TIME AND FAITH
part 1: DAYS AND SEASONS
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Christmas
- Is it biblical?
- Is it historical?
- When did it become religious?
- How did it become traditional?
- What is the significance of it?
Romans 14:5
- One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike.
Genesis 1:14
- Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years ...
Seasons and Feasts
- These are the LORD's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. Leviticus 23:4
TIME
- Is it sacred or secular?
- How do we order our time?
- How do we use it?
- What about memory and growth?
- What is the Sabbath?
"Christian Calendar"
The Lords Day
- 1 Corinthians 16:2
- Acts 20:7-11
- Revelation 1:10
- Didache
- We all hold this common gathering on Sunday . . . Justin Martyr
Make it Official
"All judges, city people, and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the Sun. But countrymen may without hindrance attend to agriculture." Constantine, 321 AD
#1. Easter
- Passover was the most important date in Jewish year
- 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
- Baptism ceremonies (2nd - 3rd centuries)
- Fixed on Sunday
- Jerusalem pilgrimages
Travels of Egeria
- Wrote about the Great Week in Jerusalem
- Special services for each day
- Following the course of Jesus life
Two Seasons
- Lent Preparing the learners for baptism
- Easter/Pentecost season Fifty days after Easter
- Easter was more important than Lent to the ancients
#2 Pentecost
- Leviticus 23:16 The giving of the Law on Sinai
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-8, Acts 2
- The day of Christs ascension into heaven
- The arrival of the Holy Spirit
- [Ascension is later separated from Pentecost]
#3 Epiphany
- Focus on the Incarnation
- January 6 Follows nine months after April 6
- Feast of the Magi
- Twelve Days of Christmas
Christmas?
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Sermon of December 25, 380
- East prefers January 6 as the date of birth
- West prefers December 25
Chris Benjamin
West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Evening Sermon, 6 December 2009
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