Michelle Niles (14 years old)

The Holy Bible tells us all we need to know to live as good Christians. As II Timothy 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…" Everything, as I said, is in that holy book; it is not short of anything.

    The Holy Bible outlines various commands and statutes. For example, we are told to remember the Lord's death, but not once does it mention that God tells us to celebrate Christ's birth and especially on one particular day.

    So who do you think invented Christmas? If God didn’t institute it as part of His commands, then who did it? You may be surprised to know that it all began with some sun worshippers during the reign of Nimrod, a ruler in the ancient Babylonian system. Thousands of years ago, long before Christ was born, heathens observed December 25 as the birthday of the "sun god."

   Nimrod's widow, Semiramis, who claimed to be the queen of heaven had a son, Tammuz, supposedly on December 25th. Heathens at that time celebrated this so called "miraculous birth" for centuries with feasts, decorating an evergreen tree, merrymaking, exchanging gifts and wild drinking, much like what we see happening during Christmas celebrations today. There’s no denying even by some churches that celebrate Christmas that it’s derived from a pagan holiday.

We see Christmas all around us each year. We also see that much of the celebration is worldly and not in the spirit of the Word of God. We should all be aware that God said in I John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Also at Christmas, you see people running around buying expensive gifts for one another while others sell gifts. Oh yeah! It's the season of 'giving,' well that's all nice but why is there just one time of the year for that and what does it have to do with Christ? We should be giving every day! Some people are probably saying that giving gifts is in the bible in Matthew 2:16 when the wise men gave gifts to Jesus. But they didn't even come on his birthday or soon after that, but almost two years after his birth. So it wasn't even a birthday gift. Where does it say that people gave gifts among each other during the time of Jesus’ birth?

Obviously, I'm going to bring up the question, what's about the Christmas tree? Remember the Bible says everything you need to know, you can look through the scriptures inside and out to find it? Well, search and you won't ever find a reason for this tree. Instead, what you will find is the Bible’s condemnation of tree worship, and from what we can see historically, the Christmas tree had its origin in this ancient practice.

Hear what the prophet Jeremiah says about it. This scripture tells us not to decorate the tree. In Jeremiah 10:2-4 it states, "This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter." This decorating a tree was also a pagan tradition.

So there are many reasons why we don't celebrate Christmas. First of all, it was originally a pagan festival. Secondly, it's not in the bible, plus Jesus doesn't fit in this holiday at all. And lastly, God commands us not to follow the way in which the heathen nations worship their gods. He commands us to celebrate His death, not His birth!
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