Christmas in June?

Our last discussion went kind of well, but not many responses, so I will switch gears for this one.

Many of you have probably seen on the news in the last day or so (It was on Fox and Friends this morning), but a team of scientists think they have finally figured out when Jesus' real birthday was. They did this by studying the stars, and using new information regarding the stars alignment and how fast the galaxies are expanding, have pinpointed a phenomenon that is similar to the one we have been witnessing over the last month.

If any one has noticed the two really bright "stars" outside at dusk that look like you can touch them, well they are not stars at all, but the planets Jupiter and Mars. They line up like this every so often.

So using that data, they have discovered in the year 4 B.C. (which correlates with Luke and Matthews Gospel on the year), these stars lined up one on the top of another, and along with Venus, looked like an arrow was pointing at....can you guess where this is going? Of course it was pointing at Israel. They cannot pinpoint it no further than that, but I would guess that if they could, it would look like, at least from Iran, that it was over Bethlehem. (BTW, Magi are from Iran according to Daniel, where Daniel was "Prince of the Magi and Wise Men")

And the month was June. Previously, for those nerds like me that are very interested when science studies Christianity, scholars thought it was in September. Any astrologer or astronomer would have noticed this phenomenon, but only three went to "check it out".

Now, where did come up with December 25th? Glad you asked. All of you history buffs probably already know this, but for those that don't here is an abbreviated version. A disclaimer: Pharisees and other uneducated people will not agree with this "true" history, but here it is any way.

Emperor Constantine seen a vision of a cross in the sky, and made a new decree: In the Roman Empire, Christianity would be the state religion. As a matter of fact, it would now be the only religion. As a gift to the underground Churches, he gave all of the temples and pagan worship areas, to compensate them for all of the persecution they had undergone.

As would be expected, some of those temple priest's and priestesses were not over joyed with this, so several cults arose. Most of these have become Catholic Doctrine through the years, like praying to Saints, dead people, and the worshiping of the Virgin Mary. Quiet a lot of the rituals got passed along too.

Keep in mind that all of this "integration" did not happen immediately: the True Church worked in the Empire for a long time before finally breaking away and forming Independent Churches again, that were soon drove underground; only this time by their fellow Christians. To put this in perspective, Mary Worship did not become "official" Catholic doctrine until the 1960's Vatican Council. (although the "mother-son" cult was always present, they were considered a sect, or cult for a long time).

OK, one of the Roman Goddesses, Dionysis (not the Greek God of Wine, like on Hercules the series, but another Dionysys), was a fertility goddess. we know the "popular" ones like Zeus, Hades, etc, but their were over 100 fertility goddesses, and Dionysis was one.

Every year, it was said she was born on December 25th and died on the first Friday in April and was resurrected on the following Sunday. Her "familiar" was a rabbit, by the way. Fertility=rabbit, naturally.

Any way, to celebrate her re-birth every year, people decorated trees with green, red and blue and exchanged presents wrapped with green, red, or blue bows.

So you can see how easy it was to "hide" this cult within Christianity until one day a Pope arose who was a member of the cult. The rest is history, and now Christmas is a national holiday in over two-thirds of the world!

Just so some won't be offended, it is not known when the early church celebrated Jesus' birthday or even if they did at all. The Gospel of John was the latest Gospel to be written, and it was thought to have been written for the Church he (John) pastored at Ephesus, and he doesn't mention Jesus' birth, at least directly. The historian Justin mentions only His Resurrection being celebrated, and it was celebrated every Sunday when they met. And since Jesus' birth is really not specifically mentioned at all for several centuries shows me that they either did not think it was that important, or they thought His death and Resurrection was more important.

So, feel free to comment, or add what history you know to fill in the gaps, because the spread of "cults" into Catholic doctrine is much, much, more complicated and drawn out than can be allowed here. And leave us your thoughts about whether you think this is even important at all. And is Jesus' birth as important than His death and Resurrection?

There is actually controversy over this scientific inquiry. The pagan celebration I told you about is very well docuemented, but folks will argue that December 25th is "in the Bible". Check out YouTube and you will find a lot of the people that argue that Jesus' birth was December 25th are the same that will tell you the KJV of the Bible is the only inspred version of the Word. (Never mind the original scriptures arguement, they will argue with a telephone pole).

But you will also find lots of Christians refusing to celebrate on this day BECAUSE of the orgins of the holiday. And thats fine with me. I don't think you will go wrong by dedicating a day to focus on Jesus coming to the Earth. That is, as long as Jesus is the focus. My next post will be about how me and my family celebrate Christmas, and yes we do it on the 25th of December. If God knows everything there is to know, and has a personal relationship with me, then He surely knows whether I am celebrating Christ's birth or a pagan fertility goddess!

Until next time, Peace and Blessings on you and your family!

Jesse