Both those holidays have become too bigger a commercial sales drive to ignore Kiwi. Even though I'm not religious, my mom always gets me an egg/xmas pressie cus they're in the shops and its the "done" thing. And I, and many others around the world, reciprocate in this tradition whether we believe in Jesus or not. But lets be honest, I enjoy Xmas and Easter because it's a little time off work when I get to give gifts and make those close to me happy and we all act a little bit nicer to everyone we love.
Yes, indeed, these times have gone beyond being religious festivals; they are general festivals with their roots in religion.
As has been much stated before, Christmas itself is only the Christian interpretation of a much older ritual; things change as time moves on. People can celebrate and/or ignore these things from any angle they like.
Indeed.
Change isn't always bad, but I find myself dreading xmas these days because I know how much its gonna cost with all the pressies and partying thats involved. But its all saved on xmas morning when Mrs.MM opens the one present that she hasn't been able to guess correctly and her face lights up.
here are my friend's answers to those questions mentioned earlier:
"What happens to the souls of the people who died before Jesus died and rose again?"
God, being perfect, has a standard that we all must meet to be accepted by him. In other words, we all must be perfect to be accepted by God. Not just good.... PERFECT. Naturally, none of
us are perfect. We have all done something wrong at least once in our lives. Therefore, God cannot accept us. We all deserve to be thrown into hell because none of us can meet God's standard. However, God loves us and he doesn't want us to receive that judgement. So the way he does this is by sacrificing something else instead of us. Sort of like someone else paying our debts so we don't have to pay them. This sacrifice that God requires
means that whatever is sacrificed must DIE so that we don't have to. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. We all deserve to die but when something else dies for us, God accepts that as a substitute and he sees us as perfect in his sight.
Christians believe that Jesus was that sacrifice. He died in our place. He took the punishment that we rightfully deserved. Because he rose from the dead after he died, he was the final sacrifice. No other sacrifice is needed. Jesus died once and for all and rose again and now he lives forever.Before Jesus, however, people still needed a sacrifice to pay for their sins. They did this by sacrificing an animal. They would sacrifice an animal (usually a sheep) and God would accept that sacrifice as a payment for their
sins. However, the people would keep sinning so they wouldhave to keep making sacrifices. As long as they did this, they were accepted by God as holy and when they died, they went to Heaven to be with God forever....
...We no longer have to sacrifice animals to meet God's standard. We just believe in Jesus's sacrifice for us and that is enough.
ques: "Jesus wasn't the only one to die on a cross for religion... what makes Jesus so special?"
answer:
You're right. Many people have died for what they believe (their religion). However, how many of those people have risen from the dead and are alive today? None! They're all still dead. That's what makes Jesus different. He died but he's not dead today. The Bible says that Jesus died, was buried for three days, and then came back to life. Jesus is alive today... just as alive as he was when he came to earth as a newborn baby. So, you say, where
is he? He's in Heaven right now. After Jesus came back to life, the Bible tells us how his disciples actually watched him ascend into the clouds. Pretty neat, huh?
One other thing... Jesus didn't die for religion. He died for us. It was his love for us that held him to the cross... not his conviction in his religion. Jesus died like a father giving his life for his son, not like a protester setting himself on fire for his beliefs. Jesus' sacrificewas for you and for me.
well...I hope you got all that 🙂 any other ques????
He died for us. It was his love for us that held him to the cross... not his conviction in his religion. Jesus died like a father giving his life for his son