So we are going to address the topic of the pagan origins of Christmas. And we’re going to examine the Scriptures on this and the history on this. And the purpose of this study is to demonstrate proof, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the origins of the so-called Christmas holiday is actually pagan origins.

My name is Tom Martincic, I’m the author of EliYah Ministries, EliYah.com, a ministry that began in 1995 getting back to the Hebraic roots of our faith. I’m a full believer in the New Testament and Old Testament Scriptures. My goal is to live my life the way our Savior did. I’m still a work in progress on that.

But what I’m going to share today is different than what you’ll hear in traditional Christian circles. However, I do love the Savior and I do believe in being saved by grace, and it’s out of love for Him that I want to share the things I’m sharing with you today.

My hope is that you will hear the words of this message, that you will not feel condemnation but you will feel conviction if you are currently participating in the Christmas season, Christmas so-called holiday.

Now those who don’t celebrate like me, yeah, we’re a bit of the oddball. And it’s uncomfortable, especially when you go to stores and people say “Merry Christmas.” I mean, what do you say back? I just say “Blessings to you and yours,” you know.

But the awkwardness is not, you know, really anything compared to what our Savior did for us. I mean, for us to be willing to be different than the world and suffer a little bit, you know, especially friends and family that are upset we’re not keeping it, you know, with them. And you know, I get it. I get it, I understand the challenge there.

But let me tell you, even notable preachers like Charles Spurgeon spoke against the observance of Christmas. I’m not sure that he was perfectly in line with his own beliefs on that, as far as his actions, it’s questionable, but he definitely spoke against it.

Also, I want to say, I’m going to start with some assumptions—I’m going to assume that you, who are watching this video, that you love our Savior with all your heart, and that you are a genuine believer, and if you ever found anything that you were doing that was offensive to Him in any way, shape, or form, you would change. I trust that. I trust that’s going to be true. And so, I’m also going to assume that if I was able to present to you the reasons why Christmas should not be observed, and is actually offensive to Him, that you would change. That you would change. That’s who this video is for. It’s not for those playing religion and are just looking to satisfy themselves. It’s for those who are sincere believers.

And so those of you who are not sincere believers and you’re just playing church, you’re probably not going to get much out of this video. But for those of you who are sincere, and I trust most of you are watching are sincere, maybe all of you are sincere, that you want to know—is this Christmas observance right or wrong? Is it something our Father’s pleased with? Is our Savior merry about Christmas as I am? You know, you want to know that.

So, the title of this study is “Proof of the Pagan Origins of Christmas.”

Now most people use Christmas as get-togethers, you know. By the way, this is a quote from Charles Spurgeon, “Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all,” – Christ mass – “but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or English; and, secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatsoever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and, consequently, its observance as a superstition, because not of divine authority. Where is the method in the madness of the superstitious? Probably the fact the holy days were arranged to fit in with heathen festivals. We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, in which we may be pretty sure it is not the day on which the Savior is born, is the twenty-fifth of December.” That’s what Charles Spurgeon taught on December 24th, 1871. Alright.

Now it’s not inherently wrong to get together with family. It’s not inherently wrong to give gifts to those in need. It’s not inherently wrong to show love to your children. It’s not inherently wrong to encourage children to be good and to be obedient. And it’s not inherently wrong to rejoice that the Messiah was born. Actually Scripture says to rejoice in the works of Yahweh. That’s great.

However, the question would be whether these things would be wrong in association with a holiday that He is not pleased with. For instance, it’s not wrong to make a cake. But if you’re gonna make a cake for a homosexual wedding, then it becomes wrong. You see the difference? And so a normally good action could actually become a wrong action if it’s done in the wrong context. And it’s the presence of these good things that have a tendency to overshadow everything else. The joy, the merriment, the friendliness that people exhibit that time of year, the willingness to give of themselves, or charities that do great works. These are inherently good deeds by in and of themselves.

But it would be a mistake for me to say, “It’s all evil.” Well, the deeds themselves aren’t evil. But, I wouldn’t make a cake for a homosexual wedding for any reason. I wouldn’t bake a cake for Anton LaVey, the Satanist, on his birthday, you know. What I’m saying, this is when it becomes wrong.

So the question is when something is wrong in and of itself, yes it’s always wrong. But otherwise good deeds in celebration of something that is wrong, can become wrong. The question is whether or not Christmas itself is right or wrong.

I know people have a lot of emotional attachments and fond memories. I do—child growing up, couldn’t hardly wait till the next morning when Santa Claus would come down the chimney and bring me gifts. Couldn’t hardly believe, when I found out later, he wasn’t really true.

But I tell you that there’s overwhelming pressure also, you know, from society to participate in Christmas. A lot of pressure, and especially family members at times, you know. And so please, I do understand the issue. I do understand the issue.

I stopped observing Christmas, my last one was 1989. Since then I found much better alternatives, I’ll tell you about that later. But at the end of the day, really, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans how I feel about Christmas. It don’t amount to anything how you feel about Christmas. The only thing that matters is how He feels about; it’s His birthday, right? It’s supposed to be how He feels, not how we feel, but how He feels. He’s the one being worshiped. We don’t get to decide the way we worship Him, and He has to accept it the way we want to do it.

And so the only way to really inquire as to whether He’s happy about it, and whether He’s really merry about it, is to look into how Christmas got started. Is it something He was pleased with? Did that change over time? Is it something He’s happy with today? Can we find something by doing a fair evaluation of Scripture, you know, to see if we can discover whether our understanding of Christmas is identical to that of our Savior Himself. Anything other than that, again, it’s just playing religion and letting us, we’re just making up, we’re forming Him into the deity we want Him to be, in other words.

And so with a sensitivity to our Father’s will, let’s take a close look at what this is really all about, all the merriment, everything, what’s this all about? Is He really the reason for the season? Or is He willing to be delivered from it? That’s the question.

So first of all, we know it’s supposed to be a celebration of our Savior’s birthday. And so since it is, a first logical question would be, why was December 25th chosen to be His birthday? That’s the logical question. Can we find any support for that date in the Bible itself? I’ve read a number of proposed dates on this topic, different opinions, and I’ve come to conclusion it’s really not possible to know the exact date.

I’ve heard people say well, you know, some people say, “The actual time of priestly course of Zechariah’s, we know what time of year it was, and therefore we know six months later, you know, when the Messiah would have been conceived, and by that we can figure out when He would be born nine months later.”

You’re making a lot of assumptions here. You’re making an assumption that as soon as Zechariah was done with his priestly duties there, he went home, his wife was immediately fertile. I mean, when Abraham was told about his wife’s gonna have a son, it was years, years later before she actually did. He was confused, he decided to go through Hagar. And so we don’t know if it could have been years later. It could not have been years later. It could have been right… We don’t know, and if we did know, we don’t know six months later how far into the six months was it. And we don’t know if the gestation that Yahushua had was exactly 40 weeks on the dot. Could have been 38 weeks, could have been 42 weeks. We don’t know. We’re making a lot of assumptions in trying to get the correct date from the Scripture.

People think that He was born around the feast time. Well, why is everybody in their hometown then, for the census? He’s supposed to be in Jerusalem. They would not have scheduled a census during the feast, there would have been a riot, okay?

So, whatever it might be, there’s different ideas people have. The earliest Christian I can find that had a date for His birth was this man. His name is Clement of Alexandria, he lived from 150 to 215. And it says, “And there are those who have determined not only the year of our Master’s birth, but also the day; and they say it took place in the twenty-eight year of Augustus, in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon, which is May and June.” Not December 25th.

But how would they know? They don’t know! They’re guessing. They don’t know when He was born. The early believers, really, in Yahushua were completely indifferent to everything as far as His birthday. They didn’t celebrate birthdays. They weren’t really into it. And so there’s no record of anyone celebrating His birthday until about 300 years later after He died, approximately, and rose again.

And yet, since no one was celebrating it, why do we have now? It’s the biggest celebration of the year in Christianity. It’s so huge and so massive that even atheists and unbelievers enjoy it and participate in it, and say, “Merry Christmas.” They don’t even believe in the Christ of Christmas. They say “Merry Christmas.”

And so, you know, yeah, 300 years later, a lot can happen in 300 years. A lot can happen. Just look at our culture today. Just the last several decades—living together before marriage has become acceptable, and some 80 percent of Christians are fornicating before marriage. Homosexual ministers and pastors now; and transgender, it’s gotten bad. It’s just in the last 20, 30 years. Imagine 300 years of Roman culture. What kind of influence would they have?

And in fact, in Paul’s day, Acts chapter 20 verse 29, it says here – “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
³⁰ “Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
³¹ “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone day and night with tears.” – Three years, day and night, he warned everybody. Right after his departure, “after my departure, savage wolves come in.”

So, if right after his departure false doctrine can creep in, imagine 300 years later, yeah, we don’t need to be assuming that historical Christianity always has it right. We shouldn’t be assuming; that’s a very, very, very poor, you know, assumption to make.

And so, why was December 25th chosen? Now, one time, I relied on the research of Encyclopedia Britannica and even the Catholic Encyclopedia, which acknowledged that they were borrowing the December 25th date from Saturnalia, an observance, Sol Invictus, this deity sun god, and they borrowed that date and call it the date the Messiah was born.

But more recent scholarship has shown that we can’t absolutely prove that. It looks like it could be, but we can’t definitively prove that they were, they had a birthday celebration for the sun, before people began to celebrate the birthday of the Messiah. And for that reason, there’s even some Torah-observant people who’ve gone back now to celebrating Christmas because they say, “You can’t prove it’s pagan origin. You can’t prove it.”

Okay. Well, there is no actual proof that the pagans were celebrating it first. There’s no proof of that, alright? So, and their evidence that the Messiah, it was believed He was born December 25th, came from Christians before Sol Invictus was ever worshiped.

So, we can only prove that Antiochus, a first-and-second-century pagan, did report that there was the birthday of the sun on December 25th. According to Antiochus of Athens, he said on his calendar he had 23rd, 24th, 25th, and he had the birth of the sun on the 25th. (Source: Parapegma, Antiochus of Athens, 50-150 AD) And this is before any Christian ever said, “This is when the Messiah was born.”

And so we do have evidence that people recognized December 25th was the birthday of the sun before any Christian ever said it was. And we can’t, however, prove that there was a birthday celebration for the sun. We know that there was winter-solstice celebrations, which are awfully close to a birthday celebration.

Many of those customs of that winter solstice, that celebration, that new, whatever it was, are now in Christmas today. The evergreens and all these things that are in Christmas today. But we can’t necessarily prove that they were celebrating the birthday of the sun on December 25th. Actually, the winter-solstice celebration was just right before that 25th of December.

And so recent scholarship has sought to challenge those who claim pagan origins of Christmas. The Roman Empire in 313 AD made Christianity it’s official religion and started to create festivals that lined up with different events that are spoken of in the Bible, particularly the New Testament. And one of those was the Messiah’s birthday, December 25th.

And they got that apparently from these writers. Hippolytus of Rome said, “For the first advent of our Master in the flesh, when He was born in Bethlehem, took place on the 25th of Wednesday, on the very day which He also made the sun… From the conception of the Lord until His passion there were 33 years. On the day which He made the sun, on that very day He also suffered; on the day on which He was conceived, on that very day He also suffered. For the Master having been conceived on the 25th of March, on that same day also suffered.” (A. from his commentary on Daniël 4.23) And so this 25th of March is believed to be when he said the Messiah was conceived. Go forward nine months, you come up with December 25th.

Now this man lived from 165 to 235, and for that reason people say, “Look, they already believed there was a birthday before there was ever Saturnalia and Sol Invictus and all this thing’s going on. And so it wasn’t pagan at all.” Another man actually took that and ran with it, Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160-240 AD) said, “From the conception of the Master until his passion there are 13 years and 9 months… The world was created 22/25 March… Therefore the Master was conceived on the same day, and was born on 25 December.” (From the surviving Greek fragments of is Chronographiae, c. 221 AD)

This is before Saturnalia, before Christmas was ever celebrated, before His birthday was ever celebrated. These men had the same idea that He was conceived on the spring equinox and that He was born on the winter solstice. So where’d that come from? That’s what I want to know. Where’d they come up with these dates and why? What was their thinking? That’s what I want to know.

Go back further than these men. What was their mentality? Why were they assigning the date of the Messiah’s conception and His birth in line with the sun and what it’s doing? What’s going on here? For me red flags, alarm bells, ding, ding, ding. What’s going on? Why are they looking upward and saying this is the Messiah’s birthday, not looking downward at the pages of Scripture and saying there’s Messiah’s birthday.

Well, we got to understand that the Greco-Roman world, the Christians had grown up in, spent a lot of time looking at that old bright orange thing in the sky called the sun, the moon, the stars, because that’s their gods they worshiped. That’s what they were following. And so, I think they really have no evidence for it, but it looks like they’re trying to appropriate these things.

But either way, let’s look at, see if we can follow backwards what’s going on. Now, there was a first-century Jewish philosopher by the name of Philo and he, you know, claimed to be a believer in the Bible, he lived in Egypt, very influential among early Christians.

He tried to combine the good parts, we deem to be good parts of Greek philosophy, and say that he, you know, that Moses was the first great philosopher. And that those philosophical concepts found in Greco-Roman philosophy could be reconciled with things that are in the Bible. For instance, in fact, I’ll tell you this, he’s quoted by Clement of Alexandria, he’s quoted by Origen, he’s quoted by Eusebius, Jerome; Justin Martyr was very influenced by the same ideas that Philo had. He even said Plato and other Greek philosophers got their best ideas from Moses. That was their thinking. That’s what they said. And the prophets.

So Philo said “The equinox is the image of that original equality,” – equal day and night – “from which all inequality departed… That is why Moses also says the creation of the universe took place at the beginning of spring when day and night are equal.“ So at creation, all things were equal. After that sin made, you know, the world became unequal.

And so he’s using the motions of the sun and the heavens and saying, “Look, this is why Moses says that.” Moses never says that. He never says it. This is not a Biblical argument. He’s philosophizing, he’s trying to make it fit into Greco-Roman thought. Why? Because he was very influenced by a man, the name of Philo or Plato.

Now he is, he is looking at seasons from a Greco-Roman mind. Summer, fall, winter, spring, spring, fall, spring, summer, fall, winter, four seasons. Biblically speaking, there is no specific date named as the beginning of summer, or beginning of winter, it’s all weather-based—when things start getting dry and hot, it’s considered to be summer; when things start to get rainy and cold, it’s considered to be winter. There was no actual exact date—now it’s officially winter. And there was no spring and fall at all in Scripture. And so he’s already bringing Greco-Roman thought into his mind. He’s very influenced by it because it’s the culture he lives in.

But he’s getting this stuff from Plato, this equality, inequality. Plato was a pagan Greek philosopher. He said (Plato, Timaeus 38c-d(c. 360 BC)) “The immediate context is the Demiurge creating the cosmos and setting the heavenly bodies in motion. The very first perfect moment of cosmic order, the moment the universe is fully organized, is when the day and night become exactly equal.” – Once again, the equinox, the equinox.

And so, to back up, I guess I didn’t get it all in there, but it says “this is the moment the cosmos achieves perfect balance and harmony.” That was Plato’s mentality, that became Philo’s mentality, his justification for saying that’s when the creation of the world was, that the equinox, everything was equal, no unequal, everything was perfect cosmic balance. And he’s getting these ideas from Plato.

Now, Plato was a pagan. He said (Plato, Timaeus 37c, 40d) – “The cosmos is a living creature endowed with soul, with intelligence, a visible God, the image of the intelligible. The gods that revolve in the heavens—the sun, the moon, the stars —were created by the Demiurge…

These we may call by the names our ancestors gave them:” – And I don’t want to read it, but you can see it. He said (Laws 653d-654a) – “Theos has given us the revolving year of its seasons” – Seasons is, the Greek word is “kairous,” – “so that we may imitate the perfect motion of the cosmos in our festivals and sacrifices.” – They had festivals and sacrifices which surrounded these particular motions of the sun, the equinox, the solstice, the both of them—spring and fall equinox, winter and summer solstice. They had specific sacrifices and things they did at that time.

 

You know Paul actually talks about this? He does. He talks about this in Galatians chapter 4 in verse 9. He says – But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?
¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years. – Days and months and seasons and years. Turning again. Turning again. They were not, they were pagans before. They were not feast keepers.

Some people think, “Oh, he’s talking about the feast.” No, they were turning again to these four things. These four Greek words, the same exact Greek words are found in the writings of Philo. Philo who says (Philo, De Specialibus Legibus (On the Special Laws) 2.126-130)) – “Some people have such a desire for astronomical speculation that they spend their entire lives investigating the motions of stars, the causes of things that happen on earth, attributing everything to the movements of the heavenly bodies… Others occupy themselves with nature of days and months and seasons and years” – Same exact Greek words. – “supposing that from these cycles they can discover primary causes of good and evil fortune.” – Same exact words in Greek.

Paul is criticizing the continued recognition of these “kairos” observances. Specifically I’m going to single out “kairos” which we know that Plato already talked about, and now Paul’s talking about “kairos” and there’s Plato mentioning “kairos”—this is the spring and fall equinox, this is the winter and summer solstice.

These “kairos” that are being observed. And Paul’s criticizing them for observing them. He’s criticizing for that and he is upset. He says (Galatians 4:10b-11) – “You are observing days and months and kairos and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.” – Not only are they embracing Jewish false doctrine, now they’re also hanging on to Gentile false doctrine. He’s like, “I’ve thrown my hands up; I feel like I’ve labored in vain. Have you not learned anything? Separate yourself from that stuff guys!”

And so, while Philo was actually critical of those who did that, you know, he allowed himself to be influenced by Platonic, Plato theology and philosophy—drawing their theological ideas from the studies of the movements of the sun and moon and stars. Particularly the winter and summer solstice, the spring and fall equinox.

So what is Christmas? It is a type of “kairos” festival. It’s a “kairos.” The very thing that he said don’t be observing, people today are observing. A “kairos” festival and incorporating, injecting Yahushua into that festival even though there’s zero, zero Biblical evidence that that’s even true. None.

And they got their ideas from who? From Plato, the Stoics, Greco-Roman pagan religion—“Everything’s new, everything’s new and everything’s new and equal. Well, since that’s true, that must be when the Messiah was born. Everything’s equal.” – Or should I say conceived. – “Everything’s equal. And so, since the creation of the world then was when everything was equal, then we must assume therefore that you know Messiah was created or incarnated at this same time.” – Pagan theology—the motions of heavens determine what Yahweh does.

Listen, it went from one to the other. It went from pagan to Philo to Hippolytus and Africanus to Christmas. Let’s trace it all back. Yeah, it’s pagan.

You know all this drama about His birthday, yet Yahushua never bothered to tell us when it was. I mean think about this. We know a lot of Biblical events in history. We know exactly when they happened, exactly. Even minor stuff. How many times you read in Scripture, “On the second day of the second month or this month and that day of that month this happened?” Yahushua’s birthday? Zip. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever.

We know the precise date, precise time of His death. We know the day of His death. We know the precise day of His resurrection. We know the precise time the Holy Spirit was given in Acts chapter 2. We, in spite of the fact that Yahushua knew, the Messiah, He knew, there would be billions of people wanting to honor Him by celebrating His birthday. He didn’t bother to tell us when it was.

I think His silence is deafening. He’s trying to tell us something. What the Savior did tell us to remember was His death. He says, “Do this in remembrance of Me. Do this in remembrance of Me.” Which was instruction to proclaim His death at Passover.

We have the Day of Firstfruits to remember His resurrection. We have the Biblical Hebraic roots, however, have been stripped out over the years, and people have decided to bring Greco-Roman ideas into the worship of our Savior and the Messiah Yahushua and the Father in heaven. It’s just everything’s been replaced, rejecting the, “Oh, this is all Jewish stuff.”

It’s not Jewish stuff. Take a look here. The blood of the Lamb was shed for us at Passover. What makes that Jewish? It’s about Him! Well, He’s Jewish, in case you forgot that. Our unleavened state because of Him being partaking of His lamb at Passover, because He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” and that was at Passover, we become unleavened, and so you have seven days the Feast Unleavened Bread. The commandments the Holy Spirit was given to us at Pentecost. And then we have the reminder of the Messiah’s return, the Feast of Trumpets. These are days to remember. We have our hope of entering the Holy of Holies one day, when we enter that holy, holy place in heaven, because Yahushua entered that place with His own blood on the Day of Atonement. That’s what it’s remembering. I’m not saying it happened at that time. The remembrance of our temporary life in this world and Yahweh’s promise to let His tabernacle be with men, is seen in the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Last Great Day points us to a New Heavens and to a New Earth.

Why aren’t these things celebrated? It’s because of anti-Semitism and Jewish-Gentile relations and the tension between the two. Constantine specifically said, “Let’s have nothing in common with the Jews, nothing.”

Having observed Christmas from 1970 to 1989, I can tell you, having kept those and kept these feasts starting at 1990, there’s no comparison. It’s laughable. It’s like nothing in common. The feast that Yahweh has given is a thousand percent, infinitely more meaningful, more spiritually enriching, more amazingly beautiful, more of a… that you could get your batteries recharged spiritually, and far more deeply powerful with layer after layer of meaning. I mean, you can peel back an onion. Oh, there’s another layer. Oh wait, there’s this, there’s this, there’s that, and I keep learning something new every year. I’ve kept them up and keeping them up, been my 36th Feast of Tabernacles this year.

And so Christmas, however, what did it bring us? Abominable traditions like lying to our children about a mythical Santa Claus that, you know, knows when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake and, and, and knows you’re good or bad. And so, “Hey, I’ll tell you what, yeah, let’s creep an idol, yeah, good idea, creep an idol into the conscience of a child.” It’s abominable. No believer should be lying to their children, let alone saying there’s a mythical Santa Claus god that’s gonna know whether you’re good or bad and give you toys if you’re good. And it’s just manipulation. And it’s false doctrine.

There’s nothing about your children getting toys gonna teach them anything about the Savior. I didn’t think at all about the Messiah, Christmas. I didn’t think about anything but the toys. That’s what I thought about when I was growing up.

So, with the true Holy Days in the Bible, they are spiritual highlights of the year for our children. I can tell you that, I mean, children got saved this year. We had, we had a wonderful time. And one of the first things that children ask when they get in the car, “When’s the next one?” When they’re going home, “When’s the next one?”

And for those stuck in these these old things, listen. You can’t fit Yahushua into Greco-Roman philosophies and theologies. That is trying to mix two things together that don’t belong together. It’s not possible to know His birthday. And so if He wanted us to know, He would have told us.

Now suppose there was no Christmas. Just suppose for a minute there was no Christmas. And 90 percent of the world worshiped Satan. Literally, just worshiped Satan. And they followed the Satanic bible, which was written by Anton LaVey. And they celebrated his birthday on a particular day of the year. Now, let’s suppose the whole world celebrates that birthday, and you decided, “You know what, we’re gonna make that Yahushua’s birthday.” How would we feel if we, if we started, people started doing that? You’re trying to make him look like Him? No, no, a thousand times no!

Listen, you think I’m extreme? Did you know that all Paganism is actually Satanism? True. This is Satanic theology. This is not just a Greco-Roman thing, this is Satanic theology. (1 Corinthians 10:20-21) – …the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to Elohim, – “Elohim” is the Hebrew word translated “God.” – and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Master and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Master’s table and the table of demons. – These do not mix. You can’t mix two cups. Mixing will actually cause you to choose this. Because that’s what the demons want you to do. They want to get their theology into your theology. They want to get their ideas into your worship of the Most High.

And so, Scripture says (Colossians 2:8) – Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to traditions of men, according to basic principles of the world, not according to Messiah. – Could there be any better description of what, how Christmas came about—through philosophy and empty deceit. It’s not when He was born at all. It’s through this idea that He fits into the cosmos according to Greco-Roman theology.

So, now even if I want to celebrate His birthday, I wouldn’t be using the Roman calendar invented by a demon-worshiping Emperor of Rome, naming the months after the different gods he worshiped. I’ll be looking at the Bible calendar, which almost nobody pays attention to in Christianity.

Now some people think, “Hey you know what, it might be a good idea to, you know, appropriate these things.” People like Kirk Cameron. He produced a movie called “Saving Christmas,” and he said, “We need to make traditions of our own. We need to infuse old symbols with new meaning. We need to arrange our lives and our homes so that every single thing points to Jesus.”

You know, I like Kirk, but I wonder how far he would go with this. I mean, please, pray tell, tell me, could you take this symbol (swastika) and appropriate it and cause it to belong to the Messiah? No one would, in their right mind, would want to do that, right? Why then did they do that back then? And why are we perpetuating what they did? How about this symbol here? “Oh, let’s take the Baphomet star there and cause it to point to Yahushua. Yeah, yeah, let’s point that to Him.”

No, it is not compatible. You can’t partake of the two tables. They are not compatible with one another.

And there was one time in Biblical history when they could have done it. It could have been done. It really, really could have been done. When children of Israel were brought out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, there was a lot of pagan stuff going on in the land of Canaan. And Yahweh could have said, “Appropriate all these things that they’re doing as directing worship toward Me.”

That’s not what He said. What did He say? He said ((NIV) Deuteronomy 12:2-4) – Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills, under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their mighty ones.
³ Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their mighty ones and wipe out their names from those places.
⁴ You must not worship Yahweh your Mighty One in their way.

Kiss Christmas goodbye. Yahweh hates it. He doesn’t want to be worshiped in the way that the nations appropriate worship toward their gods—winter solstice, spring equinox; Yahushua has nothing to do with those things.

“Didn’t Yahweh make them rocks and those trees? What’s wrong with it?” Once it becomes devoted to idolatry, don’t try to appropriate it and direct it towards somehow you’re going to worship Him with that. You’re not going to do that. He says, “Don’t do that.” He says (Leviticus 18:3-4) – According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.
⁴ You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am Yahweh your Mighty One.

We have to understand, because we believe in the Bible—there are actually just two kingdoms at war with one another. The kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Messiah versus the kingdom of satan and his demons. They are not compatible. You cannot mix the two. One is warring against the other—demon worship; warring against idols; warring against false images; warring against false theology and philosophies and vain deceit; warring against the character of sun gods. Yahushua does not have anything in common with the sun gods. The festivals of sun gods. He doesn’t want to be associated with how they worship their sun gods. You cannot justify this. He is against their “kairos” festivals.

He is the Holy Son of the Most High. You cannot make Him look like the demons the culture worshiped. And there was big things going on, because Yahweh said in Malachi 4, “He is the Sun of righteousness” because He’s referring to the fire He’s gonna come and use to destroy the nations. And so He’s compared to a ball of fire. And so, yeah, they try to say, “Oh, He’s the sun of righteousness.” And so, they are using that as an excuse to try to get some worshipers to point to Him, like He’s the sun. Please. There was a whole name for that. I forget what it’s called, it starts with an ‘M’.

But listen, by observing Christmas we are actually memorializing satanic theology. The satanic theology was that during the time of the winter solstice, those living in the northern hemisphere, “Oh, the sun’s going away, oh no, oh no.” And then the sun comes back, “Oh, sun’s birthday, come back, he’s coming back again.” And you’re trying to get this to look like Yahushua here.

And it actually created confusion in pagan culture before there ever was a December 25th celebration of the Messiah’s birth.

Look, he said, this was a man by the name of Tertullian, sorry, said, “Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the God of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray toward the east, or because we make Sunday” – day of the sun – “a day of festivity.” (Tertullian [155-225 AD.], Ad Nationes, i13, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. III, p. 123)

And so, some of the pagans actually thought that the Christians were sun worshipers because of the things they were appropriating. Sunday, praying toward the east, things like this. And so the fact that they did that and now we’re gonna take December 25th, the winter solstice, when the sun’s birthday, and now we’re gonna say it’s the birthday of the Messiah. I have to wonder whether Africanus and Hippolytus, the ones who said December 25th was Messiah’s birthday, may have been influenced by Antiochus of Athens who tried to say, that was the sun’s birthday.

But anyway, it’s called syncretism. Syncretism is, “The attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.” (Source: dictionary.com) Combining incompatible religions.

To be sure, Yahweh is dead set against syncretism, one more Scripture in this here. Very powerful Scripture, Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 29 – “When Yahweh, your Mighty One cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,
³⁰ ”take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire” – do not even inquire – “after their mighty ones, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their mighty ones? I also will do likewise.’
³¹ “You shall not worship Yahweh your Mighty One in that way; for every abomination to Yahweh, which He hates they have done to their mighty ones; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty ones.
³² Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it, you shall not take away from it.” – We see His heart here. He is not honored with pagan things or pagan ways. He’s not honored by that.

How could we say, “Oh, in order for us to honor the Messiah, we gotta find out the way Satan’s honored with his worship, and the observations that Greco-Roman theology has come up with, and we’ll try to honor Yahweh with that thing.” You can’t honor Him with something that He is opposed to. Don’t worship Him in that way.

“Oh, we can make it clean.” No, you can’t. Can you bring a clean thing out of the unclean? Not one. Job 14:4.

Scripture says (Ephesians 5:11) – and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. – Scripture says (1 Corinthians 10:14) – wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.

Don’t inquire after their gods and see how they worship them and see what you can find in common with them. No! For us to take pagan demonic things and bring into our worship, is not fleeing from idolatry. He doesn’t like we worship their ways, and so we shouldn’t like it either.

Now, some of you may say, “Well, you know, Tom, you’re right. Okay, they shouldn’t have done that, but what about today? I mean, it doesn’t really mean that anymore. It doesn’t really mean that anymore. At least it does not mean it to me. That’s not what it means to me. What Christmas means to me is not those things you’re talking about, Tom. What Christmas means to me is joy and giving and kindness and peace, remembering our Savior. That’s what it means to me.”

I hear you. The question really is not what it reminds you of. The question is, what does it remind Him of? You know, because it’s not about us. It’s about Him. He’s the One being worshiped. He gets to decide how He wants to be worshiped. We don’t get to decide that.

He stands across the centuries of time, knows how that thing got started, and hated it then and hates it now. He doesn’t suddenly unhate it because people want to keep doing it anyway. Sin does not die of old age, you know. And some people say, “Well, you know, Romans 14 says, you know, allow someone to esteem a day to Yahweh the way they want to, and to Yahweh they esteem it that way. And so…”

Well, that’s talking about things that are permissible already. That doesn’t really matter one way or the other. Days in which you fast, you know, things like that. It’s not talking about things that were forbidden, directly forbidden in Scripture.

And other people say, “Well, you know, food was offered to idols. It became acceptable because you don’t have to ask questions.” No, 1 Corinthians 10 talks about the minute you know it’s offered to an idol, don’t eat it. Well, you know now that Christmas’s date of December 25th and most of the customs associated with it—mistletoe, yule log, Christmas trees, gift-giving; that was all part of that same area.

In fact, the early observers of Christmas were upset that these customs were coming into Christmas, because originally it was just a day to give thanks to the Father, a little liturgy, and that was it. And then all these other gift-giving and all these other customs came in from the other religions around them, and the early observers of Christmas were upset that it was coming in. It’s because it was already pagan anyway. It was already pagan anyway, so they’re just gonna take the whole thing with it.

You’re gonna take one thing that’s pagan and go with it? Oh, it opens the door, floodgates open the door an inch, Satan gets his foot in there, and he’s gonna throw all kind of other stuff in there with it. Sin works that way, doesn’t it? You open that door a little bit, he takes more than you’re gonna expect him to take, right? And so, syncretism is always, always, always unbiblical. Always. No matter how much you try to get the pagan roots out of your mind, you can’t. It’s there. It is what it is. You can’t change it.

And I get it. Confusing part is, is it bad to give somebody a gift? No. Is it a sin to rejoice that our Savior was born? No. The Bible says, “rejoice in the works of Yahweh.” I rejoice the Savior was born. I do. It’s not wrong for us to encourage our children to be good and obedient, you know, but you’re doing these as part of a Christmas celebration. As I said before, that birthday cake, or that cake that you made, now it’s for a homosexual wedding, you can’t go with it. You can’t go with it. You can’t accept it.

Suppose you had a spouse, a wife or husband, he left or she left for a month so that they could go and and commit adultery with somebody else. Obviously that would hurt and grieve you very deeply, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t that be awful? Imagine that. Now, suppose that person comes home with tears, begs for forgiveness. You agree to forgive them. The relationship’s restored. Now, how would you feel if they wanted to celebrate your birthday on the day that their former lover was born? And wouldn’t that bother you? What if, as part of your birthday celebration, it includes looking at pictures of their ex-boyfriend, the guy that, or the woman, you know, either one. How would you feel about that? That’s really what Christmas is. It’s like celebrating Messiah’s birthday by looking at pictures of pagan stuff.

You wouldn’t like it and I guarantee you He doesn’t like it. And it would always bother you. I don’t care if you’re married 50 years. It would always be that memorial of what happened that 50 years ago when he or she ran out on you. It wouldn’t matter how long it was, right? And so, all of us are guilty of paganism, really, one form or another. And He doesn’t want the things that are wicked to be associated with how we worship Him.

But for some reason, Christianity thinks they have to have a Christian version of everything, you know? You think He has to accept it? Cain made an offering, it wasn’t accepted, right? Did you know that David, he learned from the pagans to carry that ark on a cart? Because that’s how the ark was returned after it was in the Philistines. It came back on a cart. And so Uzzah steadied the ark and touched the ark because it was on a cart, and it was getting ready to tip over. And he lost his life over it. And David was mad. But then he realized, we just tried to honor Yahweh in a pagan way. Because the Scripture says, “carry that ark using the poles, and only the priests can do it.” Just because we worship Him a certain way, doesn’t mean He has to accept it. Especially if it’s in a way the pagans worshiped or did things.

And so, really the foundation of the Christmas holiday is actually a lie. He wasn’t born December 25th. He did not ask us to celebrate His birthday. He didn’t say, “Set up a tree in your house and decorate it with silver and gold, then bow to it and put gifts under it.” He didn’t say, “Santa Claus is gonna know whether you’re good or bad.” There’s no reindeer that fly. He’s not gonna come down anybody’s chimney on December 25th and leave any gifts. Everything is a lie. Everything!

And so is Yahweh really the originator of the holiday? Is this something He’s happy about? Or is it the father of lies? That’s the question.

It’s high time we forsake these lies and walk in the truth, (Ephesians 5:11) – And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. – Fleeing from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14), and worshiping in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). And not accept anything that’s of the devil, for (John 8:44) – when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, he is a liar and the father of it.

We want nothing to do with loving or making a lie. Read in Revelation to see what happens to those who love and make a lie. Interestingly, speaking of Revelation, Revelation chapter 11 says – And those who dwell on the earth – after two witnesses are destroyed, Revelation 11, – those who dwell on the earth, make merry, and send gifts to one another. – What’s that sound like guys? – because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

These two prophets probably did not allow people to celebrate Christmas. And so the minute that they were killed, they make merry and send gifts to one another. What does that sound like? Be honest. Well, I don’t know for sure. It could be. I’m extrapolating from this. I’m interpreting it this way.

I know some people say, “You know, but Tom, what about the children, you know? They really look forward to this and family get-togethers, and how can we neglect them? Let them be the oddball at school, you know.” I say, “Well, what should we be teaching our children? Truth or lies? What should we be teaching our children? Conformity to the world, or a life transformed by the renewing of our minds? What should we be teaching our children? To walk down the path that’s broad where everybody else goes on because everyone else goes on, it must be okay? Or down that narrow path that few find; Yahushua talked about in Matthew chapter 7. What should we be teaching our children? Follow a crowd to do wrong, or follow Yahushua the Messiah to the ends of the earth until we draw our last breath? What should we be teaching our children?”

(Exodus 23:7a) – Keep yourself far from a false matter; – (Colossians 3:9) – Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,

Christmas creates a false image of the Messiah. You don’t want anything about Him to be associated with lies. He is the truth, the way, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and the life. He is the One that we are following, not the crowds. We’re told not to even learn. (Jeremiah 10:2-4) – Do not even learn the way of the Gentiles. – Don’t even learn it, don’t even listen to it.

Yahweh already said that in the Torah, “Don’t inquire after their God.” How do you do that anyway? What’s that all about? (Jeremiah 10:2) – Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, – He says. The solstices—“Oh no, the sun, it’s going away, oh no. Oh, it’s coming back, yay, yay, big birth party: December 25th. – For Gentiles are dismayed at them. – Oh, by the way, there’s a custom associated with these signs of heaven, and it’s –
³ …one cutting a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workmen, with the ax.
⁴ They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So it won’t topple.

What’s that sound like guys? Be honest. What’s it sound like? Some people, their theologian glasses on, “Well, technically this was taking a tree out of the forest, making an idol out of it and covering it in silver.” Okay, you didn’t make an idol out of the tree, but you did decorate it with silver and gold. You set it up so it wouldn’t topple and you put it in your house. And you put gifts under it, which is not really idolatry, it’s imitating those who are practicing idolatry—putting gifts under the tree and kneeling before it to pick up your gifts again.

Listen, don’t hide your heads in the sand. Seek out the origins of things and make sure you haven’t already learned the way of the heathen already, because the culture you live in based on the signs of heaven, right? The signs of heaven, solstices, the equinoxes, and trying to honor Yahweh with those things, okay?

Yahweh tells us not even to learn it, let alone put it into practice in how we worship Him. He said, “Don’t even learn it.” And so what are they doing? They’re imitating. They’re not trying to be idolatrous, but they are imitating things a little bit, you know. Cutting a tree out of the forest, Christmas tree farms, you know, all these things. Deck it with silver and gold, fasten it with nails and hammer so it won’t topple.

And then what they did here in Jeremiah 3:6 – Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, – evergreen trees were worshiped – and there played the harlot.

I know you’re not trying to worship the tree. I know you’re not, I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying you’re imitating those who are. It’s like going through the motions of it without realizing this custom that you’re following is imitating what they were doing even here in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 6. And so we don’t want to engage in anything that would be remotely imitation of heathen worship.

And the truth is, be honest, if nobody in the world was keeping Christmas, would you? Tell the truth. If not a single person in the world kept Christmas, would you go in the forest and get you a tree and deck it with silver and gold, put gifts under it, and say it’s the Messiah’s birthday? Be honest with me. I know you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t. Nobody would. We’re just following culture.

So listen, it’s okay to take the Messiah out of Christmas. It’s okay. People say, “We need to put Christ back in Christmas.” Well, what if He never wanted to be there in the first place? He never really wanted to be there. I think it’s my job to make sure He’s not in there, actually. It’s honoring with the lips, but it’s just lip service. It’s not genuine worship the way He wants to be worshiped.

And so it’s syncretism. And so beware, once again, don’t let anyone cheat you through these philosophers—Plato, Philo, and those who follow them. The early Christians were just big-time into Philo, thought he was the greatest guy, even though he wasn’t really a believer, as far as we know. So we should not try to fit those things into how we worship Him. No!

And so I started this study with some assumptions about you—that you love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And it’s probably why you’re glad when Christmas comes, because you think it honors Him. But I hope you see now that it’s not really honoring Him at all. He specifically said He’s not honored by this, and don’t worship Him this way.

And so, take a objective, honest point of view, and don’t let your fear of what man may say influence what you do here. Turn your hearts toward Him, love Him with His love language. His love language, not yours, His, not Greco-Roman cultures, not philosophies, His love language. There are beautiful Biblical holidays the Father gave us to glorify Him. Beautiful, beautiful days.

I encourage you, look into the Hebrew roots of our faith. Did you know the Messiah was Jewish and so were all the Twelve Apostles? They’re all Jewish. Yeah, they were. Watch the “Hebrew Roots of Christianity” on our website here. Kind of a slow-moving video to walk you through real slow, real easy, what this is all about.

Don’t be afraid to set aside traditions if they’re unbiblical. Our Savior wants a personal relationship with us, right? Maybe willing to turn away from anything which we find is displeasing to Him. In the end, all your Christmas-keeping relatives and friends aren’t gonna be there on Judgment Day going, “Yeah, let him in.” It’s just gonna be you and Him, and His Word, and what He said He expects of you. That’s the only thing that really matters.

And you know, none of the early believers celebrated Christmas. None of the Apostles, not till 300 years later. There’s a reason for that. Syncretism is always forbidden in Scripture. No matter what your intent is, no matter how ignorant you are about it.

Remembrance of Biblical events is good. I rejoice our Savior was born. I rejoice in that. But to introduce pagan philosophies and theologies, and how I choose to remember Him is syncretism, something that Yahweh absolutely forbids.

So don’t listen to these men. Don’t listen to them. Listen to the Holy Scriptures. We don’t want Plato, Philo, Africanus, or Hippolytus, or anybody to tell us what we should do. Let’s embrace truth. Let’s reject the pagan origins of Christmas, get rid of it, dispose of it, and get back to the true, wonderful, Holy Days that Yahweh has given us in His Holy Word. Things that He instituted to glorify Him and to teach us the plan of salvation for all mankind. I venture to say, if Christians hadn’t rejected these Holy Days, there wouldn’t have been a void, we feel like the need to celebrate something because they rejected these Holy Days.

And I venture to say, if they had kept these Holy Days and showed Judaism, the Jewish people, how these things all point to our Savior, quite possibly the Jewish people would have accepted Yahushua a long time ago.

My heart aches because you’re not going to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy with Santa Claus and Easter bunnies. You’re not.

Start keeping Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot, Pentecost. Feast of Trumpets, it’s a day celebrating the Messiah’s return. I mean, come on, why are they about there blowing trumpets anyway? There’s a reason—Yahushua comes, the last trump.

Let’s get back to the Bible things, doing Bible things instead of things that were inspired by people looking at the motion of the sun and solstices. And there’s no such thing as a solstice or an equinox in the Bible, it’s completely absent. Nowhere does it talk about an equinox or a solstice. These are things that people who worship the sun focused in on. Let’s not allow them to influence what we do.

Let’s pray.

Almighty Yahweh, in the name of Your great and wonderful Son Yahushua, we come to You. I bow before You in worship to honor You, to give You thanks. You are worthy. You are worthy of all praise and honor and worship.

And Father, we want to honor You in spirit, and worship You in spirit and in truth. The things that are not of the truth we reject. If there’s anyone in the sound of my voice who’s feeling conviction in this, give them strength to make a bold stand for You, for truth, for righteousness. That they might be that light that this world so desperately needs. Pointing people to the true, true, glorious Son Who is the way, the truth, and the life.

And anyone in the sound of my voice who’s not turned their heart to You and put their trust in Your Son, Messiah Yahushua, for forgiveness of sin, call them into Your sheepfold. Guide them in the paths of righteousness, the ways of purity and truth and light and love. We thank You for Your love.

For truly Yours is the Kingdom and power and glory forever, in Yahushua’s great name we pray. Amein.