If the pagans and heathens love it you can be sure something is wrong with it.
One of the strangest things I have encountered in all my years after becoming born again is the responses I receive from other Christians when asked to participate in certain holidays and I must politely decline.
So many Christians are so indoctrinated that Christmas, Halloween and Easter are Christian holidays that they are astonished and appalled when someone does not think of the holidays as anything in which a believer should participate.
Today in our culture there are those who are attempting to incorporate astrology into Christianity, as well as Hindu practices of Yoga, cultic practices of the ouji board and other paganistic events and rituals that fly in God's face, while defying the Bible which is the same as negating God's commands.
The attempt to incorporate heathen and pagan practices into Christianity began way back at the time of Christ and even before Christ came, there were attempts to appease God on His feasts by doing the feasts with paganism in mind. The devil has been working all along to dilute the Christian experience through deceptive means. He loves to take a pagan practice and make it look alright merely by adding Christ's name to it.
The Jews did this with the Jewish feast days, they treated their feast days the way Christians treat the holidays. The Jews were told to celebrate the feasts but no the way God commanded. Similarly in reverse God never commanded the human holidays we celebrate today and yet many attempt to make them Christian by placing the name of Christ on them anyway.
In the case of the Jewish feast days the Jews practiced those days for God but perverted them to pleasure oriented man centered celebrations, that had little to do with God.
Amos 5:21-23
"21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols."
Once a generation of people have been raised on a tradition it is nearly impossible to convince them of the truth. It is only through their desire to seek Christ that their eyes will be open to all these useless and abominable practices that they can begin to see the truth of all of it.
We have homosexual priest and minsters in churches that claim to be Christian. One day our culture will accept that as for God, just as they have the holidays that claim to be about Him but in fact are tools of the devil.
Just because a person decides to tack God's name on something does not make it pleasing to God. To claim we do something for God only has meaning if it was He Who commanded it.
Isaiah 31:1-2 "1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD. 2 Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.…"
Those who wish to fit in with the world while at the same time want the protection of the Lord are fooling themselves. They think that all they have to do is claim something is from God and God will do their bidding and bless it.
Isaiah 9:13
But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.
The people of our day are no different from the people of the past, they all do what is right in their own eyes based on human tradition. They refuse to seek the Lord to see if He is pleased with what they are doing. They refuse to seek the Lord before going through with their own plans. They demand that God bless their plans, expecting blessing even when what they do defies His own word.
Ezekiel 29:16
Egypt will never again be an object of trust for the house of Israel, but will remind them of their iniquity in turning to the Egyptians. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.'"
Egypt is a euphemism for wickeness. Those who went down to Egypt for their help were turning to the pagans for safety rather than God. They were desiring to please the pagans instead of pleasing God.
Where do we as modern Christians go when we are entrenched in the culture? We go to psychologists, we go to rituals and myths to comfort us in our fears, as well as feed our desire for fantasy and pleasure. Most do not think of going to God first for answers.
My only challenge to those who wish to please God is to seek God in all your practices. Diligently seek Him no matter who is watching, no matter who accepts the decision you have made to consult with God on all matters in your life.
I can tell you from experience that most people will not be on board with you in your decision to seek God. They will even attempt to discourage you from doing what you know God has told you to do. The things you will hear from God will be very different sometimes opposite of what the culture expects of you.
When this happens we have to ask ourselves this question: "will I follow God to please Him or will I follow men to be accepted by them."
Galatians 1:10 "10 Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. "
Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
1 Thessalonians 2:4
"Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts."
One last thought, it is quite possible that our Christian witness has been tarnished by negating God to follow the culture.
Acts 4:13
"When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus."
Psalms 118:8-9
"(8) It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. (9) It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes."
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