# Struggling with abandoning Easter/Christ-mass



## RamistThomist (Oct 7, 2013)

I've always defaulted to the standard American evangelical view of holy days being okay, but after listening to Rev. S's sermons on Easter, and talking with some Anglo-Orthodox friends on Easter, and Mary, and noting that if Easter/Christ-mass has undeniable connections to Ishtar, Eostre, and Sol Invictus, then I wonder how this is any different than our charges of EO and Rome syncretizing pagan worship.

I haven't actually come to any conclusions on this matter, yet.


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## Romans922 (Oct 7, 2013)

You are on the right path....


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Oct 7, 2013)




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## NaphtaliPress (Oct 7, 2013)

We have to distinguish those things that have connections to superstition and will worship and those that do not. So, yes, appropriate to our place and station, we should seek to get rid of this fascination with Anglo Catholic worship that has crept into Presbyterianism. If that were not enough, the holy days of the past have been morphed into civil holidays and one needs to wisely distinguish between the two in handling what has more to do with family than with superstition. As to any ecclesiastical use of the day, even when the Westminster divines and the Puritans of that time had managed to set a course to outlaw the observation of xmas, they still had a hot debate on whether it was appropriate to make use of the day for preaching until the law was actually passed. For a survey of how the American Presbyterian church came to embrace the 'christian' calendar, see The Religious Observance of Christmas and


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## JML (Oct 7, 2013)

The interesting thing about my journey in regards to the holidays that you named is that even before my wife and I became reformed we had for the most part given up Christmas and Easter. We always felt Christmas to be too materialistic and didn't like how the world pressured you to buy things to show your love to others. For Easter, it was always a distraction from the Resurrection. On top of this, we always felt Santa and the Easter bunny were essentially lying to your child.

Later, when we got into reformed theology, we discovered that even the religious side of the holidays were pure RCC traditions that were violations of the RPW.


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## kodos (Oct 7, 2013)

My wife and I had a similar journey to John and his wife. I was always extremely troubled by Santa in particular. Even early on as a Christian and not fully understanding the depths of the problems that Santa posed, it seemed to be a clear cut violation of the 9th Commandment to tell my children that Santa gave them presents. When having some debates over this with family, I simply asked them the question - why is it a bad thing for my children to know that mom and dad love them and were giving them the presents instead of some creepy imaginary bearded fat man?

I also did not want my children to see me lie to them about someone who has many of God's attributes, and then think 'if they can lie to me about Santa, what about Jesus?'. I would never want that. Don't even get me started on the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Ugh.

Then as I discovered the RPW and the Reformed faith, dropping Xmas and Easter seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. I was so proud of my wife last year. She took the fake Xmas we had stored in our garage and drug it to the curb without me even thinking about it! I even forgot that we had it laying around.

Also, remember - Reformation takes time. God is longsuffering and patient. We should be patient, ask for God's help in Reforming, and make sure that our hearts are aligned to glorifying Him regardless of our own wants or perceived needs. I know very few families who came to our understanding of "holy" days overnight.

The good news is we have 52 holy days every year now, and we have come to embrace and enjoy those. How gracious is our Lord! He does not take away, but gives us so generously! Each Lord's Day has been such a blessing to my soul beaten down by the effects of the fall and my own sin and misery. What a wonderful thing it is to have a holiday where you do not have to work! Look at Xmas and Easter as celebrated by our society. What a wearisome time. I started to hate that time of year with a passion. All of the running around, shopping, the money spent on trinkets that have no lasting value, the materialism, the cooking, and then the exhaustion.

We run after worthless things and are wearied - and instead, our God calls us to rest. What lovingkindess He shows His People!


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## JML (Oct 7, 2013)

I would also add that you should be prepared for a considerable amount of push back from pretty much everybody, especially if you have children. This will be our 6th year of not celebrating holidays and we still get comments from family every year when that time rolls around. Other professing Christians can often be downright mean about it when they find out that you don't do Christmas with your children. With Easter, even after explaining it multiple times, my family still asks why we don't believe in the Resurrection (we obviously do). They think that if you don't do Easter that you don't believe in the Resurrection. Explaining to them the true meaning of the Christian Sabbath, its connection to the Resurrection and proving we do celebrate the Resurrection every Sabbath day has seemingly been ignored by them.


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## Jerusalem Blade (Oct 7, 2013)

I don't know if you've seen this before, Jacob -- in this thread, Pascha in Acts 12:4, I refer you to posts #10, 12, 16, and 17 for a linguistic and textual analysis. And please note, this is only to defend the use of the word Easter in the AV, and not to defend the practice of its celebration.

A link to Will Kinney on Easter is defunct, and this is an updated one: Easter

[Caveat: in the article I linked by Gretchen Passantino, although I appreciate her linguistic insight, I do not go along with her views on the "religious holidays".]

As I've indicated, I do not celebrate Easter or Christmas, but not because of RC associations, which I consider too antiquated to impact us in the 21st century, but because I like to stay with Scriptural prescriptions. That said I do _not_ like to condemn those who seek to honor Christ's resurrection on the one day, or celebrate His birth on the other.


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## Tirian (Oct 7, 2013)

My personal experience is that giving up Easter and Christmas has brought such immense freedom and peace for me and my family. When you are out shopping during December and you see parents frantically filling trolleys/carts with plastic stuff they can't afford, and whose kids will not value anyway your heart will be saddened when you consider how wickedly fiendish these things are. Two years down the track now, and my kids still make jokes about dad "killing Christmas" but even they can see from scripture that we are all so much happier without giving the devil a foothold.

Interestingly my folks have always been huge on Christmas. They recoiled at my decision initially (having taken Easter away from them and their grans children some years earlier) but even so soon (2 years) after - I get the impression that even if they haven't the same spiritual convictions, their previous lack of good financial stewardship along with promoting gluttony is something to grieve over. But then, it's a new day and they and we praise God to have been released from the clutches of such a taxing deception.


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## Tirian (Oct 7, 2013)

Jacob - don't delay. Put those pagan festivals behind you and your family now. God bless you brother.


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## DeniseM (Oct 7, 2013)

A good sermon on the topic is A Holy God and Holy Days by Rev. Robert McCurley.

Any man ordained holy day is by its' nature going to take away from the beauty and holiness of God's ordained holy day, the Christian Sabbath, and cause unnecessary distraction to the church.


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## hammondjones (Oct 7, 2013)

John Lanier said:


> Santa and the Easter bunny were essentially lying to your child



And that is the most charitable thing that could be said.


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## Mushroom (Oct 7, 2013)

Just as the Santa decorations come out earlier every year in the stores, the scrooge-fest begins earlier every year on PB! Cool! Being a died-in-the-wool scrooge meself, I'm happy to see it.

Now if I can just find my old "BAH HUMBUG!" lighted yard sign in all this mess I'll be getting into the spirit of the season.

Kidding aside, leaving these inventions behind has been a great blessing, although at times also a trial, for us. The worst is the reaction from fellow Christians. Not sure why that is.


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## Tripel (Oct 7, 2013)

I'm sure that most here know this already, but I just want to be clear that those who "do" Christmas and Easter do not all celebrate in the same way. I'm pointing this out because I occasionally hear things on this board about the evils of those celebrations, particularly the acknowledgment of unbiblical "holy days" as well as "lying" to children about Easter bunnies and Santa Clauses. 

I just want to make sure that we aren't making the assumption that those who celebrate Christmas and Easter are doing so in a particular way. We shouldn't assume it means that people view those days as "holy", that they think less of Sundays, nor that they tell their children that a furry man in a red suit comes down their chimney. 

Because I'll be the first to admit that my family loves to celebrate Christmas, but the whole Santa Claus story creeps me out, especially his supernatural powers. And regarding the "holiness" aspect, I really don't see how it's any different than Thanksgiving, another holiday that I embrace. The Bible teaches that we are to be thankful all of the time, but that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with having a celebration every November with lots of family, food, and football, all the while giving thanks to the Lord for his provision and faithfulness. Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas... all of them are man-created holidays which have been shaped by the culture over the years.


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## Elizabeth (Oct 7, 2013)

I'll be anti-Scrooge....I've already been listening to Christmas music. But we don't do Santa, nor bunnies.


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## a mere housewife (Oct 7, 2013)

Mushroom said:


> The worst is the reaction from fellow Christians. Not sure why that is.



I think it is because the world has little reason to oppose the non celebration of something people still largely relate to the person and work of Christ (witness the special persecution faced by Christians in other countries at these times). More than naturally the opposition will come from other Christians when it is primarily other Christians one is opposing. 

I don't say that to argue one point of view or another, just to point out that whatever arguments might be made about its really being a pagan rite, the pagan world has no particular reason (besides commercialism, and they're often happy to 'X' Christ's name out of that) to care about it one way or another. It shouldn't be a mystery that the Christian world does care about it, or that it can be an issue requiring some tact in the church.


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## Andres (Oct 7, 2013)

John Lanier said:


> The interesting thing about my journey in regards to the holidays that you named is that even before my wife and I became reformed we had for the most part given up Christmas and Easter. We always felt Christmas to be too materialistic and didn't like how the world pressured you to buy things to show your love to others. For Easter, it was always a distraction from the Resurrection. On top of this, we always felt Santa and the Easter bunny were essentially lying to your child.
> 
> Later, when we got into reformed theology, we discovered that even the religious side of the holidays were pure RCC traditions that were violations of the RPW.





kodos said:


> My wife and I had a similar journey to John and his wife. I was always extremely troubled by Santa in particular. Even early on as a Christian and not fully understanding the depths of the problems that Santa posed, it seemed to be a clear cut violation of the 9th Commandment to tell my children that Santa gave them presents. When having some debates over this with family, I simply asked them the question - why is it a bad thing for my children to know that mom and dad love them and were giving them the presents instead of some creepy imaginary bearded fat man?
> 
> I also did not want my children to see me lie to them about someone who has many of God's attributes, and then think 'if they can lie to me about Santa, what about Jesus?'. I would never want that. Don't even get me started on the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Ugh.
> 
> ...



 and  My family's reasoning for shunning Christmas and Easter is quite similar to John's and Rom's. 



Jerusalem Blade said:


> That said I do not like to condemn those who seek to honor Christ's resurrection on the one day, or celebrate His birth on the other.



I would agree with brother Steve, however it is irksome when folks seem to honor the incarnation and resurrection _only _once a year, rather than every Lord's Day.


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## Miss Marple (Oct 7, 2013)

I never lied to my kids about Santa or the Easter Bunny. I told them they were a game that some people play, and we could play too, but they were not real.

It seemed to work out just fine.

I love the reflections of Christianity I see in our popular culture. I actually wish they were stronger.

Growing up as an unbeliever, the only true Christian doctrine I got was: Christmas songs and stories, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I am very grateful for both, and I'd give up neither!


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## RamistThomist (Oct 7, 2013)

In many ways it is not too big of a change. Christmas in my immediate family has been really muted the past few years and Eastern only meant something in regard to a church, but I am pretty sure my church doesn't celebrate Ishtar, but I haven't been a member that long.


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## Andres (Oct 7, 2013)

Miss Marple said:


> I told them they were a game that some people play, and we could play too, but they were not real.



I commend you on emphasizing to your children that Santa and the Easter Bunny aren't real, however, it should be noted that this _isn't _how most adults treat those characters. It's not at all a game and they_ do _in fact insist that they are real! This is where the big issue of lying comes in to play.


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## Gesetveemet (Oct 7, 2013)

.

Well there would not have been a Calvary if there was not first a Bethlehem.
Let us all hope that Christ has truly been born in our hearts.

.


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## Free Christian (Oct 23, 2013)

I am amazed at the whole Christmas thing where there are the 3? Wise men worshipping the baby Jesus in the manger, female angels on Christmas trees as decorations, an omniscient being (only God is that) knowing all we do that flies around the world in 1 night and all else that goes with it.
Then Easter. I wonder what Jewish people think about Christians worshipping the Saviour with the use of a rabbit, unclean creature to them, being told not to eat this, eat that and then finish it off with chocolate eggs!
I still get looked at strange when those times of year come around and I tell people I don't practice them.
It for me though is at times a good witness time. I met a young girl who served me in a shop. She said "what are you doing for Christmas?" I said "I am a Christian and I don't practice it." She looked at me strange. I told her that if she had a Bible, to when she got home, look up who was there when Jesus was born and where the Wise men visited Him. To look up in the Bible where there are examples of female angles like are seen in decorations.
A couple of months later I saw her again in the shop where she served me again. I asked if she remembered me? She said yes. I said did you look those things up?
She said yes "that was amazing, I told and showed my mum too and she said where did you learn that from, its true?" She told her a customer told me.
I told her that not all we are taught as truth in being a Christian is actual truth. To look up all you are told in the Word to prove it right or wrong.
Hopefully it got her reading Gods Word more and some seed was planted there by God.


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## irresistible_grace (Oct 23, 2013)

DeniseM said:


> A good sermon on the topic is A Holy God and Holy Days by Rev. Robert McCurley.





I am in the process of transcribing that sermon. It is by far the most concise, consistent, God-honoring sermon of it's kind. I am so thankful to have Pastor McCurley as one of my Elders. 

I plan on distributing copies of that sermon to my extended family as soon as I finish transcribing it!


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## Tirian (Oct 23, 2013)

Odd how things intersect. I was reading several sections of the Book of Satan/Satanic Bible this morning for reasons totally unconnected to this and it's interesting how much emphasis the Satanist places on birth anniversary being the most important date of celebration, eclipsing all other sacred dates on their calendar.

The fact that Jesus was born in a manger is a by-product (important of course) of Him coming out of glory and into this world to save sinners such as us (of whom I am no doubt the worst). The word became flesh - it is far more encompassing than emerging from the womb of Mary. 

I'm wondering if the celebration of Christ's birth so significantly would be comparable say, to a great friend you haven't seen for a long, long time driving across the country to see you and at his arrival you celebrate in his company and he turns around and says hey brother, let's not forget the moment when I turned the key in the ignition on at the start of my journey!


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## Miss Marple (Oct 24, 2013)

"The fact that Jesus was born in a manger is a by-product (important of course) of Him coming out of glory"

I don't know, I see his birth/arrival as the long, long awaited promise of the covenant. I think it's incredibly wonderful, so sought for, for so very very long.


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## Hemustincrease (Oct 24, 2013)

Christmas was one of the first things I quit when the Lord saved me. I didn’t understand anything about the RPW back then, but facing the horrified (I am not exaggerating) reactions of family and Christian friends etc, I soon found the need to study the matter out properly. Of course, citing the RPW doesn’t actually lessen the horror of family and friends, but hey........it helps me to know more about ‘why’ the Lord have me quit. 

Interestingly, unbelievers take less issue with my position on these festivals than believers for the most part. I read an interesting article in the newspaper last Easter, written by a witch (wiccan). She was almost mocking the church for defending something as belonging to them, which she (quite rightly) said belonged to and was initiated by pagans.


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## kodos (Oct 25, 2013)

Miss Marple said:


> "The fact that Jesus was born in a manger is a by-product (important of course) of Him coming out of glory"
> 
> I don't know, I see his birth/arrival as the long, long awaited promise of the covenant. I think it's incredibly wonderful, so sought for, for so very very long.



It is very important. There are whole chapters in the Word of God dedicated to His Birth. That's how important it is! 
It is also important to note something that God didn't do - which is to tell us to have a festival or feast associated with Jesus' birth. A date that no one I know of believes was actually Dec. 25th either. The Lord seems to have taken great pains to NOT tell us what day to commemorate Jesus' birth.


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## Rich Koster (Oct 25, 2013)

I don't celebrate X-mass, Ishtar or birthdays. I believe birthdays are also something to be tossed away as part of idolatry in the culture. I'm sure some rocks will fly on this one.


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## Tripel (Oct 25, 2013)

Rich Koster said:


> I'm sure some rocks will fly on this one.



I don't anticipate rocks flying here simply because someone refrains some celebrating something. As someone who is staunchly in favor of birthdays and holidays, I couldn't care less if other people choose to avoid it all. You're free not to celebrate, and you're free to be proud of that fact. 

Now where things get dicey is when those of us who DO celebrate such days are accused of being in the wrong. It's in those cases when I'll chuck a few stones.


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## Hemustincrease (Oct 25, 2013)

Rich Koster said:


> I believe birthdays are also something to be tossed away as part of idolatry in the culture.


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## irresistible_grace (Oct 25, 2013)

I am going to start my own thread in a few days very similar to the OP yet different & invite ONLY those who believe that Christians are NOT to observe Christmas (or at least leaning heavily toward non-observance) to join in that thread. 

Anyone interested in "PM"ing me with info/advice on how you handle the "Month of December" (since Christmas apparently begins the day after Thanksgiving) especially with your extended family members who are not sympathetic to your convictions (any time between now & when I start that thread) PLEASE FEEL FREE.


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## JML (Oct 25, 2013)

irresistible_grace said:


> (since Christmas apparently begins the day after Thanksgiving)



Not around here. The stores, library, and some restaurants put up trees and began selling stuff in early October.


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## Tim (Oct 25, 2013)

Tripel said:


> Now where things get dicey is when those of us who DO celebrate such days are accused of being in the wrong. It's in those cases when I'll chuck a few stones.



Isn't this inevitable in a thread that discusses whether it is right or wrong to celebrate such days? I would hope that we all could accept this and not feel the need to figuratively defend oneself by "chucking stones".


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## NaphtaliPress (Oct 25, 2013)

Let's keep the topic to the pretended holy days of the OP.


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## JML (Oct 25, 2013)

John Lanier said:


> Other professing Christians can often be downright mean about it when they find out that you don't do Christmas with your children.



To prove my point on this one, a professing Christian said to me just this week that I should get the "worst father of the year award" when she found out I don't take my children trick or treating or celebrate Halloween. That is for Halloween! I know quite a few professing Christians that don't celebrate Halloween so you can imagine how people react when you don't celebrate so-called Christian holidays.


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