How December 25 Became Christmas

BAR ^ | December 2009 | Andrew McGowan

[ApplegateRanch]

I recognize that!

Bulinger’s Appendix (#179, IIRC) in the Companion Bible.

[ApplegateRanch]

Well, unless there is some undiscovered and new information that we do not have right now, I don't know how anyone could pin it down any more than it is right now. We do have a lot of clues as to the time of the year, but I don't think that's ever going to get us close to a particular day of the year.

I believe it is left out as a Divine lesson upon His return.

Just as we know only the season, and a small range of years for His birth; so, too, do we only have clues as to the season, but not the year or time of His return, either.

Had either or both been foretold in full exactness, then, like Obama setting an Afghanistan withdrawal date, sinners could just 'play out the clock', then "repent" just before His arrival.

Depending upon a deathbed conversion is a dangerous tactic to attempt by the unrepentant. Just as we know not the hour of His coming, they know not the hour of their departure.

[Godsgirl]

Theological:

The other “big” Jewish holidays other than Passover are Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur (indeed Yom Kippur being the holiest) and Rosh Hashanah being the the “new year” (talk about a time for a fresh start, huh?)

Do you know how Rosh Hoshanah became a Jewish new year? I thought Jehovah said that Passover was to begin the 1st month.
This has confused me. Not sure how this came to be.

[SunkenCiv]

Well, given how many different pagan celebrations there were, it was a given that Christmas would fall at the same time as one or more of them. :’)

Two weeks from tomorrow!

[AdmSmith]

As it was big parties in the pre-Christian Europe around the date of the solstice, it is clever marketing to replace the pagan origin with the new ideas, but use the same dates.

[naturalized]

+1

Our faith community studied, as a whole, “The Story,” the narrative version of the Bible. God planned it so that the week we studied Christ’s birth was the same week September. Blew us all away when our pastor pointed this out.