Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christmas

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christmas

It has been five years since I last centered on Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim 8.7 million followers worldwide and 1.238 million in the US alone.  According to their own figures, that’s one out of every 272 Americans is a JW.

At this time of the year, we will often hear from JWs to tell us Christmas should not be celebrated by God’s people.  I thought it would be good to look at why.  These six objections are taken directly from their website

For the most part, these complaints boil down to a logical fallacy: guilt by association.  Because some pagans did something or something evil happened on a particular day, we must link all similar days and celebrations to the sins or pagan practices of that day. This is akin to saying “Hitler loved dogs, so all dog lovers should be careful of loving their dogs. It’s a Nazi practice:”

•  Celebrating a birthday   JWs like to point to evil events which happened on birthdays in the Bible to discourage birthday celebrations of all sorts: Pharaoh hanged the chief baker on his birthday and Herod ordered John the Baptist beheaded at his birthday party, “so,” they say, “we shouldn’t celebrate birthdays.” 

In contrast to Pharaoh and Herod, Jesus’ birth was, of course, a joyous occasion attended by the angels of heaven (Luke 2:13-14) and announced by the angel, Gabriel himself (Luke 1:26), who stands in the presence of God (Luke 1:19).

Job’s sons also celebrated their birthdays with the full approval and even consecration of Job, a blameless and upright man (Job 1:1-5). 

• The fact Christmas is celebrated on December 25th.  “There is no proof that Jesus was born on that date. Church leaders likely chose this date to coincide with pagan festivals held on or around the winter solstice.” (Watchtower)

Of course, very few Christians believe Jesus was born on December 25th.  We don’t know exactly when Jesus was born, and the Bible doesn’t tell us.  If the shepherds were in the fields with their flocks, it was more likely earlier in the year. December would have been too cold.

The early Church didn’t celebrate Christmas.  Most likely the December date was chosen in 336 a.d. when the Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine, decided to make this date important in order to draw pagans away from the Saturnalia celebration.  So, Rome’s Christian emperor invited the lost to our party rather than the pagan’s, and this helped bring them to Christ.  I’m not saying this was a good thing necessarily, it was man’s choice 1700 years ago. Certainly today’s celebration doesn’t involve or commemorate Saturnalia or any other pagan practice.

It doesn’t matter which day we celebrate the birth of our Savior.  If we want to celebrate it on December 25th, who’s to keep us from doing so? 

• Gift-giving has pagan roots.  The Watchtower brings Saturnalia into the mix here as well claiming gifts were given at that celebration and feast.  So, their implication is gift-giving at Christmas is just another pagan ritual being repeated. 
  
  Actually, gifts are very biblical.  They are mentioned 126 times in the Bible: gifts to God, gifts as a returned favor, gifts to one another as a sign of friendship, and God even gives us gifts (Lev. 1:10; Gen. 24:10, 25:6; Eph. 2:8-9). Gift-giving is hardly pagan.
   
• Christmas Lights.  Here, once again, is guilt by association.  They claim because Europeans often decorated their homes with lights and candles to celebrate the Winter solstice and ward off evil spirits, so displaying candles and Christmas light must be evil.  The logic escapes me.  It is just an attempt to keep the Jehovah’s Witnesses from celebrating Jesus in any way.
  
• Mistletoe and Holly.  “’The Druids ascribed magical properties to the mistletoe in particular. The evergreen holly was worshiped as a promise of the sun’s return.’”—The Encyclopedia Americana.”  Once again, because the Druids used mistletoe and holly in a particular way, we shouldn’t see it that way too rather than use it in our homes for the holiday. 
  
• Christmas Trees.  Pagans worshiped trees, so having a Christmas tree must be a pagan practice. 

Why is this important?

Jehovah’s Witnesses used to celebrate Christmas.  The photo at the top of this blog is of the 1926 Christmas party at their headquarters in Brooklyn, NY.  But, it just gave too much attention to Christ, so they ended the practice.

It all comes down to this: celebrate Christmas in your own way.  If you’re praising God for His greatest Gift, His Son, you’re on solid ground.  The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ organization, seeks to keep any sort of honor from God’s Son, and their attack on our celebration of His birth is just another feature of this quest.

Rom. 14:5-6a (ESV)  One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.