The Astounding Answer
Following the death of the apostle Paul, false teachers began to lead away many from the truth. Paul wrote Timothy: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths" (II Tim. 4:3-4).
Notice it! People would reject the truth and begin to follow myths. Instead of continuing to observe the days God sanctified, as the first Christians did, the many turned aside to follow false teachers who crept into the true Church in order to get hold of the name of Christ — in order to label their pagan customs "Christian!"
These fifth-columnists — as soon as they had created a mass following — left the Church and carried the name of Christ with them. They stamped the pagan Saturnalia, the Brumalia and the Natalis Invicti Solis with the name "Christian," falsely calling December 25 Christ's birthday! In the Bible these fifth-column teachers of the Babylonish Mysteries are condemned as "Nicolaitanes" in Revelation 2:6 and 15. It is time you understood the connection between the Nicolaitanes and St. Nicolas of the Christmas season.
Who Were the Nicolaitanes?
Here are the facts. The word "Nicolaitane" has nothing to do with the deacon Nicolas (Acts. 6:5), or a later bishop, Nicolas of Myra, as some have assumed.
The original Greek word "Nicolaitane" means one who is "a follower of Nicolas." Who was that Nicolas of whom these fifth-column conspirators were followers? The God of Heaven declares He hates the doctrine of that man Nicolas (Rev. 2:15).
The answer is found in the meaning of the name "Nicolas."
"Nicolas" comes from two Greek words — nikos and laos. Nikos means "conqueror" or "destroyer" and laos means "people." The original Nicolas was the conqueror or destroyer of the people! That was merely the Greek word for Nimrod — the original arch-rebel who conquered the people and founded man-made civilization within two centuries after the flood! (Genesis 10:8-10).
Nimrod Deified as "Saint Nicholas"
While Nimrod was alive, by his dictatorial rule he put himself in the place of God. And when he died, his admirers CONTINUED TO WORSHIP HIM AS A DIVINE HERO — as the SUN GOD. The Phoenicians CALLED HIM "BAAL," a name found throughout the Old Testament. "Baal" means "master" or "lord." It was only natural that Nimrod should bear that name, for he put himself in place of the true Lord or Master of all the universe. But "Baal" was not Nimrod's only other NAME! HE HAD MANY others. One of these names was "Santa," commonly used throughout Asia Minor. This name of Nimrod may be found in Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, article "Sanctus."
Now you might ask, "Is there any connection between Nimrod, who was called 'Santa,' and 'Santa Claus' "?
"SANTA CLAUS" is but a shortened form of "Santa Nicholas" or "Saint Nicholas." Nimrod was the original Santa Claus!
Today, on what date is "St. Nicholas" — or Nimrod — especially HONORED? Is it December 25? Yes! But Why?
The Romans used to celebrate December 25 as the birthday of the sun god. Nimrod was the original sun-god. The Romans called him Sol. So the celebration of December 25 is in fact the old Roman celebration of Nimrod's birthday at the winter solstice. And is it any wonder that December 25, Nimrod's purported birthday, is STILL CELEBRATED IN HONOR OF "NICHOLAS" — NIMROD — THE FIRST GREAT DESPOT?
Yes, Santa Claus — just a shortened form of Nicolas, the Greek name for Nimrod — is Nimrod deified. It is he — and not Jesus Christ — whom the world honors at Christmas!
Christmas Not Originally Celebrated on December 25
Did you realize that Christmas was not originally celebrated on December 25? Shocking? But it is true!
Even the church at Rome for nearly two centuries OBSERVED JANUARY 6 as the supposed date of Christ's birth! This festival was called Epiphany. (Bingham's Antiquities, Book xx, chapter iv)
The celebration of January 6 was anciently introduced in Babylon as the birthday of Nimrod before 2000 B.C. when the winter solstice — the shortest day of the year — occurred on that date. (See page 35 of The Evolution of the Christian Year by A. Allan McArthur) But the winter solstice did not continue to fall on January 6 because the pagan calendar was not accurate. When the birthday of Nimrod was first celebrated in Rome, the winter solstice had dropped back to December 25. But the Babylonian priests in Rome continued to celebrate January 6.
Then, how did December 25 — the Roman festival in honor of Nimrod's birth — finally become the traditional date of Christ's birth in place of the earlier Babylonian tradition of January 6?
Bishops in the West, and especially at Rome, saw that by allowing converts to retain their pagan Roman holidays, they could induce many thousands to enter the church. Tertullian lamented this trend when he said in 230 A.D.:
"By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and [God's] festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia [December 24], the Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar" (from De Idolatria, chapter 14).
In less than two centuries after Christ's death, professing Christians were following their former pagan practices — including December 25, the birthday of Sol the sun god.
Tertullian's testimony is one of the earliest indications that Christians were mislabeling the birthday of the physical s-u-n as the birthday of the S-o-n of God.
This adoption of idolatrous heathen festivals proceeded very slowly UNTIL CATHOLICISM BECAME THE STATE RELIGION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE UNDER EMPEROR CONSTANTINE.
Almost immediately, the pagans flocked to the churches bringing their customs with them. Within forty years the celebration of the 25th of December became so widespread that a sudden change took place in Rome.
The last record of Pope Liberius' celebration of the nativity on January 6 occurred in 353 A.D. In the very next year he celebrated it on December 25! This is fully explained in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, by James Hastings, article "Christmas." Even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits that Christmas celebrations officially began by this year — 354 A.D.
And that is how the Roman date — December 25 — came to replace the old Babylonian date of January 6.
Christmas Celebration Spreads Rapidly
From Rome in the West, the celebration of Christmas quickly engulfed the whole empire. But many preachers in the East still clung to January 6 as the traditional nativity. As late as 373 Ephraim Syrus said: "On the tenth day (of March) was His Conception and on the sixth day (of January) was His Nativity" (Assemani Bibl. Or. ii. 169).
Here is what Chrysostom said about December 25 in his Homily on the Birth of Christ, written in Antioch about 380 A.D.: "It is not yet ten years since this day was made known to us."
Christmas didn't come from the apostles. It came to Antioch, the city where Paul preached, three hundred years after the apostle died! It came from an apostate Rome, not from Jesus Christ.
Notice what Chrysostom continues to say about Christmas: "I know well that many even yet dispute with one another about it, some finding fault with it and others defending it." He admitted it was "new, in that it has recently been made known to us . . ."
The bishops at Rome claimed to have accurate knowledge of Christ's birth because they possessed the census papers of Jesus' family. Just why they kept this hidden for over three centuries they never say.
They forged many records in an effort to show that preceding popes celebrated Christmas on December 25. If this were really true, they would not have needed to forge these spurious records.
Forbidden in New Testament
The celebration of December 25 in Constantinople, near where Paul preached in Asia Minor, first took place between 378 and 381. And if this isn't enough evidence against the apostolic origin of Christmas, there is proof that December 25 was not celebrated in Jerusalem before 385. Yet Jerusalem was the site of the mother church in the very beginning.
The Catholic Bishop Chrysostom, who lived in the fourth century, admits that the superstitious "times," which Paul forbids in Galatians 4:10 were pagan Christmas customs practiced by "Christians" in his day, as by the pagans in the days of old. He says: "Many were superstitiously addicted to divination . . . upon them . . . In the celebration of these times [they] set up lamps in the marketplace, and crown their doors with garlands" — as is done at Christmas time today! (From Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, pp. 1123, 1124).
Christmas became a universal practice in all but the Armenian Church by the fifth century. Hundreds of traditions and customs began to develop about Christmas in every land. In the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, you can read this about Christmas: "Yet the festival rapidly gained acceptance and became at last so firmly established that even the Protestant revolution of the sixteenth century was not able to dislodge it." Protestants didn't get Christmas from the Bible. They got it from their mother church — Rome; and Rome got it from pagan sun-worship!
HOW to Honor Christ
Most people are dishonoring — yes, robbing Christ at every Christmas season and they don't know it!
Many of you have been robbing Him of His tithes and offerings by spending God's own money in Christmas gifts instead of giving Him what is due. Our people have turned aside from Him, our hearts have gone after pagan festivals — Christmas, New Year's Day, Easter.
The way to return to God is to obey Him — to pay Him your tithes and offerings. Why? "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21).
That is how you can really honor Him.