Holidays and the Feasts, revised and expanded, looks at three major The Old Testament feasts, Christmas, and Easter. Within this book the author examines the alleged pagan roots of Christmas and Easter, provides a biblical case for celebrating Christmas, and answers the question "are Christians obligated to observe Old Testament feasts?"
This book was wonderful! I really appreciate all the research compiled into one book that takes a historical and scriptural deep dive into objections to Christmas and Easter. I have had a lot of these arguments used against me as a reformed Christian who has no convictions against celebrating either holiday and surrounded in a lot of ways by many who object to the celebrations. I appreciated that the author notes these are also not commanded in scripture but are historically supportable with truly Christian sources. This book helped me sort through the facts that support what I already felt convicted was the correct stance on these holidays. I can't recommend highly enough.
Some of my favorite parts include the connection that the Old Testament feasts are fulfilled in Jesus and what he did, which Christians can celebrate. I also enjoyed the church history involving Christmas and seeing the Incarnation being celebrated in the New Testament too. In my opinion the book was also pretty easy to read through and reflects Nick’s easy-to-understand podcast episodes on Christ is the Cure
I might be biased here but there wasn’t too much I disliked about the book. Content-wise I thought there were little to no issues. One issue I had though was that there wasn’t a conclusion to wrap up the whole subject. It seemed pretty abrupt when the book ended with the conclusion on Easter and nothing more. Granted there was a conclusion to the Christmas section but a conclusion overall would’ve been nice to summarize everything.
My favorite takeaway was seeing the emphasis of celebrating the incarnation of Jesus and what the implications are for us. And how Christmas is that annual day to help us remember that event
This book is full of historical information and references to back up all claims. It’s divided into three sections for easy reading-the feasts, Christmas then Easter.
I have always heard of rumors that these Christian holidays are pagan but had no idea how to defend these holidays against such claims. This book gave me all the information I needed to know in order to do that. There were extremely helpful charts in the Christmas section that helped me visualize the dates and people mentioned. All of the end notes were also helpful so that I could go further research these things for myself.
The feasts section was extremely helpful in knowing what each feast meant and how they were a shadow to the substance, Christ. So much helpful connections made in this book for how these Old Testament feasts point to Christ. It will change how I read these passages of Scripture.
A short book and easy to read and follow. I read it within a couple of hours and certainly plan to revisit it again when these holidays come back around as do the claims that they are pagan. Thankful for this book!
The author has obviously done a lot of research for this book/series of essays. On one hand it is quite academic, but still accessible to the lay person. the discussion of Christian and Easter are topics that cause division inside and outside the church, which hopefully this book can and will be used to correct and mediate those divisions.
This was a fascinating book critically discussing the so-called pagan history of both Easter and Christmas, as well as examining whether the Christian should follow the Feasts of the Jewish faith. Campbell carefully examines the history and the arguments for and against it. I also appreciate the consistent references to Romans 14, with Paul's command, effectively, to follow your conscience on whether to observe these holidays or not.