Christ's Birth or Christ-Mas?

Christmas was not observed by the apostles, nor the early church.  It was not observed for at least the first 300 years of church history!  However, the Roman Emperor Constantine by declaring Christianity the "state" religion and forcing the pagans of his empire to be baptized into the Roman Church he made a true union between paganism and Christianity. The corrupt Roman Church was full of pagans now masquerading as Christians.  Now they had to be pacified and what better way than to "Christianize" their pagan idolatries. Thus, the Babylonian mystery religions were introduced by Constantine beginning in 313 AD, and established it with the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.  Constantine used religion devoid of true spirituality as a political tool by adapting pagan practices in order to make Christianity palatable to the heathen.  Following the lead of Roman Catholicism the Church at Jerusalem commenced the celebration of Christmas in 440 AD.

It was sufficient for the early Christians that Jesus, their Lord and Savior, had been born. They praised God that Jesus Christ had, indeed, come in the flesh. The day and the time of His birth had no relevance to them, because Jesus was no longer physically on earth. He had returned to heaven. And it was the risen, exalted Christ to whom they looked, and that by faith -- not a babe laid in a manger. Jesus Christ is no longer a baby; no longer the "Christ-child," but the exalted Lord of all.

Emperor Constantine understood the political importance of joining paganism with Chrisendom.  Thus pgan rituals and idols took on Christian names (e.g., Jesus Christ was presented as the Sun of Righteousness [Malachi 4:2] replacing the sun god, Horus, Tammuz, Sol Invictus ),  pagan holidays were reclassified as Christian holidays (holy-days), and December 25th was the "Victory of the Sun-God"

The celebration of Christmas can be traced back to the Roman festival Saturnalia, which honored Saturn, the harvest god, and Mithras, the god of light; both were celebrated during or shortly after the winter solstice (between the 17th and 23rd of December). To all ancient pagan civilizations, December 25th was the birthday of the gods -- the time of year when the days began to lengthen and man was blessed with a "regeneration of nature." Moreover, all of December 25th's Babylonian and Roman festivals were characterized by 5-7 day celebration periods of unrestrained promiscuous revelry and licentiousness.



As to why December 25th? Simple. It is probably the correct date for the birth of Christ. In Luke 1:5 we see evidence for the December 25th date for Christ's birth. John the Baptist's father was said to serve in the Temple and was of the course of Abia, one of the twenty-four classes or courses of priests according to 1 Chron 24. Each course served for one week, twice a year. During the special sabbaths all of the courses served. It was while he was serving in the Temple that the announcement of the birth of John was made to him. Elizabeth conceived after his course of duty in the Temple. John was six months older then the Lord. When did the course of Abiah serve? According to the Misna, from the third week to the fourth week of September. So, if John was conceived in late September, he would have been born 9 months later, in late June. If Christ was six months younger, He would have been born in late December! December 25th fits perfectly. -- Dr. Thomas Cassidy



The Sanhedrin imposed strict regulations upon itself in order to maintain such a high standard and to protect an innocent man from ever being wrongly accused of guilt. This standard, or law code, was called the Mishna.