Greetings friends and brethren, this is Dr. Bob Teel for the Continuing
Church of God.
Today I'd like to talk about birthdays, Christianity, and December 25th.
Now, a lot of people celebrate birthdays.
Do they get it from the Bible?
And if they don't get it from the Bible, where does it come from?
I'd like to go through some historical information about the observance of
birthdays, the celebration of birthdays.
I'd like to look at what the Jews and children of Israel used to do regarding
it.
We'll talk about early Christians and Christianity.
And we'll also look at when many started to accept the idea of celebrating
birthdays.
And we'll talk about what's appropriate for Christians along this line.
I'd like to start off by reading something from a book called The Lore of Birthdays.
It goes a little bit into the origins.
So let me start by reading this.
I will be reading scriptures as well.
But between history and the Bible, by the time you're done watching this
sermon, you should know more about the history of birthdays, Christian views
toward it, and what your view should be toward the observance of birthdays,
as well as the significance of December 25th.
Again, this is from The Lore of Birthdays.
Originally, the idea of birthday greetings and wishes for happiness was rooted in
magic.
This is again from The Lore of Birthdays.
The working of spells for good and evil is the chief usage of witchcraft.
One is especially susceptible to such spells on his birthday as one's personal
spirits are about at that time.
At least that's what mythology says.
Dreams dreamed on a birthday eve should be remembered, for they are predictions of
the future brought by the guardian spirits, which hover over one's bed on the
birthday eve.
Well, I can tell you, you can look in this book, and it doesn't say that there are
guardian spirits above your bed on the day of your birthday eve, before you're going
to be born, or even after you've been born.
It's a subject for observance.
Birthday greetings have power for good or ill because one is closer to the spirit
world on this day.
God's spirit?
No, the other spirit world.
Good wishes bring fortune, but the reverse is also true, so one should avoid enemies
on one's birthday and be surrounded only by well-wishers.
Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day are the traditional greetings.
Now, the giving of birthday gifts was associated with offerings, actually,
for pagan gods on the birthdays of the pagan gods.
That's pretty much where it came from.
And the Lord of Birthdays says, the exchange of presents is associated
with the importance of ingratiating good and evil fairies on their or our
birthdays.
So what the Lord of Birthdays book is saying is, the reason for giving presents
was to get pagan deities, just as they're calling them fairies, whether they're good
or evil.
We're talking about demons, if there's anything truly spiritual about this stuff,
it would be to demons.
And that was why they had birthday gifts originally.
Now, traditional birthday cakes and candles, they have their origin in ancient
pagan idol worship.
I've seen in Greco-Roman churches, they've continued some of the practices
associated with candles.
Anyway, the ancients believed that fire of candles had magical properties.
They offered prayers and made wishes be carried out to the gods and flame the
candles.
And I've seen this in many cathedrals around the world.
And as far as birthdays go, we see the birthday custom of making a wish and
blowing out candles.
The Greeks celebrate the birthday of their moon goddess Artemis with a cake with
adorned candles.
So the idea of having a birthday cake came from worship of the pagan moon goddess
Artemis.
That's where it came from.
It didn't come from the Bible.
Please don't dismiss the sermon at this stage if you do believe you should
celebrate birthdays.
Let me go through the scriptures.
But again, I'm reading you from a book called The Lore of Birthdays, as well as a
related article associated with it, and all those things I've written,
which are actually at the cogwriter.com website, an article about birthdays.
I'd like to read something from Herodotus.
Herodotus was a historian.
This is from Persian Wars Book 2, Chapter 82.
The Egyptians discovered to which of their gods each month and day is sacred,
and found out from the day of a man's birth what he will meet in the course of
his life, and how he will end his days, and what sort of man he will be.
So from the time of Herodotus, we've got this idea that your life is
predetermined based on the time you are born, which of course sounds a lot like
astrology, and is certainly not something from the Bible.
The Lore of Birthdays said, Birthdays are intimately linked with the stars,
since without the calendar, no one could tell when to celebrate his birthday.
They are also indebted to the stars in another way, for in early days,
the chief importance of birthday records was to enable the astrologers to chart
horoscopes.
We read that again.
In early days, the chief importance of birthday records was to enable the
astrologers to chart horoscopes.
That was a big reason why they did it.
Getting back to Herodotus, there was this footnote that says, Horoscopes were of
very early use in Egypt.
And Cicero speaks of the Egyptians and Chaldeans predicting a man's destiny at
his birth.
So you've been predetermined, I mean everything been determined based on the
time that you were born?
Not according to the Bible, but this is one of the reasons that birthdays were
important.
Now we just simply don't see this in scripture, but I'd like to read something
else from the lore of birthdays.
Now this particular one came out, this came out in 1952.
It said, the Greeks believed that everyone had a protective spirit or demon who
attended his birth and watched over him in life.
I was alluding to that earlier.
This spirit had a mystic relation with the god on whose birthday the individual was
born.
So there were so many gods, apparently had gods just about every day, maybe every
day.
And whenever you were born, this demon spirit had a relationship with that pagan
deity.
Anyway, it says the Romans also subscribed to this idea.
So we get this Greco-Roman idea about spirits and birthdays and paganism here.
The notion was carried down in human belief and is reflected in the guardian
angel, the fairy godmother, and the patron saint, which afflicts some of the
Greco-Roman churches.
The custom of lighted candles on cakes started with the Greeks, and I mentioned
where that came from.
Honey cakes round as the moon and lit with tapers were placed on the altars of
Artemis, and I mentioned that before.
Birthday candles in folk belief are endowed with special magic for granting
wishes.
Lighted tapers and sacrificial fires have had a special mystic significance ever
since man first started to set up altars to his gods.
Not to the god of the Bible, but to his gods.
The birthday candles are thus an honor and tribute to the birthday child and bring
good fortune.
Well, birthdays had their origin in mythology, pagan mysticism, and magic.
And, you know, astrology is a big part of this.
The ancient Romans enthusiastically celebrated birthdays with hedonistic
parties and presents according to birthday rituals, friends, patrons of Rome,
in Roman poetry and cult in the book called Classic Antiquity.
You say, okay, but what about the Jews?
What about the children of Israel?
How do they view this?
Because if you're a Christian, you would believe this book and you
realize that the first portion of the book, as a matter of fact, most of the
book, till somewhere around actually past there.
So somewhere in this region, just about this much or so, it's called the Old
Testament and this is the New Testament.
I'll put some notes at the end.
Okay, well, the children of Israel, the Jews, claim to believe the Old
Testament.
So what was their attitude based on that?
You know, the New Testament wasn't written when Jesus was born.
So what did the Old Testament say or at least what did the Jews think the Old
Testament said?
I'd like to read something from the first century Jewish historian called Josephus.
And he said, nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the birth
of our children and thereby afford occasion of drinking to excess.
So according to their understanding of this book, they're not allowed to
celebrate birthdays and have birthday parties where they go out and drink and
such.
Now, there's no specific command against the celebration of birthdays directly in
the Bible.
Jewish customs associated with that beliefs seem to be related to some
negative consequences associated with birthdays.
Now, since the first Christians, all the original Christians, pretty much
were Jewish or Hebrew, this explains why for them the celebration of birthdays was
not a cultural custom.
So I'd like to read a couple of things about this.
It says, there is no tradition in Judaism of celebrating birthdays as holidays.
Otherwise, we'd expect holidays to the birthdays of Moses and Abraham amongst
others, but there's no such thing.
The Bible does not even record their birthdays, just as the New Testament does
not record the date of Yeshua's or Jesus's birth.
And here's something from the Chabad-Luvitch Media Center called,
Your Jewish Birthday.
The interesting thing about birthday celebrations is that for much of our
history, they were not a very Jewish custom.
As a rule, Jews did not celebrate their birthdays.
Indeed, while the dates of passing of the great figures of Jewish history are
recorded, because when people died and commemorated, the dates of their birth are
mostly unknown.
In an essay entitled, Birthdays Jewishly, a couple people point out that the
Encyclopedia Judaica is very blunt on the subject.
Quote, the celebration of birthdays is unknown in traditional Jewish ritual.
Now, the Center for Jewish Women and Gender Studies reported the same thing.
Says, it's a fact that the only birthday party mentioned in the Bible is for
Pharaoh.
Well, that's in the Old Testament.
There are some stuff in the New Testament.
I'm going to get to that.
Anyway, the Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies also reported, the
tradition also holds that your birth alone is not as significant as the way you live
your life.
After all, King Solomon is thought to have said, the day of death is better than the
day of one's birth, Ecclesiastes 7.1.
As Midrash explains, Midrash is a Jewish traditional explanation of things,
when a person is born, it's not known what he'll be like when he's grown and what his
deeds will be, whether good or wicked.
Now, I'd like to go over some passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament,
that the Jews tend to look at in order to come up with their own conclusions.
So, we're going to be in the Bible for a little bit here.
So, if you've got your Bibles, you might want to go to Genesis chapter
40.
I'm going to start reading in verse 20 from Genesis 40.
And this was alluded to in one of the things I mentioned before.
Now, it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he,
that's Pharaoh, made a feast for all the servants.
And he lifted up the head of the butler, and of the chief baker among his servants.
Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in
Pharaoh's hand.
But he hanged the chief baker.
So, the first birthday party that we are told about, one person gets honored and
someone else gets hung.
Now, let's go to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 18.
We're going to start reading in verse 10.
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass
through the fire, or who practices witchcraft.
I mentioned before that basically birthdays had to do with witchcraft.
Or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures
spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls upon the dead.
For all who do those these things are an abomination to the eternal, to the Lord
Yahweh.
Now, let's go to the book of Isaiah 47,
starting verse 13.
It says, You are worried in a multitude of your councils.
Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and
save you from what shall come upon you.
Behold, they shall be a stubble.
Go ahead, go to your astrologers and monthly prognosticators and all these
stargazer types.
They're going to be a stubble.
You don't want to pay attention to them.
The fire shall burn them.
They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
So we see a negative statement there about astrologers.
Now let's go to the book of Job, Job chapter 3.
I'm going to start in verse 1.
We're going to go also further back in Job, but we'll start off with this
particular passage in Job 3.
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
He's cursed the day of his birth, so obviously it wasn't a day he was
celebrating.
And Job spoke and said, May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which
it was said a child is conceived.
May that day be darkness.
May God above not seek it.
So he says it's not a day of celebration, nor let the light shine upon it.
So don't burn light candles for it.
May darkness in the shadow of death claim it.
May a cloud settle on it.
May the blackness of the day terrify it.
So Job was saying he shouldn't celebrate his birthday.
He shouldn't observe it.
It should be a dark day.
Now let's go to Job 1 verse 13.
Now there was a day when his, that's Job's, sons and daughters were eating and
drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
And a messenger came to Job saying, the oxen were plowing and a donkey
speeding beside them when the civilians raided them and took them away.
Indeed they've killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone appear
to tell you.
Now I've heard it said that this particular day in Job was a birthday.
And it's perhaps consistent with this in Job 1 verses 4 and 5.
It's not absolutely positive it was a birthday celebration that they were doing,
but it sounds like it certainly may have been.
And interesting in Job 8 verse 4 it says, if your sons have sinned against you he
casts them away for their transgression.
Now it wasn't only Job who was not a fan of birthdays, and of course the baker
whose head was who was hanged on Pharaoh's birthday.
Let's go to the book of Jeremiah.
I was reading Jeremiah this week.
I'm going to go to the 20th chapter.
We're going to start in verse 14.
Jeremiah the prophet wrote, cursed be the day in which I was born.
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me.
Let the man be cursed who brought news to my father saying a male child has been
born to you, making him very glad.
Let the man be like the cities which the eternal overthrew and did not relent.
Let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon because he did not
kill me from the womb that my mother might have been my grave and her womb always
enlarge with me.
Why they come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow that my day should be
consumed with shame.
So Jeremiah was not endorsed in the day of his birth.
Now the Hebrew calendar itself makes the observance of birthdays a bit difficult
when one tries to superimpose it on the modern calendar, the Roman calendar that
we do now.
The reason for that is that the Hebrew calendar is about 11 days shorter than the
annual orbit around the sun.
And so it needs a 13th month seven times out of every 19 year time cycle.
Thus one's birthday on a modern calendar, if you use the Jewish calendar,
would vary like 11 days a year.
And the position of the constellations would be to some degree different.
So God didn't intentionally have people use a Roman calendar type of a dating
system in order to observe their birthdays.
Because again, if they actually observed them based on a Hebrew calendar,
let's say you were born on the fifth month the day of Abib.
Now that could be in late March some year, could be mid-late April some year.
But most of the time it's going to vary about 11 days.
So it wouldn't be the same constellation as far as the astrologers are concerned.
And so the observance of God's calendar pretty much reduces the astrological
portion of this, if you will.
But the reality is Jews didn't keep their birthdays, they didn't celebrate them.
It was not a practice that they did.
And again, God's calendar makes it more difficult.
I sometimes have wondered if perhaps one of the reasons why circumcision was
implemented by God to be done on the eighth day, as opposed to the day of
birth, which is how it's typically done in Western cultures that circumcise.
They typically will circumcise people in the hospital or if they're born in a
hospital on that same day.
But the Bible, God said to do this on the eighth day, Genesis 17, 12, it was
supposed to be on the eighth day.
And what happened then is that it was a different day than your birthday.
So it didn't make your birthday as important, if you will, in that respect.
Now, I should mention that although the ancient Jews and early Christians,
for that matter, didn't celebrate birthdays, they did acknowledge years.
For example, I was debating if I should go here, but let's go to Leviticus 27.
Leviticus chapter 27.
We're going to Leviticus chapter 27 to make a couple of points.
And I'm going to start from the first verse, even though it doesn't talk about
years at first.
Now, the eternal Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel
and say to them, when a man consecrates a vow concerning certain persons to the
eternal according to the valuation, if your valuation is of a male from 20
years up to 60 years old, your valuation will be 50 shekels according to the shekel
of the sanctuary.
So it says if somebody's between 20 and 60 years, it's going to be a particular
amount if it's a male.
If it's a female, then your valuation will be 30 shekels.
It'll be from five years old up to 20 years.
Then your valuation for males should be 20 shekels or female 10 shekels.
And if it's from a month old to a five-year-old, then your valuation for
male will be five shekels of silver and for female valuation be three shekels of
silver.
And if from 60 years old and above, if it's a male, your valuation will be 15
shekels and for a female 10 shekels.
It wasn't that women were less valuable, but they tended to earn less money and so
it was less because you can see in verse 8.
If it's too poor to pay your valuation, then they befriend themselves before the
priest and the priest will set a value with the ability to pay.
But my point was not on that particular payment, but mentioning it to show that
yes, the children of Israel knew how old they were.
Now, how did they know how old they were?
There's a couple different ways.
One, they may have known or they likely would have known what day in the Hebrew
calendar they were born.
That would be one way.
If you look throughout scripture, you just don't see the Bible telling us
the day people were born.
Oh, the Bible says all kinds of people were born, especially in the Old
Testament, but it doesn't say they were born on the 10th day of the 7th month or
the 14th day of the 6th month or something like that.
We just don't tend to see that.
It's just not in scripture.
And God wanted us to know, to celebrate, let's say Moses's birthday or Abraham's or
Isaac's or Jacob's or somebody's, even Job, who cursed the day he was born.
You'd think God would have let us know, but he didn't.
Now, in older times, it seems that Jews basically determined their age based on
the Feast of Trumpets and sometimes perhaps Passover.
Now, not for the first month or so they were born.
I'm going to read something from the Jewish Federation of North America.
This is called Rosh Hashanah Theology and Themes.
There is a view put forth by the rabbis in the Talmud.
The Talmud were writings that the children of Israel did when they were in captivity
associated with Babylon.
This is not scripture.
Okay, anyways, there's a view put forth by the rabbis in the Talmud that the day of
Rosh Hashanah, which we tend to call the Feast of Trumpets, the term Rosh Hashanah
does not come from the Bible, coincides with the sixth day of creation when
humanity was created.
According to this view, Rosh Hashanah becomes the birthday of all peoples.
And of course, one celebrates a birthday.
Well, people don't actually celebrate birthdays on Rosh Hashanah, but the Jews
call this the Jewish New Year.
And one of the reasons was it would be considered a new year of somebody's life.
It's when they were counting.
So they didn't do it from the day they were born.
According to this particular tradition, they did it from one period of Rosh
Hashanah to the other.
Now, originally, or actually in the Bible, that particular holy day is called,
refers to as Trumpets.
And this term Rosh Hashanah came from Talmudic times.
But this is saying, again, the Jews, that's when they would observe a time and
they had to keep the Feast of Trumpets.
And it was everybody's, it was humanity's birthday in a sense, but they weren't
doing birthday parties and that kind of stuff.
Now I'd like to read from another Jewish source.
This is from actually the Babylonian Talmud, book two, tracts Uriben Shekelim
Rosh Hashanah.
It says, we've learned in a Beritha, Rabbi Eliezer says, whence do we know that
the world was created in Tishri?
Now Tishri is the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.
And the first day of that month is Rosh Hashanah, is what they call Rosh Hashanah,
but we call the Feast of Trumpets.
From the scriptural verse in which it's written, Genesis 1-11, and God said,
let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and a fruit tree,
etc.
And what month does the earth bring forth grass at the same time the trees are full
of fruit?
Let us say Tishri.
And at that time of the year, mentioned Genesis, was autumn, and the rain
descended and the fruits flourished, as it is written in Genesis 2-6.
But there went up a mist from the earth, etc.
Rabbi Yehoshua says, whence do we know the world was created in Nisan?
Okay, so there's another view.
So there's one view, it was around the Feast of Trumpets.
The other view, it's around Passover.
From the scriptural verse in which it's written, Genesis 1-12, and the earth
brought forth grass yielding its seed, and a tree yielding fruit.
In which month is the earth covered with grass, and at the same time trees bring
forth fruit?
Let us say Nisan, or the first month of the year, Nisan.
And at the time animals, domestic and wild, and birds mate, as it's written,
said in Psalm, let's see, that looks like it's 65-14.
The meadows are clothed with flocks, etc.
Further, says Rabbi Eliezer, whence we know the patriarchs were born in Tishri?
Okay, so now they're saying that people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were born
in Tishri.
From the passage in 1 Kings 8-2, and all men of Israel assembled themselves
unto King Solomon to feast in the month of Ethanim.
Ethanim is also the seventh month of the year, or it was Tishri, which is the
seventh month.
And the strong ones of the earth, the patriarchs, were born.
How do we know the expression Ethan?
Ethan means strength, because it's written in Numbers 24-21.
Ethan, Moshe, Heka, strong as a dwelling place, as is written in Micah 4-2.
Hero mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations, etc.
Now I'm going to continue, I've only got a little bit more from the Jewish Talmud,
and the Jewish Talmud isn't our criteria here, but anyway, it says Rabbi Yehoshua,
however, says, once we know the patriarchs were born in Nisan, from 1 Kings 6-1,
where it says the fourth year in the month Ziv, glory, which is the second month,
which means that in the month in which the glorious ones on the earth, the patriarchs
were already born.
So there are different arguments in Judaism as to when things happened,
but for some time, people were saying that all humanity was born in the month of
Tishri or Ethan in the seventh month of the year, and therefore, that's when they
counted their years.
So people knew how old they were, pretty close at least, and some say it was
counted around Passover, some say it was counted at the Feast of Trumpets,
which the Jews call Rosh Hashanah.
But either way, the Jews were not having birthday parties back then.
It just was not their practice.
Now, I'd like to read something from an article called Happy Birthday from Rev.
Shayem HaKoten.
He's a Jewish writer.
He says, in Jewish theology, much more important to attach the day one dies,
but little is mentioned about one's birthday.
Some Torah authorities, such as Rabbi Yolish Teitelbaum from 1887-1979,
are opposed to any such celebration of one's birthday, while other authorities,
such as Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schickenrin from 1902-1994 and others, permit and
encourage such celebration of one's birthday as a means of inspiring
self-reflection and introspection.
Well, they didn't get that from the Bible.
You should just examine your life.
The Bible does tell you around Passover time to examine one's life.
Whether people do that on their birthdays or not, that can be debated.
But again, they're not getting it from Scripture.
Well, then they cite Solomon again, who said a good name is better than good
oil.
The day of death is better than the day of birth.
So, the third reason for opposing birthday parties is simply the fact that the Torah
only mentions such a party in conjunction with the Pharaoh celebrating his own
birthday.
This implies only morally degenerate people, such as the sovereign of Egypt,
would celebrate a birthday, but not Torah true Jews.
Cursing one's birthday is an expression of one's dissatisfaction with one's
situation.
We see this, he says, from both Job and Jeremiah, which I cited them.
So, basically, Jews knew that the observance of birthdays was simply not
their practice.
Now, some have felt because they've seen certain scenes, they're supposed to be
Christmas scenes of the Magi coming in, the wise men from the east, they gave
Jesus' presence on the day of his birth.
But there's a few issues with that.
Let's go over the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 2, starting verse 1.
The Bible is clear that the Magi weren't, the wise men weren't there on the day of
Jesus' birth.
They came after he was born.
Look what says Matthew 2, verse 1.
Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has
been born king of the Jews?
Where he's seen a star in the east, we've come to worship him.
Notice they came to worship Jesus, not celebrate his birthday.
It was customary in that time, and it still is these times, to give gifts
to royalty.
Thus, giving Jesus' presence then is not saying you're supposed to give birthday
presents.
It simply wasn't, it wasn't the case.
Now, there's been some speculation that the wise men perhaps descended from the
children of Israel.
The book of James, chapter 1, verse 1, James addressed his letter to the tribes
which are scattered abroad.
In the first century, Jewish historian Josephus, who I mentioned before,
said that some of the tribes of Israel were beyond the Euphrates, which is east
of Jerusalem.
And that's one reason why that it's possible that the wise men who came to see
Jesus were descended from the children of Israel.
And they would be the ones who knew that it said in Numbers 24, 17, a star will
come out of Jacob, a scepter shall rise out of Israel.
So if they had access to Jewish scriptures, that's why they would know.
But what about Christians?
I've talked about Jews, I've talked about pagans.
What about the practices of the non-Jewish Christians, the early non-Jewish
Christians?
You know, the original Christians, the disciples were of Israelite origin,
so they didn't keep birthdays, it just wasn't the case.
Now, it's interesting, the New Testament is clear about the specific time of
certain holy days like Passover and Pentecost, but it doesn't mention the date
or even the month of Jesus' birth.
And you can look at Matthew 1 or Luke 1 or 2, nor does it ever endorse the
celebration of birthdays.
It doesn't give the date anybody was born.
Now, there is one birthday celebration that's mentioned in the New Testament,
and it wasn't a good one.
And so why don't you go to Matthew chapter 14.
While you're going there, I'm just going to mention that there's a person in
Matthew 11, Jesus called the greatest among those born of women.
And find out what happened to him on Herod's birthday, or because of Herod's
birthday.
Matthew 14, starting verse 6.
But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before
them and pleased Herod.
Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.
So she being prompted by her mother said, give me John that baps his head here on on
a platter.
Again, Jesus said John was the greatest of those born of women.
And the king was sorry.
Nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him at his
birthday party, he commanded to be given to her.
So he sent and had John beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on a
platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.
You can also read the same account in Mark chapter 6 verses 21 to 28.
Now originally, even as more and more Gentiles became Christian, so even when
they outnumbered those of Israelite heritage, we do not see that they endorse
the celebration of birthdays.
Actually, there's no religious or church writing I've seen from the second century.
And as far as I know, I've read all those that are, or most all those are available,
at least those have been translated into English.
None of them seem to endorse or even suggest the idea of celebrating birthdays.
Although he wasn't in the church of God, I'd like to quote Origin of Alexandria,
because he's considered a great scholar, theologian by the Protestants and other
Greco-Roman faiths.
And the Catholic encyclopedia says this, Origin, glancing perhaps at the
discernible Imperial Natalitia, asserts that in the scriptures,
sinners alone, not saints, celebrate their birthdays.
So he's talking of the Imperial Natal or Natalitia.
We'll get to that later.
But let's read some of what Origin actually himself wrote.
He says, of all the holy people of scriptures, no one is recorded to have
kept a feast or great banquet on his birthday.
It's only sinners like Pharaoh and Herod who make great rejoices over a day in
which they were born into this world below.
Now there was a late third century Catholic theologian by the name of
Arnobius, and he shows even at that late of time, the Catholics objected to the
celebration of birthdays.
Because here's what he wrote.
This is a book called Against the Heathen, book one.
Your worship with couches, altars, temples, and other services, and by
celebrating their games and birthdays, those whom it was fitting that you should
assail with keenest hatred.
So the celebration of God's leaders and birthdays were still being condemned.
Now another part that's kind of interesting is, well, where did these
birthday celebrations end up coming into the West?
Now I mentioned before that the Greeks in their worship of the moon goddess Artemis
had birthday candles or cakes and cakes and such.
As far as birthdays getting more involved in the West, I'd like to read something.
I don't know if it's still there anymore, but Wikipedia had this back in 2007.
Let me read this because you might find this interesting.
History of celebration of birthdays in the West.
It is thought that large-scale celebration of birthdays in Europe began with the cult
of Mithras.
Mithras is a sun god who was allegedly born December 25th, which originated in
Persia but was spread by soldiers throughout the Roman Empire.
And this happened around the first century BC.
Before this, such celebrations were not common.
Hence practices from other contexts, such as a Saturnalia, were adapted for
birthdays.
Saturnalia was a basically a sun celebration, a time of darkness to
celebrate the rebirth of the sun.
Because many Roman soldiers took to Mithraism, it had a wide distribution
influence throughout the empire until it was supplanted by, they said,
Christianity.
We'll get to that in a moment.
Now, I mentioned that Mithra's birthday was December 25th.
Now, the Roman Emperor Constantine from the fourth century, he was the first Roman
Emperor to supposedly profess anything about Christ.
He was also the first one to make Sunday laws, and he did that on March 7th,
321.
A few years later, he had a Council of Nicaea convened and declared Sunday to be
the Christian day of worship.
But what's interesting is there's an accusation about Constantine as to why he
didn't want Passover celebrated on the 14th.
Now, one of the reasons, of course, is he was a sun god worshiper and he
wanted it on a Sunday.
But this other part was kind of interesting.
It was claimed, quote, Epiphanius wrote this.
This is a respected church historian.
This is an accusation against Constantine, or against the Greco-Roman churches,
actually.
He says, you changed the Passover to Constantine's birthday.
That was a charge that some have made against why the day of Passover was
changed.
The reality is it was because of the birthday of the sun that many ended up
choosing a particular day to celebrate the date of Jesus' birth.
Now, let's go to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 12.
The Bible is clear that God doesn't want people to make up additional days and tie
them in to pagan days.
Deuteronomy 12, starting verse 29, says, when eternally your God cuts off
from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and
dwell on their land, take heed yourself.
You're not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed before you.
And then you don't inquire, saying, how did these nations serve their gods?
All do likewise.
You shall not worship the eternal your God that way.
For every abomination of the Lord which he hates have they done to their gods.
They've burned, even during their sons and daughters, the fire to their gods.
Verse 32, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it.
You shall not add to it or take away from it.
Yet most people who profess Christ do the opposite of God here.
They celebrate days that are not biblical.
They basically rename some pagan holidays.
And now, people have heard this before.
Let's go to Jeremiah 10 for just a moment.
I'm going to read this from the Old King James version, otherwise called the
Authorized Version, starting in verse 2 of Jeremiah chapter 10.
It says, thus says the Eternal, learn not the way of the heathen,
and don't be dismayed at the signs of heaven.
For the heathen are dismayed at them.
That's one of the reasons why they have astrology with birthdays.
For the customs of people are vain.
For one cuts a tree out of the forest, working the hands of the workman with an
axe.
They take it with silver and gold.
They fasten it with nails and hammers that it doesn't move.
They're upright as a palm tree.
They don't speak.
They must need to be born.
You got to carry them because they can't go anywhere.
But don't be afraid of them.
They can't do evil.
They can't do good.
For as much as there's none like you, O Eternal, you are great and your name is
great.
So we shouldn't imitate what the heathen do.
Now in Deuteronomy 32, you don't have to go there.
I'm going to read something that the children of Israel did, starting verse 15.
They provoked him, that's God, to jealousy with foreign gods.
With abominations they provoked him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God.
To gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals your fathers did not fear.
The celebration of birthdays of various heathen gods and rulers was very common
for the pagans.
And some of these practices are still going on today.
Now let's go to First Corinthians chapter 10.
Some think it's okay to combine paganism with Christianity and still think it's
Christian.
Well the Apostle Paul didn't seem to share that.
As a matter of fact, he didn't share that view.
First Corinthians 10, starting with verse 20.
Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and
not to God.
And I don't want you to have fellowship with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of demons.
You cannot partake of the Lord's table and table of demons.
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than he?
Christians are not supposed to try to provoke God by observing pagan practices.
Birthday celebrations, including those associated with December 25th,
come from paganism.
But back in 1969, somebody named Anton Lavey wrote something called the Satanic
Bible.
Now some of the Satanists say it's not that big of a deal, but I'd like to read
something from page 96 of the 1976 version of it.
The highest of all holidays in the satanic religion is the date of one's own birth.
This is in direct contradiction to the holy of holy days of other religions,
which deify a particular God, which has been created in anthropomorphic form for
their own image, therefore showing that the ego is not really buried.
The Satanist feels, why not honor and be honest?
If you're going to create a God in your image, might as well create that God as
yourself, which is one of the reasons they think you celebrate birthdays.
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 of the year.
After all, aren't you happier about the fact that you were born than you are about
the birth of someone you've never even met?
For that matter, aside from religious holidays, why pay higher tribute to the
birthday of a president or date of history than we do the day we were brought into
this greatest of all worlds?
Despite the fact that some of us may have not wanted to, or at least were not
particularly planned, we're glad, if no one else is, that we're here.
You should give yourself a pat on the back, buy yourself whatever you want,
treat yourself like a king or god that you are, and celebrate your birthday with such
pomp and ceremony as possible.
After one's birthday, the two major satanic holidays are Walpurgis Night and
Halloween.
So they say the most important, according to the satanic bible,
for Satanists is to celebrate their birthdays.
The next one is Walpurgis Night, which basically is Witches Night,
that's celebrated I think April 30th each year, and Halloween, which is December,
excuse me, October 31st.
I'd like to read something from a writer by the name of Norm Schneider.
This is from The Strange Origins of Our Modern Birthday Customs.
During a Christian era, the early followers of Christ didn't believe in
celebrating birthdays, preferring, as was the case in earlier eras,
honoring one's death.
Their belief was only that in death was a true deliverance worthy of honoring one's
death day.
They also believed that the Egyptian and Greek birthday celebrations were pagan
festivals and should not be duplicated.
So early Christians did not think they should duplicate the pagan festivals of
celebrating birthdays, so they did not do so.
What about you?
Anyway, he goes on and says, by the fourth century some started to wonder about when
Christ's birth was.
They came up with some kind of deal.
We're going to get to that.
But was Jesus actually born then?
Well, one thing we can be sure of is Jesus was not born December 25th.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, we can go to Luke's gospel to find out.
Why don't you go to the book of Luke,
Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1.
It came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that
all the world should be registered.
And this census took place when Quirinius was governing Syria.
So they all went and everyone in his own city.
Verse 4, Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea,
the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with
child.
Once while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes,
laid him in the manger, because there's no room at the inn, per se.
And there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields.
Notice they were living out in the fields.
They weren't just out in the field one night, because it happened to be a really
warm night that night.
They were living out there, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, the glory of the Lord shone
around them.
They were greatly afraid.
The angel said, Don't be afraid.
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord.
This will be a sign for you.
You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, and so this is
what happened.
Now notice this happened during the time of a census.
Now let me read something from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
It says the census would have been impossible in the winter.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says it's not possible they could have a census then.
And also, in that part of the world, it was too cold for the shepherds to be
living out in the fields at night.
They weren't doing it that time of the year.
So for a couple of reasons, we know it's not possible, as far as the Bible is
concerned, that Jesus was born on December 25th.
Now the Church of Rome originally did not celebrate December 25th.
Actually, one of the people they call the father of Latin theology, one of their
great Latin, or excuse me, early historians who wrote in Latin,
his name was Tertullian.
He'd like to read something he wrote in his document called On Idolatry.
It says the Minervalia are just as much Minerva, now Minerva is from paganism,
and as the Saturnalia, Saturns, which must be celebrated by even little
slaves at the time of Saturnalia.
And these things take place on idol's birthday, and every pomp of the devil is
frequented.
Who will think that these things are befitting a Christian master?
He says Christians shouldn't be celebrating the Saturnalia, which included
the time of December 25th.
But he said that later, this would be chapter 14, I was reading from chapter 10
from the same book, he says but this time the majority of people associated with him
have induced in belief in their mind that it's pardonable if they do what the
heathen do.
They say to live as a heathen is lawful, but to die with them is not.
He says who can maintain or defend this?
He says the pagans don't keep the Passover, which is the Lord's Day or
Pentecost, they don't do that.
He says we shouldn't be keeping Saturnalia, New Years, and all these
things.
But people did it anyway.
Now the Catholic encyclopedia in this article Christmas clearly says,
quote, Christmas was not among the early festivals of the church.
And that's true.
So why December 25th?
There's a lot of different reasons for this.
The primary one is because it was the birthday of the sun god Mithras.
But I'm going to read an account that came from around 600 A.D.
from Ananias of Shirak, Armenia area basically.
So the festival of the holy birth of Christ on the 12th day before the feast of
baptism was not appointed by the holy apostles nor their successors either,
as is clear from the scriptures.
But many years after fixing the canons, this festival was invented by the
disciples of the heretic Serinthes and was accepted by the Greeks because they were
truly fond of festivals and most fervent in piety.
And from there it spread around the world.
So basically what it was saying is that somebody who was a heretic as far as
Christianity was concerned picked this particular date.
12 days before the December, should be January 6th, they picked this December
25th.
Now what about this Serinthes person?
I'd like to read an account about him.
Araneas wrote the following.
It says, there are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the
lord, going in to bathe at Ephesus and perceiving Serinthes within, rushed out of
the bath house without bathing and exclaiming, let us fly lest even the bath
house fall down because Serinthes, the enemy of truth, is within.
So the person who originally is believed to try to incorporate Jesus's birthday on
December 25th was a heretic that was so apostate who was so bad that it's recorded
that the Apostle John wouldn't be in the same building with the guy at the same
time.
But now we have people who keep this date of a person who was denounced by the
Apostle John.
Now Constantine, Emperor Constantine is considered to be a saint by the Eastern
Orthodox.
I'd like to read though something that the Catholic encyclopedia says about him.
I'm going to read this from the Catholic encyclopedia.
It says, Constantine the Great, Constantine can rightfully claim the title
of great for he turned the history of the world into a new course and made
Christianity, well the Greco-Roman version, the religion of the state.
It's easy to understand that many of the emperors yielded to the delusion that they
could reunite all their subjects in the adoration of one sun god, that's what
Constantine wanted to do, who combined in himself the father god of Christians and
in much worshiped Mithras.
Thus the emperor, the empire could be founded anew on a unity of religion.
Even Constantine cherished this mistaken belief.
And I'm reading from the Catholic encyclopedia.
So they know that Emperor Constantine's plan was to get everybody behind that sun
god of some kind to unite his empire.
Could not the sole deus invictus, that's Latin, for the unconquerable sun
god, to whom even Constantine dedicated his coins for a long time, by the way
after supposedly he was Christian he still had his coins dedicated to the sun god,
or sole Mithras deus invictus, the invincible sun god of Mithra,
I still remember a little Latin, venerated by Diocletian and Galerius,
became the supreme god of the empire.
Constantine may have pondered over this, nor had he absolutely rejected the
thought, even after a miraculous event had strongly influenced in favor of the claim
to be the god of the Christians.
I added the claim part.
It's true that believers in Mithras also observed Sunday as well as Christmas.
Consequently, Constantine speaks not of the day of the Lord, but of the day of the
everlasting sun.
This is where December 21st, excuse me, 25th starts to get incorporated amongst
the Greco-Roman faiths in a great degree.
They were celebrated in different places, different days, but this is where it
partially comes from.
Now I'd like to read from the Catholic Encyclopedia from a different author.
This is the article on Mithraism.
Mithraism, a pagan religion consisting mainly of the cult of the ancient
Indo-Iranian sun god Mithra.
It entered Europe from Asia Minor after Alexander the Great's conquest,
spread rapidly over the whole Roman Empire at the beginning of our era.
So basically, around the first century BC it started to enter and then started to
spread.
Reached its zenith during the third century AD and vanished under the
oppressive regulation of Theodosius at the end of the fourth century.
Helios Mithras is one god.
Helios is a word meaning sun.
Sunday was kept holy in honor of Mithra and the 16th of each month was sacred to
him as mediator.
The 25th December was observed as his birthday, the Natalis Invicti,
and I've read that before, the rebirth of the winter sun unconquered by the rigors
of the season.
So basically what they said was during December, well actually from beginning of
fall to winter solstice, the sun, you see it less and less each day.
But December 21st shows that the 25th showed that it came back from that and it
was unconquerable and it should be celebrated that it has succeeded.
Well the birthday of the sun god Mithras is what Constantine wanted his followers
to follow and they did.
And to be sure it was followed in 354 AD, over 300 years after Jesus died and was
resurrected, the Roman bishop Liberius ordered the people to celebrate on
December 25th.
He probably chose this date because the people of Rome already observed it as a
feast of Saturn celebrating the birthday of the sun.
This is from the World Book Encyclopedia of 1966.
Now it should be mentioned that some believe that because of Constantine it was
celebrated earlier and certainly Constantine was celebrating December 25th
and so a lot of the Greco-Romans started to do that.
I'd like to read something from the Washington Times regarding this.
It says, the church where the tradition of celebrating December and 25th...
on December 25 may have begun was built near a pagan shrine as part of an effort
to spread Christianity, a leading Italian scholar says.
Italian archaeologists back in 2007 revealed an underground grotto they
believed ancient Romans revered as a place where the wolf nursed Rome's legendary
founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.
A few feet from the grotto, the Lupercale, the Emperor Constantine built the Basilica
of Saint Anastasia where some believe Christmas was first celebrated on December
25th.
It opted to mark Christmas then celebrated at burying days on December 25 to coincide
with the Roman festival celebrating the birth of the sun god.
Andrea Caradini, professor of archaeology at Rome's La Sapienza University,
told reporters.
The Basilica of Saint Anastasia was built as soon as a year after the Nicene
Council.
It was probably there that Christians first marked December 25th part of broader
efforts to link pagan practices to Christian celebrations in the early days
of the new religion.
This is not the early days of the new religion, this is centuries later.
Mr. Cardini said, the church was built to Christianize these pagan places of
worship.
It was normal to put a church near these places to try to save them.
And then Angelo Bottini said, this hypothesis was evocative and coherent and
helps us to understand the mechanisms of the passage from paganism to Christianity.
No, Christianity didn't start in the 4th century, but in the 4th century more
things associated with paganism called themselves Christian is what happened.
Now as far as the Eastern Orthodox, let me read something from the Catholic
Encyclopedia.
It says, we may take it as certain that the feast of Christ's Nativity was kept in
Rome on December 25th, but it was, and I told you about when that was.
Then it says, it was introduced by their Saint John Chrysostom, who was a hater of
Jews and anti-Semite, into Constantinople and definitively adopted in 395.
So while the Eastern Orthodox consider that Constantinople is somewhat their
first among equals, they didn't adopt December 25th until 395 AD, three and a
half centuries after Jesus died and was resurrected.
So I'm going to read a few other things the Catholic Encyclopedia says about
Christmas.
It says, Irenaeus and Tertullian admitted from their list of festivals, Origen,
glancing perhaps at the discredible imperial Natalia, asserts that sinners
alone, not saints, celebrate their birthdays.
And he was saying, don't celebrate this day, the unconquerable day of the sun.
But people now do it.
Alexandria, this is a Catholic Encyclopedia.
The first evidence of the feast Christmas is from Egypt around 200 AD.
Certain Egyptian theologians were keeping this day around May 20th.
So that's when they were celebrating Christmas in Alexandria.
That's the first time we see more of direct references, of direct reference,
other than Cyrenthus.
The Church of Rome considers that Cyrenthus was an apostate, so they don't,
they won't use him, but they considered Alexandrians to be Christians.
And it was around 200, they started to do it, but they did it May 20th.
Now here's something for the Catholic Encyclopedia as well.
The Gospels.
Concerning the date of Christ's birth, the Gospels give no help.
Upon their data, contradictory arguments are based.
The census would have been impossible, and our whole population couldn't be put
in motion.
Then it says, they say, Natalis Invicti, the well-known solar feast, however,
Natalis Invicti, celebrating 25 December, has a strong claim on responsibility for
our December date.
For the history of the solar cult, its position in the Roman Empire,
the syncretism with Mithraism, being syncretic means to incorporate pagan
practices in, to try to make it more normal, which the Church of Rome and some
of its daughters have done.
And cards and presents.
Catholic Encyclopedia says, pagan customs centering around January gravitated to
Christmas.
The Yule Log.
The Callum fires were a scandal even to Rome, and St. Boniface obtained from Pope
Zachary their abolition.
So it's clear that people were not celebrating the date of Jesus's birth on
December 25th.
It simply wasn't happening.
So what we do know is that early Christians didn't keep December 25th.
They didn't celebrate their birthdays.
Somebody, the Apostle John, denounced and wouldn't be in the same building with,
supposedly, was the first one introduced December 25th.
First time a group that Rome seems to acknowledge was celebrating Christmas at
all, Jesus's birth, was the Alexandrians, which I never considered to be Christians,
at least most of the ones I've read about.
That didn't happen until around 200 AD, way after early Christianity, Christianity
had formed.
But after the sun god Mithra rose up, and we had Emperor Constantine who was a
worshiper of that sun god, December 25th was adopted and is now adopted by Rome,
as well as the Protestants and many others.
Now, billions of people today keep Christmas as basically, they call it a
birthday party for Christ.
They think it's good to keep it for two different reasons.
One, people think, well, if they celebrate their own birthday, they should celebrate
Jesus's birthday.
I think it's one way they rationalize keeping their own birthday is to say,
well, they celebrate Jesus's as well.
But in the scripture, we don't see a precedent for what happens in these
Christmas parties.
It was simply not something that early Christians would do.
But what about birthdays?
If you're a Christian, do you ignore your birthday?
What's appropriate?
What's not appropriate?
Well, biblically, we don't see people making a big deal about their birthdays,
except for, let's say, Pharaoh and Herod.
And we see Job and Jeremiah who denounced their own birthdays.
So we don't see it as a big deal of celebrations.
It simply wasn't the case.
We do know that the use of candles and cakes, etc., for this comes from the
worship of pagan gods.
That's where it comes from.
We know that early Christians didn't want anything to do with birthday parties.
They felt there was too much drinking involved, and they felt it was
inappropriate, and they simply didn't do it.
Now, birthdays seem to have originated with mythology and with magic.
We know that the early followers of Mithra celebrated December 25th and birthdays,
and various ones.
The pagans celebrated the birthdays of the various false gods.
We know the Bible says not to enjoy the worship of the true God with those of the
false gods, and to put all those practices together.
Yet we see some of that in terms of birthdays.
Now, is it wrong to know what day you were born?
No.
Is it wrong, let's say, if you want to measure the height of your children every
year on their birthday to have an idea of their progress?
No.
There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that you were born a particular day and
keeping track of the years.
The Bible in Leviticus 27, which I read earlier, shows that they knew how old
people were, so they obviously were doing that.
Now, I also am not saying that Christians are supposed to do what some of the Jews
did, which is decide their birthday has to be the first day of the seventh month of
the Hebrew calendar, or sometime in the first month of the Hebrew calendar.
That's simply not in the Bible.
It's more of a tradition that they were doing.
But let's go to the book of Colossians.
I'd like to read a couple things from the New Testament.
Let's go to Colossians chapter 2, verse 8.
As I mentioned, birthdays came from magic and mythology, and they were traditionally
celebrated by the heathen.
But listen to Colossians here, what the Apostle Paul wrote.
He says, Beware, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit
according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the
world, and not according to Christ.
Well, the basic principles of the world, their traditions are to celebrate
birthdays, have birthday parties.
It's simply not from the Bible.
This is not, shouldn't be done.
Now let's go to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 15.
I'd like to read some things that Jesus mentioned regarding traditions,
because you know, I realize for a lot of people, tradition are why they keep
birthdays.
Okay, starting in verse 3, it says, He answered and said to them, Why do you
also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
Well, I read some of God's commands about not mixing things with heathenism,
including from the New Testament.
Verse 7, skip down there.
Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, These people draw near to me
with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart's far from me.
In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
Birthday celebrations are not a biblical tradition.
But acknowledging age is.
It was in the fourth century that we started to see people who profess Christ
start to go more toward birthdays.
Origin of Alexandria, one of the great theologians as far as the Greco-Romans was
concerned, was opposed to this.
Tertullian seemed to be opposed to this, one of the so-called father of Latin
theology.
And Arnobius in the third century also wrote against it.
It was simply not part of the original faith.
In Jude, verse 3, it says, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for
all delivered to the saints.
Well, that original faith did not include the celebration of birthdays.
I'd like to read John 4, verse 24.
I'd like to read this from the New Jerusalem Bible.
It's a Roman Catholic translation of the Bible into English.
It says, God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.
Those who worship God are supposed to worship God in spirit and in truth.
The truth is, birthdays were not something that Christians did.
They were pagan.
They came from paganism.
And they were not part of what early Christians did.
It's not from the Bible.
It's not one of the things that God tells people to celebrate.
Consider, if God wanted people to celebrate Jesus's birth, which is one of
the biggest holidays in the world this year, it probably is the biggest,
don't you think that perhaps God would have said what day Jesus was born?
He didn't even give the day in the Hebrew calendar which day Jesus was born.
Yet people act like it's very important to celebrate Christmas on December 25th.
Now, I realize that some think, oh, well, we don't care about all that.
What we like about December 25th is that Jesus gets to be mentioned.
Jesus said, in vain do they worship the teaching traditions of men as doctrines of
God.
And Jesus wanted people to obey the Bible and what he said.
If you're confused about Christianity, I would suggest that you consider looking
at a couple of booklets that we have.
We've got one called The Continuing History of the Church of God.
So you can find out what the original faith was throughout history, and what
days actually were celebrated by Christians, as well as another one,
Where is the True Christian Church Today?
These referenced booklets, which are free, you can find them at ccog.org website,
will answer a lot of questions you may have about Christianity.
As far as the Bible goes, again, in Christians and birthdays, the Bible
doesn't say to celebrate birthdays.
Birthday parties were simply something that Christians didn't do, but
acknowledging the date of one's birth was.
I hope this helps, answers your question.
We went over the origin of birthdays, and even explained how important they are
to Satanists.
But for God, God is spirit.
We're supposed to worship him in spirit and truth.
This is Dr. Bob Teel for The Continuing Church of God.