“From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,

From the laziness that is content with half truth,

From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,

O God of Truth, deliver us”

– Ancient Prayer 

Millions of Christians celebrate the birth of “Jesus” the Nazarene on December 25th — although ALL authorities agree that he was not born anywhere near that date.

In fact, this date is universally recognised as the ancient birthday of the pagan sun-god, Nimrod. How could the Church justify the adoption of this day as a prime feature of Christian worship? Why are multiple millions of sincere believers kept in ignorance as to the origin of this heathenish feast? Why are believers in “Jesus” as LORD told that the observance of this festival “doesn’t matter” to “Christ”? Where did the fanciful idea of “Santa” come from? Why do his reindeer all have Germanic sounding names?  

We are continually informed by pastors that we should become a holy people — a people being constantly “moulded into the image of His Son” (Rom 8.29). But they keep a deafening silence when it comes to the celebration of the most heinous festival of the Church – a feast day which has its origins in witchcraft and black magic, the relic of a dark, sinister past!

Strange as it may seem to some, there is no biblical authority for the celebration of Xmas. The reasons may surprise you!  

On December 16th 1983 a number of serious academics, scholars, historians and theologians attended a conference at the Mississippi State University to discuss the radical thesis of Dr Ernest L. Martin who had produced reams of evidence to substantiate the thesis that Yeshua the Messiah was born in September, in the year 3/2 B.C.E. The astronomical and historical drama which unfolded in his exhaustive yet compact volumeThe Birth of Christ Recalculated appeared to be incontrovertible. Yet some dismissed his claims and research findings as possessing some loopholes. Since that time
Martin has furthered his research work and produced the ultimate, authoritative word on the subject. His controversial findings as set out in his The Star That Astonished the World (1991) may yet prove to be the single, most incontrovertible contribution to true biblical research in this century.  

As a result of his straightforward evaluations concerning the eclipse of Josephus, the census of Cyrenius, the two governorships of Quintilius Varus, surprising additional biblical material, his discovery of a little-heard-of imperial registration in 3 B.C.E. and his step-by-breathtaking-step reenactment of astonishing stellar phenomena that culminated in a display of awesome magnitude in the heavens “over” Bethlehem in 2 B.C.E., over 600 planetariums in the U.S. alone have incorporated Martin’s data in their Christmas pageants.  

Astronomer John Mosley wrote, “It is not often that we see the demise of an astronomical theory that dates back to pretelescopic times. Yet a theory first proposed by none other than the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler himself, and generally accepted as correct for more than three and a half centuries, is now being discarded…[by] new historical research of Dr Ernest L. Martin” (Griffith Observer). Dr Thorley inEngland submitted, in a major classical journal, “New light has been thrown on the date of the nativity…Martin tackles the [historical] problems convincingly. It does seem that Luke’s account of the nativity is turning out to be essentially accurate in its historical details [and that] Luke did not mislead Theophilus, not even historically” (Greece and Rome). Not to be outdone, Roman Catholic opinion fell to the side of Ernest Martin. The National Catholic Register noted: “[Dr Ernest Martin] has had considerable archaeological experience, and the Education section of Time [magazine] for September 3, 1973 was devoted to him and his excavations in Jerusalem. He not only knows his subject but can write simply and understandably. [His work] does seem to afford a solemn astronomical basis for calculating the birth of Christ.” The publication Christmas Star exclaimed, “Martin has rewritten the history of this [Herodian] period, clearing up a slew of nagging problems. Prominent classical historians are taking his work very seriously and …an impartial referee would probably conclude that Martin’s chronology is correct.”  

Due to the unprecedented break by well over 600 prestigious observatories in the U.S., Greece and Germany from the almost religious scientific tradition concerning the time of Messiah’s birth many other scientific bodies are expected to request public appearances by Dr Martin to speak before them on his challenging assertions. Not only is this the case, but many theologians of all doctrinal persuasions are ordering the book. There is little doubt that this valuable astronomical, historical and chronological achievement by Martin will revolutionise Christian thought in a score of areas touched, however briefly, in his scholarly and objective work. The Biblical Research Institute proclaims The Star that Astonished the World as a vital contribution of some genius.  

But while the scholarly world applauds Martin’s findings there will be little worthwhile impact on the ordinary “Christian laity.” As one letter received by our office summed up, “So what if the Lord was not born anywhere near the traditional dating of Xmas Day? I for one will continue to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th, and my family and friends will do so with enormous satisfaction! And why not? Christ had to be born sometime, so why not keep the feast of the Nativity during this season of the year?” Tell our friend that this particular anniversary on December 25th is of pagan origin, and has no place in the Christian calendar, and she will more than likely think that you might have had a few too many “pick-me-ups” even if it is the happy season.  

Yet it is undeniable that this time of celebration predates anything even remotely called Christian by about 4000 years (give or take a millennium, depending on which view of OT chronology is used). Certainly Xmas Day has a vice-like grip on twentieth-century man held captive by an excessive sentimentalism. Its attraction, inspiration, and harmless magic continues to charm and captivate our little children and, in one sense, provides them with the great escape their end of year vacation from the harrowing halls of education demands. For a few short weeks in their annual holidays, with the merry spirit of Xmas in which to indulge, our children can feel free from the claustrophobic pressures and social anxieties that have so burdened their hearts and imprisoned their minds during State enforced school terms.  

On the other side of the fence many parents are starting to feel dread as the final weeks of the year accelerate toward them. For some parents the Xmas season is not a time for “merriment” as the songs claim, nor can the Xmas last-minute spending rush be equated with the soothing, crooning, lullaby refrains of Bing Crosby’s evergreen “White Christmas.” Rather, it is a time of desperation, annoying crowds, children on the loose, repetitive jangling jingles (especially from the One-Eyed-Cyclops in the corner of the living room), frayed tempers, loads of cooking, mass preparation in purchasing once-a-year foodstuffs and “special” over-priced ingredients, and a massive plunge into further financial debt after buying presents for friends and relatives you never get to see any other time of the year.  

Fuming, stress, anxiety, tension. All this, just to satisfy the necessary requirements which the season justifies!  

“Its the season to be jolly, fa-la-la-la-la-la-la, la la.” Ho! Ho! Ho! Isn’t it high time we all STOPPED and thought about Xmas a little more seriously?  

For, we have at last entered an age where Xmas as Christmas may not be all that necessary. We have finally reached an age in which Christians will have to choose, once and for all, whether they will serve Yeshua the Messiah in purity of heart and mind, or whether they will stay loyal to the worship of Ba’al.

• The cross must be in the final analysis the judge concerning Xmas observance.The Messianic Age is right now dawning. And we must give an account.  

CHRISTMAS DAY – BIRTHDAY OF THE GODS  

A growing sizeable number of disenchanted believers, sincere in their profession of faith in Yeshua the Messiah as Lord, are appalled at the raw commercialism which explodes with greater ferocity with each passing year. The overemphasis of Coca Cola consuming Fatboy Santas and red-nosed antlered reindeer, and the trappings of green mistletoe and little coloured orbs bedecked on made-to-suit-small-livingroom-pine-trees-in-your-very-own apartment is now openly vocalised as a travesty. These well-intentioned Christians want “Christ put back into Xmas.”  

But our question is, “Was he ever IN Xmas in the first place?” December 25th, according to the myths and legends of pagan antiquity, was the birthday of the ancient incarnated gods. Chang-ti of China, Chris of Chaldea, Sakia of India, Jao Wapaul of the ancient Britons, Adonis of Greece, and Bacchus as well, Mithra of Persia, Osiris of Egypt, and Krishna of the Hindus — all these gods (and more) were the subjects of a tranquil Nativity that occurred on that one special day of the year (Kersey Graves, The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviours, 1875 [reprinted 1971 by University Books]).  

Krishna devotees continue to celebrate his birth (it happened at midnight on the 25th day of Savarana, which corresponds to our December) by decorating the doors of their homes with garlands, and with gilt paper draped from the ceilings to the walls. They bestow gifts on each other in a spirit of goodwill and profound joy. Even in Rome, in pre Christian times, it was common for women to “perambulate the streets on the twenty-fifth day of December, singing in a loud voice, ‘UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN THIS DAY'” (Graves, ibid, Emphasis ours throughout article).  

Shocked? Don’t be! There’s much more to come. Franz Cumont records, “The sectaries – priests – of the Persian god… celebrated the birth of the sun on the 25th day of December…The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which at midnight they issued with a loud cry, ‘The Virgin has brought forth! The Light is waxing!'” (Mysteries of Mithra, 190-192).  

The peoples of Egypt were no exception. Frazer tells us that they represented the newly born sun “by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshippers. No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty fifth of December was the GREAT ORIENTAL GODDESS, whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess” (J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion, 1922 [reprint 1967, 358] ).  

“The birthplace of Bacchus…was claimed by several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmisus in Thrace, his worship seems to have been chiefly celebrated. He was born of a Virgin on the 25th December…he changed water into wine…he rode in a triumphal procession on an ass; he was put to death by the Titans, and rose again from the dead on the 25th March; he was always called the Saviour. In his Mysteries, he was shown to the people, as an infant…on Christmas day morning in Rome”  (Higgins, Anacalypsis).  

Doesn’t it seem odd that so many ancient pagan gods, from so many different parts of the planet –from Chaldea to Britain to Japan — were all born at midnight on the 25th December? That they were all born to a Heavenly Virgin? That they were all (without exception) looked upon as “the LIGHT of the world”? It is not some uncanny coincidence! These various gods were, originally, just one pagan god. The Hebrew Bible calls him Nimrod.  

NIMROD, THE FOUNDER OF ANCIENT BABYLONIAN RELIGION  

Nimrod (Tammuz) was a son of Kush and grandson of Ham, the offspring of Noah. The events of his life are recorded in Genesis 10. Moses tells us that Nimrod put himself in the place of Almighty God, that he was a tyrant and a rebel against God’s post-Deluge government. We are further told that his empire, at least initially, was centred in Babylonia. History tells us that he was the pagan Saviour of the ancient world and that he married his own mother and thus became his own son. Thus Nimrod is Hercules of Mesopotamian legend and Shun of Chinese mythology. The father of Chinese emperor Shun was a man called Kusou or Chusou — none other than Kush. This being so, Nimrod’s wife/mother was the celebrated Wueen of Westland. Ancient Chinese paintings (still extant) portray Shun, their first emperor, black. His eyes are of an irradiant quality — the Chinese way of denoting demonic obsession. All Ham’s descendants are black, or dark brown. Many of them are called Kushites to this day. Nestorius also preached that the crucified Saviour was black. This one man, Nimrod, who lived so long ago has had an unparalleled profound effect on the world’s civilisation, especially in the realm of religion (See, Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons, 1916, 1961).  

What became of this pagan Saviour? Shem, according to the myths of ancient peoples, captured and crucified him. As the son of Noah and post-Deluge defender of the Faith, and a man of blood, Shem sliced his body into segments and forwarded the raw dark meat gift wrapped to each of the rulers who still held public office in Nimrod’s far-flung Empire. This revolting, but carefully planned strategy, was accomplished as a means of warning against any further insurrection in opposition to the ultimate authority of Noah’s God, invested in Shem as the high-priest of Yahweh (Wilkinson’s Egyptians, Vol V., 330-332).  

Shem’s gruesome ploy worked for some time. However, the wife of Nimrod formed a shadow government which operated underground, unseen. It continues to this very day. She painstakingly regathered the mutilated remains of her son and husband, but, to her horror his giant phallus was never located (E.A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, 1911, Vol I., 7,65). Such was her demented, despairing preoccupation with this missing piece of the rotting corpse that she actually built a religion around it.  

The Mystery religion of ancient occult Babylon proved itself to be so popular that secret branches were established all over the world, finally being revived in our own age in the cultic worship of a sprawling, worldly church with its sensuous form and liturgy. The secret rites of Nimrod (in its various forms) made the missing organ of the ancient rebel the central focus of sex worship and hidden (Mystery) devotion surfacing openly in the period which some historians of the Roman Faith refer to as “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.”  

This was an age in which Popes plotted against and murdered one another, powerful priests sold Indulgences, and precocious nuns buried their illegitimate babies in hallowed church grounds (hence churchyard cemeteries). These good upstanding churchmen and women raped, pillaged, committed incest, murdered, brawled and sodomised each other in drunken orgies. They tortured dissenters, burning alive their victims. Women who resisted a priests disgusting advances went to the stake and their little children were forced to dance, before the bloodthirsty crowds, in their mother’s ashes. One Pope, John XIIth, drank a toast to Satan, gambled publicly with dice calling on demonic influences to aid him, gouged out the eyes of a priest who later perished on account of the injuries he sustained at the hands of this holy man, prostituted nuns, seduced little girls, and was finally killed in the very act of adultery – by the enraged husband who happened to come into the confessional box at the wrong (right?) time. And its all a record of history (R.S. De Ropp, Sex Energy: The Sexual Force in Man and Animals, 113-169; H.B. Cotterill, Medieval Italy, 331,336,349,392; J.P. Wilder, The Other Side of Rome, 114; C. Chiniquy, The Priest, The Woman, and the Confessional, 138,139; Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologine Latinae, Vol 136, 900; Liber Pontificalis, Vol II., 246; B. Hefele, History of the Church Councils, Vol 40, art. 697; J. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum, Vol 19., 132; See also G.R. Taylor, Sex in History; O. Kiefer, Sexual Life in Ancient Rome; E. Gregersen, Sexual Practices: The Story of Human Sexuality).  

GREAT APOSTASY GRIPS ANCIENT CHURCH  

As a stark witness to the extent with which phallic worship dominated the ancient world, large stone and granite monuments in the shape of the male organ dotted the fields and countryside of Europe and the Orient. To this day many of them bare mute, erect testimony to the far-reaching influence of Nimrod’s mother, Semiramis. Even the burning of the yule-log on December 25th celebrated the loss of Nimrod’s member as did also the lighting of candles, and the ritual of chopping down the fir trees during the European winter season (Crabb’s Mythology, 12; Maurice’s Indian Antiquities, Vol VI., 368; See also Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages; Count’s 4000 Years of Christmas).  

Ever stopped to wonder why church buildings have steeples, pointing up to heaven? Has it ever crossed the minds of millions of Italian Catholics why a massive blood red obelisk stands before the very entrance to St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome? Or why monks shave part of their heads? Or why stained glass windows in churches are in the shape of the vagina and penis? All these factors are linked in a direct way to the ancient sex worship of the Mystery religion of Babylon (For further information on this subject refer Hastings,Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, art. Phallism; T. Pignatorre, Ancient Monuments of Rome; Lillian Eichler, The Customs of Mankind).  

But many nations of the world have their own unique traditions of a sacred tree and its potency. The Australian Aboriginals are no exception. The Druids considered the oak sacred. Scandinavians worshipped the fir tree in honour of their god Odin (Woden). The antiquarian Egyptians were captivated by the palm tree. They all dovetail in a common origin (William Walsh, Curiosities of Popular Customs; E. Urlin, Festivals, Holy Days, and Saint Days). But exactly how did these festivals and customs reach into the worship of Christianity? Certainly the Messiah and the apostles would never have tolerated the inculcation of perverted sex worship or sensuous symbolism into the primitive nucleus of the kingdom of God! How could the Church ever have compromised with the world, and why did she?  

The Christian Church LOST much of the knowledge of the true Gospel! Within sixty short years of its foundation, the Church was overrun by spiritual lepers who secretly represented the Babylonian mysteries with its main centre (at that time) in Samaria. M’Clintock and Strong admit, “The observance of Christmas is not of Divine appointment, nor is it of New Testament origin…The Fathers of the first three centuries do not speak of any special observance of the nativity”
(Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol III., 276).  

• God didn’t command the observance of Xmas, and none of the apostles of haMashiach sanctioned the celebration of the birthday of Yeshua! Naturally! The Gospel of God’s Grace is not so much concerned with the birth of Yeshua as it is with the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah (1 Cor 15.1,3,4).  

There can be little doubt, if we are to consider the authoritative work of James Hastings, “that the Church was anxious to distract the attention of the Christians from the old heathen feast days BY CELEBRATING CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS ON THE SAME DAY” (Encyc. of Religion and Ethics, Vol III., 60). Of course, the Emperor Aurelian in 273 C.E. had “made the Babylonian BAAL [Nimrod] chief god of the empire, under the name of Sol Invictus… His festival was on December 25th” (Grosse Brockhaus, Vol II.,1). And the pagan Saturnalia (December 17-24) and Brumalia (December 25) were too deeply carved into the collective unconscious of the heathen the Church wished to convert.  

There was no way known to the bishops to effectively persuade these peoples to surrender their days of worship. In other words, the operative power of God’s Spirit in the lives of the ministry had become impotent. God’s LIVING Spirit does not reside within carnal walking coffins filled with maggots. Many true believers had, by and large, been rooted out of the physical organisation called the “Church” and had largely fled to safer dwelling places, even in some cases fleeing the bounds of the Empire, where freedom to practice Christianity was offered. It seems the heathen masses could not bring themselves to sever all intimate ties of allegiance to Nimrod and his Virgin Mother (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, 1908 ed., Vol III, 48).  

Again, history informs us through the pen of Dr Hooykaas, “The Church was always anxious TO MEET THE HEATHEN HALF WAY, by allowing them to retain the feasts they were accustomed to, and giving them A CHRISTIAN DRESS, or attaching a new Christian significance” (The Bible for Learners, Vol III., 67).  

Has your minister told his congregation THAT? Have you realised the extent of the apostasy within your own Church? Are you convicted enough by the Spirit of the ALMIGHTY GOD — the El Shaddai — to SPEAK UP and CHALLENGE your spiritual “shepherds” and so-called “coverings” with this TRUTH? Some men and women of God, even in the days when Christmas was being introduced into the worldly church, had the faith, courage and intestinal fortitude to STAND UP and be counted for the TRUTH! It never ceases to amaze us at BRI that certain “believers” who claim possession of the gifts of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of TRUTH and the Spirit of POWER — lack both conviction and confidence in their Lord to back them in their stand. One cannot help but wonder what “spirit” they do possess.  

“The pagan festival with its riot and merrymaking was so popular that Christians were glad of an excuse to continue its celebration with little change in spirit and in manner. CHRISTIAN PREACHERS IN THE WEST AND THE NEAR EAST PROTESTED against the unseemly frivolity with which Christ’s birthday was celebrated, while Christians in Mesopotamia ACCUSED THEIR BRETHREN OF IDOLATRY AND SUN WORSHIP FOR ADOPTING AS CHRISTIAN THIS PAGAN FESTIVAL” (Schaff-Herzog, op.cit.).  

Such protest was as it should have been! The Church was in rebellion against its LORD. “Rebellion,” says God, “is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Sam 15.23). Is your denomination practicing witchcraft? If it is it could be a coven and not a church of God! The Christians of Mesopotamia — the birthplace of Nimrod and the Mystery religion — knew the pagan background of these cultic days of worship, especially the December 25th celebration. Earl Count tells us that this very area from which such stolid and vehement protest ushered was the very “ancient Mother of civilisation. CHRISTMAS BEGAN THERE, OVER FOUR THOUSAND YEARS AGO, as the festival which renewed the world for another year.” Count continues, “The ‘twelve days of Christmas’…the bright fires and…the yule log; the giving of presents; the carnivals with their floates; their merrymakings and clownings; the mummers who sing and play from house to house; the feastings; the church processions with their lights and song – all these and more began there CENTURIES BEFORE CHRIST was born” (E.W. Count, 4000 Years of Christmas, 20,21). 

By the time of Constantine in Rome, there were many immigrants from Mesopotamia (the area of ancient Babylonia) flocking into the ranks of the Christian church. The church “Fathers discovered to their alarm THAT THEY WERE ALSO FACING AN INVASION of pagan customs. The habit of Saturnalia was too strong to be left behind. AT FIRST THE CHURCH FORBAD IT, but in vain…The Church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery, the lights, and the gifts from Saturn [Nimrod] and giving them to the Babe of Bethlehem…The pagan Romans became Christians – but the Saturnalia remained” (ibid 31).  

We have seen that Aurelian made Nimrod the chief god of the Roman Empire in the year 273 of our Common Era under the name of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun. It is still unconquerable, at the dawning of the twenty-first century.  

“SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN”  

Snow, reindeer, Santa, sleighs…what does it all really mean? Where did these ideas originate? Do they also extend back into primitive times?  

The inculcation of Xmas into the Christian calendar was a deliberate attempt by some early “Fathers” of the Western Church to win the masses (without the teaching of repentance) to their brand of “Christianity.” Of this there can be no doubt (Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, Vol I., 326,327).  

The festival of Saturn (Nimrod) was a period of indulgence in immense hilarity and general good-will, of eating hams, playing games, lighting trees replete with candles and consuming sweets. The exchanging of gifts occurred on December 25th, but the festival itself lasted a week, just like Xmas of today (Gordon J. Laing, Survivals of Roman Religion, 58,63).  

The Eastern Orthodox Churches resisted the introduction of Xmas until they were overwhelmed toward the end of the fourth century. The custom had finally become “universal” (Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, 60,61).  

The idea, however, that the Santa Claus motif grew out of the charitable works of an obscure saint called Nicholas (or, Nicklaus) of the early church is no longer held by most authorities as anything but pious myth. Rather, it appears that even this attempt at “Christianising” Xmas customs reveals the true Roman spirit of justifying human nature. Historical revelations inform us all that Saturn (Nimrod) made his home at the North Pole! Not only so, but every December 25th he “brings with him to the children of men…the Christmas tree…for he brings each winter THE GIFT of a new year” (Manly P. Hall, op.cit., lxxix).  

Saturn (Nimrod) was known to the Germanic peoples by the name Thor, or at the very least, by the name of Thor’s father, Odin. Odin, according to legend, ate no food but was consumed by his passion for wine. So was Nimrod (Bacchus). Odin had a son called Balder, which Hislop tells us may be a form of the Chaldean Ba’al-zer — meaning the Seed of Ba’al. Ba’al, almost without saying, was Nimrod. Odin’s son Thor was identical to the Assyrian Thouros, “the Seed” (Hislop,
op.cit. 312). Nimrod married his own mother, thus became (in one sense) his own father and son. There is little difference between Adonis, or Adon, and Odin. Really, they are one and the same personage. Thor was represented in the German tribal mind as a god who was very elderly “jovial and friendly, with a long white beard. His element was the fire, his colour red. The rumble and roar of thunder were said to be caused by the rolling of his chariot, for he alone among the gods never rode on horseback but drove in a chariot drawn by two white goats (called Cracker and Gnasher). He was fighting the giants of ice and snow, and thus became the Yule-god. He was said to live in the ‘Northland’ where he had his palace among the icebergs…The fireplace in every home was especially sacred to him, and he was said to come down the chimney into his element, the fire” (H.A. Grueber, Myths of Northern Lands, Vol I., 61ff). Indeed, says Weiser, “it was a stroke of genius that produced such a charming and attractive figure for our children from the withered pages of pagan mythology” (Weiser, op.cit., 114).  

Reindeer, December 25th, wreaths of holly, ham, martinis, trees decorated with candles and orbs, tinsel, houses replete with bells and streams of coloured paper — these have nothing to do with the birth of the Christ-child. Mistletoe was a sacred plant grown by the religious Druids of Britain and Belgium, and even enemies who happened to meet under such a branch in the forest would put down their weapons and embrace each other in a friendly greeting. It was an omen of happiness and good luck (ibid., 103,104) The mistletoe branch symbolised “the branch of Kush” — nothing more than a counterfeit of the Branch of God, the true Messiah. Similar branches considered sacred are to be found in the religious practices of some African and Indian blacks today. Yet we Christians place mistletoe in strategic locations in our homes during this season, and kiss beneath it. And many a Christian home has been broken up into fragments as a result!  Yes, even the jolly old image of Santa Claus is alien to the Gospel record, and the Gospel Spirit. In fact, the very name “Santa” was used by the pagans centuries before the birth of Our Lord in reference to their Babylonian hero-god. “Santa” was another name for Nimrod (Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary).  

IN REFLECTION  

Yeshua the Messiah was born, according to the enlightened research of Dr Ernest L. Martin on September 11, in the year 3 B.C.E. He was born in a manger, not surrounded by sorry-looking cows, diseased pigs and white feathered chooks, but in a guest room-level of a poverty-stricken home in the town of Bethlehem (F.H. Wright, Manners and Customs of Bible Lands, 1953, 34; John D. Whiting, “Village Life in the Holy Land” in The National Geographic Magazine, March 1914, 249-253). Shepherds, looking after their flocks in the autumn night, were subject to a massive aerial display of extra-terrestrial power which reduced them all to a state of near panic. The angels directed them to the village of Bethlehem but failed to supply them with an address. As a result the shepherds spread the news of their night-time visitation by space-men to every one they met. When they found the Christ-child they returned to gather their scattered sheep, again spread-ing their wonderful message to all they met (Lk 2.17,20).  

Months later, an unknown number of pagan astrologer-priests (very likely twelve in number) possibly from either Babylon or Kashmir visited Yeshua who was now dwelling in a house (Mt 2.11 Cf Halley’s Bible Handbook, 418). By that time ALL Jerusalem knew of the event. They all knew that the Jewish Messiah had come (Mt 2.3). Herod took no chances in his fear of a rival to the throne, and slew all the children of Bethlehem and its environs, from two years old and under (Mt 2.16). All the facts of the Nativity are in the Bible for anyone to read for themselves.  

And, strange as it may appear to some “good Christian people” there is absolutely no command or inference anywhere in the pages of Scripture to celebrate HaMashiach’s birth. Rather, we are told to celebrate his death! And while it is instructive to learn as much as we can about Yeshua from the Gospels, the apostle Paul tells us in no uncertain language that we ought to be more occupied with learning all there is to know about the present Cosmic Christ — the One called in Jewish sacred writings the Ad’am Kad’mon, or Archetypal Man. Believe it or not!    

“And he died for all that they which should live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that died for them, and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet NOW HENCEFORTH KNOW WE HIM NO MORE!” (2 Cor 5.15,16).    

Those who insist on celebrating his birth do so against the plain counsel and instruction of the great apostle Paul. According to him it is the death of Messiah, and his burial and resurrection which are so paramount to every Christian alive today (1 Cor 15.1-4). Such factors as these constitute the Gospel of our salvation (1 Cor 15.1,2). As for the festivity of Xmas, the Messiah was NEVER in it.      

December 25th stands condemned as nothing more than the celebration of the birth of the pagan sun-god, Nimrod. It is the ancient Saturnalia and Brumalia of primitive times wearing a cloak of Christian nomenclature. It is nothing more than baptised paganism. Xmas even antedates Roman festivals and finds its source in the fertility cults of Tammuz. The Xmas tree, by all authoritative admissions, represents his lost phallus.  

Yeshua the Messiah, the incarnated YHWH of ancient days, made it plain to his people Israel that they were not to learn or adopt ANY of the religious festivals and celebrations of the nations surrounding them (Deut 12.30,31). The God of Israel was unique in his administration over the affairs of his people. He wanted, and still wants, pure praise and worship, with an emphasis on TRUTH (Jn 4.22-24). Not an emphasis on witchcraft, occultism and mythological fables, charming though these may be.  

Even Tertullian, an early church “Father” lamented about 230 C.E. “By us who are strangers to…. festivals, once acceptable to God” — Jewish feasts — “the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, the Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro…..banquets are celebrated with uproar!”  

A great apostasy DID occur in the Christian Church!  The existence of Xmas is evidence of it.  

Bibliography  

Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition); Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary; Inman’s Ancient Faiths; Halley’s Bible Handbook; Moor’s The Hindu Pantheon; Wight’s Manners & Customs of Bible Lands; Lundy’s Monumental Christianity; Grueber’s Myths of Northern Lands; Grave’s The White Goddess; Weiser’s Handbook of Christian Feasts; The Mahabharata; Laing’s Survivals of Roman Religion; The Ramayana; Coleman’s Indian Mythology;
Latourette’s History of Expansion of Christianity; Hooykaas’s The Bible for Learners; Bach Strange Sects and Curious Cults; Schaff-Herzog’s Encyc. Religious Knowledge; Graves Christianity Before Christ; Hasting’s Encyc. Religion & Ethics; M’Clintock & Strong’s Cyclopaedia; Frazer’s The Golden Bough; Graves The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviours; Crabb’s Mythology; Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages; Maurice’s Indian Antiquities; Count’s 4000 Years of Christmas; Pignatorre’s Ancient Monuments of Rome; Jacolliot The Bible in India;
Eichler’s Customs of Mankind; Wheatley The Devil and All his Works; Walsh’s Curiosities of Popular Customs;
Carus The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil; Urlin’s Festivals, Holy Days & Saint Days; Durdin-Robertson’s
The Goddesses of India, Tibet, China and Japan; Cotterill’s Medieval Italy; Hislop’s The Two Babylons; Wilder’s The Other Side of Rome; Cumont’s Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism; Budge’s Osiris & the Egyptian Resurrection; Parrinder’s Man and his Gods: Encyclopaedia of the World’s Religions; Martin’s The Star that Astonished the World; Martin’s The Birth of Christ Recalculated; Cumont’s Mysteries of Mithra; Higgins’
Anacalypsis; Wilkinson’s Egyptians; De Ropp’s Sex Energy; Chiniquy’s The Priest, the Woman & the Confessional; Migne’s Patrologine Latinae; Gregersen’s Sexual Practices: Story of Human Sexuality; Hefele’s
History of the Church Councils; Mansi’s Sacrorum Conciliorum; Taylor’s Sex in History; Kiefer’s Sexual Life in Ancient Rome; Liber Pontificalis; Ellul’s Subversion of Christianity; Woodrow’s Babylon, Mystery Religion