Chapter 1: Introduction to origins

Okay, here we are. Thank you, Paul, for your awesome prayer. We are coming together appropriately during this time of year to discuss the ancient origins of Santa Claus and Christmas. You will be surprised. [laughter] Um, I was just sharing with Glenn last night, uh, that my wife and I sat down to find something on TV to watch and we turned on Prime and lo and behold, what we saw was on the left there, this popped up, a very pagan Christmas. And we thought, huh, what’s that all about? So, we clicked on it and watched the entirety of it. And I was surprised to find that it’s basically everything that we’re going to be discussing today minus the scripture. They didn’t go into any scripture, but that’s on Prime. And I want to encourage any of you who have Prime to watch that because it’s pretty darn accurate as far as the history is concerned regarding Christmas. On the right is a lesson that I taught last year. It’s a two-part lesson and it is because it’s a two-part lesson. I go into much greater detail on some of the things that we’re going to be speaking about today. I didn’t want this one to be a two-part lesson. So, I really had to trim down the contents,

try to approach it from a different angle. But if you want a fuller experience or fuller information on not just Christmas, but the human tendency to follow satanic rituals both personally and politically in our nations, then I would encourage you to look up that two-part lesson on Christmas, the inconvenient truth. But for today, let’s get started with this. First thing we need to understand

Chapter 2: Syncretism in worship

or address when we’re discussing Christmas is that it’s it’s comprised of two separate issues. The two separate issues being the celebration of the birth of Christ and Santa Claus, his eight little reindeer, Christmas trees, gifts, and holly and the like. They are two separate issues that we need to look at separately. There is significant discord between Torah pursuant believers. And by the way, before I continue, there is a fair amount of reading into this in this morning’s discussion. So I pray your patience as we go through this. It’s important that we understand it. There is significant discord between Torah pursuant believers and Christians concerning the origins of Christmas because each group approaches the question with very different interpretive instincts. Christians tend to view Christmas through the lens of theological meaning rather than historical development and are therefore resistant to acknowledging its syn and I’ve had a hard time saying this word sync syncretism is what I think that is elements and we’re going to try to understand what that is in the course of our lesson since admitting a pagan background feels to many like undermining a cherished celebration of the incarnation. Those in the Torah movement, however, often approach the subject with a heightened sensitivity to Israel’s

history of synratism and can be so alert to pagan parallels that they sometimes classify practices as evil more quickly than the bib biblical text itself requires. The result is a polarizing debate in which Christians defend meaning over origins, while torrent pursuant believers emphasize origins as a test of faithfulness, leaving both groups with blind spots that amplify the disagreement rather than clarifying the truth. Why did I write that? Well, because although there is disagreement, although there there is discord on [snorts] this topic, I don’t think it’s something that we need to be arguing with people about. Uh it’s okay for us who are Torah pursuant to have our convictions based on our understanding of scripture. It’s not okay for us to argue and belittle or demean or stand in judgment of people who aren’t there yet. I can’t speak about everyone in this group, but I personally grew up, my wife and I both grew up fully embracing Christmas. [snorts] Many many of us have very fond memories of the Christmas season in our life. Anytime that you attach those kinds of emotions to a tradition, it becomes very difficult to wean yourself off of it for some my myself. I’m not sentimental in that regard. So, it was very easy for me, not so much for my wife, very sentimental.

And it’s been something that she’s been training herself, teaching herself to uh detach the umbilical cord, if you will. And there’s a lot of people like that. So, it’s important for us as we are coming to these understandings that we’re gentle with people, patient with people, and non-judgmental with people as we go along here in our lives. replacing the pagan meaning with a personal one does not align with biblical precedent. And and what you’re going to see in the course of this lesson is that’s what historically our culture has done. We have replaced the pagan meanings behind what Christmas was with personal feelings and personal emotions. And in doing that, we have justified allowing the presence of these practices in our lives as believers. And that simply does not align with biblical precedent. God did not allow Israel to redefine pagan symbols for his worship. The golden calf was presented as a feast. I don’t know why Yehovah is in there, but yeah, it’s Yehovah. Yet, it remained unacceptable because the form came Oh, I know why it’s in there. I wrote this and then I asked I asked uh chat to rewrite it for grammar and that’s what it did. It put in Yehovah.

I’m not the best at grammar. Sometimes I need help with my sentence structure. Uh yet, so let’s read that again. The golden calf was presented as a feast to Yehovah. Yet, it remained unacceptable because the form came from Egypt. And we’re gonna we’re going to see that in the course of our lesson this morning.

Chapter 3: Historical date selection

So, the birth of Christ. Biblical and early church context. The New Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke recount the birth of Yeshua in Bethlehem, but do not specify a date for this event. In fact, for the first few centuries of Christianity, there is no evidence that Christians annually celebrated Christ’s birth at all. Church fathers like Origen 3rd century even mocked the Roman custom of celebrating birthdays as pagan practices suggesting that early Christians did not mark Yeshua’s birthday. Only by the late 2n century did some Christian communities start seeking a date for Yeshua’s birth and various dates proposed like in the spring. Notably December 25th was not yet me mentioned by the early 4th century. However, two dates had become prominent. December 25th in the Western Roman Empire and January 6th in the East. Eventually, December 25th prevailed for most Christians, while January 6 was repurposed to celebrate the Epiphany, the visit of the Magi, leaving in between what’s called as the 12 days of Christmas. And even that has a history in the Yule celebration that we’re going to see. So why December 25th? The selection of December 25th as Christmas or is Chris Christ’s mass. And if you ever wondered what the word

Christmas means or where it came from there, there it is. We we know what a mass is, right? It’s a Catholic worship service. And so Christ’s mass became Christmas was influenced both by theological reasoning and cultural context. One ancient explanation recorded by church fathers in the 4th century is called the calculation theory which linked Yeshua’s conception and death dates. Early theologians noted a tradition that prophets died on the same date as their conception. So by this logic, if Yeshua died on March 25th, the date of Passover in that year’s calculation, then he was conceived that day and born 9 months later on December 25th. Augustine explicitly stated, and he’s also a church father, that Yeshua was believed to have been conceived on March 25th and born according to the tradition upon December 25th. In the Eastern Church, a similar reasoning led to January 6th, Christmas. Yeshua’s death was placed on April 6th. So, his birth was 9 months afterward on January 6th. This theological rationale shows that internal Christian chronology played a role in fixing the date. Now before I continue, one thing that I wanted to do in this lesson and I ran out of time to do it. Something that I

did in my aforementioned Christmas discussion from a year ago is we talked in great detail about the actual birth of Christ. And believe it or not, the Bible does give us clues and hints as to when that was in the month of Sukkot. Now, I what I was going to do was to give you those scriptures and those names of people like John the Baptist, like his father, and as a quiz or a supplemental to this discussion, have you guys try to figure that out on your own or you can just go watch last year’s video and and we go through it, as I said, in great detail. So you can see just by these two paragraphs here the goings back and forth about how we got to December 25th. However, you’ll notice in the in the two paragraphs that I have highlighted two names, Origen and Augustine. And this isn’t really part of my Christmas discussion, but because I wrote about these two individuals in my book, I felt like I could not uh not talk about them just for a moment. Too many believers place their theological confidence in the teachings and beliefs of the early church fathers simply because of their closeness in time to Christ.

This is straying off the ancient path as they are not inspired authors.

Chapter 4: Early church fathers

I shared a story in my book, a personal story about the number of men that I love and respect when I was trying to show them the ways of the Lord. They kept going back to the teachings of the church fathers. Well, you know, these guys were there. These guys were living shortly after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So, I’m I I feel better just doing what they say rather than entertaining what I hear you saying, Ed. And it used to drive me nuts. And it still drives me nuts because people still do it today. They want to hold to the writings, the teachings of the early church fathers because they think that within those opinions of uninspired authors somehow lies the truth. However, when you study these people out, and by the way, I’m getting ready to show you some not so flattering information about these church fathers. But in doing so, I don’t want you to think that I’m standing in judgment of them. because I’m not. We, me, you, and I are no different than they are in that we also were misled by church tradition before we came to an understanding of the ways of the Lord.

So, I’m not standing in judgment of them. Well, I only want to show you how easy it is for man to walk off the ancient path. Origen taught the pre-existence of souls. And that is the word apocasis, the belief that all rational beings, including Satan and demons, would ultimately be restored and saved. and a rigid hierarchy of pre-existent spiritual beings in which all rational beings existed equally uh originally as equal minds then fell to different degrees resulting in angels, humans and demons. So as you read that one little statement right there, hopefully as the student that you are of the scripture, you can see the problems and the holes in that theology. [snorts] But that was something that origin stood by. What about an Augustine? Well, Augustine’s theology provided several of the structural and doctrinal foundations that later formed the core of Roman Catholicism and its beliefs and practice, including things like original sin, sacramental purification, and purgatory. These were things that he wrote about and he taught. So, were they perfect men? No. Were they inspired men? No. Were they good-hearted men? Yes. Did they have good intentions? Yes. Should we be looking to them as standards in any regard as it pertains to biblical righteousness? No.

And I just felt like I had to point that out very briefly. So, C Christmas or Christ Mass, why do I have that

Chapter 5: Christianizing paganism

highlighted? Well, when evaluating the claim that Christmas lacks pagan origins because no explicit worship is involved, it is necessary to observe that the term Christmas itself refers to the lurggical celebration of the mass of Christ. Stop. Why am I bringing this up? Well, because I have spent a great amount of time, as I’m sure many of you have, watching what I call talking heads, and of which I am one, other talking heads, teachers, defending Christmas. One that’s recently come out is uh Wes Huff. He’s become very popular these days as a young theologian, but he put a video out recently defending Christmas as not being pagan. There’s a lot of that out there. There’s a lot of people who want to cry, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace in this regard. However, it’s a historical fact that we only have the word Christmas in our vernacular specifically because it was a worship thing. It was a worshipful thing. It was the mass of Christ. This tells us that from its earliest formal expression, the observance functioned as an act of Christian worship rather than a neutral c cultural custom. The real issue is not whether Christmas involved worship, which it did. It clearly did since it was the worship

service celebrating Christ’s birth. The real question is whether the church chose the date and some I should have put all of the customs by borrowing from older non-Christian festivals and then attaching Christian meaning to them. In other words, in layman’s terms, the real issue is just how much did the Christian church, the early Christian church, Christianize pagan practices or repurpose pagan practices into their worship? Were older pagan practices hijacked and then Christianized? One of the things that I do in last year’s discussion was I show a series of pagan temples that were repurposed as Christian churches and they still stand today. major, you know, these big beautiful Catholic structures actually were old pagan temples that they took, kicked out the pagans, slapped a cross on the door, and called it a church. And that’s something very similar that they did with Christmas. And Christmas’s origin to no surprise I think to most people is the the pagan Norse practice of Yule. So let’s look at that briefly. In northern Europe, pre-Christian peoples held their own winter festivals called Yule in Germanic lands around the late December. These celebrations featured feasting, the burning of the Yule log, and decorations with evergreen bows or boughs.

Evergreens, holly, ivy, fur, were cherished during winter as symbols of life, surviving the cold. Ancient peoples from the Celtic Druids who were tree worshippers to the Vikings brought evergreen branches into their homes during solstice time believing they offered protection and signified the green of spring to come. The integration of such customs into Christmas was a natural progression as Christianity spread into those regions. By the early Middle Ages, missionaries like Pope Gregory the Great actually encouraged converting these pagan symbols for Christian use, advising that evergreen decked temples be consecrated as churches and winter feast be rededicated to Christian hols rather than abolished. Here is his quote. The temples of the idols among that people should on no account be destroyed. H what does the the Bible say about d about old worship structures? Glenn, number two, um you you should adopt them and synchronize them with your [laughter] own. No, it doesn’t. It says that they should be utterly destroyed. The idols are to be destroyed, but the temples themselves are to be sprinkled with holy water, altars set up in them, and relics placed there, which is nothing more than Christian idols. And since they have a custom of sacrificing many oxen to devils, some simmonity should be put in place of this. Let them celebrate a religious festival and worship God by their feasting.

So this is Pope Gregory the Great who he is on record historically as as saying and doing exactly what we’ve been talking to you up to this point repackaging pagan practices and pagan worship and calling it Christian. And I think I think when you do your research on this, certainly in the video I mentioned a moment ago on on Prime, they even talk about this. There was a certain amount of um victorious pride in the early church thinking that if I could take this grand pagan temple and put it to purpose for Christ that we won some kind of victory. that that’s the heart behind this. But we’ll see in scripture exactly what Bible actually says in this regard. As a result, many folk traditions were quote baptized into the Christmas season. For instance, the date of December itself, December 25th, even if chosen for theological reasons, proved convenient to replace or coincide with existing mid- winter festivals or feasts so that new converts could continue observing a festival at that same time of year. What were those festivals? Glend number two, do you recall? Saturnalia. Saturnalia and Yule. So, what does this mean? This means that they were concerned about taking something away from the people and not replacing it with something.

And so instead of doing that, they replaced it with this December 25th being Christ’s birthday. They’re therefore giving them a a reason to continue to celebrate. Christianity thus emerged not set apart but in unison with culture. By the 4th century, the church established a holy day for Christ’s birth. And in the centuries that followed, an amalgam of ancient festival elements like feasting, greenery, lights, charity, gifts exchanges became incorporated into the holiday. So, let’s have a little bit of

Chapter 6: Yule and Krampus

fun here and ask ourselves which of these Yule traditions carried over to Christmas. [clears throat] What do we have here, Glenn? Number two, our place. We have what looks like a cozy little home, right? It’s snowing outside. Well, let’s look at some of the Yule practices and and pagan customs that are out there for you to read. This is not something that Ed Doss is making up. You can go find the history yourself. Evergreen trees and greenery. We already discussed that, right? Bringing a decorated tree indoors. The Yule log. Gift giving. Father Winter or winter spirit. Oh, no. I’m sorry. That’s not Odin. That’s Santa Claus now. And we’re going to look at that transition later. Evergreen wreaths. Was sailing. What’s was sailing, Glenn? Don’t know. Well, the practice of was sailing during the the the celebration of Yule was people walking around the villages singing and screaming. Christmas carolers that became Christmas carolers. And then of course the 12 nights of Yule became the 12 days of Christmas. And then of course the Yule tide greetings. [snorts] When you look at the traditional U tide greetings and replace Yule or Yule tide with Christmas, you can see where we get our own Christmas greetings.

T is the season. Christmas cheer, warm Christmas wishes, have a merry Christmas, Christmas blessings, Christmas joy, all of it goes back to the celebration of Yule. And at the end of the day, what was Yule? Well, u was a celebration in which they were celebrating the the ending of the darkest day of the year. The darkest day of the year was that day when winter officially stops and the new seasons begin. And so they were making sacrifices and honoring the spirits involved in this transition. That’s what Yule was. And so you can just see by everything that we put on this image how all of those practices became what you and I know now as Christmas. But we can’t forget this person. Who’s this person? Glenn number two. That’s not Odin. That’s Krampus. Who was Krampus? As Christianity spread through Alpine regions, the church attempted to suppress winter demon parades, but eventually synretized them by pairing Krampus with St. Nicholas. Well, who was Krampus? Krampus became the bad counterpart to the saint, reflecting an effort to Christianize a persistent pagan figure rather than to eradicate him. Krampus is evidence that many Christmas customs are Christian overlays placed upon older pagan structures. And I hope I made that clear there. Remember how I said sometimes my grammar isn’t altogether right? When I

when I read some of the things I write, I go, “Does that make sense?” Krampus is evidence that many Christmas customs are Christian overlays placed upon older pagan structures. His survival proves that ancient winter spirit beliefs were so culturally entrenched that the church had to adapt them rather than remove them. So Krampus was the opposite of St. Nicholas. He would deal with the naughty children where Nicholas St. Nicholas would deal with the good children. And the story was that with some of the really bad children, Krampus would put them in sacks and take them away. Now, you might be asking, surely this aspect of Christmas isn’t still celebrated today.

Chapter 7: Saturnalia integration

This is a Christmas celebration in San Antonio, Texas. On full display is the demon Krampus. And this is not the only place that these celebrations happen. Do your research. Now, this isn’t the Christmas that you and I grew up with, right? Because by the time you and I grew up with our version of Christmas, this demonic aspect had been long covered up and changed into something different. What do you think Krampus evolved into, Glenn? Number two, elves. Elves. Interesting. Clearly goat demons. Yes, they’re clearly goat demons. And they became Santa’s elves. So, is this coincidence? Is it coincidence that these holidays all surround pagan festivals? No, it’s not. The designation of December 25th as the date of Christmas likely emerged from a confluence of Christian theological reasoning, namely the belief that Yeshua was conceived and died on the same calendar day with the practical alignment of that date to existing Roman mid-winter festivals such as Saturnalia. And Saturnalia, by the way, is a completely different celebration. uh and we’re going to look at it here in a second, but to help you understand, u has it or his its origin in uh Norse gods. Saturnalia is a Roman thing, but both of them have a history of pagan

spirit worship and both of them happen during the winter solstice. Roman midwinter festivals such as Saturnalia and the celebration of Sol Invictus. In my previous lesson, I go into great detail about Sol Invictus. It’s my firm belief that the Statue of Liberty is not a lady in a robe, but is actually an image of Sol Invictus. The church appropriated solstice imagery to express Christ as the true son of righteousness and the light of the world. By the 4th century, December 25th had become firmly established as the feast of Christ’s nativity, coinciding with a period of widespread cultural festivity, thereby facilitating the integration of Christian meaning into existing celebratory frameworks, Saturnalia. The Roman festival held in mid December was marked by widespread feasting just like Yule, role reversals and the exchange of gifts just like Yule. As Christianity expanded within the Roman Empire, the church repurposed and that’s syncretism several of these customs such as festive gatherings and giftgiving, infusing them with new theological meaning centered on the birth of Christ. By adapting Saturnalia’s popular practices into a Christian framework, early believers fostered continuity with seasonal celebration while redirecting its focus toward the nativity. I told you we were going to have a fair amount of reading. I I wanted you to have a full understanding here before we actually get into the scripture.

Early Christian observance of Christmas appropriated these festive elements from the Roman Saturnalia not to preserve pagan ritual but to reframe synratism familiar cultural practices with the Christian context. In doing so, the church transformed a widely celebrated winter festival into a vehicle for proclaiming the birth of Christ. adapting Saturnalia’s communal joy and the exchange of gifts into expressions of Christian charity, worship, and seasonal goodwill. So, as I go through all this stuff, and I apologizing apologize if it’s boring to you, the question might come up, what’s the big deal? What’s wrong with taking pagan practices and repurposing them to worship and honor God? I have had that question asked of me many times and you the viewer might be asking yourself the same question. The answer is simple.

Chapter 8: The golden calf lesson

This was the very same sin that was committed at Mount Sinai. You recall this story, the golden calf incident. Yehovah called Moses up to the top of the mountain in order to give him the law that would govern Israel. He was going to take it down and present it to Israel. In his absence, the people created a golden calf and worshiped it. But there’s something very interesting that we have to take note here in this verse. Exodus 32. When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together Aaron. Who was Aaron? He was the high priest. And said to him, “Come make us gods that shall go before us. For at for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s become of him.” Remember, he was up there for 40 days. And Arid said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” Why did they have golden earrings? Well, because they took it from Egypt. They plundered Egypt when they left. So all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he

fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. It was doubtful as big as it is in the image, but it was a golden calf nonetheless. Then they said, who’s they, the people? This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron then made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to Yehovah.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Was tomorrow a feast to Yehovah in the in the festival cycle, Glenn? Number two, no sir, it was not. There was no festival in the typical Leviticus 23 festival cycle that Yehovah gave to his people. So what were they saying? They were saying that this new feast, this new festival is for Yehovah. And here he is. This is the golden calf. So what were they doing? syncretism. They were doing the very thing that the church did with Christmas. Taking something pagan and saying, “Well, we’re doing this for God.” That’s what they did. Well, we know what happened, right? We know the story.

The golden calf was Aaron’s invention. He built an altar that God did not command. Proclaimed a hog or a festival that God did not appoint. He declared the c the calf as yehovah. And this is the definition of synratism. I told you we were going to get to it. syncretism. The amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought. Put that in layman terms, Ed. Well, I already have pretty much in the course of this lesson. taking something ungodly, paganistic, and stamping it as some type of thing that you’re going to use to worship God with. Think of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Bahu. They brought what was called a strange fire to the altar and they died as a result. This is what Israel is doing with the calf and saying that they’re worshiping God with it. That’s what the church did with Christmas. They took all of these pre pagan practices, wrapped it up in a pretty package, no pun intended, and said, “No, we’re going to do this for Yehovah. We’re going to do this for God.” Should we expect that he is any more pleased with that than he was here in Exodus 32? No, both Israel and the Christian church have a long history of syncretism and I wanted to look at them very briefly.

Chapter 9: History of syncretism

It’s not just something that rand this this calf this golden calf incident was not just something that randomly happened in Israel’s history. It’s there to show us how quickly man deviates from truth in preference to his own minations and it’s been happening ever since Mount Sinai. This was not just a one-time thing. Baal worship in the days of the judges. Israel served Ball and Asterith while still claiming covenant with identity. How bad did it get? Well, you do your research. I did it for you in my book, but you do your research. It got so bad that David himself, the great King David, had children named after Baul. That’s how bad the syncretism got. The lines became blurred so bad that people were calling Yehovah ball cuz ball meant Lord. Cuz Ball Yeah. because Ball meant Lord. Gl number two says, “But look, Micah’s household, the little shrine he built in his household. Micah combined the name of Yehovah with carved images. syncretism. Solomon’s acceptance of of foreign cults. You know, he built these high places. We have a lesson called high places on this channel where we learned about this these places of alternate worship, worshiping Molech. Who was Molech? Well, Molech was the demon that people sacrificed their children on.

Worship of the queen of heaven. Jeremiah 7. Uh, Judah incorporated a fertility goddess into their religious life while still visiting the temple. Blurred lines. Baal worship promoted by Ahab and Jezebel. In first kings, Israel publicly mixed ball rights with the name of Yehovah until Elijah forced a choice. We know this story, right? The 400 prophets of Bal, Jeroboam’s calves of Dan and Bethl. Jeroboam is probably the greatest offender in Israel’s history. In this regard, he created a counterfeit religious system that used imagery like the golden calf and identified the idols as Yehovah. the incorporation of Roman and Greek festival dates, which is what we’re talking about this morning. The adoption of December 25th for Christmas and the spring equinox for Easter follow Roman and Greco Syrian kindical s customs. syncretism, the use of pagan symbols recast with Christian meaning, the halo, the sundisk, and certain iconographic motifs derived from Greco Roman solar imagery. What what do I mean by that? Well, how many of us have seen this image or images like it with Yeshua flashing a gang symbol [laughter] with a sundisk behind his head or a halo behind his head? Where does this come from? It comes from blurring the lines.

It comes from using pagan symbols in your quote unquote Christian worship. And as I stated in the beginning, these are not just random events that happened in Israel’s history. Why am I restating that? Because when you read stories like this in your Old Testament, you can sometimes just read right past them as just something that happened during their history and tell yourself that they really mean nothing to me in 2025. However, these stories have been intentionally placed in scripture by the Holy Spirit as examples for us in what not to do. They’re there for our instruction. We look at the story in Exodus 32 about Israel’s syncretism and we can sometimes disregard it because it’s so far removed from us and we don’t take the time Wes Huff to ask ourselves the question have we done this? They are there for our instruction. Romans 15 Paul for whatever things were written before Exodus 32 written before were written for our instruction that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 1 Corinthians 10. Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Who’s the they he’s talking about?

Israel at this very moment in Exodus 32 do not become idolattors as were some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. So here Paul again is quoting from Exodus 32 talking about this festive ex excitement around this new God and he’s saying that’s there for your example. Don’t be like them. Don’t lust after those things. 1 Corinthians 10:11, a few verses later, all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages have have come. Guess who that is? That’s us. So these things that we read in our Old Testament that sadly too many Christian churches have relegated to being antiquated and old still have powerful lessons for us. The record of Israel’s experiences stands as God’s intentional classroom for his people. Through their failures and victories, the scriptures reveal the patterns that lead either toward faithfulness or toward ruin. Paul’s reminders in Romans and Corinthians show that these accounts were not preserved for historical curiosity, but for the moral and spiritual formation of all who read them. The same God who dwelt who dealt with Israel deals with his people today and the same lessons still apply.

To take these examples seriously is to honor the purpose for which they were written.

Chapter 10: Boar and Santa Claus

Coming in on our final slides here, the Christmas ham. Need I say more? The fact that there’s ham involved in this holiday at all kind of says it all. During Yule, the midwinter festival, worshippers honored this spiritual being, this demon, this spirit called Freyer, the god, and some think a goddess, depending on what you read, of fertility and harvest. The boar was sacred to him. A boar was sacrificed and eaten as part of the Yule feast. Eating the boar was believed to secure God’s blessing and that God’s blessing for the coming year. The ritual meal of roast boar was one of the central foods of Yule. Participants laid their hands on a boar and made vows for the coming year and that was called the sonogter tradition. The boar would then be roasted and eaten in a celebratory feast. I don’t have to show you these verses. This group knows them very well. But if you happen to be surfing YouTube and you happen to cross this little lesson of ours, you should know that these verses I’m getting ready to read in Isaiah are esquetological in nature. What does that mean? They are end times verses. Isaiah 65, a people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels.

So Glenn number two, according to that verse, what provokes our God to anger? Eating him. Eating him. Lord, it’s not just a dietary issue. No, he says eating swine’s flesh provokes him to anger. Isaiah 66. Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens after an idol in the midst, eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse shall be consumed together, says the Lord. When shall they be consumed together? Well, again, this is an end times verse. This is what happens when Yeshua returns. It’s a it’s a very big deal. And I think if we know our enemy well enough, and I hope we do, then you would understand why he would punctuate this holiday with a feast on swine and mice and mice. If you’re if you’re the evil one and you really want to mock Yah, then you’re going to capitalize this holiday with just one more thing. Let’s eat pig. And that’s what we’ve done in the course of our history. This is an esqueological passage describing Yehovah’s judgment at the end of the age. It means that he still condemns the eating of swine long after the Mosaic period. What provoked him to anger then provokes him still today. And then I

want to take a brief look at this Sonergter tradition. According to history, the Sonergal tradition was to do what? To make vows for the coming year. What did that become? New Year’s resolutions. Hopefully, as you’re following along our little discussion here, you’re seeing exactly where all of our traditions came from. So, let’s close with one more slide. Odin and his eightlegged horse through time became Santa and his eight reindeer by way of St. Nicholas of Myra. In my previous lesson, I discussed that St. Nicholas of Myra cannot be verified as being a real person that existed, but it was an invention of the Catholic Church to soften Odin’s appearance. Odin’s spear became a croer, which is what the individual in the middle is holding. And a croer is a staff with a serpent on top of it. and his warlike appearance became more poplike in appearance wearing a red robe. So Odin and his eight-legged horse through time, through history, through Catholic and Christian invention became St. Nicholas of Myra, which then became Santa and his reindeer. Krampus, as we discussed, went from a demon on his own that visited the children to a demon that visited with St. Nicholas of Myra to Santa and his elves.

So, how do we conclude this?

Chapter 11: Biblical prohibition

Israel’s attempt to recast a pagan form into an act of devotion illustrates a consistent biblical principle. The issue was not only whom they claimed to worship, but the manner and the medium they chose, which is equally as important. In Exodus 32, they proclaimed a feast to Yehovah. Yet the calf itself or Yehovah Yet the calf itself was modeled on Egyptian iconog iconography. Its origin and form rendered the act invalid because Yah does not permit his worship to be expressed through symbols and practices or imagery derived from false cults. This pattern continues throughout the prophets. Practices adopted from surrounding nations remained forbidden even when Israel redirected them toward the God of Israel. The biblical record establishes that intention cannot purify a form that God has already rejected. Any attempt to infuse a pagan symbol with new meaning violates the distinction, Yehovah himself establishes between holy and profane and demonstrates that he alone defines the acceptable means by which he is to be honored. Leviticus 18. You shall not do according to the things of the land of Egypt where you dwelt. And you shall not do according to the doings of the land of Canaan where I am bringing you. Nor shall you walk in their ordinances. What is that saying?

Neither where you have been nor where you are going should you embrace the doings of the practices of the nations. Jeremiah 10, thus says the Lord, do not learn the way of the Gentiles. So when you look at 8 Leviticus 18, have you ever stopped and considered who the were the people in the Bible that actually obeyed this command? I did. And and maybe I’m the only one, but when I read verses like this, I ask myself, well gosh, who were the people that actually obeyed this command in scripture? Because Israel certainly didn’t, right? So who were they? Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel, David, Hezekiah, Josiah, Daniel, H. There’s a reason that these people and others like them were mentioned in the hall of what, Glenn? The hall of faith. Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. I like to call that chapter not the hall of faith. It is the faith, but the hall of salvation. That’s what I like to call it. There’s a reason why these people and others like them were mentioned in the hall of faith. Why? because they kept the faith and they didn’t veer off into the things that the people of Israel did and quite honestly the people the things that we did in our past.

So that is my brief lesson on Christmas and its origins. Again, I knew it wasn’t going to be as detailed as my lesson was last year. I didn’t want to do it all over again. Um, so thanks for for listening. Thanks for for being patient through all the reading and some of the misuse of his name that I didn’t catch in my editing. Um, but I wanted to hear your thoughts as always. Your question, your comments, your rebukes. I’m open to them all. So you’re against it? Yes, I’m against it. I’m definitely against it. Who Who would like to start with a comment or question? Matt Rambo, go ahead.

Chapter 12: Discussion and Q&A

Uh, thank you for a excellent lesson. I appreciate your courage to take this topic on that. Uh, too many people have have too much fear to address this topic. Um, one thing I would like to present to the group that I found very helpful is the book by Alexander Hislop called the two Babylons. Um, one of the things that I constantly quote from him is the ritual remains long after the reasons have been forgotten. which tells us that you know these rituals are being done by people in the name of Christianity and they have no clue what the meaning is behind it. And that’s one of the workings of of Satan that you know scripture tells us that we are to put God’s word bind it to our foreheads as frontlets and then bind it to our hands. Not like what the Pharisees did where they physically bound scripture verses to their head and hands, but to actually put it into our minds so that we understand it and then put it into action. And we see in Revelation where it says the mark of the beast is either the mark of the head or the for uh the forehead or the hand shows that there are people who know what these things mean.

Um and that’s the mark in the forehead. but the rest of the lay people are doing the actions cuz they don’t know what it means and how it’s actually worshiping Satan. Um but that they’re still putting it in action. And the other thing um that his lab does a great job of explaining is how all of this goes all the way back to Nimrod. So, Nimrod, his wife Seamuramis, and his and their son Tamuz has been the foundation of the apostasy against Yehovah from before the changing of the languages. And then he does a great job of showing how all of the worship, the father, the son, and the queen mother or queen of heaven, that worship as the languages went out from Babylon. We see that in Isis horseep um in Egypt and then you can see that same thing happening in Greece in Rome and then in Eastern cultures India and all the way to China. And so again, uh, Alexander Hislop, the two Babylons, if you want to go into a deeper dive, and then you’ll really see see the truth of how all of this has been going on. And it won’t be destroyed until Yeshua comes and he’s the rock that comes and destroys the statue of Nebuchadnezzar.

and all that idolatry from Babylon all the way down to modern times is finally destroyed with his coming. Thank you for letting me have that time. I appreciate it. Oh, of course. Amen. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that. Um, yeah, and I agree, by the way, with everything that you just said. Um, yes, there’s a lot to Nimrod and maybe we’ll do a lesson on him. Paul and Lori, just me again. Um, thank you very much, Ed. It was a great lesson. Um, there’s one, um, expression that we’re usually encount we usually encounter with, well, that’s not what it means to me. when we’re we try to um share our the truth that we’ve come to realize about Christmas and Easter and all these other things. And without getting snarky, but and saying, “Well, it’s got nothing to do with you. It’s got everything to do with what God has instructed us to do.” I don’t know. How do you diplomatically get around this? It That’s not what it means to me. issue. And my comment is if you’re following all of these practices, how does that affect your salvation and your walk with the Lord? Yeah. When yet you’re you’re doing everything else that’s right, but yet you’re adopting all of these things that are just totally wrong.

Yeah. What’s the outcome of that? Are you asking me a question or is that rhetorical? What? Yeah, I’m I’m just I’m sort of I’m pondering that because everybody I know is following Christmas and all of the pagan practices, but they do it unknowingly. And what are the consequences of that? That’s my question. Okay. Well, let me start back with Lori and her thoughts. Um, I actually dealt with your question, Lori, in in my book and and Glenn made mention of it as he sat down this morning before we even started the lesson. Mhm. Does Does it matter what? Yes. What what what we think we’re doing or not doing? I’ve heard the same arguments that, well, we’re not doing that. That’s not what Christmas is to me or that’s not what Easter is to me or that’s not what Halloween is to me. [clears throat] And if I was to put it in the in the most succinct bottom line way, I would say what you have already said. It does not matter what you think it is or what we want it to be. The only thing that matters is what Yah has said it is. And that leads me into Paul’s comment.

I don’t I don’t think Paul that people are either going to a see this issue or b care about this issue. um until they’ve been called, until they’ve had an awakening moment themselves, until they’re presented with the ways of the Lord, the truth of them, and make their decision. Because I do believe that everybody will have that moment in the course of their life, and they’ll have to make a decision. And depending on how you make that decision depends on what you see and what you don’t see. I made this point I think it was last week or the week before when we talked about the the the light walking in the light. Yeshua broadcast scatters light for the righteous. He opens their eyes. And it wasn’t until I came to a basic understanding of the ways of the Lord via Shabbat, via food laws, via festivals that all of a sudden now I could see clearly as it pertained to these pagan holidays. So all those things are kind of connected and I hope that that answers both of your questions. Let’s see. I think Bri is up next. Thank you. Thank you. Happy Sabbath, everyone. Um, shalom. I really liked what Matt shared and it I actually wrote it down because it similar to what I say to people

sometimes when they want to know, when they have a question. Um, it’s hard to [clears throat] know how to answer people this time of year because it’s kind of stressful. Everybody left and right is like, “Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.” And I’ve learned now um because I used to be a lot more blunt and just a little bit harsh with Christians in the past, but now usually I’ll just say, you know, my family and I, we don’t celebrate Christmas, but I appreciate your sentiment because like Lori mentioned, a lot of people are doing these things ignorantly. I used to. And I think until someone has that desire in their heart to want to understand why you don’t do what you do when you when you come in, you know, conversation with people, it’s like every time I try to, well, I shouldn’t say try. Every time I find myself like taking on the role of the Holy Spirit, things don’t go well for me. And I used to not be able to catch myself because I would get so frustrated. Why can’t you see the things I’m seeing when it comes to this this paganism? But I’ve learned that, you know, sometimes the father has a veil over someone’s eyes for a reason that we don’t know because we don’t know people’s hearts like he does. And so

I’ve learned to be softer and just sort of meet people with compassion. But I loved what Matt said when he said, “The rituals remain long after the reasons have been forgotten.” Because it’s similar to what I say to people. I say, “Listen, you can’t separate something’s practice from its origin. You just can’t. No matter how hard you try to say, “Oh, this is about Jesus for me.” Well, no. I I celebrate it because of this. Well, like Ed, like you were saying, it doesn’t matter why you, you know, or how you try to attach Messiah’s name to it. It’s never been about him and it’s never going to be. And I try to say that to people with grace. I’ve my prayer is always, “Father, please season my words with grace because I can be a little uh blunt and harsh and I really try not to be.” Uh the other thing that came up for me was there’s a scripture and I think there’s a few of them that say, you know, if you confess with your mouth Yeshua. When I think about that scripture, my mind goes to what does confession actually mean? It means telling the truth. So if I’m confessing

Yeshua with my mouth and I’m saying something about him that he that’s untrue, then I’m bearing false witness against my Messiah. And that’s a really scary thought to me. So that is that’s all I really wanted to share, but it made me think about what does it mean to confess Yeshua with our mouth. Um, but yeah, thank you for letting me share. Well, amen, Bri, that was well said, well articulated. I appreciate that. Uh, Chris, hey. Yeah, thanks for the lesson this week. It was awesome. Um, I just wanted to share another another resource, another video that’s out there that’s that does a pretty good job of explaining a lot of this as well. uh in case people don’t have Prime or anything. It’s uh it’s the Christmas question. I think 119 Ministries does it and it’s on YouTube. You can just search the Christmas question documentary. So, it goes into a lot of this stuff as well. It’s just a great source to check out for people who might be on the fence. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Super Samuel. Brother Ed, every time you say that, I think it’s like an advertisement or something. Say Super Sam. You know how I got super portions. [laughter]

I want three easy installments of free 999 portions you become super just like me. Um uh brother Ed, this was a a masterful master class on synchronism or synratism and the fact that it has no place in the walk. Mhm. Um Paul and Lori asked a very um poignant and pointed question. Let me offer some something to you to to consider. When we engage in transgression, sin, the wages have to be paid. We know that ultimately we’re going to stand before Messiah in judgment. Well, we’re either going to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Or we’re going to hear, “I never knew you, you worker of iniquity. Get away from me.” But there’s a price to pay in this life. Let me just detail how it manifest in terms of the judgment rendering in the flesh. huge amounts of debt for those who are trying to keep up with the Joneses, those who feel it necessary to buy things beyond their means, having to rush inside of various stores on something called a Black Friday in order to try and grab something to give to somebody. All of the envy, all of the the I come from a family family lineage

where they would get together in Christmas spirit and arguments will break out because the liquor is flowing freely, tongues start moving and then all of a sudden fights are breaking out. This is all done in the spirit of love, the spirit of Christ, so to speak, right? Then you think about all of the things that come with gorging ourselves, the gluttony that’s tied with these festivals, right? Which are which are basically drawn from Saturnalia. So yeah, there there’s a price that is paid in terms of diabetes, in terms of depress because depression is really big around this time of the year. Do we ever wonder why? Do we ever wonder why? I don’t think we really take into account the price that is paid to engage in these pagan practices, but they are very, very real. So, no one escapes it. Not in this life, not really. And we’re not going to escape it when we stand in judgment and we stand to account. I I w I will say this. There was a time that I used to get really really upset when I would try to explain to them that no, you can’t worship or praise or give honor in any way that you deem appropriate. You can’t

do that. You follow the instructions to the best of your ability. And as you walk it out, more and more revelation in terms of truth is given to you. We don’t start out with knowing, but the intimacy grows because we are seeking to do that which is right. But when it comes to things such as Christmas or some of the other traditions of men that we, you know, embrace because we think we have good intentions. If people are going to walk in darkness, they’re going to walk in darkness. is the father through his rock that reveals reveals the son and the son that reveals the father. This is in scripture. This is what the master said. These are my words. These are his. So the father is in is in control of who sees truth and who does not. But I I’ll leave you with this. Those who know what is right and fail to do so. To them it is sin. We all know better. We know better. So the price is heavier for us when we decide to hold on to the blindfold after the scales have been removed from our eyes. We cannot return to the vomit from which we came because we are nostalgic because we miss being able to gather

with family members who continue to walk in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We love them and we embrace them with love and understanding, but we cannot return to the old ways. We have to walk the ancient path. Thank you for letting me share, brother. Shabbat shalom. Amen, brother. Thank you so much. And as always, very well said. Couldn’t have said it any better. Um, thank you very much. Uh, Nora, you have your hand up. Hi, Shabbat shalom. Um, I just wanted to I appreciated this lesson and I’m a little nervous right now. I’m I’m new to the group also too. Um, I did email you last year, Ed, so because I was like new into this uh into into the way this path. So I I was dealing with this whole situation with Christmas uh because I was kind of enlightened last year in April. And then uh actually my brother in in Christ, he was my Bible teacher uh 20 years ago and he found the path. But when he found this path and he was posting what he was, of course it was um going against what I believed in and what I wasn’t ready to let go of yet.

and me being like the Christmas queen, so to speak, because I was the one with the big snow village. I invested a lot of money in in in doing that every year. Uh putting my tree up. I mean, I have grandchildren, so I made it fun and festive. And it was about like me not wanting to let go. And I remembered when I first got into this way and I found this group and I emailed you and you had told me something which um I hold on to dearly to this day. Um cuz I had family celebrating Christmas and I was I already gave it all up. I gave up my my my uh snow village. I got rid of my tree. I did all that stuff. But they didn’t understand and I I knew they were talking against me and all that stuff. But I got I ignored that. But then I wanted I said like well how am I going to be so I shouldn’t be with family and then you had told me that it’s always going to be around Christmas is you know people are always going to celebrate it but go be with family anyway because you

may have an opportunity to be able to um uh speak to them and and explain to them why you believe what you believe. So that’s what I’ve hold on held on to and obviously here we are again a year later and it’s still the same thing. I’ve been doing my posts and everything else what I’ve been learning between your group and and other uh Messianic uh uh groups that I follow and it’s still the same. I mean I have my daughters who don’t understand and they they have their tree up and everything but I realize it’s important um to still stay with with the family but still keep strong to to what I believe. So I have never waned in that. I continued and as I’m growing and and I love this group. I I you know I I’ve been learning a lot. I’ve been watching your YouTube videos for a full year. This is the first time I actually uh got up the courage to even speak up because um you know I I I guess I was testing the waters first because you know I I’ve jumped from church to church before I found the way and you know of course there was always something missing but I never knew what it was.

And then of course, you know, for some reason or another, whatever God put in front of me, it made me wake up and but like I I realized that you until you’re ready to let go of of those traditional thing. I mean, that was more for me. It was for me because and especially like what they said before about how um people do they they they say it’s not what it means to me. That’s what I used to say too because you’re not ready to let go of it. You’re not ready. It’s either you want to follow God, God God’s will, or you’re really following your own. And I know I was following my own. I can admit that now. I mean, my ego and pride didn’t let me admit it back then, but I can definitely do it now. But I definitely thank you for for and allowing me to speak. I’m sorry I’m kind of getting jabbered away, but I was just so excited about this lesson today, and I just wanted to share. Well, thank you. Well, we’re so grateful that you came. I really are. I do want to make a comment on one thing that you shared to to something that Norah said.

How should we be as believers during this time when it comes to joining family events and or work events? Should we should we ex should we not go to them? Well, first and foremost, this is going to be a decision that you have to make yourself. I’m going to share with you what I think, but um I don’t want you to think that I’m telling you what to do in this regard. Um can can you say for instance your company has a year a yearly Christmas function? Should you not go to that? Personally, I think you should. um not because you’re embracing or supporting the holiday because but rather because of something that Norah said someone learns in the course of your being there to love people and to serve people that you actually don’t celebrate this holiday. What’s that going to do? That’s going to create dialogue. That’s going to create questions. Oh, you don’t celebrate this holiday? Can I do you mind if I ask why? Well, yes, you can. And let me tell you why. That may plant a seed in that person’s heart. Now, that seed may need watering and it may not grow for years. It may grow immediately.

Um, so I don’t think that ignoring family functions especially just because you don’t celebrate this holiday is is the the the correct thing to do. Um, that’s just me. I want to have an opportunity to talk to people about my convictions and what better place than to be with them while they’re doing this. So, I don’t I don’t that’s that’s just my gut reaction. Glenn, do you have a differing thought? I’ve done it both ways. I have um not participated, you know, because I didn’t want to have anything to do with Christmas, with the celebration, with acknowledging it as a holiday. I’ve, you know, I’ve, you know, I was, you know, very hard that way, you know, for for decades. Uh, more recently I’ve figured out a way to be there but clearly be a non-participant. you know, when they when they start drawing names for gifts and doing, you know, various things, you know, they they know that I’m sitting outside the circle and I’ll I’ll be there and and observe uh, you know, wanting to be with, you know, my kids and family, but clearly not, you know, being a non-participant. Mhm. And you’re right that that does raise questions. But the other thing it does

is it every every year that I am, you know, hanging out with them, it’s a reminder that, you know, first I I know more about the Bible than any of them. You know, when they ask a Bible questions, I always have an answer for the hope that lies within me. That’s in the Bible somewhere, isn’t it? Yeah, I think so. So, I’m prepared. Uh, but it’s a it’s a it’s a reminder every year that, you know, Glenn doesn’t do this and he knows more about this stuff than any of us. Yep. Amen. So, uh, that’s my two cents on that. If you have a differing opinion, that’s okay. And, you know, I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong or right or anything like that. It’s something that you have to work out yourself. Okay. Before we finish, Rob, do you have your mic on? There he goes. Yeah. Are you there now? Yes, sir. Okay. So, I just wondered if you had or maybe will have in the future a similar study on Hanukkah. Uh yes, actually I do have a lesson on Hanukkah in my uh video channel on my YouTube channel. So, just look that up and we we go into that in great detail.

All right, perfect. Thanks. Okay. Well, guys, once again, thank you for coming. I hope you have a fantastic Shabbat, a fantastic weekend. And we’ll come back together next week with either a study on Joseph or a study on Exodus. Not sure yet. See what the Father leads us in that direction, which direction to go. But I hope that you have a great weekend. Love you all and have a great day. Thank youalab everyone shalom. Thank you for the excellent teaching. You’re welcome. Thanks Ed. Okay. Bye bye.