The Holiday That Foreshadowed Christ's Birth For Over 1000 Years

Most Christians believe that Christmas is the holiday that is most associated with the birth of Jesus. But did you know that the word "Christmas" is not in the Bible? Did you know that there is nothing about December 25th in the Scriptures? Did you also know that Christians did not begin celebrating "Christmas" until the 4th century?

The truth is that God did institute a holiday which foreshadowed the circumstances around the birth of Jesus Christ and had His people celebrate that holiday for over 1000 years before Jesus ever came.

During that holiday God had His people build humble temporary shelters and live in them for a week to foreshadow exactly how His Son would come into the world. In essence, God's people were acting out a "manger scene" each year for over 1000 years, prophetically anticipating what was to come:

shatteredparadigm.blogspot.com...

reply to post by MandM


unfortunately, christmas, and many other x-tian holidays have absolutely nothing to do with the christian religion.

Christmas is a pagan holiday which originally celebrated the winter solstice... the druids decorated trees, hung mistletoe...

The religious powers in hisotry were unable to stop the pagans from celebrating their holidays... so they decided to place their holidays over the same times in an "if you can't beat em, join em" tactic.

Most holidays celebrated now days draw their roots from pagan times.

here's a link on x-mas if you are looking for further information:
www.religioustolerance.org...

Umm, most educated Christians already know all of this. Especially that Christmas is not mentioned specifically in the Bible. It is the day we celebrate The Birth of Christ. Not the actual day of his birth. Also, since when do ancient religions get a copyright on symbols? They don't. Just because something has connections to another religion does not mean that it is pagan. For instance, a wreath is a circle. Circles are sacred symbols all over religions older than Christianity. Does this mean pagan infiltration or Christian plagiarism? No. If a life-long Christian thinks that a wreath or tree, for them, are symbols of the eternity of Christ or the tree of life, then that is what it means. It has nothing to do with pagans. Rather, admiration and acknowledgment of the symbolic quality of such items is a trait of human nature, not a particular religion. There is no copyright. No one truly copied anyone here. When I worship Christ, I am not worshiping Saturn, Zeus, Baal, or Horus.

reply to post by newagent89


Its not a "religious copyright" like your trying to claim...

Instead it is centuries of christianity trying to wipe out the pagan religions.

Easter bunny for easter? lets not mention that the holiday was pagan and originally celebrated fertility. Rabbits are pagan symbols of fertility...

Christianities holidays are only attempts to eradicate other religions in the past.... Unless you are implying that it is a mere coincidence that All the christian holidays overlap pagan holidays, that use the exact same imagery and symbols as the old pagan holidays...

If you are stating that christians made these symbols completely independent of the pagans, and these holidays using these symbols, just accidentally landed on pagan holidays... well... I'd actually lose a lot respect for you...

Check this out:

There is a very widespread theory that Christmas began in Rome as a response to pagan festivities centering around the winter solstice, which was locally considered to be 25 December. The pagan celebration, which was first established by the Roman emperor Aurelian in AD 274, was called The Birth of the Invincible Sun. However, there is evidence that, some years earlier, Christians had made a sincere attempt to calculate the actual date of Jesus’ birthday. People commonly believe that Christmas was instituted on the date of a pagan holiday to supplant it, but it was actually the other way around. Christmas was there first.

www.kencollins.com...

In AD 354, Philocalus wrote a Christian martyrology that dates the nativity of Jesus Christ on December 25, and cites an earlier work as backup. From this we can deduce that Christmas was celebrated on the present date at least as early as AD 335 in Rome.

www.kencollins.com...

Just a theory.

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[edit on 11-12-2008 by GAOTU789]

solstice celebrations date back to the neolithic era... and possibly earlier...

The idea that christmas is an iron age invention is insane...

ever since humans crossed into the agricultural revolution, and started becoming farmers instead of hunter-gatherers... the solstice has been recognized and celebrated...

You also forget to mention that christians have realized in the past that christmas has its roots in pagan holidays... and has saught to ban the practice several times throughout history...

In fact... there have been times when it has been outlawed by the church. But come to find out, people still celebrated the pagan holiday... so it was eventually re-instated as a religious holiday to "overwrite" the pagans...

reply to post by newagent89

In AD 354, Philocalus wrote a Christian martyrology that dates the nativity of Jesus Christ on December 25, and cites an earlier work as backup. From this we can deduce that Christmas was celebrated on the present date at least as early as AD 335 in Rome

I forgot to mention that this is impossible... as the Gregorian Calendar was not adopted until 1582 C.E....

Originally posted by newagent89
People commonly believe that Christmas was instituted on the date of a pagan holiday to supplant it, but it was actually the other way around. Christmas was there first.

What a load of rubbish. Im stunned that someone has even come up with that theory.

reply to post by nj2day


The greatest Judaic prophet Elijah lived smack dab in the middle of the Near-Eastern Iron Age, around 900BCE. Many others had come before him and after him and the many years remaining in the Iron Age, if it didn't arise sooner, were a perfect time for such a custom to arise.

As for Christmas being banned, that involves Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans in England and was not approved by the Church. Made a lot of people mad.

Are you going to mention the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Child abuse scandals, Indulgences, superstitions, or stake burnings next? I certainly hope not. look it up, in a book.

The thing is, it does not really matter that Christian celebrations drew inspiration from the Pagans. It is like saying that because the Akkadians used altar in their worship of Baal first, and the Jews built an altar to honor God, the Jews were copying them. No, things like altars, wreaths and trees are such common and old symbols that no single group can lay claim to them. There is no copying, only a multitude of groups using the same symbol. What exactly it means among different groups may change.

There are only 365 days in a year and there is some room for overlap and coincidence should not always be seen as suspicious. In a group of 23 people, it is very likely that 2 will share a birthday. If Christmas is supposed to cover up Saturnalia, then how come Saturnalia is over before Christmas Eve even hits? How come Hanukkah is right in the middle of all of it? It doesn't root in paganism or covering-up any one group.

Quote from external source:

"Whether the 'Sol Invictus' festival has a "claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas (Catholic Encyclopedia (1908)) has been called into question by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who challenged this theory by arguing that a December 25th date was determined simply by calculating nine months beyond March 25th, regarded as the day of Jesus’ conception (the Feast of the Annunciation).[8] The March 25th date coincides with concepts of "new life" and "rebirth" and have been associated by Christianity with Jesus. Other recent Christian commentators[9][10] also agree that the identification of Christ's birthday pre-dates the Sol Invictus festival, noting the earliest record of the celebration of Christ's birthday on December 25 dates to 243 A.D."

en.wikipedia.org...



As for Christians always being the bullies, they got the crap killed out of them during the persecutions and were only saved for political reasons. This went on for a long time and many of the Christian holiday origins (and there are WAY loads more than Christmas and Easter) had their foundings in this troubled time.

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[edit on 11-12-2008 by GAOTU789]

reply to post by cropmuncher


hehe,

can't be all that shocked really... I guess since christians are superior to all... they feel the need to have "invented" their own holidays...

I'm not in the least surprised someone invented this theory to make their beliefs seem more important than the pagans... Think of what theories they invent to support the 6000 yr old earth delusion.

reply to post by cropmuncher


If you are speaking of Sol Invictus, a major pagan festival in Rome, that is the case. Sol-Invictus was created in 273AD. Christmas as a Christian celebration was first recorded in 243AD. This was based on an old jewish custom of celebrating a prophet's birth the same day of their death, nine months earlier. March 25-December 25. Not rubbish. Research

[edit on 11-12-2008 by newagent89]

reply to post by newagent89


you're bound and determined that Saturnalia is what I'm suggesting as the beginnings of the holiday...

I am not. I have simply stated that Solstice celebrations were consciously and intentionally overlapped with christian holidays... The solstice typically falls between december 21st and 24th... and the celebrations would last for days...

However, you are using the example of an "alter" to support that religions can use the same symbology...

However, you are forgetting that the DRUIDS are the ones who invented the christmas tree, the wreath, and the importance of mistletoe. In fact, the name Druid means "Oak Men". Which shows exactly how important the trees were to their practice.

You aren't just borrowing an alter... you're borrowing the entire basic premise of their religion and putting your own meaning to it... and then saying this doesn't minimalize the druids in the least... which it does...

Suppose someone used your idea of the crucifix (or cross if you aren't catholic) and applied that to some other religion? What would you feel if the Islamic faith's symbol was a cross? Instead of a crescent? that might change thigns eh?

Meh, but what can you expect from a religion who doesn't see the irony in representing their faith with the symbol of an ancient torture device...

Originally posted by newagent89
reply to post by nj2day

 

As for Christians always being the bullies, they got the crap killed out of them during the persecutions and were only saved for political reasons. This went on for a long time and many of the Christian holiday origins (and there are WAY loads more than Christmas and Easter) had their foundings in this troubled time.

I'm not going to comment on your attempt to make christianity the "victim" here... you are free to believe your own delusions... But that could be an entirely different thread...

I would like to see a list of modernly observed holidays to support this second claim.



[edit on 11-12-2008 by nj2day]

reply to post by nj2day


My word, you are in the dark on this one. Many Christian beliefs, including the Catholic Church completely support the ideas of the big bang, evolution, and an old earth(remember, science has to be falsifiable.). We do not put our God in a box. One of the earliest endorsers of the big bang theory was one of the early 20th century popes. Look up theistic evolution. Very different from Fundamental Creationism. Understanding the Bible is often figurative and nothing should be simply taken at face value. The bible is deep, but to the untrained eye or the deluded sheep is is either confusing or a way to control weak minded people. Not all Christians are nuts. Or have you been listening to Richard Dawkins say we all are? Our religion encourages us to think and ask questions; to be good and humble people; to admit when we are wrong; to seek truth in God. Not easy but not crazy. Let's not get off topic anymore with insults about Christian beliefs on origins.

What does it matter? To a Christian, His birth is fact. The date of the celebration vs. the actual date is irrelevant.

It's the same with the date of His crucifixion and resurrection. The actual month, day and year is of no consequence.

reply to post by nj2day


For Catholic Christians our list of major feast days and holy days (just a few) observed by Catholics.

Solemnity of Mary, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Christ the King, The Resurrection of the Lord, Ascension, Assumption, All soul's day, All Saint's Day, Immaculate Conception, Holy Trinity, Pentecost, Christmas.

Christmas and Easter are the most secularized and famous.

reply to post by Hugues de Payens


Very true. People should seek to understand more about Him by discerning the dates, but what really matters is WHAT occured, not WHEN. Thank you.

Originally posted by Hugues de Payens
What does it matter? To a Christian, His birth is fact. The date of the celebration vs. the actual date is irrelevant.

It's the same with the date of His crucifixion and resurrection. The actual month, day and year is of no consequence.

I would think it might be of importance to the other religions the church has tried to eradicate through marginalizing their beliefs and holidays over the centuries...

reply to post by newagent89


good friday, and easter vigil are all lumped in with "easter".. in that all these holidays overlap the spring fertility festivals that took place...

All saints day is an excellent example of my point though... I'm glad you brought it up...

Samhain is a pagan holiday.

However, the church decided they needed to "overlap" this holiday as well... and came up with "All saints day" which is the day after Samhain...

Another name for All Saint's Day is All Hallows.... therefore, the day before all hallows... would be called... All Hallows Eve... which is where the modern name for "Halloween" is derived.

On Hallows eve, all the pagan beliefs and symbols were kept... but were deemed "evil"... And the day after, is now deemed "good".

The very fact that Halloween is known by the name Halloween instead of Samhain, should be a testament to exactly how effective these pagan holiday eradication techniques worked...

Maybe I'll comment on all the other "holidays" you mentioned later when I have more energy... (need more coffee!). but for now, just remember, that the pagans had 8 holidays a year... 4 based off the solar calendar, and 4 based off the lunar calendar.

so far, 3 of these events fall on the "christian" holidays we've mentioned... Perhaps you see a trend developing?




[edit on 11-12-2008 by nj2day]

Originally posted by nj2day

Originally posted by Hugues de Payens
What does it matter? To a Christian, His birth is fact. The date of the celebration vs. the actual date is irrelevant.

It's the same with the date of His crucifixion and resurrection. The actual month, day and year is of no consequence.

I would think it might be of importance to the other religions the church has tried to eradicate through marginalizing their beliefs and holidays over the centuries...

Oh no doubt, agents of the Christian Church have done some awfully bad things in the name of Christ over the past two thousand years. It chills me to the bone to read of the atrocities inflicted during the crusades or the inquisition. I'm sure He has saved a very special place in Hell for those who have perverted the Gospel. I have a severe issue with some respects of organized Christianity. But I will not damn all Christians because of it. The same as one cannot damn all of Islam for Muslim terrorists.