In late December of each year, thousands of tourists flock into the small town of Bethlehem in the Judean Hills south of Jerusalem to participate in annual Christmas celebrations there. Some make the 6-mile journey from Jerusalem on foot. Upon arrival, they crowd with silent awe into the paved expanse of Manger Square in front of the revered Church of the Nativity, built over the traditional site of Jesus' birth.

Inevitably, some of these tourists arrive in Israel unprepared. They have not thoroughly studied their guidebooks. As they step off their plane, they receive a real shock!

November through early March is "winter" in Israel! The weather gets cold, especially at night. Often it rains--or even snows! Yet many arrive in Israel carrying luggage bulging with summer attire, reasoning that it is always hot and arid in the Middle East. So they hurriedly purchase coats and sweaters in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem so they can make their pilgrimage down to Bethlehem.

Nevertheless, most of those who stand in Manger Square on December 25 each year--prepared and unprepared alike-- fail to perceive the message being proclaimed by the very weather around them!

Notice this plain testimony of your Bible: On the day of Jesus' birth "there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8).

The shepherds were living out in the open fields, tending their flock through the night. The point?

Ask any biblical scholar, or any modern Israeli: This never could have occurred in Judea in the month of December - nor even in November, or late October as far as that is concerned!

In ancient times as today, shepherds brought their flocks in from the fields and penned them in shelters not later than the middle of October! This was necessary to protect them from the cold, rainy season that usually followed that date. (The Bible itself makes it clear that winter in Palestine is a rainy season; see Ezra 10:9,13; Song of Solomon 2:11.)

Yet Luke 2:8 tells us that at the time of Jesus' birth, the shepherds were yet abiding in the fields--by night, at that! They had not yet brought their flocks home to the sheepfolds. Clearly the cold, rainy season had not yet commenced.

Thus, on the basis of Luke's testimony alone, we see that Jesus could have been born no later than mid-October--when the weather is still pleasant at Bethlehem. A December 25 nativity is too late!

Additional biblical evidence lends further support to the foregoing conclusion.

Luke 1:24-38 informs us that the virgin Mary miraculously became pregnant with Jesus when her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant with a child who would later be known as John the Baptist. Jesus, then, would have been born six months after John.

If we could know the time of John's birth, we could then simply add six months and know the time of Jesus' birth.

Does the Bible reveal the general time of John's birth?

Notice: Elizabeth's husband Zacharias was a priest at the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke 1:5 records that Zacharias was "of the course of Abia [in Hebrew, Abijah]." In the days of King David of ancient Israel (10th century B.C.), the number of priests had so increased that they had to be divided into 24 courses or shifts, which would take turns in performing the priestly duties (I Chron. 24). Each course served one week at a time, beginning and ending on a weekly Sabbath day (II Chron. 23:8). The course of Abijah was the eighth course or shift in the rotation (I Chron. 24:10).

The Talmud (collection of Jewish civil and religious laws and commentaries) records that the first course performed its duties in the first week of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. This month (called Abib or Nisan) begins about the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

The second course worked the second week. The third week--being the annual festival season of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread--found all 24 courses serving together, sharing the heavy duties of that special time. The third shift then took its turn during the fourth week of the year.

Projecting forward, the eighth course--the course of Abijah, in which Zacharias served--worked the ninth week of the year. But Zacharias' course then stayed on at the Temple to serve the 10th week also--the week of the annual Pentecost festival--along with all the other courses.

It was during that two-week period of work--near the end of spring--that the announcement by the archangel Gabriel came to Zacharias regarding his wife's imminent conception (Luke 1:8-20). When his two weeks' service was completed, Zacharias and Elizabeth went back to their home and Elizabeth conceived (verses 23-24)--sometime late in June or early July.

The rest is a matter of biology and arithmetic. Elizabeth's sixth month of pregnancy would have been in December. She would have given birth three months later--in late March or early April of the following year. Six months after that, Jesus would have been born, in late September or early October--before the sheep were brought in from the fields, as we have seen! Clearly, Jesus was not born in December.

Late September or early October was also the time of year that taxes were customarily paid--in the fall, at the end of the harvest. Joseph and Mary, it will be remembered, had journeyed to Bethlehem to be taxed (Luke 2:3-5).

The fact that there was "no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7) also suggests the time of the autumn harvest, because the annual fall festivals occurring at that time attracted multitudes of Jews to Jerusalem and nearby towns, filling all available accommodations.

Each December, articles inevitably appear in newspapers and magazines pointing out the ancient origins of today's Christmas customs. All authorities agree that the customs surrounding Christmas--the Christmas tree, mistletoe, holly wreaths, yule logs, stockings on the hearth, exchanging gifts and so on--were practiced in connection with pagan religious celebrations centuries before the birth of Jesus. None are of Christian origin! Anciently, December 25 was the date of the pagan Roman Brumalia, the final day of the popular week-long Saturnalia celebration, celebrated in honor of the god Saturn. It was the day of the "invincible sun"--a winter solstice festival.

"Christmas" was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. It was not until the mid-fourth century that Pope Julius I decreed December 25 to be Christmas ("Christ-Mass") Day. He sought to overshadow the popular Brumalia by imparting "Christian" connotations to the day.

But again, some will ask: What is so wrong with borrowing some of those early customs and using them to honor Jesus? May we not continue to celebrate December 25, as long as we do it in Jesus' name?

Can pagan practices be "Christianized" in this way?

More than 34 centuries ago, the rebellious children of Israel fashioned a pagan idol--a golden calf--in the wilderness (Ex. 32). It was the god Apis, the sacred Egyptian bull deity worshiped at Memphis on the Nile. Aaron declared that the pagan, Egyptian rites by which the Israelites worshiped the calf were "a feast to the Lord" (verse 5).

Did God feel honored? Did he approve of their using pagan customs to worship him?

Absolutely not! It was a great sin (verse 21), and 3,000 paid with their lives (verse 28)! They had deceived themselves that what they were doing was right.

We are commanded not to seek to worship God with customs borrowed from other religions (Deut. 12:29-32). "Learn not the way of the heathen," God declares (Jer. 10:2).

True Christians never meet paganism half way. Pagan worship--whether "in Jesus' name" or not--remains pagan worship! Christianity mixed with paganism is not Christianity at all. Righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness (II Cor. 6:14). God simply will not accept that type of false "worship."

If God had wanted us to observe Christ's birthday, he would have given us the exact date and specific instructions on how to observe it. But he has not! Christmas is an invention of man, issuing from pagan worship.

      We know from the Bible that the apostles of Jesus Christ did not celebrate his birthday. And we know from other historical accounts that the early Christian church did not celebrate the birth of Christ. “In regard to the day or month in which the Saviour was born, a subject to which the devotion of a large proportion of the Christian world has attached much importance, we have no means of accurate knowledge.”(Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th Ed., 1830-1842).

      If God had wanted us to celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday, one would think that at least one Bible verse would mention it. There are no Bible examples of the apostles or the disciples keeping December 25th (or any appropriate corresponding day of the year) as a “holy day”. When the Roman Emporor, Constantine “The Great” (A.D. (285)306-337), used the corrupt manuscripts of Eusebius (A.D. 260-340) and Origin (A.D. 184-254) to merge Paganism with Christianity in the fourth century, the Roman church quite naturally incorporated pagan customs and rituals into her many unscriptural doctrines (praying to saints, use of images in worship, purgatory, Mary worship, Sunday sacredness, celibacy of the clergy, etc.). And, unlike the disciples in the New Testament who suffered rejection and persecution for the word of God and their faithfulness to the scriptures (1 Peter 4:3,4), many apostate Christians simply accepted these false doctrines and teachings and chose to observe anti-biblical pagan holy days (holidays), thus limiting or avoiding persecution altogether. There is not a single Bible verse indicating that the apostles or disciples practiced any of the heathen customs mentioned in the above article. There are, however, a number of scriptures in the Bible instructing us not to borrow the customs of the heathen or pagans to worship the true God: “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen... For the customs of the people are vain:”(Jer. 10:2,3). “Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them... and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God:”(Deut. 12:30,31). “that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.”(Lev. 18:30).

      The Encyclopedia Britannica informs us that “the festival of the nativity was not observed in the primitive church”(Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th Ed., 1830-1842). Neither the apostles nor the early church celebrated His birth, at all. In 245 A.D., it was declared to be a sin even to think of keeping His birthday. The Reformation Protestants did not, Puritans and Pilgrims even outlawed it in the 1600's, and as late as 1855 Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists refused to recognize it as a holiday. Public schools in Boston were still open for classes on December 25th as late as 1870. In fact, Webster's Dictionary tells us that as late as 1913 many States did not even recognize it as a legal holiday (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Ed., p. 253). Christmas did not begin to be a legal holiday anywhere in the United States of America until the 19th century when Alabama became the first state to succumb to its spellbinding influence in 1836. The modern Christmas tree was not introduced to this country by Germans until the 19th century. The annual tradition of erecting a Christmas tree at the White House did not begin until 1889, some 113 years after the birth of our nation and 282 years after the first permanent English settlement in America (est. 1607, Jamestown, Virginia, named after King James I of England, a devout Christian). (Because of its heathen roots, Easter too was dismissed as a pagan holiday by the nation's founding Puritans and did not begin to be widely observed until after the Civil War era coinciding with the spread of Roman Catholicism). For a period of three hundred years, from the first permanent English settlement in America in 1607, the majority of Bible believing Christians did not celebrate Christmas in America. But with the influx of Roman Catholics since the mid to late 1800's the practice spread and gained acceptance by all but the "remnant".

      Just why do so many professing “Christians” celebrate un-biblical/anti-biblical pagan holidays? Compromising the commandments of God with the comfort of the world is almost as old as man himself. It is almost always easier to go with the flow of the world than it is to go against the current of popular tradition. With the exception of a small remnant of faithful Bible believing Christians, practically the whole world (Hindu, Muslim, Mormon, Jewish, Pagan, even atheist) celebrates Christmas (and Easter (in some instances the names may have been changed, but the customs are unmistakably pagan in origin). The apostle John said, “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”(I John 4:5,6). The questions now presented to the professing Christian: (1) Is your final authority the Holy Bible which is “the word of God”? Or is your final authority “your tradition” and the desire of your “own heart”? (2) Will you be among the remnant of “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus” who “shall suffer persecution” “for the word of God”? Or will you be among the many compromisers and “seducers” who “shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived”? (Prov. 28:26; Matt. 15:3-9; Mark 7:6-16; II Tim. 3:12,13; I Pet. 1:25; Rev. 1:9; 6:9; 20:4)

“Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.” (Deuteronomy 12:8)

“Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest.... They deck it with silver and with gold” (Jeremiah 10:2,3)

“Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them ... and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God.” (Deuteronomy 12:30,31)

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;” (Isaiah 5:20)

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” (II Corinthians 11:3,4)

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:6-9)

“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5) “because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and because thou art polluted with their idols.” (Ezekiel 29:30)

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:” (Hosea 4:6)” “And my people are bent to backsliding from me:” (Hosea 11:7)

“And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.” (Jeremiah 32:33,34) “for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15)

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” (Revelation 14:6-8; Revelation 17&18). “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.” (Revelation 2:21,22)

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23). “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Luke 13:23-27). “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:40-43)