birthdays

by cr1234 55 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  hybridous

  A Watchtower apologist will spare no expense in keeping the Org free from tarnish. Observe here as the choice is between having the Bible sound stupid, and having the Org sound stupid. We know which will be defended at all costs.

  Is there any explanation of Romans 14:5,6, other than the obvious one, namely that each Christian has the explicit right to observe/refrain from observing ANY days that carry meaning for him/her, as long as those days are not used to promote some other God?

  There seems to be a distinction being made between a birthday 'celebration' and a birthday 'observence'. If we can define the terms of our discussion, it can progress to some useful degree.
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  hybridous

  On another note, I smell a trial balloon being floated.

  I've suspected for some time that when the WT is getting ready to loosen up the chains on the whole birthday thang, this is how it'll be done.

  They'll print an article stating that some True Christians have quietly and respectfully observed family member's birthdays, in good conscience. This will be contrasted to a WORLDLY birthday celebration with rowdy music, and drinking and such. Then the article will end by saying that what each Christian or Christian family decides to do is up to them, and nobody in the congregation should judge them.
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  AlmostAtheist

  Is there any explanation of Romans 14:5,6, other than the obvious one, namely that each Christian has the explicit right to observe/refrain from observing ANY days that carry meaning for him/her, as long as those days are not used to promote some other God?

  Welcome to the conversation, hybridous! You raise some good points.

  The hangup with the Romans 14 scripture is that Paul was most likely talking about the Jewish holidays. Some Christians still observed them (as they still observed the old dietary laws referenced in earlier verses) and others did not. Paul was like, "observe the old law, don't observe it, it doesn't matter. Don't judge each other over it."

  It doesn't directly translate to "any day you want to observe is ok", tempting though it may be to read it that way.

  The "observe" versus "celebrate" question is major. I hope if this turns into a full out discussion of the topic, we can stick to "celebrate" since observe is already understood to be acceptable. All the Watchtower objections to bday's are related to the celebration, not the observance.

  Dave
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  hybridous

  As far as the Jewish holidays go...

  Seems kind of unfair and arbitrary of Paul to allow Jewish Christians to celebrate/observe those holidays of their old religion while denying the same comfort to Roman and Greek Christians.

  I guess my question is: why wouldn't this allowance extend to all Christians of all origins?

  It's not a meaningless issue...allowing Jewish Christians to keep their old observances might have allowed them to keep close to their families despite their new faith. For a Christian, once Jesus Christ was executed, Judaism was from that point on a 'false religion'. Why the allowance for Jews, but no allowance for those of other nations? After all, once Jesus died, the Jews enjoyed no more of a special relationship with God than any other nation, right?
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  Kristofer

  When someone does something bad on their birthday, it makes the person bad, not the birthday! Does anyone else see the logical fallicy in making the birthday evil????
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  Schizm

  When someone does something bad on their birthday, it makes the person bad, not the birthday! Does anyone else see the logical fallicy in making the birthday evil????

  You are absolutely correct, but there are other reasons why a Christian wouldn't want to copy the world's practice of "birthday celebrations".

  .