The claim by the Roman Catholic Church in the 1582 papal bull Inter gravissimas, which promulgated the Gregorian calendar, that it restored "the celebration of Easter according to the rules fixed by ... the great ecumenical council of Nicæa" was based on a false claim by Dionysius Exiguus (525) that "we determine the date of Easter Day ... in accordance with the proposal agreed upon by the 318 Fathers of the Church at the Council in Nicaea." The First Council of Nicaea (325) only stated that Easter was to be celebrated by all Christians on the same Sunday—it did not fix any rules to determine which Sunday. In fact, there is no Canon from this Council that speaks of the date of Easter, but according to tradition it was discussed in the minutes, which no longer are extant and cannot be examined. The medieval computus was based on the Alexandrian computus, which was developed by the Church of Alexandria during the first decade of the 4th century using the Alexandrian calendar. The Eastern Roman Empire accepted it shortly after 380 after converting the computus to the Julian calendar. Rome accepted it sometime between the sixth and 9th centuries. The British Isles accepted it during the 7th century except for a few monasteries. Francia (all of Western Europe except Scandinavia (pagan), the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and southern Italy) accepted it during the last quarter of the 8th century. The last Celtic monastery to accept it, Iona, did so in 716, whereas the last English monastery to accept it did so in 931. Before these dates other methods were used which resulted in dates for Easter Sunday that sometimes differed by up to five weeks.
Many of the manger scenes even get details wrong, like the fact that when the wise men showed up, Jesus was no longer a newborn lying in a manger, but as Matthew writes, a "young Child" living in "a house" (Matthew 2:11). Traditional Christmas crèches also tend to combine Luke's account of the shepherds' arrival almost immediately after His birth with the coming of the wise men, which evidently occurred perhaps weeks or months later (see verse 16: Some contend that it could have been as long as two years later!). And, of course, none of the Nativity participants wore halos!
These few scenes are the extent of the Bible's information about Christ's birth. Neither Mark nor John saw fit to add to what Matthew and Luke had already written. Both Mark and John begin their narratives about the time of Jesus' baptism three decades later. Why? In the grand scheme of Jesus' life, His birth is of less importance than His ministry, death, and resurrection. Certainly, it was a wonderful day when God-in-the-flesh appeared among us, but it pales in meaning to what He taught, what He sacrificed for us, and what He now does for us as our living High Priest. Why dwell on His past, helpless infancy when we can rejoice in His present, powerful advocacy?
The Christmas controversy does not hinge on whether it is politically correct to wish someone "Merry Christmas!" but on a factor that is far more significant: truth. Is Christmas true? The biblical facts shout a resounding, "NO!" Then why celebrate a lie? Falsehood is never good, never beneficial, never right. Keeping a false holiday in dedication to Jesus is still a lie. Do we really think He feels honored by a lie, which is sin (check Exodus 20:16 and Revelation 21:8; 22:15)? He receives much more honor when we, instead, keep His commandments (John 14:15; 15:10).
Jesus was not born on December 25. While the Bible does not give an exact date for His birth, John Reid, in the Forerunner article, "When Was Jesus Born?" tells us that the Bible leaves clues that point to His actual birth date. The article provides a method of calculation starting with John the Baptist's father, Zacharias. Based on when Zacharias would have served in the Temple during his priestly course, John the Baptist's birth would have occurred in the latter half of March. Since he was six months older than Jesus (Luke 1:32), we can extrapolate that Jesus would have been born in the second half of September, around the fall holy days. Lawrence Kelemen, a Jew, brings up several points about the problems people face when they attempt to justify their keeping of the holiday. He affirms that the Bible does not list the actual day of Jesus' birth anywhere. He infers that, since Mark, the earliest gospel (written a half-century after Jesus' birth) begins with the baptism of Jesus as an adult, first-century Christians cared little about His birthday. The roots of Christmas are found in Saturnalia. Pagans in Rome celebrated this weeklong period of bedlam and lawlessness between December 17-25. During this period of anarchy, no one could be punished for their vandalism and mayhem. An "enemy of the Roman people" was chosen to represent the "Lord of Misrule." Each community selected a victim and forced him to gorge himself on food and other indulgences throughout the week. On the last day of the festival, December 25, they took vengeance against the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this victim. Kelemen writes that besides this human sacrifice, there was widespread drunkenness, public nudity, rape, and other forms of sexual license. After Constantine converted to Catholicism, many pagans followed him once they were allowed to maintain their celebration of Saturnalia. They solved the problem of Saturnalia having nothing to do with Christianity by declaring December 25 to be Jesus' birthday, replacing the celebration of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Invincible Sun), but little changed in practice. These practices are blatant violations of God's command in Deuteronomy 12:30-31. Many of the trappings of Christmas are directly imported from paganism. For instance, the Catholic Church shamelessly welcomed the pagan tree worshippers into their fellowship. They simply called their trees "Christmas trees." Mistletoe is another example of such syncretism. The ancient Druids used its supposed mystical powers to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck. In ancient Norse mythology, mistletoe was used to symbolize love and friendship. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe is a later blending of the sexual license of Saturnalia with Druidic practice. The Catholic Church says that the practice of gift-giving was begun by an early bishop, Nicholas, who died in AD 345 and made a saint in the 1800s. Nicholas was a senior bishop who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Some 750 years later, a group of sailors who idolized him moved his bones from Turkey to Italy, where he supplanted a favor-granting deity called the Grandmother, who used to fill children's stockings with gifts. In his honor, his followers would give each other gifts on the anniversary of his death, December 6. From there, his cult spread to the German and Celtic pagans. Many of them worshipped Woden, who wore a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens each fall. Through the process of syncretism, Nicholas and Woden were combined. Nicholas now sported a beard, rode a flying horse, wore winter clothes to battle the elements, and took his trip in the last month of the year instead of in the fall. As it evangelized in Northern Europe, Catholicism absorbed the Nicholas cult and persuaded its adherents to give gifts on December 25 instead of December 6. In 1809, novelist Washington Irving satirically wrote of this Saint Nicolas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus. Thirteen years later, Clement Moore wrote a poem based on this Santa Claus, The Night before Christmas. The poem incorporated the giving of gifts, added his descent down the chimney, and replaced the horse with a sleigh and eight reindeer. Our modern image of Santa Claus was provided by a Bavarian cartoonist, Thomas Nast, who drew over 2000 pictures in the late nineteenth century for Harper's Weekly. Before Nast's cartoon, Saint Nicholas had been depicted as "everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock." Nast provided many of the traditional details: He gave him a home at the North Pole and a workshop with elves who made toys. The creation of Santa was completed in 1931 when the Coca-Cola Corporation developed a marketing campaign for a Coke-drinking Santa. Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom modeled a chubby Santa, dressed in a bright Coca-Cola red outfit. Kelemen states, "[The modern] Santa was born—a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol." December 25 has traditionally been the day when pagans marked the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It is a day venerated every year by worshippers of the sun god. Egyptians celebrated Horus' birthday on December 25. Other cultures also worshipped their gods on this day: the Mesopotamians, the ancient Greeks, and the Persians. Winter solstice traditions stretch back long before Jesus Christ entered the world. Christmas is all about commercialism. Many people struggle with low wages and debt, yet they spend hundreds of dollars to buy Christmas gifts. The average American family will spend $882 this year on Christmas presents. An article in US News and World Report, "Commercialism Only Adds to Joy of the Holidays," avers that Christmas is a spiritual holiday whose main theme is personal, selfish pleasure and joy, claiming that the season's commercialism is integral to it. The article cites Ayn Rand, who said that Christmas' best aspect has been its commercialization: "The Christmas trees, the winking lights, the glittering colors . . . provide the city with a spectacular display, which only 'commercial greed' could afford to give us. One would have to be terribly depressed to resist the wonderful gaiety of that spectacle." This supposed worship of Christ is based on falsehoods. From rebranding pagan sun worship as worship of the Son of God to people telling their children that Santa will withhold their presents if they are not good, everything is a fabrication. Try as they might, people cannot make the unclean clean or the unholy holy. Deprive them of what? The truth? If you really want to deprive them, continue to celebrate the world’s holidays, continue to celebrate the ancient Roman Saturnalia; set up the forbidden idolatrous tree, continue to lie to your children about Santa Claus, and you will deprive them and yourself of truth, light, and their eternal reward. If you read Revelation 21:8 earlier, you know where liars go. Now read Galatians 5:20-21, and I Corinthians 6:9-10 and see where idolaters go. Bible believers, we are responsible for bringing up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Most High (Ephesians 6:4), not in the ways of the world. We are responsible for teaching them the truth and for walking in the truth ourselves in preparation for His second coming with confident expectation!
Yahuah (the Eternal Father) is seeking those who will forsake the false ways, who will lay aside the traditions of men, who will worship Him in the beauty of holiness, and will not compromise the truth!
Yahuah loves truth. He is concerned about the truth. He longs for those who will believe the truth and worship Him in truth! But, friend, there isn’t a shred of truth in Christmas. Everything about this holiday is false, corrupt, idolatrous, pagan, and a counterfeit of what is authentic and true. It is one BIG LIE! So what will you do? What will you follow? What will you believe?
8. The very name “Jesus Christ,” for which Christmas gets its name was originally the Hebrew name “Yahusha haMashiach.” Together, the Jews, Romans, and Greeks, for different reasons, over the last 1,700 years, have managed to change the true set-apart Hebrew name of the Eternal Father “Yahuah Alahim” (H#3068 יהוה Yahuah) (H#430 אלהים Alahim) to what is now translated in English generic terms as “the Lord God,” or “Adoni” among the Jews, over 7,000 times within the pages of Scripture. As if this was not enough, the Greeks, and Romans, changed the name of the Messiah, Yahusha haMashiach, 981 times in Scripture that morphed multiple times, arriving in English after A.D. 1632 with the current name “Jesus Christ” spelled with a “J,” which had never existed previously in Hebrew. The first King James Bible, printed in 1611, called the Messiah, Iesus. The New Testament Scriptures were originally written in Hebrew. Then, essentially 300 years following the events of our Messiah on this earth, Constantine, Emperor of Rome, in creating a new religion for his empire called his new deity “Iesvs Christ” and his followers “Christians.” The true name of our Messiah was replaced throughout the pages of the Brit Hadasha (N.T.). Neither of these names existed prior to A.D. 325. This was accomplished to cause all the world to worship the counterfeit Roman deity and a watered-down version of the supremely divine duo. How was this accomplished? This has been done by way of a calculated attack on the translations of Scripture as we know them in English as well as all the other languages, causing our Messiah’s name to appear today to be “Jesus Christ.” The real problem here is that, historically, names retain their vocalized sound when one goes to another country. Only the spelling or even writing styles will be different, but they are nearly always able to produce the same vocalized name. So when it comes to Scripture, why were all the sacred names entirely removed from our translated versions? These LIES borne on the wings of heathen traditions have served well to hide YAHUAH Alahim’s magnificent set-apart name and how it relates prophetically to His promised one true Son, YAHUSHA, our Messiah. For “there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)  Is It Really OK For Christians To Lie To Our Children About Christmas And Santa Claus?What does the Bible say? Is it a wrong if you say a little, culturally accepted white lie in the name of innocent fantasy? Is it really a sin to break the 9th commandment and bear false witness to children and say there is a Santa Claus? Absolutely! It is a transgression of God's commandment if we lie to our children and say Santa Claus really does exist. There is no excuse that God will accept for breaking His laws. We raise our children to tell the truth, and then get upset when the say things that are not true to us, but what kind of example do we set when WE lie to THEM about Santa Claus and Christmas? If we expect our children to be honest and always tell the truth we should set a right example ourselves.  Don't Be Surprised When Children Question The Existence Of Jesus!If our children find out Santa doesn't really exist, is it possible they will logically question if Jesus is real too? Children are usually intelligent enough to make the connection. They may begin to question everything about the real God when they learn the truth about the pseudo-false god, Santa Claus, who knows everything about them, whether they have been bad or good. When our kids find out we lied to them about Santa, is it really a shock to find out they also question everything we say to them about Jesus? Some parents justify lying to their children because they view Christmas as innocent fantasy, but can a young child really tell the difference between fantasy and reality when they are taught by the most trusted people in their life? Children trust their parents yet parents don't see the harm in breaking that trust by falsely teaching their children about beings that don't exist. What they say is a lie, plain and simple! Sin is sin! There are no exceptions in the commandment for lying to children for any reason.  Is Jesus REALLY The Reason For The Season For Children?Have Christian parents unintentionally made Santa more important than Jesus at Christmas time? Do they talk about Jesus as much as Santa? Be honest now. Do children really get this excited about Jesus at Christmas? Parents often don't even take their children to church to worship Jesus, yet they don't think twice about taking their kids to the mall to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. Santa has taken the place of God to little children, knowing everything about them and rewarding them for being good.  Does God REALLY Care If We Celebrate A Day He Hates?Do we care what God thinks about man-made religious celebrations like Christmas that He never commanded? There is no command, example, or instruction in Scripture concerning the celebration of the birth of Jesus. In fact the Bible says God HATES our religious holiday celebrations and festivals that we use instead of the ones He ordained as His special Holy Days. What should a Christian do about putting decorated trees in our home and in our churches in light of what the Bible really says about them being a false, heathen tradition? "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of thy Lord thy God..."(Deut. 16:21) Do we think the God who never changes doesn't care if we put evergreen trees in a church near the altar? Jeremiah 10:3-4 says the custom of doing this is vain. The Bible says God really HATES our man made festivals like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter that He never commanded in the Bible. (Isaiah. 1:14)   What Does The Bible Say About Using Pagan Customs To Celebrate The Nativity?Does the Bible say the early Christian church used pagan customs and traditions to celebrate Jesus birth or resurrection? Never! They didn't even celebrate Christmas at all. Do we know the sources of many of our holiday traditions and customs that were added centuries later? Should we really care where they came from? Their source matters to God based on what He says in the Bible He will do to ALL people, no matter how well intentioned, who follow pagan customs and traditions. Shouldn't we see our man-made holidays as God does? Shouldn't we call Christmas what it really is, a PAGAN celebration for birth of the Sun God, not the Son of God? Have you ever researched just how many of our holiday customs and traditions were really taken directly from the pagan religions? If you look you will find nearly all of them came from paganism. Do we know why the Catholic church started using all the pagan customs and traditions to celebrate the Nativity? It was an appeasement to all the pagan converts to Catholicism who still wanted to celebrate the birth of the SON OF GOD with their old customs used for celebrating the birth of the SUN GOD. Remember, these people had grown up in pagan customs, chief of which was the idolatrous festival of December 25th. It really was a festival of merrymaking, with its special spirit. They enjoyed it! They didn't want to give it up! The truth is out there for anyone willing to see it. God says He will cut off mankind from the face of the earth for following pagan customs! (Zephaniah 1:6 ESV) Do you believe God?  Should Christians Celebrate Christmas, Or The Nativity? There Is A DifferenceMany well meaning Christians say they don't do the Santa based Christmas traditions. but are celebrating the Birth of Jesus and putting Christ back into Christmas. How can we put Christ back into a secular celebration He was never really a part of in the first place? The Nativity, or birth of Jesus has NOTHING in common with Santa Claus and the modern celebration of Christmas! The early church didn't even celebrate Jesus birth. This holiday as we know it is a relatively modern observances that really has nothing to do with the Nativity. Our modern, secular, commercialized Christmas doesn't look anything at all like the birth of Jesus we see in the Bible. Have we been deceived by a non-Biblical lie? Absolutely Yes!  What Has The Modern Selfish Spirit Of Christmas Done To Our Children?Is the modern Christmas spirit something Jesus would endorse with all the selfish and greedy values that are taught to our children at this time of year? It has turned kids into selfish little consumption addicts. The modern spirit of Christmas with all the parties, drinking, over-eating, selfish expectations of toys and gifts, etc. is not only not accepted by God, it is all hated by Him!  Biblical Truth Or Man-Made Christmas Traditions? What Should A Christian Follow?What does the Bible really say about celebrating Christmas? Does Gods Word teach observing man-made holidays like Christmas, or does it teach the truth about worship that God won't accept? Will we stand with the truth of God, or will we continue to follow pagan inspired traditions that have no Biblical foundation? Would we be surprised to know what this well respected, great Christian minister preached?  Yeah But....What about the 3 wise men who brought Jesus gifts for His birthday? First of all nowhere does the Bible say there were 3 of them. It only mentions 3 types of gifts given to Jesus, but for what reason? For His birthday? No. Jesus was a KING! They recognized that He was a king and did what was the custom at that time of bringing specific expensive gifts when visiting a king. There were not there giving Him birthday presents, but gifts of honor for a king! They really did not come to celebrate Jesus birth but to worship Him as a KING!  Did the wise men exchange gifts with one another? No. They gave them to Jesus! "They presented unto him gifts". So why do we give gifts to each other at Christmas instead of Jesus? Where did this selfish custom come from? If you are REALLY putting Christ back into Christmas you would be giving JESUS gifts instead of your family, friends and neighbors! People don't do that because Christmas is NOT about Jesus to them. It's really about all the enjoyable customs and joyful traditions related to family, not Jesus! Yeah But....What about the shepherds in the field that visited Jesus in the manger? Were they not celebrating His birth? What does the Bible say about this?
Luke 2:8-9; "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid." Luke 2:10-11; "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:12; "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke 2;15-16; "And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." Luke 2:17; "And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. Were they really there celebrating Jesus birth? No! There was no celebration, no party, no tree decked with silver and gold, no gift exchange, no decking the halls, no feasting and drinking around the manger. They were frightened as they were put on a mission from God, specially called and given a "sign" by Him as WITNESSES to the arrival of the "Savior", "to all people", to make "known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child". God saw these shepherds as a group of honest humble people who would faithfully convey His message. In their time shepherds were seen as honest and straight forward people whose words did not carry authority, but meant truth. The special witness borne by these shepherds was to tell family, friends, neighbors, literally everyone about the arrival of their Savior! Luke tells us that after the shepherds had seen the “babe lying in a manger, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. Such was the declaration of the angel who stood before them that holy night, that these good tidings of great joy should be to all people. The shepherds were not at the manger to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but as WITNESSES to the arrival of the Savior, so they could go forth and tell "ALL PEOPLE" that their Savior had arrived. It was a one time in history event, never repeated again. They were witnesses to the arrival of our King in whom we find salvation, in effect they really were the first evangelists! Isn't The Celebration Of The Birth Of His Son Important To God?
Aside from the angels briefly praising God in Heaven at the time of Jesus birth (Luke 2:14), we see no indication in scripture that God wants us to, or expects us to, celebrate Jesus birthday every year. Did Jesus and His disciples celebrate His birth? No. Did the Apostles celebrate His birth after His resurrection? No. Did the early church celebrate the birthday of Jesus? No. During the first two centuries of Christianity there was strong opposition to celebrating, or even recognizing birthdays of anyone. Numerous church leaders at that time offered sarcastic comments about the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays when, in fact, they believed saints and martyrs (including Jesus) should be honored on the days of their martyrdom, not their birthday. The church in Rome really didn't even begin celebrating Christmas on December 25 until in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor who did it for the pagan converts who refused to give up their festive December 25th celebration of the birth of their Sun god on that day. If celebrating the birth of Jesus was really important, don't you think God would have told us to do it in the Bible? Don't you think He would have at least told us the date, WHEN to celebrate Jesus birth? Wouldn't the Apostles and early church have done it? Nowhere in the Bible does God command or instruct us in any way to celebrate the arrival of our Savior 2,000 years ago in any manner! Jesus specifically told us to observe His death, by the partaking of bread representing His body, on Passover, (Luke 22:19), which most Christian don't even do, BUT He never told us to observe His birth in any way! Isn'&' that odd? Did He forget, or is it something He really DOESN'T want us to do? All of the customs and traditions of Christmas come from the pagans, so as Christians who love God, we simply should not follow them and partake in the festivities of Christmas in any way! The Bible Says To "Prove All Things". (1 Thess 5:21) Have You Proved Christmas?The Bible says to "Prove All Things". Have you proved this Christmas from the Bible or do you just assume it's OK to celebrate it because you heard a preacher at church say it? Do you just celebrate Christmas because you like it and have done so all your life? What if you are wrong? Will you believe what fallible men say, or what the Bible says? Is it possible Jesus really hates this holidays no matter how well intended, and you are in opposition to GOD'S WILL? Your eternal life depends on you knowing the truth! This is what the Bible says! |
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