The Bible doesn’t say what date Jesus was born, and it never mentions anyone celebrating his birth. It does mention other holidays to celebrate. "Do not go beyond what is written." 1 Corinthians 4:6
Also a tree to represent the holiday, isn’t that a bit pagan like?
In any case though, catholics think Mary was without sin. That contradicts what the Bible says. It’s not a good thing to think of any regular human as sinless. Does it mean every single Catholic works for satan? Many do of course, some exclusively, but no one is never wrong. There’s many examples I can show you, you get the point though, no one is without flaw. Everyone has done the devil’s works at some point or another, intentionally or not so much. That’s why Jesus died for our sins.
The Church deliberately celebrated on days the locals already did, and used some of their ways of doing so. It's worthwhile to understand why:
in Judaism, anything unclean touching anything clean makes it unclean. The exact opposite in Christianity: anything unclean is purified by touching anything clean.
This is deep! Simple, yet powerful. And hinges on Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
Add this to your thinking and it will help many things make more sense.
Your bit about Mary is what RC (Roman Catholicism) teaches as the "immaculate conception." You probably know that. I don't adhere to that or any other RC doctrine. It's significant that Christmas began well before Rome split off from the rest of the Church, rebelliously. All 5 original churches agreed they couldn't "develop doctrine" without being in agreement with all 5. Rome abandoned that. The other 4 maintain it, to this day.
The other 4 are now EO, Eastern Orthodox. You might find it interesting to explore their theology to see where it differs from RC. It's a record of what RC made up after going off on its own. I've never even been to an EO parish, but it is easier to find one in the US now. I had a great chance to explore EO theology by discussing with native Greek speakers, one of which was doing his PhD thesis on the earliest liturgies. Yes, church services were originally liturgical. That blew my mind
Christmas isn't a pagan holiday. You have much to learn, young padawan
The Bible doesn’t say what date Jesus was born, and it never mentions anyone celebrating his birth. It does mention other holidays to celebrate. "Do not go beyond what is written." 1 Corinthians 4:6 Also a tree to represent the holiday, isn’t that a bit pagan like?
In any case though, catholics think Mary was without sin. That contradicts what the Bible says. It’s not a good thing to think of any regular human as sinless. Does it mean every single Catholic works for satan? Many do of course, some exclusively, but no one is never wrong. There’s many examples I can show you, you get the point though, no one is without flaw. Everyone has done the devil’s works at some point or another, intentionally or not so much. That’s why Jesus died for our sins.
Back to the point:
Christmas is not a pagan holiday.
The Church deliberately celebrated on days the locals already did, and used some of their ways of doing so. It's worthwhile to understand why:
in Judaism, anything unclean touching anything clean makes it unclean. The exact opposite in Christianity: anything unclean is purified by touching anything clean.
This is deep! Simple, yet powerful. And hinges on Christ's Resurrection from the dead.
Add this to your thinking and it will help many things make more sense.
Your bit about Mary is what RC (Roman Catholicism) teaches as the "immaculate conception." You probably know that. I don't adhere to that or any other RC doctrine. It's significant that Christmas began well before Rome split off from the rest of the Church, rebelliously. All 5 original churches agreed they couldn't "develop doctrine" without being in agreement with all 5. Rome abandoned that. The other 4 maintain it, to this day.
The other 4 are now EO, Eastern Orthodox. You might find it interesting to explore their theology to see where it differs from RC. It's a record of what RC made up after going off on its own. I've never even been to an EO parish, but it is easier to find one in the US now. I had a great chance to explore EO theology by discussing with native Greek speakers, one of which was doing his PhD thesis on the earliest liturgies. Yes, church services were originally liturgical. That blew my mind
What denomination do you belong to now, if I might ask?