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When Was Jesus Really Born? When Is His True Birthday?

When Was Jesus Really Born? When Is His True Birthday?

Last updated on: February 26, 2024 at 10:16 am by Jack Wellman

When Was Jesus Really Born? When Is His True Birthday? 2024-02-26T10:16:51-06:00 Jack Wellman

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When was Jesus really born? Was it December 25th? Was it in the fall? Can we even know what day or can we know only the time of year?

Is Christmas Jesus’ Birthday?

December 25th is the day that people celebrate Jesus’ birthday as Christmas even though we don’t precisely know the date of His birth. There is speculation that Jesus was born in the fall and not the winter because the shepherds were still abiding in the fields which may not happen during the harshest time of the winter and that is in December. That does not happen to be the case however because there are dozens of historical reports where the shepherd normally kept their sheep in the fields even during winter to graze. The Battle Hymn of the Republic gives a line where it says “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea” while some versions says “In the beauty of the autumn Christ was born across the sea.” We have no exact date of Jesus’ birth date and there is no general consensus even among Bible scholars, church historians, and secular historians.

Is Christmas Observance Pagan?

Actually, the observance of Christmas coincided with the winter solstice occurred and was the time a great pagan festival, Saturnalia. Because of this, Christians wanted to “Christianize” this date with one that glorified Jesus Christ. Christians wanted an alternative to this pagan festival and choose Jesus’ birthday celebration to do it since all the other Jewish Festival days had symbolism in the work of Christ already. The fact that some of the symbols for Christmas is thought to be of pagan origin is a very weak argument because even the wedding ring is a pagan symbol and most people use them in their marriage ceremonies. The candy cane for example is shaped as a letter “J” to represent Jesus, the red stripes are symbolic of His shed blood while the white is the holiness and purity of the sinless Christ.

One man once told me that if you rearranged the letters of Santa you could spell Satan so many people will never be convinced that Christmas is not of a satanic origin and some people will tell you that you are observing a pagan holiday and that God has commands against this. The problem with that logic is that these “commands” are from the Old Testament and the Old Covenant has been replaced by the New Covenant. The Mosaic Laws and the need for strict observance of the Jewish feast days are no longer needed. These were a shadow of what was to come and that which made the shadow is here and He is reality…the Son of God which cast those shadows. With the Son here, we no longer need the shadows. Regardless, many religious groups still insist that we need to keep the holy days and parts of the Mosaic Law including abstaining from “unclean foods” and if you don’t you are disobeying God and partaking in pagan rituals.

Santa versus Jesus

Many have complained that Santa Clause overshadows Jesus Christ during Christmas and this seems to be the case for most of the world. Some of Santa’s attributes seem to imitate those of Jesus:

Satan knows when you’ve been bad or good (omniscient)

Jesus knows the hearts of men and women

Santa loves little children

Jesus wants no one to forbid the little children to come to Him

Santa knows where you live

Jesus knows everything about you

Satan brings you presents

Jesus supplies all of our needs

Santa can visit the world’s millions of children in one night (omnipresent)

Jesus can be everywhere at once and at the same time

Santa lives on the North Pole

Jesus, as God, lives in heaven…to the sides of the north (Job 26:7; Psalm 48:1-2; Leviticus 1:11 but these verses are pretty flimsy evidence to that).

Okay, that is enough. You can see how ridiculous this gets but whether Christmas is over-commercialized or not and whether Santa is supreme over Christ is a parental decision and as Joshua once said you have the freedom to say in your household; “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). You should not feel guilty by observing Christmas if Christ is the major focus.

God’s Silence is Our Silence

Since God does not reveal the date of Jesus’ birthday then we should not speculate or fix a particular date. If God had thought it was important enough for us to know He surely would have revealed it in His Word but since He didn’t, then I don’t believe He wanted us to know. Even so, there is no restriction in observing birthdays and particularly observing Jesus’ birthday. I do agree that Christmas has become so commercialized but in our home we emphasize the elements that point to Christ as the God-child born of a virgin who was conceived by God and lived a sinless life to redeem fallen man. Isn’t that the most important message about Christ anyway? We choose to listen to Handel’s Messiah and Christmas songs that speak of Christ and His glory and songs with words that are scripturally sound. The knowledge that we do know of Him is what we focus on during the Christmas season and even our movie watching are those movies that reflect biblical theology so we keep Christ in Christmas.

Conclusion

Whether you observe Christmas or not, I pray that you will believe in Him and inherit eternal life because for those who have repented and trusted in Christ, they will hear their names read in the book of life someday but for those who reject the Savior, their names will not be found in that book. Instead they will be judged according to their works on earth and since those works will never, ever be enough to save them, this is what they will receive: Their end is shame, guilt, condemnation, and judgment which end in the lake of fire for all time with no end.

Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon

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