Why do Adventists celebrate Christmas?

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Wags

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We were invited to the local SDA church today - a special breakfast for the craddleroll/kindergarten children. We took our two children and stayed for Sabbath School.

Two things jumped out at me - they were talking to the children about Christimas, and had the kids give presents to baby Jesus (doll in a manager scene). And secondly, they had the children praying to Jesus. :eek:

To say I was taken aback is to put it mildly. I always thought that there wasn't much difference between Adventists and Messianics other than y'alls belief in Ellen Whites status as a prophet. But neither of those acts I mentioned are scriptural.

Yeshua said to pray in his name to the Father. And there is absolutely no basis in scripture for Christmas, so why do Adventist celebrate Christmas and ignore the festivals appointed by the Holy One of Israel? :confused:
 

Dathen

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Adventists don't really have a Christmas statement. We all know it isn't Jesus borth and came from paganism, but it is an individuals decision, which can be influenced by their churches. For example my church thoroughly celebrates Christmas. I'm actually in the nitivity play. Of course we don't lie to our children about santa..Personally I think Christmas should be a time where we reach out to the community with the Good news of Christ and by good deeds for the community. I've made a decision that after this Christmas I'm not going to celebrate Christmas...I pretty much have to this year because of my commitment to things, but please pray for me...I was shocked by how much my pastor gets excited when christmas is near. We also have a service on Chritmas day....So I'm noy for big christmas celebration. I say give, but ask not to be given to. Of course, accapt things if someone does give them to you.
 
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Dasdream

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Yes we all know Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ., but how many people actually praise Jesus? You can have all the gifts for friends and family, you can sing Christmas carols and spend time with each others,but don’t forget the meaning of Christmas. Take a few minutes or hours to read and study the Bible with a group of friends, pray, sing some songs. Worship God! Earlier this year my grandfather told me he won’t be able to buy me anything for Christmas, because he just can’t afford it. I didn’t get upset or sad. I told him not to worry about it, there was no need to buy me gifts, it is Jesus’ “Birthday“, not mine. It is a celebration of our saviors birth. Gifts and presents aren’t needed, their wanted, but not needed. Now, since it is a celebration of Jesus’ birth, we should be pleasing him, not each other. The best gift we can give to our lord is having a group of friends and family together praising God! That is what Christmas is really about, Christ. When I was younger, my family bought me gifts, but before we opened the presents, we took 2 to 3 hours and dedicate it to God, just singing songs, reading the Bible and having discussion about God. Afterwards we would eat then open up our gifts. Now that we can’t afford to buy each other gifts, we don’t care, because celebrating the birth of Jesus is much more important then the latest video game or system. Those that tell you that we have to buy gifts because that is the point of Christmas are obviously confused and don’t really know or understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Yes the Bible says nothing about when Jesus was born, but does that mean we can't celebrate his birth? I don't see the harm.
 
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Wags

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But Christ-mas is catholic in origion and is not scriptural - so why not just keep Sunday along with the rest of the christian world, if you are going to follow along with keeping the Christ-mass?

Does singing songs and praising the Lord over a Christmas ham make it any more acceptable for eating?
 
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OntheDL

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We were invited to the local SDA church today - a special breakfast for the craddleroll/kindergarten children. We took our two children and stayed for Sabbath School.

Two things jumped out at me - they were talking to the children about Christimas, and had the kids give presents to baby Jesus (doll in a manager scene). And secondly, they had the children praying to Jesus. :eek:

To say I was taken aback is to put it mildly. I always thought that there wasn't much difference between Adventists and Messianics other than y'alls belief in Ellen Whites status as a prophet. But neither of those acts I mentioned are scriptural.

Yeshua said to pray in his name to the Father. And there is absolutely no basis in scripture for Christmas, so why do Adventist celebrate Christmas and ignore the festivals appointed by the Holy One of Israel? :confused:

Shalom,

Adventists aren't supposed to celebrate Christmas. But there is alot of people that compromise. I know that Christmas is also a delicate issue among the messianics. Messianics are a fairly new congregation. As a congregation ages, even with the 2nd, 3rd generation, compromises would creep in.

I know the children pray to Jesus. I think the teachers do it to personalize God. I don't think it's a big problem. Jesus technically is the Father and the adults don't do it.

There are actually many major differences between Adventists and messianics. Adventists believe in the historicist interpretation of prophecies. Most messianics believe in the futurist interpretation (pre-trib rapture for example). And depends on the which christian background the messianic group came from, most of them believe the immortality of the souls, rapture. And of course Adventists believe the rituals and ceremonies are done away with by the sacrifice of Jesus.

Hope this answers your question.
 
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Wags

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If adventists "aren't supposed to celebrate christmas" then why is there a christmas service at every adventist church I have ever seen? (and a whole bunch of them list christmas services on their websites as well, so I know its not just my little corner of the world) That statement just doesn't make much sense in the light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

If Jesus is the Father - then why did he say pray to the Father in my name? And why on earth would you teach children to pray differently than adults?

Not all messianics were christians before coming to their beliefs - some (although in this day and age it is the minority it seems) came to belief from Judaism.
 
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Dasdream

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But Christ-mas is catholic in origion and is not scriptural - so why not just keep Sunday along with the rest of the christian world, if you are going to follow along with keeping the Christ-mass?

Does singing songs and praising the Lord over a Christmas ham make it any more acceptable for eating?

The topic of Sabbath ( Sunday or Saturday has been specifically explained in detail and so has the reason as to why most religions have it on Sunday) So Christmas and Sunday are two extremely diffeent things

Are you saying we should decline a day dedicated to Jesus? We know it is not his real Birthday, but we are not celebrating his birthday we are celebrating his birth. :amen:
 
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Wags

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The topic of Sabbath ( Sunday or Saturday has been specifically explained in detail and so has the reason as to why most religions have it on Sunday) So Christmas and Sunday are two extremely diffeent things

Are you saying we should decline a day dedicated to Jesus? We know it is not his real Birthday, but we are not celebrating his birthday we are celebrating his birth. :amen:
Same arguement is used by those that choose to worship on Sunday - they dedicate that day to the Lord, so why shouldn't they worship then?

If you are singing "Away in a Manger" (like they were in Sabbath school this morning) how is someone to know that you aren't celebrating his birthday - and just his birth instead? Why be involved in promoting the man-made holdiay?

Do Adventist celebrate the other catholic holidays too?
 
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Eve4000

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Actually, some do celebrate Easter, though my family doesn't. It's mostly done in SDA churches because of tradition and not because of doctrine or anything in the Bible. Also, many people say that by having a special Christmas program, they can reach the Non-SDAs by inviting them to come, like how many churches used Passion of the Christ to do the same. Now, with the Children praying to Jesus, like "Dear Jesus...", then i dunno. i was taught like that as well, and i think as you grow older, you are supposed to transition from "Jesus" to "Father God" (at least, that's how it seems to be with the adults I know), but I don't get that really.
 
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Dasdream

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Same arguement is used by those that choose to worship on Sunday - they dedicate that day to the Lord, so why shouldn't they worship then?

If you are singing "Away in a Manger" (like they were in Sabbath school this morning) how is someone to know that you aren't celebrating his birthday - and just his birth instead? Why be involved in promoting the man-made holdiay?

Do Adventist celebrate the other catholic holidays too?
This isn't about catholicism, look you want to pray to God, read and study the Bible on Christmas Day or not is up to you. The Sabbath is on the 7th day anyone who believes otherwise obviously haven't bothered to even open their Bibles. I am done talking about the Sabbath, you and I both know what day it is on and I would hope you know the real reason as to why most religions do it on Sunday. I will not turn down an opurtunity to worship our God. This is the best thing man has ever done by creating Christmas. probably the only thing man has done for Jesus. As a SDA...I take that back..as a CHRISTIAN, I don't feel right preaching to people about God, then turning my back on a Holiday especially made to worship Jesus, just because "The people that made it aren't from my religion"

This isn't Halloween, or Easter or something like that, that has nothing to do with Jesus. I would feel like a hypacrite if I stayed in my room playing video games while the rest of the world praises Jesus! Don't you get it? I don't know the other Catholic "Holidays" maybe it's because Christmas wasn't just made for Catholics. Hey, I am sure Jesus is really happy with the fact that we made a day to celebrate his Birth! he is probably thinking "Oh, wow I didn't think they loved me enough to actuaslly make a yearly celebration of my birth"....well ok maybe he did know. Anyway you have your opinion on it and so do I, you can do as you wish on Christmas, decline it and don't celebrate it, but don't you dare say it is because you are an SDA, because our religion does not prohibit it and honestly if it did I would be extremely upset. I choose to celebrate the Birth, not because I am an SDA nor a Christian, I do it because I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

Caso Serrado!
 
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Cliff2

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Why do Adventists celebrate Christmas?


We were invited to the local SDA church today - a special breakfast for the craddleroll/kindergarten children. We took our two children and stayed for Sabbath School.

Two things jumped out at me - they were talking to the children about Christimas, and had the kids give presents to baby Jesus (doll in a manager scene). And secondly, they had the children praying to Jesus. :eek:

To say I was taken aback is to put it mildly. I always thought that there wasn't much difference between Adventists and Messianics other than y'alls belief in Ellen Whites status as a prophet. But neither of those acts I mentioned are scriptural.

Yeshua said to pray in his name to the Father. And there is absolutely no basis in scripture for Christmas, so why do Adventist celebrate Christmas and ignore the festivals appointed by the Holy One of Israel?

Sorry that you have had that type of experience because in our Church it does not happen at all.

Officially we do not celebrate Christmas at all.

What we do is often beacuase of the of the circumstances that we find ourselves in we do mention it in passing but to say we celebrate Christmas is wrong.

I have never seen a Christmas tree in our Church. I have seen a basket where people can place a can of food in it for the needy.
 
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OntheDL

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If adventists "aren't supposed to celebrate christmas" then why is there a christmas service at every adventist church I have ever seen? (and a whole bunch of them list christmas services on their websites as well, so I know its not just my little corner of the world) That statement just doesn't make much sense in the light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

If Jesus is the Father - then why did he say pray to the Father in my name? And why on earth would you teach children to pray differently than adults?

Not all messianics were christians before coming to their beliefs - some (although in this day and age it is the minority it seems) came to belief from Judaism.

But Christ-mas is catholic in origion and is not scriptural - so why not just keep Sunday along with the rest of the christian world, if you are going to follow along with keeping the Christ-mass?

Does singing songs and praising the Lord over a Christmas ham make it any more acceptable for eating?
Christmas did not originate from the Catholic church. It originated from Babylon.

Please be graceful. And not look at what others doing wrong. Just make sure everything you do is biblical and free of paganism.
 
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Sophia7

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We welcome guests to our forum, but CF Rule 1.4 prohibits debating in this congregational area by anyone who is not a Seventh-day Adventist:
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I had a message all typed up and then our electricity went off for a brief second (long enough to restart my computer though....grrrr).

My family does not celebrate Christmas at all. As an Adventist it really does bother me to see others do it within our faith, so I agree with a lot of what you say Wags.

In my small church some people celebrate Christmas, but most do not. The ones that choose to don't come anywhere close to the "mainstream" celebrations though.

Baptism is the true celebration of Christ's birth, scripturally. It's also the true celebration of His sacrifice.

I was on a Christian mailing list and they sent me a "BOYCOTT WAL-MART" e-mail stating that Wal-Mart employees have been instructed to quit saying "Merry Christmas" to the customers. Then the e-mail went on and on about how Wal-Mart was taking away the day of Christ's birth.

I wrote back and simply pointed out that December 25th is NOT the day of Christ's birth.

They removed me from the mailing list.

Around the first of the year my family celebrates a winter holiday we call "Festivus" (taken straight from Jerry Seinfeld...HA!). We celebrate our family, the children open gifts, and we talk about GIVING and how much Christ gave for us.

We don't have a tree, we don't lie about Santa, and we don't sing Christmas songs (not that I see anything wrong with the songs, I sing them ALL year).

As far as the feasts, I don't really see the comparison here. Adventists and Messianics actually have quite a few differences other than the feasts.

I have a few dear friends that are Messianic and they all believe that you sleep when you die, as I believe, and as is scriptural.

However, one Messianic woman came in here and debated immortality of the soul with me and was quite angry that I didn't believe we go straight to heaven when we die.

Messianics and Adventists have people within their own faiths that don't always adhere to every teaching within their faith.

As far as the feasts, my dear Messianic friends don't keep them scripturally and sometimes that's impossible to do anyway.

My husband and I were both baptized on December 25th of 2004. It fell on a Sabbath and was the PERFECT day to truly celebrate His birth in the way He wanted us to.

I don't see the point in celebrating Christmas, and like I said, it does bother me to see other Adventists do it. However, I don't try to sit in judgment of them or their motives. I just state my point of view and move on.
 
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