Why didn't the Apostles celebrate the Birth of Christ? (incarnation, doctrine, woman)

[Marlbron]

Originally Posted by trettep

Why didn't the Apostles celebrate the birth of Christ?

OP,

They did celebrate his birthday after he died. They got permission from Herod for this. Not everything that happened is in scripture, but this my friend is the fact.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by trettep

Why didn't the Apostles celebrate the birth of Christ?

I don't believe anyone's birthday was celebrated back then. Most people didn't even know the actual date of their birth. I'm not sure, but I suspect that you're saying that because the Apostles didn't celebrate the birth of Christ, we shouldn't either. Is that what you're saying?

[trettep]

Originally Posted by Marlbron

OP,

They did celebrate his birthday after he died. They got permission from Herod for this. Not everything that happened is in scripture, but this my friend is the fact.

I have seen no evidence to show that therefore I don't accept it as fact.

[InsaneInDaMembrane]

Thank god for Christmas. It is MOST wonderful time after of the year, well, after tax refund time!

[ArkansasTraveler]

Originally Posted by trettep

Why didn't the Apostles celebrate the birth of Christ?

There are no instructions from Jesus to do so.
The instructions are----

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

1 Corinthians 11:25 ... In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant between God and his people--an agreement confirmed with my blood.

Jesus was celebrating His death - providing you a way to salvation.

[TransAm]

Originally Posted by ArkansasTraveler

There are no instructions from Jesus to do so.
The instructions are----

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

1 Corinthians 11:25 ... In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant between God and his people--an agreement confirmed with my blood.

Jesus was celebrating His death - providing you a way to salvation.

You are correct on this,The four Gospel writers clearly inform us of the day on which Jesuse died. It happened on the day of the Passover, which was held on the 14th of the Jewish month Nisan, in the spring. Jesus specifically commanded his followers to commenorate that day in remembrance of him-Luke-22:19. The Bible contains no such command to celbrate Jesus birthday.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by TransAm

The Bible contains no such command to celbrate Jesus birthday.

This is true, but does the lack of such a commandment make it wrong? I don't believe it does.

[trettep]

Originally Posted by ArkansasTraveler

There are no instructions from Jesus to do so.
The instructions are----

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

1 Corinthians 11:25 ... In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant between God and his people--an agreement confirmed with my blood.

Jesus was celebrating His death - providing you a way to salvation.

But that has nothing to do with Christmas. Christmas was never celebrated by the Apostles nor did Jesus command to celebrate His birth. The celebration of birthdays is a carnal event.

[trettep]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

This is true, but does the lack of such a commandment make it wrong? I don't believe it does.

No, it is true that a lack of a commandment doesn't make it wrong. But we know that to celebrate a birthday is a carnal event. The Spirit never had a birth. It always existed. It's a defamation of God's Character to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by trettep

No, it is true that a lack of a commandment doesn't make it wrong. But we know that to celebrate a birthday is a carnal event.

It is? I'm afraid I don't understand why you feel that way. To me (and probably to most people who celebrate birthdays), it's nothing more than a special day set aside to recognize the uniqueness of each individual spirit God has sent to earth. It's a time to celebrate accomplishments of the past year and to set goals for the upcoming year. It's a time to rejoice in the life of a loved one or close friend and to show that person how much we value their life. If you're inclined to say, "Shouldn't we be doing that every day?" I'd have to agree that maybe we should. But every-day experiences are not quite the same as once-a-year commemorations.

With respect to Jesus Christ's birth, let me just post a true story that explains why I believe Christmas to be so significant. It's by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an LDS Apostle:

For many people in many places this may not be an entirely happy Christmas, one not filled with complete joy because of the circumstances facing a spouse or a friend, a child or a grandchild. Or perhaps that was the case another Christmas in another year, but one which brings a painful annual memory to us yet. Or . . . perhaps this may be the case some future Christmas …when there is some public or very personal tragedy in which it may seem, at least for a time, that “hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.”

On the evening of December 23, 1976, my father underwent surgery…. The surgery was successful, but near the conclusion of it he suffered a major heart attack. Eight hours later, he suffered another one…. By the time we finally got to see him, wired and tubed and gray and unconscious, it was mid morning on December 24, Christmas Eve…

“Magnificent time,” I muttered to no one in particular. . . .

At the hospital I sat and walked and read and walked and looked in on Dad and walked. He would not, in fact, recover from all this. I suppose everyone knew that, but the nursing staff were kind to me and gave me free access to him and to the entire hospital. A couple of nurses wore Santa Claus hats, and all the nursing stations were decorated for the season. During the course of the evening I think I checked them all out, and sure enough, on every floor it was Christmas.

You will forgive me if I admit that somewhere in the early hours of the morning I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. “Why does it have to be like this?” I thought. “Why does it have to be on Christmas Eve?”

Lying under that oxygen tent was the most generous man I have ever known . . . and by some seemingly cruel turn of cardiac fate it was Christmas morning and he was in the process of dying.

Then and there 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. in a very quiet hospital, immersed as I was in some sorrow and too much selfishness heaven sent me a small, personal, prepackaged revelation, a tiny Christmas declaration that was as powerful as any I have ever received. In the midst of mumbling about the very calendaring in all of this, I heard the clear, unbroken cry of a baby. It startled me. I had long since ceased paying attention to where I was wandering that night, and only then did I realize I was near the maternity ward; somewhere, I suppose, near the nursery… God could not have sent me a more penetrating wake up call.

“Jeff, my boy,” my Father in Heaven seemed to say with that baby’s cry. “I expected a little more from you. If you can’t remember why all of this matters, then your approach to Christmas is no more virtuous than the over commercialization everyone laments these days. You need to shape up just a little, to put your theology where your Christmas carols are. You can’t separate Bethlehem from Gethsemane or the hasty flight into Egypt from the slow journey to the summit of Calvary. It’s of one piece. It’s a single plan…. Christmas is joyful not because it is a season or decade or lifetime without pain and privation, but precisely because life does hold those moments for us. And that baby, my son, my own beloved and Only Begotten Son in the flesh, born ‘away in a manger, [with] no crib for his bed,’ makes all the difference in the world, all the difference in time and eternity, all the difference everywhere, worlds without number, a lot farther than your eye can see.”

I have repented since that night. In fact, I did some repenting there in the maternity ward. If you have to lose your dad, what more comforting time than the Christmas season?

These are sad experiences, terribly wrenching experiences, with difficult moments for years and years to come. But because of the birth in Bethlehem and what it led to, they are not tragic experiences. They have a happy ending. There is a rising after the falling. There is life always. New births and rebirths and resurrection to eternal life. It is the joy of the stable the maternity ward forever.

. . .[W]hat may be most glorious about the hymns’ celebration of Christ’s advent is not only their telling of that first Christmas story but also their promise of a later one. This is the theme that runs through the carols and which may be lost in the season if we are not listening for it. Along with the joy of Christmas past is the anticipation of Christ’s triumphant return and what will be made known by the angels again.

So you see, for me and for other Latter-day Saints, Christmas is not just a celebration of Christ's birth. It's a celebration of the fact that "God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christmas and Easter and everything in between are all a part of God's plan and are all worth celebrating.

The Spirit never had a birth. It always existed.

That's an interesting comment. Would you mind elaborating? Do you not believe that God created our spirits? (I will explain my belief on this, later, perhaps, because it bears some similarity to yours. Obviously, it's not identical, though.)

It's a defamation of God's Character to celebrate Christmas as the birth of Christ.

Christ's "birth" was the beginning of His mortal life. Regardless of whether the spirit has existed forever or was created by God at some point, we are not celebrating the birth of Christ's "spirit" at Christmas but of His coming to this world.

I'm curious as to how you regard the joyous singing of the angels who announced His birth to the shepherds. Do you believe they were defaming God's character to have sung praises to Him that first Christmas night? Is it somehow okay to celebrate a happy moment once, but not okay to celebrate it again and again?