~I apologize, before hand, for the inconsistencies in this post, as I am using a speech to text program, and have only one hand with which to type. please give me grace for the mistakes.

Right now, the Jewish community is celebrating Sukkot. This holiday began the evening of October 12 and continues until the evening of October 19. Everyone else, especially the pagans, are preparing to celebrate Halloween. Although the celebration is always October 31, the communities celebrate Halloween on various days to make it safer for the children.

How does one walking along the path of life choose which festivals to participate in? Or DO you participate in any festivals?

Because I am a Christian, and because I try to live my life through Biblical principles, I will not be discussing festivals of other religions. I will be discussing festivals/holidays, celebrated or not celebrated, by the various forms of Christianity.

There are some in the Christian faith that don’t celebrate any holidays. Their thinking is that the Jewish festivals are gone/past because we are not bound by Jewish law under Christ, and the so-called Christian festivals were Christianized pagan holidays, and we should not participate in the holidays of the pagans.  Some take this as far as to not celebrate birthdays. Some will not celebrate the national holiday because of the rebellion to the authorities of that day.

On the other hand, there are those of the Christian faith that celebrate everything, with no difference from the world. their position is, it’s all in fun!

As for my personal opinion and position, I am torn.

When Jim and I married, Jim was not that big on holidays, but I had sweet memories of them.   In the beginning, Jim and I chose not to celebrate holidays in the same way as the world. Then we joined a church that exposed the pagan origins of Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.  At this point we stopped celebrating holidays, except Thanksgiving and birthdays.  This caused a great rift with our extended families.

When the children came along, and the first one went to public school, I decided to focus on the Christian aspects of the US holidays, such as Christmas.   Everything we did related to a Scripture verse, or Biblical principle, to be tangible lessons about God’s grace.   We didn’t do Santa because we didn’t want to lie to our children.  We did do Nativity scenes, but made sure they understood that there were no Kings at Jesus’s birth.
My purpose was to give them a godly worldview in the midst of an ungodly world, something to hold onto, that illustrated our difference.

We did participate in harvest festivals as opposed to Halloween parties.  But as we participated in the Halloween alternatives our children asked us what was the difference.  In our understanding of the Bible, and the origins of Halloween, we felt it was a pagan holiday and as Christians we should have nothing to do with pagan celebrations.  Our children concurred, therefore we quit. “and a little child shall lead you”(Is 11:6)

Today, I am looking into the Scriptures that talk about not participating or joining in any way the ways of the pagans.  That said, I do not believe that it is right to throw out an error free thing that evil has used for a sign for itself.

• God gave the rainbow to Noah as a promise. -error-free
• Homosexuals have used the rainbow to declare their opposition to God’s design in Genesis.
• do we throw out the rainbow?

• The Bible says in Psalm 8 that creation declares the glory of God, God created the Evergreen – error-free
• Christmas trees go back to the pagans,do we have to give the pagans the evergreen tree?
• Doesn’t God teaches about eternal life with that?  Didn’t God create the evergreen tree first?

****but what to do with this passage in Jeremiah?

Jeremiah 10.2-4 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people [are] vain: for [one] cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

I cannot get over the fact that this sounds like a Christmas tree.  But not an evergreen tree, growing in the forest. Man has taken what God meant for good and used it for evil.

• I believe that Judaism is the foundation of Christianity.
• I believe that God intended celebrations and therefore instituted them in the Jewish religion, as a remembrance His works before the eyes of his people.
• I believe that God wants us to celebrate, and that the celebrations are meant to remind us of His activity in our lives.
• I believe as Christians that we should participate in communion (the Lord’s supper) as a remembrance of what Christ did for us on the cross.
• In that regard, awhy we don’t celebrate the feast of the Tabernacles as our Jewish brothers and sisters do but with the glorious knowledge that the foreshadowing as been fulfilled in Christ’s birth, God Tabernacle-ing with us.
• why don’t we celebrate Passover, the great foreshadowing of our deliverance?

Do we throw away the Old Testament? is celebrating the biblical feasts really being bound by the law?  I don’t believe Jesus came to abolish the Old Testament but rather to fulfil it.  And if the same celebrations were good enough for Jesus, why not remembering Him in the celebrations that He fulfilled?

As the day nears for Christ’s return, I want to be sure that when He calls out my name I am not entangled with things of this life. I am 51. If God grants me the gift of 70 years I have 19 years left. (Ps 90:10) I have 19 years, 29 maybe, to give, to serve my Lord Jesus.  No man knows the day that Christ will call him home.(Luke 12:16) When He does call my name, what will He find me doing (Luke 18:8)? I have been convicted that while I believe there is room to have parties, to have fun, to laugh, to sing, yes, even to dance, I need to number my days (Ps 90:12), and to the best of my ability to all things to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31).

Since we are in October, and Sukkot and Halloween are upon us, I an going to post links for these two holidays, and let the reader decide.

• A pagan explanation of Halloween
• Wikipedia’s article on Halloween
• a Christian view from Grace to You
• Wikipedia’s article on Sukkot
• Judaism 101’s article on Sukkot
• Jews for Jesus connecting Christ with Sukkot

Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

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