THINGS MOST SURELY BELIEVED AMONG US Luke 1:1

Of the many things that were most surely believed among them was the day that Jesus was born. Notice that Luke says, “many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us.” Then verse 3 says, “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus.” One thing is clear: Luke wrote what many believed, he wrote it in chronological order, and he had perfect understanding from the very first.

Therefore, the events leading up to the birth of Jesus were written in chronological order, complete with timestamps.

The first timestamp is found in verse 5, where it says that Zacharias was of the course of Abia. The second timestamp is in verse 10, where it speaks of a multitude, which places Zacharias in the Temple on the Day of Atonement, in mid to late September. The next timestamp is verse 24, which says, “after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months.” Then verse 26 says, “in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.” Verse 36 is another timestamp, stating that Elisabeth had been carrying John the Baptist for six months when the angel appeared to Mary. Verse 56 says that Mary abode with Elisabeth about three months. Verse 57 is yet another timestamp, telling us that Elisabeth carried John to term.

These timestamps clearly indicate that John was conceived shortly after Zacharias finished his course of service, which would have been in late September. That places John’s birth in late June, which in turn places the birth of Jesus in late December.

Furthermore, revealing the exact day is consistent with Scripture. We know that Jesus died on Passover, the fourteenth day of Nisan. We know that He rose from the dead three days later. We know that He ascended to heaven exactly forty days after His resurrection, and that His Spirit descended as cloven tongues of fire fifty days after Passover. We also know that the Lord will return 1,260 days from the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. It seems that the only event we do not know down to the day is the Rapture.

It bothers me that the first thing many preachers say during the Christmas season is that Jesus was not born on December 25. First of all, they do not know that. They are merely parroting what others have said, who do not know it either. Furthermore, this is a scheme of the devil to undermine the sanctity of Christ’s birth.

It is the same thing today with birthdays. Sometimes you cannot celebrate your birthday on the actual day. You do it when you have a day off or when the family can get together. But it is not the same.

Some Christians think it is a sin to even recognize the Lord’s birthday, and that mindset leads to not recognizing the Lord’s death, resurrection, or anything else. If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that God’s people have always benchmarked birthdays. How else could genealogies be recorded? How did they know how old people were when they died? How did they know that Enoch lived sixty-five years and begat Methuselah? How did they know that Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came? How did they know that Moses was eighty years old when he stood before Pharaoh? How did Jacob know he was one hundred thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh? How did they know Jesus was twelve years old when He went to the Temple, or that He was thirty years old when He was baptized?

You cannot go by the year alone. To know your age, you must know the day you were born. For example, I was born in 1961, but that does not mean I turn sixty-five at any point during that year.

Opposition to December 25 did not begin until after the rise of modern liberalism. For the first fifteen centuries of church history, there is not a single recorded objection from a church father, a church council, or even a pagan critic claiming that December 25 was false or pagan in origin.

Some say December 25 was a pagan holiday. First of all, every day was a pagan holiday. There are only 365 days in a year, and if you count all the pagan holidays from all the pagan nations throughout all pagan ages, you will end up with more pagan holidays than you can fit into a calendar year.

Others say Christmas comes from “Christ’s Mass.” According to the Catholic Catechism, every Sunday is Christ’s Mass. If celebrating Christ on December 25 is wrong because it is a “Mass,” then celebrating Christ on any Sunday would also have to be wrong.

Still others say that Jesus could not have been born in December because it would have been too cold for shepherds to abide in the fields. Bethlehem is at the same latitude, approximately 31.7 degrees, as Jacksonville, Florida, and Dallas, Texas. Furthermore, the average daytime temperature in Bethlehem in December is about 57 degrees Fahrenheit, with nighttime temperatures around 45 degrees. Genesis 31:40 says that Jacob watched the flocks even during frost at night: “Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.” That location was about five hundred miles north of Bethlehem.

Others object to celebrating Christmas by saying it was once illegal in America. To set the record straight, it was only illegal in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1659 to 1681, where it was also illegal to be a Baptist.

Some claim December 25 was chosen by Christians to Christianize a pagan holiday. That idea is ridiculous when you consider that the first Christians would rather die than offer even one grain of incense to a pagan god. Are we really supposed to believe they suddenly said, “Those pagan feasts in midwinter seem fun. Let’s take them over and say Jesus was born then”?

Here is the truth: Christ was born on December 25, and that date was hijacked by pagans. Many who oppose December 25 say it was a Roman pagan holiday honoring the birth of the sun god, Natalis Sol Invictus. But that did not occur until around A.D. 400, when Julian the Apostate attempted to reintroduce paganism into Christianity. Before that, the birth of the Unconquered Sun was celebrated on the winter solstice, December 22, not December 25. It was not Christians trying to Christianize a pagan holiday; it was pagans trying to paganize a Christian holy day. Why should we abandon Christmas because the Romans paganized it?

Some say Christians did not celebrate December 25 until after about A.D. 400. Consider the following evidence

St. Telesphorus, the seventh bishop of the church at Rome, was born around A.D. 115. The pagan cult of Sol Invictus was not established until A.D. 274. If anyone was copying celebrations, it was more likely Emperor Aurelian copying an already existing Christian feast.

Tertullian, A.D. 155–220, said that Jesus died on the same day He was conceived, March 25.

Augustine said, “For Christ is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, and was born on the 25th of December.”

Irenaeus, who lived from A.D. 130 to 202, wrote in the second century that Jesus was born on December 25.

Hippolytus, born around A.D. 170, said, “The first advent of our Lord in the flesh occurred when He was born in Bethlehem, which was December 25th, a Wednesday, while Augustus was in his forty-second year.”

Theophilus, Bishop of Caesarea, born A.D. 115 in Palestine, wrote, “We ought to celebrate the birthday of our Lord on the 25th of December.”

Julius Africanus, born around A.D. 160, said that Jesus was born on December 25.

John Chrysostom, who was later martyred by the Catholic Church, said in a sermon preserved to this day that it was common knowledge that Christ was born on December 25. This was about the same time Rome declared it a pagan holiday.