How serious are you when it comes to Christmas and your belief?

[SonOfThunder]

Christmas is a man made thing, we all know Jesus Christ was probably not born around this time and pagen rituals shaped what we know as Christmas today.

Gift giving, family reunions, remembering Christ are all positives.

Finacial difficulties, alcohol, trees, decorations and family disagreements or accidents are negatives.

I wondered how people who know the Bible cope with this season? We thinkabout Jesus Christ daily, we meditate on The Bible daily, so what is Christmas to you?

James

 

[aReformedPatriot]

i just like the food. thats it. Im not to fond of anything else. It has no bearing on my faith, and actually since ive become a Christian christmas has meant less and less to me. However it is good to remember the birth of Christ

 

[Ave Maria]

I love to celebrate Christmas. I do believe that remembering Christ should be an important part of Christmas too. I know some Christians won't celebrate it. I respect that. My views on Christmas may change over the years but in all honesty, I don't see much wrong with it other than the fact that it is very commercialized.

 

[SonOfThunder]

I was wondering how you cope with the replacement of rituals such as focus on santa,trees, food, decorations, parties when you know it is based from a mixed up pagen past?

For me it is normal not to celebrate this time of year. I would struggle celebrating and wonder how this new church I am going to will deal with it.


James

 

[rural_preacher]

I was wondering how you cope with the replacement of rituals such as focus on santa,trees, food, decorations, parties when you know it is based from a mixed up pagen past?

For me it is normal not to celebrate this time of year. I would struggle celebrating and wonder how this new church I am going to will deal with it.


James

There is a strong chance that your new church celebrates Christmas. They may even have a tree and other decorations in the church. The pastor may preach messages about the birth of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.

I encourage you to quietly refrain from direct participation, but allow them to do what their conscience allows them. Please read Romans chapter 14. That will help you to deal with the differences between your own position on this matter and that of others.

In fact, you might even find the pastor's messages around this time of year to be particularly instructive and full of blessing.

Just my .02


--

 

[GreenEyedLady]

Christmas is a man made thing, we all know Jesus Christ was probably not born around this time and pagen rituals shaped what we know as Christmas today.

Gift giving, family reunions, remembering Christ are all positives.

Finacial difficulties, alcohol, trees, decorations and family disagreements or accidents are negatives.

I wondered how people who know the Bible cope with this season? We thinkabout Jesus Christ daily, we meditate on The Bible daily, so what is Christmas to you?

James

Romans 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.


Whatever day we take or want to take to make holy unto the Lord, we can. One can take the paganism out of Christmas and just use that day to glorify God. I don't do Santa, or have any parties nor do I participate in them. I do celebrate advent and read devotional out of Handels Messiah each night to the kids. We have a tree. My friend and i have gone round and round about this one. She has a JW backround. I still see no evidence that the tree is pagan. If I was worshipping it and singing to it, then that would be a problem. There are so many things that we do in this country that is pagan and we don't even realize it.
BTW my friend celebrates Hannaka to replace Christmas.
GEL

 

[SumTinWong]

I wondered how people who know the Bible cope with this season? We thinkabout Jesus Christ daily, we meditate on The Bible daily, so what is Christmas to you?

Howdy James,

I am on your side of the fence by the way so let me just start by saying that. I cope with the season in hopes that people will look past the red suits into the hearts of the bell ringers and see that perhaps they do it to glorify their God. I am a cynic at heart (Lord forgive me) and tend to look at all the commercialism as a way for the evil in this world to take away from the great message of the birth of God incarnate.

Then again as i write this I wonder if the tiny few who only go to church on the big holidays (Christmas and Easter) will one day hear the message that was meant for them and perhaps that will turn to God. Who knows.

Christmas to me, is not presents, lights, shopping, going into debit, etc... It is about love. God so loved me that he sent his Son for me, to die in my place. The time should be irrelevant to us, as to when Christ was born. We should celebrate that birth every day of every year. I stood up in front of the church and challenged people last year to stop waiting for these man made holidays to reconcile with those we have been away from, or to not wait for these days to get right with God. If CHristmas to you means family and love and friendship, then do what you can every day, as today very well may have been the day Jesus the Christ was born.

And oh yeah I really like candy canes.

 

[AJ]

I too believe that the commercialism and focus on things other than Christ are huge distractions. The primary focus of the holiday should be on the birth of Christ. (Although we all know this was not the actual date, most likely.)

 

[ZiSunka]

For several years I was seriously antiChristmas. Then I realized that modern Christmas has little to do with Christ, it is a secular holiday mostly, not a corruption of a Christian holiday. So I still don't have a tree or anything for the obvious reasons, but I do set out several manger scenes, even at my office in a government building, and I let my focus be on the mircale that for 33 years, man could see God face-to-face, and that God died in our place when we deserved to be condemned. The whole thing to me is a celebration of God-dwelled-with-man. That's the astonishing thing to me, God habitated among us and we could behold him face to face. I get all goose-bumpy thinking about how wonderful that must have been for the people who were alive back then.

Whether you celebrate or choose not to celebrate, let it all be done for the glory of God!

 

[caitlincares]

Howdy James,

I am on your side of the fence by the way so let me just start by saying that. I cope with the season in hopes that people will look past the red suits into the hearts of the bell ringers and see that perhaps they do it to glorify their God. I am a cynic at heart (Lord forgive me) and tend to look at all the commercialism as a way for the evil in this world to take away from the great message of the birth of God incarnate.

Then again as i write this I wonder if the tiny few who only go to church on the big holidays (Christmas and Easter) will one day hear the message that was meant for them and perhaps that will turn to God. Who knows.

Christmas to me, is not presents, lights, shopping, going into debit, etc... It is about love. God so loved me that he sent his Son for me, to die in my place. The time should be irrelevant to us, as to when Christ was born. We should celebrate that birth every day of every year. I stood up in front of the church and challenged people last year to stop waiting for these man made holidays to reconcile with those we have been away from, or to not wait for these days to get right with God. If CHristmas to you means family and love and friendship, then do what you can every day, as today very well may have been the day Jesus the Christ was born.

And oh yeah I really like candy canes.

I try not to get into all the commercialism aspects of the holiday.
As a single without children I can avoid the man in the red suit.

I try to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.
Check the link in my siggy about keeping Christ in Christmas.

I will also be posting Christmas articles in my CF journal - some serious and some fun.
One will be the Legend of the Candy Cane - it has religious symbolism.

Also using an advent calendar is useful in focusing on Christ.
Here is a thread with different online advent calendars.

 

[QuagDabPeg]

Even if you don't do Santa and such, it's still not just any other day. Even if it's not the actual day he was born, it's the day we celebrate it. I mean, Easter is on different days every year, so I'm sure that might not be always the exact day Jesus rose. The important thing is celebrating the event. And I think giving presents sorta makes sense - after all, it is a birthday! =P

 

[caitlincares]

I did decorate a Birthday cake one year that said "Happy Birthday JESUS".

My family and friends thought I was weird.

 

[Crazy Liz]

SoT, Christmas is the Christian feast of the Incarnation. I know you are struggling with the whole idea of the Incarnation, so Christmas will probably be a difficult and confusing time for you. I agree with the others who have suggested you go slowly.

One thing that might help you is to notice and put your uncomfortable feelings in 3 categories:
1) Commercialization. We can all do big and little things to protest the commercialization of Christmas.
2) Customs with pagan origins. Christians have different beliefs about whether or not such customs can be redeemed. The JW approach has been to look for signs of paganism and, whenever they find them, do the opposite. The problem with this approach is that the opposite of a lie often is not the truth, either. Become aware of this and see how it shapes your thinking over time.
3) The Incarnation. I think this is the most important reason JWs object to Christmas. It celebrates God taking on human flesh. This is what makes Christmas meaningful to me. Singing the hymns filled with prophecy and doctrine of the Incarnation is the most precious aspect of Christmas to me. As you hear the scriptures read from the gospels and Isaiah, meditate on this. You don't have to make up your mind once and for all. But the Advent season and Christmas, I think, will give you an opportunity to process your issues around the Incarnation in a different context and in different ways. When you see tears running down people's faces on Christmas Eve as they sing, "True God of True God ... begotten not created. Oh come, let us adore Him..." you will likely feel somewhat uncomfortable, but you may also begin to understand in a different way than you can by logic and words.

Again, don't rush yourself. I have an artist friend who is a former JW. A few years ago she owed me some money, and asked if she could pay me with some artwork. I told her for a long time I had really wanted a really special nativity scene. Since she is a sculptor, would she make me one? Well, it's been about 5 years and I still don't have it. She, I think, is still processing what it represents. That's OK with me. I hope every time she thinks of me, this unfinished commission will draw her to meditate on what the birth of Christ means to her.

Here are links to a couple of my favorite hymns about the Incarnation:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/c/ocomeayf.htm

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/h/hheralda.htm

 

[blessedbyhimmom]

We also celebrate Christmas. We don't do Santa or the commercialism. Some of what we do is family tradition. We often have non-Christians staying with us for a year, we find it a wonderful opportunity to share with them.
We do have a tree - it's a symbol of the cross. It is then decorated with angels and music. As we decorate it we talk to our children how God created the angels and why. We are a musical family, we thank God for His gifts to us.
We do celebrate it as a day to observe that Christ was born and the miracle of it all. We also give gifts to our children. We remind them of the gifts that Christ was given by the wise men and the ultimate gift that Christ gave us.
There is a lot of symbolism for us in it. We also are reminded that we should have joy. We should be reverent and joyful!

Lori

 

[GreenEyedLady]

Even if you don't do Santa and such, it's still not just any other day. Even if it's not the actual day he was born, it's the day we celebrate it. I mean, Easter is on different days every year, so I'm sure that might not be always the exact day Jesus rose. The important thing is celebrating the event. And I think giving presents sorta makes sense - after all, it is a birthday! =P

Actually Easter is way more accuate day that Christmas. It always follows right after passover and that has always been the same time of year, so we do get that holiday right as far as the date goes. I think regardless of what Day we would want to honor Christ satan would do his best to try and ruin it with something.
GEL

 

[ZiSunka]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to GreenEyedLady again.

​

 

[Glisten]

I love Christmas, but not for myself. I love to see Christmas through the eyes of children. To me Christmas is mostly for children. It makes them happy, feel loved, and important to us as parents. We care for our children just as the world cares for the Christ child, and hope for the future. Christmas in church is very special too, and it gives us time for reflecting on the Saviour. It is a wonderful season. Paganism was never about love. Christmas now stands of love and hope. Quite a difference now.


My .02

 

[Iollain]

I love Christmas as well. I would agree that us pagans have had a hard time letting go of our old customs, but we have saw a Great Light, the Light of Truth. The star or angel at the top of the tree reminds me that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, in His human form, or a star of course reminds me of the star over Bethlehem. The Christmas season is a great spiritual time to focus on the birth of Christ, and i'm glad that there is a Christmas season because it is a time that the whole world, or most of it, will have to reflect on the meaning of it, with so many people celebrating the birth of Christ. The Christmas hymns can be very Spirit filled as well, i swear i can almost hear angels singing at this time of year

How can someone not get anything out of this one?

O Holy Night
O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!



While i was looking to copy and past these lyrics, the first i ran into was Christina Aguilera's lyrics to this song.....see even the big 'stars' have to face the fact that Christ was indeed born. I call Christmas a good thing

 

[Iollain]

This might sound weird, but i love watching the 1950 something version of Scrooge, it always makes me strive to be more Christ-like to mankind.

 

[SonOfThunder]

With the tree, I read a bit on the internet and wondered why it is used and brought inside the house.

(quote from a site) The fir tree has a long association with Christianity, it began in Germany almost a 1000 years ago when St Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree. In anger, St Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and to his amazement a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree. St Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith. But it was not until the 16th century that fir trees were brought indoors at Christmas time. (unquote)


I am guessing it can be a symbol of new life, maybe related to a new spiritual life believers have?

I wonder what you think as you get a young tree (even the plastic one from the shop) and erect it in your house? I wonder if you relate it to Christianity or see it as a ritual and 'part of Christmas'?

James