Just as God was faithful to fulfill His promises and prophecies concerning Jesus in His first advent, we can be sure He will fulfill all of His promises and prophecies concerning His future second advent to bring all things to completion and eternal fulfillment. Whereas those who lived before Jesus' first advent and were waiting for the Messiah to arrive, we, who live after His first coming, await His second advent with enlightened by the good news we find in the Scriptures and are filled with hope that He will do just as He said He would do and we are know how we can prepare ourselves to be ready for His return. Those in the Old Testament did not have these helps. We are very blessed to live after Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. We today have the witness of all of those who have gone before us who kept the faith in severe trials, tribulations, deprivation, and even martyrdom to teach us to persevere in faith until the end.
So, yes, I celebrate Christmas. I was reading up on the history of the celebration of Jesus' birth in the Church. Although many people seem to think that Christmas is based on pagan rituals of the 4th century, the reality is that the church did have Mary wit them in the 1st century to inform the apostles of Jesus' birth and childhood and the miracles associated with Him. Hippolytus, I believe, lived in the 2nd century into 3rd. In the the 220's Hippolytus taught that Jesus' birthday was December 25th based on Scripture and historical data he had at the time. This was not based on the celebration of Sol Invictus, or Saturnalia as these festivals were not celebrated in the Roman world at this early time. Therefore, it seems that the date of December 25th was calculated on the known fact that Jesus was killed on March 25th and Hippolytus believed that Jesus was most likely conceived at this time of year 30 or so years earlier and was born 9 months later, near December 25th.
Just as God was faithful to fulfill His promises and prophecies concerning Jesus in His first advent, we can be sure He will fulfill all of His promises and prophecies concerning His future second advent to bring all things to completion and eternal fulfillment. Whereas those who lived before Jesus' first advent and were waiting for the Messiah to arrive, we, who live after His first coming, await His second advent with enlightened by the good news we find in the Scriptures and are filled with hope that He will do just as He said He would do and we are know how we can prepare ourselves to be ready for His return. Those in the Old Testament did not have these helps. We are very blessed to live after Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. We today have the witness of all of those who have gone before us who kept the faith in severe trials, tribulations, deprivation, and even martyrdom to teach us to persevere in faith until the end.
So, yes, I celebrate Christmas. I was reading up on the history of the celebration of Jesus' birth in the Church. Although many people seem to think that Christmas is based on pagan rituals of the 4th century, the reality is that the church did have Mary wit them in the 1st century to inform the apostles of Jesus' birth and childhood and the miracles associated with Him. Hippolytus, I believe, lived in the 2nd century into 3rd. In the the 220's Hippolytus taught that Jesus' birthday was December 25th based on Scripture and historical data he had at the time. This was not based on the celebration of Sol Invictus, or Saturnalia as these festivals were not celebrated in the Roman world at this early time. Therefore, it seems that the date of December 25th was calculated on the known fact that Jesus was killed on March 25th and Hippolytus believed that Jesus was most likely conceived at this time of year 30 or so years earlier and was born 9 months later, near December 25th.
see Pt. 5
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