Yes it’s that time of year again when all the nut-cases start telling how pagan and idolatrous it is to celebrate Christ’s birth on a particular day. Does anyone know of some good written or recorded works that can refute this nonsense________________
I’m don’t think there is much (any) research that would support December 25th as the day Jesus was born. There is a great deal to support the fact that the Roman Church often co-opted pagan feast days and replaced them with Christian Holy Days.That said, this year my church finally got rid of the old church tree and bought a new one for the sanctuary. It sure is purity and makes me feel all Christmas-y inside.
As one who formerly bought into the idea that pure evangelical Christianity should seek to rid itself of all vestiges of paganism, for me the light came on with the realization that the primary fallacy of the anti-Christmas/anti-Easter/anti-paganism argument is one of confusing form with substance. Just because the Catholic Church may have adopted some paganistic elements (like a winter solstice celebration) and made them Christian does not mean that a Christian who celebrates Christmas nowadays is thereby himself practicing paganism, as the anti-Christmas protestors claim. Why should only the pagans get to grant significance to certain times of the year? And if we as followers of Christ seek to give
I’ve read some interesting arguments for a December 25 date based on a June date of John The Baptist leaping in Elizabeth’s womb (but I don’t have that link right now). I think the one thing that beats the pagan claim is that the claim is based on Saturnalia pre-dating Christmas, but there is a lot of reason to believe it was not celebrated widely or officially until around 250 AD, long after Christians had already begun celebrating Christmas.
Those who condemn to hell their fellow-believers for celebrating Christmas are nutcases IMO________________
I’m not looking to defend the Dec 25th date. I’m simply looking for research that refutes the idea that it is pagan to celebrate Christmas. I have found some evidence that points to Hebrew Christian celebrating it long before the Catholics did________________
I read an article online, and I think it may have been from Christianity Today, that argued a case that the date for Christmas was not set to commemorate a pagan festival.It pointed out that the date for Christmas was 9 months to the day after the date to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. But there were two dates for that, and the other competing date for Christmas, January 6, was nine months after that other date.The idea was that, using a type of Jewish reasoning, they may have assumed that Jesus was concieved on the same day of the year in which He was resurrected.The article also argued that the December 25 date first appeared during a time when the church was very much against synchretizing or accepting the dates for pagan holidays.One might still argue that the Roman calendar is a ‘pagan calendar’ since God gave Israel certain months on a lunar calendar________________
Those who condemn to hell their fellow-believers for celebrating Christmas are nutcases IMO.
Those who condemn to hell their fellow-believers for celebrating Christmas are nutcases IMO. Your post said nothing about condemning people to hell. Well then, consider this a clarification of my original remarks________________