From the beginning, Satan's goal is to keep people away from God. And he does that through any means necessary. From deceiving people into believing that the Bible is scientifically and historically inaccurate, to following human traditions and rules under the guise of "this is what the Bible requires", even to leading people to follow other gods which at best, don't exist. And that's without mentioning the repeated use of the trick of making God's Law look burdensome. There is no shortage of ways that people have been kept away from God.
The reason I mentioned the deception of making God's Law look burdensome is because it makes it easier to lead people to do things their own way, just as Adam and Eve did things their own way by trying to obtain a type of knowledge that God never indented for us to have. Take this exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, for example:
1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!"
3 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.' 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is 'devoted to God,' 6 they are not to 'honor their father or mother' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
8 "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'" [Matthew 15:1-9; NIV]
The elders of the day put in place a tradition of washing ones hands before they ate, and the Pharisees expected everyone to follow that tradition (along with many, many other human traditions) as if it was equal to God's Law. Some of these traditions even broke God's Law as you can see from the quoted verses. Jesus points this out, then quotes Isaiah 29:13, exposing the system for what it really is: A set of human rules! To drive the point home, Jesus outright said that the Pharisees cannot escape being condemned because of their system that keeps people far from God [Matthew 23:13-36]. How does it keep people far from God? By keeping them in rebellion against God's Law, in direct violation of Deuteronomy 13. Isn't it interesting that the Pharisees tested Jesus against Deuteronomy 13, but never tested their own?
What does this have to do with Christmas? Only everything. Christmas is nothing but human tradition built upon human tradition. These traditions are in place as a means of worshiping God, in direct violation of Deuteronomy 12, which, in summary, says that we shall worship him the way he wants to be worshiped [12:1], not as the pagans worshiped their gods [12:4], nor as we see fit [12:8]. And that we are to keep his commands, not adding to them or diminishing from them [12:32].
So, you think Christmas is not a pagan holiday? Let's say, for argument sake that it isn't. Does that change anything? God did not authorize us to worship him in the ways that are done on Christmas (violates Deuteronomy 12:1). That in and of itself disqualifies Christmas as a Christian holiday. What about why Christmas is celebrated? Isn't it because it's viewed as okay in the eyes of man because "God never forbade it" or "the Disciples did it"? Strike two, violation of Deuteronomy 12:8! In other words, Christmas being Christian in origin would mean nothing!
As mentioned in a previous post, the Catholic Church is part of a much larger, satanic cult that is bent on ruling the world. So if you trace any teaching or tradition back to the Catholic Church, you are, by definition, tracing that teaching or tradition back to paganism. For the Catholic Church is a pagan Church. We, as Christians, should be doing nothing that originates from them.
The Catholic Church never creates anything new. All of their practices come from somewhere. They just modify these practices to suit their counterfeit version of Christianity (if that). When it comes to Christmas, they took the winter solstice practices of the surrounding pagan cultures, condensed it down to a single day, and named the modified practice "Christmas". These days were the Saturnalia and Sol Invictus (and perhaps a couple others). These practices are themselves modifications of the pagan practices of the Babylonians, Egyptians, etc. Practices that long pre-date Christianity. Even the date that Christmas is celebrated is the same as Sol Invictus. And if it wasn't for the fact that the calendar tends to drift about 1 day every 100 or so years, the winter solstice would still be on December 25, as it was when the Julian calendar was established.
Let's talk about the Christmas Tree. Those who wish to defend it will trace its origins back to the Catholic Church, which we already discussed why that doesn't work. But the practice of using trees in the worship of the pagan gods long pre-dates Christianity. In fact, if you've read the historical documentation contained in the Bible, you'll realize just how prevalent tree worship was in the pagan societies. Deuteronomy 12:2 commands us to seek-out and destroy all of the pagan alters under every green tree. Deuteronomy 16:21 commands us not to plant any trees next to any alter of Yahweh. Deuteronomy 12:4 commands us not to worship God the way the pagans worshiped their gods.
So the mere fact that the pagans used trees to worship their god is enough to make the Christmas Tree a satanic practice. But did you know that what Christians do to pine trees is exactly what the pagans in the middle eastern regions did to Cedar trees? Isaiah 14:8 notes the type of trees used in idol worship: They are indeed evergreen trees! Jeremiah 10:1-4 gives a perfect description of a Christmas Tree. And it's rather interesting how the practice evolved over time. The ancient pagans carved images into the tree. Christians do not. The ancient pagans used Cedars (and Junipers, and sometimes even Pines), Christians use Pines. Some modern trees are made of metal or plastic and are stored when not in use. What about the claim that the trees in Jeremiah 10 aren't Christmas Trees? That claim is a lie! By the way, here's another description of pagan practices surrounding trees! Isaiah 44:14-19. Notice that most of the trees listed are evergreen trees (the exception being the Oak).
The Catholics didn't invent the Christmas Tree. Some pagan convert to Catholicism brought an existing custom into the Catholic Church and it stuck. Also notice in the passage in Isaiah that these people don't know why they are worshiping trees. They never stop to think about the absurdity of their practices! Christians do the exact same things that Isaiah was mocking 2,500 years ago! Those who set up a tree in the name of Yeshua (Jesus) are worshiping the tree, not the Son of God. Those who put an angel on top of the tree are worshiping the angel. Those who put a star on top of the tree are worshiping the star (which represents the pagan sun gods, but was renamed to "Star of Bethlehem" after being adopted by the Catholic Church) and the pagan sun gods that are associated with it. Those who set up a manger scene worship the manger scene, not the one that is allegedly represented by it. These are all golden calves. And I already pointed out how much God hates setting up images in his name! The one who sets up a "golden calf" does not worship God, but the calf, even if they say in their heart "I'm worshiping God."
Every single thing that is done at Christmas time is a human tradition, including the date. The rationalization for the date is also an appeal to human tradition. Some have appealed to a Jewish tradition that a prophet of God lives an exact number of years. They even admit in their argument that it's a human tradition! The evidence that this tradition is true: None that I've seen! They just assume that this tradition is true, and state that because a prophet lives an exact number of years, and because life begins at conception, and because Jesus died on March 25, and because human gestation is 9 months, Jesus must have been born on December 25.
There are so many holes in this argument that it's astonishing that it's even believed! Where to begin? How about the fact that the tradition actually uses the Hebrew calendar (which typically has 355 days in a year), while those justifying the December 25 date are applying it to the Julian or Gregorian calendar. If the tradition is true, then you need to calculate from the Hebrew calendar when Jesus would be born, not the Julian or Gregorian calendar. Even if his death was on March 25 (it was not), you would have to find the Hebrew date that year, then calculate back to the year of his conception to get the actual Julian date of his conception. And the same for the date of his birth. Except there's one problem: Birth can happen anywhere between 37 and 42 weeks from conception. That's a span of 1.5 months! So we can't know for sure when he was born just by knowing when he was conceived.
The next problem is that the years that a person has been alive is counted from birth, not conception. It is true that life begins at conception, but the years of a persons life are counted from birth. In other words, according to the tradition being appealed to, it is the day of birth that is also the day of death. Oh, and did I mention that this appeal began with the Catholic Church? Add that to the list of traditions that the Catholic Church modified to suit their agenda. Anyone who uses this argument is not appealing to a Jewish tradition, but a Catholic one.
Because the Catholic Church hated the Jews, they set up Good Friday and Easter Sunday to never fall on the same day as Passover or the Feast of Firstfruits. Granted, they still sometimes fall on the same day, but this is rare by design. So we can know for sure that whatever day Good Friday fell on in the year that Jesus died is not when Passover was (which is when he actually died). So without even looking for when Passover that year was, we know that the March 25 date is wrong. Also, 33 AD is not the year that Jesus died. It was 30 AD. And March 25 did not land on a Friday that year. And neither did Passover.
The fact that the Church appeals to tradition rather than the Bible or other period documents to determine the day that Jesus was born tells you everything you need to know about the December 25 date. In fact, it is impossible to determine the day of the Messiah's birth from the Bible or any other documentation of the time. That should tell you all you need to know about how God feels about our celebration of his birthday. If God wanted us to celebrate his birthday, he would have revealed to us when it was. God hid it from us because he does not want us to celebrate it. Why? Because the pagans celebrated the birthdays of their gods. And Jesus' birthday is irrelevant to the gospel message.
Want to see just how demonic Christmas really is? Here's a documentary produced by Passion for Truth Ministries showing just that:
Here's another documentary from 119 Ministries, also showing the paganism of Christmas:
There's also more evidence for those who care about searching for the truth instead of justifying unbiblical and demonic traditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment