Here comes Santa Claus.....

Every year around December 25th, the kids come out of school. What a season of joy it is. The family traditions that our lives are built upon, setting up the tree, putting presents around the tree for all the ones we love, holding to the usual customs and traditions of the what we believe to be the early church customs. We hold our family get togethers, take the kids to see Santa Claus, and sing Happy Birthday to our Savior. We often have warm and fuzzy feelings about this time of the year.

But...theres a small little problem with this celebration. Not that its not done in a good spirit, but the origins of these customs are what most Christians today are ignorant of. The issue we arrive is the hellenism of the culture, which is centered around, sadly enough paganism. These customs that have surfaced, not just this one, but all Western traditions are centered around these hellenistic practices. Through only the fault of some irresponsible early church figures, we have blindly accepted these customs as Godly holidays.

We said that we were going to look at 2 Kings, well, heres the appropriate time for this. 2 Kings 17 states "11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger. 12 They worshiped idols, though the LORD had said, "You shall not do this." [b] 13 The LORD warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: "Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your fathers to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets."
14 But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, "Do not do as they do," and they did the things the LORD had forbidden them to do.
16 They forsook all the commands of the LORD their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in [c] the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19 and even Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20 Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.
21 When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin. 22 The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23 until the LORD removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.
Samaria Resettled 24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. 25 When they first lived there, they did not worship the LORD; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. 26 It was reported to the king of Assyria: "The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires."
27 Then the king of Assyria gave this order: "Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires." 28 So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the LORD.
29 Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. 30 The men from Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men from Cuthah made Nergal, and the men from Hamath made Ashima; 31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. 33 They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. 33 They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.
34 To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the LORD nor adhere to the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 When the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: "Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. 36 But the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. 37 You must always be careful to keep the decrees and ordinances, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. 38 Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. 39 Rather, worship the LORD your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."

What a stern warning that God has given to all of the future generations here. But this requires special attention to the holidays and feasts that we celebrate because of these stern warnings given by God. God tells us not to follow pagan holidays. So the question then becomes, are we following a pagan holiday when we celebrate Christmas?

Well for one, and most to all Christians will tell you this, Yeshua was not born on the 25th of December. Based off of this fact alone, and given so much evidential support that Yeshua was born on the 1st of Nisan, or from the Graeco-Roman calendar, March 20, 6 B.C. you would think it would be so easy for a Christian to be open to giving up this celebration. But its not. For one, most Christians are not even aware of this date. Secondly, there has grown an attachment to this date of celebration. You would be amazed at the fire and anger that some Christians will throw at you when you tell them the origins of this holiday.

But in being faithful to the truth, one must look closely at origins and honestly seek his word. The Bible tells us not to lean on our own understanding, but rather on the understanding of God. So if the origin is not of God....what does Yeshua say? If its not of God, its against God. Hellenized Christians understand this as the "either/or principle." Not only today am I going to show you that this holiday is not of God, but I'm further going to show you where the roots of this holiday are from, thereby exposing its Paganistic roots.

What most Christians don't understand is that Ishtar and Saturnalia were two of the most commonly celebrated holidays by the Romans nearly 1700 years ago. We're going to get to Ishtar later. Saturnalia though is an interesting holiday, whose roots centered around oddly enough the celebration of the sacrificing of children to Molech! It was a day of worship in which the god Saturn would be recognized with Kronos. The Greek word Kronos has become developed to mean something that correlates with something that you might be wearing on your wrists right now. Its a watch and a time clock. Kronos in its symbolization is the equivalent of what we know today as "Father Time." Naive as it may be, Christians are honoring these gods each year when they take their children to see Santa Claus.

For more on Saturn, I present this to you "
Saturn* (mythology), in Roman mythology, ancient god of agriculture. In later legends he was identified with the Greek god Cronus, who, after having been dethroned by his son Zeus (in Roman mythology, Jupiter), fled to Italy, where he ruled during the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and happiness. Beginning on December 17 of each year, during the festival known as the Saturnalia, the Golden Age was restored for seven days. All business stopped and executions and military operations were postponed. It was a period of goodwill, devoted to banquets and the exchange of visits and gifts. A special feature of the festival was the freedom given to slaves, who during this time had first place at the family table and were served by their masters.

The week of December 17-25th each year (with the culmination being on December 25th) would exemplify this celebration of the Greek god Saturnus, which derives from Molech. Is there any wonder that Christmas trees have been associated with this holiday? 1000s of years ago, these Christmas trees with presents under them were known as Ashteroth poles. And funny enough, it is these very Ashteroth poles that we are told not to honor. Why? Because this is based around a Canaanite religious practice to honor the Ugarithic mother goddess Asherah. Pagans would set up trees to honor Asherah. This correlates perfectly with the practice of Christmas (unfortunately). Jeremiah 3:13 even declares " 13 Only acknowledge your guilt— you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,' " declares the LORD. " The KJV goes further with this to show you another word for "spreading" tree. "13Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD." This word can also mean "green" tree. Hopefully this is opening the door for people to see their errors (it did for me).

Ooops.

Have no fear, our God is a God of grace and forgiveness though. All we have to do is turn away from these pagan customs, and return back to the God of Israel, keeping his commandments and decrees. As silly as this sounds to Christians, God does not want us to celebrate Christmas. It is within his word. I pray that we may turn back to God, so that he will forgive us for the hellenistic customs that we were following, and go back to God's outline for a holy living...living according to the Torah.