Christmas is not a Christian holiday (salvation, churches, priests, spirits)

[TXboomerang]

Been reading up a lot the last few Christmas's and every year that goes by, I'm more and more dismayed by the Christmas holidays and how Christians cling so hard to it. While I don't think there is much wrong with the idea of being happy Christ was born, I find it a little bit disturbing that so much more is made out of his birth with "Christmas" than is of his death at "Easter".

Christmas is a holiday shared and celebrated by many religions.
It is a day that has an effect on the entire world.

To many people, it is a favorite time of the year involving gift giving, parties and feasting. Christmas is a holiday that unifies almost all of professing Christendom.

The spirit of Christmas causes people to decorate their homes and churches, cut down trees and bring them into their homes, decking them with silver and gold.

In the light of that tree, families make merry and give gifts one to another.

When the sun goes down on December 24th, and darkness covers the land, families and churches prepare for participation in customs such as burning the yule log, singing around the decorated tree, kissing under the mistletoe and holly, and attending a late night service or midnight mass.

What is the meaning of Christmas? Where did the customs and traditions originate?

You, as a Christian, would want to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, discerning good from evil.

The truth is that all of the customs of Christmas pre-date the birth of Jesus Christ, and a study of this would reveal that
Christmas in our day is a collection of traditions and practices taken from many cultures and nations.

The date of December 25th comes from Rome and was a celebration of the Italic god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god.

This was done long before the birth of Jesus.

It was noted by the pre-Christian Romans and other pagans, that daylight began to increase after December 22nd, when they assumed that the sun god died.

These ancients believed that the sun god rose from the dead three days later as the new-born and venerable sun.

Thus, they figured that to be the reason for increasing daylight.

This was a cause for much wild excitement and celebration. Gift giving and merriment filled the temples of ancient Rome, as sacred priests of Saturn, called dendrophori, carried wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession.

In Germany, the evergreen tree was used in worship and celebration of the yule god, also in observance of the resurrected sun god.

The evergreen tree was a symbol of the essence of life and was regarded as a phallic symbol in fertility worship.

Witches and other pagans regarded the red holly as a symbol of the menstrual blood of the queen of heaven, also known as Diana.

The holly wood was used by witches to make wands.

The white berries of mistletoe were believed by pagans to represent droplets of the semen of the sun god.

Both holly and mistletoe were hung in doorways of temples and homes to invoke powers of fertility in those who stood beneath and kissed, causing the spirits of the god and goddess to enter them.

These customs transcended the borders of Rome and Germany to the far reaches of the known world.

The question now arises: How did all of these customs find their way into contemporary Christianity, ranging from Catholicism to Protestantism to fundamentalist churches?

The word "Christmas"itself reveals who married paganism to Christianity.

The word "Christmas" is a combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass.

The word "Mass" means death and was coined originally by the Roman Catholic Church, and belongs exclusively to the church of Rome.

The ritual of the Mass involves the death of Christ, and the distribution of the "Host", a word taken from the Latin word "hostiall" meaning victim!

In short, Christmas is strictly a Roman Catholic word.

A simple study of the tactics of the Romish Church reveals that in every case, the church absorbed the customs, traditions and general paganism of every tribe, culture and nation in their efforts to increase the number of people under their control.

In short, the Romish church told all of these pagan cultures, "Bring your gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, and we will assign Christian sounding titles and names to them.

When Martin Luther started the reformation on October 31st, 1517, and other reformers followed his lead, all of them took with them the paganism that was so firmly imbedded in Rome.

These reformers left Christmas intact.

In England, as the authorized Bible became available to the common people by the decree of King James the II in 1611, people began to discover the pagan roots of Christmas, which are clearly revealed in Scripture.

The Puritans in England, and later in Massachusetts Colony, outlawed this holiday as witchcraft.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, when other Bible versions began to appear, there was a revival of the celebration of Christmas.

We are now seeing ever-increasing celebrating of Christmas or Yule, its true name, as we draw closer to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In both witchcraft circles and contemporary Christian churches, the same things are going on.

As the Bible clearly states in Jeremiah 10:2-4, "Thus saith the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen; and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven. For the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain. For one cutteth a tree out of the forest. The work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not."

So, what is wrong with Christmas?

1. To say that Jesus was born on December 25th is a lie! The true date is sometime in September according to the Scriptures.

2. Trees, wreaths, holly, mistletoe and the like are strictly forbidden as pagan and heathen! To say that these are Christian or that they can be made Christian is a lie!

3. The Lord never spoke of commemorating his birth but rather commanded us to remember the sacrifice of His suffering and death, which purchased our salvation.

Think about it! Can we worship and honor God by involving ourselves with customs and traditions, which God Himself forbade as idolatry? Can we convince God to somehow "Christianize" these customs and the whole pretense and lie of Christmas, so we can enjoy ourselves? Can we obey through disobedience?

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Trees as decorations are traced to the druids.

Holly berries are from a fertility pagan ritual and stand for menstrual blood.

Mistletoe stands for a man's ejaculate.

I always get a good laugh at how mixed up history has left Christmas.

[CelticLady1]

This is something that each Christian will make up their own mind about. Personally, I don't really don't think that tinsel, holly, presents, trees, etc., is a big deal, and I've heard all these arguments before. After all the information on the internet, (and other sources), most people have heard these arguments. If they were that worried about it, I daresay they would have already changed their ways. While those who don't approve certainly have the right to feel as they do, I think when this attitude is given out to other people, (Christians or otherwise), it only generates feelings of annoyance, at the very least. If some folks feel that they should not to celebrate Christmas, for all the reasons listed, then by all means they should follow the dictates of their conscience. The rest of us would just as soon enjoy ourselves in our own fashion.

[JANA MANIA]

Originally Posted by tnbound2day

Been reading up a lot the last few Christmas's and every year that goes by, I'm more and more dismayed by the Christmas holidays and how Christians cling so hard to it. While I don't think there is much wrong with the idea of being happy Christ was born, I find it a little bit disturbing that so much more is made out of his birth with "Christmas" than is of his death at "Easter".

. EVERYTHING YOU SAID ABOUT CHRISTMAS HAS TRUTH. PEOPLE PROBABLY ENJOY/COMMEMORATE CHRISTMAS MORE(THEN EASTER) BECAUSE OF THE JOY INVOLVED,CHILDREN,GIFTS,ETC. IT SHOULDN'T BE ABOUT SANTA AND CHARGING UP CARDS AND GOING INTO DEBT AND THIS IS MUCH OF IT.UNHAPPY CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY DON'T RECEIVE WHAT THEY ASK FOR. OR PARENTS DISHEARTENED BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE ENDS MEET,PLUS CHRISTMAS.PEOPLE SPENDING NIGHTS OUTSIDE IN THE COLD TO BUYS GIFTS FORSALES. GIVING IS A WONDERFUL THING, BUT IS CHRISTMAS GIVING ABOUT THE SAVIOR,REALLY? HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS AND HAVE NO COMMUNE WITH JESUS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR?

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

I'm not a christian, I celebrate the holiday with my daughter because its fun, its just that simple. We also celebrate easter, not for its fake and substituted christian meaning but again, just for the fun of it. Our celebrations have no christian trappings to them.

[Marks]

"Christmas is not a Christian holiday"? True

christmas

[mrsengle]

'Christian trappings.'

That's...precious.

[bigthirsty]

Oh for Christmas sake.. Its the celebration of the birth of Jesus. If you aren't Christian then don't celebrate.. if you are Christian then enjoy it.

[Padgett2]

It''s an excuse to have a good time. Maybe we could change the name. All Hallow's Eve has become Halloween. Perhaps it's time to call December 25 something else. It certainly isn't a religious holiday any more.

Then, all that would have to be done is get all the Christians to agree on a few things, like....when was he actually born? What day should we set aside? Should everyone, chirstian or not have a holiday? When did the Magi really get to see him? was he really born in a manger? What was "The Star" really? Was it something supernatural or just a strange configuration of the planets/stars? And of course, the Big One....was he really born of a virgin?

[JakeDog]

Originally Posted by bigthirsty

Oh for Christmas sake.. Its the celebration of the birth of Jesus. If you aren't Christian then don't celebrate.. if you are Christian then enjoy it.

It's a fun holiday with good music and nice decorations. Mostly it is for family and especially kids. The christ's b-day part is almost irrelevant.