I asked why did the wise men bring Jesus gifts on his birthday?

MsMcDucket

Man, did I get that evil look from everyone around me. They said because he was to be king, and all of the kings received gifts on their birthday, and how dare I presume to be like Jesus. I was confused. I thought that we were supposed to try to be like Jesus everyday. I thought that if Jesus got presents on his birthday that we should be able to celebrate ours and get presents too. No one ever seemed to want to discuss this. So, I never brought it up again.

Pubsinger

JWs do give gifts on birthdays.

Just not on the anniversaries of birthdays.

Just like they give gifts on wedding days.

But not on the anniversaries of wedding days.

What?

They do?

blondie

My JW relatives would point out that the Jewish shepherds did not bring gifts, it was the pagan magi who did.

Just reporting not supporting

Blondie

lost_light06

Blondie that is exactly what I was thinking when I read the post. But something occured to me. As a young JW boy I was always told that if someone offered me a birthday gift, say at school, I was to refuse it and explain to them why I did not celebrate birthdays ("because my mom said I can't...eeerrr...I mean because it makes Jehovah sad"). So, why did Mary and Joseph accept these gifts, from pagan magi none the less. Why didn't she say "I'm sorry pagan magi but I am unable to accept your gifts of gold, incence and myrrh on this, the birthday, of our lord and savior Jesus the Christ. You see, I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and we do not celebrate birthdays because it makes Jehovah sad. If you would like a free home bible study to learn more about jehovah's witnesses and their teachings I would be happy oblige. What are you doing next Thursday, say about noon?"

serotonin_wraith

Whatever happened to those gifts? To a humble biblical family like the Christs it would have been the equivelant of a rollover lottery win, yet they remain in the poorly paid carpentry business.

blondie

Actually, the WTS makes it a personal decision whether a JW "accepts" birthday gifts. Their issue is in the "giving" of birthday gifts. So it is possible for a "faithful" JW to accept birthday gifts from a non-JW and still maintain their "good standing."

***

w59 12/1 p. 736 Questions from Readers ***

Should we receive Christmas gifts, then what? It does not seem wise at such time to attack the institution of Christmas. Rather than refuse or return them, it would be better merely to express appreciation by word of mouth or letter or card; and, while wholly ignoring any reference to the holiday season, we could use the occasion to make some reference to our New World hope. It may even be advisable to wait until after the holiday season so as to further disassociate our expression of thanks from the pagan celebration.

FairMind

Some might think that the WTS has a double standard when it comes to giving and receiving holiday gifts but I think their approach is reasonable. It is difficult and usually impossible to control what others do, so the polite action would be to accept the gift with as little fanfare as possible.

A Paduan

Whatever happened to those gifts? To a humble biblical family like the Christs it would have been the equivelant of a rollover lottery win,

They travelled to Egypt

peacefulpete

The Holiday is celebrated by the exchanging of gifts as token of friendship and goodwill. Accepting them is the sharing in the celebration. If doing something is morally objectionable its not OK to simply be on the receiving end. Otherwise, I a married man, could argue that the sexual advances of the cute redhead at the party could be accepted and an "expression of appreciation" be made sometime afterward. But I'd be sure not to say I approved of her behavior when doing so.

The bottom line is the WTS is obsessed with image. The holiday stuff has brought them grief in custody cases and it has generally brought ill will from nonJWs. They want to minimize the damage by appearing reasonable. If they really wanted to be consistant they would have to avoid the receiving gifts as well as the giving.

willy_think

The birthday thing is just to separate the jws from mainstream Christians and has no real biblical foundation. So pleas don’t dig at the sand under the shiny ideal.

I asked why did the wise men bring Jesus gifts on his birthday?

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