The Story of Christmas

Well, it's that time of the year again. It's a time that, as we know, we tend to dread, maybe. Every time you go into a store, what do you hear? Well, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year's. And, you know, people, you hear these songs, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, and here comes Santa Claus and Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. One thing I haven't heard this year, which I'm glad, is the little drummer boy. Once I hear that, it's stuck in my mind. I cannot get it out. And, you know, it's just sort of echoing around. I know that this is something that we all understand, but, brethren, as a newer generation comes along in God's church, our children, teenagers, and, you know, even younger children, we need to be able to explain to them what the true origins of the Christmas customs truly are. We all know that the basic customs come from paganism. But why did the pagans begin to observe these rituals and these rites? Why did they start doing this? Why does God hate these days so much? What should be our attitude towards things like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, new other days? I want us to go back to the very beginning to see if we can grasp how these days came about. It's one thing to understand that their roots go back, but do you understand why these type of customs were originated in the first place? Let's go back to Genesis 2, verse 8 and 9. Good place to begin as far as the beginning is concerned. Genesis 2, and beginning in verse 8. We find that the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. Now, verse 9, and out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow, which is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We find there were two trees. One gave life, the second tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree led to death. Notice it in verse 16. The Lord God commanded the man's saying of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So, partaking of that tree and whatever it symbolized led to death. Now, remember this tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when we come down to our discussion about Christmas, because I will show you that there is a connection. People talk about how much good is done at Christmas. Many people will spend months gathering money and gifts to help the poor and the needy.

And you might ask yourself the question, isn't that good to help the poor and the needy? Have a good hot meal? Have gifts to give to their children? They sacrifice and do all they can to try to make people happy. But remember a very important point. God defines what is good. He is the one who determines what is good and what is not good. He determines true goodness, true happiness, true righteousness. Man has defined for himself what is good, what is evil, what is right. But God is the one who tells us how to worship Him. As a reminder, in Romans 7, in verse 12, I won't turn there, but just one thing to remember at this point, that God says His law is holy and just and good. And yet we find that it is the law of God that is discarded. People try to do away with the law of God, and yet God says that His law is the way that leads to goodness.

Now we know that Adam and Eve send and rebelled against God. And in chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, beginning in verse 14, we find here the prophecy about the death of the coming Messiah and His eventual triumph over the serpent. Let's notice verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, because he was instrumental in influencing the man and woman to rebel, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. And on your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

And I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

And he shall bruise your head, referring to Christ, and you shall bruise his heel. The fact that Christ would eventually triumph over Satan and his demons. Now, we know that originally when Satan or the devil appeared to mankind, what form, what shape did he appear in? Well, verse 1 says, now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And so we find that he appeared in the form of a snake. Now, when he came along, he basically said to man, to Adam and Eve, that he was going to liberate them from God.

That they didn't need to follow God. They could decide for themselves what was right and what was wrong. And we know that for approximately six thousand years now, man has been doing that, deciding for himself right and wrong, rejecting revealed knowledge, rejecting the revealed standard of God's way in his law. Society today is no closer to determining what is right or wrong than it's ever been. In fact, one might be able to say we're further away from knowing what's right and wrong.

Human society and cultures decide what is good and what is evil. And each individual has set himself up as the ultimate authority. Now, let's notice as we progress along here, man's sin was kicked out of the garden. Now, in chapter four, verse one, let's notice what it says here, the book of Genesis, chapter four and verse one. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she bore again this time his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

Now, the word Cain means to get or to acquire. James and Phalson Brown says that the word means or implies a possession valued above everything else, a possession that is valued above everything else.

So, she placed a great deal of value on Cain. But when you look up the word Abel, you find the exact opposite. What you find, the implication here in verses one and two, is that Cain and Abel were twins. It doesn't say she conceived and bore Cain and then conceived again and bore Abel. No, it just says that she conceived and she bore both of them. So, most of the commentaries will tell you that Cain and Abel probably were twins, Cain being the first born.

The word Abel means breath or nothing. James and Phalson and Brown again says the word Abel means weakness or vanity, grief or lamentation. So, on one hand, here's Cain that is a prized possession. On the other hand, you have Abel who is vanity, lamentation, woe, misery. So, you know, you can figure out for yourself why she went and named them in different ways. What we find here, I think there are a couple of things that can be deduced and we will see that history substantiates when I'm about to state. And that is, she probably thought that Cain was the Messiah.

The prophecy had been given that there would be born to the woman, a man who would be a Messiah, who would triumph over the serpent. Cain came along and in her mind, this is probably the way she reasoned. This would have been what we would have called the first Madonna and child. And I think we can find historical references to the fact that Eve was looked upon as a Madonna, her son, as a child, the son of God.

Now, in chapter 4, verses 2 through 5, we're all familiar with the fact of the offerings. How Cain was not willing to bring an offering of an animal, but he brought of the fruit of the ground. Apparently, even though Cain, like the Agilation, liked to be praised, to be thought of as a possible Messiah, he was not willing to die for man's sins. You see, inherent with the fact that maybe he were the Messiah, was the fact that he would have to die. And that was something that he did not want to do.

Now, we know that Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain was kicked out of not only the garden, but the area of Eden. And let's notice in verse 16 what happened. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. And to Enoch was born Erad. And Erad begot Mahujiel, and Mahujiel begot Methusel, and Methusel begot Lamech. Then Lamech took for himself two wives. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the second was Zilla. And Ada bore Jabel, he was the father of all those who dwelt in tents and had livestock. And his brother's name was Jubal, and he was the father of all those who played the harp and the flute. And as for Zilla, she also bore Tubal Cain, an instructor in every craftsman in bronze and iron, and the sister of Tubal Cain was Neaman. Now, I wanted to read that whole section for you because Cain became the first heretic.

Cain set up a competing system to God's way of life before the flood. He was the one who, first of all, deviated and went off from God. Now, how do we know? Well, let's hold your place here, but let's go over to the book of Jude. Jude verse 11. If you'll turn back here to the book of Jude verse 11. Notice what it says. There are three individuals singled out as leading mankind or having an influence in a wrong way. It says, Woe to them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.

The way of Cain. Cain established a way of life that was diametrically opposite to the right way that God gave. Today, Christianity is called a way of life. We live this way, and here you find there was the way of Cain that he established, and they've run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Cain sat under the wrong tree and established his own religion and worship of God. There are only two ways. There's God's way and man's way. Man's way is influenced by Satan the devil, and as Proverbs 14.12 says, there's a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. We're all familiar with that. Now, when you read this section through here, it's interesting that Josephus, the Jewish historian, when you read what he says about this section, he indicated that Cain and his descendants established a perverted way of life, a violent way of life. I'd like to read from book one, chapter two of the book of Josephus. I know most of you don't have this on your lap, but I brought my own copy so I could read from it. First of all, though, let me read 1 John 3.12. 1 John 3.12, because it summarizes what this way of Cain was like. Notice it. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one. So Cain was of Satan the devil, not of God, but of the devil, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. So his works were evil. Able was a righteous man. Now, quoting from book one, chapter two of Josephus, he has this to say, Adam and Eve had two sons. The elder of them was named Cain, which name, when it is interpreted, signifies a possession. The younger was Able, which signifies sorrow. But Cain was not only very wicked in other respects, but he was wholly intent upon getting, and he first contrived to plow the ground. Not only does it say he plowed the ground, but he was a covetous man, and he forced the ground. Forcing the ground means he forced it to produce in a way that was unnatural. Instead of letting it rest, he kept forcing the ground.

When Cain had traveled over many countries, seeing his wife build a city called Nod, which is a place so called, and there he settled. However, he did not accept his punishment in order to amend our amendment, but to increase his wickedness. So when God drove him out, he didn't consider that was a punishment from God. Therefore, he should repent. No, he became more and more wicked. For he only aimed to procure everything that was for his own bodily pleasure, though he obligated himself to be injurious to his neighbor. He augmented his household substance with much wealth and repine and violence. He excited his acquaintance to procure pleasure and spoil by robbery. He became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced a way of introduce a change in the way of simplicity where men had lived before. He was the author of measures and weights, measures and weights. He changed the world into cunning craftiness. He first of all set boundaries about lands. He was the one who got out and started surveying and setting certain boundaries. He built a city, fortified it with walls, and he compelled his family to live together and called the name of the city Enoch. Jubal, who was born of the same mother with him, exercised himself in music and invented the sultry and the harp. Now, as you go down through the lineage here, you'll find that almost every one of these individuals that are mentioned in Cain's lineage somehow perverted the gifts that they had. It's, you know, and you'll read this when you go through and you read a number of commentaries. Jubal, apparently, not only did he develop music, but perverted music. He began to pervert music. It talks about, Jubal, one of his children, by the other, wife, exceeded all men in strength and was very expert and famous in martial performance. He was warlike, and you'll find that he began to build instruments of warfare. It goes on to talk about he procured what tended to be the pleasures of the body by that method, and first of all, invented the art of making brass. He made brass and iron, and he turned that into making instruments of warfare so that he could rule over others. He was a father of a daughter whose name was, talking about Lamech here, whose name was Lamech, and because he was so skillful in matters of divine revelation. Jewish tradition says that Lamech codified a religion before the flood. It was the way of Cain, but it was written down and codified for the descendants of Cain. It says, No, even when Adam was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became exceedingly wicked. Everyone successfully dying one after another, more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, vehement in robberies, and if anyone were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his behavior and acting unjustly and doing injuries for gain.

So what you find is a whole family that turned to perversion.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary has this to say about the descendants of Cain.

It says, So here is pictured an affluent society defying God and his laws, and seeking pleasure and self-indulgence into this world Israel, and later the church would come as a kingdom of priests to proclaim God's righteousness. Now, it is interesting also that the daughter, Nama, you go through this list and you have all of these boys mentioned, then there's a daughter mentioned. Why is she highlighted? I don't know how you can substantiate this, and I don't throw this out as a substantiation, but Jewish tradition indicates that she possibly may have married him.

And as a result, would have carried some of these traditions, faults, ideas through the flood, perpetuated them on the other side of the flood. Now, as I said, I don't know how you can substantiate that. It's just an interesting fact. But Lamech developed a codified religion before the flood, and some of these false ideas could have passed through with Ham and Naaman. Now, when you look after the flood, the flood takes place after the flood, which family did the false religion start in after the flood? Well, let's turn back to chapter 10 in the book of Genesis, and let's notice very quickly where the false religion began to arise, where again the attitude that came had in being in defiance of God, rebellious against God, wanting His own way, where all of that came into being after the flood.

Beginning here in verse 6 says, the sons of Ham were Cush, Mitzram, Put, and Canaan.

Now, in verse 8, Cush begat Nimrath, and he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. The word before can mean in the place of, in other words, before they began to look to Him. The word in the Hebrew means face. They began to look to His face instead of the face of God. He began to be a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore, it's said like Nimrath, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of His kingdom was Babel, Erak, Akkad, Kaunna, and the land of Shinar. So you find that He began to do the same type of things that Cain had before the flood. Now, did they know the truth? Did humanity know and understand the truth of God after the flood took place? You better believe they did.

If there were only eight souls left alive after the flood and all of the rest of humanity was destroyed, Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives, then when the flood abated, the Ark rested on Erat, I'll guarantee you that all of those people understood that there was a God, and that He was powerful, that He could bring about the destruction of all mankind. In 2 Peter 2.5, I'll just refer to that. 2 Peter 2.5, Noah is referred to as a preacher of righteousness. Noah taught the right way. He taught righteousness, the way to live. He taught the right way of God. Noah is also found in Hebrews 11 as a man of faith who will be in the kingdom of God. So he was a servant of God who preached, as we know, for 120 years while the Ark was being made. Do you think after the flood that Noah stopped preaching?

I'm sure that he impressed upon his descendants continually the fact that they needed to obey God. Now, with that in mind, let's notice Romans chapter 1. Romans 1, a scripture that we're all familiar with. Again, verse 19 will begin. Pick up the story here. Romans 1.19.

And if I could summarize this section, it simply says that after the flood, the people knew God in his way. Noah taught it, and apparently from tradition you find that Shem followed in his father's footsteps and was also a preacher of righteousness. Notice in verse 19, it says, Because what may be known of God is manifested in them. For God has shown it to them.

For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So God says, all humanity, I don't care at what time they exist, are without excuse. They ought to be able to look at the creation and see Godhead, his eternal power. Because although they knew God, so notice verse 21, there was a time that they knew God.

So although they knew God, they knew of God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. So what you find, mankind, after the flood, knew there was a God, had been taught about God. No way that that could be denied, but as one generation after another generation began to come along, then they didn't want God to direct them. They didn't want to have to follow God's way. They wanted, and they had this urge again, to do what they wanted to do. And so verse 23 says, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like into corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. So they began to worship the creation. They began to worship the created things, began to set up idols instead of worshiping the true God. And verse 24, through the end of the chapter, reveals the reason why. Because they wanted to follow their own lusts, the lusts of their hearts, of their bodies. They wanted to sexually do whatever they wanted to do, and they didn't want God telling them, no, you can't do that. And so therefore, the best way to do that is get rid of God. If there's no God, then you don't have to follow His standards. And so they rejected God in His ways. Part of the creation that they began to worship, as we will see, was the serpent. They worshiped the serpent and the sun. The pagans knew of Adam and Eve's disobedience. They'd been taught by Noah. They'd been taught by Shin. I'm going to quote today from a number of sources dealing with the topic. We're going to address everything I've given to you so far is background material. In November 1959, those of you who were in the Church at the time will remember, the Dr. C. Paul Meredith, who at that time was the one who wrote the correspondence course, 58 Lesson, the original one, began to publish in the Plain Truth a series of articles titled, Satan's Great Deception. I'm going to quote from some of his material, as well as any number of other sources. And how much I quote depends on how much time I have left. So we'll see how we progress here with this. I'll refer to any number of works and sources that show the true origin of these pagan days from Christmas and other customs. One of the things that you find, Hislop, many of you are familiar with the book written by Hislop, The Two Babylons.

On page 322 and 323, Hislop mentions that Eve was worshiped in the ancient Babylon as a medieval goddess called Thalath. That's T-H-A-L-A-T-T-H, Thalath. The word means in the Hebrew, a turning aside, which can have a dual meaning. She was taken from the side of Adam, but Adam and Eve also turned away from God. In memory, Hislop mentions here, of Adam's turning aside from the right way, the pagan priest of Baal supplicated their god to hear them by limping. You might remember back in 1 Kings 1826, when the prophets of Baal went before God, they limped, they leaped. The word leaped there means limping. The god Vulcan was also a god who was a lame god. And so you'll find that this identification originally. Now, the reason why I mentioned this is simply to point out that the ancients after the flood clearly understood Adam and Eve, what had happened to them and their rebellion. Now, let's take a look at Nimrod and Cimaramas. We can go back to Genesis 10 again. Genesis chapter 10, we'll begin in verse 8 and pick up the story here. Take a look at Nimrod and Cimaramas and how they began to spread the false religion after the flood. And we will see that this definitely ties in with the Christmas tradition. Again, after the flood, everyone knew why God destroyed the old world. And there was a certain fear of God that was around. Let me quote to you from a work by Hygienus, page 114 of his writings.

Quoting, he says, for many ages men lived under the government of Job, which is another name for God. So, under the government of God. Talking about what occurred after the flood.

Without cities, without laws, all speaking one language. And then discord began.

Discord began. Who calls the discord? Who calls the confusion, in other words, to take place? Well, again, in chapter 10 and verse 8, we find here that that Nimrod is called a mighty hunter. The word mighty in the Hebrew is gabor, G-I-V-B-O-R, and it means strong or mighty. Now, wild animals after the flood multiplied faster than man did. It takes man a little longer, generally one or two at a time. Animals have litters, you know, they can multiply a little faster than human beings. And so, Nimrod began to capitalize on that and to liberate man from the fear of wild animals. Now, how do you do that? You build cities, put walls around them, put people in them, begin to run a protection racket, move into my city, I'll protect you, give me a little money, and you won't have to worry about the wild animals. We'll close the gates and we'll keep them down. We'll hunt them down.

And you'll find that he was a mighty hunter before. The word before means before can imply also in place of. People began, as I mentioned earlier, to look to the face of Nimrod instead of looking to God for protection. And he came up with a better way to protect people by putting them in the city. He became a violent person. He consolidated his power and authority and had people looking to him instead of looking to God. He became mighty and he began to establish a kingdom after the flood. He began to have more than one city. In chapter 11, verse 1 of the book of Genesis, we find that the Tower of Babel was one of the first acts of open rebellion against God after the flood. Just to remind ourselves, to refresh ourselves of the story, verse 1, now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they had bricks for stone and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole world. Now, they would be safe. The tower probably performed several functions. One was if there was another flood, you could go into the tower and escape the flood. So they'd be safe from God's punishment. It was a symbol also for all of them to look to, that instead of being scattered, they could look to the tower. Nimrod started the false system of religion and defiance of God. And as I said, it's possible that part of this carried over from before the flood.

God wanted man to settle the whole earth and the various families to move out, move away from what we would call the cradle of civilization, begin to move out and begin to inhabit the whole earth. Well, Nimrod wanted to keep them all in one spot. And the reason for that, he didn't want them spreading out because he could influence them if they were in one spot. Whereas if they spread, then he would have less influence over them. Now, let me read to you here a couple of things. One of these quotes is from Bunsen's Hieroglyphics, Volume 1, page 497. What you find Nimrod began to do, as I stated earlier, the serpent became an object of worship.

And the reason because of that is because the serpent was looked upon as one who had enlightened them. See, he had given them knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil.

The sun, too, also became a favorite object of worship at this time. Why? Well, both enlightened. The serpent enlightened mankind spiritually. The sun enlightened mankind physically.

And as Bunsen says, thus it came about that one of the common symbols of the sun or sun god is a disc with a serpent around it. You have a disc with a serpent wrapped around that disc. Notice also John Pericus in his book on page 119 has this to say likewise about the serpent. It says, the people who were worshiping the creeping thing, the snake, and the created thing, the sun. Now, God had originally named the sun by the Hebrew word shimesh, which means servant. Later on, mankind changed the name to baol, meaning Lord. And so the sun, which became symbolic of the sun god, took on the name Lord. And again, that's been carried down to such things as the Lord's day. And they were worshiping Baal, whose name means Lord. John Clara says, fire, giving off light, was regarded by these or those after the flood as the earthly representative of the sun. It is said that Nimrod himself commenced the worship of fire or fire worship. So fire then became a symbol of the serpent and of the sun. Nimrod championed this symbolism. He became the priest of the sun god. He became the priest of Baal. And so this began at that time.

Now, as we find in Genesis 11, beginning in verses 6 through 9, God confounds the languages and he sends the people scatters them. Verse 9 says, therefore the name of it is called Babel, Babylon, confusion, because there the Lord confused the language of all of the earth, from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the earth.

Now, it's interesting that the ancient records indicate that Shem killed Nimrod, that he actually was the one who was responsible for taking Shem's life. Nimrod wanted to reorganize society after the flood into a universal apostasy. Notice, quoting from Hislop's to Babylon's, page 232, what Hislop wrote about what occurred. Ancient tradition relates that the apostates who joined in the rebellion of Nimrod made war upon the faithful among the sons of Noah, who were Shem and his followers. Power and number were on the side of the fire worshippers, but on the side of the faithful was the power of God's Spirit. Therefore, many were convicted in their sin and arrested in their evil career, and victory declared for the saints. The power of Nimrod came to an end, and with it for a time the worship of the Son and the fiery serpent associated with it. Now, as I said, that was from Hislop. He also went on to say, if I could summarize, because I don't have time to quote all of these, that apparently Shem was a very eloquent man, that with the aid of a group of Egyptians, he overcame Nimrod. Apparently, Nimrod fled to Rome. Now, another side point, Nimrod was also called by the title Peter.

The first Peter of Rome was Nimrod. Now, what you find, he was killed in Rome. Supposedly, Peter, you know, later on was killed in Rome. That's an extra benefit of knowledge for you, that you can talk away, doesn't mean a thing. But it shows you how many of these traditions get intertwined in together. Nimrod's dead body was cut into pieces and burnt, and pieces were sent as a witness and a warning against such evil apostasy all over the earth. Now, Semiramis actually began to capitalize on that because she began to gather Nimrod's parts of his body. And whenever there was a temple that was to be dedicated, there had to be a part of Nimrod's body. Now, that's come down today in the tradition that you find that for many churches that those who follow the tradition of what we would call the Babylonian Mystery Religion, when they dedicate a church, they have to have some type of relic from some ancient person. You could be a sliver of the cross, you are a fragment from some ancient saint, a toenail, you know, a finger, whatever it might be, and they use that to consecrate the altar. Well, the same thing was done here, except you find that the one thing that they chose was the phallic symbol. And from that came all kind of phallic symbolism, and it was used to symbolize the false religion. Now, Semiramis then was the one who began to start and to organize the apostate religion after the flood. I want you to notice what it says here. When Nimrod was killed, let's realize it had a devastating effect upon those who were wanting to rebel against God. For a while, they pulled in their horns. They began to low-key things. Semiramis was afraid that she was going to lose her power, her influence over the people. And so, therefore, she started a system. The people were afraid to worship the objects like the serpent or some of these things openly because they would be killed. So, basically, what they did, they came up with an initiated a system of religion where the things that were forbidden were represented by something else. So, instead of just representing the snake or the disc that would talk about the sun, they came up with things that would stand for them, such as, let me just throw one out, an evergreen tree that would stand for life and stand for Semiramis and stand for Nimrod. The system became known as the ancient mystery religion. The ancient mystery religion. The ones who were initiated into the mystery would know that they, in reality, were worshiping the forbidden sun and the serpent. And those who were new, those who were outsiders, who would see and observe what they were doing, would be a mystery to them. They would have no idea what the symbolism symbolized.

As I said, this is where Semiramis came along. Semiramis had been the mother and wife of Nimrod.

She conspired with Nimrod, if you'll remember. I'll show you a little character about this woman. She was married to Kush. She had a son named Nimrod. Once Nimrod grew to be an adult, she and Nimrod killed his dad, her husband, and then she marries Nimrod. So, she marries her own son. After Nimrod's death, again, she was afraid of losing her power. She was a power and force behind starting the mystery religion. She started the idea, again, of the Madonna and child. She was the Madonna, and her son, who was born, was the child, the Christ child. This is going back and harking back to Eve and Cain, the original Madonna and child. Now you've got Semiramis and Horus, as we will see.

She knew of the fact that there was to be a seed who was to come, the prophecy given to Adam and Eve that we read back in Genesis 3. They understood this. Noah had preached and taught this. Consequently, she played off of that and claimed that Nimrod had to die, that Nimrod was the Savior. He had to die for mankind, but lo and behold, he came back as a miraculously conceived child.

She had another son after Nimrod died by the name of Horus. She claimed that he was immaculately conceived, that she remained a virgin, that she had not known another man.

And so, therefore, she claimed that Horus was the reincarnation of Nimrod. And as a result, that she was the Madonna, this was the Savior who was to come and to save mankind.

So she came up with this very daring idea. In the two of Abilings, page 58 through 60, let me just read a couple of quotes. It says, Through the death of her husband had given a rude shock to her power, yet her resolution and unbound in ambition were nowhere checked. On the contrary, her ambition took a higher flight.

In life her husband had been honored as a hero, and death he would be worshipped as a god, yea, as the woman's promised seed, who was destined to bruise the serpent's head.

The curse would be removed from the world only by the death of the Grand Deliverer. And what you find is that he, Nimrod, was to be classified in that way.

So she made her dead husband, Nimrod, into a Savior, and she used symbols to symbolize it. The evergreen tree was chosen as a symbol, because the evergreen tree continues to live. It's a symbol of eternal life. It symbolizes the fact... Well, tradition says it symbolizes two things. It symbolizes the Cimaramas, who gave us, quote-unquote, you know, this is what she taught in the mysteries, the Savior, and it symbolized her son as the Savior. Now you find that this symbolism then is carried on, and actually has been carried down to this day. This is where... This is the origin of the Christmas tradition. We have to realize this is why it was instituted. This is where it came from, originally. Now all of the trappings have changed, you know, as it goes through one culture after another. It goes through one country after another. Different things are added to it, and elaborated, but originally it goes back to Cimaramas, to Nimrod, to her son, Horace. In Revelation 17 and verse 5, I want you to notice, at the very end time when Christ comes back, when Jesus Christ returns to the earth, that there is a religion that is still extant on the earth, and that religion is referred to here. Notice there's a woman on her forehead, a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and the Abominations of the Earth.

You find that Christ comes back and puts an end to this Babylonian mystery religion. And once this mystery religion began, it's been perpetuated now for the last 4,000 years. It is the basis of almost all of the religions of this world. You can find that they go back and trace their origin to Babylon. When man's language was changed, man was scattered over the face of the earth, the different family groups were spread, but they all had the same religion. They just now had different names. They now called Nimrod by different names. Tamas, he was called Baal. He was referred to by all of these different names in different cultures, in different places. Rather than there's so much that we could read, and actually, I'll have to skip over a great deal of what we have here. And maybe next year I can give part 2 of the Christmas story. But I want to finish by answering a question. What is wrong with Christmas?

When you're asked, what is wrong with Christmas? I've already shown you one reason. Because its origin comes from paganism. That it is a custom tradition that originated with Semiramis to glorify her dead husband and to account for how she came up with an illegitimate son, Horus.

Now, Jeremiah chapter 10, which we're all familiar with, but let's just read it quickly. Jeremiah chapter 10 tells us this. Hear the word, verse 1, hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, do not learn the way of the Gentiles. So God says, we're not to learn of the way of the Gentiles. Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are futile. One cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the worksmen with the axe. So God says, don't learn the way of the heathen. Don't worship God in the way that the nations do.

If God is God, does he not have the right to tell us how to worship him? Well, the book of Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 29 makes that very clear. Deuteronomy 12, 29, God says here, when the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying how did these nations serve their gods? I will also do likewise. God says, don't look to the nations around you and find out how they worship God and then decide you will worship God in the same way. You should not worship the Lord your God in that way for every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods. Now, God, the last part of verse 32 says, you observe what I command you, you shall not add to it nor shall you take away from it. We're all familiar with Matthew 15.9 where the Bible says, in vain do they worship me, keeping for doctrines the commandments of men. God has the right to tell us how to worship him.

So, it's based upon false teachings, its origins, its roots go back to paganism. Secondarily, why it's wrong, it teaches false values. It teaches false values. When you begin to teach it, you teach lies. You start talking about Santa Claus, reindeers, elves who give gifts, come down chimneys. Are you not lying? Are you not telling something that is false? The Bible says we should not do that. It's also based upon the way of gift, commercialism, and that's a way that we are to avoid. Thirdly, it hides the truth. It hides the truth.

It hides the truth of God's plan and purpose. It focuses on a false approach. We know that the Holy Days picture God's plan of salvation. God gives to us, to his church, his annual Holy Days to picture his plan in sequence. The world obeys and observes a whole host of days that do not teach the plan of salvation, but actually mislead mankind. It also hides the truth about the real message of Jesus Christ, the coming kingdom of God, to establish the rule of God on the earth, and how we can be in God's kingdom. Number four, even though it might be attractive and appealing, things that are attractive and appealing do not make them right. God tells us what is right. God tells us how to worship him. So, brethren, what you find is that man has decided for himself how to worship God. We need to keep firmly in mind that God is the one to tell us how to worship him.

So, let's make sure that we don't compromise with God's way of life.

Make sure that we sit under the tree of life, not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.