SHOULD CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?

SHOULD CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?

We may be wondering why this topic?

Well, we have seen that the season of Christmas  celebration is drawing near, and we know that millions of Christians are getting ready to celebrate this feast.

We thought it wise to let us all know what this feast is all about and what it entails.

This topic is not to raise unnecessary arguments or to stir up anger among us, but rather to warn us about the dangers that surrounds these festivals.

 I have been warning about Babylon and her false teachings for long now, and many other people too.

God has been using Elizabeth Marie to warn people about Babylon and to come out of her practices.

Weather we like it or not, as long as keep or celebrate any of her practices we are her daughters and also harlots.

Christmas is one of those Babylonian practices that we have been warned against.

Last time we talked about the Three Angel's Messages.

And we saw that one of them is talking about "Babylon is fallen "the second Angel's message".

"Babylon is fallen which made the whole nation drink from the wine of her adulteries".
( Revelation 14:8)

Again we see another Angel saying the same thing in Revelation 18:3

Babylon has made the whole nations to drink from the wine of her fornication/Adulteries.

Then a call is made in Revelation 18:4
Calling people out of Babylon, so that they will not receive in her plagues.

The Judgment of God is soon coming upon this wicked world, because of their atrocities, the wrath of God is coming upon the world and judgment begins with the house of the Lord.

Babylon will be destroyed together with her daughters, those who are drunken with the wine of her Adulteries.

That is why we are calling people out of all these Babylonian practices today.

I thank God that many people are awakening to the truth, even some Churches are beginning to understand these things are they are pulling out.

Some Churches do not celebrate Christmas, rather they use that period to hold a crusade or programs in their churches.

 The meaning of Adultery.

We saw from our previous lessons that Adultery in the bible means Spiritual Harlotry, false worship, idol worship, following other gods.

This is not talking about physical fornication, adultery or harlotry; in the bible God often uses these terms  to describe false worship, pagan worship. You know, the bible says that we are the bride of Christ, meaning that we belong to him, he’s our Lord, the moment we deviate from him and start worshipping other gods then we are harlots or adulterers because we now have more than one love and have forgotten about our first love. Our first love is Christ. Rev 2:4-5. 

2corinthians 11:2
‘’For I am jealous over you with Godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.’’ Virgin is the opposite of a Harlot, a fornicator or Adulterer.
[12/7, 19:40] Loveth Nwokeohuru: most times the Lord uses ‘’virgin’’ to describe his faithful church or a faithful individual. So when the Lord says that we are his bride and we are only married to one husband
 [CHRIST] that means that we are faithful to only him and we are not involve in false worship [worship of other gods] but when he says that we are committing adultery that means we are no longer faithful to him and we have other gods we worship aside from him. The opposite of a Harlot is  a Virgin.

 The bible says ‘’do not make any graven image or worship it for I am a jealous God”. Exodus 20:5

We see this in the case of the Israelites in the book of Hosea 1:2 when God was angry with the children of Israelites because they were worshipping other gods, he asked the prophet Hosea to go and marry a harlot to serve an example of what the children of Israel are doing.

 "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said to him, go take unto thee a wife of whoredom: for the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord".

So we can see the moment we depart from the Lord we are regarded as Harlots or adulterers [spiritual] please also read Ezekiel 16:26-32

We  also saw from our previous studies that Babylon the Mother of Harlots is the Roman Church.

And we also said that her wine is her false doctrines and teachings that she has corrupted the she world with.

We saw last week that Sunday is one of her doctrines and inventions.

God gave us the Sabbath ( Friday Sundown to Saturday sundown)

But Constantine changed it to Sunday in honour of his pagan Sungod.

Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the Sun, "Sunday"—as the Roman day of rest (Codex Justinianus 3.12.2):

"On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost".

 And this law was spread across the nations.

This was the first Sunday law that was passed.

Early Christians kept the Sabbath, and this the Church has confirmed through her popes that Saturday is the Sabbath and early Christians kept Saturday and not Sunday.

So their decision to make Sunday the Sabbath is not biblical.

We also said that Sunday is not the only false teachings and doctrines that is being practiced in the world today.

Protestants came out of the Roman Church because they saw so many things that were not biblical.

"Names matter. St. John Paul II clearly writes in Dies Domini (On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy) that Sabbath (the seventh day of the week) and Sunday (the first day of the week) are different."

But they failed to reject all and go back to their roots which is the bible and the bible alone, they still held on to some of these traditions from the Mother Church (The Catholic church)

Eg is this Christmas.

●Brief Pagan Origin Of Christmas.

We have to go  back to Noah’s time, where Nimrod was the grandson of one of Noah´s son Ham. Now, Ham had a son named Cush who married a woman named Semiramis. Cush and Semiramis then had a son and named him “Nimrod.” After the death of his father, Nimrod married his own mother and became a powerful King.

Nimrod built and organized major cities, including BABEL, Accad, and Erech, and also built Resen, Calah and Nineveh in the land of Asshur (Genesis 10:10-12)

 Semiramis. who upon Nimrod’s death, deified him as the Sun god, which became known in various cultures later as Baal ( “LORD” means Baal in Hebrew), Janus, Saturn, Baalim, Bel, Osiris, Bacchus and Molech etc...

And later, when Queen Semiramis gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed (Mythology) that he was Nimrod reborn — Nimrod Tammuz.

Nimrod was deified as the god of the sun, Queen Semiramis became the Queen of Heaven, the goddess of the moon and fertility, and Nimrod Tammuz became the savior of the world in this Mystery Babylonian Religion.

Semiramis soon became pregnant and claimed that it was the rays of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive,  bringing forth  a son named Tammuz. And according to Pagan legend, after Nimrod Tammuz died, he descended into the underworld, but because of the weeping of his mother, he mystically revived in the springing forth of the vegetation in Spring (EZEKIEL 8:14), much in the same way Queen Semiramis said the evergreen tree symbolized his father’s eternal life.

So then, ‘Babel’ means ‘confusion, and when the people were scattered, they carried their  Sun god religion with them, with some building pyramids reminiscent of the tower of Babel as part of their Mystery religion. And indeed, remnants like them throughout world, including in Iraq, South and Central America, Burma and even China.

 And almost every idolatrous practice had its origins at Babel, as the people scattered from Babel with different languages, using different names for Nimrod and Semiramis.

 Some called her the Mother Goddess “Ishtar” (which is originally pronounced Easter), while in other lands, she was called Eostre, Astarte, Ostera, and Eastre, and also called the Mother goddess, Wife of Baal, Ashtaroth or Ashtoreth

 And, of course, the Queen of Heaven (Judges 2:13 and Jeremiah 44:17-19).

 She was  also worshiped as Mother Nature, the goddess of Spring, the god of fertility,  and the goddess of the moon.

We can see that even the Israelites were affected with this pagan feasts and festivals... They couldn't help it.
Can we see why God called the woman, Babylon the great?

The Israelites also created goves and brought evergreen trees into the temples to decorate the temples.

There is a connection between the grooves and the Christmas trees that people bring I to their homes and churches..this practice has been in existence for a long time..there is nothing new u der the sun

● The Pagan Origin Of Christmas Evergreen Trees.

The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years. Pagans used branches of it to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come.

Pagans in Europe used branches of evergreen firtrees to decorate their homes and brighten their spirits during the winter solstice. Early Romans used evergreens to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia, while ancient Egyptians used green palm rushes as part of their worship of the god Ra.


Asherah

Asherah, another Canaanite fertility goddess, was believed to be the wife of ‘El’, the chief god of the Canaanites. In common with the cult of Ashtoreth, the veneration of Asherah was often associated with the worship of Baal (see Judges 6:25 & 2 Kings 23:4). ‘Asherah poles’ were symbols of fertile, fruit-laden trees and of the goddess Asherah herself. They were often erected near pagan altars (see 1 Kings 16:32-33, 1 Kings 17:9-10) and adjacent to other ‘sacred trees’ (see 1 Kings 14:22-24)


The toleration of these ‘sacred trees’ and their adoption by the Israelites was another major contributor to their fall from God’s grace (see Isaiah 1:29).

 
he principal gods of the Babylonians were Marduk (also referred to as Bel, meaning ‘Baal’ or ‘Lord’) and Nebo. Images (or idols) of these gods were paraded through the streets during religious festivals (see Isaiah 46:1, Jeremiah 50:2 & 51:44). The story of Daniel, Bel and the Snake in the Apocrypha (and in the Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint) tells of the deceptions and fraudulant claims perpetrated by the priests of the temple of Bel


 The Israelites, however, continued to dabble in Egyptian religious practices, and after the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC, Jeremiah rebuked those in exile in Egypt for worshipping the ‘Queen of Heaven’ (Isis or possibly Ashtoreth) and Amon (Amun), the ‘god of Thebes’ (see Jeremiah 44:15-19 & 46:25).


So, we can see that all these gods are thesame with different names.

*The goddess of fertility is represented by the evergreen trees and plants and shrubs*.

this chapter, God makes it very clear: "Learn not the way of the heathen...for the customs of the peoples are vain" (Jeremiah 10:2-3, KJV), stressing His total rejection of practices adopted from other religions even if they are intended to honor Him. For God is never honored by disobedience. We can read Deuteronomy 12:29-32 and 2 Corinthians 6:14 along with these verses.


Worse still, the sun, moon, planets and stars were actually worshiped by ancient nations—and their movements were used to determine times for worship. Again, this was all based on fear and superstition. For instance, the winter solstice was observed because the sun reached its lowest zenith on that day, the shortest day of the year. It was believed that worship, fires and sacrifices were needed to encourage and boost the sun god back to his higher station. Afterward, the people celebrated the rebirth of the sun.

Indeed, the sun god was understood to have been born of his mother goddess around the time of the winter solstice—in fact, by the reckoning of various ancient cultures, on December 25. Evergreen plants and trees were used in this particular worship because they seemed to retain life through the winter months. These customs have continued down to our day in the form of the Christmas tree and decorations of holly and mistletoe.


Notice God's instruction back in Deuteronomy 16:21-22.👇

"Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee".

22 Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the Lord thy God hateth.

This instruction was neglected by the children of Israel, they went ahead to plants groves and even bring them Into the temple of the Lord.
Exactly what is done today in our churches.( temples of God)

2 Kings 23:4-7

"And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, *and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel*".

5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense *unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven*.

6 *ABD HE BROUGHT OUTTHE GROVE FROM THE HOUSE OF THE LORD*, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove
.


Note: these trees and groves represents fertility, sometimes it represents the goddess fertility itself( Asherah)


There are a number of references in Scripture to Asherah—understood to be an idol representation of the goddess Ashtoreth or Astarte, the mother goddess referred to in Scripture as the 'queen of heaven' (mentioned in the highlights on Jeremiah 7:1-27). 'From the Biblical references, it appears that Asherah is referred to in three manifestations:

1. as an image, probably a statue or figurine representing the goddess herself;

2. as a tree

3 .as a tree trunk. The latter two are, in effect, symbols of the goddess' (Ruth Hestrin, 'Understanding Asherah: Exploring Semitic Iconography,' Biblical Archaeology Review, Sept.-Oct. 1991, p. 50).

Indeed, the phrase 'under every green tree' (Deuteronomy 12:2), is used a number of time.

All most all these pagan religion started from from old Babylon (Babel) though they have different names but they are one.

The religion spreads like wild fire all over the earth.

That was how Satan re entered Into this world after the flood through Nimrod and Semiramis.

Although in ancient Babylon the goddess figure Semiramis was the mother of the Sumerian deity Tammuz, he is Attis to the Phoenicians, and Adonis to the Greeks, etc. In each legend, he dies young and his birth and death are honored on his birthday which coincided with the Winter Solstice, which was celebrated on December 25th. Part of the religious ritual involved cutting down a young green evergreen tree (death of tree) as a way of commemorating the premature death of Tammuz.

 ●Christmas in pagan Rome.

The good thing there is that they don't deny that December 25th was the birthday of the Sungod, rather they try to use scriptures to back up their claims that Jesus I deed represented the Sungod.

December 25 was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar.[27][59] Jesus chose to be born on the shortest day of the year for symbolic reasons, according to an early Christmas sermon by Augustine: "Hence it is that He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase."[60]

Linking Jesus to the Sun was supported by various Biblical passages. Jesus was considered to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied by Malachi: "Unto you shall the sun of righteousness arise, and healing is in his wings."[46]


●Christmas in Pagan Rome. 

Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) was the official sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers. On 25 December AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults.

December 25 was the
 festival of dies natalis solis invicti, ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’. The Philocalian calendar also states that December 25th was a Roman civil holiday honouring the cult of sol invicta.

In pagan Rome  festival called Saturnalia was celebrated which was also linked to the " dies Natalia Sol Invicti ( birthday of the Sungod)

 ●Sartunalia

The major festival of the year in ancient Rome was called the "Saturnalia," and it
centered on the winter solstice. The Winter Solstice was a week long festival celebrated from 17 December to 25 December.

 It was a public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home. A time for feasting, goodwill, generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts and the decoration of trees.

 Saturnalia was the pagan Roman winter solstice festival. But was Christmas, Western Christianity’s most popular festival, derived from the pagan Saturnalia?

Many Scholars believe so, even some pagans and atheist accuse Christians of copying from this pagan festival.

Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.

However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.

 ●The Rebirth of The Sungod ( The Winter Solstice)

The word solstice comes from two ancient
words: Sol, which was the name of a sun god, and stice, which meant "still."  Or "standing" So it is the
day when the sun stands still. The winter solstice starts in
the middle of winter, it is used to designate the beginning of cold weather.

●The winter Solstice.

It's the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year.

winter solstice celebrates the longest hours of darkness or the rebirth of the sun and is believed to hold a powerful energy for regeneration, renewal and self-reflection.

 In Pagan times the winter solstice was referred to as Yule and was a celebration of the Goddess (Moon) energy. It was believed that on this day, the moon would give birth to the sun.

Remember Semiramis and Tammuz?

Mother and son worship

Sun and moon worship.

They always go hand in hand and are Inseparable.

These all started in Babel.

Around this period many other pagan nations celebrated their festivals too...

Eg, the Egyptian earth mother Isis

Winter Solstice/ Rebirth of the sun celebrated in other pagan nations.

Like we have said before, all these practices have their roots in the Sun and moon worship which all originated from Babylon.

The Winter Solstice, also known as the rebirth of the Sungod was also observed in many ancient pagan nations.

sun god was always the
most important in any polytheistic culture, and the winter solstice always marked his
death and resurrection, or rebirth.

Some of the major gods who celebrated their
birthdays on December 25 were Marduk, Osiris, Horus,  Mithras, Saturn, Sol,
Apollo, Serapis, and Huitzilopochli.

The Persians and Babylonians held a similar celebration, which they called the "Sacaea

That word "Yule"

Yuletide is a noun that refers to the time around the Christmas season, usually from around 21 December until 1 January.

And we have heard some persons say " happy Yuletide "

This is associated with paganism.

 Other nations that celebrate this similar festivals

In Egypt, the death and the resurrection of Osiris was celebrated during the solstice by
leaving gifts in the tombs of the dead.

In Central America, the pre-Columbian Aztecs had an interesting recipe for Christmas
cookies: they were not made for children, but of children! For their New Year
celebration, they made up a huge fruitcake mixed with the blood of children who had
been sacrificed to the sun god. They made this cake in the shape of a life-sized man
representing the sun god, named Huitzilopochli. On the solstice, the symbolic god-figure
was then torn apart and eaten, somewhat like the Christian "Eucharist" ceremony.

In northern Europe, the Druids and Vikings built huge bonfires on hilltops. The purpose
was to give additional strength to the sun god in his nightly battle with the forces of cold
and darkness. When the sun finally did come up a little earlier on the day after the
solstice, there was a great celebration.

Notice:  All these festivals they all have similarities,  it was a public holiday celebrated around December 25th in the family home.

A time for feasting,
 goodwill,

generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts

 and the decoration of trees.

● Christmas in early Christianity

In 325 C.E., which is when the Catholic Church was officially organized, it decreed that
the resurrection of Christ was determined by the vernal equinox – which is still
celebrated today as "Easter," named after the goddess of spring.

 In  AD 350, Pope Julius I
decreed that the nativity should be celebrated on the same day as all other sun gods,
namely December 25.

But many
 churches did not want to be associated with the pagan
religions,

 and to this day the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the birth of Christ on
January 7 – the day after Epiphany.

Some early Christians celebrated the life of Jesus on a date considered equivalent to 14 Nisan (Passover) on the Jewish calendar.

 Because Passover was held on the 14th of the month, this feast is referred to as the Quartodecimal.

 All the major events of Christ's life, especially the passion, were celebrated on this date. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Passover, presumably celebrated according to the local calendar in Corinth.

The date of the passion was moved to Good Friday in  AD 165 when Pope created Easter by reassigning the Resurrection to a Sunday.

 But the celebration of the quartodecimal continued in some areas.

Why is the Catholic referred to as the *Mother* of all Harlots?

Why is She likened to Babylon?

● COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ANCIENT BABYLON AND MYSTERY BABYLON

After God had purged the world with a flood, nimrod the first defied king of Babel re-introduced false worship and paganism into the world.

After the death of Christ, a new and true religion was formed [Christianity] but false worship was re-introduced into the Church by the leaders of Roman Catholic Church.

The pagan Rome worshipped many gods and celebrated many pagan festivals which traces their roots back to Babel( Babylon,  confusion, false religion)

So when Constantine became the first Christian Emperor he wanted Christianity to be the popular religion.

In other to get more converts to Christianity they early Christians leaders converted most of their pagan gods and festivals to Christian festivals and saints etc..

By so doing it was not difficult for the people to leave their old religion to a new one, it was just  *baptized paganism*

They don't deny these, rather they claim that they have all been consecrated.

This was their statement

The use of temples, and these temples dedicated to particular saints, ornamented occasions with branches of tree, incense, candles, holy water, holidays [Sundays, Easter, Christmas etc] seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of the fields, sacerdotal vestments, images and statues are all of pagan origin
 (The development of the Christian religion Cardinal Newman p.359)

 In other to recommend the new religion[ Christianity to the heathens the use of all these things were introduced to the church. Just like we have today, in the quest of getting new members and a full church,  most pastors no longer preach repentance, or the end  time message rather they preach come as you are, and when they come, as they are they remain as they were because the preachers don’t want to offend them.

 And today, through the Roman Catholic Church these false doctrines have spread all over Christendom.

Hear the voice of Jeus calling today;

"COME OUT OF BABYLON, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT PARTAKE IN HER DESTRUCTION"!