A Pre-Denominational Ministry.

Discernment

1  Old Covenant Feasts 〣 1446-70 AD 〣 The 7 Sabbaths of Sabbaths.
2  Birthdays 〣 19 c. AD 〣 To be celebrated or not?
3  Christmas 〣 336 AD 〣 Pagan, Roman or Christian?
4  Easter 〣 325 AD 〣 Overlap with the Passover Week.
5  Halloween 〣 609 AD 〣 Instituted in 609 AD.
6  Denominational Feasts 〣 Biblical warnings.

Old Covenant Feasts

JESUS provided the ultimate atonement for our sins and made therefore obsolete the Day of Atonement. The other 6 Sabbaths of Sabbaths (High Sabbaths) cannot be celebrated anymore - due to the following reasons:
  • Under the Laws of Moses - specifically the former Ceremonial Laws.
  • The temple is now absent, required for the animal sacrifices being an integral part of those feasts.
  • Everyone who ate leavened bread during Passover, was put to death (Exo 12:15).
  • No uncircumcised foreigner (any national not being a Jew) was even allowed to eat the Passover (Exo 12:43-49).
  • Passover was always an Internal festival (Domestic & Inbound Tourism, only in Jerusalem according to Deut 16:5-6), not an International or Global festival. The only time it was kept outside of the land of Canaan, was on the evening when the Israelites were about to leave Egypt, but the biblical account makes it clear that the festival week itself starts on Abib 15, the precise day the Israelites left Egypt. "And if there should come to you a stranger in your land, and should keep the passover to KYRIOS, he shall keep it according to the law of the Passover and according to its ordinance: there shall be one law for you, both for the stranger, and for the native of the land." Num 9:14
  • Paul even left his church plant behind and traveled to Jerusalem to partake in the Pentecost (Act 20:16). He was not joined on this trip by the new converts. If there would be an obligation for Christians to follow this day, then Paul would have either shown the believers in Ephesus how to celebrate it or would have invited them to join him in Jerusalem. None of both options occurred. It is therefore clear that local Jews might still be free today to follow those specific days, but that there is no instruction for believers of other nations to do so.
  • Most references quoted by SDA's or Messianic Jews include references prior to CHRIST's death & resurrection (Mat 26:2, 17, Mar 14:12-16, Luk 2:41-42, Luk 22:1, Joh 2:13, Joh 6:4, Joh 7:1-14, Joh 13:1-30), to communion erroneously being equated with Passover (1Cor 11:23-29), strictly metaphorical references (1Cor 5:6-8), extremely vague references (Act 18:21, Act 27:9), or future references where the sole mention of a trumpet call is suddenly a proof for the continuation of the Feast of Trumpets (Mat 24:30-31, 1Th 4:16-17, Rev 11:15).
  • Correct references include Act 2:1-21, Act 20:6, Act 20:16, 1Cor 16:8, but those celebrations were -NEVER- held outside of Israel. On all missionary trips, we find numerous references of obeying locally the Weekly Sabbath, but not once of obeying a Ceremonial Sabbath locally.

Birthdays

Before we come to Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Savior, we should reflect if there is any biblical indication related to the celebration of individual birthdays.

Scripture offers exactly 3 references to personal birthdays, but all of them stem from evil rulers and events, which excludes those verses from being prescriptive*. Some early historians offer us some insights against the celebration of birthdays, but those historians are not necessarily reliable sources.

In summary, we rather find a case against it, but should abstain from further speculation and leave it to someone's individual guidance through the HOLY SPIRIT. With the correct biblical motives (no prideful celebrations; no gluttony; no drunkenness; everything to the glory of THEOS ...) we ought not to condemn what is not condemned in Scripture.
  • ~1890 BC  ·  The first reference in Scripture is related to the Pharaoh in Joseph's days (1915-1805 BC). Gen 40:20 reads: "And it cometh to pass, on the third day, Pharaoh's birth(day), that he maketh a banquet to all his servants, and lifteth up the head of the chief of the butlers, and the head of the chief of the bakers among his servants ..." It is not only related to an evil ruler, but also to an evil event, the killing of the chief baker. This verse is clearly descriptive, not prescriptive.
  • ~30 AD  ·  The second reference is once again related to an evil ruler, to Herod (~20 BC-39 AD), and more importantly to one of the most evil events in history, the beheading of the one who announced our Messiah. Mat 14:6-7 reads: "But the birthday of Herod being kept, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and did please Herod, whereupon with an oath he professed to give her whatever she might ask." Mar 6:21-22 reads: "And a seasonable day having come, when Herod on his birthday was making a supper to his great men, and to the chiefs of thousands, and to the first men of Galilee, and the daughter of that Herodias having come in, and having danced ...". Both verses are clearly descriptive, not prescriptive.
  • ~90 AD  ·  Flavius Josephus** wrote that "the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to excess" (Against Apion, II.26).

* We ought to differentiate between descriptive / informative passages (e.g. Gen 22:1-14, Rut 3:6-13, Acts 2:44–47 and Act 28:3–5) and prescriptive passages / specific guidance for us (e.g. Exo 20:2-17, Mat 5:2—7:27 and Mat 28:18–20).

** Utmost discernment is required concerning Josephus (4x married and 3x divorced (First wife killed by Romans; double adultery afterwards); traitor to the Jews; close collaboration with the Romans; directly enabling them to kill his kinsfolk through his knowledge, after he proposed a group suicide, but 'survived').

*** Utmost discernment is required concerning Origen (Universalist; taught Purgatory; taught pre-existence of souls, decisive in bringing the OT Apocrypha into our Bibles; excluded James, 2 Peter, and 2&3 John from his canon; pioneer of the monastic practice of Lectio Divina; speculated that heavenly bodies are living creatures; Ransom-Theorist; first hints of Catholic Mariology occurred precisely his writings; Pope Dionysius of Alexandria became one of the foremost proponents of Origen's theology). A detailed discernment can be found at www.fitforfaith.ca/discernment-historical-figures

Christmas

Christmas is not a Christian, but a Roman (Catholic) festival, most certainly arranged with the winter solstice and the later birthday of the Roman sun god, as explicitly confirmed by the Philocalian Calendar (336 AD), Chrysostom (386 AD) and Bishop Bar-Salibi (1170 AD).

  • 47 BC  ·  Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC; a Roman polymath and a prolific author) wrote in his chronology that December 25 was the date of the winter solstice (shortest day of the year; from this day the light increases) in the ancient Roman calendar, and regarded as the middle of winter.

  • ~1c AD  ·  Antiochus of Athens (unknown; an influential Hellenistic astrologer who was extensively quoted by later writers) marked in his calendar December 25 as the 'Birthday of the Sun'.

  • 1-3 c. AD  ·  No celebration of Christmas in the Christian Church.

  • ~180 AD  ·  Irenaeus and Tertullian do not show a Feast of the Nativity on their lists of Christian celebrations, but Irenaeus later opened a 'can of worms' when he calculated March 25 as spurious conception date, based on an assumed birthday of John the Baptist on the Day of Atonement (Month 7, Day 10) and adding the 6 months difference (=Month 1, Day 10, Selection of Lambs), plus assuming 9 months of pregnancy. This is rather wild-west-theology and simply ignores the time-lapse between the annunciation through the Angel and the conception as described in Luk 1:24 through the wording 'And after these days', which excludes any possibility for a precise date. This term 'and after these days' adds several days, weeks or months between the annunciation and the conception and de-facto excludes a same-day-conception. Hippolytus later copied the error of Irenaeus and the disaster took its course very soon after:

  • 198 AD  ·  Clement of Alexandria reported that some celebrated Christ's birthday on ~April 19 / 20 and others ~May 20. Basilidian Christians held to January 6 and 10. Clement himself calculated November 18. Other Alexandrian and Egyptian Christians adopted January 4 or 5. The regions of Nicomedia, Syria and Caesarea celebrated Christ's birthday on January 6. In short, there was no consensus, but a very great chaos.

  • ~200 AD   ·  Julius Africanus assumed like Irenaeus March 25 as the conception date.

  • 243 AD  ·  The work 'De Pascha Computus' proposed March 28 as either birthdate or conception (not clearly specified).

  • 274 AD  ·  The birthday of the official sun god of the late Roman Empire, Sol In***tus, is for the very first time celebrated on December 25, 274 AD. Aurelian, the Roman emperor from 270-275 AD, was the first to introduce this foreign deity, the Sol In***tus, to the Romans, after he claimed the favor of that god at a battle in 272 AD. He then erected within less than 2 years a huge temple to this sun god in the Campus Agrippae, and attempted in the last year of his reign to make this worship the principal religion at Rome. * But it has to be noted that a worship of the sun (e.g. under the different name 'Sol In**es') was already indigenous to the Roman Republic and the Regal Period, which preceded the Roman Empire from ~750-27 BC. It has also to be noted that there has possibly been a shift from Dec21 to Dec25, some say due to problems with the conversion of the calendars.

  • Constantius Chlorus, the Roman emperor from 305-306 AD, followed Aurelian in the veneration of the sun. But the one who made this god popular - and especially within a 'Christian' context, was Constantine, the Roman emperor from 306-337 AD. He included Sol In***tus on coinage and many artistic representations such as a famous statue of himself wearing a radiant crown of sun.

  • 336 AD  ·  Although December 25th did not originate with the Chronography / Philocalian calendar written and used in Rome, it was the earliest document to record this date as Christ's birth. This date appears in this calendar through several entries, e.g. it includes opposite of the birthday of the sun god ('Natalis In***ty; December 25) the phrase 'VIII ian natus Christus in Bethleem Iudea', which reads '8 January was born Christ in Bethlehem of Judea (either meaning 8 days before January = December 25, or actually January 8).'

  • 386 AD  ·  Chrysostom (6th Roman Catholic doctor - therefore to be considered official doctrine!) wrote in his work 'De Solstitiis et Aequinoctiis': "Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December ... the eighth before the calends of January [25 December] ... But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered [sun god / Natalis In***ty]'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, [we may say] He is the Sun of Justice."

  • ~400 AD  ·  Augustine (3rd RCC doctor): "For he is believed to have been conceived on March 25 , and also suffered on this same day ... But according to tradition He was born on December 25." In a late fourth-century sermon, he clearly related CHRIST's birth to the Winter Solstice: "He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase".

  • ~1170 AD  ·  Bishop Bar-Salibi [looking back to the 3-4c. AD]: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries, the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when the [Catholic] doctors of the church [3-4c. AD] perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day."

  • ~1835 AD  ·  Introduction of Christmas trees

Easter

Although the term 'Easter' is used in English translations such as the Tyndale Bible of 1534 or the Coverdale Bible of 1535 interchangeably with the term 'Passover' (which is manipulation of the Bible), the early Christians and church fathers* did not celebrate Easter as understood today.
  • The modern Easter is not a biblical concept, but only loosely based on the biblical Feast of Passover usually occurring around the same time. The date of Easter is always defined by man, while Passover is dated based on the Bible.
  • While Passover is directly connected to the biblical New Year (First New Moon after Green Ears + 15 days), the date of Easter is based on the Full Moon, which is a serious distortion of Scripture and has serious spiritual implications.
  • In 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea organized by the Roman Catholic church (Constantine), decreed that Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the March (Vernal) Equinox on March 20.
  • We should therefore abstain from celebrating Easter. If we chose to celebrate the biblical Passover (which is not endorsed by this ministry), we should also consequently follow the precise 7 (8) days. As Col 2:16 says in reference to special days related to food, there is no right or wrong in following or not following those Extraordinary Sabbaths that were once a part of the now abolished Old Covenant Laws.

* Apostolic Fathers / Church Father can sometimes be a valuable source, but should always be considered with the utmost discernment, especially when it comes to the Letters of Barnabas, Clement of Rome, and of Ignatius of Antioch (very probable post-mortem impersonation and de facto the foundational document for the creation of the bishop office and therefore the Roman Pope).

Halloween

The very first celebration of 'All Hallow's Eve' (Hallow-een = Holy Evening before All Saint's Day), occurred in the year 609 AD, when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the virgin Mary.
  • Pan-theion = [Temple of] all gods.
  • Much more could be said about this particular day and this author has read much about it, but this particular information should suffice as a clear warning to stay far away from any association with this day.

Denominational Feasts

It is wrong to celebrate extrabiblical feasts such as those included in the Jewish, Orthodox and Roman Catholic calendar.
  • Gal 4:9-10 "But now, because you have come to know THEOS, or rather have come to be known by THEOS, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You carefully observe days and months and seasons and years."
  • Amo 6:3 (Hebrew OT) has been manipulated in the Proto-Masoretic text* ("You that put off the day of disaster and bring near a reign of violence!"), while it correctly warns in the Greek Old Testaments as following: "Ye who are approaching the evil day, who are drawing near and adopting false Sabbaths ..." Amo 6:3 (Greek OT). It is clear from the New Testament that Jews followed many extrabiblical feast days, which the prophet Amos and CHRIST spoke against, but the 2nd century Jews simply removed this warning.

* Most modern translations such as AMP, ESV, KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT ... are based on the Proto-Masoretic text)

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