Full blog post Part One

This article,  CHRISTIANIZING SECULAR CUSTOMS –A Biblical look at Christmas, Easter, and Halloween says that there is justification for us to “christianize” these pagan “holy” days because, after all:

4. “They view these customs as opportunities to connect with society and advance the kingdom of God. For them – what was originally meant for evil God is using for good.

Gen 50:20  You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 

Rom 8:28  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Did your jaw just drop?

How does doing as the world does advance the Kingdom of God? It doesn’t. It actually blurs the distinction that God says we are to have, to be holy (set apart) as He is holy. We must be careful not to be like the world, or we shall become at enmity with our merciful God. What many Christians don’t realize is that worshiping God using pagan means is lowering Christ Jesus down to the same level as the pagan gods! Instead of being the only true God, Who is God above all gods. He becomes just one of many in the eyes of the world. Besides, disobeying His Word is not one of His means of evangelism…

Can we find anywhere in Scriptures where Israel’s idolatry was turned around for their own good, like in the cited Scriptures that the author unlawfully used to make his point? Please do let me know! God used their idolatry as a means of judgement! I paraphrase the biblical text: “Go into those nations as captives and let those gods you love so much deliver you!” Israel incorporated the idol worship of the nations around them to worship the true God with (syncretism), just as many Christians do today with their trees and eggs, nativities and sunrise services.

FTA: “The modern church has many customs that were borrowed from the world, but which give opportunity for believers to advance the kingdom of God, ie:

> The custom of churches meeting in church buildings, rather than homes, was adopted from the pagan religious traditions of Rome. In the 4^th (centuy) when Christianity was declared the only acceptable religion in the Roman Empire, pagan temples were converted into “churches.”

> The practice of sitting in chairs or pews lined up to face the front was adopted directly from pagan temples in 326 AD.

> Martin Luther wrote many hymns, such as “A Mighty Fortress” and took their melodies from beer drinking songs of his day, because the common people were familiar with them. Since then, many other secular tunes have been borrowed for hymns.

> Contemporary or rock style of music has been adapted and christianized. In the words of Larry Norman, “Why should the devil have all the good music?’

> The idea of segregating children from adults for church gatherings was an idea taken not from Jesus (Mat 19:13-14), but from 19^th century American education leader, Horace Mann.

> The idea of separating out teens for “youth groups” never existed until the 1930’s, and developed from the philosophies of sociologist, G. Stanley Hall, who based his ideas on Darwinism.

> The radical idea of putting an Art Gallery or a coffee shop inside a building where a church gathers is offensive to many believers, but for those who do it, it is a valid outreach to the world.

> Selling books and tapes in the fellowship is an efficient way to provide believers materials but might be equated by some with allowing moneychangers in the temple.

> Pictures of Jesus in children’s Sunday school materials have proven to be effective in communicating the gospel but offend some who construe them to be graven images.”

Etc, etc, etc…

Now the author goes on to state that the church has adopted many customs of the world in their churches. Meeting in a building comes from the Roman pagans. Really? Perhaps it comes from Jewish temples and synagogues. Or both. There was a church built in Dura that preceded the Church of Rome’s takeover of pagan temples. Either way, these customs, some good and some bad, do not represent the true (or false) Messiah. They are not religious in and of themselves. However, for an example of a custom which does point to the false messiah, Tammuz, the decorated tree in the house was in honor of the father of all pagan religions, Nimrod. Now, Christians have changed it into meaning a symbol of eternal life, pointing to our Savior Jesus Christ. For Christians to use such a custom though changed in meaning, we would have to have God’s Word on it. Where is it? Acts 19:19 would be a good place for God, through His disciples, to say, “Don’t burn your books! I command them to be used for My glory! Just replace the names and meanings of those pagan religious rites and incantations with godly ones! Then you will be better able tell the world about the Gospel!”

Part Three tomorrow….

Full blog post

I just read some of this article, CHRISTIANIZING SECULAR CUSTOMS
A Biblical look at Christmas, Easter, and Halloween, and I would like to make some obvious notations. This author would like you to feel good about disobeying God as a practice. But God NEVER compromises with evil, and neither should we, His children.

Yes, it’s true. We Christians live in a world of paganism. Everywhere we look its pagan. Pagan! Pagan! Pagan! Our churches are modeled after pagan worship centers, so we are told. Our days of the week are named after pagan gods! Some say worship on Sunday is pagan! And our dollar bill…GASP!!!…

So what? That’s right, I asked, so what? Maybe knowing that truth puts most Christians at ease about celebrating X Mass. “Paganism is hard to avoid.” Or they will say, “See, you can christianize paganism! Look at the church structure!” Well…not so fast, o clever one!

No. No you can’t christianize unredeemable paganism. Yes, we use, or practice, the things of pagan origin all of the time. But that pertains to worldly use for our benefit or as a person-to-person use. Many things we believe have a pagan origin didn’t just happen to be only for pagan worship after all. The practice simply existed before the time of Nimrod, where all pagan religions came from. Nevertheless, in our man to God worship we must not adopt the ways of the heathen to worship Him with. He hates it. He did not ordain it. It is Cain worship, i.e., man-made. God has the only right to sanction the worship of Himself and to call days “holy.” Not us. Some say that Jeremiah 10 has nothing whatsoever to do with X Mass trees. Fine. You can believe that. Some say that Deuteronomy 12:29-32 is not speaking about our modern-day X Mass trees and such other rituals and traditions. Fine. You can believe that way, too.

Here’s the problem: If you are decorating your homes in the same manner as the Wiccans then you are yoking with the idolatrous unbelievers. You are not being separate from them. How are you being holy as God is holy in this X Mass-Saturnalia “holy” day observance? You are not abstaining from even the appearance of evil! Are you a Christian or a Wiccan? Sure, today many would say you are a Christian but not the unbelievers. They don’t know the difference, nor do they care. It’s about Santa for them, no matter their age. The Wiccans are either laughing at you for doing as they do, or they are angry at you for hijacking their holy day and putting your false god (yes, its lower-case “g” to them) in the place of their true sun-god, unless they believe there is no difference between the two. But they should know it! Christians aren’t helping them in the matter with their copy-cat decor.  Where are we different, then, by our appearance?

If you cling to your X Mass to the point of being rude or inconsiderate to your fellow Christians who do not celebrate it, then you are committing idolatry and brotherly love is not in you. If you use Scriptures to validate your celebration but say that the incarnation story is the “Christmas story” then you have no idea what the Christ Mass truly is about, and you are inadvertently sinning against God and calling the holy by an unholy name. Plus! You are misinterpreting the Scriptures you are using! If you are celebrating X Mass despite knowing its pagan roots (or similarity to the Wiccan’s “holy” day) then you are willfully sinning against God. It’s not just sinning, but willfully sinning. If you are celebrating X Mass for the kids’ sake, or for fear of what others might say, then you are not worthy of Jesus. He said it, I didn’t:

Matthew 10:36-38, “And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.”

See also Bible Hub’s commentary and other like verses here.

It’s time to repent of Christo-paganism.