Christmas! The season of giving... a time to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A time when believers across the world unite in celebration. The prime most of all Christian festivals!
What sayeth Christendom?
Is the body of Christ truly unified on the matter of Christmas? Do we all say yea? Apparently not! We seem to be divided into three distinct groups. The first group comprises of people who celebrate Christmas in its entirety, that is to say, they decorate the crib, get a tree, decorate it, hang up the stockings near the fire place, have their children believe on and wait for Santa Claus, hang up mistletoe, burn the yule log etc. They go the whole hog so to speak. Then there is the group that claims to discard the traditions of Christmas in an effort to focus on Christ's birth, they hang up a lit paper star somewhere outside to show others that they are celebrating Christmas. Then comes the third group who say that Christmas should not be celebrated by Christians as its roots are pagan, that each of its traditions have hidden and occult meanings and that the only thing Christ commanded us to remember is His death which we are supposed to when we partake of the communion bread and wine.
'Tis the season to be jolly?
Let us do a little bit of a background check on the season in which Christmas is celebrated. As you know there are four notable days (notable in terms of their peculiarity) in a year as regards the sun. The summer solstice, the winter solstice, the spring equinox and the autumnal equinox. To define these in layman's terms the summer solstice is the day in the year when the day is the longest and the night is the shortest. The winter solstice is when the day is the shortest and the night is the longest. Both the equinoxes are days in the year which have approximately equal night and day periods.
Source - http://www.kyrona.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/sun-four-quarters.jpg
Winter Solstice...
So why go into all this science... aren't we off topic? Well no... Christmas is celebrated close to the time of the winter solstice. As you know most of the civilizations in the world can be divided into sun and moon worshipers. Just for the sake of providing a reference here is a wiki page that lists some civilizations that worship the sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_deity that seems to include everything from Buddhism, Hinduism, the Aztecs, the Chinese and interestingly I might add the article mentions CHRISTIANS! Hey but wait a minute, all of us know that we don't worship the sun because what we really worship is the Son! Right? Well right and wrong... Right because Christians are supposed to worship the Son. Wrong in the sense that this wiki article implies that some Christians celebrate a festival called "Sol Invictus" (translated as unconquered sun) and we will be coming back to this a little later. Now there is a list of civilizations that worship the moon as well but I am going to skip them because I don't think that it is relevant to this article.
Let us give the sun strength?
Coming back to those sun worshipers... From a pagan point of view when the winter solstice happened it was a very disheartening for the sun worshiper as the sun appeared to be losing strength. Now if one were a sun worshiper it would be a terrible blow to see one's god losing his strength, now wouldn't it? I guess it would! So the sun worshipers began to assume that they should aid in strengthening bring back the sun. As with most pagan beliefs the instant remedy was sacrifice of life.
Source - http://lpsmythologywiki.wikispaces.com/Aztecs+Myths--Human+Sacrifices
Source - http://www.piney.com/figure38.jpg
So in the days leading up to the winter solstice the pagans would sacrifice animals and many a time even humans to bring back the sun with more strength the next year. Some even believed that there was a direct relation to how strong the sun would be and how much was sacrificed the previous year. Sounds absurd? Read on!
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
Sol Invictus aka Unconquered Sun was the god of the ancient romans. The ancient Roman festival to celebrate the return of the unconquered sun Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Birthday of the Unconquered Sun) was on the 25th of December. It is also in ancient Rome that groups of costumed singers and dancers, called the Mummers, traveled from house to house during the season to entertain their neighbors.
Feast of Horus
In ancient Babylon the feast of Horus, the Son of the goddess of nature, Isis, was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift giving were traditions of this feast. Isis and Horus are a mother and son duo from Egyptian myhtology usually depicted as Isis suckling Horus... does that sound familiar? see below...
Source - http://www.eudonev.com/websites/humanities/st_paul/image_028.jpg
But let's continue because that's a topic for a whole new discussion...
Mithra
Mithra was the god of light in ancient Iran. The symbol of Mithra is Sun. Iranians used this symbol in their flag for at least the last 2500 years. The period of 17th to 24th of December was the duration of this feast. The 21st of December, which is the solstice of winter, is still celebrated in Iran. It is called “Yalda” and it represents the victory of light over darkness, which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. Mithraism was brought to Europe by Greek soldiers after the defeat of the Persians by Alexander and by the forth century AD it was the predominant religion of Europe. The worship of Mithra spread throughout Asia to Europe where he was called Deus Sol Invictus Mithras. Romans adopted this festivity to celebrate the god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god during the winter solstice. The festival was characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and the priests of Saturn called dendrophori, carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession.
Source - http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina21224.htm
.Source - http://www.truthbeknown.com/mithra.htm
Interesting that he is depicted to be riding a chariot pulled by horses... not too far from a sleigh pulled by reindeer is it?
Saturnalia
Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn, held on the 17th of December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to the 23rd of December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves. The poet Catullus called it "the best of days"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
Saturn is almost always depicted as an old man with white hair and a sickle in one hand (ties in with the reaper) and a child in the other. In Greek mythology he is also depicted as eating his own son...
Saturn, Jupiter's father, devours one of his sons
Source - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Rubens_saturn.jpg/284px-Rubens_saturn.jpg
Source - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Pietro_Bonato_-_Saturno.jpg
Interestingly the chariot that Saturn (an old man) rides is pulled by two serpent like creatures with wings... remarkably similar to an old man in a sleigh being pulled by reindeer.
Jul and Yultide
Yule or Yuletide, "Yule time" is a religious festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in the now better known Christmastide...
Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule...
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule
So Wikipedia seems to know something that Christians don't seem to?
The Heimskringla tells of Swedish King Aun who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from killing his last son Egil. According to Adam of Bremen, the Swedish kings sacrificed males every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the Temple at Uppsala. The Swedes had the right not only to elect kings but also to depose them, and both king Domalde and king Olof Trätälja are said to have been sacrificed after years of famine.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_religion
In addition to the Yule log, the Christian church adopted the entire tradition of Yule into its own observance 1,600 years ago called the Mass of Christ which also included the Yule ham, the Yule Wassailing (caroling) and other symbols. The Yule tree, or modern day Christmas tree, derives from a ritual to Thor in which humans, especially children, were sacrificed before the mighty tree of Thor. A Christian missionary by the name of Saint Boniface came upon a human sacrifice in front of the tree and in a righteous fervor promptly chopped it down. A small triangular fir tree which grew from its trunk was hailed as a symbol of the Trinity and was promptly adopted by Christianity into the Christmas tradition where it once again became a tree symbolizing god and was merged with the Yule log tradition by adding candles.
Source - http://www.examiner.com/article/the-occult-your-living-room-christmas-yule-and-the-winter-solstice-1
Father time and The Grim Reaper
Father Time is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device (which represents time's constant one-way movement, and more generally and abstractly, entropy). This image derives from several sources, including the Grim Reaper and Cronus, the Greek Titan of human time, reaping and calendars, or The Lord of Time.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Time
Source - https://1888.org/images/2012/02/16/7807/father-time-2.jpg
Father time is depicted in the same way as Saturn, with a sickle and with children. In the image above the years that are gone are shown as old people who are redundant and the years that are coming in are shown as younger and younger children. Interestingly Santa also interacts only with young children.
Christmas
Mistletoe
The Norse used mistletoe as a symbol of fertility, which marked the beginning of its use as a symbol of romance.
Source - http://www.examiner.com/article/the-occult-your-living-room-christmas-yule-and-the-winter-solstice-1
Mistletoe was also believed to render women helpless so that they may be taken advantage of. Hence the Christmas tradition of "no woman should resist giving a kiss if she is caught standing under the mistletoe"
Kissing under the Mistletoe originated with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. In England, kissing under the Mistletoe took place on Christmas, of course. The man must pick a berry when the kissing was complete, and once the berries were gone, there was no more kissing. The mistletoe must then be burned on the twelfth night to ensure that those who kissed under it would marry. Throughout the Middle Ages, mistletoe was banned by the church because of its association with fertility and all of the fun debauchery that goes with it. As a substitute, holly was suggested. Even as late as the 20th century some churches did not allow people to wear mistletoe to services. Mistletoe retained its lusty reputation, however. During the Victorian era, public displays of affection were largely frowned upon, but if you were standing under the mistletoe, you were going to get kissed. Mistletoe is considered to be a plant of male energy.
Source - http://www.witchipedia.com/herb:mistletoe
The Christmas tree and Jeremiah 10
Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. (Jeremiah 10:2-5)
While many a Christian will say that this passage is talking about idols made out of wood, the similarities between the customs mentioned by this passage and the ones of the Christmas tree are undeniable.
Should we really be decking the halls with boughs of holly?
Who is Santa? Who is Knecht ruprecht?
In the 4th century Nikolaus of Myra, Bishop of Myra was attributed as being a miracle worker and humanitarian. An early legend stated that Nikolaos, in an effort to prevent young girls from being forced into prostitution, threw three sacks of gold through the window of their father while other legends stated that he dropped them down the chimney. He was also rumored to secretly leave gold coins in the shoes of the poor and was later made a Christian Saint. Christian religion seems to have used Saint Nikolaus to translate the festivals and traditions of the Norse god Odin into its melting pot, as St. Nicholas over time was depicted as Odin and given his attributes as a large being with a great white beard who, like Thor, was drawn through the sky in a magical chariot. The Dutch translated his name as SinterKlaus which was anglicized into Santa Claus.
Source - http://www.examiner.com/article/the-occult-your-living-room-christmas-yule-and-the-winter-solstice-1
Many have pointed out that the word Santa seems to be an anagram for Satan. Santa seems to know everything about the works of the children and rewards them based on their works thereby indoctrinating them early with the false doctrine of karma based salvation. He flies magically in the sky all across the world in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Incidentally is not Satan described as the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2. He creeps down chimneys in the middle of the night and steals your child's heart (in admiration, awe and worship). He has elves as his helpers. Elves are actually supernatural beings from Germanic folklore.
Many people have suggested a link between the Norse god Odin and Santa. The similarities are striking, an old man with a white beard riding a chariot. Odin is supposedly the god of ecstasy, drinking and death and surprisingly these are the three activities of the festival of Saturnalia.
Knecht Ruprecht - Knecht Ruprecht is a demonic character and by tradition he comes visiting homes along with Santa.
Knecht Ruprecht sometimes carries a long staff and a bag of ashes, and wears little bells on his clothes. Sometimes he rides on a white horse, and sometimes he is accompanied by fairies or men with blackened faces dressed as old women.According to tradition, Knecht Ruprecht asks children whether they can pray. If they can, they receive apples, nuts, and gingerbread. If they cannot, he beats the children with his bag of ashes.In other (presumably more modern) versions of the story, Knecht Ruprecht gives naughty children useless, ugly gifts such as lumps of coal, sticks, and stones, while well-behaving children receive sweets from Saint Nicholas. He also can be known to give naughty children a switch (stick) in their shoes for their parents to beat them with, instead of candy, fruit and nuts, in the German tradition.Ruprecht was a common name for the Devil in Germany
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knecht_Ruprecht
Source - http://a.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2013/11/3021861-inline-i-3-bad-ass-santa-krampus.jpg
Baubles, candles and decorations...
For many to understand the tradition of hanging baubles on the Christmas tree we have to go way back to Babylonian times. Most of the false worship and demonic worship started in Babylon with Nimrod, Semiramis and their son Tammuz. This worship was taken up by almost all the world's greatest civilizations. In the bible the worship of Moloch/Baal is mentioned where God forbids any to sacrifice their children in the fire to these false and demonic gods. Moloch is always depicted as a ox headed creature with a fire burning in front of him into which the children would be thrown as a sacrifice. Very similar to the molten calf that Israel made in the wilderness. The priests of Baal would eat the flesh of the burned children and hence the word Hanni-baal which means priest of baal. This is also the root for cannibal. Also remember what the movie was which had Anthony Hopkins playing a cannibalistic doctor... Hannibal! Some sources say that the heads of the infants were hung as ornaments on a tree and the fat of the children were made into candles as an offering to the false and perverted gods that they worshiped.
Source - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Moloch_the_god.gif
Source - https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEam78YlxJm8h7mtHhgXyRKwQl3AohV5CITQrhYjzq6m-TOcBLARjsStKo_xoUYcMZ2j11lZ2wJ2IVXrpVrTo37M8cslPVpSUTagCkGEbEuJE7dIW2C7RLB2MedWA2ZdK8Q2FH-hy2pzs/s1600/Baal+Molech+child+sacrifice.jpg
The Christmas star
The tradition of hanging a Christmas star is common in India. Sometime this may be a pentagram (five pointed) or a hexagram (six pointed) shaped star. Both of these shapes have been proved time and again to be symbols of the occult. The pentagram is a clear symbol of the false god Baphomet
Source - http://wicca.cnbeyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Baphomet-pentagram.jpg
As for a picture of baphomet I would be deeply disgusted to post it here. The Hexagram to cut a long story short has the same occult roots. Read for yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagram
In light of all this information and this rather long winded history lesson should Christians be celebrating Christmas? Which brings us to the second group of people...
We focus on the birth of Jesus during Christmas and not the pagan rituals...
The birth of Jesus
As you all must know it has been debated by scholars for many years about the exact season and year of the birth of our Lord and Savior. By examining the scriptures (John the Baptist's birth, Elizabeth's time of pregnancy etc.) many come to the conclusion that the birth of Jesus was in the month of April while some come to a date in September. It is also common knowledge that the Jewish shepherds would not be out tending to the sheep at night in December. Hence the question that needs to be asked is who suggested the date of December 25th and what was the method used to arrive at this date? It cannot be pinned down to one person and all the evidence seems to point to the Catholic church converting Saturnalia's date to Jesus' birthday.
Did Jesus command it?
Did the Lord command us to keep his birthday? The only thing that he asks us to do in remembrance is to partake of the breaking of the bread and wine to show forth His death. But surely there is nothing wrong in remembering His birth on a day is there? Well then in that case why don't we also assign days to remember His works, His journey across Israel etc.? Most of the time we are not able to take part in the communion which is a witness that we must give the non believer, but we dare not miss to keep His birthday which He did not command! Shouldn't we then be more zealous to give witness of Jesus in other ways as well?
The errors of the conventional nativity scene...
The nativity scene shows the manger with the newborn Jesus in the center surrounded by His earthly mother and father, the shepherds, three wise men of different ethnicity bearing three gifts (frank incense, gold and myrrh) and a few farm animals. But are these accurate?
Jesus was not newly born when the wise men visited Him, he was somewhere closer to two years old. That's why Herod ordered the deaths of all males two years and under. Otherwise he would have ordered it to be six months and under. Nowhere does it say that there were only three wise men, the word simply says that wise men (any number more than one) came from the east. Nowhere does it say that they were from India or China etc. In fact it is quite possible that these were the descendants of the descendants of the magi of which the prophet Daniel was head (being known as rab mag). Since Daniel was given the timeline of the Messiah's arrival on the earth and His departure etc. it is more likely that he trained these wise men to look for the sign of the star. BTW that's a whole new topic... The conventional three wise men could have been a whole caravan procession of people for all we know. The shepherds were the only persons that came to see the newly born Jesus. Joseph and Mary were probably in a manger only for a couple of days as rooms were not available. At the time the wise men visited Jesus was closer to two years of age and obviously they wouldn't have been in a manger for so long.
And no matter how much a person says that they focus only on Jesus the Church that they go to will either have a person dress up as Santa or have carol singing or have a Christmas tree, a wreath or something from the pagan traditions. So can a person truly say that they focused only on Jesus and didn't partake of any of the pagan stuff. After all the bible says, "And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1:23)" If we are supposed to hate even the garment that is spotted then what about all these traditions?
Well then, what about Romans chapter 14?
So many people take refuge in Romans chapter 14... "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. (Romans 14:5)" First and foremost Romans 14 was written to address disputes between Jewish and Non Jewish converts as regards clean and unclean foods and which holy days to keep. The Jewish converts would religiously defend the keeping of the new moons and sabbaths while the gentile converts would state that they could eat anything. If one reads the entire chapter how does the matter end? You'll be surprised at how it does... Here it is, "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. (Romans 14:21)" Is the conclusion that the fellow who wanted to eat anything should continue to do so in the liberty given to him inside the Lord and thereby become a stumbling block to his brother? Paul says, "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. (1 Corinthians 8:13)" If such should be the attitude of a Christian in matters of food then what about in matters of pagan traditions?
Does it glorify Christ?
An honest question that we need to definitely answer, each man to himself... Does Christmas and all that we see of the celebrations glorify Christ? Can you honestly say that partying, Santa, shopping, Christmas trees and decorations, gifts given to children etc. glorify Christ?
Man those apostles and 1st century disciples missed out on this
Why is it that this festival started only approximately three centuries after the ascension of Jesus? Those apostles and disciples must have been to busy being chopped into bits, burned at stakes, eaten by wild animals, boiled in oil, humiliated and whipped to take part in the awesome Christmas party... how they missed out! Why weren't the apostles of the Lord who were led by the Holy Spirit of God and did many great miracles not knowledgeable about Christmas, the greatest festival of the Christians?
Don't you think you are being a little too judgmental? The Lord's word says we shouldn't judge...
You find a lot of us doing this... they use Matthew 7 as a shield against all judging. Firstly does Matthew 7 say Judge not. No it says Judge not that ye be not judged. "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (Matthew 7:2)" What else does it say? "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matthew 7:5)" It says that if your brother is doing a mistake you need to tell him. But if you are doing the mistake as well you first correct yourself and then you better go tell your brother not to do it. It does not say, "Don't judge!"
Aand in another place the word says "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6:1-3)"
To me it seems to be saying that we must judge but we must take care to judge righteously...
Hence let us judge righteously as regarding Christmas and whether it truly glorifies Jesus...
As Christians we are supposed to be set apart from the world. If we by some chance find ourselves amongst a huge crowd and everyone in the world (doctrines and philosophies in particular) are reconciled to us we need to stop and consider whether this might be the broad road mentioned in Matthew 7:13… Even worldly people agree with Christians on Christmas being a wonderful season… should not this make our ears go up in alertness?
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)
Is Christmas not a tree that can be known by its fruits and its roots?
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