Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter? Part 1

The next series of blog posts will start to address the idea of whether or not Christians should celebrate Christmas and Easter. These ideas come around in circulation every holiday season and I felt it a fitting post for the restart of posting on my blog. 

Some Christians believe that Christmas and Easter are of pagan origins and that Christians should have nothing to do with it. In response, we should celebrate the Feasts and obey the Mosaic Law. This is not only a great response to the alleged “pagan” celebration of Christmas and Easter, but it is required of New Testament Christians in order to be in a right standing with God. Celebrating pagan holidays such as Christmas and Easter is therefore forbidden for Christians and keeping the Jewish feasts is required to have good standing with God.

We are going to start out in part one in defining what the law actually is. Paul continually treats the law as a unit, not as sectioned off pieces. When he says we are not under the law, he means just that: the whole law. For example, in Galatians 4:10, Paul clearly outlines his beliefs regarding the effect of the law of Moses on Christians. He says that, if you do not keep everything that is in the law, then you are cursed. In other words, if you are going to adhere a part of the law (like the ‘ceremonial,’ such as feasts and things), you must adhere to the whole. This is a direct quotation from Deut. 27:26, a book written after the law was given. Paul continues in Galatians 4:8-10 with an appeal to understand the law as fulfilled and therefore non-binding on the Christian. He refers to “observing religious days and months and seasons and years” in verse 10. In verse 9, he calls these things basically useless compared to the power of the Cross. Paul treats the law as a unit, and it should be treated as such by believers today. 

This entire perspective is wound up in the idea that there is some sort of quantitative interpretation to which Christians should approach the law. Consequently, this makes the law continue today in the form of feasts and other such regulations. The problem is that, in James 2:10-13, Scripture plainly says that, if you offend in one part of the law, you have offended in ALL parts. That means the feasts too, as well as the sacrifices, and other parts. The law is a unit. It is to be treated as such. It is not split up into moral, sacrificial, and ceremonial (feasts). That kind of thing can be referred to as simply cherry-picking. So, considering the law is not split up, that will be the underlying assumption for the larger part of my response: the law, as a unit, is not effective on Gentile Christians today.