In Fact… you have to choose!
You have to choose between observing the “mass of Christ” (Christimas) — which pictures Christ as a helpless little child, and is surrounded by pagan concepts of the Yule log, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer—OR, on the other hand, observing the biblical Holy Days that picture, step-by-step, the awesome PLAN that God is working out here on earth. You have to choose between following Christ and the original Apostles, or following the Catholic “fathers” of the Dark Ages who increasingly injected layer after layer of rank paganism into professing Christianity.
If you were on the proverbial desert island with only a sacred calendar and a Bible, with no “religious” exterior influence, you would have to observe the biblical Sabbath and biblical Holy Days because these are the ONLY days the Bible commands or even directly talks about. For instance, the word “Christmas” is not even in the Bible. And there is not even the slightest hint in the Bible that we should observe the day of Christ’s birth, even IF we knew when it was—which we do not.
The word “Easter” is purposely not mentioned in any reputable modern translation of the Bible. It is incorrectly
mentioned one time in the King James Version in Acts 12:4. But all scholars concede that the word “Pascha” from which it is translated is correctly rendered “Passover” and has no relation to Easter whatsoever. And, virtually all scholars recognize that the word “Easter” is simply a derivation of the name of the ancient goddess Ishtar or “Isis”—goddess of sex and fertility of the ancient Middle East. That, of course, is where “Easter eggs” come from—the pagan worship of sex and fertility.
Interestingly, even though we were not taught about God’s Holy Days in Sunday School, God’s commanded days are mentioned quite often in the Bible! For these days were clearly commanded in the Old Testament and their observance by Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament certainly ratifies them for the Christian Church.
Luke tells us: “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover” (2:40–41). Then the account describes how “when they had finished the days… Jesus lingered behind” (v. 43). All scholars recognize that “the days” spoken of here were the Days of Unleavened Bread, which come immediately after the Passover. So even though Jesus was “strong in the spirit” and able to discuss spiritual principles at the highest level with the doctors of the Jewish law, He joined His parents in keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread.
During His ministry, we find Jesus going up to observe the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He told His physical brothers, “You go up to this feast” (John 7:8). Clearly, they were instructed by the Son of God to go up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles! Then, Jesus Himself went up secretly, at first, so as not to arouse persecution (v. 10). Then “about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught” (v. 14).
At the end of Jesus’ human life, Luke tells us: “Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat…. ’ Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’” (Luke 22:7–8, 15). So as an adult—setting us an example—Jesus observed the Passover.
Then we find that the inspired Apostolic Church began on another of God’s Holy Days, the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). What if the disciples had rejected God’s Holy Days and were not even there on the day when the Holy Spirit was given?
Some may assume that this was the only Day of Pentecost the early Church observed. Not so. For in Acts 20:16 we read, “For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.” And Paul observed yet another Pentecost in Ephesus: “But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:8–9).
Also, the Apostle Paul clearly commanded the Gentile Church at Corinth to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread. Speaking of these days, Paul wrote: “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7–8). Paul was obviously speaking of “keeping the Feast” of Unleavened Bread.