With Jews and most messianics half way through their Hanukkah celebrations and most orthodox Christans counting off the days to Christmas amidst a frenzy of gift shopping, I thought I would make my last comments on the seductive winter gods that have taken in so many millions of believers before I move on to other topics I felt strongly led to share with you. Admidst all of this we need to remember that the world if teetering on the brink of the worst financial catastrophe of history that will alter the face of our planet irrevocably. Though no one can really say when the €uro will collapse, Australian banks are being told to be ready for the impact within the next two weeks. The 'big change' will almost certainly occur before this time next year.
The winter gods have long promoted this the most busy Babylonian commercial season of the year. People who still have any money are on their usual spending sprees. For most of these this may well be their 'last Christmas' as poverty bites into their finances and wipes out their savings, jobs and homes. Time is running out for those who have not taken steps to make provision for their families for the bleak days ahead.
May I remind everyone that whatever is not done under the toqef (authority) of Yahweh is done under the toqef (authority) of someone else. So I ask you: who authorised Christmas and who authorised Hanukkah? The answer to those two questions is, without historical dispute, the anti-Torah Roman Catholic Papacy and the anti-Messiah Talmudic Rabbinate. When you observe these festivals you come under their toqef (authority) and therefore under the toqef (authority) of the demonic spirits that drive them. Are you absolutely sure you want to be ruled by these spiritual entities in any degree whatsoever?
I was deeply saddened yesterday when we received our quarterly edition of one of Norway's best Christian magazines edited by a couple of good friends to find that they were not only sticking to their guns on Christmas celebration (we have had long exhanges on this subject over the years) but are scraping the scholarly barrel for justification. Of course, it's the Christmas edition [1] so it's jam-packed with Christmas-related articles. These ministers have done a fantastic job over the years warning people against the New World Order (NWO) and exposing what's going on in the world. In a way, but on a tiny scale, they are the Alex Jones' of Norway. As a trans-denominational publication, they have quite a bit of influence over those who are awake to most of the things going on in the world. They know full-well that Christmas (Jul in Norwegian, pronounced 'yule') is riddled with paganism, as one of the articles clearly tells [2]. So why do they insist that Christians still cling on to Christmas? Because "the occultic world and the devil himself are working hard to get rid of Christian Christmas", they say [3]. In other words, because enemies of Christ want to get rid of 'Christian Christmas' we should fight hard to defend it!
There are a number of stark fallacies in this kind of thinking. For one, Christmas never was 'Christian' - it was stolen from paganism by apostate Catholics to make it easier for pagans to accept the new Catholic State Religion imposed by sun-worshipping Emperor Constantine. Secondly, Satan wants to exterminate the mention of the name of Christ everywhere no matter what it is attached to, even pagan traditions - he does not care that Christians celebrate 'Christmas' on 25 December or at any time - he cares that Christ is honoured at all at any time. For that reason he will incite Muslims, Hindus, atheists and anyone else against even apostate forms of the true faith since they have no idea or, or interest in, these apostacies - their anger is solely directed against the Messiah. So long as anyone anywhere believes in Messiah, however false their theology - even if they are cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses - Satan and his followers will seek to exterminate them whilst at the same time using them to undermine those who follow Messiah, shun paganism, and observe Torah.
The reason the élite want 'Christian Christmas' removed is simply because they want the Name of their arch-enemy, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), eliminated from public consciousness. Satan wages wars on multiple fronts and on multiple layers that may seem contradictory - and they are, because there is no rhyme or reason other than the destruction of the human race and the erasure of the memory of the Saviour. Should we therefore campaign to save 'Christian Christmas' because the enemy is attacking it?
As that is a political question, it is ultimately unanswerable. I believe (personally) we should be libertarians in the political arena and grant, as Yahweh does, the right of people to choose how they want to live and not be dictated to by an élite. If people want to observe 'Christian Christmas', they should have the free choice to do so. That is one matter. But another, which is to argue that Christmas is 'Christian' (Catholic, perhaps, and even Protestant), that we cannot accept. What the state does to sanction or ban Catholic festivals is irrelevant to us. What we are concerned about is the naked emet (truth). We will get Messiah out to the world using pure vehicles, not on hijacked pagan ones.
We need to remind 'Christmas Christians' that this festival remains a festival honouring Satan on which the birth of Messiah has been artifically superimposed, and that it is an example of religious syncretism expressly and repeatedly forbidden in the Bible for which Israel and Judah paid dearly.
In further justification for celebrating the birth of Messiah on 25 December, the authors of the Troens Gode Strid magazine cite the works of Alfred Edersheim, a Viennese Jew born in 1825 who became a Christian when he was 21, studied theology, was ordained a priest in Scotland and subsequently in the Anglican Church in England. He is best known for his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, in which he claims that Yah'shua (Jesus) was literally born on 25 December. His line of argument? 'Christmas is connected with the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah which falls on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev. The Jewish feast of Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of Kislev, just as Christmas always falls on the 25th day of December' [4].
So what? Knowing what we do about the Creation Calendar and the origins of Hanukkah and Christmas, this comparison is totally irrelevent. The Gregorian '25 December' didn't even exist at the birth of Messiah because the Roman world followed an entirely different Julian 8-day week calendar, Kislev is a Babylonian month deity, the Pope made 25 December 'Christmas Day' to harmonise with a pre-existing pagan celebration, the Jews who today 'set' Hanukkah use a version of the Roman Calendar themselves, etc., etc.. Making that association is like me observing that I have 25 pimples on my face on Christmas Day and making a mystical connection to '25' December.
Almost nobody today who has any scholarship under his belt believes that Yah'shua (Jesus) was actually born on 25 December. Even the Catholic Church, which invented 'Christian Christmas' in the first place, doesn't believe the babe of Bethlehem was born on 25 December. Even my very conservative 843-page Catholic Dictionary admits that their earliest scholars and theologians thought Messiah was born on 20 April (Clement of Alexandria) or 20 May (Pope Benedict XIV) [5], that is, the spring season, just as we do - see Why We Believe Messiah was Born on Passover.
The author relies entirely on Edersheim's faulty reasoning to prop up the falacious 25 December birth, claiming to have found an article in the internet (without giving a reference) that 'proves' Yah'shua (Jesus) was born on 25 December 4 BC on a Thursday , or Tevet 9 in the Rabbinical year 3758.
The final line of defence is, as always, thrown in at the last minute - 'what's important is what's in your heart'. Unfortunately, Yahweh does not agree. King Saul took that attitude when he offered sacrifices to Yahweh when Samual the Prophet, speaking a revelatory word from Yahweh, had expressly warned him beforehand not to do so because he did not have the toqef (authority)! Turning this into a subjective argument is always the last resort of the rebellious and disobedient.
We all know what the p'shat emet or literal truth is but for those existentialists who insist on being first led by their feelings let me share an illustration so that we can deal with this last, most unreasonable and dishonest excuse.
Let’s just say that your wife has cheated on you. After all, Yahweh does call his people an 'adulterous bride' when they went chasing after pagan gods. And let’s say that your cheating wife has come back to you, and asked your forgiveness. All has apparently been made right again - she's ended the relationshop and is back home. Now, let’s say 6 April is your birthday. Your wife says she wants to honour you on your birthday. However, since her former adulterous lover's birthday was on 25 December she decides to honour you on 25 December instead of 6 April. Not only that, instead of giving you gifts that you have clearly expressed a desire for, your wife gives you things that her adulterous lover enjoyed! She makes his favourite foods and wants you to enjoy his favorite activities with her, and lavishes you with things that would have delighted him! Now, would this honour you? Would you feel loved and esteemed in this situation? Of course not! You’d be mortified, furious, deeply hurt!
But is this not what 'Christmas Christians' do to Yah'shua (Jesus), when they say that they are honouring Him by means of pagan traditions? Were a returning adulterous wife to do this to me, I would be deeply hurt. I would want every last trace of her lover's pleasures, things she received from him, totally removed and erased from memory. And indeed, if she was truly repentant, wouldn't she want to do the same? She should come to loathe everything and anything to do with that adulterous escapade as part and parcel of an authentic teshuvah (repentance), knowing how hurtful it was to both her husband and to Yahweh!
If you can't understand this, you don't really know Yahweh, and you cannot possibly understand His deep pain and offense when His covenant people turn to satanic pagan customs and then do them in honour of Him! That's religious syncretism. And since our relationship with Him is described in Scripture in terms of a marriage covenant and relationship, we only have to turn to our own experience of marriage to understand it. Were an adulterous wife to return to me I would expect everything to be expunged of that filthy relationship, down to the last item of clothing, jewelry, accessories - everything - that she had obtained while with or from him. And Yahweh expects no less from us when we claim we are returning home to Him as His talmid (disciple). I would find anything connected to that vileness that was brought back into my home an offence and an outrage, and be deeply pained by it. Wouldn't you?
A lot of people think me too 'extreme' in my attitude to Christmas, Hanukkah, and other pagan winter feasts, but put in marriage terms, you get a totally different perspective. Yahweh is a jealous Elohim (Ex.20:5) and so should any genuine husband or congregational leader be too!
"Oh, that you would bear with me in a little 'folly' -- and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one Husband (Yah'shua/Jesus), that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Messiah. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Messiah" (2 Cor.11:1-3, NKJV).
These issues are not complicated because they all boil down to spiritual CHASTITY. It is only the adulterous in heart who make such a song and dance about the plain, simple emet (truth) of Yahweh's set-apart principles. Adulterers always invent excuses - a whole plethora of them. And, sorry, but I have to say it, but observing pagan practices is spiritual adultery against the Most High. And if you know your Bible at all, you know this, in your heart of hearts, to be true too.
I am both amazed, and grateful, that even before I became a believer, something deep within me was repulsed by Christmas. Some part of me knew that it was adulterous. I felt most uncomfortable at the Christmas season, knowing what was expected of me. I even felt uncomfortable about present-giving and -receiving even though, like all children, I loved presents. And for some reason I was always revolted by the Christmas tree in particular. Little did I know that it originally represented the pagan deity Tammuz, the reincarnated Nimrod, son of a filthy incestuous union between a mother and her son. That is the heart of paganism - and every abomination to Yahweh.
I thank Yahweh for that initial knowing, that I never immersed myself in what for Yahweh is a hurtful abomination. I know what He feels like as a husband and father. So I urge you, make an end of every pretense at righteousness that 'Christian Christmas' is, along with 'Jewish Hanukkah'. Yahweh hates them, as do I. Research these matters carefully, deliberately and honestly, and you cannot fail to come to this conclusion. Stick the the festivals He has authorised.
Tonight is Yahweh's Shabbat and I can't wait for it. And the day after - 25 December - is Rosh Chodesh this year, and I am looking forward to that even more. Even writing and speaking about these pagan things over the past few days has been distasteful to me but others need to be warned and know what it is really like to walk in the purity of Yah's Derech (Way). I invite you to join me on it, and with others who have made the same choice. Amen.
Endnotes
[1] Troens Gode Strid, Nr.4, desember 2011, entitled, 'Desember lys' = 'December Light'
[2] Julemonsteret, op.cit., pp.20-26
[3] Ibid., p.24
[4] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Wm.B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI: 1976),Vol.1, p.187
[5] Addis & Arnold, Catholic Dictionary, (Virtue & Co., London: 1955), p.162
