The social pressure to conform to the Christmas festivities is strong at this time of the year. Friends and acquaintances are continually wishing you a 'God Jul', Bon Noël, Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad, Furaha ya Krismasi or 'Merry Christmas', and if you're not careful years of ingrained habit can cause you to respond in kind, and in doing so getting you to ask the sun-god's 'blessings' on your loved ones before you realise what you have done. It does at least force you to think about what you're saying for so many of our greetings are casual and insincere. But that is one of many pressures - the pressure to send cards, exchange presents, and put up Christmas decorations is strong and especially if you're a recent convert away from the pagan season. It's easy to feel guilty and to succumb to the accusation - both spoken and unspoken - that you're in some way 'anti-family', 'anti-social', 'weird' or even 'unpatriotic' which is why we need to remember why we shun this festival.

One of the brethren arrives at our home today from France to 'get away from it all' as he, and sometimes others, often do. Before we discovered Hanukkah was pagan too, and provided it coincided with Christmas, this Jewish 8 day-long festival was a convenient distraction. For many millions of Jews and Messianics Hanukkah is what they hide behind (though this year it was much earlier than usual and is long over) and those who have succummbed to modern Jewish paganising influences even go so far as to have a Hanukkah Bush (the Jewish Christmas Tree - see right), Hanukkah Harry (the Jewish Santa) and exchange presents. If Jews feel the pressure of the pagan gentile season, you can imagine what it's like for those of us who feel the pressure from both.

But do we need to feel this pressure? And if we do, how can we be free from it and not allow ourselves to be guilted? The answer is we have to be reminded of the emet (truth) about Christmas and Hanukkah so often that in the end we become so revolted by it that any residual sympathy we may have for it is once and for all buried. We have to see beyond all the pretty lights and glittering tinsel, which is just Satan's way of making worship of him seem appealing, and not lose our focus on the core of our faith. Only then will we fear Yahweh and our jealous Husband more than we fear man and his 4,000 year-old heathen winter-gods and so walk fearlessly - and yet gracefully - amongst the sun-worshippers without being intimidated by them, and especially not by loved family members and fellow believers who continue walking in darkness.

Not only do we have to contend with all the Christmas and Hanukkah celebrants but also with Messianics bidding for Messiah's birth in the autumn (fall) instead of the spring. Messianics, in rightly attacking all the paganism of Christmas, usually cannot resist evangelising for a birth of Messiah at Sukkot (Tabernacles, Booths, Tents) at this time of year by playing on the word 'tabernacle' which literally means a 'tent' but which can also refer to a physical body, a 'house' or 'family line' (like the 'House of David'), and most commonly to the original portable temple in the wilderness. Thus they say the Ruach (Spirit) of the Messiah was 'tabernacled' at birth. However, the fact that Yah'shua (Jesus) was born in a fleshy 'tent' or 'tabernacle' doesn't prove He was born at the Feast of Tabernacles even if the words are the same. So be careful of such word games. Remember also that not all 'tents' in Hebrew are sukkot (sing. sukkah) and that often English translators render another word 'ohel as a "tabernacles" too as in "a tabernacle ('ohel) for the sun" (Ps.19:4, NKJV). This is a subject we can explore further at another time.

There are no summer or winter solstice festivals in the Kingdom of Yahweh for the very reason He knew that man would tend to idolise the sun and in his vanity and stupidity turn it into a god. Only one festival is in the summer (Shavu'ot) and all the rest in the spring and autumn (fall). They begin with Pesach (Passover) in the Spring (along with Messiah's Passover Birth) and end in the autumn (fall) with Sukkot & Shemini Atseret. However, man just loves winter festivals, the two chief Western 'Christian' ones being Christmas and the Roman New Year or Day of Janus on 1 January, and the two chief Jewish ones being Hanukkah (Lights) and Purim (Lots). I'll not mention all the other pagan winter festivals for lack of time today.

We are entering a dangerous time when, as demonic forces multiply exponentially owing to the persistent rebellion of mankind against Yahweh-Elohim, Satan claims his own. If we give the Enemy of our souls any legal ground, such as celebrating his feast days, however 'christianised' they may be, then we are setting ourselves up for big trouble. Everything and anything pagan marks us with the devil's mark and he is as keen to harvest his 'own' as much as Yahweh is. Whereas Christians and Messianics may have 'got away' with their religious compromises with paganism in the past, that period of grace, extended by a jealous and offended Elohim (God), will not last forever. Why continue giving the Enemy legal grounds to disrupt and hurt your life? Why allow him anywhere near the Temple of Elohim (God) - your soul - when especially at this dangerous and critical time you need to be accutely hearing Yahweh's Davar (Word) to you? Just because nothing has 'happened' for all the years you have disobeyed Him doesn't mean nothing will continue to happen. That's what the fallen watcher nefilim (thought) as they came down to earth and spread their evil influence apparently unopposed and that's what the rebellious inhabitants of the earth thought during the same period of history. The illusions of both were shattered when the Great Flood swept them all away.

Didn't Yah'shua (Jesus) warn that the days immediately prior to His return would be exactly the same as in their day?

"'And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.' And they answered and said to Him, 'Where, Master?' So He said to them, 'Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together'" (Luke 17:26-37, NKJV).

Just because you have got away with your Christmas and Hanukkah revelry until now doesn't mean that things will always carry on as 'normal'. You have been warned. I don't know how much those who have been told the emet (truth), know it's true but refuse to repent and abandon these festivals honouring the devil, will be allowed to continue getting away with their willful rebellion but I don't think it will be for much longer. The greatest warning of Yahweh's global judgment all was given at Fukushima nuclear explosion and still people are refusing to admit that spilled radioactivity in the process of destroying a third of all marine life (in fulfilment of prophecy - Rev.8:9) and that before long millions of people will be dying along the Pacific rim from China to the United States. The Fukushima disaster, of which we were warned about in a revelation I received in 2009, is spreading death over the globe not just in the water but in the air and foodchain too. Do you want His supernatural protection, as Noah and his family received theirs, or will you continue on in your stubborn pride and perish? And it's not just problems of radioactively contaminated water, air and food that are distress us today - there is much else besides. So if that will not motivate you to get right with Yahweh on a basal, carnal level of self-interest, then what will?

Whether you like it or not, 25 December is the birthday of Sol Invictis the 'Invincible or Unconquerable Sun' or sun-god (as one of the many titles Satan loevs to be known by), or Nimrod, the first Anti-Messiah (Antichrist) incestuously 'married' to his mother, Semiramis, otherwise known in Scripture as Ishtar, the 'Queen of Heaven', whose worship cost Israel their homeland, their salvation and their lives (Jer.7:18; 44:17-25). The whole Nimrod-Semiramis Script is a deliberate mockety of the Virgin Birth of the Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus) through His mother Mary and when you celebrate 'Christmas' it is that pagan parody that you are re-enacting without necessarily realising it! It is a brilliant but devilish syncretism because it gets you to believe you are enacting out a holy historical event in the Bible when you are, without knowing it, engaging in a pagan mystery religion, the same one, in fact, that came to be known as Mithraism.

Mithraism was a large and successful pagan, sun worship cult which promoted the celebration of 25 December as a holiday throughout the Roman and Greek worlds. This winter festival was called 'the nativity' and 'the Nativity of the sun.' Roman Catholicism borrowed it and changed the 'nativity of the sun' into the 'nativity of the Son'. Even Christmas carols owe their origin to pagan fertility rites and festivities whose melodies were written to accompany ancient pagan circle dances which survive even in Judaism and Messianic Judaism today - they are part and parcel with sun-worship! We can see Mithraic Christmas in its earliest form and symbols in the 3rd century AD mosaic (see above) which was found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, on the ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (Pope Julius I). It represents Yah'shua (Jesus) as the sun-god Helios or Sol Invictus riding in his chariot. The pagan underlayings are better concealed in the Christian veneer of Catholicism, Protestantism and Mormonism (all of whom celebrate Christmas) though the solar disk still appears in the halo's behind 'Joseph', 'Mary' and the 'Christ child', in reality Nimrod, Semiramis and the Reincarnated Nimrod (see below). These are the devils you are honouring at 'Christmas'.

Just because Christmas is 'pretty', makes for a happy 'family get-together' and 'good' is often done on that day, doesn't make it right when it is being done as a religious obligation which is not only nowhere commanded in Scripture but - because it is pagan at its root - is expressly forbidden. Not only does Satan appear personally as "an angel of light" (2 Cor.11:14) but he also decorates the worship of his person in various religious festivities with a veneer to make it look as though it is the true Elohim (God) being worshipped when it is not.

Let us be clear what Yahweh the Father expects of us, and it's this:

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in ruach (spirit) and emet (truth); for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. Elohim (God) is spiritual, and those who worship Him must worship in ruach (spiri) and emet (truth)" (John 4:22-25, NKJV/NCV).

Will any bare-facedly that Christmas is all emet (truth)? Will anyone bare-facedly tell me that everything that is done at the Christmas Season is of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit)? True worship is herein defined, without ambiguity - if it isn't in emet (truth), it isn't spiritual, and it isn't worshipping the Father. How much plainer can it be put? So what is the problem? I'll let Blaise Pascal tell to us again:

"Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established that, unless one loves the truth, he cannot know it" (Blaise Pascal).

The bottom line as to why people refuse to quit celebrating Christmas after they have been told the emet (truth) plainly is because they don't want to know the emet (truth). Why don't they want to know? Because they don't want the hassel, upheaval, disapproval, and opposition that would disturb their comfort zones - because they don't want to end the sensual pleasures they get from the season. They would prefer to perpetuate the lie that they are "putting Christ back into Christmas" (when He was never there in the first place - it's Nimrod/Mithra/Satan they're honouring) or "Christ is the reason for the season". No He is not - He's the excuse for sensuality and revelry. What they're celebrating is MITHRA-MAS

The great British Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, knew that those who observe Christmas are simply following pagan customs. The Puritans like Oliver Cromwell knew it too as did the first American colonists. But carnal, sinful man wanted all the fleshy revelry of the season and has clung on to it ever since. And for all the good intentions in the world, you cannot purify Christmas of its heathenism without abandoning it altogtether. There is no choice for the lovers of emet (truth). Does Yahweh care whether you observe it or not? Absolutely. But then Christians tend to be as careless about Christmas as they are about the Sabbath, chalking up their self-justification to a twisted, licentious version of the "freedom" we have in Christ. Unfortunately, the freedom that Scripture says has been given to us is not the freedom to be lawless - rather, it is the freedom to act responsibily within Yahweh's Torah! If you believe in any kind of mitzvot (commandments) then you have to believe that this is true because we have not been made free in order to use our liberty "as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of Elohim (God)" (1 Peter 2:16, NKJV). What is "vice"? Anything that is contrary to the mitzvot (commandments) of Yahweh!

I am not pretending abandoning Christmas, and remaining away from it, is easy but I am saying that it is absolutely worth doing so to get right with the Most High. Abandoning pagan festivals like Christmas and Easter are in any case only the first step in repenting and getting out of the great harlot, Babylon, altogether as we are commanded (Is.48:20; Jer.51:6; Rev.17). These heathen festivals originally replaced Yahweh's festivals and it is Yahweh's festivals - including the sabbath according to the true calendar - that have to be restored in the life of a lover of emet (truth). That's probably another reason why people shy off repenting of Christmas because rejecting it implies embracing all of Yahweh's true lfiestyle! In other words, a huge change in living! Most are too lazy or scared to change. They're scared of how others will react and the amount of work required in having a complete overhaul of lifestyle.

I can truthfully say that abandoning Christmas set off a chain of dominoe-like events that has led me to where I am today. In fact, the very first of the several thousands pamphlets, articles, magazines, sermons and books that I have written since began with one on Christmas and pagan festivals in general. It was an announcement to my church and to my family and friends that my family would be abandoning this heathen practice. We didn't know anything about Yahweh's festivals at that time. It caused us a huge amount of problems, friends were lost and in the end our church (which demanded blind conformity to its teachings) threw us out. It was painful at the time but I do I regret it now? Never. If I hadn't taken that important step I would never have come to know or love Yahweh's Law! It was one of many obstacles or barriers to the whole emet (truth) that I had coveneted Yahweh I would seek for and not rest until I had obtained it.

Over thirty years have passed since I dumped Mithra, Nimrod, Semiramis and their vile systems of worship. Today I worship Yahweh-Elohim through Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) in ruach (spirit) and emet (truth). My early religion was seriously compromised and even though I loved Yahweh in my heart as a former Christmas practitioner, I soon came to learn that loving Him in my heart also entailed loving Him in deed also:

"If you love Me, keep My mitzvot (commandments)" (John 14:15, NKJV).

"He who does not love Me does not keep My devarim (words); and the davar (word) which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me" (John 14:24, NKJV).

"I love those who love Me, and those who seek me diligently will find Me" (Prov.8:17, NKJV).

Now you have multiple reasons for quitting Christmas and the whole heathen throng. Get out and then go back and witness! Amen.

Comments from Readers