The most widely celebrated secular holiday, Christmas, is most widely celebrated by Christians themselves!
When the time comes that the little child has grown, and declares that "Santa is not real", what is the first thing that most folks do? They try their best to convince the child that Santa is indeed real, and that all they need to do is to "believe"...
Doesn't that particular privilege of "believe" belong exclusively to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Wasn't it a Philippian jailer question that told us that?
Acts 16:30-31 (KJV) "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
I have been very depressed as of late. After reading God's Appointed Times and doing a lot of research on the internet I have realized that I have been lied to my entire life.
Used to be that at Christmas I was happy to have the house filled with the scent of pine, a decorative the tree, have mistletoe hanging, a fresh holly wreath on the door and have special food on Christmas and Christmas eve. But now my eyes have been opened and I am going to share what I have found with all of you.
Has anyone even read up on the origin of Christmas or Easter? Has any one read about these holidays in the Bible? What about the things associated with these holidays?
First of all if you come at me with "we are celebrating the birth of Jesus". Jesus was not born on December 25th, He had to been born sometime in the fall because no shepherd would have his sheep outside in the dead of winter. Then for those of you who come at me with, "Jesus is the reason for the season." I will say that we as Christians should just leave it as "Jesus is the reason." When we add the season part of "Jesus is the reason," we drag in all of the secular junk with it like Santa, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, season’s greetings, seasonal music, decorated evergreen trees, mistletoe, holly wreaths, lights, debt, and gift exchanges.
It's not fair nor just by any standards, but rather it's a snare of the devil, of devilish law. Yet it's childish folly many adults never seem to outgrow, because churches and ministers fail to tell them the truth, not knowing the scriptures nor the gospel of God themselves. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power. Christmas Awareness is sorely lacking among churches and church folks. Every year many say, or go along with, Christmas is the happiest time of the year. First of all Christmas isn’t the happiest time of the year according to the facts. Police records and other media records indicate no other season has more shop lifting, feuds, drunk drivers, accidents, fires, divorces, depression, suicides, binges, hypocrisies, lies, murders, vandalism, debt incursion, etc.
Many also say, go along with, Santa Clause, elves, and flying reindeer. Lying to children is not Godly or good. I understand about the wonder and belief of a child but they can not be in the dark forever. They will one day know the truth and on that day will be let down and disappointed. As a child I would watch Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and I knew it was make believe but I would still daydream about being in such a place where everything was made of candy. So my imagination was never lacking just because I knew the truth.
The explanation of the “Christmas tree.” Evergreens have been a symbol of rebirth from ancient times. Bringing greenery into one's home, often at the time of the winter solstice, symbolized life in the midst of death in many cultures. The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany. But the Germans got it from the Romans, who got it from the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Most aspects of Christmas are not referred to in the Bible. Of course, the reason is that they are not from God—they are not part of the way He wants people to worship Him. The Christmas tree, however, is directly mentioned in the Bible! Jer 10:2-5
(2) Don't follow the customs of those nations who become frightened when they see something strange happen in the sky.
(3) Their religion is worthless! They chop down a tree, carve the wood into an idol,
(4) cover it with silver and gold, and then nail it down so it won't fall over.
(5) An idol is no better than a scarecrow. It can't speak, and it has to be carried, because it can't walk. Why worship an idol that can't help or harm you? There is no room in Jeremiah 10 to believe, as some have tried to suggest, that because these trees are powerless of themselves, it is not really forbidden to have a Christmas tree. God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command!
The Encyclopedia Britannica, under “Celastrales,” exposes the origin of the holly wreath: “European pagans brought holly sprays into their homes, offering them to the fairy people of the forests as refuges from the harsh winter weather. During the Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival, branches of holly were exchanged as tokens of friendship. The earliest Roman Christians apparently used holly as a decoration at the Christmas season.”
Christmas is incomplete to many unless it involves “kissing under the mistletoe.” This pagan custom was natural on a night that involved much revelry done in the spirit of drunken orgies.
Like mistletoe, holly berries were also thought to be sacred to the sun god. The original “sun log” came to be called the yule log. “Yule” simply means “wheel,” which has long been a pagan representation of the sun. No wonder people today commonly speak of the “sacred yule-tide season.”
The interchange of presents between friends adopted by Christians from the pagans. Like every other aspect of Christmas, the shocking truth is that even this supposed Christian custom does not come from the Bible. It is an irony that people love to believe they are following the custom of the wise men giving to Christ, when actually they are giving almost exclusively to each other! What hypocrisy! Christ is completely forgotten.
Once again, let’s more closely examine the actual history and origins of some of the Saturnalia customs still practiced today. Notice the following chilling quote from the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, “Oscilla” 3rd edition, volume II: “…all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were exchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets. An offering was made beneath a decorated evergreen tree, according to the pagan poet, Virgil. Figurines and masks—called ‘oscilla’—were hung on the tree, as are Christmas decorations today. Doesn’t all of this sound familiar? Presents, singing in the streets, evergreen trees, decorations, offerings under the tree, merrymaking, feasting? They may sound wonderful, but they represent things that are truly abominable.
How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25) following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-24), and celebrating the shortest day of the year and the ‘new sun’…cannot be accurately determined. The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence…The pagan festival with its riot and merry-making was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. Christian preachers of the West and the Near East protested against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians of Mesopotamia accused their Western brethren of idolatry and sun worship for adopting as Christian this pagan festival.”
One additional source reveals how the Roman church absorbed Christmas into an official celebration. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, states, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church…Certain Latins, as early as 354, may have transferred the birthday from January 6th to December 25, which was then a Mithraic feast…or birthday of the unconquered SUN…The Syrians and Armenians, who clung to January 6th, accused the Romans of sun worship and idolatry, contending…that the feast of December 25th, had been invented by disciples of Cerinthus…”
Thus, a pagan festival, celebrated long before Christ’s birth, found its way into recognized Christianity.
Did you know that even the seventeenth century Puritans of New England understood how wrong Christmas was? They actually banned its observance by law, in 1659, throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Fines and imprisonment could result from being found keeping it. It was almost 200 years (1856) before people stopped working on Christmas in Boston. The Puritans knew its roots and labeled it “heathen, papist idolatry.”
One of Satan’s names is Destroyer. Nimrod/Saturn/Molech/Baal, like Satan, is the fire god who destroys and devours little children.The real Jesus Christ was never in and never will be in Christmas! He cannot be put back into where He has never been. But the “god of this world,” Satan has always been in Christmas. He is its author!
The true God commands that we “must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” This does not mesh with the great Christmas and Santa Claus lies that all children so willingly believe.
1Ti 4:2 They will also be fooled by the false claims of liars whose consciences have lost all feeling. warns of those “speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” Parents can “burn” their own children, to the point of searing them, with the Christmas deception and lie!
There is no “safety in numbers” in this world for those who keep Christmas, because Satan, who is called “the father of lies” and “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), has “deceived the whole world” (Rev. 12:9)! Turn to this verse and read it. Then recognize that Christmas is certainly a testimony to that great deception.
The bottom line is that "Jesus is the Reason," and instead of a large evergreen tree in your living room set up a large Nativity scene to celebrate Jesus' birth. Instead of singing Christmas carols around the neighborhood, sing hymns and witness to your neighbors, friends and family. Instead of gift giving (and going into debt), give the money to doing God's work. If you truly want to go along with the Bible celebrate Hanukkah as a lead up to the celebration of Jesus' birth.
