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The question is, do you really want to know the truth or; do you want to continue in what you have been taught by your parents or culture? The reality is that most people are too lazy to study truth, or too biased to accept it, so they continue in their philosophies and traditions even though they are wrong! Read Colossians 2:8.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 says, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

The Scriptures clearly warn us that people are deceived, cheated and even damned because they do not desire to know and accept the truth. As we studied in Part One, this is clearly the reason why so many people are suffering from various sicknesses and diseases and why they have other problems with their marriages and relationships. Is not the failure to love truth the reason why there is such a lack of power and anointing in our churches today?

2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Before you proceed any further, make sure you have read, “The Church Has Divorced Itself From Its Roots Part One and Part Two” on foods not created for people to eat and God’s Word vs The Pharisees’ Law. In Part One, I laid the foundation for this article you are now reading. As I have mentioned before, our salvation is not based on what we eat, but our health most assuredly is. Part One and Two of this series may be controversial, but the truth of today’s message cannot be denied. In Part Two, I distinguished that the difference between the Word or laws of God (Jesus) and the Pharisees’ law is grace! This series should not cause division or strife. The important questions each person needs to ask themselves are, 1) do I really want to live as Christ instructs for health and prosperity? and 2) do I flaunt the liberty I have in Christ Jesus out of sheer ignorance, laziness, stupidity or stubbornness? Any excuses should not negate going against Scripture in food or lifestyle. You will get sick faster, die quicker and probably still go to heaven since your eternal salvation (life) is not based on what you eat. Just your physical salvation (health) is.

I am convinced that people cannot come up with the correct answers to so many issues in the Scriptures because they have not prepared themselves properly. If you want to take algebra, geometry, calculus or trigonometry, you must first take mathematics and basic algebra before advancing to more difficult courses. The same with understanding the Scriptures. Most people continually take Scripture out of context because they have not taken the advanced preparatory courses. In other words, they have not complied with 2 Timothy 2:15. In algebra, before you can solve the equation you must understand the correct formula. The same goes for Scripture. Just because one reads a verse does not mean the verse stands alone and is the answer. One must understand the other verses or the totality of the Scriptures to come up with the correct interpretation or answer. For example, 1 Timothy 4:5 tells us that the meat we eat is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer—not just prayer. So if Scripture warns us against eating it, then prayer will not sanctify it for health purposes––just eternal life. Therefore, you will get sick and when you call the elders to pray for healing, they will need to lead you into confession and repentance for violating the Scriptures and pray that God will have mercy and grace to heal you.

Paul in his epistles was always correcting the ‘Ekklesia’ because many of them had allowed their culture to affect them. These people had been influenced by their culture and brought much of society’s traditions and philosophies into the churches. This is where Paul ran into some of his problems, trying to correct some of their pagan traditions. Some people reject an apostle, prophet or pastor because of sacred traditions taught to them by their parents. Anger rises up, and they become proud and belligerent when truth is shared with them.

The Origin of Christmas

This truth, if accepted, will lead you into a deeper understanding and relationship with Jesus as you and your family incorporate true Biblical events into your calendar days to remember each year. In America, we celebrate events that are shameful, sinful, and sometimes originated with pagan roots, such as Halloween. It is time Christians understand what the holidays they are celebrating really mean. They might determine to discontinue them and begin celebrating great historical events that the first century Christians celebrated—miracles Jesus wanted His Bride to remember. This reality could cause some of you to be upset, mad and even depressed momentarily as you are awakened to the truth. You are faced with a decision of whether to ignore it by pretending it’s really not applicable for today so that you can continue with the philosophies and traditions with which you were raised. (Colossians 2:8). I am convinced that nothing makes people manifest anger and hostility more quickly than the controversy of traditions, philosophies and holidays with pagan roots taught by men and birthed by demons. (Matthew 15:9; 16:12; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; Revelation 2:14; Colossians 2:20-22; Hebrews 13:9; Mark 7:7-9 etc.)

Brethren, the following Scriptures are so vital for understanding, reception and unity. James 1:19-20, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” Galatians 4:16, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”

I constantly hear people say, “if it is not in the Bible then we should not accept it.” “If it is not in the Bible then we should not teach it.” “If it is not in the Bible then we should not do it.” Some of these people are very good sincere people, while others are proud, self-righteous and ignorant.

Personally, I have always looked forward to the Christmas holiday season, but did you know that Christmas is not found anywhere in the Bible? Did you know that nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to celebrate the birth date of Jesus? Did you know that the first century Church did not celebrate the date of Jesus’ birth? Did you know that December 25th is not the true birth date of Jesus? On December 25th, I am with my family and we are drawn closer to one another and our faith in Jesus Christ. I teach them and we remember the events and miracles of Jesus throughout the year during the times they actually took place. Worship, praise, testimonies, prayer, Scriptures and communion are all part of the holidays as the priest of the home leads the family into the ways and understanding of God. PTL

Now these truths that you are about to read should not cause you to separate from family or friends, or to leave the fellowship of the brethren to which you belong. I still attend and support churches and ministries that celebrate Christmas, or put up a Christmas tree, as long as other issues dealing with righteousness, holiness and sin are still correct. Differing opinions on holidays, or one’s belief in pre-, mid- or post-tribulation rapture should not separate brethren. These are not salvation or eternal life issues such as continual sin in adultery, abortion, homosexuality, et cetera! I definitely believe in the rapture, but does one’s friendship or relationship in ministry depend on which position they take? God forbid that such doctrine unessential to our salvation could cause dissension! Jesus is very saddened over how the enemy uses such nonsense to cause division between the brethren.

As I mentioned earlier, Christmas is not found in the Scriptures. In fact, “The early Americans refused to allow the pagan holidays of Christmas and Halloween; both were illegal in America the first fifty years.”¹ Many of you know that Halloween is a very pagan holiday, but fewer realize that Christmas also has very pagan roots. “Bible scholars and knowledgeable historians concur that Jesus the Messiah was not born at the pagan festival of the Saturnalia, on December 25th, but at the Hebrew/Christian Feast of the Tabernacles, which is in the fall of the year.”² Again, Christmas is not found in the Bible and Christmas should not arouse emotions to separate people who decide to teach others the true origin of Christmas. I personally believe we do not see a genuine powerful revival in America because most Christians compromise on every issue to avoid rejection, criticism and persecution as finally most of the Christians did 300 years after Jesus ascended.

“In year 325, Constantine adopted ‘Christianity’ as the official religion of the Eastern Roman Empire, called Byzantium.”³ “Constantine was the son of a Roman emperor. After his father died, he felt he was the rightful heir to the throne of the Roman Empire...So, Constantine took his army and marched against Rome. He had the support of the pagans because he himself worshiped Baal, the sun god. Constantine was vastly outnumbered by the army of his enemy, Maxentius, which stood between him and the throne. He needed the support of the Christians to be victorious. History tells us that a sign of the cross appeared in the sky promising victory for Constantine and his army. He had this cross put on the shields of his soldiers. However, this cross was the Ankh, a symbol for the sun god and NOT the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Constantine succeeded in gaining the support of the Christians and took over as Emperor in 312 A.D. He now professed to be a ‘Christian’ and sprinkled his soldiers with water, making them instant ‘Christians.’ There was no true repentance and forgiveness for sin nor profession of faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This entire ritual was A FARCE!...When Rome conquered the world, the various forms of Babylonian religion were absorbed into the Roman Empire, becoming what is known as PAGAN ROME. Emperor Constantine was successful in uniting Christianity at Rome with the pagan Babylonian religion (Baal worship). In 325 A.D. he set up the ‘Council of Nicaea’ and presided as the ‘Summus Pontifex’ (the official title of a pope).”⁴

“One of the trade marks of the Constantinic Era, is that he changed the Biblical seasons and Feasts. He also set himself to be the head of the State Church. Constantine was a sun worshiper until the day of his death. He was never born again, and yet the whole Church fell into his trap. In the book of Daniel, (Daniel 7:25), we read that the Anti Christ will change the times and the seasons. Constantine was a type of Anti Christ. He forbade to celebrate Passover and instead instituted Easter, a feast and a name derived from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. He also changed the day of rest to Sunday instead of the Shabbat, (Friday night to Saturday night), because he was a sun worshiper that worshiped his ‘god’ the sun on the Sunday. The entire church fell into his trap because Constantine commanded the persecution against Christians to cease. Until then believers were being, thrown to the lions for their faith. Persecution was tremendously fierce during the time of the Roman Empire. So when Constantine declared a ‘peace treaty’, the believers, exhausted of persecution, welcomed the ‘peace treaty’ and thus compromised their faith. A compromise that has cost the lives of far more people than if the persecution would have continued.”⁵

“Much of what is observed today in the celebration of Christmas is directly from the pagan rites of ancient Babylon. The date of celebration -December 25- was the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of the sun god from Babylon, and it was in the 5th century A.D. that the Roman Catholic church instituted this date to observe the birth of Christ. The Christmas tree also originated with ancient Babylon. Semiramis, the mother of Tammuz, claimed that overnight an evergreen tree sprang up from a dead tree stump. This new evergreen tree symbolized her dead husband Nimrod that supposedly came to life again in the form of her illegitimate son, Tammuz. This idea spread and developed so that tree worship-complete with gilded balls symbolizing the sun-and all the festivities of pagan winter solstice and Druidic ceremonies (holly, mistletoe) were absorbed into Christmas Day. God warned His people to avoid all such practices and celebrations. Little has changed since the days of Pagan Rome when this time of the year was celebrated by giving gifts and by drunkenness and debauchery.”⁶

Jeremiah 10:2-4 says, “Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 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. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.”

Rood stated, “I had followed the traditions of my church and family, without questioning their origins, for the better part of 40 years. After years of careful thought and study, I found that the vast majority of my Christian holy day traditions and methods of celebration are directly traceable to the Babylonian and Egyptian roots of sun god worship. I also found that even though the knowledge of these pagan roots is widespread, those who are aware of its occult origins casually compromise with these worldly traditions. We Christians should have dug back to our faith roots long ago. We should have based our holidays on the holidays of our spiritual ancestors, the Hebrew Christians, rather than continuing the occult practices of Babylon. These original faith roots were ‘executed’ out of the church under the bloody hand of Popes during the dark ages. However, that should not keep the church from challenging the infiltration of the world’s philosophies and traditions from year to year. Too often comfort with the world system holds a higher priority than truth. The Babylonian black mass developed from the worship of Baal. Jesus exposed Baal worship as the shrouded worship of Satan. It is the mass to the child Tammuz, adapted by the Roman church, that replaced the true celebrations of God’s holy days. The holy days that were celebrated for centuries by...the early church. Years of stalwart faith had them living in the catacombs under Rome. After years of tribulation under the hand of the Roman government, they accepted Constantine’s compromised paganism to a ‘new form of Christianity’. That little leaven of compromise eventually leavened the whole lump. The western church forsook all of the assemblies, including the holy days of unleavened bread. They no longer ‘burned’ the ‘adulterated’ loaves of compromise each year. They had forsaken not only the reminder holiday, they had forsaken the act of analyzing their lives and traditions in the light of the scriptures. They no longer burned those compromised activities as an offering to the Lord in an act of obedience, keeping their lives uncontaminated by the world. The church in Colossi had compromised with the world in the same fashion, as we see in Paul’s letter to them: Colossians 2:8...The context is the contrast between following the truth of Jesus Christ and following the perverted philosophies and worldly traditions of men who find their roots in the pantheistic, materialistic paganism of their day.”⁷

Once again, I am convinced that we see no genuine revival in most American churches because the Church has compromised her position with the Lord. Again, if it does not really matter when Jesus was born, why do we celebrate it at all since Christmas is not in the Bible? If dates do not really matter then celebrate your wife’s birth date or anniversary two or three months late or early. If dates do not really matter then why celebrate at all? It’s so very clear that in order to prevent rejection, criticism or persecution, the majority of churches and Christians compromise the truth in order to be accepted by society just as the third century church did under Constantine. Many pastors are afraid to speak the truth lest their “giving units” get offended and they lose some of their tithes.

The reality is that Jesus is highly offended and disappointed. He grieves over the condition of his Bride who has become in many cases a whore. A whore is a lady who has broken her loyalty to her husband. The Bride of Jesus Christ has broken her loyalty to him to compromise with society.

Yes, it does not matter to most Christians, but it does matter to the Holy Angels, to God the Father, to Jesus Christ and to Satan and his demons. The devil and his fallen angels laugh as they watch society and the sick American Church compromise by celebrating Christmas on a pagan god’s special holiday date instead of Jesus’ birth date. During Christmas, they watch people merry making in drunken debauchery with no thought of Jesus Christ. When we say “Merry Christmas”, to most of society it does not mean let us worship Jesus, but means go have a party and have a good time. Jesus is the farthest thing from their mind! Church, let us cover ourselves with robes of righteousness and pull down our dress since much of the Bride has had their dress lifted so that their nakedness is showing.

Please, do not be offended or disappointed! We as Christian parents are not losing any special times with the children we are raising. Since December 25th is a holiday, my wife and I make it a special day for our children. My married daughter and new son join us at our home and we have a family day of worship including the reading of the Word, communion and prayer. We exchange Jesus presents and have a wonderful meal with fellowship throughout the day including family games. We do not put up a tree or have Santa Claus stories, as they take away from our focus on Jesus. Instead, I teach my children what society is doing and why they are doing it. The children can see how wrong it is. When I explained for the first time last year to my five-year-old daughter, immediately she understood and did not want us to put up a tree. We do not use the word Christmas as I have taught my children through sharing the truth what it really means. My children have understood and accepted it. They do not want anything to do with pagan roots. They only want to please Jesus. I have found that it is actually many parents who want to cling to their traditions rather than start new ones with their families that are more Biblically correct.

I know this information is shocking to many of you. I personally studied this for many years before finally changing our habits on December 25th. Since 1986, I have put up a Christmas tree approximately 3 times. Each time I had become slack in my convictions until once again studying and researching it over, I became convinced how wrong and pagan its origins really are. My children even began saying, “This is wrong, why do it?” This confirmed to me not to backslide in this area again. Fellow believers, our family has not lost any joy, happiness or special times with each other or with Jesus. We have all grown and gained much happiness together as the joys of special events and miracles are remembered. I teach my family the miracles God did for His people to bring about the exodus from Egypt, the reason Jesus came to earth born of a virgin, His death and resurrection.

The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates God dwelling with men in tabernacles or tents in the wilderness. The Gospel of John tells of the first prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles when Jesus came to earth to tabernacle amongst men (virgin birth and His life). We look forward to Jesus returning to earth in His Second Coming to tabernacle with us. My family also will be remembering the Passover, as this also is a great event of God’s miraculous acts. Whether Jesus was born at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles or the Passover as some argue is inconclusive. The importance is not on his birth date, but on the reality of Jesus and our relationship with Him. My family remembers the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover by reading stories of Jesus birth, His resurrection and God’s miracles seen in the exodus and wilderness. In our home we start in October setting up different scenes in our living room. We will be doing this through the month of April as we commemorate the great events (miracles) of God. A tabernacle tent goes up in October followed by the angelic scene where the angels appeared before the shepherds announcing Jesus’ birth. Then at the beginning of December, the village of Bethlehem is displayed with the manger set. We continue to put up the city of Jerusalem celebrating the Passover with a scene of Jesus last supper. Next we set up the crucifixion scene with the veil tearing in half along with His resurrection. Saints, this celebration is fun and educational for the entire family. For six months the family is spending time together purchasing, building and setting up these scenes in the living room rather than of just one afternoon spent going to get a Christmas tree. In addition, the parents can develop and teach their children the ways of God as they present the special days of miracles and events in God’s calendar. You can enjoy your family and worship and praise the Lord God’s way throughout the year as well as on December 25th!

If I were currently pastoring a church, I would have a special service on December 25th titled “The Real Story of Christmas” and have a beautiful anointed service leading people to Jesus while sharing with them the origins and roots of Christmas. As I have with my children, I would carefully, tastefully and wisely explain to people so they would understand, accept and be led to Jesus. Blessings and have a beautiful time with your family during the holidays teaching your children the real stories and miracles of Jesus.

¹ The Day of the Lord is at Hand: Binyamin Baruch, pg. 103.

² The Mystery of Iniquity: Michael John Rood, pg. 157.

³ The Healing Power of the Roots: Dominiquae Bierman, pg. 20.

⁴ The Mystery of Babylon Revealed: Ed Mitchell, pg. 29.

⁵ Bierman, pg. 21.

⁶ Mitchell, pg. 179.

⁷ Rood, pg. 158-159.

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