Guess you need to educate you American audience…

I could do a celebration on July 17th and decorate the house with fish and hay. And I could even call it Barnfubhunzulala.
The day would be focused on when Jesus was born, how He grew up, and how He saved us. It shouldn’t be focused on an artificial (or real) tree that stays in your house for a week or on a circlet of branches that you hang on your door.

Whether you call it Barnfubhunzulala, Lulakiniya, Christmas, or any other strange name, the meaning will still be the same.

(You don’t even need to designate a [holi]day for such a ceremony; time was made for us by God and we use it to organize things so we remember them)

Col 2:16-23 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the thins that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Mary is right, He knows our hearts. So therefore let God be judge.

So relax and enjoy looking at at Christmas tree as a symbol of the Christ who died and rose again–the acacia that shelters all who draw near. See those gifts under the tree as reminders of the undeserved gift of salvation, of love that gave its life for us, of purity that picked up our filth and carried it away. Remember the God who step into our world and lives among us.

Merry Christmas!
WB

You are right about the date of Jesus’ birth. You are also right about the Catholics co-opting a pagan holiday.

Nonetheless, despite the foibles of my forbears, I believe.

Thank you for the informative missive.

Dr. T

And have a happy holiday – whichever way you choose to go.

Keep in mind that when the Wise Men showed up at Mary, Joseph and Jesus were might back at home in Nazareth, not still in the manger like in greeting cards, two years after his birth. The family split to Egypt to hide from Herod, who killed all the males of two years old…Herod was trying to hedge against Jesus not to survive as the King of the Jews, according to the scriptures of Isaiah for his scholars, Herod took it personally, because it was his name as ruler, The King of the Jews.

I don’t do much for Christmas at all, other than to have dinner and give some music and dinner with my family….I’ve got pretty good to ignore the holiday, I’m always glad to get past the holidays. Getting much better to do nothing. Forth of July’s myth is just as troubling for me. I’m an iconoclast. I’m not very much fun at holidays.

Most people who read this will simply choose to deny the fact that the very first commandment is to “Honor NO OTHER Gods” than the true God, Jehovah, Yahweh etc…

By celebrating Christmas and Easter, people are actually doing something that God hates, which is giving “honor” to false pagan Gods through the promotion of traditions and ceremony that have their origins rooted in paganism. And not to mention Christmas is BASED ON A LIE people. Who is the “Father of the Lie”? Why would God want you to celebrate a holiday that is not only based on a lie, but actually started in worship to a false God? The only thing that has changed is the name. From Nimrod to Jesus. I bet God just loves that…Hypocrites!

I agree with you completely that Jesus Christ is the one true God, and I do not make light of John 14:6; yes, His Way–His teaching, His appearance on earth as God in the flesh, His blameless, sinless life, His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit–is the only way for salvation. (And by “salvation” I mean restored relationship with God, pardon from our inevitably sinful nature in order to be seen as good in the eyes of God, and, of course, admission to Heaven to be in God’s presence for eternity.) I am sorry to have sounded like I believe otherwise from my past note. Let me try to clarify.

I do not understand my practicing those Christmas traditions that include a lighted and decorated fir tree, ornaments, decorations of boughs and holly, and a wreath on the door to be my learning of the ways of the heathen. I understand my practicing these traditions to be participation in American and Western culture–I see it to be part of our culture much more than those originating cultures, in light of the significant cultural remove–but even more, participation in family traditions that are centered around a celebration of Christ’s birth and, more generally, the miracle of His incarnation and all that encompasses (especially, and ultimately, the miracle of Christ’s intercession for man by bearing the burden of all sins for all of mankind for all time).

Learning about the pagan origins of the Christmas traditions I have always practiced, and their original pagan symbology, does not render my practice of them pagan. The traditions I practice are symbols of MY reasons for practicing them. This, of course, does not make all things right; my reasons for traditions such as these are made right by being symbols of Christ to me, signs pointing toward God, encouraging me to give glory where glory is due: to God.

I said that even the pagans of old touched on themes (life, rebirth, renewal, etc.) that are ultimately of God. I believe that even the most pagan of pagans can evidence God’s reality, reaching out toward something beyond themselves, which is appropriate since God wants us to reach out in order to know Him: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). They reach out BUT they miss the mark; they take the familiar actions of asking and seeking and knocking, but are not addressing that which they ask to the right One, not seeking in the right direction, not knocking on the right door. What I have meant here is what some call “common grace,” the evidence of God’s goodness and glory that reaches all men, even those men who will in the end be damned. It is indeed an important distinction: evidencing God’s reality (even His existence as Jesus Christ) without recognizing it as God; versus acknowledging God’s reality as Jesus Christ.

I am encouraged and moved by your exhortation and concern for me to “preach Christ crucified” and nothing other than that, and, again, am sorry to have distressed you (and any other reader too) with any ambiguous prose! May those who seek, seek the right thing, and find the right One. God bless you.

It’s true that pagan winter solstice celebrations had a profound influence on the Church’s decision on when to fix the dates of Christmas and Epiphany — the period of December 26-January 6 coincides with the beginning and end of Saturnalia, yuletide, etc. This 12-day period is the Twelve Days of Christmas, and this was for many people in past centuries the real heart of the Christmas celebration — instead of one day, it was a season of feasting & gift-giving, with many elements of past pagan celebrations included. It is ALL connected and cross-pollinated. Santa was influenced by Odin, who was influenced by Jupiter, etc…

Our family is not religious, but we enjoy Christmas, and also the practice of giving gifts on the Twelve Days. To us, it’s fun, and also a way to remember the complex roots of the Christmas tradition. We are trying to popularize this concept and spread the word about the origins of Christmas and the Twelve Days, through our website, http://www.twelvedays.com. There’s a lot of info on this subject in the booklet that’s included in our 12 Days gift box sets, and in the coming days I’m planning to upload all of that information to our site.

You are sounding like you believe that many ways lead to the One True God. Remember Yeshua said, 6 יהושע said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

He is the Word, He pre-existed the world, and as such demands that His followers do NOT learn the ways of the heathen or of the nations.

His people were instructed to NOT worship God as the peoples around them did. I think this applies today just as much as it did then.

I wasn’t knocking Exodus. My point was that the author drew conclusions out of a passage in Exodus that are irrelevant. Another poster showed that they were taken out of context. The truth is that not every verse is supposed to be taken literally anyway. Jesus himself used hyperbole. We have to understand the authors intent.

My main point is that we are set in our beliefs… us, and them. The only thing that I am grateful for this story is that maybe some people on the fence will make decisions or choose to investigate further.

Shalom.