Christmas thoughts

Christ is in Christmas. I don't need to wear that on my sleeve for the other 6 weeks of the end-of-year holiday season. It's much ado about nothing. We complain that Christmas is too commercialized, but then complain that Christ isn't in Christmas. We can't have it both ways.

And if anyone gives me grief about my assortment of Disney ornaments on my tree, I'll bop 'em a good one.

 

Good question. Paul says let no one judge you according to your celebration of feast days. The Christmas season is what we make of it. We should permits that same liberty to others.

 

Paul's context is noted at the beginning of the passage: People esteem different days differently, and to the Christian it's of no account who celebrates what and when.

Funny thing about that. The "X" in Xmas actually comes from the Greek letter "X", or chi (pronounced "kee"). It's the koine abbreviation for "Christus". "X-Mas" is actually a proper rendering of "Christmas". So if you know anyone who is opposed to it, they're displaying their ignorance.

 

There should also be Festivus, for the rest-of-us.

 

Exactly. It's what you make it.

 

Are you referring to Paul's context of people esteem different days differently, or to the "X" in "X-mas" being an abbreviation for "Christ"?

 

According to Paul in Roman 14:5, one person esteems one day above another, while another esteems every day alike. He says to let person be fully persuaded in his own mind as to how he esteems the days.

Regarding the "X", Take for example the acrostic "IXOYE" (Iota, Chi, Theta, Upsilon, and Sigma.) The acrostic stands for “Iesous Christos, Theou Uios, Soter" ("Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior").

 

What it originally was doesn't matter. What matters is whom you are honoring when Dec. 25 rolls around now - is it the sun, pagan gods, false gods and christs, or the true Jesus Christ?

Pagans are always saying that Christians stole their holiday. Well, maybe. But it's in the nature of redemption that Christ takes over everything - eventually, the whole world. Our BC and AD, and even our year count, are based on Jesus Christ, too.

 

They'd be wrong, because ancient pagan religions have long since dies out. Modern paganism is an articially contrived religion, which lifts bits and pieces from ancient pagan myth and folkore. It's still paganism, but it's not the same as ancient paganism.

They used to be, but aren't anymore. That's simply due to the fact that the calendar has had to be adjusted. Christ was born circa 4bc, and since the notation is based on an inaccuracy (no year "0"), the use of BCE/ACE, or BCE/CE, has slowly been replacing BC/AD over the last few centuries. CE stands for "Christian Era", "Common Era", or "Current Era" depending on its context and usage. If the BC/AD calendar were to shift again, the BCE/CE calendar would remain fixed where it is now.

(this is the part where someone chimes in objecting to the use of CE, but there's not really much to that objection.)

 

Is it time for the Feats of Strength yet? Or, maybe it's time for the Airing of Grievances? I've got a lot of problems with you people!!

 

Whether modern paganism is contrived or not does not keep them from saying this. I get emails from them all the time saying this. And modern polytheism is very much an echo of ancient pagan beliefs; it's really the same thing in a more modern form and without the child sacrifice. The ancient heresies are still here in the forms of the JW and Mormon faiths (and others); gnostic beliefs are here in the New Age, etc. The bad stuff never goes away. These beliefs just take different forms.

Yes, I know about the Common Era thing. But for about 2,000 years, we used BC and AD.

 

um, that's a historical fact.