Seven Things You May Not Know about Christmas
There is debate among some Christians about whether we should celebrate Christmas or not. I think we can if we scrape the lies off the Truth and celebrate it as it should be celebrated, as the birth of the Saviour, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, on earth.
Isaac Munter, pastor of a church in Bethelem, said there will be no festive Christmas celebrations this year in his church because of the destruction and death in Gaza. But I think we can still praise the Father for sending His Son to earth to be our savior!
Angels of God notified shepherds of the birth of Christ and celebrated the fact.
Luke 2:11-14 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
My wife and I are against the trappings of this world related to the Christmas season. We will never put up a tree or use any other symbols we consider to be Roman paganism.
When I lived in Japan, I took advantage of Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter (I’d rather call it Resurrection Sunday), to tell the Japanese about Jesus. It’s a great time to share the Gospel in non-Christian nations. Many Japanese have never heard the Gospel even once. One Japanese lady used to think Jesus was born in America!
Some things many people may not know:
- December 25th is supposed to be a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But the date chosen was in fact based on pagan tradition, a Roman custom called “Sol Invictus” meaning, rebirth of the sun! In other words, the December 25th holiday is really based on sun worship. Just think about it: Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, occurs either on December 21st or 22nd depending on the shift of the calendar. The day starts to get longer finally from the 25th, hence, the “rebirth of the sun.” The Bible does not specify the date that Jesus was born. He probably was not born in the winter because Luke chapter 2 says that at the time of His birth were, “shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night”. Shepherds usually don’t graze their flocks in winter.
- People who call themselves Christians do not all celebrate December 25th as the birthday of Christ. The Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 7th.
- Some dedicated and sincere Christians refuse to celebrate Christmas at all because of the materialism the worldly merchants promote at this time.
- December 25th is the 359th day of the year. The first time the word Satan appears in the King James version of the Bible is in 1 Chronicles chapter 21 – the 359th chapter! I have researcher, Al Neal to thank for this fact. But I also confirmed this for myself by adding up the chapters using OpenOffice Calc (the same as Excel). According to Al Neal, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for Satan is also 359! See http://www.jewfaq.org/alephbet.htm that Hebrew letters can be converted to numbers.
- Santa is Satan when you move the third letter N to the end of the name.
- Christmas trees, mistletoe, jingle bells, etc. are related to paganism. The trees especially are related to pagan Druidism. The evergreen tree is based on sun worship. The sun’s energy turns plants green. Druids therefore worshiped the sun through the evergreen tree.
- Many Japanese do not know that Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of the birth of the Son of God to earth. They celebrate Christmas by eating some cake with tea on the evening of December 25th. The only reason they acknowledge Christmas at all is because of Western, and especially American influence.