Christians celebrate the birth of Messiah on December 25th with absolutely no knowledge about its origin. Nor do they understand what is the original significance of December 25 among the heathen nations. Finally, Christians have no knowledge of why the Roman Catholic Church chose this day.
Most ancient and advanced nations, such as Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Roman and England, to name a few, believe December 25th was a solemn day and celebrated it. This celebration on December 25 was associated with the worship of the sun and the winter solstice.
The greatest mystery ever told that was not fully understood by the Gentiles is in the stars. King David wrote that the heavens declare the glory of Elohim (Psa. 19: 1-4). Before Israel’s prophets wrote it in the Old Testament, the heavens revealed the story of the Savior’s virgin birth, death, burial, and resurrection after 3 days (Matt. 12:40; 27:62-64; John 2:19-21).
Now all cultures have worshiped the sun universally, but nowhere was it more adored than in Egypt. In fact the king wore the solar disk with wings on it to show forth that he was the representative of the sun or god on earth. The purpose of this article is to explain the savior’s story in the heavens. But before discussing the significance of December 25, we must first discuss the worship of the sun.
They called this day the birth of the Sun because each day after December 25, the day light period got longer.
As the sun makes it journey in the heavens, it moves from the summer solstice, which is June 21, where it is at its highest point in the heaven to the winter solstice, which is December 21, where it is at the lowest point in the heavens in the northern hemisphere. This is one of the shortest daylight periods of the year and the longest nights. The ancient cultures saw the victory of the sun over darkness by the daylight period getting longer after December 25, which is why they call it the birth of the sun (son).
Maxwell Jordan in his book The Old Time Religion points out the significance of December 25 among the pagan culture. He writes that on December 22, one of the shortest days of the year, the night is longer than the day and as the sun moves south in the sky during winter, the Sun goes south in heaven reaching its lowest point. In the sky below the equator there are stars in the heavens forming a cross called the southern cross known as Southern Constellation. Mr. Maxwell points out that on the sundial the sun appears to stop moving for three days (December 22, 23, 24).
This correlates with the Saviour, Yahshua the Messiah’s being dead for three days and three nights.
The book Two Babylons by Rev. Alexander Hisolp shows the pagan belief in this day. “In Egypt, the son of lsis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven. was born at this very time, … about the time of the winter solstice. The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves- Yule-day §-proves at once its Pagan and Babylonian origin. Yule “ is the Chaldee name for an “infant” or “little child;” and as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, “Yule-day,” or the “ Child’s day,” and the night that preceded it, “ Mother-night,” long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character.”
He goes on to say in his book: “Far and wide, in the realms of Paganism, was this birthday observed. This festival has been commonly believed to have only an astronomical character, referring simply to the completion of the sun’s yearly course, and the commencement of a new cycle. But there is indubitable evidence that the festival in question had a much higher reference than this that it commemorated not merely the figurative birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but the birth-day of the grand Deliverer.”
As was stated in the beginning of the article the pagan culture as sun worshippers were able to see that astronomically the winter solstice told the story of the Savior’s death and December 25 is the birth of the sun which they attached to their various gods or deities. Now this explains why the Roman Catholic Church attaches the Messiah’s birth to this day.
Two Babylons by Rev. Alexander Hisolp explains how Xmas became to be celebrated as the Messiah birthday. He writes: “How, then, did the Romish Church fix on December the 25th as Christmas-da? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed;”
