Christmas: Part 1 Is it Christian or Pagan?

Christmas: Is it Christian or Pagan?
Introduction: The birth of Jesus – Part 1

1st Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

Jon Watkins  Online Ministries  November 2015 Updated from limited 1999 writing.
Cynthia Pawl edited, corrected and added to this!

Jeremiah 6:16 “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.“

This one will most certainly draw a lot of Ire from fellow believers. However, the truth must be told!!! First, I must say that, NO, I am not a Jehovah’s Witness. I am non-denominational just a child of the King, Jesus Christ who believes and follows what the Bible states as a whole, not taken out of context to promote a certain agenda!

Think about this for a moment if you will. Why does the media try to keep Jesus Christ off TV and allow Christmas shows that portray Santa Claus and all that goes with it? After all, isn’t the Christmas season supposed to be about the birth of Jesus? Why if they want God out of schools and government do they allow Christmas trees (now referred to as Holiday trees) in schools and the White House? Why are they trying to remove any remaining reference to the Bible and Jesus out of Christmas while still promoting Santa Claus when he has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus? Why do they fight so hard against the Gospel then promote Christmas? We will show you the answers to all of those questions in this series.

The Christmas celebration, as we know it, is clearly rooted in paganism. It has Satan’s prints all over it. When researching it, anyone can see it is not a Christian holiday. It is another religious concoction of man, designed by the powers of darkness to draw people away from the truth and into bondage. What bothers me is the fact that so many preachers know exactly what it is and yet continue to encourage the practice. They are doing nothing to enlighten the sheep and reveal the truth. They stand in the pulpit year after year and do not tell the “flock” that it is one of the pagans most sacred days. Why is this? The reason is the “flock” would not accept it and would run the preacher off!! They will let the “flock” drown in sin and to avoid losing their pay check and position. It boils down to no GUTS!! I get mail from pagans and once in a while they will mention the fact that the church celebrates their holiday. There is no way to argue because they are absolutely correct!!! It’s time for Gods people to get some backbone and put an end to the non-sense. If we fail to do something, and pretty quickly, God will.

Some Satanists celebrate Christmas! Here is what one says:

The Church of Rational Satanism is based in the UK, but has members all around the world. John doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong with him celebrating Christmas as a Satanist. “There’s nothing Christian about Christmas,” he said.

“In the Bible it specifically says you’re not allowed to take trees into your house. The whole of Christmas is a pagan festival.

“Christmas was timed to coincide with the Saturnalia and the winter solstice. Christmas trees are pagan, cooking and carving the turkey comes from a sacrificial ritual.”

He said that no two satanists are the same. In his local chapter there are accountants and GPs as well as hippies and witches.

“There are people who go in for more of the ritualistic side of things,” he said. “Wearing robes and chanting spells and drawing pentacles (five-pointed stars) to summon demons.” See more at Source

Some will argue, that they do not believe all that pagan stuff. They say that as long as their hearts are in the right place, and they are only celebrating the birth of Jesus, there can’t be anything wrong with that. After all, “God looks at the heart”, right? That thinking is so terribly wrong. We see, in the Old Testament, time and time again, that when Gods people incorporated paganism into their worship, God brought judgment upon the people and nation. It is no different today. The Roman Catholic Church, was never Christian, form its conception. It was formed by the Roman Emperor’s desire to unite their holdings under one pagan religion. They mingled the heathen ways of the pagan’s ( witchcraft) with the teachings of the believing Christians of the time to appease everyone. So, all of the practices of the Roman Church are corrupt. All of the “holidays”, including Christmas and Easter are based in paganism mingled with Jesus.

I am not saying that you should not reflect on the birth of Jesus. Certainly, we are extremely thankful for that monumental occasion, truly the most important birth in history. However, birthday celebrations are another pagan practice. More importantly, Jesus was not born at this time of year. We should be lifting Jesus up, all through the year. And, we do well to counter the evil influences of greed and materialism during this time of year, by reminding everyone of the GIFT OF THE SAVIOUR. I am however, encouraging you not put indulge in the worldly appointments of this season. Refrain from displaying all of the pagan symbolism such as: a Christmas tree, wreaths, elves, yule logs, Santa Claus, etc. In their place, you might consider putting up a sign or something proclaiming the reason why Jesus came to this earth. Instead of a tree, you might place a nativity scene, on your lawn, as a reminder to all who pass your home. That is what we do at our house, not to celebrate the Christmas season, but to get people focused on the one who came and died for our sins.

Just as proper worship in the Church, proper celebration of the birth of our Savior should be observed if you must! Don’t bring paganism into it. Instead of just focusing on Jesus twice a year, how about celebrating his birth, death and resurrection 365 days a year! Christmas as it is, should have no place church or anywhere in the life of a Born Again Christian. It is just another form of Idol worship and God will have none of it!

Satan does not try to deny the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He can’t! Instead he seeks to corrupt it and change it. He seeks to add to, pervert it and use ignorant people to propagate it. Please lay aside your prejudice, your dogma and learn the truth. As I usually insert, somewhere in my articles: John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

When and where was Jesus born?
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

In order to establish truth and dispel lies and myths we must first look at when Jesus was born. He was NOT born on December 25^th! In just a bit, I will show you why that date was chosen and why you should not celebrate at that time of the year. Let’s look at what the scripture says. Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

In December, in the land of Israel and surrounding areas, the weather is cold and snowy, as it is in the northern hemisphere. At this time, there is very little green vegetation grows, sometimes none at all. Now, a shepherd in those days watched over sheep or perhaps goats, but mostly sheep. Sheep eat grass and green grass does not grow, in the fields, in winter. Bethlehem Israel (31.7031 north) is almost on the same latitude as Dallas Texas USA (32.7767 North). Dallas at that time of the year has no green grass and it sometimes snows. The map on the right shows very clearly that Bethlehem is located in a mountainous region, so that area would get more extreme cold and ice, and earlier than flatter areas. This fact, may help open the eyes of the nit pickers, ill-informed Christmas worshipers, giving them one less reason to justify their rebellion.

The actual time of Jesus’ birth has been argued and placed all over the calendar. Estimations range anywhere from March to December. Outside of the reference to the Shepherds in the fields with their flocks, the Bible does not give a specific time of the year. I contend that the Holy Spirit did not inspire the writers to put a date on his birth because he did not want people to focus on it. Just as he did not give a date for his return. Remember, Jesus said, you shall know when he will return by the “signs” of the times. We can also use that bit of wisdom to figure out when he was born… and it was not in winter! There are no recorded references in any other writings from which scholars might glean an exact time of Jesus’ birth. Considering the immaculate record keeping by the Jews of that time, you would not expect that to be the case.

“The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first “Christian Roman Emperor”). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December.” Source Why Christmas

“The extra-biblical evidence from the first and second century is equally spare: There is no mention of birth celebrations in the writings of early Christian writers such as Irenaeus (c. 130–200) or Tertullian (c. 160–225). Origen of Alexandria (c. 165–264) goes so far as to mock Roman celebrations of birth anniversaries, dismissing them as “pagan” practices—a strong indication that Jesus’ birth was not marked with similar festivities at that place and time.1 As far as we can tell, Christmas was not celebrated at all at this point……. There are two theories today: one extremely popular, the other less often heard outside scholarly circles (though far more ancient) The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.” Source The Biblical Archaeology Society

Swaddling clothes, lying in a manger
Dictionary definition of Swaddling clothes: narrow bands of cloth formerly wrapped around a newborn child to restrain its movements and quiet it.

Dictionary definition of a Manger: a long open box or trough for horses or cattle to eat from.

We have established it was winter in Bethlehem and was COLD. A baby would NOT be wrapped in Swaddling clothes in the winter, and would not be in a manger, outside in a barn in the winter!

In keeping with common sense, one can deduce that Jesus was not born in the dead of winter. He was born sometime between late spring to early fall, when it was warm, grass was growing and the sheep were grazing. So, who is promoting the myth, the lie, and the deception? Religion…the Church for the most part. All are guilty, but the Catholic’s started it!

What should the Christian focus on?
The Four Gospels provide detailed information about the time of Jesus’ ministry, death and crucifixion. The Holy Spirit, in my opinion, had it written that way so people would focus on that instead of a birthday. The ritual of a birthday celebration is also a pagan invention, as already mentioned, and we will look at that in the next part of this series. We focus on celebrating a birthday, instead of our journey through life. What we do in life, the acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ, is what matters and not when one is born. What matters most is whether or not, when you draw your last breath, your name is written in the Lambs Book of Life.

You should be focused on His last days, what he did for you and what he said while on the Cross of Calvary. When suffering and dying for YOUR Sin on the Cross, Jesus looked into heaven and said “it is Finished”.

Santa Claus, has nothing to do with the Birth of Jesus. Decorating your house with lights, has nothing to do with the Birth of Jesus. Putting up a Christmas tree, has nothing to do with the Birth of Jesus. Partying and getting drunk, has nothing to do with Jesus! Oh, but it does have a direct connection, to someone in the spirit realm and that is who you are really worshiping at Christmas! Do you want to know the truth or do you want to continue in a religious stupor?

Continued in Part 2 – Where did the Birthday Celebration originate?