4 Christmas Topics, By Lee Strobel

Four Christmas Topics

By Lee Strobel
12.14.2006

Christmas celebrates the birth of God, not a man (5:57)
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When was Jesus born?

History doesn't pinpoint Jesus' birthday. Spring is most likely, because shepherds were watching their flocks at night and this is when ewes bore their young. In fact, around a.d. 200, theologians concluded Jesus was born on May 20. "Others," said journalist Terry Mattingly, "argued for dates in April and March. This wasn't a major issue, since early Christians emphasized the Epiphany on January 6, marking Christ's baptism."

Said Christian researcher Gretchen Passantino: "The first Christians pointed to the birthday celebrations of the gods as proof that the pagan gods were inferior to the eternal, infinite God. They understood that Christ's birth was the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. It was around a.d. 200 that celebration of Christ's birth was added to the crowded church calendar. Those churches who chose to celebrate it did so on various days and month."

In a.d. 385, Pope Julius I declared December 25 as the day for celebrating Christ's birth. "He chose that date," Passantino told me, "partly to challenge the pagan celebration of the Roman god Saturnalia, which was characterized by social disorder and immorality."

Was Jesus really born of a virgin? (6:45)

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Is the virgin birth credible?

Though 79 percent of Americans believe the virgin birth, it was a stumbling block for philosopher William Lane Craig when he was young. "I thought it was absurd," he said. "For the virgin birth to be true, a Y chromosome had to be created out of nothing in Mary's ovum, because Mary didn't possess the genetic material to produce a male child."

Still, he became a Christian. "You don't need to have all your questions answered to come to faith," he told me. "You just have to say, 'The weight of the evidence seems to show this is true, so even though I don't have answers to all my questions, I'm going to believe and hope for answers in the long run.'"

Craig came to believe there's plenty of independent evidence for God, including the origin and fine-tuning of the universe, as well as the existence of universal objective moral values. He summarizes the arguments in my book The Case for Faith.

Based on that, Craig later resolved the issue of the virgin birth. "If I really do believe in a God who created the universe," Craig said, smiling, "then for him to create a Y chromosome would be child's play!"

Did Christianity copy earlier myths?

Skeptics claim Christianity, including the virgin birth, is merely a repackaging of pagan "mystery religions." Not true, says apologist Alex McFarland. Contrary to mythology, "the New Testament deals with actual persons and historical events open to investigation," he said.

"None of the so-called 'savior gods' of the myths died for someone else," McFarland added. "The mystery religions portray gods who died repeatedly, depicting cycles of nature. Unlike the mythical heroes, Jesus died voluntarily, and his death was a triumph, not a defeat. Christ's death provided atonement for sin, a concept utterly foreign to the mystery religions."

Researcher Gretchen Passantino agrees that Christ's birth is radically different from these mythological tales. "The supposed parallels are greatly overblown ," she said. "For example, instead of a virgin willingly conceiving by the invisible power of God, the myths gave us lurid tales of lusty gods having forced sex with women," she said. "Instead of the Incarnation, the myths gave us half-human, half-divine superheroes subject to the same weaknesses, sins, and frustrations as we are."

Albert Schweitzer said those who claim Christianity was derived from these myths "manufacture out of the various fragments of information a kind of universal mystery religion which never existed." And C. S. Lewis confirmed Christianity originated "in a circle where no trace of the nature religion was present."

What was the Christmas Star?

Was it a comet? Asteroid? Conjunction of planets? All have been suggested to explain the Christmas star that led the wise men from the east to visit the Christ child. For astronomer Hugh Ross, one possibility is a "recurring nova."

"An easily visible nova (a star that suddenly increases in brightness and then within a few months or years grows dim) occurs about once every decade," he said. "Novae are sufficiently uncommon to catch the attention of observers as alert and well-trained as the magi must have been. However, many novae are also sufficiently unspectacular as to escape the attention of others."

Most novae explode once, but a few undergo multiple explosions separated by months or years. This, he said, could account for how Matthew says the star appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared and disappeared later.