that commemorates superstitious legends, or the yule log that repeats a pagan lie?

Just what is this spirit of Christmas? Is it the spirit of God and Christ? Is it the spirit that proclaims “peace on earth, good will toward men”? Is it the spirit that magnifies the great God of the universe? Or does this spirit defame and abominate the pure worship of God? “Beloved ones,” said the apostle John, “do not believe every inspired expression [“spirit,” footnote], but test the inspired expressions [spirits] to see whether they originate with God.” “Make sure of all things,” urged Paul, “hold fast to what is right. Keep yourselves free from every form of wickedness.” What is this Christmas spirit, its origin, and what does it have to do with God and Christ? In the following article let history and the Word of God answer for us.—1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:21, 22, NW.

Origin of Christmas and Its Spirit

Did your parents celebrate your birthday before you were born? Would they think of celebrating it on another day, other than the day you were born? As Christians would they think of honoring it by transferring the day to a pagan festival, by drinking ale out of skulls of enemies, or by offering live human babies to demon gods? If not, why, then, do professing Christians so commemorate the birth of Christ? This article answers.

THE Christmas spirit is not Christian, because it did not originate with Christ. It predated the Christian era by many centuries. Shortly after the Flood the spirit and the whole celebration of Christmas had its beginning. It began with Nimrod, grandson of Ham the son of Noah, a wicked, ruthless dictator, responsible for the great organized worldly apostasy from God that continues to this day. In contempt for God and all decency Nimrod married his own mother, Semiramis. After his untimely death, his mother-wife, Semiramis, taught the lie that her husband-son was a spirit god. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth to new life of the dead Nimrod. She taught that on the anniversary of his birth, which was December 25, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. The historian, Professor Hislop, says: “Now the Yule Log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas-tree is Nimrod redivivus—the slain god come to life again.”—The Two Babylons, pages 97, 98.

This is the beginning of Christmas with its spirit. This is also the origin of the yule log, the Christmas tree, the celebrating of birthdays, the spirit of exchanging gifts, the spirit of feasting and merrymaking, visits and salutations, jocularity, revelry and drunkenness. All of this is an outgrowth of the first lie, nurtured by the spirit of Satan the Devil, who told it. In Eden to Eve he said: “You positively will not die. For God knows that in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bound to be opened and you are bound to