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CHRISTMAS 25th DECEMBER The fact of the pagan origin of the festival of Christmas on the 25th December, namely, as birthday of the Sun deity, is admitted by all scholars. The Messiah could not have been born in mid-winter, 25th December, as the shepherds were out in the fields, watching over their flock by night Luke 2:8. In Israel no one would permit their flock out on a winter night. The date of our Messiah's birth has been calculated to be in fall. In any case, we are not commanded to remember the day of His birth, rather, to remember the day of His death. According to Scripture, this is what the early believers did, 1 Cor. 11:26. The Catholic Encyclopedia says, "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. Irenaeus and Tertullian omit it from their lists of feasts." Wherefrom does this Christmas on 25 December originate? Sir James Frazer says, "The largest pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as a holiday . . . was the pagan sun- worship, Mithraism . . . This winter festival was called . . . 'the Nativity of the SUN.' Mithraism was the fastest growing cult just prior to the year 321 and was the major rival of Christianity. Franz Cumont, perhaps the greatest scholar of Mithraism, wrote, quoting Minucius Felix, "The Mithraists also observed Sun-day and kept sacred the 25th of December as the birthday of the Sun. Many scholars have pointed out how the Sun- worshipping Mithraists, the Sun-worshipping Manicheans and the Christians were all syncretised and reconciled when Constantine led the take-over by Christianity, even if it meant the latter's surrender of most vital Scriptural truths, especially its Hebrew roots. However, other Sun-worshipping groups were included too, because of the general importance and popularity of Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun-deity. Mario Righetti, a renowned Catholic liturgist, writes, "the Church of Rome, to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, found it convenient to institute the 25th December as the feast of the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honour of the 'Invincible Sun', Mithras. Sir James Frazer wrote, "If the Mithraic mysteries were indeed a Satanic copy of a divine original, we are driven to conclude that Christianity took a leaf out of the devil's book when it fixed the birth of the Saviour on the 25th December; for there can be no doubt that the day in question was celebrated as the birthday of the Sun by the heathen before the Church . . . transferred the Nativity The mixing of pagan Sun-worship and Christianity is exemplified by the testimony of a Syrian scholiast on Bar Salibi, who said, "It was a custom of the heathen to celebrate on the same 25th of December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and festivities the Christians also took part." Practically all the known Sun-deities were born on the 25th December. In S.E. Titcomb, Aryan Sun myths, the Origin of Religions, we find it cited, quoted from primary sources, that the following Sun-deities were all born on 25 December, according to their legends: Crishna (Vishnu), Mithra (Mithras), Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus (Bacchus), Tammuz, Indra, Buddha. Therein we also read of the Scandinavian goddess Frigga in whose honour a "Mother-night" festival was held at the winter solstice (+ - 25 December), as well as a similar great feast of Yule, where a boar was offered at the winter solstice in honour of Frey. Thus we find the three great days of Christianity (as it is practised by most today), namely Sun-day, Easter and Christmas, all three having had its origin in the Sun-worship of the pagan nations. "How did these nations serve their mighty ones? I also will do likewise," Deut. 12:30. This is exactly what the true Mighty One, Yahuweh, forbade His people to do. The keeping of days, especially days of festivity, is perhaps the most popular amongst all religions "And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which Yahuweh your Elohim has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage," Deut. 4:19. The New English Bible and the Good News Bible render this more interpretatively, ". . . your Elohim has given these to all other peoples for them to worship." The prophet's warning of Eze. 8:9-16, the "wicked abominations" of Sun- worship which had been fused and mixed with True Worship, is equally applicable for our day. What greater proof do we need of the most alarming fact that Elohim has indeed given us up to worship the host of heaven, especially the Sun! These Sun-worshipping festivity days had been used to win over to the Church, the pagan masses of the Roman Empire in which the Sun was the leading power in the Roman pantheon. The weekly Sun-day, the spring Easter Sun-day, the birth of the Sun-deity on 25 December all three of these festival days originated from, and were instituted by pagans in honour of the Sun-deity. The above information was quoted from the book: The Final Reformation by C. J. Koster It has been retitled: Come Ot Of Her My People The excerpt below demonstrates how the early Baptist (17th century England) regarded the observance of the holidays (Christmas in particular). It is most unfortunate that the Baptists have since compromised with the world and adopted this idolatrous festival in their spiritual life. Now at this, Mr. Kelly being some years deceased, his Widdow persevered in godliness; and it might be said of her as of Ruth iii, 11 (all the city did know her to be a virtuos woman). She was like a hee-goat before ye flock: for in those dayes, Mrs. Kelly was very famous for Piety and reformation, well knowne to all, bearing a liveing testimony against ye supersititions and traditions of those dayes, and she would not observe their invented times and feasts, called Holy days. Att which time she kept a Grocer's shop in High-street, between ye Guilders Inn and ye High Crosse, where she would keep open her shop on ye time they called Christmas day, and sit sewing in her shop, as a witnesse for God in ye midst of ye Citty, in ye face of ye Sun, and in ye sight of all men; even in those very days of Darknesse, when, as it were, all sortes of People had a reverence of that particular day above all others. And as ye Apostle saith, 1 Cor. viii. 7 There was not in every man that knowledge for some, with conscience of the Idoll unto this hour eat it as things offered unto an Idoll, and their Conscience being weak is defiled. But this gracious Woman (afterwards called Mrs. Hazzard), like a Deborah she arose, with strength of holy Resoulution in her soul from God, even a Mother in Israell. And soe she proved, because she was ye first woman in this Citty of Bristoll that practized that truth of ye Lord (which was then hated and Odious), namely Separtion. Now ye way that ye Lord tooke to bring her, with some others of ye Professors in this Citty, to Separate from ye World, was this. After they had (as before rehearsed), been awakened and mett first together to Repeat sermon-notes, then they kept many dayes of Prayer together, as a company of Good people. [Brackney, William H (editor). Baptist Life and Thought: 1600-1980. Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA, 1983, p. 65 (quoting Records of the Broadmead Church (Hayden Transcript) Book I.)] A website for reference: http://users.aol.com/libcfl/xmas.htm |
Come Out Of Her My People Revelation 18:4 |
CHRISTMAS |
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This page was last updated on: 12/15/03
