by Gina Duffey
I know I could nitpick this to death and find an excuse to keep Christmas, but after honestly searching out the matter, it’s obvious to me as a member of the body of Christ that I should reject it as having anything to do with Jesus.
Jesus did not leave instruction for us to celebrate his birthday. He told us to remember that his body was given for us when we break bread together. He said nothing about remembering his birthday and there is no precedence for it in the bible.
His birth date is not given to us in scripture. There are many articles that prove Jesus was most likely born in the fall, but you can also find articles that prove he was born in December. I have no idea and really don’t care because if he wanted us to know, we would.
There are only two birthdays recorded in scripture (Pharaoh and Herod) and at both parties someone was murdered. See Genesis 40 and Mark 6. I’ve researched the subject of birthday celebrations somewhat and have concluded that early Christians did not celebrate them as it was considered a heathen thing to do. Again, there is also information that claims differently. According to The Satanic Bible, “The highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birth.” (I thought it was Halloween) This is why I am not that into birthday parties anymore. Why would I want to celebrate my birthday knowing this, and knowing the early Christians didn’t do it and only the heathens did in the bible?
What about the word “Christmas”? This is short for Christ’s Mass. The name alone proves that Christmas belongs to the Roman Catholics who invented it. Here is the only reason I even need to reject this holiday... I am not catholic! I do not believe in the mass, in fact, I flat out reject it. If anyone reading this does not know what the catholic mass is, it’s the bread and the wine, or communion, administered by the priests in the catholic church. They teach that when the priest prays over the bread and wine it becomes the literal body and blood of Christ. For some reason some catholics deny this when you ask, but I have their book called Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) and I promise you, it’s in there. It’s called Transubstantiation. You can search hundreds of catholic websites that have this information. Anyway, they have a special service every Christmas called Midnight Mass where, in honor of Jesus’ birthday, they kill him once again. I’m sorry, but this is wrong. They say I just don’t understand but I understand more than I wish I did. I could go into all this, but this paper is about why I don’t celebrate Christmas, not why I reject catholic mass. I have many catholic family members and I love them, but I don’t love anything about catholicism.
Another thing I consider is how much the world loves Christmas. If the spirit behind Christmas was the real Jesus, the world would not want it, then or now. I get this idea from scripture, obviously. The pagan traditions that honored the sun gods were given a Christian makeover by the (so called) church authorities. This whitewash has gone on for ages and now it is going backwards. The world is trying to take Jesus out of Christmas and Christians are wigging out. Jesus never was in Christmas; that was a facade. We’re fighting to keep Jesus in something he was never in to start with except in pretence. What a joke, and we’re the punch line. I say let the world have it, let it go back where it belongs.
I’ve found that many Christians are aware of the pagan origins of Christmas. They sincerely try to play down the commercial side of the holiday and play up the birth of the Saviour. They say they do it to honor Jesus, not false gods. At one website I saw the following story from the bible was mentioned to show that this, though sincere, doesn’t work. Read from Exodus...
EXODUS 32:1-5 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
The question was asked, did God think this feast was for him? Did he appreciate what they did and accept this honor? No. Read further to find out what he thought about his people worshiping him this way. (He was going to destroy them.) This is the main reason I reject Christmas as Christian; it’s pagan worship in disguise. Information about this is too widely available to even bother denying it. What I have found is that alot of Christians don’t deny it, they just don’t think it matters. I can’t in good conscience agree with that. Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. Other such like things? Like putting aside God’s plain direction and holding to the Christmas traditions of men? This passage isn’t about the washing of pots; it’s about obedience to God.
God had forbidden his people to learn the ways of the heathens as they moved into their lands. We live among the unsaved, but we are not to practice their ways. This obviously still applies to us in the new covenant given all the NT scriptures that tell us we are in the world but not of the world, to love not the world and to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and so on. God's people are still supposed to be separate, distinct and peculiar. We should stick out, not blend in. God had especially forbidden his people to enquire as to how these heathens worshiped their gods and then attempt to worship him that way. Read from Jeremiah...
JEREMIAH 10:1-4 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. (The signs that scared them was the waning of the sun. The days got shorter and the nights longer and they thought their beloved sun god was mad at them.) For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. (Christmas trees can be traced all the way back to tree worship, so don’t bother informing me this isn’t about Christmas trees.)
JEREMIAH 12:29-32 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
When we imitate the world in worship, it is strange fire to God. Search “strange fire” in your bible and see. Think about when Cain killed Abel. Cain gave his offering his way and God did not accept it and Cain’s anger and jealousy caused him to murder his own brother. God wants worship his way, not ways that seem right to us. Our sincerity does not trump this.
Some argue, “But it’s been in the church for so long!” SO WHAT!! A thousand years is like a day unto the Lord and if he hated it then he hates it now. Heathen traditions cannot be Christianized. According to God, we can't take holidays that honor pagan gods and change them to honor him. It’s crystal clear that God does not accept it but that is precisely what happened when the Romans took over Christianity in the 300s and superimposed Jesus over the celebrations dedicated to pagan gods. (They did the same thing for Easter, which I also reject.) If I broke all this down here I’d have three more pages so I added some links below that explain the belief systems that surrounded the false gods and how they got mixed up in the church and became Christmas and Easter. You can search the true origins of Christmas for yourself and get hundreds of hits.
I won’t even bother to talk about Santa, Rudolph and Frosty. Everybody knows that side of Christmas is not Christian. But on a side note I ask, where in the bible do you EVER see an angel depicted as a female? It is also quite evident that the entire holiday reeks of worldliness no matter how much you play up the birth of the Saviour.
So, considering all this, why would I celebrate Christmas?
Can we change the spirit of something?
Can we redeem pagan traditions?
Can we offer to God something previously sacrificed to Satan?
I’m sure that some would argue, but no, we can’t.
If we do it anyway, stubbornly insisting that we are honoring Jesus, does He accept it?
Gina Duffey
12/14/2011
==========================================
I don't necessarily endorse other information found on these sites.
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract3.html
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract4.html
http://www.loveofthetruth.com/xmas.html
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/xmas/celeb.htm
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777/vital/xmas.html
Where did Santa Claus come from anyway?
[interesting to note Old Nick was a British name for the devil]
http://www.av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html
I know I could nitpick this to death and find an excuse to keep Christmas, but after honestly searching out the matter, it’s obvious to me as a member of the body of Christ that I should reject it as having anything to do with Jesus.
Jesus did not leave instruction for us to celebrate his birthday. He told us to remember that his body was given for us when we break bread together. He said nothing about remembering his birthday and there is no precedence for it in the bible.
His birth date is not given to us in scripture. There are many articles that prove Jesus was most likely born in the fall, but you can also find articles that prove he was born in December. I have no idea and really don’t care because if he wanted us to know, we would.
There are only two birthdays recorded in scripture (Pharaoh and Herod) and at both parties someone was murdered. See Genesis 40 and Mark 6. I’ve researched the subject of birthday celebrations somewhat and have concluded that early Christians did not celebrate them as it was considered a heathen thing to do. Again, there is also information that claims differently. According to The Satanic Bible, “The highest of all holidays in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birth.” (I thought it was Halloween) This is why I am not that into birthday parties anymore. Why would I want to celebrate my birthday knowing this, and knowing the early Christians didn’t do it and only the heathens did in the bible?
What about the word “Christmas”? This is short for Christ’s Mass. The name alone proves that Christmas belongs to the Roman Catholics who invented it. Here is the only reason I even need to reject this holiday... I am not catholic! I do not believe in the mass, in fact, I flat out reject it. If anyone reading this does not know what the catholic mass is, it’s the bread and the wine, or communion, administered by the priests in the catholic church. They teach that when the priest prays over the bread and wine it becomes the literal body and blood of Christ. For some reason some catholics deny this when you ask, but I have their book called Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) and I promise you, it’s in there. It’s called Transubstantiation. You can search hundreds of catholic websites that have this information. Anyway, they have a special service every Christmas called Midnight Mass where, in honor of Jesus’ birthday, they kill him once again. I’m sorry, but this is wrong. They say I just don’t understand but I understand more than I wish I did. I could go into all this, but this paper is about why I don’t celebrate Christmas, not why I reject catholic mass. I have many catholic family members and I love them, but I don’t love anything about catholicism.
Another thing I consider is how much the world loves Christmas. If the spirit behind Christmas was the real Jesus, the world would not want it, then or now. I get this idea from scripture, obviously. The pagan traditions that honored the sun gods were given a Christian makeover by the (so called) church authorities. This whitewash has gone on for ages and now it is going backwards. The world is trying to take Jesus out of Christmas and Christians are wigging out. Jesus never was in Christmas; that was a facade. We’re fighting to keep Jesus in something he was never in to start with except in pretence. What a joke, and we’re the punch line. I say let the world have it, let it go back where it belongs.
I’ve found that many Christians are aware of the pagan origins of Christmas. They sincerely try to play down the commercial side of the holiday and play up the birth of the Saviour. They say they do it to honor Jesus, not false gods. At one website I saw the following story from the bible was mentioned to show that this, though sincere, doesn’t work. Read from Exodus...
EXODUS 32:1-5 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.
The question was asked, did God think this feast was for him? Did he appreciate what they did and accept this honor? No. Read further to find out what he thought about his people worshiping him this way. (He was going to destroy them.) This is the main reason I reject Christmas as Christian; it’s pagan worship in disguise. Information about this is too widely available to even bother denying it. What I have found is that alot of Christians don’t deny it, they just don’t think it matters. I can’t in good conscience agree with that. Mark 7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. Other such like things? Like putting aside God’s plain direction and holding to the Christmas traditions of men? This passage isn’t about the washing of pots; it’s about obedience to God.
God had forbidden his people to learn the ways of the heathens as they moved into their lands. We live among the unsaved, but we are not to practice their ways. This obviously still applies to us in the new covenant given all the NT scriptures that tell us we are in the world but not of the world, to love not the world and to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and so on. God's people are still supposed to be separate, distinct and peculiar. We should stick out, not blend in. God had especially forbidden his people to enquire as to how these heathens worshiped their gods and then attempt to worship him that way. Read from Jeremiah...
JEREMIAH 10:1-4 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. (The signs that scared them was the waning of the sun. The days got shorter and the nights longer and they thought their beloved sun god was mad at them.) For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. (Christmas trees can be traced all the way back to tree worship, so don’t bother informing me this isn’t about Christmas trees.)
JEREMIAH 12:29-32 When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
When we imitate the world in worship, it is strange fire to God. Search “strange fire” in your bible and see. Think about when Cain killed Abel. Cain gave his offering his way and God did not accept it and Cain’s anger and jealousy caused him to murder his own brother. God wants worship his way, not ways that seem right to us. Our sincerity does not trump this.
Some argue, “But it’s been in the church for so long!” SO WHAT!! A thousand years is like a day unto the Lord and if he hated it then he hates it now. Heathen traditions cannot be Christianized. According to God, we can't take holidays that honor pagan gods and change them to honor him. It’s crystal clear that God does not accept it but that is precisely what happened when the Romans took over Christianity in the 300s and superimposed Jesus over the celebrations dedicated to pagan gods. (They did the same thing for Easter, which I also reject.) If I broke all this down here I’d have three more pages so I added some links below that explain the belief systems that surrounded the false gods and how they got mixed up in the church and became Christmas and Easter. You can search the true origins of Christmas for yourself and get hundreds of hits.
I won’t even bother to talk about Santa, Rudolph and Frosty. Everybody knows that side of Christmas is not Christian. But on a side note I ask, where in the bible do you EVER see an angel depicted as a female? It is also quite evident that the entire holiday reeks of worldliness no matter how much you play up the birth of the Saviour.
So, considering all this, why would I celebrate Christmas?
Can we change the spirit of something?
Can we redeem pagan traditions?
Can we offer to God something previously sacrificed to Satan?
I’m sure that some would argue, but no, we can’t.
If we do it anyway, stubbornly insisting that we are honoring Jesus, does He accept it?
Gina Duffey
12/14/2011
==========================================
I don't necessarily endorse other information found on these sites.
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract3.html
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract4.html
http://www.loveofthetruth.com/xmas.html
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/xmas/celeb.htm
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/sbs777/vital/xmas.html
Where did Santa Claus come from anyway?
[interesting to note Old Nick was a British name for the devil]
http://www.av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html
you are invited to follow my blog
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