they refuse to celebrate any birthday, but just because the bible does not order us to celebrate the inception or the birth, what is so wrong with celebrating the birthday, symbolically, of Christ’s arrival, whether at inception or birth? JWs believe Christ was probably born closer to September, why do they not set aside an event to celebrate that? They seem to deprive themselves and their children from celebrating much of anything. I find this less than humble.
Jehovah’s Witnesses often reject birthdays as "pagan" and will therefore refuse to participate in them. In addition to this, Witnesses also reject birthdays because they claim that they are placed in an unfavourable light in the Bible. The Bible only mentions two instances of birthdays (at least explicitly). These are Genesis 40:20-22, and Matthew 14:6-10. Two pagan rulers are in view: Pharaoh and Herod.
Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that as negative things happened on these men’s birthdays, then all birthdays must be evil. This is clearly a case of guilt by association as far as the Watchtower is concerned. But is this really sound reasoning? What is the source of the evil in the Biblical accounts? The birthdays or the men (Pharaoh and Herod) themselves? Obviously, it is the men who did the evil. There is nothing to suggest that these men did evil because of their birthdays. These men did evil all the time not just on their birthdays. Also, in the Genesis account, Pharaoh also did some good by setting a man free!
Witnesses often argue that there is no mention of birthdays being celebrated by any of God’s servants in the Bible. Although there are no explicit references, it would appear that there is a possible implicit reference to birthday celebrations in Job (Job 1:4, 5). If this is talking about birthday celebrations, they seem to be being spoken of favourably. Job talks about Job’s sons each holding a feast on "his day". In Job 3:1-4, the same Hebrew word for "day" (yowm) is used when Job curses the "day" of his birth.
Another point worth considering is that of the vast amount of chronological data in the Bible, regarding the ages of people. Obviously, there can be no doubt that Jews and Christians were certainly keeping track of people’s ages. Just a couple of brief example: Moses was 40 when he was called and died at age 80 in the wilderness. There is even the recording of Jesus’ age, when He was 12 and visited Jerusalem with His parents (Luke 2:42). Are we really to conclude that the arrival of a persons birthday would produce no celebration, or emotional response at all? In the light of the fact that Christians were certainly keeping a record of people’s ages, one could easily imagine that such an occasion could well lead to some sort of celebration. What is an individuals definition of `celebration`?
There is nothing explicit in the Bible that that commands us to celebrate or not to celebrate birthdays. Rather, the Bible has given us a general guide on this issue when it says that we should each be convinced in our own minds (Rom. 14:5) as to the importance or non-importance of a particular day, and that it should be a matter for the conscience of the individual, between them and God, as to whether we celebrate that day or not. However, in contrast to all this, the Watchtower clearly enforces the non-celebration of certain days, to the point that a person’s standing before God Himself is in jeopardy, if a birthday is celebrated in any way. The sad thing about all of this is that it is the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves who end up suffering, particularly their young people. Jehovah’s Witness children can be made to feel unnecessarily isolated from their class mates when they have to decline invitations to birthday parties, and non-Witness relatives can be unnecessarily offended by the refusal of JW relatives to send them birthday or Christmas cards.
God Bless!
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:53 am
Oh well. So they’re not "wrapped up" in the commercialism of Christmas. They’ll survive I bet.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Before you go celebrating a holiday you need to look deep into where it originated from. Christmas originated from the worship of false pagan Gods. And why would "not being part of this world", like Jesus said, be less than humble? I would much rather have Jehovah’s approval, than the world’s. wouldn’t you?
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December 2nd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
They probably celebrate his birth and life by trying their best to live Christlike lives.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
we do not celebrate his birth on conception but we recognize his greatest achievement when he died for our sins.
we are not deprived. we give gifts all year around not when tradition compels us to do so. how come Jesus do not get gifts but we who were not born on that day get them?
the best way to show our appreciation is found @ 1 Peter 2:21
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December 2nd, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Our reasons for not celebrating Jesus birth go beyond the fact that the date is incorrect and that we were not ordered to.
If you look into the Bible and history you see that first of all every birthday every mentioned in the Bible has a terrible crime that goes along with it (Such as matthew being beheaded).
And in history, the first century Christians didn’t only not celebrate Jesus birthday but they did not celebrate any birthdays at all.
“The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period in general.”—The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries (New York, 1848), Augustus Neander (translated by Henry John Rose), p. 190.
Why is that?
It is because the origins of the birthday celebration itself come from pagan roots.
“The various customs with which people today celebrate their birthdays have a long history. Their origins lie in the realm of magic and religion. The customs of offering congratulations, presenting gifts and celebrating—complete with lighted candles—in ancient times were meant to protect the birthday celebrant from the demons and to ensure his security for the coming year. . . . Down to the fourth century Christianity rejected the birthday celebration as a pagan custom.”—Schwäbische Zeitung (magazine supplement Zeit und Welt), April 3/4, 1981, p. 4.
So, this practice does not harmonize with the Bibles instruction to put away the false gods and to have absolutely nothing to do with spiritualistic practices.
Jesus did however instruct his followers to memorialize the day of his death, with harmonizes with the Bibles thoughts at Eccl 7:1 which says that the day of ones death is better then that of his birth.
And for the record we do not deprive ourselves or our children of anything, We often have gatherings and parties. Just because they are not holidays doesn’t make them any less enjoyable.
@Alissa Thank you. I think thats the nicest thing I’ve heard a non Witness say about us on this site.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
The important reason for Jesus Christ’s coming to earth was to die as a perfect sacrifice able to redeem fallen mankind. We observe the Memorial of Christ’s death which he said to do in remembrance of him. Nowhere in the Scriptures does it say to celebrate his birth. No date was given, but a date and time was given for the Memorial of his death. Nisan 14 at sunset. There are two examples of birthdays being celebrated in the Scriptures, both were celebrated by Pagans and at both celebrations something terrible happened, John the Baptist was beheaded and at the other, the Pharaoh’s baker was hanged. And our children receive gifts year round at any time we feel like getting them something, we don’t save everything up for a couple of different days of the year. Our children are quite happy.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Jesus never celebrated his birth. His disciples never celebrated it. Jesus never requested for them to. In fact, Jesus put the emphasis on his death…not his birth. "A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one’s being born." (Eccl. 7:1)
His only request for a celebration was to commemorate his death, not his birth:
"Keep doing this in remembrance of me." (1 Cor. 11:23-26)
Birthdays
http://searchforbibletruths.blogspot.com/2009/11/birthdays.html
Christmas
http://searchforbibletruths.blogspot.com/2009/11/christmas-does-it-have-any-known-pagan.html
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December 2nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
If we knew when this happened and Jesus asked us to we would. Since Jesus asked us to celebrate not his conception or his birth but his DEATH that is what we do.
It is not for us to overstep the commands of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.
"In the same way, with the cup, after the meal, he [Jesus] said, This cup is the new testament in my blood: do this, whenever you take it, in memory of me" — 1 Cor 11:25
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December 2nd, 2009 at 3:23 pm
For one thing, nobody knows the exact date of Jesus’ birth. So for those who celebrate it on December 25th, they’re celebrating a lie. Secondly, the Bible ONLY directs Christians to celebrate or observe the DEATH of Jesus…..NOT his birth.
We don’t deprive ourselves or our children of anything. A person doesn’t have to engage in the celebration of pagan, false religious holidays and customs in order to have fun or in order for their children to have fun. We don’t wait for one or two specific days in the year (that coincide with birthdays or false religious holidays) in order to give each other gifts or have fun. We can do so sporadically all year round if we so desire.
Personally I feel it’s pretty sick to force a child to wait until their birthday rolls around or wait until the end of the year comes around before getting them a gift.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have the rather weird attitude that if some practice is not mentioned in the Bible, then it is prohibited by default. Of course, they are lot logically consistent with this rule – else they would prohibit things like defragmenting one’s hard drive (since this practice is not mentioned in the Bible). I think their rule against pagan celebrations and nationalistic holidays is a tiny bit more logical. But even then, the rule has too much over-breadth and is not consistently applied. For example, there is nothing at all “pagan” or “nationalistic” about Father’s day – and yet the Watchtower prohibits it. On the other hand, there are definite “pagan origins” of exchanging wedding rings and baby showers; but the governing body says those practices are OK. I find the comment that Christians “force their children to wait until a birthday rolls around” to gift gifts or have fun very misleading. That is simply a lie. It’s similar to the lie that Christians only honor their father on Father’s Day. That lie originates from the Watchtower and the witnesses believe it without question.
Incidentally, speaking generally, you can safely ignore responses from JWs fond of super heros – as they were never one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. True worshipers of Jehovah are known by the fruits of the spirit (honesty & taming of the tongue). Basically, they could be classified as an “opposer” or perhaps an apostate. It’s difficult to decide which one they are. But they are definitely not one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
References :
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgUgZRdEhwDXGWvc5hKwmSbty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20091113111537AA1Qqox&show=7#profile-info-QztSOUFXaa
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/sricheso/proofs.jpg
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Jehovah’s Witnesses often reject birthdays as "pagan" and will therefore refuse to participate in them. In addition to this, Witnesses also reject birthdays because they claim that they are placed in an unfavourable light in the Bible. The Bible only mentions two instances of birthdays (at least explicitly). These are Genesis 40:20-22, and Matthew 14:6-10. Two pagan rulers are in view: Pharaoh and Herod.
Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that as negative things happened on these men’s birthdays, then all birthdays must be evil. This is clearly a case of guilt by association as far as the Watchtower is concerned. But is this really sound reasoning? What is the source of the evil in the Biblical accounts? The birthdays or the men (Pharaoh and Herod) themselves? Obviously, it is the men who did the evil. There is nothing to suggest that these men did evil because of their birthdays. These men did evil all the time not just on their birthdays. Also, in the Genesis account, Pharaoh also did some good by setting a man free!
Witnesses often argue that there is no mention of birthdays being celebrated by any of God’s servants in the Bible. Although there are no explicit references, it would appear that there is a possible implicit reference to birthday celebrations in Job (Job 1:4, 5). If this is talking about birthday celebrations, they seem to be being spoken of favourably. Job talks about Job’s sons each holding a feast on "his day". In Job 3:1-4, the same Hebrew word for "day" (yowm) is used when Job curses the "day" of his birth.
Another point worth considering is that of the vast amount of chronological data in the Bible, regarding the ages of people. Obviously, there can be no doubt that Jews and Christians were certainly keeping track of people’s ages. Just a couple of brief example: Moses was 40 when he was called and died at age 80 in the wilderness. There is even the recording of Jesus’ age, when He was 12 and visited Jerusalem with His parents (Luke 2:42). Are we really to conclude that the arrival of a persons birthday would produce no celebration, or emotional response at all? In the light of the fact that Christians were certainly keeping a record of people’s ages, one could easily imagine that such an occasion could well lead to some sort of celebration. What is an individuals definition of `celebration`?
There is nothing explicit in the Bible that that commands us to celebrate or not to celebrate birthdays. Rather, the Bible has given us a general guide on this issue when it says that we should each be convinced in our own minds (Rom. 14:5) as to the importance or non-importance of a particular day, and that it should be a matter for the conscience of the individual, between them and God, as to whether we celebrate that day or not. However, in contrast to all this, the Watchtower clearly enforces the non-celebration of certain days, to the point that a person’s standing before God Himself is in jeopardy, if a birthday is celebrated in any way. The sad thing about all of this is that it is the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves who end up suffering, particularly their young people. Jehovah’s Witness children can be made to feel unnecessarily isolated from their class mates when they have to decline invitations to birthday parties, and non-Witness relatives can be unnecessarily offended by the refusal of JW relatives to send them birthday or Christmas cards.
God Bless!
References :