Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
The Calvinist Puritans were tossed out of England after Cromwell’s murderous dictatorship outlawed art, music, theater, anything fun. In US history, by contrast, they have been romanticized as the inventors of the Thanksgiving turkey.
Oh, horrors! Those evil nasty Clavinists! Calvinians. Whatever.
Well and good, but what connection with Calvinism are you alleging? The Puritans were generally Calvinists in matters of salvation, but it was their view of the covenants, and specifically the Regulative Principle, that led to their rejection of all religious practices not specifically prescribed by Scripture. While the two systems often do appear together as a matter of history, there is no direct logical connection between the Doctrines of Grace and the Regulative Principle.
The Puritans had it exactly right, because they knew their Bible and their history. The holiday celebrated on Dec. 25th has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ and everything to do with pagan traditions.
I always wondered when I was younger, what does an evergreen tree, and the colors red & green, have to do with Jesus? The answer is nothing, but they have everything to do with the worship of the Babylonian god Tammuz (mentioned in Ezekiel 8:14), which dates all the way back to the times of Genesis. Tammuz worship was well known to Jeremiah, who specifically warned against its tradition of the decorated tree in Jeremiah 10:2-4...well before the birth of Christ!
It is believed by many scholars that Jesus was actually born in autumn, and specifically on the Feast of Tabernacles, where back in Exodus chap. 25, God said that he would come and dwell with us (not enough space to fully argue this point.)
So what do I do on Dec. 25th? For now, I celebrate “Christmas” with my family because they don’t know any better, and I believe it better to show love until they can come to the truth.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15)
BTTT!
It is true, against the excesses of Roman Catholic worship, the Calvinists sought to “purify” the church. They (We) took away all unBiblical customs for New Testament worship. So, for example, no incense, no fancy robes, no crossing yourself, no holy water, no recitation of the rosary, etc.etc.etc.
Christmas is one of the many “holy days” recognized by the RC Church. The Calvinists said Sunday is the holy day, and we don’t get to set up any others.
As a Calvinistic Christian I applaud the early Calvinists’ efforts to get rid of all the man-instituted stuff of worship and return to Biblical standards.
However, I celebrate Christmas as do most Calvinists of today, at least in the U.S. It’s just not celebrated as a high holy day, because Calvinists reject special days as regards to worship.
We love Christ, we love that He was born of a virgin in a manger, we love that He rose again. The rejection of particular high holy days as instituted by a church should not have us described as nasty scrooges. The few in my church who don’t celebrate Christmas at all are still kind and sweet people.
My paternal grandparents didn’t decorate or celebrate Christmas, and were salt of the earth Christians. They believed there was no Biblical basis for such, and so they didn’t participate. They did, however, give gifts to their grandchildren, no good reason to seem harsh to the little ones, they said. Their ancestry was English.
My maternal grandparents were descended from Lutheran and Moravian settlers, originally German speaking. They celebrated Christmas with all their heart and soul, with traditions going back to the 18th century here and many from before. Wonderful people, too.
You’re attempting to stir a tempest in a teapot. Colonies were established in North America as havens of refuge from persecution. Puritans settled New England. Catholics did the same in Maryland. Anglicans, Virginia, and similar for all the colonies. Over time, these colonies came to embrace freedom of conscience in matters of religion, a revolution was fought and won, and we became the United States.
The celebration of Christmas is near universal here, now, despite efforts to undermine it. It’s an amalgamation of traditions old and not so old, too many being completely commercial in nature, but many remaining true to Christianity in spite of all that.
It’s beautiful and it’s fun and I wouldn’t dream of taking it away from anybody, personally. But, you’ve got to admit also, that flying reindeer, Santa Claus, Christmas trees and all the commercialism have nothing to do with the Christian celebration of Christmas. They’ve been added to it.
So, I understand those who reject it, and respect them as devout, going against the cultural grain to adhere to their understanding of the Bible as some still do, and as many once did.
Comparing today’s atheistic anti Christians to the pious God loving, God fearing early 17th Puritans is a false comparison & patently absurd
Some years ago I began reading the stories written by and about the experiences of the former Prisoners of War.I had heard the stories told by the combat soldier and I wanted to
understand what key -if any there was to understand the ultimate in personal deprivation. Common to every story told that I have read— was the belief in God. The experience of God even when the outward appearance /recognition of such was denied by the ones holding the power in those prison camps.
when a man has NOTHING left to sustain him -IF he has belief in God-he will survive. Even those who profess atheism under such extremes often turn to the God they had denied when fat and free. Behold the Judge is standing at the door! James 5:9b c.f. Revelation 3:20
Wasn’t Franklin Pierce the last President who openly supported slavery?
“Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Lutherans, celebrated Christmas from their earliest arrival in North America, as had always been their custom.”
My family have always been Anglican/Episcopalians except for my grandmother’s family who arrived in SC as Huguenots. Her family later became Episcopalian. We CELEBRATE!
"What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deut. 12:32).
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the TRADITIONS OF MEN, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ" (Col 2:8)
Scriptures vs. Mans traditions: The word "traditions" is found 13 times in the New Testament, but only in three cases does it carry a favorable connotation. In the other 10 passages, it incurs the disfavor of Christ and His Apostles.
In the three verses, where the term "tradition" is used favorably, it is evident that the Apostle Paul was talking about something which he and other inspired individuals had taught. Let's look at 1 Cor. 11:2, where we see Paul first using the term tradition in a positive light. "Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances [traditions, principles; and instructions], as I delivered them to you." Here, the word traditions literally means, principles and instructions given to you from God's written word. The idea of being handed down orally from one generation to another, is not in this meaning.
The other two positive examples are found in 2 Thessalonians. "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions [things already delivered] which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess. 2: 15). That is the boundary we are to stay within. The third example says, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us" (2 Thess. 3:6).
Paul and the other apostles did not involve themselves in syncretism. These scriptures are clear that Paul is not talking about keeping mans oral traditions handed down over the years, by word of mouth, but the literal, written word of God.
So we simply need to ask. Is what we do something that was established by the original Apostles or something that was added after what was taught and written by them? Anything added after the original 12 Apostles is to be taken as “added by mans tradition” and “after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ"
Those darn Calvinists didn’t stop me...I got my pagan tree up in the living room...
This was back in the time when Massachusetts was a covenanted community. Remember the Mayflower Compact? There was nary a Romanist to be found in the entire commonwealth. A much more civilized time and setting.