Moan brother to have begun an article with that title that surely thousands of times in the network and perhaps in some pamphlet will have read it already.
“Must the Christians do this? They must do the other�
And after a title thus the argument comes from some important one arguing almost unfailingly that:
- such celebration does not appear in the Bible
such celebration is of pagan origin
ergo: to celebrate it is SINNED
We vary a little the question because he is a little obvious. We must the Christians celebrate CHRISTMAS?
No, then clear that no. WE DO NOT HAVE. We do not have to celebrate Christmas, we do not have to celebrate Halloween, we do not have to celebrate the day of the deceaseds, we do not have to celebrate the tradition to eat ñoquis the 29, we do not have to celebrate the Thanksgiving day, we do not have to celebrate the wedding anniversary, in fact do not have (of HAVING, MANDATE, OBLIGATION), I say WE DO NOT HAVE to celebrate any more that those celebrations that left us to the Scripture in the new pact.
There are only THREE celebrations that were sent the Christians to fulfill, TWO of them are obligatory for all one is optional.
What the Christians WE MUST celebrate according to the Bible is:
- the death of the MesĂas until it returns
- the baptism of the Christian: we must be baptized and baptize to others
- the marriage, if WE CHOSE to form a pair
The others? Then as to have, we do not have anything and that is clearly. The others are traditions, all of them, from the birthdays to the wedding anniversaries, from Christmas to the custom to eat ñoquis day 29.
But then. We can? Or rather. We can do it without offending God?  The answer is clear: WE CAN DO EVERYTHING WHAT IT DOES NOT OFFEND GOD WITH BRINGS BACK TO CONSCIOUSNESS CLEAN.
I am used to eating ñoquis the 29, because in my country it is a tradition. It is a tradition based on a food: he is not dedicated to a false God, nonfornico during the 29, nonrobbery, I do not idolize to anything. Simply I prepare grazes homemade for my and my wife, and giving thanks to Yavé we eat, it. It is a tradition. A tradition that IS NOT AGAINST the laws of God which they prohibit neither to eat ñoquis nor to meet to have dinner with the family once a month to eat certain food.
Which is the origin of the tradition? Perhaps he has been pagan, perhaps no. The Christians of the first century faced a drama similar as far as the sacrificed food to idols: the origin of those foods was pagan, but Pablo said that all the foods are clean. The origin then of a celebration is not what determines if the same is offensive to God or no.
It had, according to the writings, zones dedicated to the adoration of false Gods. Soon those zones were populated by Israelite worshippers of Yavé who in that same earth adored the true God. The past of those earth it did not make the adoration impure.
We have a faith that is based indeed on the PRESENT not in the past. If the ORIGIN of the things is the base of the judgment, then all the conversos Christians we are in problems since all we are of PAGAN ORIGIN.
However, which a Christian must evaluate before a celebration, SHE IS THE ONE THAT IS, is not his origin, but its nature. The practices in if that are carried out during this celebration they are what matters.
For example, to write a letter to him to Santa Claus is of course a idolatry act because it is the equivalent to pray to him to a false God. Also a Christian could exactly deduce that to place a doll of santa claus in his house it is the equivalent to place a statue of the virgin Maria or any other idol. That is a coherent use of brings back to consciousness.
However, on having dinner the 24 of December… there is mandate? There is law in the writing that prohibits having dinner with the certain family date? For example I live in a secular country, Uruguay. Officially CHRISTMAS does not exist. The 25 of December are in Uruguay, OFFICIALLY, the DAY OF the FAMILY.
If dedicate I it to eat with my family and to take a walk with her, I am committing idolatry? I am sinning when seating me in a table, to make a food special, to pray God and to have dinner peacefully?  It says who it. the writing, or some shepherd or leader of some sect?
We go to the adornments. If a Christian decides to put a tree in a corner of his house, with some lights in these dates, is forced clearly. But. freckle if it does? Under which law is condemned? That mandate we have against placing a tree with small balls of colors is in December is in November? I usually place artificial plants in my house all the year. In my country it is a tradition some to place a decorated tree.
He has pagan origin? If. Also to dress the fianc2ee target has pagan origin. Also to bury to deads has pagan origin. We live in a pagan world, not in a Christian world. What it must weigh to us is if a tradition offends God or no, and how.
There is one differentiates enormous in CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS, to place symbols of deities, stars, to throw firecrackers to drive away the bad luck, to do convinced it that one celebrates the birthday of the boy “God�, to simply and sober meeting to have dinner with the family.
And not to stay as disorienting, like certain groups to which the brain is washed to them so that they are even fought with his pair it invites if them to go to have dinner that night to some site. Where it was what the Jew said to Pablo of “a I became like Jew, I have become all class of things to all class of people to win to some�?  To be adaptable, without being part of the world.
We did not celebrate anything, we are not forced. We only celebrated the death of our Mesias, our Baptism and other people's and the marriage we assumed when it. Of others, because each country has its traditions and we are not forced to follow them but we either do not have prohibition in the measurement that do not break the laws of God, in the measurement that does not offend Yavé.
Some say that the Christmas tree although of pagan origin, it is seen by many nominal Christians like a symbol of the “tree of the life�. For us the original Christians neither a thing nor the other makes the celebration mandatoria.
We live in this world, without being part of him. We avoid to fall in the consumption and the idolatry typical of these dates, but also typical of other celebrations that seem not to as much bother the great sects to him, such as the funerals and the marriages. According to the Bible, a wedding can be as simple as to take to the wife to the house. And if not that somebody explains to me that celebration made Jose and Maria, the legal parents of our MesĂas.
It will be that these sects celebrate in these two celebrations by means of renting a hall or to give to a speech and for that reason these traditions they seem to them mandatorias almost, and other traditions that take ahead in the one house seem to them a sin almost?
Brothers: if I from now on said family to him “Watch, an idea is happened to me. from now on the 10 of September of every year I will roast a fish, dare 10 returns to the table, and I will give a kiss them each and I will call the DAY OF the KISS�, can sound ridiculous situation, crazy person, absurd and definitively there is nothing in the writing forces that me to it. But there is nothing either prohibits it to me.
We must be mature like Christians, not be pending of the mosquito like the fariseos to end up devouring the camel.
In this December, as well as every month, that everyone coma and drinks for honor of God without offending God neither of act nor of word. That it does not idolize, that not fornique, that does not rob, that not embriague. And if people around call to him thus or they call handle to him, that is not put to judge.
That if, if some brother is of brings back to consciousness weak, as he also said to Pablo one would have to respect it and to try not to do what although he is allowed, can hurt brings back to consciousness of this brother.
They make all the things for the glory of God. They do not devour the camel to strain the mosquito.
I close with a personal anecdote… in the last 30 of October, in that people celebrate the famous Halloween, my wife was gotten depressed because it had left a quite traumatic internment due to a health problem that also seemed serious. Invited I it to the cinema but nor even so it seemed animated.
Already in center commercial, since it were Halloween, some premises sold masks. Then I entered and I bought a mask of Albert Einstein. Really ridiculous me veia. I left with put her and my woman began aa to laugh. And not me the serve by a good short while. She watched and reia to me. And not only she: each person who crossed to me in center commercial watched and reia to me.
The mask me cost 2 dollars. Perhaps many put masks that day to celebrate something that nor understand. I know that I put a mask to make smile loved wife I obtained and it. and in the attempt, I made laugh to much people, I improved the humor of many.
It was the mask of a devil, neither of a false deity, nor of a pumpkin: the caricatured face of Albert Einstein and by 2 USD only I only cured of depression woman and I made of the commercial center a better place:Â there was but people smiling when I was myself that when I arrived.
And I ask. he would have been Christian to say “today is halloween I cannot put a mask to me�?  They think second brothers. They think with the heart, and under the guide of God they think frequently that God thinks not that they think other that say to know that God thinks.
I senti the smile of my Father raise mine. An idol is not nothing in the world. A date is not nothing. That it judges them to nobody with respect to a celebration, to a Saturday or a New Moon.
That is our challenge: that before each situation we must determine by means of the guide of espirittu of our Father whom to make and that stop doing.
That La Paz of God is with you and who this month, that often moves to the people to think a little but in the spiritual, instead of to find them fighting by a date and judging the fellow finds them becoming all thing to all class of people to save to a few. That this month where people, for the erroneous reasons although are, think a little but about God, gives (it gives us) opportunity them to scatter but the gospel of the Kingdom.
