Why we don’t celebrate Christmas.
I was hoping that it would not be necessary to make a Bible study about this subject. It’s clear what is written in the Bible. Christmas isn’t mentioned. While the other festivals that I teached are all mentioned in the Bible. I teach about the Kingdom of Yahweh. The followers of Yeshua will discover themselves that it’s weared that a celebration that is not even mentioned in the Bible became much more important than every celebration that Yahweh gave. And no one has trouble to celebrate this so called Christian celebration, even atheists, Muslims and Yews. Why is this happening? Christmas became more holy then the Bible itself. I was celebrating Christmas too and I loved it. And when I discovered the truth, it was difficult to make the decision. I also wanted to decorate a Christmas tree with my children. But I loved my God, Yahweh, more. I understood that Christmas was a blasphemy in his eyes. And I started to obey till this day, not regretting my decision one moment. Let’s start with the Bible study.
We’re going to read:
Deuteronomy 12:29-31
“When Yahweh, the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’ You shall not behave thus toward, Yahweh, the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
And we read also:
Deuteronomy 12:2-4
You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. You shall not act like this toward, Yahweh, the Lord your God.
Don’t honor Me the way the Gentiles honored their gods. This is what Yahweh says to His people. Destroy everything that reminds of this gods.
Jeremiah 10:2-5
Thus says Yahweh, “Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens Although the nations are terrified by them; For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.”
Here says Yahweh exactly the same. Don’t learn the way of the other nations. For the customs of the people are delusion. Yahweh mocks the gods made by the hand of a man. They can’t do anything.
The story in Exodus 32 learns us how much Yahweh hates it when we worship Him in a different way than He asked:
Exodus 32:1-6
Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
Yahweh’s nation thought that something happened with Moses. That is why they wanted a sculpture from Yahweh. This way Yahweh would be with them and would lead them. That was their thinking. They worshiped Yahweh in the way that the Egyptians worshiped their gods. They didn’t think of following other gods. They were still following Yahweh, just on another way.
We go on with reading:
Exodus 32:7-10
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
Yahweh didn’t appreciate their new style worship. They worshiped a sculpture that represented Yahweh. This is a sin. Yahweh didn’t say : Look they’re worshipping me. How nice, I love what they’re doing. He also didn’t say oh, they mean it well. They didn’t understood me. He said: I will destroy them because of this.
Yahweh is very clear. Don’t worship in the way the nations do. If you disobey this, you will die.
In Matthew we read that the Law is still counting today:
Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
And we read that the scribes and the Pharisees were sitting in the seat of Moses. They were explaining the Law from Yahweh to the people as Moses did in his time.
We read:
Matthew 23:1-3
Then Yeshua spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.
Yeshua tells the people to obey the Law of Yahweh, but not to follow the example of their teachers and leaders. Because they disobeyed the Law given by Moses.
It’s clear that Yeshua tells us that Yahweh’s Law still has to be obeyed. Don’t you think that the same is counting for the way we worship Yahweh?
In John we read that true worshipers will worship Yahweh in spirit and truth:
John 4:23
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
If we celebrate Christmas because of the birth of Yeshua, we celebrate a celebration based on a lie. Yeshua is not born on the 25th of December.
Do you really think that a celebration based on something that is not true is acceptable for Yahweh?
We are going to read:
Galatians 4:8-11
However at that time, when you did not know Yahweh, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know Yahweh, or rather to be known by Yahweh, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Paul is here talking to Christians who were first Gentiles. They were used to celebrate all the celebrations of the Sun adoration. One of these celebrations was on the 25th of December. On the Julian Callender this was the winter solstice day. They celebrate the birth of the sun on this day. Also the god Tammuz is born on the 25th of December. A lot of Christians were still celebrating these pagan celebrations. That’s why Paul had the fear that he has labored over them in vain.
These celebrations were very attractive. It is difficult not to be involved with these celebrations. This counts for Christians as well as for Yahweh’s people.
This is why the roman catholic church christenized the celebrations. Change the pagan celebration in a Christian celebration. They meant it well. It was this way easier to become a Christian. And the pagan religion became much less attractive.
Only they forgot one thing: What is Yahweh saying about this? Don’t honor Me the way the Gentiles honored their gods. That’s what Yahweh says. And Yahweh didn’t change His mind. He is always the same. This is the reason why more and more Christians decide to stop with Christmas, old and new, carnival, Easter and Halloween. I am one of them. I don’t want to make the same mistake as His people. I don’t want to continue with something that was from the beginning already wrong in the eyes of Yahweh. I don’t want to disobey Yahweh. And I rather do the Will of Yahweh, then the will of men. Yahweh’s Law is for me more important, than the tradition of men. I hope that you now understand why it’s important not to follow the tradition blindly, but to learn what is written in the Bible. By the way Yahweh gave us a lot of other celebrations that we can enjoy. And the birth of Yeshua we celebrate every day.
I will learn you now what I discovered. Yeshua is our Passover lamb. We read this in 1 Corinthians 5:7:
1 Corinthians 5:7
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
In Exodus 12 we learn that the Passover lamb has to be 1 year old.:
Exodus 12:5-7
Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
With Passover the lambs had to be one year old and without blemish, this means they were born on or around the Passover season. Once the lamb’s blood was completely spilled for all of the sins, the priest would turn to the people and proclaim, “It is finished” or “it is accomplished”. Yeshua also pronounced these same words once His blood was spilled. I don't have hard proof, but could it be that Yeshua was born in the same day that He died on the cross? Because He is our perfect Passover lamb?
I want to end with the words of:
Joshua 24:15
If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
Amen.