The God Culture: The Real History of Christmas?

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture has released a series of videos about the history of Christmas. These videos serve as a great way to examine the methods he employs in his other videos and books. I have written somewhat about these methods in various articles noting that at times Tim does not even read sources but has copy/pasted things he found on the internet without verifying thier veracity. In this article I want to focus on Tim's method of researching history which entails conflating the present with the past and totally ignoring historical sources.

The first video in this series is about the history of the Christmas tree. 

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Wherever Did You Come From? Is Christmas in the Bible?

One does not even have to watch this video to know exactly what Tim will say because it's right on the title card. Christmas trees originate way back to the time of Jeremiah and he condemns them in chapter 10 of his prophetic book. 

9:28 Oh, it's an idol by definition indeed but it is no mystery as to what it is. It is what we now call the Christmas tree in exact practice. We even showed you the videos to see, you know, this all laidout. It's a perfect match already in practice 600 years before Christ or Messiah came in the Flesh. And this practice was co-opted centuries later as supposedly originating with him? That's ridiculous.

11:46 Any so-called scholar that says that this passage is not about the Christmas tree is no Bible scholar and proves themselves illiterate. They cannot even read and comprehend.

12:38 The Catholic Church who changes the Bible on many things, thus a cursed organization according to scripture, that's what it says many times go read it, deflects on this because what they did is they brought back this ancient occult practice and they are too inept to read that Jeremiah directly rebukes them.

All of that is simply a lie. Christmas trees originated in Germany during the time of the Protestant Reformation. If the Catholic Church brought back the practice of Christmas trees then why did the Vatican not have one until 1982! That is a fact of history that Tim does not discuss at all because it does not jibe with his anti-ecclesiastical stance. Tim continually does everything he can to defame the Church which is the Body of Christ. 

The second video purports to be The Real History of Christmas. 

The Real History of Christmas. Is Christmas in the Bible?

Interesting. Is Tim going to talk about the Feast of the Epiphany and how the Feast of the Nativity did not become separate until much later? Is he going to talk about the decrees of Emperors and the Church on how to solemnize Christmas Day? Is he going to talk about the differences between the Eastern and Western Churches and why they celebrate Christmas weeks apart from one another? Will he be discussing why December 25th was actually thought to be the birth day of Jesus Christ? 

Of course not! Tim's modus is to conflate modern practices and claim that is exactly how the Feast of the Nativity was celebrated in the past. In fact he makes some downright ridiculous claims about the origin of Christmas sweaters, the twelve days of Christmas, and even Santa and the elves. 

11:08 It was an occasion for visits to friends and the presentation of gifts. Ah! Sounding familiar? Of course it is because this is the origin of Christmas.

12:55 Both of these are about gift giving and these became the manuals for this Pagan occult practice. Uh, these would morph into uh what would be called the 12 books of epigrams. Yep or origin of the 12 Days of Christmas. Indeed. There you go.

16:10 Instead of the toga colorful dinner cloths, you know like Christmas sweaters perhaps, were permitted in public as was the pilius a felt cap normally worn...wait, wait, wait, you mean like the elves wear? Like like Santa wears? Huuuuh! Especially the elves though because see they are the slaves. Hmm how about that? There you go. The origin of elves, the slaves. Nothing new under the sun folks 

31:17 They rebranded the most Pagan occult day of the year as the birth of Messiah. That's basically what they did.

36:13 They were willing to have those pagan holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.  

The third video in this series is a wholly ridiculous spiel about how Santa Claus is really Satan. He is also a Nicolaitan which is a group mentioned in the Revelation.

Jolly Old St. Nicolaitan? Old Nick = Satan? Is Christmas in the Bible?

This video is loaded through and through with the word concept fallacy. No one is meaning Satan when they are referring to Santa Claus. Santa is not Satan, he is not the devil in disguise, and he is certainly not a Nicolaitan. But Tim gets there by St. Nick, nick meaning the devil, and nick as in Ncolaitian. It's a wholly worthless video that is good enough for The God Culture's unthinking followers who do not care to verify the nonsense Tim says but is void of any actual history about the identity of Santa Claus. 

It's as stupid as if I connected Tim's name and the word tempter because Tim and Tem-pter sound similar. And who is the tempter? Why Satan of course. That means Tim is Satan. The word concept fallacy is literally Timothy Jay Schwab's historical method.

The problem with these videos is that, despite the titles, Tim does not dive into history at all. He cites from no early church witnesses about the Feast of the Nativity and how it was celebrated. Instead he criticizes modern day practices as if that is how the Church has always celebrated Christmas. The fact is the modern day Christmas season and the way it is celebrated is largely a creation of Coca-Cola and the poem The Night Before Christmas.

Were the Church Fathers erecting Christmas trees, exchanging gifts, feasting, watching sports, and singing carols about elves and Santa Claus? Of course not but one would not know that by listening to Timothy Jay Schwab. 

Tim's thesis in a nutshell is December 25th is Saturnalia, Christmas was celebrated on December 25th to Christianize that pagan holiday, therefore Christmas is Saturnalia and is bad. But not one time does he prove this. Not one time does he cite a single document showing that Christmas is celebrated on that date for that express purpose. He is also ignorant that the Eastern Church does not and never has celebrated Christmas on December 25th. That fact alone shoots down his thesis.

Here is Augustine in Book 4 of On the Trinity showing what a fool Tim is.

For He is believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March, upon which day also He suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which He was conceived, where no one of mortals was begotten, corresponds to the new grave in which He was buried, wherein was never man laid, neither before nor since. But He was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.

https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130104.htm

Encyclopedia Britanica even takes Tim's sloppy thesis to task

One of the difficulties with this view is that it suggests a nonchalant willingness on the part of the Christian church to appropriate a pagan festival when the early church was so intent on distinguishing itself categorically from pagan beliefs and practices.

A second view suggests that December 25 became the date of Jesus’ birth by a priori reasoning that identified the spring equinox as the date of the creation of the world and the fourth day of creation, when the light was created, as the day of Jesus’ conception (i.e., March 25). December 25, nine months later, then became the date of Jesus’ birth. For a long time the celebration of Jesus’ birth was observed in conjunction with his baptism, celebrated January 6.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas

According to Tim on Christmas Day the Church Fathers were watching football and drinking beer and having a riotous time like the pagans whose holiday they co-opted. Not so according to the Code of Theodosius which forbids all such celebrations during the Feast of the Nativity.

 The Theodosian Code and Novels, and the Sirmondian Constitutions, Clyde Pharr, pg. 433

On the following occasions all amusements of the theaters and the circuses shall be denied throughout all cities to the people thereof, and the minds of Christians and of the faithful shall be wholly occupied in the worship of God : namely, on the Lord's day, which is the first day of the whole week, on the Natal Day and Epiphany of Christ, and on the day of Easter and of Pentecost

It is not my purpose here to give a full treatment of the REAL Real History of Christmas. For that I point you to a book Timothy Jay Schwab has previously cited yet has never read, The Antiquities of the Christian Church by Joseph Bingham.

https://archive.org/details/originesecclesi02bing/page/1140/mode/2up

The section of his two-volume work about the festivals and holy days of the early church is unparalleled. He goes right to the sources and shows exactly what the early church taught and practiced in regards to Christmas, the sabbath, the Lord's Day, Easter, and other holy days. It is not at all like what Timothy Jay Schwab claims. But nothing ever is what Tim claims it to be as he is constantly misinterpreting and twisting his sources to fit his erroneous worldview.