Facts confirming Jesus was born on December 25 (2)
Only the leaders and members of the God's Kingdom Society (GKS), a Christian set in Nigeria, know why in the last ten to twenty years or more they have made it an annual recurring decimal to propagate the idea that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25, but in the month of October. A theory also subscribed to by members of the Jehovah's Witnesses who say the Christian leader was born during the ancient Jewish month of ethanim, which is September.
But till today I have not heard or come across where any member of the two Christian groups gave the specific date in September or October when Jesus was born. Which makes their claim look like mere assumption on their part or those who told them because if they got their information from a document it ought to have contained the precise date on which Christ came into the world not just the mention of the month.
Another unsubstantiated claim of the GKS people and their like-minded Jehovah's Witnesses is that which says the celebration of Jesus' birthday on December 25 was forced on Christians by a pagan Roman Emperor whose name I am not aware they have ever mentioned. They say the Emperor compelled Christians to adopt the day of the worship of his own god to mark the coming into the world of Jesus instead of the unstated date in September or October they said he was born. This is why they and those who believe them say the celebration of Christmas on December 25 by Christians originated from pagan background or was influenced by pagans.
Surely, this is a traveler's tale and stuff to be told to the marines! How could a heathen Roman ruler have made Christians to shift the commemoration of the birthday of Jesus from another date to December 25th to compete with the celebration of the festival for his own god? What makes sense to me is that a Roman Emperor would have prevented Christians from marking the milestone on the same day his idol was worshipped if Jesus was born that day. Not that he would have brought Jesus' birthday from another date to rival the celebration of the day of his own god when it was capable of turning out to overshadow or upstage the honouring of the idol he worshipped as indeed it eventually happened. Who again today observes or hears of the anniversary of the Roman idol called Solar Sun or the Saturn festival held on December 25 in the time of the Emperors?
As a matter of fact, I have on the internet read the biographies and seen the portraits of all the 45 pagan Roman Emperors who reigned from the institution of the title in 27B.C. beginning with Augustus who ruled from that year until 14 A.D. until the emergence of Constantine 1, The Great the first Christian Roman Emperor who was on the throne from 285-337. I have also gone through the stories and actions of all the 16 pagan Gallic (French) Emperors and the two heathen Britannic (British) Emperors and none of the 63 of them was reported to have compelled Christians to shift the celebration of the birthday of Jesus from a date in September, October or any other month to December 25.
Indeed, only four of the Roman Emperors are on record as having carried out actions against Jesus Christ, the Jews or Christians. The first was Tiberius the second Emperor and successor to Augustus who reigned from 14-37 A. D. and during whose reign Jesus was crucified in 33 A. D. on the order of Pontius Pilate, his Governor in-charge of Judea.
The first Emperor to move against Christians after the religion was established after the death of Jesus was Nero, the fifth ruler who reigned from 54-68 A. D. He carried out the first persecution of the Jews which began in A. D. 64 when he accused them of causing the fire that decimated a large portion of the city of Rome. He was also said to have ordered the execution of Apostles Peter and Paul in 67 or 68 A. D.
Emperor Caesar Augustus who took over from the one who succeeded Nero was the next Roman monarch to persecute the Jews. So ruthless was he that the Jews revolted against him in 70 A. D. leading to his order that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem be destroyed and the outlawing of Jewish priesthood and the dispersal of the members of the tribe throughout the Roman Empire.
The last Roman Emperor who maltreated the Jews was Hadrian, the 14th ruler who reigned from (117-138) and during whose time the Jews revolted for three years from 132-135 A. D. and whose repressive measures led to the final Diaspora (dispersion) of the Jews. A pagan Emperor making Christians to celebrate the birthday of Jesus on December 25 would have been a major happening that it would have been recorded in history books as one of the actions that the heathen ruler carried out.
MORE TO COME NEXT WEEK
Pastors now preach Buhari for president
It began about four months ago with Pastor Tunde Bakare, the founder and chief priest of the Latter Rain Assembly, a Pentecostal Church in Lagos, in press reports endorsing General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), the national leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), as the candidate Nigerians should vote for during this year's presidential poll. Reverend Moses Iloh followed up a few weeks later in a newspaper article.
Their message was that among the aspirants on the scene or who may still come out Buhari is the best who can give us the type of meaningful and life changing leadership we need for us to become a purposeful and progressive nation.The news now is that more clergymen are now out preaching the sermon of Buhari for president to members of their churches. I first heard of it about two months ago when someone told me it was happening in some Lagos parishes. And last week I got information that pastors in some cities in other parts of the country have joined the Buhari for president crusade.
It is my prayer to God that other Christian prelates will soon take after their colleagues and that Muslim clerics too would start doing the same in their mosques telling their members the president we need on May 29 is a strong leader who can tackle corruption genuinely. This is necessary because we are at a cross-road that if we don't have an incorruptible man of high integrity and discipline like Buhari as president the sufferings in the land will worsen and chaos may ensue.
I wouldn't know the part my articles on Buhari in the last two and a half months (since October 27) have played in what the pastors are doing. But from the reactions I have been receiving from non-clerics since the Buhari series started I do know my write-ups on the former head of state are touching the hearts of people. Not only have up to 150 readers of my column come out to support Buhari about two dozens of them have volunteered to work for him requesting me to furnish them, with the address of the office of his CPC party in the states where they reside.
The support has come from all over the country and from people from different ethnic groups and religious beliefs. But from their names about eighty per cent or more of them are Southerners and Christians and the majority of them being Igbos. One of them is a formidable leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abia State. In the last two weeks he has been phoning me almost every day and at times twice or thrice a day and sometimes on the line for ten to fifteen minutes talking about his decision and commitment to join the Buhari train and fervently pursue his cause. This he says is because he believes that the former military head of state is the one who can rescue Nigerians from the damage caused by PDP's misrule in Abia State and the country as a whole.
I linked him last week Friday with the charismatic and dynamic newly elected national chairman of the CPC Prince Tony Momoh.