Birthday of Jesus

[Jo Smith]

From: joie (Original Message) Sent: 10/15/2001 1:24 PM



As it is nearing the time of the idolatrous holidays, I feel it is very important to do a serious study of this matter. I tell you, in the name of Jesus, that ALL the holidays are pagan, devil worship. But, for now, I will just deal with this one---the so-called birthday of Jesus.

My first question and challenge to you is, where in the Word is any command or incidence of any of the Christians ever ‘celebrating’ any such day? If it is not Scriptural, how do you justify doing such a thing?

There are a lot of teachings available on the historical origin of this and other holidays; but I am only going to deal with this from the Word of God today. I welcome any history or Scripture additions to this study.

I will say this much about the beginning of this devil worship holiday; for without this, the study would be incomplete.

This birthday celebration holiday began in ancient days as the celebration of the Sun God. It started with Nimrod and his wife. Each nation had it’s own idol Sun God; so they each had this day, on December 25th, but it was called different names after name of their Sun God.

The Romans had this day as Saturnalia, the birthday of their Sun God, Saturn. After the Catholic Church took over in place of the Emperors, they changed it to Christ mass, lied and called it the birthday of Jesus, to deceive the Christians into celebrating the Saturnalia.

This is in many history books and encyclopedias. You do not need to take my word for this or to doubt it either.

In the early days of the Church, the true Christians knew that this was a devil worship holiday; so they did not partake of it. But, gradually, as more pagans tried to become Christians, they desired to continue with their Saturnalia, so this brought about their incorporating this evil day in as Christmas.

The Catholic Church took in all the pagan rituals and renamed them to deceive the true Christians. Over the years, this worked, and now the churches loves this devil worship business.

But, in the light of God’s Holy Word, is this supposed to be kept by Christians? If so, it surely would be written in the Word. If God wanted us to celebrate the birth of Jesus, He would have told us to do so; and also, He would have told the exact date. God is the most precise and perfect being there is. He is not helter-scelter.

Most people say there is no record of the date of Jesus’ birthday. But, I tell you, that date is shown in the Scripture.

Job 3:----This chapter reveals the true birthday of Jesus. You need to realize that all prophets spake the words of Jesus; not their own words. You might think this is only speaking of Job; but, it is prophecy of Jesus.

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. (this means his birthday---but remember, it is the birthday of Jesus).

And Job spake, and said, let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived.


This was the Word of God cursing the birthday of Jesus; a prophecy for that day to PERISH.

v4---Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

v5--Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

v6--As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

This is prophecy that one day, the birthday of Jesus would be blotted out of existence; it would not be counted in the days of the year; it is not in the number of the months.

v7---Lo, let that night be SOLITARY, let no joyful voice come therein.

(doesn’t sound like an x-mas celebration, does it?)

v8--Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

v9--Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

v10--Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

Now, see that v9 shows that this day will always be dark; never have twilight or dawning? In other words, this day no longer exist.

So, how and when did this occur? What day fits this description?

There is only one day missing from the months of the year: that day is February 30. This is the true day of Jesus’ birthday.

When the calendar was changed, they left out February 30. This day was in the Hebrews’ calendar. All the months had 30 days. Now, this change was not done to blot out Job’s birthday; for it did not occur back then; it was done to blot out the birthday of Jesus, in order to fulfill this prophecy.

People harping about keeping God’s law, don’t know that all of God’s Word is LAW. Every Word of God is LAW. This is a command (to be kept)-- in v7---Let no joyful voice come in this day. So, then, why all the ‘merry making’ at x-mas?

This is the way of the Saturnalia. Study this ancient birthday celebration of Saturn’s birthday; you will find that this is true.

The Saturnalia is what you are keeping; not the birthday of Jesus. As you can see, since God blotted out this day, you CANNOT celebrate it.

Now, others argue, that even though God did not tell us to keep the day, and did not tell us when it was, nor did He tell us HOW to keep it; so, we just do it anyway and decide for ourselves when & how to do it. Since when did God leave things like that to us?

In the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. So here is the other witness, to establish this matter.

Jeremiah 20:14-18---Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

Now, is this the birthday of Jeremiah? Or is it prophecy of the birthday of Jesus? Since Jeremiah was a prophet, he was speaking the words of Jesus. Look at the starting of almost each chapter, you will find that Jeremiah said over and over this is the Word of the Lord. So this is prophecy of the birthday of Jesus.

See, that it is the same as in Job; cursed be the day. Let it NOT BE BLESSED.

People, this is a COMMAND from God.

Now, for a look at some of the ‘customs’ of keeping this idolatrous day.

Jeremiah 10:1-16---This tells of the decorating of green trees for the purpose of worshiping idol gods. The green tree is connected with devil worship all through the Word. It is never connected with worship of the true God.

v1--Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

v2---Thus saith the LORD ( proof that this is God’s Word)--Learn NOT the way of the HEATHEN, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

v3--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.

v4--They deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers that it move not.

The rest of the chapter tells of their false hood and that the men doing this are brutish in knowledge and that they will perish in the time of their visitation. People, this is what is going to happen to this and every nation, because of this idol worship. God is a jealous God. He is angry at this false, devil worship, and doing it in his name.

You had better repent of this evil, if you desire to turn away the wrath of God.

Look into Rev. 11--you will find that this x-mas celebration is also connected with celebrating the death of God’s witnesses.

By: Jo Smith

[Jo Smith]

From: james Sent: 10/15/2001 8:34 PM
Sticking with just the "birthday" aspect for the moment:

JESUS’ BIRTHDAY -

"Early Christians [from time of Christ until the 4th century] frowned on [celebrating anyone’s birthday], which was too closely linked with pagan customs to be given the approval of the church.” - How It Started, p. 213, Abingdon Press, 1972 (Xerox Education Publ. paperback ed.).

The Christian Book of Why, by Dr. John C. McCollister (Lutheran minister and university professor, graduate of Trinity Lutheran Seminary), Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., 1983, tells us on p. 205:

"Christians of the first century did not celebrate the festival honoring the birth of Jesus - for the same reason they honored no other birthday anniversary. It was the feeling at that time by ALL Christians that the celebration of all birthdays (even the Lord’s) was a custom of the PAGANS. In an effort to divorce themselves from ALL pagan practices, the early Christians refused to set aside a date marking Jesus’ birth. As a result, the first celebration of Christmas by Christians [?] did not take place until the fourth century."

Think about it for a moment. Exactly who were included in “ALL Christians of the first century” (1 A. D. - 100 A. D.)?

Yes, the Jews themselves never celebrated birthdays until long after the death of Jesus. They considered it a purely pagan custom and detestable to the God they worshiped. Jesus and his Apostles continued this belief and so did their followers for centuries!

"As late as 245 [A. D.] Origen (hom. viii. on Leviticus) repudiated the idea of keeping the birthday of Christ, ‘as if he were a king Pharaoh [Gen. 4:19-22].’” - Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., p. 642, vol. 5.

And the date itself, as you have noted, is strictly from paganism!
"DECEMBER 25 - Neither scripture nor secular history records the date of Jesus’ birth; even the season of the year is not stipulated. Some evidence points to spring, but it is not conclusive. The only thing reasonably certain about the coming of the Christ Child is that his birth did not take place in winter. .... In A. D. 350 Pope Julius I formally designated December 25 as Christmas. He chose that date because it coincided with important pagan festivals. These, in turn, were linked with the winter solstice [the shortest day of the year].” - How it Started, p. 54.

"It was noted later that this date [Dec. 25] would fall within the rainy season in Palestine, so that the shepherds would hardly have been in the fields as they were when Jesus was born.” - p. 1425, The World Book Encyclopedia, 1958.

"December 25 was already a major festival in the pagan Roman world, the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or ‘Birthday of the Unconquered Sun,’ a feast honoring the renewal of the sun at the winter solstice. Pagan celebrations on December 25 had included feasting, dancing, lighting bonfires, decorating homes with greens, and giving gifts. So when this became a Christian [?] festival, the customs continued, but with a Christian [?] meaning imparted to them. Throughout the [Catholic] Middle Ages, Christmas was a richly varied religious holiday. However, during the Commonwealth, the English Puritans, repelled by both the pagan practices and the religious ceremonies, forbade any religious or secular celebration of Christmas. The English celebration returned with the return of the Stuarts [“near-Catholic” Church of England monarchs], but Christmas observances were still outlawed in Puritan New England for many years; and not until the 19th century did Christmas become a legal holiday in America.” - p. 414, Vol. 4, Encyclopedia International, Grolier, Inc., 1966.

[Jo Smith]

From: james Sent: 10/16/2001 1:38 AM
"CHRISTMAS TREES - Many countries claim the distinction of having launched the custom of erecting Christmas trees, but it may have begun independently in several parts of Europe. Ceremonial worship of trees in ancient pagan rites almost certainly led to the decoration of trees at the time of the winter solstice. German emigrants [coming to the U.S.] brought with them the custom of setting up trees in their houses at Christmas.” - How It Started, pp. 52, 53.

"It is believed that the custom is a survival of the tree worship of ancient German tribes.” -- “Tree worship was common in Scandinavian countries.... When the pagans of Northern Europe became Christians [?], they made their sacred evergreen trees part of the Christian festival, and decorated the trees with gilded nuts, candles (a carry-over from sun worship), and apples to stand for the stars, moon, and sun.” - pp. 1429, 1425, The World Book Encyclopedia, 1958 ed.

"From the earliest times the worship of trees has played an important part in the religious life of European peoples.... tree-worship is well attested for all the great European families of the Aryan stock. Amongst the Celts the oak-worship of the Druids is familiar to everyone. Sacred groves were common among the ancient Germans, and tree-worship is hardly extinct amongst their descendants at the present day. How serious that worship was in former times may be gathered from the ferocious penalty appointed by the old German laws for such as dared to peel the bark of a standing tree. [In times of famine starving peoples subsisted on the inner bark of certain trees.] The culprit’s navel was to be cut out and nailed to the part of the tree which he had peeled, and he was to be driven round and round the tree till all his guts were wound about its trunk. The intention of the punishment clearly was to replace the dead bark by a living substitute taken from the culprit.... Proofs of the prevalence of tree-worship in ancient Greece and Italy [including Rome itself] are abundant.” - pp. 106, 107, 108, The New Golden Bough, Sir James Frazer, Revised and edited by Dr. Theodor H. Gaster, Mentor Book, 1964 printing.

Remember, the mere association of a custom or ritual with paganistic worship was enough to make it abominable to God! The “sacred evergreen” tree is no exception!

"The asherah was wooden, as we learn from its usual destruction by burning (Deut. 12:3; 2 Ki 23:6), and probably originated from the sacred evergreen .... The association of these with Canaanite fertility practice sufficed to make them abominable to [God].” - New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1984, p. 504, Tyndale House Publ.

"For it is not to be believed that these [early Greek and Roman pagan ceremonies] have no origin, are practiced without reason or meaning, and have no causes connected with their first beginnings. That pine which is regularly borne into the sanctuary of the Great Mother, is it not in imitation of that tree beneath which Attis mutilated and unmanned himself, which also, they relate, the goddess consecrated to relieve her grief?” - Arnobius (4th cent. Christian writer), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, p. 504, Eerdmans.

"[Baalism] had a great influence upon Israel in various ways, until the religion of the majority of the common people, especially in North Israel, became highly syncretistic [full of borrowed paganisms added to the true religion - - similar to today]. This occasioned the strong prophetic reaction and the posing of the question by Elijah and his successors as to whether Yahweh [Jehovah] or Baal was to be Israel’s God. Coupled with this was the denunciation of the symbols and acts of Canaanite religion, including Asherah (whose symbol was the sacred tree, grove, or post), pillar (perhaps the symbol of Baal...), and the teraphim...” - p. 51, An Encyclopedia of Religion, 1945.


From: Wanna Sent: 10/16/2001 1:02 PM
Hello James,

I am so glad to see you coming in on this very important subject! This is one of the most d**ning and misunderstood practices going on in the whole church world.

I knew you would have a good knowledge of this. I hope you will continue to help bring out the truth of this and all the holidays.

The church world needs to see that they are steeped in idolatry. This is helping bring the wrath of God upon the world.

God bless you.

Wanna

[Jo Smith]

People always look for a way to reject what they are not willing to obey! But it will not work with God. Man did not decide anything, except to be disobedient to the Word.

What do you think the setting up of decorated trees in honour of idol gods is except the works of mens hands? Wheather it was done thousands of years ago or last year; it is the same; idol worship; declared so by God's Word.

Do you think Jeremiah's word is Jeremiah's word or God's Word? Chapter 19 starts with these words: Thus saith the LORD--now I say this means Jeremiah is speaking God's Word.
Chapter 21 starts with these words: The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD.

So, that establishes that this is God's Word. At least it does to me.

Now, Jer. 20:14---Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let NOT the day wherein my mother bare me be the blessed.

Is that MAN deciding this or God?

Job 3:3--Let the day PERISH wherein I was born---
Is that God's Word or some man's?
That is what you must decide---do you reject this book as God's Word? Do you disclaim it? Do you call it man's Word?

If it is indeed God's Word, why do you not obey it?

Answer for yourself----all of you. WHY is this silly holiday more important to you (Christians?)---than obeying God?

The 'ax' will again be laid to the 'root' of the 'trees' today. John's 'ax' cut down the poluted O.T. tree, the idol filled unfaithful Israelites of the O.T.

Today, the ax will again cut down this poluted church tree.

All who disobey the Word of God will be in that number. The truth is all that is encouraging; what good is a 'false' encouraging mesage?

All of the holidays are from pagan origin; therefore they are not in any kind of way part of worship to the true God.

Many, who do not wish to give up their 'beloved' holidays, seek to find a 'legal' way to insert them into their worship. But, this will never be acceptable to God. You may deceive yourself into believing that it is all right, but according to the Word of God, it is an abomination to God.

The only time Easter is mentioned in the Word of God is in Acts 12. The Jehovah's Witnesses, not understanding the revelation of this Scripture, made the mistake of saying it is mistranslated.

You cannot set yourself, or anyone else, up as judges of God's Word; you must accept it all, just as it is given to us.

The true faith accepts and believes the whole Word.

So, what is the answer to Acts 12:1-6? If you will read this carefully, you will see that it was not the Christians, but the evil Herod, who was keeping Easter.

So, to say this is a mistranlation, is to keep one from ever really seeing this truth. The Word said that Herod had already killed James and had taken Peter and put him into prison; intending AFTER EASTER to bring Peter forth to the people.

So, why would this evil man, killing the apostles, have 'honored' a Christian holiday? See, it was Herod who was keeping this pagan day. Else, he would have brought him forth, without any regard for this Day.

JO

[Jo Smith]

From: joie Sent: 10/22/2001 5:55 PM
Nonny, and all the rest of you: if you think that you can just 'do what soever is right in your own eyes, and this will be acceptable to God and give you salvation, you are being sent a strong delusion, which will cause you to loose your soul.

This is not 'nit picking'; this is of the very most importance. Just because, your little foolish 'shepherds' did not tell you truth; (for they were after your money) (they are only 'heirlings)---does not mean that this is not the very most imporant thing you will ever hear. You think just because you, at one time said, I believe, forgive me, you think that assures you a home in Heaven, you are very badly mistaken. You truly need to do some more serious studing of the Scriptures.

You will not have salvation worshiping devil idols. I am not judging anyone; nor am I telling you anything: I am giving you the Word of God. If I don't tell you Scripture for what I say, then you can accuse me of doing this myself.

But, I tell you, it is your false shepherds who judge that you can just 'worship' any way you please and still have salvation; for they can not give you one Word of Scripture to back this false statement up.

So they are the ones judging and misleading people. I am telling you what THUS SAITH THE LORD; for it is Scripture. Please read my new message, Worship- God's way. It is full of Scripture.

I am not here for instructions on how I should teach: My God already taught me what He wants me to say and how to do it.

Jo