Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

I have taught about Christmas for years and years and years, and I've been through a lot of phases

and a lot of, let's put it this way, I have answered a lot of objections.

There are some people who say we shouldn't even celebrate Christmas because Christ wasn't

born on the 25th of December, and in fact, they say that Christmas recalls the Roman festival of Saturnalia, the worship of the God's

Saturn, at which time gifts were given and songs were sung, and food and beverage was out in profusion and everybody decorated their homes by bringing

in trees and decorating.

And by the way, the Roman colors for Saturnalia were red and green.

And so people say, well, we shouldn't worship and remember Christmas because it's a pagan holiday.

But in fact, and in spite of everything that Christmas tends to be on the negative side,

the season itself helps us to recall the calendar of events that brought Jesus into the world.

And last week we spent our entire period looking at the words of Hagi and the festival that was born.

As he wrote.

Hagi, chapter 2, verse 18,

consider now from this day and upward,

now from the 4 and 20th day of the ninth month,

even to the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid,

considerate.

Now, Hagai wrote this in 520 BC, which is a long time before 164 BC, when the festival of Hanukkah was actually commemorated for the first time.

...