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Subject: CHRISTMAS, OR PAGAN-MASS?
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 15:52:40 -0800
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From: Rhonda Steiner
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: *CHRISTMAS, OR PAGAN-MASS?

From the Website:

http://www.teshuvah.com/pagan_christianity/xmas.htm

CHRISTMAS, or PAGAN-MASS?

by Reb Yeshayahu Heiliczer

Introduction:

Each year in December, Messianic Jewish congregations must deal with
the question of whether it is right or wrong for members to celebrate
the "traditional" holiday of "Christmas." This paper seeks to explore
the origins, traditions, and applications of this "holiday" in the
life of believers, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Man-made

Is it acceptable for a man-made "religious" holiday to be celebrated?
In Judaism, both traditional and Messianic, we celebrate both Chanukah
and Purim, which are holidays which were instituted by people. The
fact that they were each created to celebrate a miracle of G-d
(Chanukah the miracle of the rededication of the Holy Temple, and
Purim the miracle of the redemption of the Jewish people from death in
Persia) and that they were both celebrated during Bible times helps to
give them legitimacy as religious events. But where does one draw the
line between what YHVH has ordained and commanded (like YHVH's own
festivals commanded in Leviticus 23) and ones created by mankind to
celebrate His goodness?

There is nothing inherently wrong with celebrating the coming of the
Messiah to earth (if one knew when that was). In fact, through the
prophetic cycle of Biblical festivals, the coming of Messiah to earth
and his ultimate plan of sacrifice for the sins on mankind is
repeatedly celebrated in the Messianic community. A "right" reason for
creating a holiday would be to remember what our Heavenly Father did
in the past for us. But what about a holiday created for "wrong"
reasons?

Origins

Very few realize that not very much has changed in the way Christmas
is celebrated from the way pagans observed the day (under a different
name) centuries before the birth of Yahshua! Obviously they didn't
call it "Christmas." They called this mid-winter festival by its
original heathen or pagan name -- the Saturnalia.

The Scriptures do not mention the celebration of Yahshua's birth, and
therefore it was not celebrated by Yahshua's early followers. So where
did millions of modern-day "Christians" get the idea to celebrate it?
In ancient times the winter solstice was celebrated in Babylon as the
birth day of Tammuz (Dumuzi), the god of vegetation This was the
shortest day of the year, in the latter part of December (today it
actually falls on December 21). According to the pagans, the god
Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. This
festival became known as the Saturnalia, and friends and family would
exchange gifts.

Nativity of the Sun

Interestingly, the winter solstice was also celebrated by the
followers of Mithra as the "nativity" or "birth" of the sun. Mithra
was the Persian sun-god, and his worship was widespread throughout the
Roman Empire in the days of the early believers. When the feast was
celebrated in Rome, it was called the festival of Saturn and lasted
for five days. In both ancient Rome and more ancient Babylon, this
festival was characterized by bouts of drunkenness, wild merrymaking,
and lascivious orgies which would begin with an "innocent kiss"
underneath the mistletoe and would then lead to justification of all
sorts of sexual excesses, perversions and abominations.

Alexander Hislop writes in The Two Babylons:

And first, as to the festival in honour of the birth of Christ,
or Christmas. How comes it that that festival was connected with
the 25th of December? There is not a word in the Scriptures about
the precise day of His birth, or the time of the year when He was
born. What is recorded there, implies that at what time soever
His birth took place, it could not have been on the 25th of
December. At the time that the angel announced His birth to the
shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night
in the open fields. Now, no doubt, the climate of Palestine is
not so severe as the climate of this country; but even there,
though the heat of the day be considerable, the cold of the
night, from December to February, is very piercing, and it was
not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks
in the open fields later than about the end of October. It is in
the last degree incredible, then, that the birth of Christ could
have taken place at the end of December. There is great unanimity
among commentators on this point (pp. 91-92).

Hislop continues:

Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of
all parties that the day of our Lord's birth cannot be
determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival
as Christmas was ever heard of until the third century, and that
not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much
observance (pp. 92-93).

If YHVH wanted us to observe Yahshua's birthday, don't you think He
would have told us the exact day in Scripture? Since Yahshua and His
disciples lived a thoroughly Jewish lifestyle, it would have been
reckoned by the Jewish calendar! Why would He have deliberately hidden
the exact day from us? Maybe because Yahshua's birth date is not
important - not something for us to dwell upon or focus on or obsess
about. It is Yahshua's ministry and His death and resurrection that
embodies the Good News of Messiah, not his time as a helpless baby.

Why December 25?

Why did the Roman Church fix upon December 25 as the day to honor the
Messiah's birthday? There are many opinions on this. One which seems
to be valid is that the early Church, in moving all of its
celebrations away from Judaism without denying its followers the
holidays they had come to enjoy, took the date of Hanukkah, the Feast
of Dedication, and "Romanized" it. Hanukkah occurs on the 25th day of
the Hebrew month of Kislev, which occurs approximately in December.

Hislop also has an opinion:

Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era
itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that
precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of
the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed
that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number
of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was
adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ.
This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism halfway
was very early developed; and we find Tertullian, even in his
day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of
the disciples of Christ in this respect, and contrasting it with
the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition
(ibid., p. 93).

Frazier, in The Golden Bough, states without hesitation: "The largest
pagan religious cult which fostered the celebration of December 25 as
a holiday throughout the Roman and Greek worlds was the pagan sun
worship -- Mithraism." He adds, "This winter festival was called 'the
Nativity' -- the 'nativity of the sun' " (p. 471).

Mithra was not the only pagan deity said to be born at this time of
year. Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, Jupiter, Tammuz and
other sun-gods were supposedly born at the time of the winter
solstice!

Alexander Hislop confirms this, adding:

That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival, is beyond all
doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is
still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis,
the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very
time, 'about the time of the winter solstice.' The very name by
which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves -- Yule-day --
proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. 'Yule' is the
Chaldee name for an 'infant' or 'little child'; and as the 25th
of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors,
'Yule-day,' or the 'Child's-day,' and the night that preceded it,
'Mother-night,' long before they came in contact with
Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far
and wide, in the realms of Paganism, was this birthday observed
("The Two Babylons", PP. 93-94).

The festival at Rome, called the feast of "Saturn," lasted five days,
and loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry. This was
precisely the way in which the Babylonian midwinter, or December,
festival was celebrated. Berosus tells us it also lasted "five days."

Declares Hislop:

The wassailing bowl of Christmas had its precise counterpart in
the 'Drunken festival' of Babylon; and many of the other
observances still kept up among ourselves at Christmas came from
the very same quarter. The candles, in some parts of England,
lighted on Christmas eve, and used so long as the festive season
lasts, were equally lighted by the Pagans on the eve of the
festival of the Babylonian god, to do honour to him: for it was
one of the distinguishing peculiarities of his worship to have
lighted wax-candles on his altars (pp. 96-97).

The Pagan Tree

What about that old favorite, the Christmas tree? Surely it wasn't
pagan, too, was it? The astonishing answer: "The Christmas tree, now
so common among us, was equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt.
In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm
tree denoting the Pagan messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to
him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the sun-god and great
mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a
tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If
the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as the 'Man
the branch.' And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule
Log into the fire on Christmas Eve, and the appearance of the
Christmas tree the next morning" (Hislop, p. 97).

The symbolism of the Christmas tree and the Yule log is made plain by
Alexander Hislop. He writes:

Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed at
Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth, was
held at the Natalis invicti solis, 'The birthday of the
unconquered Sun.' Now the Yule Log is the dead stock of Nimrod,
deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the
Christmas-tree is Nimrod redivivus -- the slain god come to life
again (p. 98).

The Scriptures foretell of this paganism:

Jeremiah 10:1 Hear what YHVH says to you, O house of Yisrael. 2
This is what YHVH says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations
(goyim) or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations
are terrified by them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are
worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman
shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. 5
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they
must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they
can do no harm nor can they do any good."

Jeremiah, chapter 10, seems to be clearly referring to the ancient
pagan Christmas tree, used during the pagan celebrations of the
heathen sun-god at the winter solstice. This is shown in verse 2,
where G-d connects this tree worship with the signs of the heavens.
This is what the Lord says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or
be terrified by signs in the sky (the winter solstice), though the
nations are terrified by them..." -- that is, they carry important
meaning to the pagans, telling them when to hold their festival, and
representing the death and birth of the sun-god.

Satan Claus

Even "Santa Claus," the most popular symbol of Christmas in the United
States, has a pagan origin. Says the World Book Encyclopedia: "Some of
Santa Claus's characteristics date back many centuries. For example,
the belief that Santa enters the house through the chimney developed
from an old Norse legend. The Norse believed that the goddess Hertha
appeared in the fireplace and brought good luck to the home."

But the most significant symbolism in this myth is that children are
taught through it that he has many of the characteristics that only
YHVH actually has: omniscience (knowing all - "he knows when you've
been bad or good"); omnipresence, being able to cover the world with
gift-giving in one night, etc. Satan always wanted to take YHVH's
place, to be like Him. "Satan Claus" (as I call this myth,) is a
substitute for YHVH and for the supposed "reason for the season."

Santa Claus stands identified as none other than that original arch
apostate Nimrod! His attributes hark back to ancient pagan worship.
When children are asked, "What did Santa Claus bring you this year?"
it is merely a modern twist to an old Satanic counterfeit pagan
religion! All the merry Christmas songs hearken back to pagan times,
relics of a pagan past.

Summary

You may be shocked to hear me say that a holiday's similarities to a
pagan holiday does not automatically mean that we should not celebrate
it. There are many prophetic truths which the Lord has revealed to all
sorts of groups of people so as to help them later accept Messiah. So
I repeat that it is not necessarily wrong to celebrate the Birth of
Messiah because pagans celebrated the birth of their god. But there
is a difference between HaShem hinting truths to ancient peoples and
the acceptance of these festivals by those who supposedly already
belong to YHVH!

The pertinent question is, "What good does it do for the Kingdom of
YHVH to celebrate such a holiday?" Does it provide a good witness to
modern day pagans? No, the holiday is one based on materialism and
pagan concepts. What about the celebration of a truly religious, pious
holiday season? Does that help? Maybe, but it is overshadowed to such
an extent by the pagan Christmas that I doubt if it shows through at
all. So what is the answer? Should we "throw the baby out with the
bath water" and dump the holiday altogether?

I believe that all followers of Yeshua should eliminate the
celebration of Christmas from their year, and be a witness to the
pagans by following YHVH's word on celebrations that have been
ordained by Him. Jewish believers have no business accepting Christmas
as a holiday at all, and Gentile believers need to examine this issue
closely. Messianic Jewish congregations should completely ignore this
pagan festival.

I believe that only by returning to the celebrations, feasts and
festivals of the Scriptures, those ordained by YHVH and followed by
Yahshua and His disciples, can believers ever be a good witness to
this perverse generation of pseudo-Christians and secular heathens
that YHVH exists, He is in control of the universe, and we are his
followers - not when it is convenient, and not only when there is
something in it for us.

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; and YHVH has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.

2 Corinthians 6:17 "Therefore come out from them and be
separate," says the Lord. "Touch no unclean thing, and I will
receive you."

YHVH's word speaks for itself.

cCopyright 1995-1998 Association of Torah-Observant Messianics. All
rights reserved. This article may be reproduced without change, in its
entirety and with proper acknowledgment for non-commercial purposes
without prior permission.

**********************************************************************

From: Eddie Chumney
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: The Birth of Yeshua/Jesus during Sukkot

From the Book

The Seven Festivals of the Messiah
by
Eddie Chumney

Chapter 9

The Feast of Tabernacles

THE BIRTH OF YESHUA DURING SUKKOT

The Scriptures seem to indicate to us that Yeshua was born
during the festival season of Sukkot (Tabernacles). In fact, I
believe that He was born on the Feast of Sukkot (which is Tishrei 15
on the biblical calendar, and is analogous to our September/October).
With this in mind, let's look for some evidence of this in the Bible.

In Luke 1:5, Zachariah (Z'karyah) is a priest (Cohen) of the
division of Abijah (Avijah). What does this mean? Israel was
divided into 24 districts at the time of Yeshua. Each of these
districts sent two representatives to officiate at the temple during
the weeks of the year. In First Chronicles (Divery Hayamim) 24, the
first division of the priests would serve in the first week of the
year, which would be both in the month of Nisan and the month of
Tishrei since both months begin the new year. As we saw earlier in
this book, Nisan is the first month in the religious calendar set up
by G-d in Exodus (Shemot) 12:2 and Tishrei is the first month of the
year according to the civil calendar.

During the third week in the month of Nisan, the priests from
all 24 districts would come to the temple to help during the
week of Passover (Pesach). This would also be the case for the
festival of Pentecost (Shavuot) and for the festival of Sukkot
(Tabernacles) when all males were required to go to Jerusalem
(Yerushalayim) as specified by G-d in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 16:16. In
First Chronicles 24:10, we see that abijah was the eighth division or
course of priests. The course of abijah would minister during the
tenth week of the year. Remember, the weeks of Passover and Shavuot
would not be counted because all the priests were required to go to
Jerusalem then.

In Luke 1:9-10, we see that Zacharias is burning incense. This
is done in the room of the temple known as the Holy Place.
As the incense (which represents the prayers of G-d's people [Psalm
(Tehillim) 141:2; Revelation 8:3-4]) is being burned by the priests in
the temple, 18 special prayers are prayed. These 18 prayers would be
prayed every day in the temple. One of these prayers is that Elijah
(Eliyahu) would come. This is important because it was understood by
the people, as G-d established, that Elijah (Eliyahu) would precede
the coming of the Messiah as stated in Malachi 4:5.

These 18 special prayers would be prayed twice a day, once in
the morning and once in the afternoon. In Luke 1:11-13,
the angel appeared on the right side of the altar and told Zacharias
that his prayer was heard and John (Yochanan) the Immerser (Baptist)
would be born. John (Yochanan) the Immerser (Baptist) was not
literally Elijah (Eliyahu), but was of the spirit of power of Elijah
(Luke 1:17).

Allowing two weeks for the laws of separation that G-d commanded
in Leviticus (Vayikra) 12:5; 15:19,24-25 after going
back to the house (Luke 1:23) and then going forward nine months
(Sivan [tenth week] + 2 weeks + 9 months) puts the birth of John
(Yochanan) during the festival of Passover (Pesach). This is an
extremely important point because during the service for Passover,
which is called the Passover Seder, the people are instructed by G-d
to go to the door during one part of the service and look for Elijah
(Eliyahu) while the Passover meal is eaten. The cup is called the cup
of Elijah. The understanding of Elijah preceding the coming of the
Messiah was the basis for the question in Matthew (Mattityahu)
17:10-13.

In Luke 1:26 during the sixth month of Elisabeth's (Elisheva)
pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary (Miryam).
This should have been around the twenty-fifth of Kislev, otherwise
known as Chanukah. During the time of the first century, Chanukah was
known as the second Sukkot. During the time of Chanukah, all of the
Sukkot prayers are prayed once again. Mary's (Miryam) dialogue with
the angel Gabriel is found in the Sukkot liturgy today. If you
calculate from the twenty-fifth of Kislev and add eight days for the
festival of Chanukah plus nine months for Mary's (Miryam) pregnancy,
this will bring you around the time of the festival of Sukkot, or
Tishrei 15. On Tishrei 22, known as Shemini Atzeret or the eighth day,
Yeshua was circumcised (Luke 2:22-23; Leviticus [Vayikra] 12:1-3).

OTHER EVIDENCES OF YESHUA'S BIRTH DURING SUKKOT

As we have stated earlier in this chapter, the Feast of Sukkot
(Tabernacles) is called "the season of our joy" and "the
feast of the nations." With this in mind, in Luke 2:10 it is written,
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
tidings [basar in Hebrew; otherwise known as the gospel] of great joy
[Sukkot is called the 'season of our joy'], which shall be to all
people [Sukkot is called 'the feast of the nations']." So, we can see
from this that the terminology the angel used to announce the birth of
Yeshua were themes and messages associated with the Feast of Sukkot
(Tabernacles).

In Luke 2:12, the babe (Yeshua) was wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger. The swaddling cloths were also
used as wicks to light the 16 vats of oil within the court of the
women during the festival of Sukkot. So, swaddling cloths are
associated with the festival of Sukkot.

Notice also in Luke 2:12 that the baby Yeshua was laid in a
manger. The word manger is the Greek word phatn'e. It is
the same word translated as "stall" in Luke 13:15. By seeing how the
word is used in Luke 13:15, we can see that the Greek word phatn'e
means a place for hitching cattle. The Hebrew word for stall is
marbek, which can be found in Amos 6:4 and Malachi 4:2. In Genesis
(Bereishit) 33:17 it is written that Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth and
made booths (the word booth in this passage is the Hebrew word sukkah;
the plural is sukkot) for his cattle. So we can see from these
passages how the word booth (sukkah or sukkot) was used by Jacob
(Ya'akov) for his cattle in Genesis 33:17, and how the Greek word for
manger or "stall," phatn'e, was also used to refer to hitching cattle
in Luke 13:15. Phatn'e is the same word translated as "manger" in Luke
2:12, where Yeshua was laid at the time of His birth.

During the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles), G-d required that all
male Jews come to Jerusalem (Yerushalayim)
(Deuteronomy [Devarim] 16:16). For this reason, the city would be
overcrowded with people and would explain why Mary (Miryam) and Joseph
(Yosef) could not find lodging in and around Jerusalem (Yerushalayim)
(Luke 2:7). Bethlehem, the place where Yeshua was born, is only about
four miles from Jerusalem.

The last evidence I will give for the birth of Yeshua during
Sukkot according to the Scriptures is in Matthew (Mattityahu)
2:1. There we see that wise men come from the East to visit Yeshua.
The land of the East is Babylon, where the largest Jewish population
was at the time of the birth of Yeshua. These Jews were descendants
from the captivity when King Nebuchadnezzar defeated Israel and took
the Jews to Babylon to serve him. Babylon is referred to as the land
of the East in Genesis (Bereishit) 29:1 and Judges (Shoftim) 6:3. The
wise men in Matthew (Mattityahu) 2:1 were rabbis. The rabbis, also
called sages, are known in Hebrew as chakamim, which means wise men.
The word in Matthew (Mattityahu) 2:1 in Greek is magos, which is
translated into English as "Magi." Magos in Greek is the Hebrew word
ravmag. Ravmag comes from the Hebrew word rav, which means "rabbi." It
should also be noted that the Greek word magos can also mean
scientist, counselor, scholar, or teacher. The rabbis were scholars or
teachers of the Jewish law. Yeshua was referred to as "Rabbi," or
"Teacher" in John (Yochanan) 1:38,47,49; 3:2. So, we can see that the
wise men were Jewish rabbis coming from Babylon to witness the birth
of Yeshua.

A question we can ask ourselves is, "What made the rabbis make
the journey from Babylon to Bethlehem to witness the
birth of Yeshua?" The answer is given in Matthew (Mattityahu) 2:2, as
it is written, "...we have seen His star in the east...."

One of the requirements during the time of Sukkot was to build
an outside temporary shelter and live in it during this
festival season. This shelter is called a booth, or sukkah. The sukkah
had to be built with an opening in the roof so the people could see
the stars in heaven. This is another reason for why the rabbis would
be looking for, and thus seeing, the star in the sky when it appeared.
In addition, there was a prophecy in Numbers (Bamidbar), as it is
written, "...a star shall come forth from Jacob..." (Numbers
[Bamidbar] 24:17 NAS). King Herod inquired about where the Messiah
would be born in Matthew (Mattityahu) 2:4. He was told in Bethlehem
(Matthew [Mattityahu] 2:5-6), based upon the prophecy in Micah 5:2. In
Matthew 2:10 it is written, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced
with exceeding great joy." Once again, remember that Sukkot is called
"the season of our joy." In Matthew 2:2, the rabbis saw the star from
the East. Salvation was seen by the Jewish people as coming from the
East. Yeshua descended from the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). The
tribe of Judah was positioned on the east side of the tabernacle of
Moses (Moshe) in the wilderness. Finally, in Luke 2:32, Yeshua is
called a light to the Gentiles. Once again, Sukkot is called "the
festival of lights" and "the festival of all nations."

**************************************************************************

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7th MILLENNIUM PROPHECY CONFERENCE

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January 22-24, 1999

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