[I don't know where this chapter belongs in God of Truth, nor even
if it belongs at all]
Modern birthday celebration is a Feeler activity, the sole purpose of which is to grant unconditional affirmation for (a fraction of) a day to one person.
The Bible has something to say about birthdays, mostly incidental (like the line "God is love" is incidental to the purpose of its containing paragraph and chapter). That doesn't make it false, but The Most Important Thing is to keep e Most Important Thing as e Most Important Thing. Neither birthdays nor "God is love" are that. On Herod's birthday, John the Baptist was beheaded. Another time Herod himself died. And in the Old Testament, Pharaoh's baker died.
However, ALL Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the Christian person is prepared for every good work. So let's look at what Scripture says about birthdays. There are three places where a birthday is celebrated, and in every case, somebody dies.
People die all the time, especially in war and crime and old age. Crime is not a separate category in the Bible, but sin is, and people die from sin. The take-away is: Don't sin. War is a separate category in the Bible, and Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He will make war on sinners, but we are "Blessed [if we] are peacemakers," not warriors. Jesus comes to bring Life, not death.
With a couple notable exceptions, old age ends in death, but when the Bible speaks of old age, death is almost never mentioned. Dying is not the point of old age, it is a part of the Curse, where we never really achieve the old age we were meant for. Only birthdays are universally linked to death in the Bible.
This is not strong theology, at least no stronger than "God is love," but Jesus came that we might have life, so let's think about life and the Giver of Life (instead of ourselves, even for one day). The Bible seems to imply that the celebration of birthdays does not go in a good direction.
Parties are something else. God set up six or
seven well-defined party times for the Israelites, and Jesus himself participated.
I like parties -- six or seven in a year seems about right -- so if somebody
throws a birthday party, I go -- for the party, not for the birthday. Well,
I bring a card, usually a joke or a Scripture verse. It's a cultural thing.
The Jews were told not to shave off their sideburns, but when Joseph went
in to meet Pharaoh, he shaved. It's a cultural thing, not to give offense.
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First draft 2024 September 23