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Why do people exchange presents with family members, friends, relatives, at Christmas
time? Was it because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child? The answer may surprise
you.

Most people have "supposed" a lot of things about Christmas that are not true. But let's quit
"supposing" and get the facts!

What Encyclopedias Say

The word "Christmas" means "Mass of Christ," or, as it came to be shortened, "Christ-
Mass." It came to non-Christians and Protestants from the Roman Catholic Church. And where did
they get it? NOT from the New Testament -- NOT from the Bible -- NOT from the original apos-
tles who were personally instructed by Christ -- but it gravitated in the fourth century into the Ro-
man Church from paganism.

Since the celebration of Christmas has come to the world from the Roman Catholic Church,
and has no authority but that of the Roman Catholic Church, let us examine the Catholic Encyclo-
pedia, 1911 edition, published by that church. Under the heading "Christmas," you will find:

"Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church ... the first evidence of the
feast is from Egypt." "Pagan customs centering around the January calends gravitated to
Christmas."

And in the same encyclopedia, under the heading "Natal Day," we find that the early Catho-
lic father, Origen, acknowledged this truth: "... In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a
feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners [like Pharaoh and Herod] who make
great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world" (emphasis ours).

Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, has this: "Christmas (i.e., the Mass of Christ) ....
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church ...."It was not instituted by Christ or
the apostles, or by Bible authority. It was picked up afterward from paganism. The Encyclopedia
Americana, 1944 edition, says: "Christmas .... It was, according to many authorities, not cele-
brated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to cele-
brate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth ...." (The "Communion," which is
instituted by New Testament Bible authority, is a memorial of the death of Christ.) "... A feast was
established in memory of this event [Christ's birth] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the
Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth
of Sol, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ's birth existed."

Now notice! These recognized historical authorities show Christmas was not observed by
Christians for the first two or three hundred years -- a period longer than the entire history of the
United States as a nation! It got into the Western, or Roman, Church, by the fourth century A.D. It
was not until the fifth century that the Roman Church ordered it to be celebrated as an official
Christian festival!

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