Dharius Daniels - Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

I want to ask you a question that I get bombarded with around the Christmas and Advent season: should Christians be celebrating this pagan holiday called Christmas? I’m going to answer that question for you in this video. Every single year, I kid you not, around the Advent season—when I say Advent, that’s just a word on the Christian liturgical calendar that comes from a Latin word, 'Adventus, ' which means 'coming'—the season in which Christians celebrate the coming and the Incarnation of the birth of Jesus. When I tell you, fam, every single year during this time, if I post anything, or if my wife posts a picture of our Christmas tree (yes, we got one), if we talk about a Christmas service or anything, we inevitably deal with people who I wish had questions but are really just articulating their opinions about why we shouldn’t be doing this. One of the arguments is that Christmas is a pagan holiday and Christians shouldn’t celebrate it. So, in this video, I want to talk a little bit about that. I want to tell you what I think, and to explore this subject, we have to move past our own personal biases and opinions. To explore this subject, there are three specific areas of discipline we need to look at.

Alright, the first thing we need to look at is that we have to know something about cultural history. If you’re claiming that something is a pagan holiday, you can’t just throw that out there; you need to tell me what pagan holiday it is. You can’t make that statement without some context. So, we need to understand cultural history. We also need to know a little bit of church history because if this is a pagan holiday, at what point did the church start celebrating it and why? And then finally—and I know people don’t like this word; it’s become a bad word for some reason. I don’t know why thinking has become such a bad thing in a religious context; we need to love God with our heart, soul, and mind, utilizing our minds—but, fam, the third thing is theology. We have to answer the question: is this syncretism or evangelism?

I want to lean right into this and explore something in those three areas, and then I’m going to let you know what I think, and then I’m out of here. So, cultural history—what were some historical realities in this specific cultural context? When we talk about Christmas being a pagan holiday, we have to go not just to general history but to Roman history, since that is the context in which Jesus was born. We need to ask some questions about what was happening in Rome during that time period.

This is where people get the idea that Christmas has been a pagan holiday, tied to something called the Winter Solstice. Romans had several pagan celebrations, but two of the most common were a celebration dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, which began on December 17 and lasted for several days. So there was this celebration in Rome honoring Saturn, an agricultural god. Another festival that was equally prominent during that time period is called Sol Invictus, which means 'Unconquered Sun.' This was a festival dedicated to a sun god, and it happened on December 25.

Let me tell you what happens: because that took place in Rome during that time, some people made a leap in logic and assumed that Christians have, I know I’m getting ahead of myself, engaged in syncretism and conflated the birth of Jesus with the celebration of an agricultural god and a sun god. The question is: is it true? Listen, when you get better spiritually, everything gets better. Spiritual life is not the only important part of your life; it is the most important part. It affects every other part that matters, but you don’t get stronger spiritually accidentally. It takes intentionality. You need to be fed and you have to learn how to interpret, apply, and explain the Bible. The Bible is the blueprint for your best life, and I’m going to tell you that Sunday is not enough to give you the tools you need to get better with the Bible.

I want you to join me in my community called Bible U, where I help you elevate your understanding, application, and explanation of the Bible to another level. And the answer is no, it’s not true. Now, let me say something really quickly. I don’t want this to come off the wrong way, but at the risk of it sounding that way, I’m going to say this very plainly and clearly because I’m very passionate about this. It’s extremely important to know whether or not the information you’re getting is credible. This is why you can’t believe everything you read. So, there’s something in academic circles, and if you’ve had any experience in any academic setting, you’re familiar with the term peer review, right? So, what does that mean? It simply indicates that if a work, a book…