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The Celebration of Christmas: Difference between revisions
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:''And now, you say, "Well, the rest of them's all Santa Claus and going on like they do; why, we just might as well do it." No, sir! No, '''this is not a pagan celebration to us''', this is a sacred hour. If there had been no Christmas, there would been no resurrection. If there been no Christmas: there'd been no love, there'd been no peace, there'd been no hereafter for the believer; if there'd been no Christmas.<ref>GOD'S.GIFTS.ALWAYS.FIND.THEIR.PLACES_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-13 SUNDAY_ 63-1222</ref> | :''And now, you say, "Well, the rest of them's all Santa Claus and going on like they do; why, we just might as well do it." No, sir! No, '''this is not a pagan celebration to us''', this is a sacred hour. If there had been no Christmas, there would been no resurrection. If there been no Christmas: there'd been no love, there'd been no peace, there'd been no hereafter for the believer; if there'd been no Christmas.<ref>GOD'S.GIFTS.ALWAYS.FIND.THEIR.PLACES_ JEFF.IN V-6 N-13 SUNDAY_ 63-1222</ref> | ||
==Was this another example of William Branham adopting the doctrine of the Jehovah's Witnesses?== | |||
There are several examples of William Branham adopting [[Michael the Archangel|doctrinal positions that were similar to those of the Watchtower Society (the Jehovah's Witnesses)]]. | |||
“… those who celebrate Christmas do not honor God or Christ, but honor pagan celebrations and pagan gods.” This declaration in an Awake! magazine of December 8, 1988 (page 19) sums up the Watchtower Society’s teaching on the holiday — a teaching that the Society’s magazines reemphasize each December lest some of the flock forget and erroneously conclude ‘tis the season to be jolly. | |||
Criticism of Christmas in those articles focuses first of all on the date. Religious and secular sources are quoted to establish the well-known fact that the actual date of the Savior’s birth is unknown. The articles then attack selection of December 25th as an arbitrary date to celebrate the event, because pagans were already holding winter festivals on that date. The implication is that the Church did not try to supplant the pagan festival with a Christian one, but rather that the Church merely attached a new name to the old holiday so that believers could join in. | |||
JW articles go on to trace the Christmas tree to pagan worship; they focus on greed and commercialism that surfaces during the Christmas shopping season; they point out that the holiday is celebrated in oriental lands where the general population makes no pretense of being believers in Christ. | |||
From all of this they argue that Christmas is a pagan holiday inappropriate for Christians to share in. Interestingly, however, The Watchtower did not always express this viewpoint. The organization’s founders and early leaders celebrated Christmas and encouraged others to do the same: | |||
:''“Christmas Day,” in celebration of our dear Redeemer’s birth, has for long centuries been celebrated on December 25th; and although it is now well known that this date is in error, and that it more properly corresponds with the date of the annunciation to Mary, nine months before our Lord was born, and that he was born about October 1st,—nevertheless, since the Lord has given no instructions whatever upon this subject, and since it is proper to do good deeds and think good thoughts upon any day, it cannot be improper, in harmony with general usage, for us to remember in a social way our dear Redeemer’s birth at this time.<ref>Zion’s Watch Tower, December 15, 1898, page 370</ref> | |||
:''It matters not particularly that December 25 is not the anniversary of our Lord’s birth, according to the Scriptural account; that really he was born about September 25, nine months later. One day, as well as another, will serve us to commemorate our Savior’s birth in the flesh, as a gift of God’s love to a condemned and dying world.<ref>Zion’s Watch Tower, December 15, 1908, page 379</ref> | |||
The early Watchtower leaders who felt this way were just as familiar as today’s leaders with the resemblance between pagan customs and certain Christmas traditions. They welcomed opportunities to share with others in honoring Christ, while today’s leaders seem more eager to keep followers separated from non-JW relatives and neighbors. (Some form of isolation from outsiders is a common thread found in many mind-control cults. With some groups this separation is accomplished by physically withdrawing into a commune, while in other cults members continue living in the outside world but withdraw from social contact with non-members.) | |||
Participation in Christmas celebrations is not optional for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The ban is enforced by elders who make up judicial committees that sit in judgment of any who celebrate the holiday, even in some small way. This has been a firmly held position of the Watchtower Society since 1928.<ref>David A. Reed, Answering Jehovah’s Witnesses: Subject by Subject, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1997).</ref> | |||
=Christmas and Paganism= | =Christmas and Paganism= | ||