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Bible Study It's Dec. 17th. Where in the bible does it tell us to celebrate Jesus' birth?

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Justicewolf

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I was watching a Christian talk show this morning. They were saying they don't celebrate Christmas because it is a retail marketing holiday not a celebration of Christ and his birth. Because he wasn't born in December. And, most importantly, there is no scripture that tells the Christian to celebrate Jesus' birth.

Rather, what is important is that God came to earth to save the world and take our burdens, our sins, upon himself on the cross. That then is Christ's gift to the world through grace.

Thoughts? I think that was a pretty good point myself. Looking forward to your thoughts. I put this here so we could talk, not debate, since debates here can get pretty ugly among some who participate.

Looking forward to our time together in this thread.
 
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Good morning Sister Justicewolf. I'll just give my thoughts since I do not believe there is ever a time we should not be thankful in celebration of our Lord's coming. He even made Himself of no reputation to accomplish His mission of saving mankind according to Php 2:7. The following scripture is a manner of celebration I see given by a holy multitude. What do you think? On Goggle there is much ado about not celebrating Jesus' birth, but His death.

Luk 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
:wave2
 
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Good morning Sister Justicewolf. I'll just give my thoughts since I do not believe there is ever a time we should not be thankful in celebration of our Lord's coming. He even made Himself of no reputation to accomplish His mission of saving mankind according to Php 2:7. The following scripture is a manner of celebration I see given by a holy multitude. What do you think? On Goggle there is much ado about not celebrating Jesus' birth, but His death.

Luk 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
:wave2
Sounds like a heavenly celebration at least......
 
The question wasn't about thanksgiving for the Lord's coming. The question concerned the celebration of his birth.
Multitudes of angels in Heaven rejoice when one sinner finds their way to repentance and eternal salvation in Christ.

Those are great scriptures however, the question concerned a command to celebrate Christ's birth. Luke 2 concerns the birth of baby Jesus. It doesn't contain commands to celebrate that day once a year. In fact, we're not even sure what day or season this birth occurred in.
Thanks for adding your thoughts to this thread. :)
wavey.gif
 
And, most importantly, there is no scripture that tells the Christian to celebrate Jesus' birth.
There is no scripture that tells us to celebrate our children's births but we do.
IS that sin?
No.
Why would we need to be told to celebrate the birth of Christ? Isn't His birth worth celebrating? I think it is.
Rather, what is important is that God came to earth to save the world and take our burdens, our sins, upon himself on the cross. That then is Christ's gift to the world through grace.
And that is why we celebrate Easter (Pascha in many non-English speaking nations) and why we go to church on Sunday, the first day of the week, when Christ rose from death to indestructible life.
(In Russian, Sunday is Воскресенье [phonetically Vos kre sen 'ye ]. It means "Resurrection Day".)

iakov the fool
 
What month and date was Christ born on? I think that's the overriding question surrounding the OP. And the Bible does not tell us that. I can see why there would be Christians that do not celebrate Christmas due to that lack of knowledge.

Rather, it is more of a retail celebration being the gifts given to one another. Rather than to what would reflect a recollection of the gifting to the baby asleep in his manger. As in, the account of the Magi's gifts was that of silver, gold, frankincense, myrrh. In today's recollection and celebration of that gifting at Christ's birth we could give the equivalent of silver and gold, money, to local Christian charities. But that isn't the contemporary tradition of Christmas. People can give to Christian charities. Largely though it is a day of getting things we could have bought for ourselves . Or have given to others we care for at any time of the year.

And again, the Bible doesn't tell us the month or date Jesus was born. I can see how it would be something some Christians don't reckon as December 25th being it is in line with the ancient pagan calendar of winters solstice for sure as a known time frame. Rather than being a known month and date of the Savior of the world.

That observation isn't to say those who celebrate Christmas are wrong. Just to avoid conflict ahead of schedule.
 
It is my understanding that the date of Yashua's birth was October 15th, give or take a day. The problem with celebrating Christmas is it is steeped in pagan origins. One must wrestle with his/her conscience as to go with our Western mind set and ignore the past and make Christmas something worth celebrating.

They don't celebrate Christmas because it is a retail marketing holiday not a celebration of Christ and his birth.
I like what Sister justicewolf wrote....They don't celebrate Christmas because it is a retail marketing holiday not a celebration of Christ and his birth.[/QUOTE].

That is so true, and it's upsetting to be forced to join the mad rush to buy useful gifts. Unfortunately my Wife and I fall into that mad rush. She and I do our best to emphasize our Lord's birth, even though it wasn't December 25th but October 15th.
 
I think God can reveal some of His nature thru Christian traditions. The Bible tells us that only some of what Jesus did was even recorded, so I don't think it is wise to limit our focus to Scripture alone, completely ignoring Christian tradition.

So what if Christmas is a Christian take over of a pre-existing pagan tradition? CS Lewis, writing about the overlap between some of the ideas and concepts of the "good pagans" and Christianity, says that God gave the pagans "good dreams," or...something like that. Remember; He is the Savior of The Gentile as well as the Jew. We've all been grafted onto the tree.

Looking over human history, human beings need time to celebrate, be with each other, etc. We're social creatures. Why should modern day Christians reject Christmas? Christians are still very much human, after all. Christmas was a pagan day, now its Jesus' day. That alone is something to celebrate, I think.
 
Christmas is definately a worthy event to acknowledge the birth of Christ it don't matter what month or day it is, its a season set aside to acknowledge Gods gift, and we give and recieve gifts and have a good time. I don't think there anything wrong with it.

Retail marketing has nothing to do with Christmas, thats just the greedy world on the side using the season as an excuse to market and profit. They don't care about Christmas, all they want is the cash. as people are in the mood to buy gifts. All thats in there mind is Show me the money, so they up the price of gas, and travel tickets and all sorts because they know people want to travel to see there families. They have there reward in full.

All scripture is good to acknowledge. The birth of Christ is a worthy event to acknowledge.
 
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Actually, the date of Christ's birth is not relevant and Dec. 25th is very likely wrong.
We celebrate the FACT of His birth.
When He was born is not the important part. That God became man and dwelt among us is the important part.
Great observation. :) You don't celebrate Christmas?
 
Well then, if one celebrates the fact of his birth and very likely not that of December 25th, as you stated, why would you celebrate the fact of his birth on one date not very likely the date of his birth?

Why not celebrate as many including myself do? Every day is a reason to celebrate the fact our Savior came to this world to save sinners.
 
Even though it was around Sept/Oct according to scripture that Christ was born does not take away the fact of rejoicing in His birth on this day. Most of us know the pagan reasons of Dec 25 and to me what a better time to witness and rejoice Messiah come into the world to be a light that shines through the darkness of paganism. As a Christian we should be buying others the greatest gifts out of love as God's love gave us His greatest gift of His son Christ Jesus.

Have a blessed Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year :)
 
According to Luke Chapter One Jesus was conceived six months after the conception of John the Baptist and was born nine months later in the months of September/October according to the Lunar Jewish Calendar.

King David on God's instructions (1 Chr 28:11-13) had divided the sons of Aaron into 24 groups (1 Chr 24:1-4), to setup a schedule by which the Temple of the Lord could be staffed with priests all year round in an orderly manner. After the 24 groups of priests were established, lots were drawn to determine the sequence in which each group would serve in the Temple. (1 Chr 24: 7-19). That sequence is as follows:
1. Jehoiarib - 1Chr 24:7
2. Jedaiah - 1 Chr 24:8
3. Harim - 1 Chr 24:9
4. Seorim - 1 Chr 24:9
5. Malchijah - 1 Chr 24:10
6. Mijamin - 1 Chr 24:10
7. Hakkoz - 1 Chr 24:11
8. Abijah - 1 Chr 24:11
9. Jeshuah - 1 Chr 24:12
10. Shecaniah - 1 Chr 24:12
11. Eliashib - 1 Chr 24:13
12. Jakim - 1 Chr 24:13
13. Huppah - 1 Chr 24:14
14. Jeshebeab - 1 Chr 24:14
15. Bilgah - 1 Chr 24:15
16. Immer - 1 Chr 24:15
17. Hezir - 1 Chr 24:16
18. Aphses - 1 Chr 24:16
19. Pethahiah - 1 Chr 24:17
20. Jehezekel - 1 Chr 24:17
21. Jachim - 1 Chr 24:18
22. Gamul - 1 Chr 24:18
23. Delaiah - 1 Chr 24:18
24. Maaziah - 1 Chr 24:18

1 Chr 24:19 These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the LORD, according to their manner, under Aaron their father, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded him.

Now each one of the 24 "courses" of priests would begin and end their service in the Temple on the Sabbath, a tour of duty being for one week (2 Chr 23:8, 1 Chr 9:25). On three occasions during the year, all the men of Israel were required to travel to Jerusalem for festivals of the Lord, so on those occasions all the priests would be needed in the Temple to accommodate the crowds. Those three festivals were Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Deut 16:16).

The Yearly Cycle of Service in the Temple.

The Jewish calendar begins in the spring, during the month of Nisan, so the first "course" of priests, would be that of the family of Jehoiarib, who would serve for one week, Sabbath to Sabbath. The second week would then be the responsibility of the family of Jedaiah. The third week would be the feast of Unleavened Bread, and all priests would be present for service. Then the schedule would resume with the third course of priests, the family of Harim. By this plan, when the 24th course was completed, the general cycle of courses would repeat. This schedule would cover 51 weeks or 357 days, enough for the lunar Jewish calendar (about 354 days). So, in a period of a year, each group of priests would serve in the Temple twice on their scheduled course, in addition to the 3 major festivals, for a total of about five weeks of duty.

The Conception of John the Baptist.

Back to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, which is important to understand that Jesus was born September/October according to the Lunar Jewish Calendar being conceived six months after John the Baptist.

Luke 1:23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.

Luke 1:24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived

Beginning with the first month, Nisan, in the spring (March-April), the schedule of the priest's courses would result with Zacharias serving during the 10th week of the year. This is because he was a member of the course of Abia (Abijah), the 8th course, and both the Feast of Unleavened Bread (15-21 Nisan) and Pentecost (6 Sivan) would have occurred before his scheduled duty. This places Zacharias' administration in the Temple as beginning on the second Sabbath of the third month, Sivan (May-June).

Having completed his Temple service on the third Sabbath of Sivan, Zacharias returned home and soon conceived his son John. So John the Baptist was probably conceived shortly after the third Sabbath of the month of Sivan.
 
Well then, if one celebrates the fact of his birth and very likely not that of December 25th, as you stated, why would you celebrate the fact of his birth on one date not very likely the date of his birth?

Why not celebrate as many including myself do? Every day is a reason to celebrate the fact our Savior came to this world to save sinners.

I doubt everyday believers acknowledge the birth of Christ everyday. Believers walk with Christ, and a day is set aside each year to celebrate the birth, the day itself is irrelevant.

And if people acknowledge Christs birth everyday and say Christmas day is crooked, his birthday is not everyday, so that is not a argument.

Who cares, lets just acknowledge Christ and have a good time.
 
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why would you celebrate the fact of his birth on one date not very likely the date of his birth?
Because: (1) no one knows the actual date and (2) the Church settled on Dec. 25 and (3) the date isn't important.
Why not celebrate as many including myself do? Every day is a reason to celebrate the fact our Savior came to this world to save sinners.
So, in fact, by making every day the same, you don't actually set any time aside to focus specifically on the birth of Christ.
No thanks.
 
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