Is Christmas a Form of Worship to Jesus Christ?

[2timothy316]

There are some that refuse to accept that Jesus is God based on their beliefs. Yet many of these people still celebrate Christmas. So, is Christmas an act of worship to Jesus? If it is, then why would a person that doesn't accept Jesus as God worship Jesus?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

Such as?

Did you see my request for examples? I am most interested in something (an action) that constitutes "celebrating christmas" that is actually based on the bible. (I already conceded that certain Christmas carols resemble the bible narrative) but what actual celebratory actions are in your opinion based on scripture?

Those found and expressed in the scripture narratives.

Grace and peace to you.

I'm sorry I dont understand your answer. Could you explain the actual celebratory action (the exchange of presents? The decoration of a tree? The lightjng of candles? The eating of a turkey? ...) and then point to what you believe to be the scriptural basis for this action?


JW

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

What persuaded you to toss out the cold facts surrounding Christmas and plunge into the sugary, trivial, surface giddiness of the celebration of the invincible Sun?

You said you used to view it the way JWs do, but you don't any more. Would you mind explaining why?

It is, I guess, in a way, both quite simple and quite complicated.

For several years I was with a group that had a mix of SDA and JW beliefs. In due course I found some holes and left it.


That basically meant I had to start all over again, and reconsider everything, a process that, for me. is yet to end.

As to Christmas, I suppose it could be said that I found a real baby in some real bathwater. A baby who became all that is in those narratives, and all that is spoken elsewhere about who he would become and what he would do.

A narrative, incomplete though it is, of Jesus' birth, is presented in Matthew and Luke, but just because a few facts are recorded, does it really seem all that important to add a whole lot more to the story, making it into a gargantuan festival involving revelry and customs directly from pagan sources (the date even being wrong), and on top of all that---to not pay any attention to God Almighty Himself amidst all the revelry?

Christmas certainly is full of beautiful things---lights and glitter and wrappings---but wouldn't Christians want to look behind all this and think about who is promoting it all?

"Satan himself keeps disguising himself as an angel of light." (2Corinth.11:14)

He makes it all seem OK, even mandatory. Why should anyone care if a few pagan trappings are thrown into the deal?

Wouldn't Christians want to look behind all this and think about how God is using this platform to bring the lost into His forever family?

into the highways and gather

Grace and peace to you.

How would Jehovah use Christmas to "bring the lost into His forever family"? Wouldn't He do it with TRUTH? Pure, unadulterated truth? Jesus said he was the truth. No one comes to God except through him. That must mean, must it not?, that Jesus wouldn't get involved with anything that was tainted with falsehoods, and if he didn't get involved with any falsehoods and thus didn't involve himself with Christmas, how could anyone come to the Father through Christmas?

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

Such as?

Did you see my request for examples? I am most interested in something (an action) that constitutes "celebrating christmas" that is actually based on the bible. (I already conceded that certain Christmas carols resemble the bible narrative) but what actual celebratory actions are in your opinion based on scripture?

Those found and expressed in the scripture narratives.

Grace and peace to you.

Like what? I am curious also.

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

Such as?

Did you see my request for examples? I am most interested in something (an action) that constitutes "celebrating christmas" that is actually based on the bible. (I already conceded that certain Christmas carols resemble the bible narrative) but what actual celebratory actions are in your opinion based on scripture?

Those found and expressed in the scripture narratives.

Grace and peace to you.

I'm sorry I dont understand your answer. Could you explain the actual celebratory action (the exchange of presents? The decoration of a tree? The lightjng of candles? The eating of a turkey? ...) and then point to what you believe to be the scriptural basis for this action?


JW

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

Such as?

Did you see my request for examples? I am most interested in something (an action) that constitutes "celebrating christmas" that is actually based on the bible. (I already conceded that certain Christmas carols resemble the bible narrative) but what actual celebratory actions are in your opinion based on scripture?

Those found and expressed in the scripture narratives.

Grace and peace to you.

I'm sorry I dont understand your answer. Could you explain the actual celebratory action (the exchange of presents? The decoration of a tree? The lightjng of candles? The eating of a turkey? ...) and then point to what you believe to be the scriptural basis for this action?

JW

I said Christians "remember and celebrate".

They remember and celebrate the wonder and significance of all that took place at that time, and its meaning for all mankind as revealed and explained in subsequent scripture.

Wha t their specific resultant celebration actions are is their choice, which may or may not include any of those you listed.

Here is one scriptural example:

Esther 8:
15 Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

16 For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.

17 In every province and every city, wherever the king’s edict and decree reached, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating.

See also my coming post to onewithhim, who asked me a similar question.

Grace and peace be with you.

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 45 by Checkpoint]

I look forward to your answer, and also your comment on my post #42.

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 30 by Checkpoint]

Such as?

Did you see my request for examples? I am most interested in something (an action) that constitutes "celebrating christmas" that is actually based on the bible. (I already conceded that certain Christmas carols resemble the bible narrative) but what actual celebratory actions are in your opinion based on scripture?

Those found and expressed in the scripture narratives.

Grace and peace to you.

Like what? I am curious also.

Like these:

Matthew 2:

10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Esther 9:

17This happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

18 The Jews in Susa, however, had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth, and then on the fifteenth they rested and made it a day of feasting and joy.

19 That is why rural Jews—those living in villages—observe the fourteenth of the month of Adar as a day of joy and feasting, a day for giving presents to each other.

Grace and peace be to you.

[JehovahsWitness]

Wha t their specific resultant celebration actions are is their choice, which may or may not include any of those you listed.

Are you claimjng any of those things or other actions associated with celebrating Christmas* listed have a basis in scripture?


*Are you suggesting the basis for Christmas is the Jewish festival of Purim?

[PinSeeker]

Christmas is not merely a celebration of Jesus's birthday but is a time of remembrance of what God came to do Himself, in the Person of Jesus (Immanuel, "God With Us"), because we could not do it for ourselves: redeem us from our sin, thereby freeing us from slavery to sin.

We see this in Jesus's own words in Luke 4, when He began His public ministry by reading from Isaiah 61:

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

And then:

• “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.â€�

As Matthew says:

• "From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' "

The best and fullest Biblical example is Passover, which Jesus Himself celebrated. The purpose of this Jewish holiday was and still is to celebrate birth and rebirth and deliverance from slavery to freedom by the hand of God. Like everything else in the Old Testament, though, it was but a shadow of the true Deliverance, the true Redemption, which even in Jesus's time was still to come -- His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. But now we can look back on it and know it is truly finished, as Jesus said on the cross. And it is a time not only of looking back but of looking forward to Jesus's return and the ushering in of His kingdom in its fullness. But we can rest now as if it already is; this is the "now and not yet" of the gospel.

To the original post, "Is Christmas a form of worship of Jesus Christ?", no, Christmas is an occasion to celebrate and worship Christ, and specifically His coming for us... in the same way the Magi did as documented in Matthew 2, they "fell on the ground and worshiped Him." In that way, Christmas is truly worth celebrating. We don't just celebrate "a holiday" -- neither did the Jews (and Jesus Himself) at Passover -- but rather celebrate God (the Father) in sending and God With Us (the Son, Jesus) in coming. And as I have said, we should really celebrate it at least inwardly and amongst ourselves as Christians all year long (as certainly the Jews did Passover). Some of us do.

[marco]

Christmas is not merely a celebration of Jesus's birthday but is a time of remembrance of what God came to do Himself, in the Person of Jesus (Immanuel, "God With Us"), because we could not do it for ourselves: redeem us from our sin, thereby freeing us from slavery to sin.

Christmas is a nominated feast day to mark the birth of Jesus. His biographers didn't give us a date we might work on. It has nothing to do with redemption, which is symbolised in another feast. The words "because we could not do it ourselves: redeem us from our sin, thereby freeing us from slavery to sin" have no meaning and certainly none associated with Advent.

It seems silly that because man could not do something, God had to get himself tortured to achieve a result. But centuries of Jesuitical propaganda have forced sense from nonsense and many today accept that Jesus came in order to be killed, like a sacrificed bull, because God expected such an offering.

Meanwhile Christmas is about the birth of a fine preacher in circumstances that draw our sympathy, in exactly the same way as the little match girl does.