Christians across the world will celebrate Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus on December 25. According to biblical scholars, Jesus\u2019 year of birth is generally accepted as between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died. Ironically, Jesus whose birth is celebrated on December 25, was born in Bethlehem in ancient Canaan which today is called Palestine. For most Christians, or 2.5 billion of the world\u2019s 8 billion people, celebrating Christmas on December 25 is an occasion to welcome the birth of Jesus Christ. However, the early church did not celebrate Christ\u2019s birth. Such celebration became part of the church\u2019s event after \u201cChristianization\u201d of pagan rites by emperor Constantine of Rome in the 4th Century AD. Even though linked with pagan celebrations, the birth of Christ is not about human loving human. Many Bible scholars have said that there is no Christmas message as the birth of Christ is about God loving man. The mission of Christ was to offer Himself as living sacrifice for the atonement of sins of the people on earth. He came to offer peace (shalom) to the world. Christmas is celebrated across the world as a festival of peace. That itself marks its significant departure from the true meaning of the birth of Christ. The words \u201clove\u201d, \u201cjoy\u201d, and \u201cpeace\u201d are incorporated in festive decorations and in the messages of greeting cards. Also, Christmas for most people, is about giving gifts and expressing wishes for peace and fraternal relationship among the people of the world. There is no Christmas message in the bible since the birth of Christ was itself the message that was foretold centuries before the birth about the messiah who would reconcile between God and man as the peacemaker and mediator. Shoppers will pack the high streets, gift-hunting for their friends and loved ones. People sing of peace, but they sing of peace between men; they don\u2019t sing of peace between a man and his creator. This reconciliation with God is the peace of which the angels sang. Young children especially will look forward to receiving gifts from Santa Claus, that benevolent, bigger-than-life father figure who supposedly visits them once a year with his reindeer. Christ\u2019s gift is not material but spiritual. He brings peace with God and gives redemption. Though Christ, was Jew born in a Canaanite village called Bethlehem which is today referred to as Palestine. The region known as Gaza or Palestine or the original name Canaan, is the scene of one of the most bitter war between the Israeli army (IDF) and Hamas terrorist organisation. Thus when the world celebrate Christmas, the region where Christ was borne, is engulfed with one of the most bitter fighting between Hamas and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). For those in Nagaland, Christmas is more than it being the mother of all festivals. People understand Christmas as a time for celebrating the occasion but bereft of the real meaning of the birth of Christ. Christ\u2019s gift is not material that can be seen but spiritual that can only be experienced. The \u2018see-able\u2019 of peace as the world understands is not the same as the \u2018unseen peace\u2019 that the Bible offers. However, the do-able for peace is inner peace which comes from the message of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christians across the world will celebrate Christmas, marking the birth of Jesus on December 25. According to biblical scholars, Jesus\u2019 year of birth is generally accepted as between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died. Ironically, Jesus whose birth is celebrated on December 25, was born in Bethlehem in ancient […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}