Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

Originally posted by LemonJello
You weep because you have not tapped into the awesome powers of Jesus Christ. I pray that you do, so that your tears will becomes tears of joy and truth and justice. I was once like you, stubbornly only formulating belief in proportion to the available evidence. Now I know that one must surrender all his earthly possessions to Jesus Christ -- an ...[text shortened]... r that! Jesus will forgive you for all your dastardly transgressions against the Word of God!

And when we run out of arguments and fail to see the truth, we turn to mockery as a form of entertainment.

I do find it interesting, however, that any reference that you make to Him is capitalized, inferring some modicum of reverence. Good for you. God never gives up on His children.

Originally posted by Ullr
You bring up a good point. First of the holiday today know as Christmas was originally in Heathen times know as Yule. The purpose being to celebrate the Winter Solstice. It was/is after all a time of the shortest day of the year and the longest night and a time when on the following day the sun begins its long ascent towards Summer. Both the Christmas Tree ...[text shortened]... that was worshiped typically at that time of year known as Ostara (or Eostre in Anglo Saxon).

It still is known as Yule, it's still celebrated as Yule by "heathens" but a few days before the Christian Christmas.

Eostre (Easter) is also still celebrated by "heathens".

Blessings... 🙂

Originally posted by telerion
I think there is a theorem somewhere that goes as follows:

Theorem
While being a True Christian does not necessarily imply that one always knows the right way to interpret a difficult passage, not being a True Christian necessarily implies that one always misinterprets a difficult passage.

The theorem above allows for two True Christi ...[text shortened]... e who is not a True Christian.

The proof of the corallary follows the proof of the Theorem.

This is so beautifully profound, it is no wonder that noone chose to retort.

Originally posted by beerbrewer
And when we run out of arguments and fail to see the truth, we turn to mockery as a form of entertainment.

I do find it interesting, however, that any reference that you make to Him is capitalized, inferring some modicum of reverence. Good for you. God never gives up on His children.

You reply in vain. LJ has left the site.

Originally posted by aspviper666
You may jest at the idea,(and your joke is lol funny),but doesn't having presents under the tree almost symbolise offerings to it??We sing songs around it and also to it.It reeks of idolity at some level.
But I agree it smells nice ,and I have had but one Christmas in my life with no tree(last year),and it sucked totally,and I am not really a Christian. ...[text shortened]... eoples wants and their desires to make others happy.And the corporations are making bank on it.

You people, I swear. Is it really that hard to figure out. Think about it... Chistmas is the celebration of the birth of the Christ child and everybody gets presents on their birthday (see the three wise men). Now understand, times were tight back then. so the only cool gifts came from rich people (if you think back, chances are the gifts you remember most are the ones that cost the most money). Now I am sure that there were other gifts like hand-carved whistles and paddleballs and stuff. But there wasn't much room there in the barn, so as people presented their gifts, Mary politley asked the to place them under the tree outside and the Holy Family would get to them when everyone cleared out. Yeah, you're right. The Bible doesn't mention it, but God did give each of us a brain. So use it.

Originally posted by Halitose
You reply in vain. LJ has left the site.

Chicken sh!t. I was just gonna let him have it, too.😉

Originally posted by aspviper666
You may jest at the idea,(and your joke is lol funny),but doesn't having presents under the tree almost symbolise offerings to it??We sing songs around it and also to it.It reeks of idolity at some level.
But I agree it smells nice ,and I have had but one Christmas in my life with no tree(last year),and it sucked totally,and I am not really a Christian. ...[text shortened]... eoples wants and their desires to make others happy.And the corporations are making bank on it.

as soon as you start calling that tree gog then it becomes idolatry

The church has brought in a lot of pagan and unbiblical customs. The wise men came to worship Him and brought gifts, but there is no command to celebrate His birth in the fashion we do today. Also, the world system has found a way to capitalize on it. In Romans 14 Paul talks about esteeming one day above another. If we choose to celebrate Christmas, I think we should be aware of what and why we are celebrating and that a lot of what we do cannot be justified by Scripture and the whole thing has been corrupted by the world system. I would say if your conscience condemns you don’t do it.

Originally posted by masscat
The church has brought in a lot of pagan and unbiblical customs. .

I challenge you to name one you clown!!

Originally posted by gharguth
I challenge you to name one you clown!!

There's no need for name calling...

Many Christian celebrations are taken from pagan ones or incorporate aspects of the pagan celebration. Easter bunnies, hot cross buns and eggs have what to do with the death of Christ?

Originally posted by gharguth
I challenge you to name one you clown!!

That's easy.

1. Santa Claus (the jolly old elf). Elves come from Teutonic/Norse mythology and from Heathen religion. Read the Poetic Edda, Snorri's Prose Edda, and the works of the great scholar Jacob Grimm titled "Teutonic Mythology"

2. Easter. The name Easter itself is derived from the Anglo- Saxon work Eostre and Ostara in Germanic. This name refers to a heathen goddess of the same name that was typically worshipped by heathens at the coming of Spring.

3. Christmas Tree - decorating a tree and leaving offerings underneath was a heathen custom typically done outside to attract elves and other landwights. Only after the Christian conversion did the was the custom of decorating a tree brought indoors because doing it publically became frowned upon.

4. Hell - original spelling in Old Norse was Hel. Hel referes to the Norse underworld and the goddess that rules over it. It was not a place of suffering and torture however. That came later with the Christian conversion. It was a place where folks that didn't die in battle and were not chosen for Valhalla went. The 19th century Swedish scholar Vicktor Rydberg wrote extensively about the heathen concept of the afterlife and Hel. The name of his largest work is called "Researches in Teutonic Mythology" and can be bought on Amazon.

Numerous other examples exist. Look the bottom line is that as Christianity migrated into Northern Europe it ran into resistance from Germanic and Norse heathens. Allowing the people to retain their folk customs and integrate them with Christian practice was key to the success of the spread of Christianity. Along with war, politics, economics, and good old fashioned coercion of course.

Ever wonder why the two major Christian holidays that are celebrated today just conveniently happen to fall on the same date as the major heathen celebrations such as: Yule (Christmas) and Easter (Ostara)

Did you realize that our days of the week are named after Heathen deities? For example.

Sunday (Sunnesdag or Sunna's day - Sunna being the heathen sun goddess)

Wednesday (originally Wodensdag in Anglo Saxon - Woden being the Anglo Saxon name for the chief god otherwise known in Norse as Odin)

Tuesday (Tiwsday or Tyrsday - the god of war and justice Tyr)

Friday (Freysday - the god of fertility Frey)

Saturday (Saturn's Day - not sure how a Roman god got mixed in with Germanic but it is Grimm's belief that this is where the name is derived)

Thursday (Thunarsdag or Thor's day - the well known god Thor)

and so on...

Again read the work of the scholars that have done the research such as Grimm and Rydberg. You'll be amazed at what you didn't know.

Originally posted by dags
It still is known as Yule, it's still celebrated as Yule by "heathens" but a few days before the Christian Christmas.

Eostre (Easter) is also still celebrated by "heathens".

Blessings... 🙂

I know. I am a heathen.