You Are A Pagan | Hour 1

You Are A Pagan

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. Halloween
a big day to some and an annoyance to others,
the pagan ritual to some, a time of candy and
frivolity to others. So it pops up, you know, every

(00:25):
year round this this holiday known as Halloween. I 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

(00:46):
I think, first of all, it's incredibly healthy to ask questions.
Scripture says to test all things, you should be poking
at things and wondering what your participation is, if it's
even something that's edifying to you at all. However, what
I want is that level of discernment that surpasses just

(01:10):
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 group of sometimes even inconsistent, unwavering,

(01:31):
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. Like many things that surrounds
your life in this world and your faith. When it

(01:51):
comes to Halloween, there's some controversy. But is this controversy
this particular days, particular celebration, Is it in fact necessary?
Are the roots of Halloween found in paganism? Yep, absolutely

(02:18):
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, 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

(02:42):
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 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

(03:06):
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 in a way that they'll
want to ask questions or investigate on their own. Most

(03:27):
historians believe Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Salin.
It's also pronounced Savin or sam Hayne, and it means
the end of summer. During this festival, people would like
these huge communal bonfires, and yeah, they wear costumes mostly

(03:49):
comprised of animal heads and furs, and they did this
to ward off roaming spirits and ghosts. That's kind of
the basic element of what Halloween was in one sense
or another. It's kind of the roots. In the eighth

(04:10):
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 at that as a bad thing.

(04:30):
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 of the Sun Festival. So a

(04:55):
lot of the things kind of that were already being
used to sell break 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 a new sign than

(05:16):
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 converted the official pagan religion

(05:43):
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 to All Saints Day.

(06:05):
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 and continues to change.

(06:29):
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 get larger and larger

(06:50):
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

(07:10):
its activities like trick or treating or 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 there's a battle

(07:34):
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, even

(07:54):
churches do. But just shying away from it because of
its origin 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.

(08:14):
There are middle grounds that you could do 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. And if

(08:39):
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. Did you know you

(09:07):
were a pagan? And the reason why I wanted you
to think this way it always around This time starts
stirring up questions about, you know, the origins of Halloween
and should Christians participate? Are there things that Christians should
not participate in in life? Yeah? Sure there are. Now

(09:28):
Christian liberty is far and wide, and the individual Christian
has to use. You just have to use your discernment
to know what's going to be beneficial, what's good, what's
glorifying to God? All of those things should be thought about.
But to throw something out or to say that it
has no value, when if you dressed it slightly different,

(09:52):
it would be fine, that really you're dealing with the
origin of something that doesn't even exist anymore. So the
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

(10:12):
All Saints' Day, and all Saints Day morphed in h
to the day before being all Hollows Eve, and that
morphed into Halloween, and that over the centuries and centuries
and centuries, this once religious festival just became commercial and secular,

(10:38):
and at that point the activities can be fun or entertaining.
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,

(11:04):
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

(11:27):
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

(11:49):
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,

(12:14):
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

(12:38):
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

(13:02):
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
for Halloween or pagan activities. It's a defense of reason

(13:31):
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
in it by choice of God. And there is a
lot of Christians who run from everything because of origins.

(13:54):
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. And yes,
Halloween is rooted in paganism, but that doesn't automatically mean
that a Christian can't partake in it in some way

(14:16):
or some fashion. So this Celtic Festival of Sowen, later
through Pope Gregory the third, designated November first. It's All
Saints Day, so it's all around the same time. This
is to honor saints and martyrs, but a lot of

(14:37):
the traditions and ideas and certain of the practices from
the Sowen Festival made its way into that as well.
The evening before this became known as All Hallows Eve
that became Halloween. Now you've got this very commercial, secular

(15:00):
or 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 practices while worshiping another God altogether. Exodus twenty verse three,

(15:25):
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.
And as to understand this a little better, just keep
in mind two thousand years ago pagan sacrificed animals, but

(15:48):
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
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.

(16:14):
The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart,
never again will I curse the ground because of humans,
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

(16:35):
act itself, it is the intent. It is the purpose
of that act that matters to God. Sacrifice to idols
or a false God not good, sacrificed to the One, True,
Holy and Righteous God good, a pleasing a Roman. So

(17:02):
discarding something just because Pagans or any other faith did
it at one time or does it now, really isn't balanced,
and it isn't thoughtful. It's it's like that, you know,

(17:22):
vegetarianism is bad because Hitler adhered to a primarily vegetarian diet.
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

(17:44):
good or bad. Really, it's the application. You probably don't
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 were wearing a wedding ring,

(18:06):
you're wearing something with origins in paganism and ancient magic,
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.

(18:29):
And you can see it in many pagan uses, such
as Stonehenge and others that predate Christianity, and even in
Christianity itself, there are symbols and practices that come from
or were used by Pagans. The cross itself is a

(18:54):
pagan symbol and was 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

(19:15):
assure you, 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

(19:42):
on 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

(20:06):
even the cross that adorns many 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, Taoists, Buddhists, and others use this symbol

(20:29):
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 hebreak letter

(20:52):
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

(21:16):
that it's not a noble cause to run away that
says resist the devil, and he shelfly. You don't need
to be running everywhere in fear. You have Christ in you,

(21:37):
and if I am for you, then we are the majority.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
No ma'am.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Can be against you. So running away from these things
and not understanding them 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

(22:11):
it however you might want to. But how much more
important is it that the things and customs in your
life are all dedicated 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,

(22:34):
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 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,

(22:59):
instead of celebration of a harvest festival or something like
that it gives 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

(23:20):
any way, shape or form has pagan origins as well,
so you're sort of changing it.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
But not.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
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 that how you use it or partake

(23:51):
in something, and your intent is important. And I know
that you know it's easier 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
your family in a way that is healthy and glorifying

(24:13):
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
or the other things around you in your life that

(24:37):
comes similarly, you'll miss the bigger picture. And in doing so,
it's like those surgeries there where a doctor will tell
you there it's not a necessary surgery. I wouldn't do
this because you can go in and mess something else. More,
Why not put restrictions on it in a healthy way,

(24:59):
or it 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 all of this, So whatever you eat or drink

(25:21):
or whatever you do, do it all for the glory
of God. Luke, welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
How you doing?

Speaker 1 (25:34):
I am well, Luke? What's your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Oh? I understand your point of view about Halloween and
what do you have been saying. But I think if
we're gonna be serious about this, I don't think at
any level as Christians which.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Had celebrated okay, why so.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Well, just knowing the the roots of it and the
practices that went together with those pagan rituals, it's really
really anti Christian.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
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 2 (26:21):
Uh, yeah, okay, a lot of.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
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 2 (26:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Are you going to get rid of that?

Speaker 2 (26:41):
No?

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Okay, But that that has its background in both paganism
pre dating Christianity and also witchcraft. So are you going
to get rid of those symbols because of where they
came or are you going to bring them into your
faith h and sanctify them, set them apart from where

(27:03):
they started, just like you were sanctified by the blood
in the crust. Amen.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I mean the the son who came back to his
father the first thing father did put a ring on instant.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
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

(27:42):
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 2 (27:57):
And I understand, I understand. But between what I'm talking
about and the ring or that situation is that Jesus
sanctified the latter. He hasn't sanctified Halloween.

Speaker 1 (28:13):
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.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Luke Luke.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
No, that's not the day of his birth. 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

(28:58):
usurped it both Easter and Christmas, and a lot that
ties into those things, and the things that you celebrate
really tie into peg and 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,

(29:20):
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. Kfi Am six
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