Christmas is a much-beloved holiday, celebrated by billions of people across the globe. In the U.S. Alone, the Pew Center reports that nearly 96% of the population celebrates Christmas, including eight out of ten non-Christians, including atheists, agnostics, and those who have no faith commitment.
However, Christmas is also a uniquely Christian holiday; its core message is about a personal God taking humanity upon Himself and stepping into the world to redeem sinful human beings who could never redeem themselves. The Christian message is inescapable and it is JESUS CHRIST.
The false loathing of Christianity is one reason why many especially Jews, Messianic Jews, continue to repeat the claim that Christmas is a repurposing of a pagan Roman holiday. The celebration of Saturnalia, which honored the Roman god Saturn, or the Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, that is the “Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun.” Both of these celebrations were held in the second half of December, making them somewhat close to Christmas. If Christmas was create to supplant Saturnalia, the Christians would have chosen December 17th. Add to that the references about the December 25th date stretching all the way back to A.D. 200 and you have a very real dating problem with Saturnalia being the origin date for Christmas. Christmas is not a response to a pagan celebration such as Saturnalia but it has Christian roots. 202 to 211 AD mark where Hippolytus ties December 25 to Jesus’s birth
Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is one of Christianity’s most important holiday.
Easter is about how Jesus died for our sins on the cross and then came back to life on the third day. Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. We call Easter “Jesus’ Resurrection Day!”
In reality December 25 first became associated with the Nativity, which is how the early church would have referred to the day of Christ’s birth.
.
Much of the thrust of the “pagan Christmas” theory rests on the idea of a Christianized Rome trying to convert a populace that wouldn’t want to give up its secular feast traditions
.
But in reality the marking of December 25 goes much earlier, before this period in Christian history.
.
The ‘ Commentary on Daniel, written just after AD 200, notes that five of the seven manuscripts contain December 25 as the date
A feast to Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun) did occur on December 25, but the earliest evidence for it dates from the mid to late 4th century. which is mychafter the Christian practice of Christmas
.
Hippolytus in 202-211 AD set the date for the birth of Jesus on December 25, because he thought Jesus was conceived 9 months earlier on the Passover, the day in which he also thought the world was created (5500 years earlier), the Vernal Equinox March 25.
.
Clement of Alexandria (193-215 AD) quoted various anonymous sources about the birth of Jesus and roughly agrees with Hippolytus, claiming that Jesus was born in late fall to early winter. Clement’s sources clearly seem to believe that Jesus was conceived on the Passover and was born roughly 9 months later;
.
Augustine wrote ” He was born, according to tradition, upon December the 25th.”
The idea of the church randomly choosing a pagan date is a big stretch. If Christians were recognizing the birth of Christ by the beginning of the third century, does it make sense to think that this was rather a fourth century invention to sway the Roman populous over to Christianity?
http://apologetics-notes.comereason.org/…/no-christmas-is-n…
The true Easter story begins with the story of Christmas. The Christmas story tells how God sent Jesus to this earth as a baby. Jesus was not only a man but also God in human form. As Jesus grew up, He never sinned, which means He never displeased God.
Jesus knew that everyone else does sin, though. We all sin when we do, say, and think wrong things that displease God. Because of our sin, we deserve to spend eternity without God. But, because God loves us, He sent Jesus to give us a way to spend eternity in heaven with Him. Jesus didn’t deserve to die, since He had never sinned. But He died on the cross to take the punishment we deserve for our sins. Three days later, God brought Jesus back to life. If we believe and trust in Jesus to forgive us from our sins, we’ll go to heaven to be with Him when we die.
For Christians, Easter is the time when we remember what Jesus did for us—He died for our sins, came back to life, and is now waiting for us in heaven!
Bible Truths
Matthew 12:40
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (ESV)
1 Corinthians 15:3–8
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (ESV)
“He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross. He did it so that we would die as far as sins are concerned. Then we would lead godly lives. His wounds have made you whole” (1 Peter 2:24).
“Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth and a hope that is alive. It is alive because Jesus Christ rose from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
“God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life” (John 3:16)
Jesus Christ is the God of Christianity, of all real Christians. Jesus himself had began a New Religion Called Christianity . Jesus came to earth and began a new religion, separate from Judaism that he first introduced to the Jewish people. But the Jews have rejected Jesus and his new religion. and anyone who wasn’t Jewish was a Christian or a Gentile. A Jewish identity meant one thing: Jews don’t believe in Jesus. Jewish leaders, at the time of Jesus in Jerusalem, in addition to the Jewish shouted , “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! and thus had killed Jesus. When Jewish People embrace Yeshua, they don’t convert to Christianity and not the real Jesus Christ. They remain Jews and do not become Christians. All, even the Jewish People do need to convert to Christianity; In John 8:58, Jesus Christ actually declared not only His pre-existence but also took upon Himself the name of God as revealed to Moses in the burning bush: “Amen, amen I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Jesus nor his disciples lived and died as observant Jews in Israel.
Is the Christian movement that goes by the name “Messianic Judaism” a form of Judaism? In essence, so-called “Messianic Jewish” groups claim that they represent a “completed form of Judaism” or “completed form of Jewishness” or “Biblical Judaism.” In actuality, self-styled “Messianic Judaism” is a counterfeit form of Christianity that follows the rabbinic Judaism. There are radical differences between Judaism and Christianity. Traditional Christianity depicts Judaism as an incomplete religion because it does not include a sole belief in Jesus. Judaism is not and has never been an incomplete form of Christianity. Judaism is a different religion from that of the Christian ones that have developed over the last two thousand years; including the Christian movement that goes by the name “Messianic Judaism.” Any attempt to artificially blend the two is deceitful, demonic, erroneous.
What makes Christianity Christian is its belief in “Jesus Christ: Son of God, God incarnate.” The early Christians replaced Torah with Jesus as the access to God; soon forgiveness of sin was said to be possible only through belief in Jesus. Theological reflection on the significance of Jesus ultimately led to the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Jewish Identity of Jesus Is Meaningless to non Jews, Gentiles, Christians. Messianic Jewish movement” have often presented a confused and contradictory theology. All present-day Christian denominations and sects are theological offshoots of the first century mostly ex gentile churches that had developed separate and distinct from first century Jewish groups . Since the first century, Christianity has been at odds with most of rabbinic interpretation. belief of the Gentile church for the Torah is irrelevant to salvation has became the dominant doctrine in the New Testament all Christianity. The Christian community was distinguished from Jewish Christians by its lack of traditional Jewish practice.
Judaism and Christianity are entirely different and essentially unrelated religions. Judaism and Christianity are entirely different and essentially unrelated religions. The two religions bear different messages and distinctive meanings, each for its own faithful. The Christian concept of God is not the Jewish concept of God; in essence, their God is not our God. One cannot replace Torah with Jesus and still have a reason for Judaism or truthfully call the new entity “a form of Judaism.” The respective adherents to Judaism and Christianity are part of distinct and separate faith communities.
Any self-defined Christian today that claims Torah observance is incumbent upon Jewish-born Christians would be considered as heretic by other Christians. Fabricating a counterfeit ritual and cultural milieu, this self-styled “Messianic Jewish movement,” creates a false illusion of adhering to a false form of first century Jewish Christianity as practiced by the early Jewish followers of Jesus. The ritual and cultural milieu they depict never existed.
It is impossible to preserve the cultural aspects of the Jewish people while replacing the spiritual, the theological, and the salvific grounding and reason for that culture with a non-Jewish faith system. Jewish religious life finds its theological and spiritual meaning through the life of Torah, not through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
There is a common understanding among Jews of all denominations that Judaism, understood as the culture and religion of the Jewish people, contains all they need to achieve spiritual fulfillment, that is, salvation. Anyone who is not a real Christian still ends up in hell
One of the saddest stories in the Bible is the story of the Jews rejecting their own Messiah. After spending millennia desperately waiting and anticipating His arrival, most Jews didn’t want Him. They rejected what he taught, now stood for. While Jesus taught a strict form of partial Judaism, enforcing narrow divorce laws there were a few teachings, however, that devout Jews found hard to swallow. The first was that He could forgive sins. Jews believe the forgiveness of sins is a much more involved process than one man’s word. They also believe that if sins are forgiven so easily, it will only lead to more sin. Secondly, Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies and pray for them. This is anathema to the long-suffering Jews who have been persecuted so harshly by so many. It also sounds contradictory to laws in the Old Testament, such as Deuteronomy 17:7, which says to purge evil “from your midst.” The disconnect was that it is good and appropriate for a nation to have and enforce good laws, and to go to war for just causes but Jesus taught that our own dealings should be filled with grace and mercy.
Jews also do not accept Jesus’ teaching that He is the only way to God. With a religious system based on restitution and sincere repentance, Jews have no need of an intermediary to reach God. They reject the need of forgiveness and salvation since they have theory own religion and they also still do not believe mankind has a sin nature, they do not believe any reasonable, attentive person can sin so much that they cannot find forgiveness through their own effort. Their pride in their strict adherence to the law of the Old Testament blinded them to Who Jesus is. Paul says in Romans 9:30-32: What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.
There are no New Testament promises of any future blessings for Jerusalem, or Israel but only some of them y will come to accept Jesus as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10).
All real Christians differ in many ways from Messianic Jews including history, beliefs, dress, and practice. Messianic Judaism itself is a relatively new phenomenon. Jews falsely still do believe that an anti-Semitic view of the Messiah’s life and death is a main theology in Christian Europe for thousands of years. … yet the New Testament teaches that there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles: 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28)
Messianic Jews Tend to Use false Jewish Symbols the Christian Does Not use. And there is not evidence that any of the early Christians they attempted to look and dress like Jewish rabbis as many male Messianic Jews do. The New Testament demonstrates the apostles did not appear to look like Jewish rabbis or Levitical priests. When, for one example, the Apostle Paul was arrested, the authorities did not recognize him as a Jew, but thought he was an Egyptian (Acts 21:37-38). Paul had to tell the military commander he was a Jew (Acts 27:39). Thus, Paul did not look like a Jewish rabbi, nor was he apparently wearing distinguishing phylacteries or tzitzits as the Messianic Jews do. Christian males are not to have their heads covered when the pray: 4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head. . . 7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (1 Corinthians 11:4,7) Many Messianic Jews do pray with their heads covered. Messianic Jews tend focus on improper aspects of outward appearances and traditions of Judaism.
.
https://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2016/03/27/mesianic-jews-are-not-christian/
.
THE DESTRUCTIVE LIES OF THE HEBREW ROOTS MOVEMENT
Titus 1:10-11
10 For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially THOSE OF THE CIRCUMCISION, 11 whose MOUTHS MUST BE STOPPED, who SUBVERT WHOLE HOUSEHOLDS, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.
.
The phrase “those of the circumcision” refers to Judaizers – and that is what the Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM) is – a bunch of Judaizers. They don’t like to admit that, but that’s really what they are. And much of the New Testament is devoted to warning Christians about Judaizers. In the past there were groups like the Seventh Day Adventists and the Worldwide Church of God which embraced Judaizing doctrine. But the modern-day manifestation of this heresy, the Hebrew Roots Movement, is particularly destructive. They are particularly aggressive and they spread on the Internet like a cancer
.
h “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent forth to her, -how often I wanted to gather your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks together under her wings! But you people did not want it. Look! Your house is abandoned to you.” – Matthew 23:37,38
https://asposed.wordpress.com/2015/09/19/hebrew-roots-messianic-movement/
https://www.facebook.com/HebrewRootsHeresy/
.
“Why do most Jews, Messianic Jews reject Jesus?” The Answer: What do they do with Jesus Christ? These Jews rejected Jesus Christ because He failed, in their eyes, to do what they expected their version of the Messiah to do—destroy evil and all their enemies and establish an eternal kingdom with Israel as the preeminent nation of the world. Dream on..
.
Christmas marks Christ’s birthday and it honors Him
.
While many falsely legalists, unloving and non Holy Spirit filled persons, still are also falsely preaching the exact observation of the laws over honouring the spirit of the law.. this is why they do falsely want to insert the old testament falsely into the New Testament to.
.
And if obeying Religion a Judaic one included can save one from hell then why was Jesus death required for us to be saved from Hell?
.
The New Testament also does not prohibit pictures of Jesus nor our observing Christmas, Easter..
https://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/the-real-jesus/https://mccainvrsobama.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/the-real-jesus/
The non conformer's Canadian Weblog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.