Christmas or Xmas?

[endure4salvation]

In another thread,

hazel Posted: Oct 11 2003, 10:09 AM 

You guys ready for a good laugh? It took me a minute to figure out that the guy sagz quoted was talking about Christians! I thought "Xtian" must be some obscure eastern thing, like Taoism, or Zen or something  !HeHe! Anyway sagz, I understand how you feel, and remember, The Lord said that good would be called evil, and evil called good.BLESSINGS!!! 

The following is something I saw elsewhere...what do you all think?

X, the letter chi in the Greek for the abbreviation of Khristos or Christ has been used for HUNDREDS of years. In the early Church, say first century, Christians or Xtians would use the X to signify (covertly) that they were His, being that they were under extreme persecution from the likes of Nero. To say that the X is a result of "commercialization" of Christmas is a fallacy proliferated by so-called well-meaning Xtians. Christmas does have SOME of its roots in paganism however, but that is another story for another time.

Pronounce Xmas as Christmas if you fear the Lord or simply say, "eks'

[Catsmeow]

Pronounce Xmas as Christmas if you fear the Lord or simply say, "eks'

[RGR]

And Catsmeow has just given us the true spirit of the season-serving selflessly. I LOVE Christmas from all aspects. I love the decorations, the mistletoe, the Christmas carols both secular and Christian (hey, gotta have some "Granma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer"), but too often we forget the true Reason for the Season. Christ came to this world to serve and to sacrifice Hisself and His time-thank you for being such a shining light to a dark world, Catsmeow! :il:

[hazel]

Christmas is WONDERFUL!! It's been a favorite holiday of mine all my life, but especially since I've been "inviting The Birthday Boy" to His Own party, as endure put it! My family will be trying something a little different this year, however. We've decided to postpone the huge materialistic gift giving thing until New Years Eve, so we can devote more attention to the worship of the Best Gift on His "Birthday". We also have some new projects that we're working on together as a family, but I can't tell you about those. Sorry, I haven't even told my left hand! The point is , we're all really excited this year, and I think it's for the right reasons this time! BTW, thanks endure, for reposting my stupidity (ha ha)

[endure4salvation]

Thank you all for your posts, but I was more trying to ask if using the term 'X-Mas' was offensive to you and if you think that my above defense of it is valid.

Thanks again!

[myrockJesus]

xmas doesn't offend me, but does sadden me

it's depicting a holiday minus Christ

lol

Jesus was probably born in Sept.

from all the info I've read

anyone ever do a study on that?

God's word doesn't elaborate on:

the mo. of birth of our saviour

seeing how the world has turned

the remembrence of our Lord's birth

into a circus, I understand.

[Green Darner]

I've never understood how "X" stands for "Christ". Mostly it annoys me because slang annoys me (and no - a good southern drawl is NOT slang ).

[Guest dove2]

I really don't like the X because we don't need to hide Christ like the first Christians did. If we use the X then many will think we are not true Christians.

We like to take our Christmas Eve's and distribute gifts we have gotten together throughout the year. Blankets, food, clothes, toys, bikes, coats, etc. We always take a van load of things to the poorest neighborhoods and the children run after us like we are Santa Claus but we tell them about Jesus. We have been to houses that didn't have one bite of food, one boy hugged underware and jumped around so joyful because he had never had any underware. There are so many stories in doing this that I could tell. It is great to give to those who are really in need. Tell me how many children now days would rejoice over a package of underware? None that I know of but this little boy did. You would have thought he got the best bike in the world. As a matter of fact we did give him a bike that year and he held onto his underware like he would his favorite toy. I must tell you bikes usually don't cost us much and neither do other things because we go to Garage sales throughout the year and buy for giving. We don't buy the underware at Garage sales though. We have been able to get bicycles for $2.00 each and our son would take and fix them up for us to give. There is so much joy in seeing that others have food for Christmas.

[Guest Gladiator4God]

I think it should be Christmas, after all what good is it with out Christ

[sagz4Christ]

The Chi-Rho:

This symbol is not really a symbol at all but a monogram. It is the oldest know monogram of Jesus Christ. It is sometimes known as a "Christogram". The Chi and the Rho are the first three letters of Christ (cristos). The chi (x) = ch and the Rho (p) = r.

If you would like to learn more about the Chi-Rho, visit here.

Also, another traditional meaning for the "X" :

The St. Andrew's Cross

Tradition says the apostle Andrew died on this form of cross, requesting that he be crucified on a cross unlike that of his Lord.

Another good site for Christian Symbols. Warning, this site contains alot of large images...it will take awhile to load the page for dial-up connections.

~your servant in Christ