We are fast approaching the time of holidays, time of food and drinks, seasonal decorations with shops and streets being filled with many decorations, people getting together, celebrating… but celebrating what exactly? Because surely they are not celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ or Jesus’ resurrection.
When you are born into a religion, you just follow traditions without questioning them. You relay on your parents and your culture to guide you and you trust that you are given the truth because it was passed down for centuries. And this is the problem… When you start questioning your traditions and checking the roots of those traditions, you start seeing the truth and you start wondering why they still follow something they know it’s not true? Do they know it’s not true? Is it convenience? Pride?
I mentioned few times before that I grew up in a Catholic church. Tradition and idolatry in Catholicism is big and when I was younger I enjoyed Christmas and Easter but I always questioned why Santa was present in the holiday that was only about Jesus and what about those Easter eggs…
First, let’s take a look at Halloween. Halloween is considered second most popular holiday after Christmas of course. Halloween’s parties are becoming more popular than New Years Eve parties and it’s hard to escape the vision of a skull or a pumpkin during the month of October. I never really celebrated Halloween until I moved to the UK. In Poland we usually celebrated All Saints Day on the 1st of November and All Soul’s Day on the 2nd of November, however Halloween also quickly found it’s place in Poland especially through commercialisation.
Is Halloween a Christian holiday?
When you check Wikipedia, you read that “Halloween is thought to have influences from Christian beliefs and practices.” It’s hard to believe that celebration of witches and demons would be coming from Christian’s believes, but let’s check this….
The origins of Halloween stretch back over 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. Samhain was celebrated by the Celts, a group of people who lived in what is now Ireland, United Kingdom and northern France. Samhain marked as the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, a period associated with darkness, cold and death. The Celts who’s lives were heavily influenced by the rhythms of nature viewed this as a time of transition when the veil between the living and dead was the thinnest. The Celts believed that on the night of 31st of October the spirits of the dead could return to earth. To protect themselves from those spirits, they would fire massive bonfires to drive the spirits back to the spirit world. These bonfires were also a way to honor the gods as they made offerings of crops and animals asking for protection during the coming winter.
Costumes also played an important role during Samhain, people wore them as a disguise in attempt to blend in with any roaming spirits. As part of the protection, they also engaged in various forms of divination to predict the future and help them to go through the winter times. It was a festival of life and death, honoring the past and looking forward to the future.
The festival of Samhain blended in with the pagan practices of the Catholic church.
When the Roman empire conquered Celtic lands, they brought their own festivals with them. In 609 AD, Pope Boniface IV established the Feast of all Martyrs, a day dedicated to honoring Christian Martyrs who died for their faith, which then was changed into All Saints Day by Pope Gregory III. This aligned with the celebration of Samhain and created a bled of Catholic festival with a pagan festival. By the 9th century, Catholic influence spread across pagan lands with Celtic areas and the church started to replace pagan practices with its own religious celebrations. In 1000 the church added 2nd of November as All Souls Days honoring the dead and pray for the souls in purgatory. All Souls day was a celebration that pretty much copied celebration of Samhain, with bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes.
The blending of those traditions eventually led to the creation of All Hallows Eve, which is the night before the All Saints Day, which in times changed into the word Halloween. The Catholic church just wanted to give those pagan nations an alternative to their Samhain festival, by giving them something similar but many of the original customs remained the same. With that, pagan nations were tricked to follow Catholicism and Catholicism tricked other believers by not revealing the true nature of that celebration.
Halloween started to take shape in 19th century and by the 20th century it become a mainstream holiday and what we see today – a commercial celebration of death. It’s the largest holiday after Christmas in terms of the retail spending. Halloween’s origins are undeniably pagan and have no mention whatsoever in the Bible. In fact, God condemns anything to do with the dead:
“‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God”. Leviticus 19: 31
‘A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.’ ” Leviticus 20:27
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you.” Deuteronomy 18 :10-12
“And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? “Isiah 8:19
I don’t think any Christian should even consider celebrating Halloween, a festival that glorifies death. Jesus freed us from the law of sin and death and by celebrating Halloween you show with your actions that you do not appreciate Jesus sacrifice and therefore you reject his gift of salvation. Someone told me once: “It’s not that deep, it’s just some fun and costumes”. Unfortunately it is that deep and it’s not just fun and costumes. The spiritual realities are hard for us to understand once we are here on earth, however those demons are not playing around. They just hope you don’t take it seriously…
Next holiday fast approaching is Christmas. As soon as Halloween’s decorations are taken down, we can see Christmas decorations in full bloom till the end of the year. Christmas can be harder to discern, because the message of Christmas is celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. However, there is no record in scripture or any historical evidence that gives us the date of the birth of Jesus. There is no mention in the scripture that asks us to celebrate Jesus’ birth or festive gathering called Christmas. There is also no mention of Christmas trees used as a worship, no decoration of trees and in fact, the Bible highlights similar event as a pagan worship:
“You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.” Deuteronomy 12:2-4
The gifts that the wise men gave to the Messiah when he was born were cleverly used as an excuse for us to give gifts. This turned into this materialistic holiday that has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus but with us. We rush to buy gifts that we know will probably not going to be liked very much and later sold on eBay, we spent money on new outfits, dinners, parties and food that we overeat. Basically turning this holiday into celebration of materialism and gluttony – both of which God is against.
This is another examples of pagan practices incorporated into Christian practices by the Catholic church. Back then, religious systems were a way to control people and to gain material goods through tiding. People didn’t have access to their Bibles like we have today and they only believed in what they heard through their priest. However, now we have access to all this information, yet people are still covering their ears and eyes because in reality they are putting all those traditions and holidays higher than the word of God.
“He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”
He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.” Mark 7:6-10
Just as Jesus said, pure hypocrisy.
What I can’t understand is how come modern Christian churches can celebrate something that is not found in the Bible, not in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, yet ignoring the feasts ordained by God and found in the Bible?
Did any of those so called Christian churches looked into the origin of the Christmas celebration, Christmas tree decorations, gifts and especially Santa?
We know that God is word and Satan wants to perverse everything of God, so Satan also likes to play with words. When we move some letters around from Satan, what do we have? Santa. This should be the first red flag, red as Santa’s clothes.
People prefer to ignore those red flags because it’s all about ‘traditions’ and getting together as a family. Those traditions are covering their eyes blinding the truth. People are putting all those traditions and holidays higher than the word of God.
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8
Most people have heard a challenging view when it comes to Christmas. I remember asking my mum when I was younger, why do we have Santa since it has nothing to do with Jesus and my mum said that it came to us from the Western world and we just accepted it as it’s all about commercial aspects. It’s nice, colorful and well…just is. Why question it…
Churches even added Christmas trees to the Nativity scene so that it looks modern and no one would question Christmas trees.
The history of Christmas trees has many roots, ranging from the use of evergreens in ancient Egypt and Rome to the German traditions of candlelit trees that made its way to America in the 1800s. Plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness. Many ancient people believed that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen reminded them of all green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.
The truth is Christmas is a satanic worship and celebration of the sun god Tammuz incorporated by Roman Catholic Church with Constantine – Roman emperor – the sun god worshiper. Even Islam and Egypt started celebrating Christmas. As a whole, Christmas is a holiday that everyone celebrates regardless of their faith or lack of it. It has become now just a commercial celebration of materialism and gluttony. Complete idolatry. People stress about Christmas, compete with others over gifts and dinners, save money months before and sometimes even go into debt just so it can be “fulfilled” at the level they are satisfied.
This unfortunately has nothing to do with the birth of our Messiah and if two thirds of the world celebrates Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ, what does this Bible verse tells you?
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7: 13-14
What about Easter?
Similarly to Christmas, Easter is also a pagan holiday that has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. The Easter festival in the church history was quite a different festival in the 3rd and 4th centuries. In those times it was called a Passover and observed by many professing Christians. Jesus was crucified during the time of Passover, however the date of Passover and name “Easter” was changed and determined by the council of Nicaea in the 325 AD by of course Catholic church. The date of celebration of Easter has nothing to do with the date of the Passover.
Why then people who supposedly worship the resurrection of Jesus Christ worship it during a time that has nothing to do with the Passover? Andy why do we even call it Easter?
It all goes back to the times of the tower of Babel and the times of Nimrod. Nimrod was worshiped as a sun god, his mother and wife was Semiramis. When Nimrod died, Semiramis became pregnant and found another way to stay in power. She told people it was the spirit of Nimrod that impregnated her. She claimed she was having a virgin birth from the spirit of Nimrod. Nimrod was then a deceased father and Semiramis was a mother. She was worshiped as a moon goddess by clamming she was divinely created and came down to earth from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into Euphrates river. Semiramis has a lot of names – the Queen of Babylon, Madonna, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Aphrodite’s, Venus – they are all the same goddess but just with different names. When her baby was born, Tammuz, he became a god of sun. Semiramis claimed that her baby was reborn or resurrected in a new body, otherwise knows as reincarnated Nimrod. His birthday is celebrated on the 25th of December, therefore Easter and Christmas are linked to the same celebration of the sun god.
How can we explain the Easter eggs and bunnies?
The original Easter festival was celebrated as a sex orgy that celebrated the return of life via the fertility of Semiramis conception of Tammuz, therefore people celebrated the conception rather than birth. The celebration consisted of baking cakes to Ishtar, food offerings and engaging in sex orgies in the temple of Ishtar. Women were required to lie down in the temple and have sexual intercourse with whoever entered the temple. Therefore Ishtar eggs are a symbol of fertility.
“Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?” Jeremiah 7:17-20
“The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?” Jeremiah 44:19
This explains why we celebrate Easter instead of Passover, through Roman Catholic church and Roman emperor Constantine who was a sun god worshiper.
How can we celebrate Easter knowing that the origin of the celebration is actually celebration of fertility and sexual immorality?
Leaving Christmases and Easters is actually not that easy, I understand that. Because as people, we get attached to traditions, to comfort food and the time spent with our families. But this is why it’s a deception – sugarcoating everything just so you don’t research it and look for the truth. Those celebrations were made into a social gatherings with comfort food and fulfilling the desires of the flesh, rather than worship of our Messiah. But people always find excuses…
One of the excuses I’ve heard was: “God doesn’t mind because we are celebrating Jesus and we gather together as a family.” Well no, God do mind actually because by taking part in pagan celebrations, we are actually worshiping other gods and breaking the first commandment.
Not to mention about putting yourself and your feelings before the truth. It then turns to be all about yourself and your will rather than God’s will. Christianity is all about rejecting your flesh and your comforts for God, following God’s will. Satanism is all about the flesh and your own will : “Do what thou will”, which is do whatever you want. It’s your life, your body, your decisions. It’s all about the self and this is exactly how we could describe our society these days.
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
By Dagmara Z.