Midnight Ministries
 

Home    |    Midnight Cry: A Message To All Churches    |    The Imminent Fall of America
Dead Boy RESURRECTED At Midnight    |    The Danger of False Ministers
Warnings About Specific Church Groups / Leaders    |    Information for the WCG
Publications of Midnight Ministries

 

The Midnight Cry:
A Prophetic Witness to the Church Today

* * *

16
What GOD Says To Christians About Christmas!
Through a vivid dream, God reveals what HE thinks of this custom.

On 23rd December 1996, God gave me a vivid dream. I was sitting in a conventional church service. A man was preaching from the pulpit to a group of Christians. On the platform behind him stood a Christmas tree, bedecked in silver and gold and glittering adornments.

Suddenly, the Spirit came upon me! I stood up and interrupted the preacher in the middle of his discourse. Loudly, I blurted out a rebuke as the Spirit moved me. I couldn't hold the words in!

I challenged these people on what they were doing. They couldn't see the error in their ways. Here they were, celebrating the birth of Christ – so they thought. What they didn't realise is that they were celebrating the birth of the wrong Messiah – a false Christ!

Jesus Christ was NOT born on December 25. Nimrod was! The 'Christ' most Christians are worshipping by honouring the date of the re-birth of the winter sun, is a false Christ, not the One who died for you!


Saturnalia — Sun Worship!

Furthermore, the materialistic celebrations do not honour a God who condemns materialism as a false god! They hark back to pagan antiquity when heathens indulged in revelry and sensual indulgence to celebrate the re-birth of the sun at the winter solstice.

The god being worshipped at Christmas is not the God of the Bible, but a god contrived in the minds of the world. You can take your pick. The pagans may have honoured the sun god at this time. Today, we are more 'sophisticated'. Our modern gods include self, wealth, and tradition.

There is not a word in the Bible commanding us to celebrate the time of Christ's birth – even if He were born around December 25 (which it can be proved He wasn't). Read any worthwhile encyclopaedia and see that celebrations on 25th December antedate Christianity by hundreds of years. It's just that it had a different name. The Romans called it the Saturnalia.

Indeed, it is admitted by the most learned and candid writers of all parties that the day of our Lord's birth cannot be determined, and that within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. (The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, pp. 92,93).

It was subtly, cleverly imposed on the majority and given 'Christian' acceptability by the emerging Church in Rome, whom God labels a Great Prostitute in Revelation 17. She is a false church, riddled with occult practices and paganism adopted from the Babylonian Mystery Religions of the East which God condemns in His Word.

Christmas is a deceptive demonic custom. GOD HATES IT!

Earlier this year, another prophet received those very words GOD HATES CHRISTMAS!! I am not alone in what I am receiving from God. These are not the rantings of one idiot. The ones sorely deceived are Christians who cannot see how vile Christmas is, and that God says in His Word we should not observe it (see next page).

It doesn't honour Him!

Alexander Hislop, a theologian who researched and compiled the information in The Two Babylons in the early years of this century, continues to explain how this evil custom was given 'Christian' acceptability:

Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the normal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ (p. 93).

There were many true Christians who were not at all happy about this syncretism – the adoption of pagan customs into Christianity. They knew a pagan festivity had no place in true worship. In fact, Hislop says:

This tendency on the part of Christians to meet paganism half way was very early developed; and we find Tertullian, even in his day, about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of Christ [those who were apostatising] in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the pagans to their own superstition (ibid.).

Don't we find the same true today?! There is more fervour among the unconverted to 'have a jolly good Christmas' than among true Christians! That should not be surprising. Anyone with the Spirit of God living in them cannot help but detest the gross self-indulgence, the lasciviousness and sin that permeates this idolatrous time.

The organised Church, by Tertullian's time, had drifted so far away from the true traditions passed on to it (c.f. Jude 3) that he admits most 'Christians' were "strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God." Instead, through deception the majority of 'Christians' had accepted pagan substitutes:

...the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia... gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians. Upright men strove to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant was submerged under pagan superstition (ibid.).

Upright people in the Church today who see the paganism behind Christmas may want to stem this tide of apostasy, but it is impossible. Many like this revelry. They want a good time, so, some reason: why not join the pagans in their jollity?

"What's wrong with merrymaking?" they ask feebly.

There's nothing wrong with being merry, if it is for the right reasons and at the right time, as Solomon said (Eccl 3:4). The God whom Christians should worship is revealed to us in the Bible. He tells Christians when to rejoice before Him (Deut 16:11,14; Lev 23).

The major 'Christian' denominations today justify perpetuating this heresy using human reasoning. They claim that the Church has 'Christianized' this pagan festival of Saturnalia.

That is A LIE! No man can 'Christianize' anything. No human being is holy or capable of making anything holy. God is the only one who can hallow anything, and He hasn't hallowed or 'Christianized' Christmas.

HE HATES IT! The spirit of Christmas is in direct conflict with the Spirit of Jesus Christ!

The God whom true Christians worship says: DON'T WORSHIP ME BY ADAPTING PAGAN CUSTOMS TO SUIT YOURSELVES (Deut 12:30,31). It is as bad as sacrificing your children to false gods!

And that is just what many today are doing! They are sacrificing their children to the gods of materialism, greed and false traditions.


The Christmas Tree

That Christmas was originally a pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, "about the time of the winter solstice". The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves – Yule-day – proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. Yule is the Chaldee name for an "infant" or "little child", and the 25th of December was called by our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors "Yule-day" or the "Child's day" and the night that preceded it "Mother-night", long before they came in contact with Christianity... (pp. 93,94 Hislop).

The mother and child symbolism preceded Mary and Jesus by thousands of years! Satan made sure that he laid an effective counterfeit long before Jesus' time, knowing he could use it to great advantage later, to dupe Christians into false worship and undermine the truth of God.

The mother and child philosophy started in Babel under the first human pontiff Nimrod and his mother Semiramis. It continued in Egypt under different names – Isis, Osiris and Horus.

Nimrod was the great first Deliverer, who claimed divinity for himself and supreme authority upon earth. He set the precedent for the Roman Catholic primacy to perpetuate this satanic theme. It is rank blasphemy!

Nimrod was born December 25. And Yule day or Child's day is not just a nice thought for children. It is rooted in pagan dualism and vice!

...it commemorated, not merely the figurative birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but the birthday of the grand Deliverer (Hislop, p. 94).

'Our' custom of using a tree and all the paraphernalia of lights and trinkets which represent the sun and the prosperity which the sun brings to the earth in the natural cycle, is more than most conceive.

The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm tree; in Rome it was the fir; ... denoting the pagan Messiah... The Mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognised as the "Man of the branch". And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule log into the fire on Christmas eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning (Hislop, p. 97).

What a clever counterfeit Satan has foisted on Christians! Jesus is called the Branch in Bible prophecy (Is 11:1), who springs from the root of Jesse (Is 11:10; Rom 15:12). But this Branch has been supplanted by Satan, who has erected an evil despot as an idol in Jesus' place!

These customs have come to Christians from the Gentiles, not from the true Church of Christ! Jeremiah was moved to warn:

Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the Gentiles... for the customs of the people are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. They are upright like a palm tree, and they cannot speak... (Jer 10:2-5, NKJV).

The allusion here to the forerunner of the Christmas tree ought to be clear. But stubborn souls who don't want to dispense with Christmas customs argue vehemently that it does not apply to the Christmas tree because we don't bow down and worship it today like the ancient pagans did.

Oh, don't we? What's it doing on the platforms of our churches, then? Why is it associated with 'worship' of Jesus Christ and His supposed birthday?

If you are worshipping Jesus Christ, why do you need a tree to remind you of Him. God tells us not to worship Him the way the pagans worshipped their gods (Deut 12:32). Nor are we to use anything physical as an idol (Deut 5:8,9), even if we might think it is an aid to worship. It actually detracts from true worship, which is in spirit (Jn 4:24).

But, God knows what is in people's hearts. They – and even a majority of Christians – would rather enjoy a time of pagan festivity than do what He says in His Word. He predicted this apostasy would occur (Deut 4:25-28; 2 Thes 2:3-12).

The question you must ask yourself is: Should I go along with the majority? Let the Word of God answer:

Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong (Ex 23:2).


Christmas is Spiritually Adulterous

As a Christian you might think you are worshipping the only true God. You accept the Bible as His Word – even though you may not understand it all, or have complete knowledge of all it contains – and you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour. But don't be deceived. Just because you think you worship one God doesn't mean your worship is not tainted or compromised.

The Babylonians worshipped one god – Baal, the sun god!

It was an essential principle of the Babylonian system, that the Sun or Baal was the one only God. (Hislop, p. 96).

That Babylonian system has come on down to us through customs which the false Church in Rome perpetuated at the expense of thousands of Christian martyrs who refused to compromise with truth!

No wonder Jesus shocked John when He revealed this abominable 'woman' as "drunk with the blood of the saints" (Rev 17:6). She appears Christian, but is not. She is Babylon, clothed with deceptive garb (Rev 17:5). She has filled the 'Christian' world with her deceptions (Rev 17:2; 18:3).

True and just are His [God's] judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries (Rev 19:2). Come out of her, My people... (18:4).

As a child of God, you are called to be part of the Bride of Christ. He wants you to be pure, untainted by the sins of the world – which include idolatrous customs we have inherited. If you accept pagan customs and call them Christian, how can He accept you as part of His Bride (unless, of course, you are ignorant, which you and I were at one time)? By approving of pagan traditions you are committing spiritual adultery!

That is one reason God hates Christmas!


Origin of Hogmanay

In Scotland, the turn of the year is marked with a celebration somewhat different. It is called Hogmanay. Its origin is also Babylonian! Here's how it began:

Among the Sabeans of Arabia, who regarded the moon, and not the sun, as the visible symbol of the favourite object of their idolatry, the same period was observed as the birth festival. Thus we read in Stanley's Sabean Philosophy: "On the 24th of the tenth month," that is December, according to our reckoning, "the Arabians celebrated the BIRTHDAY OF THE LORD – that is, of the Moon." The Lord Moon was the great object of Arabian worship, and that Lord Moon, according to them was born on the 24th of December, which clearly shows that the birth which they celebrated had no necessary connection with the course of the sun (Hislop, p. 94).

Hislop further points out that Christmas day among the ancient Saxons was celebrated in honour of the birth of the Lord of heaven, but that they regarded the sun as a female divinity and the moon as male. So, December 25 celebrated the Lord Moon's birth day, just as the Arabians observed December 24 for that occasion.

The name of Lord Moon in the East seems to have been Meni, for this appears the most natural interpretation of the Divine statement in Isaiah 65:11, "But ye are they that forsake my holy mountain, that prepare a temple for Gad, and that furnish the drink offering unto Meni". There is reason to believe that Gad refers to the sun god, and that Meni in like manner designates the moon divinity. Meni, or Manai, signifies "The Numberer", and it is by the changes of the moon that the months are numbered: Psalm 104:19, "He appointed the moon for seasons..." The name of "The Man of the Moon", or the god who presided over that luminary among the Saxons, was Manι, as given in the "Edda", and Mani, in the "Voluspa". That it was the birth of the "Lord Moon" that was celebrated among our ancestors at Christmas, we have remarkable evidence in the name that is still given in the lowlands of Scotland to the feast on the last day of the year, which seems to be a remnant of the old birth festival for the cakes then made are called Nur-cakes, or Birth-cakes. That name is Hogmanay. "Hog-Manai" in Chaldee signifies "The feast of the Numberer"; in other words, The festival of Deus Lunus, or the Man [god] of the Moon (Hislop, pp. 94,95).


Deception of The Snake!

I mentioned earlier about the symbolism of the Yule log and the Christmas tree: ...the putting of the Yule log into the fire on Christmas eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning which symbolised the dying on 'Mother night' and rebirth of the seed of the woman out of the fire the next day as the 'Branch of God'. The pagans thought: This is the tree which brings all divine gifts to men (Hislop, p. 97).

This tree was not Jesus. It was Nimrod!

It must be remembered that the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces) [symbolised by the Yule log] on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers. Now the great god... was... cut down almost to the ground. But the great serpent, the symbol of the life-restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock, and lo, at its side up sprouts a young tree – a tree of an entirely different kind... even the palm tree, the well known symbol of victory. The Christmas tree ...was generally at Rome a different tree, even the fir; but the very same idea as was implied in the palm tree was implied in the Christmas fir; for that covertly symbolised the new born God as Baal-berith, "Lord of the Covenant"... he had risen triumphant over them all. Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed at Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth, was held at the Natalis invicti solis, "The birthday of the unconquered Sun". Now the Yule log is the dead stock of Nimrod, deified as the sun-god, but cut down by his enemies; the Christmas tree is Nimrod 'redivivus' – the slain god come to life again. (Hislop, pp. 97-98).

The cunning serpent has woven his sly deceptions around harmless-looking customs and naive Christians have got tangled up in them.

I hope you can see that Christmas and new year celebrations are bound up in man-worship, not God-worship. They originally deified the first human pontiff, Nimrod (Gen 10:9), and have continued in various forms ever since.

It is a clever satanic counterfeit which has deceived millions that it honours the Son of God, but it actually honours Satan!

God warns you to have nothing to do with it! Come out! (Rev 18:4.)

Malcolm B Heap, December 1996


Prophetic Words About Christmas

November 23, 1998: I speak to you today to maintain a pure conscience before Me. Walk in truth and light. Refuse to fall into the fantasy of the days ahead. Some would call these days "holidays" or holy days, but do not be deceived into thinking there is anything holy about the world's traditions and materialism. I say it is idolatry in its grandest form. Loose yourselves from this bondage and idolatry, and seek Me with a whole heart. Have nothing to do with self interest and greed; rather rise up in spiritual purity before My face, and refuse to be distracted by what is unholy.

Marsha Burns

November 21, 1998: I am stirring hearts and bringing conviction and opportunity for repentance. I am drawing My people into a place of greater obedience, more strength and fervent love. The choices are there. The choice is yours. Will you yield completely to My call? Will you say yes to My proposal? Will you be My bride? The choice is yours and yours alone. Are you willing to forsake all and yield to My purposes? Come and be one with Me in heart and purpose. Come away with Me, My beloved.

Marsha Burns

Bill and Marsha Burns, FAITH TABERNACLE

* * *


Copyright: Midnight Ministries, PO Box 29, Aylesbury, HP17 8TL, UK
www.midnightministries.org.uk