Is Christmas a Celebration Based on the Bible?

[CRC]

Is Christmas a celebration based on the Bible?
Date of the celebration
M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia says: “The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of N[ew] T[estament] origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the N[ew] T[estament], or, indeed, from any other source.”—(New York, 1871), Vol. II, p. 276.
Luke 2:8-11 shows that shepherds were in the fields at night at the time of Jesus’ birth. The book Daily Life in the Time of Jesus states: “The flocks . . . passed the winter under cover; and from this alone it may be seen that the traditional date for Christmas, in the winter, is unlikely to be right, since the Gospel says that the shepherds were in the fields.”—(New York, 1962), Henri Daniel-Rops, p. 228.
The Encyclopedia Americana informs us: “The reason for establishing December 25 as Christmas is somewhat obscure, but it is usually held that the day was chosen to correspond to pagan festivals that took place around the time of the winter solstice, when the days begin to lengthen, to celebrate the ‘rebirth of the sun.’ . . . The Roman Saturnalia (a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun), also took place at this time, and some Christmas customs are thought to be rooted in this ancient pagan celebration.”—(1977), Vol. 6, p. 666.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The Gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun). On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelian had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius. Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.”—(1967), Vol. III, p. 656.

 

[secularhermit]

Marry X-mas, Mr Grich! Ha! Ha! *I said MARRY*

Well, now seriously, according to my research, reading a couple of things, my foolish theory is that Jesus was born around September, just by the time Jewish people collected the 1st fruits of wheat *to bake their BREAD*... But the world loves this PAGAN tradition many Chistians were FORCED to believe.

Now I walk at my GRINCH way.

 

[Guest]

What really suprises me is that God has given man a hint at what time his son Jesus Christ was born! It's in the book of Revelation of all places too! But first let's go to the book of Genesis and read Chapter 1, verse 14, which says "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for SIGNS, and for SEASONS, and for DAYS, and YEARS:"
Now let's go to the book of Revelation and read Chapter 12, verse 1, which says "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:"

The constellation Virgo (or virgin) is the only astrological sign associated with a woman, For a period of only a few hours on Sept. 11, 3 B.C., Virgo could be seen near Leo, representing “the lion of Judah,” with the sun clothing the woman and 12 visible stars surrounding Virgo’s “head.”
“The key to the very day of Jesus’ birth is the words ‘and the moon under her feet.’ The word ‘under’ signifies that the woman’s feet were positioned just over the moon. Since the feet of Virgo represent the last 7 degrees of the constellation (in the time of Christ this would have been between about 180 degrees and 187 degrees along the elyptic), the moon has to be positioned somewhere under the 7 degree arc. But the moon also has to be in that exact location when the sun is mid-bodied to Virgo. In the year 3 B.C., these two factors came to precise agreement for less than two hours, as observed from Palestine, on Sept. 11th. The precise arrangement began about 6:15 p.m. (sunset), and lasted until 7:45 p.m. (moonset). This is the only day in the whole year that this could have taken place.”

Read more at Was Jesus born Sept. 11, 3 B.C.?​

 

[gkroo]

The night of the birth of the Christ was the beginning of the celebration of the death of the two witnesses.
Rev 11:10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

 

[Ahwatukee]

Greetings gkroo,

The two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11 have nothing to do with the birth of Christ, as their 1,260 days of prophesy, which is 3 1/2 years, is a future event. Daniel's last seven year period is divided up into two 3 1/2 year periods. From the time that the ruler makes his covenant for one 'seven,' the two witnesses will begin their time of prophecy until the middle of that seven. At the end of their 1,260 days the beast that comes up out of the Abyss and will kill them and their bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 1/2 days. The people of the earth will be partying and sending gifts to each other because of their deaths. Since the beast has not yet come up out of the Abyss, then this is still a future event, as well as is the time of prophecy for the two witnesses.

In short, the time of prophecy of the two witnesses is still future and will take place during that last seven years with the Lord returning to end the age at the end of that seven years.

The other thing that would show that the events of the two witnesses is a future event is what is written at the beginning of the book of Revelation which says:

"The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

John wrote the book of Revelation around 95 AD, which was a hundred years or so after the birth of Jesus. And since and since the Scripture above states that the events contained in the book of Revelation "must soon take place" then events of the two witnesses would have to be future events and therefore could not have take place at Christ's birth being written after the fact.