Xmas a pagan holiday?

[angels4u]

Thanks for explaining Shiloh,

Its interesting how things can be twisted from the Bible. There is not 1 % in my mind what could possible think there is any truth of the Christmas tree being in Jeremiah.

I looked on the net and there ARE many people who actuel believe this......

Bibleboy I'm not saying you are twisting Bible Scripture, I think you must have read it some where, am I right?

Shiloh, its good that he is thinking about all of this, he's very young and I'm glad to see him here "ON BOARD"

Keep posting Bibleboy!!

Angels

[BibleBoy]

Heres a sermon by Pastor Greg Wilson about Xmas's pagan origins:It may come as a surprise to most, but Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. It does, however, have everything to do with the pagan Roman god Mithras, and with the false “Christ” of apostate Christendom and the Romanist Mass.

The date of December 25th is itself evidence that this holiday is not about the Christ of the Bible. For while we do not know the exact day of our Lord’s birth, we can be virtually certain that it was not December 25th. All of the Biblical evidence is against such a date. At that particular season, the shepherds would not have been in the fields with their sheep at night. They would have secured them in folds, against the bitter cold of the Palestinian winter. It is also unlikely that Caesar would have required all the citizens to return to the cities of their birth for a tax-census in the dead of the winter. Robert Myers in the book Celebrations, states: “The Biblical narrative of the birth of Jesus contains no indication of the date that the event occurred. However, Luke’s report that the shepherds were ‘abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night’ suggests that Jesus may have been born in summer or early fall. Since December is cold and rainy in Judea, it is likely the shepherds would have sought shelter for their flocks at night.”

We might ask then, where did this date originate? Ancient history provides us with an answer. December the 25th marked the winter solstice, and it was considered a special day in many of the pagan religions. It was particularly important in the cult of Mithras, a popular deity in the Old Roman Empire. Again Myers (who is hardly seeking to turn people away from the celebration of Christmas having written his book “with the editors of Hallmark Cards”) gives some interesting background. He says, “Prior to the celebration of Christmas, December 25th in the Roman world was the Natalis Solis Invicti, the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun. This feast, which took place just after the winter solstice of the Julian calendar, was in honor of the Sun God, Mithras, originally a Persian deity whose cult penetrated the Roman world in the first century B.C. . . . Besides the Mithraic influence, other pagan forces were at work. From the seventeenth of December until the twenty-third, Romans celebrated the ancient feast of Saturnalia. . . . It was commemorative of the Golden Age of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry.”

Until the recent era you would not be able to find a Baptist who would have anything to do with these pagan feasts. They have now become “sacred cows” in many “Baptist” churches, and woe be to the one who speaks a word against any of them. Quoting from a 12/23/83 USA TODAY article about Christmas: “A broad element of English Christianity still considered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century.” Indeed, even many Protestants abhorred this pagan day until recent times. Henry Ward Beecher, a Congregationalist, wrote in 1874 of his New England boyhood: “to me Christmas is a foreign day, and I shall die so. When I was a boy I wondered what Christmas was. I knew there was such a time, because we had an Episcopal church in our town, and I saw them dressing it with evergreens, and wondered what they were taking the woods in the church for; but I got no satisfactory explanation. A little later I understood it was a Romish institution, kept by the Romish Church.”

We could continue with much more documentation and history, but anyone who has the desire can soon find out for himself that Christmas is a thoroughly pagan holiday — in its origin, in its trappings, and in all its traditions.

Don’t take my word for it though, you need only read a dictionary, encyclopaedia, or some books on the holidays from your public library. No honest person can deny these truths. The Roman Catholic Church, which originated this holiday, admits that it was taken from paganism and adapted for its own purposes.

What then ought to be the Christian’s response to this, and other pagan and Roman inventions? It cannot be denied that they are pagan pure and simple — from beginning to end. God gives us specific instructions in His Holy Word: “Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen . . .” (Jer 10:2). These words are perfectly clear. We have no other option consistent with obedience. We cannot acknowledge these pagan festivities in any fashion. I personally have no desire to honour baby Mithras on his December 25th birthday. I sincerely urge all others to keep Christ out of this pagan Xmas mess! Here's the link to the sermon:http://www.albatrus.org/english/festivals/december_25/let_keep-christ_out_of_xmas.htm I'm not against Roman Catholics they're good Roman Catholics out there. I'm not angry at nobody.

God bless everybody,

Zack

[Guest shiloh357]

Until the recent era you would not be able to find a Baptist who would have anything to do with these pagan feasts. They have now become

[johnnyc]

Christmas, as it is celebrated today, may be a pagan holiday. But Jesus should always be on the mind of every Christian every day.

I believe Christmas for many people is the only time they think of others and actually do something nice or give something of themself to others. We as His children should have that Christmas spirit every day of our life.

Our duty is to love others for Him. Love them into His kingdom.

[Arthur Durnan]

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth specifically to die for my sins & to give me a blessed hope for new life here & an eternity in Heaven with You! A Christian is simply but quite emphatically ONE OF CHRIST'S. An American is ONE OF AMERICA'S. A Canadian is one of CANADA'S. A Christian is ONE OF CHRIST'S.

Why all the mass & invented confusion over a very straightforward matter? Whether Jesus was born on december 25th OR back in (more probably) October, the bottom-line is that He did indeed COME. The Holy Scriptures, admittedly, do not command us to remember His glorious BIRTH, but rather His sacrifical, all-atoning DEATH! But certainly let us join together in thanking Him for COMING - and then let us join together in praising Him for DYING in our room & stead. AMEN & AMEN!

Thank You, Lord Jesus For Bethlehem & Calvary!

Everybody Have A Wonderful 25th. Of December!

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[BibleBoy]

Here's something else that talks about Xmas:SHOULD A CHRISTIAN CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?

11/2002

W. ROSE

Dear fellow TRUTH SEEKERS, please understand first of all that I ( or anyone for that matter) cannot legislate holiness. It must be a conscious DECISION made by you. Surely you know that you could do 'all things' that the bible teaches and still be far from Christ! He is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit AND in TRUTH. In this or any writing you find on this site - please take it before the Lord and allow Him to show you through His word and His Spirit, that these writings are true. I seek to change no ones way of doing something, BUT I long to lead others into a fuller and TRUE relationship to Christ. If conforming to the will of God is not your cup of tea, then this will probably offend you and leave you angered. Please know that neither is my goal, my goal is that Christ may recieve ALL the Glory and honour due to Him, and that His name would be proclaimed through all the earth.

I am not going to go into deep exposures of all the origins of each individual practice associated with christmas, but I am going to approach this as much as possible with the principles taught in the Word of God. I believe that God, through His Word, has left us enough understanding concerning this 'holy day' that should alone be sufficient to persuade us into a correct approach to christmas. Please pray that God will open your eyes to His TRUTH and that the Holy Spirit will bear witness to these thoughts.

So, on with the question, Should a Christian celebrate christmas? NO!!!!!!!!!!

What do you mean - NO!! ? Isn't christmas just that, a Christ-mass, or a day set aside to reflect on Christ and His birth? What about all the people who go to church on christmas? What about the 3 wisemen giving gifts to the newborn baby in the manger? How in the world could this celebration be something a Christian shouldn't do, when it's a Christian holiday? Think of all the beautiful timeless carols we sing every year, such as Silent Night, or What Child Is This, and so on. Doesn't Christ recieve glory and honour in all these things?

I'll try to deal with these issues as thoroughly as possible. The first thing we must understand when dealing with this, is the origin of christmas. Where did it come from and how? Whether or not this matters to you, it should at least be known. I'm sure you could agree with that, as a TRUTH SEEKER. Surely you would never want to be willfully blind as to the origin of a holiday that enslaves the world as we know it!

I'm going to give you the origin in a brief way, not thorough, because all the little details do not change the main idea. Especially since there are differing views as to the minute details, however the history and timeline are fairly the same in every case and there is much recorded history to verify it. So here is the origin of christmas in a nut-shell:

Long ago, in many different societies, they had a habit of worshipping the sun, not to be confused with the Son - Jesus. These people had many ways of expressing themselves to their god, the sun, by way of sacrifices, feasts, orgies, gift giving, among many other various ways. Most of the time these practices took place near or on the winter solstice, which is the time of the year, in our December, when the sun is furthest from the earth, and the day is shortest. The reason is because after the solstice, the days begin to get longer and the sun higher in the sky, so they considered this the birth of the sun, or the rising sun.

Well, these practices continued for a long time even till after Christ had come and gone and the New Testament written. For a long time after the birth of the early church, Christianity was against the law. We have all heard the stories of the many men and women, including Paul, Stephen, Justin Martyr, Polycarp, etc. who were killed (martyred) for their faith in Christ. But even during this time of great persecution, the Body of Christ grew at an alarming rate. It seemed like satan's plan to destroy the church wasn't working like he thought it would. Even one of the early believers declared - "the blood of Christians is seed" meaning that everytime one was killed their blood would bring forth more Christians by their testimony of love and faith. There is an old saying that goes - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - and that is just what satan did, in a reverse sort of way. What happened was, a few hundred years later, in Rome, who by the way led the world in killing Christians, suddenly declared Christianity as the national religion!! Wow, what a blessing, --- not quite!

Now, instead of it being against the law to be a Christian, it was now against the law NOT to be. Sounds absurd, doesn't it? True, none the less. The devil tried for hundreds of years to destroy the church by killing them, to no avail, and it only tooks a few years to 'destroy' it by 'joining' it. Remember all those people who just couldn't resist worshipping the sun? Now all of a sudden these folks were 'Christians'. However their hearts were no more Christian than satan himself, for the most part that is. Im sure there were some true believers. They were so accustomed to their practices that they just couldn't give them up for Christ. What were the Romans to do? What they did was marry the old festivals with newer and more upright meanings. So they said, o.k. you want your feasts, then you can have them, only now you must celebrate Christ instead of the sun god, or saturnalia or whoever. And the people were quite content with that, because now they could have their cake and eat it too - and they all lived happily ever after.

And now you know the brief story of how our modern day christmas evolved, it is a made over form of occultic and pagan practices dating back thousands of years.

I know, I can already hear you saying - But we don't celebrate it that way, or we had no idea that was how it came about, or who cares, you aint taking it away from me because you can't let the past go, after all this is the 21st century- man!!You know what? I don't have the desire to argue with you, you will do what you want anyway, I've learned that early in my Christian walk. God knows your heart and the reasons why you neglect His Word and seek other gods. This is once again for those who WANT and DESIRE and LONG FOR the TRUTH. Not for the foolishly ignorant and blind religious zombies who repeat everything they hear and take no thought for their soul. I grieve for you, mister, if you will not heed God's Word, He will not be mocked. Do you think you can do whatever you want and then slide into heaven and sup with Christ at His marriage feast? Was God just being symbolic that day He said - You will have NO other gods but Me? Did He not warn us in His Word to- "flee from idolatry"?

I should be able to stop here and any true seeker of Christ will throw christmas as far away from them as possible, but I know the heart and the stubborness of it, because I too, was once resisting the TRUTH. Please, man of God, read on and let Christ open you up and expose your intents.

DOES THE BIBLE TELL US NOT TO CELEBRATE IT?

This is one of the main crutches people will lean on in defending their sacred 'holy day'. Can I be honest with you? Is that any reason to do or not to do something? Only if the bible says so, or says not to do? What does the bible tell us to do when we take our car in to the shop to be fixed and the mechanic messes up and put our brakes in wrong, and we end up wrecking because of it? Show me the verse! Does that mean God doesn't have a way in this example? Can we do what seems right in our own eye, if we can't find a chapter and verse that tells us specifically what to do? Of course not! Then we must apply the same logic to the issue of celebrating 'holy days', to see whether there are ways in which God HAS revealed us His will, just in different ways, or terms. This is what we will approach in the next little bit - what does the bible say about all these 'holy days', especially christmas?

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 - "Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be PARTNERS? How can light and darkness live TOGETHER? How can Christ and the devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? How can God's temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God! As God Himself has said, 'I will make My home with My people and live among them; I will be their God, and they shall be My people.' And so the Lord says, ' You must leave them and separate yourselves from them. Have NOTHING to do with what is unclean, and I will accept you. I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.' All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from EVERYTHING that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God."

Let's look closely at these verses and see how they apply. It is clearly telling us that God and the devil are complete opposites, and they have no common union. The modern day christmas is exactly that, a common union between darkness and light. Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Christ and Honoring Him, if that were the case then why do you give gifts and set up trees and decorate them? Why do you hang mistletoe and light the yuletide fire? Why do you eat feasts and spend till you're broke? Is ALL of this in Honor to Christ? Can you spend God's money unjustly in Honor of Him? Can you practice pagan festivities in Honor of Christ? Don't take my answer, what does the scripture say?

But you say, I DO all these things in honor to Christ. Next you will point to Romans 14 that says - "one man esteems all days alike, another esteems one day above another, but they both do it unto the Lord." 'Dont judge me then, because I am esteeming december 25th in honor to the Lord. ' Nowhere in Romans 14 will you find a verse, thought or otherwise that gives any allowance of celebrating pagan festivities with 'Christian' names. In fact there are numerous scriptures directed the opposite way- In Acts 17, Paul told the city council that "since we are God's children, we should not suppose that His nature is anything like an image of gold or silver or stone, shaped by the art and skill of man. God has overlooked the times when people did not know Him, but now He commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways." Here he did not tell them to go ahead and keep their idol gods and pagan practices, just rename them to something more 'spiritual' to sanitize it, he told them to turn from it and repent.

It must take a truly 'blind' person to not understand that we cannot mix pagan and Spiritual things together and please God. The sanitizing of pagan practices by calling them biblical names is still pagan practices. Even though God overlooked your ignorance, if indeed it was, He now calls you to turn away from idolatry.

I believe one of the main reasons people do not flee this idolatry is because of the ramifications of such a 'radical' decision. I mean imagine all the explaining and arguing and debating and criticizing and laughing and on and on and on. But remember the object of a TRUTH SEEKER is TRUTH over everything. We must hate everything, and give ALL of ourselves to Christ or we are NOT HIS!! He says that we should have NO other gods- that means our god of christmas too! If you don't think its such a god, then give it up. Quit all the pagan festivities and rites and white washed evil and watch the response of people who claim that christmas is not their god. It is a shame that we as Christians have allowed ourselves to be partakers of the devil's table. Don't we know that we can't partake of both the Lord's table and the devil's table? We can only serve one master, who will it be?

But it's so harmless and the children love it and we talk about Christ and His birth. Well, shouldn't you be doing that ALL the time, not just on december 25? We should be doing that as we sit up and walk and rest and all the time! Everyday, our thoughts should be directed to our Lord and Saviour. There is nothing wrong with teaching your children about His birth,, after all it takes up several chapters of the bible. However, there is a huge difference between that, and communing with the devil in his holy days. If you must celebrate His birth ON december 25th, then why can't you drop all the side stuff and TRULY focus only on Him. No gifts, no trees, no stockings, no santa claus, no mistletoe, no carols, no cards, no shopping excursions, no office parties, no apple bobbing, no yuletide logs, no holly berries, no evergreen, no 3 wisemen , etc. Just you, your children, and a bible. Can you do it? Or will you just die, because of all the FUN you've missed out on. Try it and you'll quickly find out if it's your god or not.

God wants us to worship Him and Him alone. There are many ways we can make other gods, even church can be our god. The bible can be our god. Giving money can be our god. Tithing can be our god. Speaking in tongues can be our god. But God wants to be our God, and NOTHING else.

SOME QUOTES FROM THE EARLY CHURCH

How many of you think the early church celebrated christmas, raise your hands? I wish I could see your hands right now, hopefully they'd be down, which would be the right answer. They rejected the pagan festivals and all the practices that went with them. Here are a few of their very own words regarding the subject -

Tertullian wrote in 200 a.d. - The saturnalia, New year, midwinter festivals, and matronalia are frequented by us!Presents come and go! There are new years gifts!Games join their noise! Banquets join their din! The pagans are more faithful to their own sect...For, even if they had known them, they would not have shared the Lord's day or Pentecost with us. For they would fear lest they would appear to be Christians. Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be PAGANS!

Tertullian 212 a.d.- You Christians have your own registers, your own calendar. You have nothing to do with the festivities of the world. In fact, you are called to the very opposite- for "the world will rejoice, but you will mourn."

Origin 248 a.d. - It would follow as a consequence that we could take part in the public feasts, if it were proved that the public feasts had NOTHING wrong in them and were GROUNDED upon true views of the character of God...However, the so-called public festivals can in NO WAY be shown to harmonize with the service of God. Rather, on the contrary, they prove to have been devised by men for the purpose of commemorating some human event- or to set forth certain qualities of water, earth, or the fruits of the earth. Accordingly, it is clear that those who wish to offer an enlightened worship to the Divine being will act according to sound reason and NOT take part in the public feasts.

Tertullian 200a.d. - He says 'Let your works shine.' But now all our shops and gates shine! Nowadays, you will find more doors of pagans without lights and laurel wreaths than those of Christians!...Do you say, ' But the lights in front of my doors, and the wreaths on my gate-posts, are an honor to God'? However, they are not there as an honor to God, but to him who is honored in God's place through ceremonial observances of this kind.

As you can see, the slow evolution of Christians practicing the pagans festivals was beginning to happen, the only difference was that, the church leaders of those days weren't blind to it and they did not over look the sins of the church, instead they exposed it for what it was and commanded the people to come out from the world and be separate. Can we say the same thing for the church today? Not even close is it!

There is a passage in Jeremiah that deals with this issue, although many people will deny that it has anything whatsoever to do with the christmas tree. You read it and see for yourself from a TRUTH SEEKERS perspective -

Jeremiah 10 - People of Israel, listen to the message that the Lord has for you. He says, ' Do not follow the ways of other nations; do not be disturbed by unusual sights in the sky, even though other nations are terrified. The religion of these people is worthless. A tree is cut down in the forest; it is carved by the tools of the woodworker and decorated with silver and with gold. It is fastened down with nails to keep it from falling over. Such idols are like scarecrows in a field of melons; they cannot speak; they have to be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them: they can cause you no harm, and they can do you no good.

Whether this pasage deals directly with the christmas tree or something similar, it changes nothing. The message is that these heathen nations have practices observed to other gods and we are to not learn about them, but to avoid them. We know from history that the christmas tree is definately from pagan practice, so does God say we should sanitize it, or flee from it?

If the evidence from scripture hasn't convinced you by now, it probably never will. It must be clear that God wants us to have NOTHING to do with idols and pagan festivals, even if they are sanitized and white washed. I know this is not an easy thing to give up, but the Lord's grace is sufficient for your need! He will give you the courage to face opposition in this decision. When will we as a church, the body of Christ, return to Him and flee every form of idolatry and paganism?

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ORIGINS

In this section I will try to give you a few of the origins of some of the modern day christmas festivities and practices. Please know that there are varying opinions as to the exacts on some of these, but the message is the same, they came from pagan origins. -

December 25 date for christmas - History shows that December 25th was kept thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Romans etc., all celebrated December 25th as the birthday of their god - the Sun which was manifested in different forms according to culture. The birth of Jesus was not celebrated until the fourth century when Christianity adopted aspects of popular pagan cults, after becoming the state religion of Rome. (Pope Julius I decreed December 25th to be 'Christ-mass' Day in the year 351 A.D. The New Catholic Encyclopaedia Vol. 3, points out that the Sun-god was in fact proclaimed the patron of the Roman Empire on December 25, 274 A.D.!) December 25th, the time of the Roman winter solstice, was kept by pagans as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun, because on this date the sun began its return to the northern skies.

Gift giving - The giving of presents at Christmas time hails from the practice of giving gifts based on the belief that 'he who does not give freely will be unlucky in the coming year'. Many people tell their children that gifts are brought to their homes by Santa Claus/St. Nicholas/the elf Jultomen or Julenissen etc. depending on the country in which they live. Does this practice show any regard for truth on the part of adults? And what might this do to children when they do discover that they were being lied to all this time?

Christmas tree/ mistletoe/ ivy - The Christmas tree is a survival of the idea of sacred trees in ancient times. Evergreens were used in mid-winter rites long before Christianity. Christmas is a 'Christianized' extension of a festival that included the pagan god-child Tammuz. It is interesting to note that Tammuz had another name - Baal-bereth, which means 'Lord of the Fir-Tree'! The holly, the ivy and mistletoe were regarded as magical plants bearing fruit in a dead season. The berries of the holly were seen as powerful against witches. These berries were later said to represent Christ's blood, and its prickles His crown of thorns; while the clinging ivy symbolized immortality. The mistletoe in particular, is said to have been a branch that miraculously grew from the side of a fir tree that had been cut almost to the ground and stripped of all its branches. This fir tree was a symbol of Nimrod who had been deified as the Sun-god. The miracle of the growth of the branch of mistletoe from this fir tree, was accomplished by the great serpent - Aesculapius, the life restorer, after it twisted itself around the stripped tree! The Aryan people later developed the belief that to be kissed under the mistletoe would ensure fertility. Pagan associations with the mistletoe, according to Encyclopaedia of Living Traditions, are still so strong that church decorators refuse to use it.

Decorating the christmas tree - The war-like Germanic people would promise their god - Tiwaz, that if he would give them victory over their enemies, they would give him all the spoils of battle. Like the Babylonians, they believed their gods could transform themselves into trees. If the god answered their prayers, they took their victims along with the spoils of war, to the sacred groves and there hung them on their sacred trees! The decorated Christmas tree has its origin in killing enemies and hanging their heads and the booty of war on pagan sacred trees. The Bible speaks of these 'sacred' groves in a number of places. (See 2 Kings 17:10,16,19; Ex.34:12, 13; Deut.12:2,3; 2 Chron. 33:19; Micah 5:14.)

Christmas shopping - Do you think this is something only our modern world knows, think again. The following quote is from the 4th century, by a Christian noting the Roman pagan holidays- "Everywhere may be seen...well-laden tables...The impulse to spend seizes everyone. He through the whole year has taken pleasure in saving...becomes suddenly extravagant...A stream of presents pours itself out on all sides."

Santa Claus - Also known as "Father Christmas", the myths and legends surrounding Santa Claus are a mixture of pagan customs from differing regions.

"Santa Claus" is a corruption of the name "Saint Nicholas", a Roman Catholic bishop who lived in the 4th century. He was a saint honoured by the Greeks and Latins on December 6th, for the legendary bestowal of dowries on the three daughters of an impoverished citizen - said to originate the custom of giving gifts in secret on the eve of St. Nicholas (December 6th), later transferred to Christmas Day.An important part of pagan festivities involved good and bad spirits - as in Halloween, followed by All Saints Day. In many regions, visitors being either good or bad spirits made their appearance during winter. Through blending pagan legends with traditions about saints, there emerged certain figures with similar personalities. Such figures are recognised today in different cultures as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, St. Martin, the Weihnachtsmann, Pere Noel. These figures - the Christianisation of German dieties - perpetuate the themes of rewards and punishment being dealt out to celebrants of the festivals. Throughout the centuries, these customs came to be centred around children.The legend of Santa Claus entering the house through the chimney, and the hanging of socks and stockings by the fireplace, relates to the ancient superstitions around hearth spirits. The Chinese and others would traditionally sweep and scour the house in preparation for the visit by the hearth spirit. Dressed in a pointed red cap and red jacket, this fire god travelled from the heavens above, visiting homes to distribute favours or punishments.Each Christmas time today, children are told the lie about Santa Claus coming down the chimney to distribute gifts to them if they behaved themselves!! Sooner or later the children learns of the myth, many becoming disillusioned. Such disillusions are easily transfered to the beliefs in God and Jesus Christ - if Santa Claus doesn't exist, then God and Jesus also doesn't exist!!! The Scriptures plainly state, "Thou shalt not bear false witness"!!Far from adding to the "joy of Christmas", the Santa Claus legends actually turn away souls from Jesus Christ, risking for them an eternity in Hell!! No true Christian should ever involve themselves in this abominational legend of Santa Claus nomatter how good it may seem for the children at the time!! God says, "There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of DEATH"!! thanks to http://members.iinet.net.au/~gregga/santa.html

These are just a few of the main practices we so dearly hold to at christmas time.

CONCLUSION

I hope you know that my heart is not one of condemnation, but of love for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I want you to walk in TRUTH and not in falsehood and darkness. Celebrating this 'holy day' is trying to hold hands with God and the devil, and it can't be done. You must choose this day whom you will serve!

So what is my advice for you if you want to join the few who still fear God and keep His commandments? First you must get down before God, with your whole family and repent for having idols and other gods besides Him. Next, go through your house and destroy any evidence of pagan influence, not just for christmas either, but all of it! You must tell all you know the TRUTH, so they will hear and have an opportunity to be saved from the wrath to come. You must stand firm, please understand, your family will come down on you like you wouldn't believe. Stand firm in the Lord, brethren, don't be ashamed of the gospel of TRUTH!!

Another thing is, don't be taken in with compromises to do it on different days or sanitize it even more, cast it away. If you worship God on that day, which you should, do away with any known practice associated with christmas. Instead of carols, sing hymns unto God and bless His name! We must flee Babylon, which is this world we live in, we are strangers here, not citizens, for our citizenship is in heaven. Let's live like we really believe that!!

If you have any questions regarding this issue, please email them to me. And as always - May the risen Lord receive the glory and may His name be magnified! Amen.

READ BELOW FOR THE WORLDBOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRY FOR CHRISTMAS-

you will clearly see that even the 'world' knows it is from pagan origins. What kind of witness is this to them?

WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA - CHRISTMAS

Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but most Christians observe Christmas on December 25. On this day, many go to church, where they take part in special religious services. During the Christmas season, they also exchange gifts and decorate their homes with holly, mistletoe, and Christmas trees. The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ.

The story of Christmas comes chiefly from the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament. According to Luke, an angel appeared to shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem and told them of Jesus' birth. Matthew tells how the wise men, called Magi, followed a bright star that led them to Jesus.

The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in A.D. 336 in an early Roman calendar. The celebration of this day as Jesus' birth date was probably influenced by pagan (unchristian) festivals held at that time. The ancient Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god; and Mithras, the god of light. Various peoples in northern Europe held festivals in mid-December to celebrate the end of the harvest season. As part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving. These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration.

In the late 300's, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. By 1100, Christmas had become the most important religious festival in Europe, and Saint Nicholas was a symbol of gift giving in many European countries. During the 1400's and 1500's, many artists painted scenes of the Nativity, the birth of Jesus. An example of these works appears in the Jesus Christ article in the print version of The World Book Encyclopedia.

The popularity of Christmas grew until the Reformation, a religious movement of the 1500's. This movement gave birth to Protestantism. During the Reformation, many Christians began to consider Christmas a pagan celebration because it included nonreligious customs. During the 1600's, because of these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America. The old customs of feasting and decorating, however, soon reappeared and blended with the more Christian aspects of the celebration.

In the 1800's, two more Christmas customs became popularâ

[angels4u]

the issue is whether or not Jeremiah 10:1-9 is talking about a Christmas tree. There is nothing to support your assertion.

Amen!

Bibleboy we know Christmas is pagan but alot of born again Christians celebrate the thought of Jesus His birth ,that He came to earth to die for our sins.

This shoud be an every day realization.

I know for many Christmas has nothing to do with Christ----

So--do you celebrate Christmas at your house?

God Bless, Angels

(I didn't read your long post takes me too long )

[BibleBoy]

the issue is whether or not Jeremiah 10:1-9 is talking about a Christmas tree. There is nothing to support your assertion.

Amen!

Bibleboy we know Christmas is pagan but alot of born again Christians celebrate the thought of Jesus His birth ,that He came to earth to die for our sins.

This shoud be an every day realization.

I know for many Christmas has nothing to do with Christ----

So--do you celebrate Christmas at your house?

God Bless, Angels

(I didn't read your long post takes me too long )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree Angels we should be thankful for Jesus The Messiah's birth every day. No my parents and I now do not celebrate Xmas. We did years ago but now we don't after we found out about it's pagan origins.

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (King James Version)

14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.

18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 7

1Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

In other words God does not want us combine Christianity and paganism together. There's probably at least a few people on Worthy Boards who agrees about Xmas. I read Shammah's post on WB talk about Xmas's pagan origins. It's not good to debate so I just saying that me and my family don't celebrate Xmas and I'm just showing everybody on WB about Xmas.

Here's the link to Shammah's post:Shammah's post

Here's some of Shammah's post:

Now, beloved, God's people are not supposed to have anything to do with pagan customs or pagan doctrine. The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 10: 2, "Learn not the way of the heathen." But somehow the Christian has learned it just the same. Some will say, "We can't help it if we were born into a pagan world. We can't help it if we were reared and steeped in pagan doctrines and customs" Oh, yes you can! Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

There is only one righteous thing that you can do with these pagan holidays and that is to repudiate them and have no part in them. The virgin birth of Christ is a blessed fact, but the Christmass celebration is a wicked and an ungodly thing.

Sometimes you hear the slogan, "Let's Put Christ Back Into Christmas." Well, beloved, how can you put Christ back into something when He was never there?

Even the name "Christmass" is an abomination to the Lord. Christmass is a combination of two words, "Christ" and "Mass." Christ is the divine title of our Lord. "Mass" is from the Roman Catholic sacrament of the mass. Certainly born-again Christians shouldn't have anything to do with masses. The mass is a Roman Catholic invention. The mass is a prayer that is read or sung

or the soul of a dead person.

Every time you say "Merry Christmas," you are actually mixing the precious and holy name of Christ with a demon holiday. The Lord tells us in no unmistakable language that we are not to mix His name with any pagan holiday or with a pagan god. The Lord says in Ezekiel 20: 39, "Pollute not my holy name no more."

Nobody really knows where the Christmas tree came from. Here's the most bizarre theory I've come across: Dec. 24 was Adam and Eve's Day in the medieval church calendar. The day was celebrated with the presentation of skits recounting Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden of Eden. A fir tree decorated with apples stood for Eden's Tree of Knowledge The tree was ringed with lighted candles.

People sometimes placed likenesses of Adam and Eve and of snakes under their decorated trees. The tie in with Christrmas was neat: the promise of salvation after the fall. Before long, sacramental wafers were added to the apples on the trees. At some point the apples turned to oranges and glass balls, and decorated cookies and toys replaced the wafers. Candles were placed on the tree instead of under it, and the whole thing was moved indoors.

Think Christmas is too commercial today? By the l6th century, Christmas had become a 12-day explosion of eating, drinidng, hunting and gambling: We don't celebrate the traditional Christmas Day poker game because the 'Puritans, in reaction, banned Christmas, Easter and saints' days. when they took power in England in 1843. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, so was Christmas, but without much of its excess: (No longer welcome in England; the Puritans went to Massachusetts where they banned Christmas from 1659 to 1681.

Jesus probably was born in late spring or early summer, the time of year when taxes were paid and shepherds were most likely to be out tending their sheep. December 25th probably was chosen because it coincided with midwinter celebrations of early times. Pope Julius I decreed the date in 350; Roman Emperor Justinian made it a civic holiday in 529. Christmas took on much of today's trappings during the family- oriented Victorian era of the l9th century. Numerous Christmas carols were composed then, Santa Claus replaced the more serious St. Nicholas, and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees became widespread. Christmas was made a legal holiday in the United States, with Southern states taking the lead.

Using X as in "Xmas" is not necessarily a sign of the holiday's secularism. In Greek, X is the first letter of Christ's name and was often used as a holy symbol by early Christians.

The Christmas tree evolved from pagan beliefs about evergreen trees as symbols of eternal life and from the Paradise tree, a fir hung with red apples and wafers that represented the Garden of Eden in a medieval miracle play about Adam and Eve. The play was usually performed on Dec. 24, which was celebrated as the couple's birthday. The oldest record of a Christmas tree - indoors and decorated - goes back to 1603 Strasbourg, Germany. Christmas trees didn't become an integral part of the holiday in the United States until around 1930.

I'm not angry at nobody just because they celebrate Xmas but my parents and I don't celebrate Xmas.

God bless y'all,

BibleBoy

[BibleBoy]

Let's all try to get along and try to talk about Xma's pagan origins. I still think Xmas is pagan but we don't need to fuss and fight about it but talk calmly about it.

[angels4u]

I'm not angry at nobody just because they celebrate Xmas but my parents and I don't celebrate Xmas.

I appriciate where you and your parents are standing on this topic, if it was for me I would probably do the same

But I do disagree about the tree

love you Bibleboy