Because of Don's heritage and orientation, I have learned a great deal about Jewish and Christian history. One day in 1995, I got tired of just listening to what people told me about the bible, so I started reading it myself.
I came to know about salvation and got saved through my readings; I read the whole 66 books of the bible and I still read it for my daily devotion. I do not have a "religion" and I do not follow a church dogma - I follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and I have a personal relationship with Christ. I am a Christian and I attend a Christian bible believing church. Now that we got that out, let's talk about Christmas.
December 25 is not Jesus birthday. No one knows the day or the month, except that is was cold.
The early church celebrated the biblical feasts established by God in the Torah but Constantine not only divorced the church from Judaism, he married the church into paganism. The paganization of Christianity under Constantine replaced the biblical feasts with a new set of holidays, one of which is Christmas.*
Before the time of Constantine, early Christians never celebrated Christ's birthday. But the pagan Romans had long celebrated December 25 as the birthday of Mithras (the Persian Sun-god) which the Emperor Aurelian (year 274) had actually designated as an official Roman holiday.
Also known as Saturnalia, Mithras birthday was one of the Romans favorite festivals, a time for good cheer and gift giving. On that one day, masters would serve their slaves and Romans would give food to the children of the poor. Constantine claimed to be a Christian but did not seem to understand who Jesus was, but he was a devoted follower of Mithras. One day he saw the vision of the cross in the sky next to the sun, he apparently assumed that Jesus was a manifestation of Mithras. So Saturnalia was declared a Christian holiday...Christmas -the birthday of Jesus.
I love both holidays; Christmas, to remind us of the birth of Christ who is the Light of the world and Hanukkah, the feast of lights. But remember, without the resurrection, Yshua's birth would just be like any baby's birth. Resurrection is the capstone of Christianity and without it we are still in our sins. Enjoy Christmas because Jesus said " I have come to set the captives free."
Page 47-48 Dr. Robert Heidler -Messianic Church Arising
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment