The Massacre Of The Innocents – Photo of a 16th Century stained glass window panel. Public Domain.

by Brian Shilhavy

I have not celebrated the Christian Christmas holiday for several years now. This year, not only am I not celebrating it, I can no longer return the “Merry Christmas” greeting to my well-meaning friends and family, because there is absolutely nothing “Merry” about Christmas this year, in 2023.

And I am not the only one not celebrating Christmas this year.

Jesus in the Rubble. Image source.

In the city of Bethlehem, the historic birthplace of Jesus Christ, where every year millions of Christians worldwide visit to celebrate Christmas in Jesus’ birthplace, Christmas has been canceled.

The Palestinian Christians, many of whose families have lived in Bethlehem for over 2000 years since the birth of Jesus, cannot be “Merry” because hundreds of them have lost their children and loved ones in the Hamas Israeli war.

I’m a Christian Palestinian in Bethlehem. This Christmas, we feel alone and broken.

As a Palestinian Christian, canceling Christmas celebrations this year feels right.

Every year at Christmas time in Bethlehem, bright lights and colorful decorations adorn the streets and homes in the Christian areas of the city where Jesus was born. Christian communities light trees and people crowd Christmas markets, where their neighbors sell handmade gifts.

As Palestinians, we welcome tourists this time of year, and celebrate with them the re-birth of Jesus and the rebirth of hope. During Ramadan, we do the same. We fast together and then celebrate Eid holidays.

This year, Christmas is canceled. The lights are dark and there are no bustling Christmas markets. Bethlehem feels empty, and we feel broken.

Christian leaders here canceled the celebrations in solidarity with Gaza. We can’t celebrate until our friends and colleagues in Gaza, both Muslim and Christian, are safe and can celebrate Christmas with us.

This Christmas is different. Across the West Bank, we, as Palestinians feel alone as the world watches our brothers and sisters in Gaza face unimaginable suffering. Usually a time when Palestinians, Christian and Muslim, celebrate the birth of Jesus with tourists from all over the world, today we feel like the world is no longer with us. We feel alone in our suffering.

We worry our children in Bethlehem are next

As a humanitarian aid worker, my work has always given me hope during times of conflict and injustice, and a reason to work for the greater good and to serve the people in greatest need. Since the beginning of this recent violence in Gaza, and while responding to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe there, that hope has felt very distant.

Instead, I feel a tightness in my chest. Trapped, insecure and without hope. I love my country and I love being a Palestinian. But it seems the longer we hold on to our country, the more we suffer.

We are angry, sad and afraid over what’s happening in Gaza.

For years I told my children that they are safe living in Bethlehem. Now they know I’ve been lying to them. They see the Israeli soldiers on their way to school and they watch the news. They see Palestinian children being killed and as much as I want to tell them this couldn’t happen to them, we worry that the West Bank is next, that our children are next.

Since the start of the relentless bombing of Gaza and the violence across the West Bank, my children cry at the sounds of nearby explosions. I hold them tight and tell them where to hide when we hear these sounds.

I think about how families in Gaza have lived with these sounds for more than two months.

As a Palestinian Christian, canceling Christmas celebrations this year feels right. We can’t celebrate while Palestinians in Gaza face so much suffering. (Full article.)

For those of you Americans who went to a Christian Church this year to celebrate Christmas, I am curious about something. Did your church and their leaders pray for the Christians suffering in Palestine right now, or did they pray for their oppressors, the Zionist Jews, and their “right” (where does this “right” come from??) to “defend themselves”?

The western Christmas holiday is first and foremost a marketing bonanza to promote commercialism and retail sales, like most holidays.

It is one of the religious holidays, designed to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Western commercialism presents it as a “family friendly” positive holiday, with family traditions practiced for gathering together and exchanging gifts.

I was listening to a Christian radio station this morning, thinking it would all be music since all of the radio DJs were taking a few days off for Christmas.

But they played a short clip from a pastor, a very famous Zionist pastor, and in this clip which was probably from a sermon he preached in his church, he stated that the “red” on the clothing that Santa Claus wears is “red” to represent the “blood of Christ”, and that “Christmas Trees” represented the cross of Jesus Christ.

While this disgusted me, it did not surprise me, because American Christians need some way to rationalize participating in American commercialism and the spending of money at Christmas time.

Hollywood has produced many “feel good” films over the years to be played at Christmas time, to promote the “Christmas spirit.” It is also the time of year when Christmas music is played to contribute to this “Christmas spirit.”

Many Christians will celebrate by reading the biblical stories of Jesus’ birth as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

If you are gathering together with family and loved ones during this season, and enjoying this holiday, consider yourself blessed. There is nothing I am writing here that is intended to steal your joy during this season. By all means, enjoy it, while you can.

But the Christmas holiday season also brings much sadness, not only for Palestinian Christians, but also for many Americans who are separated from family and loved ones, including the multitude of parents in the U.S. who have lost their children to the corrupt child welfare system that routinely kidnaps children from loving families, often through medical kidnapping.

Others are separated from family because they stand for the Truth, and Jesus Christ, and have counted the cost of being a disciple of Jesus, which more often than not means losing the support of your biological family.

You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. (Words of Jesus recorded in Luke 21:16-17)

So if you find yourself this Christmas alone and separated from family, take heart, and be encouraged, because even Jesus was eventually rejected by his family, and even considered “insane,” because he spoke out against the tyrannical Jewish system of his day. See:

Does Your Family Believe You are “Out of Your Mind”? You’re in Good Company Because Jesus Faced the Same Thing with His Family

And the fact is that the actual “Christmas” event that took place in Bethlehem, was hardly celebrated by anyone on earth, other than some common shepherds in the area, and a caravan of “Magi” who arrived from Persia (modern day Iran) a short time after his birth.

These “Magi” were most likely descendants of the Jews who were carried away into captivity during the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple back in 586 BC, one of whom was Daniel who wrote the Book of Daniel in the Bible, and was at that time “better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” (Daniel chapter 1).

How ironic that today, the country that produced these “magi” that were the only ones who recognized the signs of the times, and determined through the constellation of stars that it was the time for the “Christ” to be born – something that no scholars in Israel were even able to determine at that time, is the country of Iran today, a country with a large number of Jews and Christians still living there today, but a country that Evangelical Zionist Christians want to attack and start killing people, as is currently happening in Palestine.

The Christmas story, which is indeed a story of hope and salvation at the birth of Jesus Christ, is also a story of mass murder of innocent children, very similar to what we are seeing today.

This is a story that is part of “Christmas” that most Christian Churches and their “pastors” will most likely ignore today, but it is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible:

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:7-18)

While traditional recounts of the “Christmas” story include the visit of the Magi from Persia, very few will continue on to read what happened after the Magi left Bethlehem and returned to their country.

The Jewish King Herod conspired with assassins, possibly members of the military, or possibly professional criminals for hire, to commit infanticide in the city of Bethlehem, by murdering all the male children under the age of 2.

For these families who lost their children, “Christmas” was anything but “merry.” It was a time of tremendous pain and loss.

This forced Jesus’ earthly parents to take him out of Israel to hide for several years, until the Jewish king died.

So the birth of Jesus, while bringing hope of deliverance from the tyranny of the Satanic ruling Jews, also began a period of the Satanic ruling Jews conspiring to prevent Jesus from fulfilling his role of the Jewish Messiah, and true king of the Jewish people, and in fact all of humanity.

Human History Records a Constant Conflict between the Satanic Jews and the Godly Jews

From what I have written so far, it can be easily seen that from the time of the birth of Jesus, there have been two kinds of Jews: the Satanic Jews as seen in the Christmas story with King Herod and his assassins, and the Godly Jews as represented by Jesus’ Jewish parents, Joseph and Mary, portrayed in the Bible as common peasants and certainly not among the ruling class.

After the recording of a visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 years old, we never hear from Joseph again. He is presumed to have died prior to when Jesus began his public ministry at the age of 30.

But what little we know of him from the Christmas story, shows a remarkable man of faith, who undoubtedly had to endure public ridicule for not divorcing his betrothed wife after it was discovered she was pregnant, and not from him. He obeyed everything God told him to do by protecting the child of his wife who was not his, understanding just how precious this child was.

I find it rather remarkable, that this distinction between the ruling Satanic Jews, and these simple common Godly Jews, in how they treat children, really has not changed over the centuries.

The Satanic Jews hate children, while the Godly Jews see children as precious gifts from God.

Jesus himself exhibited this love for children in his own ministry.

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:13-14)

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6)

There are two occasions recorded in the Gospel accounts of when Jesus became angry. One was when the Satanic Jewish merchants/bankers were ripping off people in the temple (see Matthew 21:12-13), and the other one was when they tried to prevent children from coming to him.

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16)

The New Testament portion of the Bible gives multiple accounts of how the “conspiracy/plot” of the Satanic Jews tried to prevent the masses from learning about Jesus, first by opposing Jesus himself, and then later by opposing the disciples of Jesus Christ.

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. (John 7:1)

So from that day on they plotted to take his life. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. (John 11:53-54)

Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him. (Acts 9:22-23)

The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. (Acts 13:49-50)

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. (Acts 14:3-5)

When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. (Acts 17:13-14)

Because the Jews made a plot against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia. (Acts 20:3)

The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. (Acts 23:12)

Paul was of course an ethnic Jew, and also a religious Jew, from the party of the Pharisees. He was converted from being a Satanic Jew where he was killing and arresting Godly Jews, before he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, as told in Acts chapter 9.

He then became a Godly Jew and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

It was revealed to these early disciples of Jesus in the New Testament that the true “Godly Jews” were the ones who became disciples of Jesus Christ, regardless of their ethnicity or religious affiliations.

This was first revealed to Peter, in Acts chapter 10:

Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” (Acts 10:34-35)

This had always been true, as the promise given to Abraham, was a promise for “all families of the earth,” and not just the physical descendants of Abraham through the line of Jacob (ethnic Jews).

And Jehovah said to Abram, Go out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house into a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Paul is the one who truly expounded upon this truth, that the true Godly Jews were the ones who followed the faith of Abraham, regardless of ethnic or religious affiliations.

Even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Therefore know that those of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations through faith, preached the gospel before to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all nations be blessed.” So then those of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:6-9)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:28-29)

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:28-29)

Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. (Romans 3:29-30)

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:12-13)

This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 3:6)

So here we are today at the end of 2023, and nothing has changed! The Satanic Jews are attempting to create their New World Order, and those who stand for the Truth, who belong to Jesus Christ and are now the “Godly Jews,” are the ones who are called “conspiracy theorists” because we expose their lies.

We are also labeled “Anti-semitic” for exposing the Satanic Jews, when the Satanic Jews are the ones conspiring against the Godly Jews, and are the true “Anti-semitic” ones.

This is the heart of the true “Christmas” story. A story of great hope and salvation, but also a story of constant conflict against the conspiracy of the Satanic Jews who seek to murder and enslave us.

You can’t have one without the other.