The “Christmas season” soon to be upon us, I will at this time expose the holiday for what it is–a heathen celebration of the sun god which people throughout history have worshiped in one form or another. Though the name of their god differed depending on the group, all heathen gods are in reality the same entity–Satan–the father of all heathenism. This posting will reveal when the holiday known as “Christmas” came into being, why and God’s attitude toward it.

Having convinced Roman Emperor Constantine to declare Catholicism the official state religion, church leaders persuaded him to enforce compulsory acceptance of Catholicism throughout the empire under the threat of death. As a result, thousands of pagans joined the church rather than die. Soon their numbers afforded them a measure of power within the organization, so much so that they began to demand that their religious doctrines and practices be accepted by the church. In order to appease them, the church embraced many of their beliefs and traditions. Having been handed down from generation to generation as basic tenants of the church and the will of God, these heathen practices today form the foundational principles of church (Catholic/Protestant) practices and beliefs. One such heathen observance is the celebration of December 25th–the birthday of the heathens’ sun god. By conjoining the two gods–Jesus and the sun god–the church satisfied everyone.

Because the heathen observed the birthday of their sun god(s) on December 25th, the church asked the Roman government to establish the same day as the birthday of Jesus throughout the empire. Thus Christmas came into being hundreds of years after the founding of the New Covenant Church. With the discovery of the New World, the paganized church brought the observance of the birth of the sun god to America. At this point, two things need to be emphasized relative to the birth of Jesus Christ: In that God did not tell us the exact date of Jesus’ birth, He did not command that we observe it. He did, however, command that we celebrate His death on Passover (1 Cor. 5:7,8). In 323 A.D. at the Council of Nicene, Emperor Constantine decreed that Passover would no longer be observed. Instead, a celebration in honor of the heathen goddess of fertility–Ashtoroth (Ishtar) would be observed. He also decreed that the festivities would take place on Sunday–the “venerable day of the sun.” In the Western world the goddess is called Easter. Thus two of heathenism’s primary celebrations came to be declared  “good” by the Counterfeit Church while the observance of God’s commanded Passover and refusal to celebrate Christmas was labeled “evil.”

In Christmas in America: A History, Dr. Penne Restat wrote that upon the arrival of the Puritans in America a moral debate was soon raging over the celebration of Christmas. Some clergy argued that men needed a season of abandonment and excess to relieve the stress of strict obedience to God. Christmas, they claimed, was the ideal season for so doing. Others argued that all vestiges of heathenism must be kept out of the church. Initially, the purity side won out in those areas of the New World where they were in power. In 1659 Christmas was outlawed in Massachusetts and remained so throughout most of the colonies. However, when Satan injects his poison into a people, it is extremely difficult to totally root it out. Because of this, Christmas was officially declared a church holiday in 1681. Soon the colonies were celebrating the holiday in obedience to “God’s will.”

God’s early church did not celebrate His birth, but rather His death. Some 300 years later December 25th was chosen by the Catholic Church to coincide with the Roman Saturanlia and Brumalia–the annual season when various heathen societies observed the “birth” of the sun god. As with Christmas, most “Christian” customs–decorating trees, the use of mistletoe, the exchanging of gifts, Santa Claus, etc–come not from the Bible or the early church, but from the world of heathenism. Being thoroughly heathenized, the Counterfeit Church today routinely combines the holy with the profane, thereby profaning God (Eze. 22:26).

If the Lord had ordained a celebration of Jesus’ birth, neither He nor His church would have chosen December 25th. A study of Luke 2:8 and a knowledge of Middle Eastern herding practices and weather patterns reveal that Jesus could not have been born in December. In this passage the shepherds were still in the fields feeding their sheep. Shepherds brought their flocks in for the winter in late September or early October–the beginning of the winter season which was wet and cold, meaning that there was no grass for the herds. In that the shepherds were still in the fields at the time of Jesus’ birth, His birth took place sometime in September or early October. If God had wanted His birth to be celebrated, He would have provided the exact date on which to do so. So why did the heathen choose December 25th to worship the birth of their sun god?

The winger solstice season was important to the heathen because it followed the time when the sun was at its lowest light and heat production. During the winter solstice as the sun begins to rise higher in the sky and increases in heat production, sun worshoppers said that it was being “born.” Because December 25 is the day when the sun begins to change, that date was chosen as the “birth” day of the sun god. One such god was Tammuz who supposedly returned each December 25th to leave gifts for people who had made lists of their wants throughout the year. Another such god, Ra of the Egyptians, supposedly castrated himself. For this reason his followers made gold and silver balls and hung them on palm trees that they had cut down and brought into their homes. Zeus was a Greek god who was also “born” on December 25th, along with Chemosh of the Moabites. Most significant of the December 25th birth date gods was the Roman deity Mithra. The Romans honored him by constructing a hollow metal statue with extended arms. Each December 25th they celebrated his birth by heating the figure to red hot. Then Mithra’s worshippers placed their babies in his statue’s arms and chanted loudly to drown out their screams as they died. Today a red-suited representative of Mithra sits on a chair where people bring their children to sit on his lap and tell him what things are on their lists.

God’s attitude toward the celebration of Christmas is summed up in Jeremiah 10:1-4: “Learn not the ways of the heathen. The customs of the people are vain, for one cutteth a tree out of the forest … with an axe. They deck it with gold and silver (balls-Ra); they fasten it with nails and with hammers.”

Another carryover from heathenism is the use of miscletoe, which was believed to be a sex enhancer. In preparation for a week of the letting down of hair, people kissed under miscletoe to initiate the “Christmas season,” a time of fleshly license  which began on December 25th and lasted until January 1st. The practice of burning candles is also of pagan origin. Fire has always played an important role in the celebration of Christmas. The Druids of Ireland formed log “yule” (circles) to represent the sun, then set them on fire during the “yule tide season” to signify that the sun was being “born.” Today string lights serve the same purpose.

The Counterfeit Church (Catholicism/Protestantism) is saturated with Satan’s Babylonian religious beliefs and practices. What is God’s response to the Christmas, Easter, New Years, Halloween, Sunday Sabbath question?: “… come out of her that ye be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:1-4). God commands those who would be His to come out from among the heathen and be separate, to have no contact with them. Then He will accept us. We are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. For what agreement has light with darkness, righteousness with evil, a believer with an unbeliever? What relationship has Christ with Satan? What agreement has the temple of God (the saint) with idols?” (2 Cor. 6:14-18;7:1). Question: What happens when a church goer learns God’s Truth and obeys the above-stated Scriptures? The next posting will answer the query.