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Caesar, Jesus Christ and Christmas?
CFP ^ | December 16, 2004 | Nathan Tabor

Posted on 12/16/2004 9:06:35 AM PST by MikeEdwards

It used to be that many Americans would deplore the commercialization of the Christmas holidays (or, originally, "holy days"). Not today. Many stores are starting to display "Merry Krissmas" signs.

With so many people focusing most of their attention on buying and selling, and the giving and receiving of gifts, materialism seemed destined to displace the original Christian "reason for the season."

But in recent years, those misfits among us who are most hostile to the things of God have moved from merely ignoring the Biblical basis for our mid-winter holiday celebration to actively opposing its spiritual roots.

We now confront, therefore, not only the aforementioned commercialization of Christmas, but also the secularization and politicization of the sacred holiday as well.

Every winter, all across America, we have another big fight right around Christmas time. That’s when the liberal, atheistic ACLU types always launch their annual campaign to expel God from the public schools and banish Jesus Christ from the public square.

Santa Claus and his flying reindeer may be OK, but the God-sent, Virgin-born Babe in the Manger is clearly unacceptable to these self-proclaimed, "free-thinking" guardians of humanistic heathenism.

It never ceases to amaze me how some of these folks manage to twist the Constitution continually to mean something it plainly doesn’t say. They grossly misinterpret the First Amendment into a pagan prohibition of any public display of religious faith--rather than a blessed guarantee of the right to freely exercise that faith, both in public and in private.

The very idea of an alleged right to "freedom from religion" is antithetical to everything the Founding Fathers fought for and believed in. Even an unregenerate old Deist like the worldly Benjamin Franklin supported the public exercise of Christianity as being beneficial to the general morality . . . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: christ; christianity; christmas; jesus
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1 posted on 12/16/2004 9:06:36 AM PST by MikeEdwards
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To: MikeEdwards

"Many stores are starting to display "Merry Krissmas" signs.
"

Huh? Has anyone seen a Merry Krissmas sign? I haven't.


2 posted on 12/16/2004 9:10:19 AM PST by MineralMan (godless atheist)
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To: MineralMan

Who's Kriss?


3 posted on 12/16/2004 9:11:03 AM PST by Hi Heels (Proud to be a Pajamarazzi-Leef lang de Katjes van Viking)
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To: MikeEdwards

This article is from Canada? Amazing. Furthermore, it is obvious what the Libs want to do. Holocaust on Christians. Eventually they'll start making Christians wear big crosses so they can be easily identified. Then they will send all Christians to "Christian Areas", formerly known as "concentration camps".


4 posted on 12/16/2004 9:12:08 AM PST by Julius2
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To: MikeEdwards
It's okay to say Merry Christmas:

"Merry Christmas. Believe It. Say It. Wear it!"

5 posted on 12/16/2004 9:14:28 AM PST by EdReform (Free Republic - helping to keep our country a free republic. Thank you for your financial support!)
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To: Hi Heels

Maybe he is related to LudaKriss. Welcome to the Hip-Hopization of Christmas.


6 posted on 12/16/2004 9:15:27 AM PST by loborojo (What the hell is a "Reagan Democrat"?)
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To: loborojo

Actually the Constantine derived birthday of J.C. was based on the birthday of Mithra. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia from Dec 17th to Dec 23, exchanging gifts, and Masters served their servants (which still survives in Boxing Day traditions).

Saturn was revered as the King of G-ds before Jupiter, during the Golden Age.

Io Saturnalia!


7 posted on 12/16/2004 9:21:44 AM PST by donmeaker (Why did the Romans cross the road? To keep the slaves from revolting again.)
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To: MikeEdwards

The origin of Christmas:

Many people falsely believe that the date of Christmas comes from a Roman holiday. There was a Roman holiday on Dec. 25th, celebrating the return of light to the world; Dec. 25th is the first day at which the Romans could discern the lengthening of days following the Winter Solstice. But Christmas actually has an origin which predates the Roman Empire.

After the Babylonian catptivity, The Jewish Temple was re-established by Cyrus, King of Persia. Cyrus was a just emporer, but he was conquered by Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death, his empire was divided among three factions, with the Selucids inheriting Israel. The Selucids tried to form the Jews into idolatry. THey set up a great abomination in the Temple, and defiled it in every way imaginable. The Jews revolted.

As they went to battle, the Jews were promised by a prophet that any faithful Jew would be spared death in the upcoming battle. The Jews triumphed, but many were slain. Those who were killed were found to have had amulets on their person. Their mourning friends, who had come to believe in the resurrection of the dead, wept that their comrades had fallen into sin. Rather than keep the enormous bounty of their victory over the Selucids, they donated to the temple all they had won in atonement for the sins of their comrades.

With the great wealth won in battle, they were able to cleanse the Temple, refurbish it, replace the desecrated altar, and adorn it fully according to the commands given to Moses. On that day, the spirit of God was said to return to the Temple, and that day became known as the Feast of the Dedication.

Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Temple of God. Hence, his birthday was the day that God dwelt in his Temple, and his birthday became linked to the Feast of the Dedication, which occurred on the 25th day of the Jewish month closest to December.

When Jesus died on the cross, the Spirit of God left its Temple; As a sign, the curtains of the Jewish Temple were torn, and the altar cracked. But on Pentecost, it returned to dwell on Earth in His Church. It shall never depart from us again.


8 posted on 12/16/2004 9:27:48 AM PST by dangus
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To: MikeEdwards; eyespysomething

Freeper eyespysomething says: "If you don't like that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, you don't have to celebrate."

I agree. Non-Christians don't have to give or receive gifts; they don't have to buy a tree; they don't have to get together with friends and family; they could volunteer to work Christmas day, for that matter.


9 posted on 12/16/2004 9:29:40 AM PST by SittinYonder (Tancredo and I wanna know what you believe)
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To: donmeaker; loborojo

See? I knew someone was going to bring that up! I was already typing before you posted. Read the truth in post #8.

For the life of me, I'll never understand why people feel compelled to spread that falsehood about Christmas.


10 posted on 12/16/2004 9:30:32 AM PST by dangus
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To: donmeaker

Actually, No. The Jews had a tradition that prophets died either on the anniversity of their births or the anniversity of their conception. Christians, not knowing the actual date of Christi's birth, adopted this tradition.The celebration of the Nativity has been either 25 December or 6 January, depending on which date one assigns to the Crucifixion.


11 posted on 12/16/2004 9:38:13 AM PST by RobbyS (JMJ)
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To: RobbyS

>> Actually, No. The Jews had a tradition that prophets died either on the anniversity of their births or the anniversity of their conception. Christians, not knowing the actual date of Christi's birth, adopted this tradition. <<

Why do you presume that the Jews were wrong? The Catholic Church still follows this belief, setting the date of the Immaculate Conception on Marsh 25. You've really only demonstrated another prophetic proof of the date of Jesus' birth.


12 posted on 12/16/2004 9:43:05 AM PST by dangus
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To: RobbyS

By the way, I had a housemate who had been big into astrology. She one day asked me, "Is there any chance they put Christmas on the wrong day?" I asked her why and she told me: "Because from what I figure about Jesus' personality [she had just watched The Passion of The Christ] and who he was and all that, I worked out when the planets seem to predict something big like that. But I get March 25th, 4BC. "

I long ago renounced astrology, and she has since, also. (I think the movie had a BIG impact on her.) But hey, the wise men were astrologers...


13 posted on 12/16/2004 9:50:48 AM PST by dangus
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To: RobbyS

Oh, yeah... and you do know that Saints' feast days are on the "heavenly birthday." IOW: the day they died.


14 posted on 12/16/2004 9:52:14 AM PST by dangus
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To: dangus
"With the great wealth won in battle, they were able to cleanse the Temple, refurbish it, replace the desecrated altar, and adorn it fully according to the commands given to Moses. On that day, the spirit of God was said to return to the Temple, and that day became known as the Feast of the Dedication.

Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Temple of God. Hence, his birthday was the day that God dwelt in his Temple, and his birthday became linked to the Feast of the Dedication, which occurred on the 25th day of the Jewish month closest to December."

I honestly appreciate all the effort, but there is no factual link between His birthday and Hanukkah(or the feast of the dedication).

Some have said that His birth was during the feast of Sukkot, since John says in John chapter 1 that "The Word became flesh, and dwelled (or tabernacled) with us."

In the end, none of us know, and it's not that important.
15 posted on 12/16/2004 10:01:56 AM PST by Preachin' (Democrats know that they can never run on their real agenda.)
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To: Preachin'

http://www.earstohear.net/aclu.html


16 posted on 12/16/2004 10:25:38 AM PST by Jay777
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To: Preachin'

The point is that the celebration of his feast day is pius and bears no relationship to the Feast of Saturnalia, other than that God provided Christians an opportunity to celebrate Jesus' birth without their celebrations being conspicuous.

>> I honestly appreciate all the effort, but there is no factual link between His birthday and Hanukkah(or the feast of the dedication).<<

Other than that they are on the same day of the same month, and celebrate the same thing?


17 posted on 12/16/2004 10:26:47 AM PST by dangus
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To: RepCath; Liz; IronJack; Grampa Dave; MeekOneGOP; Iris7; wkdaysoff; ApesForEvolution; EdReform; ...

ping!


http://www.earstohear.net/aclu.html


18 posted on 12/16/2004 10:26:57 AM PST by Jay777
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To: All
You can join the fight against the ACLU and their ilk by becoming involved with and supporting the following organizations:

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) - http://www.alliancedefensefund.org

Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) - http://www.thomasmore.org

American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) - http://www.aclj.org

The Rutherford Institute - http://www.rutherford.org/

Stop the ACLU Coalition - http://www.stoptheaclu.org


Here are a few examples of how two of those organizations are fighting back:

ADF Contacts Over 3,600 School Districts Over Attempts To Censor Christmas

ADF: 700 lawyers ready to fight ACLU lawsuits

ADF: Pentagons' Warning About Boyscouts Is Absurd

Thomas More Law Center: Town of Palm Beach Pays $50,000 In Attorney Fees Apologizes To Women In Nativity Lawsuit


Additional information:

The ACLU must be destroyed: Joseph Farah supports Boy Scouts, urges Americans to fight back

Citizens mobilized to stop ACLU (seeks to consign group to 'ash heap of history')

ACLU fulfilling communist agenda

Revealing FACTS on the ACLU from its own writings

See how YOUR Senator or Representative ranks with the ACLU


Let me know if you would like to join my ACLU ping list


19 posted on 12/16/2004 10:28:03 AM PST by Jay777
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To: MineralMan

Haven't see a Krissmas sign, man that's rude! I remember when they started with the Xmas signs, what is this world coming to? Krissmas????


20 posted on 12/16/2004 10:28:59 AM PST by rockabyebaby (What goes around, comes around!)
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