Big Bubba - The Holidays Threads Merged

[LisaJo]

I think if anyone has doubts about what they celebrate or how they do it, they should study Our Word and the origin of these celebrations. It is, after all, everyone's personal choice as to what they do.

For instance, this past Easter, I refused the whole Easter Egg thing. It actually offends me. But I have children that are still young. My motto is, don't take everything away, but replace it with something more meaningful, better. . .

We did blessing bags. Each bag had a promise or blessing from scripture from Our Lord and something sweet. We also hid Yeast bags in the house. The children LOVED this. Hiding the yeast is a Jewish tradition. Yeast symbolizes sin. It was up to daddy to find where the kids hid the yeast, (sin) and remove it from the house. So, the tables were turned and the kids hid something. They had a ball and learned as well.

My eleven year old still has her scriptures, (blessings that she found) she carries them around in her backpack and every once in a while she'll pull them out and read them to me. She actually loved being able to find so many blessings and it's taught her some great scriptures too. She has about 12 of them.

I know it is a touchy subject with many people. Again, I just urge everyone, if you're uncomfortable or upset about these celebrations, just learn as much as you can so you can make the right choice for you and your family. That's really the least we can all do.
:thumb

[Christina]

Very true Christina, I totatlly agree with you. Someone that has not been educated in the holidays (that were once known as holy days), wouldn't know that Christmas Tree is actually talked about in the book of Jeremiah. Or as well that Easter is the celebration of Ashteroth. Those are people who have not been educated, so I would fully agree with you. They don't know the difference. But we do, so why do we celebrate? For one, Sunday isn't even the Sabbath Day, so why do we celebrate Easter on a Sunday? Saturday is the Sabbath Day. The Bible speak of Pagans, would cut down a tree, then put ornaments on it. This is all spoken of in the Old Testament (1st Testament). Do you know as well, that the Asherah poles, spoken of in the Old Testament, represent a modern-day dancing club pole? This has all been fortold in the Old Testament, and looked what happened too those who followed these gods? As you can say, well I celebrate Jesus's birth. The birth of our Savior is a great thing. It is an amazing thing. But the Holy Days we should be celebrating are: Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, and Atonement. There is only one difference between me and a Messianic Jew. The Messianic Jew is one of God's chosen, where as I have been adopted into God's family as a Gentile. Jesus didn't come here to get rid of the Holy Days, he came to fulfill the Holy Days. Like Passover, then when he returns we shall celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. We must look back to the Jewish roots of our Savior.

I think it's important too to define what people mean by "celebrate".

For us at Easter, we don't do any easter egg hunt or chocolate bunnies, we attend church (on Easter Sunday) and our church usually has a play about Christ's death and resurrection. We thank the Lord, sing songs of praise and worship and then usually have an Easter dinner with family. That is our "celebration" of Easter....I'd say we remember more than we "celebrate".

For Christmas, we have a tree yes.....dressed with beautiful colours and an angel on the top of it. We travel to my parents' home for the holidays. As for gifts...the 3 wiseman came bearing gifts at the birth of Christ so in our family, we buy 1 gift for each person (there are only mom, dad, sister, 2 nephews, my husband and 2 boys). Again, we attend Sunday service and again the church does a play to remember the birth of Christ (the Nativity play) and once again we have dinner with family....so again we remember more than we "celebrate".

If someone wants to judge me for the way I "celebrate" my Christmas and Easter because they were traditionally pagan holiday's, by all means, cast the stones. I don't care about the pagens traditions, I don't care about sun gods and sunrise services...God knows our hearts when we remember Him and there is nothing pagen about our rememberence of our Savior at these times.:hug

[Evangelist16]

Hmmm, well Christina. I guess this should stop here then. I wasn't judging you Christina. I was showing you how all Christian Holidays, like Easter and Christmas, are from pagan tradition. If you want to continue to celebrate it then fine, just remember it came from Pagan influence. Was originally a Pagan holiday. We still should be celebrating Jewish Holy Days.

[LisaJo]

Hmmm, well Christina. I guess this should stop here then. I wasn't judging you Christina. I was showing you how all Christian Holidays, like Easter and Christmas, are from pagan tradition. If you want to continue to celebrate it then fine, just remember it came from Pagan influence. Was originally a Pagan holiday. We still should be celebrating Jewish Holy Days.
:thumb on the Jewish Holy Days! Still learning about them!
P.S. I really don't think Christina meant to be defensive nor do I think you meant to judge. I don't think anyone is meaning to judge, but rather share the things we've learned.

[Joyb0218]

Starbucks is evil because they encourage the consumption flavored coffee. :spew

Mark my words people, the antichrist will be a latte sipping wimp, and will likely frequent Starbucks. Oh, and he will likely twitter too. :evil3

:spew

[Anddra]

Hmmm, well Christina. I guess this should stop here then. I wasn't judging you Christina. I was showing you how all Christian Holidays, like Easter and Christmas, are from pagan tradition. If you want to continue to celebrate it then fine, just remember it came from Pagan influence. Was originally a Pagan holiday. We still should be celebrating Jewish Holy Days.

What are these verses telling you?


Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Colossians 2:16-17 (KJV)

[iSong6:3]

:thumb on the Jewish Holy Days! Still learning about them!
P.S. I really don't think Christina meant to be defensive nor do I think you meant to judge. I don't think anyone is meaning to judge, but rather share the things we've learned.

How is it not judging the brethren to put forth the idea that anyone who celebrates the Lord Jesus's birth or resurrection is following pagan gods and the world is laughing? Or that the Church should follow feast days that were given to the Jewish people alone? Or that, as you said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge" in a post upthread regarding pagan holidays, the Jewish feast days and Christians?

The problem with wrong theology is that it is built on faulty premises and nothing sound can be built on it. And the legalism and spiritual pride that comes from the *secret knowledge that our small group has found that the Body of Christ is ignorant of* comes through. Read this whole, long thread. Nothing new is being said.

Also, so a Search here on Two-House and Hebrew Roots and you'll pull up a lot of great information. A post upthread was deleted because it linked to a Two House, Hebrew Roots site, where the poster was getting his ideas. It is not Biblical.

The Church is not Israel. Israel had commandments to keep the feast days. The Church does not. And the Church is sealed unto eternal life in the grace and righteousness of Jesus.

[Joyb0218]

How is it not judging the brethren to put forth the idea that anyone who celebrates the Lord Jesus's birth or resurrection is following pagan gods and the world is laughing? Or that the Church should follow feast days that were given to the Jewish people alone? Or that, as you said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge" in a post upthread regarding pagan holidays, the Jewish feast days and Christians?

The problem with wrong theology is that it is built on faulty premises and nothing sound can be built on it. And the legalism and spiritual pride that comes from the *secret knowledge that our small group has found that the Body of Christ is ignorant of* comes through. Read this whole, long thread. Nothing new is being said.

Also, so a Search here on Two-House and Hebrew Roots and you'll pull up a lot of great information. A post upthread was deleted because it linked to a Two House, Hebrew Roots site, where the poster was getting his ideas. It is not Biblical.

The Church is not Israel. Israel had commandments to keep the feast days. The Church does not. And the Church is sealed unto eternal life in the grace and righteousness of Jesus.

Very, very, very good post, iSong. :thumb

Romans 14 comes to mind throughout this thread.

[kgreen20]

You said it, iSong6:3!

[LisaJo]

How is it not judging the brethren to put forth the idea that anyone who celebrates the Lord Jesus's birth or resurrection is following pagan gods and the world is laughing? Or that the Church should follow feast days that were given to the Jewish people alone? Or that, as you said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge" in a post upthread regarding pagan holidays, the Jewish feast days and Christians?

The problem with wrong theology is that it is built on faulty premises and nothing sound can be built on it. And the legalism and spiritual pride that comes from the *secret knowledge that our small group has found that the Body of Christ is ignorant of* comes through. Read this whole, long thread. Nothing new is being said.

Also, so a Search here on Two-House and Hebrew Roots and you'll pull up a lot of great information. A post upthread was deleted because it linked to a Two House, Hebrew Roots site, where the poster was getting his ideas. It is not Biblical.

The Church is not Israel. Israel had commandments to keep the feast days. The Church does not. And the Church is sealed unto eternal life in the grace and righteousness of Jesus.
Not Pagan gods, pagan practices that honored other gods! There is a difference. My Pagan neice thinks it's hilarious what Christians do! She thought she was one-up on me until I started spouting all the things I knew about the traditions. I finally ended it by explaining to her it is not the outward appearance that Our Lord is so interested in, but the Inward. . . . our hearts.

Many people celebrate the holidays by doing things that were part of the traditions of their family and upbringing, but not finding out the "whys". Over time, this can erode or override the truth behind the celebrations. Commercialism is just one example of this erosion. Israel is our example of what happens to a nation that adheres to the traditions of its' surrounding nations. How did it turn out for them?

I believe he was trying (not to judge) but rather pointing out how our actions effect the non-believers around us. I don't agree with following all Jewish holidays but it doesn't hurt anyone to study them and find why Our Lord had them do these things. It's actually pretty amazing when you put the puzzle together.

Don't know much about Two-House theory but am assuming that this involves grouping us As Israel instead of a co-inheritance family. Never have or ever WILL believe we are one and the same. Learning why God commanded Israel to do certain things on certain days has taught me a great deal about His plan for them all along, and what an awesome example they are to us and the rest of the world. Passover is beautiful in its orchestration.

But as for those on this thread that are so very upset or offended, I urge all to study why they practice, (act-out what they do) regarding holidays instead of going about it with blinders on.

And yes, Israel accepted traditions of neighboring peoples, and little by little, it chipped away at their core values. Our Lord instructed Israel to (act-out) certain things. Problem was, they blended the traditions and customs and acted out OTHER things He had forbidden. Each generation lost more from the generation before it. Slowly, over time they went from a Godly nation to a rebellious one. It is our responsibility as Christians to weed-out those things that are contrary to His Word instead of trying to blend it in to make it "good" or acceptable in His eyes. We've got this lesson in The Word, and we should learn from it.