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Chapter #9
The First Christmas
Every year we celebrate Christmas on December 25th, what do we really know about this holiday, is it really Christian in origin? Have we perverted this day with pagan symbols? When did Christians start celebrating Christmas? What does the Bible say about the birth of Christ, and does it tell us when it took place? We will address these questions from three sources - The Word of God, the dictionary, and the encyclopedia (Encarta).
Let’s begin by looking at some facts from the dictionary, the early Church divided our calendar into two parts. B.C. abbr. 1. Bachelor of Chemistry. 2. Also B.C.. Before Christ. 3. Or BC. British Columbia. (before Christ adv. Abbr. B.C. In a specified year of the pre-Christian era.) A.D. abbr. Often A.D.. Anno Domini. (adv. Abbr. A.D., A.D. In a specified year of the Christian era. [Medieval Latin: ann½, in the year + Domini, genitive of Dominus, Lord.]
This task of dividing our modern day calendar was assigned to a monk. He used different sources to count backwards to the birth of Christ. (All dates before the birth of Jesus were called B.C.) Later on it was discovered that this man had made some mistakes and that Jesus could have been born as early as 8 B.C., but more probably 4 to 5 B.C. Some of the manuscripts that were used in calculating the year of Christ's birth had been lost, so our modern day calendar (1995) is wrong. Also many Christians honestly believe that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th, that's wrong also. Now lets look at the Bible.
Luke 2:8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night.
Luke 2:9 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.
Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ
the Lord.
Bible scholars believe that Jesus would have been born between April and October because the Shepherds weren't in the fields at night between Nov. and March so Dec. 25th is DEFINITELY wrong. DEFINITELY wrong.
For the first three to four hundred years of Church history the birth of Jesus was not observed at all. So were did this celebration come from and for what reason?
Reason
Saturn (mythology), in Roman mythology, ancient god of agriculture. In later legends he was identified with the Greek god Cronus, who, after having been dethroned by his son Jupiter, fled to Italy, where he ruled during the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and happiness. Beginning on December 17 of each year, during the festival known as the Saturnalia, the Golden Age was restored for seven days. All business stopped and executions and military operations were postponed. It was a period of goodwill, devoted to banquets and the exchange of visits and gifts. A special feature of the festival was the freedom given to slaves, who during this time had first place at the family table and were served by their masters
Saturn was the husband of Ops, goddess of plenty. He was the father of Juno, who was goddess of marriage, Neptune, god of the sea, Pluto, god of the dead, and Ceres, goddess of the grain. In art Saturn is usually shown bearded, carrying a sickle or an ear of corn.
"Saturn (mythology), "From Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation"
To put it in easier to understand modern day language, this seven-day feast was nothing more than one giant drunk with lots of sex, kinda like the modern day office party (Christmas Party), with a religious name. Bottom line is get blasted and see who you can get in bed with, nice way to celebrate the birth of the Saviour of the world. So the early Church decided that these immoral heathen practices were unacceptable to God and some type of substitute celebration should be instituted to stop these practices. This is why Christmas was started in the 4th century to change these practices and in my opinion it has made them worst. Since the first Christmas we have included many pagan symbols - gifts - holly - mistletoe - evergreen trees and worst of all SANTA CLAUS.
Let's start with gifts, when you celebrate a person's birthday do you give presents to everyone but the person whose birthday it is? No you give them to the person who is having the birthday! Do you give honor and glory to God and Christ when you get drunk to celebrate His birth? Do you get depressed at what you receive at Christmas from your friends and family? Or depressed at what you can't give to your loved ones at the celebration of Christ's birth. If you think these practices of giving gifts to each other make sense, PLEASE - everyone pool all your money - and buy me a new Harley to celebrate your birth.
We tell our little children about God and that he is real and we tell them that Santa Claus is real too! Why? We give Santa Claus all the powers of God, he knows everything, and he can do everything and be everywhere in one night. Only God can do all these things, Santa takes away from the religious observance and he becomes the focus point of Christmas. This is very pleasing to the devil, the fallen angel, who we depict in red, he doesn't want us to focus on God at any time and he is laughing at us during this holiday. At Christmas, images of Christ are non-existent, but Santa is everywhere, dressed in red, with a pleasing smirk on his face. Worshipped by kids and businessmen alike, this figure doesn't represent God, it represents lies. I think we should spell Santa's name correctly - SATAN - the father of lies. The god of all that is false. The being that wants to rob God of everything. If you really want to celebrate Christmas, make God the focal point, not a bunch of symbols of false gods and heathen practices and lies.
Another lie!
If you have a manager scene, remove the Magi, they weren't there at that time but came much later.
Mat 2:11 And when they were come into the house (not the manager), they saw the young
child (Not the baby) with Mary his
mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they
presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Mat 2:12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they
departed into their own country another way.
Mat 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
If we are going to honor God then lets do it, if we are going to honor ourselves then lets keep Christmas going the way it is but call it something else.
If we keep things the same, all I can say is BA HUMBUG!
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