Nattering Nabobs of Negativity
Here it is, the night before Christmas, and I have had it, once again, with the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity. Each year, at Christmas, the Nattering Nabobs start to pontificate.
The Nabobs, usually, don’t like the Pontiff, but are sure to become self appointed pontiffs. They don’t like Christmas and look for ways to ruin it for everyone else. Their dogmatic view should be accepted by the rest of us, and we Traditionalists, are just fools to ridicule.
The meaning of the word opinion, and the English phrase, gratuitous assertion have never connected with the Nabobs. The meaning of the words assume, and presume have escaped them as well.
The Nabobs presume that people of faith are ignorant. The Nabobs presume that our faith is based on mere opinion. The Nabobs presume that their silly, uniformed opinion, bears the same weight as historical fact. Historical facts seem to be something they are short on.
So, let’s look at some facts.
Imaginings of the Nabobs
The Nabobs wild imagining’s get the best of them. Instead of doing some scholarly work, they just presume to know, and presume that their own imaginings bear the weight of reason, and real work.
Without getting into all of them, I’ll point to my favorite Nabob imagining. Which is that Christ could not have been born in December based on the actions of the Shepherd’s.
Many of the Nabobs assert that the Shepherd’s could only be tending flocks in the spring. They also assert that December is too cold for Shepherd’s to work. They assert that the Shepherd’s wouldn’t possibly leave their flocks even if angels appeared to them.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if my family business was sheep, I would be tending to my sheep, like any other business, year round. If I were out tending my sheep, and angels appeared to me, I would be finding out what it was all about. Being as my sheep herd might be a family business, or even the business of a whole clan, I wouldn’t have much trouble finding replacement Shepherds.
I will admit that I haven’t put any effort into checking the Shepherd’s Union Bylaws for any insight into this. There could be stipulation in the Shepherd’s Union Contract about this; but I’m not wasting time looking for it.
I think the Nabobs are all washed up on this one.
The year of our Lord’s birth.
St. Mathew tells us that Christ was born during the reign of Herod. Herod reigned from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C. It can be known from history that Herod died in the year 4 B.C.. There are events mentioned in the Gospels, such as, the building of the second temple, which also marks a place in time.
We do not need to rely solely on Sacred Scripture for information from that era. Secular historians, like Flavius Josephus, recorded events from that era. Even 70 years later, we have the writings of General Titus, who made a report to Rome, on the destruction of Jerusalem, another fixed pint in time.
You see, the Roman government kept records, like any other. After the last of the persecutions, Church Fathers were able to examine these records. Among the records, were the tax mentioned in the Gospels. St. Joseph, had to travel to Bethlehem to register and pay his taxes.
The tax, paid by St. Joseph, was collected in December. I have heard the Nabobs, silly radio preachers mostly, claim that the tax was collected in the spring. They don’t offer and reasoned proof, just an opinion.
Here in the modern world, our taxes are assessed from January 1st, to December 31st. Why would it be all that different in the first century?
Why would the Roman government collected taxes in the spring, when no one had yet produced anything to tax, in the first place?
Nabobs, you are all wet on this one too.
Proofs, from scripture, that Jesus was born in December
Before going on, let’s state a fact, that all can agree on. The normal gestation period, for a human being, is nine months. If you are one of those people that claim an alternative reality, and want to question this, you do not belong here. Oh, they are out there.
We are told, from Scripture, that St. Zachary had a visit, from an angel, while in the Holy of Holy’s. This was a duty the high priest performed once a year in the month of Tishrei. Tishrei corresponds, roughly, with our month of September. St. John Baptist was born shortly after.
We are told that the Blessed Virgin was three months pregnant, with our Lord, when she went to visit St. Elizabeth. And we are told that St. Elizabeth was six months pregnant with St. John Baptist.
September is the month that the birth of St. John Baptist is observed and December the birth of the Lord.
The Day of the Holy Birth
Most likely at the end of December. December 25th falls within that time frame and it is good enough for me. The Early Church Fathers examined the documents, at hand, both secular, and Church documents, and deduced that it was December 25th.
Pagan Sun Gods
The Nabobs assert that because a pagan sun god was worshipped on the 25th of December, that the worship of Christ, on that day is pagan. It doesn’t matter to me, and here is why.
The Nabobs are really saying that the pagan sun god is greater than Christ. If Christ can’t be worshipped on that day, that would make the pagan god greater.
News flash for you Nabobs; My God is the creator, and author, of every day, they are all his days. If I can’t worship on some day, because some pagan, somewhere, worshipped their false deity, on that day, I couldn’t worship at all. There is no doubt, in my mind, that on any given day, of any month, there was, some time, in history, a pagan feast.
Sun God Worship
The Nabobs assert that the worship of the Son of God is sun god worship. The Nabobs say it is because the English word sun, sounds like the English word son.
I have two Latin words for you Nabobs; Filius Dei, which means, Son of God. The Latin word for sun is sol. Sol does not sound like filius, which was used before English was invented.
Pease have a most holy and happy Christmas,
And you Nabobs as well.
