THE REAL STORY OF CHRISTMAS

   This is the Christmas season, a celebration supposedly honoring the birth of the Savior of men. Each year, the hype seems to emerge a bit earlier, almost subtly, until everyone is caught in the encompassing “holiday spirit.” But it isn’t all “peace on earth, goodwill to men.” Shoplifting accounts for $16 billion in store losses annually. Murders increase dramatically at the Christmas season, as do suicides. Articles in newspapers and magazines lament the over-commercialization of a day they say has nearly lost its original meaning. But what was its original meaning? Do you know? Why do you observe Christmas? If it is the celebration of the Savior’s birth, why on earth is Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, mistletoe, gift giving, holly wreath, yule log, stockings, eggnog so much a part of this holiday? What do all these fixtures have to do with the Messiah’s birth? Many of us, even as children, had a problem reconciling this question. Too often, we drift along doing what everyone else is doing without ever asking ourselves why. It is sometimes more comfortable not to ask too many questions for fear of what we may find. The truth can be disturbing.

   Every year, newspapers carry articles about the rank heathen origins of Christmas customs, as we continue kidding ourselves that we really are observing the Savior’s birthday. If we were only to open our Bibles, we would find that the word “Christmas” is nowhere within its pages. There isn’t a single passage that tells us to observe the Messiah’s birthday. Shocking? Perhaps, but nevertheless a fact.

   It is time you stopped and took a long look at this most popular of celebrations and asked some hard questions. The Bible says in Jeremiah 10:2, Thus says Yahweh, "Learn not the way of the heathen."

   Your very salvation hinges on whether you will follow the truth of the Bible or go along with millions of others as they indulge in the popular ways of a deceived world. Paul wrote to the Corinthian assembly, “…come out from among them and be separate,” says Yahweh, “and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

 GOOD INTENTIONS

    You may say, “Okay, so Christmas isn’t in the Bible. But what’s wrong with doing good to others, giving the kids some happiness and having a good time myself?” If there is no Creator in heaven, then it just won’t matter. You can continue buying and displaying Christmas decorations that, in fact, derive from ancient fertility rites, idolatry, and polytheism. You can have as good a time as the Babylonians who worshipped non-existent “gods” and who actually started the whole holiday of Christmas. But if there is a Heavenly Father, you cannot do both—you cannot mix pagan practices with the holy. Yahweh Almighty said, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14) You cannot kid yourself that you’re really observing Christmas because of the birth of Yahshua the Messiah. The name of the holiday and its declared purpose cannot hide the fact that its roots are firmly anchored in a winter festival of the pagans, which we will see shortly.

ISRAEL’S LESSON FOR OUR DAY

    The Eternal Father Yahweh is quite jealous over how He is worshipped. When ancient Israel conquered the pagan nations around them, Yahweh told His people that the surrounding nations were being punished for their vile, heathen worship. The barbarians indulged in every kind of perversion and idolatry imaginable, and Yahweh abhorred it. They cherished the very practices that provided a basis for modern Christmas customs—worshipping fertility and the sun god—and even sacrificing humans to their deities.

   Yahweh warned Israel not to be entrapped by the practices of the pagans: Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after they be destroyed from before you; and that you enquire not after their mighty ones, saying, “How did these nations serve their deities? Even so, will I do likewise.” You shall not do so unto Yahweh your Elohim (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).

   He specifically commanded Israel not to ask why the pagans worshipped as they did, why they decorated their temples in such a way or why they practiced certain feasts and orgies. Why? Because Yahweh knows human nature and man’s desire to participate.

   What happened? Israel did exactly what they were commanded not to do. They embraced pagan customs and mixed them with pure worship: And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yahweh, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the mighty ones of Syria, and the mighty ones of Zidon, and the mighty ones of Moab, and the mighty ones of the children of Ammon and the mighty ones of the Philistines and forsook Yahweh, and served not Him (Judges 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:3-4, 12:10; 1 Kings 11:5 and 2 Kings 23:13).

   Just as ancient Israel, our society has adopted pagan customs and incorporated them into its worship. Decorated Christmas trees are a common sight in many churches. Christmas parties of all sorts are a part of church functions. Even Santa Claus has been seen entering church doors bearing gifts. Has man changed? Let’s take a closer look at this most popular of holidays and see what its customs and practices mean.

CHRISTMAS 4,000 YEARS AGO

   The word “Christmas” derives from the Old English Cristes-masse, a Catholic mass that grew out of a feast day established in the year 1038. A mass is a prayer for a dead person. Why is it applied to the birth of the Messiah? Perhaps the answer can be found in the Encyclopedia Americana, 1942 edition, vol. 6, pg. 623: “Christmas was not celebrated, according to many authorities, in the first centuries of the Christian church as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. A feast was established in memory of the birth of the Savior in the Fourth Century. In the Fifth Century, the Western Church [Roman Catholic] ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol [the sun].”

   The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition says, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church.” For the first 300 years, the religious writers are silent regarding the Christmas observance. In 1644, the English Puritans forbade any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament on the grounds that Christmas was a heathen festival.

   Why didn’t the early converts celebrate Christmas and what made it a “heathen festival?” To answer that, we must go back to ancient humanity itself, to the great mother of pagan worship—Babylon. The founder of the Babylonish system was Nimrod, grandson of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons. Nimrod’s name in Hebrew means “he rebelled.” He built the wicked city of Nineveh, while his father, Cush, was responsible for the tower of Babel in opposition to Yahweh (Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, pg. 26).

   Genesis 10:9 says, Nimrod was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. The word “before” here means “in defiance of.” Nimrod was so reprehensible, ancient writings say, that his own mother, Semiramis, bore him a child. Semiramis would become known as the Babylonian Queen of Heaven or Goddess Mother. Because of the people’s rebellion and wickedness, Yahweh confounded the one-world language at Babel and the masses scattered in confusion. Shortly afterwards, Nimrod set up his own kingdom. An entirely pagan religious system grew out of worship of this “hero.” Gradually, through trade, influence of Babylon spread to other nations as they incorporated its government and religious system. As we shall see, the customs, practices and beliefs of these heathen Babylonians have survived to this day and are found in nearly every nation on earth.

DECEMBER 25TH

    Anyone who has attended Christmas plays at school or church has probably heard Luke 2:8 quoted, And there were, in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. From the middle of November to the middle of April is the rainy season in Palestine. Shepherds, because of the cold dampness and sometimes snow, take their flocks into sheepfolds at night (see Daily Life in the Time of Jesus, by Henri Daniel-Rops). Ezra 10:9 speaks of those in Jerusalem sitting outside in early December (ninth scriptural month) and trembling in the rain. Yahshua considered the severity of the winter in Palestine when, in His prophecy of the end times (Matthew 24:20), He said, Pray that your flight be not in the winter …

   Historians have long recognized that Yahshua the Messiah was born in the Autumn and not in the dead of Winter. The sheep were still in the open fields. “It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about Passover (early Spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain” (Adam Clarke Commentary, vol. 5, pg. 370). Furthermore, at the time of the Savior’s birth, Caesar Augustus was collecting taxes from Palestine (Luke 2:1-5). Each had to make a journey to “his own city” to pay his taxes. Joseph and Miriam (Mary) traveled to Bethlehem. Requiring the people to make such journeys at the severest time of the year—in the dead of winter—would have sparked a revolt against the hated Roman Empire. The simplest and most logical policy would be to collect taxes after the Fall harvest, when storehouses were full and resistance would be the least.

   Then, there is the fact that the Jews would be congregating in the Autumn anyway, “going up” to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:8-10; Acts 18:21). Perhaps this is the reason the parents of Yahshua found … no room for them in the inn. The cities were swollen with travelers going to the Feast.

   We can determine the approximate date of Yahshua’s birth by knowing when John the Baptist was born. Worship at the time centered on the temple at Jerusalem, where priests were required to perform duties for a week, twice in the year (1 Chronicles 24:1-18). John’s father, Zacharias, was from the family of Abiyah, and had his turn to serve on the eighth week of the year (1 Chronicles 24:10).

   Beginning the count from the days of Unleavened Bread, at the beginning of the year, we come to the third Hebrew month, Sivan. It was at this time that the angel of Yahweh told Zacharias he would become the father of a son (Luke 1:13). When his duties were finished, he went home, verse 23. At that time, Elizabeth conceived, verse 24. This was about the middle or end of our June. Moving forward nine months in the gestation period, we come to March when John the Baptist was born. Six months later, Yahshua was born, at the end of September or first of October.

   It is commonly recognized that our Savior’s ministry lasted three and one-half years. He began when He was 30 years of age (Luke 3:23, Numbers 4:3). Therefore, He was put to death at the age of 33-1/2 and died at Passover—which falls in the spring at about April. Starting in April and counting back six months to His birthday, we end up with an Autumn birth date.

   How then did December 25 become connected with the birthday of the Messiah? Alexander Hislop explains: “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 honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may be fairly presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ.” The Two Babylons, pg. 93.

   Yahweh has told us that man’s pagan traditions are an abomination to Him. He gave the same warning to ancient Israel through Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Hosea and all the other prophets. Yahshua the Messiah said, In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Matthew 15:9).

   Are we honoring the Great Eternal Creator when we mix His worship with pagan practices? You can freely choose to do as you wish, but a day of reckoning is coming when you will be responsible for every choice you make now. For Yahweh shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

   For a more detailed study on Christmas, write for our free booklet:  “The Real Story of Christmas,” or read it in its entirety by clicking here.