From the Editor

Breaking Christians of their Pagan Habits

By:  David Deschesne

Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal

December 25, 2013

Around thirteen years ago I was unloading my Ford F150 pickup when it slipped out of gear and started rolling down the driveway toward a very deep culvert. Because I had a lot to do that day in preparation for setting up the sound system at Houlton Fair, and the truck was creeping very slowly, I decided to jump in front of it and stop it from going into the culvert.

Needless to say, when I braced my right leg and attempted to slow down the 3,000+ pound mass I was unsuccessful. The truck just kept pushing me until my foot caught a rock burm and my leg promptly shattered like a chicken bone being smashed with a hammer right below my knee. That taught me two things: 1.) don’t jump in front of moving vehicles, no matter how slow they’re going; and 2.) there are times when one person can not make a difference and needs more help.

The second point is how I feel when addressing my fellow Christians with regard to their pagan habits and traditions. The hardest of those traditions to break occurs on and around December 25 every year.

Contrary to popular belief, and hardcore, engrained tradition, Christ our Savior was not born on December 25 and those silly Christmas trees that are put up and decorated every year not only have nothing to do with Christ, but are forbidden to God’s people in the Holy Bible.

Christ was actually born on or around September 29, according to all scholarly research on the subject that has not been corrupted by the false teachings of pagan tradition. The date of December 25 was grafted on to the early church around 350 A.D. when Constantine recognized Christianity as a religion right alongside paganism and the worship of all of those Greek and Babylonian gods and goddesses.

December 25 has significance not for anything to do with Christ’s birth, or Christianity in general, but because it was part of the pagan sun-worship festival of Sol Invictus held on their holy days of the winter solstice.

You see, the pagans worshipped the sun as a god and considered him to have died on Dec. 21, which is the shortest day of the year. When the days started getting longer they considered him to have been reborn and celebrated with gift-giving and merrymaking. Luckily, one of the pagan traditions Christians have not yet adopted was the Lord of Misrule where a young virgin male was selected from the community and treated like a king, showered with gifts and presents before ultimately being sacrificed to the sun god by having his throat slit like a slaughtered pig. Again, I’m glad Christians haven’t adopted that pagan practice, yet.

Moving on to one of the most cherished pagan icons of Christianity we find the Christmas tree.

The so-called “Christmas Tree” has no ties to Christ, Christianity or the Christian religion from its inception.

The Christmas tree came to Christianity when Christians began adopting pagan customs. Its origin is from the pagan festival of Sol Invictus, which celebrated the victory of light over darkness and the lengthening of the sun’s rays at the winter solstice. In pagan ritual, which is overtly sexual in nature, the evergreen tree is a phallic symbol representing a man’s erect penis. The wreath of evergreen branches, being circular, represents a woman’s vaginal opening—this symbolism is hardly Christian in nature by any stretch of the imagination.

“The Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year. In most Wiccan/Witchcraft traditions the theme of the Winter Solstice is linked to the rebirth/renewal of the sun. This is often personified as the Child of Promise. In the ancient mythos, the sun god is born at the Winter Solstice and dies at the time of the harvest season. In many traditions of northern Europe this day is associated with the myth of the Holly King, who is slain by his brother the Oak King. From this point on the days become longer as the Wheel of the Year turns toward summer. In the traditional Wiccan mythos, the new sun god is born at the Winter Solstice. The period of the Winter Solstice is also known as Yule. Its symbols include the holly and the pine, the latter representing the evergreen that itself symbolizes the undying light of the sun. It has long been the custom to decorate a sacred tree at this time, an ancient custom recalling a time when Divinity was believed to dwell in trees."¹

The prophet, Jeremiah warned people to avoid the use of so-called Christmas trees of his day. “Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not."²

Other pagan celebrations occur at Easter time. Easter is an English cognate for Ishtar - the Babylonian goddess of fertility and war. The Phoenician counterpart was known as Ashtarte.³ According to the late Dr. Gene Scott, Ishtar was represented by Semiramis, the wife of the ancient Babylonian king Nimrod. According to ancient Babylonian legend, it is claimed that Ishtar caused the fish-goddess Atargatis to cause a great egg to fall in the Euphrates river where fish pushed it to shore and Semiramis was miraculously born. The Easter egg - Ishtar egg - does not represent the stone rolled away from the tomb like the medieval church said it did. (In remembrance of the fish;) ...fish-eating on Friday, required by common law in Catholic lands, was required by state law in the Protestant England of Edward VI (1526) to support the fishing industry and so train men to the sea for the navy.⁴

Tamuz was a Babylonian god, whose name was interpreted “faithful son” and died and rose annually with dying and reviving vegetation.⁵

Between those two pagan festivals, though, Christmas has to win it for the Christians. On and around December 25 every year, most Christians are better at being good pagans than they are at being good Christians. Trying to stop them from being pagans is going to be as hard as stopping a 3,000 pound pickup truck by standing in front of it.

More Editorials by David Deschesne