Now there were in the same region shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8).
Because the Father’s traditions are virtually unknown by those who have been deceived by the false teachings of christianity, there is an idea among most all of them that it doesn’t really matter on what day Messiah was born (even though scripture DOES provide enough information for us to know what day He was born), but “what is important is that we celebrate His birth.”
Actually, there is no such exhortation in the scriptures, and we can see no New Testament believers ever observing an annual birthday celebration. In fact, Messiah Yahoshua said that Yah’s people are to remember Him in His death (Luke 22:19, “. . . do THIS in remembrance of Me”), and the “this” He spoke of in that verse was the Passover Seder, which is what He and His disciples were doing in the upper room when He said that. And, the Passover was fulfilled by Messiah’s crucifixion—that is what the Passover actually memorializes.
However, as it turns out, by honoring Yah’s Sabbaths (weekly and annual feasts) as the New Testament believers did, and as Paul taught the Gentile converts to do (1 Corinthians 5:8 and11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15), Messiah’s birth WILL be honored, as He was born on the Feast of Tabernacles, the last of the three fall feasts. Remember, Paul said in Colossians 2:16-17 that Yah’s Sabbaths are all of Messiah (HE is the real substance of them). Is it any wonder then that one of the things the Feast of Tabernacles points to is Messiah’s birth?
Now, I know that, because of vast ignorance of the Father’s traditions, there are about as many different false interpretations of when Messiah was born as there are of when His bride will be taken to the wedding chamber, and when He will return to the earth in judgment. Because the scriptures tell us of the details surrounding the birth of John the Baptist, by using the scriptural calendar, we can determine the day that Messiah was born, which was six months after John the Baptist’s birth (Luke 1:36).
Folks will try to claim that He was born in the winter, or spring, or summer, and they all use faulty human reasoning for their interpretations; but, when the scriptures are actually understood, they all point to one truth—Messiah Yahoshua was born in the fall on the Feast of Tabernacles.
Let’s look at just one clue we are given, and that is what we’re told in Luke 2:8. “Now there were in the same region shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.” The root of αγραυλουντες (agraulountes), the Greek word translated “living out in the fields,” is αγρος (agros), which refers to a field that has been cultivated for agriculture. So, what that means is that the shepherds were staying with their sheep in crop fields.
Shepherds with flocks of sheep could not enter the crop fields during the spring or summer, because the sheep would eat the crops. And, this is important (for those who claim Messiah was born in the winter), the winters were too cold for sleeping outside overnight. So, if Messiah were born in the winter, the shepherds would not have been dwelling out in crop fields overnight (nighttime temperatures during the winter there normally run in the 40s).
The only time of the year when shepherds and their sheep could enter and stay in crop fields was during the fall right after harvest time, when farmers invited the shepherds into their fields with their sheep so that the fields could be “cleaned” by sheep eating the straw.
So, Messiah Yahoshua was not born in the winter; and neither was He born in the spring or summer. Any celebration of Messiah’s birth that does not take place on the actual day He was born is a counterfeit—and that is especially true of the December 25 lie, because that date was selected for no other reason than that it was the day the pagans who invented christianity had traditionally honored the birth of their sun god (dies natalis solis invicti—birth of the invincible sun).
Yah’s commandment that His name is not to be “taken in vain” literally means in the Hebrew that He (meaning who He is) is not to be attached to what is false, worthless, or idolatrous. Attaching Messiah to the pagan celebration of the sun god is exactly what that commandment prohibits. And yet, those who are lost in the false teachings of christianity regard the false pagan celebration as one of their holiest days of the year.
Messiah was born on the Feast of Tabernacles, and everything in scripture bears that out as truth, which means that the December 25 pagan celebration that attaches Messiah’s birth to a different day is NOT truth. And, what are we supposed to do when we’re faced with both a truth and a contradicting falsehood? Well, Messiah Yahoshua said in John 4:24 that those who actually worship the Father MUST worship in spirit and in TRUTH.
There is no ambiguity, for those who genuinely seek to worship the one true God of the scriptures must worship ONLY in what is truth, and the December 25 christ-mass is not truth. Period. And, that means it is not acceptable to the Father, nor can the Holy Spirit have any part in it. It doesn’t matter what it means to you, nor can His knowing “what’s in my heart” change falsehoods into truth.
For more information: The December 25th Lie