After the flood, when the human race was centralized on the plains of Babylon, hasatan sought to turn men away from YHWH's plan of redemption by producing a counterfeit Messiah.  Hasatan found an ambitious woman named Semeramis, the widow of Nimrod, "the mighty hunter before YHWH " Genesis 10:9 who had met with a violent death.   Nimrod had been deified as the deliverer from the menace of wild animals.   His wife, seeking to perpetuate his worship and also with designs to retain the power of the kingdom, deceived people into believing that through a miraculous conception she had given birth to a son called Tammuz, purported to be the reincarnation of Nimrod.   Here began at 2000 B.C.E. hasatan's counterfeit to the promised "Seed".  Semeramis with her illegitimate son was thenceforth worshipped as "mother of god" (Madonna) or "the queen of heaven."  Thus originated the ancient Babylonian mystery religion, the fountainhead of all idolatry.  Every idol whether it is mentioned in the Holy Scriptures or in Mythology, can be traced to this source.

     Alexander Hislop, in his monumental work "The Two Babylons", has shown that papal worship is none other than the worship of Nimrod and his wife, disguised in a garb of Christianity. Concerning the Christmas festival Hislop writes:

"That Christmas was originally a pagan festival is beyond all doubt. The time of the year, the ceremonies with which it is celebrated, prove its origin.  In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, about the time of the winter solstice. The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves-- Yule day-- proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. "Yule" is the Chaldee name for "infant," or "little child"; and as the 25th of December was called by our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors "Yule-day" or "the child's day", and the night that preceded it, "Mother night", long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character.  Far and wide in the realms of paganism was this birthday observed."  The Two Babylons; Alexander Hislop  p.93

     It can be clearly demonstrated from Scripture that Yeshua Mashiyach was not born in the winter, but during the Fall Feasts. Since YHWH has in no way authorized the celebration of Christmas or even Birthdays, so who induced Christians to do so?  As early as the first century Apostle Paul rebuked Gentile followers of Mashiyach for attempting to incorporate paganism into the One True Faith.

     Paul's letter was not heeded by the Church, in the year 230 C.E. the Christian "Church Founder" Tertullian wrote:

"By us [Gentile Christians] who are strangers to (Jewish) Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to G-d, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia are now frequented, with gifts being carried to and fro."

     Tammuz was worshipped as god incarnate, which implied that he was an incarnation of the "Lord of the heavens," since the sun begins to grow stronger after 25th of December, this date came to be known as the rebirth of Nimrod and of the Sun. In ancient Rome this day was known as "Natalis Invicti Solis", the birthday of the unconquered sun.  Lights were kindled then to burn until the 6th of January (Epiphany).  The week long feast of Saturnalia, was held at the time of the winter solstice, accompanied with much merrymaking, wild revelry and debauchery.  In an effort to obtain more converts to Roman Catholicism it was policy for the papacy to amalgamate heathen festivals with Christendom. Pope Gregory wrote to Augustine the first missionary to the British Isles (C.E. 597):

"Do not destroy the temples of the English gods; change them to Christian churches.  Do not forbid the "harmless" customs which have been associated with the old religions; consecrate them to Christian use."

Sir James Fraser in "The Golden Bough" writes:

"Thus it appears that the Christian Church chose to celebrate the birthday of its founder on the 25th of December in order to transfer the devotion of the heathen from the sun to him who was called the Sun of Righteousness.  If that was so, there can be no intrinsic improbability in the conjecture that motives of the same sort may have led the ecclesiastical authorities to assimilate the Easter festival of the death and resurrection of  their Lord to the festival of the death and resurrection of another Asiatic god which fell in the same season."

     The name "Christmas" first appeared around 450 C.E. when Pope Julius decreed that all Catholics must celebrate the birthday of Christ at the same time that the heathen were celebrating the pagan Saturnalia feast.  It was designated as "Christe-masse", or Christ's mass.

     Sadly, there are precious few true Christians who know that the origin of the "Christmas tree" is from Babylon mystery religion, many believe the tree originated among Christians in Europe.  But there are even more precious few Christians who know better and who speak out to warn others against the dangers of sentimental agreements with paganism.  The decorated tree represents Tammuz (which also means a sprout) hasatan's counterfeit of "The Branch". (Hebrew: NETZER; a shoot; or a sprout)  The Mashiyach was prophetically called "The Root out of dry ground" Isaiah 11:1; 53:2; Jeremiah 23:5;  Zechariah 6:12  "Behold the man whose name is The Branch".  Ancient coins have been found picturing a tree stump which represented dead Nimrod and a small tree growing nearby  which represented Tammuz.  The Egyptians used the palm tree; the Romans a pine tree. The "Xmass tree" as worshipped by idolatrous Israelites is described in Jeremiah 10.  Mistletoe and holly figured prominently in the early Anglo-Saxon and Druidic tree worship.