Naked Bible 195: Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday?

The Naked Bible Podcast

Dr. Michael S. Heiser

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2017

⏱️ 94 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is much discussion online at this time of year as to the presumed pagan origins of Christmas. December 25, we are told, was a date stolen from pagan worship, specifically from the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” (Sol Invictus)? Should Christians have Christmas trees? Aren’t trees pagan objects of worship? How should Christians think about, and respond to, such questions? Do these questions have any relationship to the content of Scripture? Listen to find out. Links and sources: William Tighe, "Calculating Christmas: The Story Behind Dec 25" Touchstone Magazine (December, 2003) Thomas J. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year (The Liturgical Press, 1991) Aaron Gleason, “How Christmas Baptizes Norse Mythology into Powerful Christian Archetypes,” The Federalist (December 15, 2017) Origin of the names of the Days Jewish month names from Babylon

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Naked Bible Podcast.
0:09.5	To support this podcast, we're going to make it BiblePodcast.com and click on the support
0:13.2	link in the upper right hand corner.
0:14.8	If you're new to the podcast and Dr. Hyde's approach to the Bible, click on New Start
0:19.0	here at NakedBiblePodcast.com.
0:26.4	Welcome to the NakedBible Podcast episode 195.
0:30.0	He's Christmas, a pagan holiday on the layman, Trace Trickland, and he's a scholar, Dr. Michael
0:34.8	Heiser.
0:35.8	Merry Christmas, Mike.
0:36.8	Yep, Merry Christmas.
0:37.8	Yeah, Santa Claus.
0:38.8	You're getting ready.
0:39.8	You're going to leave some cookies out.
0:41.8	All that good stuff.
0:42.8	Yeah, we're a bit beyond doing all that.
0:46.0	I only think we ever did anything with Santa Claus.
0:48.6	We were pretty honest with our kids.
0:52.5	It's like your mom and dad work hard.
0:54.0	This is a special day.
0:55.6	We think about Jesus' birth and God's blessed us to get you some cool things.
1:00.1	So, we didn't do the other.
1:03.2	Well, my kids are still young enough that I might use the naughty and isolus to my advantage.
	...

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