<TITLE>05. Par 29-37</TITLE>L-29   And Christmas is such a great commercial day, until it's taken Thanksgiving pretty near out of the picture, because... in the--in the world of business, anyhow; because that the--the commercial world is so much greater influenced by Christmas, because there is so many people shop. And they just... Thanksgiving is just a little passing-by. And we find out, as we see Christmas nearing again, I thought it would be a good thing to speak on this subject, as we're nearing it. Seeing that, really, Christmas is not...

L-30   We celebrate this 25th day of December for the birthday of Christ, but, course, anyone knows that it wasn't Christ's birthday. That was the Roman sun-god's birthday, that when the church was converted into, or, brought into Catholicism, was formed at the council at Nicaea. Instead of it being the "sun god's," they made it the "Son of God's" birthday. That was when, the sun, it's from the 20th until the... I mean the 21st till the 25th, it's kind of in its... Forget what the name you call it, rightly. It's when it's hardly a second-or-two's time when it's passing through that stage. And it was the sun-god's birthday, and they just taken the "Son of God" and made that His birthday, to blend it in with their pagan tradition. And it's no means, at all, being Christ's birthday.

L-31   He could not been born at that time, because Judaea is about the same on the--on the... high up the equator, as this is, and we--we find out that, in Judaea, in the wintertime, 25th of December, she is blizzardly and cold. Shepherds cannot be on the hill, and many reasons that it couldn't be.

L-32 And then He was nature born, like all other nature, He--He came forth in the Spring. Usually when the lambs are born, in the Spring; and He was the Lamb. Now, I believe, He was born, myself, March, April, or somewhere along in there, in the early Spring.

L-33   But we find that they made a day of merchandise out of it. People crowding on the streets, and rubbing shoulders, and fussing over things, and wondering about giving somebody a present, how much they will pay for it.

L-34 The other day, I was surprised. In a place I was standing, and two ladies was talking about giving their father the birthday... or the Christmas present for this year. And one of them said, "I got him a quart of whiskey." And the other one said, "I got him a pack, or a carton of cigarettes," or something another like that. And they were saying, one give so much more for the whiskey than they did the cigarettes.

L-35 And I thought, "If that isn't a way to give a--a... swap or give a present in commemoration of Jesus Christ, the Son of God!" What a death-finding thing it is!

L-36   And I see our world in such a sadness as it is now, polluted from every side, not a way in the world for it to ever come back to itself again. We better take heed, what we're doing in these days. For we have, just now in mourning, of one of the great tragedies, and--and one of the great... We never thought that thing would happen in America, but it's here anyhow. And our own letting-down on the Gospel, it's become worm-eaten with such stuff as that, and will get worse. There is no doubt at all, in my mind, but what it'll just continually getting worse.

L-37 But we find out, at this Christmas, to get down to the subject, that this Christmas finds the world just about like it did two thousand years ago, when Jesus came. It hasn't changed very much since then. Cause, this, that Christmas found the world falling apart, and was looking for a Messiah to help hold it together. And--and that's about the way it is today, we are doing the same thing. The World Is Again Falling Apart.


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