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Origin
of Christmas - The Tradition
For today's Believer, Messianic or Christian,
Christmas has taken on a traditional meaning, the birth of Jesus Christ as
recorded in the Bible. However, most of what we witness on December 25th
each year has absolutely nothing to do with that blessed day (probably in
late summer or early fall at the feast of Sukkot).
In
fact, most of the customs and traditions of Christmas actually pre-date
the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), and many of them are deceptive in their
meaning and origin.
The
Early Church
Christmas
was not celebrated, commemorated, or observed, neither by the apostles nor
in the early church. It was sufficient for the early Messianic believers
that Yeshua, their Lord and Savior, had come in the flesh, the day and the
time of His birth had no relevance to them, because Yeshua had returned to
heaven. It was the risen, exalted Messiah (Christ) whom they looked
to, not to a babe laid in a manger. Yeshua Ha'Mashiach (Jesus the Christ)
is no longer the "Christ-child," but the exalted Lord of all.
Hislop,
in The Two Babylons, noted the rejection of pagan
traditions in the early church:
"...within the Christian Church no such
festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century,
and...not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much
observance. How, then, did the Romish Church fix on December 25th as
Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long
before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the
heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the
son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed
that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of
nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the
Roman Church, giving it the name of Christ." The Two
Babylons, p 93
Vine, in The Collected
Writings of W.E. Vine, noted:
"Christianization" of
Pagan Customs, Symbols, and Terminology — Christianity had to undergo
a transformation so that pagan Rome could "convert" without
giving up its old beliefs and rituals. The actual effect was to paganize
official Christianity. "'A compound religion had been manufactured,
of which ... Christianity furnished the nomenclature, and Paganism the
doctrines and rights.' The idolatry of the Roman world, though deposed
from its ancient pre-eminence, had by no means been demolished. Instead
of this, its pagan nakedness had been covered with the garb of a
deformed Christianity" Volume
5. Glasgow, Scotland, 1986, pp.436-439
Where did Christmas
Come from?
According to a Roman almanac, the
Christian festival of Christmas was celebrated in Rome by AD 336. In the
eastern part of the Roman Empire, however, a festival on January 6
commemorated the manifestation of God in both the birth and the baptism of
Jesus, except in Jerusalem, where only the birth was celebrated. During
the 4th century the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was
gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to
Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted. In the Armenian
Church, a Christmas on December 25 was never accepted; Christ's birth is
celebrated on January 6. After Christmas was established in the East, the
baptism of Jesus was celebrated on Epiphany, January 6. In the West,
however, Epiphany was the day on which the visit of the Magi to the infant
Jesus was celebrated. Encyclopedia Britannica
In pagan Rome, 300 years after
the resurrection of our Lord, there was a yearly feast celebrating the
Roman god Saturn. This time of celebration was always situated around the
December 17th - 23rd time frame, which was also called the Winter
Solstice.
The pagan year is a period of days, months and
times that revolve around the seasonal changes of the earth (winter,
spring, summer and autumn). The Winter Solstice is a day or period of
days in the winter when the days are shortest (light) and the nights
longest (darkness prevails). This is usually a time in their festivities
of drunkenness, revelry and debauchery (perversion).
The Pagan Romans called this celebration "The
Feast of Saturnalia," in honor of their god Saturn. Notice how
close the name and sound of SATAN and SATURN are. This festival was
celebrated the from the 17th to the 23rd of December. It was a time of
merrymaking, and on the last two days exchanging "gifts" from
house to house in honor of Saturn.
"Saturnalia"—was the name of an
ancient Roman festival given in honor of Saturn, the Roman harvest god.
The festival began on Dec.17th and lasted for seven days. On the first
day, public religious ceremonies honoring Saturn took place. On the
second day, many families offered sacrifices of young pigs. The
Saturnalia festival was a gay occasion. Schools closed and all public
business stopped. Courts of law closed their doors, and no criminals
could be punished. Families held their banquets and even slaves were
free to attend the festival. The last days of the festival were spent
visiting and exchanging presents. Some of the gifts were little clay
images called "sigillaria", which means small images (idols) World
Book Encyclopedia
Then on the 25th of December, they began the new
Celebration of "The birthday of the unconquerable Sun" (Natalis
Solis Invicti). The ancient pagans believed that the sun would die during
the winter solstice and then rise again from death as the
solstice ended and the days of light began to lengthen, with the sun
climbing higher in the sky, regaining its dominance. December 25 was also
regarded as the birth date of the Persian/Iranian mystery god Mithras, the
Sun of Righteousness, the god of light, the Grand Deliverer. The Sun God
Mithras was a popular deity in the Old Roman Empire, whose cult penetrated
the Roman world in the first century B.C.
"This festival has been commonly believed
to have had only an astronomical character, referring simply to the
completion of the sun’s yearly course, and the commencement of a new
cycle. But there is indubitable evidence that the festival in question
had a much higher influence than this--that it commemorated not merely
the figurative birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but the
birth-day of the grand Deliverer...the Sun-God and great mediatorial
divinity." Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons or The
Papal Worship, Loizeaux Brothers, 1916, pp. 94, 97
Mithra was known as Horus in Egypt, Tammuz in
Babylon and various appellations in other ancient mythologies:
"In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian
title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, ‘about the
time of the winter solstice.’ The very name by which Christmas is
popularly known among ourselves - Yule day - proves at once its Pagan
and Babylonian origin. ‘Yule’ is the Chaldee name for an
‘infant’ or ‘little child’ and as the 25th of December was
called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, ‘Yule-day,’ or the
‘Child’s day,’ and the night which preceded it,
‘Mother-night,’ long before they came into contact with
Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide
in the realms of paganism was this birth-day observed." The
Two Babylons, pp. 93, 94
"Mother night", which today is
called, "Christmas Eve", has nothing to do with Mary, the
mother of our Lord, it was observed centuries before Jesus was born.
Semiramis (Nimrod's wife) was the inspiration for "Mother
night," and "Child's day" was the birthday of her son (Tammuz),
the sun-god.
Obviously Satan knew that Jesus would leave
heaven and be born of a virgin to become the Saviour, and mediator between
God and man, so he created a counterfeit Virgin and child, to confuse the
people and take away their worship from God. The counterfeit Virgin was a
beautiful witch named Semiramis.
Constantine used religion as a political tool,
and started to introduce the Babylonian mystery religions in 313 A.D.
which then established a foothold with the holding of the Council of
Nicaea in 325 A.D.
In 375 A.D., the Church of Rome under Pope Julius
I merely announced that the birth date of Christ had been
"discovered" to be December 25th, and was accepted as such by
the "faithful." The festival of Saturnalia and the birthday of
Mithras could now be celebrated as the birthday of Christ, even though the
early church fathers, including Origen, stated for the record that it was
blasphemous to celebrate this festival. Following the lead of Rome, the
Church at Jerusalem commenced the celebration of Christmas, around 440
A.D.
As Messianic
believers we should seek G-d's
will in all we do. Adonai commanded that we abstain from idols, this
includes practicing pagan traditions and calling them "Christian".
Both Christmas
and Easter are pagan celebrations and are not the actual days they propose
to celebrate. We celebrate the actual days of the birth (Sukkot) and
resurrection of Yeshua (First Fruits), which were already G-d ordained
Feasts of Israel. |
