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THE X FACTOR IN CHRISTMAS
By Nii Narku Dowuona
Christmas is here again with us. Christmas the period of the
birth of Jesus Christ. The period of giving, expression of
goodwill, love and sacrifice. But is it the real date of
birth of The Saviour of the world? Who cares about the date
of birth of Jesus Christ anyway? Is it not enough to stick
to what he stood for, lived and died for? Well Nii Narku
Dowuona takes a look at the phenomenal event that has
engulfed the world for over 2000 years now:
EVERY year Christmas is observed and celebrated by
Christians and even none Christians all over the world to
mark the birthday of “our Lord and Saviour” Jesus Christ,
which is supposed to be December 25, some 2000 years ago.
Indeed over the years the word “Cristmas” has been shortened
to X’MAS, the “X” factor being the Christ himself.
The day is marked with church services, feasting, merry
making, sharing, gift giving and several other good will
activities and yet several schools of thought among
theologians maintain that Jesus has been made the X factor
in a celebration that has nothing to do with his birth.
At the core of the controversy is the day itself, December
25, marked as Jesus’ Birthday. Theologians belonging to
different schools of thought agree that Jesus was not born
on December 25, but they disagree on his actual date of
birth.
One school of thought says Jesus was actually born on April
6 some 2000 years ago and the other says he was born
sometime in October. The second group based their argument
on some astrological events of the time, especially the star
which led the wise men from the east to where Jesus laid in
a manger somewhere in Nazareth, Bethlehem.
Those in favour of the April 6 theological argument argue
that census in Israel in those days was carried out at the
beginning of spring, which fall around early April. Since
Jesus was born at the start of a census period in Israel, he
must have been born in April.
How come the April 6 and the unspecified October date were
all pushed aside in favour of December 25, a day on which
theologians say he could not have been born, for there is no
historical evidence whatsoever to suggest that he was born
in the foggy season of December remains a mystery.
In “The Greatest Hoax”, written by a guy who came across to
me as an Adventist. In that book, the writer gave some
historical account of how we arrived at December 25 as
Jesus’ birthday and therefore Christmas day.
The source of his story was Genesis 10: 6 – 12. Thousands of
years before Christ was born, Cush (believed to be the
originator of the black race) had a son called Nimrod, who
the bible described as “a great and mighty hunter before the
Lord” and the beginner of the kingdom of Babel, a kingdom
which became famous or infamous in bible history for its
attempt, led by Nimrod to build a tower to reach God in the
heavens.
Bible historians say that the expression “a great hunter
before the Lord”, used to describe Nimrod was to say that he
was comparable to God himself and for that Nimrod was
revered for his rebellious attitude and action toward God.
Indeed he proved that when he attempted to lead his people
to build the infamous Tower of Babel.
Upon all his prowess and rebellion, he was sterile. He died
and left his equally rebellious wife Ishter childless.
Because of the status he had attained in Babel, as the
originator of idol worship and architect of several
civilization features in Babel, he was accorded the honor of
being name the god of the sun upon his death and supposed
transition into the land of the gods.
Ishter, Nimrod’s wife (from whose name we got Easter)
believed that her husband Nimrod was even stronger in death
than in life. That belief made her always lay dead naked on
her roof top, open her legs towards the east, from where the
sun appears, and expected to get impregnated by her late
husbands spirit.
Naturally, Ishter was found pregnant after sometime and she
claimed she was impregnated by the sun god, even though it
became evident that she had an affair with one or more of
her many male servants and she got impregnated by one of
them.
Isther gave birth to a son whom she named Talmuz, the son of
the sun god. Talmuz was supposed to have been born on
December 25. Being the son of Nimrod as her mother claimed,
Talmuz was supposed to be the heir to the throne.
In spite of the fact that Talmuz was a product of Ishter’s
sexual escapades, Queen Ishter managed to institute December
25, the day on which Talmuz was born as a national holiday
in Babel and people celebrated the day with wild merry
making, which usually led to blood shed and other
unfortunate incidents. Some theologians have argued that,
that was where the usual bloodshed through motor accidents
during Christmas came from.
I was really fascinated by the whole story because it was
well plotted, whether deliberately or non-deliberately, to
put the credibility of Christmas in a limbo.
Indeed, the writer did not stop there, he also linked Easter
celebrations (the birth, burial and resurrection of Jesus
Christ) to this same story said the Easter came from the
name of promiscuous Queen Ishter, and therefore couldn’t
have been a good name for the observation of the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus.
If that story is anything to go by then the very foundation
of the Christian faith, namely the birth, death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ marked with Christmas on
December 25 and Easter in April, is really being questioned
to its core.
But hold on a second, and let’s think deeper about this
whole issue of which day Jesus was born on; what it actually
means for so much controversy to surround his date of birth
and whether the day on which Christians choose to celebrate
his birthday or death really matter at all?
Even the learned theologians have not been able to agree on
his date of birth. That for me only adds to the mystery that
has surrounded Jesus from conception, birth, childhood,
adulthood, death and resurrection. Let me spare you the
details of his credentials because that is not the purpose
of this article.
But let me quickly say that even in death, he remains the
star of more books, songs, movies, poems, preaching topics
and the subject of research, debates, the standard of living
for millions, than any single person could ever boast of in
the world today.
Whether he was born in January, February, March, April, May,
June, July, August, September, October, November of
December, it doesn’t really matter to me because every day
of the week, every week of the month and every month of the
year was made by God Almighty and He can choose any day to
celebrate the birth of his son.
The question still remains, how come December 25 was
preferred by the church to April 6 and that unspecified date
in October? The answer is very simple – Later on, down the
line in history, the Catholic (Universal) Church came under
one of the many state pressures to approve of the day and
make it a religious observation. But the church insisted
that since it did recognize Nimrod as the sun god and
therefore did not recognize Talmuz as the son of the sun
god, the day, which was already a national holiday and
marked every year, should be observed in honor of the THE
SON OF GOD and not the son of the sun god.
Obviously, that made Christmas, like church weddings and
other praxis in the church today, one of the historic state
influences of the church.
But come to think of it, December 25 was used to mark the
birth of some sun god’s son and the day was used for wild
orgies characterized by indiscriminate sexual activity,
drinking, fighting which often led to loss of lives, but now
the church and for that matter Christians have laid a claim
on the day to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, characterize
by sharing, church worship and other virtues.
I would not behave like an ostrich and pretend as if evil
things do not happen during Christmas anymore. But those are
just signs of the die-hard attitude of the devil, who would
not also give up on the day easily. He (the devil) would
always want to make attempts on human lives just to make a
point that he would not let go of the day freely.
Indeed there is a phenomenon called lawful captivity, which
suggests that if one willingly gives up their rights of
ownership to another, they become lawful captives of the
latter. That way no amount of intervention can completely
take away that right from the one to whom it was given, in
this case the devil through idol worship.
The point is, even if we do not celebrate December 25 as
Christmas, chances are that there may be some bloodshed and
loss of lives because, for those who believe in spiritual
reality, it doesn’t take Christmas celebration for the devil
to act. The fact of the day is enough for him to go on
rampage. If anything the influence of Christmas has rather
reduced the loss of lives to the barest minimum.
Much as we may have some Talmuz spirit hovering around
during Christmas, the day is largely taken over by
Christians and now depicts more virtue instead of vice.
My advice however is that, while we celebrate Christmas,
lets focus on the X factor, who is The Christ, the SON OF
GOD himself – what he stands for (sharing, caring, good
will) and move away from the orgies and wild celebrations
that characterize the celebration of the birth of the SON OF
THE SUN GOD as that is likely to lead to bloodshed and loss
of innocent lives.
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