I'm sure some people are not going to like this, but I just wanted to throw something into the light. What we do as Christians is supposed to shed the light on the darkness to expose it.

Why do you (we) celebrate Christmas and Easter? I never EVER thought of this at all until I started to attend a Messianic congregation. I'm learning about my faith from a Jewish perspective...from the times of the bible, their culture, their language, their time, etc. I'm learning a lot of small things we believe in as Christians are sometimes merely tradition and not biblical whatsoever and do nothing to back up our faith or convince others that our faith makes sense and should be followed.

Christmas and Easter are 2 great examples of this. "Holidays" of almost pure Christian tradition. Now.... do I think anyone of you are in sin if you celebrate these holidays with your family opening gifts and eating ham dinners? Absolutely not! We have freedom in Christ! We are not bound by the law. BUT, why not celebrate holidays that have ACTUAL biblical meanings?

What we should be celebrating is...

SUKKOT and PASSOVER.

Now, you are probably totally confused if you have not studied Judaism at least a little bit. But, if you know where I am going with this, and still disagree, consider this directly from scripture:

Read Leviticus 23:33-44 (Sukkot)

Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of
Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of
Booths for seven days to the LORD. ’On the first day is a holy
convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. ‘For seven
days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth
day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire
to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.
These are the appointed times of the LORD which you shall
proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the
LORD– burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink
offerings, each day’s matter on its own day– besides those of the
sabbaths of the LORD, and besides your gifts and besides all your
votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the LORD.
On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have
gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the
LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the
eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the
foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and
willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God
for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for
seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your
generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall
live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live
in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of
Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I
am the LORD your God.’” So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the
appointed times of the LORD

Now, do you believe that we are now a part of Israel because we are grafted in? I do. Do you know that God fulfilled the holiday of SUKKOT by dwelling with men in the desert for 40 years (Shakinah glory) and then through the word (Jesus)? This is what we should be celebrating, not Christmas. Is this to be saved? Does it make us more righteous? Are we breaking some laws? NO. This has ZERO to do with laws, and Christians will throw this at us all the time. This has to do with REMEMBRANCE and most importantly, PROPHECY. Because, we forget. Now that we've forgotten what SUKKOT is, we don't celebrate it. Now we celebrate a substitute that has barely any meaning, except for some lyrics in some Christmas carols. Can you point to scripture about Christmas? Look through the scriptures regarding SUKKOT and you can see how it points to Jesus. In this verse, He says this:

"You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal

life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to

Me, that you may have life." (John 5:39,40).

All they had was the OLD TESTAMENT. How can we pretty much write off 2/3'rd of our bible and call it the old covenant and say that what Jesus did the new testament supercedes the old. Oh wait...this is actually true....BUT how do you except to understand WHAT Jesus did REALLY means for the world, and all the prophecys from the old testament, especially in the JEWISH HOLIDAYS, that point to him. The BIGGEST one is Passover. EVERYTHING about it points to him! Yet most churches don't even think of it. They just celebrate the ressurection and call it easter. Some changed the name to "Ressurection Day". That's a step in the right direction. But you're only remembering that he rose. Which is, extremely important, but why leave out important details, such as he was the passover lamb and he had to die for our sins. And how the entire passover holiday/ritual (even rabbinic/traditional stuff) points to him. Easter? Candlelight services? Sunrise ham diiners? Sorry, but the rest of the unbelieving world, and ESPECIALLY THE JEWS, want nothing to do with us because we confuse them. We make no sense. We can't back up our faith by some of our most treasured traditions! Something is seriously wrong here.

Does anyone think I have a point?

My church remembers Jesus's death burial and ressurection every sunday through the Lords Supper. I celebrate easter and christmas purely as a family thing, I dont see the need to make either day more special than any other day simply because I already focus on Jesus in worship every week.

For a few years now I've been tossing around that idea of incorporating some traditional Jewish festivals/holidays into our family. Jesus did. I think if God is appropriately worshipped, it can work.

I have celebrated Passover many times, both with Church groups and individually with my family, using a messianic haggadah. I think it is quite moving and meaningful as a Christian and I recomment it highly. I have never celebrated booths, though.

The origins of both Christmas and Easter (Ishtar) are unquestionably pagan, but I celebrate those holidays traditionally as well. I don't see it as anything to get hung up on.

Why does stuff like this constantly get brought up, who cares if it's pagan? We are not celebrating the pagan elements, we have decided to light a light instead of cursing the darkness!

Wait a minute. Do Jews even believe Jesus walked the Earth? Someone please inform me. Thanks in advance.

Yes, they demanded he be crucified. Orthodox Jews see Jesus as a blasphemer because He claimed to be the Messiah, or so thats what a particular jew once told me.

It all comes down to celebrating a BIBLICAL holiday. One that has meaning, and points to Yeshua, the Jewish (and Gentile) Messiah. It proves to the world that he fulfilled the prophecies of the holiday's. On a side note, the biggest miracle that has occurred in that past 100 years is the re-establishment of the state of Israel. He is coming back soon!!!

candlemass wrote:

Why does stuff like this constantly get brought up, who cares if it's pagan? We are not celebrating the pagan elements, we have decided to light a light instead of cursing the darkness!

On Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, on Easter we celebrate the risen Saviour, not sure how much more biblical we can get than that! On Halloween we have the opportunity to share our faith w/pagans, to let them know that demons do exist and that they are hardly that of wich Holywood makes them out to be! Again, why don't we light a light instead of cursing the darkness, is that not what we have done w/"Christian Metal?"

If you wish to celebrate Jewish holidays, fine, have a blast, but rebuke not those of us who have no such desire and celebrate as we see fit.

The message to a Jew or a garden variety pagan is the same, Christ and Him crucified!

People demanded His death, some of us may have done the same.

Ah, always a rabble rouser in the crowd. ;-) Hey, I never said you couldn't celebrate it as you wish. We have that freedom. I still celebrate it as a family holiday with my family, because they haven't seen the light (pun intended). It's all about MAKING SENSE. If someone told me, "Hey, you are using an aftermarket set of brakes, here, take these brand name brakes for your car that were MADE for your car, so it will perform the best...oh and for a better price." I'd be dumb not to take him up on that offer. It's the same with "Christian holidays". We are celebrating a substitute with much less meaning. You know, a lot of churches claim they are "bible teaching churches". Well, sorry, it's not that cut and dry. If any church preaches "Christmas" and "Easter", they aren't giving the masses the full truth. More like a watered down version. Now, what I always hear is, "Ah, what does it matter??! We are all saved! The gospel is simple! Christ died and rose again, and our sins our forgiven." UTTER AND COMPLETE HOGWOSH. While all this is true, how can you begin to back up your faith when a "pagan" comes up to you and says, "I don't see Christmas or Easter in the bible. Your church/faith/etc is screwed up! Ha!" No, it's not. We have holidays ALREADY, the completely explain our Lord and Saviour. Some people in the catholic church (e.g. Constantine) screwed things up for us. The original believers did not celebrate these holidays. So, again, it is no law. It's a WITNESS. Take it or leave it.

candlemass wrote:

On Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, on Easter we celebrate the risen Saviour, not sure how much more biblical we can get than that! On Halloween we have the opportunity to share our faith w/pagans, to let them know that demons do exist and that they are hardly that of wich Holywood makes them out to be! Again, why don't we light a light instead of cursing the darkness, is that not what we have done w/"Christian Metal?" If you wish to celebrate Jewish holidays, fine, have a blast, but rebuke not those of us who have no such desire and celebrate as we see fit.

I'll leave it.

http://www.equip.org/articles/should-christians-celebrate-christmas-

I attended a Messianic church once, a few years ago and really liked it. I do plan on visting there one day soon. I would love to celebrate the Passover someday....I really love the Jewish people and it warms my heart when I do see Jewish belivers in Christ.

As for Christmas and Easter, I see no problem in celebrating them. A lot of people only go to church on these holidays only, and that's always a good opportunity for them to hear the Gospel and the true meaning of these holidays.