No doubt you are familiar with the second of the 10 commandments about graven images. Saturn is a god, those christmas traditions were dedicated to him, and remain the same including the time period selected. While we do not know the day of Jesus' birth, we do know the approximate time, and it was not during the winter solstice. How do you think God feels about someone worshipping a pagan god with rituals, and then changing their minds and doing it for Him? Here is my notes on birthdays sir:
Birthday celebrations
Many religious persons in society today feel that there is nothing wrong with celebrating birthdays. If however, a person wants to serve the true God and be one of His people, we need to make sure that doing so would be pleasing to Him, and by doing so we would bring glory to His name.
Let us go back in history to before God had made a covenant with His nation Israel. When Joseph was in Egypt and was in prison, the first recorded birthday celebration was found in the Bible, at Gen.40:20-23:
20 Now on the third day it turned out to be Phar'aoh’s birthday, and he proceeded to make a feast for all his servants and to lift up the head of the chief of the cupbearers and the head of the chief of the bakers in the midst of his servants. 21 Accordingly he returned the chief of the cupbearers to his post of cupbearer, and he continued to give the cup into Phar'aoh’s hand. 22 But the chief of the bakers he hung up, just as Joseph had given them the interpretation. 23 However, the chief of the cupbearers did not remember Joseph and went on forgetting him.
In this account there is no mention of any of God=s people attending this celebration, and the celebration was of a pagan Egyptian Pharaoh (king), who notably in history considered himself as being God (See page 4 to see how this compares with the satanic bible). Notice too, a death resulted from this celebration.
The next (and last) recorded birthday celebration occurs when Christ was on earth and was also by another pagan king Herod Antipas (who was also instrumental in the death of our king Jesus) and is found at Mat. 14:6-10:
6 But when Herod‘s birthday was being celebrated the daughter of HeAro'dias danced at it and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Then she, under her mother=s coaching, said: “Give me here upon a platter the head of John the Baptist.” 9 Grieved though he was, the king out of regard for his oaths and for those reclining with him commanded it to be given; 10 and he sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
Again we have another pagan king celebrating his birthday with no record of any of Christ’s followers in attendance, or none of the Jews for that matter, and since all things written in the Bible are for our instruction:
Romans 15:4
4 For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope.
we need to ask ourselves; does the Bible put birthday celebrations in a favorable light? It does not appear to. Let’s look at some more information:
According to the satanic bible: the #1 holiday is your birthday, even above Halloween’ it states: The highest of all holidays in the satanic religion is the date of one’s own birth. This is in direct contradiction to the holy of holy days of other religions, which deify a particular god who has been created in an anthropomorphic form of their own image, thereby showing that the ego is not really buried.
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The Satanist feels: “why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself.” Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrated his own birthday as the most important holiday of the year. (See page 4). With the above information, combined with the satanic bible, it would appear that God would not approve of it. You may say it is a small thing, but: 1 Corinthians 10:21
21 YOU cannot be drinking the cup of Jehovah and the cup of demons; YOU cannot be partaking of the table of Jehovah and the table of demons.
Well since a Christian is a follower of Christ, whom imitates his example
( 1 Peter 2:21 In fact, to this [course] YOU were called, because even Christ suffered for YOU, leaving YOU a model for YOU to follow his steps closely.), what did the followers of Christ do? They did leave us examples to follow: Philippians 3:17
17 Unitedly become imitators of me, brothers, and keep YOUR eye on those who are walking in a way that accords with the example YOU have in us.
We learned that the Bible did not record any of God’s people attending either of the two recorded birthday celebrations, how about other sources? “The later Hebrews looked on the celebration of birthdays as a part of idolatrous worship, a view which would be abundantly confirmed by what they saw of the common observances associated with these days.“: The Imperial Bible-Dictionary (London, 1874), edited by Patrick Fairbairn, Vol. I, p. 225.
“The various customs with which people today celebrate their birthdays have a long history. Their origins lie in the realm of magic and religion. The customs of offering congratulations, presenting gifts and celebrating; complete with lighted candles; in ancient times were meant to protect the birthday celebrant from the demons and to ensure his security for the coming year. . . . Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom.“: Schwäbische Zeitung (magazine supplement Zeit und Welt), April 3/4, 1981, p. 4.
“The Greeks believed that everyone had a protective spirit or daemon who attended his birth and watched over him in life. This spirit had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was born. The Romans also subscribed to this idea. . . . This notion was carried down in human belief and is reflected in the guardian angel, the fairy godmother and the patron saint. . . . The custom of lighted candles on the cakes started with the Greeks. . . . Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the temple altars of [Artemis]. . . . Birthday candles, in folk belief, are endowed with special magic for granting wishes. . . . Lighted tapers and sacrificial fires have had a special mystic significance ever since man first set up altars to his gods. The birthday candles are thus an honor and tribute to the birthday child and bring good fortune. . . . Birthday greetings and wishes for happiness are an intrinsic part of this holiday. . . . Originally the idea was rooted in magic. . . . Birthday greetings have power for good or ill because one is closer to the spirit world on this day.“: The Lore of Birthdays (New York, 1952), Ralph and Adelin Linton, pp. 8, 18-20.
With the introduction of Christianity the viewpoint toward birthday celebrations did not change. Jesus inaugurated a binding Memorial, not of his birth, but of his death, saying: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” (Lu 22:19) If early Christians did not celebrate or memorialize the birthday of their Savior, much less would they celebrate their own day of birth. Historian Augustus Neander writes: “The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period.” (The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries, translated by H. J. Rose, 1848, p. 190)
“Origen [a writer of the third century C.E.] . . . insists that ‘of all the holy people in the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.‘”: The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, Vol. X, p. 709.
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Clearly, then, the festive celebration of birthdays does not find its origin in either the Hebrew or the Greek Scriptures. Additionally, M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopaedia (1882, Vol. I, p. 817) says the Jews “regarded birthday celebrations as parts of idolatrous worship . . . , and this probably on account of the idolatrous rites with which they were observed in honor of those who were regarded as the patron gods of the day on which the party was born.
Le livre des religions (The Book of Religions), an encyclopedia widely distributed in France, calls this custom a ritual and lists it among “secular rites.” Although considered to be a harmless secular custom today, birthday celebrations are actually rooted in paganism.
The Encyclopedia Americana (1991 edition) states: The ancient world of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia celebrated the birthdays of gods, kings, and nobles.
Authors Ralph and Adelin Linton reveal the underlying reason for this. In their book The Lore of Birthdays, they write: Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradles of civilization, were also the first lands in which men remembered and honored their birthdays. The keeping of birthday records was important in ancient times principally because a birth date was essential for the casting of a horoscope. This direct connection with astrology is a cause of great concern to any who avoid astrology because of what the Bible says about it. Isaiah 47:13-15.
The World Book Encyclopedia: The early Christians did not celebrate His [Christ’s] birth because they considered the celebration of anyone’s birth to be a pagan custom. Volume 3, page 416.
