Beit Or ~ The House Of Light

You can search all over the history books and the Internet to see that Christmas is nothing more than a mishmash of pagan festival and church theology mixed together to either bring the pagans into church or keep the church from being persecuted. I am not going to detail the various origins and history of Christmas here- there are plenty of good sources “out there”. Though I will mention there is a great section about Christmas in “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop.

What I do want to share in this article is what the bible has to say about Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas and could careless about what God says in His word, then stop here and enjoy life. The rest of you- keep reading.

Many readers might be thinking that there can’t be any harm in celebrating Christmas. That God knows their intentions are good and they do it in love- God knows what’s in our hearts right? It maybe that Christmas is celebrated with good intentions and deep affection regarding the son of God… the road to hell is paved with good intentions. God is more interested to see if what is in our hearts, words, and actions matches with His word.

This Christmas thing matters because as of recent everyone is getting all worked up over the “assault on Christmas”. There are too many people who claim to follow God wasting time with trying to make sure everyone gets to say “Merry Christmas” in school and at the store. Christmas is nothing more than a deception and distraction designed to take our eye off the ball, designed to seem harmless.

In Deuteronomy 12:2, Adonai says, “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:” Deuteronomy of course is part of the Torah, the foundation by which all other writings in the bible stand. So part of the believer’s foundation is to remove from his/her presence the existence of idols, even from under every green tree. Think about your decorations and gifts that tend to end up on and under the “Christmas Tree” for a moment.

Not convinced? The phrase “green tree” is mentioned in the King James several times in conjunction with idols. But one of my favorite verses regarding this subject is found in Jeremiah 10:1-5.

Jeremiah 10:1 Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
2 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. 3 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. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

This was the verses that put the nail in the coffin for me in regards to any observance of Christmas I had in my former life of “Christian observance”. I could continue this article with many other verses and overwhelm till you are numb, but the intent of this article is to plant a seed and motivate you the reader to do some soul searching in parallel with some bible searching- and maybe even some history searching. If a few verses aren’t enough to at least get you to consider the incompatibility of Christmas with God, then 100 verses will not change your mind either.

But something more telling about Christmas and the fact that it has no place with God. The bible clearly shows the early form of Christmas being celebrated in one form or another by the heathens as well as rebellious Israelites. More importantly there is no record of its celebration or institution after the birth of Yeshua to celebrate his birth or anything else about him. History will show that Constantine had more to do with Christmas’ integration with the modern church than the Son of God would ever have.

If you think of the Messiah as your example and model to follow; consider he never celebrated Christmas, but in fact celebrated Hanukkah also known as the “Feast of Dedication” and/or the “Festival of Lights”.

John 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.