I think the important thing is to remember WHY Jesus was here in the first place. Not when he was born.
Jesus came to die for our sins. He even said to remember his death, not his birth. Not that his birth wasn't important, but WHY he was here was the most important and what He wanted people to remember the most.
I celebrate my Saviour's birth. As I don't actually know His day of birth, I celebrate it when everyone else does. December 25th.
Some have used it and the fact that pagans celebrated in December as a reason to attack organized religion.
Organized religion DOES have it's weak points, no doubt, as it is run by MAN. That's why i put my faith in God, and not man, as man will let you down. God warns of that very thing in the Bible also. EVERY man is imperfect. Even the ones you THINK are "Holy men".

"Cheesey" wrote:

It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast. Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood. December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god. It was observed near the winter solstice.

The apostles in the Bible predicted that some Christians would adopt pagan beliefs to enable them to make their religion more palatable to the pagans around them. Therefore, some scholars think the church chose the date of this pagan celebration to interest them in Christianity. The pagans were already used to celebrating on this date.

The Bible itself tells us that December 25 is an unlikely date for His birth. Palestine is very cold in December. It was much too cold to ask everyone to travel to the city of their fathers to register for taxes. Also the shepherds were in the fields (Luke 2:8-12). Shepherds were not in the fields in the winter time. They are in the fields early in March until early October. This would place Jesus' birth in the spring or early fall. It is also known that Jesus lived for 33.5 years and died at the feast of the Passover, which is at Easter time. He must therefore have been born six months the other side of Easter - making the date around the September/October time frames.

"longtimefan" wrote:

I think the important thing is to remember WHY Jesus was here in the first place. Not when he was born.
Jesus came to die for our sins. He even said to remember his death, not his birth. Not that his birth wasn't important, but WHY he was here was the most important and what He wanted people to remember the most.
I celebrate my Saviour's birth. As I don't actually know His day of birth, I celebrate it when everyone else does. December 25th.
Some have used it and the fact that pagans celebrated in December as a reason to attack organized religion.
Organized religion DOES have it's weak points, no doubt, as it is run by MAN. That's why i put my faith in God, and not man, as man will let you down. God warns of that very thing in the Bible also. EVERY man is imperfect. Even the ones you THINK are "Holy men".

"Cheesey" wrote: