Truth About Christmas - Part 1

The truth about Christmas. Over the next couple of posts, we will use the Gospels of Luke and Matthew to piece together the actual events that surround the birth of Jesus Christ. During this time of year we see a lot of representations of what happened that first Christmas, but are they accurate?  Movies, television shows, Christmas carols and nativity scenes all try to give us an understanding of what happened, but we will look to the truth of God’s Word to find the answers.

The first thing we will look at is when was Jesus really born. Was He born during the month of December?  Was it cold and snowy when He arrived?  The answer to both of those questions is “no”. Jesus Christ was probably born sometime in the spring between March and May.

We know from Luke 2:1-15 that the shepherds were watching their flocks at night. Under normal circumstances the shepherds would have put their flocks in a sheep fold and been done with them for the night and would have gotten some sleep. But the fact that they were watching their sheep means there was some extenuating circumstances: the sheep were pregnant and about the have their lambs. This would have kept the shepherds on high alert and some of them would have been awake while the others slept; taking turns on watch during the night.

So, it turns out that as these shepherds were watching their sheep that night awaiting the birth of the lambs while the birth of the Lamb of God was about to take place a short distance away from the fields outside of Bethlehem were these shepherds were.

So why do we celebrate the birth of the Savior on the 25th of December every year?  It was instituted by Pope Julius I in 385 AD to challenge the celebration of the pagan and immoral Roman god Saturn called Saturnalia. Festivities included the exchanging of gifts, gambling, sacrifices to Saturn and societal role reversals. Pope Julius felt that celebrating the birth of Christ shortly after the celebration of Saturn would challenge the Roman belief system of multiple gods.

Tomorrow we will look at the announcement of the arrival of the Savior to the shepherds by the angelic host and the response of those shepherds.

Have a great day and God bless.