CHRISTMAS
TRACKING DOWN THE PAGAN ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS:
We all know that Santa Claus, elves, and flying reindeer are not found anywhere in the scriptures and yet we continue to allow these themes to be a part of annual Christmas celebrations. To find out what else is wrong with Christmas, all you have to do is type the phrase "PAGAN CHRISTMAS" into a search engine to find plenty of information about this topic. Even searching the same phrase on YouTube reveals the same results. If you will do this, you can find proof of how truly Un-Christian or Un-Messianic this holiday is.
PAGANS WERE CELEBRATING THIS DECEMBER HOLIDAY FOR CENTURIES BEFORE MESSIAH WAS BORN:
On what ended up being December 25th for centuries before Messiah Yahshua was born, pagans were celebrating birthdays of pagan gods. It was celebrated as the birthday of sun gods like Mithras and Sol Invictus as well as other gods like Saturn and Zeus. The Romans used to call this holiday Saturnalia. In the case of the sun gods, this was the time of the winter Solstice when the dark days of winter would quit being so short, and cold would change to getting warmer and the days were longer as we headed into spring and summer. They believed that the Sun died and was reborn on that day. Hence it is the birthday of the sun god. Have they turned Yeshua (Jesus) into a pagan SUN-God, and is this why many of us worship him on SUN-day? We have all heard the seasonal slogan “Let’s keep Christ in Christmas”, but the truth is that he never was in Christmas to begin with. Even if this was his true birthday, we were never instructed in scripture to celebrate it. Instead, we were commanded by Yahshua to remember his death instead - 1st Corinthians 11:25 & 26, Luke 22:19-20. Have you ever wondered how shepherds could stand to stay out in the fields all night watching their sheep in the cold winter weather of December 25th? This alone should tell you that he was not born during this time of year as tradition has led us to believe.
HOLINESS IS AT STAKE:
The avoidance of pagan holidays is a holiness issue. The words holiness and sanctification mean to be set apart, separate, or special. Separated from sins, mistakes, competing gods, or anything Yahweh does not like, and especially separate from cooperation with
and worship of other gods. We are to save ourselves exclusively for him, and he will always have time for us because we will be special to him. Yahweh says we are to be holy as he is holy — 1st Peter 1:14-16. In the following verses we find that it is dangerous not to keep ourselves separated unto him in loyalty after we enter into a relationship with him because he has a jealous nature:
Exodus 20:3 “Thou shalt have no other Elohim before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh thy Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”
MIXING THE WORSHIP OF YAHWEH TOGETHER WITH FALSE GODS:
In Deuteronomy 12:30-32, Yahweh advised his children not to try to find out how the heathen used to worship their false gods and then turn around and worship him (Yahweh) in the same manner. But that is exactly what people do when they celebrate Christmas because Messiah Yeshua was never born on December 25th, and that is the date on which most of the sun gods were worshiped for centuries before Messiah Yeshua was ever born. Christmas is nothing more than an extension of pagan myths about ancient false gods.
In Exodus 32:4-8, we find that Israel learned a great lesson during their exodus from Egypt when they made a golden idol in the image of a calf and then worshiped it by calling it “thy Gods, Oh Israel, which brought thee up from the land of Egypt” (v4) and they even called it the LORD (V5) which is defined in Stong's Concordance as Jehovah who is otherwise known as Yahweh in many encyclopedias. Yes, they looked at the man-made golden calf and called it Yahweh against the will of Yahweh. In Exodus 32:9-10 Yahweh got so angry that he wanted to consume (end or waste) the people of Israel. This should be a lesson to us that we should repent and abandon the pagan practice of Christmas that mixes Messiah Yeshua with sun gods, like Mithra, Saturn, Zeus, and Baal.
YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIP - EXPOSING CHRISTMAS AS PAGAN - PAT ROBERTSON ON CBN
YOUTUBE VIDEO CLIP EXPOSING CHRISTMAS & EASTER ENTITLED
“TRUTH OR TRADITION”:
TRUTH or TRADITION - By: Jim Staley - 1 hour & 55 minutes
RICHARD RIVES "CHRISTMAS" PAGE ON HIS “TOO LONG IN THE SUN” WEBSITE:
THE CHRISTMAS CONSPIRACY: The Pagan Origins of Christmas
Here you will find a long article about the pagan origins of the Christmas holiday with about 3 two-minute videos. His book entitled "Too Long in the Sun" contains a lot of proof with footnotes, exposing many pagan additions which have entered into Christianity over the centuries, like the pagan holidays.
