Another Round of Paganism

TRUTH and UNDERSTANDING - An electronic magazine of real knowledge 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 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