The Vain Wheel of “Christian Holidays and Celebrations” Introduction
Across the centuries, the professing church has built for itself a yearly cycle of religious festivals, holy days, and ceremonies — a vain wheel of tradition that endlessly turns, yet never brings souls into the truth of God’s grace. Christmas, Easter, Lent, Advent, Good Friday — names revered by men but nowhere commanded by God. These observances, rooted in the inventions of man’s religion, are often defended as “Christian,” yet they rest upon no foundation of Scripture rightly divided.
The Source of These Traditions
The Apostle Paul warned that after his departing, grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29-30). He spoke of men who would “turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:4). That prophecy has been fulfilled in the religious world’s adoption of pagan customs baptized with Christian names.
Christmas never appears in the Word of God. No apostle ever celebrated the birth of Christ, nor commanded believers to do so. The shepherds rejoiced at the time of His birth, yes — but there is no yearly festival in Scripture. December 25 was a pagan solstice festival long before Rome named it “Christ’s Mass.” Easter — a word found only once in the King James Bible (Acts 12:4) — was a heathen festival to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility. The “Easter” of modern religion has no connection with the Passover of the Jews or with the grace gospel revealed to Paul. Lent, Advent, and Holy Week are likewise inventions of denominational systems, designed to keep men bound to ritual performance rather than resting in the finished work of Christ. Paul’s Instruction to the Body of Christ
Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, gave clear commandment concerning such things:
“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” (Galatians 4:10-11)
Under the law, Israel had feast days — Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles — all shadows pointing to Christ. But the Body of Christ is not under those ordinances. We are under grace. To revive “holy days” and ceremonies is to return to bondage:
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17)
Nowhere does Paul command the Church, the Body of Christ, to celebrate Christ’s birth, death, or resurrection through annual festivals. Instead, we are told to remember His death in the simple Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) — not through candles, incense, or ritual performances, but by faith in His finished cross-work.
The Vain Wheel of Religion
Each year, the world turns the same wheel — Christmas lights, Easter eggs, holy week processions, church choirs, candles, decorated altars, and worldly excitement. Yet hearts remain darkened, and truth is neglected. Religion spins, but never advances.
Man’s religious wheel looks busy, even pious, but it goes nowhere. It is vain because it substitutes activity for truth, ceremony for faith, emotion for sound doctrine.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:5)
The Simplicity That Is in Christ
True worship today is not seasonal or ceremonial. It is spiritual and continual. God’s grace program gives no “Christian calendar,” but an unbroken walk of faith in Christ, our risen Head. Paul reminds believers:
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” (Philippians 4:4)
We need no special feast day to rejoice in Christ — for our rejoicing is daily, eternal, and based on an unchanging salvation. The believer’s celebration is not bound to time or tradition, but to truth.
Conclusion
The vain wheel of man-made “Christian holidays” turns every year — round and round — yet produces no spiritual fruit. It keeps millions busy, sentimental, and religious — but not grounded in the revelation of the Mystery given to Paul. Let us therefore stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and refuse the yoke of man’s ordinances.
“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?” (Galatians 4:9)
Summary God never commanded Christmas, Easter, or any “holy day” in this dispensation. These observances originated from paganism and Roman tradition, not from Scripture. Paul instructs believers to live daily in the grace of God, not in religious calendars.
Roberto Gagliardi Bible Studies
The Vain Wheel of “Christian Holidays and Celebrations” Introduction
Across the centuries, the professing church has built for itself a yearly cycle of religious festivals, holy days, and ceremonies — a vain wheel of tradition that endlessly turns, yet never brings souls into the truth of God’s grace.
Christmas, Easter, Lent, Advent, Good Friday — names revered by men but nowhere commanded by God. These observances, rooted in the inventions of man’s religion, are often defended as “Christian,” yet they rest upon no foundation of Scripture rightly divided.
The Source of These Traditions
The Apostle Paul warned that after his departing, grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29-30). He spoke of men who would “turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:4).
That prophecy has been fulfilled in the religious world’s adoption of pagan customs baptized with Christian names.
Christmas never appears in the Word of God. No apostle ever celebrated the birth of Christ, nor commanded believers to do so. The shepherds rejoiced at the time of His birth, yes — but there is no yearly festival in Scripture. December 25 was a pagan solstice festival long before Rome named it “Christ’s Mass.” Easter — a word found only once in the King James Bible (Acts 12:4) — was a heathen festival to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility. The “Easter” of modern religion has no connection with the Passover of the Jews or with the grace gospel revealed to Paul. Lent, Advent, and Holy Week are likewise inventions of denominational systems, designed to keep men bound to ritual performance rather than resting in the finished work of Christ. Paul’s Instruction to the Body of Christ
Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, gave clear commandment concerning such things:
“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
(Galatians 4:10-11)
Under the law, Israel had feast days — Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles — all shadows pointing to Christ.
But the Body of Christ is not under those ordinances. We are under grace. To revive “holy days” and ceremonies is to return to bondage:
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
(Colossians 2:16-17)
Nowhere does Paul command the Church, the Body of Christ, to celebrate Christ’s birth, death, or resurrection through annual festivals. Instead, we are told to remember His death in the simple Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) — not through candles, incense, or ritual performances, but by faith in His finished cross-work.
The Vain Wheel of Religion
Each year, the world turns the same wheel —
Christmas lights, Easter eggs, holy week processions, church choirs, candles, decorated altars, and worldly excitement.
Yet hearts remain darkened, and truth is neglected.
Religion spins, but never advances.
Man’s religious wheel looks busy, even pious, but it goes nowhere. It is vain because it substitutes activity for truth, ceremony for faith, emotion for sound doctrine.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
(2 Timothy 3:5)
The Simplicity That Is in Christ
True worship today is not seasonal or ceremonial.
It is spiritual and continual.
God’s grace program gives no “Christian calendar,” but an unbroken walk of faith in Christ, our risen Head.
Paul reminds believers:
“Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”
(Philippians 4:4)
We need no special feast day to rejoice in Christ — for our rejoicing is daily, eternal, and based on an unchanging salvation. The believer’s celebration is not bound to time or tradition, but to truth.
Conclusion
The vain wheel of man-made “Christian holidays” turns every year — round and round — yet produces no spiritual fruit.
It keeps millions busy, sentimental, and religious — but not grounded in the revelation of the Mystery given to Paul.
Let us therefore stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and refuse the yoke of man’s ordinances.
“But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”
(Galatians 4:9)
Summary God never commanded Christmas, Easter, or any “holy day” in this dispensation. These observances originated from paganism and Roman tradition, not from Scripture. Paul instructs believers to live daily in the grace of God, not in religious calendars.
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