Is celebrating xmas a sin??

[gadar perets]

No! There's absolutely nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I agree, as long as we don't tell people December 25 is his birthday.

 

[.Mikha'el.]

So I am finding out that xmas is a sin, is it??

Unveiling the Christmas Storyi
By Shannon Achey
The festival of Christmas was celebrated by pagan
sun worshipers long before Yeshua Messiah was ever born.
It was originally called Saturnalia, or Paganalia. A great
compromise started when the early Christians at Rome
sought for a way to convert more pagans into Christianity.
They knew that the pagans celebrated Saturnalia in late
December, so they set the birth date of Yeshua to fall at
that time. These pagans worshiped their sun god on
December 25, as they kept the festival of Saturnalia. So the
church at Rome set Yeshua’s birth date to be on December
25. They believed that this was a way to gain more converts
to Messiah. However, their intent was to increase the size of
the Roman church. This act allowed two major religions to
become united, and everyone was happy, except for YHWH!
This was one of many compromises done to keep peace
between the different religions.
"After the triumph of Constantine, the church at
Rome assigned December 25 as the date for the
celebration of the feast (Messiah’s birth), possibly
about 320 A. D. or 353 A. D. By the end of the fourth
century the whole Christian world was celebrating
Christmas on that day…. The choice of December 25
was probably influenced by the fact that on this day
the Romans celebrated the Mithraic feast of their sungod
(Mithras), and that SATURNALIA also came at this
time", from Collier's Encyclopedia.

Our Father says very clearly do not take a pagan feast and change it to worship Him.

And he did give us specific days that are Holy to Him
Liv23.

Jer
10:3 For the customs of the people are vanity. For one cuts a tree out
of the forest with the axe, the work of the hands of the craftsman.
Jer 10:4 They adorn it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not wobble.
Jer
10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, and they cannot speak; carrying
they must be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of
them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good†.

I don't see the world through a pagan vs. non-pagan lens like many Messianics. Just the fact that December 25 is demonstrably the wrong day is more than enough reason to avoid it. As for putting up decorations and a tree, and the Santa Claus myth, those things have ZERO connection to the birth of Yeshua, so why would we bother with them? Just unnecessary fluff, if you ask me.

 

[dfw69]

As for true worship, we should seek to worship in spirit and truth to be followers of Jesus teachings to the best of our abilities seeking to please our father in heaven seeking a heavenly home

As for the feast of the lord ,technically it's not proper to fulfill imo without the temple and Jesus on earth presiding over such things ...

 

[gadar perets]

As for the feast of the lord ,technically it's not proper to fulfill imo without the temple and Jesus on earth presiding over such things ...

Paul taught us to "keep the Feast" of Unleavened Bread long after Yeshua left the earth (1 Corinthians 5:8). The Holy Feast Days are unfulfilled shadows that must continue to be kept until they are totally fulfilled. To cease keeping them is to cease proclaiming YHWH's plan of salvation through them.

 

[dfw69]

Paul taught us to "keep the Feast" of Unleavened Bread long after Yeshua left the earth (1 Corinthians 5:8). The Holy Feast Days are unfulfilled shadows that must continue to be kept until they are totally fulfilled. To cease keeping them is to cease proclaiming YHWH's plan of salvation through them.

There was a temple then right?

1 Corinthians 5:7 speaks of Christ our Passover ... Which is the feast he was referring to...Which is the lords supper or communion if you will, that is what we should keep .. Not keeping the old leaven which is the old covenant... As I understand it

We know Jesus will return and rebuild a temple and establish tabernacles, but until then we honor Christ through keeping the feast of unleaven bread through communion (not in a catholic sense) but through brotherhood remembering what the lord has done for us

If Christ was our Passover then sacrifices to the temple were no longer needed to be observed which was the proper way to keep Passover in those days

 

[StanJ]

I don't see the world through a pagan vs. non-pagan lens like many Messianics. Just the fact that December 25 is demonstrably the wrong day is more than enough reason to avoid it. As for putting up decorations and a tree, and the Santa Claus myth, those things have ZERO connection to the birth of Yeshua, so why would we bother with them? Just unnecessary fluff, if you ask me.

Do you celebrate July 4th?

 

[.Mikha'el.]

I'm Canadian. I've got no reason to pay it any heed.

 

[StanJ]

I'm Canadian. I've got no reason to pay it any heed.

OK, how about July 1st?

 

[.Mikha'el.]

Not really. I'm just not patriotic enough to care. I don't believe in begrudging anyone who does though.

 

[StanJ]

Not really. I'm just not patriotic enough to care. I don't believe in begrudging anyone who does though.

Good...so can I assume you feel the same way about Xmas?

 

[.Mikha'el.]

Yes.

 

[Hoshiyya]

> is celebrating christmas a sin

Yes. I wouldn't want anyone to really be punished for this sin, but eventually they will learn and stop doing it.

In English, sin has taken on a very dramatic connotation. This can be unhelpful.

In Hebrew we have 3 degrees of wrongdoing: Chatat, Pesha and Avera, which in the English Bible are translated something like like sin, transgression and iniquity. Sin/chatat as I recall is traditionally the LEAST grievous, and includes all the unconscious sins and includes many sins for which there is no punishment given in scripture.

 

[StanJ]

Yes.

 

[StanJ]

> is celebrating christmas a sin

Yes. I wouldn't want anyone to really be punished for this sin, but eventually they will learn and stop doing it.

In English, sin has taken on a very dramatic connotation. This can be unhelpful.

In Hebrew we have 3 degrees of wrongdoing: Chatat, Pesha and Avera, which in the Bible are translated something like like sin, transgression and iniquity. Sin/chatat as I recall is traditionally the LEAST grievous, and includes all the unconscious sins and includes many sins for which there is no punishment given in scripture.

Well that may very well be in the Hebrew language or in the Hebrew culture but in the culture of the New Covenant anything that is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23.

 

[.Mikha'el.]

I agree, as long as we don't tell people December 25 is his birthday.

I definitely don't see it as sinful as I said, but I really don't understand why anyone would observe it on that day if that day is definitely wrong. I'm not going to judge someone for doing it, but I don't get the rationale?

 

[Hoshiyya]

Well that may very well be in the Hebrew language or in the Hebrew culture but in the culture of the New Covenant anything that is not of faith is sin. Romans 14:23.

So you simply ignore the Biblical distinction between Sin, Iniquity and Trangression, which are NOT synonyms though they may be similar. Incidentally am quite certain the same distinction is found in the Greek Septuagint and the New Testament.

The Bible is the Bible. The New Testament cannot contradict the Old Testament, otherwise you have God contradicting himself, and God does not contradict himself. But that is a simple matter of logic, and besides the point. This ultimately boils down to a linguistic issue.

Also:

"Well that may very well be in the Hebrew language or in the Hebrew culture"

Your wording is very strange, because you're clearly trying to rephrase what I said. I am talking about the Bible, which happens to be written in Hebrew. You're trying to make my words into a statement on Hebrew culture, as separate from the Bible.

 

[StanJ]

I definitely don't see it as sinful as I said, but I really don't understand why anyone would observe it on that day if that day is definitely wrong. I'm not going to judge someone for doing it, but I don't get the rationale?

I'm pretty sure the rationale In that day was to Christianize a pagan festival, and it seems to have worked, despite the fact that other things have been added to it, the main focus these days is on Jesus' birth, and most people will admit that, even unbelievers.

 

[StanJ]

So you simply ignore the Biblical distinction between Sin, Iniquity and Trangression, which are NOT synonyms though they may be similar. Incidentally am quite certain the same distinction is found in the Greek Septuagint and the New Testament.

Address to post as it was written. As far as I'm concerned sin iniquity and transgression are all the same so unless you can exegete your point of view from the Bible then there's nothing for me to review.

The Bible is the Bible. The New Testament cannot contradict the Old Testament, otherwise you have God contradicting himself, and God does not contradict himself. But that is a simple matter of logic, and besides the point. This ultimately boils down to a linguistic issue.

You're right, the Bible never contradicts itself but the New Testament completes what God started in the Old Testament. You either accept that the New Covenant makes the old Covenant obsolete or you ignore the New Testament altogether. What will it be?

Also:
"Well that may very well be in the Hebrew language or in the Hebrew culture"
Your wording is very strange, because you're clearly trying to rephrase what I said. I am talking about the Bible, which happens to be written in Hebrew. You're trying to make my words into a statement on Hebrew culture, as separate from the Bible.

If you're talking about the Bible then show where in the Bible / Old Testament in Hebrew, that it says that or depicts that? A lot of Hebrew culture was exempt from the Bible, hence the Pharisees.

 

[Albion]

Our Father says very clearly do not take a pagan feast and change it to worship Him.

Not to worry. The feast was not changed but, as your own preferred version of things recounted the events, the Christians (who did not know on which day and month Jesus was born) chose December 25 for two reasons:

1. It long had been said that he was killed on the anniversary of his conception, hence late December would be time for the birth.

2. They selected the day in order to upstage the pagans. You yourself used that argument but then fell back on a different claim--that they instead adopted the Saturnalia for themselves and redesigned it. They did not.

 

[pat34lee]

I don't believe in my heart that celebrating Jesus at xmas time is a sin, I don't see all the frills associated with it is bad in any way if we can keep away from lying about Santa and Christ's birthday and significance of the tree and all that. Meaning I have always looked only at all the good things, people generally being good to each other, caring about others, helping the poor, the homeless, the sick, happiness and excitement of the children e.t.c.

Deuteronomy 12:30-31
30 beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?'
31 "You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.