Subject:
|
Re: Uselessness of .debate
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.off-topic.debate
|
Date:
|
Sun, 24 Dec 2000 20:04:56 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
705 times
|
| |
|
|
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Tom Stangl writes:
> Scott Sanburn wrote:
>
> > > The way it's written one could almost read it as he hopes
> > > that you two have
> > > a lot of fights with each other, rather a mean thing to
> > > wish so close to
> > > Winter Solstice festival, don't you think? :-)
> >
> > Ah, Larry, always throwing a few snipes in to Christianity,
> > huh? I expected nothing less, that's all right.
>
> Why is it a snipe to call this "holiday season" Winter Solstice festival?
>
> Are you so arrogant as to believe that ONLY Christians own the celebrations
> this time of year?
>
> Hanukah, Kwanza (double a?), Winter Solstice, and MANY other celebrations
> happen this time of year.
>
> You obviously didn't read the URL I posted on the history of Xmas - it was
> COOPTED by Christians, and in fact, up until this century celebration of
> Xmas by many Christian sects was disallowed.
You are 100% correct. That is why Jehovah’s Witness still do not celebrate it.
Scott A
>
> Here's the bulk of the post, so you don't have to go looking for it:
>
> http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/Xmas_ch1.htm
>
> Excerpt:
>
> How then did we receive our holidays (holy days) with their customs and
> traditions _ Christmas as well as Easter, Halloween, and Mardi Gras? Each
> of
> them has come to us from ancient
> Babylon, through Rome, through the Roman Catholic church.
>
> It was for this very reason that in Calvin's Geneva you could have been
> fined
> or imprisoned for celebrating Christmas. It was at the request of the
> Westminster Assembly that the English
> Parliament in 1644 passed an act forbidding the observance of Christmas,
> calling it a heathen holiday. In an appendix to their "Directory for the
> Public
> Worship of God" the Westminster
> divines said: "There is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under
> the
> gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath. Festival days,
> vulgarly called 'Holy-days', having no
> warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued." (See also, James
> Bannerman, The Church of Christ, Vol. i, pages 406-420).
>
> When the Puritans came to America they passed similar laws. The early New
> Englanders worked steadily through December 25, 1620, in studied neglect of
> the
> day. About 40 years later
> the General Court of Massachusetts decreed punishment for those who kept
> the
> season: "...anyone who is found observing, by abstinence from labor,
> feasting,
> or any other way, any such
> days as Christmas Day, shall pay for every such offense five shillings."
>
> It was not until the 19th century that Christmas had any religious
> significance
> in Protestant churches. Even as late as 1900, Christmas services were not
> held
> in Southern Presbyterian
> churches. The pcus General Assembly of 1899 delcared: "There is no warrant
> in
> Scripture for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holydays, rather
> the
> contrary (see Gal. 4:9-11; Col.
> 2:16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed
>
> faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of
> the
> gospel of Jesus Christ."
>
> John Knox and his colleagues included the following statement in their
> First
> Book of Discipline (1560):
>
> We affirm that "all Scripture inspired of God is profitable to
> instruct,
> to reprove, and to exhort." In which Books of Old and New Testaments we
> affirm
> that all things necessary
> for the instruction of the Kirk, and to make the man of God perfect,
> are
> contained and sufficiently expressed.
>
> By contrary Doctrine, we understand whatsoever men, by Laws, Councils,
> or
> Constitutions have imposed upon the consciences of men, without the
> expressed
> commandment of
> God's word: such as be vows of chastity, foreswearing of marriage,
> binding
> of men and women to several and disguised apparels, to the superstitious
> observation of fasting days,
> difference of meat for conscience sake, prayer for the dead; and
> keeping
> of holy days of certain Saints commanded by men, such as be all those that
> the
> Papists have invented,
> as the Feasts (as they term them) of Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, of
> Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Purification, and other fond feasts of
> our
> Lady. Which things, because in
> God's scriptures they neither have commandment nor assurance, we judge
>
> them utterly to be abolished from this Realm; affirming further, that the
> obstinate maintainers and
> teachers of such abominations ought not to escape the punishment of
> the
> Civil Magistrate.
>
> What then is the history of Christmas? It came into the Church centuries
> after
> the New Testament, was discarded at the Reformation, and has only in this
> century crept back into the
> Protestant Church. What I'm saying, then, is that the real Christmas has
> always
> been pagan, and to make it a Christian celebration is to try to add Christ
> or
> biblical elements to an essentially
> pagan holiday.
>
> --
> | Tom Stangl, Technical Support Netscape Communications Corp
> | Please do not associate my personal views with my employer
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Uselessness of .debate
|
| (...) Why is it a snipe to call this "holiday season" Winter Solstice festival? Are you so arrogant as to believe that ONLY Christians own the celebrations this time of year? Hanukah, Kwanza (double a?), Winter Solstice, and MANY other celebrations (...) (24 years ago, 24-Dec-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
|
90 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
