THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS

Luke Chapter 2








Today we are walking in: The Origins of Christmas










2 Chronicles 32:15


Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive H5377 you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither yet believe him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?







DECEIVE




Today we look to the word-DECEIVE-H5377 nasha'-- to beguile, deceive to be beguiled







The Torah testifies...............


Genesis 3:13


And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, H5377 and I did eat.





The prophets proclaim..................


Isaiah 37:10


Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive H5377 thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.



Jeremiah 29:8


For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive H5377 you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.


Jeremiah 9:5


And they will deceive H5377 every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.




The writings bear witness...........................


2 Kings 4:28


Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive H5377 me?


2 Kings 18:29


Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive H5377 you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:


Proverbs 24:28


Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive H5377 not with thy lips.










Christmas contradicts the biblical facts
It's commonly assumed that Christmas is celebrated because it's the birthday of Yahusha Hamachiach. But biblical scholars overwhelmingly admit that Yahusha was born nowhere near Dec. 25. There are sound reasons for this conclusion. Luke's Gospel tells us that Joseph and Mary were traveling to Bethlehem to register during a Roman census when Yahusha was born, and also that shepherds still had their flocks out in the open fields at that time (Luke 2:1-8).
Yahusha neither observed Christmas nor taught others to observe it. It did not originate with Him.
But the Holy Land in December is cold, rainy and sometimes snowy. No sound-minded shepherd would have been so foolhardy as to leave his flock in the fields at night at that time of year. And no intelligent ruler would compel people to travel many miles to register for a census when the likelihood of bad weather would have made such an effort self-defeating.
Why should we believe that Yahusha was born on Dec. 25 when the Bible itself plainly contradicts this notion?
The birth of Christmas
So if Christmas didn't originate with Christ's birth being on Dec. 25, when and how did it originate?
Christmas began long before the birth of Yahusha Hamachiach. Alexander Hislop's book The Two Babylons explores many historical sources showing that the holiday precedes Christ by at least 2,000 years, as earlier mentioned (1957, pp. 97-98).
A nativity celebration for pagan Yahs was observed near the winter solstice in both Syria and Egypt. Later, some 400 years before Christ, the Mithraic religion, centering on the Persian sun Yah Mithras, provided the foundation for the Christmas celebration. Mithraism became very popular in the Roman Empire, and many elements of its worship survive today in Roman Catholicism.
For example, the noted British anthropologist, historian and scholar Sir James Frazer, knighted for his contributions to our understanding of ancient religions, wrote in his book The Golden Bough:
"There can be no doubt that the Mithraic religion proved a formidable rival to Christianity, combining as it did a solemn ritual with aspirations after moral purity and a hope of immortality. Indeed the issue of the conflict between the two faiths appears for a time to have hung in the balance. An instructive relic of the long struggle is preserved in our festival of Christmas, which the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its heathen rival.


"In the Julian calendar the twenty-fifth of December was reckoned the winter solstice, and it was regarded as the Nativity [birthday] of the Sun, because the day begins to lengthen and the power of the sun to increase from that turning-point of the year. The ritual of the nativity, as it appears to have been celebrated in Syria and Egypt, was remarkable. The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which at midnight they issued with a loud cry, 'The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing [stronger]!'
"The Egyptians even represented the new-born sun by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshippers. No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental [i.e., Middle Eastern] Yahdess whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Yahdess; in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte [Easter]" (The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 358, emphasis added throughout).
If people insist on defending Christmas, at least they should know how it originated.
Tertullian on Christmas
The early Catholic theologian and writer Tertullian (A.D. 155-230) was a convert from paganism. He wrote numerous works defending Christianity as he understood it, combatting contrary teachers and giving exhortation to fellow believers. In one he described how the Christian converts of his day were already ignoring the biblical Sabbath day and festivals and flocking to the pagan Roman winter festivals, such as the Saturnalia, which honored the Yah Saturn:
"By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to Yah, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar" (Tertullian, On Idolatry, chap. 14, quoted by Hislop, p. 93).
Tertullian rebuked Christians for joining in such pagan celebrations, noting that no self-respecting pagan would join in "Christian" celebrations: "Oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians" (ibid).
He further stated of the pagans: "For, even if they had known them, they would not have shared the Lord's Day or Pentecost with us. For they would fear lest they would appear to be Christians. Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be pagans!" (quoted by David Bercot, editor, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, 1998, p. 342). This is an incredible admission.
A zealous Tertullian could see the difference between heathen and Christian festivals. Can we?