The Bible And Celebrations,Festivals,and Holidays?

Holy Days in the Bible were established by the Laws of God. Not the traditions of man. They were times for communities of people to come together and acknowledge God such as harvest times and the Sabbaths. The holidays we celebrate today resemble very little of that though many Christians are coming to understand that Halloween, Easter and some Christmas related stuff is very much pagan. Not knowing the history of a family tradition has hindered people. In the days of biblical times and prior to Moses written history pagan practices were inhumane. The Jews were a people set apart from the rest of the world to establish benchmark laws against such practices as idol worship, infant and child sacrifice, temple prostitution and orgy carnage like celebrations. The Sabbaths were especially a time of rest, worship ( the hebraic of this term simply means coming into the presence of God) and scripture teaching...families getting together. The high Sabbaths were celebrated as a portent to the birth of the Messiah and His eventual ultimate sacrifice for giving His life. As far as I'm concerned for me and my family there is no harm in a birthday, Christmas with the absence of Santa Claus and Thankgiving, etc. However, we do not celebrate Easter or Halloween. Also...just because its called a "holiday" doesn't make it a "holy day". Just a day folks set aside to bar b q or hang out and not hafta go to work and so forth. Aside from that..I don't really know of anyone who gets bent out of shape. Maybe Jehovah's witnesses...maybe. I dunno. People have their opinions. Choose life. Love in Christ, ~J~

I think the bottom line is that, unfortunately, many Christians are somewhat phobic of other religions. Festivals based around nature and the seasons have come to be associated with paganism, which for centuries has been viewed as evil and demonic by most, if not all major Christian teachers. Likewise, many Biblical festivals are actually based in ancient Judaism, which has for many centuries been viewed in an equally poor light by many church authorities.

I'm afraid many Christians today seem to be suffering from the same malady that afflicts just about any religion when it becomes the dominant religion of a country or culture: its followers get used to having the "top spot," so to speak, and become phobic of different practices and beliefs which they fear may displace theirs. I have a hard time thinking of a single civilization where this -didn't- happen. The Jews were persecuted by the Egyptians for practicing Judaism; the Christians were persecuted by the Roman Pagans for practicing Christianity; after that the pagans were persecuted by the Christians for practicing Paganism. And even today, many Christians don't like anything that smacks of another belief system, be that atheism, paganism, Islam, etc.. It's an unfortunate situation that leads to a lot of decidedly un-Christlike behavior.

I'm afraid this situation will probably not be remedied until many Christians become a little more accepting of other beliefs and practices. It's like these days people get so defensive and nitpicky about the particulars of practice that they get completely distracted from the core of the religion. The Bible specifically warns believers to free themselves from "the letter of the law" so as to serve "the spirit of the law." If people did that more I think they'd find that we followers of different religions all have a lot more in common than they thought. But I'm afraid that's not one of the more popular teachings in many churches these days.

What we have is a group that calls themselves Christians but do not obey the Word of God, being deceived about the gospels and the purpose of Christ in fulfilling the Passover sacrifice of atonement for sins. Some would have you believe it means the Law is no longer valid. Other know that there is a difference between sacrificing Christ to atone for sins and obliterating God's Law altogether. If there is no longer Law, then no need for Christ to be the name that saves us from breaking it. How can we ask for salvation from breaking a Law that is destroyed? Some of us know that when God declared His Feasts and Holy Days, that we should observe them out of love and obedience. The other man made holidays and pagan festivals have nothing to do with the Word of God. God warned us clearly not to adopt the practices of the people around them, yet that is what has been done. It is not meant as criticism, but a desire to open the eyes of those who call on the name of the Lord.

The bloody history that comes with the holidays and how the christians took them over from pagan origins comes to my mind first. Then they have the arrogance to try to rewrite history and claim that they have ALWAYS been christian holidays.

I don't celebrate Christmas... I celebrate Yule which is usually on around the 21 st of December. But when somehow the mention of this to a local fundy Christian in this area has them accosting me and telling me that I am trying to take over a Christian holiday and taking Jesus out of Christmas or some other ignorant rant on their part.

I don't care what day they choose to celebrate anything. They could be celebrating the ability to scratch the bottom of their foot for all I care. But I do resent being put down or criticized for practicing MY OWN religion. I do not interfere with members of my family who are christian having Christmas. In fact I do a lot of cooking for them so that their celebration is nicer.

I guess they get threatened because deep down inside they realize at some level that the claim that Christianity took over pagan holidays is true. Some get angry in response, ignore it or say that "good" christians shouldn't celebrate those holidays. They try to make the rest of us stop celebrating as well.

Too bad... they can cry all they want. In the end they really have no control over it.

Christmas is extremely "Christ Mass," a Catholic invention. look in historic previous. Nowhere in the Bible does it say to celebrate the day of His delivery. somewhat, we are to celebrate His dying and resurrection, yet that no longer on a undeniable day the two, yet in each and every thing WE DO, commonplace! Easter is likewise pagan in nature, and yet another "holiday" that the Catholic church "baptized" and made "Christian." No, for sure, the Bible does not coach those issues. Neither does it coach countless what passes as Christianity in recent times.

The word LAW was used unilaterally like the word WINE.

Where wine was both Old and New.

The LAW was SEVERAL Bodies of Ideas.

1. Moral Law (10 Commandments)

2. Health and Diet

3. Ceremonial Laws (pointing to the Messiah)

We no longer are pointing to something that has already occurred. We point BACK to the Cross and explain to the unconverted "jews" that the Ceremonial Laws are (done away with).

Don't talk to a Jehovah's Whitness about holidays and the Bible, unless you really want to hear an earful. Holidays, festivals, etc. are based on traditions. You can still be christian and not celebrate christmas. Christ never said, thou shalt celebrate my birthday. Same goes the other way, you can still be christian and celebrate any holiday.

Most, if not all, Christian celebrations come from Pagan traditions/celebrations.

because sometimes people sacrificed babies during their religious festivals and some of us are against killing babies;

some people are funny that way.

go figure...