Merry Christmas!

[Ktoyou]

Christmas is what you make of it. Prior to being on discussion forums, I had never heard anything about the roots of Christmas being pagan.

To this day, my children and family still celebrate Christmas as most people view it: a Christian holiday. A holiday where family and friends can share good will and the desire to do something for others.

Of course, you are free to do as you like, but my family will be greeted with Merry Christmas, gifts and a family dinner.

Same here, as always.

To TH,
If I am out eating, and get tired, with the camper, I have a place to lay down and watch TV.

 

[journey]

A day becomes pagan ONLY for those who worship pagan gods on that day. I don't know any Christians who worship pagan gods. The Lord Jesus Christ is LORD over all days, so every day is what we make of it.

 

[Town Heretic]

That is not the problem. The problem is that it is associated with Paganism. The same goes for Easter.

Not in my house. Not in most, I'd reckon. It's like marriage. Atheists and Satanist may enter into it, but the association doesn't diminish my own unless I invite that sentiment into my understanding.

 

[patrick jane]

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December.
Personally I choose not to follow the Vatican.

You choose nothing, routinely

 

[Town Heretic]

You choose nothing, routinely

So if the Pope chose penicillin and extolled the benefits of oral hygiene, do you think he/she'd make the same objection? I don't understand this sort of thinking. Every Christmas it happens and it never changes anything.

 

[journey]

Jesus Christ probably wasn't born on December 25th, and I don't care. I can and do celebrate Jesus Christ every day. Regardless, my family and extended church family will celebrate Christmas.

 

[CherubRam]

The main problem is you are all in your head and not in your heart.

Jeremiah 10
2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.

Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 8
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”


Nimrod married his mother and became a mighty king. He was eventually killed. His mother then began the deceit of deifying her son/husband, claiming he had become a "sun-god" (the origin of "Easter Sunrise services), and he was then to be called Baal. (Baal was worshipped as a god of fertility and promoted sexual sin.)

She proclaimed that the people of Babylon should worship him and that he was with them in the form of a flame. This Queen set herself up as the goddess called "Ishtar." Hence the root of the pronunciation "Easter."

After she became pregnant, she bore a son named Tammuz claiming he was the product of a sunray, which caused her to conceive. Tammuz grew to be a hunter but was later killed by a wild pig. "Ishtar" then designated a forty day period (the source of Lent) to mark the anniversary of Tammuz's death.

During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. Ishtar also proclaimed that because a pig killed Tammuz, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.

 

[CherubRam]

Who are God's people?

Hosea 1:9
Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Hosea 1:10
“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

Hosea 2:23
I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Romans 9:25
As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

Romans 9:26
and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

 

[journey]

Jeremiah 10
2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.

Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 8
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”


Nimrod married his mother and became a mighty king. He was eventually killed. His mother then began the deceit of deifying her son/husband, claiming he had become a "sun-god" (the origin of "Easter Sunrise services), and he was then to be called Baal. (Baal was worshipped as a god of fertility and promoted sexual sin.)

She proclaimed that the people of Babylon should worship him and that he was with them in the form of a flame. This Queen set herself up as the goddess called "Ishtar." Hence the root of the pronunciation "Easter."

After she became pregnant, she bore a son named Tammuz claiming he was the product of a sunray, which caused her to conceive. Tammuz grew to be a hunter but was later killed by a wild pig. "Ishtar" then designated a forty day period (the source of Lent) to mark the anniversary of Tammuz's death.

During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. Ishtar also proclaimed that because a pig killed Tammuz, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.

This is about idols and worshiping false gods - not Christmas or Christmas trees. Jeremiah 10 is specifically about fashioning an idol - not a Christmas tree. Lesson: don't worship idols or false gods.

 

[CherubRam]

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December.
Personally I choose not to follow the Vatican.

Jeremiah 10
2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.

Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 8
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”


Nimrod married his mother and became a mighty king. He was eventually killed. His mother then began the deceit of deifying her son/husband, claiming he had become a "sun-god" (the origin of "Easter Sunrise services), and he was then to be called Baal. (Baal was worshipped as a god of fertility and promoted sexual sin.)

She proclaimed that the people of Babylon should worship him and that he was with them in the form of a flame. This Queen set herself up as the goddess called "Ishtar." Hence the root of the pronunciation "Easter."

After she became pregnant, she bore a son named Tammuz claiming he was the product of a sunray, which caused her to conceive. Tammuz grew to be a hunter but was later killed by a wild pig. "Ishtar" then designated a forty day period (the source of Lent) to mark the anniversary of Tammuz's death.

During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. Ishtar also proclaimed that because a pig killed Tammuz, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.

Who are God's people?

Hosea 1:9
Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Hosea 1:10
“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

Hosea 2:23
I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Romans 9:25
As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

Romans 9:26
and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

The ancient Egyptians placed green palm rushes in their temple and homes which symbolized the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life.

The Vikings thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

Christmas tree song
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! How lovely art thou branches!

 

[MichaelCadry]

Dear All,

And they shall call His Name Counselor, and Wonderful, and Emmanuel, meaning "God With Us." Selah!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, Everyone!!

Michael

 

[CherubRam]

Jeremiah 10
2 This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.
3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.

Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 8
12 He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’” 13 Again, he said, “You will see them doing things that are even more detestable.”
14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”
16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
17 He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually arouse my anger? Look at them putting the branch to their nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.”


Nimrod married his mother and became a mighty king. He was eventually killed. His mother then began the deceit of deifying her son/husband, claiming he had become a "sun-god" (the origin of "Easter Sunrise services), and he was then to be called Baal. (Baal was worshipped as a god of fertility and promoted sexual sin.)

She proclaimed that the people of Babylon should worship him and that he was with them in the form of a flame. This Queen set herself up as the goddess called "Ishtar." Hence the root of the pronunciation "Easter."

After she became pregnant, she bore a son named Tammuz claiming he was the product of a sunray, which caused her to conceive. Tammuz grew to be a hunter but was later killed by a wild pig. "Ishtar" then designated a forty day period (the source of Lent) to mark the anniversary of Tammuz's death.

During this time, no meat was to be eaten. Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. Ishtar also proclaimed that because a pig killed Tammuz, that a pig must be eaten on that Sunday.


Who are God's people?

Hosea 1:9
Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Hosea 1:10
“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

Hosea 2:23
I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Romans 9:25
As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”

Romans 9:26
and, “In the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December.
Personally I choose not to follow the Vatican.

The ancient Egyptians placed green palm rushes in their temple and homes which symbolized the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life.

The Vikings thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

Christmas tree song
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree! How lovely art thou branches!

 

[CherubRam]

Are Pagans known for practicing pagan customs?

 

[journey]

Are Pagans known for practicing pagan customs?

You are repeating yourself with your anti-Christmas baloney, so it is now SPAM. You can do whatever you want to this Christmas, but mind your own business. You can hide at Christmas and not come out. In the meantime, most Christians will be celebrating Christmas. My family will start with a beautiful Christmas service at church tomorrow night on Christmas eve. You can avoid churches also. You'll have to if you don't want anything to do with Christmas.

 

[Town Heretic]

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.​

Merry Christmas​

 

[CherubRam]

You are repeating yourself with your anti-Christmas baloney, so it is now SPAM. You can do whatever you want to this Christmas, but mind your own business. You can hide at Christmas and not come out. In the meantime, most Christians will be celebrating Christmas. My family will start with a beautiful Christmas service at church tomorrow night on Christmas eve. You can avoid churches also. You'll have to if you don't want anything to do with Christmas.

Mark 7:9
And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

 

[CherubRam]

I do not expect any Christian to be perfect, but what amazes me is the reckless disregard for the word of God.
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 

[gcthomas]

I do not expect any Christian to be perfect, but what amazes me is the reckless disregard for the word of God.
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Christmas has always included secular themes and especially pagan ones (think Yuletide), such that the puritans once banned Christmas as having no biblical justification while they tried to purify it.

Although the Christmas branding dominates the season, you are never going to rid it of other traditional elements. The puritans failed to impose a purely religious theme, and I don't see modem puritanism succeeding where they failed. The population enjoys the secular celebrations - be pleased there is still a nod to Christianity still.

 

[chrysostom]

merry Christmas

 

[journey]

Mark 7:9
And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Merry Christmas!

Romans 14:5-6 KJV One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.