The
Logical Day to Celebrate the Birth of the Messiah is December 25th
A Judeo Religious Day of Note since
the Babylonian Exile
Originally published in 2005
PURPOSE
The purpose of this brief document is to explore the Divine Logic which
moved the early Christian leaders to fix the celebration of the birth
of Jesus Christ on December 25th.
BACKGROUND
Although we have had this matter in the proverbial inkwell for years,
Heaven gave us the "Go Ahead" in the form of the following
communication received in the year 2005 from one of our friends:
Why
do we continue celebrating Christmas on December 25th which is part of
some old pagan celebration of light coinciding with the shortest day of
the year? Why not make the Easter celebrations the focal point for
Christian celebrations?
Keeping very clear in mind that Jesus is a Jew, born under the Mosaic
Law and from a Jewish Mother and is indeed the promised Messiah, we
should then seek the logic used by His Father in moving men to
celebrate the date of His birth on December 25th. Notice, we say
"celebrate" and are not stating that His birth indeed took place on
that date, although it could have very well been.
DETAILS
History has it that it was not until A.D. 350, that December 25 was
declared the official date for celebrating Christmas by Pope Julius I.
When the then leaders of the Christianity decided to settle upon a date
to celebrate the event, they chose the day of the winter solstice (as
it was on the then current Julian calendar), since it coincided with
some rival religions' celebrations and the rebirth of the sun,
symbolized by bon-fires and yule logs.
December 25 was a festival long before the conversion of the Germanic
peoples to Christianity, so it seemed fitting to them that the time of
their winter festival would also be the time to celebrate the birth of
Christ. The darkness of paganism that had frightened and threatened to
defeat the spirit of the ancient people, was forever defeated by the
coming of Christ.
Well, that was man's logic. They felt they needed to tie-in to a Pagan
rite so that the celebration of the Birth of the Messiah - the true
Savior of the World - would become popular. Their own lack of Faith (1) prevented them from
believing that God, the Father, by His Own Divine Right, would see that
the celebration of the birth of His Son would take hold on its own
without resorting to the trickery shamelessly and frequently used by
the Church Administration in an effort to "create" faith.
Result: The date was
set on the right day and month, for all the wrong reasons (2).
Why God chose that particular day? Well, as we have consistently
reminded the Faithful, Jesus
was a Jew. (3)
Thus, scrolling back to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and
the great captivity of the Jews by Nabuchodonosor, the mighty King of
Babylon, around the year 586 BC, we find Jehoiachin (Jechonias), King
of Judea, amongst the captives. Then, right after the ascension of
Evil-merodach to the Throne of Babylon, something marvelous happens as
related by dear Jeremiah [52:31-34]:
And
it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of
Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and
twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the
first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of
Judah, and brought him forth out of prison; And he spake kindly to him,
and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in
Babylon, and changed his prison garments. And Jehoiachin did eat bread
before him continually all the days of his life: and for his allowance,
there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every
day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
Lo and behold! A key link in the genealogy of Jesus [Matthew
1:2-16] is saved and restored to his throne on the five and
twentieth day of the twelfth month by his own captors.
Well, there you have it, the five and twentieth day of the twelfth
month: December 25th.
Refreshing the mind of the Faithful regarding the genealogy of Jesus we
read in Matthew 1:17 the following:
So
all the generations from Abraham unto David are fourteen generations;
and from David unto the carrying away to Babylon fourteen generations;
and from the carrying away to Babylon unto the Christ fourteen
generations.
Thus, David was a key link between the first and second sets of
fourteen generations in the Genealogy of Jesus and Jehoiachin was the
other key link, this time, between the second and third sets of
generations which led to the birth of Christ.
"Hold it!", some will say,
while quickly adding "There is a
calendar problem! The twelfth month for Jews is not like our twelfth
month, December."
As if God would not have thought of that too!
The names of the twelve months are of Babylonian origin. Israel adopted
all twelve months of the Babylonian calendar as their civil calendar.
Therefore, the twelfth month in our current civil calendar
(Gregorian) is December. That is, when we read in Jeremiah about the
"twelfth month", it is the twelfth month of the civil calendar and
not of the Jewish religious calendar.
But that is not all. Since God likes to cover all the angles associated
with the execution of His Will....
Around (4) the
date we celebrate Christmas, the Jews celebrate the Festival of Lights
(Chanukah). This Jewish holiday commemorates the victory of the Jews
over the Hellenistic Syrians back in 165 BC. After their victory, the
Maccabees went in to clean and dedicate the Holy Temple in Jerusalem
that the Syrians had defiled.
The Judean heroes could find little undefiled lamp oil. Miraculously,
the tiny amount they did find kept the lamps going eight days, until
new oil could be had. Thus, the
miracle is celebrated with the lighting of the Chanukah candles over
eight days.
And just exactly on what day did that such festival started originally?
In 1 Macabees 4: 52 we read exactly when:
And
they arose before morning on the five and twentieth day of the
ninth month (which is the month of Tevet)...
...and that would have been exactly our December 25th of today! But
that is not all.
Ninth month? That is the exact period of Mary's gestation of Jesus
which started on March 25th, which, Lo and Behold! is the first month
of the Jewish Religious Calendar. We would not doubt it at all if upon
accurate calculations, on the year Jesus was born (5 B.C.), the
Annunciation did take place exactly on the first day of the Jewish
Religious Year.
By the way, God moved us to prepare this document in the year 2005 and,
in this year, the Feast of Purim celebrated on March 25th, Feast of the
Annunciation.
The reader may ask: So? What does
the Feast of Purim has to do with any of this?
The Feast of Purim celebrates how the Jews of Persia narrowly escaped
annihilation thanks to the
bravery of Queen Esther. (5)
Now, thanks to the bravery of Mary, humanity also narrowly escaped
annihilation thorough its Redemption brought about by Jesus Christ -
the true and only Savior of humanity - born of Mary. Amazing, isn't it?
Now.... How do the eight days of Chanukah celebration relate to any of
this? It just happens that the Octave of Christmas counts the days from
December 25th until Jesus is circumcised, something that is not a
fabrication of the Church leaders since it was, and is, the Jewish
custom.
It seems that we could go on indefinitely "connecting dots" since, in
spite of man, everything from God is coherent and harmonious.
CONCLUSION
As always, and thanks be to Him!, God had the last word. The
celebration of His Son's Birth could not have been set on a better date
- regardless of what flawed human reasoning was used to set it on
December 25th.
Now perhaps the Faithful may understand why it seems that miguel de
Portugal keeps denouncing some (some, not all!) of the Roman Church
Administrators while upholding the foundations of the Catholic Faith to
the last word (6)...
As you have been reminded through the above example, even satan has to
serve God, and even if the motives of the leaders of Christianity were
totally wrong, God's Will was done!
Amen!
NOTES
(2)
As we have said before, God
is quite capable of doing what
He Wills and does not need man to lie or "make do" to establish His
Kingdom - He only needs the obedience of man - something
He seldom
has.
(3)
He would have also been
sent into exile,
together with
all the other Jews, by the Queen Isabella of Spain., also
known as "Isabella the Catholic"
(4)
It
is a date that appears to change, yet the dates of Jewish
holidays do not change from year to year. It just seems that way to us
because feast dates fall on different days on the commonly used
Gregorian calendar.
(5)
We
highly recommend the Book of Esther. In
said Book we can see God in King
Ahasuerus, the fallen Archangel Lucifer
in Haman, Mary in Esther; the true children of
God - us - in Mordecai. It is an extremely Prophetic Book.
En Español: El día lógico para celebrar
el Nacimiento del Mesías
© Copyright 2005 - 2023
by The M+G+R Foundation.
All rights reserved. However, you may
freely reproduce and distribute this document as long as: (1)
Appropriate credit is given as to its source; (2) No changes are made
in the text without prior written consent; and (3) No charge is made
for it.
The M+G+R
Foundation