Does Christmas really celebrate the birthday of Jesus? Was He born on December 25th? Did Paul, the apostles, and the early Church of the New Testament celebrate Christmas? Do you know what the Bible says about the Christmas tree?
Very few know why we do the things we do, or where the customs of the world came from. We grew up practicing them, taking them for granted, but never questioning why! We have accepted Christmas to be the chief of the Christian holidays. Without asking questions, we have blindly assumed its observance must be one of the principal teachings and commands of the New Testament. We have accepted that Jesus was born on December 25th, and that the New Testament set this day aside as the chief Christian festival. We have assumed people exchange gifts because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child.
But, let’s quit assuming, and look into history and the Bible for the facts!
The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ” or, as it later became shortened, “Christ-Mass.” It came to us as a Roman Catholic mass. And where did they get it? From the heathen celebration of December 25th, as the birthday of Sol the Sun God! It is, actually, an ancient rite of Baalism, which the Bible condemns as the most abominable of all idolatrous worship—Ezekiel 8.
It is not as much mentioned anywhere in the New Testament. It was never observed by Paul, the apostles, the early true Christian Church!The Apostle Paul warned of many fables that would deceive the world in these latter days. (II Tim. 4:4) A fable can be simply defined as a Christian teaching that has no scriptural evidence to back up the claim.
The plain truth is Christmas is not Christ’s birthday at all! And this festival, important as it seems to so many, is not of Christian, but of pagan—Babylonish—origin! But does that make any difference? Isn’t it all right to go ahead and observe it anyway? Isn’t the “Christmas Spirit” a good and splendid thing, regardless of how it got started? We shall see!
Now let’s look to the interesting proof! When was Jesus born? Jesus was not even born in the winter season! When the Christ-child was born “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by nigh” (Luke 2:8). This never could have occurred in Palestine in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October 15, to protect them from the cold, rainy season that followed that date. Notice that the Bible itself proves in Song of Solomon 2:11, and Ezra 10:9, and 13, that winter was a rainy season not permitting shepherds to abide in open fields at night.
It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain, says the Adam Clarke Commentary, Vol. 5, page 386 (and 370).
Continuing, this authority states: “during the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As . . . the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November [begins mid-October], we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer. And, as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact.
Any encyclopedia, or any other authority, will tell you that Christ was not born on December 25. The Catholic Encyclopedia frankly states this fact.
The exact date of Jesus’ birth is entirely unknown, as all authorities acknowledge— though if I had space in this page I could show you Scriptures which at least strongly indicate that it was in the early fall—probably September—approximately six months after Passover.
If God had wished us to observe and celebrate Christ’s birthday, would He not have revealed the exact date in scripture?
There is not one word in the New Testament, or anywhere in the Bible, telling us to observe Christmas. The Christians of the first century, under the inspired teachings of Peter and Paul and the other apostles, never observed it. There is no bible authority for its observance, strange as it may seem.
Then where did we get “Christmas”? Since it has come to us through the Roman Catholic Church, and has no authority but that of the Roman Catholic Church, let us examine the Catholic Encyclopedia, published by that Church. Under the caption “Christmas,” you will find: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church . . . (in Lev. Hom. viii in Migne, P.G., XII, 495) The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt. . . . Pagan customs centering around the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” And, further, we find this truth acknowledged: “ . . . in the Scripture, sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthday. (VII, 32 in P.L., V, 1264)
As the Encyclopedia stated and even some well-known famous historians such as Flavius Josephus have all agreed that the celebration of birthdays in no way was a customary of the people of God but rather it was a pagan rite celebrated first by Nimrod in the Old Testament.
Encyclopedia Britannica has this: “Christmas (i.e., the Mass of Christ). Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church . . . .” It was not instituted by Christ or the apostles, or by Bible authority—it was picked up afterward from paganism.
So how did this festival creep into the Church?
Remember, the Roman world had been PAGAN. Prior to the fourth century, Christians were few in number, though increasing, and were persecuted by the government and by pagans. But, with the advent of Constantine as emperor, who made his profession of Christianity, in the fourth century, placing Christianity on an equal footing with paganism, people of the Roman world began to accept this now popular Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.
But remember, these people had grown up in Pagan customs, chief of which was this idolatrous festival of December 25th. It was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit. They enjoyed it! They didn’t want to give it up! Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia explains how the recognition by Constantine, of Sunday, which had been the day of pagan sun-worship, and how the influence of the pagan Manichaeism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, gave these pagans of the fourth century, now turning over wholesale to “Christianity,” their excuse for calling their pagan-festival date of December 25th (birthday of the sun god), the birthday of the Son of God.
And that is how “Christmas” got into our so-called Christianity! We may call it by another name, but it’s the same old pagan sun-worshipping festival still! The only change is in what we call it! You can call a rabbit a “lion,” but it’s a rabbit, just the same.
But if we got Christmas from the Roman Catholics, and they got it from paganism, where did the pagans get it? Where, when, and what was its real origin?
It is a chief custom of the corrupt system denounced all through Bible prophecies and teachings under the name of Babylon. And it started and originated in the original Babylon of ancient Nimrod! Yes, it stems from roots whose beginning was shortly this side of the Flood!
Nimrod, grandson of Ham, son of Noah, was the real founder of the Babylonish system that has gripped the world ever since—the system of organized competition—of man-ruled governments and empires, based upon the competitive and profit-making economic system. Nimrod built the tower of Babel, the original Babylon, ancient Nineveh, and many other cities. He organized this world’s first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew, is derived from “Marad,” meaning “he rebelled.” (Gen. 10:6, 8-12)
From many ancient writings, considerable is learned of this man, who started the great organized worldly apostasy from God that has dominated this world until now. Nimrod was so evil, it is said he married his own mother, whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrod’s untimely death, his so-called mother-wife, Semiramis, propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th, was the birthday of Nimrod. This is the real origin of the Christmas tree.
Through her scheming and designing, Semiramis became the Babylonian “Queen of Heaven,” and Nimrod, under various names, became the “divine son of heaven.” Through the generations, in this idolatrous worship, Nimrod also became the false Messiah, son of Baal the Sun-god. In this false Babylonish system, the “Mother and Child,” (Semiramis and Nimrod reborn); became chief objects of worship. This worship of “Mother and Child” spread over the world. The names varied in different countries and languages. In Egypt it was Iris and Osiris. In Asia, Cybele and Deoius. In pagan Rome, Fortuna and Jupiterpuer. Even in Greece, China, Japan, and Tibet, the counterpart of the Madonna is to be found, long before the birth of Christ!
Thus, during the fourth and fifth centuries, when the pagans of the Roman world were “accepting” the new popular “Christianity” by the hundreds of thousands, carrying their old pagan customs and beliefs along with them, merely cloaking them with Christian-sounding names, the Madonna and “Mother and Child” idea also became popularized, especially at Christmas time. Every Christmas season you’ll hear sung and chanted dozens of times the hymn “Silent Night, Holy Night,” with its familiar “Mother and Child” theme. We, who have been born in such a Babylonish world, reared and steeped in these things all our lives, have been taught to revere these things as holy, and sacred. We never questioned to see where they came from—whether they came from the bible, or from pagan idolatry!
We are shocked to learn the truth—some, unfortunately, take offense at the plain truth! But God commands His faithful ministers, “cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions!” Isaiah 58:1. Shocking as these facts are, they are the plain facts of history and the Bible!
Christmas has become a commercial season. You see a masqueraded “Santa Claus” in many stores. Ads keep us deluded and deceived about the “beautiful Christmas spirit.” The newspapers, who sell the ads, print flowery editorials exalting and eulogizing the pagan season, and its “spirit.” Gullible people have become so inoculated; many take offense when told the truth! But the “Christmas spirit” is created each year, not to honor Christ, but to sell merchandise! Like all Satan’s delusions, it appears as an “angel of light,” is made to appear good. Billions of dollars are spent in this merchandising spree every year, while the cause of Christ must suffer! It’s part of the economic system of Babylon!
We are God’s people Israel! Yes, we’re in Babylon, as Bible prophecy foretold, and we don’t know it! Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”—now soon to fall— is the warning of Rev. 18:4.
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