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Reflection on Thanksgiving
The word “Thanksgiving” appears in both the first and second testaments of the Bible, but is not one of the canonical or “appointed” feasts in the first testament, nor does it rise to what may be called a canonical observance in the second.
Nevertheless, Thanksgiving Day in America rises to an American religious “holyday,” sanctified by the American experience from the founding of the nation through our Civil War when President Lincoln associated the day with the nation’s baptism in blood and its “new birth of freedom,” as he put it. It is interesting that his declaration of a day of Thanksgiving came almost within a month of the date when his historic address at Gettysburg cemetery was delivered.
Thankfulness belongs to our human emotional equipment. Both the theistic believer and non-believer must look beyond oneself for the satisfaction of that instinct. The theistic adherent is spared a daunting incertitude in this regard. Almost all others are thankful - but to what? or whom?
By
Gardner Calvin Taylor
|
November 22, 2006; 11:15 AM ET
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Posted by: sheila rollins | December 26, 2006 2:45 AM
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What or Whom? Friends and Family. Our own good fortune.
Or others treat it as a generic calibration of our nation’s agricultural wealth and an opportunity to spend time with loved ones. That’s what’s great about the holiday; we each celebrate it as we wish, and don’t get worried how other godless heathens might be ruining it.
Posted by: Wayne | November 22, 2006 2:04 PM
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Render unto Caesar that is Caesar's and to God that is God's.
God commanded that man, Israel and the stranger will be expected to be present at three "Holy Days". None of them include "Thanksgiving". It is a man made day. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Word of God, nor the God of the bible.
Although, it is good to give thanks to God daily and in prayer, it is also necessary to keep the feasts of the Lord, perpetually, the way He says to keep them. Read Leviticus 23rd chapter (KJV.