From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 03:08:14 +0000
Subject: December 25th as Yeshua Lord's birthday
From: Alan Kowaleski
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: December 25th as Yeshua Lord's birthday
I was wondering if anyone knows if there is a specific document or council
which decided on the Christmas date? Of course the earliest Christians would
not be found observing it. When in the history of the church did it become
official? Did early Christians oppose it. How easily did Babylonian
priestcraft infuse the church? Where were the fathers of apostolic succession
and the guiding Spirit of Ruach Hakodesh.
I believe the Spirit guarded against the heresies which Paul spoke about in
his days,and brought the Word of scripture to us intact down to present
times. I am hoping that the observence of Christmas was approved of by the
early church, however my search for the historical truth has been
unrevealing to me.
Who can tell me of the correct references to search. Can someone recommend a
good text book? I would be grateful if anyone can help!
Your brother in Yeshua HaMaschiac,
Alan
>From Eddie:
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While the Almighty God kept and preserved for us the integrity
of His written Word (both OT and NT), the same cannot be said of our
"Church Fathers" regarding some of the things that they have passed
down to us and have become firmly planted tradition within the modern
Christian church. For example, many of the views held by traditional
Christianity today toward the "law" and perceived as solid NT
teaching by taking certain NT passages out of context began to take
firm root in Christian doctrine over the many centuries through the
influence of the teachings of Marcion. Marcion was considered a heritic
by the church leaders in his day yet many of his views toward the
law, the Jewish people and the OT are widely accepted within
traditional Christianity today as being NT Biblical truths.
You can read your Bible a zillion times and you will NEVER find
Christmas celebrated in the NT. However, you can read Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John and Acts and see the Biblical Festivals being celebrated.
Christmas is something which began to be celebrated after the days
of Constantine when the Roman Catholic church "Christianized" the
beliefs of Mithraism. The birthday of the sun god in Mithraism was
Dec 25th. When the Roman Empire gave up the religion of Mithraism
because Constantine made Christianity the state religion and as the
Roman Catholic church mixed and "Christianized" the practices of
Mithraism and incorporated them into Christianity to make it more
acceptable to the people who lived within the Roman Empire, the
celebration of Christmas came into being. While the Word of God and
it's integrity may have been preserved for us through the
guiding hand of God, the same cannot be said of many of our Christian
traditions. One of these traditions is Christmas.
I will give some information which comes from the Catholic
Encyclopedia under the article of "Christmas". This is a good source
to BEGIN your studies. Sometimes the Catholic church does a good
job of documenting how they brought some of the original pagan
practices into Christianity. Their documentation of the origin of
Christmas and it's relationship to the birthday of the sun god in
Mithraism is one example of many. Another thing that the Catholic
church has done that they have documented quite well is how they
changed the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. But, this is
another issue. The following section is taken from the Catholic
Encyclopedia under the article of Christmas. You can get a copy of
the Catholic Encyclopedia in most libraries across the USA.
THE HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS
The feast is first mentioned at the head of the Depositio
Martyum in the Roman Chronograph of 354 (ed. Valentini-Zucchetti)
(Vatican City 1942) 2:17]. Since the Depositio was composed in 336,
Christmas in Rome can be dated back that far at least. It is NOT
(capitals mine) found, however, in the lists of feasts given by
Tertulian (De baptismo 19; CSEL 20:217) and Origen (Contra Celsum
8:22, PG 11:1549). (Tertulian and Origen were early Church Fathers
... Eddie)
Why then was December 25 (the date for Christ's birth as
observed by the Western Roman Empire .... the Catholic church) and
January 6 (the date of Christ's birth as observed by the Eastern
Roman Empire ... the Greek Orthodox Church) ??? (As you can see the
Protestant world follows the date of the Roman Catholic Church and
not the date of the Greek Orthodox Church ... Eddie). Several
theories are offered in explanation.
Some (John Chrysostom, B. Lamy: see Kellner, 143-145) actually
believed December 25 was the birthday of Christ and tried to prove it
by arguing from the conception of St. John the Baptist. Assuming,
gratuitously, that Zachary was high priest and that the Day of
Atonement fell on September 24, John would have been born on June 24
and Christ 6 month's later, on December 25. This theory is now
considered completely UNTENABLE (capitals mine ... Do you
see how twisted logic can become when this story is not understood
from a Hebraic perspective? ... Eddie)
According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener, developed
by B. Botte (Les Origines) and accepted by most scholars today, the
birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice
(December 25 in the Julian Calander and January 6 in the Egyptian)
because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies,
the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis
Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On December 25, 274,
Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire
and dedicated a temple to him in Campus Martius. Christmas originated
at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong in Rome.
This theory finds support in some of the Church Fathers' contrasting
the birth of Christ and the winter solstice; indeed, from the
beginning of the 3rd century "Sun of Justice" appears as a title of
Christ (Botte, Les origines 63).
In the East (Eastern Roman Empire), the Feast of the
Nativity (Christmas) was kept originally on January 6. Nevertheless,
toward the end of the 4th century the Western feast of December 25
was admitted. The earliest testimony to an Eastern Feast of Christmas
is a sermon of Basil (d. 379; Homilia in s. Christi generationem,
PG 31:1457-76). On December 25, 379 or 380, Gregory of Nazianzuz
preached a Christmas sermon in Constantinople (In theophaniam
oratio 38, PG 36:311-334); he later referred to himself as the founder of
the feast (In sancta lumina oratio 39.14; PG 36:349). In Palestine,
however, the birth of Christ was celebrated on January 6 until the
middle of the 7th century when December 25th was permanently
accepted.
**********************
For further articles on this issue, please visit my Web Site
located at:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2175/sab_fest.html
So, the Catholic church through the Catholic Encyclopedia
documents the pagan origin of Christmas and how it came to be
celebrated. The reasons have no Biblical basis. Through tradition,
the Protest churches have continued to the practice of Christmas as
originally given to us from the Catholic church. While the Protestant
churches have rejected the authority of the Pope over the past 500
years, they have not rejected everything within Christianity that has
it's orgins in the Roman Catholic church. Think about this for a
minute, the roots of Christianity are either in Rome or Jerusalem. The
roots of Christianity are either Catholic or Jewish. Where do you
think the roots of Christianity are?
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