From: herbertwarmstrong@cog-web-svc.com   
      
   Isn't Exchanging Gifts Scriptural?   
      
   But when it comes to the most important part of all in this Christmas   
   observance--the Christmas shopping season--the buying and exchanging of   
   gifts--many will exclaim triumphantly, "Well, at least the Bible tells   
   us to do that! Didn't the wise men give gifts when Christ was born?"   
      
   Again, we are due for some surprises, when we learn the plain truth.   
   First, let's look at the historic origin of trading gifts back and   
   forth, then see exactly what the Bible does say about it.   
      
    From the Bibliotheca Sacra, volume 12, pages 153-155, we quote: "The   
   interchange of presents between friends is alike characteristic of   
   Christmas and the Saturnalia, and must have been adopted by Christians   
   from the Pagans, as the admonition of Tertullian plainly shows."   
      
   The fact is, this custom fastened upon people of exchanging gifts with   
   friends and relatives at the Christmas season has not a single trace of   
   Christianity about if, strange though that may seem! This does not   
   celebrate Christ's birthday nor honor it or Him! Suppose someone you   
   love has a birthday. You want to honor that person on his or her   
   birthday. Would you lavishly buy gifts for everyone else, trading gifts   
   back and forth with all your other friends and loved ones, but ignore   
   completely any gift for the one whose   
   birthday you are honoring? Rather absurd, when viewed in that light,   
   isn't it?   
      
   Yet this is exactly what people the world over are doing! They honor a   
   day that is not Christ's birthday by spending every dime they can scrape   
   together in buying presents to trade back and forth among friends and   
   relatives. But I can say by years of experience, as I believe most   
   pastors and ministers can say, that when the month of December rolls   
   around, nearly all professing Christians forget to give gifts to Christ   
   and His cause almost altogether! December often is the most difficult   
   month to keep Christ's work from dying! People are too busy trading   
   gifts back and forth among themselves to think of Him and His Work, it   
   seems. Then, in January and even into February it seems they have to   
   catch up from what they spent for Christmas, so they seldom get back to   
   normal in supporting Christ and His Work before March!   
      
   Now consider what the Bible says about the wise men giving gifts when   
   Christ was born. It is in Matthew 2:1-11. "Now when Jesus was born in   
   Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came   
   wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born   
   King of the Jews?...And when they were come into the house, they saw the   
   young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and   
   when they had opened their treasures,they presented unto His gifts;   
   gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."   
      
      
   Title: The Plain Truth About Christmas   
   Author: Herbert W Armstrong   
   Date: 1952, 1972, 1974   
   Type: Booklet   
   Type Media: PDF   
      
   https://cog-hwa.org/pub/bb/xmas.pdf   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)