Christmas Banned by Protestants after the Reformation On this website we see that the Reformers and the Pilgrims fought to keep these pagan holidays of Christmas and Easter out of the church, yet these pagan customs in our Apostate American Churches have prevailed: The Pagan History of Christmas by Dr. Joel Ehrlich of Hebraic Renewal “…We find in the Catholic encyclopedia that Christmas was not even among the earliest church festivals. It was not until the latter part of the fourth century that the Roman Church began observing December 25th as Jesus’ birthday. By the fifth century A.D., the Roman Church ordered the birth of Messiah to be forever observed on December 25th. At the time of this decree, the Roman Church knew full well that the pagan religious cults throughout the Roman and Greek worlds celebrated the pagan sun god, Mithra, on this self-same day. This winter festival was known as the Nativity of the Sun. It was also known in the Roman Empire as Saturnalia [another name for sun worship].” *Note: In 46 BC, when the Roman “Julian Calendar” was adopted, December 24th was the shortest day of the year. Therefore, December 25th was the first annual day that daylight began to increase. Thus, the origin of the REBIRTH or Annual Birthday of the Invincible SUN. In accordance with the Roman “Julian calendar,” the “Saturnalia” festival appears to have taken place on December 17th; it was preceded by the “Consualia” near December 15th, and followed by the “Opalia” on December 19th. These pagan celebrations typically lasted for a week, ending just before the late Roman Imperial Festival for “Sol Invictus”(Invincible Sun) on December 25th. In 1582 A.D., Roman Catholic Pope Gregory the XIII caused the current “Gregorian Calendar” to be adopted, in order to eliminate the solar time shift error introduced by the “Julian Calendar.” By December 1582 A.D. the shortest day of the year had shifted 12 days on the Roman “Julian Calendar” to Wednesday, December 12, 1582. However, the Original December 25th ‘Birth Date’ was retained for all pagan Sun gods by the Roman “Saturnalia” and “Sol Invictus” traditions; which were now called the “Twelve Days of Christ Mass.” On the new Roman Catholic Gregorian calendar the shortest annual day was numerically shifted back 10 days to the 22nd of December, where it remains to this day; while the original order of the days of the week remained unchanged. Therefore, Wednesday, December 12th, 1582 A.D., became Wednesday, December 22nd, 1582 AD, and the True Sabbath Day remained unchanged. YHWH, the Only True YHWH, would never have allowed The True Messiah to be born on or near the December 25th birthday period of the pagan sun gods; during the time in which virgins were sacrificed, murder was commonplace, and orgies the norm. This would be an entirely unacceptable association. The winter festival was very popular in ancient times, and marked a time of rejoicing and festivity. Much of our present day customs involved in the Christmas season are a direct inheritance of the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia. These days involved gift giving, colored lights to ward off evil spirits, festive meals, and of course, decorated trees. The present day Christmas tree also goes back to the worship of sacred trees in the ancient Babylonian system. The green evergreen symbolized the incarnate Baal coming to life through the incarnate baby Tammuz. The custom of decorating and worshiping trees spread throughout the known world, with the variety of tree used selected according to the natural growth of each area of the world. The Druids worshiped the oak tree; the Egyptians worshiped the palm tree, while in Rome it was the fir tree. There are at least ten references in the Bible warning that these green trees were associated with idolatry and pagan worship. Jeremiah 10:1-4 details the Yisra’elites following the very pagan customs practiced today with the Christmas Tree… …The reason Yah warns against the worship of the signs of heaven in association with this custom is that it was associated with the worship of the sun. The very term, Christmas, comes from the sacred Christ-mass, where the Pope in the role of the High Priest of the mystery Babylon religion introduces the people to the concept of trans-substantiation. Using the wine and round wafers to reflect the life of Baal, the sun god, the name of Jesus replaces the ancient pagan custom. The wine and wafers are now said to be the transformation of the actual blood and body of Messiah within the person who ingests them. People, thereby, relive again and again the death and resurrection of the incarnate god…It would surprise most Christians to learn that the history of the church is filled with historic battles over these very doctrinal issues. Many of the reformation movements in the church made drastic attempts to get away from these pagan holidays. Calvin, in 1550, instigated an edict concerning church holidays. A ban was passed against observing various church festivals, which included Christmas. In a tract on the necessity of reforming the church, Calvin exclaimed: “I know how difficult it is to persuade the world that YHWH disapproves of all modes of worship not expressly sanctioned by His Word.” John Knox, in the Scottish reformation, repeatedly confronted the Catholic Church, contending that true worship must be instituted by Yah, not derived from the traditions of men. At the heart of his argument was an appeal to Torah, especially, references to Deuteronomy 4 and 12, which state that one must not add to nor subtract from Yah’s word. John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, 1950, Vol. 1, page 91 states the following: “That YHWH’s word damns your ceremonies it is evident; for the plain and straight has not commanded your ceremonies… “Not that thing which appears good in your eyes, shall you do to YHWH your Elohiym, but what YHWH your Elohiym has commanded thee that do you; add nothing to it; diminish nothing from it.” Christmas and Easter Banned from the Church of Scotland David Calderwood [1511-1651], representing the Scottish ministries, asserted in reference to Christmas and Easter: “The Judaical days had once that honor, as to be appointed by YHWH Himself; but the anniversary days appointed by men have not like honor. This opinion of Christ’s nativity on the 25th day of December was bred at Rome.” David Calderwood then exposed the Roman claims made for the 25th of December as the day of Messiah’s birth. He argues that the Apostles never ordained it. He said the following: “Nay, let us utter the truth, December-Christmas is a just imitation of the December-Saturnalia of the ethnic [heathen] Romans, and so used as if Bacchus [another name for the sun god], and not Messiah, were the Yahweh of Christians.” George Gillespie [1613-1649], a premier Scottish theologian, wrote in a book published in 1637 called A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded Upon the Church of Scotland. “The holidays [reference to Christmas and Easter] take a severe beating on a number of accounts. Sacred significant ceremonies devised by man are to be reckoned among images forbidden in the second commandment in regards to worshiping idols.” The English Puritans fought to ban the worship of Christmas and Easter. They resorted to Galatians 4:8-11, which many Christians have used to say that it is referring to Yah not wanting believers to worship Jewish holidays. However, this is wrong on several accounts: 1. These scriptures are specifically referring to a people brought near to Yah through Messiah, who were former pagans. 2. Apostle Paul himself, as detailed throughout the book of Acts, worshiped YHWH ordained feasts. 3. If we were taking these scriptures as an argument for Messiah doing away with Torah, then this would put it in direct conflict with YaHuW’shuwa’s statement in Matthew 5:17, where he stated he did not come to do away with Torah, nor the prophets. In Galatians 4:8-11 Paul speaking by the Holy Spirit wrote to the Galatians that they were still observing pagan feasts which kept them in bondage: Galatians 4: 8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not Elohiym, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (Obviously referring to pagan holidays) 9 But now, after that ye have known Elohiym, or rather are known of Elohiym, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. (Pagan feasts) 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. History records that when the Puritans came to power in England, Parliament, in June, 1647, passed legislation abolishing Christmas and other holidays. In this legislation, they wrote the following: “For as much as the feast of the nativity of Christ, Easter, and other festivals, commonly called holy days, have been here-to-fore superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained that the said feasts, and all other festivals, commonly called holy days, be no longer observed as festivals.” The American Puritan movement took an even stronger stand against these pagan holidays. Samuel Miller, a Puritan and professor of history and church government at Princeton Seminary, stated in 1896 in his book, why Presbyterians reject the holy days of Christmas and Easter. He stated that “the Scriptures were the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and that no rite or ceremony ought to have a place in the public worship of YHWH, which is not warranted in Scripture. Not only does the celebration of non-biblical holidays lack a scriptural foundation, but the scriptures positively discount it.” [Miller, pgs. 65, 74]Presbyterians were not the only ones who maintained a strong stand against Christmas, as there were many other Christians who held to similar convictions. As a matter of fact, the famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, stated in a sermon given on Christmas Eve, December 24th 1871, the following: “We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or English; and secondly, because we find no scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and, consequently, it’s observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority.” [C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1971, pg. 697] Opposition to these church holidays remained in American Presbyterianism through the latter half of the 19th century. Speaking following the Civil War, historian Ernest Trice Thompson wrote the following: “There was no recognition of either Christmas or Easter in any of the Protestant churches, except the Episcopal and Lutheran. For a full generation after the Civil War, the religious journals of the South mentioned Christmas only to observe that there was no reason to believe that Jesus was actually born on December 25th; it was not recognized as a day of any religious significance in the Presbyterian Church” [Ernest Trice Thompson, Presbyterians In the South, 1973, Vol. 2, pg. 434.] FSCG Note: Alabama was the USA State to recognize Christmas, and did not do so until 1836. [“Tidbits,” Cheyenne, Wy. 82007, Burchett Publishing, Issue #271] It was not until the turn of the 19th century that various Christmas customs began appearing in Presbyterian churches. There began to be reports of: 1) Frivolities like Saint Nicholas in children’s Sunday schools. 2) Use of Christmas trees and other festivities. The appearance of Easter and Christmas in the official calendar of the Southern Presbyterian church did not actually occur until the late 1940s and 1950s, as a work of growing apostasy in the church. Even so, as late as 1962, the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland stated that they rejected the celebrations of Christmas and Easter [History of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 1893-1970, pg. 383].Christmas has clearly brought an infusion of paganism into the church that was initially prohibited among all of Yah’s people…..” Below, you will find a teaching from my Messianic Rabbi friend Adam J. Bernay. Adam shares how the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower kept all of Yah’s Holy Feast days (Leviticus 23) to include the Feast of Tabernacles (which later on became Thanksgiving). The Pilgrims kept “the Feast of Ingathering” and proclaimed a “thanksgiving” according to the Calendar of YHWH on the 15th day of the 7th Hebrew month (generally around September/October depending on the moons). Later on, Abraham Lincoln changed the date to the last Thursday in November and made it an official American Holiday. More than likely Abraham Lincoln was not even aware that the Pilgrims were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in the Hebrew month of Tishri (in Autumn), and so he simply chose a random date whereby we would “give thanks” as a nation to YaHuWaH. ////doubleportioninheritance.blogspot.ca/2011/10/pilgrims-banned-christmas-easter-kept_21.html
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 14:51:00 +0000
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