Jewish Holidays

by moomanchu 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  moomanchu

  Since JW,s cannot celebrate "christian holidays" can they celebrate jewish holidays. I asked my mom this question never got an answer.

  Jesus was at the temple for the Feast of the Dedication for starters.

  thoughts
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  z

  Believe me you don’t want to I know it first hand here we go The kill us Time to cry Time for fasting O.K lets eat now and we can eat
  Z

  
  

  
  
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  M.J.

  I can't see how they can come out and condemn it, which would be a direct contradiction of Rom 14:5-6: One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
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  Gander

  My goodness... read on in v.13 and 14 (NWT):
  13 Therefore let us not be judging one another any longer, but rather make this YOUR decision, not to put before a brother a stumbling block or a cause for tripping. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled in itself; only where a man considers something to be defiled, to him it is defiled.
  Sounds awfully permissive (read: loving) to view things this way. Surely isn't what the elders do is it? It doesn't provide a sound basis in the Bible for all of the rules that have been created by the men of this organization.
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  M.J.

  14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled in itself; only where a man considers something to be defiled, to him it is defiled.

  Oh wow. I never really noticed this verse before!

  Think of the implications here! It makes perfect sense.

  Is a birthday defiled? Only if you consider it to be an identification with evil pagans who kill lop off the heads of Bible characters.
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  Gander

  In other words, if what you are doing feels wrong to you then it is wrong. Obviously there are some notable exceptions to this such as murder that is just wrong period. Since God reads hearts according to the Bible, he can see what it means to you when are observe something. He can tell if you are observing a birthday simply out of greed or because you wish to continue some obscure ancient pagan ritual. If in your heart you are simply wanting to show someone else you care for them by observing their birthday, God will know you are showing love to another human. How can that be wrong?
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  Mary

  Since JW,s cannot celebrate "christian holidays" can they celebrate jewish holidays.

  While the Jewish holidays cannot officially be labelled as "pagan" in origin (kinda hard to, as these holidays were given directly from Jehovah to the nation of Israel), the Society still does not want any Witnesses to celebrate them. Their unofficial reason is that Christians are no longer under the Old Law Covenant and we are not obliged to celebrate these holidays. In addition they will lump the Jewish holidays in with the Ten Commandments and tell you how futile it is that the Jews still follow these and that every time they do, they "impale the Son of Man anew", so why would a Christian want to do that? And just to make sure you get the point, they will tell you that the Jews of today no longer have Jehovah's favour, that's they're part of False Religion and that "mature Christians" wouldn't want to have anything to with these celebrations.

  Their reasoning of course is totally flawed and makes about as much sense as their reasons why you can't celebrate a birthday. I was with an elder's wife in a card store a few years ago and I wanted to get my co-worker a card for Rosh Hashanah (the first of the High Holy Days). I could tell she was annoyed that I was doing this but she could not think of a scriptural reason (not that that's ever stopped them before). I pointed out that I wasn't celebrating it and that it was not a pagan holiday and why would it be wrong for me to give a card to someone who's celebrating a holiday that Jehovah told them to celebrate?

  Her husband phoned me that night and insinuated that I shouldn't do this in the future because I might "stumble" someone.

  It's incredible the kind of paranoia this religion breeds. Can you imagine anyone getting so freaked out over something so stupid??
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  M.J.

  The WTS tomorrow could suddenly make it "wrong" for someone to play board games, by ranting about their false religious pagan origins.
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  Joe Grundy

  I understand now why I may have offended some JWs when I went to the 'Memorial' service (?) and wished people a 'good Passover' - tov pesach.
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  lucky

  I asked an elder this once (I was kind of infatuated with the idea of celebrating Hanukah). He couldn't come up with any reason not to, other than the one Mary stated, that we're no longer under the old covenant, so we're not OBLIGATED to.