According to the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, celebrating a birthday in any manner is strictly forbidden. Even sending a birthday card can bring down swift action against the offender by an official “judicial committee.” The punishment is “disfellowshiping”—being kicked out of the Watchtower organization. They believe that this doctrine is based on the Bible, and they cite the following three verses as evidence to back up their claim:
“And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants…. But he hanged the chief baker….” (Genesis 40:20-22, KJV)
“…Herod on his birthday gave a banquet…. And she came in immediately with haste to the king, as asked, saying, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’” (Mark 6:21-25, RSV)
“But when Herod’s birthday came…he sent and had John the Baptist beheaded in the prison.” (Matthew 14:6-10, RSV)
The Watchtower organization has prohibited birthday celebrations among its adherents, using Genesis 40:20-22 as a key part of the “scriptural basis” for this ruling. Their thought is that the word birthday appears in the Bible only in reference to Pharaoh of Egypt (as above) and King Herod of Galilee (Matthew 14:6 and Mark 6:21). Both of them were pagans, and both men had someone put to death in connection with the celebration. Since no men of faith are recorded in the Bible as having celebrated their birthdays, but only wicked men—so the Watchtower reasoning goes—Jehovah’s Witnesses of today must not be allowed to celebrate birthdays either.
It is worth noting that, as with other teachings, it is not left up to the individual Witness to read the Bible and come up with this conclusion. Rather, the sect’s secretive governing body has promulgated this official interpretation and uses its disciplinary procedures to enforce the policy on all Witnesses. For example, former Jehovah’s Witness Elder, David A. Reed, states in his book, Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse:
“…one elderly JW of our acquaintance in Massachusetts decided he would send a birthday card to his non-Witness son, but his wife reported it to the local elders. They summoned him before a closed-door judicial committee meeting and put him on trial for this offense. The seventy-year old gentleman challenged them to show him one Scripture verse prohibiting sending a birthday card, but the committee went ahead and disfellowshiped him on the basis of the Watchtower Society’s ruling. His Witness relatives now refuse him admittance to their home, and Witnesses who encounter him on the street turn away without ever saying hello.” (pg. 25)
In refuting the Watchtower’s so-called scriptural basis for banning birthday celebrations, it must be pointed out that Pharaoh and King Herod were arbitrary rulers and violent men; such monarchs were accustomed to executing people on all sorts of occasions, not just on their birthdays. Moreover, a person sending a birthday card, or a parent providing a cake with candles at a children’s party, can hardly be accused of following the pattern of those murderous men.
Although the actual word birthday appears only in connection with Pharaoh and Herod in most translations, the Bible does contain reference to such celebrations in godly families:
In Job 1:4, it says of the patriarch Job’s family, “And his sons went and held a banquet at the house of each one on his own day; and they sent and invited their three sisters to eat and drink with them” (NWT, italics added). That “his own day” refers to each one’s birthdays becomes clear when we read further: “It was after this that Job opened his mouth and began to call down evil upon his own day. Job now answered and said: Let the day perish on which I came to be born….’” (Job 3:1-3, NWT, italics added). The Living Bible’s paraphrase of Job 1:4-5 expresses this thought: “Every year when each of Job’s sons had a birthday, he invited his brothers and sisters to his home for a celebration. On these occasions they would eat and drink with great merriment. When these birthday parties ended….”
Even the Watchtower Society’s own translation reveals that the birth of John the Baptist was celebrated, when it records this angelic announcement: “And you will have joy and great gladness, and many will rejoice over his birth” (Luke 1:14, NWT).
If the birth of John the Baptist was an occasion for rejoicing and if faithful Job’s children celebrated their birthdays, the fact that Pharaoh and Herod also celebrated theirs cannot logically be used as a basis for banning birthday parties among Bible believers today.
The Watchtower organization has also taught Jehovah’s Witnesses that the celebration of birthdays has its origins in pagan cultures. It is a pagan custom, they say, and therefore should not be celebrated. In other words, just because pagans did it in pre-Christian times, it is wrong for Christians to also do it. This would certainly be true if the custom in question was a form of religious practice—such as worship, but it is not. It is simply a venerable celebration of a happy moment, the anniversary of the birth of a loved one—a father, a mother, a child, a relative, a friend, etc.
Would it be wrong to engage in a certain action simply because that same action was also done by a pagan? Although pagans were, and still are, idol worshippers, was their every action wrong? Didn’t pagans, despite their false beliefs, also do good things? It would be safe to assume that some, if not many pagans gave alms to the poor and downtrodden. Are Christians wrong for also giving charity to the poor and unfortunate? Pagan religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism stress a high respect for parents and elders of the family. Is it wrong then for Christians to respect their mother and father, and their elderly grandparents? Obviously, not all things done by pagans were wrong. Therefore, the claim that doing something is wrong just because pagans did it just isn’t true all the time.
If celebrating a birthday was a sin, wouldn’t God have made this clear to mankind? Did God rebuke Job for celebrating his children’s birthdays? No, he certainly did not. One may ask, though, didn’t God allow Job to suffer terrible torments? Of course the answer would have to be yes. But the reason for Job’s torment must be made perfectly clear: The Bible informs us that God allowed Job to suffer such terrible torments to show Satan that, in all mankind, “that there is non like [Job] in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil,” not because he celebrated birthdays. (Job 1:8, KJV) Would any Jehovah’s Witness DARE to accuse righteous Job of engaging in a practice that was against God?
Does the Bible speak out against the celebration of birthdays? Is there a law in it forbidding this? No. There is no such law. Therefore, it is not wrong to celebrate birthdays. The Bible itself clearly states this: “for where no law is, there is no transgression.” (Romans 4:15, KJV)
We may rightfully conclude, from the above evidence, that the Watchtower’s ban on birthday celebrations is not a biblical decree, but merely a human dictum based not on the perfect word of God, but on the false assumption of the organization’s frail human reasoning. So, to all the readers of this newsletter, who were born on this very day—have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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