CELEBRATIONS

There is much in life we can celebrate. The bible is all for occasions of celebration (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13) For example, Weddings: God invented marriage, (Genesis 2:21-25). Thus to have a wedding fesitivities is perfectly acceptable (Genesis 29:27, John 2:1-2). As another example, God blessed humans with the ability to procreate (Genesis 1:28, 9:1). Therefore, since children are a joyous gift from God, (Exodus 1:21, Psalms 113:9, Psalms 127:3) there is no sin in celebrating the blessings of having children (Genesis 21:8, Deuteronomy 26:11) . As for birthdays, which is a form of celebrating one's children, the only sin there is the influence of rituals stemming from false worship (see details on this below). Remove the influence of false worship and you still have reason to rejoice in your children (Genesis 21:8, Job 1:4-5, Psalms 113:9, Luke 15:20-24). There are other occasions mentioned in the bible that caused celebration as well: The coronation of kings chosen by Yahweh (1 Samuel 11:15, 1 Kings 1:38-40, ), Godly victories (1 Samuel 18:6-7, 2 Samuel 6:14-19 ), the Rebuilding of the Temple (Ezra 3:10-13), Rescue from genocide (Esther 8:15-17), Entertaining guests (Luke 19:1-6, Acts 2:46, ), Gaining salvation through Christ (Acts 8:34-39), the return of a strayed family member (Luke 15:17-24), and the list goes on and on. The bible shows us that rejoicing and celebration are wonderful things for us to take part in (Leviticus 23:40, Deuteronomy 12:7).

In our celebrations, we must remember that the bible admonishes that we do not to mix false worship practices with Christianity (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Therefore, it would be unwise for a Christian to take part in pagan celebrations practices. Thus, any traditions or customs that originate from false worship should not be tolerated in Christian celebrations. Some holidays may not stem from false worship but may still originate from magic practices, and, again, we are to refrain from such. Many people don't think much about this, figuring that since they are doing it for God or Jesus it cancels out the evil origins and makes it alright. Others disagree, believing it is a sin to celebrate due to origins in false worship or the occult. Since the bible is supposed to be our guideline for living, it would be best for us to see what the scriptures have to say regarding this sort of thing:

In Exodus 32:1-10 the people took the celebration of a false god and converted it into a celebration to the only True God, thinking this would be acceptable. (This is exactly what modern people have done concerning Christmas and Easter by the way). God disapproved of this, however, and allowed the punishment of death toward the unfaithful ones. Couple this with the scripture at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 mentioned above, we see it states we are to remove ourselves from such things - there are no exceptions. This can be a hard pill to swallow since the majority of people are so attached to the various holidays, but really we need to live by the bible. This isn't always easy, but is always necessary. (Luke 6:22, John 15:18-19, John 17:14, 1 John 3:13). Many people don't realize how much the influence of false worship and the occult has crept into our celebrations. Finding out the origins of holiday traditions will uncover a lot of information. One can readily see how much false worship has crept into our lives. To take a false god and use it for worship of the True God is equal to someone using your enemy's birthdate to celebrate your birthday, or taking a satanic symbol and consecrating it holy for worship of God. There are a plethora of websites that you can use to learn the origins of such traditions.

Although the modern holidays are no longer intended for the actual worship of false gods, they still originate from such ungodly beginnings. This would make it a passive promotion of unfaithfulness towards Yahweh, and thus unsuitable for Christians to involve themselves in. God has told us repeatedly in scripture that we are to worship and serve ONLY Him (Deuteronomy 8:19, 11:16, Matthew 4:10, John 4:24) and to do otherwise would be a grave sin.

The main point is to find balance. It is a gift from God to have celebrations, though we need to keep the influence of false worship and the occult out of all celebrations and balance it with life's responsibilities (Ecclesiastes 8:15). We can celebrate Christ's death and resurrection without resorting to the pagan symbolisms of bunnies and eggs common at Easter time (Modern day pagans continue these traditions, therefore these are not "outdated" traditions to ignore). We can celebrate the birth of our Saviour without using the pagan symbolism of Christmas trees and boughs of holly. (Even the angels rejoiced in the birth of our Lord - Luke 2:8-14 - without using pagan based traditions). We can celebrate the births of our children, and celebrate the wonder of marrying a mate without all the false pagan traditions.

Rejoicing and celebration are acceptable parts of the human experience. Therefore we, as Christians, should embrace life's happiness while being sure we remain spiritually responsible in doing so.