Most Christians believe that Christmas is the holiday that is most associated with the birth of Jesus. But did you know that the word "Christmas" is not in the Bible? Did you know that there is nothing about December 25th in the Scriptures? Did you also know that Christians did not begin celebrating "Christmas" until the 4th century?The truth is that God did institute a holiday which foreshadowed the circumstances around the birth of Jesus Christ and had His people celebrate that holiday for over 1000 years before Jesus ever came.
During that holiday God had His people build humble temporary shelters and live in them for a week to foreshadow exactly how His Son would come into the world. In essence, God's people were acting out a "manger scene" each year for over 1000 years, prophetically anticipating what was to come.
As we shall see, that holiday was held yearly during the time on the Jewish calendar when one day the Christ would be born.
And indeed, the day in history eventually came when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born in a very humble shelter during the Feast of Tabernacles.
You never heard of the Feast of Tabernacles?
You were never taught that in church?
What about December 25th?
You do realize that in late December in Israel it would have been way too cold for the shepherds to be out with their flocks at night, right?
The early church knew nothing of "Christmas" and they certainly did not celebrate December 25th.
But during the early church period there were tons of people who did celebrate December 25th.
The pagans.
December 25th came to be known as "the birthday of the unconquered sun" in pagan Rome. Pagan gods such as Mithras, Attis, Dionysus, Osiris and others either had their birthdays on or around this day. Many of the "Christmas traditions" of today can be directly traced back to pagan practices.
After Rome legalized Christianity, the "Christian church" was pressured to make changes that would make pagans feel more comfortable. Celebrating December 25th was something that pagans were already familiar with, and so it was "easier" to make that day a "Christian celebration".
But it isn't in the Bible.
Did you know that the Bible does give us information about when Jesus was actually born?
In the gospel of Luke, the Bible gives us a timeline, starting with when John the Baptist's father was on duty in the Temple, that ultimately culminates in the birth of Christ. By using that timeline, and by confirming it with other circumstantial evidence, we can arrive at the historical conclusion that Jesus Christ was born during the Feast of Tabernacles. The short video below goes through all the specific details:
Did you know that the Bible says that the whole world will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in the future during the 1000 year reign of Christ?
Zechariah 14 starts out with a description of the second coming of Christ, and then later in the chapter it describes how Jesus will require all nations to observe the Feast of Tabernacles at that time.....
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
-Zechariah 14:16-19
The truth is that we have been robbed.
We have been robbed of the knowledge of this mighty holiday that foreshadowed the birth of Christ for centuries, and we have been sold a historically pagan shallow holiday of shopping, greed and the magic of Santa Claus.
Well spoken
ReplyDeleteBiblical Holidays Jewish Feasts Reveal Messiah Yeshua -Jesus
ReplyDeleteThe Feast of Tabernacles was the final and most important holiday of the year. The importance of this festival is indicated by the statement, "This is to be a lasting ordinance." The divine pronouncement, "I am the Lord your God," concludes this section on the holidays of the seventh month. The Feast of Tabernacles begins five days after Yom Kippur on the fifteenth of Tishri (September or October). It is a drastic change from one of the most solemn holidays in our year to one of the most joyous. The word Sukkoth means "booths," and refers to the temporary dwellings that Jews are commanded to live in during this holiday, just as the Jews did in the wilderness. The Feast of Tabernacles lasts for seven days and ends on the twenty-first day (3x7) of the Hebrew month of Tishri, which is Israel's seventh month.
This holiday has a dual significance: historical and agricultural (just as Passover and Pentecost). Historically, it was to be kept in remembrance of the dwelling in tents in the wilderness for the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert.
It is expounded in Leviticus 23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
What were they to remember?
Matthew Henry's commentary explains,
1.) The meanness of their beginning, and the low and desolate state out of which God advanced that people. Note: Those that are comfortably fixed ought often to call to mind their former unsettled state, when they were but little in their own eyes. 2.) The mercy of God to them, that, when they dwelt in tabernacles, God not only set up a tabernacle for Himself among them, but, with the utmost care and tenderness imaginable, hung a canopy over them, even the cloud that sheltered them from the heat of the sun. God's former mercies to us and our fathers ought to be kept in everlasting remembrance. The eighth day was the great day of this holiday, because then they returned to their own houses again, and remembered how, after they had long dwelt in tents in the wilderness, at length they came to a happy settlement in the land of promise, where they dwelt in goodly houses. And they would the more sensibly value and be thankful for the comforts and conveniences of their houses when they had been seven days dwelling in booths. It is good for those that have ease and plenty sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness.
They were to keep this holiday in thankfulness to God for all the increase of the year; however, the emphasis is that Israel's life rested upon redemption which in its ultimate meaning is the forgiveness of sin. This fact separates this holiday from the harvest festivals of the neighboring nations whose roots lay in the mythological activity of the gods.