Well, Christmas has come (and gone depending on when you read this) again. Complete with all the commercialism that has become the biggest part of it. No longer, it seems, does the majority of people remember what Christmas is meant to be about. To most christians however it is the celebration of the birth of Christ (Jesus of Nazareth). Jesus is real, but for the 25th of December to be his birthday would be pure luck!

The 25th of December was actually chosen by Constantine who at the time was the Pagan (religion - Sol Invictus) Emperor of Rome. The Church of Rome embraced this date and claimed that this was the date that Jesus was born! Constantine chose this date because it coincided with the birthdays of Tammuz and Mithras, both sun-gods and Saturnalia-the festival of Saturn (originally December 17th). When the Church of Antioch heard of this they asked of the Church of Rome how is it that they claim to know the date that Jesus was born when they hadn't known it for the past 300 years? You would think that if anyone would know the birthday of Jesus it would be the Church of Antioch, after all it was foundered by James, Peter and Thomas in Antioch, Asia Minor. Some people will say that Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 AD, but this is not so. You see in 325 AD Constantine convened the First Nicean Council in Rome in an attempt to create a cooperative of sorts between all the major religions of Rome. That Council created the Holy Roman "Catholic" Church. Because Constantine and the Council had created this church it is unlikely that he could ever actually believe in it. Later, in 332 AD at the consecration of the new temple in Constantinople, Constantine was seen carrying a statuette of the goddess Fortuna - a highly unlikely act for someone who was truly a Christian. In an upcoming issue I will tell you of the truth behind the myth of Santa.