Originally posted by gb93433:
So what is your suggestion?
The pagans of the world would love to make it a pagan holiday with no reminder of Christ so they can party and get drunk and celebrate the way the world would like. It was just a few years ago that the world advocated what you suggest. There are many in the world who would like to change the name from Christmas to something else. If they had their way, they would take away the focus of an annual reminder of Christ and his birth.
Better stop using the days of the week and months of the year too. They originate in paganism too. Better not buy gas because most of it comes from the Middle East and results in supporting the Muslims each time you do.
No, I made the point before. There is a big difference between the name of a day and a pagan religious festival. There are a lot of things that have pagan origins, even some peoples' names (mostly those of Greek or Roman origin). The name of Thursday (the god of Thor) has nothing to do with the worship of Thor. No one worships Thor on that day, nor is it a day set aside for the worship of Thor. It is not a religious holiday; it has nothing to do with religion. It is simply a name with a pagan holiday. Lots of names have pagan origins. That in no way affects us, and to compare it to a religious festival is ludicrous.
On the otherhand Christmas is a relgious holiday which even Muslim Republics will grant to Christians. It is an important day all over the world. It is a day of worship for all kinds of denominations. It is a religious day. I hope you see the difference here. You don't take a holiday off for the worship of Thor on Thursday, but you take a holiday off for the pagan festival off for the worship of Satunalia. That is the difference. Christmas is the syncretization of paganism with Christianity. All of the pagan roots, pagan customs, rites, rituals, and idolatry were brought into Christianity and adopted by Christianity to celebrate the birth of Christ, a holiday that was never celebrated by the Apostles or the early church.
"How can two walk together unless they be agreed."
"Learn not the way of the heathen."
"Come out from among them and be ye separated."
"Be not conformed to this world."
All the background of Christmas is pagan in origin. It is not a bad thing to celebrate the birth of Christ. In fact we should be thinking of His birth more than just one day out of the year. The same goes for Easter. I certainly hope that you think of his death and resurrection just more than one day of the year.
When was Christ born? Sometime in spring when the shepherds were out in the field tending their flock, but not in the dead of winter, not on Dec.25.
Nowadays Christmas is so commercialized it has everything to do about spending money and nothing to do about Christ. Just on the news today, (the day after Thanksgiving), one man interviewed expected to spend about $2,000.00 on Christmas shopping in just this one day. I don't make that much in a month. Think how much of that could have gone to the Lord's work instead--if Christ had anything to do with this at all.
DHK