Preparing for Christmas Ping!
Preparing for Christmas Ping!
Even the Christians deified rabbi from 2,000 years would celebrate it, right???
Think I’ll throw another Yule Log on the fire. No paganism associated with that, eh?
Unfortunately, there is not a shred of truth in this rewrite of history to accommodate an unbiblical tradition grafted into the Christian faith.
I, myself learned where Christmas had it’s origins from the parochial school I belonged, from Catholic encyclopedias no less.
This author tries to cite the feast of Sol Invictus as the prime error in associating Christmas with paganism. The fact is - the traditions that became Christmas were borrowed from the Roman pagan festival of The Saturnalia, which was kept as far back as 497 B.C. when the temple to the god Saturn was dedicated in December.
The Saturnalia and the later festival of Sol Invictus (158 A.D.) were state holidays and both feasts combined in practice near the 300s A.D. Constantine in 321 simply changed the festivals from worship of the sun god, to the worship of the Son OF God when he converted to Christianity and became the first Holy Roman Emperor. That is plain historical fact.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December because this was the date of the Saturnalia and Sol Invictus, was expressed in by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. He wrote: “It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.”
Jesus did not give us any instructions to celebrate His birthday - nor is there any record of the 1st Century Church ever keeping such a day. Rather - Jesus was very specific that we should commemorate His DEATH, something the Apostle Paul also reiterated that Christians should proclaim ‘until He come again’.
It is not Jesus’ birth that redeems us from the penalty of sin, which the bible says is eternal death. It is the DEATH of our Savior, wherein He sprinkled His own blood on the mercy seat as an atoning sacrifice for all mankind - that saves us from oblivion, and breaches the divide between man and the Adonai with the promise of life everlasting.
What does it matter the history of Christmas? It no longer is a Christian day. It is a certainty that our current culture has transformed Christmas into a pagan holiday that celebrates such things as family, shopping for bargains, decorations, annual songs and just about everything but Christ.
Today’s first reading from the OT includes these words:
“one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.”
People have been searching for salvation from the beginning of time. Societies have always used blood sacrifice. It was always in anticipation of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross once for all and never again is it required.
Further on, second reading Hebrews: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.”
God operates outside of time. All salvation is under His direction.
There is the whole article in seven words.
And when Paganism becomes tradition? When the church has accepted a syncretism (which she boasts of in her supposed authority) as tradition, what then?
A good and blessed Merry Christmas.
I go with this, no Easter, no Christmas, no Christmas, no Easter.
NO Christ, NO Peace of Mind and Heart. KNOW Christ, KNOW Peace of Mind and Heart.
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.
Pagans didn’t have shopping centers and post-Xmas sales! End of discussion.
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.
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
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.
Equinox and Solstice are cornerstones to life and have been so since life existed on earth. (If you don't believe that just pay attention to your own mood shifts as the seasons change, then see how the animals react to those changes... of course, there is also that crop cycle thing.)
Christmas on December 25th isn't "pagan", it's Human, it's a sign of life.
If Christians elect to celebrate their savior on that date and if Jews elect to memorialize their faith four days earlier - so be it and so what?
Isn't it of more value to acknowledge that we are all (well, lots of us) celebrating the same promise, and that we are all bound by the same values from the same source?
Thanks for the post! I love history and new info about early Christianity and their celebration of traditions are of great interest!
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone here at freerepublic.com, and may God richly bless you in the year to come.