I was in the JW's DIR and we have come to the point where it is necessary to move the topic to an appropriate DIR.
The question is: Does giving gifts on birthdays and Christian holidays promote pagan believes?
I don't think so. Most Christians that give gifts on these days are not commemorating pagan practices. Most are celebrating the day of ones birth and the accomplishments of certain time-lines of Christ.
What I believe is getting cross-wired here is the basic idea that giving gifts is somehow wrong. I would never suggest such a thing, however when we have festivals in which whole nations (Indeed most of the world) indulge and that festival is for the most part intact and conducted on the same dates as it was in the days when pagans celebrated the very same festival under another name, in honor of a different god, then I believe we have to start making distinctions.
Christmas is simply the Roman Saturnalia celebrated under a "Christian" label. When Roman Catholicism was made the state religion in the fourth century, Constantine fused weakened Christianity with Roman sun worship. He wanted to consolidate his divided empire so he decided to take the middle ground and create a religion that was acceptable to both pagan and Christian citizens of his empire.
Some festivals were hard to eradicate from the pagan population so Constantine kept the festival and merely changed the name. The 'birthday of the sun god' was changed into the 'birthday of the Son of God'. Whatever they could not eradicate, they "Christianized". But is this acceptable to God?
Christmas promotes everything the Bible condemns. Since birthdays were not celebrated in ancient Israel, Jesus would not have celebrated his own birthday, nor is there a command to do so.....why then should we? His birthdate is not even recorded, so that should tell us something.
collectivedementia also mentioned the fact that Easter is also of pagan origin. They did not even change the name of the deity in this celebration. Astarte, Ishtar, Oestre, Easter...were all name given to the fertility goddess in whose honor the celebrations were held. Rabbits and eggs were her symbols. They still feature in the celebration today. The sunrise service is also of pagan origin.
Now in view of this and the words of Paul in 2 Cor 6:14-18 we have to make some serious decisions about these things. If God found these original festivals to be spiritually "unclean", and we indulge in them under a different name, does God see us as celebrating these festivals which honoured false gods, but simply changing the names to make them appear to be Christian? They never were.
Think back to the situation on Mount Sinai when Moses descended the mountain to discover his people dancing and singing around a golden calf. It was what they had seen the Egyptians doing, but they called the idol "Jehovah" their God 'who brought them out of the land of Egypt', and the festival was called a "festival to Jehovah". What was God's response. Was he pleased with this festival held in his honor but grafted over false religious practice?
Those who engaged in this festival perished for their disobedience.
The Bible makes it clear that we cannot fuse the truth with falsehood. We can't mix true worship and false worship...it is unacceptable to God.
It might seem easy to justify from the human standpoint, we tend to justify what we like to do...but what is the view from God's perspective? This is the most important one after all. :yes:
