Should Christians celebrate their birthdays?

[Vickilynn]

As for myself, speaking as one who has survived almost certain death by cancer, my birthdays are a time to show the mercy of G-d in preserving my life. My birthday is a TESTIMONY to Him and His mercy in letting me live. You'd better believe we celebrate it! In fact, I just turned 51 a few days ago!!!!!!!!!! Yipppppppppeeeeeeeeeeee and praise the L-rd!

That's amazing. I can imagine that birthdays would take on a whole new level of significance given a near brush with death.

Shalom Shiloh,

Oh yes, they do!! And in the first 5 weeks of my treatment, I was in the hospital on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, every day I survived was a miracle. And every day I celebrated (when I was conscious that is).

And after 18 months of chemo and now being in remission, you know, my birthdays are a MILESTONE and TESTIMONY of G-d's grace in allowing me to live. I give Him all the glory.

Birthdays are AWESOME when you were told you'd die before your next one!

[MrsSealedEternal]

I came out of a cult that taught me against celebrating bdays, although there were those involved with this organization that would admit that it could be relegated to individual choice, so from an early age, I was caught in the crosshairs of this question. I can find no scriptural reason we can or cannot celebrate a birthday, as long as it is done in a God honoring way. It's up to the individual.

[Arthur Durnan]

Why emulate the "Jehovah's False Witness" practice of not celebrating birthdays? In failing to celebrate birthdays, they MISS the most important event of the ages: the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah Manifest-in-Flesh (John 1:1,14)!! Having said that, the Bible calls us to remember much rather Jesus' sacrifical, all-atoning, once-for-all-sins DEATH! "By His stripes are ye healed." AMEN & let the anthem swell!

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[EricH]

I see no Biblical issue in celebrating one's birthday

[damo1]

http://www.cogwriter.com/birthdays.htm

It seems that the Early Christians (Christians who lived after Christ, to the year of the Nicaean Creed) simply did not celebrate their birthdays, unlike most of the pagans at the time. Are birthday celebrations inherantly pagan?

After reading this article, the question is, should Christians be celebrating their own birthdays? If you ask me, I think too much pride is involved in birthdays, it almost seems un-Biblical, except for one birthday in particular; the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We should all be humble, and not filled with pride.

So, should Christians celebrate their birthdays? There doesn't seem to be a reason why we should, according to the Bible...

Also, I'll let all of you in on something, I don't like celebrating my own birthday, apart from that it is just too embarrassing, I just don't think it's Biblical. Correct me on this if possible.

Thank you, and may the Lord bless you all.

damo1

well all i can say to this the jahova wittness do not celebrate their birthday or even christmass or even easter so if you want to realy get confused go hook up with them for a day

my x wife use to be a jahova wittness and she told me she could not even go to her friends birthday partys that she was invited to as she went to a public school and a public high school and what hurt her was when she told her friends that she could not come due to strict guide lines when it comes to jehova wittness mixing with non belivers she began to loose sevral close friends

i celebrated my birthday many times on my own as i have been on my own since i was 14yrs old i am 40yrs old i go out for the day and sit down and have some lunch and get my self a bannana smoothie and sit under the big tree near the court house were i live in the farming comunity and just listen to this young busker who plays his guitar to entertain the publick he is very good

i also celebrate my sons birthday as his birthday falls on the first of jan so he gets christmas pressents and birthday pressents in jan

just because of one article it seems to me that person has a negative approach to this and has pride them selves and its like laying the guilt trip on the rest off us should we stop celebrating christmas and jesus birthday and easter all to one article and a person giving their reasons ?

well if you almost feel ashamed to celebrate your birthday dont make any one else feel guilty and as i said try the jahova wittness out

when you say we should all be humble and not be filled with pride its like you are preaching hear may be you need to take what you have given out for your self and allow the rest off us who have no shame to enjoy our selves and enjoy it with our kids

gob bless from your brother in the lord damien stipic

[Guest Biblicist]

I see no Biblical issue in celebrating one's birthday

We can always count on EricH to be succinct and to the point. Thank you LORD for Eric!

My mother in law is JW, the very first year we were married I made her a birthday cake. I had NO idea!

[MrsSealedEternal]

I see no Biblical issue in celebrating one's birthday

We can always count on EricH to be succinct and to the point. Thank you LORD for Eric!

My mother in law is JW, the very first year we were married I made her a birthday cake. I had NO idea!

That stikes me as rather humorous. So, nobody told you? How did that occur?

[Guest Biblicist]

I see no Biblical issue in celebrating one's birthday

We can always count on EricH to be succinct and to the point. Thank you LORD for Eric!

My mother in law is JW, the very first year we were married I made her a birthday cake. I had NO idea!

That stikes me as rather humorous. So, nobody told you? How did that occur?

I was just 20, I had no idea. She and my father in law celebrate their birthday on the same day since he does not know when his is. [long story] So, since their son was in Germany for his military tour and I was getting ready to join him I thought I'd honour his parents with a cake for "their" birthday. I never knew, not even till LONG after that, that JW's didn't celebrate their birthdays.

She always celebrated her children's and grandchildren's so I thought nothing of giving her a cake for her own.

I do not know if it has anything to do with it, but my mother in law absolutly adores me. She is not one to keep quiet when she has a problem with someone, but my husband told me she has NEVER said an unkind, complaining thing about me. I love her, too. She is a wonderful, kind, giving lady.

[damo1]

damo1

high biblicist

it took my x wife some time to un just when she was told to leave home due to her not wanting to be a fully committed jahova wittnes the elders even had an arranged marraige for her which realy got her mad

my x wife said when her best friend who took her in made a supprise birthday party for her with the help of her friends parents she could not stop crying at one stage she had to walk away as it was to much for her

this was forced onto her from the day she was born and when she was 4yrs old her mother told her that we do not celebrate birthdays and christmas and easter as she had to go out of class on the days the school had christmas celebrations and easter

but my x wife is know use to it and said i am glad i did what i did as she could not see her self doing this with our son

my old boss is a jahova wittness him self he taught me a lot about commercial cleanning and i use to go to his place as he would drop of fresh veggies from his garden as he had croation members who were jahova wittness in brisbane

he new i was a christian and this did not stop me being friends with max as max was the head elder of his main church in brisbane he was hear in armidale helping out his brother as his brother took the mian contrac on at uni and don had to go over sees on a missions trip he has been doing for some time know so max was happy to help out while his brother took some time for him self

so i hope no one thought i was picking on jahova wittness when i shared this in my main post

god bless from your brother in the lord damien stipic

[MrsSealedEternal]

My mother in law is JW, the very first year we were married I made her a birthday cake. I had NO idea!

That stikes me as rather humorous. So, nobody told you? How did that occur?

I was just 20, I had no idea. She and my father in law celebrate their birthday on the same day since he does not know when his is. [long story] So, since their son was in Germany for his military tour and I was getting ready to join him I thought I'd honour his parents with a cake for "their" birthday. I never knew, not even till LONG after that, that JW's didn't celebrate their birthdays.

She always celebrated her children's and grandchildren's so I thought nothing of giving her a cake for her own.

I do not know if it has anything to do with it, but my mother in law absolutly adores me. She is not one to keep quiet when she has a problem with someone, but my husband told me she has NEVER said an unkind, complaining thing about me. I love her, too. She is a wonderful, kind, giving lady.

I keep forgetting how young I am...

As far as I could tell, they don't strictly ban celebrating birthdays altogether. I never heard of anyone getting disassociated or disfellowshipped by them for it here anyways and my father was an elder in one of their congregations until a year ago. Some will not and discourage it, while others I have known would participate. I remember it being more frowned down upon when I was a youngster, but that's about 25 years ago, so maybe some of that was perception and maybe they have changed positions over time. It has been known to happen. What is really tragic is they teach to deny the deity of Christ. I am soo grateful God opened my eyes and heart so I could understand and recieve that. I used to feel ashamed that I wasn't following with them, but now I see that as my actual liberation from the falsehoods that were taught to me through them. They have what I consider an intensive indoctination of their beliefs that can make it difficult to discuss important issues openly. I am glad you can get along with them and I hope that wherever anyone is falling short that they can recieve His truth in its entirety with His love. I don't want to just single out JW's for that.

God Bless