What Lies Behind The Mask?
When you were a child, did you hang your stocking on the mantle? Did you tingle with anticipation as Christmas drew near? Can you remember the wonderful smell of the Christmas tree and the fragrant aroma of Mamas turkey and pumpkin pies wafting through the house?
Santa Claus, oh yes! The mystical, magical saint of Christmas. We waited for his arrival with baited breath.
There is nothing wrong with all these wonderful, beautiful memories, right? Let us look at where all these customs came from and why the world follows them today.
When and how did Christmas begin. Is it really a day to celebrate the birthday of the Messiah. Was Yahushua really born on December 25th?
Did the Apostles, who walked with Yahushua decide to begin this holiday or does its roots go much further back?
We may look in to our encyclopedias to find a few of the answers. The word ‘Christmas’ means Mass of Christ. This came to us from the Roman Catholic Church but where did they get it? They did not get it from the Scriptures, nor from the Apostles. It was assimilated into the Roman Church from paganism.
In the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, we read under the heading of ‘Christmas’:
‘Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church...the first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.’ Under the heading Natal Day the early Catholic father, Origen tells us, ‘In the Scriptures, no one (at least no one who was obedient to YHWH) is recorded to have kept a feast or had a great banquet. It is only sinners like Pharoah and Herod who make rejoicings over the day they were born into this world’.
The Ecyclopedia Americana, 1944 edition says:
‘It (Christmas) was, by 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 rather than their birth...’ In the 4th century a feast was established in commemoration of Yahushua’s birth. In the 5th century, the Western Church ordered it (Christmas) to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol (the sun), as no certain knowledge of the day of the Messiahs birth existed.’
We find connections with the mystery religions, such as Mithra, since December 25th was a Mithraic feast, or birthday of the unconquered SUN. SUN WORSHIPERS!
Many very ancient writings out of Egypt tell of King Osiris and Queen Isis and their son Horus. These originated from about 3000 BC. After the untimely death of King Osiris, Isis began the myth of the ever living spirit of Osiris. According to legend, Osiris was reborn through Horus, the son who was born to Isis much after the death of her husband King Osiris....
This is just the type of mystical legend we wish to avoid as children of YHWH.
One last statement from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1958 edition. There we read:
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS:
-- Christmas customs are an evolution from times that long antedated the christian period--a descent from seasonal, pagan, religious and national practices, hedged about with legend and tradition. Their seasonal connections with the pagan feasts of the winter solstice relate them to the beginning of time and their legacy in the birthday of Messiah makes them shareholders in the most significant event in the history of the world---an event that gave it a new date, anno Domini.
In the beginning many of the earths inhabitants were sun worshipers because the course of their lives depended on its yearly round in the heavens and feasts were held to aid its return from distant wanderings.
In the south of Europe, in Egypt and Persia, the sun gods were worshiped with elaborate ceremonies at the season of the winter solstice, as a fitting time to pay tribute to the benign god of plenty, while in Rome, the Saturnalia reigned for a week. In northen lands mid-December was a critical time, for the days became shorter and shorter and the sun was weak and far away. Thus these ancients peoples held feasts at the same period that Christmas is now observed; they built great bonfires in order to give the winter sun god strength and to bring him back to life again. When it became apparent that the days were growing longer, there was great rejoicing because of the promise of lengthening days to follow. Thus, the central idea of the winter solstice-the return of the light-became the hope of the world in the birth of ‘Christ’, the light of the world.
The exact day and YEAR of ‘Christs’ birth has never been satisfactorily settled, but when the fathers of the church, in AD 440 decided upon a date to celebrate the event, they WISELY chose the day of the winter solstice which was firmly fixed in the minds of the people and which was their most important festival."
We have a choice in this matter. We may decide to keep the pagan festivals of the sun god or we may decide to kept the Feasts of YHWH.
Josh 24:15-16
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve YHWH, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH
16 And the people answered and said, Elohim forbid that we should forsake YHWH, to serve other ‘mighty ones’
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