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:


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]:


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:


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 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!









En Español:  El día lógico para celebrar el Nacimiento del Mesías

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