The Watchtower Prohibition Against Holidays & Birthdays

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.

 

 

 

 

Is Christmas Pagan or Christian? https://www.4jehovah.org/is-christmas-pagan-or-christian/?fbclid=IwAR1ANOqD8x0KWVbcy1CU7PWJjsFMjpl7wVzHiq8yYWpn9RCHGb_8taPdfT0  

 

What Jehovah’s Witnesses Need To Know About Christmas https://www.4jehovah.org/what-jehovahs-witnesses-need-to-know-about-christmas/?fbclid=IwAR1dBPyMK4ZfHspz7HNZs2ysvBZViWzBSt7WOrLs283v7hRNRt3ZHNQkR8I

 

Is Christmas Purely a Pagan Holiday? https://kimolsen.net/2013/12/20/is-christmas-purely-a-pagan-holiday/?fbclid=IwAR3LUiHS91d7ADOrqgYuwUWV0LH4NMxho3yN0_pIEexkOzw2NupToCCCbuo

 

ARE CHRISTMAS TREES PAGAN? https://garydemar.com/christmas-trees-pagan/

 

Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th? https://www.forerunner.com/blog/why-is-christmas-celebrated-on-december-25th?fbclid=IwAR2Svv8ygPPHDav5tXqYNHXfm3hnlLvnnE9AezPQZThhM9mHSnpqp4vXsSM

 

Is Easter a Pagan Holiday? https://www.4witness.org/is-easter-a-pagan-holiday/?fbclid=IwAR01o5vDaxMr9_QHsF5OrznMf0SpUDgulJ51cF8cPsJuNe1ATpd_l_LqLKY

 

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