Jehova's Witnesses

I guess that depends on whether you think, in order to gain more acceptance, it would be wrong to move the day of celebration to the same general time as the pagan winter festival.

 

John the Baptist. At King Herod's daughter's birthday party.

There are several verses in Leviticus and one in Deuteronomy that refer to both the uncleanliness of blood and the sacredness of it (tying it to the life of the body). But all those verses specifically refer to ingesting it.

Muff, I'm curious -- what exactly did the Jehovah's Witnesses teach you about Jesus? (I'm asking specifically about His identity.)

 

Regardless of the reasoning for the date, it has a meaning now that is associated with Christ's birth. Nobody celebrates it for winter solstice.

 

Of course not. Jews, Africans, Muslims, and Pagans don't celebrate anything related to the winter solstice.

Chanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, YULE

Yule: December 21st:
The celebration of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It is the celebration rebirth of the Sun, which is the promise of spring and life even on this the darkest day. Therefore some consider this the new year. The burning of the log is to give the Sun strength. Mumming (plays) such as "St. George" is a Pagan survival , it represents the rebirth of the God. Wassailing or is also a Pagan custom. The Roman festival of the Solstice was Saturnalia, which lasted from December 17th to the 24th.

Perhaps you could study up on the other major religions before making a claim like that?

Christmas is in December because they were trying to persuade the Pagans and nonchristians to switch to their festivals. The Christmas tree itself is a Pagan symbol. It has nothing to do with Christ.

 

Nobody? Hmm.....

In any case, as long as we get presents, I still say Christmas kicks ass.

 

He is God's son and sent to Earth to die for our sins. He worked as a carpenter. Just your standard, run-of-the-mill, Christian Jesus story. I'm not really sure what you're interested in knowing specifically about his identity.

The religion believes in God (the father), Jesus (the son), and the Holy Spirit are all seperate, not one as in the Trinity. They don't worship idols and believe the Cross is an idol. They don't fight in wars, for obvious reasons. They are preparing themselves for Jehovah's war, Armegeddon. They are just like everyone else in that they try to live their lives according to God's will
as outlined in the Bible in order to have everlasting life on Earth or to be part of the 144,000 (Revelation) that will reside with God in heaven.

 

This one is actually a little better. I found the other site had a prejudiced slant.

http://www.watchtower.org/library/jt/

 

So they believe you get to heaven by "living right"?

 

It does not matter to me at all, but then again, I was not the one getting defensive about having it associated with the winter solstace.

PS, I am guessing you don't want to know about Easter and the spring festivals, do you?

 

The reason christmas and easter are celebrated today is because of Christ. I do not care if the date is right or if some guy in the distant past got the date wrong on purpose to please some pagans. It is better to celebrate them on the wrong day than to not honor Him at all.