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Proof of the Pagan Origins of Christmas

Tradition

Sometimes tradition is acceptable and perhaps even pleasing in the sight of Yahweh. But other times it is not acceptable and can even be hated by Him.

When our Savior walked the earth in the first century, He didn’t seem to take a liking to tradition. Consider His response to the scribes and Pharisees here in Matthew 15:

Just as Yahushua was asked about why He wasn’t observing their tradition, those who don’t participate in the tradition of Christmas observance will often hear the question, “Why do you not celebrate Christmas (transgress the traditions of our elders)?”

First of all, nowhere in the pages of scripture do we find a command to keep the celebration of Christmas. Nowhere in the pages of scripture do we find an example of any disciple keeping Christmas. It was actually never celebrated by believers in Messiah until sometime after 300AD.

If we are willing to take an unbiased biblical examination of the observance, we will find a tremendously sad reality: The only time a tradition like Christmas is ever mentioned in the pages of scripture is to declare that we should not be practicing it.

Once we realize we shouldn’t be practicing it, our answer to this kind of question would be similar to how our Savior responded:

Our Savior didn’t like the traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees because they transgressed Yahweh’s clear commandments.

This study will demonstrate that Christmas is actually transgressing the commandment of Yahweh in favor of tradition. But first, please notice that He goes on to say:

I am not condemning anyone who chooses to observe Christmas. I personally grew up celebrating it and have a number of fond memories spending time with family and the anticipation of gift-giving. But when it comes to seeking out my Savior’s will, the most important thing is not how I feel about it. The most important thing is how HE feels about it. After all, it’s all about Him… yes? It’s not supposed to be about us. It’s about HIM.

So we see here in Matthew 15 that it’s possible for a tradition to honor him with the lips, but actually be a vain thing that displeases Him. Just because it appears to give honor to Him doesn’t mean that He sees it that way.

Christmas has essentially become a commandment of men because, like the Pharisees expected Messiah to adhere to their practices, it is likewise expected that believers in Messiah observe Christmas. But this tradition was not authored by our Creator. There is no verse in the bible that asks us to celebrate the birth or even the resurrection of Messiah. Thus, to do so is purely an invention of men.

It is important that we take the time to question whether or not our traditions even if few dare to. I find it ironic that many Christians will speak against the Catholic traditions of Lent, Ash Wednesday, etc. but fail to recognize that pagan elements also exist in the celebration of Christmas and Easter. So how did the Christmas observance get its start?

Origin of Christmas

Before we begin, let me say that I’m going to start with some assumptions. I’m going to assume that those of you watching this video are genuine believers in Messiah who love Him with all your hearts. I’m going to assume that if you ever found anything in your life that was offensive to Him that you would want to stop doing it.

And I’m going to assume that your goal as a believer in Messiah is to live your life the way He would want you to, and that you have a genuine desire to live like the first century believers did.

When it comes to Christmas, I want to take an objective and honest point of view. And if I do that, I have to acknowledge that there actually are some things that people do during the Christmas season that are normally very good to do…and this is part of the draw and why people have difficulty believing that anything at all could be wrong with it.

For instance.

Most people use Christmas as a reason for getting together with family. It’s typically a good thing to get together with family and build or rekindle healthy relationships.

It isn’t inherently wrong to get together with your family so that’s one reason why people have a hard time believing that celebrating Christmas is wrong.

Most people use Christmas as a reason for giving gifts to the poor or showing love and attention to children.

It isn’t inherently wrong to give to the poor and show love to our children so that’s one reason why people have a hard time believing that celebrating Christmas is wrong.

Encouraging children to be good and obedient

It isn’t inherently wrong to give to encourage our children to be good and obedient and again that’s one reason why people have a hard time believing that celebrating Christmas is wrong.

Rejoicing that the Messiah has come, that the world might be saved.

It isn’t inherently wrong to rejoice that the Messiah was born, and that’s another reason why people have a hard time believing that celebrating Christmas is wrong.

It is the presence of these inherently “good things” that have a tendency to overshadow everything else. The joy and merriment, the friendliness that people exhibit toward one another during this time of year, and the willingness to give of themselves. The stories of charity organizations doing different things to help the poor and bless little children. These things are inherently good deeds, and it would be a mistake for me to characterize these things as inherently evil because they are not.

And because they are inherently good things to do, many people have difficulty understanding how celebrating Christmas could be wrong.

Then there is the fact that many people may have emotional attachments and fond memories about their observance of Christmas. For this reason alone, even people who recognize that the celebration of Christmas is unbiblical can have difficulty detaching themselves from it. This doesn’t even mention the overwhelming pressure in society to be a participant. If you go to a store in town, people will tell you to “have a Merry Christmas.” If you don’t celebrate Christmas, this can be an awkward moment.

So, I am saying these things because I want you to know that I understand the issue. I understand the attachments that people have to Christmas, and I can see why it would be there. I personally celebrated Christmas up until 1989. It was an adjustment at first, but there are much better options.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how I personally feel about Christmas or even what it means to me. How you or I feel about it isn’t really all that important. What really matters is what it means to Him.

What is HE seeing in all of this? Is there anything about this celebration of His birth that is displeasing to Him?  After all, it’s supposed to be in honor of Him, right? So, finding out what He thinks about is the most important question.

The only way to find the answer is to understand how Christmas got started and see whether or not there is be anything in this observance that He would not like.

It is important that we do a fair evaluation of scripture and what it may say about this observance. We can’t let our own preferences or leaning or fond memories have any bearing on how we look at scripture. We need to pursue, with all of our hearts, an understanding that is identical to that of the Messiah Himself.

To do anything other than that is just “playing religion.” “Playing religion” is letting our own preferences dictate our beliefs rather than letting the Father speak for Himself on all matters.

So, with a sensitivity to our Father’s will in all matters, let’s take a real close look at the observance of Christmas… and try to discern what He is saying about it.

First of all, we know that Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the Messiah’s birthday. Since it is a birthday celebration, the first logical question in our journey would be “Why was December the 25th chosen to be His birthday?” and “Can we find any support for this date in scripture?”

I have read a number of proposed dates on this topic and after hearing all the differing opinions about what day He was born I have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to know when He was born.

The scriptures actually do not give us a specific date, but some have proposed that we might be able to know the general time of year that He was born.

So, many people say that if we could find the actual time of Zecharias’ priestly course, then add six months to that date, we would know when the Angel visited Mary to announce her conception of the Messiah.

However, there are some real problems with this method. Many have assumed that as soon as Zecharias came home from his work in the temple, his wife got pregnant. But it doesn’t say that. We don’t know whether she just happened to be fertile on the day he arrived home, or if he arrived home and waited a full month before she actually conceived. We’re talking a four week swing here.

Then you also need to take into account that a baby can be born anytime from 38 weeks to 42 weeks gestation. Do we know how far along Mary was in her pregnancy when Yahushua was born? Why do we assume exactly 9 months? That adds another 4 week swing to the mix.

Whenever we are searching for truth, we need to be careful that we have a firm leg to stand on before we assert something to be absolute truth. When it comes to figuring out when our Savior was born, the truth is that nobody knows.

The earliest record of any Christian suggesting times of for the Messiah’s birth is in 21st chapter of Clement of Alexandria’s Stromata, a man who lived from 150 to 215 AD. In this writing 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 that it took place in the twenty-eighth year of Augustus, and in the twenty-fifth day of Pachon [May-June].”

But how did they know? The truth is they didn’t know and none of us knows exactly when He was born. One modern Christian claimed to know what the star was over Bethlehem, but the wise men did not arrive on his birthday.

The early believers in the Messiah were indifferent toward the whole thing. They didn’t really seem to care when He was born because they didn’t celebrate His birthday.

There is no record of any believer in the Messiah celebrating His birthday until about 300 years after He was born. This has been widely accepted as historical fact and I don’t know of anyone who disputes this.

This seems to be quite the stark contrast to what we have today. Today, Christmas is the biggest Christian holiday of the year. It’s so huge that there is a month-long buildup and hype that precedes it. It’s so huge that even many atheists and unbelievers celebrate it…

To me, this is the first cause for concern. A sign that something may be amiss. I know that I can trust what I read from the scriptures and the practices of the disciples and other early believers in Messiah. I don’t know that I should trust the practices of persons that lived 300 years later. A lot can happen in 300 years. I mean, look at what has happened to Christianity in just the last few decades with some professing Christians congratulating those who have children out of wedlock and even attending so-called gay marriages.

Even in Paul’s day, when He spoke to the elders of Ephesus told them:

If wrong thinking can creep into the first-century believers and corrupt them soon after Paul’s departure, certainly it can happen 300 years later.

So why was December 25^th chosen as the date? At one time I believed that the Encyclopedia Britannica and even the Catholic Encyclopedia which stated that December 25^th was chosen because it was already being celebrated as the birthday of the sun god and there was already a pagan holiday at that time.

In 274 AD Aurelian had dedicated a temple to the god, Sol Invictus, and instituted celebrations in the idol’s honor that year, but we cannot prove those celebrations were on December 25^th

We can only prove that Antiochus, a 1^st and early 2^nd century pagan had declared December 25^th was the birthday of the sun in his parapegma calendar:

• 23 December: Cold northerly winds.
• 24 December: The Arrow rises in the morning.
• 25 December: Birth of the sun; light increases. (Source: Parapegma, Antiochus of Athens, 50-150 AD)

Can we prove that Aurelian created a birthday celebration for the sun in 274? We don’t have proof, we only know that some had already recognized it before Christians began associating the Messiah as having the same birthday.

For this reason, more recent scholarship has sought to challenge those who claim pagan origins. As far as direct proof, we only know that the Christians started to celebrate the Messiah’s birth when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 AD and established December the 25^th as the Messiah’s birthday on their liturgical calendar. We only know that both were observed in the 4^th century. We can’t yet prove the pagan one came first.

For this reason, even some torah observant believers have gone back to celebrating Christmas in one form or another.

They also say that there were at least two Christians who led people to the idea that December the 25^th as the Messiah’s birthday before anyone began to celebrate his birthday. The first one is Hip-POL-lytus of Rome:

Hippolytus of Rome (c. 165–235 AD) – “For the first advent of our Master in the flesh, when He was born in Bethlehem, took place on the 25th of March, a Wednesday, on the very day on which He also made the sun….From the conception of the Master until His Passion there were 33 years. On the day on 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 Daniel 4.23.

Here Hippolytus says the Messiah was conceived and also suffered on March 25^th, claiming that matched up with the time when the world was created, specifically the sun. A man named Africanus noted that this would mean December 25^th would be 9 months later and therefore be his birthday.

Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160–240 AD) “And from the conception of the Master until his passion there are 13 years and 9 months… The world was created on 22/25 March… Therefore the Lord was conceived on the same day, and was born on 25 December.” From the surviving Greek fragments of his Chronographiae (c. 221 AD),

So both of these men have the same idea. The Messiah was conceived on the spring equinox. This would place his birth on the winter solstice. Where did this idea originate?

It is important for us to understand this: The Greco-Roman world that these Christians had grown up in spent a lot of time focusing on the sun, moon, stars and planets, believing that they were gods.

It is possible that Africanus got the December 25^th idea from Antiochus, who already declared December 25^th as the birthday of the sun. I doubt that they didn’t know about it, but I can’t absolutely prove that they did know about it.

Either way, why would they place the Messiah’s conception on and birth on days that line up with the Spring equinox and Winter solstice? The bible makes no such claim.

Philo, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher and bible commentator who lived in Egypt before and after Yahushua’s life on earth sought to combine Greek philosophical concepts with the Old Testament scriptures.

He thought Moshe was the ultimate philosopher and he was quite influential among Christians after the apostles all died. He was quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome and others. Justin Martyr, a second century Christian was also influenced by Greco-Roman thought…even saying that Plato and other Greek philosophers derived their best ideas from Moshe and the prophets.

So Philo was very influential on 2^nd century Christians. Philo once wrote:

Philo, De Opificio Mundi (On the Creation of the World) – “The equinox is the image of that original equality from which all inequality departed…That is why Moses also says that the creation of the universe took place at the beginning of spring, when day and night are equal. (45-46)

So, Philo believed the world was created at the spring equinox. He believed the equinox was the “original equality from which all inequality departed” even claiming the Moshe himself agreed with him.

But these are not a biblical arguments. The bible itself never once even mentions an equinox. Moshe never said a word about it.

The bible only mentions summer and winter, which are weather based rather than a particular day on a calendar. Summer starts when it gets dry and hot in the 1^st to 2^nd months, and winter when raining starts again in the 7^th to 8^th months.

So where if Philo getting his information? He is openly borrowing this idea of the world being created during the equinox from the pagan philosopher Plato:

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 day and night become exactly equal (i.e., the vernal equinox). This is the moment the cosmos achieves perfect balance and harmony.”

So, this is the direct philosophical and theological root that Julius Africanus, Hippolytus, and others copied when they placed the Messiah’s conception on what they called March 25th and birth on December 25th. Justin Martyr even quoted Plato several times, saying he borrowed ideas from Moses.

So, they are getting their equinox creation story from Philo, who learned it from Plato, a pagan. Men like Plato were obsessed with the motions of the heavens because they regarded the sun, moon and stars as a “visible god”

Plato, Timaeus 37c, 40d – “The cosmos is a living creature endowed with soul and intelligence… a visible god, an image of the intelligible.” “The gods that revolve in the heavens — the sun, moon, and stars — were created by the Demiurge… These we may call by the names our ancestors gave them: Zeus, Hera, and the rest.”

Laws 653d-654a – “Theos (‘God’) has given us the revolving year with its seasons (kairous)so that we may imitate the perfect motion of the cosmos in our festivals and sacrifices.”

Paul talks about the observing of kairous festivals in his letter to the Galatians:

Some believe that he was talking about the biblical feasts, but that’s not true. The Galatians would not be “turning again” to keeping the feast days. In fact, the phrase, “days and months and seasons and years” is mentioned by Philo.

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 the stars and the causes of things that happen on earth, attributing everything to the movements of heavenly bodies…Others occupy themselves with the natures of days and months and seasons and years (ἡμέραις καὶ μησὶ καὶ καιροῖς καὶ ἐνιαυτοῖς), supposing that from these cycles they can discover the primary causes of good and evil fortune.”

It’s the same exact words except the word for months in Galatians is accusative and Philo uses the dative form.

Paul was criticizing their continued recognition of those Kairos observances, frustrated beyond measure because they were not only listening to false ideas from Jews, but also from pagans.

All this drama about Yahushua’s birthday, yet Yahushua never told us when His birthday was.

We know dates for a lot of biblical events in history, even things that might seem to be minor. How many times in scripture do you read about an event or a prophecy given and it’s preceded with, “on the ___ day of the ___ month?”

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

His silence is deafening.

What the Savior did tell us to remember was His death. He said, “do this in remembrance of Me,” which was instruction to proclaim His death at Passover. We also have the Day of Firstfruits to remember His resurrection. The biblical Hebraic roots have been stripped out of these over the years, renamed “Eucharist” and “Easter.” Easter derives its name from Astarte, an idol 🙁

If it is indeed true that a Christian or two in the third century came up with spring equinox for the Messiah’s conception and the Winter Solstice for His birth (thought to be 3/25 and 12/25 at the time), they had no biblical basis for coming up with such a date. Not only that, but a nine month pregnancy is calculated from a woman’s last menstrual cycle rather than the actual gestation time, which is 266 days on average, which would result in a “December 16” birthday. It is a lie built upon a lie.

It’s evident that rather than looking downward at the pages of scripture or or even the facts of gestation, they were looking upward at the motion of the sun, looking for some way to fit Yahushua’s life into its motions. That is a pagan concept on its own. That’s trying to fit Yahushua into a system the pagans were obsessed with. The bible itself says nothing about equinoxes or solstices.

Antiochus’ calendar, written in the second century, had already long declared December 25th to be the birthday of the sun which was widely worshiped in Rome. So, then a Christian, looking upward, decides to place the Messiah’s birthday on that day without any biblical proof for it. Where were those Christians getting their cues? From the bible, or Paganism? I think the answer is clear.

The bible already has holidays for us to observe, based on events that Yahweh Himself wants us to remember:

• The blood of the Lamb being shed for us at Passover,
• Our unleavened state as a result of us partaking of that Lamb
• The commandments and the Holy Spirit being given to us at Pentecost,
• The reminder of the Messiah’s return in the Feast of Trumpets,
• Our hope of entering the Holiest place in heaven one day through entering that place with His own blood in Day of Atonement
• The remembrance of our temporary life in this world and Yahweh’s promise to let His tabernacle be with men in the Feast of Tabernacles
• The Last Great Day pointing us to a New Heavens and New Earth.

Having observed Christmas the first 19 years, which was 1989, and now keeping the above festivals since 1990, I can say there is no comparison. Yahweh’s observances are infinitely more meaningful, spiritually enriching, amazingly beautiful, deeply powerful with layers upon layers of meaning that one can unpack like an onion year after year and never seem to find the end of it.

Christmas on the other hand brought us abominable traditions like lying to our children, saying Santa knows when you are sleeping and awake and he won’t give you material possessions unless you are good. This is nothing more than creeping an idol (Santa) into the conscience of a child. Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh. There is nothing about getting your children a bunch of toys that’s going to teach him anything about our Savior.

With the true holy days in the bible, they are the spiritual highlights of the year for our children and feast-keepers get asked numerous times by their children throughout the year how close we are to the next one.

For those stuck in the old ways, with dates and practices inspired by men looking to find some way of fitting Yahushua’s life into the movements of the widely worshiped and venerated sun rather than true living way of looking at the scriptures, you just don’t know what you are missing.

It is impossible to know His birth-date. But since there is none in spite of Him knowing billions would want to celebrate it, to force a celebration on a particular day seems rebellious to me. It also causes us to celebrate a small lie that “today is His birthday.”

Suppose there was no Christmas and 90% of entire modern world worshiped Satan and followed the satanic bible. Now suppose some Christian wrote in a book that the Messiah’s birthday was the same day as Anton Levay, the author of the satanic bible. That would be shocking to say unless he had proof.

He has none. Now let’s suppose the entire world wants to celebrate Anton Levay’s birthday. How would we feel if a bunch of believers decided to celebrate the Messiah’s birthday on that same day? I think we know the answer.

You might think I’m being extreme, but PAGANISM IS SATANISM

Scripture gave us the annual holy days for the things He wants us to remember. I just do not see how it can be right to throw those in the trash and create a birthday celebration of the Savior that “just so happens” to match up with what Antiochus calendar had already said was birthday of what the world worshiped. This is rooted in pagan philosophies and traditions of men.

Could there be a better description of Christmas?

Even if I wanted to look for the Messiah’s birthday, I would be looking at the calendar our Heavenly Father uses in the bible for setting a date. I would not be using the modern Roman calendar originally produced by Julius Caesar, who named various months after the names of the idols/demons he worshiped.

There are some of you who may feel that we can take pagan practices and somehow sanitize them or Christianize them and devote those things to Messiah.

Kirk Cameron, in his movie “Saving Christmas” 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.”

In Kirk’s mind, for us to acknowledge the pagan origin of any Christmas customs and symbols is give satan rulership of those things. He believes that we can take these customs and symbols and reorient them so that they can point to Messiah.

I wonder how far Kirk would go with this idea

How would he Christianize the swastika? How would he make this occult symbol point to Messiah? 666? Can we make that point that to Messiah?

I can understand the desire to take old symbols and infuse them with new meaning so that everything points to the Messiah. This basically sums up his entire movie. But what does the Messiah Himself really want us to do? Is this what He wanted the people to do for Him?

I can think of one time in biblical history where there was actually an opportunity to do that. When Yahweh brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, there were a lot of pagan things there in Canaan for them to convert and sanitize into the Israelite faith. There were a lot of opportunities to infuse old pagan things with new meaning and arrange them so they would all point to the one true Creator of all things. But let’s see what He told them to do:

Didn’t Yahweh make those rocks? And the wood from those Asherah poles? I know there is nothing inherently wrong with the stones from an altar, a pillar, or wood from a tree. But once it is used for and devoted to an idol, Yahweh instructed Israel to destroy it, not figure out some way to honor Him with it. He is not honored with such things.

We can’t take something that He hates and then honor Him with it somehow. He is against the whole idea.

Because we believe in the bible, we know that there are two kingdoms at war with one another.. the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The Kingdom of Yahweh and His Messiah vs. the Kingdom of satan and his demons. They are not compatible.

How do you think He would feel about this. He is warring against the kingdom that satan is trying to build.. with the idol worship/demon worship, their false images, false theology, focus on equinoxes and solstices and their false kairos festivals, and other things that are associated with satanism, but then people are trying to fit the holy Son of Yahweh into pagan theology, thus making the Messiah look more like the demons that the culture worshiped.

I don’t see how anyone could justify this.  

We don’t win the world by imitating the world. You win the world by imitating Yahushua the Messiah!
By observing Christmas, we are memorializing satanic theology. The satanic theology was that during the time of the Winter Solstice, for those living in the Northern Hemisphere the sun was moving further and further away. When Sun began returning back again toward the northern hemisphere, the pagans had a big party.

The Christians took satanic theology and applied it to the Messiah… and so all the world was told that it was the Messiah who was born on that day, even trying to quote scripture to justify it saying that He is the “sun of righteousness.”

So, think about this… what would the world be thinking now about the Messiah? That He is simply a Sun god!

And that kind of problem was prevalent in church history even before Christmas was celebrated. Consider:

“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 a day of festivity.” (Tertullian [155-225 AD.], Ad Nationes, i 13, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. III, p. 123)

The fact that they worshiped on the day of the Sun, and then prayed toward the east, and now saying Messiah was born on the December 25^th, a day that the ancient world already recognized as the sun’s birthday. What else was the world to think?

This practice of mixing religions is called “Syncretism.”

“The attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion.” Source: dictionary.com

To be sure, Yahweh is dead set against Syncretism. He said so a long, long time ago.

He said later in Deuteronomy 12:

We see His heart here. He is not honored with pagan things or pagan ways. He doesn’t like it at all! As though, “in order for us to honor Messiah, we need to find out the way satan is honored with his worship and the way the observances that he’s come up with.” and then we can honor Yahweh with that? Not at all!

So, for us to take pagan/demonic things and try to bring it into our worship is not fleeing from idolatry He doesn’t like being worshiped and honored in the way the pagans worship and honor their idols. And if HE doesn’t like it, WE shouldn’t like it either.

Now some of you may be saying, “Well you’re right and they shouldn’t have done that. But what about today. It doesn’t mean those things anymore. It doesn’t mean those things to me.”

Does it really matter what it means to us? Is it really supposed to be about us, or is it supposed to be about Him?

Perhaps you say, “Christmas doesn’t remind me of paganism, it only reminds me of my Savior”

But The question isn’t what it reminds YOU of. The question is what it reminds HIM of. It isn’t about us, it’s about Him. He stands across the centuries of time and the way He sees it is all that matters.

Some say, “Romans 14 allows one to esteem a day to Yahweh and we shouldn’t judge one another in that.” I say Romans 14 is referring to days that are already permissible to observe. Syncretism is always forbidden in scripture from beginning to end.

Some say, “Well food that was offered to idols was acceptable because you didn’t have to ask questions.” 1st Corinthians 10 permits not asking questions as to whether the meat in a marketplace is offered to an idol, but if you know it’s pagan rooted he says not to eat it. Christmas is already inherently syncretism. Once you know, don’t partake of it.

Syncretism is always unbiblical, no matter how much you try to put the pagan roots out of your mind.

Now confusing part about the question of whether to observer xmas is the fact that there are actually some things that people do during this celebration that are not sinful.

It isn’t a sin to give someone a gift. It isn’t a sin to get together with relatives. It isn’t a sin to rejoice that the Messiah was born. And it isn’t wrong for us to encourage our children to be good and obedient. The problem isn’t that these things are a sin. The problem is that we are doing these things as part of a birthday celebration for the Messiah. It’s not wrong to make a cake either, but what is the occasion? If it’s for a homosexual wedding or some other sinful occasion, we reject baking the cake because it is tainted by the occasion. So if we are doing these other things as part of a Christmas celebration, that’s where we draw the line and refuse to participate.

Now we want to be men and women who are after Yahweh’s own heart don’t we?  To help us take a look at things from His perspective, imagine yourself in this scenario:

Suppose we had a spouse who had left us for a month so that they could go and commit adultery with someone. Obviously, that would hurt us and grieve us very deeply. But suppose that the spouse returns home with tears and begs for forgiveness. You agree to forgive them, and the relationship is restored.

Now let me ask you a question, how would you feel if they wanted to celebrate your birthday on the day that their former lover was born? Would that bother you? What if as part of your birthday celebration, the spouse included traditions from their former lover’s family? Would that bother you? Would it ever stop bothering you… even if you were married for 50 more years?

No, it wouldn’t. It would always be hurtful. In the same way Messiah doesn’t want to be characterized by those with whom the nations “play the harlot.” And if He didn’t like it then, He’s not going to change His mind and say He likes it now.  Sin doesn’t die of old age.

For some reason we assume that just because we offer something to honor Him, He has to accept it. But biblically, He doesn’t HAVE to accept it.

Cain made an offering and it wasn’t accepted. In Leviticus chapter 10 Nadab and Abihu offered incense, and it wasn’t accepted. He called it “strange fire.” Just because we want to honor Him with something doesn’t mean that He is honored by it. Are we trying to serve Him our way? Or the way He wants?

He is looking for unblemished offerings, unblemished worship.

He wants us to worship Him in Spirit AND in truth.

He wants to be worshiped in the purity of His Holy Spirit, in the purity of 100% complete truth, not connecting Him to a demonic observance, to a doctrine of demons, is offensive to Him.

So, in spite of the fact that giving a gift isn’t wrong and in spite of the fact that it isn’t wrong to rejoice that the Messiah was born or to encourage our children to be good…. it seems to me that if we are doing so as part of a Christmas celebration… in honor of Messiah being born on December 25th, we simply should not participate.

The entire foundation of the Christmas holiday is a lie. I don’t see where He was born on December 25th, and He did not ask us to celebrate his birthday. He certainly did not say to set up a tree in our house and decorate it and our houses with anything. Santa Claus does not exist. He doesn’t have reindeer that fly, and he isn’t going to come down anyone’s chimney on December 25th and leave any gifts. Everything is a lie. And so, I ask myself, is My Father in Heaven the originator of this holiday? Or is it the father of lies? Yahushua told the people of His generation:

It’s high time that we forsake these lies and abide in the “truth!” Let’s forsake this foolish practice of yoking the Messiah (who said “I am the TRUTH”) together with lies, for He has nothing to do with lies.

If there was no other reason to reject this holiday, for me it would be the fact that the world has made a connection between the Messiah and the lies…and that a custom of this holiday is to lie to your children about a mythical Santa god, saying that they need to be accountable to him.

The book of Revelation also predicts a future time when those who hate Yahweh rejoice at the death of His two witnesses, for they will make merry and have a gift exchange:

Sound familiar? I don’t know for sure, but it sounds a lot like one day the two witnesses will die and the whole world will rejoice that they can keep Christmas again. I think it’s time we make sure we are on the side of “truth and righteousness”

I know that some will say, “Oh what’s so bad about it! You know, the children, they look forward to it. They have a great time!” and many wonder, “how can you neglect your children by letting them be the ‘odd ball’ and not permit your Christmas celebrations in your home?”

And to that I will say this: 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 the mind?

What should we be teaching our children? To walk down the path that’s broad? Or be willing to take the way that’s narrow?

What should we be teaching our children? Follow a crowd to do evil? Or follow Yahushua the Messiah?

We need to be far, far from a false matter! Christmas creates a  false image of the Messiah. We want everything about Him to be associated with truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He IS the Way, the TRUTH and the LIFE. He was not born on December 25th! That idea came from pagan philosophy and theology! Things that we are not even supposed to be learning about!

First of all, Yahweh is telling us in this verse “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles” Don’t even learn it, and he associates learning it with looking at the signs of heaven. That’s what Plato and others did. They made entire pagan religions out of it.

And now we are going to incorporate their ideas into the worship of Yahweh? Shouldn’t the roots of our worship be in the scriptures, rather than paganism?

Our culture long ago already learned the way of the heathen, and from the time we were children many of us learned the way of the heathen.

We should not hide our heads in the sand. We should seek out the origins of things to make sure that we haven’t already learned the way of the heathen based on the signs of heaven…and trying to honor Yahweh with it

Yahweh tells us not to learn the way of the heathen. And here He even goes so far as to describe a custom that is a way of the heathen. Since He tells us that this is a heathen custom to cut a tree out of the forest, decorate it with silver/gold and then set it up so it won’t topple, shouldn’t we avoid it? It doesn’t matter if Jeremiah was speaking of a tree carved into an idol in ancient times and then covered with silver and gold. It’s imitating the basic motions of idol worshipers without actually worshiping the idol.

The placing of gifts under the tree is much like the heathen who offered various gifts to their idols, and then kneeling before the tree to receive them back again.

I realize that today, people are not trying to “play the harlot” by placing and receiving gifts under a decorated Evergreen Tree. But the entire procedure is a throwback, a bit of an imitation of those who did. I think of my Father in heaven and how it grieved Him to see people doing these things here in Jeremiah, and how every nation under heaven was doing the same things. In light of that, how can we engage in anything that would REMOTELY be an imitation of those things?

The truth is, if the rest of the world didn’t do it, we wouldn’t be doing it. We wouldn’t have come up with this on our own and we certainly can’t find scripture telling us to do it. It’s just that Christmas is a very popular holiday. But what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.

It seems to me that we need to stop trying to save Christmas and instead seek to save the Messiah from it. If Yahweh doesn’t like something, He never changes His mind later and decides that He likes it. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

The fact that unbelievers willingly celebrate this holiday is evidence that something is amiss.

He is not the real reason for the season. In my mind, treason is the real reason for the season.

Treason is betraying the cause of your own King and paying homage to the king of another nation.

So, in my mind, it’s okay to take Christ out of Christmas because I’m not convinced He ever belonged there to begin with. He is said to be the reason for the season, but I see the crime of treason.

I understand the Christmas celebration is honoring with the lips, but lip service isn’t all that Yahweh is asking for. He wants our heart.

And if in our heart– we know this is lies; we know this is syncretism; this is the mixing of religions; this taints our pure and holy Savior with the pagan philosophies of men.

Plato, Philo, Hippolytus and Africanus all based their theology on pagan philosophies of equinoxes and solstices. These are not according to the Messiah, so we absolutely should not try to fit them into our worship of Him.

I started this study with some assumptions about you. I assumed that those of you watching this video are genuine believers in Messiah who love Him with all your hearts and that if you ever found anything in your life that was offensive to Him that you would want to stop doing it.

When it comes to Christmas, I believe I have taken an objective and honest point of view.

We need to turn our hearts toward Messiah, and let’s love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our strength, rather than turning our heart from the Scriptures.

These are some examples of biblical holidays that our Father gave to us to glorify Messiah. We don’t need the other things. I would encourage you to look into the Hebrew Roots of Christianity video as seen on this web site to learn more. You can watch it online, or request a free DVD copy of the 2 hour video which covers these matters in great detail.

Until then, let’s not be afraid to set aside our unbiblical traditions. Our Savior wants a personal relationship with us, and we need to be willing to turn away from anything in our life which we learn to be displeasing to Him. The message in scripture is clear.

Christmas is simply not a holiday that He wants us to participate in. None of the early believers celebrated it, and if we really want our faith and practices to match the faith and practices of the first century believers, we simply will not engage in the celebration of Christmas.

Syncretism is always forbidden in scripture, no matter intent or one’s ignorance of the origins. Remembrance of biblical events is good. I rejoice that our Savior was born, but to introduce pagan philosophies or theologies in how we choose to remember His birth is syncretism, something that Yahweh absolutely forbids. This is not even to mention the other pagan-rooted elements like evergreens, mistletoe, yule logs, etc.

Let’s reject the way of the heathen with their philosophies and vain deceit, trying to honor our Savior in a pagan way. Let’s have absolutely nothing to do with the pagan origins of Christmas.

Let’s embrace the true holy days that actually come out of the pages of scripture, things that glorify our Savior and proclaim in a holy way to all the world.