Preface

Let’s consider five things every Messianic should know about Christmas. Indeed, there are numerous other things to consider beyond this simple list of five, but these five constitute a great starting point.

Christmas now being upon us, I felt that I would be remiss if I did not at least post something about this horror-day.

We have published a number of podcast episodes over the last few years besmirching Christmas. Each of these postings served specific purposes: to educate, enlighten,and to express outrage and disappointment. These episodes were received with quiet acceptance and passing nods.

It would appear to me that by now, most Messianics are thoroughly aware of the problems associated with Christmas. Yet, there are segments of believers in our ranks that still keep Christmas for various and sundry reasons. Still others have more of a laissez-faire attitude about the whole thing. These individuals see no harm in keeping the day along with its traditions. Why? Because there’s not enough compelling proof of the pagan origins of the day; according to some.

So the lines have now been essentially drawn. Most Messianics do not keep Christmas for obvious reason. While on the other hand, there is a small, but troubling minority of Messianics who refuse to give up the day.

Realizing that these lines had been drawn now for quite some time, I saw no reason to re-invent the wheel (so to speak) on the topic of Christmas. Most Messianics just want to be left alone and go about their day and not be reminded of Christmas at all. I most definitely get and respect that.

However, Hebrew Roots and the Messianic Faith continue to grow each year. Thus we have a sizable number of newbies who may or may not know the problems associated with Christmas.

I receive on a frequent basis, a number of questions from readers and listeners, on basic elements and points of our Faith. I love that. And I just don’t want to assume that everyone who comes in contact with this ministry is fully aware of the dangers associated with Christmas.

So, at the risk of alienating the mature segment of our reader and listener base, I have decided to discuss five things Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah must know about Christmas.

1. The Obvious Pagan Ties to Christmas.

One of the most fundamental requirements imposed upon the Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua is that we are prohibited in following the ways of the heathen nations.

Indeed, Tammuz plays a prominent role in any quest to discover the true origins of Christmas.

In preparing us to conquer and move into the land of promise, Father relayed to us the following:

“These are the statutes and judgments; the instruction, which you must observe to do in the land which Yahovah, the Elohim of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live upon the earth. You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations you shall drive out worshiped their elohim (i.e., their gods)—on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree—You must destroy their altars, break down their sacred pillars; images of the sun-god Baal, and burn their sacred poles; Asherah poles. Cut down the images of their elohim and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship Yahovah your Father in such ways.”

“Be careful not to be ensnared into following them by asking about their elohim, saying: How did these nations serve their elohim? I also will do the same. You must not worship Yahovah your Father in their way, for every abomination to Yahovah, which He hates, they have done to their elohim. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their elohim. Whatsoever I command you, be careful to observe and do it, you shall not add to it, nor take away from it (Deuteronomy 12:1-4; 30-32; Book of Yahweh, adjusted by me).”

It is an obvious fact that many evangelical scholars openly recognize the pagan ties associated with Christmas. These scholars even note that the pagan origin of the holiday spans the ages: from ancient Babylonia’s Nimrod and Tammuz worship festivals, through the Roman Empire and the worship and festivals tied to gods Saturn and Mithra.

Sadly, these scholars and teachers go to great lengths to marginalize the horrendous problems associated with the people of Yahovah adopting and keeping such celebrations. Yet the early adherents to Catholicism had no problem bringing with them into the Church their pagan festivals and traditions, and neither did the Church hierarchy.

As it pertains to Christmas, we can easily trace back to the Roman festival of Saturnalia (12/17-24), which was followed by Brumalia (12/25), which the people joined with the various winter solstice observances (winter solstice being the shortest day of the year, followed by a lengthening of the day and renewing of the sun, so it would seem), were all millennia-old practices that the Church knew would be virtually impossible to erase from the hearts and minds of the new converts to Catholicism.

One very interesting thing to point out here before moving further along in this reflection is that the first-century Assembly of Messianic Believers in Yeshua Messiah did not celebrate or keep Christmas. It was common knowledge that birthday observance was a custom of the heathen nations, but not a Hebrew practice. In fact, the two-examples where the Bible cites birthday observances were clearly tied to pagan practices, and neither of those celebrations ended well for all concerned (reference Genesis 40:20-22 and Matthew 14:6-11).

It was customary, however, for Hebrews and Messianics to observe the anniversaries marking the deaths of remarkable and revered persons of the Faith. In fact, it was our Master who instituted for us the Last Supper/Communion celebration to commemorate His pending sacrifice (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:17-20).

It was not until the fifth-century C.E. that the Church Triumphant ordered that Christmas be observed as an official Christian festival or holy-day.

As the Catholic Church broadened her reach throughout the Roman Western Empire, she began absorbing long-established and practiced pagan festivals, turning them into supposed Christian holy-days, such as the Roman Feast of Saturnalia and Brumalia. The absorption of these pagan festivals was not to simply replace them with Christian symbolism and meaning, but to increase the church membership rolls and bring in more money to fill the church’s coffers.

Thus the Church Triumphant took the route most easily traveled with the attitude, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” but with a more devious twist attached to it: “Retain the customs of the heathen, idol temples…rededicated as Christian Churches and heathen festivals renamed as those of Christian Saints (LeRay E. Froom—Prophetic Faith of our Fathers, Vol. 1).”

William Walsh, in his book entitled “The Story of Santa Claus:” “This was no mere accident. It was a necessary measure at a time when the new religion was forcing itself upon a deeply superstitious people. In order to reconcile fresh converts to the new faith, and to make the breaking of old ties as painless as possible, these relics of paganism were retained under the modified forms, in the same way that antique columns, transferred from pagan temples, became parts of the new church built by Christians in honor of their god and his saints.”

This evil but brilliant act set into motion the framework by which the worship of the sun god in all his various forms and iterations throughout the ages: Nimrod, Ba’al, Molech, Apollo, Saturn and Mithra, could be easily infused into the Christian Faith, making everyone concerned, big, fat, dumb and happy.

This was not man’s doing entirely. Satan (i.e., hasatan) holds great responsibility in perpetrating this great fraud. Revelation 12:9 reveals of this insane mastermind:

“…ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world…”

And you would think on the surface that the Catholic Church would be ashamed of this insidious history, but she isn’t in the least. The Vatican has over the years been quite open about the processes employed by her to grow her membership rolls and worldwide influence.

True to form, however, over the course of many centuries, the memories of the true origins of the customs and traditions associated with Christmas have grossly faded and been replaced with the warm and fuzzy of this horror-day season.

Every tradition associated with Christmas has strong pagan origins attached to them which I will not touch upon in this post. Such information, if you are interested, may be easily researched simply by employing the Mind of Messiah and utilizing the power of the worldwide web to your research advantage.

2. Like the Weekly Sabbath, Christmas is a test case.

As was done by Father to test our ability to follow and obey His instructions in our coming out of Israel, I believe Christmas has a similar usefulness, so to speak, to the Father.

Does Jeremiah 10:2-5 describe the Christmas tree as pagan?

When Sabbath was reintroduced to us by Father just after our departure from Egypt, some of us had a very difficult time keeping the day as Father instructed us to. As a result of us not keeping it according to Father’s instructions, there were resulting consequences (Exodus 16).

The role Christmas plays in a Torah Observant Believer’s life is similar to that of the early Sabbath instructions. If we refuse to give up Christmas—for whatever reason—then we are prone to compromising our Faith. I submit that Christmas tests our ability to resist compromise of our Faith.

We know that Christmas is tied to paganism and thus not something that we should be observing or keeping. However, because we are not strong enough to resist the tug and pull of the season; we fear ridicule by family, friends and co-workers; we love all the trappings associated with the day; we see everyone celebrating it, we will likely have problems keeping Father’s set apart days—His Feasts. There is no room for mixing and matching here. Father requires absolute loyalty to His way of life. Compromising the Faith by keeping Christmas does not go over well with Father.

Paul instructed the following to the Assembly of Messianic Believers in Corinth:

“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to those who are wise; you judge what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Messiah? The bread that we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Messiah? For we, being many, are one body and one bread, because we are all partakers of the bread. Consider Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What then am I saying? That an idol is anything, or that which is sacrificed to an idol is anything? But that which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not wish you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Master and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Master and the table of demons. Now do we provoke the Master to jealousy? Are we stronger than He (I Corinthians 10:14-22)?”

We just finished the season of Hanukkah. We know that one of the great spiritual pearls to be gained from Hanukkah is developing and maintaining a spiritual strength within us, that is backed up by decisive actions, to never compromise our Faith. And when we succumb to any of the enticements of Christmas, we compromise our Faith and disobey Torah.

And just because the vast majority of the western world is celebrating Christmas is no excuse to keep the day. We just saw from Revelation 12:9 that the enemy, hasatan, deceives the whole world. We are supposed to know better. The world is deceived and they really don’t know better. Knowing better means that we must do better, does it not?

Even our Christian cousins are deceived over the issue of Christmas. Many of them sincerely believe that they are observing the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, because of the scales that have blinded them for going on two millennia, they worship the Creator and His Son in vain, observing the and keeping doctrines which are really commandments of men (Matthew 15:7-9 and Mark 7:7-9).

I guess, when we talk about Believers keeping Christmas or not, we are really talking about what is priority in each disciple of Yeshua Messiah’s life. As much as Yahovah’s ways and His Torah are for the benefit of the whole world, this Faith of ours is not for everyone. Master described the path that we must take to be His disciple as difficult and the gate to enter therein as narrow (Matthew 7:13,14).

Thus the world at large, be they Jewish, Christian, Islam or secularists reject our Faith. Our Faith does not work well for them and it does not meet their expectations for a religion that appeals to their personal sensibilities and preferences. That being said, Master described our numbers as little; more precisely, likening us to a little flock (Luke 12:32).

3. Messiah is Nowhere in Christmas

It has become well known and widely accepted that our Master, Yahoshua Messiah, was not born on December 25th. A few years ago, the Pope even admitted that Yeshua was not born on December 25th.

So why has the Church assigned December 25th as the day our Master was born? Well, it goes back to what we reflected upon in consideration number 1 of this installment. December 25th falls right around the time of the winter solstice and the pagan celebration of the birth of the sun-god—Saturn. The Roman sun-god and its associated celebration was handily absorbed by the Catholic Church under the guise that Christians would now celebrate the birth of the Son of God—even though it was pretty obvious that our Master was not born on December 25th. This of course went quite well in bridging the gaps that may have existed between those hardcore Saturnalists and Brumalists and Mathraists and the Church’s supposed focus on Jesus Christ as the God to be worshiped.

Unfortunately, most adherents to the Christian Faith have been trained to just accept what has been taught to them and not to question anything.

However, as disciples of Yeshua Messiah, we’ve been given the example of the Bereans where by we are to receive the Word in all readiness of mind and daily search the scriptures to determine what is true and what is not. And once we’ve determined what is acceptable to Abba, as well as what is not acceptable to Abba, we are compelled to hold up our end of the bargain—maintain our profession of Faith—and do that which is expected of us. There is no middle ground; no wiggle room in this. Wiggle room and middle ground is the genre of the enemy. If he can get us to give a little on those things prohibited by Torah, then he’s got us for life. It’s just a small matter for him and his minions to trick us into giving on other areas of Torah and teachinhs of Yeshua, until such time that we have compromised entirely on our Faith.

As innocent and righteous as honoring the birth of Master Yeshua may seem, it’s an abomination to Him and His Father. There is a saying often applied to the discussion of Messianics keeping Christmas: Keeping Christmas is tantamount to celebrating your wife’s birthday each year on your girlfriends birthday. No truer words have been spoken I’m afraid.

#4. Our Perceived Good Intentions Do Not Make the Keeping of Christmas Right and it Does Not Please the Father or the Son.

There’s not much more to add to this statement. Father was explicit: do not worship me the way the pagan nations of this world worship their gods (Deuteronomy 12:2-4,30-32; Jeremiah 10:2-5). I highly encourage you to spend this pagan holiday season studying and reflecting upon these two and their associated reference passages. In particular, Jeremiah 10 eerily describes to us the pagan origins of the Christmas tree which Father reiterates His distaste over this pagan tradition and practice.

Sure, I can understand Christmas as a holiday appears and feels just so right to someone who professes to love Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is an attractive holiday, with all the trappings that go with it. And I can easily see how some would take exception to such an adversarial position against the most revered and sacred holiday of the Christian calendar year.

But what may appear as good and wholesome and desirous to us may certainly not be good and wholesome to Yahovah our Elohim. The writer of Proverbs noted:

“ There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12).”

No longer are we to simply follow the instructions of man as it relates to our relationship with our Creator. Such man made instructions only lead to our destruction. Master revealed to the woman at Jacobs well in Samaria that:

“Woman believe Me: the hour is coming when you shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You do not know what you worship. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is indeed seeking those who worship Him in this manner. Yahovah is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24; New English Translation, adjusted by me).”

It comes down, under the renewed covenant, to us having the Holy Spirit operating in our lives and us no longer having to simply go through the motions of this life. The Holy Spirit gives us the power we need—if we are willing to give ourselves to His power and direction—to live a righteous Torah-based life in the midst of a corrupt and dying world and to be able to discern what is True from what is not true.

There are indeed individuals operating in our Faith Community who are teaching and spreading an anti-Torah gospel that is deceiving many. Those being deceived are deceived because they refuse to worship Father in Spirit and in Truth. Instead, these poor souls have chosen to follow those touting a doctrine of doom. Peter wrote the following:

“These false prophets are fountains without water, clouds driven by a storm, for whom is reserved the blackest of darkness forever. For they speak bombastic words of vanity, enticing others through the lusts of the flesh by granting indulgences to sin, and ensnaring those who had indeed escaped from those who live in deception. While promising them freedom, they themselves are actually slaves of corruption because by whatever anyone is overcome, he is also held in bondage. For if after escaping the moral defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Master and Saviour Yahoshua Messiah, they again become entangled in them, and are overcome, the final end is worse than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. But the pronouncement found in the true proverb has happened to them: The dog has returned to eat his own vomit; and the sow that was washed has returned to her wallowing place in the filthy mire (2 Peter 2:16-22; New English Translation, adjusted by me).”

The Book of Jude gives a scathing warning for us not to give in to the thinking that we can do things the way we want to do things. Indeed, when it comes to Christmas, many in our midst feel that Father will honor them because they have the right intentions; that is, their heart is in the right place. Jude warns that such behavior is blasphemous and corrupt and in alignment with the way of Cain. Jude wrote:

“As for these, whatever things they do not understand, they blaspheme; but whatever things they understand by instinct, as irrational brute beasts, they are corrupting themselves in these things. Woe to them! For they have walked in the way of Cain; and for gain, they have wholly given themselves up to Balaam’s delusion, and have perished in the rebellion of Korah (Jude 10,11; New English Translation).”

Father tells us how He wants to be worshiped. We don’t have a say. As much as we may wish to show Father our love by our means and ways, it is only Father’s ways and means that matter. And when it comes to keeping Christmas, it is a day that Father would not have us, His Children, keep. Case closed.

Yet some may contend that we are under a new dispensation and everything as it relates to worship of Yahovah is based purely on love. Well, nice try. Love is defined by Yahovah who defined it to us through His Torah and the teachings of His Son Yeshua Messiah. Nothing has changed. The writer of Hebrews penned the following critical piece of information:

“Yeshua Messiah is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about by all kinds of strange doctrines…(Hebrews 13:8,9a; New English Translation).”

#5. And Lastly: Christmas is supposed to be tied to the birth of Messiah, yet there is no mention in the biblical or even extra-biblical records of first-century Messianic believers ever observing the birth of our Master. Yet millions around the world falsely believe that Christmas observance is wholly supported by the biblical record and that the observance of Christmas defines in great part what it means to be a Christian.

Contrary to the false illusion that Christmas observance is supported by the Bible, there are numerous examples of our Master and His Apostles keeping the Feasts of Yahovah during their ministries.

As much as most would like to believe, Christmas is not a biblically based holiday.

As citizens of heaven, we’ve been given a set of holy-days that we are required to observe. Unlike the pagan-laced traditions associated with Christmas, each of the 7-mandated Feasts of Yahovah have unfathomable Truths and significance attached to them. In addition, Father’s feasts brilliantly outline for us His plan to redeem the human race and transform us into His daughters and sons.

Christmas, Easter, Lent, Halloween, Saint Valentines Day—they hold nothing for the Truth seeking Believer in Yeshua Messiah apart from certain death and destruction.

Is keeping Christmas a salvation issue for the Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah? Well, I would say yes.

Yeshua told the Rich Young Man:

“If you will enter into life, keep the commandments (Matthew 19:17).”

Who are those Father considers as saints? He describes them in Revelation 14:12:

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of Yahovah and the faith of Yeshua (KJV).”

If we choose to keep pagan ways and observe pagan traditions such as Christmas, we are not keeping the commandments of Yahovah. And if we are not keeping the commandments of Yahovah, we do not love our Master (Luke 6:46) and are not abiding in the Father nor the Son. Master taught:

“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned (John 15:6; KJV).”

Closing Thoughts and Reflections

This Christmas thing is something that every disciple of Yeshua Messiah must come to terms with. The ball is in each of our individual courts. It’s up to us to make the decision whether to stay the course and do that which Father has commanded us to do, or follow the ways of man. Moses instructed us:

“Ye shall observe to do therefore as Yahovah your Elohim hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways which Yahovah your Elohim hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess (Deuteronomy 5:32,33; KJV).”

I know—Oh God I know—it’s not easy to walk about from Christmas. It was hands down my favorite time of the year. And when I made the decision to give it up well over a decade ago, it was one of the hardest things I had to overcome in transitioning to this Faith of ours. It certainly wrangled many family member’s feathers when I announced we no longer kept Christmas. I was viewed dimly by many at my place of employment. And for years, I had the worse time adjusting and working through all the Christmas traps. But it can be done with the help of the Holy Spirit.

May you have a blessed week and may you walk in the power and might of Father’s precious Holy Spirit.

Shavuatov. Shalom. Take Care.