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To: chrisser

Isn’t saying that an affront to a true Calvinist?


31 posted on 12/17/2009 6:34:23 AM PST by steve8714 (To paraphrase St. Paul; Ain't no harm in havin' a little nip, but don't fall down, bust your lip.)
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To: steve8714
Isn’t saying that an affront to a true Calvinist?

Which part? Merry Christmas?

I'm sorry, I can't keep track of what every splinter group believes and doesn't believe - half of them can't agree among themselves without initiating a further splintering event. But, as Scripture reveals, the early Church had it's share of splintering, dissent, and distraction even when the Apostles were still running the show.

So many, however, believe in sola scriptura, that I would have to say to look to the Bible for the answer.

It is evident from scripture that there was quite a bit of celebratory hubub in heaven surrounding Christ's birth - and that's just what we, as humans, were allowed to see and document.

It is also evident that humans, in several cases, were personally invited to both witness and rejoice.

Although many people doubt the date is accurate (I have seen conflicting arguments for and against - and not all those against have the interests of the church in mind), I don't see how our predecessors possibly losing track of that date can be used realistically to infer that we should not celebrate the anniversary. How many events are recorded in the Bible in which heaven and earth simultaneously rejoiced?

I had a professor in college who said "whenever two lines on a graph intersect - it's important". Likewise, I would argue that, whenever Scripture says that Heaven and Earth rejoiced over an event - it's important.

I'm saddened that those before us didn't record, or lost track of, the date (if that, in fact, is the case. Right now, all we have is a lack of recording up to the point it shows up several centuries later). Considering the persecutions and turmoil in the early Church, we're lucky we got what we got from that era. Perhaps, in God's time, we will find some artifact from the period which fixes the day on a date which all can agree is accurate. However, in the meantime, we have what we have.

Jesus himself, with his mother, went to a wedding and joined in the celebration (and, alchohol was involved, in part thanks to His intervention, I would add). There is no scriptural recording of Heaven and Earth rejoicing at that event, yet Jesus and Mary were partying with Jesus as acting bartender for miracle #1. Ergo, my conclusion, from the examples in scripture, is that celebrating Christmas is not only scripturally permitted, but scripturally encouraged. And choosing to celebrate with a few cups of egg nog, long as you don't overdo it, is OK too.

Scripture (most specifically in Acts) encourages the community of believers - what better example of community is there than that of (most) Christians coming together and celebrating the anniversary of an event like no other? So we might have picked the wrong day two millenia ago. Humans are imperfect, and here we collectively screwed up, and then made the best of a bad situation by making an educated guess on the date. Seems to me that not celebrating Christmas because of an act of human incompetence is less preferable to celebrating it on what might be the wrong day. What's more important, the celebration, or that the celebration occurs on the exact date?

But I'm just going by what I read in Scripture, and that we're having this conversation at all is an example that YMMV...
40 posted on 12/17/2009 7:50:18 AM PST by chrisser (Tweet not, lest ye a twit be.)
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