The Editor, Sir:

In reference to the column by Mr. Peter Espeut, dated Wednesday, December 26 'Christ Born to Die', as a devout Christian I thank God that Christ was born over 2000 years ago and was crucified, buried and resurrected to redeem a fallen world.

December 25 is supposed to be the day of Christ's birth, and its observance has become customary and popular. History gives no certain assurance of this, the Bible does not give us the precise time, had the lord deemed this knowledge essential for our salvation, he would have spoken through his prophets and apostles. The silence of the scriptures upon this divided matter is evidence to us that it is hidden from us for the wisest purposes.

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. In 1990, the Solon, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb) school board banned all nativity and other Christmas scenes on any school property because they felt it violated the separation of Church and State. They were challenged in court when outraged parents opposed them, feeling that Christmas was being stolen from their children and the community. The board lost the case. The citizenry had contended that Christmas was a worldwide tradition that was not part of, and transcended, religion. It was deemed to be secular a part of virtually all cultures worldwide.

The court decision affirmed that Christmas has no Christian roots. However, the court's opinion also noted that Bible reading and prayer obviously are associated with Christianity, a remarkable admission! The court concluded that Christmas-keeping and manger scenes could remain because they are not really part of either Christianity or religion but prayer and Bible reading, which are, must remain excluded from schools.

Christmas celebrations

Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, November 22, 1984): 'The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on December 25 comes from the second century after Jesus' birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice, the return of the sun and honoured Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak, some would say its worst moments in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequalled revelry.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honouring 'Christ.' The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, December 1984: 'The Roman festival of Saturnalia, December 17-24, moved citizens to decorate their homes with greens and lights and give gifts to children and the poor. The December 25 festival of natalis solis invicti, the birth of the unconquered sun, was decreed by the emperor Aurelian in A.D. 274 as a Winter Solstice celebration, and sometime (later) was Christianised as a date to celebrate the birth of the Son of Light.'

Dr. William Gutsch, chairman of the American Museum of Natural History, Hayden Planetarium, further confirmed the original name of Christmas with this quote on December 18, 1989, in a West-chester, New York, newspaper, "The early Romans were not celebrating Christmas but rather a pagan feast called the Saturnalia. It occurred each year around the beginning of winter, or the winter solstice.

Season of growth

This was the time when the sun had taken its lowest path across the sky and the days were beginning to lengthen, thus assuring another season of growth. "If many of the trappings of the Saturnalia, however, seem to parallel what so many of us do today, we can see where we borrowed - our holiday traditions. And indeed, it has been suggested that while Christ was most likely not born in late December, the early Christians then still an outlawed sect moved Christmas to the time of the Saturnalia to draw as little attention as possible to themselves while they celebrated their own holiday."

I ask Mr. Espeut one solemn question: are we really honouring Christ? As Christians, the Bible should be and must be our only rule of faith. I leave you with this scriptural passage, Jeremiah 10:2-5, "Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good."

Sources: The Buffalo News, November 22, 1984,

www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html, The Adventist Home, Ellen G. White.

I am, etc.,

SHELDON F. MOLETON

sheldonmoleton@yahoo.com

North Miami, FL

Via Go-Jamaica