solstice was on the 23rd, not the 25th. This suggests that the solstice was already connected to the birth of Christ, but that they followed the calendar date rather than the solstice itself. However, at the time Jesus was born (in 1 BC probably) the winter solstice would have landed on the 25th. This would explain why the two were connected.
However, I have yet to see a good explanation as to why Sol Invictus lands on the 25th based on the winter solstice, which was a central point to the religion itself. Further, when it was declared a holiday the solstice was on the 24th, which suggests that there may have been another reason for selecting the date.
Finally, the earliest supportable mention of a specific date regarding the conception of Jesus being on March 25th (9 months from the December 25th birth date) is found in the work of Sextus Julian Africanus from around the late 2nd or early 3rd century. This places the potential origin of a December 25th birth date around 50 years before Sol Invictus arrived in Rome.
TLDR (Too Long Didn’t Read)
Assertions that Christians coopted December 25th because of the the Natalis Sol Invictus religious holiday are totally lacking and documentary evidence for support. There are no ancient sources that make any claim that even implies that this took place.
The argument used to support the claim is based on the fact that we first see December 25th as the date for Christmas in a codex from 354 AD. Due to the preceding silence on the date, the argument is made that this is when Christians adopted December 25th and that they did so because pagans already observed the date. This is a poor piece of reasoning.
The further flaw with the previous point is that codex from 354 is also the first time we encounter documentary evidence placing Natalis Sol Invictus on December 25th, meaning the weak argument could be applied in reverse.
There is documentary evidence supporting the idea that the church already recognized December 25th much earlier than the establishment of the holiday by Aurelian, or even the introduction of Sol Invictus to Rome.
Roman Paganism was rotting from top to bottom and had been for hundreds of years. Natalis Sol Invictus was established in an effort the revitalize paganism and reunite Rome. Christianity on the other hand was a growing faith, attracting pagans to its membership despite being an illegal faith. There was no reason for Christians to take on pagan trappings to attract converts. They were doing so already.
All of the documentary evidence from the early church points to a steadfast resistance to any integrating of the pagan and Christian faiths. To adopt a pagan holiday was utterly out of character for the church, but for ancient pagans to integrate beliefs or practices they encountered was very much the norm.
If you don’t like my points here, read the article and engage my arguments.
One minor issue that could potentially cause confusion in the discussion of the date that the church “officially” celebrates Christmas relates to the various branches of the church choosing different days for observing the birth of Jesus.
You might be thinking “What other days is Christmas celebrated?” The majority of the church in the west observes Christmas on December 25th.
A few years ago while visiting Bethlehem in January, I got to witness a huge celebration in the square outside the church of the Nativity. That is when I learned that the eastern part of the church celebrates on January 7th.
So, why don’t all Christians observe December 25th as Christmas?
The answer is tricky. Nearly the entire Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25th. The fact is that even those who celebrate on January 7th are also observing the December 25th date.
Some branches, mainly the Orthodox and Coptic churches, observe Christmas on January 7th because they choose to follow the old Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.
The Julian Calendar was instituted in 45 BC under Julius Caesar and was the dating system for most of the western world until Pope Gregory XIII came along in 1582 and altered the old calendar by .0075 days.
The change made but Pope Gregory correct the inaccuracy of the old system’s calculation of a solar year. The tiny variation (10.8 minutes) results in the Julian calendar gaining a day every 128 years. Today, that drift has accumulated into a 13 day difference… Just enough to separate December 25th and January 7th.
I believe the reason for the continued use of different calendars is related to the eastern church not recognizing the authority of the pope. This means their church government deals with these decisions and simply never opted to take on the adjusted calendar.
Nearly the entire church continues to place Christmas on December 25th, but using different calendars, one of which is around 11 minutes longer than the other. All of the churches essentially agree on that day, but not the calendar.
Why do the Julian and Gregorian Calendars matter as it related to Christmas?
The obvious reason to deal with it is because it emphasizes that the difference in dates has to do with calendar issues, not disagreement on the liturgical calendar.
Apart from that, I am addressing this detail for a few other reasons:
It is kinda interesting.
It emphasizes the unity of thought on the matter of celebrating the nativity on December 25th throughout the majority of the church beginning very early on.
It is a peek at how weird and difficult calendar issues can be. It’s also a bit of foreshadowing of the complications that come into play when we start digging into ancient calendars. They’re messy and hard to synthesize.
In my next post we will be looking at the winter solstice. This is the shortest day of the year. After the solstice the nights grow shorter and the days grow longer. The solstice was important for several pagan religions in the ancient world. One ancient faith in particular, the worship of Sol Invictus, fits into the debate around discussion about why December 25th was chosen as the date of Jesus’ birth. That will be addressed in the next post. The 10.8 minute drift will also factor into that conversation.
Note: The Armenian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 6th. January 6th is observed as the feast of the Epiphany for much of the church. Epiphany refers to different things in different church traditions. In the east it is associated with the baptism of Jesus. In the west it refers to the revelation that Jesus is God. Either way, in the 6th century a church council declared that the 12 days between December 25th and January 6th are the “12 Days of Christmas” with December 25th counting as the first day of Christmas. January 6th, in turn is the 12th day of Christmas. Within the Armenian Orthodox Church the celebration of Christmas and the baptism on Jesus are done at the same time.
If you google “Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25th” you’ll get a slew of answers associated with a handful of popular theories. It is easy to just pick one and go with it, but this approach felt kind of uncomfortable to me.
Many hours later I have a rough answer, which is way too long. I also have way too much background knowledge on all of the popular theories. If I address them all here, the article will be excessively long and most people will give up long before they find the answer.
So, in future posts I will dig into the background information and various theories. This post is just going to look at the central answer. I’ll be approaching it in a question/answer format to make it the line of thinking clearer.
Short Answer: The earliest surviving ecclesiastical calendar was created in 336 AD. There are suggestions from the early church fathers as to why that date was selected. The earliest surviving text that points to the December 25th date is from early in the third century. There is a case to be made that the events of Jesus’ birth happened on or around that date. It’s pretty hard if not impossible to pin it down for sure… If you disagree, please read on and see how I justify what I’m saying.
When did the December 25th start being observed as the birthdate of Jesus?
The earliest record of Christians observing the birth of Jesus on December 25th is an ancient document called the Depositio Martirum. It is the oldest surviving liturgical calendar an assembled in in 336 AD, around 10 years after Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal through the Edict of Milan.
Up until that point there were some localized instances of amnesty being given to Christians by various officials in an effort to encourage them to join the army. Those found guilty of being Christians were punished and had all their property confiscated.
An end to the outlaw status of Christianity made it possible for Christian leaders to gather, collaborate, and discuss beliefs/practices with bishops from other parts of the empire. This was known as the council of Nicaea. They did not discuss the date at that time.
However, there is some supporting/compelling evidence that the date was not established at this time or in 336 when the calendar was assembled, but rather predates Nicaea and the DepositioMartirum, reaching back at least into the late second century. We’ll look at some of it here, but not most.
Isn’t December 25th just 9 months from March 25th, the day of the annunciation?
This theory is interesting, turns up prominently in history, and has quite a bit of support. The argument goes like this: The church observes the date of the angel announcing the immaculate conception to Mary on March 25th. 9 months after conception, he was born… on December 25th. This makes sense and fits the liturgical calendar.
In the late 4th century Augustine mentions that the church observed March 25th as the annunciation. This is a widely accepted explanation for the birth date and is plausible. Augustine is not a minor voice amongst the ancients. The 9-months-from-the-annunciation approach is going to come up a few times in this discussion because it’s prominent in ancient history.
However, there are issues with the approach. For starters, the natural follow up question is how the date of the annunciation was determined. Augustine asserts that March 25th is the date of the annunciation based on an ancient theory that prominent people died on the date of their conception. He cites March 25th as the date of the crucifixion, due to the conception/death thing. When he mentions December 25th, he describes it as based on “tradition” and doesn’t mention the 9 month gap.
Most modern folks will balk at the death/conception thing. However, there is another problem.
Based on the data we encounter in the gospels, Jesus was crucified and buried on the Friday of Passover on the 14th of Nissan (jewish calendar). There were only two instances of Passover Friday landing on the 14th of Nissan during Pilate’s time in office.
One was in 30 AD, which is too early to be correct. The other was April 3, 33 AD. This means that Augustine got the date for the crucifixion incorrect, which may be because he determined it using either the birth or conception date as a reference.
I would argue that it’s likely that Augustine’s March 25th date came either directly or indirectly from an earlier source. In the surviving works from the early church there is an instance of identifying March 25th as the conception date.
In the late 2nd/early 3rd century Sextus Julius Africanus set the day of of the incarnation on March 25th. From this, the December birth date is simply a 9 month difference.
This would mean that Augustine’s incorrect date for the crucifixion was a result of his using the death/conception theory to set the date of the crucifixion based on the date of conception.
Who was Sextus Julius Africanus and where did he get March 25th from?
Sextus Julius Africanus was born in160 AD in Jerusalem. He was well educated and traveled extensively in his youth. Later he served as ambassador to the city of Rome, where his extensive learning so impressed Emperor Alexander Severus that he appointed Africanus to build the library at Pantheon.
During his life Africanus wrote extensively, including a 5 volume history of the world, which is now lost. Fragments of that work have survived and his reputation as a brilliant scholar was voiced repeatedly by other authors whose works survive today.
Africanus’ 5 volume work, The Chronography, attempts to establish a timeline for world history from what he thought was the date of creation. He places the birth of Jesus on March 25th, though working this out from his writings is difficult because there are three calendar systems involved.
Based on the few surviving lines on the topic, it seems as though he places the annunciation on the first day of the 5501st year after the first day of creation. As I understand it, if we line that day up with the Jewish calendar and translate it to the Julian Calendar, we get March 25th.
It seems like this may be the earliest surviving reference to the annunciation landing on that day. Again, from that day we get December 25th as the birth date 9 months later.
Unfortunately, we lack the majority of Africanus’ work, so it’s hard to know the details of his argument. I think it is possible that he used a date he received through tradition and factored it into his calculation of the date of creation. This would mean he used a date (December or March 25th)
Either way, it seems as though this is the earliest mention of the March 25th date, which then places December 25th as the birthdate.
Could the March and December dates be older than Africanus’ work?
It is possible that Africanus got his dates from tradition handed down to him. Augustine, refers to the December 25th as a tradition along with a couple of other early church fathers. There are some records of the early church fathers debating the birth date, though none of them seem to put a great deal of importance on the matter.
There is also an interesting tidbit from the Council of Nicaea. As I said earlier this was the first time since the first century the leaders of the early church could gather.
They used the opportunity to take care of a large number of issues. Among others was adjusting the calendar. Because days in the Julian calendar were about 11 minutes off, it gained days periodically. By the time the council gathered in the early fourth century, the winter solstice had drifted off of December 25th. At that time it was on December 23rd. The council agreed to change it.
Why does this matter? If the council was already looking at December 25th as the birthdate of Jesus, then it would be associated with the winter solstice. Their concern over where the solar calendar landed in relation to the Julian Calendar makes sense if they associated the solstice with the birth of Jesus.
That would mean that the birth date and the solstice were potentially connected much earlier, perhaps as early as when the two actually landed on the same day a couple of centuries beforehand. Again, this is conjecture.
Wasn’t Jesus probably born in the spring?
Before digging into the Biblical accounts, it is necessary to look at this topic.
In commentaries and theological literature it is popular to assert that Jesus was born in the spring because shepherds would not have kept their flocks in the fields during the winter due to the cold weather. In fact, I found references (that I haven’t double checked yet) pointing out that ancient rabbis instructed shepherds to come in from the fields with their flocks at a certain point in the calendar year due to weather.
This means that a December date could not have been witnessed by the shepherds in Luke’s gospel. This is sort of correct, but also sort of incorrect.
In fact, most shepherds went in for the winter. The Talmud specifically says that sheep for temple services were to remain in the field year round.
The fields where the temple sheep were kept would have been in the area of Bethlehem. So, the shepherds who raised the lambs that were sacrificed in the temple would have been in the field in December and would have been perfect witnesses for the birth of the man who would be called the “Lamb of God.”
The point of this excerpt is to say that eliminating the December date based on the winter weather driving shepherds in for the season is not a legitimate argument. And to suggest that the December date would allow for a cool connection, of the sort we often see in the life of Jesus.
Is there anything in the Bible to support December 25th as the Birth Date?
This is an interesting question with a vague answer: Sort of.
If we look at the events of the gospels and line them up with events we can solidly date, we can approximate the birth date of Jesus. Part of what makes this tricky is that Matthew and Luke, who both relate the story of Jesus’ birth with more detail, emphasize different aspects of the events. This is further complicated by the fact that they don’t offer much in the way of time indicators.
The result is a couple of potential timelines based on the material we have available. This is very much in keeping with the ancient Jewish style of recording history and events. For those of us who are concerned more with timelines and pinning down dates, it can be a bit frustrating.
When talking about the birth of Jesus, one of the principle figures is King Herod the Great. The gospels record his death after the killing of the newborns in Bethlehem. We can identify the date of his passing based on the work of Josephus, an ancient jewish historian.
Josephus records an event that happened near the time of his passing in which an eclipse took place during the execution of several Jewish men who had reacted to rumors of the tyrant’s death by removing a Roman eagle that Herod had placed over the temple gates.
A total eclipse took place on January 10th, 1 BC; which most scholars agree was the date of the executions. Based on that solid date, it is possible to line up the events of Herod’s final months as recorded in the gospels and Josephus’ work and estimate the date of Herod’s death.
Applying the events in the gospel narrative to that time table offers a range of potential birthdates for Jesus. The final outcome allows for December 25th as a very plausible date for the nativity.
Another detail included in Luke’s gospel relates to Mary visiting Elizabeth during the fifth month of her pregnancy. The visit seems to be in response to the angel’s visiting Mary and likely took place not long after the annunciation.
The gospel of Luke also includes the account of Zachariah encountering an angel who announces Elizabeth’s pregnancy. At the time he was serving in the temple. Luke includes the specific priestly division that Zechariah belonged to: Abijah.
The talmud tells us that the Abijah division was serving in the temple when it was destroyed in 70 AD. Scholars have attempted to reconstruct the dates and ordering of the various divisions’ service based on details in the Talmud regarding the temple’s destruction, services, and information gleaned from Josephus’ works.
Service duty ran in 24 year cycles allowing each division of priests one opportunity to serve every 24 years. This means we can count backward in 24 year increments to determine when the Abijah division served and potentially date the announcement to Zechariah.
Based on this approach, Zechariah would have been serving in 3 BC. That gives us a couple potential dates for the conception of John the Baptist. One of those dates results in John being born on the Autumnal Equinox. Incidentally, ancient tradition holds that the Autumnal Equinox was the date of John’s birth.
Around 6 months later, Jesus would have been born on the winter solstice, or December 25th.
It’s important to note that these dates are estimates based on existing data. For brevity I have excluded a lot of detail… and it was still way too long. I will do my best to cover all the details in follow up posts on my blog in the coming days.
To Long Didn’t Read (TLDR)
If you don’t like my answers, go back and read it…
December 25th as the birth of Jesus first appears on a liturgical calendar in 336, but there’s evidence it was celebrated earlier than that.
The earliest written work we have that supports December 25th is a fragment from Sextus Julius Africanus’ work from early in the 3rd century. He attempted to calculate the date. Though it could have been an older traditional date he used for reference.
Using the Bible, the Talmud, and the work of Josephus we can make a case for December 25th.
This week my daughter and I recorded a short video on the Biblical city of Capernaum. Jesus lived there during most of his ministry. Peter’s home was uncovered there by archeologists in the middle of the 20th century. Check it out and let us know what you think. We’ll be doing future teachings together.
Like, subscribe, comment, and share if you like our video. Thanks so much!
John Donne, the English poet-scholar, wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” The poem goes on to explain that every man lives a life dependent on those around him. He needs others to thrive and survive from day to day.
At the face of it, this is a true statement. We need each other for various aspects of our lives. On every level of our lives, we require some connection to those around us for food, supply, support, encouragement, etc.
While researching a passage from the writings of King Solomon this week, I came across a comment on this idea that is relevant to our lives, particularly the culture we live in today. Though we all need each other to maintain the lives we live, many of our innovations have created the sense that we can isolate further and further away from the rest of the world.
Many people would much rather receive a text message than a phone call, mainly because it’s an easier and more convenient way to communicate. We have friends we can keep in touch with via social media without ever having to see or speak to them. We don’t have to shop anymore because Amazon will deliver to our houses or we can have our grocery orders brought to our cars. When we do shop, we can choose self checkout and avoid the headache of talking with the cashier. Take some time to watch families in restaurants and other public settings.
It is depressingly common to see one or more people sitting together, staring at their phones. Everything in our lives is making it easier and easier to simulate living as an island. Living in our own bubble like this lowers social pressures and expectations. It makes life easier and frees us from the headache of dealing with people. Many people embrace this new, isolated life.
Surveys have found that each successive generation is more and more inclined to choose isolation. It’s important to understand that this is not isolated to younger generations. Isolation is common throughout our culture, with the majority of Americans reporting that they have no close friends at all. Those friends they do have are not the sort of people that they talk about deep, personal issues with. There is an entire industry centered around talking to strangers that you pay to talk about your problems.
The problem with these trends is that they are contrary to our design as humans. We are social creatures. We need each other. Social isolation, though easier, is significantly less healthy. Loads of research has demonstrated that increased time spent on social media or staring at screens is associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, and all sorts of other negative psychological traits.
While reading Solomon’s philosophical reflections, I encountered the most obvious answer to this growing social problem. 3,000 years ago, while writing about workaholism, Solomon explained that close relationships in every aspect of life improves everything. Family, friends, spouses, children, neighbors, work friends, and all the rest are what makes life good. They are a gift from God. King Solomon saw a fundamental truth, that we are losing sight of today: we need each other.
If every man is becoming an island, then what the world needs most right now is bridges. Years of talking with people as a pastor has made me confident that, while most people want to isolate to some degree, most people are also very lonely.
The solution is to do hard things. Building bridges is difficult. Going where people are and changing our life patterns to connect to the world around us is incredibly difficult. Many of us don’t know where to start. I would suggest church as an easy solution. Volunteering is also a powerful option. Attending public events, like the kind that the library offers weekly, create space for building bridge connections to others. The hardest part is admitting we need each other and taking the first steps to reach out to the islands around us.
“I struggle to remember to pray, read my Bible, or do anything else to grow spiritually. I start strong and then fall off.” Do you ever feel like keeping your spiritual efforts just melt away when life gets busy?
Do you ever struggle with daily spiritual disciplines? Why is it so hard to read and pray daily? How do you overcome these struggles?
Maintaining daily spiritual disciplines usually starts off well, when you are motivated and excited to do it. After a few days, it wains, and eventually falls off the radar completely. It is especially frustrating when you talk to other believers who seem to know everything and have mastered their spiritual life and calling. When you compare yourself to how you perceive others it is easy to get discouraged.
Some Good News
The truth is that most of us struggle with this. The fact that you’re struggling isn’t inherently bad, because struggling involves you trying in the first place. If you didn’t care, that would be a much bigger issue and a more difficult one to deal with. Apathy is a far worse condition that struggling. I would rather be discouraged over my lack of spiritual fervor than apathetic to my spiritual condition.
The stoic philosopher, Epictetus, wrote that most men would be horrified to lose their eyesight or their hearing, but are indifferent to their souls becoming calloused to the point that they don’t care for their own spiritual condition. He describes this state as madness, because your soul is your most valuable possession. If you care for the condition of your soul, you are in a far better situation than you realize.
If you find yourself discouraged with your struggle in this area, I would suggest reading Romans 7, where Paul discusses his struggle with himself. The only hope he had in the midst of that wrestling was the knowledge that Jesus died to redeem us and that our struggle with sin is not futile.
I would argue that this is the solution to the larger issue of struggling with the state of our prayer lives or Scripture reading or anything else. As we focus on Jesus, we stay on the path toward becoming like him.
We may stumble and fail, but when we get up and continue we remain in him. Driving in that direction over the long term will result in slow growth and improvement. The real key to spiritual life and growth is constant focus on Jesus. That is it.
How can focusing on Jesus be the solution?
“Isn’t that part of the problem with not praying or studying?” When I fall off of my spiritual disciplines, it is usually because I allow my focus to wander to something else. So, how does focusing on Jesus help me when losing focus on him is the problem? This is the truth of the matter and I agree that it appears to be a bit of a catch 22.
That does not mean we ought to give up, because in giving up we are abandoning our soul’s condition. Instead, we must look for the things God has given to us to help us maintain our spiritual health.
God knows we are going to struggle with ourselves. Paul describes struggling with our flesh, or sinful nature. Part of us will pull us away from God all the time.
God knows we struggle, he gives us the Holy Spirit to prompt us and strengthen us. He also gives us folks whose job it is to help us grow spiritually.
How Jesus taught his disciples grow.
When Jesus did ministry he had a crowd of students following him, watching, listening, and asking questions. They were learning to imitate him. This is how we were meant to become like Jesus. We look at his life and imitate it.
The problem is that Jesus isn’t physically with me to help me learn. That makes it challenging, to say the least. He overcomes this by putting men and women in our lives who have advanced beyond our spiritual state. We can follow, ask questions, imitate, and grow by imitating then, while they are imitating Christ.
Most folks who struggle with their growth or the spiritual practices that promote growth don’t have anyone they are connected to in order to learn to be like Jesus. When we have this sort of relationship we will grow through sharing life with that person.
Mark’s gospel depicts this style of training over and over again. Jesus takes his disciples with him as he lives life. They watch and learn. They ask questions. They learn over the course of time by imitating as a byproduct of spending time together.
Finding a Spiritual Training Partner
The other element that I spoke about last week, that was common in the ancient world and we see in Jesus’ teaching is partnering up. Having another believer to engage with on the same level to discuss Scripture or our spiritual struggles or even to keep us accountable for our spiritual disciplines, guides us toward consistency.
It’s a little like having a gym partner. I was more consistent working out when I had a gym partner to meet up with daily. A fellow believer, with whom I can establish accountability and engage in discussion about my spiritual life, will help me to grow.
Mutual encouragement and training together is part of how we as believers were meant to grow. Generally when we struggle with our spiritual efforts, we lack these sorts of relationships as well.
Adding community that encourages us to grow spiritually, to focus on Jesus when we fall, and who we can help in return creates a better, more enjoyable and fulfilling life in Christ. It also builds a structure around us that helps us to be consistent in growth.
The biggest struggle with this sort of external spiritual support is establishing it. We must ask. That is hard, particularly in a culture where religious aspects of life are encouraged to remain internal. We don’t like externalizing our deeper struggles. This is a huge hurdle to overcome. However, it is important because these relationships are the master key to spiritual growth and consistency in our disciplines.
Patching Cracks 