It’s still not a considerable reason, i was really expecting Christmas to be a full Christian celebration. Stating that we used a pagan festival to help us would only lead them to say we have gone far from scripture and added unnecessary holidays to “assist” conversion of pagan romans. they would call us apostates if that’s the case. Is there other proof or reasons to claim Christmas is a FULL christian practice? not from a derivation of pagan fests.?
Is submitting all things to God in Christ a considerable reason?
Is celebrating the birth of Christ an unnecessary holiday? Images and symbols which originally came from paganism but are now given over to the glory of the One True God, sometimes do have a place within Christian tradition (small “t”). That has always been the case, since all things belong to Him and may be submitted to Him. Did pagans use candles? So do we. Did pagans employ rites incorporating water? So do we. Did pagans have marriage ceremonies? So do we. All these transformed now for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
If one chooses to question the adoption of such symbols (or the very celebration of Christmas itself - especially on Dec. 25) because of their pagan origination, then one should likewise question the Hebrew festivals we see recorded in Scripture. Christmas is no more or less “pagan” than the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles which coincided with a Canaanite festival celebrating the grape harvest. Just as the Hebrews made their own and conformed to the honor of the One True God what were previously pagan commemorations, it was (is) entirely appropriate for the Church to reclaim, e.g., a date in time which had been perverted to the glory of a pagan deity and appropriate it for the glory of the true Unconquered Son.
Time itself is a creature of God and it along with all creation can be - and often is - distorted and misused by man. But we see in Scripture, such as in the Canticle of Daniel (Dn. 3:35-88), that all creation is to praise the Lord, even the sun and moon which regulate our days and hours. The fact that some have worshiped these creatures rather than their Creator, does not mean that they cannot be redeemed and put to the use for which they were created - ultimately to the glory of God.
In Ephesians 1:10 we read: “. . .to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth,” (RSV). Here and elsewhere in Scripture we see that all of creation is to be gathered into submission to Christ - ALL of creation. The Church is the means by which this gathering-in is accomplished, redeeming and sanctifying in Christ that which has been corrupted - including time, places, and things.
The difficulty some have with the celebration of Christmas, or with some of the human traditions that have been incorporated into the celebration, seems to come from the idea that everything having to do with man’s relationship to God has to have a scriptural warrant (for the Fundamentalist Protestants especially).
If we were to apply this sense of purity to Scripture itself we would have to exclude much of what we see of the religious practices of the Hebrew people. Certainly they were divinely guided to offer to God the worship He desired from them, but if we make even the most cursory comparison to the religious practices of their neighbors - especially the Egyptians and then the Canaanites - we find great similarities and even appropriations: circumcision, festivals, sacrificial rituals and libations hymns (psalms), proverbs (Prov. 22:17-24:22 was modeled after the Egyptians “The Instruction of Amenehope”, 10000-600 B.C.). Pagan origins? Yes. Yet God used it all to fashion a people for Himself, using the “material at hand” and giving it His divine blessing and transforming it to His purposes.
So the wisdom of the Church in incorporating some cultural (pagan) traditions (into the celebration of Christmas, e.g.) should be seen as a part of the submission of all things to Christ. We just have to make sure that we employ these things with Christ in mind - submitting our own minds to Him.
Now, regarding the studying of JW material: It is MOST unwise for anyone to do so who doesn’t have a very firm grasp of Catholic doctrine AND a good reason to do so (not just curiosity); simple Catholic piety isn’t enough, especially if it gives one a false sense of security which presumes that one is capable of remaining strong in the Faith when subtle attacks on the Faith are being absorbed. This present situation with their material re Christmas and paganism is very much a case in point and should serve as an alert to onesself of a temptation against the Faith.
