CHRISTMAS AND THE LORD OF THE MOON

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VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> It is surprising to learn how many "Christians" know of the history of this pagan holiday.  Yet, the lack of concern as to how they bring it into their homes, let alone into the church, is appalling.  I know that most will discard this paper at this point, however, it is those who are seeking a closer relationship with their Lord and Saviour in an effort to perfect their Christian character, that will find this editorial most useful.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="27d64640.gif" border=0 width="100" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> Fact:  The early Puritans of New England banned the celebration of Christmas, declaring it as a holiday with many heathen origins and customs.  The first state to legalize the celebration of Christmas was Alabama in 1836.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="14a55640.gif" border=0 width="85" height="100" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> I hate to bore you with the facts, so please be patient with those who do not know them.  The question must be asked:  "Why does Xmas fall on December 25th?"  The Scriptures are silent about the precise day of Christ's birth, or the time of the year when He was born.  What is recorded, implies that when the angel announced Christ's birth to the shepherds of Bethlehem, they were feeding their flocks by night in the open fields.  Now the climate of Palestine, from December to February, is very piercing, and it was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October (see <U>Gill's Commentary</U> on Luke 2:8).  There is great unanimity among commentators on this point, i.e.:  Barnes, Doddridge, Lightfoot, Joseph Scaliger, Joseph Mede, Jennings, and many more.  In addition, at the birth of Christ, every person was to go to be taxed at the city where they belonged;  but the middle of winter would not be a fitting time for this business, especially for women with children to travel in.  Moreover, if any shall think that the winter was not that extreme in Palestine, let the reader remember the words of Christ:  "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,"  Mat. 24:20.  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="1eb4b4b0.gif" border=0 width="75" height="75" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> The facts are that no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of until the third century, and not until the fourth century was far advanced, did it gain <B>any</B> observance.  However, on December 25th a festival was celebrated among the heathen, in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven.  Therefore, in order to conciliate the heathen and swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, this festival was adopted by the Roman Church.  Oh "how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians."  <U>Tertullian</U>, about the year 230 AD.  </div> <bR> <div> That Christmas was originally a Pagan festival is beyond all doubt.  The time of the year and the ceremonies, with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin.  In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at the time of the winter solstice.  The Egyptian year begins at a different time than ours;  thus only the heavenly bodies can be blamed for this coincidence.  An old popular term for Christmas was "Yule-day."  "Yule" is the Chaldee (Babylonian) name for an "infant' or "little child," and the night which preceded it was "Mother-night."  This festival is known to have only an astronomical character, referring simply to the completion of the sun's yearly course, and the commencement of a new cycle.  To the Pagans, this day was the birthday of Nimrod. Among the Sabeans of Arabia it was the <B>moon</B>, and not the sun, that was the visible symbol of the object of their idolatry, in observance of the "Birthday of the Lord" festival.  The "<B>Lord Moon</B>" is the great object of Arabian worship [note the crescent moon on all their Mosques].  According to them, the Lord Moon was born on the 24th of December, which clearly shows that the birth which they celebrated had no necessary connection with the course of the sun.  The Saxons, as is well known, regarded the Sun as a female divinity, and the <B>Moon</B> as a male.  Thus it is the birthday of the "<B>Lord Moon</B>" and not that of the Sun, that was celebrated by them on the 25th of December.</div> <bR> <div>                                              <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="0743a320.gif" border=0 width="314" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> The name of the "<B>Lord Moon</B>" in the East was "Meni."  A direct translation of Isa. 65:11 [see your margin notes] is:  "But ye are they that forsake My holy mountain, that prepare a temple for Gad, and that furnish the drink-offering unto Meni."  "Gad" refers to the sun god, and "Meni" designates the <B>moon</B>-divinity.  The name "Gad" refers to the war-god, for it signifies to assault, but it also signifies "the assembler," and under both ideas it is applicable to Nimrod.  He was the first grand warrior and the name of Phoroneus is another name for him in honor of having first gathered mankind into social communities.  The name "Meni," "the numberer," on the other hand, is a synonym for the name of "Cush" or "Chus," which, while it signifies "to cover" or "hide," it also signifies "to count, or number."  The proper meaning of the name "Cush" then, is "the Numberer" or "Arithmetician."  For while Nimrod was the grand propagator of the Babylonian system of idolatry, he as "Hermes" "taught men the proper mode of approaching the Deity with prayers and sacrifice."  <U>Wilkinson</U>, vol. 5 p. 10.  "Hermes" is said to have "first discovered numbers, and the art of reckoning, geometry, and astronomy," <U>ibid</U>. p. 3.  The name "Meni" is just the Chaldee form of the Hebrew "Mene," the "numberer" for in Chaldee "I" often takes the place of the final "e."  That "Nebo" (representing the primeval god and the great prophetic god of Babylon) was just the same god as "Hermes," is shown in the peculiar emphasis of the first words in God's Divine sentence that sealed the doom of Belshazzar, - "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," (Dan. 5:25) which is as much as covertly to say, "The numberer is numbered."  Thus, if "Gad" was the "sun-divinity," Meni was very naturally regarded as "<B>The Lord Moon</B>."</div> <bR> <div> That God hated such worship, I hope you can now clearly grasp from the reading of His word.  "Meni," or "Manai," signifies "The Numberer," and it is by the changes of the <B>moon</B> that the months are numbered:  Psalm 104:19, "He appointed the <B>moon</B> for seasons:  the sun knoweth his going down."  The name of the "<B>Man of the Moon</B>," or the god who presided over that luminary among the Saxons, was "Mane," as given in the "Edda," (Mallet, vol. 2, p. 24 1809 Ed.) and Mani, in the "Voluspa."  Supplement to Ida Pfeiffer's <U>Iceland</U>, pp. 322-323.  That it was the birth of the "<B>Lord Moon</B>" that was celebrated among our ancestors at Christmas, is clear in the name that is still given in the lowlands of Scotland to the feast on the last day of the year, which is a remnant of the old birth festival for the cakes than made which are called "Nur-Cakes," or "Birth-cakes."  That name is Hogmanay [see <U>Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary</U>, sub voce], and "Hog-Manai" in Chaldee signifies "The feast of the Numberer;" in other words, "The festival of Deus Lunus," or of the "<B>Man of the Moon</B>."  Everybody in the south of Scotland is personally cognizant of the fact that Hogmanay begins on the evening before New Year's day.</div> <bR> <div>            <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="1a781690.gif" border=0 width="129" height="105" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> Even where the sun was the favorite object of worship, as in Babylon itself and elsewhere, at this festival it was worshipped not merely as the orb of day, but as God incarnate (see <U>Plutarch, De Iside</U>, vol. 2 sec. 52, p. 372).  It was an essential principle of the Babylonian system, that the Sun, or Baal was the one and only God [see <U>Macrobius</U>, Sat., lib. I. Ch. 23, p. 72e].  When therefore, Tammuz was worshipped as God incarnate, that implied also that he was an incarnation of the Sun.  In Hindu mythology, which is admitted to be essentially Babylonian, this comes out very distinctly.  There, Surya, or the Sun, is represented as being incarnate, and born for the purpose of subduing the enemies of the gods, who, without such a birth, could not have been subdued (see <U>Sanscrit Researches of Col. Vans Kennedy</U>, p. 438).  </div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="04943320.gif" border=0 width="67" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> It is no mere astronomic festival then that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn, and the mode in which it was celebrated there, showed whence it had been derived.  Thus, Christmas is held in honor of the birth of the Babylonian Messiah, regardless of how "Christian" you try to make it.  Space is the only hold back now.  What of the:  Christmas Tree, Yole Log, Lighted Wax Candles, Mistletoe, The Boar (Ham), And The List Goes On, And On, And On, And On.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="15860600.gif" border=0 width="96" height="96" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>