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Holiday Season? More

Holiday Season?

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  • But I don't think Christian holidays are entirely a bad thing when kept in the right perspective, too. Remember these verses [biblegateway.com] too. If one is truly celebrating the birth of Christ as a holy day and truly worshiping Christ in the process, no matter what day it is on, I don't think Jesus or Paul would have a problem with that.
    • Agreed. It doesn't matter what the celebration *was*, it matters what it *is*. If you're celebrating Christmas with the focus on celebrating the birth of Christ, then, why not? Why shouldn't we celebrate the birth of our Savior and Lord and praise God for sending His Son to us?

      It's sort of like Christmas trees. Some Christians don't like them, because they may have started out as a pagan idea that the evergreen tree represented a renewal of life. (This idea cannot be proved by the way, as modern Christmas

      • *sigh* Our Christmas tree isn't a good sign then. And we bought a live one! Half the lower branches are bare (3ish foot tree). Screw you Charlie Brown!
        • That Jeremiah passage linked in the JE omits verse 5: It's about making idols, not Christmas trees. It's out of context.

          I can't have live trees - allergies. We bought a new one this year, and all we could find were the pre-lit ones. So we got one of those. It's a 7 footer, so it fits well in our living room. Our old tree was only a 5 footer, but it was all we could fit in that hole in the wall we called an apartment, since when we got married we weren't making very much.

          • Probably. Note that trees were worshipped too. But not cut down.

            Traditionally, Jews brought trees or flowers in the house to celebrate Shavuos (fifty days after Passover) but stopped in about 1800's because Xians started using the tree. Jews still celebrate with flowers though.

            Even when the tree was used, it was not decorated. The tree itself was the decoration.

  • Yep (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mskfisher ( 22425 ) on Thursday December 22, 2005 @02:16AM (#14315332) Homepage Journal
    I agree. There are several things that are outright wrong with the way Christmas (I don't even like the word - Christ Mass) is celebrated, and what it represents and emphasizes.
    The original Jewish holidays are what I'd prefer - that's what all prophecy is tied to.

    But I gave up on being a stickler for that when I realized that "Christmas" and "Easter" are one of the few times that people are even open to the idea of God. There was a lady at work who walked by singing "Give praises to our Lord above" the other day - she's usually about two words away from a curse, yet there it was. This holiday is something that's in our culture, even as secularized as it is, that brings God into the public consciousness.
    "Be in the world, and not of it." We live here, and our assignment - as covenant sons and daughters of God - is to be Jesus in the world. He is the light in us, and we can't shine that light if we refuse to enter the world or acknowledge it because it's doing things "wrong." No! Use what you can for good while not compromising your own beliefs.

    Paul said that he was all things to all people, so that he might win some. That has to be the approach we take... we can't be Pharisees and try to spread the Kingdom by giving people a concussion with our Bible. That's not how God speaks to people. God speaks through love and relationship. Sinners know they're sinning. They don't need condemnation, they need to hear about God's plan for them - His love, how He sees them for their potential, not their faults - not how terrible they are. Religion says "you'll never be good enough" - people know that already. But God said, through Jesus, "no, you're not good enough - and you can't be, I know that - so I'll make a way, because I LOVE YOU. Just choose Me!" Since Jesus fulfilled the Law for us, God can now present everything as a choice, not a commandment.
    "The letter of the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life." That means you can't put God in a box.
    Part of me wants to say, "But... but... Christmas is an appropriation of a Roman holiday that has pagan origins and is tied to the cult of the..." - but I can't dwell on that. Whether I like it or not, this season is yet another clarion call for us believers to be Jesus to the world.

    But yeah, personally, I'm much more excited about Passover and Resurrection. Those are huge. God's a party animal, and those are His party days. w00t!
    Also, the Festival of Booths (though I haven't generally observed it in any way). I suppose I could get excited about Pentecost, too - that's what lets me live my life as I do, with the indwelling of His Spirit leading me. :) [there's more to that little smiley, but you'll hear about that in a future JE.]
    I have a running joke with a friend of mine that I'm going to set up a light display like this [google.com] for Resurrection Day, set to the tune of "He's Alive [rockymount...stries.org]" by Don Francisco [rockymount...stries.org]. (I'm getting chills just listening to it right now...)
    My friend said that I had to have at least a million watts per channel on that. My calculations show that, even 45 away at the curb, it would be equivalent to a full-bore jet takeoff... which is just about how loud it should be. :)
    • Hey, I appreciate your response.

      The original Jewish holidays are what I'd prefer

      I included verses 1-2 in the first link for an important reason.

      The LORD said to Moses, "Give the Israelites instructions regarding the LORD's appointed festivals, the days when all of you will be summoned to worship me.

      Use what you can for good while not compromising your own beliefs.

      That sums up how I try to deal with Christmas. Use the opportunity to share joy with other people, while avoiding the pagan, materialist

  • There's been no Christmas Tree in our house for about three or four years now.

    It's something that started with the referenced verses, but it goes further than that... We have found that the holiday (and the reason for the holiday!) is much more enjoyable, because we can put our energies elsewhere. We don't have to worry about finding a tree (or putting up the artificial one we had for years). We don't have to worry about cleaning it up when the holidays are over. We don't have to worry about our autisti
    • I'm glad to hear that you don't have a Christmas tree. That's a good start. :)

      I don't like nativity scenes, because there are so many historical errors in them. Like the bathtub-shaped "Noah's Ark"s you see as children's toys, they are bad teaching models.

      It is Jewish tradition to celebrate the anniversary of a person's death (called a yartzeit [answers.com]), not one's birth. Notice that in the Bible only Hebrew/Jew-killing tyrants are mentioned as having birthdays. Also, read the story of Chanukah in the second b
      • read the story of Chanukah in the second book of Maccabees.

        None of the Bibles I have contain the Apocrypha. (I'd have to go online to find them, I think.)

        Another thing to consider about Christmas is that the Gospel accounts spend little time on Jesus' birth. (In fact, they speed so quickly through it, that most people get confused and think that the Wise Men arrived at the manger when Jesus was still a newborn baby! Nativity scenes only foster this misconception.)

        I am well aware that the wise men arrived

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