Category: heresy

Pastors’ Attempts to Justify Their Paganism

~ Sherry ~ 13 Comments

SOURCE

 

I’ve read/heard a number of illogical arguments coming from pastors who are such extreme lovers of their pagan celebrations, they can’t let them go. We will list a few of their arguments here, and point out the logical fallcies imployed to trick people into thinking their reasoning is sound. (The following are all real arguments I have seen from pastors attempting to justify Christmas.)

I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:
-Ecclesiastes 7:25

Pastoral Argument #1: We use pagan names, like Sunday, for the days of the week, and there is nothing wrong with that, therefore, our Christmas celebration is justified.
This is called a “Conflation” fallacy, also known as “comparing apples to oranges.” A sample of this type of argument would go like this: “Watermelons are green. Cabbage is green. Therefore, watermelons and cabbage are both fruit.” That is not logical. It’s true that the days of the week are labeled from pagan concepts, just as a Christmas tree is labeled from pagan concepts, but what needs to be questioned the ORIGIN of the subject matter.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
-Matthew 7:18

God created days, which means days have a GOOD origin, so according to the Bible, days don’t automatically become evil because people slap a pagan label on them. On the other hand, the Christmas celebration was created by pagans (not by God), which means Christmas as an EVIL origin, so according to the Bible, Christmas doesn’t automatically become good because people slap a “Jesus” label on it.

The days of the week and the Christmas celebration can’t be compared on the same level because they have two different creators.

Pastoral Argument #2: I’ve heard some Jehovah’s Witnesses saying that Christmas is evil, and they’re founded in theological error, so therefore, the Christmas celebration is justified.
This is called an “Association” fallacy, or some people know it as “guilt by association.” A sample of this type of argument would go like this: “Beth’s favorite movie is Star Wars. Jeffrey Dahmer’s favorite movie is Star Wars. Therefore, Beth and Jeffrey Dahmer are both murderers.” That is not logical. It is true that the Watch Tower Society does not celebrate Christmas because of its pagan origins, but just because they sit in error about the Salvation of Jesus Christ, it doesn’t automatically mean they are wrong about Christmas.

The Catholic Church teaches false doctrine on the salvation of Jesus Christ in the mass, but when a Catholic stands up and says that God created the world in six days, does it automatically mean he’s wrong? Of course not.
Islam teaches false doctrine about Jesus Christ and their Muhammad false prophet, but when a Muslim stands up and says that Abram begat Ishmael, does it automatically mean he’s wrong? Of course not.

We don’t discern good and evil based on what a group of people might believe. It is possible for someone to be wrong on one issue, and right on another issue, so we have to discern good and evil based on what the Word of God says.

Pastoral Argument #3: I used to teach Christmas is wrong, but I was being mean to people, so anyone who preaches against Christmas is just being mean.
This is called a “false dichotomy,” or some people know it as a “false dilemma.” A sample of this type of argument would go like this: “Fifty percent of the class likes chocolate ice cream, and the other fifty percent likes vanilla. Which side are you on?” There are more than two flavors of ice cream, so it is not logical to assume there are only two options. It is true that there are a number of people out there who may preach against Christmas out of some inner pious or contemptuous nature in their hearts, but that doesn’t mean everyone who preaches against Christmas is doing it out of spite.

This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
-Titus 1:13

There are those of us who preach against pagan practices so that our brethren in Christ will be sound in the faith, and cleanse the church of Jesus Christ.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
-2 Timothy 2:21
(Sanctified means ‘set apart’.)

It is good to purge oneself from comptemptuous and pious actions, but we are not supposed to compromise the truth in the process.

The source for this excerpt comes from this article: Christmas: The rejection of Jesus. It is an excellent read, though long, that points out the paganism and witchcraft of Christmas. It has Scriptures to point out God’s abhorrence of such a celebration as well as encouraging Scriptures for those who forsake this pagan/papist/tradition of men unholy day. Pray the Lord God will give discernment and truth to you as you read it.

Idolatry…

~ Sherry ~ 3 Comments

It is idolatry to worship the true God

by a wrong method.

Thomas Watson

Salvation-Through-Christ-Only

A Denunciation of Popery-Dr. H. Grattan Guiness

~ Sherry ~ 1 Comment

From Harold Vicknair via Gordon Kelse-Furr  :

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Taken from the floor of St Peters Basilica

Vatican comes from 2 Latin words
Vatis = profetic or diviner
Can = serpent or snake
Vatican = Divining serpent
( Rev 12:9) And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.

Cardinal Manning says: “The Catholic Church is either the masterpiece of Satan or the Kingdom of the Son of God. A sacerdotal order is historically the essence of the Church of Rome; if not divinely appointed, it is doctrinally the essence of antichrist.”

In both these statements the issue is clear, and it is the same. Rome herself admits, openly admits, that if she is not the very kingdom of Christ, she is that of antichrist. Rome declares she is one or the other. She herself propounds and urges this solemn alternative

You shrink from it, do you? I accept it. Conscience constrains me. History compels me. The past, the awful past rises before me. I see THE GREAT APOSTASY, I see the desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins, I see the reign of monsters; I see those vicegods, that Gregory VIII, that Innocent III, that Boniface VIII, that Alexander VI, that Gregory XIII, that Pius IX; I see their long succession, I see their abominable lives; I see them worshipped by blinded generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering lying indulgences, creating a paganized Christianity;! see their liveried slaves, their shaven priests, their celibate confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the ruined women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish Armada, those unspeakable massacres.

I see it all, and in the name of the ruin it has wrought in the Church and in the world, in the name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints of ages, I denounce it as the masterpiece of Satan as the body and soul and essence of antichrist”

– DR. H. GRATTAN GUINNESS
The great Revival Preacher of 1859

The Chosen is Making You Catholic

~ Sherry ~ 8 Comments

Fearing the Keeping of Holy Days & the Spiritual Bondage of Christmas, Easter, Etc

~ Sherry ~ 9 Comments

Galatians 4:9-11King James Version (KJV)

9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

2 Peter 2:21King James Version (KJV)

21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=6914121226

From the comment line:

Asa (6/12/2014)

from Arizona
“ Great Sermon! ”
Good warnings about bringing pagan and Old Testament worship in the New Testament church. The sun has risen the shadows are ALL gone ! Still Waters Revival Books (6/18/2014)

from Edmonton, Alberta
“ The Spiritual Bondage Of Christmas, Easter, Etc. ”
Well said Asa! The following quote is interesting and sadly demonstrates how far our generation of Protestant and Reformed churches have fallen into the spiritual bondage of keeping Pagan and Roman Catholic holy days, which are not authorized by God in the Bible: In 1899, the General Assembly of the PCUS was overtured to give a “pronounced and explicit deliverance” against the recognition of “Christmas and Easter as religious days.” Even at this late date, the answer came back in a solid manner: “There is no warrant in Scripture for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holydays, rather the contrary (see Gal. 4:9-11; Col. 2:16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” – Kevin Reed, Christmas: An Historical Survey Regarding Its Origins and Opposition to It (Free Online Book at http://ow.ly/yacpW).

 

Please Don’t Twist Matthew 7…

~ Sherry ~ 3 Comments

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A Call to Separation – A. W. Pink

~ Sherry ~ Leave a comment

XMas by A.W. Pink

8 Symptoms of False Doctrine by J.C. Ryle

~ Sherry ~ 2 Comments

Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine peculiarly dangerous.

1. There is an undeniable zeal in some of the teachers of error: their “earnestness” makes many think they must be right.

2. There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge: many fancy that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe guides.

3. There is a general tendency to free thought and free inquiry in these latter days: many like to prove their independence of judgment, by believing novelties.

4. There is a wide-spread desire to appear charitable and liberal-minded: many seem half ashamed of saying that anybody can be in the wrong.

5. There is a quantity of half-truth taught by the modern false teachers: they are incessantly using Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense.

6. There is a morbid craving in the public mind for a more sensuous, ceremonial, sensational, showy worship: men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work.

7. There is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks cleverly, lovingly and earnestly, and a determination to forget that Satan often masquerades himself “as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

8. There is a wide-spread “gullibility” among professing Christians: every heretic who tells his story plausibly is sure to be believed, and everybody who doubts him is called a persecutor and a narrow-minded man.

All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times. I defy any observing person to deny them. They tend to make the assaults of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more than ever needful to cry aloud, “Do not be carried away!”

Warnings to the Churches, “Divers and Strange Doctrines”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1967], 76, 77.