Why do Jehovah witness not celebrate birthdays?

Answer 1

The reason, I believe, why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays is because the 'faithful and discreet' slave tell Witnesses not too.

Watchtower 1967 October 1 p.590

''Jehovah poured out his spirit upon them and assigned them the responsibility of serving as his sole visible channel, through whom alone spiritual instruction was to come. Those who recognize Jehovah's visible theocratic organization, therefore, must recognize and accept this appointment of the "faithful and discreet slave" and be submissive to it.''

Although there are two occasions when birthdays are mentioned in The Bible, it is not clear one way or the other, after reading the Bible alone, whether Jehovah really looks favorably or not on the celebrating of birthdays, any more so than whether God approves of dogs or make up which also are written of in a bad light in the Bible or the celebrating of anniversaries of the day of one's marriage as opposed to celebrating the anniversaries of the day of one's birth.

Therefore Witnesses have to look to God's channel on earth today for guidance. That channel is the 'faithful and discreet slave' as represented by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and are a group of approximately 10 faithful men who live at our HQ in Brooklyn New York.

If that channel of God decided after prayerful consideration that celebrating birthdays was now favorable in God's eyes then Jehovah's Witnesses would celebrate them. An example of this is when they used to view organ transplants as cannibalism from 15th November 1967 until 15th March 1980 and therefore didn't accept them. Now they can.

Watchtower 1959 1st May p269 ''To hold to the headship of Christ, it is therefore necessary to obey the organization that he is personally directing. Doing what the organization says is to do what he says. Resisting the organization is to resist him.''

More from WikiAnswers' contributors:

• We don't celebrate birthdays because in the bible no worshiper of God ever celebrated his birthday. There are only 2 birthday's in the bible, and they are both of bad people. Sorry, I don't remember whose they were but they weren't worshipers of God. Anyway, at both celebrations murders occurred. At one the guy celebrating was a King, & there was a girl who was dancing & he liked it, so he told her he would give her anything she wanted. She asked her mother what she should ask for, & her mother said to ask for John the Baptist's head. And at the other I think it was the royal baker who was killed. But that's why. And I know that doesn't really happen anymore, but don't you think God still has bad memories from those birthdays?

• Because the bible only speaks of 2 times when birthdays were celebrated....neither were good ....read Matthew chapter14 ... John the Baptist was beheaded

• Birthday celebrations have pagan and non-Christian origins. Many encyclopedia can help you research this further. Of course, people celebrating birthdays today generally aren't making any religious connections at all. Witnesses, however, are careful to avoid any custom that has pagan origins, even if this is largely no longer the case.

• The bible states that the day of one's death is more important than the day of one's birth, since at the time of death, one has built up a record of their life's work (hopefully good), whereas an infant has no such record. Indeed, Jesus commanded his disciples to commemorate his death, but he never asked them to celebrate his birth.

Further, the bible chooses to show birthday's in an unfavourable light. Hence, Witnesses err on the side of caution and stay clear of birthday celebrations.

Witness parents do take extra care to ensure that their children do not miss out on presents! Gifts are given at any time throughout the year.

• That is simply because it is pagan tradition. Also, because the principle of celebrating birthdays is not a Christian practice even during the times of Jesus. None in the Bible that you can find any instance that Jesus taught that birthdays are to be celebrated, neither did Jesus celebrated his until his death.

No where in the Bible does it mention that Jehovah God tolerates it to be celebrated. In fact there are two accounts in the Bible in which there were birthdays celebrated but ended in bad conclusions. Therefore if that was something to be celebrated then it would have been said to do such in the Bible. In the end the celebration is pagan.

Answer 2

Many reasons I would think. There is not just one answer. Here's one line of reasoning:

Jehovah's Witnesses don't just celebrate something because everyone else does.

Examples:

Just because everyone else isn't taught for a house-to-house ministry, doesn't mean we follow them. Just because everyone else has a clergy / laity division of their people, doesn't mean we practice such a division. Just because everyone else goes to war to engage in killing, doesn't mean we do. Just because everyone else believes in 'eternal torment' in a fiery hell, doesn't mean we believe the same.

We look at what others consider 'common' practices; we look at them carefully in the light of what the Bible might say about it. We consider the origins; we consider the effect.

For example, X-mas. Everyone else knows the origins of X-mas. They know the celebration originates in pagandom; it only has a Bible word 'tagged' onto it (Christ-mas). To others it doesn't matter to lie to their children about Santa Claus. We are different. These things matter to us.

Likewise with birthdays. We realize that Christ Jesus didn't suggest to his disciples that they celebrate his own birthday. To us, this little fact is a clue. If we weren't told to celebrate Jesus' birthday - - why celebrate our own? Who do we think we are?

The Bible contains a record of two birthdays. Both celebrations were by NON-people of God. Terrible things happened at both birthdays in the Bible. This is a clue to us.

But this does NOT mean we don't have parties. It DOESN'T mean we don't have fun. It DOESN'T mean we don't give gifts. You should not equate not celebrating something, with not having fun. Therein lies the misconception.

Answer 3

For a few reasons. The Bible only mentions birthday celebrations twice, and both instances were by people who did not worship Jehovah, and in both instances they ended in someone's death. Birthday celebrations were associated with pagan customs and Astrology, and Jehovah's Witnesses reject any celebration, custom or holiday that might have what the Bible describes as "unclean" origins. Another reason is they do not feel it is right to glorify one's self, and they feel a celebration that revolves around a person's birth is unnecessary as they did nothing special themselves by simply being born.

A simple thank you to their parents, especially to their mother for bearing the pain of child-birth, and to God in prayer for providing life on their birthday would not violate their way of looking at one's birthdate. Those actions would fall in line with the deeply held views of modesty that Jehovah's Witnesses have.