December 25th, a date of no significance

December 25th is a day that has traditionally been observed as the birth-date of Jesus although it has no mention in the New Testament. Ever since the fourthcentury AD, Christians had borrowed this date from pagan religions. Skeptics of Christianity have used this fact to advence the “Jesus Myth” citing this as proof that Christianity was an unoriginal copy from paganism.

Ms. Murdock (i.e., Acharya S) and Zeitgeist, the Movie constantly cite this date hoping that their case of Christian plagiarism wins the day. As a matter of fact, a lot of what they claim depends so much on Jesus being born on December 25th, so if it turns out that the date is irrelevant to the origins of Christianity, then massive majority of their arguments go up in smoke.

In her defence of Zeitgeist, Ms. Murdock makes a lame attempt to defend December 25th as being relevant saying,

However, since the fourth century when this winter solstice celebration was designated as Christ’s birthday hundreds of millions of people have been taught that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth. And hundreds of millions continue to celebrate that date every year. Indeed, Christian preachers today still insist that Jesus Christ is “the reason for the season.”  Furthermore, in 2007, the United States House of Representatives passed house resolution 847 officially declaring December 25th to be the Birthday of Jesus Christ. Raising up this issue about the birthday of the Sun (S-U-N) is therefore entirely legitimate.

This argument is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. She apparently thinks that just because the U.S. government says December 25th is Jesus’ birthday, that therefore makes it true. The government is not an authority on Christian doctrine, and neither is the paganized post-Christian traditionfrom the fourth cetury. The Bible is.

In fact, the Bible contradicts the tradition that Jesus was born on the pagan holiday. Luke 2: 8-11 says that the night Jesus was born, there were shepherds in the fields. This wouldn’t be true if he were born in the winter, much less on the winter soltice. The date is of no religious significance to Christian origins and, therefore, is irrelevant.