Why do christians celebrate secular holidays like Independence Day?

Question

Doesn't the bible say that only God can make a day holy? If God appoints the times and seasons and you are not to participate in ungodly activities, then wouldn't a day set up by a secular government be going against the will of God? Please explain. I appreciate your kind answers in advance.

Answer 1

Good question. I am an Evangelical Christian and we as a family do not celebrate pagan holidays and we are talked about because of it. I would say yes to your question. It is going against Gods will to do this. I wish that more Christians would take a good hard look at the origin of ALL the holidays and study Constantine and Early Church History from an unbiased veiw point. This could seriously improve everything "so called"....church!

Answer 2

The question is directed to Christians which I no longer am; but as a person brought up Catholic I think I can mention that celebrating a national holiday would not be in conflict with Christian teachings since they are not celebrating a non-religious holiday or commemorative day as a holy day to begin with. Celebrating the 4th has nothing to do with religion; and Christianity - at least in the Catholic Church - does not maintain any prohibition against celebrating non-religious occassions. Birthday celebrations are another example.

Answer 3

I am a Christian, I live in America, I have family and friends that have and are currently serving in war.

Why would I not celebrate the 4th? It is not a "holy" day. It is a time when my family and I can spend a day away from work and really say thanks for the wonderful country we live in. I am thankful for the sacrifices that are made so that I can live in a country where I am free to believe what I want to and free to celebrate what I want to. I thank God for my spiritual freedom but I thank the troops for the freedom I rest under every night in the great country of America.

Answer 4

OK can I just scream now at these answers?


Scream scream scream!!

OK...calming down now and I will leave all the retards with this quote..
"There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come."
Peter Muhlenberg, from a Lutheran sermon read at Woodstock, Virginia, January 1776

Even this guy knew "God" wasn't going to give them freedom...it had to be fought for!

Edit:

OK Im screaming some more...BBQ and fireworks is that all Independence Day means to you...I hate that.

Ok I am leaving now as things like this seem to really get my blood pressure up!! LOL I just wrote about this in my 360 blog.

Answer 5

I'm not a christian but I'll play "god's advocate" here.

In this case it's really all about the language. Just because Independence Day is a National "Holiday" doesn't mean it's a Holy Day. Holiday is often used in England to refer to a "day off from work" or "vacation". So it would make sense to call them National Holidays, because most places give you a day off.

Answer 6

I don't think anyone considers Independence Day a "holy" holiday. I personally am an American, so I'll celebrate the birth of my nation regardless of religion.

I usually don't personally get into all the nationalistic flag-waving, but I'm rather fond of fireworks.

Answer 7

What is ungodly about some good BBQ and fireworks? Holidays are not holy days, they are two very seperate things. God appoints the days, seasons and etc. but says nothing about taking part in celebrations as long as they are not worshipping another god. We celebrate because we like a good time just like everyone else. Just sometimes our idea of a good time is different from others. Just like every other human on the planet.

Answer 8

What you are citing is from the Torah, Penatuech, etc. (i.e., what is often miss -referred to as the "Old Testament" by those non-Jews who have adopted the text as their own). Originally, the Jews were to live under the rule of YHWH and YHWH alone, in a theocracy. They later pleaded with YHWH to give them a king as other nations had and Saul was annointed the first King of Judea.

Christians have been "freed" from the law and the books of the old covenant by the arrival of Yoshua bar Yoseph, referred to in Greek as Jesu Cristos, the "Christ" (i.e, the "Annointed One"). The evangelist Paul, told them that they were freed by Christ Jesus from the old law and the Christians happily accepted what he said. (At least those in authority within the newly created Roman Catholic church did when they gathered the "fathers" and other leaders of that group together and codified and canonized what became teh "New Testament".)

Christians are allowed to take part in secular governments and activites as long as they don't worship the emperor as "divine", take part in animal sacrafices to other gods, not eat of the same, etc.

The other answer and the more obvious is that most Christians are human beings who enjoy a good time as much as the rest of us and many of the secular holidays and celebrations are fun.

Answer 9

First, the founding fathers of this nation were all men who sought after God and His will in this world, and I believe that they believed that God would want them to celebrate the liberation from any form of tyranny, whether slaves to England or slaves to sin.

Secondly, the Bible does speak of not just Holy days, those that are set apart by God, but any day in which something special had happened. The Bible says, ‘So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a ‘festival’ or a new moon or Sabbaths’. As far as this says, if you don’t want to celebrate a day, then don’t, and if you do want to celebrate a day, then do, but remember not to do anything against God on that day whether you're celebrating it or not.

Answer 10

We don't consider the day to be Holy. It is just celebrating the foundation of the country we live in. Christians in every country can celebrate whatever their countries holidays are.