Jesus Christ Show | You Are a Pagan - Hour 1 [10/27]

You are a Pagan

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Halloween a big day to some and an annoyance to others,
the pagan ritual to some, a time of candy and
frivolity to others, And so it pops up, you know,
every year round this this holiday known as Halloween. I

(00:31):
receive emails, calls, and tweets with everybody asking me about
the origins of the celebration. And then the secondary question
is always and is it okay for Christians to partake
in it? And I think, first of all, it's incredibly
healthy to ask questions. Scripture says to test all things,

(00:55):
you should be poking at things and wondering what your
participation is, if it's even something that's certifying to you
at all. However, what I want is that level of
discernment that surpasses just I don't know or I don't
think so, and just pushing things away for the sake
of pushing them away. The appearance of that is a

(01:21):
group of sometimes even inconsistent, unwavering, not even well articulated
groups of Christians that just spurt things out and say
this is why this is what we do, but not
why we do it? And that becomes confusing to non believers.

(01:46):
Like many things that surrounds your life in this world
and your faith. When it comes to Halloween, there's some controversy.
But is this controversy this particular day, is particular celebration?

(02:06):
Is it in fact necessary? Are the roots of Halloween
found in paganism? Yep, absolutely no doubt about it. Does
this automatically mean that Christian that a Christian can't partake
in any part of a Halloween celebration? Of course not,

(02:31):
and I know there will continue to be disagreements. But
what is based on fear of an ignorance versus the reality?
That's what's important, because the more you do something just
based on fear and ignorance, the less substantive your faith
looks like to others. And you may feel, well, I

(02:56):
don't care what it looks like to them, and if so,
you should be ashamed of yourself. It's important for those
around you that are non believers to it for you,
when they are around you, to give them the best
idea you can of what you believe in, why you
believe it, to give them that hope or maybe understanding

(03:19):
in a way that they'll want to ask questions or
investigate on their own. Most historians believe Halloween originated with
the ancient Celtic festival of Salin. It's also pronounced Saven
or sam Hayne, and it means the end of summer.

(03:41):
During this festival, people would like these huge communal bonfires,
and yeah, they wear costumes mostly comprised of animal heads
and furs, and they did this toward off roaman, spirits
and ghosts. That's kind of the basic element of what
Halloween was in one sense or another. It's kind of

(04:05):
the roots. In the eighth century finally rolled around, Pope
Gregory the third designated November first as something called All
Saints Day. This was this was a time to honor
saints and martyrs that had passed on. You can't look

(04:29):
at that as a bad thing, essentially honoring those in
the Christian family that had done good and were no
longer on this earth. Well, as often is the case,
this particular, this new holiday incorporated many of the traditions

(04:51):
of the Sun Festival. So a lot of the things
kind of that were already being you to celebrate and
sowen were now kind of attached to this All Saints Day.
You can kind of think of it this way. It's
much easier to paint an old building and put up

(05:15):
a new sign than it is to tear down the
whole building and start from scratch. Right, And this was
nothing new. It had been done many times before. For instance,
many pagan customs were combined with Christianity. When Constantine went
through the big conversion, his was a slow conversion, but
when he latched onto it, sometime around his forties, he

(05:41):
converted the official pagan religion of the Roman Empire to Christianity.
This was between three twenty and three thirty eighty eight.
So little things came in and found their way home
to Christianity that had a beginning in paganism. So back

(06:04):
to All Saints Day. The evening before All Saints' Day
was known as All Hollows Eve, and this, as you
could figure out, later became Halloween. But over the centuries,
this day, this Halloween has evolved and continues to evolve

(06:28):
and continues to change. And now it's moved into this
secular and incredibly commercial, I mean right behind Christmas commercial.
Go out to a market or something today and you'll
see just how commercial it is. And it continues to

(06:49):
get larger and larger each year, and this Halloween becomes massive,
so over the centuries, it continues to evolve. It becomes secular,
incredibly commercial, and really it's the celebration that is embraced
by communities. Many communities as more of a child centric
holiday because of its activities like trick or treating or

(07:13):
decorating your home to look spooky. Really focuses on children
and their desire to be creative or play, make believe
or dress up or these types of things. And I
know that this becomes controversial because of its origin, and

(07:33):
there's a battle within the church as to what to do. Now,
the first and foremost thing that should be thought of
is safety. Always if you're if you don't feel safe
in your neighborhood, or you don't feel safe at certain things,
there's all kinds of alternative things to do. Your community
community does other things that are more controlled. That's great,

(07:54):
even churches do. But just shying away from it because
of its origins doesn't necessarily point to balanced thinking in
the church. And it's not that your children should be
running around dressed as Mayhem and the Devil and all
these things. There are middle grounds that you could do

(08:17):
where you can partake in certain aspects of it, and
it can be enjoyed, not abused anyway, Because the truth
of the matter is, with healthy parental involvement, Halloween can
be fun and creative time for children, I assure you.

(08:39):
And if you're worried about their involvement, kids aren't parsing
the multifaceted theological underpinnings of the possibility of an antecedent
pagan genesis. I assure you. They just want to play
dress up and get free suites. That's it. So the

(09:09):
roots of Halloween, yes, are found in paganism, but that
doesn't necessarily mean because soo in was this, This Celtic
festival was celebrated at one point, and it morphed into
All Saints Day, and All Saints Day morphed in uh
to the day before being All Hallows Eve, and that

(09:30):
morphed into Halloween, and that over the centuries and centuries
and centuries, this once religious festival just became commercial and secular.
And at that point the activities can be fun or entertaining.

(09:53):
You as the parents, should control the things that your
kids are doing, or what they're they're how they're dressing
or what things they're partaking in. But that's every day,
in every way and everything, so the kids aren't thinking
of it. Theologically, there are not Satanists running around everywhere

(10:14):
because kids grew up participating in Halloween. And to understand
from a child's point of view that it's just dress up,
make believe. Being out at night, you know, holding the
hand of your parents and walking around the neighborhood at night,
and the uniqueness of the experience and not all the

(10:37):
previous pagan rituals is important to being a balanced parent
and to understand and a balanced Christian and understand how
you interact with this world. You are in this world
for reason, and that reason really is to glorify God.
And you find ways to glorify God when you break

(10:59):
the leaves, or do the dishes, or do your job,
or when you celebrate. The problem the God of Christianity
has with Paganism or any other belief system for that matter,
is not with the general practices of the belief necessarily,

(11:24):
but the fact that they worship another God altogether. This
is the problem. This is where God says, I have
a problem. Exodus twenty three twenty verse three. You shall
have no other gods before me. This is where God's
concern is. There isn't a commandment about you should not

(11:48):
dress up in fun and make believe, or you shall
not receive sweets from the hand of a neighbor or
anything like that. Oh, I'm sure that somebody would like
to twist scripture to find something like that, but that's
not the case. It's really about having a community and

(12:12):
experiencing that community. And I'll get to your calls in
just a bit as I talk about the pagan roots
of Halloween. Make no mistake, this is not an apologetic

(12:32):
for Halloween or pagan activities. It's a defense of reason
and discernment and as a Christian using those tools to
find a balanced approach to the things that surround you
in this life. You are in this world. You are

(12:53):
in it by choice of God. And there is a
lot a lot of Christians who run from everything because
of origins. And I'm going to show you why that
might not be as easy as you think. And every
year I get calls and tweets and emails about Halloween.

(13:17):
And yes, Halloween is rooted in paganism, but that doesn't
automatically mean that a Christian can't partake in it in
some way or some fashion. So this Celtic Festival of Sowen,
later through Pope Gregory the third, designated November first, it's

(13:39):
All Saints Day, so it's all around the same time.
This is to honor saints and martyrs, but a lot
of the traditions and ideas and certain of the practices
from the Sawen Festival made its way into that as well.
The evening before this became known as All Hallows Eve

(14:05):
that became Halloween. Now you've got this very commercial, secular,
non pagan, religiously anyways event, and it's important to just
realize that God's problem with Paganism or other belief systems
is not necessarily their practices, but that they do those

(14:29):
practices while worshiping another God altogether. Exodus twenty verse three,
you shall have no other gods before me. Thus saith
the Lord. That is God's words. That's the concern. God
wants you to celebrate and glorify Him in everything you do.

(14:50):
And as to understand this a little better, just keep
in mind two thousand years ago pagan sacrificed animals, but
so did our Jewish brothers and sisters. Under God's command.
The same act with different intent was now a pleasing
aroma to God, as it says in Genesis eight twenty

(15:12):
and twenty one. And I'll read that. Then Noah built
an altar to the Lord, and taking some of the
clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart,
never again will I curse the ground because of humans,

(15:33):
even though every inclination of the human heart is evil
from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living
creatures as I have done. So it's not just the
act itself, it is the intent. It is the purpose
of that act that matters to God. Sacrifice to idols

(15:54):
or a false God not good to the One, true,
Holy and Righteous God good a pleasing aroma. So discarding
something just because Pagans or any other faith did it

(16:17):
at one time or does it now, really isn't balanced,
and it isn't thoughtful. It's it's like that, you know,
vegetarianism is bad because Hitler adhered to a primarily vegetarian diet.

(16:38):
It just seems like a weird way to go about life,
rather than seeing things for what they are and using
them to glorify God. It's fallacious to think that because
something had origins here or origans over here, that it's
good or bad. Really, it's the application. You probably don't

(16:59):
even know how many things already in your life come
from pagan origins. Guess what. You can look down at
your left hand there, if you're wearing a wedding ring,
you're wearing something with origins in paganism and ancient magic

(17:23):
and the concept of the circle as it's seen as
this endless and timeless thing that you can wear, and
it suggests a kind of repetitive or unbroken time and space.
And you can see it in many pagan uses, such

(17:44):
as Stonehenge and others that predate Christianity, and even in
Christianity itself, there are symbols and practices that come from
or used by Pagans. The cross itself is a pagan

(18:05):
symbol and wasn't even used very very early on in
the Christian Church. But you don't think of things that way.
You don't think that there is an overlap where there's
a mingling at all. But there is, I assure you,

(18:26):
in your everyday life and even in your faith in
His eighteen seventy eight essay on the development of the
Christian Doctrine. John Henry Newman, who was originally a priest
in the Church of England and later a cardinal in
the Roman Catholic Church, wrote these words. The use of
temples and these dedicated to particular saints and ornamented on

(18:52):
occasion with branches of trees, incense, lamps, candles, holy days
and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields,
the ring, and marriage. All of are all of pagan
origin and sanctified by their adoption into the Church. So

(19:16):
even the cross that adorns me churches has pagan origins. Also,
the beloved fish symbol used by many to identify themselves
as Christians, whether it's on your clothing or on your car.
It was used by pagan's generations before Christianity. The New
Age movement, Hindus, Taois, Buddhists, and others use this symbol

(19:39):
of the fish to express their own beliefs different beliefs
as well. The symbol for Virgo, the sixth astrological sign
in the zodiac, if you look, has a pagan fish
in it because of its the direction of the fish
people don't always notice that. In the Dictionary of Symbols,
it states that virgo is based on the Hebrewic letter

(20:02):
mem and the Phoenician symbol meaning fish. So as you
can see, you'll have to run very far to try
and distance yourself from anything that has pagan roots or
is associated with religions other than Christianity. And it's not

(20:26):
that it's not a noble cause to run away that
says resist the death, the devil, and he shelfly, you
don't need to be running everywhere in fear. You have

(20:46):
Christ in you, and if I am for you, then
we are the majority. No ma'am can be against you.
So running away from these things and not understanding them

(21:07):
doesn't help anyone, and sometimes makes them sexier to younger
kids and more intriguing than it would if you allowed
them to be the simple, secular thing that they are
and put your own spin on it, however you might
want to. But how much more important is it that
the things and customs in your life are all dedicated

(21:29):
to God rather than looking for the devil under every stone.
Celebrations like Halloween can seem on the surface like a
contradiction to Christianity. I get that, but really it is
more about how it's celebrated than where it came from.
That matters. And you see this throughout the Church. There

(21:53):
were many things that even our Jewish brothers and sisters did,
even the early Church did, that Pagans did, but they
did it to the right God. When churches shy away
from Halloween and opt for, you know, instead, a celebration
of a harvest festival or something like that, it gives

(22:15):
children more of a reason to be curious about why
everyone else is celebrating something they are not, and maybe
even seek out more about paganism than they would otherwise,
and not to mention celebrating the harvest in any way,
shape or form has pagan origins as well, so you're

(22:37):
sort of changing it. But not everything. Everything in life
can be used for good or evil. A knife can
either kill in the hands of a mugger or heal
in the hands of a surgeon, and you must remember

(22:59):
that how you use, use it or partake in something,
and your intent is important. And I know that you
know it's easier just to cut things out, and if
that's where you feel led to, then God bless you.
The important thing is to serve God and to serve

(23:21):
your family in a way that is healthy and glorifying
to God. And if you feel something in your life
is not healthy or good or glorifying to God, then
of course cut it out. But sometimes in removing these
things haphazardly without understanding where they truly come from, or

(23:44):
or the other things around you in your life that
comes similarly, you'll miss the bigger picture. And in doing so,
it's like those surgeries there where a doctor will tell
you that it's not a necessary surgery. I wouldn't do
this because you can go in and mess something else. More,

(24:05):
why not put restrictions on it in a healthy way,
or be interactive with your children in a way that
Halloween can be something dealing with fun and creativity and
those types of things and not death and dismemberment and
glorify God. Because remember one Corinthians ten thirty one above

(24:28):
all of this, So whatever you eat or drink, or
whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Luke,
welcome to the Jesus Christ. Show.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (24:45):
I am well, Luke. What's your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Oh? I understand your point of view about Halloween and
what do you have to say. But I think if
we're going to be serious about this, I don't think
at any level Christians which.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Is celebrated, okay, why so?

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, just knowing the the roots of it and the
practices that went together with those pagan rituals, it was
really really anti Christian.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Do you know, do you refrain from celebrating anything? Do
you celebrate any festivals at all? Do you celebrate your
birthday or anything like that?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Yeah, birthdays okay, A lot of those have pagan roots
as well. The celebration of life and fertility all goes back.
Are you married, yes? Do you wear a redding wedding ring?

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:50):
Are you going to get rid of that?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
No?

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Okay? But that that has its background in both Paganism
pre dating Christianity and all so witchcraft. So are you
going to get rid of those symbols because of where
they came? Or are you going to uh bring them
into your faith and sanctify them, set them apart from

(26:13):
where they started, just like you were sanctified by the
blood on the christ Amen.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
I mean, the the son who came back to his father,
the first thing father did put a ring on.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
His Yes, but these but but predating that very story. Yes,
and that's that's my point. That you have feasts that
our Jewish and brother brothers and sisters partook in around
the same times as they were pagan feasts, and the
Jews did not want to appear to be pagan. The
levitical laws, as a matter of fact, the majority of

(26:53):
them are to uh uh separate themselves from the even
the appearance of being pagan. Yet they did things that
Pagans did as well, So it wasn't about the thing
that they did, it was about how they applied them.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Right, And I understand, I understand. But the difference between
what I'm talking about and the ring or that situation
is that Jesus sanctified the latter. He hasn't sanctified Halloween.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Oh no, there are things that are being sanctified every
day by the use of Christianity. Do you celebrate Christmas? Okay, yeah,
but that's not sanctified by God in any stretch, any way,
shape or form. In scripture, there's never a celebration about that,
nor is there a celebration of Easter. Those were those
were Luke Luke. No, that's not the day of his birth.

(27:48):
That's about two years later. The purpose of all of
this is that those things that you're talking about have
become comfortable to you because they've been passed down to you,
not because of their origins. There is none. Matter of fact,
The early Church didn't celebrate it in that sense, and
those are and those land on pagan holidays and were

(28:08):
usurped it both Easter and Christmas, and a lot that
ties into those things, and the things that you celebrate
really tie into pagan beliefs. The tree in the house,
the eggs and the bunny, all of those things. But
it's what you do with them that matters, not from
where they came from. You came from a dark place,

(28:31):
and God sanctified you, and through the blood on the cross,
he can sanctify the things you do as long as
they're done to the glory of God.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
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