Christmas
Merry Christmas! It is a festive season. Little children filled with anticipation and excitement. Family is busy putting up decorations. Boughs of holly and evergreen are assembled and placed about the house. Trees are chosen and decorated with sparkling trinkets and ornaments.
It is a season of giving and receiving presents, of sending greetings, and a time to sing songs. Parades with special floats, sumptuous meals and merrymaking add to the festivity. Houses are being decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. Yule logs and Yule cakes and fir trees, gifts and greeting all commemorate different aspects of this festive season and good fellowship.
Then there is Santa Claus which is an important part of Christmas celebrations in most part of the world, bringing gifts to all good boys and girls. The description may vary widely, but most often it is that of an elderly man known by old Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus. Santa Claus has become the most widely recognizable name of all people, even more popular than Jesus Christ. There is no Biblical connection whatsoever between Santa Claus and any other of the mythical Christian-season gift- bringer and the birth of Christ. The tradition is of human origin.
The early church did not celebrate Christmas, and the New Testament scriptures are silent about any such celebration. If celebrating Christmas did not come to us by the Divine authority of Christ, or His Apostles where did it originate and by what authority?
Israel was warned in no uncertain words, “Learn not the way of the heathen” (Jeremiah 10:2). The Samaritans in their early history mixed Heathen Worship with the Worship of Jehovah, but Jehovah did not accept their services. History tells us that December 25 was celebrated long before the birth of Christ as the birth of “The Unconquered Sun,” and many of their heathen customs are practiced in the supposed Christian Celebration of the Birth of Christ today. December 25 was not the birthday of Jesus Christ. This is a fact known to many Bible students. It was a Heathen Festival adopted, whitewashed and handed down to us, as the festival in honor of the Birth of Christ by an Apostate Church, (Catholic). I want to call your attention to the fact that the New Testament Scriptures solemnly warns us of a great apostasy, and that heathen customs would be taught in the so-called Christian Church (2 Thessalonians 2:2-12). That apostasy or falling away was already working in Paul’s time and historians tell us that a great apostasy from the original doctrines and practices of the early Church began soon after the death of the Apostles, and many false Christians entered the Church and brought in heathen doctrines during the second and third centuries as well as later. This great apostasy led to the establishing of a great Church organization that claimed Divine authority to make laws and to establish Holy Days; Festivals for God’s people. The prophet Daniel foretold the rise of such a power or Church system (Daniel 7:25-26). Jesus also warned that such was coming in Revelation chapter 17 and 18. That corrupt Church is illustrated as a corrupt woman. This happened in the days of the Roman Empire. This apostate Church claimed to be the true Church. She became the State Church of Rome and even created a great “Ecclesiastical Monarchy” that history calls the “Holy Roman Empire.” This Church claimed Divine authority and enforced her decrees by the point of the sword for centuries. Heathen customs were adopted, added to or substituted for the simple Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christmas and Easter both are of heathen origin, with many of the usages in our “Christian” celebrations coming directly from customs of the heathen who honored their Heathen Gods and Goddesses in the winter and spring festivals.
“At the Winter Solstice the Germans held their great Yule Feast in commemoration of the return of the Fiery Sun Wheel.” Many of the beliefs and usages of the Romans relating to this matter passed over from Heathenism to Christianity and have survived to the present day. The Apostate Church of Rome is the one who whitewashed the old heathen festival; the Winter Solstice, and handed it down to the people, as the festival honoring the birth of Christ. Thus, people are yearly celebrating this Heathen Festival, thinking they are honoring our Lord and Savor Jesus Christ!
The festivals of Rome are innumerable; Easter and Christmas were among the most important ones. These can be proved to be Babylonian, first, as to the festival in honor of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. How was this festival connected with the 25th of December? There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when he was born. What is recorded there implies that at whatever time His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time the Angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem they were feeding their flocks by night in the open field (Luke 2:8). Now, no doubt, the climate of Palestine is not so severe as the climate of this country; but even there, though the heat of the day be considerable, the cold of the night, from December to February is very piercing, and it was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open field later than about the end of October. Is it in the last degree incredible that the birth of Christ could have taken place at the end of December?
At the birth of Christ, every woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city in which they belong; some had a long journey (Luke 2:3-4), but the middle of the winter was not fitting for such a business especially for women, children and a woman with child to travel in. Therefore, Christ could not be born in the depth of winter. If any shall think the winter wind was not so extreme in these parts, let him remember the words of Christ in the gospel, “pray that your flight be not in the winter” (Matthew 24:20). If the winter was so harsh that it was a bad time to flee in, it seems that it would be a bad time for the shepherds to be in the field, and women and children to travel in. Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord’s birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not until the fourth century did it gain much observance.
A number of assumptions regarding the story of the birth of Jesus are worth examining in light of what the Bible account may indicate. There is no proof, for example, that Jesus was born in midwinter. In fact, there are some reasons to think the opposite. Keep in mind that it did and does get cold during the winter in Judea. This comes as a surprise to many people. Even in April, in the early spring, when Jesus was crucified, certain “servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself” (John 18:18).
It was for the purpose of registering for a census, remember, that Joseph and Mary made the journey to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown. And they were not alone in this; “all went to be registered, everyone to his own city” (Luke 2:3). Virtually, the whole nation was in movement; roads were crowded, temporary lodging at a premium. The exact time of the nativity of Christ can never be known. The twenty-fifth day of December has little in its favor.
The day that commemorates the birth of the Christ Child in the manger of Bethlehem (Luke 2:11) is the special festival of children, yet grownups all over the world and even those for whom it has no religious significance join in the Christmas spirit of happiness and good will.
As a Christmas festival generally observed, Christmas dates only from the 4th century, although there are earlier references to the celebration of the feast in some places. The early Christmas worship was mainly in secret, but when Constantine became the protector of the Church many of the Pagan Festivals were taken over and changed to Christian Feasts. The Festival of Sol, the Unconquerable Sun, which the Romans celebrated late in December, was adopted by the Catholic Church as the greatest feast of the year, in honor of the birth of Christ. There has been a connection, too, with the Romans Saturnalia, celebrated riotously in mid-December.
The exact date of Christ’s birth is not known, and for a time various dates were chosen for this feast, but in the 4th century, December 25th was generally adopted. This coincided closely with an ancient festival celebrated by the Saxons, Britains, and Gauls, when the Sun returned from the south at the Winter Solstice. The name Christmas comes from Christ-Mass, the mass said in honor of His birth.
The Roman religious calendar reflected Rome’s hospitality to the cults and deities of conquered territories. Originally, Roman religious festivals were few in number. Some of the oldest survived to the very end of the pagan empire, preserving the memory of the fertility and appeasing rites of a primitive agricultural people.
However, new festivals were introduced to mark the naturalization of New Gods. So many festivals were adopted eventually that the workdays on the calendar were outnumbered. Among the more important Roman religious festivals was Saturnalia. Under the empire, Saturnalia, (Sun Worship), was celebrated for seven days, from Dec. 17 to Dec. 23, during the period in which the Winter Solstice occurred. During this period all businesses were suspended, slaves were given temporary freedom, and gift exchanging and merrymaking prevailed.
Even where the Sun was the favorite object of Worship, as in Babylon itself and elsewhere, at this festival, Baal was worshipped not merely as the spherical body of day, but as God incarnate. It was an essential principle of Babylonian system, that the Sun or Baal was the one and only god. When, therefore Tammuz was worshipped as god incarnate that implied also that he was an incarnation of the Sun.
It was no mere astronomical festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated during the Winter Solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there showed whence Christmas had been derived. The Pagans equally lit the candles on Christmas Eve and used them as long as the festive season lasted to do honor to the Babylonian gods. The Christmas tree, Yule Log and Mistletoe was derived from Babylon; also the Christmas wreath was a symbol of the Sun. This was precisely the way in which the drunken festival of the month of December was celebrated in Babylon, and many of the other observances are still being kept among ourselves at Christmas. We have vowed to burn incense to the Queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:16-25)
The birth of the Great Deliverer was to be miraculously widely known long before the Christian era. For centuries, some say, for thousands of years before that even the Buddhist priest had a prediction that a Virgin was to bring forth a Child to bless the world. This tradition came not from Popish or a Christian source, and is evident from the surprise felt and expressed by the Jesuit, (Catholic), missionaries, when they first entered Tibet and China. They not only found a mother and child worshipped at home, but that mother and child was worshipped under a character corresponding exactly with that of their own Madonna; the Virgin Mother of God, and that too in regions where they could not find the least trace of either the name or history of our Lord Jesus Christ having ever been known. The primeval promise that the “seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15) naturally suggested the idea of a miraculous birth. Priest craft and human presumption set themselves wickedly to anticipate the fulfillment of that promise, and the Babylonian queen seems to have been the first to whom that honor was given. The Aphrodite of Greece, and the Venus of Rome, was identical with Astarte, (Easter), and Astarte being interpreted is none other, “The woman that made towers or encompassing wall.” Semiramis, the Mother of Nimrod, the Roman Venus; as is well known, and the Venus of Cyprus is historically proven to have been derived from Babylon.
The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a Goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented as an infant or child in his mother’s arms. From Babylon this worship of the Mother and Child spread to the ends of the earth. This mother and child are devoutly worshipped in the Papal Rome itself; being represented with a child in her arms, and a glory around her, exactly as it was that a Roman Catholic artist had been employed to set her up.
The origin of that mother, so widely worshiped, there is to believe was Semiramis, already referred to, was worshipped by the Babylonians and other eastern nations and that under the name of Rhea, the great Goddess “Mother.” It was from the son, however, that she derived all her glory and her claims to deification. That son, though represented as a child in his mother’s arms, was a person of great stature and immense bodily power, as well as most fascinating manners. In the scripture he is referred to as Tammuz, (Nimrod), (Ezekiel 8:14). As Semiramis, the wife, was worshipped as Rhea, whose grand distinguishing character was that of the great goddess “mother,” the conjunction with her of her husband, under the name of Ninus, or “The Son,” was sufficient to originate the peculiar worship of the “Mother and Son,” that Ninus, (Nimrod), is sometime called the husband, and sometime the son of Semiramis.
Now, this Ninus, or “Son” borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, (Semiramis), is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. Being naturally of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from velour, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself to make war by his power to an extraordinary height by bringing the people of Babylon under subjection to him.
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth (Genesis 10:8-9) and Cush’s son or descendant was Ham’s grandson. Bel, also known as Cush, was the father of Nimrod, husband of Semiramis. Ninus was Nimrod. Cush begat Nimrod the founder of Babylon, and Cush is generally represented as having been a ringleader in the great apostasy. But again, Cush, as the son of Ham, was Hermes or Mercury; for Hermes is just an Egyptian synonym for “Son of Ham.” Cush, (Bel), the father of Nimrod died, Semiramis his wife married her son Ninus or Nimrod who inherited his father’s title, who was the first actual king of the Babylonian empire.
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 origin? It is a chief custom of the corrupt system denounced all through the Bible prophecies and taught under the name of Babylon. And it started and originated in the original Babylon of Ancient Nimrod! It stems from roots whose beginning was shortly this side of the flood!
Nimrod, grandson of Ham, was the real founder of the Babylon’s system that has gripped the world ever since, the system of organized competition of man ruled governments and empire 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 the world’s first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew is “Marad,” meaning “he rebelled.”
From many ancient writings, so much is learned of this man who started the great-organized worldly apostasy 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 mother-wife, Semiramis spread the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spiritual 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 she claimed of his birth 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. And upon this day December 25th the human race worships a pagan god: Nimrod.
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 became the false Messiah, son of Baal the Sun God. In this false Babylonish system, the Mother and Child, (Semiramis and Nimrod), became chief objects of worship. This worship of “Mother and Child” spread all over the world. The names varied in different countries and languages. Christmas; the ancient idolatrous “Chaldean Mysteries” founded by this Mother of Nimrod, have been handed down through the pagan religions and into the Catholic Church under new Christian sounding names, and from there into the Protestant denominations and to all of us today.
Now where did we get this mistletoe custom? Among the ancient pagans the mistletoe was used at this festival of the winter solstice because it was considered sacred to the Sun, because of its supposed miraculous healing power. The pagan custom of kissing under the mistletoe was an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery celebrating the death of the “Old Sun” and the Birth of the New at the Winter Solstice. Mistletoe was sacred in pagan festivals; holly berries were also considered sacred to the Sun God. The Yule log is in reality the “Sun Log.” “Yule” means “Wheel,” a pagan symbol of the Sun. Yet, today professing Christians speak of the “Sacred Yule-Tide Season!” Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan custom, encouraging the pale Sun God as he reached the lower place in the southern skies! The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log, etc., are relics of pre-Christmas times, “Paganism!”
There is a perfect description of the Christmas tree termed by the Eternal as “the way of the heathen, the custom of the people.” We are commanded not to learn that way or follow it! It is also viewed in this passage as idolatry (Jeremiah 10:1-6).
The name Sunday is derived from pagan sources, as well as dividing the calendar into seven-day weeks, the work of Babylonian astrologers. From then the plan went into Egypt, where the days were named for planets. By 250 A.D. this method of reckoning time had become well established throughout the civilized world.
After Christianity had been planted in northern Europe, then Rome substituted the names of their gods for Egyptian titles, so we have; Monandaeg, Monday the moon god, Tiwes-day, Tuesday after the mars god; Woden’s Day, Wednesday after the mercury god, Torsdag, Thursday after the thor god, Frigedag, Friday after the goddess frigg, and Saturni, Saturday the Saturn god. But the first day continued to be called Sun’s Day, largely because Emperor Constantine by royal decree in 321 A.D. made it Solstice, Day of the Sun. When Constantine became the protector of the Church, many of the pagan festivals were taken over and changed to Christian feasts. Thus, the festival of Sol, the Unconquerable Sun, which the Romans celebrated late in December was adopted by the Church as the greatest feast of the year in honor of the Birth of the Christ. There is also a connection with the Roman Saturnalia festival, celebrated riotously in mid-December.
The early Church was eager to replace Pagan Festivals with Christian ones. As Christianity spread, the feast of the Winter Solstice, the time when the day begins to increase the light to triumph over darkness, was easily turned into the feast of Christ, the Light of Life. At the Winter Solstice the Germans held their great Yule feast in commemoration of the return of the fiery Sun Wheel. Many of the beliefs and usages of the old Germans and of the Romans relating to this matter passed over from heathenism to Christianity and have partly survived to the present day, but the Church also sought to combat and banish the deep-rooted heathen feeling by adding for the purification of the heathen customs which it retained; grandly devised the dramatic representation of the Birth of Christ. This should be conclusive evidence that the Apostate, the Catholic Church of Rome is the one who whitewashed the old heathen festival and the Winter Solstice, with the Mother and Child, and handed it down to the people as the festival honoring the birth of Christ. This winter festival has been and is celebrated not only in the United States but also throughout the world.
Millions of professed Christians annually deliberately disobey the Lord’s command when they buy and decorate their so-called “Christmas Tree.” “Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the sign 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,” (Jeremiah 10:2-4).
Is it possible to determine the time of Jesus Birth? It is generally affirmed that Jesus died at the age of thirty-three and one-half years. Since He died on the first day of Passover, His date of birth would be six months from the date of His death. Figuring forward, or backward, from the Passover bringing us to the first day of the feast of Tabernacles! Passover occurred on the 14th day of the first month. Tabernacles fell on the 14th day of the seventh month, exactly six months apart. This being true, we can safely say that Jesus was born on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles. Thus, usually occurs during the month of October; a period of time when it is still warm enough for shepherds to be tending their flocks in the open fields at night, December is much too cold. We would not condemn anyone who might wish to so honor our Saviour provided they omit all the heathen garbage which is connected with it: decorated tree, mistletoe, Yule log, giving of presents, Santa Claus and reindeer, and the other paraphernalia which generally accompanies the Heathen Holiday.
An important part of Christmas celebrations in most cultures is the visit of a legendary gift-giver. The description of this personage may vary widely, but most often it is that of an elderly fat man dressed in a red suit giving out presents to children; widely known and who goes by the name of Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus has become the most widely recognizable name of this winter gift-bringer. There is no Biblical connection whatsoever between Santa Claus or any other of the mythical Christmas season gift-bringers, and the Birth of Jesus. These traditions are of human origin. On the so-called Jesus Birthday, Christmas, it seems that Santa is more popular than Jesus. If one stops to consider: doesn’t Santa stand in almost total opposition to the mission and teaching of the Son of Man? “It is better to give than to receive,” Jesus said. Christmas and Santa myth teaches children, “To receive is all.”
As we have pointed out the Apostles of the early Church never observed Christmas in the Bible. We have seen that it has roots in pre-Christian and non-Christian tradition. We might ask, “What difference does it make as long as we use such traditions to honor Christ?” Is Christ truly honored by customs that were once used to honor other false gods? Can such traditions be assimilated and accepted as part of the Worship of the God of the Bible? The answer is No! For a complete study on the Mother and Child, buy “The Two Babylon’s,” by Rev. Alexander Hislop.
The true gospel is almost totally lost in the celebration of Christmas. And yet it was the message He told His church to preach (Matthew 28:19-20). We must worship the Messiah who was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath and except Him as our personal Saviour and not let the false teaching in which Satan has provided when they say that He was resurrected on Sunday morning. There is peace ahead for the people of God who worship Him in truth and faith. Will you repent by asking God to forgive you for accepting their false teaching and are willing to stand on the true word of God, if your answer is yes, call upon Him and ask Him to come into your heart, He is waiting.....
Merry Christmas! It is a festive season. Little children filled with anticipation and excitement. Family is busy putting up decorations. Boughs of holly and evergreen are assembled and placed about the house. Trees are chosen and decorated with sparkling trinkets and ornaments.
It is a season of giving and receiving presents, of sending greetings, and a time to sing songs. Parades with special floats, sumptuous meals and merrymaking add to the festivity. Houses are being decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. Yule logs and Yule cakes and fir trees, gifts and greeting all commemorate different aspects of this festive season and good fellowship.
Then there is Santa Claus which is an important part of Christmas celebrations in most part of the world, bringing gifts to all good boys and girls. The description may vary widely, but most often it is that of an elderly man known by old Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus. Santa Claus has become the most widely recognizable name of all people, even more popular than Jesus Christ. There is no Biblical connection whatsoever between Santa Claus and any other of the mythical Christian-season gift- bringer and the birth of Christ. The tradition is of human origin.
The early church did not celebrate Christmas, and the New Testament scriptures are silent about any such celebration. If celebrating Christmas did not come to us by the Divine authority of Christ, or His Apostles where did it originate and by what authority?
Israel was warned in no uncertain words, “Learn not the way of the heathen” (Jeremiah 10:2). The Samaritans in their early history mixed Heathen Worship with the Worship of Jehovah, but Jehovah did not accept their services. History tells us that December 25 was celebrated long before the birth of Christ as the birth of “The Unconquered Sun,” and many of their heathen customs are practiced in the supposed Christian Celebration of the Birth of Christ today. December 25 was not the birthday of Jesus Christ. This is a fact known to many Bible students. It was a Heathen Festival adopted, whitewashed and handed down to us, as the festival in honor of the Birth of Christ by an Apostate Church, (Catholic). I want to call your attention to the fact that the New Testament Scriptures solemnly warns us of a great apostasy, and that heathen customs would be taught in the so-called Christian Church (2 Thessalonians 2:2-12). That apostasy or falling away was already working in Paul’s time and historians tell us that a great apostasy from the original doctrines and practices of the early Church began soon after the death of the Apostles, and many false Christians entered the Church and brought in heathen doctrines during the second and third centuries as well as later. This great apostasy led to the establishing of a great Church organization that claimed Divine authority to make laws and to establish Holy Days; Festivals for God’s people. The prophet Daniel foretold the rise of such a power or Church system (Daniel 7:25-26). Jesus also warned that such was coming in Revelation chapter 17 and 18. That corrupt Church is illustrated as a corrupt woman. This happened in the days of the Roman Empire. This apostate Church claimed to be the true Church. She became the State Church of Rome and even created a great “Ecclesiastical Monarchy” that history calls the “Holy Roman Empire.” This Church claimed Divine authority and enforced her decrees by the point of the sword for centuries. Heathen customs were adopted, added to or substituted for the simple Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christmas and Easter both are of heathen origin, with many of the usages in our “Christian” celebrations coming directly from customs of the heathen who honored their Heathen Gods and Goddesses in the winter and spring festivals.
“At the Winter Solstice the Germans held their great Yule Feast in commemoration of the return of the Fiery Sun Wheel.” Many of the beliefs and usages of the Romans relating to this matter passed over from Heathenism to Christianity and have survived to the present day. The Apostate Church of Rome is the one who whitewashed the old heathen festival; the Winter Solstice, and handed it down to the people, as the festival honoring the birth of Christ. Thus, people are yearly celebrating this Heathen Festival, thinking they are honoring our Lord and Savor Jesus Christ!
The festivals of Rome are innumerable; Easter and Christmas were among the most important ones. These can be proved to be Babylonian, first, as to the festival in honor of the birth of Christ, or Christmas. How was this festival connected with the 25th of December? There is not a word in the Scriptures about the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when he was born. What is recorded there implies that at whatever time His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of December. At the time the Angel announced His birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem they were feeding their flocks by night in the open field (Luke 2:8). Now, no doubt, the climate of Palestine is not so severe as the climate of this country; but even there, though the heat of the day be considerable, the cold of the night, from December to February is very piercing, and it was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open field later than about the end of October. Is it in the last degree incredible that the birth of Christ could have taken place at the end of December?
At the birth of Christ, every woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city in which they belong; some had a long journey (Luke 2:3-4), but the middle of the winter was not fitting for such a business especially for women, children and a woman with child to travel in. Therefore, Christ could not be born in the depth of winter. If any shall think the winter wind was not so extreme in these parts, let him remember the words of Christ in the gospel, “pray that your flight be not in the winter” (Matthew 24:20). If the winter was so harsh that it was a bad time to flee in, it seems that it would be a bad time for the shepherds to be in the field, and women and children to travel in. Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord’s birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not until the fourth century did it gain much observance.
A number of assumptions regarding the story of the birth of Jesus are worth examining in light of what the Bible account may indicate. There is no proof, for example, that Jesus was born in midwinter. In fact, there are some reasons to think the opposite. Keep in mind that it did and does get cold during the winter in Judea. This comes as a surprise to many people. Even in April, in the early spring, when Jesus was crucified, certain “servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves, and Peter stood with them and warmed himself” (John 18:18).
It was for the purpose of registering for a census, remember, that Joseph and Mary made the journey to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown. And they were not alone in this; “all went to be registered, everyone to his own city” (Luke 2:3). Virtually, the whole nation was in movement; roads were crowded, temporary lodging at a premium. The exact time of the nativity of Christ can never be known. The twenty-fifth day of December has little in its favor.
The day that commemorates the birth of the Christ Child in the manger of Bethlehem (Luke 2:11) is the special festival of children, yet grownups all over the world and even those for whom it has no religious significance join in the Christmas spirit of happiness and good will.
As a Christmas festival generally observed, Christmas dates only from the 4th century, although there are earlier references to the celebration of the feast in some places. The early Christmas worship was mainly in secret, but when Constantine became the protector of the Church many of the Pagan Festivals were taken over and changed to Christian Feasts. The Festival of Sol, the Unconquerable Sun, which the Romans celebrated late in December, was adopted by the Catholic Church as the greatest feast of the year, in honor of the birth of Christ. There has been a connection, too, with the Romans Saturnalia, celebrated riotously in mid-December.
The exact date of Christ’s birth is not known, and for a time various dates were chosen for this feast, but in the 4th century, December 25th was generally adopted. This coincided closely with an ancient festival celebrated by the Saxons, Britains, and Gauls, when the Sun returned from the south at the Winter Solstice. The name Christmas comes from Christ-Mass, the mass said in honor of His birth.
The Roman religious calendar reflected Rome’s hospitality to the cults and deities of conquered territories. Originally, Roman religious festivals were few in number. Some of the oldest survived to the very end of the pagan empire, preserving the memory of the fertility and appeasing rites of a primitive agricultural people.
However, new festivals were introduced to mark the naturalization of New Gods. So many festivals were adopted eventually that the workdays on the calendar were outnumbered. Among the more important Roman religious festivals was Saturnalia. Under the empire, Saturnalia, (Sun Worship), was celebrated for seven days, from Dec. 17 to Dec. 23, during the period in which the Winter Solstice occurred. During this period all businesses were suspended, slaves were given temporary freedom, and gift exchanging and merrymaking prevailed.
Even where the Sun was the favorite object of Worship, as in Babylon itself and elsewhere, at this festival, Baal was worshipped not merely as the spherical body of day, but as God incarnate. It was an essential principle of Babylonian system, that the Sun or Baal was the one and only god. When, therefore Tammuz was worshipped as god incarnate that implied also that he was an incarnation of the Sun.
It was no mere astronomical festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated during the Winter Solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there showed whence Christmas had been derived. The Pagans equally lit the candles on Christmas Eve and used them as long as the festive season lasted to do honor to the Babylonian gods. The Christmas tree, Yule Log and Mistletoe was derived from Babylon; also the Christmas wreath was a symbol of the Sun. This was precisely the way in which the drunken festival of the month of December was celebrated in Babylon, and many of the other observances are still being kept among ourselves at Christmas. We have vowed to burn incense to the Queen of heaven (Jeremiah 44:16-25)
The birth of the Great Deliverer was to be miraculously widely known long before the Christian era. For centuries, some say, for thousands of years before that even the Buddhist priest had a prediction that a Virgin was to bring forth a Child to bless the world. This tradition came not from Popish or a Christian source, and is evident from the surprise felt and expressed by the Jesuit, (Catholic), missionaries, when they first entered Tibet and China. They not only found a mother and child worshipped at home, but that mother and child was worshipped under a character corresponding exactly with that of their own Madonna; the Virgin Mother of God, and that too in regions where they could not find the least trace of either the name or history of our Lord Jesus Christ having ever been known. The primeval promise that the “seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis 3:15) naturally suggested the idea of a miraculous birth. Priest craft and human presumption set themselves wickedly to anticipate the fulfillment of that promise, and the Babylonian queen seems to have been the first to whom that honor was given. The Aphrodite of Greece, and the Venus of Rome, was identical with Astarte, (Easter), and Astarte being interpreted is none other, “The woman that made towers or encompassing wall.” Semiramis, the Mother of Nimrod, the Roman Venus; as is well known, and the Venus of Cyprus is historically proven to have been derived from Babylon.
The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a Goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented as an infant or child in his mother’s arms. From Babylon this worship of the Mother and Child spread to the ends of the earth. This mother and child are devoutly worshipped in the Papal Rome itself; being represented with a child in her arms, and a glory around her, exactly as it was that a Roman Catholic artist had been employed to set her up.
The origin of that mother, so widely worshiped, there is to believe was Semiramis, already referred to, was worshipped by the Babylonians and other eastern nations and that under the name of Rhea, the great Goddess “Mother.” It was from the son, however, that she derived all her glory and her claims to deification. That son, though represented as a child in his mother’s arms, was a person of great stature and immense bodily power, as well as most fascinating manners. In the scripture he is referred to as Tammuz, (Nimrod), (Ezekiel 8:14). As Semiramis, the wife, was worshipped as Rhea, whose grand distinguishing character was that of the great goddess “mother,” the conjunction with her of her husband, under the name of Ninus, or “The Son,” was sufficient to originate the peculiar worship of the “Mother and Son,” that Ninus, (Nimrod), is sometime called the husband, and sometime the son of Semiramis.
Now, this Ninus, or “Son” borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, (Semiramis), is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod. Being naturally of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of glory that results from velour, he armed a considerable number of young men that were brave and vigorous like himself to make war by his power to an extraordinary height by bringing the people of Babylon under subjection to him.
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth (Genesis 10:8-9) and Cush’s son or descendant was Ham’s grandson. Bel, also known as Cush, was the father of Nimrod, husband of Semiramis. Ninus was Nimrod. Cush begat Nimrod the founder of Babylon, and Cush is generally represented as having been a ringleader in the great apostasy. But again, Cush, as the son of Ham, was Hermes or Mercury; for Hermes is just an Egyptian synonym for “Son of Ham.” Cush, (Bel), the father of Nimrod died, Semiramis his wife married her son Ninus or Nimrod who inherited his father’s title, who was the first actual king of the Babylonian empire.
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 origin? It is a chief custom of the corrupt system denounced all through the Bible prophecies and taught under the name of Babylon. And it started and originated in the original Babylon of Ancient Nimrod! It stems from roots whose beginning was shortly this side of the flood!
Nimrod, grandson of Ham, was the real founder of the Babylon’s system that has gripped the world ever since, the system of organized competition of man ruled governments and empire 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 the world’s first kingdom. The name Nimrod, in Hebrew is “Marad,” meaning “he rebelled.”
From many ancient writings, so much is learned of this man who started the great-organized worldly apostasy 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 mother-wife, Semiramis spread the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spiritual 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 she claimed of his birth 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. And upon this day December 25th the human race worships a pagan god: Nimrod.
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 became the false Messiah, son of Baal the Sun God. In this false Babylonish system, the Mother and Child, (Semiramis and Nimrod), became chief objects of worship. This worship of “Mother and Child” spread all over the world. The names varied in different countries and languages. Christmas; the ancient idolatrous “Chaldean Mysteries” founded by this Mother of Nimrod, have been handed down through the pagan religions and into the Catholic Church under new Christian sounding names, and from there into the Protestant denominations and to all of us today.
Now where did we get this mistletoe custom? Among the ancient pagans the mistletoe was used at this festival of the winter solstice because it was considered sacred to the Sun, because of its supposed miraculous healing power. The pagan custom of kissing under the mistletoe was an early step in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery celebrating the death of the “Old Sun” and the Birth of the New at the Winter Solstice. Mistletoe was sacred in pagan festivals; holly berries were also considered sacred to the Sun God. The Yule log is in reality the “Sun Log.” “Yule” means “Wheel,” a pagan symbol of the Sun. Yet, today professing Christians speak of the “Sacred Yule-Tide Season!” Even the lighting of fires and candles as a Christian ceremony is merely a continuation of the pagan custom, encouraging the pale Sun God as he reached the lower place in the southern skies! The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log, etc., are relics of pre-Christmas times, “Paganism!”
There is a perfect description of the Christmas tree termed by the Eternal as “the way of the heathen, the custom of the people.” We are commanded not to learn that way or follow it! It is also viewed in this passage as idolatry (Jeremiah 10:1-6).
The name Sunday is derived from pagan sources, as well as dividing the calendar into seven-day weeks, the work of Babylonian astrologers. From then the plan went into Egypt, where the days were named for planets. By 250 A.D. this method of reckoning time had become well established throughout the civilized world.
After Christianity had been planted in northern Europe, then Rome substituted the names of their gods for Egyptian titles, so we have; Monandaeg, Monday the moon god, Tiwes-day, Tuesday after the mars god; Woden’s Day, Wednesday after the mercury god, Torsdag, Thursday after the thor god, Frigedag, Friday after the goddess frigg, and Saturni, Saturday the Saturn god. But the first day continued to be called Sun’s Day, largely because Emperor Constantine by royal decree in 321 A.D. made it Solstice, Day of the Sun. When Constantine became the protector of the Church, many of the pagan festivals were taken over and changed to Christian feasts. Thus, the festival of Sol, the Unconquerable Sun, which the Romans celebrated late in December was adopted by the Church as the greatest feast of the year in honor of the Birth of the Christ. There is also a connection with the Roman Saturnalia festival, celebrated riotously in mid-December.
The early Church was eager to replace Pagan Festivals with Christian ones. As Christianity spread, the feast of the Winter Solstice, the time when the day begins to increase the light to triumph over darkness, was easily turned into the feast of Christ, the Light of Life. At the Winter Solstice the Germans held their great Yule feast in commemoration of the return of the fiery Sun Wheel. Many of the beliefs and usages of the old Germans and of the Romans relating to this matter passed over from heathenism to Christianity and have partly survived to the present day, but the Church also sought to combat and banish the deep-rooted heathen feeling by adding for the purification of the heathen customs which it retained; grandly devised the dramatic representation of the Birth of Christ. This should be conclusive evidence that the Apostate, the Catholic Church of Rome is the one who whitewashed the old heathen festival and the Winter Solstice, with the Mother and Child, and handed it down to the people as the festival honoring the birth of Christ. This winter festival has been and is celebrated not only in the United States but also throughout the world.
Millions of professed Christians annually deliberately disobey the Lord’s command when they buy and decorate their so-called “Christmas Tree.” “Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the sign 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,” (Jeremiah 10:2-4).
Is it possible to determine the time of Jesus Birth? It is generally affirmed that Jesus died at the age of thirty-three and one-half years. Since He died on the first day of Passover, His date of birth would be six months from the date of His death. Figuring forward, or backward, from the Passover bringing us to the first day of the feast of Tabernacles! Passover occurred on the 14th day of the first month. Tabernacles fell on the 14th day of the seventh month, exactly six months apart. This being true, we can safely say that Jesus was born on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles. Thus, usually occurs during the month of October; a period of time when it is still warm enough for shepherds to be tending their flocks in the open fields at night, December is much too cold. We would not condemn anyone who might wish to so honor our Saviour provided they omit all the heathen garbage which is connected with it: decorated tree, mistletoe, Yule log, giving of presents, Santa Claus and reindeer, and the other paraphernalia which generally accompanies the Heathen Holiday.
An important part of Christmas celebrations in most cultures is the visit of a legendary gift-giver. The description of this personage may vary widely, but most often it is that of an elderly fat man dressed in a red suit giving out presents to children; widely known and who goes by the name of Santa Claus.
Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus has become the most widely recognizable name of this winter gift-bringer. There is no Biblical connection whatsoever between Santa Claus or any other of the mythical Christmas season gift-bringers, and the Birth of Jesus. These traditions are of human origin. On the so-called Jesus Birthday, Christmas, it seems that Santa is more popular than Jesus. If one stops to consider: doesn’t Santa stand in almost total opposition to the mission and teaching of the Son of Man? “It is better to give than to receive,” Jesus said. Christmas and Santa myth teaches children, “To receive is all.”
As we have pointed out the Apostles of the early Church never observed Christmas in the Bible. We have seen that it has roots in pre-Christian and non-Christian tradition. We might ask, “What difference does it make as long as we use such traditions to honor Christ?” Is Christ truly honored by customs that were once used to honor other false gods? Can such traditions be assimilated and accepted as part of the Worship of the God of the Bible? The answer is No! For a complete study on the Mother and Child, buy “The Two Babylon’s,” by Rev. Alexander Hislop.
The true gospel is almost totally lost in the celebration of Christmas. And yet it was the message He told His church to preach (Matthew 28:19-20). We must worship the Messiah who was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath and except Him as our personal Saviour and not let the false teaching in which Satan has provided when they say that He was resurrected on Sunday morning. There is peace ahead for the people of God who worship Him in truth and faith. Will you repent by asking God to forgive you for accepting their false teaching and are willing to stand on the true word of God, if your answer is yes, call upon Him and ask Him to come into your heart, He is waiting.....