This is all stuff I found on the web a few years ago when I was wonerdering what putting a pine tree in the living room had to do with Christianity….long live the Pagans….and the capitalists.
Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?
What the Encyclopedias are saying:
The word “Christmas” is derived from “Mass of Christ” or “Christ-Mass”. The Christmas festival came to the Protestants and the secular world from the Roman Catholic church. However, the Roman Catholic church did NOT get Christmas from the original Apostles. It’s not even in the Bible!!!
Now just in case you may think I just have something personally against Christmas, or as the psychologists saying, I just had a bad childhood so I feel bad about Christmas, or worse, I belong to a religious cult!!…. let us see what the Catholic and secular Encyclopedias themselves are saying about Christmas!!
“Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.”
“Pagan customs centering around the January calends gravitated to Christmas.”
“…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his [Jesus] birthday. It is only sinners who make great rejoicings over the day in which they were born into this world”Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 Edition,published by the Roman Catholic Church
“…Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church….”Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition
“Christmas… It was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons [eg Communion - death of Christ] rather than their birth…”"…A feast was established in memory of this event [the birth of Jesus] in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever ON THE DAY OF THE OLD ROMAN FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF SOL [SUN], as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.” EMPHASIS MINEEncyclopedia Americana, 1944 Edition
Christmas was not celebrated by the Church UNTIL the FOURTH CENTURY. Christians did NOT celebrate Christmas for the first 300 years - longer than the entire history of the United States of America!!
Jesus was not born on December 25th
Christmas Day - December 25th - is near to the middle of winter in the Northerm Hemisphere - including the Palestine region or Judaea.Was Jesus born during the winter? Let’s see what the Scriptures has to say…
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.”LUKE 2:8
The shepherds did NOT keep their sheep in the fields during December! The sheep were brought in under cover before mid-October to protect them from the cold rainy season that would follow.
The “ninth month” corresponds roughly to December today. You see this time of year was characterised by winter rains in Judaea. The sheep were not in the fields at that time!!Here’s what the Adam Clarke Commentary (Vol 5, page 370, New York ed) has to say about the date of Christ’s birth….
“It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain,…”"During the time they were out, the shepherds watched them night and day. As…the first rain began early in the month of Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October and November, we find that the sheep were kept out in the open country during the whole summer. And, as these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that, consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no flocks were out in the fields; nor could He have even been born later than September, as the flocks were still in the fields by night. On this very ground, the nativity in December should be given up. The feeding of the flocks by night in the fields is a chronological fact…”
The exact date of Jesus’ birth is entirely unknown, though evidently He was born sometime during September which is six months after the Passover. If God had intended for us to celebrate the birthday of Jesus, why then didn’t God reveal the exact date to us in the Scriptures???
The true origins of Christmas
So where did it all begin??The concept of Christmas originated in ancient Egypt in the days of King Osiris and Queen Isis around about 3000 B.C. - long before the Christian faith was even thought of!! After the untimely death of King Osiris, his wife, Isis, propogated the demonic doctrine of the survival of Osiris as a spirit. She claimed a full grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead stump, symbolising the new life of the Osiris spirit from his death. On each anniversary of Osiris birth, which was the date we now know as December 25th, Isis would leave gifts around this tree. Isis became the “Queen of Heaven”, and Osiris became the reborn “divine son of heaven”. Osiris later became, through the later Phoenicans, Baal the Sun-god. The “mother and child” became chief objects of worship by the Babylonians, from which it spread over the world under various names, such as, Cybel & Deoius in Asia, Fortuna & Jupiter in pagan Rome. Then during the fourth and fifth century, the Romans under the new popular “Christianity” popularised the “mother and child” concept especially around Christmas time - from which we have many of the Christmas carols such as “Silent Night Holy Night” with it’s familiar “mother and child” theme.
The Pagan Origin of The Christmas Tree
The concept of the Christmas Tree originated around 3000 B.C. in ancient Egypt with King Osiris and Queen Isis. After the untimely death of King Osiris, his wife, Isis, propogated the demonic doctrine of the survival of Osiris as a spirit. She claimed a full grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead stump, symbolising the new life of the Osiris spirit from his death. On each anniversary of Osiris birth, which was the date we now know as December 25th, Isis would leave gifts around this tree. During the Middle Ages, the Germans believed the evergreen trees were especially imbued with life since they remained green throughout all of winter. Greenery was prominent in pagan winter celebrations in honour of the tree spirit or spirit of fertility. The Romans trimmed the trees with trinkets and toys at that time of year. The Druids tied gilded apples to tree branches. For many, a tree decorated with orbs and fruit-like object symbolised the tree of life in the garden of Eden.
The Pagan Origin of The Holly WreathMistletoe and Yule Log
The mistletoe were used at the festival of the winter solstice by ancient pagans because it was considered sacred to the sun. The mistletoe supposedly had miraculous healing powers, probably due to the fact that not only the plant remained green throughout winter but it actually bore fruit during this time, a type for fertility spirits!! This led to the tradition of “kissing under the mistletoe” - occuring early in the night of revelry and drunken debauchery, celebrating the death of the “old sun” and birth of the “new sun” at the solstice. Holly berries were also considered sacred to the sun-god. Holly was revered along with the mistletoe, with decorations in those greeneries prominent in buildings and places of worship during the winter festival - leading to the holly wreath that we have today. The burning of the Yule Log originated with the Druids and their ritual burning of a carefully chosen log during the winter. The word “yule” is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon word “hweol” which means “wheel” - a pagan symbol of the sun. Indeed the “Yule Log” is in fact the “Sun Log”!!
The Pagan Origin of Exchanging Gifts at Christmas
The wonderful tradition of exchanging gifts during Christmas. That excitement of looking forward to seeing what your loved one buys for you for Christmas. Oh of course, it is “Christian” to be giving gifts to one another…. but is it?? Let us see what the Bibliotheca Sacra (vol 12 pp 153-155) says about the exchanging of gifts at Christmas…
“The interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of Christmas and the Saturnalia, and MUST HAVE BEEN ADOPTED BY CHRISTIANS FROM THE PAGANS, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows.” Emphasis mine
The exchanging of gifts does not honour Christ at all. Suppose it is YOUR birthday and yet at your party, your friends and relatives exchange gifts among themselves and almost completely ignore you!! This is exactly what happens at Christmas - we exchange gifts among ourselves, but usually don’t have enough money left over to continue our giving to our churches!! Just ask any pastor!! The giving to the church usually doesn’t get back to normal until March next year!! In any case it’s not Jesus’ birthday anyway!! - His birthday is in September most probably and the exact date is not known.
The wise men gave Jesus gifts because He was a KING of the Jews - it was not because it was His birthday. It was customary to give gifts to someone who is a King, just as it is so in many cultures today. In any case, the wise men didn’t give any gifts to Jesus until long after His birthday.
“Verse 11 (They presented unto him gifts) The people of the east never approached the presence of kings and great personages, without a present in their hands. The custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Sea Islands.”Adam Clarke Commentary, vol 5, page 46
The exchanging of gifts among friends and relatives at Christmas is not found in the Scriptures, it is derived from paganism.
-Restlessape
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Editor’s note: While we’re not going to make a habit of insanely long blasphemous rants, this one is a little gem I’ve been enjoying for years. I’m glad we are able to bring it out to the world.
Ape,
What did the baby jesus ever do to you? Seriously
-M
geek out!! that was awesome Ape! Happy Solstice, Freaks. Merry Christmas, Pagans.
i think i just offended most of my in-laws by skipping out on the Christmas Eve service, bringing beer and Wiskey to the apres service feast, and verbaly slamming prominent political figures. well, what’d they expect from a chronic academic, disgruntled fiercely independent American, moderately motivated feral nerd???
Japhy rider