Our modern culture is filled with pagan and occult influences:
Hindu and Buddhist teachers such as Dalai Lama... pagan exercise and meditation techniques (yoga)... Ouija boards ... horoscopes... psychics and fortunetellers... The Secret or the Law of Attraction... pagan symbols and statues(1)...
Scripture warns us to avoid such things:
2 Corinthians 6:14-18: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ...Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
No benefit or enjoyment derived from these things is worth damaging our relationship with the Lord.
1 Corinthians 10:23: "I have the right to do anything," you say--but not everything is beneficial…not everything is constructive.
Let's carefully examine the influences in our lives, dear Christians, if for no other reason than to keep a pure focus on our Lord.
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(1) Pagan symbols and their meanings:
Feng Shui Decorating
See also: Blame it on My Stove
Buddha
yin yang
Additional Notes:
While most credible Christian ministries agree that the things listed above are bad influences for Christians, there are some additional areas where opinion is split. You should read both sides before becoming involved in these areas. Or, if you want to be sure you aren't compromising your faith, avoid them completely:
mandalas (popular in adult coloring books)
Acupuncture:
Got Questions
What Christians Want to Know
Alternative Medicine Techniques (acupuncture, biofeedback, and “Therapeutic Touch”)
Christian Research Institute
Got Questions
Martial Arts
Got Questions
Christian Research Institute
Probe
Harry Potter Books and Movies
Got Questions
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And might I add Harry Potter, Harry Potter, and Harry Potter? He even has "the Mark" for heaven's sake. Look, I am not one to look for links when there aren't any, but there is a whole generation out there that cites one book, and one book only as their guidebook for life. And I'll give you a hint--It's NOT the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI agree! Harry Potter's story lines are very dangerous.
DeleteIs Harry Potter not just a fantasy story? If people take that as a guidebook for life, then there is a much bigger problem than the book itself.
DeleteHi JV,
DeleteThere are probably some differences of opinion about Harry Potter among Christians. But books which glorify the occult can cause problems even if the person does not consider them a "guidebook for life."
I believe these questions would be good to ask:
1. Does it promote godly thoughts?
2. Does the reader understand that occult practices in the real world are evil and against God's laws?
3. Does it give the reader an admiration for the occult?
4. Are there better, more godly books I should be reading instead?
The things that fill our minds affect our thinking. I've never read a Harry Potter book and I don't intend to, but I would ask myself these questions before reading one.
Let's not forget Yoga....it's Hindu God worship
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown,
DeleteIf you click the link "pagan exercise and meditation techniques" you will find articles on yoga.
Let me first remind you how much I appreciate this ministry! Love it, love it!
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the above listed pagan influences are just the ones we have yet to incorporate into our worship. Go back far enough and you'll find so much about Catholic worship is straight from pagan sources...even the "fish hat" the Pope wears is from Dagon, the fish god!
And the Protestants incorporated so much from the Catholics. Why are there two chairs up front for the ministers, an indoor altar, theater style seating, the order of worship? All come from Catholic sources which originate with the Emperors of Rome.
Where do you think steeples originate? It isn't the Bible. Even the great "christian" cathedrals were modeled after pagan temples!
Then we can move into the areas of Christ-mass and Easter. Did you know Christ-mass was not allowed in the early American colonies? It came to America with the Catholic Irish who migrated here after the potato famine. Great preachers like Charles Spurgeon and others roundly condemned Christ-mass, but now it's fully ingrained in our church culture.
I could continue, but I won't. This will probably cause enough controversy. Usually, the response is Christians defending their favorite pagan traditions.
Shalom
Hi George,
DeleteI've done quite a bit of study about Easter and Christmas and there is a great deal of misinformation taught about these holidays.
The articles promoting pagan origins for these holidays are contradictory (claiming different pagan associations) and none are based on verifiable resources (e.g. historic records).
If the articles have footnotes, they link to other articles that promote their view, not to historic records or credible resources that support their claims. They may reference actual pagan celebrations, but they don’t prove their connection with Christmas. Many of the authors of these articles are sincere, but they’ve not verified their claims.
Unfortunately, if something is taught repeatedly, it gains credibility.
As far as steeples, chairs, hats, etc. You can associate almost anything to a pagan practice, if you want to. For example, satanists pray to satan, but that doesn't make prayer pagan. Pagans have feasts, but that doesn't make feasts pagan.
The pagan practices mentioned in this devotion are linked to pagan beliefs that still exist (e.g. Hindu practices).
What about Christmas? And im not talking about Santa, the Christmas tree etc. Im talking about Jesus's supposed birth. There is no date of of the day he is born anywhere in the bible. Why do people think it happened towards the end of December where it is cold and snowy. The sheep should not be out in that kind of weather, if they were its reckless. But the date of the Christ's supposed birth falls on a pagan holiday (birthday of the unconquered sun). Besides no early Christian celebrated Christs birth. Birthdays did not seem to be important in bible times. The only two birthdays written about were from non-Christians and they ended disastrous. Besides Jesus urged us to remember him by the simple ways Luke 22:19,20. Why do most people only think of Christ's birth and death nad celebrate those but there are much more important things about Jesus and the good deeds he did that we should memorise at heart and live by them. Not only on certain days in the year. Every day!
ReplyDeleteAimee,
DeleteI've done a very thorough research of Christmas and I haven't found a single claim that connects Christmas to pagan holidays that can be proven with historical documentation. We can prove that the pagan holidays existed, but the suggestion that Christmas began as these pagan holidays is mere conjecture.
But even if these claims were true, I don't know a single Christian who does pagan rituals during Christmas or worships their trees.
You say there are more important things to celebrate that Christ's birth and death. What are they? I don't know of anything in the whole universe more important than those two things. God coming to earth as man and God dying to save men's souls. No other good deed would matter if those two things hadn't happened.
And what does the date matter? We aren't celebrating a day on a calendar, we are celebrating the coming of our Savior and no one knows for sure what date He was born.
And I would ask you to thoughtfully think through your statements in your comment. "no early christian celebrated Christ's birth" -- you can't possibly know that. Even if you had studied every ancient document available, you could not make that claim. The best you can say is that you have found no record of early Christians celebrating Christmas.
Many of the statements you make are opinions. The Old Testament is filled with festivals and celebrations related to our faith and God instituted those celebrations. Claiming that two bad birthdays is God's way of showing us we shouldn't celebrate birthdays is like saying that we shouldn't eat fruit because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
But let’s look at some other claims of those who teach against Christmas and Christmas trees, linking it to the pagan festival of Saturnalia. During that festival which was on December 17th, not December 25th, they decorated trees outside with emblems of the sun god and only brought branches and greenery into their homes.
Other people claim that Christmas mimics the pagan holiday of Winter Solstice, which was called “the Yule” in Germanic countries. It’s likely that the Yule log originated with this pagan holiday and it's true that they felt the evergreen tree was a symbol of life in the winter, but they didn’t cut trees down and bring them inside to decorate.
There is also a widely held belief that Martin Luther began the practice of decorating trees with candles at Christmas time.
We can’t prove this Luther connection, but neither can we prove the pagan connections.
Is it possible that Christmas is loosely related to some ancient pagan practice that is no longer practiced? It’s possible. Is it possible that the Christmas trees and other aspects of Christmas traditions originated with Luther? It's possible.
I guess we need to ask ourselves what Christmas means to us and what the tree symbolizes for us when we put it in our living room. If a person associates it with it's pagan roots as you do, they shouldn't celebrate Christmas. If we associate it with it's Christian roots and celebrate the tree of life in Scripture then our celebration is pleasing to God. And Romans 14 tells us that we should respect each other's views.
I don't know how through anyone can claim to be if they get their information from Got Questions. Why not start looking at who's behind them. Amen
ReplyDeleteGot Questions is a legitimate ministry with Bible-believing writers. If you have heard otherwise, you need to check your resources.
DeleteThere are some ministries built on slandering Christian teachers, twisting things they say and purposely misrepresenting them by taking things out of context. The only thing I've ever read against Got Questions was written by one such ministry called "The Path of Truth." That ministry might be better titled "The Path of Slander" as that seems to be their main focus. They consider Billy Graham, John Piper, Spurgeon, and hundreds of other solid Bible teachers "false prophets."
I check out my resources carefully, and I stand by Got Questions as a solid biblical resource. But I warn people against sites such as the one falsely named "Path of Truth."
so... tell me again how these pagan influences are any different from the ones our catholic & protestant churches teach us about celebrating Christmas, birthdays, Halloween, Easter egg hunting & so many more pagan practices which you will not find in the bible???
ReplyDeleteI explained this quite thoroughly above. It's unproven conjecture and those who promote it use contradictory reasons and examples to make their claims.
DeleteIf you feel it's wrong, then you shouldn't participate.
If you believe you can only do things mentioned in the Bible, you need to quit using the internet.
Thank you, Gail, for what you and your team do. I start every workday looking forward to your One-Minute Devotions. Is there anything I can do for you all? May God bless you and protect you as you go about doing His work.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your encouragement.
DeleteWe can always use prayer! That means so much to us.
Thank you for asking.
God bless you.