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Should God’s existence be
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Fideism vs WCG.htm
Does the Bible teach blind faith? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Gospel of John Theory of Knowledge.htm
Did the Catholic Church Adopt Pagan Practices? Was the Virgin Mary Sinless for Her Entire Life?
Did Catholicism compromise
with paganism in the 4th Century A.D? Now, the issue about the pagan connection with many traditions
used by Catholic and Protestant Christians to worship God is incontestable,
regardless of any defects that can be found in Alexander Hislop's or Ralph
Woodrow's research. Let's take the
example of Christmas. The Christmas
tree has undeniably pagan origins.
Although it was popularized in the English-speaking world in Victorian
times especially by Albert, Victoria's husband, who was drawing upon his
Germanic heritage in doing so, the Christmas tree goes back to Rome as
well. Pagan Rome liked using the
fir.
December 25 is a very problematic
date for any celebration of Christ's birth.
The basic problem has been that it's unlikely that the shepherds, to
whom the angels announced the Messiah’s birth, had been out in the fields that
late in the year even in Judea, nor would the Romans order a census to be held
at such a time, because of the cold weather. (I know some efforts are made to
duck the former argument here, but perhaps the way to really check on this
would be to see if shepherds today camp out in the open in Judea in late December). December 25 itself was the date for Mithra's
birth, who was a god of light that the Roman legionaires often worshiped. He was said to be born out of rock on that
date. The Roman Saturnalia, which can
be compared to the Mardi Gras and Carnival for a reasonable modern comparison
of what it was like, also occurred at this time. It's no coincidence all this pagan celebrating is occurring
around the date of the winter solstice, when the days are at their shortest and
start to become longer again. When else
would the god of light be born but then, eh?
According to the book,
"All About Christmas," by Maymie Krythe, as quoted by G.M. Bowers in
"Faith and Doctrines of the Early Church," the date for Christmas/the
birth of Christ in the third century had varied significantly in the
Church. According to the early church
writer Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem asked Julius I, the Pope at that time
(336 to 352 A.D.), to look into the issue of the exact timing. In 350 A.D., he came up with the date of
December 25 as the most probable time.
It's hard to escape the inference that all the pagan celebrations had an
influence on this choice of a date, since what Biblical information is
available indicates Jesus was born in autumn.
True, the Bible doesn't have an explicit statement saying, "Thou
shalt not celebrate Christmas, Easter, or Halloween." Yet also it
doesn't have (say) a text condemning the use of heroin or cocaine either, yet I
believe all conservative Christians would condemn drug abuse by (at some level)
using the principle that since the Bible condemns the drunkenness that results
from alcohol, it also would condemn getting high from drugs. So then, are
there any texts that say using pagan customs or learning about how others
worshipped false gods in order to do the same is wrong? These in
principle would apply to holidays that have all or most of their customs in
pre-Christian paganism, such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween.
Consider for example this text (Deuteronomy 12:29-32): "When the
Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to
dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you
are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that
you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their
gods, that I also may do likewise?' You shall not behave thus toward the
Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for
their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their
gods. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not
add to nor take away from it."
Notice that Israel was warned to not inquire into the customs of the pagan
nations they were about the conquer in Canaan as something they should do for
themselves in order to worship their gods. Do we really think that these
customs are sanitized by aiming them at the true God? There is a history
here that we need to consider, even if the reality of worshipping the various
pagan gods of Rome, Greece, or the ancient Germans/Nordics is long dead so we
don't get the immediate association in our minds.
For example, consider this analogy that has been used to explain this
principle. Suppose a man got married to a woman who became his wife, but
he left around their house in prominent locations framed pictures of one or
more of his ex-girlfriends. How would the wife feel about these reminders
of his former loves? Would she be convinced his devotion to her was
full-hearted? Would such an explanation as, "When I look at them, I
think of you instead now," be all that convincing? Notice that God
didn't accept the worship of the Golden Calf as worship directed to Him despite
Aaron proclaimed a "Feast to the Lord" (v. 5) would occur the next
day (see Exodus 32:1-14).
Is using customs that used to be used to worship false gods something the true
God really accepts when Scripture says the true God never compromises with
paganism? For example, notice I Cor. 10:19-22: "What do I mean
then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is
anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become
sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cups of
demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?" Notice that
"jealousy" concerns the demand for exclusive devotion, just as a wife
would (or should) demand from her husband sexually. (See II Cor. 6:14-18
for more about Christians not compromising with paganism, that they should have
no part with it). What the pagans did did not honor the true God,
regardless of how much sincerity or faith they had. The same goes for the
customs used at Easter and Christmas today. And, does anybody really
believe when kids dress up as demons, ghosts, monsters, etc., and then go
around extorting neighbors with the threatening words "Trick or
treat," meaning, "I won't soap your windows or turn over your trash
cans if you bribe me" (that's the historical origin of the phrase), that
these Halloween customs somehow worships God? The case against Halloween
is even more clear than the case against Easter and Christmas. Halloween is
a holiday that honors the "god of this world"! (I Cor. 4:3-4).
(Of course, it's a lie to tell kids Santa Claus left them gifts under the
tree instead of their parents--another problem morally with the standard
Christmas story, but here I digress).
Here is a general principle that's proclaimed before a description of an
idol-making operation is made: "Do not learn the way of the nations,
and do not be terrified by the sings of the heavens although the nations are
terrified by them; for the customs of the peoples are delusion" (Jeremiah
10:2-3). We shouldn't be learning how the pagans of the past worshiped
their Gods in order to do the same today ourselves. What's most curious
is the ensuing description of a tree being trimmed by a "cutting
tool" and decorated with silver and gold and being fastened down with
nails sounds all too much like a Christmas tree! (See verses 3-4).
We need to consider how these pagan customs came into the Christian church.
Basically what happened was that the Catholic Church in the late Roman
Empire and afterwards decided to look the other way or even just adopt
wholesale various pagan customs in order to try to "co-opt" the
prevailing pagan customs. Hence, there's no record of celebrating
Christmas before the fourth century A.D., some three centuries after the time
of Christ. What was happening around December 25th each year back then?
Well, we had the Saturnalia (a celebration much like Christmas, although
also comparable to the Mardi Gras, Carnival, and other festivals of Misrule).
We also had the story of the god of light, Mithras, being born from a
rock on . . . December 25th! The pagan festivals celebrated around
the time of the winter Solstice, when the days stopped getting shorter and
started getting longer, has a lot more to do with Christmas than the birth of
Jesus, which historically most likely occurred early in the fall, not late in
December. But the Catholic Church, by compromising with the pagans
especially from the fourth century onwards, after the Edict of Milan of the
Emperor Constantine gave Christianity toleration, ended up partially paganizing
itself.
Now, to switch gears briefly,
did the Virgin Mary live a completely sinless life? This teaching is tied to the doctrine of the immaculate conception,
which maintains that the Virgin Mary was born without the stain of original sin
on her. Let's look more specifically at
the word used in Luke 1:28 to refer to Mary, which is "charitoo," or
Strong's #5487. In this verse she is
called "O favored one" (RSV), using this word. A different, but similar, word is used of
Jesus in John 1:14 (Strong's #5485), "charitos," in the phrase
"full of grace and of truth."
This word, a version of "charis," or "grace," as
readily verified by the Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, is
used repeatedly for all sorts of people besides Jesus, such as for Paul himself
in I Cor. 15:10, or in his general discussions of soteriology (salvation
theology) about everyone, such as in Romans 6:1, 14, 15, 17; 11:5, 6; Gal. 2:9,
21. Obviously, all these people sinned,
so they needed grace, or God’s undeserved, unmerited favor and pardon for their
sins. On the other hand, this word
"charitoo," which is obviously related to "charis" and
"charitos," is used in Eph. 1:6, but for everyone saved: "to the praise of his glorious grace
which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." This basic language work exposes the Catholic argument about this
word's unique significance as totally spurious. It's an obvious case of eisegesis again, because
"grace" does not mean the same as "sinlessness," just as
"law" doesn't mean the same thing as "obedience." The meaning of "sinlessness"
shouldn't be read into the use of the word in Luke 1:28 for the word simply
doesn't mean that, or otherwise all Christians are equally "sinless"
according to Eph. 1:6. The Catholic
source asserting that the word used of Jesus in John 1:14 was this word was
simply wrong, for it's the same word used through the New Testament that means
"grace” (or “favor,”) and it applies to all Christians, not just Jesus (or
Mary, for that matter). This exercise shows that whatever Catholic source made
these (elementary) claims about Greek should be used with caution on other
matters, at least about the meaning of the Greek.
Eric V. Snow
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Why does God Allow Evil?
Click here: /Apologeticshtml/Why
Does God Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on
Saturdays? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant
Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
Should Christians obey
the Old Testament law? /doctrinalhtml/Does
the New Covenant Abolish the OT Law.htm
Do you have an immortal
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and Hereafter.htm
Does the ministry have
authority? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is
There an Ordained Ministry vs Edwards.html
Is the United States the
Beast? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are
We the Beast vs Collins.htm
Should you give 10% of
your income to your church? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does
the Argument from Silence Abolish the Old Testament Law of Tithing 0205 Mokarow
rebuttal.htm
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Jesus God.htm
Will there be a third
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