ChristMas … Its Origin

Photo from Foter.com

Greetings friends and warm hearts to the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries here in Tampa Bay, Florida along the Westcoast. I’m your host Leonard V. Johnson.

Well, here we are dear friends just on the threshold of another Christmas. Once again we are faced with this eight-decade-old question – “Where did Christmas come from!?” Now, I was concerned – because my wife celebrates this ‘Mass of Christ’ every year, and I voiced my grave concerns to Minister Guy C. LaMar, and here was his loving advice. And I share this with all of you:

“It’s not affecting your faith. You are working out your salvation. It’s through your dedication to God that even sanctifies her. Just enjoy your time with the people.

Don’t fall into the trap of allowing them to manipulate you into observing the vain traditions of paganism. Just be joyful – apply to the fruit of the Spirit. We, as called out ones, have to coincide with these people of the world and their worldliness. I’ve been in your situation. It’s her dealings, not yours. Our own selves are what we need to stay focused on serving God. As an employer once told me – “You take care of you and I’ll take care of me.”

We can not change how people think. God’s called you. Obviously not your wife. But think of this – Noah was probably all alone in this world in righteousness whereas his family wasn’t. Our treasures are by our deeds to be in the kingdom.

Just be a joyful host. Tell them, should they ask, that you don’t partake in paganism, but welcome all with open arms.

It’s not their time to know. But what is our goal!? To be a light for the world. Not a dark cloud.

I’ve gone to Xmas get-togethers of family and they knew my position. My joy was being with family. I didn’t care about their misguided ways because I knew it wasn’t in them to understand. God hasn’t picked them. But He did pick me. Jesus walked among sinners, He was around prostitutes. Did that change Him to sin!? Nope! Jesus is our example. Let’s follow Him. … God knows your heart. …”

Now, it might be redundant for some, but there may be others who do not know – “Where did Christmas come from!?” Did it come from God’s living word – the Holy Bible – or did it come out of paganism!?

Do you know how we obtained the “Christmas tree”!? Where did this Santa Claus originate!? And – a most important question – does Christmas actually celebrate the supposed birthday of Jesus Christ!? Was He actually born on December the 25th!?

Many of you will truly be surprised to learn the truth. Did the original apostles ever celebrate this holiday known as Christmas!? Does God’s living word tell you to celebrate Christmas!? Do you know that His living word does mention something concerning the decorating of trees!? It certainly does!

Friends, we were born into a world that is doing a lot of these very things – and most of us grew up doing them. In the home I grew up in – Christmas was not celebrated. Because my dad had actually learned of the true origin of Christmas and knew not to celebrate it. But, like I said – we were born into a world that celebrates this-worldly holiday. And as a baby, a great majority of our peoples found a Christmas tree in their home. And, as the greater majority of our peoples got older, they discovered presents under this Christmas tree. Well, that was really a pleasure – wasn’t it!? But why – why was there presents under a tree!? Maybe you asked. And you were given the answer that it is a supposed Christian holiday. And every once in a while – maybe from watching the Peanuts cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Charlie Brown asking if anyone knows what Christmas is all about; Linus says he does and recites the supposed meaning – the birthday of Jesus Christ. But outside of that cartoon, you don’t hear too much about that anymore. Instead, you certainly learn that it’s a commercial holiday – of buying lots of presents and of a great shopping spree. It’s a season to get presents, or to give presents and to exchange gifts.

But I ask – why!? Why do we do it!? Did it come out of the living word of the Eternal!? Did it come from the New Testament Church of God as our Lord Jesus Christ set it in the Church to do under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!? Well, as Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Indeed, you will be surprised!

Truly, truly, the Protestant daughter churches actually got it from their Mother Church – the Roman Catholic Church! But where did the Catholics get it!?

Well, back in 1981, I wanted to know myself. And in their own encyclopedia, they give the answer – and they tell you the truth about it. They don’t hide it at all. They proclaim to the world such things as – where mistletoe came from, the holly wreath, the custom of exchanging gifts. Or, do you think this custom of gift exchanging came from the wise men giving gifts to a baby Jesus!? You’d be surprised. A great many people, every year, buy presents lavishly at the Christmas season with the belief that they are following the example of the “three” wise men giving gifts to a baby Jesus! Yet, without even realizing it, they are doing the exact opposite.

Friends, notice what the Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. XII, pages 153 to 155 has to say:

“Christmas, like the Saturnalia, has ever been a season of riotous indulgence, high feasting, and universal license; … The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia; and must have been adopted by Christians from the Pagans, …” 1

From the Pagans, and in fact, this custom of exchanging presents at Christmas time has NOT a trace of Christianity anywhere to be found!

Not Jesus Christ’s BIRTHDAY

Christmas is not the birthday of Christ our Lord because Jesus Christ was not born on December the 25th, or even at that time of the year. But whose birthday does it actually celebrate!? Do you know!? Well, in fact, it is actually an old festival that was in force and in effect as a celebrated custom back in the pagan world thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Late December is actually the “rebirth of the Sun.” Indeed, we can prove that Jesus Christ's birth was in the fall of the year – cf. Luke 2:8. Jesus Christ was most likely born on the very first day of the Feast of Tabernacles – a celebration the Bible talks about!

In a nutshell – the celebration of this worldly holiday, in truth, began and originated from ancient Babylon under the ruler Nimrod – the very one who began to be “a mighty hunter [against] the LORD” cf. Genesis 10:8-9. Indeed, this grandson of Ham, who was a son of the patriarch Noah, was the true founder of the Babylonish system which has dominated the world ever since! Nimrod built the Tower of Babel in ancient Babylon. The very first post-diluvian kingdom was made by Nimrod, in Sumeria, Mesopotamia, where the main body of the human-race had set up camp. He overthrew the post-diluvian Semitic-line and established a Hamitic “monarchy,” as the world’s first king. 2

The very name Nimrod in Hebrew means “he rebelled.” He would go on to marry his own mother – Semiramis. After his untimely death, his wife/mother Semiramis propagated the doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. She would later become the “Queen of Heaven,” and Nimrod, under various names, became the “divine son of heaven.” He would become the false Messiah, the son of Baal – the before mentioned Sun-god. In this Babylonish system – the “Mother and Child.”

Semiramis claimed a full-grown evergreen tree sprang up overnight from a dead tree stump symbolizing the new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his death, she also claimed that Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts.

“If there was one who was more deeply concerned in the tragic death of Nimrod than another, it was his wife Semiramis, who, from an originally humble position, had been raised to share with him the throne of Babylon. What in this emergency shall she do? Shall she quietly forego the pomp and pride to which she has been raised? No! … In life her husband had been honored as a hero; in death she will have him worshiped as a god, yea, as the woman’s promised Seed, ‘Zero-ashta,’ who was destined to bruise the serpent’s head, and who, in doing so, was to have his own heel bruised.” 3

Now I’m sure most people would say, “Well, I don’t see that it makes any difference.” And perhaps it doesn’t – to you. But there is going to come a time of reckoning my friends when we’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of the Eternal God. And a lot of people are going to begin to see that what they believed in was incorrect.

Now this thing about exchanging gifts and supposedly following the example of the “three” wise men. Let us look into your Bible – and I hope that your Bible is at least the New King James Version – and begin to see just what really did happen.

Matthew chapter 2 –

Verse 1 – “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, …” – that being Herod the Great (37-4) “ … behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2) saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? …’” – so notice they asked, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews”?

Did you notice, “after Jesus was born”!? So, He had already been born. So, this was after His birthday! So, these wise men didn’t even begin their journey until they had heard that He was born. And then they came. Jesus was born to be a KING!

Verse 11 – “And when they had come into the house, …” – notice it wasn’t a stable with a manger!? “ … they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. …” – notice that Jesus was already a ‘young Child’ possibly at least two-years-old. “ … And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Was there exchanging of presents back and forth among themselves and ignore our Master and Elder Brother – Jesus the Christ!? No. They presented their gifts to Him! Why!? Was it Christmas time!? Was it His birthday!? Not at all.

Well here is the answer! Let’s read it for ourselves in the Adam Clarke Commentary, Volume 5 –

“They presented unto him gifts - The people of the east never approach the presence of kings and great personages, without a present in their hands. This custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, …” 4

There my friends is the answer. The wise men were not instituting some new custom for Christmas – because there was no Christmas being observed, nothing at all like that. Christmas actually means Christ-mass. It was not started until hundreds of years after the birth of Jesus Christ!

Oh yes, my friends, I’ll have to admit, it’s a wonderful spirit! But can’t we teach our children the T R U T H!? Can’t we give our children the kind of true happiness that they should have!? The kind of rearing they should have!? Without paganistic customs!?

What About the Christmas Tree!?

Now I had mentioned earlier - that His living word does mention something concerning the decorating of trees. Do you know where that is located!?

It’s in the Book of Jeremiah the 10th chapter –

So, the LORD our God is truly speaking to the house of Israel.

Verse 1 – “Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2) Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, …’”

Recall, the Areopagus, or rather the hill of Mars in the apostle Paul’s day. Groups of respected local men charged with investigating spiritual or philosophical ideas met upon the Aeropaus to discuss Greek concepts of “the gods.” Many believed in Plato’s teachings. And as the Jamison Faussett and Brown Commentary says, “many thought events depended on the power of the stars, which some, as PLATO, thought to be endued with spirit and reason. … eclipses, comets, etc. …” 5 Today we can think of the horoscope that many people read daily.

“ … ‘For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. 3) For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4) They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple. 5) They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.’”

Is God speaking of a “Christmas tree”!? Well, notice that these verses closely parallel that of Isaiah 41:7, Isaiah 44:9-17, and Isaiah 46:5-7. ‘For the customs of the peoples are futile,’ ‘Learn not the way of [the nations].’ It was more akin to the ancient Asherah Pole – which was a sacred tree (or pole) that stood near a Canaanite religious altar as a symbol of honor to the goddess Asherah – hence Semiramis. So, indeed, there are similarities between this world’s modern Christmas tree and what God is telling us through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Christmas tree is a symbol. The evergreen tree was a symbol of life and fertility and was a custom of – as I just mentioned, ancient Sumerians – as well as the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chinese, as well as other ancient peoples. Even though today the greater majority of our peoples around the world do not worship a Christmas tree (unless one includes the seasonal singing of “O Tannenbaum” - “O fir tree,” or rather “O Christmas Tree”) – it was quite common in pagan Europe for trees to be worshiped – before the arrival of Christianity. The evergreen tree remained very popular in Germany as an ornament in a medieval play about Adam and Eve, known as the “Paradise Tree” – a fir tree hung with apples, that represented the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24th, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. In the same room was the “Christmas pyramid,” a triangular construction of wood that had shelves to hold Christmas figurines and was decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star. By the 16th century, the Christmas pyramid and the paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree. 6

Also recall, the LORD God told Gideon (through an angel of the LORD) to “’ take your father’s young bull, … and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it.’” – Judges 6:25 NKJV. That ‘wooden image’ being an Asherah Pole.

And there you have it! Almighty God is condemning the carving of idols to worship!

What About Santa Claus!?

Here again – if one dares – all one needs to do is open an encyclopedia to see for themselves the truth.

Indeed, the very name “Santa Claus” is a corruption of the name “St. Nicholas,” “St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, a saint honored by the Greeks and Latins on the 6th of December ... A legend of his surreptitious bestowal of dowries on the three daughters of an impoverished citizen ... is said to have originated the old custom of giving presents in secret on the Eve of St. Nicholas [Dec. 6], subsequently transferred to Christmas day. Hence the association of Christmas with Santa Claus ....” 7

Believe it or not, the modern-day image of Santa Claus came thanks to Coca-Cola. Director of Coca-Cola Company’s Archives Department, Phil Mooney, in 2008 stated, “Actually, we do not claim the color of Santa’s coat, though it has worked out well for us since red is so closely related to Coca-Cola! But we did not come up with the idea of putting Santa in red clothes.” But, it’s safe to say that the modern images we associate with Santa Claus reached recognizable maturity by the 1860s and 1870s thanks to artists like Louis Sprang and Thomas Nast. 8

“Come Out From Among Them!”

So, in conclusion – Christmas came originally from pagans, and was indeed adopted by a very powerful and world-girdling church mentioned in bold letters in Revelation 17:5 –

“MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”!

In Revelation 18:3 we are told, “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication [spiritual fornication] with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Including, of course, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and her Commonwealth nations, Canada, Australia, New Zealand - and even including Judah (the nation known today as Israel)!

Verse 11 – “’ And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her [when she is destroyed], for no one buys their merchandise anymore.’” Every Catholic holiday – which is what Christmas actually is; the ‘Mass of Christ’ – is a commercial event, stimulating sales of merchandise! Christmas is the greatest selling season of the year!

And we are WARNED by Almighty God –

Verse 4 – “And I heard another voice from heaven [the atmosphere] saying, ‘Come out of her [out of this modern-day Babylon and out of these worldly churches], my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”

“But what would my relatives and friends think of me!?” you ask.

Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 10 –

Verse 32 – “’ Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him [or her] I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33) But whoever denies Me [or, for that matter ‘won’t even speak or write My name’] before men, him [or her] I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.’”

Verse 34 – “’ Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35) For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36) and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”

Verse 37 – “’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38) And he [or she] who does not take his cross [your life’s mission] and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.’”

Christmas honors the Sun-god, called Baal-worship. As the prophet Elijah said to all the children of Israel – you too need to make a choice – “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” – 1 Kings 18:21 NKJV. □

Bibliography:

1) Bibliotheca Sacra 1855-01: Vol. 12, Issue 45, Dallas Theological Seminary, pp. 153-155.

2) Hughes, D. Ancient Sumeria Nimrod’s Story, 2005. https://realityroars.com/history/middle-east/ancient-sumeria-nimrods-story.html. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

3) Hislop, A., The Two Babylons, Compiled, Formatted, and Edited by Avram Yehoshua. https://seedofabraham.net/The%20Full%20Hislop-2012-04-14.pdf. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

4) Clarke, A. Clarke’s Commentary Volume 5 Matthew-Acts, 1 Jan. 1966 - https://biblehub.com/commentaries/clarke/matthew/2.htm.

5) Jamieson Fausset and Brown Commentary on the Whole Bible. Jamieson Robert, Fausset R. A., Brown David, Zondervan Publishing House, 1961, pg. 608.

6) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Christmas, 15 October 2020, Retrieved 17 December 2020. https://www.britannica.com/plant/Christmas-tree.

7) The Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol 19, 11th Edition, Nicholas, St., 1910-11. https://archive.org/details/EB1911WMF/VOL19_MUN-_ADRIEN-ODDFELLOWS/mode/2up. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

8) Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! “Did Coca-Cola Invent The Modern Image of Santa Claus?” 12 Dec. 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2020.

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