Posted on 12/23/2012 1:28:36 PM PST by Salvation
I’m not sure when the Festival of Booths is on the Jewish calendar but I have come to believe that there is good evidence that Jesus was born on the 1st of Nisan,
(usually in March or April)the real Jewish new year, and the meaning of that date makes perfect sense.
The holy days are teaching tools.
The haters claim Christmas is pagan, they claim Easter is pagan some claim Sunday worship is pagan and some claim venerating the Cross is idol worship and pagan too. Sad that so many are deluded.
The haters claim Christmas is pagan, they claim Easter is pagan some claim Sunday worship is pagan and some claim venerating the Cross is idol worship and pagan too. Sad that so many are deluded.
The haters claim Christmas is pagan, they claim Easter is pagan some claim Sunday worship is pagan and some claim venerating the Cross is idol worship and pagan too. Sad that so many are deluded.
The Christmas we have now is certainly fraught with paganism. It is a far far cry from the John 10:22,23 you slipped in. That was the Cleansing of the Tabernacle feast and nothing dealing with the commercial onslaught we are faced with now. Totally unrecognizable. The pagan date and glossed over frivolities makes this more of an abomination than celebration. More to do with the birthday of Nimrod than Christ.
The haters claim Christmas is pagan- Certainly parts of it are
They claim Easter is pagan - From the name to the fertility symbols yep
some claim Sunday worship is pagan - Jesus kept the Sabbath and He is our Example (Or supposed to be)
Some claim venerating the Cross is idol worship - Did Jesus or the Disciples wear one?
Sad that so many are deluded - We can agree on that but which side?
Pagans didn’t have shopping centers and post-Xmas sales! End of discussion.
Merry Christmas
While Protestant Fundamentalists frequently rail against it, usually calling for either a boycott of the holiday, or else a return to the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
Huh?
Honestly, I have never seen this, outside wack-a-doodle borderline sects.
We always say Mary Christmas just to make sure Mary comes first.”s”
You forgot Easter.
Come back in April.
Embrace the Bunny.
So if it is not Christian— it follows it must be Pagan?
is Pagan more or less the same as Barbarian? Yule the same as Jul in Norse, old norse hjul meaning full circle or wheel meaning the sun has completed it’s circle and is starting anew, winter solstice as it were, lots of reasons to celebrate the winter solstice and lighter warmer days to come, for those thar celebrate Christmas it is a Christian hollyday, for others is is whatever they want it to be, even just a few days off work, live and let live I say, do the English have FOURTH OF JULY, sure, only it is not a holliday
Some claim venerating the Cross is idol worship - Did Jesus or the Disciples wear one?
The earliesr Christian symbos were a fish and were used by the apostles and early christians for identification, the cross came later
The fish was a symbol for identification. The early Christians were persecuted and had to know who to trust. The cross on the other hand is a cruel deadly instrument to inflict as much shame, pain and humiliation on a poor victim as possible. The Apostles knew about the cross but never wore it. They would have condemned anybody for this heinous jewelry.
Quite the spin here. In actuality Judea had a series of revolts against the Roman empire which eventually led to the fall of 2nd temple. This made anyone Jewish or anything that resembled Judaism a target. Some early (post biblical) Christians, not wanting to appear too "Jewish" started to abandon scriptural holy days and other biblical practices. This sentiment from Rome still is around today in the form of antisemitism.
To begin our search lets go to Luke Chapter 1 and find Mary's cousin Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah. We begin at Jerusalem in the temple. We'll find some verses and highlight the parts that will help us in our search. Luke 1:5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
We find in 1 Chronicles 24:10 The division of Abijah was eighth in line to perform their tasks of serving God in the sanctuary - The seventh lot fell to Hakkoz. The eighth lot fell to Abijah.....
Luke 1:8-9 When Zechariah was serving with his division of priests in God's presence, … he was chosen by lot to go into the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense, according to the custom of the priests. Let's dissect this – Israel was divided into districts in NT times. Priests from the various districts would go into Jerusalem and serve the needs of the temple during appointed times. The Jewish month of “Nissan” starts the counting of the months, the feast seasons and the priestly duty periods in the temple in Jerusalem. Each priestly division had to serve for one week (all served during the week of Passover) so this would place Zecharias in the temple at the 9th week.
Luke 1:11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the incense altar. Luke 1:13 ...the angel told him, "Don't be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John. Luke 1:20 But because you did not believe my announcement, which will be fulfilled at its proper time, you will become silent and unable to speak until the day this happens." Luk 1:23-26 When the days of his service were over, he went home.
The following (#10) week, was the required celebration of Shavuot and the next week Zechariah would have gone home to Elizabeth. 11 weeks after the start of the year – mid April.
After this, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and remained in seclusion for five months. She said, "This is what the Lord did for me when he looked favorably on me and took away my public disgrace." Now in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, Luke 1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 1:30 ... the angel told her, "fear not, Mary, because you have found favor with God. 1:31 Listen! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 1:33 He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end." 1:34 Mary asked the angel, "How can this happen, since I have not had relations with a man?" 1:35 The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will surround you. Therefore, the child will be holy and will be called the Son of God. 1:36 And listen! Elizabeth, your relative, has herself conceived a son in her old age, this woman who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
Guess when the “sixth” month would find them?.....around the “feast of dedication” Hannukah! aka. the “feast of lights”...... remember the announcement that He was the light come into the world? Around the middle of …...December
Now do the math. If Mary conceived the Savior in December during Hannukah we count nine months,,,Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sept. What happens in late September? The Feast of Tabernacles! The very time when God said He would “dwell with his people.”
Exo_25:8 Let them make a sanctuary ( a tabernacle) for me so I may dwell among them.
The Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) is celebrated in the Fall, around September/October. In Jerusalem at the time of Christ - the Fall Holy Days - which consist of the Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement and Festival of Booths, many would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for these Fall Feasts and spend the entire month there since they are very close together over about a 3-1/2 week period of time.
I think that Jesus was probably born around this time - either on the Day of Trumpets or Tabernacles.
Part of the reason is that in 4BC, Roman records indicate that a Census tax applied to Judea was decreed by Augustus Caesar at that time. A wise decision considering almost all of Judea would be traveling to Jerusalem to keep the Feasts. That would also explain why there was no room at any inn for Joseph and Mary. It would be doubtful that all of Judea would travel to their ancestral homelands just to pay a tax to the conquering Romans. Rome decided to conduct their census and tax when all of their subjects would be in the same area anyway.
Since it is still warm at that time of year, the shepherds stayed out all night in the fields with their flocks, rather than barn them up in the stable/caves that they winter them still to this day (it snows and rains in Jerusalem in November-December). That is why the stables were unoccupied by animals at the time and Jesus was born in one of those.
I frankly don't care if people want to celebrate Christmas, but they should know what and why they celebrate.
Sadly, most people have absolutely no clue why they believe and follow the traditions they do. When one considers that so many continue to vote for Democrats because their parents and families have done so for generations - without any comprehension or understanding of the Constitution or our heritage - one understands how blind belief is an unshakable trait of human nature.
And... when the truth confronts tradition - usually insane anger and rage accompany those who dare cause a slave to tradition - to look into why they believe what they do.
This is true of religion, and politics, yet Scripture tells us we are to be like Bereans, and "prove all things, holding fast to that which is right".
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