TheHolidaySpot: Christmas is for joy, for giving and sharing, for laughter, for coming together with family and friends, for tinsel and brightly decorated packages… But mostly, Christmas is for love. Christmas, Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus. The English term Christmas (“mass on Christ’s day”) is of fairly recent origin. It was this love for which Jesus came to this world and sacrificed his life.
Thus Christmas is a celebration of love and mirth symbolized by the Nativity, the Santa, the caribou, the poinsettia and the evergreens. All that bring home the spirit of love and life. And this is the spirit that makes Christmas so popular throughout the world.
Though originated by the Roman Catholics who commemorate the December 25th as the day of birth of Christ Child, it has gradually come to be celebrated by the non-Catholics as well. As far as the United States goes, the celebration of X’mas is comparatively of recent origin. Much of the world was already well into Christmas celebrations by the time the United States began to wake up. In the first half of the 19th century the Sunday schools in America held Christmas celebrations. And the celebration of Christmas in America owes its origin to these schools. Alabama was the first state to grant legal recognition to X-mas in 1836. The DC did it in 1870. By 1893 all the states and territories had made similar acknowledgements. read more
I think we all know He wasn’t born in December, and its later commemoration as a special day is never commanded, suggested, or exemplified by any apostolic era believers in the Bible. His DEATH and RESURRECTION for the sins of the world? Absolutely yes — that’s the whole point of Christianity. His birth? It’s recorded as the amazing fulfillment of messianic prophecies (which it was) but nowhere as a yearly commemoration.
That said…if you want to observe it, then enjoy it. Impart as much (or as little) meaning to it as you like. Let each be convinced in his own mind.
But facts are facts. So just, please, don’t be like many who attach some innate sanctity or holiness to it…because it doesn’t have any in God’s eyes, any more than any other day.
If it did, He would have commanded all believers to remember it AS a holy day. But He didn’t, because it is purely a man-made holiday.
^^^what grool said.
Judging others is way above my pay grade, so, my statements are just me expressing my own heart on the matter of secular “holidays” such as “christmas”, “easter”, etc… Any snark or sarcasm is aimed at those who teach our teachers, as they should know better, but that is a whole other conversation. :-0
And, just as everyone knows that Dec 25th is not likely the day He was born, we also know the source of the Christ-Mass. If you see Rome as an evil tree and impossible for it to put forth good fruit, then ALL things from that root are evil.
My memory still serves me pretty well, though I was not the most attentive (to adult conversations) child, and I cannot remember our Messiah’s name being expressed during these periods, other than at the beginning of the chow line starting. To the best of my memory, these events are more self centered than honoring to our creator and savior.
We ignore His feasts (Lev 23), not even memorializing them as our Hebrew brothers did during dispersion, and create self serving “me, me, ME!” festivals and try to mix them with His Holy name (Isa 1:10-20).
What are you to do when a majority of the earth’s population, who are not “christian”, celebrate these same DIY festivals, with zero understanding of what they are “supposed” to be representing?
Shabbat shalom!
Peace be unto you and yours, and all who seek our Messiah in truth.
YHWH bless!
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes unto the Father, but by me.
Eccl 12:13-14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear Elohim, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For Elohim shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Actually, Grool, you are incorrect. Based on When Elizabeth’s Father was scheduled to serve at the Temple, the month John the Baptist “Lept” in her womb, they were able to count forward. December would have been the month.
Also, prophets were always said to be executed on the day they were conceived. That puts December about 9 months ahead of Easter.
Good morning, JPM,
While I’ve read arguments for and against the December dating of the Incarnation, note that that wasn’t and isn’t my point of concern.
The fact remains that there is no instruction or example – not even a hint – of His birth being set up as an annual commenoration. That alone relegates the Christ Mass to a creation of ecclesiarchy, not God. As long as everyone gets that, no problem.
So what’s my problem with it, you may ask?
The potential danger here (because it is a danger) is not in every man esteeming the 25th over other days, or choosing not to.
The potential danger is the same as with Easter as it now exists: giving spiritual weight to specific observances that cannot be substantiated from the Word of God.
What exactly is the specific danger? It lies in the logic of that position…if one believes that God Himself favors that day — or any day — then it follows that those like me who do NOT observe are being disobedient to His will, and so are displeasing Him by their non-observance. Let’s call that what it amounts to: not observing Christmas or Easter is sin. It’s the same logic of the Sabbatarians (7th Day Adventists and others) who judge all non-sabbath keepers as lost.
I’ve known many people of ALL denominational stripes who do not weight Christmas that way. Many others I’ve known do legalistically believe something along those lines. They are aghast and offended at the thought of others not observing what, SCRIPTURALLY, is a matter on which God has not spoken but is a matter of conscience.
Long story short, it can thereby place oneself, and others, under a legalistic burden by which they are wrongly judged. And according to the Bible, THAT is sin.
Thanks for sharing and for listening.
if you don’t believe in Christ why are you celebrating Christmas?
One more thing:
Q. If you were the Devil, where would you want lost people’s attention to be focused?
A: Literally ANYWHERE but on the Man Christ Jesus and Him crucified for their sins.
So the other failing of Christmas as it exists is even more subtle, but glaring once you see it:
Depictions of the innocent Babe in the manger do not readily make the lost think about His bloody sacrificial death on the cross for their sins. Where does the apostle Paul repeatedly say the center of all preaching of Christ should be? The cross, not the crib. But the cross almost never mentioned around Christmas, except by the hardest of hardcore believers. And it’s considered in poor taste if not offensive if they do. “Not in the holiday spirit.”
This state of affairs was not an accident, in my opinion.
“Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”
Agreed, the birth of Christ more than likely took place in the spring, as well as His Crucifixion. Some Hebrew scholars believe so;
https://www.christianexaminer.com/article/best-selling-author-rabbi-jonathan-cahn-reveals-christs-real-birthday/47650.htm
The birth of Christ, is significant because (Christ) Immanuel, “God with us” – Matthew 1:23 would not be possible and His sacrifice for our sin would never have happened. It was also necessary for Christ to be born by way of Mary, so that man can relate to God. Seeing God himself grow up, work, interact as a man gave people a relatable example of what God was truly willing to sacrifice to save men.
If the magi, magicians/sorcerers and shepherds, even angels knew and celebrated the significance of his birth, who are we to not recognize it, even if the event of Christ’s birth is not mandated in scripture. God is most concerned about the lost- (salvation), what better way for Christians to fullfill the great commission than to support the world’s recognition of Christ’s birth.
Yes, the Catholic Church was self serving creating a Christ mass, but inadvertently did the world a favor. The focus every year is on what God has done to redeem man, because “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.