Birthdays
What this article will explore is whether a true saint should be part of any big birthday celebration with all its customs. And should a true saint celebrate Christ’s birthday, one of the biggest birthday celebrations on earth, that is celebrated in the Western World on December 25th.
Let us take a look.
A great place to always start is with your Bible. What we find is that nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is there any mention that we need to celebrate birthdays, let alone the birthday of our savior. The Scriptural evidence reveals that Messiah’s birth was “celebrated” (Luke 2:8-20), but the anniversaries of His birth were not celebrated, even though anniversaries were counted (Luke 2:42 and Luke 3:23).
More questions and answers as we continue to see what the Holy Scriptures say about birthdays.
Were any of the birthdays of the Apostles celebrated? There is nothing in the Scriptures!
How about the birthdays of the patriarchs of the Old Testament like Abraham, Moses, David, and others? Were there birthdays celebrated? There is nothing in the Scriptures!
Did the Apostles celebrate the birthday of their beloved Rabbi while on this earth? There is nothing in the Scriptures!
Did believers after Messiah’s resurrection celebrate the birthday of their Savior? There is nothing in the Scriptures!
It is interesting to note that if you read the writings of Jewish historian Josephus and others, history tells us that early believers did not celebrate Messiah’s birthday or birthdays in general. They considered the celebration of anyone’s birthday to be a pagan custom.
There are three Bible passages where birthdays are mentioned. All three appear to be tied to big celebrations.
The first birthday celebration is for Pharaoh:
Genesis 40:20 And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand: 22 But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
The second birthday celebration is for Herod:
Matthew 14:6 But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. 7 Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. 8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger. 9 And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath’s sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. 10 And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. 11 And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother.
Both of these birthday celebrations resulted in someone’s execution. Not a great outcome. But you may say that Pharaoh and Herod were not followers of Yahweh.
In all the Scriptures covering thousands of years, there is only one recorded instance of a righteous man connected with a birthday celebration. That man was Job, and his children were in the habit of celebrating their respective days just as Pharaoh and Herod.
Job 1:4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed Elohim in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
1:13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: 14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
1:18 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: 19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Three big birthday celebrations documented in the Scriptures and all resulted in someone dying and not one Scripture telling us to celebrate Messiah’s or anyone else’s birthday.
But you may say to yourself that there is not one Scripture forbidding celebrating Messiah’s or any others birthday. If you really think about celebrating ones’ birth, it really does not make a lot of sense compared to celebrating ones’ life. Especially if one has done good and followed Yahweh during their lifetimes. No one has done anything good when they are born. So why would we celebrate that day?
Ecclesiastes 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:
Even though there are no Scriptures prohibiting celebrating birthdays, there are many Scriptures that tell us not follow the ways of the heathen or unbelievers.
Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith YAHWEH, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Deuteronomy 12: 30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. 31 Thou shalt not do so unto Yahweh thy Elohim: for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Yahweh specifically commanded Israel not to ask why the pagans worshipped as they did. Why? Because Yahweh knows human nature and man’s desire to participate and have fun.
What happened?
Israel did exactly what they were commanded not to do. They embraced pagan customs and mixed them with pure worship: “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yahweh, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the mighty ones of Syria, and the mighty ones of Zidon, and the mighty ones of Moab, and the mighty ones of the children of Ammon, and the mighty ones of the Philistines, and forsook Yahweh, and served not Him,” Judges 10:6 (also see 1 Samuel 7:3-4; 12:10; 1 Kings 11:5, and 2 Kings 23:13).
Just as ancient Israel, our society has adopted pagan customs in the worship of the Almighty. If we are not supposed to follow the way of the heathen, where do birthday customs come from?
Many of the traditions found in birthdays come from Pagen practices of old. Round cake with candles started with the Greeks and represented the Greek Moon goddess. Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the temple of Artemis. Birthday candles, in folk believe, are endowed with special magic for granting wishes. The giving of presents during birthdays in ancient times was to ward off evil spirits.
The highest of all holidays (holy days) in the Satanic religion is the date of one’s own birth. “The Satanist feels: “Why not really be honest and if you are going to create a god in your image, why not create that god as yourself.” Every man is a god if he chooses to recognize himself as one. So, the Satanist celebrates his own birthday as the most important holiday (holy day) of the year.
The Satanic Bible; 1969, 1976; pg. 96 Anton Lavey
Scripture does not directly command us to avoid birthday celebrations, but as we have seen, it does tell us to not follow the practices of the world. Yahweh’s children should think twice about enjoying worldly ways, lest we desire to engage in these ways and become friends of the world.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with Yahweh? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of Yahweh. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
Believers have stopped following the ways of the world and have changed course, becoming committed to a different “Way”. So remember this outstanding piece of wisdom from the Apostle Paul.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Yahweh, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Yahweh, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of Yahweh.
So let us focus next on the biggest birthday celebration of all…..Christmas. We just read in Romans 12:2 not to be conformed to this world. Have you ever noticed that just about everyone celebrates Christmas, including those who are not even remotely religious or have ever opened a Bible? If the whole world celebrates Christmas, should we be concerned about what we are celebrating and if it is Yahweh’s will?
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of Yahweh abideth for ever.
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and Yahweh hath remembered her iniquities.
It is time that those who declare to be true saints of the Almighty to take a long look at this most popular of celebrations and ask some hard questions about whether or not they should celebrate Christmas. Your very salvation hinges on whether you will follow the truth of the Bible or go along with millions of others as they indulge in the popular ways of a deceived world. Paul wrote to the Corinthian assembly, “Wherefore ‘come out from among them and be separate,’ says Yahweh, ‘and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (2 Corinthians 6:17).
So is December 25th even the correct date of Messiah’s birth? Let us review.
Anyone who has attended Christmas plays at school or church has probably heard Luke 2:8 quoted: ” And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night “.
From the middle of November to the middle of April is the rainy season in Israel. Shepherds, because of the cold, dampness, and sometimes snow, take their flocks into sheepfolds at night. Ezra 10:9 speaks of those in Jerusalem sitting outside in early December and trembling in the rain. Yah’shua considered the severity of the winter in Israel when, in His prophecy of the end times (Matthew 24:20) said, “Pray that your flight be not in the winter….“
Historians have long recognized that Yah’shua the Messiah was born in the autumn and not in the dead of winter. The sheep were still in the open fields. “It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts about the Passover (early spring), and bring them home at commencement of the first rain,” Adam Clarke Commentary, vol. 5, p. 370.
Furthermore, at the time of the Savior’s birth, Caesar Augustus was collecting taxes (Luke 2:1-5). Each had to make a journey to “his own city” to pay his taxes. Joseph and Miriam (Mary) traveled to Bethlehem. Requiring the people to make such journeys at the severest time of the year–in the dead of winter–would have sparked a revolt against the hated Roman Empire. The simplest and most logical policy would be to collect taxes after the fall harvest, when storehouses were full and resistance would be the least.
Then there is the fact that the Jews would be congregating in the autumn anyway, “going up” to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:8-10 and Acts 18:21). Perhaps this is the reason the parents of Yah’shua found “no room for them in the inn”: the cities were swollen with travelers to the Feast of Tabernacles.
We can determine the approximate date of the Savior’s birth by knowing when John the Baptist was born. Worship at the time centered on the temple at Jerusalem, where priests were required to perform duties for a week twice in the year (1 Chronicles 24:1-18). John’s father Zacharias was from the family of Abiyah (Luke 1:5) and had his turn on the eighth week of the year (1 Chronicles 24:10).
Beginning the count from around the Days of Unleavened Bread at the beginning of the year, we come to the third Hebrew month, Sivan. It was at this time that the angel of Yahweh told Zacharias he would become the father of a son (Luke 1:13). When his duties were finished he went home (verse 23). At that time Elizabeth conceived (verse 24). This was about the middle or end of our June. Moving forward nine months in the gestation period, we come to March and John the Baptist is born. Luke 1:36 notes that Yah’shua was six months younger than John. So six months later, the Savior was born–at the end of September or through the end of October.
It is commonly recognized that our Savior’s ministry lasted three and a half years. Yah’shua began when He was 30 years of age (Luke 3:23 and Numbers 4:3). He was put to death at the age of 33-1/2 and died on Passover–which falls in the spring around April. Starting in April and counting back six months to His birthday, we end up with an autumn birth date.
Based on all the facts, December 25th cannot be Messiah’s birth date. Consider this: if you are observing a birthday, which is not actually HIS birthday, it is a lie. We are told in 1 John 2:21 “That no lie is of the truth”.
This means that if there is even one lie in a body of doctrine or a religious practice, it cannot be of Yahweh, or His will, or pleasing to Him. We know that Yahweh cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and hates lies.
What does Yahweh say about those who practice a lie?
Revelation 20:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he (Satan) is a liar, and the father of it.
Christmas keepers may say that all of this is unimportant. To Messiah, however, all of this is critically important and even determines who spends eternity in His presence in New Jerusalem. Those who love lies and those who make lies will never enter the Father’s and the Lamb’s presence.
Revelation 22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
How does Yahweh desire to be worshipped? Yahweh makes it abundantly clear that He does not want to be worshipped with any lies!
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 Yahweh is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
How then, did December 25th become connected with the birthday of the Messiah?
Alexander Hislop explains: “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 honor 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 nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ.” The Two Babylon’s, p. 93.
Indeed, the Catholic Encyclopedia confirms the merger. “The well-known solar feast of Natalis Invicta [The Nativity of the Unconquered Sun] celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date.” vol. 3, p. 727.
The word “Christmas” derives from the Old English “Cristes-masse,” a Catholic mass that grew out of a feast day established in the year 1038. A mass is a prayer for a dead person. Why is it applied to the birth of the Messiah?
Perhaps the answer is found in the Encyclopedia Americana, 1942 edition, vol. 6, p. 623: “Christmas was according to many authorities not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian Church as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. A feast was established in the memory of the birth of the Savior in the Fourth Century. In the Fifth Century the Western Church [Roman Catholic] ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman Feast of the birth of Sol [the sun].”
The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition, says, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church.” For the first 300 years, the religious writers are silent regarding the Christmas observance. An Armenian writer of the eleventh century states that the Christmas festival was first celebrated in Constantinople in 373. In Egypt, the Western birthday festival was opposed during the early years of the fifth century, but was celebrated in Alexandria as early as 432. In 1644, the English Puritans forbade any merriment or religious services by act of Parliament on the grounds that Christmas was a heathen festival. They were so opposed to its observance that they ordered a fast on December 25.
Did you know that it took nearly 400 years before the Roman Church began to accept Christmas into its dogma? It was not without objection and it was not until the end of the fourth century before it was declared official, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 725.
The fact remains that nowhere in the Bible is found the command to observe our Savior’s birthday. You cannot find the word Christmas in the Bible. The precise date of our Savior’s birth is obscured because Yahweh never intended for His followers to celebrate our Savior’s birthday. Rather, He commands that we observe (not celebrate) Yah’shua’s death at Passover, His sacrifice to all who would truly seek to obey Him.
Also, have you ever wondered why the biggest celebration of Messiah is His birth? Messiah is portrayed as a baby: tiny, weak and harmless. The visualization of this tiny, weak and harmless baby in a manger is continuously pressed into our heads. Do you think that Satan would like us to focus on baby Messiah instead of the powerful Savior that currently sits at the right hand of the Father? Or that He is coming in the clouds with power and glory to judge the world? Or that the first thing He does when he returns is to make war?
Matthew 26:64 Yah’shua saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Luke 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
The clear facts for those who study their Bibles is that there is nothing in Scriptures that tells us to celebrate our savior’s or anyone’s birthday or that the apostles or early believers ever celebrated Messiah birthday both before and after his crucifixion and resurrection.
History tells us that the early Body of Believers did not celebrate Messiah’s birthday or Christmas and considered birthdays pagan practices. Then we have the clear lie that Messiah was born on December 25th. Scriptural evidence shows Messiah was born in the fall, not in the winter. You would think that one of the biggest Holy Days of most Christians would be found in the New Testament. The truth is that Christmas in never mentioned. Selah (i.e. think about it). As the Bible tells us, Yahweh wants us to worship Him in Spirit and TRUTH! So if there is no commandment in the Scriptures to celebrate Messiah’s birthday or Christmas on December 25th, why do we think we are worshiping the Almighty in Spirit and TRUTH?
On birthdays in general, we find all sorts of pagan influences tied to birthday celebrations including all the pagan customs tied to Christmas (please read the article “Christmas”). Of the three times birthday celebrations are mentioned in the Scriptures we find that all three were elaborate celebrations resulting in people dying. Not a good outcome. And again, there is not one Scripture telling a saint to celebrate anyone’s birthday let alone our Savior’s birthday. The book of Ecclesiastes does tell us to honor ones’ death, not their birth. Why? Because the clear fact is that no one has done any good works when they were born, so why would we celebrate that day?
To conclude, what we have decided as saints of Yahweh is at a minimum stay away from big birthday celebrations with all the pagan influences (i.e. round cakes with lit candles, birthday wishes, presents, etc.) and as much as possible avoid birthday celebrations in general. But mainly for children and the elderly, we feel we are not going against the Scriptures to tell someone Happy Birthday, provide a special meal, especially for a child, and tell them that we love them on their birthday. And of course we do not celebrate or follow anything to do with Christmas but follow the Scriptural feast days found in Leviticus. As Yahweh tells us, in the book of Leviticus these are His feast!
Leviticus 23:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. (NKJ)
HalleluYah
(2/25)