good ways to deal with "It's just a pagan holiday, he wasn't even born then"
Upvote:2
If you are looking for an answer that says "We know that Jesus was really born on December 25th and here is the evidence", you are going to be disappointed. There is no such evidence, and we don't know his birthday. (There is some circumstantial evidence that it was in Spring, but it's far from conclusive). December 25th was indeed arbitrarily chosen, and probably deliberately to coincide with popular midwinter festivals.
There is however no reason why this should be taken to invalidate any part of the Christian faith. Nothing in Christian belief requires us to know Jesus' birth date, and there is nothing to say that if we choose to celebrate his birth then it has to be on a day when nobody else is celebrating anything. If you are going to celebrate his birth (and it's surely worth celebrating) then you have to pick one day or another.
You might like to compare this with people who don't know their own birthday. That's certainly no reason to disbelieve their existence, and quite frequently people in that position choose an arbitrary date to celebrate their birth. They might well choose a convenient date, possibly one in which another celebration is already going on. That would not make the celebration, or the birth, less valid.
Alternatively, you might think of it as an "official birthday", like those celebrated by Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom - it's isn't actually her birthday, it's just a special time set aside to celebrate.
More post
- 📝 What traditions believe that a woman's relationship with God must go through some man and how do they support it from the Bible?
- 📝 What does the LDS Church teach about infallibility?
- 📝 What meaning would Philippians 2:9 have if Jesus is equal with God? Was Jesus praised for not seizing equality with himself?
- 📝 How were women to serve the church according to the Apostolic Fathers?
- 📝 Expectation of salvation for the poorly catechized
- 📝 Does being a "state church" give the Church of Scotland any doctrinal distinctive?
- 📝 How do Roman Catholics interpret 1 Timothy 4:3
- 📝 According to Protestants, what is the lesson being taught by scripture when God killed so many men for looking into the Ark?
- 📝 How does Catholic Church differentiate between the presence of Jesus and that of the Holy Spirit on the earth?
- 📝 What is a Scapular, and what theology is tied to it?
- 📝 How do Catholics traditionally understand the divine omnipotence?
- 📝 How does free will fit with the doctrine of predestination?
- 📝 Did the Gospel Standard Baptists and the (original) Plymouth Brethren comment on unity between themselves?
- 📝 How do protestants understand Jesus' statement that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of Man we will have no life?
- 📝 How do one know that the Bible is absolutely true and is not a "make believe" fiction?
- 📝 Why did God create the idea of opposites?
- 📝 How can a Christian effectively explain the seeming contradiction between Gen 1:31 and Gen 6:6?
- 📝 While on the cross, was Jesus abandoned by every human?
- 📝 What is the New Testament basis for the idea the God is a God of judgment and vengeance?
- 📝 Did King James have any words put into the book of Deuteronomy in the translation of the Bible?
- 📝 From Genesis to Exodus - is God dealing with Israelites or Jews?
- 📝 Is 1 Corinthians 15:28 disregarded by trinitarians?
- 📝 Are there verifiable written reports of Christians praying to God about recent events and receiving supernatural knowledge?
- 📝 Is a Catholic "blessing of a marriage" not a wedding?
- 📝 Why doesn't the Catholic Church kill heretics anymore?
- 📝 Why would the priests bribe guards to lie when given clear evidence that Jesus was immortal? (Mt. 28:11-12)
- 📝 What is the Eastern Orthodox view on Protestants and Catholics
- 📝 How do Protestants answer the Catholic accusation of historicity?
- 📝 A more literal Bible translation than WEB
- 📝 Do any denominations take "turn the other cheek" as a literal command to be followed?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 good ways to deal with "It's just a pagan holiday, he wasn't even born then"
- 📝 How would Reformed Christians deal with h*m*sexual marriage of individuals prior to their conversion to Christianity?
- 📝 How can a loving God make a deal with the devil?
- 📝 How do Bible Literalists deal with trees older than the flood?
- 📝 How to get the most out of the Bible with just one reading?
- 📝 How do proponents of Apokatastasis deal with the "Everlasting punishment" texts in scripture?
- 📝 What's the deal with numbers?
- 📝 How does Christianity deal with biblical criticism related to the Old Testament?
- 📝 How is the 'New Perspective on Paul' different from Catholicism with respect to good works?
- 📝 Who represented "the Lord" in Exodus 4:24-26, and what's the deal with the foreskin?
- 📝 Did church fathers ever deal with "Bible requires brutality" critics?
- 📝 How do Biblical Unitarians deal with the fact that the early church accepted the divinity of Christ?
- 📝 How do Protestants deal with pre-Reformation heresies?
- 📝 How do Catholics deal with prophecies of future perpetual animal sacrifice?
- 📝 How should a Christian deal with destructive higher criticism of the Bible?
- 📝 What's the deal with oil?
- 📝 Were the councils of the 4th and 5th centuries primarily to deal with Apocryphal writings?
- 📝 Is there a Biblical basis for the concept of being allowed to "be angry with God" or "tell him just how we feel"
- 📝 How does the Jehovah's Witness denomination deal with the filial piety among its East Asian believers?
- 📝 How should Reformed people deal with Wrong doctrine?
- 📝 How do decentralized churches/denominations practically deal with "brothers" from another denomination in light of Matthew 18:17
- 📝 How do the 3 Protestant traditions deal with the two types of sin mentioned in 1 John 5:16-17?
- 📝 What guidance has Scripture or church fathers offered on how to deal with sacred objects of other religions?
- 📝 How does the Catholic church deal with the differences between the God described in the old and new Testaments?
- 📝 Is there a name for the belief that God is not omniscient, but rather is "learning" how to deal with humanity?
- 📝 What is an overview of how different Christian denominations deal with demon possessions?
- 📝 Is it a good guess that Heaven's joy surpasses even the keenest felt here?
- 📝 Why does a clever Satan fight with God even though he knows he will lose?
- 📝 How does Catholicism deal with the apparent paradox/conflict between "love thy neighbour" and "you will be rewarded"
- 📝 Replacement of sins with good