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(If you don't see your favorite social newrork or bookmark site listed below let us know and we'll add it!)				Christmas Is Not A Pagan Holiday, And Here's Why..... The most obvious reason...Pagans didn't celebrate the birth of Christ! Christmas happens around the same time as the Jewish holiday of C'Hanukka, and this is no accident. The first Christians believed the first C'hanukka was on Dec. 25th. It's no coincidence Christmas is not a pagan holiday Biblical Archaeology Review has an interesting article on why Christmas is celebrated on December 25. The article also dispells the widely held urban myth that Christmas was a pagan holiday. The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated. Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas�s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus� birth: The church father Ambrose (c. 339�397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don�t think the date was chosen by the church. Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods. It�s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion that Jesus� birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts. A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday.5 In the 18th and 19th centuries, Bible scholars spurred on by the new study of comparative religions latched on to this idea.6 They claimed that because the early Christians didn�t know when Jesus was born, they simply assimilated the pagan solstice festival for their own purposes, claiming it as the time of the Messiah�s birth and celebrating it accordingly. . . . There are problems with this popular theory, however, as many scholars recognize. Most significantly, the first mention of a date for Christmas (c. 200) and the earliest celebrations that we know about (c. 250�300) come in a period when Christians were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions of such an obvious character. . . . In the first few centuries C.E., the persecuted Christian minority was greatly concerned with distancing itself from the larger, public pagan religious observances, such as sacrifices, games and holidays. This was still true as late as the violent persecutions of the Christians conducted by the Roman emperor Diocletian between 303 and 312 C.E. . . . . There is another way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25: Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus� birth may lie in the dating of Jesus� death at Passover. This view was first suggested to the modern world by French scholar Louis Duchesne in the early 20th century and fully developed by American Thomas Talley in more recent years.8 But they were certainly not the first to note a connection between the traditional date of Jesus� death and his birth. Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus diedc was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar.9 March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation�the commemoration of Jesus� conception.10 Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.d This idea appears in an anonymous Christian treatise titled On Solstices and Equinoxes, which appears to come from fourth-century North Africa. The treatise states: �Therefore our Lord was conceived on the eighth of the kalends of April in the month of March [March 25], which is the day of the passion of the Lord and of his conception. For on that day he was conceived on the same he suffered.�11 Based on this, the treatise dates Jesus� birth to the winter solstice. ** FREESTUFF ! ** GETTHE UNCOMMON SENSE MINISTRIES TOOLBAR! IT'S FREE! FREE INTERNET RADIO,FREE TV ON YOUR COMPUTER, WASTE TIME ON FACEBOOK, CHECK YOUR EMAIL, ANDNEVER FORGET TO CLICK ON THE HUNGER SITE WITH THIS FREE APP! WORKS ONINTERNET EXPLORER, FIREFOX, SAFARI, AND CHROME! WORKS ON WINDOWS AND LINUX! BE THE FIRST ON YOUR BLOCK TO AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS...AND ENEMIES!CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD! READTHESE FREE EBOOKS MERE CHRISTIANITY BY C.S.LEWIS You're probably familiar with C.S. Lewis.He's best remembered for the Chronicles of Narnia, which was inspired by the Gospel of Christ. Unlike LaVey, Lewis really did have a doctorate, and was a college professor to boot! Lewis lost his faith early in life and became an atheist, and later rediscovered Christianity through his friend J.R.Tolkien (of Lord of The Rings fame). Mere Christianity is perhaps is best non-fiction work. In it hepresents a thinking person's Christianity, showing you don't have to ditch your brain to be a Christian! YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE BOOK "136 BIBLE CONTRADICITIONS...EXPLAINED" AS A .pdf FILE RIGHT NOW BY CLICKING HERE! Is the Bible really a "mass of contradictions" as some critics claim? Or are these claims simply unfounded? These booklet refutes 136 purported "contradictions" of the Holy Bible. It's your absolutley FREE! Download it now. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to Read them if you don't have installed already. It's also free. .. THEPROBLEM OF PAIN by C.S. Lewis C.S. Lewiswas more than the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, he was also acollege professor, and Theologian. One of the things Lewis had toconfront before he left atheism for Christianity was the problem ofpain. The classic �problem of evil is usually stated: "If God weregood, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if Godwere almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creaturesare not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both." Lewis answers by showingthat thosewho say this do not know what "almighty", "good", or "perfectly happy" really mean. This book is typical of Lewis, well written, wellthough-out, and relatively easy to follow. Downloadyour freecopy now. BLINDSIDED: A JEWISH AGNOSTIC FINDS THE MESSIAH. Read Stephen Katz's sincere story of how he lost faith in the Judaism of his youth and became an agnostic. College is a place where some people lose their faith, but irnonically, it's where Stephen Katz found it! Read how he came to the conclusion Jesus really is the Messiah of the Jews! . . �Rabbi, is my daddy in heaven?� He paused, not expecting the question, but his smile seemed reassuring. �Susan, your father�s memory will live on in the life you lead. You can be his legacy.� It was a nice thought, but it didn�t satisfy me. �Rabbi,� I went on, �. . . you didn�t answer my question. Is my daddy in heaven now?� He was a little more serious at this point and looked straight into my eyes and said, �I wish I could give you a definite answer, Susan, but I can�t. We don�t know for sure what is beyond the grave. We can only hope. And remember, your father was a good man.� The rabbi�s second attempt at an answer troubled me even more." Loss to Life is the story of Susan Perlman, a Jewish believer in Jesus from Brooklyn, New York. ............................................................................. . The Richard Harvey story twists through the halls of England�s finest academic institutions, turns with the author as he pursues nearly every religion under the sun and dramatically takes off as he discovers the great transforming truth! There is only one problem: That truth and his Jewish roots seem to stand in conflict with one another. But I�m Jewish! is the unlikely adventure of one of England�s newest and most fascinating mission leaders. As Richard Harvey�s story unfolds you will see how he and his wife, Monica, became Jews for Jesus and why today he is resolute in telling his Jewish people that they too can be both Jewish and Christian! ARE THE CELTS SOME OF THE 10 LOSTTRIBES OF ISRAEL? According to some authorities, they just might be. It's a facinating theory! Download this free booklet as a .pdf file. The booklet is published by the UCG, which I am not affiliated with. Read the booklet and decide for yourself! If the Celts are the lost tribes of Israel, then Christianity, not Wicca, is the religion they should be following! Downloadthis free ebook and decide if the Devil is the Prince ofEvil. It will answer many of your questions, such as if Godcreated aDevil, and if the Devil is real, not merely a fable or ametaphor. . . . . AuthorC.S.Lewis (of the Chronicles of Narnia fame) once wrote that whilehe was anatheist he was mad at God because he didn't exist.Many people don'tunderstand how God can "allow" suffering. This bookin .pdf format willhelp answer your questions. . . Along with genocide of women, Hinduism has also encouraged child molestation of young girls,murderof women by men without punishment...and even worse. Iwon'tdescribe here how Hindu men sometimes dispose of the bodies ofthewives they murder. YOU CAN READTHE BOOK GENOCIDE OF WOMEN INHINDUISM By Sita Agarwal (who is afeminist and atheist) HERE AVAILABLEAS A FREE DOWNLOAD. 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