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The Birth of ChristDecember 25th is not the birthday of Jesus the true Christ! The apostles and the early true Church never celebrated Christ’s birthday at any time. There is no command or instruction in the Bible to celebrate it. Indeed, Christmas is a pagan, rather than Christian custom.
Shepard attending sheep in the Holy LandWhen Jesus was born “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8) This could never have occurred in Palestine in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than mid-October, to protect them from the cold, rainy seasons that followed that date. |
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge states in its article on “Christmas”:
“How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25) following the Saturnalia (December 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 merrymaking was so popular that people 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.”
The real beginnings of Christmas probably go further back than that – way back to the original Babylon of ancient Nimrod. Nimrod, grandson of Ham, son of Noah, was so evil, it is said he married his own mother. After Nimrod’s untimely death, his so-called mother-wife propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolised the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod.
The Encyclopedia Britannica sums it up with the following:
“Christmas customs – a descent from seasonal, pagan, religious and national customs and practices hedged about with legend and tradition.”
Jesus said: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:9) Moreover, as the world embraces all the paganism and commercialism of Christmas they miss the real message of the birth of Christ – for He was born to “save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21) and to give the gift of eternal life. The gift of righteousness. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The one and same gift that cannot be worked for or bought. It is a free gift and it is available for all those who would reach out and take it.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5)
By Pr. Darryl Williams
“How much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (December 25) following the Saturnalia (December 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 merrymaking was so popular that people 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.”
The real beginnings of Christmas probably go further back than that – way back to the original Babylon of ancient Nimrod. Nimrod, grandson of Ham, son of Noah, was so evil, it is said he married his own mother. After Nimrod’s untimely death, his so-called mother-wife propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolised the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. December 25th was the birthday of Nimrod.
The Encyclopedia Britannica sums it up with the following:
“Christmas customs – a descent from seasonal, pagan, religious and national customs and practices hedged about with legend and tradition.”
Jesus said: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:9) Moreover, as the world embraces all the paganism and commercialism of Christmas they miss the real message of the birth of Christ – for He was born to “save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21) and to give the gift of eternal life. The gift of righteousness. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The one and same gift that cannot be worked for or bought. It is a free gift and it is available for all those who would reach out and take it.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” (Titus 3:5)
By Pr. Darryl Williams
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