Agree or disagree? Do you think that the Watchtower organization forbids JWs from celebrate?

Question

birthdays and Christmas etc because that keeps them from associating with people from different beliefs ? I see this matter as a control issue. How about you?

Walton T: I have visited many links. However, I learn and teach through my questions. I have the right to be here. Since JWs claim to be the only true religion, they should be happy to answer.

Lavender: It does not bother me a bit if 25th is not the accurate birthday of Christ. I know why I celebrate Christmas. Christmas is one of my favorite Holidays.

Light 4 blind: It does not bother me a bit. I love Christmas.

Moises_Frias: I am not afraid of my Lord and Savior. I celebrate His birth, and it is a pleasure!

Sellb..: Socially wierd, that is a good way to put it. I have not been able to connect with them either. I would not be able to be part of their social gatherings and to feel joy of worshiping God.

ALLTRUE: I believe in free will. God asks us tomake the decision. I am here to talk about their doctrines since they claim to be the only true religion and their organization to be the only channel of communicatin between God and people.

I am a non-denominatinal Christian.My church believes in the literal truth of the Bible and they lead us to a life changing connection with Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Savior. Religion does not save you personal relationship with Jesus saves. You do not have to belong to one particular church to be saved. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, and no one will enter to the Father's house except through Him.

Answer 1

I think it is two things. The first is as you say a control issue. Secondly as with many JW beliefs I think they do it just to be different. They want to say we are not like other people. We don't do things Christians do.

Answer 2

No, it's a biblical issue. Does anyone even think of Christ on Christmas? It's all about buying presents and decorating a tree....the bible actually says "Do not cut down a tree and adorn it", I will have to get the exact scripture for you if you like. Jesus wasn't even born on Dec 25th. X-mas actually originated as a Pagan holiday....originally being "day of the SUN", then turning into "day of the SON". The bible does not give an exact date of Jesus' birth or death. Think of all the religious holiday's, do any of the customs actually have anything to do with God or Jesus? Most of the time they involve things that are not Christ like at all. The bible says these things are "Ways of the world" and not to participate in these things. I could go on and on. I've studied the bible for years and have known many people of many religions, including Jehovah Witnesses. Some things you have to research and investigate, but as far as holiday's go, it's really written in black and white. Feel free to contact with any other questions.

Answer 3

I don't know about you, but I do not talk or associate with people only at parties. If that what you assume were true, the whole 6 million- plus of us would have to move away to some desert somewhere. (But hey- if the early Witnesses did that, there wouldn't be so many of us, now would there?)

We do not celebrate those holidays because they are pagan. Seeing you do not respect Jehovah's feelings (or is it your trinity god) enough to give up celebrating a pagan holiday, I guess it's time you went back to decorating your tree, instead of assuming nonsense.

Answer 4

As you are not a Jehovah's Witness then why do you care?
It is hurting nobody that they choose to avoid bithdays and christmas. Actually the christmas one is pretty easy to understand.

The point is a Jehovah's Witness will do what Jehovah's Witness does because they ARE Jehovah's Witnesses. They freely took the decision to become one. They wanted to be a Jehovah's Witness so they choose to live as one. If how they want to live is by Jehovah's standard then let them. If they are not spoiling your birthday or ruining your christmas then why does it bother you?

Now tell me something about your religion since you don't speak about it much but instead spend all your time talking about someone elses.

EDIT: If you truely believe in free will then let JW's do what they do in peace. Don't every church believe they are the truth even yours as you claim or do some admit they are a pack of lies?
If I choose to go to a meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses then I choose to, if I want to go to a non denominational church then I will choose to, if I want to attend a buddist temple I choose to. Jehovah's Witnesses have their beliefs and you have yours so why not practice what you preach about free will and let bygones be bygones.

Now go pick an answer that suits your prejudice and close this soiled matter for all time.

Answer 5

Because they are a cult who calls themselves christian but don't believe in God the son or holy spirit. There is no reasoning with a cult, they are taught to forget the teachings and only read a bastardized verson of the bible which has removed and changed the word. Any free thinking normal person couldn't swallow the chum they serve and the jevohas teach that if you don't follow them, you are evil. No relationship could survive that.

Answer 6

I do celebrate my birthday and families birthday for reason of "being here and alive". It is a blessing to us that we were born and have the gift of life, that is something to celebrate. Nothing evil about it. I don't think its a control issue; its to be set apart from other religious beliefs. The beliefs that are considered pagan. Truthfully I don't know anything about "pagans and who was pagans at that time." Maybe a JW will be nice to e-mail me and tell me the history of Pagans. If what they say is TRUE, and Jesus was born in the summer; then saying he was born Dec. 25, would make it to be an "outright lie". A lie is nothing to celebrate! I got second thoughts on Christmas now. I will discuss this with my family after this holiday's for next year we got the whole year to think about it.

Answer 7

Funny. Of course not. The Bible is why we don't celebrate Christmas and Birthdays.

Saying we don't celebrate Christmas, to keep ourselves controlled, (Which has been claimed on here before, please get new material) is like saying we don't approve of sexual immorality to keep us controlled.

PS Is to it a matter of being controlled when other faiths don't celebrate Christmas??

EDIT

Another old false assertion, that Witnesses aren't to go to ANY websites asside from http://www.watchtower.org. That is so rediculous. For one thing, we would'nt be warned about being careful on the web if we Only went to that site. And even then, if we were to be warned, where would the need for discernment come in, wouldn't it simply be ONLY go here, end of discussion.

It isn't. As Christians, we must use discernment when deciding where to go and what to do.

As long as old lies are being used, mention how we don't celebrate Christmas because it takes away money we give to the society. Oh and also mention how we don't dance, and how we never have windows in ANY of our Kingdom Halls, etc.

PS I find it funny someone claiming we don't so we won't be "the social norm". Is this why we have weddings?? Is getting married and celebrating it not normal??

Is Christmas the ONLY time people associate with one another??

Answer 8

I am not sure if that is the only reason, though it could be in part. My sister-in-law joined the JWs for awhile, and she stopped celebrating Christmas and Birthdays during this time, the point, according to her, was to focus on their god rather than on man. Since they don't believe in the Deity of Christ, they see Him as just a man. The whole organization is unscriptural though.

Answer 9

No. I don't think the intent is to keep them from associating with others of different beliefs. I don't know that the conscious intent is control either.

I do know a JW from work said she doesn't celebrate birthdays and Christmas etc because it is not biblical and that it is joining into the worldly things.

Answer 10

No, it doesn't forbid it is a choice person's of the Jehovah's Witness faith made for themselves.

Even though all my family members are not Jehovah's Witness I still associate with them, and I also associate with people different beliefs.

The reason why we don't celebrate Birthday , Christmas -

Birthdays: Enjoying a feast or a party and generous giving to loved ones are certainly not wrong. (Luke 15:22-25; Acts 20:35) Jehovah’s Witnesses enjoy giving gifts and having good times together throughout the year. However, the only two birthday celebrations mentioned in the Bible involved people who were not true believers. They were a Pharaoh of Egypt and the Roman ruler Herod Antipas, each of whose birthday celebrations had deadly results. (Genesis 40:18-22; Mark 6:21-28) So it is not surprising to see these historical references to the attitude of early Christians toward birthday celebrations:

“The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period in general.”—The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries (New York, 1848), by Augustus Neander (translated by Henry John Rose), page 190.

“Of all the holy people in the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1911), Volume X, page 709 (quoting Origen Adamantius of the third century).

Additionally, birthday celebrations tend to give excessive importance to an individual, no doubt one reason why early Christians shunned them. (Ecclesiastes 7:1) So you will find that Jehovah’s Witnesses do not share in birthday festivities (the parties, singing, gift giving, and so forth).

Christmas: As you are probably aware, December 25 was not the birthday of Jesus Christ. You may feel that this does not matter—that the event is the important thing. But the way the Christmas holiday developed shows that there is more to it than that. The following encyclopedias explain:

“The observance of Christmas is not of divine appointment, nor is it of N[ew] T[estament] origin. The day of Christ’s birth cannot be ascertained from the N[ew] T[estament], or, indeed, from any other source. The fathers of the first three centuries do not speak of any special observance of the nativity.”—Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1981 reprint), by John McClintock and James Strong, Volume II, page 276.

“Most of the Christmas customs now prevailing in Europe, or recorded from former times, are not genuine Christian customs, but heathen customs which have been absorbed or tolerated by the Church. . . . The Saturnalia in Rome provided the model for most of the merry customs of the Christmas time.”—Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics (Edinburgh, 1911), edited by James Hastings, Volume III, pages 608, 609.

It is commonly known that Christmas was not originally a celebration of Christ’s birth. U.S. Catholic of December 1981, page 32, notes: “It is impossible to separate Christmas from its pagan origins.” The magazine explains:

“The Romans’ favorite festival was Saturnalia, which began on December 17 and ended with the ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’ (Natalis solis invicti) on December 25. Somewhere in the second quarter of the fourth century, savvy officials of the church of Rome decided December 25 would make a dandy day to celebrate the birthday of the ‘sun of righteousness.’ Christmas was born.”

When learning these facts about Christmas, how have some been affected? The World Book Encyclopedia (1982) observes under “Christmas”: “During the 1600’s . . . Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America.” Since people in the past refused to celebrate Christmas because of its pagan origins, it should be understandable why Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate it today. We take no part in Christmas parties, plays, singing, exchanging of gifts, or in any other such activity that is associated with Christmas.

Jehovah’s Witnesses take the same position of total nonparticipation in other religious or semireligious holidays that occur during the school year. The reason is that these holidays, too, are connected with non-Christian worship; in fact, certain features of such worship often dominate the celebrations.

Answer 11

Disagree.
According to the Scriptures, the day the baby was born was usually one of rejoicing and thanksgiving on the part of the parents, and rightly so, for “look! Sons are an inheritance from Jehovah; the fruitage of the belly is a reward.” (Ps 127:3; Jer 20:15; Lu 1:57, 58) However, there is no indication in the Scriptures that faithful worshipers of Jehovah ever indulged in the pagan practice of annually celebrating birthdays.
With the introduction of Christianity the viewpoint toward birthday celebrations did not change. Jesus inaugurated a binding Memorial, not of his birth, but of his death, saying: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” (Lu 22:19) If early Christians did not celebrate or memorialize the birthday of their Savior, much less would they celebrate their own day of birth. Historian Augustus Neander writes: “The notion of a birthday festival was far from the ideas of the Christians of this period.” (The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries, translated by H. J. Rose, 1848, p. 190) “Origen [a writer of the third century C.E.] . . . insists that ‘of all the holy people in the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world below.’”—The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, Vol. X, p. 709.
If you Want to Celebrate your Birthday Go ahead, no one is Stopping you , why worry what others are Doing, its not like they going to invite you anyways.....Nina.