Chanukah (Feast of
Dedication) and Christmas
Chanukah
Biblical Month:
Kislev
Secular Month:
November/December
And it was at Jerusalem the
feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round
about him, and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be
the Christ, tell us plainly. – John 10:22-24
Chanukah, to the
misconception of almost everyone, like the Feasts of the LORD in Leviticus 23,
Chanukah is for every Believer in Yeshua the Messiah.
Chanukah has a
long history, longer than many people may think. The majority of the people believe Chanukah
was established and instituted between the 500 year gap of the writing of the
Tanak (O.T.) and the Renewed Covenant (N.T.), during the time of the Levitical
family of the Maccabees, when they took back the Temple from the Greco-Syrian
invaders and rededicated it and got it back up and running again. People think that since it has no connection
to canonical Scripture, it has no relevance or place in their lives. They think it’s purely a “Jewish thing”, when
in reality King Solomon instituted it, the Maccabees re-instituted it and made it what it is today, and Yeshua the
Messiah celebrated it, and will re-institute it again when the 3rd
Temple is built!
Chanukah is NOT
the “Jewish Christmas”; it has NOTHING to do with Tammuz,
Santa Clause, or the birth of Jesus. The
only commonalities between Christmas and Chanukah is that we exchange and give
gifts, which is more of a modern institution in reactions to Christmas, and it
steamed from the fact that Jews gave (Tzedakah) charity on Biblical and Jewish
holidays. Also sometimes greenery is
hung, not because of the reasons people do it for Christmas, but because the
Maccabees used Chanukah to also celebrate a late Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
which is a type of harvest festival in which greenery was hung as decoration.
In I Kings 8 and
II Chronicles 7, it speaks of King Solomon fulfilling the lifelong dream of his
father David and himself, of having built the Holy Temple of YHWH. It says the he “Chanukah-ed” it, dedicated
it, and had a 7 day festival and ended it on the 8th day, hence 8
days of Chanukah, just as we have today.
In Ezra 6:16-17 it
tells of the Babylonian exiles who have returned to Jerusalem and have built
and Chanukah-ed the 2nd Temple.
Verse 16 says that “The children of the captivity kept the “Chanukah” of
this house of G-D with joy.”
In I Maccabees
4:52-59 and II Maccabees 10:1-8 it recounts the reason we celebrate Chanukah
today. After Yehudah (Judah) Maccabee
recaptures the 2nd Temple and began to cleanse it and restore the
service of it, they were about to light the Holy Menorah when they discovered
they only had enough oil for it to stay lit for one day. It took 7 days to produce more, but they lit
it anyway and a miracle occurred, the Menorah stayed lit a whole 7 days until
more was made!
Apparently the
dates for celebrating Chanukah have changed throughout the ages. A new date for each time the Temple was built
and dedicated, or cleansed and rededicated.
But to this day we keep the days set forth by the Maccabees in I
Maccabees 4:59 and II Maccabees 10:8 because that was the last rededication
until the Messiah returns to build the 3rd Holy Temple. Chanukah today commemorates the rededication
of the Temple, the defeat of the Greco-Syrian invaders, affirms our Jewishness,
and commemorates the miracle of the oil.
Because of II
Maccabees 10:8 commanding the Jewish people to keep the 25th day of
the month of Kislev and the 7 days that follow, we see Yeshua in John 10:22-23
keeping Chanukah! If Messiah celebrated
Chanukah, that’s good enough for me! I
want to do it to, I want to be as much like my Messiah as I possibly can, I
want to do what He did, and experience what He experienced.
So what does
Chanukah mean for Believers in Messiah Yeshua?
As mentioned
before, the Temple is important to the Messiah, and He kept the Festival of
Chanukah there. But on a Spiritual level
WE are the Temples of GOD (I Cor. 3:16; 6:15-20; II Cor. 6:15-18;
Eph. 2:18-22) and every so often the invaders of Self and Sin desecrate that
sacred place and we need to wage all-out war, kick out the invaders, cleanse
and rededicate ourselves back to GOD and His Torah. This is exactly what we do at Yom Kippur, the
Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26 -32),
so I like to think of Chanukah as Yom Kippur part two!
Jews! Stand up and be counted. Rededicate yourself to GOD and His Torah.
Christians! Toss out that Christmas tree (Jer. 10:3-4),
and grab a Menorah! The only “birthday”
the Messiah celebrated at this time of the year wasn’t His own, but the
Temples! How could we not do likewise!?
Chanukah and Christmas
Once I received
some snail mail by a Messianic evangelical missions group and the first words
to greet my eyes in bold blue letters was “Merry Messiahmas!” I laughed at the
idiocy and was annoyed by the ignorance and or blatant syncretism. As if simply replacing the Greek word
“Christ” for the Hebrew word “Messiah” makes the pagan holiday of Christmas
okay for people to celebrate. Breaking
it down it’s, “The mass of the Christ”
which the Catholics instituted, that’s the Roman pagan roots, but taking it
further back to its original roots in Babylon it’s, “Christ-Tammuz”, meaning,
“The anointed one Tammuz”, which was Nimrod’s son, whom he had with his mother,
who was eventually gored to death by a wild boar, in which people get that bore
back for killing their god-man by eating the good ol’ Easter ham, and whom
women mourn during Lent (Ezk. 8:14 ).
December 25th
was never, and will never be the birthday of Yeshua the Messiah.
1. December 25th is a solar date
and We Jews go by the lunar calendar, the two do not coincide.
2. It is claimed that no one knows for sure
the exact date the Messiah was born.
However, we do know He was born on the first day of Sukkot, the Feast of
Tabernacles and circumcised the 8th day of the Festival. We were never commanded to celebrate His
birth, but if you want to, please do it at the right time of the year, during
Sukkot.
3. December 25th however IS the birth date of the pagan
gods; Tammuz, Mithra, and Saturnalias.
Christmas was
instituted by the Emperor Constantine and the Catholic Church to try to make
pagans feel comfortable and be more receptive to “Christianity”. All they did was take a pagan holiday and
slap a new name on it inside and out.
“Merry Messiahmas”
is no different than what the Fox network’s primetime twenty something soap,
“The O.C.” did years back by having the family on the show (who was at least
part Jewish) combine Christmas and Channukah together and call it “Chrismukah.”
Or a cell phone commercial I once saw that
blends all the holidays together and says, “Happy Christmaramahkwanzikkah
(Christmas, Ramadan, Kwanza, and Chanukah).”
It is the Babel mentality that says, “We are all one, it’s all the same
anyway, so let’s all love each other and get along.”
Celebrating
Christmas would be like being married, but celebrating your wife’s birthday on
your X-girlfriends birthday! Why? After all we are the “Bride” of Messiah and
He is our “Husband,” and that would be celebrating His birth on the day of a
pagan god, our former lover! Or it’s
also like if I, a Jew, would take the Swastika and assign a new meaning to it,
let’s say it is the cross of Messiah humbly bent, reaching out to all four
corners of the earth! That doesn’t fly
does it? Pretty sick, perverted and
insensitive of me huh? Well, how do you
feel the Messiah himself thinks about Christmas?
Christians! You claim you’re of the Messiah, if you are,
then come out of Babylon and toss that tree (Jer. 10:3-4)!
Jews! Stop the hellenization and assimilation, come
out of Rome and Greece and be Jews!
I’m not saying
grab a torch and pitchfork and hunt participants of Christmas down. The majority of people simply doesn’t know or
understand the pagan roots of Christmas.
To them it’s just the time of the year to be nice to everyone. So if someone not knowing smiles and says to
you, “Merry Christmas!” or even, “Merry Messiahmas!” A kind, neutral, non-committal response would
be, “Happy Holidays!” That way you’re
being kind, returning the sentiment without celebrating or endorsing a pagan
day of a pagan god. After all, it is the
“Holiday Season,” and not only Christmas but Kwanza, Chanukah, and sometimes
Ramadan fall around this time of year.
If and when the opportunity presents itself, in a loving, matter-of-fact
way, expose the truth concerning the pagan roots of Christmas, the real time of
the year Yeshua was born, and the truth about Chanukah and how it relates to
the Believer.
Yeshua celebrated Chanukah; in John 10:22 we read that Yeshua was at the Temple at
the “feast of the
dedication,” this is the feast known as Chanukah. If Yeshua celebrated it, why
shouldn’t we? If it was important to Him, why shouldn’t it be to us as well?
Yeshua was Jewish and as believers in Messiah Yeshua we are grafted in to that
tree (Romans 11).
Christmas
Whose Birthday is it Anyway?
Growing up in a
Christian home, sure we had a tree, lights and decorations, but it was never
about Santa Clause, it was always about the celebration of the birth of Christ.
“Jesus is the reason for the season,” was the slogan in our household. I know
for many people reading this book the same is true. And although I have not
celebrated Christmas for about 20 years I will always have very warm and fond
memories of the holiday. But once I learned about the true origins of the
lights, candles, wreaths, and tree and whose birthday it really was, I could no
longer in a clear conscious observe this holiday.
“The word "Christmas" itself
reveals who married paganism to Christianity.
The word "Christmas" is a
combination of the words "Christ" and "Mass.
The word "Mass" means death
and was coined originally by the Roman Catholic Church, and belongs exclusively
to the church of Rome.
The ritual of the Mass involves the
death of Christ, and the distribution of the "Host", a word taken
from the Latin word "hostiall" meaning victim!
In short, Christmas is strictly a Roman
Catholic word.
A simple study of the tactics of the
Romish Church reveals that in every case, the church absorbed the customs,
traditions and general paganism of every tribe, culture and nation in their
efforts to increase the number of people under their control.
In short, the Romish church told all of
these pagan cultures, "Bring your gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, and
we will assign Christian sounding titles and names to them.” - David Meyer,
Last Trumpet Ministries International
It
is also believed by some that the word Christmas is made up of two words,
“Christ,” meaning “anointed” and “Tammuz (tmas),” referring to the pagan god
Tammuz.
Yeshua was born as
we have discussed earlier during the Feats of Tabernacles (Sukkot). So why was
December 25th chosen and who was born on that day?
First of all we
must continue to remember that Sukkot and Christmas go by two opposite kinds of
calendars. The date for Sukkot is based on the Lunar Hebraic calendar and
Christmas set by the solar Gregorian calendar. So December 25th is
irrelevant to the Birth of Christ.
The supposed
Christian Emperor Constantine instituted December 25th as the Birth
date of Christ and later Pope Julius the First officially declared it as Jesus’
birthday. But the real reason behind December 25 being chosen is because pagans
in Constantine’s empire was already celebrating the Winter solstice festival to
Saturnalia who was said to have been born on December 25th along with
other deities Mithra and Tammuz.
Celebrating
Christmas would be like being married, but celebrating your spouse’s birthday
on your ex-wife or ex-girlfriends birthday!
Why? After all we are the “Bride”
of Messiah and He is our “Husband,” and that would be celebrating His birth on
the day of a pagan god, our former lover!
Or it’s also like if I, a Jew, would take the Swastika and assign a new
meaning to it, let’s say it is the cross of Messiah humbly bent, reaching out
to all four corners of the earth! That
doesn’t fly does it? Pretty sick,
perverted and insensitive of me huh?
Well, how do you feel the Messiah himself thinks about Christmas?
Sorry, if one is
to be truthful, Jesus is NOT the reason for the season, but Tammuz, Mithra and
Saturnalia are.
Lights, Trees, Wreaths and Greenery
In Paganism,
Christmas is around the time of Yule on its calendar; winter is the darkest
time of the year. Ancient pagans would make evergreen wreaths and set candles
in them as phallic symbols in attempt to sympathetically and magically give
power to mother nature to “spring” back to life, to make Spring come quickly so
that the greenery of new life can return and the sun can regain strength.
“The truth is that all of the customs
of Christmas pre-date the birth of Jesus Christ, and a study of this would
reveal that
Christmas in our day is a collection of traditions and practices taken from many cultures and nations.
Christmas in our day is a collection of traditions and practices taken from many cultures and nations.
The date of December 25th comes from
Rome and was a celebration of the Italic god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the
sun god.
This was done long before the birth of
Jesus.
It was noted by the pre-Christian
Romans and other pagans, that daylight began to increase after December 22nd,
when they assumed that the sun god died.
These ancients believed that the sun
god rose from the dead three days later as the new-born and venerable sun.
Thus, they figured that to be the
reason for increasing daylight.
This was a cause for much wild
excitement and celebration. Gift giving and merriment filled the temples of
ancient Rome, as sacred priests of Saturn, called dendrophori, carried wreaths
of evergreen boughs in procession.” – David Meyer, Last Trumpet Ministries
International
“The origins of the Advent wreath are
found in the folk practices of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples who, during
the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and
lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light. Christians
kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century Catholics and
Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent
hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany the use of the Advent
wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world. Traditionally, the wreath
is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens with a fifth candle in the
middle. Three candles are violet and the fourth is rose, but four white candles
or four violet candles can also be used. Each day at home, the candles are
lighted, perhaps before the evening meal-- one candle the first week, and then
another each succeeding week until December 25th. A short prayer may accompany
the lighting of each candle. The last candle is the middle candle. The lighting
of this candle takes place on Christmas Eve. It represents Jesus Christ being
born.” - http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/wreaths.htm
And
again we have the Catholic Church attempting to “sanitize” pagan rituals to
other gods.
The same is to be
said about the “Christ-Tammuz” tress, recall in our Easter section, that when
Tammuz was gorged to death by a wild boar his blood spilled on some evergreen
stumps and they grew into full trees overnight?
“Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
In the Northern hemisphere,
the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December
22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun
was a god and 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 boughs reminded them of all the
green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would
return.
The ancient Egyptians
worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a
blazing disk in his crown (And is why sun
disks are seen behind all catholic icons). At the solstice, when Ra began
to recover from the illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm
rushes which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.
Early Romans marked the
solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of
agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon farms and
orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated
their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.
In Northern Europe the
mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their
temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce
Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the
sun god, Balder.
Germany is credited with
starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century
when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built
Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if
wood was scarce. -http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/trees.htm (italics mine)
“In Germany, the evergreen tree was
used in worship and celebration of the yule god, also in observance of the
resurrected sun god.
The evergreen tree was a symbol of the
essence of life and was regarded as a phallic symbol in fertility worship.” -
David Meyer, Last Trumpet Ministries International
Lights were used
to keep the winter stag god away and to call back and give more strength to the
sun. This is but one of the reasons for the Yule Log as well, which was to be
kept burning for 12 days, corresponding to the 12 days of Christmas.
“In Northern Europe, Winter
festivities were once considered to be a Feast of the Dead, complete with
ceremonies full of spirits, devils, and the haunting presence of the Norse god,
Odin, and his night riders. One particularly durable Solstice festival was "Jol"
(also known as "Jule" and pronounced "Yule"), a feast
celebrated throughout Northern Europe and particularly in Scandinavia to honor
Jolnir, another name for Odin. Since Odin was the god of intoxicating drink and
ecstasy, as well as the god of death, Yule customs varied greatly from region
to region. Odin's sacrificial beer became the specially blessed Christmas ale
mentioned in medieval lore, and fresh food and drink were left on tables after
Christmas feasts to feed the roaming Yuletide ghosts. Even the bonfires of
former ancient times survived in the tradition of the Yule Log, perhaps the
most universal of all Christmas symbols.
The origins of the Yule Log can be traced back to the Midwinter festivals in which the Norsemen indulged...nights filled with feasting, "drinking Yule" and watching the fire leap around the log burning in the home hearth. The ceremonies and beliefs associated with the Yule Log's sacred origins are closely linked to representations of health, fruitfulness and productivity. In England, the Yule was cut and dragged home by oxen or horses as the people walked alongside and sang merry songs. It was often decorated with evergreens and sometimes sprinkled with grain or cider before it was finally set alight.” - http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/yulelog.htm
The origins of the Yule Log can be traced back to the Midwinter festivals in which the Norsemen indulged...nights filled with feasting, "drinking Yule" and watching the fire leap around the log burning in the home hearth. The ceremonies and beliefs associated with the Yule Log's sacred origins are closely linked to representations of health, fruitfulness and productivity. In England, the Yule was cut and dragged home by oxen or horses as the people walked alongside and sang merry songs. It was often decorated with evergreens and sometimes sprinkled with grain or cider before it was finally set alight.” - http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/yulelog.htm
Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh
unto you, O house of Israel: Thus
saith the Lord, Learn not the
way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen
are dismayed at them. For
the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it
with nails and with hammers, that it move not. – Jer. 10:1-4
Jeremiah 10:2
speaks of the pagans being dismayed at the signs of the heavens. This relates
to the days becoming shorter and the sun losing its strength in winter. Verse 3
and 4 though it is dealing with making an idol, uncannily sound an awful lot
like a Christmas tree. And if it is not symbolic of a phallic idol, then why do
we set our gifts beneath it as a mock offering?
In relation to
other greenery of the Christmas season, all of which was to coax the sun back
in duration and strength so as to bring the greenery of Spring back to the
earth. Mistletoe was sacred to the Norse and Druid peoples and was thought to
possess healing powers and was able to ward off evil spirits and so was hung in
doorway and above cribs.
Christmas Ivy was
symbolic of eternal life and the god of wine, Bacchus. Laurel on the other hand
represented Apollos. Again, both of which were used to encourage Spring to
arrive early.
Holly was sacred
to the Druids but in Roman times it was used, along with mistletoe in the
celebration of Saturnalia, and so as to avoid persecution Christians of the day
would deck their home in this. The white berries of Holly were considered semen
from the god and the red berries of mistletoe were said to be menstruation of
the goddess Diana. Mistletoe and Holly were hung in pagan temples and was
thought to promote fertility and thus kissing under the mistletoe became a
thing. Wood from the Holly was often used to make magic wands.
Virtually all
Christmas customs, rituals and traditions can be traced back to Babylon, Rome to
the Celts or Norsemen.
Advent
Advent has its
origins in the Babylonian religion, where women would weep and fast for Tammuz
whose physical body was gored to death by a wild boar and his spirit ascended
to help rule the heavens as a sun god.
God took and
showed Ezekiel the detestable pagan Babylonian sun worship going on under the
Temple precincts.
Then he brought me to the
door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold,
there sat women weeping for Tammuz. – Ezk. 8:14
“One of the earliest references to
Christmas being celebrated on December 25 appeared in Antioch in the middle of
the second century. At that time, Christians were still persecuted. An official
determination was made in the fourth century, when the Roman emperor
Constantine embraced Christianity, thereby ensuring the legality of Christmas
celebrations. The Council of Tours in 567 established the period of Advent as a
time of fasting before Christmas. They also proclaimed the twelve days from
Christmas to Epiphany a sacred, festive season.” -
http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/trivia/advent.htm
Again,
Catholicism, stemming back to the days of Constantine just covered up blatant
paganism and to unite a religiously divined empire.
“When Martin Luther started the
reformation on October 31st, 1517, and other reformers followed his lead, all
of them took with them the paganism that was so firmly imbedded in Rome. These
reformers left Christmas intact.” – David Meyer, Last Trumpet Ministries
International
Father Christmas, Santa Claus, Saint Nick
Father Christmas,
also known as Lord Frost is none other than the Roman god Saturnalia. To the
Vikings he is none other than the All Father, Odin.
Santa Claus and or
Saint Nicholas was again, the Roman Catholic Church’s attempt to bring further
validation for Christians to celebrate the pagan festival along with their
neighbors.
December 6, the date of his death is known as, “Saint Nicholas
Day.” Santa Claus is simply
a contraction for Saint Nicholas. He was a bishop in 3rd century
Greece and famous for unexpected gift giving and later associated with the
giving of presents during the season at the end of the year. He was quoted to
say, “I am Nicholas, a sinner, Nicholas, servant of Christ Jesus.”
He was later imprisoned by Diocletian during the Christian persecution
and later released by “Christian” Emperor
Constantine. He also was said to have participated in the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Later this Popish saint evolved into a red suited jolly old man who
snuck down people chimneys and left gifts for all.
Christmas Observance
Christmas was actually illegal to celebrate in America prior to the
Civil War. The Puritans who came over from England saw the celebration as pagan
and had nothing to do with true Christianity and or the birth of Christ.
“Henry the VIII may have suppressed St. Nicholas
in 1542, but the Puritans tried to eliminate Christmas entirely in 1643. Shops
were required to be open and churches closed, because of associations with
"popery" and to stamp out the "misrule" that often led to
drunkenness, excessive gambling and general licentiousness. Mince pies,
mummers, holly and church services were all suppressed. This caused a lot
of resistance that was expressed in a number of pamphlets being
printed both for and against observing Christmas.” - http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/father-christmas/
“In England, as the authorized Bible
became available to the common people by the decree of King James the II in
1611, people began to discover the pagan roots of Christmas, which are clearly
revealed in Scripture.
The Puritans in England, and later in
Massachusetts Colony, outlawed this holiday as witchcraft.” – David Meyer, Last
Trumpet Ministries International
So you see, the celebration and observance of Christmas and all its
traditions has nothing remotely at all to do with the birth of Christ, and one
is just simply fooling themselves to think that it is. It is pagan to the core
and Believers in Messiah Yeshua should have nothing to do with it in regards to
its observance or celebration. If one truly wishes to honor and celebrate the
birth of Christ, Sukkot is the perfect time to recognize it, and if that is
ones true intentions, then it shouldn’t be a problem transferring that to its
proper time, rather than to continue to celebrate it on December 25th.
One does not have to miss out on Winter holiday celebrations and festivities,
as I mentioned earlier Chanukah is perfectly find for every believer in Messiah
Yeshua to observe.
