The Watchtower Society prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses
from celebrating birthdays & religious holidays, and in Christian circles
there is sometimes debate over whether it is proper or sinful for Christians to
celebrate Christmas and Easter.
Where does the Bible condemn celebrating birthdays and
being happy that someone you love was born and lives, especially the birth of
our Savior (regardless of whether we have the correct date or not)? What Bible
truth or principle is being violated? The death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ would not have been possible without the virgin birth.
Watchtower literature points to two accounts of kings
(Herod & Pharaoh) celebrating their birthdays and having someone killed. It
must be noted that these ancient kings (dictators) had people killed every day
and not just on their birthdays. According to chapter one of Job (note verse
one), Job and his family celebrated birthdays and had such a good time at this
that Job felt compelled to offer sacrifices just in case they might have went
too far in their merrymaking.
The argument that it would be sinful to celebrate a
religious holiday if it is on the same date as a pagan holiday is a convenient
way to make a blanket condemnation, as it is difficult to find a date on the
calendar that was never a pagan holiday somewhere. Perhaps wedding
anniversaries should be forbidden for this reason.
If we are going to nit-pick on details we should
forbid weddings rings since wedding rings have a pagan origin; wedding cakes
have a pagan origin so we should probably prohibit them since the Bible never
specifically authorizes wedding cakes; the names of the months and the days of
the week have pagan origins so we should forbid calendars; we should forbid
clocks and watches since the use of clocks and timepieces and the division of
the day into the hours comes from astrology and the Bible never commands you to
wear a wristwatch or hang a clock on the wall; etc.. The Bible forbids
idolatry, not everything that pagans happened to do.
Consider Romans 14:1, 4-6. This was initially written
to Christians in Rome where converted Gentiles there came from a background of
pagan holidays and the converted Jews came from a background of Jewish
holidays. If you happen to know someone who uses Christmas or Easter as an
opportunity to worship Baal or Tammuz I will agree that they are sinning and
need to repent of idolatry, but it is not a sin to set aside a day unto the
Lord to honour Him and enjoy fellowship.
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