tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post7474617673477606581..comments2023-04-17T21:27:49.092+08:00Comments on Jesus <i>is</i> Jehovah!: The Watchtower's false teaching against Christmas #3: Origin of Christmas is paganStephen E. Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16183223752386599799noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-25716642611571333182011-08-12T16:49:39.329+08:002011-08-12T16:49:39.329+08:00Actually christmas is a pagan holiday...im not wit...Actually christmas is a pagan holiday...im not with Jehovas witness but I think we should all help each other to become good... <br />Facts on Christmas....<br />Lets see what the bible talks about some similar thing we know of christmas...<br />Jeremiah 10;2-5<br /> “ Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; <br /> Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, <br /> For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. <br /> 3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; <br /> For one cuts a tree from the forest, <br /> The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. <br /> 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; <br /> They fasten it with nails and hammers <br /> So that it will not topple. <br /> 5 They are upright, like a palm tree, <br /> And they cannot speak;"......<br />Sound familiar... it sounds a lot like a christmas tree, its funny cause more than 90 percent of the pagan gods and godesses are born on December 25...<br />The real origin of Christmas goes back to ancient Babylon... The Pagan god Nimrod, Nimrod married his own mother whose name was Semiramis. After Nimrods death, his so called mother-wife propagated the evil doctrine of the survival of Nimrod as a spirit being. So she then claimed a full grown evergreen tree that sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolized the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. paganism celebrated this famous birthday over most of the known world for centuries before the birth of Christ.JesusFreaknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-53096781494113877042010-12-26T08:31:33.281+08:002010-12-26T08:31:33.281+08:00Anonymous
>I could not thank you more for prov...Anonymous<br /><br />>I could not thank you more for providing the information that Christmas is a Christian celebration and not pagan in origin. <br /><br />Thanks for your comment. I have not yet, but may still, post a message about Christmas and JWs this Christmas (2010), but I am glad that someone read my last Christmas (2009) message.<br /><br />>I left the JW org last March <br /><br />Great! It is good to hear from ex-JWs.<br /><br />>and while i respect the Christian freedom of others in celebrating Christmas (Romans 14), I am still having my scruples with respect to celebrating it (as a sort of hangover from the WT view that it is of pagan origin). <br /><br />It is a logical fallacy, called "the Genetic Fallacy" (nothing to do with genetics), to condemn something because of its origins and not on its current merits:<br /><br />"The genetic fallacy is a fallacy of irrelevance where a conclusion is suggested based solely on something or someone's origin rather than its current meaning or context. This overlooks any difference to be found in the present situation, typically transferring the positive or negative esteem from the earlier context. The fallacy therefore fails to assess the claim on its merit. The first criterion of a good argument is that the premises must have bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim in question. Genetic accounts of an issue may be true, and they may help illuminate the reasons why the issue has assumed its present form, but they are irrelevant to its merits." ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fallacy" rel="nofollow">Genetic fallacy</a>," Wikipedia, 1 December 2010).<br /><br />>But your article sure help me to do away with those scruples. <br /><br />Glad that I have been of help.<br /><br />>But you will surely agree to me that we Christians should redeem Christmas from commercialization and put back the Christ into Christmas.<br /><br />Absolutely. The Watchtower dishonestly confuses three things: 1. Christmas itself-its core meaning being the celebration of Jesus' birth; with 2. The (claimed) pagan origin of Christmas; and 3. its current commercialization.<br /><br />But the Watchtower's <i>real</i> reason for banning JWs celebrating Christmas, is the same reason they ban celebrating birthdays and any other holidays. To isolate JWs from their non-JW family and friends so they are more under the control of the cult.<br /><br />>Thanks alot. Maligayang Pasko!<br /><br />Thanks and a blessed Christmas season to you and yours.<br /><br />StephenStephen E. Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16183223752386599799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-64418157153651885662010-12-25T22:35:28.053+08:002010-12-25T22:35:28.053+08:00I could not thank you more for providing the infor...I could not thank you more for providing the information that Christmas is a Christian celebration and not pagan in origin. I left the JW org last March and while i respect the Christian freedom of others in celebrating Christmas (Romans 14), I am still having my scruples with respect to celebrating it (as a sort of hangover from the WT view that it is of pagan origin). But your article sure help me to do away with those scruples. But you will surely agree to me that we Christians should redeem Christmas from commercialization and put back the Christ into Christmas. Thanks alot. Maligayang Pasko!<br />-ken (philippines)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-35642489849300155572010-01-15T21:40:45.811+08:002010-01-15T21:40:45.811+08:00Graeme
>Hi again,
>
Wow! That is interestin...Graeme<br /><br />>Hi again,<br />><br />Wow! That is interesting.<br />I did not know about the other head cloth artifact. Nor about the coins on the eyes.<br /><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudarium_of_Oviedo" rel="nofollow">Sudarium of Oviedo</a> and the <a href="http://www.shroudofturin4journalists.com/coins.htm" rel="nofollow">Pontius Pilate lepton coins</a> over the Man's eyes are <i>each</i> (let alone <i>both</i>) are proof beyond reasonable doubt that the Man in the Shroud was Jesus.<br /><br />Every day, courts sentence accused individuals to jail or execution for <i>far less</i> forensic evidence than those two matches. But there are at least <i>twenty-three</i> such matches. I presume you have already read my series "<a href="http://theshroudofturin.blogspot.com/2008/11/rethere-is-compelling-evidence-it-is.html" rel="nofollow">Re: There is compelling evidence it is the burial cloth of Christ, or a man crucified during that time</a>." (They are not my words but those of the person I was responding to).<br /><br />Which also reminds me that I have yet to continue that series with part #4: "23. The Shroud's head bloodstains match those of the Sudarium of Oviedo." <br /><br />>It's funny. When I was initially reading about the 3D-like body image revealed by scan? in the cloth, it popped into my head the phrase, "Whose image and superscription is this?".<br /><br />The image of Jesus we all have in our heads is the image on the Shroud and it <a href="http://www.shroudstory.com/faq-jesus-in-art.htm" rel="nofollow">first appeared in 6th century Christian art</a>.<br /><br />>Then I read some more and came across your article on the coins!<br />><br />>Fascinating.<br /><br />Agreed! <br /><br />>Thankyou,<br />><br />>Graeme<br /><br />Thank you again for your comments.<br /><br />>P.S. Is Adrian Van Leen the pastor at your church?<br /><br />No, but I know him. Which reminds me that I should go over and check out his <a href="http://www.ccgm.org.au/" rel="nofollow">CCGM</a>'s secondhand books again.<br /><br />Stephen E. JonesStephen E. Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16183223752386599799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-83323078838338713302010-01-15T20:57:45.700+08:002010-01-15T20:57:45.700+08:00Anonymous
>Thanks for your informative blog o...Anonymous<br /> <br />>Thanks for your informative blog on various subjects.<br /><br />Thanks for your thanks.<br /><br />>I had asked a question about the "stake" teaching origins of the Witnesses on another forum.<br /><br />The answer is that the Watchtower's second President, `Judge' Rutherford, invented the teaching that Jesus did not die on a cross in 1936 to help get rid of the last remaining vestiges of the reign of the Watchtower's first President, Charles Taze Russell (whose logo for the organisation was a cross and crown) and so consolidate Rutherford's control over it: <br /><br />"Another change in viewpoint involved the `cross and crown' symbol, which appeared on the <i>Watch Tower</i> cover beginning with the issue of January 1891. In fact, for years many Bible Students wore a pin of this kind. ... `This to Brother Rutherford's mind was Babylonish and should be discontinued.'" (WB&TS, "1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses," Watchtower Bible & Tract Society: Brooklyn NY, 1975, p.148).<br /><br />But in place of a cross, Rutherford initially taught that Jesus was nailed to a literal "tree":<br /><br />"A few years later Jehovah's people first learned that Jesus Christ did not die on a T-shaped cross. On January 31, 1936, Brother Rutherford released to the Brooklyn Bethel family the new book <i>Riches</i>. Scripturally, it said, in part, on page 27: `Jesus was crucified, not on a cross of wood, such as is exhibited in many images and pictures, and which images are made and exhibited by men; Jesus was crucified by nailing his body to a tree." (WB&TS, "1975 Yearbook," 1975, pp.148-149).<br /><br />See "<a href="http://www.watchman.org/jw/crossjw.htm" rel="nofollow">Jehovah's Witnesses and the Cross</a>," The Watchman Expositor, , 26 September 2009.<br /><br />I presume you found my series beginning with: "<a href="http://jesusisyhwh.blogspot.com/2008/03/was-jesus-executed-on-cross-or-stake-1.html" rel="nofollow">Was Jesus executed on a cross or a stake? #1: Introduction</a>."<br /><br />Which reminds me that I need to post my next installment in that series: "Part #3E Historical (2nd - 1st Century BC)."<br /><br />>A reply took me to a youtube vid in England who's speaker mentioned your blog.<br /><br />That would be <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Shazoolo" rel="nofollow">Shazoolo</a>'s board.<br /><br />>So I ended up back in Perth where I began!<br /><br />I gather you are a fellow West Australian.<br /><br />Stephen E. JonesStephen E. Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16183223752386599799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6574858940069385599.post-24679556055321363712010-01-15T16:31:40.199+08:002010-01-15T16:31:40.199+08:00Thanks for your informative blog on various subjec...Thanks for your informative blog on various subjects.<br /><br />I had asked a question about the "stake" teaching origins of the Witnesses on another forum.<br />A reply took me to a youtube vid in England who's speaker mentioned your blog.<br /><br />So I ended up back in Perth where I began!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com