As we look at the birth of Jesus, and the surrounding events, we wonder, what were the people thinking? Coming up on the Christmas season people begin to think more on Jesus’ birth and life. There are some facts taken for granted by the populace that have no evidence to back them up. This article will discuss some of them as well as bringing out some of the things the characters might have been thinking at the time.
First we must look at the date of Christ’s Birth, December 25th. Why do you think we celebrate Jesus’ Birth then? The date was set by the early Catholic Church to have christian believers have something to openly celebrate at the same time the pagans were celebrating their sun god. The date set for the celebration of the sun god was December 25th, from almost the beginning of their religion. The first sun god was Nimrod of Babylon, who had a son by his wife, supposedly after his death, who became the sun god in his place. His wife, the sun goddess, began the worship of her son on December 25th, the date of his death by a wild boar, which is where the eating of ham on Christmas came from.
The Queen’s name was Semiramus, and she claimed her husband was the sun god after his death, and that she became pregnant by the suns rays with his son who became the new sun god. Nimrod was the grandson of Noah and went against continuing to worship God the Creator, much as his father Cush had. Eventually he was put to death for his actions and his body was cut into pieces that were sent to various capitals as a tool to show what would happen to those who went against God the Father. Semiramus escaped from the people who killed Nimrod and had her son in Babylon, and started her sun worshipping group there.One of the things they would do is sacrifice their children to the sun god and some of their followers began dying eggs in the blood of the children to commemorate the queen mothers supposed arrival in Babylon in an egg in the river Euphrates. This was how Easter started, but lets get back to Christmas.
Next we must look at the story told in Luke of the shepherds and the manger in the barn. The fact that Jesus had to be born in a lowly barn surrounded by animals and laid in a manger(feeding trough) and have his arrival announced to some lowly shepherds instead of the leaders and Kings he deserved, showed just how far down God was willing to stoop to reach the people He loved and cared for. Mary and Joseph new the time of Jesus birth was soon and Joseph was frantic as he searched for someplace for Mary to have the baby. After all his searching, the only place he found was a barn that a inn owner let him and Mary stay in as it was the only place he had left that had not been taken as there was a large crowd there for the festival of Temples that was going on as well as a counting of the people by Caesar Agustus.
This place and the shepherds being called to witness His birth, were just more signs of how low God was willing to go to save men from themselves. Later in Matthew we are told of Wise Men (Astrologers), from a far away country, who saw by signs in the heavens that a King was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. These Wise men took some time arriving at the place where Jesus was born so they never visited the barn or the manger because as we see in Matthew, they found Jesus with His mother Mary living in a house.They were unsure of where to find Him when they arrived, so they went to King Herod to find Jesus. In Luke 2:11 it is said they came unto the House where Jesus was and found Him, His mother and Joseph. They were visited in an angel in their dreams that warned them from going back to King Herod as he asked them to feigning that he wished to go worship the child himself. Herod Knew from what the wise men had told him that the child should be about two years old by then so when the wise men didn’t return, he ordered the guards to kill all the children less than two years old.
Now what do you think was going through the minds of Herod and all his wise men who advised him? They knew from the wise men that a new king was born into Israel, but all they did was stay around the worldly power of Herod, they missed the birth of the King! How do you think these Astronomers knew to look for the signs in the heavens? Some researchers theorize that these Astronomers were descendants of Daniel in Babylon, and that they had been trained by him to search for this sign as they would know by it that it was time to go to Bethlehem and take part of the leftover wealth of Daniel to the new King of Israel. That is also why it was only about two years after Jesus birth that Wise Men of Matthew’s chronology appeared on the scene. They appeared and gave Joseph the riches he would need to take Mary and Jesus on a trip to Egypt to live for a time to escape Herod’s wrath just in time. It’s amazing how God delivers the means just in time if we are willing to just wait on Him. Next we must look at how their is always assumed that there is three Wise men. Never in the writings of Matthew is it told how many wise men it was. You can naturally assume it is at least two since they are called Wise Men, but never is it said there was three of them. There were three gifts they brought to Mary and Joseph so it is assumed that it came from three men.
It is not wise to assume anything but with God’s word, especially, we are asking for trouble. It is dangerous to presume anything that is not backed up with scripture. Many of the rituals and beliefs of the Christian Church are actually pagan beliefs that were used by the early Roman Catholic Church to give Christians a reason to celebrate at the same times as the pagans, so they would not feel left out of the celebrations. This was not a satisfactory reason for the celebrations being changed from their real times to coincide with the Pagans and their evil rituals.
Many of us are living a lie in our beliefs, but you may ask, should we change them to the correct times now? the answer is, not really, the real times of these things are wrong, but do they have any bearing on our salvation? the answer is NO. It doesn’t really matter weither we worship Jesus Birth on December 25th, or September 20th. It doesn’t matter if Easter is off by a week or two each year, it doesn’t matter when Jesus died for our sins, only that He did and that we believe and profess to others He did and lives again in our hearts. Ultimately that is the real reason for the celebration. It says in the Bible that the Angels in Heaven celebrate every time a soul is saved. So lets all celebrate the living savior!
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