Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?
By Clyde Annach Should Christians celebrate Christmas? The Bible never commands us to celebrate Christmas or observe any other festival allegedly borrowed from ancient Pagans. Can we then, as followers of Jesus Christ indulge in an increasingly commercialized and secular Holiday? It is true that many Pagan Holidays took place in the month of December. Most all the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea held festivals celebrating the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice according to the Julian calendar was December 25th. It is indeed fact that by choosing December 25th, the Church chose a date where worship of false deities was performed. What is often misstated or entirely ignored is the Churches intent in choosing this date. The Church by choosing the solstice was able to set up a festival to rival the Pagan festivals, which has almost completely eradicated the celebrations to these false Gods. The bible never directly states that we are to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Unlike the Ten Commandments which are explicit, I believe their is an implicit directive to celebrate Jesus birth. I present as evidence the Angels response to the birth of the Christ in Luke; Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:13-14 NIV The Angelic Host, after having informed the watchful shepherds of the incarnation of the Savior and how to recognize Him broke into a song of praise and blessing. The Sheppards react in much the same manner after seeing the Christ child as Luke records; The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20 NIV These impromptu acts of worship certainly qualify as a celebration of the birth of the Christ. The commercialization of Christmas is certainly a fact. All one needs do is look around them, from television and radio, to magazines and store front advertisements, we are bombarded with sales pitches. We are told that we must have the latest and greatest thing. This kind of celebration of Christmas would be idolatrous. Our celebration of Christmas should take on the attitude of the Angels and shepherds. As Christians our celebration must be one of awe, wonder, thankfulness and joy. Our celebration is to be a continuous daily celebration of one of the greatest moments in redemptive history. Until He comes again we should celebrated His first incarnation in a manner suggest by an unknown song writer in around the 11th or 12th century. Rejoice! Rejoice! EmmanuelShall come to thee, O Israel Clyde Annach is the operator of the Web Log Aha! Clyde’s been thinking again! Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Clyde_Annach http://EzineArticles.com/?Should-Christians-Celebrate-Christmas?&id=387664 lethal dose of ambien sleep patterns2c ambien ambien overdoses ambien cistern
