December 25?

[Peter]

Since this area is for deeper understanding of each other, I ask the following question:

How/Why did/do Protestant choose to celebrate Christ's birthday on the same day Catholics celebrate Christ's Mass and Orthodox His Nativity Feast?

Peace.

Peter

 

[Bruno]

Christmas did not originate in either Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox churches. This holiday started in paganism and cleverly worked its way into Christianity, just like so many other customs.

http://www.godsaidmansaid.com/topic3.asp?Cat2=244&ItemId=773

 

[Peter]

Your reposnse does not answer the question. The question does not state that Catholics or EO originated anything. It asks why Protestant celebrate on the same day. I know why RCC and EO do, but why Protestants?

Peace.
Peter

 

[jz4jc]

Listen Peter, why do you always have to talk down on us like your right and were wrong? You remind me of the Pharasee's in the bible, in that your always persecuting.

Matthew 12:10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
Matthew 12:11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
Matthew 12:12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

If you read back, the protestants broke off from the cathloc church because the "HIGH PRIESTS" at the time wouldn't let peasants read the bible, thats when the church let rome start becoming part of the church. Only the HIGH PRIEST could read the bible. Well Im sure your well studied on history and scripture just like the Pharisees so I need not go on.

Basically, our church has history with the cathlocs, and we continued the tradition. SO WHAT? You cathlocs (or Pharisees) focus on stupid little things like I pointed out (WITH SCRIPTURE) above. If you wanna point out a little problem with our Faith (notice i didnt say religion) here, I'll point out some with yours.

Problems with the Pope

Hebrews 3:1 ¶Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Problems with Praying to saints

Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Problems with your priests even!

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

 

[pmarquette]

How/Why did/do Protestant choose to celebrate Christ's birthday on the same day Catholics celebrate Christ's Mass and Orthodox His Nativity Feast?
1. because we are " christian's first " and protestant's second ;

2. because , despite the denominational rhetoric we still respect the " hutspa " of the Catholic church and Pope , who still say no to secular humanism , new age , and left wing liberals ...

3. because society celebrates it on those days for all " christians ", giving us a vacation day ...

4. because we believe in Christ, we put more in the Salvation Army kettle , than under the tree ...

does that answer , thy question , beloved of the Lord?

 

[jz4jc]

Amen pmarquette!

 

[Peter]

Thank you. The last post was at least an attempt to answer the question.

Hey jz, calm down. Read the posts. Did the first response answer the question? No.

I happen to have quite a few Protestant friends who celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7th. They defend their position quite well. Most RCC and EO celebrate Dec. 25 because of a number of reasons, not the least of which happens to be a strong sense of duty to obeying church polity, Traditions and traditions.

So, what are your reasons? It's simple question. I'm only looking for a simple response.

Peace.

Peter

P.S. I'm not Catholic!

 

[jz4jc]

Well I thought a little about this conversation. I was talking to a friend of mine about this, and he pointed me to Ecclesiastes 7:1

A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

Maybe its saying, that its better to celebrate Jesus' death, rather than his birth.

Heres your simple answer:

I was brought up a RCC, and my mom always made Christmas a big deal. So Im guilty of the same thing... but I have to do some praying on this subject, because I have a child on the way, and I don't know whether I should give my child a christmas or not, gotta do alot of thinking AND praying on the subject.

Sorry I got mad, your post just rubbed me the wrong way...

And if your not cathloc, what are you?

 

[water_ripple]

Since this area is for deeper understanding of each other, I ask the following question:

How/Why did/do Protestant choose to celebrate Christ's birthday on the same day Catholics celebrate Christ's Mass and Orthodox His Nativity Feast?

Peace.

Peter

Because even though our denomonations may be different we still have our roots in the ancient church...

I know that some celebrate Christmas in July or some other month. I must admit that though I identify more with the prodestant faith (as to process of worship and not praying to saints..as Catholics do) that I yearn for all of us to be united as one. The beauty of celebrating as one (like most of us do..not looking down or attempting to offend) lets everybody see how Christ can touch the lives of the unbelieving. Christmas is the time when a lot of people feel the love of Christ (even in disbelief) and start seeking Him out. That is just the way I feel about it, and when we do things as one body we are greatly more effective even though our method may be different.

 

[endure]

just to be honest about my own reasons.
ive been saved pretty much my whole life, i know i wasnt born saved, but i was saved so early that i cant remember when it really was, i only remember certain times of great impact in the altar as a small child, but i had been in church before that and i beleive i trusted in the Lord the best i could before that.
but anyway.
even through all these years as a christian, Christmas never meant Jesus to me.
though it should have, and i heard everyone tell me so, but it didnt really click up top till recently, maybe even tonight even....

but today.
i will use dec 25th to celebrate Jesus' birth, becuase that is the day that is convienent.
in harmony with the rest of the body of Christ and the world.
i see no reason to make it any other day.
the trees, the colors, that doesnt mean anything to me.
i understand the trees and alot of it has pagan roots and.
but if i never had a tree, it wouldnt bother me. but i see no reason to not have one either, its how we doit. though if we didnt have one, so what.

the gifts, i guess from now on ill do that as an occasion and chance to show love to my family, the way God showed love to us.

the nativity scene, ya know the whole stable, cows, donkeys, 3 wise men, a few sheperds, mary and joseph both there, and jesus as little baby just born....
i dont beleive that is biblically accurate.
i have a few reasons to beleive it didnt happened in a stable.
and that joseph was not present when she was giving birth.
and that the visitors did not arrive to meet Jesus and give gifts untill he was atleast a few or several days or weeks older.
but i wont cause any needed problems by making a fuss about this.
i think all the diffrent figures in the scene do a play apart in the overall plot of what happened.

that may not aswer every why, but i think those are my whys.

 

[Peter]

Now were getting somewhere. thank you.

jz, I am Eastern Orthodox. Born Protestant and converted to EO three years ago. Some of my EO brothers in other countries celebrate the old calendar date for Christmas, as do some Eastern Right Catholics and, I believe, the Coptic Christians.

Peace.

Peter

 

[Messenger]

It's the date on my Calendar...guess I accidently bought a Catholic Calendar or somethin???

Love and God Bless,
Messenger

 

[Peter]

Well, yes. In a manner of speaking.

Peace.

Peter

 

[jz4jc]

Eastern Orthodox? Never heard of it, Explain...

 

[Peter]

The short version...

As the church grew, it became clear that pastors needed pastors, thus bishops. As the number of bishops grew, one was selected from these bishops to be a pastor to the bishops. He was called a Patriarch. There were five of these, one was in Rome, the West, and the other four were in Eastern regions, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople and ????? (dooooh!).

In 1054, after years of stewing, a schism occured between the Patriarch of Rome and the other four. The four Eastern Patriarchs are the line from which Eastern Orthodoxy comes. The Western Patriarch, Pope in Latin, was what we know as the Roman Catholic Church. Some times the Eastern group are known as Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox. you might know them as such.

Help?

Peace.

Peter

 

[jz4jc]

Why did you convert? What caused you to do that?

 

[Godsgrace]

Yes Peter, Please tell us why you converted.

Christmas - Society has put such a extravegant hold on this day that its real meaning has for the most part been forgotten. Little children can tell you about Santa but most do not realize that it is the celebration of the Nativity, sad....

Love in CHRIST

Janice

 

[Peter]

I was born into a very loving Protestant family that introduced me to Christ from my earliest days. As I grew older I began to see that the version of the christian faith I was raised with was different from so many other expressions. This caused a longing in me to worship as the apostles did, to find the NT church.

I was raised in cultural setting that only offered two choices, Protestantism and Catholicism. I was raised to distrust Catholics. In fact, I was told that Rome was the "great harlot of Babylon." The older I got, the more true division I saw within Protestantism and still strongly distrusted the RCC. As time passed, the inovations within Protestantism pushed me further and further away. In some 25 years I found that the things I had been taught were no longer being taught, or were only being held to very loosely.

This led me into a great dilema. I could not find the Christianity I read about in the NT. For a while I looked into the Jewish side of things, concluding that the apostles were Jewsih and therefor Christianity is a Middle Eastern religion.

Three years ago I went to a hockey game with a friend of mine, who is also Orthodox. And to keep conversation going, asked him what Orthodoxy was.
I heard things I had never heard before. Historical things. When I went to my sources, all Protestant, I found that they supported everything my friend had said. From there it has been a steady progress into the Eastern Church. The church, I believe, is the church of the holy apostles and our Lord Jesus Christ.
My position regarding the RCC has changed, but my choice would indicate that I believe there are still some issues within her that I cannot justify in my mind.

Peace.

Peter

 

[Godsgrace]

Thank you Peter for sharing that with us. I really appreciate your honesty. Some don't like to dicuss convertion.

Love in CHRIST and HIS teachings,
Janice