CHRISTMAS originated from the word "Christ-Mass" which is a Roman Catholic tradition, a special mass performed in celebration of Christ's birth.
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Christian Church. It was not celebrated, commemorated, or observed, neither by the apostles nor in the apostolic church -- not for at least the first 300 years of church history, after Catholicism took over the first church of Rome which was originally established by Apostle Paul. It was in the year 350 A.D. that Pope Julius-I declared that Christ’s birth should be celebrated on “December 25”. History reveals that the Church at Jerusalem commenced the celebration of Christmas only during 440 A.D., following the leadings of Roman Catholicism.
ANCIENT HISTORY
Ancient history reveals that in past ancient pagan civilizations, it is no coincidence that December 25th was also the birthday of their pagan gods. All of BABYLONIAN and ROMAN FESTIVALS were characterized by 5-7 day celebration periods of unrestrained or orgiastic revelry and licentiousness held between the 17th and the 23rd of December. December is the time of year when days began to lengthen and ancient man was blessed with a "regeneration of nature" and held an annual celebration for it.
Specifically, December 25th was the Victory Festival of the “SUN-God" in the pagan Babylonian world. In the ancient Roman Empire, the same celebration can be traced back to the Roman Festival called “Saturnalia”, which honored Saturn, the harvest god, and Mithras, the god of light. They held the circus during this time of the year. Both festivals were celebrated during or shortly after the winter solstice, between the 17th and 23rd of December.
WHAT THE END-TIME MESSENGER SAYS ABOUT "CHRISTMAS"
To those who believe in this End-Time Message, we all recognize that God sent us a vindicated prophet for this age in order to restore our hearts back to the FAITH of the Pentecostal Fathers and to the true teaching of the Bible. And at the same time, he was sent by God to reveal to us ALL the MYSTERIES that's been hidden in the Word according to the prophetic commission he was given as stated in Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7. It is therefore from this viewpoint that I want to address this controversial issue on “Christmas".
The following is an outline of key quotations from the sermons of BRO. William Marrion Branham as pertaining to the celebration of Christmas. You must read between the lines.
1. CHRIST POINTED US TO HIS DEATH, NOT TO HIS BIRTH
“Christmas is not mentioned in the entire book of the Bible. Never one time did Jesus refer them to His birth, but to His death.”
2. JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT BORN IN DECEMBER;
“It couldn't have been Christ's birthday. It just absolutely could not have been. , 'cause He was the Lamb. And He was a male sheep and borned in under the ram, Aries. It had to be. You see? And--and sheep are not born in December anyhow. Sheep are born in the spring. And then another thing, the hills of Judaea now, there's twenty feet of snow on them. How could the shepherds have been out there?
“Christmas is not a Protestant holiday. It's a Catholic day. The 25th of December was months and months before our Lord was born. . But He wasn't born in December. If you've been in Judaea in December it's colder than this, so--so you know He wasn't born in December. And it's spelled, it's C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s, a mass for Christ. It's the Christ-mass.”
"And by the way, Christ wasn't born on the twenty-fifth day of December either. He couldn't have been. If you'd ever been in Judaea, the hills are full of snow, worse than it is here: Now, but it's a tradition. And why--why do we do those things? Because we follow the traditions of men instead of the commandments of God. Then something like that wouldn't matter, but they just make a commercial day out of it. It's a disgrace, a shame for them to do such things as that.”
3. CHRISTMAS ORIGINATED FROM THE ROMAN "SUN-GOD" FESTIVAL
“We celebrate this 25th day of December for the birthday of Christ, but, of course, anyone knows that it wasn't Christ's birthday. That was the Roman SUN god's birthday, that when the church was converted into, or, brought into Catholicism, was formed at the council at Nicaea. Instead of it being the sun god's, they made it the Son of God's birthday. And it was the sun god's birthday, and they just taken the Son of God and made that His birthday, to blend it in with their pagan tradition. And it's no means at all being Christ's birthday.
He could not been born at that time, because Judaea is about the same on the--on the... high up in the equator as this is, and we--we find out that in Judaea in the wintertime, 25th of December, she's blizzardly and cold. Shepherds cannot be on the hill, and many reasons that it couldn't be. And then He was nature born like all other nature, He--He came forth in the spring, usually when the lambs are born in the spring; and He was the Lamb. Now, I believe He was born, myself, March, April, or somewhere along in there in the early spring.”
“But this being the 25th of December, why, making it the birthday, this is the sun god's birthday (See?), the Roman Baalim, the sun god. See? And the sun is just exactly halfway around now. And from the 20th unto the 25th was when the Roman circus was in celebration of the sun god's birthday. And the... So they said, "Well now, to please the--both Christian and pagan, we'll make instead of sun god, the Son of God and the sun god together. So we'll put it all together and make it the same birthday and make it on the 25th." So it seemed to please the pagan and the nominal church then, or the first church of Rome was just... It was just all right with them, so they didn't care. So they made it both sun god and Son of God's birthday.
“This was done by the Roman Catholic church before it become the Catholic church in Rome, about 86, 106, somewhere along in there, or 306, rather. Now, we find out that the Roman pagans worshipped Jupiter, which is the sun god; and they worshipped Ashtoreth, which was the moon god, or otherwise the mother of the--the mother of heaven. Well, to bring this down, they said that Ashtoreth, or god's mother of heaven was no more, and reflected herself in Mary. So it still remained idolatry, connecting Christianity to idolatry. Then also, and they suffered, or worshipped and respected the birthday of their sun god, which was Jupiter. It's when the sun from December the first until December the twenty-fifth.”
" But then when Christianity was brought into Romanism and mixed at Nicaea, then they had the sun god, Jupiter, the sun god of Rome, his birthday was on the--between the--about the twenty-fifth day of December. Because the Roman circus started on the twenty-first and lasted till the twenty-fifth, which was in celebration of the sun god's birthday. So blending Romanism paganism to--to Christianity, they said, "Let's make it the Son of God's birthday, and then we can all agree upon it." See, it's always been on systems of compromising to the Truth, every time, has always been."
“Pergamos was invited. All right, they was invited to a feast after the Nicene Council. They was invited to the feast of Winter Solstice, which means the sun, worship of the sun, which was a pagan god, which fell on December the 21st, the shortest day in the year. And the years... The same time doesn't change till December the 25th. All heathens celebrated it, the sun god's birthday. The sun god's birthday was the shortest day in the year, December the 21st. And anyone that ever read the history of the churches know that heathens worshipped on that day. It was a celebration. Well, the Romans had--they had the big games, the Roman circus. How many seen this here, whatever it was here not long ago, they had, "Ben Hur"? See? Now, the Roman circus; that's what the Romans had on that sun day, in commemoration of the birthday of the sun god.”
4. CHRISTMAS IS NOTHING BUT COMMERCIALISM
“Today, Christmas means a carton of caramels, a carton of Viceroy, a bottle of Four Roses, or Seagram, wrapped up in a pretty Santa Claus paper.”
“But it's [Christmas] got to be a place where it's a curse to little children. Some little neighbor down the street can have plenty, and the other little fellow don't have nothing, and they look. And the whole thing is altogether wrong. That's all.”
“And it's all just a myth, and Christ is not in it at all. And the people has turned in to buying whiskey, and--and gambling, and fashions. And a--a man that... A merchant that can sell his goods through Christmas time can live the rest of the year almost. See? It's such a great holiday, commercial. And poor little kids on the street, their parents are not able to--to visit them with a--a present like from Santa Claus, and they walk down the street, and their little dirty hands and their little red eyes. I--I just hate to see it come along. It ought to be a solemn day of worship to God, instead of a heartache and a headache. And the things that's done, there's nothing to Christ about that. But we're right in the midst of all this now.”
“Here a few weeks, or even right now, there's reindeers, and Santa Clauses, and--and jingle bells, and all kinds of things hanging up, which is pagan ceremony. It's an article of the Catholic church. People paying great prices and swapping presents and things like that, pagan. Christmas is a day of worship. And by the way, Christ wasn't born on the twenty-fifth day of December either. He couldn't have been. If you'd ever been in Judaea, the hills are full of snow, worse than it is here: He born in April when all nature comes forth. Now, but it's a tradition. And why--why do we do those things? Because we follow the traditions of men instead of the commandments of God. Then something like that wouldn't matter, but they just make a commercial day out of it. It's a disgrace, a shame for them to do such things as that. A pagan ceremony: when did Santa Claus have anything to do with Jesus? When did the Easter rabbit or a chicken, or colored up with some kind of ink or something, or some kind of little white rabbit have anything to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Don't you see how the commercial world.
“Oh, brother, sister, how nice it would be if each one of you, if each one of us, us, me, if each one of us could lay aside all this here Christmas tinsel (See?) quit all this swapping gifts, one with another, all of this nonsense of the world, and just take off our pride and lay it down, and stomp the thing under foot, say, "Lord Jesus, guide me to that perfect Light," Watch something supernatural happen. The Holy Spirit will come in a phenomenal way. See?”
“Say, "I want to follow the Morning Star, Christ. I want to follow and find my Jesus this day. I want to get away from all this here Christmas tinsel and things, because someday it's going to be burnt with unquenchable fire." And all those who are in[tolerating] with it, will be burned with it.”
“Why, they started buying Christmas present months ago, and what is it but a heathen trait. There's nothing about it godly. Oh, they try to say, "Give gifts, to the wise men." That's just an oasis for a devil's excuse. You want to give something, it's your life to Christ. Don't give to one another; give it to Him. That's what He died for. That's His purpose of coming.”
5. CHRISTMAS IS A MYTH AND A PAGAN CELEBRATION
“We take the word "Christmas." It's very seldom you ever hear Christ's Name mentioned. You don't hear it mentioned. The lights and tinsel is all on Santa Claus, not on Christ. The people hardly knows what Christmas is really for. They've just paganized it and paganized it till it's all become pagan.”
“Studying on mythology and all these myths, Christmas itself is a myth. It's not nothing real about Christmas. Christmas wasn't even mentioned in the Bible; they never worshipped the birthday of Christ. Wasn't no such a thing. That's a Roman Catholic dogma and not a Christian teaching, no Scripture for it nowhere in the Bible and for the first hundred years after the Bible (See?) nothing of it. It's just a myth. Santa Claus, commercial, everything, the whole thing is wound up into a big conglomeration.”
I wish that really the people could understand in this world, what really Christmas is. Now, the first word Christmas is a kind of a Catholic expression. It means "Christ's mass." See? It was ordained or was begin with the Roman church. And Christ was no more borned on the twenty-fifth day of December than I was. It's just a complete conglomeration of dogma. That's all there is to it.”
“And the people on the streets, with their high-heeled shoes, and they're twisting up and down the streets, and running into stores...And here the other day, my wife was telling me, someone said, "I won't know what to get daddy. Brother's going to get him a quart of whiskey, and the other one said he was going to get him some champagne......" Celebration of Christmas, pagan, devil-worship.”
“Today I was thinking of the cathedrals a ringing out, and the bells a tolling, and so forth like that; and people going to the church, and making ready, and the women buying their Easter hats and so forth. What has this come to? My, how I can't understand where a rabbit has anything to do with the resurrection (See? No, sir.), or how a Christmas tree has anything to do with the birth of Christ. It's pagan, friends. We've got off the path somewhere. That's right. But now a real born again man or woman realizes, because there's life within you, tells you that that's wrong. Is that right?
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