IS CHRISTMAS PAGAN?

This holiday has it's beginnings in the far distant past...long before actual Christianity existed!

IS CHRISTMAS PAGAN?

In a word...yes.

Most Christians don't want to be associated in any way with Satan worshippers. We don't find Satan worshippers keeping God's holidays in the Bible, such as Passover, so why do we find them decorating their trees and keeping every trapping of Christmas? Well, because Christmas, as we know it, was kept long before Christ was born. It is the pagan holiday Yule. Fact is, these Satan worshippers who decorate their trees, didn't steal the holiday from "Christians," it is the other way around! Despite the Christian sounding name, "Christmas" is a very ancient holiday that pre-dates Christ. Don't let the name fool you...it is certainly no Christian holiday, nor was it kept by the early Church. It was 400 years after the death of Christ that Christmas, (formerly the Roman "Saturnalia," and later called Yule.) began to be widely kept.

The pagan holiday Saturnalia that Christmas is based upon, was a time of merriment, feasting, gift giving, candles, decorating pine trees with ornaments and celebrating the Winter Solstice "birth of the Sun. The Europeans later added their own flair to this midwinter holiday, even calling it Midvinter Blot, which means "Midwinter Blood." Why would they call it that?

Christmas has a very strange past. Don't be shocked, but evidence is clear that human sacrifice and the December 25th winter solstice go hand in hand. William Sansom, in "A Book of Christmas," states that human sacrifice originated during the winter solstice, which we now call Christmas. He says, “The giving of presents, particularly candles and dolls, called Sigillaria also derives from the insistent origin of human sacrifice at this time of year.” The gifts under the trees for the ancient pagans were their first born children, which they sacrificed to bring peace and to ensure the return of the sun.

Imagine. If you had lived 3000 years ago, to keep this holiday we now call Christmas, you might be bringing your 5 year and under firstborn child to be sacrificed. Archaeologists have found 6000 children's urns in Carthage alone and the remains involved fire. Your precious child would have been the gift under the tree in olden days. These children were sacrificed in a grove of evergreen trees, it satiated the sun god, therefore, the sun would return again and thus, there would be peace and good will to all men...., so the pagans thought. This practice of sacrificing children under the "green" tree (evergreen) was a worldwide phenomenon of old that was even practiced by Israel. There are several instances mentioned in the Bible, but one of the best is in Isaiah 57:5.

CHILD SACRIFICE

1. Isaiah 57:5 “Enflaming yourselves with idols, under every green tree slaying the children, in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks...” The valley it is speaking of here is The Valley of Ben Hinnom (Gehenna) and according to Biblical Archaeology Review, this particular place of child sacrifice was near some overhanging cliffs. An idol called Molech was located there, which was a molten idol with a cow’s head at the top and a fire pit below. Outstretched arms held the victim. There was a pulley system that slowly raised the arms up to heaven and the child was dropped into the fire pit below! The sacrificial alter was located in a grove of evergreen trees. This scripture clearly depicts the act of child sacrifice. Most people would be appalled if they knew the origin of the tradition of “gifts” under evergreen trees. Then, even as now, this winter solstice holiday was perceived as a time of great “peace on earth”. Baal was supposedly satiated with these yearly sacrifices and all was well in the world.

Read from the Mythology of all Religions, vol. 5. “Living infants and children were BURNED IN THE FIRE to the god Molech during this time. This was the time of the winter solstice (Dec. 25th) when those heathen were dismayed at the signs of heaven!”

So why do we still follow these ancient pagan traditions that are connected to such evil? Think about it, what have reindeer, elves, decorated fir trees, Yule logs and Santa Claus have to do with the Bible? Nothing, nada, zip. But they have everything to do with Yule. This ancient Pagan holiday called Yule and it's counterpart "Christmas" are one and the same holiday.

Yule (December 25) was based on the birth of the sun.... To "Christianize" this favorite of all Pagan holidays, they changed it to "birth of the Son," called it "Christmas," and kept on keeping it just like they always had.

How did the Winter Solstice become a "Christian" holiday? Read more on "Good Old Time Religion" on this site, for more information about that.

"...there's also a small disagreement about why the church later chose Dec. 25 for Christmas. Two main theories compete. One notes that in A.D. 274, the Roman Emperor Aurelian inaugurated Dec. 25 as the pagan "Birth of the Unconquered Sun"...Christians then borrowed the date and devised Christmas to compete with paganism."

"Christmas has its origins in several pagan holidays. The (Roman) celebration known as Saturnalia included the making and giving of small presents. This holiday was observed over a series of days...ending on December 25. (The birthday of Sol Invictus, the "unconquered sun")

"When the first missionaries began converting the Germanic peoples to Christianity, they found it easier to simply provide a Christian reinterpretation for popular feasts such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, rather than trying to suppress them." "The Scandinavian tradition of slaughtering a pig at Christmas (Christmas Ham) ...is probably the most salient evidence for this. The tradition derives from the sacrifice to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations. Halloween and Easter are theorized to have been likewise assimilated from northern European pagan festivals." (They go back further than that!)

The presents the wise men brought the baby Messiah were brought because they were coming before a King. The Bible never suggests that we should keep a Roman style Saturnalia where everyone gave gifts to each other. Jesus Christ was and is a Jew and He never kept Christmas in His life, He never mentions it. He did ask us to keep a memorial of His death (Passover)...but never His birth.