People have long debated about the true date of Jesus Christ's birth, but the Scripture never revealed it. The story of His birth was shared in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but never once did they say the date of His birth.
They also did not say that Jesus' birthday must be celebrated annually, according to Charisma News.
So who initiated the joyous celebration of Christmas?
Steve Strang, publisher and founder of Charisma magazine, writes that the word Christmas actually comes from the words "Christ's Mass."
He says the celebration "was an attempt by the early Catholic church to 'Christianise' the biggest pagan festival of the year around the time of the winter solstice."
With this as backgrounder, Strang notes that the pagan festival appears to be coming back to America the way it used to be. "With the so-called 'war on Christmas' where secular culture avoids any mention of Christ or even Santa or the word Christmas itself, it's almost as if the culture is reverting back to a pagan celebration of the beginning of winter," he shares.
Strang says that whatever date people decide to celebrate the birth of Christ, people should always focus on the theme of incarnation—the process of God becoming man in order to save mankind from sin and eternal despair.
The Bible verse Colossians 2:9 says that in Christ "lives all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
"This is a mystery of how Christ could be both God and man. Yet we know He was, and it was God's way to sacrifice His Son for the sins of the world," Strang explains. "As believers, we aren't constrained by what the culture says or does. In our own homes and in our own hearts we reflect on the incarnation and ask God to give us."
Strang shares a message given by Archbishop Russell McClanahan of Tallahassee, Florida. Mcclanahan prays that Christ will be born anew in each and everyone's hearts because of Christmas. "Let us each take time to reflect upon the wonder of the Eternal Son being fleshed out in man," he says.
