Christmas Question

[Peter]

This is for those who celebrate Christmas.

Do you follow the December 25 date? What is your justification for this?

THank you.

Peace.

Peter

 

[lands21]

I do follow this date, just because the is the date historically used.

I do not believe anyone knows the actual date, but most believe this is wrong date.

 

[OnederWoman]

We do observe the 25th still... but we are trying to move away from that and celebrate Jesus as the Light of the world during Hannuka (which is the likely time the Holy Spirit came to Mary and she became pregnant) and celebrate the birth of Jesus during Tabernacles... which is the most likely time of his birth. (even still, we'll celebrate the 25th with family... even in our own convictions we're not going to be legalistic about it).

 

[Lotar]

This is for those who celebrate Christmas.

Do you follow the December 25 date?

Yes

What is your justification for this?

No justification really, just tradition. Does it really matter what day we choose to celibrate?

 

[Lotar]

We do observe the 25th still... but we are trying to move away from that and celebrate Jesus as the Light of the world during Hannuka (which is the likely time the Holy Spirit came to Mary and she became pregnant)

How did you come to that conclusion?

 

[OnederWoman]

How did you come to that conclusion?

which conclusion?

de-emphasizing "chirstmas" because of the traditions that are mainly pagan? or the date which Jesus was actually born?

the first is a personal choice/conviction. the second comes from looking into studies on the topic... below is one that mentions Hanukkah...

http://www.biblicalholidays.com/Hanukkah/messiah_in_hanukkah.htm

there are many very interesting studies on why scholars believe Jesus was actually born on tabernacles... and it is pretty well know how they got the December 25th date in the first place (which was in an effort for the Catholic church to get those who were pagan to convert... they made up "Christian" holidays to substitute for the pagan ones and kept the old traditions).

 

[Lotar]

which conclusion?

de-emphasizing "chirstmas" because of the traditions that are mainly pagan? or the date which Jesus was actually born?

the first is a personal choice/conviction. the second comes from looking into studies on the topic... below is one that mentions Hanukkah...

http://www.biblicalholidays.com/Hanukkah/messiah_in_hanukkah.htm

there are many very interesting studies on why scholars believe Jesus was actually born on tabernacles... and it is pretty well know how they got the December 25th date in the first place (which was in an effort for the Catholic church to get those who were pagan to convert... they made up "Christian" holidays to substitute for the pagan ones and kept the old traditions).

Interesting article. I was refering to the date of birth. I know that the dec 25 date was just to line it up with a pagan holiday, personally I have no problem with that, but I don't care if someone chooses to not celebrate it either. How about other holidays? How do you celebrate Easter?

 

[1John5:3]

Christmas, Date and Origin of

Source: Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1958), pp. 60–62. Copyright 1952 by Francis X. Weiser.

[p. 60] The early Christians, who attributed to Christ not only the title (Kyrios) but also many other honors that the pagans paid to their "divine" emperors, naturally felt inclined to honor the birth of the Saviour. In most places the commemoration of Christ’s birth was included in the Feast of the Epiphany (Manifestations) on January 6, one of the oldest annual feasts.

Soon after the end of the last great persecution, about the year 330, the Church in Rome definitely assigned December 25 for the celebration of the birth of Christ. For a while, many Eastern Churches continued to keep other dates, but toward the end of the fourth century the Roman custom became universal.

No official reason has been handed down in ecclesiastical documents for the choice of this date. Consequently, various explanations have been given to justify the celebration of the Lord’s nativity on this particular day. Some early Fathers and writers claimed that December 25 was the actual date of Christ’s birth…

[p. 61] It was expressly stated in Rome that the actual date of the Saviour’s birth was unknown and that different traditions prevailed in different parts of the world.

A second explanation was of theological-symbolic character. Since the Bible calls the Messiah the "Sun of Justice" (Malachi 4, 2), it was argued that His birth had to coincide with the beginning of a new solar cycle, that is, He had to be born at the time of the winter solstice… This explanation, though attractive in itself, depends on too many assumptions that cannot be proved and lacks any basis of historical certitude.

There remains then this explanation, which is the most probable one, and held by most scholars in our time: the choice of December 25 was influenced by the fact that the Romans, from the time of Emperor Aurelian (275), had celebrated the feast of the sun god (Sol Invictus: the Unconquered Sun) on that day. December 25 was called the "Birthday of the Sun," and great pagan religious celebrations of the Mithras cult were held all through the empire.

 

[1John5:3]

Christmas, Date of
​

Source: A. H. Newman, "Christmas," The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, p. 47. Copyright 1909 by Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York. Used by permission of Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Mich., present publishers.
​

Christmas:​

The supposed anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, occurring on Dec. 25. No sufficient data … exist, for the determination of the month or the day of the event… There is no historical evidence that our Lord’s birthday was celebrated during the apostolic or early postapostolic times. The uncertainty that existed at the beginning of the third century in the minds of Hippolytus and others—Hippolytus earlier favored Jan. 2, Clement of Alexanderia (Strom., i. 21) "the 25th day of Pachon" (= May 20), while others, according to Clement, fixed upon Apr. 18 or 19 and Mar. 28—proves that no Christmas festival had been established much before the middle of the century. Jan. 6 was earlier fixed upon as the date of the baptism or spiritual birth of Christ, and the feast of Epiphany … was celebrated by the Basilidian Gnostics in the second century … and by catholic Christians by about the beginning of the fourth century.
​

The earliest record of the recognition of Dec. 25 as a church festival is in the Philocalian Calendar (copied 354 but representing Roman practise in 336).
​

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Christmas,​

on Winter Solstice, Sun’s Birthday
​

Source: Franz Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (reprint; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960), pp. 89, 90.
​

[p. 89] A very general observance required that on the 25th of December the birth of the "new Sun" should be celebrated, when after the winter solstice the days began to lengthen and the "invincible" star triumphed again over darkness. It is certain that the date of this Natalis Invicti was selected by the Church as the commemoration of the Nativity of Jesus, which was previously confused with the Epiphany. In appointing this day, universally marked by pious rejoicing, which were as far as possible retained,—for instance the old chariot-races were preserved,—the ecclesiastical authorities purified in some degree the customs which they could not abolish. This substitution, which took place at Rome probably between 354 and 360, was adopted throughout the Empire, and that is why we still celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December.
​

The pre-eminence assigned to the dies Solis also certainly [p. 90] contributed to the general recognition of Sunday as a holiday. This is connected with a more important fact, namely, the adoption of the week by all European nations.
​

 

[OnederWoman]

How do you celebrate Easter?

With a Passover Sedar

We don't do the bunny... but we will let our son hunt eggs at my Moms, otherwise she spazzes... we just do the Ressurrection Eggs and at least that way they get a positive focus.

 

[suzie]

This is for those who celebrate Christmas.
Do you follow the December 25 date? What is your justification for this?
THank you.
Peace.
Peter

Justification? We are bound to celebrate a certain day or we are "wrong" somehow--or "right"?

 

[BBAS 64]

This is for those who celebrate Christmas.

Do you follow the December 25 date? What is your justification for this?

THank you.

Peace.

Peter

Never thought about it, I Guess I celebrate Christmas like all Americans on Dec. 25, because that is the federal goverment at some time set for that date for the holiday to be celebrated in USA.


BBAS

 

[A. believer]

This is for those who celebrate Christmas.

Do you follow the December 25 date? What is your justification for this?

THank you.

Peace.

Peter

Most evangelicals celebrate Christmas on December 25th because of tradition, but I don't know of any who consider it binding doctrine, though, nor is it in violation of anything in Scripture, so there's no inconsistency with sola Scriptura if that's what you're getting at.