Every year Christmas is observed and celebrated by Christians and even none Christians all over the world to mark the birthday of ?our Lord and Saviour? Jesus Christ, which is supposed to be December 25, some 2000 years ago. Indeed over the years the word ?Christmas? has been shortened to X'MAS, the 'X' factor being the Christ himself.
The day is marked with church services, feasting, merry making, sharing, gift giving and several other good will activities and yet several schools of thought among theologians maintain that Jesus has been made the X factor in a celebration that has nothing to do with his birth.
At the core of the controversy is the day itself, December 25, marked as Jesus? birthday. Theologians belonging to different schools of thought agree that Jesus was not born on December 25, but they disagree on his actual date of birth.
One school of thought says Jesus was actually born on April 6 some 2000 years ago and the other says he was born sometime in October. The second group based their argument on some astrological events of the time, especially the star which led the wise men from the east to where Jesus laid in a manger somewhere in Nazareth, Bethlehem.
Those in favour of the April 6 theology also argue that census in Israel in those days was carried out at the beginning of spring, which fall around early April. Since Jesus was born at the start of a census period in Israel, he must have been born in April. How come the April 6 and the unspecified October date were all pushed aside in favour of December 25, a day on which theologians say he could not have been born, for there is no historical evidence whatsoever to suggest that he was born in the foggy season of December.
I read a book entitled 'The Greatest Hoax', written by a guy who came across to me as an Adventist. In that book, the writer gave some historical account of how we arrived at December 25 as Jesus' birthday and therefore Christmas day.
The source of his story was Genesis 10: 6-12. Thousands of years before Christ was born Cush (believed to be the originator of the black race) had a son called Nimrod, who the bible described as 'a great and mighty hunter before the Lord? and the beginner of the kingdom of Babel, a kingdom which became famous or infamous in bible history for its attempt, led by Nimrod to build a tower to reach God in the heavens.
Bible historians say that the expression 'a great hunter before the Lord', used to describe Nimrod was to say that he was comparable to God himself and for that Nimrod was revered for his rebellious attitude and action toward God. Indeed he proved that when he attempted to lead his people to build the infamous Tower of Babel.
Upon all his prowess and rebellion, he was sterile. He died and left his equally rebellious wife Ishter childless.
Because of the status he had attained in Babel, as the originator of idol worship and architect of several civilization features in Babel, he was accorded the honor of being name the god of the sun upon his death and supposed transition into the land of the gods.
Ishter, Nimrod?s wife (from whose name we got Easter) believed that her husband Nimrod was even stronger in death than in life. That belief made her always lay dead naked on her roof top, open her legs towards the east, from where the sun appears, and expected to get impregnated by her late husbands spirit.
Naturally, Ishter was found pregnant after sometime and she claimed she was impregnated by the sun god, even though it became evident that she had an affair with one or more of her many male servants and she got impregnated by one of them.
Isther gave birth to a son whom she named Talmuz, the son of the sun god. Talmuz was supposed to have been born on December 25. Being the son of Nimrod as her mother claimed, Talmuz was supposed to be the heir to the throne.
In spite of the fact that Talmuz was a product of Ishter's sexual escapades, Queen Ishter managed to institute December 25, the day on which Talmuz was born as a national holiday in Babel and people celebrated the day with wild merry making, which usually led to blood shed and other unfortunate incidents. Some theologians have argued that, that was where the usual bloodshed through motor accidents during Christmas came from.
I was really fascinated by the whole story because it was well plotted, whether deliberately or non-deliberately, to put the credibility of Christmas a limbo.
Indeed the writer did not stop there, he also linked Easter celebrations (the birth, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ) to this same story said the Easter came from the name of promiscuous Queen Ishter, and therefore couldn?t have been a good name for the observation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
If that story is anything to go by then the very foundation of the Christian faith, namely the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ marked with Christmas on December 25 and Easter in April, is really being questioned to its core.
But hold on a second and let?s think deeper about this whole issue of which day Jesus was born on, what it actually means for so much controversy to surround his date of birth and whether the day on which Christians choose to celebrate his birthday or death really matter at all.
Even the learned theologians have not been able to agree on his date of birth. That for me only adds to the mystery that has surrounded Jesus from his conception, birth, childhood, adulthood, death and resurrection. Let me spare you the details of his credentials because that is not the purpose of this article. But let me quickly say that even in death, he remains the star of more books, songs, movies, poems, preaching topics and the subject of research, debates, the standard of living for millions, than any single person could ever boast of in the world today.
Whether he was born in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November of December, it doesn?t really matter to me because every day of the week, every week of the month and every month of the year was made by God Almighty and He can choose any day to celebrate the birth of his son.
The question still remains, how come December 25 was preferred by the church to April 6 and that unspecified date in October - The answer is very simple - Later on, down the line in history, the Catholic (Universal) Church came under one of the many state pressures to approve of the day and make it a religious observation. But the church insisted that since it did recognize Nimrod as the sun god and therefore did not recognize Talmuz as the son of the sun god, the day, which was already a national holiday and marked every year, should be observed in honor of the THE SON OF GOD and not the son of the sun god.
Obviously, that made Christmas, like church weddings and other praxis in the church today, one of the historic state influences of the church.
But come to think of it, December 25 was used to mark the birth of some sun god's son and the day was used for wild orgies characterized by indiscriminate sexual activity, drinking, fighting which often led to loss of lives, but now the church and for that matter Christians have laid a claim on the day to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, characterize by sharing, church worship and other virtues.
I would not behave like an ostrich and pretend as if evil things do not happen during Christmas anymore. But those are just signs of the die-hard attitude of the devil, who would not also give up on the day easily. He (the devil) would always want to make attempts on human lives just to make a point that he would not let go of the day freely.
Indeed there is a phenomenon called lawful captivity, which suggests that if one willingly gives up their rights of ownership to another, they become lawful captives of the latter. That way no amount of intervention can completely take away that right from the one to whom it was given, in this case the devil through idol worship.
The point is, even if we do not celebrate December 25 as Christmas, chances are that there may be some bloodshed and loss of lives because, for those who believe in spiritual reality, it doesn?t take Christmas celebration for the devil to act. The fact of the day is enough for him to go on rampage. If anything the influence of Christmas has rather reduced the loss of lives to the barest minimum.
Much as we may have some Talmuz spirit hovering around during Christmas, the day is largely taken over by Christians and now depicts more virtue instead of vice.
My advice however is that, while we celebrate Christmas, lets focus on the X factor, who is The Christ, the SON OF GOD himself ? what he stands for (sharing, caring, good will) and move away from the orgies and wild celebrations that characterize the celebration of the birth of the SON OF THE SUN GOD as that is likely to lead to bloodshed and loss of innocent lives
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