Posted on 11/30/2005 9:13:12 PM PST by churchillbuff
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Bryan Rudnick, 561-499-3201
News Advisory:
WHAT: Jews for "It's OK to Say Merry Christmas" press conference
WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 1, 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The National Press Club (529 14th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.) in the Murrow Room.
WHY: To speak out against the War on Christmas -- ongoing efforts to purge Christmas from our schools, public events, retail establishments and the culture, and why this should concern Americans of all faiths.
WHO:
Don Feder -- president, Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation
Michael Horowitz -- senior fellow, Hudson Institute
Rabbi Daniel Lapin -- president, Toward Tradition
Jackie Mason -- entertainer (by conference call)
Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation was organized to combat anti-Christian bias in government, the news media, Hollywood and public education -- and from activist groups. For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.jews4fairness.org.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Just send them a Christmas card; tell them to send you a new years card in September.
Jesus fullfilled the old laws. There's a difference. Jesus told us that it was the world that God intended to save, not just the Jews and the other eleven tribes of Israel, but every person on earth willing to abandon their current sinful lives and turn to the commandments which He had brought down to them from heaven. He also gave credible reasons for death and sin and the colossal measures God had to institute to overcome them.
The Law demanded our deaths, so He paid the required penalty in our place. That payment ended our contract with the graveyard (Old laws), provided we accept the terms of His offer. And if we don't? Jesus said: "You will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." (Jn 8:24). That's very plain.
God put Jesus into a real body which He had to take knowlingly into a real death, beaten to a pulp like a criminal, with nails hammered into Him in a grievous payment for our sins, Not His sins, OURS. Add to His credentials, then, proof of His willingness to lay down His life for us. It would be rather foolish to go back to the old covenat after all he did to release us from it and offer us salvation.
The holy days are also celebrated for different reasons.
Explained above- When Jesus arrived, he fullfilled the origional reasons for the feast of lights celebration. No longer are we waiting for the annointed one to arrive, He already has. it would be rather silly to be doing that as a Christian, wouldn't it?
Jews however, because they have refused to accept Christ, still celebrate it as if He hasn't yet arrived.
It has become Christmas for Christians. Christmas replaces Hannukah. Or, you can say Hannukah has been upgraded to Christmas.
On some occasions, the two ceremonies begin on the same day, but often they do not. That is because Jewish feast days are structured on the variable phases of the moon, Which are different from year to year. Whereas Christian holy days are structured on the stability of the sun. This year, Hannukah begins December 26, the day after Christmas.
The Jewish feast honors a ceremony initiated to commemorate the cleansing of the physical temple altar desecrated by the "beast", Antiochus Epiphanes IV. At the time of that cleansing, Judas Maccabees had the stones of the desecrated altar removed and deposited "in a suitable place on the Temple hill to await the appearance of a prophet who should give a ruling about them." (1 Macc.4:46).
That prophet was Jesus. His prophecy was about Christmas.
Christmas is the feast honoring the cleansing of the true temple of God. US! It is a cleansing that began with the birth on this earth of Jesus. We are the living stones of that temple, and the altar cleansed (the Holy of Holies) is now hidden in each human heart dedicated to Jesus Christ.
While standing on the Temple mount with His disciples, Jesus pointed to Herod's temple and said that "not a stone there would remain standing", everything would be thrown down. Far from being rebuilt, that pronouncement stretches even beyond today to include the wall the few stones still left standing there (because Jesus promised NOTHING would remain standing not a single stone). In private, Jesus explained to His followers that we, ourselves, are the desecrated stones of Jerusalem and His action on our behalf would cleanse us so that we could be rebuilt in His image.
So you see, Hannukah is really something quite different, and can't be celebrated by Christians as well as christmas, it IS Christmas. It would be like celebrating Christmas twice.
The same thing goes for Easter vs Passover. Easter is passover upgraded. They both can't be celebrated by Christians because passover has become Easter.
Just as Jesus has replaced the lambs that used to be slaughtered in the temple. In order to forgive sin of all mankind for all time and release us from the Torah laws we were bond to, Jesus Himself took the place of the lamb in keeping with the law. He HAD to die.
I'm not denying Jesus was a Jew. For Christians, The meanings of Passover and Hannukah have changed upon his arrival. Passover I would imagine he participated in while he was alive. He changed it's meaning upon Crucifixion and resurrection.
You just aren't understanding what I'm saying. Probably because you aren't Christian?????
Tell me- what does Hannukah become for Jews when the Messiah comes? Would you still be waiting for him after he arrives? Of course not. It will become something else-- LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!
So if the Jews are not offended at Christmas, and the Christians are not offended by Christmas, just who the heck is the idiot that is, and why is HE so important. Obviously HE is way outnumbered.
Anti-Christian Persicution OFFENDS ME and the MAJORITY of AMERICANS.
Tell the Muslim puke to go home if he does not like it...
He did not change it a bit. He WAS the pascal Lamb who takes our sins apon Him and those who rose from the dead with him were the First Fruits. He did not change the meaning, he explained it!
All the spring feasts were prophetic rehearsals of his coming. As all the fall feasts are a rehersal of his second coming...
A prayer for lighting the two candles for this Sabbath, "Blessed be the LORD our God who sends the light of Messiah twice..."
I have, as best I can, explained what Hanukkah is, and that for Jews, it is still. I have explained why for Christians, it has become Christmas as plainly as I can. The other is Easter.
There is where the difference in Jewish and Christian belief is most difficult for Jews to understand.
Christians believe the Jewish Messiah has already arrived but then change what Jews understand the Messiah to be.
If the Messiah was to arrive (or return by Christian belief)I don't know of any reason why Hanukkah would no longer be celebrated. I can only think that the Jewish mourning commemoration day of Tisha B'Av would be abolished.
I have yet to meet a Jewish person who objects to Christmas. In fact, my Jewish coworkers are usually the first ones to want to put up the office Christmas tree and decorations!
Of course not. There are those still bound by it. (Jews) The Bible says that they will not convert until the very last days. It stands to reason that in the new kingdom they won't be needed. (Holman Christian Standard Bible has a "He". Other's say "the Christ" the one, or just "I am". ) Here's a good site to check all versions. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208:24;&version=77;
The Emperor Constantine, who made it illegal for Jews to live in Jerusalem, founded Christmas on the holiday of Saturnalia (sun worship) during the Fourth Century.
It would be Christmas. But we will never know. When he returns,"The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up." (2 Peter 3:10). and we will be going somewhere else.
Yea, I read that at an anti-Christian site somewhere as well.
I've already explained how Christmas came to be, and what template it is built upon. I'll take the bible's word for it.
And it wasn't Constantine who made it illegal for Jews to live in Jerusalem. It was in another pagan Roman era, the destruction of Herod's temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and expulsion of the Jews and persecution of the Christians was by the hand of Titus and Vespasian.
(chuckle)
It is in the Maccabees Books which are part of the Bible. Post Christian Jewish canons do not equal Church canons.
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