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Christmas and Easter
Aaron Erhardt

There is no doubt that those who celebrate Christmas and Easter as religious observances do so with good intentions. They are seeking to honor the birth and resurrection of Christ. However, good intentions do not necessarily justify something in the sight of God. Uzzah had good intentions when he touched the ark (2 Samuel 6) and David had good intentions when he sought to build a new dwelling place for the ark (2 Samuel 7), but in neither case was God pleased. Furthermore, Jesus said that many good intentioned people will be lost for “practicing lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Christmas was not observed until the fourth century. It was first celebrated in Rome in 354, in Constantinople in 379, and in Antioch in 388. That means it was hundreds of years too late to have been sanctioned by Christ and the apostles. In addition to that, many of its traditions are anti-scriptural. The oft-erected nativity scenes have three wise men at the manger. However, we do not know how many wise men there were, and they were never at the manger. They went “into the house” (Matthew 2:11).

Easter was not observed until at least the second century, after the time of the apostles. Therefore, it was too late to have divine approval. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ by assembling together every first day of the week for worship (Matthew 28:1-6). It is not an annual observance, but a weekly one.

It is not wrong for Christians to recognize Christmas and Easter as civil holidays, so long as there are no religious connotations. This falls into the same category as circumcising one’s child for reasons non-religious. However, the same principles which would forbid the religious observance of Jewish holy days in Galatians 4:10 would apply to the religious observance of Catholic holy days like Christmas and Easter. We are only to “observe” what Christ commanded (Matthew 28:20), and He never commanded the religious observances of Christmas and Easter.