Originally posted by breytonhartge:
ben did you know that Dec 25 is the birth date of the sun god
tamuz? and that of a few other pagan gods? Think about it when is
the 25 of dec? in the middle of winter...and it says that when
Yeshua was born, the shepherds were tending sheep in the field,
that could not have been in dec... many sources put his birth in
late sept to oct...
christmas... It means "mass of Christ," and has its origins in the
practices of the Roman Catholic Church. [b]Yet even Catholic
sources acknowledge that Christmas was not among the earliest
festivals of the church, and that it does not have
apostolic origins. Notice: "Christmas (i.e. the Mass of Christ), in
the Christian Church, the festival of the nativity of Jesus Christ
As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus,
repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of
Christ as if he were a king Pharaoh. The first certain mention of
Dec. 25 is in a Latin chronographer of A.D. 354, first published
entire by Mommsen.
[December 25 was] a Mithraic feast and is by
the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his
compilation, termed natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the
unconquered Sun" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., article:
"Christmas").
When the early Roman Church established a festival to celebrate the
Messiahs birth, it timed that festival to coincide with an
existing pagan festival celebrating the birthday of the sun god. By
co-opting existing pagan rituals and customs, the church sought to
win the pagan masses to its idea of Christianity, allowing converts
to continue to practice familiar customsjust calling them by
different names.
Go and read Jeremiah 10.
Do you know how the tradition of decorating a christmas tree came
about? in olden times they used to sacrifice children and hang
their entrails around the tree... very much like putting streamers
and baubles... knowing all this I now have a very diffent
picture...
Think about credit card debt... runs very high for christmas... i
used to get stuck in that... I am glad to hear that your family
enjoys the holiday season together... shalom!
I will post whole articles up soon...if you are intersted please
read them and decide for yourself.[/b]
Erm brey ah.. u r missing my point. anyway, abt the above things
u mentioned, yes i've heard it all before (i have some friends
doing their MAsters of Theology here ... and they keep bombarding
me with these things they learnt) My contest lies in the meaning we
attached to these days.
I am sure if u look into history, on the 25th of december... there
would have been suicides, killings and even more atrocities. but
this doesn't matter to me, neither does it take away the value of
it. coz the bottom line is .. i am juz celebrating the birth of my
Lord. i know that it wasn't his exact birthday, but as long as i
celebrate in the correct spirit, does it really matter?
when i set up my Christmas tree, i dun think of entrails. i think
of how to make it look good and how to set up the presents nicely
and i look forward to the smile of the recipients of these
presents. and that is all that matters.
