The consumerism is a distraction.
Focus on the real reason for the holiday.
Jesus.
No, sorry. Biblical and historical scholarship points to Nimrod, son of Cush, grandson of Ham, great-grandson of Noah and Nimrod's mother-wife as contributing to this particular practice in ancient Babylon. It's a Babylonian fertility and feast day, just like Easter. It's pagan sun worship, plain and simple - and has absolutely nothing to do with Yeshua the Messiah, our redeemer in blood and the divine son of HaShem as spoken of in the New Testament, or related to following the Way. Saying otherwise misses the mark, as it is sin.
There's plenty of evidence pointing to an early fall birth for Messiah, fulfilling a feast day of HaShem right around Yom Tov (Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur/Sukkot). Here's the thing, though, pagans celebrated birthdays from antiquity, as it's a practice rooted in astrology... so outside of academic interests in confirming Yeshua as being the Messiah through fulfillment of prophecy and feast days, it doesn't matter. Celebrating a birth has nothing to do with the belief system we're called to follow as believers in Messiah, especially when it was His sacrifice on the execution stake during Passover that actually matters and sanctifies us.
Now, if you mean that "Jesus" as in Gad Zeus, the white dude with long hair and a beard with a halo around his head that most people blindly follow in modern Christianity that was picked up from Constantine and the Roman hijacking of the faith in 312 CE... their sun god sacrificed to with pig flesh on the altar in the Second Temple's Holy of Holies by Antiochus IV Epiphanes on the Winter Solstice, thus sparking the Maccabean Revolt in 168 BCE, then yes! I suppose Gee-Zeus is the reason for the season!
This is the danger of the adversary, it's a lie sold and packaged as a truth that makes you feel good inside. You're just certain you're doing the right thing, but look at the company that we keep by observing the Winter Solstice with the rest of the world and all the symbology and practices attached to it. We're called to be in the world, but separate and not
of the world, and to testify to the truth.... not to fictions that make us feel good. If we lie in direct opposition to the dates and seasons set forth in scripture, only to ignore His Word for the purpose in delighting in pagan orgies of celebrating the self, orgies that we were commanded not to partake in, what does that do to our testimony and claims of scriptural evidence to justify following after Messiah?
I'll tell you what it does, it compromises it.
Why? Because we've mixed the Holy with the profane, like cross-breeding sheep with goats. The end result is either a still birth or sterile offspring. Our faith ceases to have any bearing on reality, and everything to do with fables, fairy tales and other children's fictions. Souls are on the line, our own included. Do you want to be responsible for showing someone the truth about Sheol/Hell and the need for Messiah, and in doing so wind up giving them a religion that still leaves their soul potentially lost to eternity in the Lake of Fire?
The worst part is, all the "great" things that Christians claim are so valuable about the season? The family and fellowship and generosity and whatnot? These are things that we should be doing in our
daily walks, not once a year. This date would have no special hold in their hearts if they were actually practicing and walking out the faith they profess, as it would just become another day.
Here's the thing, friend. Truth is truth, and we're judged by what we do with that truth when we come to it. This is the truth, and it's not hard to find anymore... so, please, if you have any doubts, do due diligence yourself and start with the very scripture followers of Jesus are supposed to uphold as being truthful and right, but don't ignore it. In the end, you've got to make a choice with this knowledge. Do you choose to follow Messiah, start your own Maccabean revolt to repurify the temple inside you, reveal His glory as the true Lion of Judah, and put away the abominations of your forefathers to cling to His truth? Or do you cling to the ways of man, the ways of your forefathers, and double down on your practices, thus creating your very own abomination of desolation within your heart?
We are called to flee from sin and idolatry, and the 25th of December has both written all over it in spades. Out of a deep love for HaShem/Yeshua and concern for my brothers and sisters and for the lives of those we touch, let me urge you and anyone else here who claims Messiah to cleave to Him and to the truth for the sake of your own testimony.
