There’s plenty to cover here, but we can begin by examining the idea that God is dishonored if creatures are honored. While it is entirely true that idolatry displeases the Lord, it could not be further from the truth to assert that the honoring of man dishonors God. When one looks in the book of Revelation, for instance, it is clear that the Lord delights in glorifying his children and bestowing upon them crowns and thrones that they might have a share in his glory (4:4). Paul also says something relevant in his first letter to the Corinthians: “if a member is glorified, all the other members rejoice with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). If both the Lord and St. Paul take such delight in the honoring of members of the body of Christ, one should have no qualms about celebrating such a thing as the gift of life that God has given.
When birthdays are mentioned in Scripture, the celebrations themselves are not condemned. There is not one word in Scripture saying that either of the two birthday celebrations mentioned was bad or should not have taken place.
In the case of Pharaoh’s birthday, there is nothing critical of the celebration. Neither is there anything critical of Pharaoh’s actions on the day. It does mention that he had one of his former servants put to death on that day, but Scripture is silent about whether the man had done anything worthy of death. That question is not considered, and we are given no information about what the servant had done that led him first to be put in prison and then put to death.
In the case of Herod Antipas’s birthday—and it should be noted that Herod was a Jew, not pagan—the implied criticism is that he made a rash promise and bowed to social pressure (Matt. 14:9), which together led him to have John the Baptist executed. Neither of these is a criticism of birthdays but of rash oaths and bowing to peer pressure.
The mere mention of birthdays in these two texts does not allow one to infer that
birthdays are being implicitly criticized. Good Bible interpretation does not permit taking a passage where something unpleasant is mentioned, finding a second element in the text, and from that alone inferring that the second element is being criticized.9 This is the case especially when one has a very limited number of samples from which to draw. No firm conclusions can be drawn from a sampling of only two instances, as is the case here.
What about the other practices the Watchtower condemns? Is a practice or ritual necessarily displeasing to God if its roots can be traced back to paganism? No.
Circumcision is a classic, biblical instance of this. Circumcision was a custom of pagan origin.
In Egypt (Jer. 9:25–26; Josh. 5:4–9) and among Semitic peoples generally, circumcision seems to have been practiced in antiquity. A relief in the Sixth Dynasty tomb of Ti (c. 2300 B.C.) at Saqqarah in Egypt depicts the operation of circumcision on 13-year-old youths.10
The third millennium before Christ, and more specifically 2300 B.C., was before Abraham, who lived in the early second millennium, thus, before he was given the covenant of circumcision by God in Genesis 17. Yet the fact that circumcision is of pagan origin did not prevent God from using it as a sign of his covenant with the people of Israel.
Further, Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves have adopted things originally used by pagans. Wedding rings, marriage vows, white veils, and bridal bouquets are all of pagan origin, but you will likely find all of these at any Witness wedding. Even if some custom has a tainted past, so long as it is not intrinsically immoral it can be “baptized” and offered to God in spirit and truth.
The Watchtower’s aversion to paganism is understandable, but it overlooks the fact that paganism is not totally wrong. There are elements of truth in paganism.11 What makes paganism problematic is that those elements are obscured by sin and a flawed understanding of the nature of human existence. But when the elements of truth are distilled out of their pagan context and properly seen in the light of God’s revelation, they are no longer problematic, as God is ultimately the source of all truth.
Even in secular matters, a Witness does not seem to realize how much of our modern culture is in some way connected with extinct pagan religion. If the Witness at your door is wearing Nike shoes, for instance, you might point out that Nike is the Greek goddess of victory. If the true God commanded that our lives be free from any and all references to paganism, the Witness would not only need to throw away his shoes, he would also have to rename the days of the week, months of the year, and even the planets of the solar system—as well as throw away his wedding ring. Fortunately, God does not ask Christians to live in such scrupulosity.
Easter
What of the claim that Easter is of pagan origin because of its name and date of
celebration? First of all, this objection could be only made by people who speak English or German. These seem to be the only languages of Christian countries where the Jewish name of Passover, Pesach, has not been retained to refer to the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. In Spain it is called Pasca, in Russia Pashka, in Italy Pasqua, in Greece Pascha, in France Paque,12 but it is called Ostern in Germany and Easter in English-speaking countries. The feast of the Resurrection of Christ was well established, however, before the term Easter was given to it in the eighth century. The word
“probably derives from Eostur, the Norse word for the Spring season, and not from Eostre, the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess.”13
It is equally absurd to claim that the term “Easter” was derived from the name of the goddess Ishtar merely because there is a similarity in the pronunciation of the two words.
Ishtar was an Akkadian deity, and the Akkadian language had almost no influence on the development of the English language, whose primary sources are Germanic and Romance languages, not Hamitic-Semitic ones such as Akkadian.
Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox. This formula has nothing to do with paganism though. Since Christ was raised on a Sunday, the Church has chosen to set aside this day to celebrate the Resurrection. In the early Church, some objected to Sunday as the fixed day for the annual celebration. They wanted it to be linked to whatever day of the week 14 Nisan fell upon—14 Nisan was Passover in the Jewish calendar (and the actual day on which Jesus died).14 Passover was celebrated on the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. Since Christ rose on the Sunday following the celebration of the Jewish Passover, the Church celebrates Easter on that day each year. The fact that Passover happens to take place in spring has nothing to do with perpetuating the worship of an Akkadian fertility goddess.
It is odd that the Watchtower will endorse the celebration of its Memorial of the Lord each year but not call to mind and rejoice in what happened three days later. It is only natural to recall and celebrate the day that Christ rose, which is why the first Christians adopted the practice!
Christmas
Is Christmas a pagan celebration merely because it is celebrated at the same time of the year as ancient pagan feasts honoring a sun god? If so, then one could just as easily argue that the Watchtower Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meetings are of pagan origin, since they are often held on Thursday—the day of the week named after the pagan deity Thor. Such a conclusion, obviously, would be silly. Nonetheless, the Watchtower seeks to convince the world that to win the favor of pagans, the early
“apostate Church” established Christmas at the time of the pagan feast of Sol Invictus.
This feast of “the unconquerable sun”—celebrated at the time of the winter solstice—
was when the sun began to return to the northern skies and the days grew longer. It was essentially a celebration of the return of sunlight.
While one frequently encounters assertions that Christmas was timed to coincide with the celebration of Sol Invictus, these never seem to be backed up by evidence. In particular, they are never backed up by quotations from the early Christians saying, “We decided to time this celebration to coincide with Sol Invictus, and this is why . . .” If the early Church had deliberately decided to time the celebrations to coincide, this ought to supplanting it with a celebration of the birth of the true God. Ancient pagans would not consider it a compliment to their sun god that his birthday party had been replaced by centuries. For example, in the middle of St. Peter’s square in the Vatican is an enormous Egyptian obelisk that was erected by the emperor Caligula. The Church decided to let it remain, but with a cross placed atop it, saying in effect, “We win.”
Lastly, should the celebration of Christmas be abolished because it is not mentioned in the Bible? To object to this holiday on these grounds involves having an extremely legalistic mind-set that presumes one cannot do anything unless there are explicit examples of it in Scripture. If this line of reasoning were followed consistently, it would prevent people from eating tomatoes, attending college, fishing with anything but a net, using microwave ovens, and even attending Kingdom Hall meetings on Sundays, since these are not expressly mandated in the Bible. Not only does this mind-set slip into scrupulosity; it is also an argument from silence, which is inherently problematic. Just because the celebration of Christmas is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, one cannot assume that it is prohibited. If anything, the reverse is the case—all things are lawful for us, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12, as long as they are not prohibited.
The Jews of the Old Testament would celebrate festivals, new moons, sabbaths, and various other feasts throughout the year, recalling the great things that God had done for them. The origin of some of these, such as Hanukkah, cannot be found in the New World Translation, but Jesus himself observed this feast (John 10:22). Another feast day he observed was that of the Passover, calling to mind the saving work of God in bringing Israel out of the bondage of Egypt (Luke 22:15).
Even the exchange of gifts on holidays is countenanced in Scripture. Thus we read of the feast of Purim:
Mordecai proceeded to write these things and send written documents to all the
Jews . . . to impose upon them the obligation to be regularly holding the fourteenth day of the month A’dar and the fifteenth day of it in each and every year, according to the days on which the Jews had rested from their enemies and the month that was changed for them from grief to rejoicing and from mourning to a good day, to hold them as days of banqueting and rejoicing and sending of portions to one another and of gifts to the poor people. (Esther 9:20–22)
Like Passover and the feast of Purim, Christmas is a celebration that commemorates God’s victory over sin, when he delivered man from the bondage of the evil one. Easter is the commemoration of his victory over death. Surely such occasions are worthy of celebration!