Christmas & Other Pagan Holidays
Sharing the truth with family & friends during the ‘holiday’
season
Powerful or Pagan?
The History of Christmas
Christmas celebrations were
around LONG before Christ
came (they were called
something different)
The early Catholic Church
wanted to attract pagans to
Christianity so they
compromised
Christmas is rooted in
paganism and in Babylonian
sun worship
Christ
was
NEVER
in
Christmas!
December 25th would never be the
day Yeshua would choose to be
born!
It was the birthdate of several
pagan deities (Mithras, Saturn,
Tammuz)
The Romans celebrated Saturnalia
with orgies and drunkeness
(December13-23rd -then followed by Mithras’ b-day)
The ancient Babylonians
celebrated this day as a holy day to
Nimrod the sun god.
Remember how much YHWH
hated Baal worship?
Nimrod was Baal!
Genesis 10:8-10.
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a
mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter
before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as
Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And
the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and
Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of
Shinar.
The Bible does not identify Nimrod's mother, or
his date of birth, but Egyptian and Babylonian
antiquities identify his mother as Semiramis, and
his birthday is celebrated on 25th December.
Sometimes Semiramis is referred to as the
mother of Nimrod, and sometimes as his wife,
leading to the belief that Nimrod married his
mother.
The Book of Jasher Sheds Some Light
(Jasher is Referred to in 2 Samuel & Joshua)
And Esau at that time, after the death of Abraham, frequently went in the field to hunt. And Nimrod king of Babel,
the same was Amraphel, also frequently went with his mighty men to hunt in the field, and to walk about with his
men in the cool of the day. And Nimrod was observing Esau all the days, for a jealousy was formed in the heart of
Nimrod against Esau all the days. And on a certain day Esau went in the field to hunt, and he found Nimrod
walking in the wilderness with his two men. And all his mighty men and his people were with him in the
wilderness, but they removed at a distance from him, and they went from him in different directions to hunt, and
Esau concealed himself for Nimrod, and he lurked for him in the wilderness. And Nimrod and his men that were
with him did not know him, and Nimrod and his men frequently walked about in the field at the cool of the day,
and to know where his men were hunting in the field. And Nimrod and two of his men that were with him came to
the place where they were, when Esau started suddenly from his lurking place, and drew his sword, and hastened
and ran to Nimrod and cut off his head. And Esau fought a desperate fight with the two men that were with
Nimrod, and when they called out to him, Esau turned to them and smote them to death with his sword. And all the
mighty men of Nimrod, who had left him to go to the wilderness, heard the cry at a distance, and they knew the
voices of those two men, and they ran to know the cause of it, when they found their king and the two men that
were with him lying dead in the wilderness. And when Esau saw the mighty men of Nimrod coming at a distance,
he fled, and thereby escaped; and Esau took the valuable garments of Nimrod, which Nimrod's father had
bequeathed to Nimrod And Esau took those garments and ran into the city on account of Nimrod's men, and he
came unto his father's house wearied and exhausted from fight, and he was ready to die through grief when he
approached his brother Jacob and sat before him. And he said unto his brother Jacob, Behold I shall die this day,
and wherefore then do I want the birthright?
The Deception
After the death of Nimrod, Semiramis, who had risen to greatness
Semiramis =
on his account, was not going to disappear into obscurity because of
his death. Instead she pronounced him to be a god, so that she
Devaki
herself became a goddess. She produced another son, and
proclaimed him to be the resurrected Nimrod. This was not
Astarte
difficult, because she was so promiscuous she produced many
children whose father could not be identified. She proclaimed that
Ashtoreth
she had gone down to the world of the dead, rescued Nimrod and
brought him back.
Ishtar (Easter)
Thus began the worship of Semiramis and the child-god, and the
whole paraphanalia of the Babylonian religious system.
Isis
1 Kings 11:5
1 Lings 11:33
2 Kings 23:13
Judges 10:6
1 Samuel 7:3
1 Samuel 12:10
Tammuz = Jesus?
"Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north;
and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto to me, 'Hast thou
seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than
these." Ezekiel 8:14-15
This 40 days of weeping for Tammuz later became the 40 days of Lent
According to some scholars, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built over a cave that
was originally a shrine to Adonis-Tammuz. The Church Father Jerome, who died in
Bethlehem in 420, reports in addition that the holy cave was at one point consecrated by the
heathen to the worship of Adonis (Tammuz), and a pleasant sacred grove planted before it, to
wipe out the memory of Jesus. Modern mythologists, however, reverse the supposition,
insisting that the cult of Adonis-Tammuz originated the shrine and that it was the Christians
who took it over, substituting the worship of their own god.
Guess what day Tammuz was
allegedly was born on?
According to legend....
December 25th
Saturnalia ~ Pagan festival in honour of the Roman god
Saturn
Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BC to raise citizen morale after a crushing military
defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians. Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17,
its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd.
Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three
days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the
Roman citizens.
The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents, and a
special market. Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves.
The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being
a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn")
The Catholic Church tried to merge
this pagan holiday with the
celebration of the birthday of
Christ...conveniently, on the birthdate
of Saturn
Santa Claus
Similar to Yeshua?
All Knowing (Naughty or nice)
Can be in more than one place at once
Rewards good and evil
Satan masquerades as an angel of light
✴Molech (Baal, Nimrod) was a god of child sacrifice
✴He is a lie and we are commanded not to lie!
✴Ho, ho, ho was a devil’s greeting in Catholicism
✴He comes from the Norse god Odin who supposedly
left gifts under an evergreen tree (as did Nimrod)
✴Santa Claus or Satan’s Claws?
The Constantine Connection
✴ Constantine was NOT a Christian but a worshipper of
Mithra (Sun god)
✴He was responsible for making resting on the Sabbath
illegal and changing the Sabbath to Sunday
✴He celebrated the birthday of Yeshua on the same day
as the birth of Saturn and Mithras - December 25
Constantine...After gaining victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312), a triumphal arch—the Arch of Constantine—was
built (315) to celebrate it; the arch is decorated with images of Victoria and sacrifices to gods like Apollo,Diana, and Hercules,
but contains no Christian symbolism.In 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians should be united in
observing the venerable day of the sun, referencing the esoteric eastern sun-worship which Aurelian had helped introduce,
and his coinage still carried the symbols of the sun cult until 324. Even after the pagan gods had disappeared from the
coinage, Christian symbols appeared only as Constantine's personal attributes: the chi rho between his hands or on
hislabarum, but never on the coin itself. Even when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, which became
the seat of Byzantine Christianity for a millennium, he did so wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem.
Constantine also enforced the prohibition of the First Council of Nicaea against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day
before the Jewish Passover
Source: Wikipedia
Either as a means to unify his empire, or to make converting to Christianity easier, Constantine sought to blend Christian and
pagan traditions. At that time, two prominent pagan winter festivals were celebrated. The first, starting on December 17 and
lasting seven days, honoured Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. The second, starting on December 25 and lasting through
January 1, commemorated the birth of Mithras, the Persian god of light. Constantine merged many of the traditions from these
festivals with the Nativity story in the Bible and Christmas was born. From its beginning, Christmas was a holiday (or holy day),
gifts were exchanged, families and friends gathered to feast, and a birth was celebrated; just like in the Roman and Persian
festivities.
Source: allaboutjesuschrist.org
When was Yeshua most likely born?
Dr. Ernest L. Martin shows in his book, that the signs in the sky shown in Revelation 12:1-3, occurred
on only one day in 3 BC, and they occurred exactly on September 11, 3 BC between 6:15 pm and 7:49
pm. What are these celestial signs?
Revelation 12:1-3 And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars; and she was with child, and she cried
out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven; and behold, a
great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.
Because the earth is rotating, there is apparent motion of the sun and moon, while the stars stay
somewhat fixed in relation to the earth. The sun was mid-body along the ecliptic in Virgo the Virgin on
September 11, 3 BC, and the moon was under her feet exactly from 6:15 to 7:49 pm on September 11,
3 BC. According to Dr. Martin, this great sign in the sky only occurred on that one day in 3 BC.
The Birth of Messiah Revealed in Scripture (Mark Biltz)
Mark Biltz does a great study on the Feasts of Yahweh and how they tie into the birth, resurrection
and return of Yeshua our Messiah. Check it out on our Videos Page.
•It means that Christmas is entirely
pagan
and is the
continuation
of the religious practices of ancient
What
does
this
all mean?
Babylon.
•Yeshua (Jesus) was probably born on September 11, 3 BC and was earlier conceived on December 13, 4
BC.
•There is nothing about Yeshua related to Christmas except man-made customs.
•Saturnalia was the celebration of the winter solstice from ancient Babylon and Semiramis gave birth to
Tammuz on December 25.
•The Roman and Greek world worshipped the sun in a religion called Mithraism, and December 25 was the
Nativity of the Sun (Sol the sun god).
•Tammuz was supposedly the rebirth of Nimrod who is also known as Baal.
•The yule log is from ancient Babylon symbolizing the stump for Nimrod or Baal. The green tree decorated
with silver and gold and nailed down so that it would not totter was celebrated by ancient Israel as they
apostasized (Jeremiah 10:3-4), and there are a number of references in the Old Testament to a green tree
as an idol.
•It is the same Christmas tree customs which people use today for Christmas. The round sparkly balls
represent the sun.
•The popes in about 350 AD deliberately renamed the birth of Sol the sun-god on December 25 as a
christian custom. That is recorded in the Roman writings of that time.
•All of these Christmas customs were done by the pagans before the day was renamed as a Christian
holiday.
Isn't it interesting that there were ancient presentations of the woman and child thousands of years before
Yeshua was born? These madonna and child representations were Semiramis and Tammuz from ancient
“But that’s not what it means to me!”
We are clearly commanded in scripture NOT to learn the way of the
heathens (Jeremiah 10:2)
YHWH says we must NEVER worship Him the way that the pagans
do (Deut 14:21)
We must be careful to do ALL that Yahweh instructs (Levitcus 20:22)
We must not follow the practices of Egypt or the Canaanites (Leviticus
18:3)
We should not have pagan symbols in our homes (Isaiah 57:8)
Yahweh will allow us to follow the idols of our own hearts but it leads
to death (Acts 7:42 - they worshipped the heavenly bodies, Jeremiah
8:2)
We should not be like the Israelites who thought they were
worshipping Yahweh with the golden calves
(Exodus 32, 1 Kings 12, Jeremiah 48:13)
Do not be a practicer of lawlessness! practicers of lawlessness (Matt
7:23)
Testimony is powerful
Salt
How can we be salt in our world?
or
How can we share the true gospel
with others?
- Makes people thirsty
- Is a bacteria killer
- Flavours things
Go flavour
your world
Get people Thinking!
•Follow Yeshua’s pattern
•Get people to question what
they believe and why they
believe it.
•2 Groups of people that you
will encounter
✦ Christians
✦Non-christians
Answering Christians
✤Don’t act impatient or arrogant
✤Let your compassion show through!
✤Ask them if they have ever researched the holiday
✤NEVER get into loud, angry debates
✤Remember that it is YHWH who prepares and
moves the heart
✤Do your research! If you can’t answer, tell them you
will look into it and get back to them
✤ Don’t get discouraged...leave the results up to
YHWH
✤PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!
Answering Non-Christians
✴Live your life in such a way that they will ask
questions!
✴Study to show yourself approved. Know your history
and be able to give sources
✴Hand out pamphlets and tracts or direct them to a
website
✴Don’t be afraid of their faces
✴Pray for those you speak to and follow up with them
✴Let your life line up with your speech
Heard of Hannukah?
Hannukah is also called the “Feast of
Dedication”.
You can read about the history of
Hannukah in the books of Maccabees
Yeshua most likely celebrated this feast
Is a shadow picture of dedicating our
temples (our bodies)
It is NOT a mandatory holiday
according to scripture
Hannukah is NOT meant to
be a substitute for
Christmas!
Resources
•
www.vaintradtions.com
•
Passion for Truth - “Truth or Tradition”
video
•
Tracts - Available on our website for
download
•
Today’s Webinar is being recorded and will
be available on our website shortly.
Books to Read
•
The Story of Santa Klaus ~ William Walsh
•
The Trouble With Christmas ~ Tom Flynn
•
The Christmas Almanac~ Gerard & Pat Del Re
•
The Two Babylons ~ Alexander Hislop
•
Plain Truth About Christmas ~ Herbert
Armstrong
•
The Babylon Connection ~ Ralph Woodrow
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