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Another Round of Paganism

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Millions, perhaps billions of people will once again run

full throttle into the upcoming fall and winter holiday

seasons of Halloween and Christmas. Many fully acknowledge

that the customs of these events are deeply rooted in

paganism.

Many take paganism as an ugly word, but it simply means

teachings of the nations that did not know the Jewish or

Hebrew God of the Bible. An important point to always

remember is that the Hebrews or Israelites and not the

nations (non Hebrews) were the ones who brought us the

knowledge of God. Even in the New Testament we know that

Jesus and the Apostles were Israelites. This is why

scripture says, "You worship what you do not know; we know

what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews." So it always

comes as a surprise to me that the tail (the nations) tries

to wag the dog when it comes to religious knowledge. Yet

this is what is commonly allowed in the so-called Christian

holidays.

The Catholic encyclopedia seems to struggle somewhere

between acknowledging that modern Christianity has

incorporated pagan teachings and no it is just a

coincidence. A coincidence? When you look at the

preponderance of coincidences like a day for all the dead

Saints that comes on the heels of an ancient Celtic fire

festival called Samhain (notice that this is a nations non

Hebrew pagan teaching here) now called Halloween in which we

have children dressing as demons, ghosts and skeletons or we

shift to Christmas and really examine through some simple

web research about the origin of these Bacchanalian or

Saturnalia type festivities.

Research the origins of the Yule log, tree, mistletoe,

wreaths, greenery, birthdays, gifts, caroling (yes even

seemingly innocent Christmas carols are from ancient circle

dances dealing with fertility rites of the medieval Celtic

countries of Europe) and lights. Bacchanalian festivities

also had parties celebrated with drinking and promiscuity

orgies and riotousness. The Saturnalia festivities also

included exchanging gifts, greenery, lights etc. It is

impossible to ignore that we have ties to teachings of the

nations or pagans that we have justified just as the Bible

says, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Yet

again the Bible says, "what communion has light with

darkness?" But we say we cleaned it all up. Why we

Christianized it Lord! Yet again the Bible says, "Who can

bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!"

But some may ask isn’t it all ok. Can’t we just have some

fun? Why half the stuff I do isn’t really Christian related,

I just do it for fun and I’m not thinking of Christ. I’ve

seen these attitudes. They are attitudes of someone who

thinks they have some distinguishable alter ego. That

somehow we can separate ourselves from ourselves like some

type of Jekyl and Hyde. But do you think you can really hide

half of yourself from before the Lord? The Bible says, "For

if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to

the Lord" and "He who observes the day, observes it to the

Lord" Therefore all we do is in plain sight of God.

So how dangerous is all this? Well this is what I call

mixing of religions or religious practices. Though it

appears to be innocent by most, truly it is the most

dangerous of all sins. Believe it or not this is something

that gets God absolutely furious. Notice God said, "do not

inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations

serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not

worship the LORD your God in that way". If nothing else

notice the word nations in the above. God is saying do not

adapt the practices of the nations. In another example from

the book of Ezekiel we read, "Son of man, do you see what

they are doing, the great abominations that the house of

Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My

sanctuary?" What was this sanctuary? Why it was God’s temple

back in the Old Testament. What were they doing to drive God

far from His Temple? Well a further read says they were

doing things like bringing in, "every sort of creeping

thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols", the Bible says

the, "women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz." (It is

known that there were ancient pagan religions that practiced

weeping. Tammuz was an agricultural god who got weak as

summer waned on and we all know how we get sad as summer

nears its end, so they wept) and the Bible reads,

"twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the

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LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were

worshiping the sun toward the east" (hey look it’s a first

Easter sunrise worship.)

The point of all this is that it all occurred in God’s

temple. They had stained, soiled, desecrated and defiled the

Temple of God by bringing in the ways and teachings of the

nations, the pagans, those who did not have a knowledge of

proper worship of the true God. After all, why do you think

they were called pagans? Because they were stupid, get it?

And why is it that their knowledge is so great now that it

is brought into Christianity? Because we are stupid I guess.

Belittling God’s Temple is not relegated just to the Old

Testament. I’m sure we all remember how infuriated Jesus

became when He encountered the merchandising in the Temple

and made a whip and started to crack some heads. Some things

are just off limits.

But now for the biggie because there is a scripture that we

need to look long and hard at which says, "Do you not know

that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God

dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will

destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you

are." Defiling our human temple here is no different than

all we just read about defiling the physical one. Simply

intermix paganism, mix in the bad with the good and you are

defiled. As a matter of fact if you mix in any ways of any

kind of disobedience you are on your way to defilement and

utter destruction.

Disobedience leads to destruction, but obedience and a

humble spirit leads one to salvation. It is your

disobedience that caused Christ to have to die for our sins

(our disobedience) so why do we think it is ok to continue

to disobey? Now that you have learned nothing from paganism,

for what did you learn from the Yule log or dressing your

child up as an Easter egg? Why not learn from God about His

holidays? Most people do not even know that God also has

Holidays (Holy Days). Well He does and there are seven of

them that He commands us to observe.

You can learn about the true holidays that you never knew of

from our website at www.cornerstone1.org

About The Author

Glenn Williams is editor at Cornerstone Evangelical Association. A site dedicated to teach Christians are not to separate from Old Testament laws yet still look to Christ for salvation. You can sign up for a free weekly newsletter at http://www.cornerstone1.org or mailto:subscribe@cornerstone1.org