Christmas
by John Greene
I hear from all those around me who call me weird and blasphemous and evil because I don't have trees and lights and all the gifts around the house, so I will step back from those badgerings, and try to sanely answer and reveal a few things that I think we miss which may be what we must ask if we are to see Jesus.
First off, as most people know there is only paganism in this origination. Now I ask, if the root is holy isn't the rest holy? Okay if the root is evil what if you graft into the tree branches that are good, what happens? Think on that one and I'll go to the next.
We hear all the time all these carols on almost every radio station and in every store you go, even the grocery store! What is in those carols? We know, a bunch of untruths. If we learn by listening and if we are able to be desensitized by situations and things and teachings going on around us, what do we learn from those carols? The answer is all the heresies and lies that they contain!
I hear all the time that this is the season that we as christians can actually spread the truth of Jesus. Okay, let's think about that for a minute. What truth about Jesus do we spread? I know, a pretty manger scene, loving mom and dad, and don't forget the Baby. Sure, we call the Baby, Jesus, but what does the ignorant and evil person do at Christmas, you know the ones we are spreading the message we say we are spreading? They also celebrate with us the baby. How? They get drunk! They shoot some heroin, drop some acid, they may even give a gift and say, "Merry Christmas!" What message did we teach that "unsaved" person? Jesus is a Baby and we get drunk! Every person that you see, what message do you give? Merry Christmas and I love you?? That's what we say, but is that what we give?
We know that Jesus was never in Christmas, that it was a mass that catholics performed during the bubonic plague rituals of the dead. So why do we not want to get rid of the paganism of it? Why do we say put Christ in it? Why do we want to get mad when we see xmas rather than Christmas? The letter of the Greek alphabet that begins Christ is x! The x belongs in that word, but most people have not understanding of that either.
So why don't we want to let go of compromise and sin? Why do we allow lies added to it? We lie to our chuildren and tell them about satanman (santa claus) and give him qualities that we hear in those "carols" that are deity characteristics. Who knows the future? Who knows if you have been bad or good? Who is able to deliver all those presents, have all the money to buy those presents? We give these attributes to satanman!
I then hear about my kids. What about the kids??? They will miss all those wonderful times with family. Whattttt????? Family can ONLY be seen during December? My kids get gifts all year round and every week for the most part. I don't say, "I love you" but only during December. I don't teach hypocrisy to my friends, but I give away love all year around to them. When you give a gift to someone they say, "It isn't Christmas, so why are you giving me this now?"
What is this season all about? Selfishness, greed, and lying to ourselves! I remember what so and so gave and paid for that gift last year and I must do better than that this year or I will create an enemy. We lie to our kids, we distort love, and we make a mockery about truth during this time of the year.
Where does it say in Scripture to celebrate the birth of Christ? Yet I can show and you know of all those places that show about condoning evil, compromising the truth, deceiving others. Everyone must make up their own mind, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord in truth. For me I won't compromise the Word and I will worship Him all year in spirit and in truth.
The world has caused Christianity to stop thinking about things. By simple indoctrination from tradition, the world has a stranglehold on Christianity. If someone reads in the Word a passage of Scripture that teaches a principle of application that is contrary to the world, he is castigated and ostracized for daring to challenge or correct centuries of tradition. Sadly, the church has established this attitude towards tradition.
In 354AD, Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered December 25 to be the official date of christmas. Why? Hopefully in the words to follow, we will answer this question and many others as we progress. Strap on your seatbelt because those who are faint of heart will be jolted: forward with Jesus or tossed aside with the devil.
In the Book of Acts, the NT church did not celebrate any holiday called christmas. As a matter of fact, the Pilgrims and early Puritan settlers of New England made it a crime to celebrate christmas. Why? If Bishop Liberius made it a holiday, why would there be this contradiction?
A study in Genesis 10 & 11 will help us start to answer some questions. Nimrod was a mighty hunter and he started his construction projects in the area called Shinar. He was involved in the construction of many major cities, one being Babylon another Nineveh. He also was involved in building Babel where the Lord came down and confounded man and gave each one a different language. Nimrod is a key to understanding origination of religions and beliefs that spread and are spreading throughout the earth. All belief systems basically start here in Babel.
Nimrod married Semiramus. To their credit was born the infamous son, Tammuz. How interesting this will become as we follow this along. The Jewish calendar has Tammuz as a month. Coincidence? And we find Ezekiel writing the name, Tammuz, in his writings one time. Interesting?
Nimrod died before his wife died. She was so heart broken and while visiting her husband, she passed a stump of an old evergreen tree. She then claimed that while she did so, a tree sprang up from that stump into an evergreen of great stature. This happened at the vernal equinox. Now think for a minute, what happens at the vernal equinox?
Semiramus decided to celebrate this event and put a gift at the base of the tree at the winter solstice. Hmmm, that is interesting. She then married her son, Tammuz claiming that he was Nimrod reborn. Tammuz was the perpetuation of Nimrod's life. She went so far as to claim that Tammuz was Nimrod.
Tammuz became mighty and his notoriety grew. He was called the sun god and credited with great powers through the ages. At the winter solstice, they would celebrate his death, and the vernal equinox was the celebration of him coming back to life. The winter solstice became a feast that included giving of gifts, drunkenness, sexual orgies, and excessive traditions established.
We have found in the Scriptures reasons why the Promised Land was given to Israel. The Canaanites worshiped Ashtaroth and Baal. Their idolatry was as stench in the nostrils of Almighty God, and He judged them. The covenant included power given to the Israelites to destroy them for their idolatry. Of course they didn't and ended up worshiping Ashtaroth and Baal.
Each culture had a different language and history shows that each people would adopt some, most, or all of another cultures idols. The difference would be changing names into their language.
Semiramus was called Astarte to another, the queen of heaven by Jeremiah, easter by another, Ashtaroth by the Canaanites. She was the same person adopted into many cultures. How interesting.
The Romans were no different. They celebrated their gods with names in their language with feasts that contained much if not all that other cultures had adopted. They celebrated the feast of saturnalia, their unconquerable "songod", over darkness and the winter solstice. The winter solstice feast was held starting on December 25th. The other feast started on the vernal equinox. Have you guessed that one yet? It's in another article.
When Constantine became king, he had two parts of the Roman empire, the east and the west. Constantine had a problem following his defeat of the eastern king. He wanted to combine once again Roman rule into one kingdom. One half celebrated and worshiped a mother and her Son. Another half celebrated and worshiped an mother and her son.
Constantine saw a "sign" in the sky, the Greek chi! Some historians have attempted to revise the time and what happened by saying that Constantine became a Christian. He did not see the sign of the cross as some said. He saw the chi that meant he should repent and receive Jesus as Lord which he did not!! A Christian? Not so!
Constantine was a politician and he wanted to combine both kingdoms to be one empire. From this came the not true story of the cross. One kingdom celebrated Tammuz whose symbol was the sacred tau, a capital T from the Greek alphabet! The underground church celebrated Jesus knowing He was crucified on a tree. The cross came out of this combination of kingdoms, a stake with a cross member.
Constantine then sent his troops door to door asking if they were Christian after he legalized Christianity as Roman Catholicism. At first the heathens said no and they were killed. The merger went further and the thoughts combined. What a dramatic series of compromises!!
Since then, we have the world and each individual culture celebrating christmas in their own idolatrous way. So many of the world today celebrate christmas in one way or another. There are traditions and symbols of people and events that are incorporated into the celebrations. The church from the 4th century has celebrated christmas for the most part.
Many good Christians today celebrate what is clearly a pagan holy day. They do so in ignorance, but their ignorance doesn't change the truth. Many later on in their maturity become aware of these originations and face a difficult decision. The common mistake is the warm fuzzies that are in memories when they celebrated in ignorance. They assume that because they had a good time and those fuzzies are very real that God approves of paganism and the celebrating of christmas. They use this logic to allow themselves to hide the conviction, and continue to justify their now discovered sin.
God winks at our ignorance, but now He commands everywhere that we repent. I read this in some Book. Hmmm, was it the Bible?
Here are some details:
1) A Romish mass is done with chants.
2) During the dark ages, the plague required mass burials simply because of the devastation and danger. The priests would say a Christ mass over the dead before and while they were being burned.
3)Hollyberries were sacred to the sungod.
4) The yulelog was also called the "sunlog" because it meant wheel and was symbolic for the sun. The German swastika also was symbolic as a sun wheel.
5) Mistletoe is a parasitic plant and was used in ceremonial practices sacred to the sun as a miracle healer. It represented the death of the old sun and the new sun in the winter solstice celebrated with orgies and drunkenness with people kissing under it. This was adopted from the Druid practices for good luck. The Druids were satanic priests from Celtic origin.
6) The christmas tree came from Scandinavian countries who were evangelized during the 8th and 9th centuries. However, they rejected the choice of giving up their tree, and it was incorporated into worship as a hand me down pagan symbol that went back to Semiramus and Tammuz.
7) Nicholas was a real man, a Bishop of Myra who loved people and gave the poor many things. He was very generous. During the dark ages, his legend was also incorporated into christmas. Personally, I can't see the tie.
8) Nicholas became Santa Claus as an American addition on the 19th century, specifically 1823 when Clement Moore turned the Dutch Sinter Klaas into "A Visit From St. Nicholas" which became "The Night Before Christmas"!
9)Romans exchanged evergreens for good luck. The English added this to their customs and gave us the rhyme, "Holly and Ivy, Box and Bay, put in the church on Christmas day."
For everyone who has read this. You now have a decision that you must make. No longer can you declare ignorance. You now must do something with your new found knowledge. Don't let the warm fuzzies of tradition overcome the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Repent. Renounce christmas for what it is, a pagan holiday! Jesus was never in christmas, so when the season comes around, you will remember that He is not the reason for the season.