Dear PASTOR W F KUMUYI,
I took my time to clearly elucidate that Christmas did not give rise to idolatry and was not born out of an idolatrous background. Anyone who genuinely wants to engage with what I actually said should go and watch the video here [https://www.facebook.com/share/v/172mXDWZu5/]. What is circulating now is a familiar claim, confidently repeated, but resting on a very shallow reading of history.
When Pastor Kumuyi says Christmas is unbiblical because it supposedly emerged from idolatry and that he only holds “December Retreat,” what he is really showing is ignorance of how Christianity has always entered cultures, languages, calendars, and ideas, purified them, redirected them, and placed them at the service of the true God. This is simply mission and not compromise. That is exactly how the Gospel spread beyond Judea.
Honestly speaking, Christianity did not drop from heaven with a ready-made vocabulary. The New Testament itself is written entirely in Greek, not Hebrew. The word “Gospel” that he holds so dearly is not a Jewish temple word. “Evangelion” was a Greco-Roman term used for imperial announcements, military victories, and the birth or accession of emperors. The early Christians deliberately took that pagan political word and declared that the true Evangelion (Gospel) is not Caesar’s victory but Christ’s death and resurrection. If pagan origin automatically contaminates meaning, then he must reject the very word “Gospel” he preaches.
The same applies to “Parousia.” Before Christians used it for the glorious return of Christ, it was already used in the Greco Roman world to describe the official visit or arrival of an emperor. The Church did not panic because of its background. She baptized the term and proclaimed that the true King whose coming matters is Jesus Christ. Should we now abandon the doctrine of the Second Coming because the word once served imperial propaganda?
What about the title “Son of God”? In the Roman world, emperors were called “divi filius” (son of a god). The early Christians did not run away from the term. They filled it with truth and confessed that Jesus is Son of God not by political myth but by eternal generation. By Pastor Kumuyi’s logic, Christians should drop that title entirely.
Even the word “Church” itself (ekklesia), was not a synagogue term. It referred to a civic assembly in Greek city states. Christians adopted it to describe the gathered people of God. If everything with a pre-Christian background is forbidden, then the Bible itself shatters under that rule.
Now let us talk about calendars, since December is being weaponized. December is a Roman name, derived from decem, meaning ten, because it originally belonged to the Roman calendar. The Roman calendar itself was tied to pagan religious life. By the same reasoning, holding a December retreat is equally pagan. Sunday, which he worships on, is named after the sun. The months, the days, the calendar system he uses are all inherited from the same Roman world he selectively condemns. Yet suddenly December is acceptable for retreats but unacceptable for celebrating the Incarnation and birth of Christ. That is pure double standard.
Christianity did not grow by erasing time, language, or culture. It grew by reclaiming them. The Church did not say Christ was born because pagans had festivals. The Church proclaimed Christ’s birth and later fixed a date to celebrate the central mystery of the Incarnation, drawing theological meaning from salvation history, not from idols. History is clear on this, from early Christian writings to liturgical development. Ignoring that history does not make it disappear.
So I challenge Pastor Kumuyi and those applauding this claim to be consistent. If Christmas must go because of alleged pagan roots, then let them also drop the word gospel, abandon parousia, reject Son of God, stop using December, renounce Sunday worship, and rewrite the New Testament in Hebrew. Until then, this selective outrage is not biblical purity but historical illiteracy masquraded as zeal.
Christian faith is not afraid of history. Only weak arguments are.
Shalom!
RevFr Chinaka Mbaeri, OSJ
#SoulOfAMissionary
