Many years ago I had some friends at university who were against Christmas. 'It's not in the Bible,' they argued. Well, possibly. The festival at least is not actually in the Bible. So how did we come to celebrate Christmas and Easter in the ways we do now? Part of the answer is that we continued some practices from our previous, pagan religion. Churches were built next to sacred trees. The winter festival was redeemed and became Christmas, along with the Christmas trees, which might have come later, but are definitely not in the Bible. Similarly the spring festival was redeemed and became Easter, though this actually coincides with the Jewish Passover festival when a lamb was sacrificed in remembrance of the redemption of the people Israel from Egypt, (John 19.14 cf . Exo 12ff). What my friends were against is the mixing of our previous paganism and our current Christianity into one, syncretistic modern day religion, with all of its feasts and fasts. I would argue that we ...
Discussing issues to do with Scripture (Bible) engagement, mission, and Bible translation.