Daily Meditation A high-tech way to deliver Gods Word Christmas Originated Before Christ part 2 Zech 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The Egyptians even represented the new-born sun by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshipers. 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; in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte [Easter]. My friend, it you insist on defending Christmas, at least you should know how it originated. The early Catholic theologian and writer Tertullian (A.D. 155-230), was a convert from paganism. He wrote numerous works defending Christianity as he understood it, combating contrary teachers, and giving exhortation to fellow believers. In one he described how the Christian converts of his day were already ignoring the biblical Sabbath day and festivals, and flocking to the pagan Roman winter festivals, such as the Saturnalia, which honored the god Saturn. Tertullian rebuked Christians for joining in such pagan celebrations, noting that no self-respecting pagan would join in Christian celebrations: Oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians. He further stated of the pagans: For, even if they had known them, they would not have shared the Lords Day or Pentecost with us. For they would fear lest they would appear to be Christians. Yet, we are not apprehensive that we might appear to be pagans! My friend, this is an incredible admission. A zealous Tertullian could see the difference between heathen, and Christian festivals. Can you? So let’s take a deeper look at Christmas origins. Man, Myth & Magic is a useful encyclopedia on mythology and religion. This multi-volume work uncovers the origins of major Western religious holidays, exploring the history of each. It also offers further details on the origins of Christmas: Christmas has its origin in two ancient pagan festivals, the great Yule-feast of the Norsemen and the Roman Saturnalia. It was close enough to the winter solstice to acquire many of the associations of the Norse ceremony, the Yule-log, the evergreen decorations in houses and churches, even the Christmas feast itself. These elements were combined with the Saturnalia of the Romans to provide the basis for the early Christian festival. During the Saturnalia, gifts were made by the wealthy to the poor in honor of the golden age of liberty when Saturn ruled the known world, and slaves were allowed to change places and clothing with their masters. They even elected their own mock king who, for the period of the festival, ruled as a despot. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery, and was a festival worthy of [the god] Pan himself. Naturally it came under heavy censure from the early Church and despite the fact that Jesus and the saints gradually replaced the pagan deities, it was long considered completely out of character with the Christian ideal. Notwithstanding, the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favor, to be abolished, and the [Catholic] Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed it should be preserved in honor of the Christian God. The strange story of Christmas continued after the ancient celebrations were adopted by the Catholic Church. Moreover, the church does not deny it! The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome. This theory finds support in some of the Church Fathers contrasting the birth of Christ and the winter solstice. Though the substitution of Christmas for the pagan festival cannot be proved with certainty, it remains the most plausible explanation for the dating of Christmas. Man, Myth & Magic explains when Christmas gained official recognition, and when the name was substituted for the ancient heathen midwinter festival. Once given a Christian basis the festival became fully established in Europe with many of its pagan elements undisturbed. It was only in the 4th century that 25 December was officially decreed to be the birthday of Christ, and it was another 500 years [the ninth century] before the term Midwinter Feast was abandoned in favor of the word Christmas. James Hastings, Bible scholar, writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, confirms that the church absorbed and tolerated heathen customs: Most of the Christmas customs now prevailing in Europe, or recorded from former times, are not genuine Christian customs, but heathen customs which have been absorbed or tolerated by the Church. I have one more Meditation on this subject, which I’ll send out tomorrow. Meanwhile, I want to leave you with a question: If the lost see that you are not truthful concerning when Jesus was born, why in the world should they believe anything else you tell them about Jesus? Think about that! Rev. Russ McDonald
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 17:04:35 +0000
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