{"id":5960,"date":"2023-12-25T09:17:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T16:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/?p=5960"},"modified":"2023-12-25T09:17:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T16:17:59","slug":"does-christmas-have-pagan-roots-many-christians-say-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/25\/does-christmas-have-pagan-roots-many-christians-say-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Christmas Have Pagan Roots? Many Christians Say \u2018Yes\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a really detailed and shocking look into paganism and how Christmas and Easter are pagan holidays, see my post<\/a> with two hour video explaining it all in great detail. Once you get into the pagan roots of these holidays it will bring alive how Jesus railed against the religious leaders of His time for putting away the commands of God for manmade traditions. Consequently, taking pagan traditions for themselves is what led to Israel’s judgement and downfall and why they ceased to exist as a nation for almost 2,000 years. And looking at the 97% of churches that celebrate Christmas gives a good indicator of why the church which is supposed to be the salt that preserves society has such little impact in our world. And a point to consider, why does the pagan world celebrate Christmas and Easter when they otherwise show contempt for Christianity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.israel365news.com\/312510\/biblical-reason-christians-wont-holly-jolly-christmas-year\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Approximately 2 billion people around the world celebrate Christmas<\/a>, but a growing wave of people have chosen, for religious reasons, to leave behind the solstice holiday that is one of the most visible symbols of the church, universal to all branches of Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas is a Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus, but it is celebrated by the vast majority of Americans regardless of religion. A 2010 study by LifeWay Research<\/a> revealed that 91 percent of Americans observe Christmas. This figure includes 89 percent of agnostics, 62 percent of those claiming other religions, and even 55 percent of those self-identifying as atheists. Of Christians, 97 percent celebrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are a growing number of ministries that have broken with the holiday. When Breaking Israel News<\/em> sent out a request asking to hear from Christians who no longer celebrate Christmas, the response was overwhelming. Emails poured in from around the world, relating intense spiritual journeys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking with Christmas was described as returning Christianity to its roots. The two main reasons cited for separating from Christmas were the holiday\u2019s pagan origins and the lack of any Biblical source. Pastor Mark Biltz stopped celebrating Christmas 20 years ago, and he points to the Book of Jeremiah to explain how the Bible views the pagan origins of Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thus saith Hashem<\/em>: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for it is but a tree which one cutteth 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. Jeremiah 10:2<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This verse describes a pagan holiday, complete with a decorated tree, that is unacceptable to the prophet. This pagan holiday eventually transformed into Christmas. Christmas\u2019s pagan roots are described in the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 8a). The Talmud relates how Biblical Adam<\/a> celebrated the eight days preceding and eight days following the winter solstice<\/a> as a holiday, but this practice was discontinued because the idolaters usurped it, calling it Kalenda and Saturnalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, Kalenda was a pagan festival<\/a> that became the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, celebrated from December 17-23. When Emperor Constantine<\/a> made Christianity the dominant religion of the Roman Empire, he incorporated many pagan customs, including Saturnalia, in order to accommodate the majority pagan populace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pastor Biltz explained the pagan origins as they relate to the Christian holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf people want to celebrate Christmas as far as family time and relationships go that is still a special time. Just realize it has pagan origins nothing to do with the Bible or Yeshua<\/a> (Jesus),\u201d Pastor Biltz said. \u201cThis was an ancient custom that the Catholic Church<\/a> decided would be a great way to get pagans to accept their teachings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Schermerhorn from Colorado stopped celebrating Christmas in 2000, while still active in a Christian church. For the next three years, her family did not put up a tree, and even held back on exchanging gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember one year, I was asked to set up an Advent wreath and candles,\u201d Schermerhorn told Breaking Israel News<\/em>. \u201cIn an effort to better understand the tradition, I looked in the Bible and could not find any Biblical basis for the practice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She attends a Hebrew Roots Church and celebrates the Jewish holidays. Rather than put up a tree, she now lights a Hanukkah menorah as part of her Christian observance. \u201cWhat made Hanukkah<\/a> real for me was the fact that Yeshua observed the festival himself,\u201d Schermerhorn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separating from Christmas was described by many as part of a larger spiritual process, in some cases deriving from a desire to reconcile with Jewish roots and return to a Biblical understanding of the religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy husband and I both have family members who run the gamut from being intrigued and supportive to being anti-Semitic,\u201d Schermerhorn told Breaking Israel News<\/em>. \u201cA few feel we have rejected Yeshua by not celebrating Christmas with trees and Santa, when, in reality, we have grown spiritually and have a much deeper relationship with the Lord than if we had stayed in the traditional church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking back, my husband and I can clearly see how the Lord was calling us out of our pagan past,\u201d Schermerhorn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pieter and Anneke Leeuwestein from Holland<\/a> stopped celebrating Christmas but found that despite living in a rural area outside of Amsterdam, they were not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my part of the country there are hundreds of people who do not celebrate Christmas or Easter anymore,\u201d Anneke said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t difficult. After so many years of walking in sin, it felt like coming home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a really detailed and shocking look into paganism and how Christmas and Easter are pagan holidays, see my post with two hour video explaining it all in great detail. Once you get into the pagan roots of these holidays it will bring alive how Jesus railed against the religious leaders of His time for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5962,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5960\/revisions\/5962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}