No place for rebuke? (II Tim. 3:16) / Closed on 12-25-05
| Posted On: 12/13/05 09:06:34 PM |
Age 34, IN |
Just because sins be many, is there no place to rebuke them? "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness..." (Paul, II Tim. 3:16). We all sin, yet the scriptures often indicate need for correction rather than silent tolerance of persistent sin. Please open your ears and heart. It is wise to heed such correction, and Christians who have suffered from others' sins are anyway called to forgive them as Jesus Christ has forgiven us, even if in strict English no apology be forthcoming. Regarding heathen origins of Christmas and church closures on this Christmas Sunday, I demand consistent faith from convictions and not from convenience. I predict that many churches will remain closed and locked on Christmas Day 2005 on Sunday yet have the Christmas story taught in December 2006, and I deplore their hypocrisy enough to ask that their pastors be fired. If at a church Christmas is considered a genuine Christian holiday to be celebrated at church at all in any year, then this holiday is important enough for that church to be open for the Body of Christ to gather when this holiday falls on our most regular meeting times on Sunday. Is this Christmas mainly about the baby Jesus so long ago or about presents and feasts and "Christmas trees"? Wherever family celebrations keep the Body of Christ apart with locked churches on this Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005, the faithful should rebuke and discard the worldly celebration as a heathen practice (Jer. 10:1ff).
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Re: Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/12/05 10:45:43 AM |
Age 27, IA |
I could not agree more with what you have set before us. The celebration of Christmas in the western culture only shows the spiritual infancy [no pun intended] of the form of Xianity that we profess to uphold. There is no place in the scriptures that admonish those to remember his birth, only his death and resurrection. And to take the thought further, in 2 Corinthians 5 we are told to no longer even see Christ after the flesh. That means that though he WAS manifested in the form of a man, spiritual maturity requires that we no longer look back to him as a man, but as he is now- a life giving spirit who has ascended according to 1 Corinthians 15. You and this website may choose to call yourselves Christians. That is why I choose not to bear that name. Christianity today is not following the Bible. The Bible is too strong for the American Church. Let's all either grow up, or stop putting the name of God on our idolatry.
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/09/05 05:50:15 PM |
Age 25, ND |
I agree with the article and I, too, am outraged at the censoring of Christ from His own holiday. However, the footnote about not bothering to write about any pagan roots to Christmas was troublesome. It is a weak argument and easily torn apart. The fact is that our celebration of Christmas here has no pagan roots; if it does, then we Christians have no right to demand our view of Christmas, for it is simply something we "borrowed" from secular culture. The author should not have qualified his article by saying that, "for the Christian, Christmas is about Christ." This sounds as if anyone else could make Christmas about anything they pleased. This is not helpful. Christmas has one meaning, it is not about Christ only for the Christian, but for the non-Christian, too, whether or not they admit it.
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Re: Re: Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 07:05:47 PM |
Age 20, NL |
First of all, how exactly am I bashing Christians? I never said a single negative word towards Christians in my post. As a matter of fact, while I may be a secularist (which you seem to be using as a pejorative, so you might want to be careful when talking about bashing people), I strongly believe in respecting ALL religions, including Christianity (as I was raised in a very Christian environment).
No one is saying that "Merry Christmas" can't be uttered. Saying "Merry Christmas" to someone that actually celebrates Christmas is absolutely fine. However, you can't just disregard that there are other holidays being celebrated. Saying "Merry Christmas" to someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas is a mild faux at best, and if you insist on saying it to everyone whether or not they celebrate it, that is just downright ignorant. Now how might one extend a greeting over a holiday season without actually knowing what particular holiday the other person celebrates? "Happy holidays!" How about a large crowd of people who, while some might celebrate Christmas, others might not? Rather than potentially excluding some by specifying a holiday, (how would you feel if it was insisted that they only acknowledge, for the sake of argument, Kwanzaa, to the exclusion of everything, including Christmas?), saying "Happy holidays" includes everyone.
Then, if you take into account that people who celebrate Christmas might also be celebrating the New Year holiday, and you might have Canadians or Britons who also celebrate Boxing Day, it's pretty logical to use "happy holidays" in such a context as well, rather than saying something as long-winded as "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year (and if you're Canadian or from the UK, happy Boxing Day)."
As a matter of fact, I happen to celebrate Christmas (like I said, I was raised in a very Christian environment), so Merry Christmas to you, too. And happy holidays to anyone reading this who celebrate other holidays.
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Re: Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 03:26:10 PM |
Age 53, IA |
Your reply was right on. We are to be Christ-like everyday. We are to stop pointing fingers. We are to stop pointing our fingers. We are to look to Christ and His example.
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Re: Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 12:55:06 PM |
Age 53, MO |
No, it is NOT difficult to understand. We Christians have been sharing Christmas with those who do not share our beliefs for centuries. We have been most tolerate and understanding. It is the other side who insists that "MERRY CHRISTMAS" cannot be uttered in the public square any longer. It is the "other side" who insist on being intolerate! We have not told anyone they cannot say "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings." Many Christians have even adopted (unfortunately) the story of Santa Claus and allowed him into their homes. No, we have been tolerate and accomadating. But enough is enough. No more Christian bashing from you secularist! Please! And MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 11:08:38 AM |
Age 43, VA |
First I would like to say my home celebrates the Birth Of Christ on Dec. 25th every year. We are not sure of what time of year he was born but through Faith we just KNOW HE was. My son says the weather was warm, so I ask who cares when it happened as long as his birth happened. I concider myself to be a believer in Christ and try to include him in my life everyday.(But I am human and make alot of mistakes/sins.)Therefore I think it is wrong to judge or argue about what someone else does or believes because I know I am a sinner also and sin is sin. Only GOD can judge us. With love in Christ
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 09:46:00 AM |
Age 51, IA |
Good article Jason. Personally, I liked your footnote precluding comments about the pagan origins of Christmas. There are some very good parallels we can find with many of the Christmas traditions we have in our culture. The thing we as Christians should do is focus on them and use them to teach and emphasize biblical principles instead of focusing on the pagan parallels. -Brad Sherman
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Re: Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 08:39:30 AM |
Age 30, MD |
AMEN!
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Christmas is a Roman Catholic "christinized" pagan holiday.
| Posted On: 12/08/05 08:35:06 AM |
Age 30, MD |
I'm surprised that this website, tauting itself as having "the" bible worldview, allowing a writer to write an article saying that "for the Christian, Christimas is the celebration of the birth of Christ." I can say that for the Christian October 31st is the celebration of the saints that died for Christ, that doesn't change it from being Halloween. We should celebrate what God does for us all year round. There are very valid arguements for the christian to not celebrate a particular day or season, especially a birthday. This is not a question of christian liberty, either. And amazingly, the world does not reject Christmas, they embrace it, especially the commercial aspects of it, the Santa Clause version of it, but only government funded public schools try to avoid it because of misinformation. Misinformation that is not helped by supposed fighters of the cultural war only critizing what schools are doing, instead of giving us the facts about what we can do, especially in public schools.
God bless you.
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Re: Why the World Rejects ?Christmas?
| Posted On: 12/08/05 07:22:28 AM |
Age 49, FL |
I disagree with Jason. It doesn't matter what interests us, it matters what interests God. I am a Christian and Christmass is a Catholic man-made tradition.
If Protesting Catholics wish to celebrate it, they can! But if Christians do not wish to say the word "mass" because of its origin, then Merry Messiah Month might work, even if it is a man-made holiday. I agree with much of the feedback.
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/08/05 01:52:51 AM |
Age 59, IN |
Jason, I believe I hear your heart's desire to make the most of another opportunity at hand by celebrating the event that brought Christ to earth... to celebrate the Person, not to deify Dec. 25th.
The Lord uses kings and rulers to do His will. The Lord allowed Dec 25th to be the established date for remembering His Son.
And as Jesus once admonished his disciples when they wanted to squelch someone else's efforts, to let them alone, "if they aren't against us, they're for us."
It's so easy to talk out of both sides of our mouths, claiming to be Christ-like, but acting not very. Jesus' ultimate command for following Him is obedient love, or loving obedince.
If the way we love each other is proof that we're His followers, how convincing are we to those who see us everyday? We *are* accountable for the way we portray the Lord's love to seeking souls. I'm convinced we're more responsibility for them than we want to admit.
Pointing to Christ will win them, not pointing at each other.
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 03:56:27 PM |
Age 63, IN |
Jason, your article hits home I think here in Indiana as many places here in Indianapolis can no longer have a navitity scene unless it is on church property. Also I just heard that the Purdue Christmas tree is being called the "union tree" this year.
Each time I hear how they are not wanting the name of Jesus to be mentioned either in prayer or at Christmas time I truly believe it shows how close we are to the end times.
I truly love Christmas and all the true reasons for this season. My Christmas cards reflect that. May we Christians shout out the truth so that more will believe.
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Re: Why this article is much ado about nothing
| Posted On: 12/07/05 03:02:08 PM |
Age 44, PA |
Contrary to the hand wringing, christmas is alive and well. No one wants to stop you from celebrating, no one wants to be a grinch and prevent you from believing whatever you like to believe. Pretending to be the victim of some "secularist conspiracy" holds as much water as secularists complaints that 'in god we trust' on coinage is establishing religion. Revisionists who say that the US was founded as a "Christian Nation" are certainly conspiratorial, but a motto on a coin isn't. Neither is a nervous school board who bans xmas trees from school property a war or christmas. It happens because there are loons of every stripe who can't live and let live. So, Merry Christmas to my Christian buddies, Happy Hannukah to my Jewish pals, Happy Kwanza to my African American homies and Happy Festivus to Mr Castanza. May you ALL live in peace and prosperity and worship whomever you like without fear.
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 11:54:49 AM |
Age 47, IL |
Collosians 2:13-3:2
Christmas celebration is an earthly (man-created) thing.
Whether or not I celebrate Christ's birth is not a sign of accepting nor rejecting Him.
I am free in Christ and everyday is a celebration of His ressurrection.
I am subject to no man's judgement.
Let us stop asking the pagans to act like Christians and share the love of Christ with them all year long.
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 10:10:35 AM |
Age 20, NL |
It isn't about rejecting Christmas or its religious connotations, it's about accepting and including those who don't celebrate Christmas but do happen to celebrate some sort of major holiday, (whether religious or secular, whether they call it Chritmas, Hanukkah, Solstice or whatever), around the same time that Christians celebrate Christmas. Is that really so hard to understand?
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 09:30:36 AM |
Age 56, FL |
The most disturbing part of this article to me is found in the footnote when he says regarding the pagan origins of Christmas,"I'm not interested."
Mr Carlson doesn't realize it, but he has placed himself in alignment with the Catholic Church. Catholics gloat over Evangelicals who preach against their Church, yet practice the Catholic traditions.
May I quote from his recent article in October, "The Catholic Church Continues to Abandon Biblical Truthabout the Catholics"?
"The Catholic Church is making a tremendous mistake in allowing popular opinion to dictate their view of what is and is not historical and true in Scripture. Could this be evidence of the end-times apostasy that Paul warned us about? In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Paul said, For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Even though Mr Carlson is talking about the Catholic Church, unwittingly he is also describing precisely the state of the modern Protestant church today on a number of issues, but especially as it relates to Christmas. Mr Carlson's thinking reflects that.
Again I quote from the same article, "The official Catholic position is that Church tradition was elevated to equal status with biblical revelation. However, placing man-made traditions on an equal footing with Gods word is essentially the same thing as replacing biblical authority with man-made traditions. For as weve seen throughout history, whenever Scripture doesnt agree with the Churchs current perspective on a given issue, the Church simply has the luxury of ignoring the biblical teaching by citing their own man-made traditions."
I could not have said this better.
The Protestant church today has (1)allowed popular opinion to dictate their view of what is and is not historical and true in Scripture.(2)turned their ears away from the truth and turned aside to myths (3)placed man-made traditions on an equal footing with Gods word which is essentially the same thing as replacing biblical authority with man-made traditions.
Mark Bonocore, a film producer and a Catholic
apologist said, "...For, as a Catholic apologist who is constantly accused by the evangelical camp of dabbling in idolatry and vain ritual (a.k.a. the Liturgical
customs and traditions of the Catholic Church), it seems to me that our evangelical brethren are contradicting themselves when they defend the celebration of Christmas against those who would take it away from us...what of modern American Evangelicals? While a great many of them are no doubt (like most modern Catholics) unaware of the historical origins of Christmas, why do they subscribe to, and zealously defend, a celebration that is so blatantly Catholic in
nature?"
Few Prostestants are aware that they are "endorsing the celebration of a Catholic Mass (Christs-Mass) that is, a liturgical celebration of the Catholic Eucharist?" Neither are many aware that our favorite hymns "Silent Night", Adeste Fideles" (O Come all Ye Faithful), the Nativity scene or Creche, and of course the tree were all part of the Catholic tradition before the Protestants laid claim to them.
Today's typical Evangelical is simply Catholic Lite.
Perhaps there is good reason why the Puritans made the observance of Christmas illegal.
Perhaps we should strive for a "BIBLICAL Worldview" rather than a "Christian Worldview."
George
g-austin@digital.net
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Why are you whining???
| Posted On: 12/07/05 09:13:59 AM |
Age 45, NJ |
First you say, "Christmas is too commercial!!!!" Then when commerce starts to allow you to return to a more religious type of Christmas you whine, "Christmas isn't commercial enough!!!!" I just don't get it, please make up your minds whether you want Christmas to be commercial or religious!
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 08:56:03 AM |
Age 43, NY |
Jason, lets talk about the word Christian. You may very well call yourself a Christian and thats fine with me. You have the liberty in this country to do so. Not only do you have the liberty to call yourself a Christian, you also have the privilege of proselytizing for your favorite flavor of Christianity. My view of Christians and Christianity is very poor at this point. Most Christians I know are cold, callused and bitter or at best insincere. I choose not to be called by a name which was thrust on my ancestors in the faith. I am a saint. As such, I am compelled to reject all forms of Christianity which do not strictly adhere to the scriptures. If I were Christ and Christianity today is my beloved fianc, I would leave her at the Alter and start all over again. Your worship is unholy; your lives do not reflect love, compromise is the clarion call of the church you attend, Messiah is a stranger to your hearts and minds.
Do not consider this note a kind disagreement of your position, I abhor and detest Christmas because it misses the point. Messiah came to bring glory to God, not bring gushy feelings to man. God is sovereign, he will not be mocked, and judgment begins with the house of God. All this and in addition the fact that Christmas is a pagan celebration of the feast of Saturnalia.
Dont get me wrong, I am happy and glad that Messiah came. I am also happy and glad the days are getting noticeably longer. I do not believe the two events are mutually exclusive of each other. Christians have inherited Jewish propensity to wander and leave the God which so carefully loved them. Saints are the same today as they were when Abraham walked the earth, living by faith and not by sight.
If the world rejects Christmas, it?s not because they see a threat, its because Satan sees an opportunity to keep you concentrated on things which are not really that important. Wake up, oh sleeper,...
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Re: Why the World Rejects Christmas
| Posted On: 12/07/05 08:28:29 AM |
Age 55, IN |
Your message is loud and clear. For those who choose to refuse the reason for the season are missing the greatest Joy this world will ever know. With out the promise of God, we wouldn't have anything to celebrate. The list would go on and on of the things we would be missing. I for one am grateful for the Love that God has for all the world.
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