Do you really think He wants this?
- Thread starter Jaxxi
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LoveGodsWord
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- Apr 19, 2013
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Just ask any person which Jesus is christmas celebrating, all would say the one of the bible, except some christians that happen to have problems with christmas.
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The Swedish Christmas is celebrated on the 24th.
The usual run of things is having a tree under which presents are stacked,
after watching Walt Disney it is time for santa to arrive,
a friend or one of the family goes out with an excuse,
they dress up with costume and beard,
Next comes a loud knock on the door,
"Is there any kind children here?"
And so someone opens the door and in comes a plump
individual (cushions),
then he is given a chair and the presents are handed to him one by one,
and he reads out to and who from.
When it is over he goes out and dad or someone else comes in.
So it does not take much for children to work it out.
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LoveGodsWord
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Yet there is no bible verse that says this. Christmas is a pagan traditions that is not biblical. Ok I am out for now. My thoughts is it is how you celebrate Christmas that is key and your motives for doing so. I only wanted to bring up the origins of where Christmas comes from as a background nothing more. Thanks for the interesting discussion everyone
.
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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN
My dad died 1/12/2023. I'm still devastated.
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I never celebrated Jesus B/day on Christmas. And was taught Jesus was born in April. My mom told me from the beginning. There's no such thing as Santa.
I've never heard of anyone stop believing in God/Jesus. Once they found out Santa is not true. I do believe before 10 years old. A parent needs to tell the truth. I have a nephew, that believed in Santa until 11 or 12 years old. He was laughed at. When he was talking about Santa, like he was real. Which was very hamulating.
Since the bible God/Jesus originated in a different language. Satan would also be called something else. So, Satan and Santa look a lot a like on paper means nothing to me.
Who knows. But I brought that up to Christian family member. And they think nothing wrong with it. And I shouldn't be the Grinch of Christmas. Their kids , their rules. My 5 year old nephew told his dad to lie to Santa. And tell Santa , he's a good boy. And he wasn't happy about Santa's rules.
I lie to kids all the time. Lying about Santa is nothing.
Haha !Some people will always lie about Santa, until their kids finds out . Or they need to be told. I really don't see lying to kids being dangerous . Just a part of life.
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You don't need bible verses for everything done on earth.
I think it would be worse if the world didn't celebrate christmas, at least they recognize him somehow.
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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN
My dad died 1/12/2023. I'm still devastated.
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I agree it's Pagan. But, I do like to decorate and lie to children about Santa leaving a piece a chocolate on the counters for them. Or having the elf change. How many day to Christmas ,from 20 to 60. If I have kids . It would be up to the father. Until a 7 or 8. Then I will let it slip out.
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muichimotsu
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Christmas is about generosity, not just the "worldly goods" in themselves. You think there aren't Christians like Franklin Graham with his Samaritan's Purse that give to those less fortunate? That's literally what my mom participated in for several years and we give to charity, Goodwill in particular, a few times a year to those that can use stuff we're not using anymore
The point isn't about giving Jesus a gift, even though ironically that is part of the Nativity story with the Magi and all. Or did you forget that part and want to just act like everything about Christmas is somehow un Christian even when it demonstrably IS Christian even divested of the Nativity imagery? Generosity, charity, goodwill towards your fellow human, these aren't a Christian monopoly, so don't act like they are.
And as for lying, Jesus is more often concluded to not have been born on December 25 by most scholars, given it would've been unseasonably cold and wet for a census and for the shepherds, the date partly derived from the idea supposedly of when John the Baptist was conceived, but honestly, even that could be brought into question and is irrelevant when we consider other factors that put it more likely in September or so. So if you want to stop the lying, maybe admit that early Christians celebrated Christmas on January 6 depending on the group in contrast to December 25
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coffee4u
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Sharing gifts is not 'giving worldy goods' unless that is how you choose to see it. Most times people give gifts as an act of love. The gift can even be home made like a basket of cookies or a hand knitted garment. It depends on the heart of the giver and why they are giving. Other people give because they like to be seen as giving. Do you see how completely different that is? You are looking on outward appearance.
1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
You need to stop assuming you know peoples motivation-you don't.
As to lying to children, I never once lied to my children about Santa. We read the Bible on the birth of Jesus and went to church. My children never thought that Santa was real. He was just a funny guy dressed up, no different to Elmo or Big Bird. You can enjoy make believe without believing it.
Again you are assuming a lot of things about people you don't know.
The older you get the more you will see your own faults and less those of others.
Why do you think when Jesus spoke to the women caught in adultery the people who wanted to stone her moved away from oldest to youngest?
As an older women I am offering you my best advise even though I think you will ignore it.
People make Christmas or any day whatever they want to make of it. You don't know what they do or think but you are assuming that you do know. You can't see into peoples hearts only God can.
And if a person is steeped in the world again that isn't for you to berate them about it. This is for God to work on them. We are all a work in progress. If they are in sin then they need God to reveal this to them, not you. Share verses but share them in love. let the word do it's work.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Not unless you see them doing something that will cause them to fall into hell should you 'call them on it'. While I don't think believing in Santa is a good thing for children, I think it's a mistake, this is not the same thing as messing around with a ouija board or watching inappropriate content.
Matthew 7:2
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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tampasteve
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I think it's a perfect date to celebrate the birth of the World's king and saviour. What better way to celebrate the Christ, the King of eternity, the God of all that is, all that was, and all that will be than to celebrate it on a date that he has conquered? This is the perfect way to celebrate that our God had bested all others and conquered time and dates, for He is ever outside of those and master of them. I pay no heed to dead and non existent "gods".
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Taodeching
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Santa is real. St. Nicholas was a real person, many assume he was fake because of a Coke commercial back in the day and parents tell their kids. Tell them the real story but don't deprive kids of the magic and innocence they have
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coffee4u
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Most people know it isn't the actual day-because we don't know the actual day.
Over here we have a holiday for the Queens birthday -it isn't on her birthday but another more convenient day, which is what Christmas day is, convenient.
There is no god Mithras, it's a demon posing as such, and the 25th of December isn't it's birthday. Demons don't have birthdays.
By continually thinking about it as being a 'pagan day' you are validating it as being something. It isn't a pagan day because there is no such thing, God owns all the days.
Psalm 118:24
24 This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
I agree, it's a perfect slap in the face to what might be viewed as a pagan day.
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What is pretty simple and easy is answering the question! How can you be offended by someone asking a question? No one judged anyone- I mean I am guilty of doing it...and then I thought about it and I thought that others might want to think about it. There is a lot of parental " peer" pressure on this custom. I GET IT. However I told my kids the truth young because I wanted them to understand who was most important on Christmas- and it wasn't the ' false idol'. I told them that they had to keep the secret though because other parents wanted their kids to believe in him. They didn't understand why when it wasn't true. I started to wonder why myself, and all I could come up with was " its magical". What does the Bible say about magic? You know the rest. Sorry if the question had you ready to box.Here's the thing about Christmas: you want to celebrate it? Celebrate it and don't judge people who don't. You don't want to celebrate it? Than don't just don't judge people who do. You can have any or no reason for either one, where the problems come in is when you decide "I don't do that and I don't think you should either!" The first part is okay, the second part is not your job.
tulc(thinks it's pretty simple really)
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tulc
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LOL! You think this is the first time someone has started a thread about this on CF? If this wasn't 2020 and we weren't in the midst of a pandemic we'd probably have about twenty of these threads going at once on here. They tend to start right after Halloween and go till the end of the year. some want to know "How can a Christian justify celebrating a pagan/secular/fill in any of the half dozen or so different reasons people have for wondering why people do things they don't like" holiday. Some pretend to be asking opinions, some are more honest and just come right out and tell people "You're a "suspect Christian" if you do this!". And then people say "Well if you want to celebrate, than celebrate, if you don't, don't, just don't judge other people for thinking differently than you think they should." And it generally always ends with "Sorry you got offended at my simple question." and 99 times out of 100, it's not the people who say "don't judge others" who have gotten upset, it's usually the people who can't understand why other Christians insist on having a different opinion than they do." So, let's be clear on this: you didn't offend me, I wasn't "ready to box" and I've had nothing but fun posting in this thread. You asked for opinions about something, others gave it, you told them their opinion was wrong. That sort of kind of of sounds like someone who's interested in "boxing" about a subject. Anyway, try plugging "celebrating Christmas" in the search box at the top of the page, I suspect you'll find plenty of threads from past years of CF that you might find interesting.
tulc(hopes that clears up any misunderstanding Jaxxi seemed to have)
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While this isn't exactly verbatim applicable here, I think we can extrapolate from this:
"But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."
Food to us is a fairly minor issue, but under the Old Covenant there were a number of laws surrounding food and there was much conflict over that issue amongst believers during the early days of Christianity.
In the end we don't have to follow the old dietary laws under grace, however, IF we believe it's a sin to do something, it literally becomes a sin if we do it anyway.
Why? Because its the space your heart's in, you believe you've sinned against God and done it anyway, for whatever reason. (Never a good thing sinning against God, and never something we should feel comfortable doing)
There is a LOT of commercialization of the Christmas holiday, most of which I find utterly shocking as a believer simply because it's Christians engaging in it, but I have a fairly puritan mind too so there is that.
I do think such things as large spreads of baked goods and holiday decor and gift giving, Santa Clause etc seems to have taken the place, for many, of the Messiah.
But like food and eating, it's a heart thing... it doesn't have to take the place of Christ, in which case the celebration wouldn't run afoul of idolatry commands...
You can make anything an idol simply by giving it the place in your heart that Christ belongs. You can make an idol out of following laws just as much as you can make an idol out of Christmas celebrations...
It's really about where your heart is. I would caution you though, not to celebrate at all until you work through what is sin and what isn't where concerns this matter.
Is giving to the poor ever a bad thing? No. Is decorating your home a bad thing? No. Is memorializing the birth of Christ a bad thing? No, even though it's not commanded. Is getting together with family and loved ones a bad thing? No..
So what is left is the question 'are you, personally, making this holiday into an idol, giving it the place in your heart where only God belongs'? Or 'should God have a higher place on this day than I'm currently giving Him'?
If you want, have a Christmas without any commercialization of it... see where your heart is - your kids might not like it, but it might do all of you good to explore this topic together. Have them look up Bible verses in support of their positions, as well as others that don't support them and so forth... discuss it as a family, go through it as a family.
That might just take you all somewhere really good, if your kids are old enough...
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