Over the last couple years I have been learning more and more about the origins of the holidays I was raised celebrating and this year I've finally had enough. The time has come that I have decided that I will no longer be celebrating Christmas, Easter, or Halloween! (I also have some reservations about New Years but that is not quite the same ball of cans of waxy worms and would take too much time to explore here.) It has taken me a few years to finally renounce the pagan holidays entirely for a couple of reasons that I will discuss below.
You may be thinking at this point: " 'pagan holidays'?? What are you talking about Thomas? I thought Christmas and Easter were about Jesus?" Well...it's complicated.
With the festival of Eostre/Ishtar/Eosuromonath soon approaching I thought it would be helpful to take a moment this week to give an overview of why I am renouncing it along with Christmas and Halloween, sort of like an FAQ that I can point to when people have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm sure you've probably heard Wes Huff explain that Easter is not actually a pagan holiday or you may have some reason you think I'm totally off base with this and I don't have the time and energy to unpack every aspect of the evidence and why I think I'm right and I'm not really here to argue with you about it. The point of this blog post is to explain the biblical principles behind my decision, the reasons I feel strongly about it and to outline some of the most obvious questions and objections I think I am likely to hear from friends, family and fellow Christians.
The first and probably most important question is: why is this important? Why take the time to write this and why do I care so much about who celebrates a holiday or not?
When I was reading a book about the music business a couple years ago the author mentioned that you must identify the "culture" of your music so that you can understand the demographics you are likely to appeal to which would inform the choices you making in designing savvy marketing strategies. I had to pause on that part because I realized I didn't have a comprehensive understanding of "culture," so I had to go look it up. Here is what I found and wrote down in a document for future reference: "culture is: knowledge, beliefs, behavior, characteristic features of every day existence, shared attitudes, values, goals, practices."
If you don't think culture is important, consider the following questions:
-Is knowledge not important? Is it not important that we all know the same things? That we can agree on the facts?
-Are your beliefs not important? Do they not determine or at least influence your behavior?
-Is behavior not important? Should we abandon our laws and norms?
-Are the features of your every day existence not important?
-Is attitude not important?
-Are values not important?
-Are goals not important? Does it not matter if we have any shared goals?
-Are your practices, your routines, your rituals unimportant? Does it not matter what sort of habits we fall into?
What does that have to do with holidays? Well, what is a holiday?
Here are some definitions from dictionary.com:
1. a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
2. any day of exemption from work
3. a time or period of exemption from any requirement, duty, assessment, etc.
4. a religious feast day; holy day,
I think if you take a moment to reflect on it you will realize the point I am driving at. Holidays are incredibly important, because holidays are intimately tied to the culture and culture is very important because it is a collection of every aspect of our lives. We structure our entire lives around holidays!
Walk into a department store on October 30th and see if you can get away with not seeing a pumpkin. Then walk into the same store on November 1rst and see if you can get away with not seeing a turkey. Walk into the same store on December 1rst and see if you can get away with not seeing a depiction of santa claus or a fir tree. And why do the stores change their merchandise and decorations? Because it's profitable of course! Anyone who ever worked in a marketing department understands how important the holiday cycle is.
How much candy is sold in October and how much is sold in June?
How many schools are operating on December 25th?
How many chocolate rabbits are you likely to consume in September?
You get the idea, but here's an additional point:
Why do these holidays exist? What is the purpose? Whose idea was it? What are we celebrating exactly?
These are the questions that have interested me over the last few years and the answers I found have been challenging to my conscience. Here is a brief summary of the highlights.
Halloween: began as a druidic holiday, basically the highest holy day in satanism, witchcraft and the occult. Everything about it is a celebration of evil, wickedness and darkness and veneration of satan. It was co-opted by the Roman mystery babylon religion (Catholic church) and given an innocent sounding origin story.
Easter: happens to coincide with Jewish passover which is one of God's feasts that was revised by Jesus but in paganism is seen as a festival of rebirth and celebration of the fertility goddess.
Christmas: originally Saturnalia, a celebration of Saturn, one of the iterations of Nimrod who became symbolically representative of satan. This was (and still is) a festival of debauchery and lawlessness.
Most of these holidays are either based on or tied to cycles of the sun which was and is in the pagan religious system both a literal and symbolic object to be worshipped. At Christmas time the celebration is based on the idea that the sun is coming back because the sun is going to take longer to move across the sky as the Earth tilts on its axis and the season changes. Solstices and Equinoxes are important times in wiccan and pagan calendars because their religious system centers largely around worship of nature, the natural world including the sun and of course mankind as beginning from himself without God.
Knowing what I now know about these holidays (and some others) I find celebrating and keeping them to be in direct contradiction to my Christian faith.
If you are a Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian and if you have any knowledge about "the church's" explanations of these things you are probably frustrated and imagining that I have just not studied enough! If only I had done a little more searching, if only I would read a little more history, if only I could have a conversation with Michael Knowles on the subject, I would see the error of my ways and get schooled and turned away from my protestant brainwashing and propaganda!
I am aware that there is a healthy debate about historical fact and research in this area and many conflicting narratives about these holidays, how they developed and where they come from. As I said above, my goal in this article is not to convince you that I am correct in my research, facts or conclusions. You are welcome to disagree with me if you are willing to take the time to do your homework and I will have great respect for your point of view! My goal here is simply to point out the issue and explain some of my thought process given the conclusions I have reached based on my research and outline why I am convicted in this matter strongly enough to let those conclusions influence my behavior.
That is not to say that I have succumbed to the cultural value of personal peace, the "live and let live" philosophy. This is a call to action, not just an explanation. I do believe this is a secondary issue for Christians, something akin to eating meat sacrificed to idols. I do not condemn or judge any Christian who disagrees with me and wants to continue celebrating Christmas and Easter in memory of Jesus (Halloween is difficult to see how you would justify celebrating as a Christian but the principle is the same, it's not my place to judge another's heart).
However, I believe it matters what you choose to do if you have knowledge and I hope that this does challenge you to examine your own beliefs and maybe re-assess your own choices in regards to the holidays you embrace.
With that gauntlet thrown, let me answer a few of the questions I know you're probably asking.
Question 1: Even if you're correct that these holidays have pagan origins and are really just the satanic religious system with a Christian label slapped on them, why can't you just celebrate them in your own way? Make Christmas about Jesus' birth and Easter about Jesus' resurrection. Shouldn't we try to redeem these things for the Lord? Just giving them up feels like abandoning the world instead of trying to reach them.
Answer:
Consider the following passages:
James 4:17
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
1 Corinthians 10:18-22
Consider the people of Israel:[d] are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Revelation 2:14-16
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Revelation 2:20-24
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
One of the things I can't stand is the new Christian practice of "trunk or treat." This is the new protestant alternative to Halloween which keeps all the forms of the holiday while supposedly denying the substance under the sanction of the religious institution. Basically we decided that it's too difficult to deny our children the fun of dressing up as monsters and ghosts and going door to door to get candy.
What lesson are we teaching our children by this practice? When the pagan culture offers you a tasty treat and tries to seduce you into an ungodly practice you can just "Christianize" it and this is a good thing. We can have our cake and eat it too. There is no expectation in Christian faith to deny ourselves and not partake of every thing that is "of this world." What a terrible lesson.
We wonder why we are losing the younger generation and why we are losing our children to the world. Well here is your answer: we sacrificed them willingly! There are Christians across the world who are paying for their disobedience to the culture with their very lives but when it comes to the high holy day of pagan witchcraft how can you ask us to deny our culture? I love Jesus and all but you want me to give up the great festival celebrating evil? That's too much to ask. Hey I know: let's not only refuse to give it up but we'll get the institution to sponsor it so we can advertise to the entire world that we have an entire congregation of limp noodles that don't stand for anything!
But I digress. Here's my main argument:
I am certainly not opposed to taking what satan has used for evil and using it for good. Satan uses certain rock music for evil but I feel strongly that rock music can be used for good. Satan uses some television shows for evil but television shows can also be used to promote good ideas and stories. Satan can use some clothing to promote lust and licentious behavior but clothing can be designed and used for the purpose of preventing lust and licentious behavior if it is designed modestly.
Each of these things are not inherently good or evil. Music, television and clothes are morally neutral items and can be used for good or evil. You could say the same of a great number of things, knives, nuclear technology, cars, planes, buildings, you get the idea. I absolutely support the idea that Christians should take all these things and use them for good in a Christ-honoring way, but that's assuming it is in fact a morally neutral thing.
The nature of a holiday is metaphysical. It is an idea. The intent in its inception matters a great deal in this case. There was a reason and a purpose imbued at it's inception that is unredeemable. The idea of A HOLIDAY is not inherently good or bad and I think inventing a new holiday is just fine and part of our freedom in Christ. The idea that we can take a specific holiday and redeem it for Christ is somewhat asinine. That's like taking a specific work of art and trying to redeem it rather than just using the medium itself.
Certainly books can be used for good. Would you argue that we should redeem 50 shades of Grey for Christ?
Certainly music can be used for good. Would you argue that Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" should be redeemed for Christ or used in worship of Him?
Certainly movies can be used for good. Would you argue that we should redeem pornographic movies and embrace their use in our activities at "church?" Should we all have a movie night to watch a pornographic film?
You might say "but what about a parody of 'blurred lines' for example? What if we change all the words? Isn't that a bit like trunk or treat?' "
Well, yes it is and I would have a similar objection. It's not that it would be inherently wrong to make or listen to a parody that is sanitized-and again, it's not my place to judge the heart, that's God's job-the point is that the only reason you WANT a parody is because you are so wrapped up in the world that you are still in love with it instead of Christ. It would be tacky to make or enjoy such a parody and it's just an imitation of the thing you are still craving.
I don't think it's quite the same thing as a holiday though, because it is still a physical thing. It is a record, some sound waves, some digital bits. It wasn't the instruments or the sound waves or the CD that is evil, it is the ideas and intent that was put into it. A holiday is a metaphysical thing, an idea. How can you redeem an evil idea? Can you redeem lust? Can you redeem covetousness? Hatred? It's like arguing that we should redeem a specific song rather than the art form itself.
My point is that I think we should just start writing our own songs instead of trying to justify why we are still blasting slayer out of our car stereo. At some point to follow Christ means renouncing the world. If we don't stand for something we'll fall for anything.
Question 2: So you're judging me for following Christ and continuing to celebrate Christmas and Easter? What about Romans 14:1-12 and Colossians 2:16-17?
You may be thinking at this point: " 'pagan holidays'?? What are you talking about Thomas? I thought Christmas and Easter were about Jesus?" Well...it's complicated.
With the festival of Eostre/Ishtar/Eosuromonath soon approaching I thought it would be helpful to take a moment this week to give an overview of why I am renouncing it along with Christmas and Halloween, sort of like an FAQ that I can point to when people have no idea what I'm talking about.
I'm sure you've probably heard Wes Huff explain that Easter is not actually a pagan holiday or you may have some reason you think I'm totally off base with this and I don't have the time and energy to unpack every aspect of the evidence and why I think I'm right and I'm not really here to argue with you about it. The point of this blog post is to explain the biblical principles behind my decision, the reasons I feel strongly about it and to outline some of the most obvious questions and objections I think I am likely to hear from friends, family and fellow Christians.
The first and probably most important question is: why is this important? Why take the time to write this and why do I care so much about who celebrates a holiday or not?
When I was reading a book about the music business a couple years ago the author mentioned that you must identify the "culture" of your music so that you can understand the demographics you are likely to appeal to which would inform the choices you making in designing savvy marketing strategies. I had to pause on that part because I realized I didn't have a comprehensive understanding of "culture," so I had to go look it up. Here is what I found and wrote down in a document for future reference: "culture is: knowledge, beliefs, behavior, characteristic features of every day existence, shared attitudes, values, goals, practices."
If you don't think culture is important, consider the following questions:
-Is knowledge not important? Is it not important that we all know the same things? That we can agree on the facts?
-Are your beliefs not important? Do they not determine or at least influence your behavior?
-Is behavior not important? Should we abandon our laws and norms?
-Are the features of your every day existence not important?
-Is attitude not important?
-Are values not important?
-Are goals not important? Does it not matter if we have any shared goals?
-Are your practices, your routines, your rituals unimportant? Does it not matter what sort of habits we fall into?
What does that have to do with holidays? Well, what is a holiday?
Here are some definitions from dictionary.com:
1. a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.
2. any day of exemption from work
3. a time or period of exemption from any requirement, duty, assessment, etc.
4. a religious feast day; holy day,
I think if you take a moment to reflect on it you will realize the point I am driving at. Holidays are incredibly important, because holidays are intimately tied to the culture and culture is very important because it is a collection of every aspect of our lives. We structure our entire lives around holidays!
Walk into a department store on October 30th and see if you can get away with not seeing a pumpkin. Then walk into the same store on November 1rst and see if you can get away with not seeing a turkey. Walk into the same store on December 1rst and see if you can get away with not seeing a depiction of santa claus or a fir tree. And why do the stores change their merchandise and decorations? Because it's profitable of course! Anyone who ever worked in a marketing department understands how important the holiday cycle is.
How much candy is sold in October and how much is sold in June?
How many schools are operating on December 25th?
How many chocolate rabbits are you likely to consume in September?
You get the idea, but here's an additional point:
Why do these holidays exist? What is the purpose? Whose idea was it? What are we celebrating exactly?
These are the questions that have interested me over the last few years and the answers I found have been challenging to my conscience. Here is a brief summary of the highlights.
Halloween: began as a druidic holiday, basically the highest holy day in satanism, witchcraft and the occult. Everything about it is a celebration of evil, wickedness and darkness and veneration of satan. It was co-opted by the Roman mystery babylon religion (Catholic church) and given an innocent sounding origin story.
Easter: happens to coincide with Jewish passover which is one of God's feasts that was revised by Jesus but in paganism is seen as a festival of rebirth and celebration of the fertility goddess.
Christmas: originally Saturnalia, a celebration of Saturn, one of the iterations of Nimrod who became symbolically representative of satan. This was (and still is) a festival of debauchery and lawlessness.
Most of these holidays are either based on or tied to cycles of the sun which was and is in the pagan religious system both a literal and symbolic object to be worshipped. At Christmas time the celebration is based on the idea that the sun is coming back because the sun is going to take longer to move across the sky as the Earth tilts on its axis and the season changes. Solstices and Equinoxes are important times in wiccan and pagan calendars because their religious system centers largely around worship of nature, the natural world including the sun and of course mankind as beginning from himself without God.
Knowing what I now know about these holidays (and some others) I find celebrating and keeping them to be in direct contradiction to my Christian faith.
If you are a Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christian and if you have any knowledge about "the church's" explanations of these things you are probably frustrated and imagining that I have just not studied enough! If only I had done a little more searching, if only I would read a little more history, if only I could have a conversation with Michael Knowles on the subject, I would see the error of my ways and get schooled and turned away from my protestant brainwashing and propaganda!
I am aware that there is a healthy debate about historical fact and research in this area and many conflicting narratives about these holidays, how they developed and where they come from. As I said above, my goal in this article is not to convince you that I am correct in my research, facts or conclusions. You are welcome to disagree with me if you are willing to take the time to do your homework and I will have great respect for your point of view! My goal here is simply to point out the issue and explain some of my thought process given the conclusions I have reached based on my research and outline why I am convicted in this matter strongly enough to let those conclusions influence my behavior.
That is not to say that I have succumbed to the cultural value of personal peace, the "live and let live" philosophy. This is a call to action, not just an explanation. I do believe this is a secondary issue for Christians, something akin to eating meat sacrificed to idols. I do not condemn or judge any Christian who disagrees with me and wants to continue celebrating Christmas and Easter in memory of Jesus (Halloween is difficult to see how you would justify celebrating as a Christian but the principle is the same, it's not my place to judge another's heart).
However, I believe it matters what you choose to do if you have knowledge and I hope that this does challenge you to examine your own beliefs and maybe re-assess your own choices in regards to the holidays you embrace.
With that gauntlet thrown, let me answer a few of the questions I know you're probably asking.
Question 1: Even if you're correct that these holidays have pagan origins and are really just the satanic religious system with a Christian label slapped on them, why can't you just celebrate them in your own way? Make Christmas about Jesus' birth and Easter about Jesus' resurrection. Shouldn't we try to redeem these things for the Lord? Just giving them up feels like abandoning the world instead of trying to reach them.
Answer:
Consider the following passages:
James 4:17
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
1 Corinthians 10:18-22
Consider the people of Israel:[d] are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Revelation 2:14-16
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Revelation 2:20-24
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22 Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23 and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24 But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
One of the things I can't stand is the new Christian practice of "trunk or treat." This is the new protestant alternative to Halloween which keeps all the forms of the holiday while supposedly denying the substance under the sanction of the religious institution. Basically we decided that it's too difficult to deny our children the fun of dressing up as monsters and ghosts and going door to door to get candy.
What lesson are we teaching our children by this practice? When the pagan culture offers you a tasty treat and tries to seduce you into an ungodly practice you can just "Christianize" it and this is a good thing. We can have our cake and eat it too. There is no expectation in Christian faith to deny ourselves and not partake of every thing that is "of this world." What a terrible lesson.
We wonder why we are losing the younger generation and why we are losing our children to the world. Well here is your answer: we sacrificed them willingly! There are Christians across the world who are paying for their disobedience to the culture with their very lives but when it comes to the high holy day of pagan witchcraft how can you ask us to deny our culture? I love Jesus and all but you want me to give up the great festival celebrating evil? That's too much to ask. Hey I know: let's not only refuse to give it up but we'll get the institution to sponsor it so we can advertise to the entire world that we have an entire congregation of limp noodles that don't stand for anything!
But I digress. Here's my main argument:
I am certainly not opposed to taking what satan has used for evil and using it for good. Satan uses certain rock music for evil but I feel strongly that rock music can be used for good. Satan uses some television shows for evil but television shows can also be used to promote good ideas and stories. Satan can use some clothing to promote lust and licentious behavior but clothing can be designed and used for the purpose of preventing lust and licentious behavior if it is designed modestly.
Each of these things are not inherently good or evil. Music, television and clothes are morally neutral items and can be used for good or evil. You could say the same of a great number of things, knives, nuclear technology, cars, planes, buildings, you get the idea. I absolutely support the idea that Christians should take all these things and use them for good in a Christ-honoring way, but that's assuming it is in fact a morally neutral thing.
The nature of a holiday is metaphysical. It is an idea. The intent in its inception matters a great deal in this case. There was a reason and a purpose imbued at it's inception that is unredeemable. The idea of A HOLIDAY is not inherently good or bad and I think inventing a new holiday is just fine and part of our freedom in Christ. The idea that we can take a specific holiday and redeem it for Christ is somewhat asinine. That's like taking a specific work of art and trying to redeem it rather than just using the medium itself.
Certainly books can be used for good. Would you argue that we should redeem 50 shades of Grey for Christ?
Certainly music can be used for good. Would you argue that Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" should be redeemed for Christ or used in worship of Him?
Certainly movies can be used for good. Would you argue that we should redeem pornographic movies and embrace their use in our activities at "church?" Should we all have a movie night to watch a pornographic film?
You might say "but what about a parody of 'blurred lines' for example? What if we change all the words? Isn't that a bit like trunk or treat?' "
Well, yes it is and I would have a similar objection. It's not that it would be inherently wrong to make or listen to a parody that is sanitized-and again, it's not my place to judge the heart, that's God's job-the point is that the only reason you WANT a parody is because you are so wrapped up in the world that you are still in love with it instead of Christ. It would be tacky to make or enjoy such a parody and it's just an imitation of the thing you are still craving.
I don't think it's quite the same thing as a holiday though, because it is still a physical thing. It is a record, some sound waves, some digital bits. It wasn't the instruments or the sound waves or the CD that is evil, it is the ideas and intent that was put into it. A holiday is a metaphysical thing, an idea. How can you redeem an evil idea? Can you redeem lust? Can you redeem covetousness? Hatred? It's like arguing that we should redeem a specific song rather than the art form itself.
My point is that I think we should just start writing our own songs instead of trying to justify why we are still blasting slayer out of our car stereo. At some point to follow Christ means renouncing the world. If we don't stand for something we'll fall for anything.
Question 2: So you're judging me for following Christ and continuing to celebrate Christmas and Easter? What about Romans 14:1-12 and Colossians 2:16-17?
Romans 14:1-12
Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Answer:
Yep. Like I said, I'm not judging you if you want to keep celebrating Christmas and Easter in honor of Jesus. May God see your heart and bless you for it. I do think it's unwise to continue celebrating these holidays as Christians and I encourage you to do some research if you've never thought about where these things come from. Regardless of where you land I do hope you are fully convinced and you do not sit in apathy and decide you just don't care.
Revelation 3:15-17
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Question 3: So you're just going to be a grinch? Sounds like you're just being lazy or maybe you just want to make life sad and dull. What about your children? Are you going to deny them the joy of the holidays?
Answer:
By no means! As I am convicted that we should stop celebrating pagan holidays I am by the same measure convicted we ought to start celebrating God's holidays. God already gave us feasts to celebrate, satan is doing what he always does: creating counterfeit versions of everything God made and deceiving us into thinking they came from God, because his fundamental motivation and desire is to take God's place.
Nowhere in scripture does it say that we are to celebrate Christmas, Easter or Halloween. There is no commandment to create a holiday commemorating Jesus' birth. There are however explicit commands to keep and celebrate 7 feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Atonement, Booths, Trumpets and Weeks. These are typically thought of as exclusively Jewish holidays but that's because orthodox Jews are pretty much the only people still observing them.
Quite frankly I think it's rather embarrassing that we as Christians don't even remember the holidays that God Himself gave us and told us to celebrate explicitly in scripture but we sure do love our pagan ones. And we wonder why Israel kept turning away from God in the old testament.
I definitely don't think we should just stop celebrating pagan holidays, we should also start celebrating the Christian ones!
Question 4: You said "Christian holidays" but you also freely admit that pretty much the only people observing the feasts are orthodox Jews. So you're becoming a Jewish roots person? Are you going to start observing a Saturday sabbath and making pilgrimage to Jerusalem to kiss the wailing wall and wearing a little hat or something?
Answer:
Lol, no. As a matter of fact I have fallen away from Zionism and I believe that Judaism is just another iteration of the institutional religious system that satan is imposing on us but we're in danger of diving down a rabbit hole that is deeper than the scope of this post. Suffice it to say that I believe that "Israel" in a biblical context refers to all of God's people who are saved by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ. You and I as followers of Christ are part of "Israel." It has also been co-opted as the name of a modern nation state by satan because he is the author of confusion.
I believe we have ceded ground in the culture war as Christians by looking at the scriptural feasts as though they are Jewish holidays and therefore non-Christian. It is time to re-claim these things in the name of Christ. Jesus Christ even gave us instructions about how and why to celebrate one of these feasts:
Matthew 26:26-28
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the[c] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
In that spirit I personally think it is entirely appropriate and proper for us to examine the orthodox Jewish traditions of the feasts that have been inherited from or informed by the Babylonian exile and feel free to leave out or change anything about them that is in contradiction to scripture and celebrate them in the context of the revelations garnered from the new testament.
Put another way: they are not Jewish feasts. They are God's feasts, given to Israel, the people of God. We should be careful not to jump from one cauldron of deception straight into another. I do not intend to simply accept whatever "the Jews" do as my new holiday traditions. I will be celebrating the feasts in the context of relationship with our savior Jesus Christ who has rescued us from sin and death. I expect as I research HOW exactly to celebrate these holidays that we have largely forgotten it may require some vigilance to recognize the Babylonian Jewish influence and expunge it from my own observance since orthodox Judaism will be the source of most of the resources I will have available to study.
Here is why I felt it necessary to write all this: I do not expect this to be an easy change.
It's easy to think it shouldn't be that hard because well, who cares in our modern multicultural western society what holiday you celebrate? I have my holiday, you have yours, we can just agree to disagree, coexist, live and let live. It should be no big deal right?
Well giving up a holiday isn't just one thing, it's like a hundred things. One of the reasons we have Christianized so much paganism in the past is because it was just easier and more comfortable to join em than to beat em. Think of everyone in your life who you celebrate holidays with, think of every little tradition you have developed, think of all the scheduling problems it would cause, think of all the messaging you'll see everywhere and the pressure to conform.
If you don't believe it, I invite you to try it and see what happens. See how easy it is. The truth is I have been trying to change my holiday habits for the last two years. I put it on my calendar, I tried to get some extended family to join me, I did some research to figure out exactly what celebrating the feasts would entail. It has not been easy to figure this all out but I think it is worth it.
You may be a pagan yourself reading this and if you made it this far you are probably thinking: "geeze bro, why don't you just do your thing and be happy? I don't care."
Yep, I know, thanks. Primarily I didn't write this for you, I mostly wrote it for my family and I expect to receive the most resistance from fellow Christians. If you are a brother or sister and you found any of this convicting at all I encourage you once again to research and examine your faith and be fully convinced. My conviction is that these holidays are pagan, my desire is to please and honor God and I can no longer celebrate them in good conscience.
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Answer:
Yep. Like I said, I'm not judging you if you want to keep celebrating Christmas and Easter in honor of Jesus. May God see your heart and bless you for it. I do think it's unwise to continue celebrating these holidays as Christians and I encourage you to do some research if you've never thought about where these things come from. Regardless of where you land I do hope you are fully convinced and you do not sit in apathy and decide you just don't care.
Revelation 3:15-17
15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
Question 3: So you're just going to be a grinch? Sounds like you're just being lazy or maybe you just want to make life sad and dull. What about your children? Are you going to deny them the joy of the holidays?
Answer:
By no means! As I am convicted that we should stop celebrating pagan holidays I am by the same measure convicted we ought to start celebrating God's holidays. God already gave us feasts to celebrate, satan is doing what he always does: creating counterfeit versions of everything God made and deceiving us into thinking they came from God, because his fundamental motivation and desire is to take God's place.
Nowhere in scripture does it say that we are to celebrate Christmas, Easter or Halloween. There is no commandment to create a holiday commemorating Jesus' birth. There are however explicit commands to keep and celebrate 7 feasts: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Atonement, Booths, Trumpets and Weeks. These are typically thought of as exclusively Jewish holidays but that's because orthodox Jews are pretty much the only people still observing them.
Quite frankly I think it's rather embarrassing that we as Christians don't even remember the holidays that God Himself gave us and told us to celebrate explicitly in scripture but we sure do love our pagan ones. And we wonder why Israel kept turning away from God in the old testament.
I definitely don't think we should just stop celebrating pagan holidays, we should also start celebrating the Christian ones!
Answer:
Lol, no. As a matter of fact I have fallen away from Zionism and I believe that Judaism is just another iteration of the institutional religious system that satan is imposing on us but we're in danger of diving down a rabbit hole that is deeper than the scope of this post. Suffice it to say that I believe that "Israel" in a biblical context refers to all of God's people who are saved by grace through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ. You and I as followers of Christ are part of "Israel." It has also been co-opted as the name of a modern nation state by satan because he is the author of confusion.
I believe we have ceded ground in the culture war as Christians by looking at the scriptural feasts as though they are Jewish holidays and therefore non-Christian. It is time to re-claim these things in the name of Christ. Jesus Christ even gave us instructions about how and why to celebrate one of these feasts:
Matthew 26:26-28
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the[c] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
In that spirit I personally think it is entirely appropriate and proper for us to examine the orthodox Jewish traditions of the feasts that have been inherited from or informed by the Babylonian exile and feel free to leave out or change anything about them that is in contradiction to scripture and celebrate them in the context of the revelations garnered from the new testament.
Put another way: they are not Jewish feasts. They are God's feasts, given to Israel, the people of God. We should be careful not to jump from one cauldron of deception straight into another. I do not intend to simply accept whatever "the Jews" do as my new holiday traditions. I will be celebrating the feasts in the context of relationship with our savior Jesus Christ who has rescued us from sin and death. I expect as I research HOW exactly to celebrate these holidays that we have largely forgotten it may require some vigilance to recognize the Babylonian Jewish influence and expunge it from my own observance since orthodox Judaism will be the source of most of the resources I will have available to study.
Here is why I felt it necessary to write all this: I do not expect this to be an easy change.
It's easy to think it shouldn't be that hard because well, who cares in our modern multicultural western society what holiday you celebrate? I have my holiday, you have yours, we can just agree to disagree, coexist, live and let live. It should be no big deal right?
Well giving up a holiday isn't just one thing, it's like a hundred things. One of the reasons we have Christianized so much paganism in the past is because it was just easier and more comfortable to join em than to beat em. Think of everyone in your life who you celebrate holidays with, think of every little tradition you have developed, think of all the scheduling problems it would cause, think of all the messaging you'll see everywhere and the pressure to conform.
If you don't believe it, I invite you to try it and see what happens. See how easy it is. The truth is I have been trying to change my holiday habits for the last two years. I put it on my calendar, I tried to get some extended family to join me, I did some research to figure out exactly what celebrating the feasts would entail. It has not been easy to figure this all out but I think it is worth it.
You may be a pagan yourself reading this and if you made it this far you are probably thinking: "geeze bro, why don't you just do your thing and be happy? I don't care."
Yep, I know, thanks. Primarily I didn't write this for you, I mostly wrote it for my family and I expect to receive the most resistance from fellow Christians. If you are a brother or sister and you found any of this convicting at all I encourage you once again to research and examine your faith and be fully convinced. My conviction is that these holidays are pagan, my desire is to please and honor God and I can no longer celebrate them in good conscience.
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