Rob Skiba on Christmas and Hanukkah

Rob Skiba has spoken out on feeling that Christians need to stop celebrating Christmas and doing the Pagan practices linked to it.

 I agree with what he says mostly.  He also says it's good to do some sort of truly Godly celebration at that time year, like Hanukkah, but without the Rabbinic additions to it.

Here is where I think he's wrong.  He seems to feel that even when you remove Santa and the Tree and all the other Secular Christmas traditions that have pagan roots, and sing only the purely Jesus centered Christmas hymns.  It's still bad to do it as a celebration of Christ's birth since the date is wrong.  That even reading the Biblical Nativity Narrative on the premise of it being "Christmas Time" is sacrilegious.  That somehow those 4 chapters of Scripture, the beginnings of two of the Gospels, should only be read on the correct anniversary of when those events happened.

As a minor note I could mention Chuck Missler's augment that you're being unwittingly Amillennial if you sing Joy to The World as a Christmas song.  If the events behind Hanukkah were a foreshadowing of the defeat of The Antichrist then I say that makes it a very good time to sing "Let Earth receive her King".  Though I believe the actual fulfillment of Revelation 19 will be in Nisan.

I'm not gonna get into that some people are out there arguing the traditional date is in fact correct, 25th being the claimed Birth Date goes back to Hipplytus and they have an answer to the shepherds objection..  And they point out that the Pagan Holiday is the Winter Solstice the 21st-23rd.  The 25th did not become the birth date of Sol Invictus until the mid 4 Century.  Satan was early on trying to lay seeds for the Christ Myth nonsense, like that 4th Century stone that has Dionysus name next to an image of a man being Crucified.

I'm not gonna endorse that argument since I don't believe that's when Jesus was born, but I have come to believe that December 25th specifically (not just as part of a broad season or festival) was a Biblical Holy Day (coming from the 25th of Kislev) before a Pagan one.  Satan has made Pagan holidays to correlate to the Spring and Fall feasts too.  He wants to Steal what is God's.  But I agree with Skiba and others that Jesus was born on the Feast of Trumpets which fell on September 11th 3 BC.

But more importantly it's God's Word, every Jot or Tittle of it is good for any day.  And for everything wrong with the Secular Christmas celebration, it is a good thing if people feel compelled to read those important Scriptures because of that celebration.

He compares celebrating Christ's birth on the wrong date to the Israelites at Sinai calling the Golden Calf the God that delivered them out of Egypt.  That's an absurd comparison to me.  If the Israelites had said some random date near the Summer Solstice not the 14-15 of Nisan was when God delivered them out of Egypt, that would be comparable.  What would make Christmas comparable to that incident is if we pointed at an image of Santa (Odin) and said "That is Jesus".

Also for Christmas we celebrate the entire Nativity Narrative, that did not all take place on the same day.  It spans I believe over two and a half years.  From Gabriel appearing to Zacharias in the Summer of 4 BC to the Death of Herod in January of 1 BC.  In fact the Birth itself isn't in Matthew at all.

Purim is another Biblical Holy Day, ordained by The Book of Esther.  Everything in Esther is commemorated on the three days affiliated with Purim, around the middle of Adar.  The most climactic scenes of which actually took place during the Passover Season.

I believe, based on supporting the same date of Jesus Birth that Skiba does, that two Hanukkah seasons were involved in the Nativity narrative.  4 and 2 BC (Hanukkah can fall right where our calender changes years).

For 4 BC would be the Conception of Jesus.  Which in the Nativity narrative is the Annunciation, followed very soon after by the Visitation.  When the events of Matthew 1 takes places is the hardest to pin down.  Luke says Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months.  That's till right about when she'd have given birth to John.  The question is only did she inform Joseph before or after she went to see Elizabeth?

If Jesus was born on the Feast of Trumpets, the First of Tishri.  Then the basic concept of a pregnancy being 9 months would lead one to look to the Conception happening on the First of Tevet, which is part of the Eight day Hanukkah festival, and interestingly the day Esther was made Queen in 2:16-17.

Going with September 11th Gregorian date, and a 259-280 day Gestation period (a strict 9 month Pregnancy would be 270 days).  That gives us (assuming no leap year) December 5th to December 26th, with December 15 being perhaps the best date.  Hanukkah can fall anytime time during that period, but also before or after it.

Christians who care a great deal about being Pro-Life should consider Jesus Conception not Birth the true day of the Incarnation.

As for two years latter.  I believe based on the research of others who view Jupiter as the Star of Bethlehem, that when the Magi arrived in Bethlehem was probably on the 27th of Kislev in 2 BC.  The Third day of Hanukkah.  Basically all the core events of Matthew's Nativity narrative I believe were in Kislev and/or Tevet.

One more note, Rob Skiba likes to consider Apocryphal works like Jasher and Enoch and Jubilees valid sources, when it suits him at least, he puts them almost right up there with Scripture.  Well in Jubilees Noah told his children to celebrate feasts on the New Moons of the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Months, which roughly equate to the Solstices and Equinoxes.  And as commemorating the Flood on the 17th of the 2nd (either after Exodus) month.  Which correlates to Halloween.