The sabotage of Jesus' birth

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:1-6

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six to seven months after Passover, or around Rosh Hashanah (the Hebrew New Year). One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun.

Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under themistletoe began as a fertility ritual.

Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”

"They did not destroy the peoples as the LORD had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs."

Psalms 106:34-35

I bring this verse from Psalms to make a point. Our ancestors thought it would be okay to MINGLE with the other cultures because they didn't see the harm in it or saw things that they wanted to include. God wanted no part of that. In fact, many times over, He warned His people and commanded them to not mix any other gods with Him. He wouldn't have it!

I know this may make some people mad but I can't sit back and let us celebrate the birth of Christ in the way it's been done for so long. God has been profoundly speaking me to about these things and as famous men in the past have upset the apple cart.... well... I may be doing that as well.

In no way am I saying that his birth is of no consequence and that we shouldn't be celebrating it. But what I am saying is that we need to get our heads, our hearts, our spirits, our lives back in the Hebraic swing of things - the way God intended us to. We can't accept what the world has fed us for so long. We can't just go with the flow and think it's okay. We need to know what we believe and know our history. We need to know why we do what we do. To think that adding little things that WE deem as innocent may not be what GOD deems as innocent. We have no right to say what is good and what is bad. Rather test it by scripture!

To be holy is to be separate. We must separate ourselves from the world! Many of our Christmas traditions come from the world's influence! I'm asking and begging my fellow believers to pray about this and test the Word of God on this! I'm not trying to judge or tell people what to do. This is a matter I leave totally up to you and our King.

I know what it's like to get caught up in family tradition and having such warm fuzzy feelings about time spent with family which there is nothing wrong with that! But lets reconsider what we think we know and believe and realize what we are doing. Let's do our history and truly know what we believe.

I believe we can still celebrate good family time. I believe we should celebrate Jesus' birth when it DID happen. I believe we can still have be just as generous, giving, and have a good spirit towards people. But I see the family of God allowing itself to be manipulated and mixed with a world that will drag it to death with things it shouldn't be associated with. Don't go based on feelings! Feelings are deceiving! The heart is deceitful among all things and we have no way of understanding it! Just because we get emotionally attached to something doesn't mean it's okay to continue or keep in our lives.

Let the Word of God be our guide. Let Him tell you what is Truth. Paul said in Colossians that we shouldn't let anyone JUDGE us when we DO celebrate, eat, and recognize things like the Sabbath and other holy days that God has set aside for us. He didn't say we didn't have to do them anymore, He was merely addressing the fact that we will have religious people think they know better than us and try to deem us as unholy. We should not let them do that to us.

And if you read all of what Christ says, He NEVER says to stop doing what God commanded us to do in the Torah and Old Testament. There are references that He says things like, "do this in remembrance of me." NOT "you no longer have to do this or remember this because of me". 

When addressing the "doing away with the Law" one must be careful for it's not the entire Law that Paul speaks of. The law that Jesus overturned was the"wages of sin is death" THAT is what he did away with! Granted there are many laws in the Old Testament that don't apply right now because there is no present temple and other technical things of that sort. But when one truly searches the scriptures, there are profound truths that we are overlooking and we should very much pay attention to.

Now that I've opened up this can of worms... I want to emphasize again. This is not an attack on faith. This is not an attack on you personally, any of you. This is an attack on the mediocrity, the laziness, the going with the flow, the misconception we have allowed ourselves to just keep strolling with. I challenge all of you to search. Search deep. Go farther than you can even fathom in your journey of faith!

Don't just agree with what pastors, preachers, or idiots like myself say. Do the homework! There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth! The truth is never biased. Learn the truth and you will not be biased but wise.

I challenge you.